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Bladder cancer, one of the diseases associated with smoking, could be cut by up to 70 percent with adequate selenium intake, a new study suggests. Belgian researchers sampled selenium blood levels for a paper published in the International Journal of Urology (Vol 13, pp 1180-1184).
The epidemiological study found an inverse relationship between blood levels of selenium and bladder cancer risk. Soil selenium is lower in Europe, where the study was conducted, than it is in the US.

Blood clots, heart attacks and strokes could all be prevented by compounds found in tomatoes, according to new research. Studies cited in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 84,pp 561-569) showed tomato extract reducing aggregation of platelets in the blood.
As a result, the researchers said, tomatoes “may have a primary role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.” The benefits were greatest in individuals with the highest levels of C-reactive protein and homocysteine, both markers for cardiovascular risk.
The studies were conducted as part of a broad based effort to create patented food extracts with medical applications. Included in these efforts is a plantain extract designed to be used for Crohn’s disease and a broccoli compound for cancer prevention. These compounds will be marketed to the “functional food and beverage market.”

A new Vitamin K study sheds light on bone loss problems women experience in menopause. The study, done at the Univ of Michigan School of Nursing, suggests that most women do not consume enough Vitamin K to build optimal bone strength prior to menopause. Vitamin K is found in vegetable oils and leafy greens, as well as in multivitamins.
The study was published in the journal Menopause (13(5):799-808, Sept-Oct 2006). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the study was its finding that declining estrogen levels characteristic of menopause impair Vitamin K function. Vitamin K is needed to bind calcium in bone.

The issue of the week for people who think about food is spinach.

The spinach debacle casts a shadow over our industrialized food system. Salinas Valley agribusiness provides leafy greens to the entire country, and UCD food safety professor Dean Cliver has suggested that water sources there, either ground or surface water, may have been contaminated.

E-coli water contamination may turn out to be the origin of Salinas Valley spinach problems, but we need to look deeper to see true causes.

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