The World’s Hottest Pepper is Created in South Carolina Read

The world’s hottest pepper resembles an inappropriate scorpion tail. The surface is crinkled and oily with a loud red color, its seeds rate an average of 1,569,300 Scoville Heat Units — beating out the previous titleholder, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, by more than 300,000 units.

Tested by Winthrop University throughout 2012, the Carolina Reaper grown by Ed Currie of PuckerButt Pepper Co. in South Carolina earned itself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records last month. The Associated Press reports that the record is for the hottest batch of Currie’s peppers tested, filed as HP22B, or “Higher Power, Pot No. 22, Plant B.” The hottest individual Carolina Reaper of the lot weighed in at 2.2 million Scoville Heat Units.

To put things in perspective, a jalapeño pepper has rating of 5,000 on the Scoville scale; ghost peppers clock in at 1 million and pepper spray at 2 million Scoville Units. At more than 1.5 million units, the Carolina Reaper should come with a mini fire extinguisher. Just in case

Read more at http://foodbeast.com/2013/12/27/the-worlds-hottest-pepper-is-grown-in-south-carolina/#Rc0eJcAqFOlU7xjQ.99

You Are What Your Father Eats!

The research focused on vitamin B9, also called folate, which is found in a range of green leafy vegetables, cereals, fruit and meats. It is well known that in order to prevent miscarriages and birth defects mothers need to get adequate amounts of folate in their diet. But the way that a father's diet can influence the health and development of their offspring has received almost no attention. Now research from the Kimmins group shows for the first time that the father's folate levels may be just as important to the development and health of their offspring as are those of the mother. Indeed, the study suggests that fathers should pay as much attention to their lifestyle and diet before they set out to conceive a child as mothers do.

"Despite the fact that folic acid is now added to a variety of foods, fathers who are eating high-fat, fast food diets or who are obese may not be able to use or metabolize folate in the same way as those with adequate levels of the vitamin," says Kimmins. "People who live in the Canadian North or in other parts of the world where there is food insecurity may also be particularly at risk for folate deficiency. And we now know that this information will be passed on from the father to the embryo with consequences that may be quite serious."

The researchers arrived at this conclusion by working with mice, and comparing the offspring of fathers with insufficient folate in their diets with the offspring of fathers whose diets contained sufficient levels of the vitamin. They found that paternal folate deficiency was associated with an increase in birth defects of various kinds in the offspring, compared to the offspring of mice whose fathers were fed a diet with sufficient folate.

"We were very surprised to see that there was an almost 30 per cent increase in birth defects in the litters sired by fathers whose levels of folates were insufficient," said Dr. Romain Lambrot, of McGill's Dept. of Animal Science, one of the researchers who worked on the study. "We saw some pretty severe skeletal abnormalities that included both cranio-facial and spinal deformities."

The research from the Kimmins' group shows that there are regions of the sperm epigenome that are sensitive to life experience and particularly to diet. And that this information is in turn transferred to a so-called epigenomic map that influences development and may also influence metabolism and disease in the offspring in the long-term. (The epigenome is like a switch, which is affected by environmental cues, and is involved in many diseases including cancer and diabetes. The epigenome influences the way that genes are turned on or off, and hence how heritable information gets passed along).

Although it has been known for some time that there is a massive erasure and re-establishment that takes place in the epigenome as the sperm develops, this study now shows that along with the developmental map, the sperm also carries a memory of the father's environment and possibly even of his diet and lifestyle choices.

"Our research suggests that fathers need to think about what they put in their mouths, what they smoke and what they drink and remember they are caretakers of generations to come," said Kimmins. "If all goes as we hope, our next step will be to work with collaborators at a fertility clinic so that we can start assessing the links in men between diet, being overweight and how this information relates to the health of their children."

Does Obesity Reshape Our Sense of Taste?

In a Nov. 13 study in the journal PLOS ONE, University at Buffalo biologists report that being severely overweight impaired the ability of mice to detect sweets.

