American Society For Nutrition

How I beat the Thanksgiving blah’s

By: Rachel K.

    The holidays are just around the corner…….in my family that translates to “season of food.”  I remember when I was young and naïve - when I would eat until I felt like I was going to explode, drag myself to the couch after dinner, and lie there like a beached whale until I could move again.  This is the story of how I overcame, against seemingly insurmountable odds, the holiday food coma.

    You see, my grandmother is half Italian, and thus she shows her love through food. Consequently, we must receive her love (i.e. eat the food), or run the risk of offending her (ten years ago my brother and I made the mistake of revealing that we weren't big fans of her beef stir-fry, and to this day she still holds it over our heads).   Thanksgiving begins with a “pre-feast” – the cheese balls, the vegetable platters, shrimp cocktail, chips and pretzels, wine, cocktails, etc. – to warm everyone up for the main event.  Next, we move on to the dinner.  My grandmother prepares annually, I kid you not, three meats for Thanksgiving: a 20lb. turkey, a 20lb. ham, and of course, a beef roast.  There are baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, two dozen rolls, stuffing, salad, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, etc. etc. etc.  And don't forget dessert!  You must save room for one of the four pies, and brownies, and ice cream……...

    We're not a big family, mind you.  Okay, maybe we're freakishly tall, but there are only thirteen of us and no one is overweight.  Yet my grandmother makes enough food to easily feed a college football team.  Now, I love my grandmother dearly, but I have had to learn the hard way how to resist the incessant onslaught of food. 

    First, I start the morning off with some exercise.  Last year I convinced a friend to join me on the local 5K turkey trot……it was a brisk (i.e. freezing) sleet filled morning, but we had fun nonetheless.  Second, I fill up on vegetables early.  Since there is always a mixed vegetable platter out before dinner, I stock up on the good stuff before I'm stuffed.  When dinner does arrive, I try to choose only one meat and one starch (okay, I go for two starches - but that's because stuffing only comes once a year :).  For example, I'll forgo the baked potatoes (not a big fan), but stock up on the mashed potatoes instead.  As for dessert, I give myself a good two hours after dinner before I even think about it (let's face it, the dessert's not going anywhere).  I am also a firm believer in the button test-of-fullness.  If I reach a point where I feel even the slightest urge to unbutton my pants, I stop eating altogether.  Finally, the most important weapon against overindulging is a simple “no.” My grandmother will ask me five times if I want more stuffing, but I hold my ground and just say no.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Academic Freedom

By: Caitlin L.

I am a student, hence my role here as a student blogger.  I love the academic environment and the fact that I am surrounded by people just as passionate about learning as I am.  I love the opportunities I am given, the people I am able to meet, and the ideas they contribute.  I work on campus in an environment where the goal is to embrace new research, yet last week I was reminded that there are some in this population who fear change and innovation. 

My campus' Sustainable Agricultural Resource Consortium sponsored an event in conjunction with its annual Sustainability Fair and invited UC Berkeley Journalism Professor and well-known author Michael Pollan to come and speak at a fundraiser.  Also scheduled was a free, open to the community talk during the day.  I admire Michael Pollan's writing style, his lyrical voice, and his ability to lay out food and agricultural issues in such a way that people from many different backgrounds want to listen.  I never thought of him as “controversial” because for the most part I agree with most of what he says, and many of the people I surround myself with have also embraced his thoughts.   Apparently he is much more controversial, especially within the College of Agriculture.   Some agriculture students even began a facebook page in protest of his visit to Cal Poly, calling Pollan a “radical, anti-agriculturalist”.

When the Harris Ranch Corporation caught wind that our campus was hosting this talk, they threatened to withdraw a pledge they had made to donate $500,000 to build a new meat processing facility for the College of Agriculture, if Pollan were to lecture “unchallenged”.  To appease the corporation, the event was changed from a lecture format to a panel discussion.  We were told that when Pollan heard about the controversy, he suggested the change in format in order to include a variety of voices.   Pollan participated on the panel with two other speakers: Myra Goodman the co-founder of Earthbound Organics, and Gary Smith, the Monfort Endowed Chair in meat science at Colorado State University.

