Nothing can be as scary as knowing that enjoying some of the taken for granted popular edibles like the potato chips and French fries may expose you and your family to the risk of developing certain kinds of cancers.

There has been a spate of studies done to find out if there is a correlation between fries and human cancer ever since Swedish scientists tumbled upon acrylamide in foods. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, say that there is a link between the chemical compound acrylamide formed in foods and cancer. One may be exposed to acrylamide through the skin, inhalation or by ingestion (eating). There are several sources of contamination by Acrylamide like through water containing it, cigarette smoking, or workers inhaling it in factories because acrylamide is used in a whole lot of industries like cosmetics, oil, paper, water treatment, plastics, mining, etc, but our concern here is its presence in certain foods.

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One of the world’s most glamorous women had an operation that once was terribly disfiguring — removal of both breasts. But new approaches are dramatically changing breast surgeries, whether to treat cancer or to prevent it as Angelina Jolie just chose to do. As Jolie said, “the results can be beautiful.”

Jolie revealed on Tuesday that she had a double mastectomy and reconstruction with implants because she carries a gene mutation that puts her at high risk of developing breast cancer.

For women who already have the disease, the choice used to be whether to have the lump or the whole breast removed. Now there are more options that allow faster treatment, smaller scars, fewer long-term side effects and better cosmetic results. It has led to a new specialty — “oncoplastic” surgery — combining oncology, which focuses on cancer treatment, and plastic surgery to restore appearance.

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Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie announced on Tuesday that she had a preventative mastectomy after learning she had a gene that significantly raised her risk of breast cancer. Here’s a crash course in the procedure Jolie had and why.

Q: What kind of surgery did Jolie have?

A: Jolie had a preventative double mastectomy, meaning she chose to have both her breasts removed even though she had not been diagnosed with cancer.

Q: Why did she have the mastectomies?

A: Jolie says that she has a “faulty” version of the BRCA1 gene that means she has an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer. By having both breasts removed as preventive measure, she said her breast cancer risk drops to 5 percent.

Q: How many women have this faulty gene?

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Aerobic exercise influences the way our bodies break down estrogens to produce more of the `good` metabolites that lower breast cancer risk, according to a new research.

Observational studies suggest physical activity lowers breast cancer risk, but there are no clinical studies that explain the mechanism behind this, said Mindy S. Kurzer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul.

Kurzer and her colleagues conducted the Women in Steady Exercise Research (WISER) clinical trial, which involved 391 sedentary, healthy, young, premenopausal women. They randomly assigned the women to two age-matched, body mass index-matched groups: a control group of 179 women and an intervention group of 212 women.

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Drinking two or more cups of coffee daily could decrease the risk of breast cancer recurring in patients taking the widely used drug Tamoxifen, a study at Lund University in Sweden has suggested.

In the study, patients who took the pill, along with two or more cups of coffee daily, reported less than half the rate of cancer recurrence, compared with their non-coffee drinking, Tamoxifen-taking counterparts.

The team followed over 600 breast cancer patients from southern Sweden for an average of five years. Approximately 300 took Tamoxifen. The drug, a common hormone therapy after breast cancer surgery, reduces the risk of new tumours by blocking oestrogen receptors.

How coffee interacts with the treatment, however, isn’t immediately known.

“One theory we are working with is that coffee ‘activates’ Tamoxifen and makes it more efficient”, said Maria Simonsson, doctoral student in Oncology at Lund University.

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Regular exercise may help reduce the chance of developing liver cancer, a study has said.

The research involved two groups of mice that were fed a control diet and a high fat diet, which were then divided into separate exercise and sedentary groups.

The exercise groups were made to run on a motorised treadmill for 60 minutes per day, five days a week.

After 32 weeks of regular exercise, 71 percent of mice on the controlled diet developed tumours larger than 10mm versus 100 percent in the sedentary group.

The mean number and volume of HCC tumours per liver was also reduced in the exercise group compared to the sedentary group.

EASL’s Educational Councillor Prof. Jean-Francois Dufour said that the data showed significant benefit of regular exercise on the development of HCC and exercise reduced the level of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in mice receiving a high-fat diet.

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Expensive fruits aren’t necessarily the healthiest. The modest guava packs in a host of goodness.

A study conducted by the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad has found guava to be the healthiest fruit. This study, published in the journal ‘Food and Research International’, evaluated the natural antioxidant level in 14 fruits consumed in India. And guava, as per this study, contains it in the highest amounts.

The modest guava

Depending on the variety, a guava’s skin and seeds are typically, white or pink. While some people like it semi-ripe, when it’s crunchy yet soft, a few others prefer the fully ripe ones.

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Consumption of mangoes may potentially have a positive effect on blood sugar in obese individuals and help to limit inflammation, according to a new research.

The study led by Edralin Lucas, Ph.D., associate professor of nutritional sciences at Oklahoma State University, examined the effects of daily mango consumption on clinical parameters and body composition in obese subjects (body mass index, BMI = 30kg/m2).

Twenty adults (11 males and 9 females) participated in the study, which included daily dietary supplementation with 10 grams of freeze dried mango (equivalent to approximately 100 grams of fresh mango, according to Dr. Lucas) for 12 weeks.

Blood sugar levels at the conclusion of the study were significantly lower than the baseline in both male and female subjects. There were no significant changes in body composition for either gender, and BMI increased significantly in female subjects but not male subjects compared to baseline.

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Very few are aware of the fact that calcium has much more to do than just building bones and aiding skeletal growth.

Calcium is already known for its vital role in the development of the musculoskeletal system, but there are many other processes of your body, which depend on calcium for their optimum function. Listed below are a few of them.

Nerve and muscle health: Studies suggest that adequate calcium in the body helps the nerves function properly and aids good muscle contraction.

Blood clotting: Blood clotting is an essential function that greatly depends on calcium as a requirement.

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Black, green or white, the humble tea does your body good in so many ways.

A hot cuppa!

Tea is good for you because

Loaded with antioxidants: Tea packs in a range of antioxidants that protect your body from the ill effects of pollution and the ravages of ageing.While green and white tea are known to contain a higher percentage of antioxidants, black tea isn’t bad either. If you aren’t tea drinker yet, start now!

Tea has lesser caffeine: OK, caffeine helps you stay alert –but too much of it is bad for you. Coffee has at least two to three times more caffeine. Though dry tea has more caffeine by weight than coffee; more dried coffee is used than dry tea in preparing the beverage, which means that a cup of brewed tea contains significantly less caffeine than a cup of coffee of the same size.

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