CT Green Scene

The Good News about Walnuts and Your Prostate

You just can't make this stuff up: walnuts shrink tumors. I know, right? Sounds incredible but it's true. Apparently, at least according to research at UC Davis on tumor-toting mice, their walnut-eating consumption actually reduced their tumor size significantly.

What makes it interesting for this site is how it falls into the category of how our environment affects our health. What we put into our bodies is part of that environment. Like climate change, it's a problem we can have some control over. 

See the excerpt below from Environmental News Network that was originally reported in the British Journal of Nutrition.

The Amazing Tumor-Fighting Walnut
David A Gabel, ENN 
Published January 25, 2012 09:38 AM

Recently, scientists from the University of California (UC) in Davis found out that, at least in mice, eating walnuts can actually slow down the growth of tumors. In fact, after 18 weeks of being on a walnut-rich diet, the mice had tumors half the size as mice on a similar diet. Further research will be upcoming to explore more beneficial effects of walnuts. Some believe that walnuts can be even used to prevent tumors from ever forming.

The unlucky subject mice in the experiment were genetically programmed to develop prostate cancer. UC Davis researchers assessed the size of their tumors at 9,18 and 24 weeks. Some mice were on the walnut diet, consuming the human equivalent of 2.4 ounces of walnut per day. The other subject group ate a soybean oil diet which was formulated to match the walnut diet in terms of nutrients, fat levels, and fatty acid profiles.

Amazingly, at 18 weeks, the tumors were half the size in the walnut group than the other group. Overall, the rate of tumor growth was 28 percent less for the walnut group.

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Phys.org. 

Finally, a good school lunch

We've talked about school lunch before on this site. We feel strongly about what our kids eat, what we eat, and the quality of sustainable foods and farming. This site also reported on the topic a couple of months ago when lawmakers considered pizza a vegetable serving because of its two tablespoons of tomato paste per serving. 

Reuters reported today that the USDA has done a small overhaul of school nutrition to include more fruits and vegetables and skim milk. They have also mandated a child-size portion and lower sodium, among other things.

About time, isn't it? See the excerpt below.

More fruits, veggies in school lunch rules
By Ian Simpson and Lisa Baertlein | Reuters – 59 mins ago

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. school children, accustomed to a steady diet of pizza and French fries, will find more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on their trays under new government rules announced on Wednesday.

The new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules aim to boost the nutritional quality of the federally funded meals consumed by roughly 32 million U.S. school children.

The rules represent the first major revision of school meal standards in more than 15 years and are intended to combat the nation's childhood obesity crisis -- nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese.

The revamp comes just months after U.S. lawmakers protected pizza's status as a vegetable and killed proposed limits on weekly servings of starchy vegetables like potatoes.

Storms, Trees and You

Winter in the Northeast usually has at least one or two storms that pack a wicked punch. Maybe it's you, or maybe it's your neighbor. But one of you will end up with limbs hanging and trees down. Find out from this lecture what you can do about it.

Storms, Trees and You
Featuring Dr. Jeffrey S. Ward, Chief Scientist
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station

Monday, January 23rd at 7:00 p.m.
Fairfield Public Library Memorial Room 

• How proper tree selection, placement and maintenance can help reduce power outages and damage to our properties.
• Maximize the benefits of trees such as providing shade, cooling, and beautifying our yards and streetscapes.
• Tips for planting new trees and shrubs, general tree care, and how to spot potential problems on your property.

Sponsored by the Fairfield Forestry Committee. Free and open to the public.

Ch-ch-ch-Chia!

by Dr. Amy Wiesner

Everybody has probably heard about chia from the little plant “pets” that became popular in the 80s.  What is not as widely known is what a great addition to the diet the chia seed can be.

The history of chia, or Salvia hispanica, can be traced back to over 5,000 years ago in Mexico.  Chia was one of the staple foods of both the Aztec and Mayan cultures.  It was also used as a form of currency and was said to help messengers sustain energy over long distances.  

Chia is at the top of the charts in four important areas: levels of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and fiber.  In fact, it has the highest plant source of omega-3 fatty acids, even more than flax seeds.  Omega-3 fatty acids play a large role in cardiovascular health and are anti-inflammatory.  Its levels of antioxidants, from flavonoids, are also anti-inflammatory and allow it to have a good ORAC value.  It also is free of cholesterol.

Lecture on Climate Change at Audubon Greenwich

Averting the Climate Crisis: How urban/suburban lifestyle changes can help our environment
Presented by Peter Libre, MD
Saturday, January 7, 2012
4:00-5:30 pm
$5/adult. Youth are free. RSVP requested. Simply leave a message for Jeff Cordulack at 203-869-5272 x239.  (Snow date: Jan. 14.) 


Ring in 2012 with a Saturday afternoon presentation about our carbon footprint, climate issues, and the relationship of health and lifestyle to both. Learn new ways to transform your way of living and by doing so, improve your personal, planetary and fiscal well-being. Dr. Peter Libre is a Columbia University eye surgeon who performs 350 eye surgeries a year while living a low carbon lifestyle. He bikes 2,500 miles a year, keeps chickens, and grows vegetables. With solar hot water and electricity, good insulation, and a woodstove, his family’s utility bills are $25 a month. 

The northward and inland movement of North American birds, confirmed by thousands of citizen-observations, provides new and powerful evidence that global warming is having a serious impact on natural systems, according to new analyses by Audubon scientists. The findings signal the need for dramatic policy changes to combat pervasive ecological disruption.

Is Solar Thermal the next big thing?

How does the concept of molten salt strike you? It is a major component of solar thermal power, which uses the sun's heat to boil water. The water is then used to bring salt to extremely high heat, which stores energy when the sun goes down. While the technology itself is rather simple, it is debatable whether it's the most economical route.

See an excerpt below from an article posted earlier this week in The New York Times. 

Storehouses for Solar Energy Can Step In When the Sun Goes Down
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: January 2, 2012 

If solar energy is eventually going to matter — that is, generate a significant portion of the nation’s electricity — the industry must overcome a major stumbling block, experts say: finding a way to store it for use when the sun isn’t shining.

That challenge seems to be creating an opening for a different form of power, solar thermal, which makes electricity by using the sun’s heat to boil water. The water can be used to heat salt that stores the energy until later, when the sun dips and households power up their appliances and air-conditioning at peak demand hours in the summer.