Weekend Brunch Ideas - The Vegetarian Resource Group

SCIENTIFIC UPDATEBy Reed Mangels,PhD, RD, FADAA REVIEW OF RECENT SCIENTIFIC PAPERS RELATED TO VEGETARIANISMFood Choices During the TeenYears May Influence CancerRisk Later in LifeBreast cancer is the most common form of cancerin women (if you don’t count non-melanoma skincancers). One in eight women in the U.S. will developbreast cancer. New research suggests that dietary choicesin adolescence may play a role in determining whethera woman will develop breast cancer. More than 40,000women, ages 25 to 43 years, were asked about what theyate when they were in high school. Records were keptand the women were studied for the next seven years.Those women who reported eating the most redmeat (beef, pork, lamb, and processed meat like hotdogs) during high school had a 30 to 40 percentgreater risk of developing breast cancer, compared towomen who reported eating the least red meat duringhigh school. The women in the high red meat groupin high school averaged 2.6 servings of meat daily, whilewomen in the lowest red meat group averaged 0.7 servingsper day. Even when the results were adjusted forthe women’s red meat intake as adults, the increasedrisk seen with higher red meat intake as a teen persisted.There was an especially strong association betweenprocessed meat and hot dogs eaten as a teen and riskof breast cancer. These results may be caused by thecancer-causing chemicals created by cooking meat,to the hormone treatment of meat, or to some as-yetundetermined factor. In any case, these results raisequestions about red meat’s role in teenage girls’ diets.Linos E, Willett WC, Cho E, et al. 2008. Red meatconsumption during adolescence among premenopausalwomen and risk of breast cancer.Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 17:2146-51.Fish Not Necessary for DHADHA is an omega-3 fatty acid found mainly in oilyfish. DHA plays a role in reducing the risk of heartdisease and may be involved in other chronic diseases.Vegetarian and vegan diets contain little or no DHAunless fortified foods or supplements are used. VeganDHA supplements that are derived from microalgaehave been developed. Are these supplements equivalentto fish in terms of their DHA? To address this question,researchers studied 32 men and women. Study subjectseither ate 2 ounces of salmon (which provided 600milligrams of DHA) or took capsules containing 600milligrams of DHA from microalgae daily for twoweeks. The subjects’ blood DHA concentrations weremeasured. Both groups saw an increase in blood DHAlevels, and the increase in DHA in both groups was similar.These results suggest that microalgae-derived DHAis as effective as fish in increasing blood DHA levels.Arterburn LM, Oken HA, Hall EB, et al. 2008. Algaloilcapsules and cooked salmon: nutritionallyequivalent sources of docosahexaenoic acid.J Am Diet Assoc 108:1204-1209.New Research on Raw FoodsDespite the interest in raw foods diets, little researchhas been conducted about them. A small German studyexamined blood levels of carotenoids in 198 strict rawfoods diet followers. Carotenoids are found in fruits andvegetables and include substances associated with alower risk of diseases like cancer, such as beta-carotene,alpha-carotene, and lycopene. Study subjects ate closeto 95 percent by weight of their foods as raw foodsand had followed this diet for at least two years.Because of their high fruit and vegetable intake,people eating a raw foods diet would be expected tohave high levels of these carotenoids in their blood.Most study subjects, especially those eating more than3 1 /2 pounds of fruits and vegetables per day, had bloodbeta-carotene levels in the normal range. Surprisingly,however, blood lycopene levels were below the referencevalues in more than three-quarters of study subjects.This may be because the lycopene from raw foods wasnot well-absorbed. Cooking foods like tomatoes, whichare a good source of lycopene, has been shown toincrease lycopene absorption. Other factors that mayhave affected carotenoid absorption were the amountof fat in the subjects’ diets and whether the high fatfoods were eaten at the same meal as foods high incarotenoids. Dietary fat provided an average of 3016 Issue One 2009 VEGETARIAN JOURNAL