Officials admit link between nutrition and health, award $6 million contract to study nutrition for US troops

(NaturalNews) Soldiers in the American military are apparently not performing to their full potential. This has prompted the federal government to award a $6 million contract to the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., to study how to improve the quality and nutritional value of military food. The research, which seeks to “increase resilience to injury and maximize physical and mental effectiveness” through nutrition (according to a recent report from Navy Times ), proves what we here at NaturalNews have been saying for a long time — that vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are vitally important for preventing disease and promoting good health. “The whole purpose (of the research) is better nutrition to promote warfighter resilience and optimal cognitive performance,” said Jennifer Rood, principal investigator of the project entitled “Collaborative Research to Optimize Warfighter Nutrition,” to Navy Times . Wait, did Rood just link nutrition to recovery and brain function? What does the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have to say about this implication that nutrients play a role in boosting health and warding off disease? It appears as though the same government that denies any link between food or nutritional supplement intake and health promotion and disease prevention among the public is now saying the opposite as it concerns soldiers’ performance in the military. Though such research positively benefits soldiers that serve in the armed forces, it also represents a double standard. The government apparently has no interest in keeping the average American healthy or in devoting a single taxpayer dollar towards nutrition research for the public interest — but when military performance is affected by bad nutrition, the cash starts flowing. Sources for this story include: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-nutrition-combat-troops-090711w/

Vitamin D Promotes Weight Loss

(NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Minnesota found that overweight people have better success in losing weight when their vitamin D levels are increased. Dr. Shalamar Sibley, the researcher who headed the study, placed 38 obese men and women on a diet program and discovered that those whose vitamin D levels were increased lost up to a half pound more than those who followed the diet plan only. When combined with a reduced-calorie diet, it appears that supplementation with vitamin D helps to promote increased weight loss among those whose levels are low to begin with. For each nanogram per milliliter increase in vitamin D precursor in the blood, it was observed that an extra half pound loss in weight was able to be achieved while the diet plan. A study published earlier this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 75 percent or more of American teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to all sorts of serious illnesses including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Researchers in the weight loss study are unsure whether vitamin D deficiency causes obesity or if obesity causes vitamin D deficiency. Nevertheless, there is a clear connection between the two. Vitamin D, in conjunction with calcium and sunlight, helps to properly assimilate food and regulate normal blood sugar levels. When there is a lack of calcium, oftentimes due to a vitamin D deficiency, the body increases production of synthase, a fatty acid enzyme that coverts calories into fat. Calcium deficiency can cause synthase production to increase by up to 500 percent, explaining the correlation between low levels of vitamin D and obesity. Mainstream research has only begun to scratch the surface about the importance of vitamin D in general health maintenance. A clinical study conducted in April of 2000 revealed that patients who were bound to wheelchairs because of chronic fatigue and body weakness became mobile after just six weeks of supplementation with 50,000 IU of vitamin D per week. Other studies are showing remarkable healing from all kinds of diseases when vitamin D is brought up to proper levels. Although current guidelines suggest daily intake somewhere between 400 and 600 IU, recent research is suggesting that this may be too low. Getting between 4,000 and 10,000 IU a day will have a much more therapeutic effect, boosting health and fending off disease. When natural sunlight is not an option, supplementation with vitamin D3 is the next best option. Sources for this story include: http://wcco.com/health/vitamin.d.weight.2.1383803.html, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamin-d-deficiency-united-states, http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/153669.php