Daily dose of enriched milk can help deal with gout

A study supported by Fonterra and published last month in the British Medical Journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases has shown that a daily dose of skimmed milk, enriched with two value added ingredients naturally found in dairy products, may reduce the frequency and intensity of gout flares.

The farmer-owned New Zealand co-operative is the largest processor of milk in the world, producing more than two million tonnes of dairy ingredients, value added dairy ingredients, specialty ingredients and consumer products every year.

The groundbreaking study is the first clinical trial to study dietary intervention in gout, and was conducted by Dr Nicola Dalbeth from the University of Auckland Bone and Joint Research Group in conjunction with scientists from the Fonterra Research Centre and the University Department of Medicine.

Dr Dalbeth says the results are likely to come as welcome news to the millions worldwide who suffer from gout – the most common form of inflammatory arthritis and a disease associated with extreme joint pain.
“While gout is largely seen as a nutritional disease, until now there have been no clinical trials to show the positive impact of dietary intervention,” she says.
“If developed further, this discovery has the potential to give patients more control over their condition, and could become a very useful tool in the ongoing management of gout,” says Dr Dalbeth.

Global prevalence of gout appears to be on the increase with recent estimates suggesting that the New Zealand prevalence of gout is around 2.9 percent of the population, while a rate of 1.4 percent is reported in Australia.

Up to 8.3 million Americans (four percent) now suffer from gout and a prevalence of 1.4 percent has been reported in the UK and Germany, while a comparative study in China showed an increase in prevalence from 0.36 percent in 2000, to more than one percent in 2006.

The research has been driven by Fonterra’s Premium Ingredients division, which has patented the use of the two ingredients in relation to gout and is currently investigating opportunities to bring this new solution to gout sufferers globally.

Premium Ingredients group director of marketing, innovation and ventures Joanna Mobley says the company is excited by the study’s finding and its
potential to provide gout sufferers with a dietary intervention.
“When you look at the statistics, a prevalence level of more than one percent in China sounds small, but it actually equates to over 15 million sufferers in onecountry alone.
“We know that  incidence of gout is growing in adult populations all over the world, so we expect this discovery to play an important part in our innovation strategy to support healthy ageing through advanced nutrition,” said Ms Mobley.

A sample group of 120 gout sufferers were enrolled in the three month study, which analysed the frequency and intensity of gout flare ups. The results showed that those taking the enriched skimmed milk had significantly greater reduction in gout flares compared with two control groups, and experienced greater improvements regarding pain intensity.

The research was originally funded by LactoPharma, a joint venture between Fonterra and the University of Auckland, which is funded by Fonterra and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Fonterra is one of the largest investors in dairy-based research and innovation in the world.

The price of eating healthily

University of Washington researchers have estimated that striving to eat healthier would add about 10 percent to the average American’s food bill of US$4000 per year.
The “Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For Consumers” study examined the economic impact of meeting recommended dietary guidelines for 1123 adults in King County (Washington) according to local supermarket prices.
“The Federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, emphasised the need for Americans to consume more potassium, dietary fibre, vitamin D and calcium, and to get fewer calories from saturated fat and added sugar,” stated authors Pablo Monsivais, Anju Aggarwal and Adam Drewnowski.
“We found that increasing consumption of potassium – the most expensive of the four recommended nutrients – would add US$380 per year to the average consumer’s food costs.
“Meanwhile, each time consumers obtained 1 percent more of their daily calories from saturated fat and added sugar, their food costs significantly declined.
“These findings suggest that improving the American diet will require additional guidance for consumers, especially those with little budget flexibility, and new policies to increase the availability and reduce the cost of healthful foods.”
Federal Dietary Guidelines have been formulated to reduce rising rates of obesity in the United States, with over one-third of children and two-thirds of adults in the country currently considered overweight or obese.
The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey found that one-in-three adults in this country were overweight (36.3 percent) and one-in-four obese (26.5 percent), and that one-in-five children aged two to 14 years were overweight (20.9 percent) and one-in-twelve obese (8.3 percent).
Consumer New Zealand and the Ministry of Health’s Healthy Eating Healthy Action division declined the opportunity for comment.

