View the new issue of the Food and Nutrition Research Briefs.

Latest ARS Food and Nutrition Research Briefs Issued

By Marcia Wood
June 11, 2007

New research findings about copper's role in heart health, and the cholesterol-fighting potential of blueberries, are highlighted in the newest issue of the Agricultural Research Service's Food and Nutrition Research Briefs and its recently launched Spanish-language edition (Informe de investigaciones de alimentos y nutrición).

View the English edition at www.ars.usda.gov/is/np/fnrb/fnrb0407.htm and the Spanish edition at www.ars.usda.gov/is/espanol/np/fnrb/fnrb0407.es.htm.

The popular online newsletter reports discoveries from researchers at ARS laboratories nationwide who are conducting nutrition investigations, creating ways to make our food safer, developing nutritious new foods—and more.

Among other findings, the current issue reports that:

• Studies of catfish genes may lead to superior, farm-raised catfish for the future.
   
• Augustprince and Early Augustprince, two luscious new freestone peaches for southeastern U.S. orchards, can help meet peach lovers' demand for the delectable fruit.
   
• Beneficial bacteria bashed Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne pathogen, in laboratory experiments with freshly cut melon.
   
• ARS' newly updated flavonoid database is a handy, informative listing of the levels of these phytonutrients in about 400 fruits, vegetables and other foods.
   
• Onions may soon be even more nutritious, thanks to studies by ARS scientists and their university collaborators.

The ARS Food and Nutrition Research Briefs is offered with color photos and illustrations on the Web. And by clicking the "subscribe" link on the newsletter's home page, readers can sign up for two e-mail options: They can receive the full text of the newsletter by e-mail, or simply an advisory that a new issue has been posted to the Web.

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