Compared with slimmer counterparts, the plump mice had fewer taste cells that responded to sweet stimuli. What's more, the cells that did respond to sweetness reacted relatively weakly.

The findings peel back a new layer of the mystery of how obesity alters our relationship to food.

"Studies have shown that obesity can lead to alterations in the brain, as well as the nerves that control the peripheral taste system, but no one had ever looked at the cells on the tongue that make contact with food," said lead scientist Kathryn Medler, PhD, UB associate professor of biological sciences.

"What we see is that even at this level -- at the first step in the taste pathway -- the taste receptor cells themselves are affected by obesity," Medler said. "The obese mice have fewer taste cells that respond to sweet stimuli, and they don't respond as well."

The research matters because taste plays an important role in regulating appetite: what we eat, and how much we consume.

How an inability to detect sweetness might encourage weight gain is unclear, but past research has shown that obese people yearn for sweet and savory foods though they may not taste these flavors as well as thinner people.

Medler said it's possible that trouble detecting sweetness may lead obese mice to eat more than their leaner counterparts to get the same payoff.

Learning more about the connection between taste, appetite and obesity is important, she said, because it could lead to new methods for encouraging healthy eating.

"If we understand how these taste cells are affected and how we can get these cells back to normal, it could lead to new treatments," Medler said. "These cells are out on your tongue and are more accessible than cells in other parts of your body, like your brain."

The new PLOS ONE study compared 25 normal mice to 25 of their littermates who were fed a high-fat diet and became obese.

To measure the animals' response to different tastes, the research team looked at a process called calcium signaling. When cells "recognize" a certain taste, there is a temporary increase in the calcium levels inside the cells, and the scientists measured this change.

The results: Taste cells from the obese mice responded more weakly not only to sweetness but, surprisingly, to bitterness as well. Taste cells from both groups of animals reacted similarly to umami, a flavor associated with savory and meaty foods.

Medler's co-authors on the study were former UB graduate student Amanda Maliphol and former UB undergraduate Deborah Garth.

Garlic Can Help In Baby Formula

The study, recently published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, is the first to identify two compounds derived from garlic -- diallyl sulfide and ajoene -- that significantly reduce the contamination risk of Cronobacter sakazakii in the production of dry infant formula powder.

The discovery could make the product safer to consume, easing the minds of new mothers who can't or opt not to breastfeed.

"A trace dose of these two compounds is extremely effective in killing C. sakazakii in the food manufacturing process," says Xiaonan Lu, corresponding author and assistant professor of food safety engineering in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. "They have the potential to eliminate the pathogen before it ever reaches the consumer."

C. sakazakii is a foodborne pathogen that is sometimes present in dry infant formula powder and other fortified foods. C. sakazakii infection is rare, but often fatal for infants. It can poison a baby's bloodstream and lead to life-threatening cases of meningitis. Outbreaks of C. sakazakii have occurred worldwide.

According to Lu, the garlic compounds could be used to prevent C. sakazakii contamination on food contact surfaces and in every step of food production -- from processing, packaging and delivery.

"Pipes used in the manufacturing of milk products are typically cleaned with chemicals like chlorine, but these garlic compounds are a natural alternative," says Lu. "We believe these compounds are more beneficial in protecting babies against this pathogen."

The African Green Revolution at the Tipping Point

Oct. 15, 2013 — In some areas of Africa, farmers, scientists and policymakers are beginning to win the war on hunger, says Pedro Sanchez, PhD. Several factors have come together in recent years to tip the scales and increase food production.

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Sanchez will present "The African Green Revolution at the Tipping Point," on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013 at 8:45 AM. The presentation is part of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America Annual Meetings, Nov. 3-6 in Tampa, Florida. The theme of this year's conference is "Water, Food, Energy, & Innovation for a Sustainable World." Members of the media receive complimentary registration to the joint meetings.
According to Sanchez, not only will African farmers in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana and Malawi will be able to sell more food this year, but they will have enough to feed their own families. "All factors are moving along the value chain" says Sanchez, including policies and subsidies, credit guarantees and the creation of buyer groups. Agronomic improvements, bringing fertilizer and better seeds, are the entry point of the success. "In order for us to move Africa above this level of success, we will need to implement agricultural technologies," says Sanchez. He will address these methods in his lecture.

