Food Fads: Facts or Fiction?

If you have trouble separating fact from food-science fiction, you're not alone. Here you will find a collection of food that is associated with some facts that some people believe it is facts and some believe it is fiction:

Garlic: Garlic has been revered as palliative for more than 5,000 years, today its medical attributes have grown so numerous that Cornel University Medical Center in New York State funds a garlic hotline (1-800-330-5922) to answer consumer questions.

Unfortunately Garlic will not cure baldness, nor is there proof that it relieves mental stress. But evidence does suggest that its antibacterial compounds help keep the common cold in check and combat fungal infection. More significantly, a recent study of people living in China's Shandong's province indicates that garlic reduces the risk of stomach cancer. Another study, of 41,000 Iowa women, links it with reduction in the risk of colon cancer. And now investigators at Doctors Hospital in Toronto are looking into the root's role in reducing heart disease, the number-one killer of North American woman.

Ginseng: The jury's still out on ginseng. Dr. Varro Tyler, The Indiana-based author of " The Honest Herbal" has pointed out that most literature about ginseng is "based more on superstition and subjective opinion than on objective, scientific evidence" Nevertheless, research completed last summer at the university of Toronto confirms ginseng's ability to increase athletic performance, according to physiology professor Robert Goode. Also U of T researchers are testing its potential in treating diabetes. Others at the University of Alberta are studying ginseng's effect on short-term memory in an attempt to find a link to Alzheimer's disease

Cranberries: A 1994 Harvard medical school study of 121 elderly women demonstrated that cranberry juice is an effective treatment for urinary tract infection. At the end of the six-month controlled trial, women who drank a 300-ML glass of cranberry juice daily had nearly half the rate of infection-causing levels of bacteria as women drinking a placebo.

Olive Oil: Olive oil has been tops among healthy diet choices since a 1985 study concluded that monoun-saturated fats (such as olive oil) lowered bad cholesterol but kept good cholesterol levels up. Those results were rapped recently when a Stanford university nutritional scientist concluded that people eating large quantity of polyunsaturated fats (such as corn oil) are at no greater risk of heart disease that those eating the mono variety. But don't toss the bottle out yet. Earlier this year, researcher at the Harvard University School of public health determined that the risk of breast cancer was 25% lower in women who consume olive oil every day.

Yogurt: Researchers at long Island Jewish Medical center recently concluded what many of us have known for years: Yogurt keeps yeast infections at bay. During a yearlong study, women with recurrent yeast infections experienced a three-fold decrease in incidence during the six months they ate unpasturized yogurt daily, compared to the six months they refrained.