Short course

Stealthy vegetables in childrens meals

Children can be made to eat zucchini,broccoli and cauliflower and like them. Researchers at Pennsylvania State University substituted those vegetables,puréed,in childrens meals,reducing each meals calories but keeping its weight the same. One day a week for three weeks,40 children were randomly given regular meals,meals with three times as much vegetable content,or meals with four times as much vegetable content. The children were told to eat as much or as little as they wanted.

The 3- to 6-year olds,attendees at a day care centre,consumed the same amount of food by weight,regardless of whether the meals included puréed vegetables. But those who ate the meals with quadrupled vegetable content increased their total vegetable intake by 73 grams and reduced their calorie intake by about 12 per cent during the study.

Asked to rate the taste yucky,O.K. or yummy,more than 70 percent of the children rated the meals as OK or yummy. The study was published online July 20 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The controversial aspect of this is that its deceptive, said Maureen K. Spill,the lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State.

Is normal heart rate

60 to 100 beats a minute?

The normal resting heart rate for an adult ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. But some researchers believe it may be time to re-examine whats considered normal. Researchers have found that a resting pulse at the upper end of normal may indicate a higher risk of stroke and heart disease. Some have linked it to a greater risk of diabetes and obesity. Instead of drawing the line at 100 beats per minute,some say,anything above 90,and perhaps even 80 , may be considered a cause for concern.

In a study published in The Journal of Epidemiology amp; Community Health,scientists followed 50,000 healthy men and women over two decades,looking at whether a resting heart rate at the upper end of normal increased the risk of dying of a heart attack. Just more than 4,000 of the subjects died of heart disease,and the authors found that resting heart rate was a good predictor: For each rising increment of 10 heart beats per minute,the risk of dying of a heart attack increased 18 per cent among women and about 10 percent in men.

Another study,published in The American Journal of Hypertension,found that a large group of adults who started out with resting heart rates above 80 beats a minute were more likely to become obese and develop diabetes after two decades. The bottom line: A resting heart rate above 80 beats a minute may be a red flag.

A simple test to identify heart defects in babies

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A simple screening test could help detect life-threatening heart defects in babies at birth,says a new study published in The Lancet. The pulse oximetry test measures blood oxygen levels in newborns with a small skin sensor placed on a hand or foot. The test identifies some babies with congenital heart defects which would otherwise be missed by doctors,say researchers. The test involves putting a small sensor on the hand and foot of a baby to check the blood oxygen level. Those with low levels are then sent for a heart ultrasound.

Lead researcher Andrew Ewer of University of Birmingham said: A small probe is put on the babys hand and then on the foot,the machine is switched on and you obtain a reading.