California’s Leafy Greens Producers Want Strong Food-Safety Laws

This editorial was originally published September 12 on the LGMA’s blog.

The job of implementing new food-safety legislation under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) isn’t getting any easier for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pressure is mounting from some small farmers, foreign producers and consumer activist groups, who each have their own take on how the law should – or should not be – finalized.

Meanwhile, the issue of funding the cost of this sweeping legislation has still not been settled. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the challenge of making FSMA a reality is growing more and more complex.

Over the past several years, staff members from FDA have visited California to see and learn more about the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) and how this program is protecting public health for at least one segment of the U.S. produce industry.

The LGMA’s message to FDA is clear – we want strong food-safety laws. In fact, through the LGMA, a system of government oversight to ensure the safety of the majority of the nation’s leafy greens has been in place for more than six years. The program created by the California leafy greens industry in 2007 is based on science, includes mandatory government audits to verify that rigorous food-safety practices are being followed on leafy greens farms, and that there are real consequences for those who do not comply.

While others in the produce industry may be reluctant to embrace proposed food-safety rules, leafy greens farmers fully understand that they grow a product that is consumed in large quantities by people at home and in restaurants and it is frequently eaten raw. Leafy greens absolutely must be safe. The programs now in place in both California and Arizona not only meet the proposed requirements of FSMA, but they exceed the requirements of this new law.

The LGMA is proposing that FDA recognize our food-safety model and that, once FSMA is finalized, LGMA-certified leafy greens handlers be considered compliant with the new law.

These LGMA programs truly are a partnership between government and farming communities, with funding provided by industry and government serving to ensure compliance. By recognizing that the LGMA provides verification that handlers and growers are compliant with FSMA – and then some – FDA can be assured that more than 90 percent of the leafy greens produced in the U.S. are aligned with federal food-safety laws. With leafy greens taken care of, FDA can focus its attention on the other complexities of enacting this new law.

BY SCOTT HORSFALL | SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

 A recent paper published in the Journal of Animal Science suggests producers may want to adjust pig diets when including distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Some producers believe that feeding pigs saturated fats will undo the fat-softening effects of DDGS. Firmer fat means longer-lasting pork.

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But researchers from the University of Illinois found that including saturated fats in DDGS diets makes no difference in fat quality.

The researchers formulated six corn-soybean meal diets to test the effects of saturated fat additives on carcass fat quality in pigs. Five of these diets contained DDGS.

According to the researchers, pork produced from pigs fed DDGS have reduced shelf life and increased susceptibility to oxidative damage. Oxidative damage affects texture, color, juiciness and the overall flavor of pork products.

"Distillers dried grains contain unsaturated fatty acids and those fatty acids are deposited into the fat of the animal," said Hans-Henrik Stein, study co-author and Department of Animal Science professor at the University of Illinois. "From a health standpoint, that's a good thing, but it can be a problem when producing pork products like bacon."

According to Stein, high levels of unsaturated fats make pork belly fat too soft to slice for bacon. To counteract this problem, producers have included saturated fats such as corn germ, beef tallow, palm kernel oil and glycerol in diets containing DDGS in order to make the fat firmer.

For this study, corn germ, beef tallow, palm kernel oil and glycerol were each added to a diet containing DDGS. The researchers compared the performance of pigs fed each of these diets to the performance of pigs fed a diet containing DDGS with no saturated fats added and a control diet containing corn-soybean meal but no DDGS.

Firmness of fat was tested by measuring the distance of "belly flop." This was done by draping the belly of the carcasses over a metal rod with the skin facing down. Ten centimeters below the rod, distance was measured between the two sides. The larger the distance was, the firmer the fat.

The researchers found that pigs fed the control diet containing no DDGS had greater belly flop distances than the pigs fed the other diets. There was no difference among the pigs fed the five diets containing DDGS.

