A type of molecule called a lignan, found in plant-based foods, may help lower heart disease risk, according to a new study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researchers. The molecule, which is found in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, red wine, and coffee, was found to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
The study was published online in the August 2021 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
First author Yang Hu, a research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School, and colleagues studied data on the eating patterns of more than 200,000 people. They found that those whose diets included higher amounts of foods rich in lignans had a significantly reduced risk of coronary heart disease compared to those who ate low amounts of lignans. The protective effect appeared to increase among those who had higher amounts of fiber in their diet.
“This opens another avenue of research because we can take further steps to see how the gut microbiota and fiber interact with the production of lignans and how these might affect disease risk for other conditions, such as diabetes,” Hu said in an August 9 article in WebMD.
The women participated in a crash planting demonstration of cabbage
A group of women Councilors from the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone have ended a two-day learning and exchange visit to their counterparts in Kabala, Koinadugu District, in the North of the country.
The women from the East, mainly drawn from the women
in governance networks in Kenema and Kailahun districts, were interested in
farming activities by the women groups in Kabala while they in turn shared
their experiences in political governance.
“We see this engagement as a win-win for the women
in both regions,” said Jeneba Combey, Head of Governance Project, SEND Sierra
Leone, the organisers of the program with funding from Irish Aid and UNDP
Sierra Leone. “Both groups shared their experiences including successes,
challenges and opportunities. The women from the East are doing well in
political representation while the women in Kabala are doing well in
agriculture. So it’s a good learning process for both groups.”
Kabala grows most of the vegetables consumed by the
country and women are the main growers.
Led by the President of the Koinadugu Women
Vegetable Farmers Association, Haja Sundu Marrah, the women were taken on a
conducted tour of the group’s demonstration farm of about 17 acres and later
the main farm of 20 acres located seven miles away into the outskirt of the
town.
According to Haja Marrah, the farm lands were
donated by the Paramount Chiefs as part of their own support to the women
farmers. The women farm collectively as a group, but they also have individual
farms of their own. They plant a variety of vegetables including cabbage, carrot,
onions, tomato and garden eggs. The group participated in a crash planting
demonstration of onions while Haja Marrah explained the processes involved till
harvesting time.
Most of the women in the group, which started as the
Kabala Women Project way back in 1984, did not have the opportunity to go to
school, but today, in the estimation of Haja Marrah, “we are degree holders
because from our farming we have educated our children, especially our girls,
through University and we have been able to build our own houses”.
“The majority of us pay our children’s education
fees throughout from the farming we do,” continued Haja Marrah. “Not that our
husbands do not want to pay, but the children are many and they could not
afford to pay for all of them. Naturally, their preference will be the boys.”
Through this also, she added, they have been able to
minimize conflicts usually associated with polygamous homes in which they find
themselves since their parents forced them into marriage at the early ages of
13, 14 and 15.
“I was born into a polygamous home and I got married
into one as well at the age of 14,” explained Haja Marrah. “My husband has two
other wives; I am the third. So you can imagine how our farming activities have
helped us overcome these challenges.”
However, the three times AWOL Farmer of the Year
lamented lack of market for their produce as a key challenge for them.
“Our main challenge is the market. Before now when
we were with FAO, they linked us with the big hotels in Freetown. We supply
them by turns; some of us will supply on a Monday, others will supply on Friday
and throughout the month. They calculated our supplies for the month and they
paid us in dollars. That was the first time we started to earn dollars and
that’s when we started building our individual houses,” she explained. “But
nowadays they don’t buy from us anymore because they have put rigid criteria in
place which are difficult for us to meet.”
To overcome the challenge, the Kabala women now
plant more of sweet potatoes and onions and less of other vegetables. Everybody,
they argue, eats onions for example and people buy them daily. Moreover, they
are easy to grow and can be harvested every two weeks. Most importantly sweet
potatoes and onions don’t perish easily.
