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Tag: "chocolate" at biology news

Canadian youth 4th highest in international obesity study

...xpected. Surprisingly, as consumption of candy and chocolate increased, the likelihood of being overweight decreased. "This does not mean that eating sweets in large quantities is recommended for young people," says Dr. Janssen, pointing out that the frequency of candy eating, rather than total amount consume...

Nose odors and mouth odors: The brain distinguishes

... of Neuron , researchers report that the smell of chocolate activated different brain regions according to whe...ects increased activity. They used four odorants: chocolate odor represented a food odor, and lavender represented a non-food odor that was similarly pleasant a...

Brainstem blocks pain to protect key behaviors

... as intently on standard rat chow as when munching chocolate chips, yogurt drops or butter cookies. Although earlier studies found that eating took precedence over pain in food-deprived animals, this is the first study to show that feeding suppressed pain in well-fed animals. To understand the neural basis o...

Heart-healthy compound in chocolate identified

... heart-healthy benefits of certain cocoas and some chocolate products. The researchers, who are from the University of California, Davis; the Heinrich-Heine University of Duesseldorf, Germany; and Harvard Medical School, hope the findings will lead to new dietary or medicinal methods for improving and maintai...

How taste response is hard-wired into the brain

Instantly reacting to the sweet lure of chocolate or the bitter taste of strychnine would seem to demand that such behavioral responses be so innate as to be hard-wired into the brain. Indeed, in studies with the easily manipulable fruit fly Drosophila, Kristin Scott and colleagues reported in the J...

Chocolate milk could be key to longer, healthier life

...s simple as taking a stroll followed by a glass of chocolate milk. Senior lecturer at the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, Dr Benjamin Miller, says the goal of his research is not to make athletes out of the elderly, but to increase our lifespan and quality of life in old age. "The ability of peopl...

Chocolate, wine, spicy foods may be OK for heartburn, Stanford study finds

...tudies did show that certain of the foods (such as chocolate and carbonated beverages) can reduce the pressure exerted by the esophageal sphincter, the control valve that keeps the food you've swallowed and your digestive acids down in your stomach, where they belong. Heartburn is most commonly caused when th...

UC Davis researchers reveal apples' protective ways

...ies have shown that flavonoids--which are found in chocolate and green tea, as well as other fruits and vegetables--behave as anti-oxidants, taking up free oxygen radicals that can damage precious DNA. The UC Davis study takes that research further by looking beyond the antioxidant effects of apple flavonoids....

Plant diseases threaten chocolate production worldwide

...0 percent of the cacao beans that are used to make chocolate are lost to plant diseases, but even greater losse...than $4 billion are produced each year. The global chocolate market is worth $75 billion annually. According to Ploetz, the three most important and damaging c...

Psst! Coffee drinkers: Fruit flies have something to tell you about caffeine

...related bitter compounds found in tea and cocoa -- chocolate -- and found that Gr66a also is required for the response to the compound in tea, but not for the one in chocolate," he says. Fruit flies often are used as experimental organisms because they grow quickly and are easy to manipulate genetically. Now...

New study finds chocolate chip cookies lower cholesterol

... study in The Journal of Nutrition (October). The chocolate chip cookies, made with a combination of psyllium and plant sterols, are a tasty all-natural approach to reducing cardiovascular risk associated with cholesterol. The American Heart Association estimates at least 50 percent of the American adult p...

Genome info from 'plant destroyers' could save trees, beans and chocolate

... cocoa beans with a resulting $400 million loss in chocolate production each year. The researchers found the pathogens have nearly twice as many genes as other fungal pathogens, and that more than 40 percent of the genes in each of the two species are undergoing rapid change. Many of the rapidly evolving gene...

Underweight women at greater risk of miscarriage

...ight pregnant women everywhere, the consumption of chocolate was also found to be associated with lower risk. There were a number of other interesting new findings. If a woman was not married or living with a partner, her risk of miscarriage was higher. If she had changed partner (for example, after having ...

UCLA: How does your brain respond when you think about gambling or taking risks?

...n that are activated when people take cocaine, eat chocolate or look at a beautiful face, Poldrack said. The researchers studied which parts of the brain became more active or less active as the amount of money participants could win or lose increased. Regions that become more active as the amount increases...

Boosting brain power -- with chocolate

Eating chocolate could help to sharpen up the mind and give a short... drink rich in flavanols ?a key ingredient of dark chocolate ?boosts blood flow to key areas of the brain for two to three hours. Increased blood flow to thes...

Cocoa 'vitamin' health benefits could outshine penicillin

...sules Epicatechin is also found in teas, wine, chocolate and some fruit and vegetables. ...

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