Pink Grapefruit Juice Most Nutritious

Pink grapefruit juice provides more nutrients per calorie than any other 100 percent fruit juice, according to a new study that analyzed several juices commonly found in major U.S. markets.

The pucker-inducing pink drink just edged out orange juice, which also ranked high, but soundly beat white grapefruit, pineapple, prune, grape and apple juices, which rated in that order, with non-citrus juices like apple falling behind high vitamin C content varieties.

Author Gail Rampersaud, a researcher at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, told Discovery News that pink grapefruit juice "is an excellent source of vitamin C," providing an entire day’s recommended amount in a single 8-ounce glass.


"It also provides potassium, folate, thiamin and magnesium, as well as certain carotenoids that can be converted into vitamin A in the body," she added. "Pigmented grapefruit juices, such as pink or ruby, also contain lycopene, a carotenoid that gives pigmented grapefruit its rich color."


Carotenoids are color-giving substances found in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables. They are also present in dark green leafy veggies. Prior studies suggest these compounds may help to prevent cancer and other diseases.


For the recent research, Rampersaud focused only on common 100 percent fruit juices. This left out tomato juice, which is primarily marketed as a vegetable juice, and cranberry juice, which most often is sold as cranberry juice "cocktail," with less than 30 percent actual cranberry juice or within a blend of other juices.

Pomegranate, blueberry, cherry and other rich juices also usually come in blends, so they were eliminated for the same reason.


She used six different methods to calculate each juice’s nutrient density, which is defined as either nutrients provided per calorie or the ratio of the amount of a nutrient in foods to the energy provided by these same foods.

One method, for example, involved calculating the average recommended daily value amount for certain known nutrients based on 2,000 kilocalories, or units used to express the energy-producing potential of food. Nutrients included proteins, fats, sugars, numerous vitamins and minerals and other components.

Findings are published in the current issue of the Journal of Food Science.

Rampersaud explained that citrus juices ranked high "because they generally have higher amounts of a wider variety of nutrients compared to the other juices included in the analysis, coupled with the fact that the citrus juices are lower in calories."

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has urged consumers to focus on nutrient dense foods and beverages to avoid excess calorie intake.


Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington, has conducted several related studies.


He told Discovery News that Rampersaud did "a very impressive job."


Drewnowski added, however, that current nutrient density methodologies do not allow for inclusion of phytochemicals and antioxidants, which are substances that, like carotenoids, may also end health benefits.

Earlier studies have found that very dark juices like pomegranate and blueberry, even in blends, provide high amounts of these compounds.


A food to wash down with all of that juice might be spinach, which Drwenowski said is "the most nutrient dense food," along with broccoli and red peppers, which also provide substantial nutritional bang per calorie buck.

Special Thanks to Discovery

Beijing 2008: An Epic Quest with Cute Mascots

Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games is less than 60 days to go (54 to be exact), I am so stoked about getting to go to China to enjoy the sensational event. I've decorate my desktop with these lovely the mascots of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; The Fuwa.

The cute Fuwa group consists of five members according to the traditional five elements: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Each of the five names is designed to look like a plausible name for a small child, while also achieving a more complex task: when the first syllable of each name is put together, it sounds nearly identical to the phrase “北京欢迎你”, Běijīng huānyíng nǐ which means “Beijing welcomes you”.

Chinese Wedding Interupted...By Sichuan Quake

EXTRAORDINARY photographs claiming to show a wedding in progress during the Chinese earthquake in Sichuan province have emerged as more survivor miracle stories are revealed.

Instead of poring over an album of cherished memories, this bride and groom have a collection of chilling reminders of how lucky they are to be alive.



The photo shoot was taking place at the decrepit Church of the Annunciation, a 100-year-old building that was a popular spot for wedding pictures in recent years. The church was built under the direction of French priests outside the city of Pengzhou, and had been damaged long ago by landslides.

The death toll from the earthquake, which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, is now put at more than 65,000 and more than 20,000 are still missing.

The Scariest Anti-Smoking Campaign in Brazil

HEALTH authorities in Brazil are renowned for their strong anti-smoking campaign stand with Shocking images showing the dangers of cigarette smoking, including a fetus lying in an ashtray, have emerged in the latest anti-smoking campaign.



The Health Minister in Brazil, José Gomes Temporão launched a new anti-smoking campaign on May 28th. This 10 pictures are part of the Brazilian Health Department’s new anti-smoking drive that show the health risk involved with tobacco use. Images include a family at the bedside of a gravely sick man and a man suffering from impotence.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in Brazil 17.2 per cent of 13- to 15-year-olds and 16.2 per cent of adults smoke.

