nutrition news 2011

Pacific NW 35% Infant Mortality Spike Post-Fukushima
nutrition news 2011
Northwest sees 35% infant mortality spike post-Fukushima



Physician Janette Sherman,M.D. and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published a report Monday highlighting a 35% spike in northwest infant mortality after Japan’s nuclear meltdown. The report spotlighted data from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on infant mortality rates in eight northwest cities,including Seattle,in the 10 weeks after Fukushima’s nuclear meltdown. The average number of infant deaths for the region moved from an average of 9.25 in the four weeks before Fukushima’nuclear meltdown,to an average of 12.5 per week in the 10 weeks after. The change represents a 35% increase in the northwest’s infant mortality rates. In comparison,the average rates for the entire U.S. rose only 2.3%.

Note: For details of this very important analysis of the CDC’s data on US infant mortality after the Fukushima meltdowns,click here and here.

Technorati Tags:Fukushima,infant mortality spike,Pacific Northwest

Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables!

Californians seem to be listening

Philadelphia,PA,June 15,2011 – According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 objectives,adequate fruit and vegetable consumption is a national public health priority for disease prevention and maintenance of good health. Not only do fruits and vegetables furnish valuable dietary nutrients,but they also contribute vital elements to chronic disease prevention for heart disease,hypertension,certain cancers,vision problems of aging,and possibly type 2 diabetes. With the nation’s health in mind,Network for a Healthy California is taking steps to prevent these problems by promoting fruit and vegetable consumption through a large-scale social marketing program funded in part by the United States Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP;formally known as the Food Stamp Nutrition Education program) to provide nutrition education.

A study in the July/August 2011 supplement to the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior describes the 10- year trends for California adults’ fruit and vegetable consumption using surveillance data. Investigators from the Network for a Healthy California,California Department of Public Health and Public Health Institute surveyed 1,400-1,700 California residents per survey year starting in 1997,before the Network’s launch in spring 1998,and continuing biennially until the most current data from the 2007 survey. The survey tool used a single 24-hour dietary recall to assess intake.

Findings from this study reveal that over the course of 10 years;mean daily fruit and vegetable consumption rose from 3.8 servings to 5.2 servings. More profound,the number of California adults who reported eating greater or equal to 5 servings of fruit and vegetable on their 24-hour diet recall increased 57% over the past decade.

Interestingly,the increase in fruit and vegetable consumption was the greatest for the lowest and the highest income groups,nearly doubling the percentage that consumes >5 fruit and vegetable per day,1997-2007 in each group. Sharon Sugerman,Research Scientist for the Network for a Healthy California,states,“Examining fruit and vegetable trends by income demonstrates the importance of being able to survey all population groups,specifically the low-income population,but also the higher-income groups. Such data document the overall population-wide trends and allow comparisons between more- and less-advantaged groups.”

The article is “California Adults Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption From 1997-2007” by Sharon Sugerman,MS,RD,FADA;Susan B. Foerster,MPH,RD;Jennifer Gregson,MPH,PhD;Amanda Linares,MS;Mark Hudes,PhD. It appears in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior,Volume 43,Issue 4,Supplement 2 (July/August 2011) published by Elsevier.

In an accompanying podcast Sharon Sugerman,MS,RD,FADA,discusses the results and implications this study. It is available at www.jneb.org/content/podcast

Magnesium Deficiency Reduces Effectiveness of Vitamin D In Disease Prevention

Magnesium Deficiency Reduces Effectiveness of Vitamin D in
the Prevention of Disease,According to Magnesium Expert Dr.
Carolyn Dean,MD,ND

ORANGE,Calif.,June 15,2011 —Magnesium deficiency is an
important factor in the results obtained from vitamin D.
According to Dr. Carolyn Dean,MD,ND,magnesium expert and
Medical Director of the nonprofit Nutritional Magnesium

effectiveness and benefits of vitamin D are greatly
undermined in the absence of adequate levels of magnesium in
the body. Magnesium acts with and is essential to the
activity of vitamin D,and yet most Americans do not get
their recommended daily allowance (RDA) of this important
mineral.

Extensive research has shown that vitamin D deficiencies
play a major role in the development of dozens of diseases,
including a variety of cancers,such as breast cancer

prostate cancer and colon cancer,as well as diabetes,heart
disease,arthritis,osteoporosis,psoriasis and mental
illness.

“While many people are beginning to realize the amazing
health benefits that vitamin D has to offer in the
prevention of disease,they may not be getting the full
benefits from vitamin D without also supplementing their
diets with magnesium,which is a vital nutrient that works
synergistically with vitamin D,”says Dr. Dean.

“Adequate levels of magnesium in the body are essential for
the absorption and metabolism not only of vitamin D but of
calcium as well,”Dean states. “Magnesium converts vitamin D
into its active form so that it can help calcium absorption.

“Magnesium stimulates a particular hormone,calcitonin,
which helps to preserve bone structure and draws calcium out
of the blood and soft tissues back into the bones,
preventing osteoporosis,some forms of arthritis and kidney
stones.”

Dr. John Cannell,Executive Director of the nonprofit
Vitamin D Council,concurs with Dr. Dean’s findings,
recognizing the importance of magnesium

as a nutrient that is required for proper vitamin D
metabolism,while additionally citing several studies that
illustrate this point.

The journal Magnesium Research published a number of studies
with the following findings:

–Magnesium is essential for the metabolism of vitamin D.
–Magnesium influences the body’s utilization of vitamin D
by activating cellular enzyme activity.
–Enzymes are protein molecules that stimulate every
chemical reaction in the body. All the enzymes that
metabolize vitamin D require magnesium.
–Magnesium has a possible role in vitamin D’s effect on
the immune system.

Another study published in the European Journal of
Pediatrics states:“Low magnesium has been shown to alter,
by way of decreasing,production of vitamin D’s active form
…”

Several studies related to bone health published in the
Journal of Physiological Biochemistry and in the Clinical
Nutrition journal point out that magnesium is also necessary
for vitamin D’s beneficial actions on bone.

Since pathologists first began examining the heart,they
realized that a connection existed between deposits of
calcium

and heart disease. Vitamin D inhibits calcium deposition in
arteries,and magnesium converts vitamin D into its active
form so that it can prevent calcium buildup in cholesterol
plaque in arteries. The combination of magnesium and vitamin
D helps prevent clogged arteries by drawing calcium out of
the blood and soft tissues back into the bones where it is
needed to build healthy bone structure.

Dr. Dean concludes,“The many studies pointing to the
importance of these two nutrients to both the prevention of
heart disease and osteoporosis,and the fact that magnesium
can be found to increase the effectiveness of vitamin D,
make finding out about how magnesium can improve the general
health and well-being of anyone a vital imperative that
shouldn’t be ignored.”

A 32-page guide to the benefits of magnesium,along with
magnesium deficiency symptoms,written by Dr. Dean,is
available as a free download at


For media inquiries,please contact Boris Levitsky at (714)
605-1100.

About the Nutritional Magnesium Association

The nonprofit Nutritional Magnesium Association (NMA) is a
trusted authority on the subject of magnesium deficiency and
the benefits of nutritional magnesium for a variety of
health issues. Radio,TV,magazines and professional
journals interview its members regularly –including ABC,
NBC and CBS. The mission of the Nutritional Magnesium
Association is to disseminate timely and useful information
on the subject of nutritional magnesium so as to improve the
lives of all people affected by the widespread magnesium
deficiency in our diets and the related health issues
associated with this deficiency.