Grapes and blood vessel function

From the California Table Grape Commission:

Eating a modest amount of grapes (about 1 1/4 cups) had immediate favorable effects on how blood vessels function in normal, healthy subjects, and regular consumption of grapes at that level caused even greater improvements in blood vessel function, according to the results of a pilot human study published recently in Vascular Pharmacology. Additionally, eating grapes with a high-fat meal completely prevented the damaging impact to blood flow that was observed with a high fat meal consumed without grapes. These results provide evidence that fresh grapes can have a beneficial impact on markers of cardiovascular disease and may promote heart health. This 21-day placebo-controlled, clinical study, conducted at Ohio State University, looked at the impact of adding grapes to the diet. First, researchers found that consuming 1 1/4 cups of grapes caused significant improvement in brachial artery flow within three hours of consumption. When this same “dose” of grapes was consumed twice daily over three weeks, blood flow and antioxidant capacity were even further improved. Additionally, the researchers also found that consuming grapes with a single high-fat meal (900 calories, 45g fat) dramatically offset the damaging effects of that high-fat meal. Even though a single high-fat meal on its own caused a 50 percent reduction in blood flow response, the addition of grapes to the high-fat meal completely prevented the impaired blood flow. While the development of heart disease involves many different factors, injury and dysfunction of the thin layer of cells that line the interior of blood vessels (the endothelium) is an important marker and a likely contributor to the initiation and/or progression of heart disease. There is evidence that “acute insults” such as drug toxicities, lack of oxygen or a high fat meal can cause dysfunction to the vascular lining and that if repeated, such insults can contribute to disease risk in otherwise healthy individuals. “Our research shows that fresh grapes, consumed in very normal amounts, can beneficially impact the cardiovascular system,” said lead investigator John Bauer, MD. “Our research also shows that consuming a ‘favorable’ food such as fresh grapes can apparently reduce the negative impact of certain ‘unfavorable’ foods.” The grapes used in the study were in a powdered form, made from a representative sample of fresh California grapes that included green, red and blue-black varieties. The grape powder is used to ensure the scientific validity of grape health studies and contains the same biologically active compounds found in fresh grapes. The California Table Grape Commission was created by the California legislature in 1967 to increase worldwide demand for fresh California grapes through a variety of research and promotional programs.

Potato Stocks - March 1

Rolling across the wire today:

The 13 major potato States held 151 million cwt of potatoes in storage March 1, 2009, down 8 percent from a year ago and 5 percent below March 1, 2007. Potatoes in storage accounted for 41 percent of the 2008 fall storage States' production, slightly below March 1, 2008. Klamath Basin stocks totaled 2.00 million cwt on March 1, 2009, down 2 percent from a year ago. Klamath Basin stocks include potatoes stored in California and Klamath County, Oregon. Potato disappearance, at 217 million cwt, was 8 percent below March 1, 2008 and down 6 percent from 2007. Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 18.7 million cwt, was down 7 percent from the same date in 2008 and 8 percent below 2007. Processors in the 9 major States have used 117 million cwt of potatoes this season, down 8 percent from the same period last year and down 8 percent from 2 years ago. Dehydrating usage accounted for 21.5 million cwt of the total processing, down 15 percent from last year and 23 percent below the same period in 2007.

DeLauro: are we using the USDA as positive force for change?

From the office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro this afternoon...

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3), chairwoman of the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following opening statement during a subcommittee oversight hearing on nutrition programs managed by the US Department of Agriculture focusing on nutritional quality and standards and the implications for reducing childhood obesity rates

Below is the text of DeLauro’s opening statement (as prepared for delivery).

The committee is called to order. Thank you and let me welcome everyone this afternoon, especially our witnesses:
• Thomas O’Connor, Acting Deputy Under Secretary Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services.

• Kelly D. Brownell from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, and

• Lynn Parker representing the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, The National Academies.

Thank you all for taking the time to join us this afternoon to share your insight and experience.

