November 2015
FOOD BITES
By Angela S. Hoover, Staff Writer
Can Apples Affect
Women’s Sex Lives?
A study this summer in the Archives
of Gynecology and Obstetrics reports
women who regularly eat apples tend
to experience greater overall sexual
function and report higher levels of
arousal and satisfaction. Possible explanations are the multiple antioxidants
and other pharmacologically active
substances, such as phytoestrogens and
polyphenols, found in apples. Another
possibility is the health benefits of
apple peels, which have high concentrations of helpful phenolic compound.
The sample was of less than 800 Italian
women, so the researchers caution
the survey results are too low to prove
the connection and further research is
needed.
Changes In Nutrition
Science To Meet
World Food Needs
An international team of researchers
from various disciplines identified key
opportunities occurring in nutrition
science within the next five years that
will be crucial to closing the major gap
between the amount of food available
today and the amount projected to be
available in 2050. Crop calories will
need to increase about 69 percent to
reach levels needed by 2050, according to the World Resources Institute.
Researchers from the fields of genetics,
neuroscience, nutritional science, physiology, immunology, food science technology and psychology, among others,
listed a set of research goals for nutrition science for the period of 20152020. The authors stress eight areas of
research, including sustainability, food
safety, the human microbiome and big
data analysis, as well as an emphasis on
macro-level issues suc \