World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) Report

The second expert report of the WCRF was released globally on November 1. An expert panel of 21 scientists from around the world reviewed research on diet, physical activity and the risk of cancer and developed a set of recommendations to reduce the risk. AFIC will include an article on diet, physical activity and lifestyle and cancer risk in the next issue of Food Facts Asia. AFIC can also provide a list of experts in Asia for information on this topic. Contact AFIC on www.afic.org or email info@afic.org.  

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WHO Growth standards follow-up

The World Health Organization released new growths standards for children from birth to 5 years of age in 2006. The standards were based on data collected through the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Study in the United States, Brazil, India, Ghana, Norway and Oman. Data from a 2 year follow-up study has reported that the growth patterns in the children following the recommendations for breastfeeding and the timing of the introduction of weaning foods from the 6 different study sites are similar. This suggests that healthy children following recommended diets and raised in healthy environments have very similar growth patterns regardless of their race or genetic background. It’s a small world after all.