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Green vegies linked to better heart health
Higher intakes of nitrate from vegetables found to reduce the risk of dying from heart disease or stroke by up to 40 per cent.
Eating more greens could be the key to staving off heart disease, according to new research from Edith Cowan University.
Researchers from ECU’ s School of Medical and Health Sciences studied the diets of more than 1000 women, focusing on their intake of nitrate from vegetables.
Conducted over a 15-year period, the researchers found that those with higher intakes of nitrate from vegetables reduced their risk of dying from heart disease or stroke by up to 40 per cent.
PhD student Lauren Blekkenhorst said the research was based on her previous study that collated data on the concentration of nitrate in vegetables around the world.
Nitrate is a compound that is naturally present in the environment and is essential for plant growth.
“ We found that leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce and kale, had the highest amounts of nitrate, followed by radish, beetroot and celery,” Blekkenhorst said.
“ People get roughly 80 per cent of their average nitrate intake from vegetables, so they are the primary source.”
Blekkenhorst said about 75g – roughly one serve – of green leafy vegetables a day would provide enough nitrate to achieve the health benefits confirmed in the study.
Lead researcher Dr Catherine Bondonno said that bacteria living in our mouths were also critical for the cardiovascular health benefits observed.
“ The bacteria living on our tongue break down the nitrate that we eat into another compound called nitrite. Nitrite and other breakdown products play a key role in regulating our blood pressure,” she said.
“ This is the underlying mechanism that is resulting in the long‐term improvements in heart health.”
The research was based on two studies:‘ Association of dietary nitrate with atherosclerotic vascular disease mortality: a prospective cohort study of older adult women’, recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and‘ Association of vegetable nitrate intake with carotid atherosclerosis and ischemic cerebrovascular disease in older women’, recently published in the journal Stroke. ■
Aussies top at solving problems
International report says Aussie kids work together well, but warns of widening gender gap.
Australian students are some of the world’ s best collaborative problem-solvers, according to a recently released PISA report. Australia was ranked 10th out of 52 countries – behind Canada and New Zealand but ahead of the US( 13th) and the UK( 15th).
Minister for Education Simon Birmingham said this showed that Australian students had above average problem-solving skills that would help them in tertiary education and the workforce.
“ Australia’ s education system is one of the world’ s best at preparing students with the vital collaboration and social skills that workplaces are increasingly demanding,” he said.“ As workforces become more and more globalised, it’ s skills like collaboration that can deliver significant competitive advantages.
“ We have nearly double the number of students with high level skills in collaborative problem-solving at 15 per cent compared to the OECD average of 8 per cent. Around 4 per cent of our students were low performing compared to the 6 per cent OECD average.”
Birmingham said the report also raised a number of issues the federal government would aim to address in the near future.
“ While we should be pleased with the overall result of Australian schools, there are lessons for all of us in these results,” he said.
“ We need to home in on tackling the gender divide that has seen the results of Australia’ s boys trail behind girls, and work to close the performance gap between students from high and low socioeconomic status backgrounds.
“ While 62 per cent of our students performed better in collaborative problem-solving than was expected based on their reading, maths and science scores, a focus on one skill shouldn’ t come at the expense of the others. The report makes it clear that some of the most important factors in these collaborative problemsolving results is in the strong, positive relationships that exist between students, teachers and parents.”
Australia fared well in other categories of the report, maintaining above average results in maths, science and reading, although these were on the decline.
Results showed that Australia’ s weak points were a gap in performance between boys and girls, and a low sense of belonging in schools.
The full report is available at http:// www. oecd. org / pisa /. ■
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