I also want to welcome the newest Member of our Subcommittee, Congressman Lincoln Davis from Tennessee. Mr. Davis, we are delighted to have you here. And welcome back to all of our subcommittee members.

We come together today, with a comprehensive agenda for the year ahead and ready to build on all that we achieved in the last Congress. Last year, we convened six budget hearings, and through the work of the subcommittee worked to increase resources and improve management at agencies in need of reform. We called numerous oversight hearings on drug safety, food safety, rural development, and the impact of speculation on oil and food prices, all part of our mission to highlight and pursue critical questions of public health, consumer safety, and economic growth.

I have enjoyed working together with my colleague, the ranking member Congressman Kingston. And I am looking forward to collaborating with him and the entire subcommittee in the months ahead. We will be writing a new Appropriations bill and working to preserve and strengthen our rural communities. Support local businesses pushed to the brink by our spiraling economy. Protect public health, address safety, and think big about the problems, like energy, not just today but on the horizon as well.

So we begin today, with a hearing on public health, the first in a series on nutrition, where I hope we can look at fighting hunger, making nutritious food accessible, and exploring the federal government’s responsibility. For decades our nation’s nutrition programs under the Department of Agriculture have been a big part of our social safety net -- providing children and low-income families with access to quality food.

And over the last year, we have made progress. With the Farm Bill we took critical steps to end years of erosion in food stamp benefits: increasing the standard deduction from $134 to $144, then indexing it to inflation. And increasing the minimum benefit to $14 from $10 where it had been frozen for the past 30 years, then indexing it to inflation as well.

The fact is: one in five Americans is affected by nutrition programs under the Food and Nutrition Service at USDA.

So we have to ask, are we using the USDA as a positive force for change?

Are we doing families and children good, or are we contributing to their poor nutrition and obesity and other health problems. Do we understand the full consequences of our choices not only from specific programs like WIC or the School Lunch Program, but also when it comes to our far-reaching subsidy policy.

The latest statistics are overwhelming. Two-thirds of adults are over weight today. The trendlines are not promising. In the past 20 years, the percentage of adolescents who are overweight has more than tripled. And the habits most people take up as children and in school stay with them their whole lives. Diabetes and other dangerous health problems are on the rise costing our economy millions.

So with this hearing, we will look for answers:

• What role can Congress play in fighting hunger, combating obesity and improving nutrition? – in particular this subcommittee, how can we apply the power of the purse to bring change?
• What is the administration’s current proposal? Will it make an impact in charting a new course?
• According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the industry spends $10 billion a year marketing to children:
• Considering their significant influence and control, can we succeed in any significant behavioral change?
• What place should competitive foods -- which are not required to meet any significant nutrition standards -- have in our schools?
• Many school administrators see these foods, sold in the a la carte line or vending machines, as an important source of revenue.
• But USDA’s recent study showed otherwise, suggesting that as a result, federal funds may actually be indirectly supporting students who do not need the help.
• How can you collaborate with HHS and the Department of Education to make dietary guidelines stronger?
• For our witnesses, if you would make any changes, what would they be?

From WIC to SNAP to the School Lunch Program, there are so many powerful tools, and we have used them to achieve a lot of good over the years. But we have lacked the coordination and long-term vision to take full advantage of their potential.

Our question going forward is how to get all of these programs working together, effectively and in the same direction? How do we harness their reach and impact, and apply it to a larger, more comprehensive campaign to strengthen healthy diets, healthy weights, and active lifestyles. The Agriculture Appropriations Bill and the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization will be important next steps.

I want to thank our witnesses again for participating this afternoon. I look forward to your testimony. In dire economic times like these families and children should never be forced to choose between securing healthy food for their children and providing health care, shelter and other basics they need just to get by. For many families, the USDA’s nutrition programs make the difference. Now is our opportunity to make them better.

With that, I will ask Ranking Member Mr. Kingston if he would like to make an opening statement.

