In our new Prebiotic Superfood Video, anthropologist and health advocate Jeff Leach discusses dietary prevention of foodborne illness through prebiotic fiber intake.  

While industry innovations like Dole's Radio Frequency Identification tracking system and consumer education are part of a winning strategy in the war against foodborne viruses, they should not preclude promoting prebiotic fiber in the battle against bacterial adversaries. 

For a delicious way to increase your inulin intake try this issue's Featured Superfood Recipe, "Broiled Asparagus with Sesame Sauce."

Volumetrics lets people eat their fill of high-fiber, low-calorie foods like fruits and vegetables, which accounts for the diet plan's 14 average daily servings of fruit and vegetables. Research suggests that Volumetrics dieters "...consume hundreds of fewer calories per day than those with a high-density diet, yet eat a greater amount of food," according to Consumer Reports.  

Ranking second and third on Consumer Reports' list were Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Both reflect the reality that long-term weight loss involves a lifestyle change. Atkins received the worst nutrition analysis -- unsurprising since 60% of its calories come from fat, a third of it saturated (and that's not even counting its infamous "induction" phase!).

According to Consumer Reports' latest survey, 47% of women and 34% of men are trying to lose weight, with an average goal of dropping 37 pounds.  If you've tried -- and failed -- in the past to slim down, try, try again! The Consumer Reports ranking shows there's no need to go hungry -- or compromise your health -- to lose weight.

However, a new Italian study found an increased incidence of leukemia and lymphomas among aspartame-fed rats. Data was obtained from a previous experiment in which 25,000 rats consumed aspartame over the course of their life spans (about 3 years). Post-mortems revealed adverse effects for daily doses of 20mg/kg -- the human equivalent of drinking 3-4 cans of diet soda a day. This is less than half of the current acceptable U.S. daily intake established by the FDA.

Before you throw out anything and everything containing aspartame (found in 6,000 products worldwide), bear in mind that the FDA maintains its current position that aspartame is safe. What's more, a National Cancer Institute (NCI) human study, also published in September, found no link between aspartame intake and leukemia or lymphomas in an analysis of dietary data for over 500,000 subjects.

Both studies have their critics. The anti-aspartame camp complains that the NCI study was too short (follow-up was only 5 years). Skeptics of the Italian study recall how the case against saccharin collapsed when further research revealed that humans and mice did not share the same metabolic pathways that had led to cancerous results for the rodents.

If you do require an artificial sweetener as part of your weight-management routine, check out the Dole Nutrition Institute's “Look at Low-cal Sweeteners” for more information about studies regarding their health impact.

When researchers from the University of Leeds analyzed 7 years of dietary data for nearly 37,000 women, they found that premenopausal women with the highest fiber intake (30 grams or greater) had half the breast cancer risk of those who ate the least amount. Though post-menopausal women did not demonstrate as statistically significant a benefit, previous Swedish research found a 40% lower breast cancer risk among post-menopausal women with the highest fiber intake. 

Getting the daily 25 grams of fiber recommended for women is a lot easier (and more delicious) than you might think. A cup of black beans provides 15 grams, a cup of raspberries 8 grams, a pear 6 grams, and a banana 3 grams (that's 32 grams total). Fiber's other rewards include lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and lower risk of colon and prostate cancer.

If breast cancer is a concern, fiber also provides an indirect protective benefit by helping you control your weight, which in turn lowers your risk of developing (and dying from) breast cancer. In addition to high-fiber picks, other foods to include in your anti-breast cancer arsenal include pineapple, garlic, cauliflower, cabbage, apples, broccoli, cranberries, tomatoes and Brussels sprouts.

So, how to know if the nutrients in your food constitute a love match or a dysfunctional duo? Here we explore three combinations that, in terms of nutrition, would fare better apart. We tell you what makes these nutrients incompatible -- and provide source lists so you can check out whether the foods you frequently consume together may contain the compounds in question.

While conventional wisdom has attributed red wine's cholesterol-regulating effects to its alcohol content, health experts have been hesitant to uncritically encourage consumption of a beverage that also carries health risks ranging from dependence to breast cancer to brain damage to stroke. Now, new research raises the possibility that it's the anthocyanins in red wine that confer heart health benefits -- and apparently, our bodies can absorb those anthocyanins more easily from red grape juice than from red wine.

French researchers found that Concord grape juice helped relax cells lining blood vessels in animal lab cultures. A previous human clinical trial at Boston University found that Concord grape juice also increased HDL (good) cholesterol and significantly lowered two markers for inflammation. Historically such benefits have been credited to alcohol -- which, of course, is absent from grape juice -- suggesting that the anthocyanins found in both grape juice and wine deserve closer scrutiny.

Along these lines, German researchers decided to investigate the relative bioavailability of anthocyanins in red grape juice vs. red wine. They measured anthocyanin presence in nine healthy volunteers who drank either red wine or grape juice with a four-week wash-out period before switching beverages. 

Researchers found 28% higher anthocyanin levels in grape juice drinkers' urine compared to red wine drinkers. Antioxidant activity in the blood of the grape juice drinkers was higher -- and remained higher -- than that resulting from wine intake. 

For more on grape juice -- as well as OJ, veg juice, pineapple juice and others -- check out our review of the health benefits of popular fruit and vegetable beverages.

Children at various weight-loss camps lost an average of 12 pounds over the course of a month -- regardless of whether their calorie-restricted diet was comprised of 22.5% or 15% protein.  British researchers set out to see if 120 overweight kids ages 12 to 16 would lose more weight or feel less hungry if placed on an Atkins-style diet. They didn't -- and we're not surprised. As discussed in this issue's Diet Center, Atkins fared poorly in a Consumer Reports ranking of popular diets -- while Volumetrics came out on top.

Weight-loss camps deliver results the old-fashioned way: limiting calories and encouraging exercise. But failure to address the campers' increased hunger will undermine long-term efforts to keep the pounds off. By focusing on (and once again disproving) the low-carb canard, researchers missed an opportunity to test the true cutting edge of obesity prevention: how nutrient deficiencies fuel overeating.

The overwhelming majority of teenagers fail to get enough potassium, fiber, vitamin E and other key nutrients -- even while their junk-food filled diets may be providing them with double or even triple their caloric needs. As biochemist Bruce Ames, Ph.D., has observed: “If you sit down to a meal that doesn’t give your body the nutrients it needs, your brain is likely to get the signal to go on eating until you get them.” 

Being obese by age 20 can cut up to 20 years off a person's life -- so childhood is the prime time for prevention. Don't let your child be stuffed with food yet starved of nutrients; start improving his or her diet by downloading our Healthy Kids brochure or visiting our dolesuperkids.com site today.