Diets rich in fruits and veggies great for the body - but are they harmful to Earth?

A nutritious diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables might be healthier for humans but not necessarily healthier for the environment, according to a French study.

After analyzing the eating habits of about 2,000 French adults, and the greenhouse gas emissions generated by producing the plants, fish, meat, fowl and other ingredients, researchers concluded in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that such a diet might not be the greenest in environmental impact.

"When you eat healthy, you have to eat a lot of food that has a low content of energy. You have to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables," said Nicole Darmon, the study's senior author from the National Research Institute of Agronomy in Marseille, France.

Growing fruits and vegetables doesn't produce as much greenhouse gas as raising cattle or livestock, but food production - including the use of farming equipment and transportation - is estimated to be responsible for 15 percent to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in development countries, the authors said.

Scientists have long advised people to switch to a plant-based diet to benefit the environment and their own health.

To more closely examine that premise, Darmon and her colleagues used food diaries from 1,918 French adults to compare the nutritional quality of people's real-world diets and how much greenhouse gas they produced.

From the diaries that were kept for seven days between 2006 and 2007, the researchers identified the 400 most commonly consumed foods. They then used a database to find out how much greenhouse gas was emitted to produce each one, measured as the grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per 100 grams of food.

All aspects of a food's lifecycle were taken into account, including how it was cooked, Darmon said.

"The only step that wasn't taken into account was the transport from the supermarket to the home," she added.

Overall, about 1,600 grams of carbon dioxide were emitted for every 100 grams of meat produced. That's more than 15 times the amount of greenhouse gas emitted during the production of fruits, vegetables and starches and about 2.5 times as much greenhouse gas as that from fish, pork, poultry and eggs.

That gap narrowed, however, when the researchers looked at how many grams of carbon dioxide were emitted per 100 kilocalories (kcal) - a measure of energy in food.

The most greenhouse gas - 857 grams - was still emitted to produce 100 kcal of meat, but only about three times the emissions from a comparable amount of energy from fruit and vegetables.

Greens also ended up emitting more gas for the calories than starches, sweets, salty snacks, dairy and fats. It was also about as much gas as pork, poultry and eggs.

When Darmon and her colleagues looked at what people actually ate to get a certain amount of energy from food every day, they found that the "highest-quality" diets in health terms - those high in fruit, vegetables and fish - were linked to about as much, if not more, greenhouse gas emissions as low-quality diets that were high in sweets and salts.

Overall, the documented diets were responsible for around 5,000 grams of greenhouse gas emissions per day per person.

Darmon said that's because people who eat a plant-based diet need to eat more produce to get the amount of energy they'd have in a piece of meat.

Roni Neff, the director of research and policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for a Livable Future, cautioned against taking the findings too literally. For example, according to the study's calculations, people would need to eat about four kilograms (nine pounds) of fruit and vegetables to make up for a smaller serving of meat.

"I think they're raising a lot of important questions that need further investigation," she said.

source: interaksyon.com

Fresh fruits, vegetables keep young people happy: NZ research

WELLINGTON - An apple a day not only keeps the doctor, but also the psychiatric counselor away for young people, according to a New Zealand study.

Eating more fruit and vegetables could make young people calmer, happier and more energetic in their daily life, researchers at the University of Otago found.

Psychology researcher Dr. Tamlin Conner, and Dr. Caroline Horwath and Bonnie White, of the Department of Human Nutrition, investigated the relationship between day-to-day emotions and food consumption.

A total of 281 people with an average age of 20 completed an Internet-based daily food diary for 21 consecutive days, said a statement from the university Thursday.

Each day, they rated how they felt using nine positive and nine negative adjectives, and answered five questions about what they had eaten that day.

Specifically, participants were asked to report the number of servings eaten of fruit and vegetables (excluding juices and dried fruit) and several categories of unhealthy foods like cookies, potato crisps and cakes.

The results showed a strong day-to-day relationship between a more positive mood and higher fruit and vegetable consumption, but not other foods.

"On days when people ate more fruits and vegetables, they reported feeling calmer, happier and more energetic than they normally did," Conner said in the statement.

The researchers also found that eating fruits and vegetables predicted improvements in positive mood the next day, suggesting that healthy foods could improve mood.

"After further analysis we demonstrated that young people would need to consume approximately seven to eight total servings of fruits and vegetables per day to notice a meaningful positive change," said Conner.

The study was published in the British Journal of Health Psychology on Thursday.

source: interaksyon.com

Loading up on more veggies, fruits won't ward off hunger - study

The idea that filling up on fruits and vegetables will cut one's appetite for higher-calorie fare did not pan out in a new study; in fact, adding fruit juice before meals boosted hunger and weight gain for some participants.

