Saturday, November 29, 2008

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's


A meal consisting of a Quarter Pounder hamburger, french fries and soft-drink is pictured at a McDonald's restaurant in Los Angeles, California July 23, 2008.
REUTERS/Fred Prouser

LONDON (Reuters) - Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.

"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors ... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."

Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.

While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers are also now looking at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.

In her research, Akterin focused on a gene variant called apoE4, found in 15 to 20 percent of people and which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer's. The gene is involved in the transport of cholesterol.

She studied mice genetically engineered to mimic the effect of the variant gene in humans, and which were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months -- meals representing the nutritional content of fast food.

These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage, Akterin said.

"All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer's can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public," she said.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Catherine Bosley)


Read more!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Britney Spears performs during 60th Bambi media awards ceremony


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards. [Agencies]



Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards. [Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears poses with her award during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards. Spears won the "Pop International" Award.[Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards.[Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards.[Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears poses with her award during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards. Spears won the "Pop International" Award. [Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards.[Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears poses with her award during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards. Spears won the "Pop International" Award. [Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards.[Agencies]


Pop star Britney Spears performs during the 60th Bambi media awards ceremony in the southwestern German town of Offenburg November 27, 2008. Each year, the German media company 'Hubert Burda Media', honours celebrities from the world of entertainment, literature, sports and politics with the Bambi awards.[Agencies]



Read more!

Don't panic, it's organic: nature knows best


By Erik Nilsson (China Daily) Beijinger Wang Liping says it was more than the taste of her first organic meal that amazed her three years ago.

"I felt really good after eating it, because it's perfectly natural," the 53-year-old says as she tucks several packages of organic grain under her arm at a Green Dotdot health food kiosk on Beijing's Wangfujing Street.


"Since then, if I can buy organic, I do."

Wang has joined the ranks of a new dietary trend spreading across China's tabletops. Mix rising concerns about food safety, health and the environment, throw in a dash of increasing income, and you get the recipe for China's growing hunger for organic fare.

Domestic organic market sales increased from zilch in 1995 to 73.3 million yuan in 2006, says Zhou Zejiang, senior advisor of the Organic Food Development Center of China (OFDC), under the State Environmental Protection Administration.

"China is probably the only one among exporting countries that also has a strong domestic market," he says, adding the export sector increased from $300,000 to $450 million in the same period.

Today, China cultivates 2.3 million hectares of land - the second most in the world - for certified organic food, while about 30.4 million hectares are uncertified but are still organic, Zhou says.

As patrons scour Green Dotdot's shelves, manager Guo Jingyun explains most customers are educated women aged 30 to 50. Younger people have been slower to go for organic, partly because they cook less overall, she says.

Chen Jingxi, 26, says she hasn't tried organic food but came to Green Dotdot to investigate the rows of tins and packets.

"I've heard from family and friends that it's healthier, so I'm going to have a try today," the Jiangxi province native says as she places a can of dried cranberries on the checkout counter.

Guo explains most of the information about organic food currently streams to the mainland from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The firm has more than 30 stores and about 800 shelf displays in Hong Kong, where it was founded eight years ago, but only a handful of stores in Beijing and Shenzhen, where it opened its first mainland shops three years ago.

"In the last two years, awareness of organic food on the mainland has increased dramatically," Guo says.

One of the biggest changes in the sector, she explains, has been the growing number of local consumers versus expatriates.

"Now, 70 to 80 percent of our customers are Chinese. When we started, it was the opposite."

Zhou says about 50 percent of Chinese urbanites know the difference between organic and conventional food, while about 25 percent can distinguish between organic and green food.

"However, most of them only know that organic means no chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers. A few of them also know organic should have no genetically modified organisms."

A unique consequence of the scant, albeit mounting Chinese awareness of organic food, is that few retailers advertise.

Lohao also hosts activities at local schools and invites student field trips to its farm to raise awareness.

Guo says: "We advertise in Hong Kong, but not in Beijing yet. We're still establishing a presence, and instead use pamphlets, exhibitions, window displays and word of mouth."

Zhou explains that 70 to 75 percent of organic consumers, including expats in China, are high-income, while 20 percent are middle-class people "willing to pay more for food safety than for housing, clothing or entertainment". The other 5 to 10 percent are consumers by default, who unintentionally eat organic, for example when the food is gifted.

"Some of our customers, especially Chinese, aren't rich but insist on organic," Lohao City Organic Health Food Store corporate development manager Cindy Yin says.

