Purdue associate professor Mario Ferruzzi - photo Tom Campbell

[Best Syndication] Vitamin C which is found in citrus juices help to improve the antioxidants found in green tea. Often you can put a little lemon juice with the green tea for flavor, but it may offer health benefits as well according to researcher, Mario Ferruzi who is the assistant professor of food science at Purdue University and the study's lead author. The study was published in the current issue of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

The researchers report that the extra vitamin C taken with green tea increases the amount of catechins absorbed in the body. Catechins are the naturally occurring antioxidants found in the beverage.

Catechins are believed to be the compound that reduces a persons risk of cancer, heart attack or stroke. Ferruzi said that the catechins become unstable in a non-acidic environment which removes a large amount of catechins from being absorbed into the body.

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[Best Syndication] A detox diet is a popular fad that is going around where a person drastically changes their diet by either fasting or eating raw vegetables and certain ‘health’ foods to purge the body of harmful toxins.

Dr. Oz is hosting a show called ‘The Truth about Food’ which is on the Discovery Channel. This show shows a number of studies that they conducted to see if food can be beneficial to your health.

To find out if a detox diet can be helpful they recruited 10 women that admitted to have liked to party a little too much. They divided the women into two groups, one that was put on a detox diet, and another that ate a normal diet.

The detox diet group had to eat an awful combination of foods. For breakfast they were to drink a fresh vegetable juice that contained spinach, garlic, and onions. They also had Beet root shakes and seaweed salads. It was not a pleasant diet the detox diet.

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[Best Syndication] Dr. Oz visited on the Oprah TV show and discussed the benefits of eating a high fiber diet. Dr. Oz shared different studies from a new show that he is hosting on the Discovery Channel called, ‘The Truth about Food.’ It is a six part series that looks at how food affects our health.

The surprise that Dr. Oz did today on ‘Oprah’ was to swallow a pill-cam which is a camera that travels through the digestive track and takes pictures all the way down. Dr. Oz showed pictures of his digestive track to the viewers and the audience throughout the show. In order to see the digestive tract walls he did not eat anything for 24 hours. This pillcam Dr. Oz explained has been used by over a half of million people to help diagnose medical problems.

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[Best Syndication] Researchers believe they have identified a stomach virus that may cause chronic fatigue syndrome. This infection is called chronic enterovirus infection of the stomach. The study will be published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

The researchers decided to investigate the stomach as a source of problem for people that suffer with chronic fatigue syndrome because it is often a common location of complaints and discomfort. The digestion problems of chronic fatigue syndrome patients include chronic and persistent indigestion along with irritable bowel syndrome. Another name for chronic fatigue syndrome is myalgic encephalitis or ME. Other viral infections that create similar symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome are Epstein Barr virus (glandular fever), cytomegalovirus, and parvovirus as well as others.

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[Best Syndication] Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center discovered another risk factor that metabolic syndrome patients are faced with – uric acid kidney stones. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of characteristics that are also known to increase a person’s risk for developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The study was first reported in the September issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Metabolic syndrome is described as a person that is obese, has high blood pressure with abnormal blood lipid levels. The person could have high triglycerides with low levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol, and high levels of LDL or “bad” cholesterol. They may have diabetes or develop insulin resistance which leads to diabetes in the future. According to the American Heart Association, there is an estimated 50 million Americans that can be classified as having the metabolic syndrome.