Harvest Of Hypocrisy

When I was in grade school, along with the omnipresent air-raid drills (‘Now Johnny, hide under your desk, head down, and maybe the wood will protect you from nuclear vaporization’) I distinctly remember in social studies class being shown the 1960 black-and-white film ‘Harvest of Shame’, which depicted the life of migrant farm workers & was the last documentary that distinguished CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow ever produced. It has been said that when it broadcast, this important program galvanized reform in farm worker law.

Fast forward nearly fifty years. In the March 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine, writer Barry Estabrook pens an article entitled “Politics Of The Plate: The Price Of Tomatoes”.

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2009/03/politics-of-the-plate-the-price-of-tomatoes

It relates the plight of pickers/workers in Immokalee, Florida, which is one of the tomato-growing centers in the state. Estabrook sets the tone of the piece:


“Through the scruffy palmettos, you glimpse flat, sandy tomato fields shimmering in the broiling sun. Rounding a long curve, you enter Immokalee. The heart of town is a nine-block grid of dusty, potholed streets lined by boarded-up bars and bodegas, peeling shacks, and sagging, mildew-streaked house trailers. Mongrel dogs snooze in the shade, scrawny chickens peck in yards. Just off the main drag, vultures squabble over roadkill.”


Dang, that sure doesn’t sound much like Estabrook’s home in New York City or his 30 acres in Vermont, where he raises ‘heritage turkeys’.

It definitely is a sad article, showing horrible living conditions for one small group of workers that were scared out of their minds & controlled by a sadistic compadre. But I spoke with an Immokalee-based grower/shipper who vehemently denies that the situation is anything other than the extreme exception, adding that the Immokalee growers abhor any type of slave-like conditions & that the workers are there & remain there of their own volition & free will.

Certainly, Immokalee ain’t West Palm Beach, but I’ve been visiting there for close to 30 years & the town works. No doubt it’s a hard life for the tomato pickers, but it just rubs me wrong that the magazine that supposedly champions this cause is also a proponent of foie gras, the duck or goose pate that is accomplished by gavage, which is the force-feeding of the birds to fatten them up before slaughter. Of course, this is not to compare human to fowl, but cruelty is cruelty any way you slice it.

And, I don’t suppose that a little negative publicity about commercially-grown field tomatoes would hurt the boutique-style heirloom tomato sheds that are attempting to gain market share and an esteemed spot in Gourmet magazine either.

Later,

Jay

Stemilt earns PBH role model honor

Sliding across the inbox this afternoon:

Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) has named Stemilt Growers, Inc., of Wenatchee, Wash., the first company to attain PBH's Non-Retail Role Model honors for its support of their Fruits & Veggies-More Matters® health initiative. The formal announcement of Stemilt's role model status will be made at PBH's Board of Trustees meeting on April 3 in Monterey, Calif.

Stemilt Growers, Inc. is a family-owned tree fruit grower-packer-shipper. The company is the nation's leading Washington-grown sweet-cherry shipper and also ships Washington-grown apples and Northwest pears. In 1914, the Mathison family began planting cherry, apple and pear orchards in the fertile soils of Stemilt Hill, overlooking the Columbia River and the town of Wenatchee, Wash. Today, Stemilt is still solely owned by the Mathison family.

"Stemilt Growers has been a long term supporter of PBH and has exhibited a true commitment to the Fruits and Veggies-More Matters public health initiative," said Elizabeth Pivonka, Ph.D., R.D., president and CEO of PBH. "We appreciate the efforts made by all of our non-retail donors to spread the word that increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is important. Stemilt has exhibited role model attributes by going above and beyond in their support of Fruits and Veggies-More Matters and PBH. The company has played a significant role in distributing Fruits and Veggies-More Matters brand messaging by integrating Fruits & Veggies-More Matters into community outreach activities like their cherry promotion with Sesame Street's Elmo and the Crunch before Lunch promotion, and their efforts are thoroughly appreciated."

