HEC SPECIAL

Limited offer: become a 'lifetime' subscriber of HEC for only $44 More.....
- a copy of "Food Facts" on CD-rom by Professor Mark Wahlqvist
- access to do our body image module on-line
- member discounts for all our on-line healthy eating course modules

HEC short on-line Healthy Eating course (consists of 5 modules, $195) More ....
The HEC website is the only website currently offering on-line reputable course modules for the general public in nutrition.

World Food Day was on the 16/10/2002. It focused on the essential role water plays in ensuring sustainable food resources for a growing world population. more....
Try our game "Picnic Panic" (which is on our sister website kidsfoodclub.org)

WHAT'S NEW IN NUTRITION RESEARCH

How much water should we drink and do other 'fluids' count?
It has become a common belief that we need "2 litres or 8 glasses" of water daily and that beverages containing caffeine or alcohol do not count because they increase the excretion of water or have a diuretic effect. This belief has never been scientifically tested, and there is little evidence to support it. A recent review of the evidence was published in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (August 2002) http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/00365.2002v1.
About six to eight glasses (of at least 150 millilitres each) of a variety of "fluids" can be consumed each day and caffeine and alcohol containing beverages can be counted as "water" because most of the water in these beverages does get used by the body.

Fresh water is the best drink of all because it does not contain calories and has fluoride that is good for the teeth. The next most important fluid is milk (especially for children) and tea (especially for adults). Tea, especially green tea, is an important source of antioxidant polyphenols which appear to offer protection against heart disease and cancer. Fresh fruit is preferable to fruit juice because the former has more fibre and nutrients and less sugar; for these reasons it is recommended that juice consumption be limited to one to two glasses a day. Soft drinks and other sweet drinks with added sugar should be limited because they add substantial dietary energy to the diet without additional nutrient value. For more information read our Fact Sheet.

Econutrition
One of the aims of the healthyeating club is to encourage a universally safe, nutritious and sustainable food supply and to identify ways in which we can help the environment/ universe through our eating habits. The club's editor-in-chief published an article on Econutrition in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition - click here to download article as pdf file.The article concludes that the consumption of a wide variety of food, maintenance of biodiversity and a varied food supply will help the environment and human health across several domains. This is in contrast to the concept of 'staple' foods.

Caffeine: linked to Diabetes and Hypertension?

Two studies this year reported that caffeine affects insulin action (Kiejzers et al., Diabetes Care 2002; Thong et al Diabetes 2002). The findings are not completely new, but the degree to which the action of insulin was reduced was surprising. Impaired insulin action is the key step in the development of adult-onset diabetes. Impaired insulin means the pancreas is forced to secrete more insulin to have the same effect till at some point the pancreas starts to fail, leading to the death of insulin producing cells.

In these studies the equivalent of five to six espresso coffees were given either as tablets or injections and the effectiveness of insulin fell by 15 to 50%. This is similar to the effect obesity has on insulin action (lowers insulin action by 40%). It is well known that exercise increases the effectiveness of insulin, but after the ingestion of caffeine, insulin action was impaired, even though the subjects had exercised for one hour (Thong et al., 2002). It is speculated that caffeine activates receptors (adenosine) in adipose tissue, increasing both the concentration of fatty acids in the blood (which in turn may impair insulin action) and blood pressure. Caffeine also increases the levels of the stress hormone adrenaline which may also impair the action of insulin.

So should we avoid coffee, especially if we have a family history of diabetes? These studies (and no other studies) have proven that caffeine causes the development of diabetes. However, with the proliferation of caffeine containing soft drinks and food products, all of which are easily accessed by children, more research is needed to explore the effects of caffeine on insulin action.

In another study (Lane et al., Psychosomatic Medicine 2002) 500mg of caffeine in the form of two tablets (equivalent to 4-6 cups of coffee) was given on a certain day of the week. Caffeine was found to cause a slight but signifcant increase in blood pressure and subjects reported feeling more stressed on the day they took caffeine; they also had greater levels of stress hormones. People with conditions that are aggravated by stress or who have high blood pressure need to be conscious of the amount of coffee they drink; alternatively they could switch to decaffeinated coffee.

In conclusion, coffee in moderation (2-3 cups per day) is probably not an issue for most adults.

NUTRITION RESOURCES ON THE WEB

FREE On-line Cochrane Collaboration/Library for consumers:
The Cochrane Collaboration/Library is an international non-profit organisation that aims to help people make informed decisions about health care, by reviewing and promoting the best available evidence on the effects of interventions (includes dietary interventions) and treatments. It is a charity registered in the United Kingdom. If you want to know if something is really worth trying (e.g a low fat diet), you need good evidence about the treatment's effects - ideally from high quality trials.
The Cochrane Systematic Reviews of the Scientific Evidence on many health topics, including healthy eating, is now available to the general public on-line at:
http://www.cochraneconsumer.com

US Academy of Sciences: 2002 Report on Energy, Carbohydrate, Fat and Protein. A review of the evidence on which recommendations are based.

Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NH&MRC): 2001 Report New Dietary Guidelines for Australians - a review of the evidence on which the new guidelines are based.

Recipe of the month: Spinach risotto