This led researchers to conclude that adding saturated fats to diets containing DDGS has no effect on the fat quality of pigs.

Stein suggested that producers feeding high levels of DDGS reduce the amount fed in the last 3 to 4 weeks before harvest to avoid the softening of fat.

What the Republican Budget Means for Food Stamps

Food stamp users, prepare for some belt-tightening. Harkening back to Clinton-era welfare economics of 1996, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has proposed a $6.2 trillion cut to annual federal deficits for the next decade. The proposal, which passed the House earlier this month and resumes legislation today as Senators return from Easter-Passover break, would have a major impact on nutritional assistance programs.

The Ryan budget plan looks to cut the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by 20 percent between 2012 to 2021 by capping the open-ended system with a block-grant -- either by capping eligibility or benefits, or both. This means benefits would not fluctuate with economic need. States would instead be allotted a max.

If eligibility heads for the chopping block in 2012, more than 8 million people would be cut, reports the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities -- that's the equivalent of the population of the 30 smallest states. If benefits go, SNAP users would be reduced to 88 percent of the USDA's estimated needs-per-family in the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP). A family of four would lose $147 per month; families of three would lose $116.

No doubt, there's been opposition -- but none yet with a solid alternative, though Senate Democratic aids expect action from Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

According to The Hill, Reid and a group of Dems spent their vacation soliciting American business investment in China, while Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is expected to introduce a budget blueprint with recommendations from bipartisan negotiating group, Gang of Six. Stay tuned, Old Western-style, we imagine

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by Jessie Cacciola

Are Farm Animals Headed to Rehab?

Whether it was baked chicken or a grilled steak, it's likely that the meat you had for dinner last night contained an array of pharmaceuticals. Alarmed by potential drug resistance in both animals and in humans, on Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for more judicious use of antimicrobial drugs in the production of animals raised for food.

Antimicrobial drugs were introduced to industrial farming more than 50 years ago as a way to prevent disease in animals. But the FDA is concerned that many of the drugs have lost their effectiveness due to the development of drug-resistant microbial strains. The government agency wants meat producers to stop using the drugs to boost production and promote growth.

"Limiting the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals only for assuring animal health. Unfortunately, many operations use antimicrobials to increase production, or to produce larger animals, which contributes to the misuse of the drugs and raises the possibility of antibiotic resistance," FDA officials said in a statement.

"The development of resistance to this important class of drugs, and the resulting loss of their effectiveness as antimicrobial therapies, poses a serious public health threat," the FDA said in the statement.

Not surprisingly, the meat industry is unhappy with the recommendations. The National Pork Producers Council said the FDA guidelines were too much, claiming they would keep the industry from using medications to keep their animals healthy.

"There is no scientific study linking antibiotic food use in food animal production with antibiotic resistance," the council said in a statement of their own.

Scientists at the Union of Concerned Scientists beg to differ. Margaret Mellon, a member of the organization, says the council's claim is "patently untrue."

"There is a mountain of studies linking the use of antibiotics in animals to the evolution of resistant pathogens that cause human disease," she told the Los Angeles Times.

Whatever the case, the brouhaha is all a little premature. The FDA document isn't a regulation or even a proposed regulation. The FDA will open a 60-day comment period on this issue, then decide on what regulations (if any) to impose. In the meantime, if you're concerned about what's in your meat, organic is always an option. It might be pricier, but it comes without the pill bottles

Cupcakes Take a Shine to Whiskey by Kristine Hansen

Photo: fiveinchpixie, Flickr

Grown-up cupcakes are the best. And it doesn't get any more adult than a tiny cake spiked with whiskey. A handful of cupcake cafés around the country are celebrating St. Patrick's Day early this year by folding Irish whiskey into the batter or the frosting.

Here's where to find these delicious whiskey cupcakes:

-"Irish Coffee" at Sweets Bakeshop in St. Paul, Minnesota: Espresso ganache is tucked inside the chocolate cupcake, which is iced with Irish-whiskey buttercream and toasted hazelnuts.

