Free Republic

Astronauts face significant perils while in space. Multiple studies indicate that humans who spend long enough in orbit may experience a range of health maladies that include weight loss, immune system weakening, loss in bone density, vision loss, and even mysterious headaches. However, new research is revealing how an ancient food product used for millennia may help alleviate some of the risks that astronauts face, and it tastes good too. In a joint project between the European Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, and the Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics, a team of researchers and astronauts...

The Mediterranean diet garners praise once again. In addition to preventing cardiovascular accidents, this diet can also help slow the deterioration of the kidneys. It is a benefit that, for the first time, has been demonstrated in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. The key lies in compounds called advanced glycation end products, better known as AGEs. These are molecules with an inflammatory and oxidizing capacity. The study analyzed the levels of these harmful compounds in more than 500 diabetics, comparing, over a period of five years, how two types of healthy diets affect the body: the Mediterranean diet and...

My father-in-law had about 50 acres of farmland in central Italy, just south of the tri-region borders of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. Until the 1990s it was common for just about any Italian with land to at least have a private vineyard for their own consumption. I mean, it is Italy, and we are talking about wine, right? I have fond memories of helping him make his wine with his old wine press in autumn. He learned that they were paying a very hefty tax on the portion of land that the vineyard was on. As he researched this, he...

A Rutgers nutritional scientist and two cancer biologists at New York City’s Hunter College have found that an ingredient in extra-virgin olive oil kills a variety of human cancer cells without harming healthy cells. The ingredient is oleocanthal, a compound that ruptures a part of the cancerous cell, releasing enzymes that cause cell death. Paul Breslin, professor of nutritional sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and David Foster and Onica LeGendre of Hunter College, report that oleocanthal kills cancerous cells in the laboratory by rupturing vesicles that store the cell’s waste. The findings are published in Molecular...