According to the latest health studies, you should add these three items to your shopping list and beat bad breath, heart disease and cancer.
COFFEE
Coffee could hold the secret to keeping bad breath at bay. The beans contain compounds that prevent bacteria releasing the gases behind halitosis, research shows. Professor Mel Rosenberg, who has spent two decades studying the diagnosis and treatment of halitosis, actually set out to investigate why coffee causes bad breath.
But his work at Israel’s Tel Aviv University showed that while it may cause problems in our mouths, it has quite the opposite effect in the test tube.
Adding black coffee to ‘soups’ of bacteria-filled saliva blocked the release of gases that cause breath to smell. In some cases, the amount of gas was cut by up to 90 per cent.
The researcher said: ‘ We expected that coffee would cause bad breath but there is something inside this magic brew that has the opposite effect.’
The professor, a microbiologist and inventor of a range of mouthwash, now hopes to isolate the bug-busting chemical.
PEANUT BUTTER
Peanut butter sandwiches could be the secret to beating heart disease, says a study.
Snacking on peanuts or peanut butter at least five days a week can nearly halve the risk of a heart attack. The nuts are thought to lower bad cholesterol, help reduce inflammation in the body and boost the health of blood vessels around the heart.
Between 1980 and 2002, researchers at Harvard Medical School analysed the diets of more than 6 000 women who had type 2 diabetes, which increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.
All the volunteers completed food questionnaires every two to four years. When the researchers matched up the results with data on how many went on to suffer heart attacks or strokes, they found those regularly eating peanuts had the greatest protection.
In a report on their findings, published in the Journal of Nutrition, they said the risk was reduced by up to 44 per cent. ‘Consumption of at least five servings a week of one ounce of nuts or one tablespoon of peanut butter was significantly associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease,’ they said.
But remember that peanut products can be full of added sugar or salt so check the label first.
CARROTS
For the best anti-cancer boost, cook carrots whole. Cutting them up allows more nutrients to leach out, says a new study.
They taste better too, according to scientists at Newcastle University, because more of their sugar is retained. “Chopping up your carrots increases the surface area so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are cooked,” said lead researcher Dr Kirsten Brandt. “By cooking them whole and chopping them up afterwards, you are locking in both taste and nutrients.”
Brandt, along with colleagues at the University of Denmark, discovered the health benefits of the anti-cancer substance falcarinol in carrots four years ago.
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