When ingested by healthy elderly test subjects (120 ml per day) for 30 days, a standardized Goji fruit juice (GoChi, provided by FreeLife International, USA) has been found to boost the antioxidant defense but at the same time also lowered the oxidative stress-induced damage of lipids, i.e. fat molecules which are vital for the proper functioning of the human body. However, other blood parameters such as cholesterol or glucose levels appeared to be unaffected by the Goji fruit juice consumption.

Taken together, this placebo-controlled study by Amagase and colleagues indicates that Goji fruit juice “increased antioxidant efficacies in humans by stimulating endogenous factors and suggest that continued use beyond 30 days might help prevent or reduce free radical-related conditions.”.

For more details, you may want to check out the article published recently in the journal Nutrition Research (doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2008.11.005).

Photo: Wolfberries, Wikipedia

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Wolfberry (Goji) Improves Oxidative Stress Resistance in Humans

I was over at the V8 website because I wanted to check which vegetables the “8″ stands for (tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress and spinach , if you must know), and noticed that they’ve renamed the A-C-E Vitamin Rich V8 to Essential Antioxidants V8 Vegetable Juice.

A-C-E is out. Antioxidants is in. Even if they are one and the same.

Plus points to their marketing staff. (rolls eyes)

Image Source: V8 Juice website

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Essential Antioxidants V8 Juice

Don’t like to eat veggies, either? Well, perhaps you can drink it instead. Researchers say it’s a great way to get those healthy goodies into your diet without breaking too much sweat.

“What we found in this study is that drinking vegetable juice seemed to address some of the key barriers to vegetable consumption such as convenience, portability and taste, so individuals were more likely to meet their daily recommendations,” said Carl Keen, PhD, study author and distinguished Professor of Nutrition & Internal Medicine at University of California, Davis. “Furthermore, vegetable juice drinkers reported that they actually enjoyed drinking their vegetables, which is critical to adopting dietary practices for the long-term.”

In fact, after six weeks of the study, vegetable drinkers reported they felt “more satisfied” with the ease of getting vegetables into their diet, and that V8 100% vegetable juice provided an important additional source of vitamins and minerals.

Well, on second thoughts, maybe I do get consume more veggies that I realize. I just forgot to count the carrot-orange juice! That’s a veggies that goes down quite well with me, and I don’t even realize it!

Obviously, the important thing is to get those veggies into your body. Solid, cooked, fresh, salads, mashed, juiced– it doesn’t matter, just get those 7-9 servings in!

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Drink Your Vegetables

They got a sample of the yeast from Houston’s Saint Arnold Brewing Company, and they are modifying it with two sets of genes. The first set allows the yeast to metabolize sugars and excrete an intermediate chemical that the second set can later convert into resveratrol.

I get the resveratrol part; this compound has repeatedly been shown to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease. What I don’t get is, why beer? Why go through all the effort of genetic engineering, when high levels of resveratrol are naturally found in red wine, grape juice and even chocolate? Anyways, it’ll be a loooong while before you see any of this in the market, if at all.

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BioBeer: Resveratrol-Containing Beer

Think chocolate is bad for your teeth? Think again—it may actually be beneficial. A study out of the University of Osaka Graduate School of Dentistry in Osaka, Japan found that after four days of rinsing with a cocoa flavanol extract without other oral hygiene methods (such as brushing or flossing) participants had decreased bacteria and plaque on their teeth.

Can you believe that? In the book Chocolate – A Healthy Passion, dietician authors Shara Aaron and Monica Bearden explores the many health benefits of cocoa, but also recipes for using chocolate in foods but also in bath gels, lip balms, facial masks and soaps.

Definitely something for the true chocoholic!

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Chocolate for Your Heart, Skin and… Teeth!

The difference between the research of these two chocolate factories? Mars suggests that its products are superior because of their proprietary processing called Cocoapro® that helps ensure consistently high levels of cocoa flavanols in the products.

A recent study conducted by Hershey’s, on the other hand, reports that while natural cocoa products indeed have highest antioxidant levels, even lightly- or medium-Dutched processed (also termed alkali-processed) cocoa powders still retain significant levels of the beneficial antioxidants.

Dutching, or alkali treatment, of cocoa is a 180-year-old process used to lower the bitterness and darken the color of cocoa powder. Dutched cocoas are commonly used in beverages such as chocolate milk and hot cocoa mixes, in cakes and cookies, and in a limited number of confections. In the United States, the presence of Dutched cocoa or Dutched chocolate is indicated by looking for the terms “dutched” or “processed with alkali” on the ingredients label.

In this study, the degree of cocoa alkalization caused a progressive, but not complete loss, of flavanol antioxidants, with about 40% retained in lightly dutched cocoas, 25% retained in medium dutched cocoas, and 10% retained in heavily dutched cocoas.

Apparently, despite the losses due to Dutch processing, these cocoa powders still belong to the top 10% of flavanol-containing foods when results were compared to foods listed in the USDA Procyanidin Database.

In other words, this could mean that sure, you’d probably get more antioxidants in a CocoaVia bar than in another generic chocolate bar, but considering the amount of chocolate you probably consume in other forms, you’re probably getting comparable amounts even with alkali-processed chocolate products.

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Antioxidants in Dutched (Alkali-Processed) Chocolates

Among the study participants, there was on average a two percent lower lung cancer risk associated with each glass of red wine consumed per month. The most substantial risk reduction was among smokers who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day. The researchers reported a 60 percent reduced lung cancer risk in these men. Researchers warned men to stop smoking as the best way to reduce lung cancer risk; noting that even men who drank one to two glasses of red wine per day still face higher lung cancer risk than do non-smokers.

Let this not be misconstrued as encouraging alcoholism. One to two glasses of wine hardly constitute as overindulging, does it? For those who want to avoid alcoholic drinks altogether may perhaps turn to non-alcoholic sources such as resveratrol supplements, grape juice, and resveratrol containing beverages. Can’t say whether they would work the similarly in lung cancer prevention, though.

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Red Wine May Lower Lung Cancer Risk

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Yakult: Probiotics and Your Health (Video)

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Tea Time

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I Heart Tap Water (Video)