Eating apples and grapes before lunch helped people feel fuller and eat slightly less than when they drank an equivalent amount of fruit juice as an appetizer in the experiment. However, putting volunteers on a fruit- and vegetable-heavy diet for months made no long-term difference in their assessments of their own hunger and fullness, researchers found.

Some doctors have hoped that encouraging people to eat greater volumes of fruits and veggies, which are less "energy-dense" than burgers and pizza, might help them feel full for longer and prevent overeating and weight gain.

But the new study suggests loading up on more carrots, broccoli and oranges every day won't ward off hunger over the long run. And having fruit in beverage form simply added calories to the day's tally without displacing any.

The findings follow results from the same trial showing 34 participants - some overweight or obese, some a healthy weight - gained between 3.5 and 5 pounds when they were given eight weeks of fruit juice to incorporate into their diet. Heavier participants, in particular, also gained weight when they received extra fresh fruit and vegetables.

"If you tell people to add anything to their diet, you're going to potentially have no weight loss, or weight gain, even with fruits and vegetables," said Barbara Rolls, chair of nutritional sciences at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

"You need to be careful to make sure that you emphasize substitution, not just, ‘Eat more of this or that,'" Rolls, who was not involved in the new research, told Reuters Health.

That's especially true for beverages, she said, since the body regulates hunger and thirst differently - and people often don't think to eat less to make up for juice or other calorie-filled beverages.

Richard Mattes from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his colleagues found that when they fed volunteers a regular lunch of all-you-can-eat macaroni and cheese, they ate an average of 785 or 821 calories of it, depending on the day.

When the same participants started a meal with fresh and dried fruit, then went on to the main course, they ended up eating 678 calories of lunch, the fruit course included. When they started with fruit juice instead, the volunteers took in a total of 891 calories.

People ate about 400 more calories, on average, during the test day when they started lunch with juice, compared to when they started with solid fruit, according to the findings published in the International Journal of Obesity.

But those results in favor of fresh and dried fruit did not hold up over the longer-term, Mattes and his team found. When the researchers provided the volunteers with 400 to 550 calories of either fruits and vegetables or fruit juice each day for eight weeks, there was no change in how they rated their hunger or fullness at regular intervals during each test period.

That means simply adding fruits and veggies to meet nutritional guidelines may not be enough to help people stay full and lose weight - and may actually make it harder for them to shed extra pounds, researchers said.

Mattes and his colleagues advised "careful implementation of recommendations" through counseling or other nutrition programs to make sure people taking steps to improve their diet don't end up accidentally putting on more weight.

source: interaksyon.com

Harley Pasternak Blogs: The Truth About Fruit

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

But does a melon a day do the same? The truth is, fruit is healthy. But some fruits are healthier than other fruits.

Fruits are convenient, versatile and delicious! They're great as snacks, in salads, for baking and as desserts.

But, let's examine what a fruit is made up of. For the most part, fruits are water, fiber, minerals, vitamins and sugar.



Almost all of the fruit's fiber – the stuff that makes you feel full, reduces your chance of getting many cancers and keeps your blood sugar in check – is in its skin or seeds. In fact, one may say that without fiber, fruits really aren't that healthful of a snack. Moreover, most of the minerals and vitamins also lie in the skin and/or seeds of a fruit.

That's why my golden rule with fruits is to choose the ones that have either edible skin or edible seeds. Fruits like apples, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and pears are just a few great examples of fruits with edible skin. Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and kiwis are example of fruits with edible seeds.






The one exception to the rule is citrus fruit. While you may not eat the skin or seeds of an orange, clementine or grapefruit, these fruits are still on my list of favorites. These fruits have good fiber to calorie ratios, are loaded with vitamin C (among other nutrients), and have a low glycemic index (i.e. They don't make your blood sugar surge too high).

The fruits that I prefer to minimize (not eliminate – there are no "bad fruits"), are primarily tropical fruits like bananas, mango, papaya and pineapple. These fruits, not surprisingly, are higher in calories and sugar, and are lower in fiber than ones with edible skin and/or seeds or citrus fruits.

Perhaps it's not a coincidence that the 6 fattest countries in the world are all tropical islands that base a large part of their diets on fruits that don't fit into our skin/seed/citrus rule.

So, that being said, one of my favorite smoothies to make in the morning is a peach lassi smoothie. Super-creamy, it is a lightly spiced morning mixture based on the classic Indian treat. It has two of my favorite fruits, is high in fiber, protein, calcium, vitamin D, and is delicious! Garnish with crushed pistachios for extra fiber and a satisfying crunch.

Peach Lassi Smoothie
Peaches (frozen slices or chunks)
Nonfat Greek yogurt
Fresh lime juice
Dash of ground cinnamon
Fresh raspberries


Directions: Pulse first four ingredients in a blender. Stir in berries and enjoy.

source: people.com