Had I not known about the controversy surrounding the event, I would have walked away believing it to be a great educational experience.  But instead, I like many others, remain extremely concerned that a public university was influenced by money; that the sense of freedom in a diversity of beliefs was threatened and censored by a voice seemingly more powerful than that of the collective student body.  “Diversity (both biological and intellectual) breeds resistance to withstand shocks to the system”, Pollan said as he addressed the issue of sustainability.  In other words, the growth and development of any system or organization is extremely dependant on innovation and change, and on not automatically accepting the status quo.  That is science.  Pollan asserted that he is not anti-farmer, as many of his opponents like to paint him, but he is interested in changing our current agricultural system.   He is also the first to admit that he is not an expert in agriculture or nutrition, and does not have all the answers.  Finding those answers is our job as researchers in an academic setting.  

If a public university falls under the control of one point of view it threatens the exchange of new ideas, something exceedingly important when it comes to the state of our food and our health.   Many have called this move by the Cal Poly administration a “censorship of academic freedom”, though a school- wide email sent by the president of the university claims otherwise.  It seems important to share this in a community such as ASN that prides itself on research and innovation.  The Nutrition world is constantly changing as most of us are aware, and there will be times when our research will speak against a common belief and may become controversial.  We cannot be afraid to share our knowledge, even in the face of tradition and opposition.  “Resilience is achieved by diversity”, Pollan stated, and as nutrition scientists looking to improve the quality of lives of others we cannot forget that.

Interview with Dr. Juan Rivera

By: Rebecca K.


Dr. Juan Rivera is the 2009 ASN Kellogg International Nutrition Research Award Winner and the Director of the Center for Research in Nutrition and Health at the Mexican National Institute of Public Health

Favorite micronutrient: zinc
Favorite macronutrient: fat
Favorite food: so difficult for someone who likes so many…tortillas, beans, Serrano peppers
Favorite music/musician: Non-classical—Pink Floyd, Classical—Puccini operas
Uncovered fun fact: “Juan sings and plays the guitar beautifully!! What he most enjoys playing is Joan Manuel Serrat's music.”
Favorite thing to do for fun: So many things…movies/cinema.
Favorite movie: “Amarcord” (1973) directed by Federico Fellini (Italian for ‘I remember'-- the topic is nostalgia)
Uncovered fun fact: “Juan loves to exercise, especially walk.”

What and/or who inspired you to go into the nutrition field?

Poverty here in Mexico and the big gap between the rich and the poor made a very big impact on me since childhood. In high school, I worked in indigenous communities in Chiapas. I had to do something to improve the life of those people. For a long time, I was divided between medicine and food technology. It was always a struggle. I finished high school and made up my mind to study food technology, but then I learned about a new nutrition program [both at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City]. It was exactly what I wanted, health and food. For three semesters, I also studied medicine, but Dr.Cravioto at the Mexican National Institute of Pediatrics, with whom I was doing an internship with, convinced me that I was more interested in public health nutrition/epidemiology than medicine; [this catalyzed my later pursuit of a masters and doctorate in International Nutrition from Cornell University].
   
Side story from Juan's wife: “Juan very much enjoys field work and has enjoyed it since he was very young. We did our undergrad social service back in 1973 and often slept on the floor in our indigenous friends' marvelous and warm homes, beside a fire place/bonfire. Juan was very much liked by our local friends and is great at making respectful conversations with mothers of toddlers.”

What do you think is the biggest nutritional problem today and why?

The double burden [of under-nutrition/infectious disease and over-nutrition/chronic disease] is still for me the biggest problem. You cannot separate under- and over-nutrition because they often coexist in the same household and person over the course of their life. [The double burden] is definitely related to poverty, infectious diseases, and poor dietary intakes, but at the same time a society (in general) that has lost aim and direction. A society in which the model is over-consumption and obesity is the gross manifestation of over-consumption. I think our aims in life are also very obese and there is very little consciousness about what we are doing to earth: over-use of water, fossil fuels, and homes that are often more than we need. That consciousness of trying to be a society that thinks about the future and using only what is required is an essential part of [solving] the obesity epidemic that is driven by over-consumption. At the same time, inequity persists and there are so many people undernourished and with little resources. We are hurting earth and we need to be more equitable.

What do you like most about your job and why?

I like very much the experience of learning more about the world (health, nutrition, nature) through research. Every time I confront new findings it gives me pleasure because I understand more about the world. I also like seeing the effects of training: seeing young people change their views and/or paradigms and sometimes their lives due to their experience. And I like being capable of influencing and improving policies and programs.

What is the accomplishment you are most proud of and why?

