Latest ARS Food & Nutrition Research Briefs Posted

The Agricultural Research Service has posted the October 2001 issue of the Food & Nutrition Research Briefs to its web site at:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb

The Research Briefs is a quarterly newsletter containing recent ARS findings in human nutrition, food freshness and safety, and new foods and varieties.

Now you can search the newsletter from the URL listed above. If you're not sure how to search for what you want, the "tips" link is very helpful.

Included in this issue:

• Future baked goods and snack foods may pack up to three times as much fiber as fiber as today’s products. The best part is that consumers would get the added health benefit without tasting the difference.
  
  
• Dieters who have more of the hormonelike protein leptin circulating in their bodies may feel less hunger than dieters whose leptin levels drop while on a weight-loss regimen. The findings should help researchers determine whether leptin can be used effectively to help people shed extra pounds.
  
  
• A careful inspection of the diets of nearly 1,000 older women in Massachusetts found their average intake of phytoestrogens--those natural estrogenlike compounds in soybeans and many other plant foods--to be only 1 to 5 percent the intake reported for Asian populations.
  
  
• ARS scientists have developed a new chromium formulation that people absorb into the bloodstream better than anything on the market.

ARS is the chief scientific agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.