-"Irish Whiskey" at Flour & Sun Bakery in Pleasantville, New York: Tasting a lot like Irish soda bread, the batter contains raisins and Irish whiskey, and the cupcake is topped with Irish-whiskey buttercream.

-"Irish Cream" at Sonia's Cupcakes in South Florida: These chocolate cupcakes are dunked in Guinness stout and whiskey. (Note that this appears to be delivery only, while the others have a retail presence.)

-"Whiskey Butterscotch Organic Cupcakes" at Sugar Cupcakery in Milford, Ohio: Any time there's an eco twist on alcohol it's a good thing. These bitty cakes are organic, as are the rest of the cupcakes made here, and the added flavor of butterscotch is intriguing.

-"The Car Bomb" at Robicelli's in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City: The chocolate-Guinness stout cupcake's ganache is made with Jameson Irish Whiskey and the buttercream frosting is spiked with Baileys Irish Cream.

Foods Can Help Fight Inflammation

Mar. 22, 2013 — Inflammation is the body's normal response to injury. While it may be a natural defense system, it can lead to disease development if it becomes chronic. A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) expert says one way to fight inflammation is with food.

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"The inflammation process has one goal: to respond immediately to detect and destroy the toxic material in damaged tissues before it can spread throughout the body," explained Lauren Whitt, Ph.D., UAB Employee Wellness director and adjunct professor of personal health. "The trouble with inflammation occurs when the defense system gets out-of-control and begins to destroy healthy tissue, causing more damage than the original issue."

Obesity has even been found to cause inflammation, and it can lead to the development of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, according to the National Council on Strength & Fitness. But weight loss is related to reduction of inflammation, and Whitt says the right anti-inflammatory foods are the answer.

"I encourage people to focus on eating whole foods and foods that are high in fiber," Whitt said.

Anti-inflammatory foods to try:

• Citrus fruits -- Vitamin C and Vitamin E are essential antioxidants

• Dark, leafy greens -- High in Vitamin K

• Tomatoes -- The fruit's red pigment, lycopene, is a potent antioxidant

• Wild-caught salmon -- Contains a rich concentration of omega-3 fatty acids

Whitt added that eating anti-inflammatory foods should not be viewed as daunting.

"Eating to minimize inflammation doesn't have to be an overwhelming task," she said. "Take baby steps by incorporating leafy greens into a salad at lunch, or add a piece of whole fruit to your breakfast."

In addition, Whitt said to consume more foods straight from the farm, as well as fewer processed and fried foods. Doing so may reduce the need for some medications.

"Americans are constantly on the lookout for a quick-fix, so when our immune systems kick into overdrive, we would generally prefer to pop a pill and keep moving," Whitt said. "But if we focus on our diets, we can alleviate the need for the anti-inflammatory medications in many cases."

(Article from Science Daily)

Eat your fruits and vegetables! The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure. Use EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides™ to reduce your exposures as much as possible, but eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all. The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. You can lower your pesticide intake substantially by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated produce.

This year we have expanded the Dirty Dozen™ with a Plus category to highlight two crops -- green beans and leafy greens, meaning, kale and collard greens - that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen ™criteria but were commonly contaminated with highly toxic organophosphate insecticides. These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade. But they are not banned and still show up on some food crops.

Commodity crop corn used for animal feed and biofuels is almost all produced with genetically modified (GMO) seeds, as is some sweet corn sold for human consumption. Since GMO sweet corn is not labeled as such in US stores, EWG advises those who have concerns about GMOs to buy organic sweet corn.

*Take a look ad original article and list of vegetables* (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/)

10 Hidden Restaurant Calorie Traps

You already know to order the salad dressing on the side if you want to cut calories, but fat-laden sauces aren't the only calorie bombs lurking in restaurant dishes. The Daily Meal's got a list of 10 restaurant saboteurs to avoid if you're trying to squeeze into a pair of skinny jeans. Heavy cream hides in sauces you wouldn't expect (bolognese, for example) and certain sandwich spreads can contain almost as many calories as the rest of the sandwich. And -- yuck -- did you know some eateries slip poultry skin into turkey burgers to keep them moist?