This center [Center for Research in Nutrition and Health at the Mexican National Institute of Public Health] is an accomplishment of many, but I played a leading role. It did not exist in 1993 when I came to the Institute and now it is a reality. It has many problems and is not perfect, but it does a lot regarding my answer to the previous question.

What advice do you have for nutrition students?

They should really invest as much as possible in their training and development. When you are a student you have a window of opportunity to learn as much as possible and to obtain skills and abilities you need. Once you work, the pressure is such that you learn from experience [but it is not the same].

You need to have passion for what you do; and be very enthusiastic. If you don't have passion, maybe you are in the wrong place.

And to know that the [stereotypical] “incentives” related to hard work and “success”—recognition, being well-known, and money—are fine, but don't be fooled, they are not important. To have an opportunity to serve humanity—that is what counts and is important. Remember: any accomplishment that you have is an accomplishment that is possible because you are in a supporting environment and is a result of that collective effort.

A Night of Local Food

By: Emily C.



After last month's post on becoming a locavore, I decided to show you that I do practice what I preach. It's one thing to make simple meals using local foods, but how about a 5 course dinner?

I can't really take credit for this whole endeavor. When I heard about Foodbuzz's monthly 24^3 event, I knew just the person to help me out: Dan, another intern in St. Louis University's dietetic internship with a culinary focus and both the experience and creativity to conceptualize a fantastic 5 course dinner [see his sketches below].



As future dietitians, we know that local food is often more nutritious than food imported from thousands of miles away. We shopped for most of our produce at an enormous farmers' market. Not everything is from our immediate area, but we tried our best to get locally grown food.



A recap on the benefits of buying local food….



Locally grown food is kinder to the environment and reduces pollution due to decreased transport time.



Buying local food contributes to rural sustainability and helps support the livelihoods of small farmers, who contribute to agricultural biodiversity.



Local farms are also smaller, less open to hormone and chemical use, produce more grass-fed or free-range animals, and are more organic-friendly.



This is what happens when you overcook caramel. Oops. So maybe not everything went exactly as planned.



Cooking a gourmet meal is hard work. {and I wasn't really even cooking, unless you count shelling 100 walnuts and using my expert blender skills, haha}.



first course: providing a punch of spiciness paired with creamy and complex sensations, the appetizer featured Baetje Farms Goat Milk cheese-stuffed Jalapeno poppers tempered with creamy country grits and a dark chocolate mole.



second course: perfect for a fall evening, the soup was a corn chowder paired with Brussels sprout confit, roasted pearl onions, and tarragon oil garnished with jalapeno crÈme fraiche.



third course: a crisp addition to our October menu, the salad consisted of Missouri green and red apples, fennel, Baetje Farms Goat Milk cheese, and Missouri black walnuts paired with a coriander cilantro dressing.



fourth course: combining the best of savory and sweet, the entree featured pork jowl braised in cilantro honey puree, poached and roasted leeks served with caramel and chimichurri sauce.



fifth course: Gooey Butter Cake is a St. Louis tradition, so it would only be fair of us to include this delectable dessert as part of our menu. Pairing the cake with a reduction made from Missouri-produced apple cider provided yet another tie into the local food movement.



There you have it. With a little (okay, a lot) of creativity, you can use local food in amazing ways. From shopping for produce at the farmers' market to cooking and eating with friends….I can't think of a more satisfying and environmentally-friendly way to enjoy food.

Here's hoping you enjoyed this post and that maybe, just maybe…you'll be inspired to create a local food-centered menu of your own.

Why Parisians don’t get fat

By: Rachel K.

I recently had the pleasure of visiting France for two research conferences, and was able to spend a few days visiting Paris (note to prospective graduate students: traveling is one of the great perks of research!).  What struck me the most were the number of THIN Parisians walking around the city!  It was extremely rare for me to see someone who was overweight (most often a tourist).  Granted, this was a very unscientific experiment, and my French friends tell me that approximately 30% of the population is overweight and 10% obese.  However, this leaves 60% of the population at a normal weight.  How do they do it?

French native Mireille Guiliano details her own story in the 2004 book, “French Women Don't Get Fat,” which I have not had the opportunity to read.  However, here are some of my observations as an American.   

1. Food is expensive.  Very expensive.  When a normal size (i.e. small) espresso is $3.45, and the cappuccino is $5.75, you think twice about whether you really need coffee with milk. 

