Listen to Dr. Ed Bauman Interviewed on: The Voice of America, August 11, 2010

Investing in Your Health
Host Patricia Dean-Escoto interviews Dr. Ed Bauman
Live: 11:00 EST (8:00 am PST), August 11th
Archived (after 8/11): www.health.voiceamerica.com

Special guest Ed Bauman discusses the role nutrition plays in helping to achieve lasting health

Every day we wake up to hundreds of decisions.  Whether to visit our friends, take a particular route to work, or watch a certain program on TV.  We make them willingly and consciously.  However, of all the decisions we make, the one that is often given the least amount of thought is what foods we will eat.  Yet, proper nutrition plays a major role in our health and vitality.

Nutrition Bytes by Ed Bauman

Apples may reduce allergic response

Food allergies are triggered by allergens and their derivatives commonly found in foods that contain gluten, fish, egg, peanut, soybeans, dairy products, nuts, sulfites, and other ingredients. Annick Mercenier, from the Nestle Research Center (Switzerland), and colleagues have discovered that mice allergic to ovalbumin (a protein found in egg whites) that were fed a polyphenol-rich extract from apple experienced a reduced allergic response to the trigger protein, but only when the extract was consumed before being challenged with the food. The team speculates that the polyphenols may help to reduce the release of an allergic mediator by specific white blood cells known as effector cells, which are activated by the presence of an allergen. Alternatively, they posit that the apple polyphenols may bind to the allergen itself, which would reduce the allergenicity of the protein. The team concludes that: “Polyphenol-enriched apple extract can attenuate food allergy symptoms in sensitized mice via two distinct possible mechanisms.” <READ MORE>