Now, a study from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science suggests that women ages 60 to 85 can protect themselves from the risk of heart disease with daily consumption of folate-rich foods. In the study, published in the June 2000 issue of the Journal of Nutrition, postmenopausal women consumed 400 mcg of folate in their diet each day, the amount recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. As a result, these women had significantly lower levels of homocysteine, a risk factor for heart disease, the number one killer of postmenopausal women. Yet adding folate to the diet is easy. It's found in orange juice, green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, liver, beans, legumes, and foods fortified with folate, including breads, cereals, pasta, flour, crackers, and rice.
Folate consumption is a recipe for wellness.
Cranberries may help us fight cancer. Cranberry juice has long been touted as a preventive measure for urinary tract infections. It's possible, say researchers at The University of Western Ontario. They've been studying how the regular consumption of cranberry juice and cranberry products affects human breast cancer cell growth in mice. In addition, incidence of the spread of tumors to the lungs and lymph nodes was markedly reduced in the cranberry-fed group.