Fresh organic produce can cost 50 to 100 percent more than ordinary produce, while imported goods can be as much as 200 percent more, Yin says.

"There's a gap in processed foods - that sector is not as developed yet in China," Yin says, adding that Lohao imports about 50 percent of its processed goods.

Guo says most of Green Dotdot's 400 products are imported and then packaged in China.

"Some are easy to find in China, such as beans, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, rice, fruit and vegetables," she says. "But other things are hard to find, like wild red rice, which we get from Canada and Thailand. If we can find them locally, we'll buy them locally."

Beijing-based Green Cow Organic Farm owner Lejen Chen says that currently, it's less profitable for her to grow organically.

"We need about five times more labor," Chen says. "That's what makes it more expensive."

Her 10 permanent staffers, plus additional help hired at harvest time, remove weeds and insects by hand at the 7.3-hectare organic farm in Beijing's Shunyi district.

The vegetables supply Green Cattle Farm Vegetable Club, which provides a weekly box of vegetables for 15 member families and the company's Mrs. Shanen's restaurant.

"We also want to contribute to the health of the earth. It's something we want to promote and is worth doing," Chen says.

"It's more than growing organic vegetables. It also involves thinking about saving energy, not polluting and not hurting the animals."

(China Daily 11/26/2008 page19)



Read more!

Dim slim

By Fiona Lee (China Daily)

What makes Chinese people so skinny? Is it all due to genes? A more active lifestyle? In her new book, Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories, British writer Lorraine Clissold set out to discover what it was that kept the Chinese so skinny when they were eating large, delicious meals, while she and her British and American counterparts were suffering on bland salads and still not managing to lose weight.

Interviewed from her home in North Yorkshire, Clissold's ultimate answer for the secret to the slim Chinese physique is not surprising: the traditional Chinese diet, supported by a strong cultural background.

Humorous and insightful, Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories is a thought-provoking analysis of what makes the Chinese diet work. Drawing on Clissold's 10 years in Beijing as a teacher of Chinese cooking and presenter of a cooking program on CCTV, it will likely have many readers re-examining their lifestyles and eating habits.

Although it isn't your usual dieting book, it also includes tips and recipes for non-Chinese readers so they can incorporate some of the healthier aspects of Chinese diet into their lives.

Clissold lays out several ideas for why the Chinese diet is so healthy, ranging from what is actually eaten to attitudes toward food.

Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories is a thought-provoking analysis of the Chinese diet.

Vegetables play a much stronger role in Chinese cuisine than in a British or American one. Instead of being relegated to limp supporting roles, vegetables are much likely to be stars of the show, and appreciated on their own with meat used as a flavoring or side dish.

Taking in liquid food also plays an important role. Chinese and Western ideas about soup are extremely different. Western soups are often hearty and sometimes even "a meal in its own right," but Chinese soups tend to be based on simple broths, providing a liquid element to the meal that is full of nutrients.

"By drinking the liquid in which the vegetables are cooked, Chinese diners ensure that no vitamins are lost during the cooking process," she says.

Clissold also believes that China has a much stronger culture of eating as an enjoyable communal activity, making every meal an occasion.

She says that while she has always been fascinated by food, British attitudes toward food were often based on guilt over how many calories were consumed, and unhealthy cycles of guiltily eating rich meals only to punish herself by having a bland meal afterwards.

"In China," she says, "I found myself surrounded by people who enjoyed eating, ate until they were full three times a day and never worried about getting fat or talked about cutting back to compensate after a good meal."

One of the most intriguing parts of Why the Chinese Don't Count Calories is in Clissold's examination of how Chinese food culture is influenced by Taoist ideas about food and the body.

"Chinese people have never doubted that what you eat is directly related to your state of health. They eat to nourish the whole body, rather than being concerned with just its outer shape, which is the case with many Western diet regimes," she says.

She describes the need for balance in a diet, balancing out both yin and yang foods as well as the five flavors: sweet, pungent, salty, sour and bitter. Each flavor affects a different organ; for instance, sweet flavors affect the spleen and the stomach, while bitter flavors affect the heart and the small intestine.

"The right amount of a flavor will benefit an organ; too much will put it out of kilter and damage the organ." she says. "A good Chinese diet will feature a mixture of yin and yang foods and the five flavors."

Even a properly cooked, traditional Chinese meal will reflect this kind of balance, as no one flavor will overwhelm the others, or a bitter dish may balance out a sweeter one.

