New Edition of ARS Food and Nutrition Research Briefs Issued

By Kim Kaplan
January 10, 2011

While a study found that a high proportion of nursing facility residents had low concentrations of zinc in their blood, it also showed that those with normal blood zinc concentrations were about 50 percent less likely to develop pneumonia than those with low concentrations. That's among the nutrition and health findings noted in the newest issue of the Agricultural Research Service's Food and Nutrition Research Briefs and its Spanish-language edition (Informe de investigaciones de alimentos y nutrición).

View the latest English edition here.

The quarterly online newsletter reports discoveries from nutrition researchers at ARS laboratories nationwide.

Among other findings, the current issue reports that:

• Lower levels of B vitamin folate were associated with symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, also called "cognitive decline," in a multiyear study on aging.
  
  
• Soy isoflavons taken at moderate levels had little impact on bone loss in postmenopausal study volunteers.
  
  
• New technology can distinguish the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter from other microorganisms in as little as 24 hours.

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 intramural scientific research agency.