Read the full list of restaurant saboteurs

Glowing Blue Pork Found in China

So this story on ChinaSMACK, which offers English-language translations of odds and ends found on the Chinese internet, caught our attention: "Blue Glowing Pork Meat Found in Shanghai."

For one, the story itself is sort of priceless: Apparently, one "Miss Chen" gets up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and notices a faint blue light coming from her kitchen, only to discover that the source of this ghostly glow is none other than the slab of pork that she'd purchased the day before and left on the table (left on the table!?).

Second, there's a tone of eager, earnest amazement that runs throughout the article which makes it feel less like a digitized dispatch from a teeming megatropolis on the other side of the globe and more like something you'd find in the dusty archives of, say, the Walnut Grove Gazette. To wit, "In order to be sure she wasn't seeing things, Miss Chen woke up her family to look at this piece of strange meat together. The pork glowed in the dark but returned to 'normal' in the morning. Both astonished and afraid, Miss Chen's family did not dare to eat from this piece of pork again. Yesterday afternoon, this reporter rushed to Miss Chen's home and saw this piece of glowing pork."

If you've ever flipped through yellowing copies of old small-town newspapers, this has a familiar ring, like the sorts of stories found beneath headlines declaring, "Local Man's Garden Squash Bears Holy Visage."

But could it be true? Given that "Miss Chen" lives in Shanghai and we, um, don't, that makes the task of verification a little more difficult than darting over to Old Man McGillicutty's place to see if said squash really looks like Jesus.

An "exhaustive" search of the literature (thanks Google Books!) revealed astounding evidence that, yes, meat stored in conditions that in the U.S. would saddle you with a health code violation can indeed start to glow like the ghost of Christmas past.

Dr. Robert Ostertag, for example, discusses of the matter at some length in his Handbook of Meat Inspection published in 1904, in which he catalogs reported incidents of strangely glowing meat spanning centuries, from 16^th-century Rome to 18^th-century Vienna.

Take heart, Miss Chen, apparently someone named "Neusch" in Basel observed in 1877 "that pork which was kept in a receptacle in a pantry emitted a green light of such intensity that people were able to recognize each other by it and to read the time on their watches."

Fast-forward 50 years, and the more scientifically minded (but no less literarily inspired) writers of Meat Hygiene name the likely culprit: phosphorescent bacteria, such as Pseudomonas cyanagenus, which can cause contaminated meat to appear "as if it were studded with stars."

Foods Identified as 'Whole Grain' Not Always Healthy

Jan. 10, 2013 — Current standards for classifying foods as "whole grain" are inconsistent and, in some cases, misleading, according to a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers. One of the most widely used industry standards, the Whole Grain Stamp, actually identified grain products that were higher in both sugars and calories than products without the Stamp. The researchers urge adoption of a consistent, evidence-based standard for labeling whole grain foods to help consumers and organizations make healthy choices. This is the first study to empirically evaluate the healthfulness of whole grain foods based on five commonly used industry and government definitions.

"Given the significant prevalence of refined grains, starches, and sugars in modern diets, identifying a unified criterion to identify higher quality carbohydrates is a key priority in public health," said first author Rebecca Mozaffarian, project manager in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at HSPH.

The study appears in the January 4, 2013 advanced online edition of Public Health Nutrition.

The health benefits of switching from refined to whole grain foods are well established, including lower risk of cardiovascular disease, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes. Based on this evidence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend that Americans consume at least three servings of whole grain products daily, and the new U.S. national school lunch standards require that at least half of all grains be whole grain-rich. However, no single standard exists for defining any product as a "whole grain."

