Data collected by the U.S. government show that the nutritional content of America’s vegetables and fruits has declined during the past 50 years – in some cases dramatically.

The cause is believed to be the trend in agriculture toward encouraging crops that grow the fastest and biggest. The faster-growing plants aren’t able to acquire the nutrients that their slower-growing cousins can, either by synthesis or from the soil.

[Read](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/261163_veggie01.html) (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

The number of soldiers who took their own lives while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan rose in 2005 over the previous year, as the U.S. Army experienced its highest suicide rate since 1999.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11925467&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

While I was stationed in Japan 20+ years ago, 2 soldiers (1 male and 1 female) in my company attempted suicide. If I remember correctly, the male slashed his wrists, and the female overdosed on pills.

Eating four cholesterol-lowering foods each day can cut cholesterol levels as effectively as taking a first-generation statin drug, Canadian researchers report.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11922560&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

The turnaround has come not from greater sales of healthy foods but from selling more fast-food basics.

The enormous success of the Dollar Menu, where all items cost $1, has helped stimulate 36 consecutive months of sales growth at stores open at least a year. In three years, revenue has increased by 33 percent and its shares have rocketed 170 percent, a remarkable turnaround for a company that only four years ago seemed to be going nowhere.

[Read](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/19/business/19mcdonalds.html?ex=1303099200&en=8a226aceda62b0c8&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) (New York Times)

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a study suggests.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/health/4904082.stm) (BBC)

French fries and chicken products from two global fast-food chains contain very high levels of artery-clogging “trans” fats, researchers warn.

In a review of trans fats in the same journal, Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, and colleagues, conclude that in the US alone, complete removal of the industrially-produced trans fats from food preparation could prevent up to 228,000 heart attacks per year in the US.

[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8989&feedId=online-news_rss20) (New Scientist)

Being overweight during one’s early 40s increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease decades later, new research shows. Subjects with high levels of fat in the arm and back were nearly three times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those with low levels.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11780146&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

For patients at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease, taking a combination of vitamins E and C plus ibuprofen significantly reduces their risk, a study suggests.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11789992&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

Teenagers who are physically active in any way are less likely than their TV-watching peers to smoke, drink or take other health risks.

Researchers found that compared with teens who spent much of their free time in front of the TV, those who were active often had higher self-esteem, better grades and were less prone to risky behavior like taking drugs, smoking, drinking or having sex.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11760006&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands of obese U.S. children cannot fit into car seats, leaving them at risk in the event of a crash, researchers said on Monday.

According to the study published in the journal “Pediatrics,” more than 282,000 overweight children under the age of 7 do not fit into most child safety or booster seats available on the market and therefore are improperly restrained inside vehicles.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11724633&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

A rise in autism cases is not evidence of a feared epidemic but reflects that schools are diagnosing autism more frequently, according to a study released on 4/3.

Children classified by U.S. school special education programs as mentally retarded or learning disabled have declined in tandem with the rise in autism cases between 1994 and 2003, the author of the study said, suggesting a switch of diagnoses.

[Read](http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/454286/study_suggests_rise_in_autism_cases_may_not_be_real/ “Read the Article”) (Reuters via redOrbit)

A study finds bleach is the only way to kill dangerous hospital bugs – other cleaners may actually help the bugs thrive.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/health/4871840.stm) (BBC)

A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures — as in barbecue — encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats.

[Read](http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=11724412&src=rss/healthNews) (Reuters)

High protein, low carbohydrate diets should be avoided during pregnancy as they can lead to more stressed offspring.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4864488.stm) (BBC)