Clissold believes that Westerners tend to overindulge in particular flavors in their diet, leading to bodies that Taoist food theory would consider unbalanced and dysfunctional.

Graphic by Luo Jie.

"Sweet (and bland) foods are the pre-dominant flavors in most Western diets, which is why many Western waistbands are stretched to the limit and digestive disorders are so common."

She also compares the way that Chinese food is holistic with Western ideas of breaking down foods to their nutritional components, a notion that does not acknowledge that foods work in tandem with each other.

"Modern nutritionists break a meal down into proteins, carbohydrates and fats," she says. "There is increasing awareness of the need for vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients but the Western nutrition model combined with the ready availability of food in the West tends to promote very limited eating."

One surprising discovery that Clissold made during her research was that the Chinese actually consume 30 percent more calories than Westerners but stay 20 percent slimmer, a claim originally made by T. Colin Campbell in The China Study, a comprehensive survey that examined the link between diet and disease in China and other countries.

The China Study debunked the idea that the Chinese are thinner because of a more active lifestyle and therefore consume more to maintain this lifestyle. In fact, to make its point, the survey compared the least active group of Chinese, office workers who led sedentary lives, with a more active group of average Americans who exercised moderately.

But even as The China Study extolled the way that rural Chinese ate, one danger that Clissold sees is that as China modernizes, the Chinese themselves are moving away from their own traditional diets with their accumulated knowledge and falling into Western practices of eating on the run, snacking, buying processed foods and consuming empty calories, leading to the diseases of the industrialized world: cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Still, she ends her book on an optimistic note about the role of foreign influences in Chinese cuisine, saying, "I have faith that the influence will not be long-term. Chinese culture has done a pretty good job of withstanding invasion to date."

(China Daily 11/26/2008 page19)


Read more!

Pain is partly in your mind


(China Daily) Pain may not be all in your mind, but some of it is.

A bizarre new study of people with chronically achy hands found that how subjects literally saw their hands changed their perception of pain.

Researchers had 10 subjects watch their own hands while performing a 10-step test that caused pain every time. Participants each did the test four ways: looking as normal with their own eyes, looking through binoculars with no magnification, looking through binoculars that doubled the apparent size of subjects' arms, and looking through inverted binoculars that reduced the apparent size of subjects' arms.

The pain increased more when participants viewed a magnified image of their arm during the movements. When they did the movements while watching through inverted binoculars, the pain was reported to be less, and actual measurable swelling was less, too.

The scientists don't know for sure what's going on. They think it might have to do with how our brain perceives danger: "If it looks bigger, it looks sorer and more swollen," said G. Lorimer Moseley of the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in Australia. "Therefore, the brain acts to protect it." That does not necessarily mean the pain is actually greater, Moseley said.

Scientists do not fully understand how pain works. But the new finding, published in the Nov. 25 issue of the journal Current Biology, might lead to new ways to treat chronic pain, which affects about 75 million U.S. residents.

"The brain is capable of many wonderful things based on its perception of how the body is doing and the risks to which the body seems to be exposed," Moseley said.




Read more!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

"Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest



A model presents a creation from designer Barbara Leber during her 2009 "Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest November 26, 2008.[Agencies]



A model presents a creation from designer Barbara Leber during her 2009 "Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest November 26, 2008.[Agencies]


Models present creations from designer Barbara Leber during her 2009 "Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest November 26, 2008.[Agencies]


A model presents a creation from designer Barbara Leber during her 2009 "Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest November 26, 2008.[Agencies]



Models present creations from designer Barbara Leber during her 2009 "Dolce Vita" fashion show in Budapest November 26, 2008.[Agencies]

Taken From : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/


Read more!

Rate of new U.S. cancer cases drops for first time


After three operations and four rounds of chemotherapy at Georgetown University Hospital, cancer patient Deborah Charles shows off her breast cancer survivor bracelet during a hospital appointment in Washington May 23, 2007.
REUTERS/Jim Bourg

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cancer rates have dropped for the first time in the United States and previous declines in cancer deaths are accelerating, a report released on Tuesday showed as cancer-fighting efforts produced solid results.

Regular screening for breast and colorectal cancer, declining smoking rates and improved treatments helped lead to the improvements described in a comprehensive study of cancer in the United States by government and private health experts.

"This decline is seen in blacks, it's seen in whites, it's seen in Hispanics, it's seen in all Americans," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said in a telephone interview.