WHO says about 9 per cent of boys and 10 per cent of girls aged 12 to 17 smoked cigarettes. The organisation estimates there are more than one billion smokers worldwide.

It says tobacco use kills 5.4 million people a year - an average of one person every six seconds - and accounts for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.

For more see link here: Scary Anti-Smoking Ads

Inca Sacrifice Victims "Fattened Up" Before Death

Children selected for Inca ritual sacrifice were "fattened up" with high-protein diets in the months leading up to their deaths, a new study has found.

Researcher Andrew Wilson and his team conducted DNA and chemical tests of hair samples taken from four child mummies found in the Andes mountains in the 1990s.

By studying the ratios of chemicals present in the hair, the team helped show how victims were prepared for death as far as a year in advance, sent on grueling highland journeys, and drugged before the sacrificial ceremonies.

"The findings offer insights into the preparatory stages leading to Inca ritual killing, as represented by the unique capacocha rite," the report reads, referring to the Inca tradition of mountaintop child sacrifice.

Hair logs a chemical record of what an individual consumes, and the information can stay intact in archaeological remains, the study authors point out.

"It is chilling that the children themselves, through their own tissue, give us graphic details and evidence that they were not killed on a whim but were part of a complex process for which they were selected some considerable time before," said Wilson, a lecturer in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford in Britain.

The study appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was funded by the U.K. charity the Wellcome Trust.

"Fattened Up" and Drugged

One extremely well preserved mummy—a 15-year-old girl known as "La Doncella" or the "Llullaillaco Maiden"—appears to have been selected for sacrifice a year in advance, Wilson said.

She and two of the other mummies in the new study were discovered in 1999 by a National Geographic Society expedition led by anthropologist Johan Reinhard. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Tests show the Maiden—whose hair was 9.8 inches (25 centimeters) long, representing more than two years' worth of growth—was raised mostly on a protein-poor "peasant diet" rich in potatoes.

"But 12 months before her death, her diet becomes protein rich," Wilson said, adding that she was likely fed "elite" food such as maize and llama meat.

"We can equate a change in diet of this magnitude with a change in her status, one that occurred as part of her final demise."

But the term "fattening up" is used as an illustration, not necessarily a direct reference to weight gain, he said.

"The tissue on the Maiden's forearm is plump, for example," he said. "This is an illustration that these individuals were in good health and condition."

What's more, the chemical evidence shows another shift several months before death, indicating that the children were forced on a grueling pilgrimage.

The route likely went from Cusco, Peru—the Inca capital—to high-altitude mountain shrines, where the children were drugged and then killed or left to die, Wilson added.

The Maiden, for example, was fed fermented maize beer and chewed coca leaves before her death.

Last Months of Life

"This work gives a very interesting and intimate picture of the last months before the deaths of the individuals involved in the capacocha ceremonies," said Kelly J. Knudson, a bioarchaeologist at Arizona State University.

Sonia Guillén, a Peruvian archaeologist, said the study was interesting and helps confirm much of what is known about this type of sacrifice.

"One key question is how these children differed from others in terms of diet," she said.

Other capacocha victims have been found, and other studies have looked at isotopic signatures in order to measure seasonal variations in diet, study leader Wilson said.

But none "has linked to such a graphic piece of evidence that would suggest a diet shift of this magnitude that could be equated with change in status."

Study co-author Timothy Taylor, also from the University of Bradford, said in a written statement that "the treatment of such peasant children may have served to instill fear and exert social control over remote mountain areas newly incorporated into the empire."

Superheroes in Their Retirement Age

A superhero (also known as a super hero) is a fictional character “of unprecedented physical prowess dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest.”


Since the debut of the prototypal superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas — have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other media.

Every superhero has got their glorious moment, as time pass by they too will getting old. Have you ever wonder where would these superheros look like in their retirement age?

Scientists From Around the Globe Join ABC News in a Forum on Surviving the Century

Are we living in the last century of our civilization? Is it possible that all of our technology, knowledge and wealth cannot save us from ourselves? Could our society actually be heading towards collapse?

A dramatic preview of an unprecedented ABC News event called "Earth 2100."According to many of the world's top scientists, the answer is yes, unless we take action now.

This September, in Earth 2100, a dramatic ABC News 2-hour broadcast, the greatest minds across the globe will join together in a countdown to the year 2100 to tell us what we must do to survive the next century … And what may happen if we don't.

The time to act is now, says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.

"The 21st century is going to be the century which determine[s] whether we live or die as a sustainable species," Gleick said. "As populations grow, as our use of resources grows, I think we get closer and closer to that edge."

Special Thanks to ABC