USDA Updates
Nutrient
Numbers
DECEMBER 2009
The Agricul -
tural Research
Service (ARS), a
scientific research
agency of the US
Department of
Agriculture
(USDA), has
updated its nutrient
database, the
standard reference
for calculating
nutrition values of
foods. The update,
labeled SR22,
includes a new
food group,
“Restaurant
Foods.”
The 2009
update to the
USDA National
Nutrient Database
also reflects growing
scientific interest
in vitamin D, with some 3,000 values
for vitamin D included for the first
time. Vitamin D content was newly calculated
for 20 species of fish and also
for vitamin-fortified foods, such as
milk, orange juice, breakfast cereals,
yogurt and margarines. When available,
values were broken down by the two
main forms of the vitamin, D2 and D3.
Overall, the ARS added more than
200 new entries, bringing the database
to a total of more than 7,500 food
items. Each provides data for up to
140 food components, such as vitamins,
minerals and fats. The database
can be searched free online at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/
foodcomp/search.
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Vegetarians Get Good
News on Bone Health
Vegetarians worried about the effects
of their dietary choice on bone health
can breathe a little easier. A new metaanalysis
of nine previous studies concludes
that, although vegetarians and
vegans do have slightly weaker bonemineral
density (BMD) than omnivores,
“the magnitude of the association is not
clinically significant.” Scientists analyzed
data on a total of 869 women and 1,880
men. Vegetarians scored 4% lower on
average in BMD than people who also
eat meat, while vegans averaged 6%
lower. An accompanying editorial cautioned
that the results were not the last
word, but that it could be “concluded
that vegetarianism is not a serious risk
factor for osteoporotic fracture.”
TO LEARN MORE: American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, October 2009; abstract at www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/90/4/943.
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