Mozaffarian and her colleagues assessed five different industry and government guidelines for whole grain products:

The Whole Grain Stamp, a packaging symbol for products containing at least 8 grams of whole grains per serving (created by the Whole Grain Council, a non-governmental organization supported by industry dues)

Any whole grain as the first listed ingredient (recommended by the USDA's MyPlate and the Food and Drug Administration's Consumer Health Information guide)

Any whole grain as the first ingredient without added sugars in the first three ingredients (also recommended by USDA's MyPlate)

The word "whole" before any grain anywhere in the ingredient list (recommended by USDA's Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010)

The "10:1 ratio," a ratio of total carbohydrate to fiber of less than 10 to 1, which is approximately the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in whole wheat flour (recommended by the American Heart Association's 2020 Goals)

From two major U.S. grocers, the researchers identified a total of 545 grain products in eight categories: breads, bagels, English muffins, cereals, crackers, cereal bars, granola bars, and chips. They collected nutrition content, ingredient lists, and the presence or absence of the Whole Grain Stamp on product packages from all of these products.

They found that grain products with the Whole Grain Stamp, one of the most widely-used front-of-package symbols, were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, but also contained significantly more sugar and calories compared to products without the Stamp. The three USDA recommended criteria also had mixed performance for identifying healthier grain products. Overall, the American Heart Association's standard (a ratio of total carbohydrate to fiber of ≤10:1) proved to be the best indicator of overall healthfulness. Products meeting this ratio were higher in fiber and lower in trans fats, sugar, and sodium, without higher calories than products that did not meet the ratio.

"Our results will help inform national discussions about product labeling, school lunch programs, and guidance for consumers and organizations in their attempts to select whole grain products," said senior author Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology.

Corn Could Help Farmers Fight Devastating Weed

Jan. 7, 2013 — Versatile and responsive to management, corn is grown throughout the world for everything from food to animal feed to fuel. A new use for corn could soon join that list, as researchers in China investigate the crop's ability to induce "suicidal germination" in a devastating parasitic weed.

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Known commonly as sunflower broomrape, the weed causes extensive damage to vegetable and row crops in Asia, Africa, and southern Eastern Europe. Lacking chlorophyll, it is a parasite and completely dependent on a host plant for water and nutrients. An infestation of broomrape in sunflower fields can reduce yields by 50%. Sunflower is one of the main oil crops in China, and in one county, over 64% of a sunflower field covering more than 24,000 acres is currently infested.
Several strategies have been tested to stop the damage caused by broomrape, including chemical and cultural methods. Previous studies have shown the utility of using trap crops, which induce germination of the unwanted seed but do not allow for development and survival of the parasite thus causing "suicidal germination." However, no single method of controlling broomrape has yet been shown to be effective and feasible for small farms.
In a study published in the Jan.-Feb. issue of Crop Science, Yongqing Ma and a research team from Northwest A & F University in China attempted to control broomrape infestation by using corn as a trap crop. Corn was a favorable option since both sunflower and corn can be grown in the same areas of China. While corn cannot be parasitized by broomrape, the scientists found that a hybrid line of corn and its parental lines induced significant germination of broomrape seeds. They suggest that corn lines could be produced specifically to be used as a trap crop, thus controlling broomrape infestations and producing a forage crop for livestock feed.
To study the effect of several corn varieties on broomrape germination, the researchers tested both hybrid and inbred lines. They found that one hybrid and its parental lines consistently induced the highest germination rates. While none of the corn varieties tested was bred to be a trap crop for broomrape, by analyzing these successful lines, it may be possible to produce even more efficient varieties, the researchers say.
The research team sampled the corn in multiple ways looking at the effects of root extracts, shoot extracts, and soil samples from around the roots. Root extracts generally caused more germination than the shoot extracts. Researchers think that this is because the chemical most likely responsible for causing germination, strigolactone, is made in the roots of the corn plant.
Using the results of their study, the scientists believe that a breeding program could be developed to make corn varieties that are even better at inducing suicidal germination in broomrape. It would also be possible to determine how the chemical that induces germination is made by studying these corn varieties.
Finally, the authors note that the benefit of using corn as a trap crop extends beyond its effects on broomrape. If corn is successful, it can be harvested for livestock feed and other uses thus optimizing the effort and cost to plant it.