Moreover, Haja Marrah is positive that the new
Minister of Agriculture, Food Security and Forestry is showing concerns about
their situation.
Meanwhile, the visiting delegation led by the
President of the Kenema Women in Governance Network, Fatmata Dassama, shared
their experiences in the empowerment of women in the Eastern districts of
Kenema and Kailahun. Dassama explained the formation of the women in governance
networks in Kailahun and most recently in Kenema. She noted that the foundation
for their political empowerment started with the empowerment of women
economically through various micro-credit schemes.
“Through the help of our main partner (SEND Sierra
Leone) and donors, we benefited from micro-credit loans which enabled us to do
small businesses that brought us income,” explained Dassama. “In addition, we
were trained on business development, leadership, public speaking and advocacy
skills. Soon we started aspiring for political office at district and national
levels. Today, we are proud to boast of female Section chiefs, Town chiefs,
Members of Parliament and Councilors through support from our governance
network projects.”
Unlike the Northern province which includes
Koinadugu District, the Eastern province has the highest number of women in
political office. In the 2012 national elections, 12 women won seats as
councilors in Kailahun District. After the 2018 national elections the Eastern
region now boasts 25 female councilors and four Members of Parliament.
Until recently, the Northern region is renowned for
its lack of opportunities for women aspiring for decision making positions at
district and national level.
Women who eat a high amount of fruits and vegetables each day may have a lower risk of breast cancer, especially of aggressive tumors, than those who eat fewer fruits and vegetables, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In their findings, cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, and yellow and orange vegetables, had a particularly significant association with lower breast cancer risk.
“Although prior studies have suggested an association, they have been limited in power, particularly for specific fruits and vegetables and aggressive subtypes of breast cancer,” said first author Maryam Farvid, research scientist in the Department of Nutrition. “This research provides the most complete picture of the importance of consuming high amounts of fruit and vegetables for breast cancer prevention.”
The study was published online July 6, 2018 in the International Journal of Cancer.
The researchers analyzed diet questionnaires submitted every four years by participants in the Nurses’ Health Study (88,301 women, starting in 1980) and the Nurses’ Health Study II (93,844 women, starting in 1991). Data on other potential breast cancer risk factors such as age, weight, smoking status, and family cancer history were taken from biennial questionnaires.
They found that women who ate more than 5.5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day had an 11% lower risk of breast cancer than those who ate 2.5 or fewer servings. (A serving is defined as one cup of raw leafy vegetables, half a cup of raw or cooked vegetables, or half a cup of chopped or cooked fruits.)
To find out whether the benefits of fruit and vegetable consumption differed among various types of breast cancers, the researchers conducted an analysis by tumor hormone receptor status and molecular subtype. They found that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was particularly associated with lower risk of more aggressive tumors including ER-negative, HER2-enriched, and basal-like tumors.
Previous work by this research group linked reduced breast cancer risk with higher fiber intake, but the benefits of fruits and vegetables found in this study appear to be independent of their fiber content, according to the researchers. This suggests that constituents of these foods, such as antioxidants and other micronutrients, may also be important in reducing breast cancer risk.
“While a diet with lots of fruits and vegetables is associated with many other health benefits, our results may provide further impetus for women to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables,” said senior author Heather Eliassen, associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Chan School and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Other Harvard Chan authors included Bernard Rosner, Rulla Tamimi, and Walter Willett.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health Grants (R01 CA050385, UM1 CA176726, UM1 CA186107, P01 CA87969) and a grant from The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
“Fruit and vegetable consumption and breast cancer incidence: Repeated measures over 30 years of follow-up Maryam S. Farvid, Wendy Y. Chen, Bernard Rosner, Rulla M. Tamimi, Walter C. Willett, International Journal of Cancer</, online July 6, 2018, doi: 10.1002/ijc.31653
“Although prior studies have suggested an association, they have been limited in power, particularly for specific fruits and vegetables and aggressive subtypes of breast cancer,” said first author Maryam Farvid, research scientist in the 
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