(NaturalNews) Over the past 12 months, half a dozen studies published by Rui Hai Liu, Cornell associate professor of food science and a member of Cornell’s Institute for Comparative and Environmental Toxicology, show apples fight cancer. Dr. Liu’s research adds to a mounting body of data that apples, as well as other fruits and vegetables, are powerful ways to help prevent breast cancer.

In a study just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Dr. Liu found fresh apple extracts significantly inhibited the size of mammary tumors in rats. In fact, the more extracts they gave the animals, the more breast tumors were inhibited. This research backs up earlier findings of another study conducted by Dr. Liu in rats that was published in 2007....read more here

Tuesday, December 30, 2008; 12:00 AM

Read about the  best breakfast foods for children

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It’s hard to overestimate the importance of eating breakfast. Studies show that people who take time for a morning meal consume fewer calories over the course of the day, have stronger cognitive skills, and are 30 percent less likely to be overweight or obese. Beyond that, people who skip breakfast are more likely to drink alcohol and smoke, and they’re less likely to exercise.

But just because breakfast is the most important meal of the day doesn’t grant you permission to go into a feeding frenzy. But that’s exactly what many of the country’s most popular breakfast joints are setting you up for, by peddling fatty scrambles, misguided muffins, and pancakes that look like manhole covers.

These foods are loaded with unhealthy fats, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates, which catapult your blood sugar, sap your energy levels, and tell your body to store fat.

To help you avoid the morning mishaps, we searched out the good, the bad, and the greasy, and uncovered some of the worst breakfast foods in America. We’ve presented a sampling of the worst offenders below. It’s like a lineup down at the local police station, except in this case, they’re all guilty as charged.

Worst Side Dish
Burger King Hash Browns (large)
620 calories
40 g fat (11 g saturated; 13 g trans)
1,200 mg sodium
60 g carbs

Yes, you’re ingesting more than a meal’s worth of calories from a side dish, but the real cause for concern here is that these little potato cakes pack seven times more trans fats than you’re supposed to eat all day! Until BK learns to cut out the partially hydrogenated oils, avoid encounters with potatoes of any kind at that fatty food joint.

Eat This Instead!
Burger King Egg & Cheese Croissan’wich
300 calories
17 g fat (6 g saturated; 2 g trans)
740 mg sodium
26 g carbs

Read more here

or Read about the  best breakfast foods for children

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By Andrew Stern

Monday June 2

CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) – Many young children do not get enough vitamin D, an often invisible deficiency that can show up later as broken bones or a weakened immune system prone to disease, researchers said on Monday.

Two out of five U.S. children aged 8 months to 2 years who took part in a 380-patient study at Children’s Hospital Boston had less-than-optimal blood levels of vitamin D.

The main risk factors were not drinking enough fortified milk, not taking vitamins and being overweight, said the report published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Lead researcher Catherine Gordon of Children’s Hospital Boston said the 40 percent deficiency rate “is higher than expected in a country that has vitamin D fortified milk.”

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that vitamin D, made when sunlight hits the skin and used to fortify many foods, is important for preventing chronic diseases. It is key to maintaining strong bones but has also been linked with a lower risk of cancer, artery disease and even kidney disease.

The lack of symptoms, at least initially, led Gordon to call it a “silent disease.”

“What was striking to us was how many infants were vitamin D deficient but they were asymptomatic. The silence of what we saw worries me more,” she said in a telephone interview.

The alternative to a blood test to discover a deficiency is to routinely give vitamins that can be consumed easily in the form of liquid drops, she said.

Only three children in the study showed signs of the soft and weakened bones characteristic of rickets, a dangerous condition. Another 13 had symptoms of demineralization, where lack of vitamin D causes minerals to leach out of the bones.

Canadian researchers recently reported that breast cancer patients with lower levels of vitamin D were far more likely to die or have their cancer spread than women with normal levels.

Children with vitamin D deficiency sometimes have bowed legs or easily fractured bones. They can also appear tired, or shaky, or suffer seizures in severe cases.

Overweight children were found to be prone to vitamin D deficiency, perhaps because the vitamin dissolves into fat, Gordon said. Diabetes is one disease linked to the deficiency.

Her findings complemented previous research she did on teenagers in 2004 that found a similar percentage with the deficiency. In that case, soda consumption and exposure to sunshine was a factor, and could be reversed during summer.

But sun exposure did not have an influence on younger children’s risk, perhaps because they were often covered against exposure to the sun’s rays.

Also at risk for a vitamin D deficiency were breast-fed infants, because “breast milk is the perfect food except that it lacks vitamin D,” Gordon said.

However the study found 6 percent of the children fed fortified formula also were vitamin D deficient. The researchers said this raised questions about whether the fortification was sufficient. (Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Maggie Fox and Chris Wilson)

By Anne Harding