However, cancer remains the No. 2 killer of Americans, with more than half a million deaths annually, topped only by heart disease. And the report detailed worrisome regional differences in lung cancer trends tied closely to whether or not individual states are taking important steps to reduce smoking.

Overall U.S. cancer death rates began falling in 1991 and these declines are getting steeper this decade, Brawley noted.

"But the real news here is that this is first time that we've got declines in incidence (the rate of new cases per year). We've never had incidence go down since we've been keeping records starting in the 1930s," Brawley said.

The rate of new cancer cases from 2001 to 2005 declined among men by 1.8 percent per year. New cases among women fell by 0.6 percent per year from 1998 to 2005.

While overall cancer death rates decreased by 1.5 percent per year from 1993 to 2001 among men, they declined by 2 percent per year from 2001 to 2005. Among women, cancer death rates fell by 0.8 percent per year from 1994 to 2002 and by a much steeper 1.6 percent per year from 2002 to 2005.

MAKING PROGRESS

"It's very promising to see the progress we are making in our fight against cancer," U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.

The report, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, detailed progress in cutting new cases of the three most common kinds of cancers among men -- lung, colorectal and prostate -- and the two most common types among women -- breast and colorectal. It also showed a leveling off of women's lung cancer death rates.

Despite the overall downward trend, death rates for certain types of cancers rose, including esophageal cancer for men, pancreatic cancer for women and liver cancer for both sexes.

"I think it speaks to improved public health measures, improved awareness about risk factors for cancer in general and improved therapies," Dr. Louis Weiner, director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University in Washington, said in a telephone interview.

Weiner said it was probably not coincidental that this progress occurred in conjunction with a doubling in funding for the government's research-supporting National Cancer Institute from 1998 to 2003, but that funding has stagnated since.

Smoking accounts for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths, including about 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. The number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this month.

Lung cancer cases or deaths rose in 18 states, 16 of which are in the Midwest or South. California, the first state to put in place a broad tobacco control program, was the only state with falling lung cancer incidence and death rates in women.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Osterman)



Read more!

Meg Ryan poses for media to present new film "The Women" in Berlin



U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]



U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]


U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]


U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]


U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]



U.S. actress Meg Ryan poses for media to present her new film "The Women" in Berlin November 26, 2008. The movie will open in Germany at December 11, 2008. [Agencies]

Taken From : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn


Read more!

Demi Moore and Kutcher at premiere of "Flawless" in London


Actress Demi Moore and actor Ashton Kutcher arrive for the premiere of "Flawless" in London November 26, 2008.[Agencies]



Actress Demi Moore and actor Ashton Kutcher arrive for the premiere of "Flawless" in London November 26, 2008.[Agencies]


Actress Demi Moore and actor Ashton Kutcher arrive for the premiere of "Flawless" in London November 26, 2008.[Agencies]


Actress Demi Moore arrives for the premiere of "Flawless" in London November 26, 2008. [Agencies]

Taken From : China Daily


Read more!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Claudia Schiffer and other celebs at British Fashion Awards in London


British model Yasmin Le Bon arrives at the British Fashion Awards held at Lawrence Hall in London 25th November 2008. The event is an annual celebration of the work of British fashion designers and creatives who have made a contribution to the industry. [Agencies]



British model Yasmin Le Bon arrives at the British Fashion Awards held at Lawrence Hall in London 25th November 2008. The event is an annual celebration of the work of British fashion designers and creatives who have made a contribution to the industry. [Agencies]


Yasmin Le Bon (R) and unidentified friend arrive at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


Model Erin O'Connor arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


Model Erin O'Connor arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


Model Claudia Schiffer arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


Model Claudia Schiffer arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


Model Claudia Schiffer arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


Model Claudia Schiffer arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


British tennis player Jamie Murray arrives at the British Fashion Awards held at Lawrence Hall in Central London 25th November 2008. [Agencies]


Actress Rosamund Pike arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


Actress Rosamund Pike arrives at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


US singer Anastasia arrives at the British Fashion Awards held at Lawrence Hall in Central London 25th November 2008. [Agencies]


Former model Twiggy (L) and an unidentified friend arrive at the British Fashion Awards in London November 25, 2008.[Agencies]

Taken From : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn


Read more!

2009 spring/summer fashion show


A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]



A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


A model presents a creation from designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008. [Agencies]


A model has her hair designed during designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008.[Agencies]


A model has makeup applied during designer Kati Zoob's 2009 spring/summer fashion show in Budapest November 25, 2008.[Agencies]

Taken From : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn


Read more!