2. Cars are expensive.  Like most big cities, the cost to own, operate, and most importantly park a car is quite high.  However, the alternative public transportation options are so appealing and cheap that many people don't own a car.

3. Access to great public transportation.  Paris has a great metro system which covers the city like a spider web.  Trains running every 2-5 min. during the day, and you are never more than 10 min. walk from a metro station.  Recently, Paris also started a bike rental system.  Bike racks are located through-out the city stocked with city owned bikes.  You can rent a bike from any rack and drop it off at any other rack throughout the city.  Bike lanes are abundant too.

4. You have to carry groceries home.  When you have to walk 15min. to carry your groceries home from the supermarket, then carry them up five flights of stairs to your apartment, you tend to buy only what you need.

5. 35 hour work week.  While there are many criticisms about the 35-hour work week, one of the perks is the time to prepare meals at home and enjoy slow cooked meals out.  

6. Food taste and quality valued over convenience and price.  In America, we tend to put a premium on food convenience with our hectic schedules.  Also, Americans expect to buy more volume of food with more money.  In France, the quality of the food is very important – they are willing to pay more money for the same volume of food if it is of higher quality.

7. Portion size.  To Americans accustomed to oversized plates, the portions look small.  However, they are actually normal in size.  Beverage portions are smaller as well.  The smallest size beverage at Starbucks in America is equivalent to a “large” in France.  Soft drinks are also served in small bottles and cans. 

The Immigrant’s Fridge

By: Harini S.

As I write this, I am in the throes of preparing for a long-awaited vacation back to my home country.  Apart from all the sounds, smells and experiences that I have missed since I was last home, one of the things that I most look forward to is the food.  Despite having lived away from my home country for over half my life, I find that my food preferences, like that of most immigrants, are largely unaffected by geography.  Indeed, as Michael Pollan suggests in his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, “...the immigrant's refrigerator is the very last place to look for signs of assimilation.”(1) 

With the increasing availability of foods from around the world, it is easier than ever for immigrants to retain their ties to their homelands through their respective cuisines.  A mouth-watering falafel or a savory samosa – or at least the ingredients to prepare them -- are only an ethnic store away.  So, you ask, how exactly is this culinary tour of the world relevant to nutritionists?

I would argue that it is very relevant.  To illustrate, let me cite a recent episode of when my husband was asked to meet with a dietician to help him evaluate his diet.  When asked for a 24 hour diet recall, my husband found himself coming up with creative ways of describing the traditional Indian meal that he had eaten the night before.  Having lived in a rather cosmopolitan college town, his dietician was able to decipher much of his food recall, but she still struggled with providing him with healthy snack options that would please his decidedly un-American palate.

This got me thinking about the notion of world cuisines and the relative impressionability of American gastronomy.  As the already diverse American cuisine continues to be shaped by foods that immigrants bring with them, dieticians and nutrition educators will also have to incorporate knowledge about these fares into their repertoire.  This applies not only to doctors and registered dieticians, but also to chemists, food scientists and nutrition policy makers.  As ethnic foods gain in popularity, food scientists will no doubt be interested in understanding food preferences in order to come up with products that appeal to evolving tastes.  Additionally, if the increasingly common inclusion of hummus platters and lentil soups in American pub menus is any indication of the times, software programs designed to help calculate nutritive intake will have to incorporate such foods into their databases.  Nutrition policy makers will also have to account for the array of foods that immigrants bring to the American table.
 
Perhaps at present, such complicated food choices are restricted to small populations.  However, as American gastronomy continues to incorporate world tastes, knowledge about world foods will become extremely relevant to guiding the dietary choices of the American Middle Class.

1.    Pollan, Michael.  The Omnivore's Dilemma.  New York: Penguin Books, 2007

What's New with Omega 3?

By: Bobban S.

Undoubtedly, omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) have been a hot topic in nutrition science for decades and still stand as one of the most proven health supplements having multiple heath benefits for human body.



Omega-3 oils, which normally are produced from fish oil, are a commodity with high market needs for both human nutraceuticals industries and animal feed industries. Further, fishmeal and fish oil, which make up the bulk of the ingredients in diets for farmed carnivorous fish, are obtained from finite sources that are fully exploited or in some cases overfished. Though some marine fishes have the ability to synthesize omega-3 fatty acids, it has become a gold standard to supplement fish oil in the diets carnivorous fish species for increasing consumer acceptability of the final products due to its health benefits. All went fine, until the real sustainability issue came into the focus.

