Flickor som dricker mycket läsk i femårsåldern har ett sämre näringsintag än flickor som dricker näringsrika drycker som mjölk och juice. Det visar en ny amerikansk studie av 170 flickor som följts mellan 5 och 15 års ålder.

Studien, som utfördes vid Pennsylvania State University, visade att flickor som drack mycket läsk hade ett högre intag av socker, men ett lägre intag av protein, fiber, kalcium, vitamin D, magnesium, fosfor och kalium. Det visade sig också att flickor som drack mycket läsk i femårsåldern fortsatte med den vanan och därmed hade ett sämre näringsintag under hela uppväxten.

-          Att servera sina barn mjölk är ett enkelt sätt att ge barnen ett bättre näringsintag, säger Maja Nordström, nutritionsexpert på Mjölkfrämjandet. Dessutom grundlägger man en god vana för resten av livet. Mjölk innehåller 18 av de 22 näringsämnen som vi behöver varje dag, stora som små.

Den senaste kostundersökningen bland barn som Livsmedelsverket gjort visar att hela 25 procent av barnens energiintag kommer från sötsaker, godis och läsk. Denna typ av livsmedel ger barnen kalorier som är helt tomma på näring.

-          Små barn har små magar och därför är det viktigt att man försöker ge barnen mat som är näringsrik. Mjölk innehåller mycket näring och brukar dessutom gillas av de flesta barn. Därför är mjölk en ypperlig måltidsdryck, fortsätter Maja Nordström.

Källa:
- Fiorito LM et al. 2010 Girls early sweetened carbonated beverage intake predicts different patterns of beverage and nutrient intake across childhood and adolescence. J Am Diet Assoc 110(4):543-50.
- Riksmaten – barn 2003, Livsmedels – och näringsintag bland barn i Sverige.

Avsändare: Mjölksändare

From starvation diets to sauna suits, athletes in sports like mixed martial arts, wrestling and boxing often to go unhealthy extremes to meet their weight class goals.

A Kansas State University graduate student is showing them that they don’t have to.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said numerous times that these methods are not healthy, but people still do it,” said Jen Case, a K-State doctoral student in human nutrition. “There’s a lot of research that shows that with this group, performing in the lowest weight class possible is the mentality. You can’t change it, so let’s try to make it safer.”

Earlier this year, Case studied active Fort Riley soldiers and Air Force cadets who came to K-State to train in combatives, a sport that combines submission wrestling with elements of kickboxing and mixed martial arts. A typical workout session is two to four hours of intense strength-building exercises and technique drills.

“I wanted to show the guys a way to rapidly lose weight without these hazardous measures, and that’s where a high-protein diet comes in,” Case said.

She prescribed the soldiers and cadets high-protein diets suited for their desired weight class and encouraged them to eat often.

“So many of them were only eating one meal a day, which for athletes is not good at all, especially if you’re trying to lose weight,” she said.

Then, Case looked at their performance on tests of running and explosive leg power. She found that the diet didn’t negatively affect their performance as did their previous weight loss measures like starvation diets. Moreover, eating more protein helped the athletes increase lean mass rather than losing it.

Because her study was a preliminary one, Case hopes the test will be replicated with a larger sample size. She said this area of research could be useful given the growing popularity of mixed martial arts.

“The more popular the sport becomes, the more people you have wanting to do it,” Case said. “These people are cutting weight at every level, and you need some kind of guidelines. You’ve got to try to get it into these guys’ heads that there are better, healthier and safer ways to make weight.”

Moreover, Case said this area of research could help people who aren’t athletes. Most weight loss research focuses on people who are overweight, obese or sedentary, but she said these findings could help people who are already active and healthy but want to lose weight.

Source: Kansas State University

Scientists funded by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that volunteers who followed a low-calorie diet or a very low-calorie diet not only lost weight, but also significantly enhanced their immune response. The study may be the first to demonstrate the interaction between calorie restriction and immune markers among humans.

The lead researcher, Simin Nikbin Meydani, is director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University in Boston, Mass., and also of the HNRCA’s Nutritional Immunology Laboratory.

The study is part of the “Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy” trial conducted at the HNRCA. As people age, their immune response generally declines. Calorie restriction has been shown to boost these immune responses in animal models.

In the study, 46 overweight (but not obese) men and women aged 20 to 40 years were required to consume either a 30-percent or 10-percent calorie-restricted diet for six months.

Prior to being randomly assigned to one of the two groups, each volunteer participated in an initial 6-week period during which measures of all baseline study outcomes were obtained. All food was provided to participants.

For the study, the researchers looked at specific biologic markers. A skin test used called DTH (delayed-type hypersensitivity) is a measure of immune response at the whole body level.

The researchers also examined effects of calorie restriction on function of T-cells–a major type of white blood cell–and other factors on the volunteer’s immune system.

DTH and T-cell response indicate the strength of cell-mediated immunity. One positive was that DTH and T-cell proliferative response were significantly increased in both calorie-restrained groups.

These results show for the first time that short-term calorie restriction for six months in humans improves the function of T-cells.

Details of this 2009 study can be found in the publicationJournal of Gerontology, Biological Sciences. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s principal intramural scientific research agency.

Source: USDA, Office of Research, Education, and Economics

årt tema Hälsokost behandlar till stor del olika vitaminer. Inte minst det mångsidiga D-vitaminet, som rönt mycket uppmärksamhet under senare tid till följd av intressant nyare forskning. Dr Olle Haglund från Uppsala Universitet ger oss en spännande överblick.
En färsk genomgång får vi också av dr Agnetha Andersson, lektor vid Institutionen för Kostvetenskap, Uppsala Universitet som berättar om fullkornets förtjänster. Läsare får också ta del av den intressanta diskussion som nu pågår kring folsyra, liksom probiotikans betydelse vid IBS.

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