Some of the activities that led to Stemilt achieving role model status include:

• using the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters logo on their AppleSweets products
• providing point-of-sale materials that feature the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters logo
• adding a link to PBH's consumer website, www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org, from their own company website
• including Fruits & Veggies-More Matters messaging in their Stemilt Insider newsletter and Nutrition Roundup newsletter
• including Fruits & Veggies-More Matters logo in their trade publication advertising
• integrate Fruits & Veggies-More Matters messaging into community outreach activities
• participating in PBH sponsorships

"Stemilt is proud to be the very first non-retailer to receive PBH's role model designation," said Roger Pepperl, Marketing Director for Stemilt Growers. "Stemilt is a proud supporter of PBH and Fruits & Veggies-More Matters. Like PBH, our company believes that including more fruits and vegetables at every meal is key to living a longer, healthier life. Here at Stemilt, eating more fruits and vegetables is not just a message we use, it's part of our corporate culture. We are committed to spreading the Fruits and Veggies-More Matters message. I hope other growers, shippers and processors step up their Fruits & Veggies-More Matters promotion efforts and become role models as well."

Growers, shippers, and processors can earn PBH Non-Retail Role Model honors for helping to realize the power the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters health initiative has to influence consumption, and boost bottom lines in the process. For more information, view our criteria for being a grower/shipper/processor role model or contact PBH Licensing & Partnership Manager Kathleen Ruf via e-mail at kruf@pbhfoundation.org

Pot calling the kettle

Wait a sec, PP. I can't believe you are actually unloading on Fresh & Easy for a product recall relating to PCA peanut butter. In the PP's March 12 post, Jim puts Fresh & Easy under the bus over the issue. This long rant (how many more electrons must die in Jim's dogged criticism of Fresh & Easy?) calls Fresh & Easy "sanctimonious" because, well. here is an excerpt:

And this tone has not diminished even as it has become perfectly clear that Fresh & Easy is a colossal failure. In its recent newsletter, Tesco’s Fresh & Easy headlines its newsletter:

Budget prices. Quality you can trust. Why compromise?

Once again, Tesco highlights this idea that you can “trust” Tesco’s Fresh & Easy as opposed, one supposes, to American retailers whose product cannot be trusted.

Yet, as we suspected from the beginning, it is all hyperbole, smoke and mirrors. The latest case in point is seen in this recall notice:

Later...

Now we don’t particularly fault Fresh & Easy for getting caught up in this Peanut Corporation of America recall; most US retailers did. We fault them for being sanctimonious.

The mighty Tesco didn’t send its crack food safety squad down to vet the plant or if it did, they found no more than anyone else.

What he doesn't say is that there have been over 2,000 products recalled relating to PCA peanut butter. Find retailers like Wegmans, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Hy-Vee, etc. on the recall list. If Jim wants Fresh & Easy to bear the brunt of ferreting out problems at the manufacturer of an ingredient in its private label chewy sweet and salty granola bar, well, I guess the British are guilty as charged. In fact, it's an outrage; why are Tesco execs not being called to the carpet before Congress for their inability to fix theU.S. food safety system?


Later, Jim suggests:

There are two things about this release that make us ask if it is not possible that Tesco’s Fresh & Easy has actually been putting its own commercial interests ahead of the health and safety of its consumers.

TK: Don't go there, Jim. In a way, I want PP to stop the Tesco bashing and give it a well deserved rest. In another respect, it's an incredibly compelling grudge match that is impossible to ignore.



The PCA peanut butter linked foodborne illness outbreak may well be the one that pushes food safety legislation over the top. Coverage from Web Md today referred to talk of a new consumer poll:
The poll shows that most participants, 93 percent, had heard about peanut product recalls linked to the salmonella outbreak. But when half of those aware participants were asked about the extent of those recalls, there were a lot of wrong answers. For instance, out of 609 people who said they were aware of the peanut product recalls, 60 percent didn't know ice cream was involved, 47 percent didn't know candy was involved, and 25 percent said they thought major national brands of peanut butter were involved. But in fact, major national brands of peanut butter sold in grocery stores aren't linked to the outbreak and haven't been recalled.