If it moves, tax it

Fears that many fruit and vegetable growers would be knocked out of business by a proposed  irrigation tax are being expressed by Horticulture NZ. The Green Party’s recently-announced ‘clean rivers’ policy includes a plan to charge irrigated water users 10 cents for every 1,000 litres.
The Greens claim this would raise up to $570 million a year which they would spend on river and lake protection.“Water is the life blood of this country’s $5.5 billion horticulture industry, an employer of 50,000 people,” says HortNZ chief executive Peter Silcock. “This would be a major setback for the industry’s goal of achieving  $10 billion in sales by 2020.“An irrigator tax will encourage fruit and vegetable growers to look at more profitable uses for their land which in the current environment is likely to be dairy conversions.”
An announcement last month by NIWA indicated that this could exacerbate the problem of water pollution.
It quoted an OECD report describing New Zealand’s water quality as “good”  compared to that of most OECD countries but also warning  that it is deteriorating.
Paris-based Dr Kevin Parris of the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate had told a DIPCON conference at Rotorua: “We look at all the nitrogen and phosphorus going into the system, mainly from livestock manure and fertilisers and calculate how much nutrients are used to grow crops and pasture.
“In most situations there is a surplus of nutrients to crop and pasture requirements.”
This puts stress on the environment, which includes the air and soil as well as water.
 In 2000, NZ’s average was  about 35 kg of nitrogen per hectare. By 2008 it had risen to about 45 kg.
The worst-ranked OECD country was the Netherlands with a surplus of more than 200 kg per hectare.
“They have a lot of cows and not much land,” explained Dr Parris.
The agricultural expansion, he added, will have a time-bomb effect because nitrogen and phosphorus can sit in soil a long time before appearing in water.
“Because of these time lags, in some catchments we won’t necessarily see the effects of current farming practices for another 30 to 40 years,” he said. After warning that the proposed water tax would destroy many fruit and vegetable businesses – and tempt a number of growers into switching to dairy - Peter Silcock of HortNZ  said: “Growers do not have the luxury of being able to pass on their costs to consumers and the Greens are well aware of that.
“To get effective change we need to reward good behavior and penalise poor behavior rather than taxing everyone regardless of their performance.
“Ten cents may not sound like a lot but it is very significant. For most growers it will run into tens of thousands of dollars per year.”

Why the big secret?

By chief executive Horticulture New Zealand, Peter Silcock.

New Zealand’s fruit and vegetable growers are thankful at least one political party has the good sense to put a call for mandatory country of origin labelling (MCoOL) on their political agenda for this election.
The Green Party should be congratulated for continuing to put this issue out on the table. We are equally disappointed to note that neither of the two major political parties can be bothered with it.
There are few issues that unite Kiwi food producers and food consumers as strongly as the need for mandatory country of origin labelling.
HortNZ has been campaigning for the introduction of mandatory MCoOL for more than six years. We are a grower-funded association and believe Kiwis want the right to know where their food comes from.
Both the major parties would have us believe we can’t have mandatory MCoOL’ because it is a trade barrier.
HortNZ would really like to hear both parties explain how this can be the case, when 99 percent of the countries we trade with already have MCoOL, and we have it on clothing, shoes, wine and whiteware.
In 2006 New Zealand imported food was valued at NZ$3 billion. In 2010, that number increased to $3.8 billion.
In 2006, about $580 million, just over a quarter of the total of imported food, was fresh or processed fruit and vegetable product. By 2010 that figure was just over $700 million.

This means New Zealand fruit and vegetable growers have had to compete with increased competition from an extra $120 million worth of product on their doorstep, in the last four years.
Back in 2006 it was the figures from China that made the most startling reading, as they were trending upwards very quickly, in fact had doubled in three years from 2003.
Four years on, the figures seem to indicate now that more product, particularly processed fruit and vegetables, is coming in to this country from a wider range of countries.
By ‘processed’ we mean any food sold in a can or a bag.
This means New Zealand food manufacturers and processors are shopping around the world for cheaper products, but are still charging much the same prices to Kiwi shoppers.
At the same time, they are reducing their requirements for locally grown product, which means growers will stop growing it.
I just can’t understand why successive governments have protected my right to know where my shoes come from, but have refused to require food sellers to tell me where my food comes from.
Horticulture New Zealand is a foundation member of the CoOL New Zealand campaign to bring mandatory country of origin labelling to New Zealand food.
Check out the website: www.cool.org.nz and join the Facebook group ‘I Want a CoOL New Zealand’