Between 1950 and 2003, the amount of fish and shellfish landed by capture fisheries destined for reduction into meals, oils and other nonfood purposes increased from 3 million tons to 21.4 million tons(1). Over-fishing of the world's oceans has depleted fish numbers severely, leading to a shortage of small fish such as anchovies, herring, and mackerel and in consequence, an imbalance in the marine ecosystem.  As a result, governments all over the globe are taking drastic measures to help mitigate this problem. Beyond diminishing supplies of fish, there is also growing concern over pollutants, such as dioxins, mercury, and PCBs in the world's oceans, causing the fish oil and fishmeal produced from these resources to be similarly polluted.

A challenge in fish nutrition is to generate end-products with high levels of health-promoting long chain omega-3 fatty acids for the consumer, while reducing the use of fish oils. This growing concern is another driving force for the marketing of non-marine based omega-3 oils and alternative feed ingredients.

A commendable insight highlighted by a very recent article by Naylor et al (2009)(2) was the use of products from biofuel industry as a source of aquafeed-ingredients. Algal biofuel stands out as the most promising future feedstock. Investors have already shown particular interest towards algae-based biofuel, for example, in USA on a combined basis, biodiesel plus algae venture capital investments totaled $320 million in 2008 – up from the $307 million invested in 2007. Most recently, industry leaders such as Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and British Petroleum have also invested substantial resources (~$1billion) in developing algal-based biofuels.

Algae naturally produce substantial amount of omega 3's and at least a fraction of this component can be carved from the extracted lipid intended for biofuel production. Algal meal is rich source of high quality protein, vitamins, micronutrients (trace elements), and carotenoids which can be directly used in aquafeeds (3). Policy initiatives for meaningful integration of aquafeed industries with algal biofuel production sector can bring many sustainable deliverables to society such as renewable supply of aquafeed ingredients, thereby relieving pressure on marine resources.

Citations:

1. PewTrust (2007) Sustainable Marine Aquaculture: Fulfilling The Promise; Managing The Risks Report of the Marine Aquaculture Task Force, Takoma, Park, MD.

2. Naylor RL et al. (2009) Feeding aquaculture in an era of finite resources. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:15103.

3. Patnaik S et al. (2009) The use of HUFA-rich algal meals in diets for Litopenaeus vannamei. Aquacult Nutr 12: 395-401.

Fatty Fat Fat

By Matt T.

(some rights reserved)

I took a bite of that deep fried Snickers bar, but I didn't swallow.

OK fine. That's a bold faced lie.

And I'd do it again!

As I was enjoying this and other fried delicacies at the state fair (I heard they added ‘food-on-a-stick' as its own level of the food pyramid in the Deep South…), my mind  turned to the controversial topic of dietary fat. Exactly how many minutes sooner would I die as a result of this deep-fried slice of heaven? Would I still believe it was worth it as my heart squeezed out its last beat? Was powdered sugar and raspberry syrup really necessary on a deep fried Snickers bar?

I was amused if not relieved by the proud advertisement hung from the window of the vendor of this delectable nutritional crime against humanity:

“MADE WITH NO TRANS FAT”

Though I found the subtle application of a health claim to a deep fried Snickers bar amusing, the little yellow sign raised an interesting point. Candy bar innards notwithstanding, if we believe recent high profile epidemiological evidence (eg, Jakobsen et al), then the plant oils used to fry this puppy really might be good for me.

Now hold on, simmer down and step back down off those soap boxes. I am NOT actually suggesting a deep fried Snickers bar is health food. On questioning my nutritional conscience, “What would Walter Willett do?” (WWWWD for short, unless you pronounce ‘double u' four times, then it's actually longer…) I was promptly forced to acknowledge there were other problems with this fair fare.

All that aside, let's focus on the fat.

The tide of public health messaging is shifting from “fat = bad,” to, “saturated & trans fat = bad; unsaturated fat = good” Part of this counter-current has been criticism of some of Ancel Keys' early research. The argument usually goes something like this: Keys showed fat intakes strongly predict cardiovascular death rates in several countries. Data for other countries were available, but left out. If we add data for these countries, the trend is softened. In short, Keys “cherry picked” his countries.

