Food Additives
Increase Hyperactivity in Children
In the June issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood, Dr. John O. Warner from
Southampton General Hospital, UK, and colleagues reported on their study on
the impact of artificial food colorings and benzoate preservative on the behavior
of 277 preschool children.
At the start, 36 children had hyperactivity and allergies, 75 were only hyperactive,
79 had only allergies, and 87 did not have either condition. Parents’
ratings of their child’s hyperactivity fell after withdrawal of food additives
from the children’s diets, the team reports, and there was an increase
in hyperactivity when food additives were re-introduced.
Parental hyperactivity ratings increased significantly when children were exposed
to food additives regardless of their hyperactivity status or the presence of
allergies at the start of the study.
“Additives do have an effect on overactive behavior independent of baseline
allergic and behavioral status,” Warner told Reuters Health. He added,
“We do not yet know which artificial additives are important in relation
to behavior or whether the list extends to other natural equivalents.”
Salsa Ingredient
May Protect Against Food-Borne Illness
A compound in the herb cilantro, also called coriander, a key ingredient in
salsa, may help prevent food poisoning. The compound dodecenal kills harmful
salmonella bacteria and could prove to be a safe, natural food additive effective
at protecting people against food-borne illness, says a joint U.S.-Mexican study
in the May 26 issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.
The antibacterial activity in salsa has been detected in previous research.
But this is the first study to isolate a specific antibacterial compound in
salsa. Both the leaves and seeds of cilantro contain about the same amount of
dodecenal.
The researchers found dodecenal was about twice as potent as the common medicinal
antibiotic gentamicin at killing salmonella bacteria. Dodecenal is the only
naturally occurring antibacterial that’s more effective than gentamicin
at destroying salmonella, according to the researchers.
“We were surprised that dodecenal was such a potent antibiotic,”
study leader and chemist Isao Kubo, of the University of California, Berkeley,
said in a prepared statement. “The study suggests that people should eat
more salsa with their food, especially fresh salsa,” Kubo said.
White Tea: Loaded
with Benefits
White tea seems to be more effective than green tea in fighting germs, says
new Pace University research. “Past studies have shown that green tea
stimulates the immune system to fight disease,” study author Milton Schiffenbauer,
a microbiologist and professor in Pace’s department of biology, said in
a prepared statement. “Our research shows that white tea extract can actually
destroy in vitro the organisms that cause disease.”
“Study after study with tea extract proves that is had many healing properties.
This is not an ‘old wives’ tale,’ it’s a fact,”
Schiffenbauer added.
The study was presented May 25 at the American Society for Microbiology general
meeting in New Orleans. The researchers found that:
• The anti-bacterial and anti-viral effect of white tea is greater than
that of green tea.
• The addition of white tea extract to several brands of toothpaste enhanced
their anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties.
• White tea extract had an anti-fungal effect on both Penicillium chrysogenum
and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
• White tea extract may help inactivate bacteria, viruses and fungi that
affect humans.
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