After reading what Keys said about his own data, this is how I think he might respond: Adding more countries brings in different economies, medical establishments and leading causes of death. Fat intakes are high and cardiovascular deaths low in several regions where infectious diseases were primary causes of death, but to include these would be irresponsible epidemiology. Keys hand picked his countries for a fair comparison.

I was surprised that even 60 years ago Keys was teaching that polyunsaturated fat decreased serum cholesterol, that dietary cholesterol had very little effect on serum cholesterol and that the human-equivalent dose of dietary cholesterol inducing atherosclerosis in rabbits was far above what may be reasonably consumed by free living individuals. Some of these were concepts I had been given to understand were correct, but only recently resolved.

I cite here only one Keys review paper, a quick read for anyone interested in what he did and did not preach. The paper embodies what I believe was his core message: cut superfluous added fats out of the diet, but keep nutritious fats as part of a varied diet.

Whether we should target fats globally, of course, is  a debate in progress, and requires sorting out fat's influences on the related but not identical issues of obesity and cardiovascular risk. In the meantime, I'll try to keep the deep fried candy bars down to once a year.

Organic Alphabet Soup

By: Rebecca K.

Get it while it's hot! 2009 Limited Edition Organic Alphabet Soup!

Organic Alphabet Soup is manufactured worldwide and year-round by the nutrition community. But this Organic Alphabet Soup is a *2009 Limited Edition!*

The *2009 Limited Edition* of Organic Alphabet Soup contains the following ingredients: IUNS, ICN, ENLP, SLAN, SLAN Congress, Neumann, Scrimshaw, Bronner, Ellenbogen, Latham, Winick, Newberne, Butrum, Sunde, Ju, Lee, Mo, Valyasevi, Nondasuta, Gopalan, Swaminathan, Fujimaki, Giay, Biró, Gabr, Dutra de Oliveira, Wenger, Truswell, Berger, Soysa, Huang, Chen, Intengan.

Nutrition Facts (Serving Size: 1 bowl, Servings per can: 2)

Special 2009 limited edition ingredients: ICN & SLAN Congress
Under the theme “Nutrition Security for All,” the 19th International Congress of Nutrition (ICN 2009) is taking place October 4th-9th in Bangkok, Thailand. Then in Santiago, Chile, the 15th Latin American Congress of Nutrition is November 15th-19th. Special to both ICN and SLAN is the rich diffusion that occurs between older and younger participants, especially among those from developing countries.

Organic Alphabet Soup always includes its famous traditional stock: IUNS & SLAN
The International Congress of Nutrition is held every four years under the oversight of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS). IUNS formally began in 1948. The mission of IUNS is to “to promote advancement in nutrition science, research and development through international cooperation at the global level;” and “to encourage communication and collaboration among nutrition scientists as well as to disseminate information in nutritional sciences through modern communication technology.”

Every three years, the Latin American Congress of Nutrition is held by the Society for Latin American Nutrition (SLAN). SLAN was created in 1965, during the first Western Hemisphere Nutrition Congress in Chicago, USA; as a forum for Latin American scientists involved in the health and nutrition of Latin American populations. SLAN works to stimulate the diffusion of food and nutritional knowledge, facilitate the inter-change of experiences between investigators, and contribute to defining solutions to the nutritional problems that affect Latin American countries.

Both IUNS and SLAN consist of an elected council of officers (e.g. president, vice-president, secretary general, and treasurer) and a General Assembly, among other positions. Countries may apply to be one of the ‘adhering [member] bodies' of IUNS. There are now 79 adhering bodies that make up IUNS; including countries such as: Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Estonia, Sudan, and Tunisa. The United States is an adhering body through ASN. You can see the entire list of countries here. There are also myriad ‘affiliated bodies' that include, for example, International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) and The Micronutrient Forum. People may apply for SLAN membership based on criteria, such as merit and student status; which in turn make up bodies in SLAN that are characterized by Latin American region.

Organic Alphabet Soup's signature ingredients—carefully selected live cultures aged with perfection for at least 80 years—from: (USA) Charlotte Neumann, Nevin Scrimshaw, Feliz Bronner, Leon Ellenbogen, Michael Latham, Myron Winick, Paul Newberne, Ritva Butrum, Milton Sunde; (KOR) Jin Soon Ju, Ki Yull Lee, Sumi Mo; (THA) Aree Valyasevi, Amorn Nondasuta; (IND) Coluthur Gopalan, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan; (JPN) Masao Fujimaki; (VNM) Tu Giay; (HUN) György Biró;  (EGY) Mamdouh Gabr; (BRA) JosÉ Eduardo Dutra de Oliveira; (AUT) Rudolf Wenger; (AUS) Arthur Stewart Truswell; (POL) Stanislaw Berger; (LKA) Priyani  Soysa;  (TWN) Po-Chao Huang; (CHN) Chunming Chen and; (PHL) Carmen Llamas Intengan.

Cooked up by the ICN Organizing Committee and the Nutrition Association of Thailand (NAT) is the honorary “Living Legends” special session at ICN on October 5th, 2009. Dr. Emorn Wasantwisut says “it dawned on me that I was inspired, mentored and supported by several Leaders including some of these Living Legends,” and “thought it would be wonderful if [these legends] inspired the future generation in nutrition sciences.” The session includes features such as: video messages of all legends, legends in person, and remarks by the winner of the [1st international/ICN] Young Scientist Award.--as “an opportunity to bring someone who will lead the field of nutrition in the forthcoming years, to listen to the messages of these Living Legends and to reflect upon those words,” said Dr. Wasantwisut.

The information on these legendary ingredients can be found (after the ICN) on the IUNS website.

Organic Alphabet Soup supports: Friends of Nevin; & the European Nutrition Leadership Programme (ENLP)

For consumer information click on: ICN, IUNS, The Congress of Latin American Nutrition, and SLAN.

Warning, Organic Alphabet Soup may have been made on equipment that contains trace sources of:

Congress Information. (n.d.) Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.icn2009.com/congress_information.html

History ICN. (n.d.) Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.icn2009.com/about_icn_history.html

Mission. (n.d.) Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.iuns.org/mission.htm

History. (n.d.) Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://www.iuns.org/history.htm

Historia SLAN. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2009 from http://www.slanchile.cl/slan/

Inicio. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2009 from http://www.slanchile.cl/index2.php

Early Exposure to Soy Isoflavones May Help to Build Strong Bones

By: Jovana K.



Osteoporosis, characterized by a low bone mineral density, is a silent disease that ultimately results in fragility fractures. Fragility fractures lead to significant morbidity and mortality among North Americans. With the rapidly aging population, it is estimated that 1 in 2 adults will be at risk for osteoporosis related fractures by the year 2020. Thus, there exists an urgent need to decrease this risk and the use of prevention, rather than treatment strategies may prove to be more effective.

It has been hypothesized that attainment of peak bone mass, the maximum amount of bone mass achieved during the life cycle, protects against osteoporosis in later life. Thus, exposure to bioactive food components with the potential to modulate bone cell activity, may augment peak bone mass and thereby confer protection against osteoporosis. Recent scientific evidence suggests that exposure to soy isoflavones, abundant in soy foods including soy protein formula, during a sensitive stage of development may favorably modulate bone metabolism through estrogen-like activity. The United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition identifies the sensitive stage of development to be from pre-pregnancy to 24 months of child's life so introducing soy isoflavones during this developmental window may improve bone development.

Animal studies using the CD-1 mouse model have shown that neonatal exposure to soy isoflavones, at levels similar to that of infants consuming soy protein formula, improves bone mineral density, bone structure and bone strength of the femur and lumbar spine in adult females. In contrast, males treated with soy isoflavone did not exhibit significant benefits or adverse effects at the femur or lumbar spine, suggesting that early exposure to soy isoflavones may be sex specific. Piglets fed soy based formula from postnatal day 2 to 35 had greater tibial bone mineral density and trabecular bone volume than sow-fed piglets. The observed effects in piglets were associated with an up-regulation of bone formation and a down-regulation of bone resorption, which suggests that soy isoflavones may have positive effects on bone modeling and remodeling.

The relationship between soy isoflavones and bone development has been investigated in numerous human feeding intervention trials. However, the longest studies followed infants to one year of life. Findings from these studies suggest that consumption of soy protein formula does not have a significant effect on infant length, head circumference, body weight, bone mineral content or biochemical markers of bone formation. Prospective studies should be conducted in humans to determine whether exposure to soy protein formula can improve adult bone health and provide protection against osteoporosis.  Moreover, because estrogenic compounds can disrupt reproductive health studies should investigating whether exposure to dietary estrogens (i.e. soy isoflavones) altered fertility and reproductive function.