Longer wait, hotter oven make pizza crust healthier(Bloomberg) — Hungry as pizza eaters often are, they might be wise to wait a few minutes longer for a healthier whole-wheat crust, according to a study.Cooking whole-wheat crust longer and at hotter temperatures increases levels of antioxidant molecules that protect human cells from damage, said the researchers, including Jeffrey Moore, a nutrition student who doesn’t mind a slice of pizza himself occasionally as he works on his doctoral thesis.

Antioxidants scrub tissues clean of harmful, reactive chemicals that can break down cell walls and damage DNA, said Liangli Lucy Yu, an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Maryland in College Park, who oversaw the study.

The scientists say the molecules speed up ageing and may contribute to heart disease and other ailments.

“This may be an example of a little thing we can do that doesn’t take much extra effort and can make our food better,” Yu said today in a telephone interview.

While most pizza doesn’t have whole-wheat crust, the study looked at ways cooks can raise levels of antioxidants in wholewheat dough.

Doubling the cooking time to 14 minutes can increase antioxidants as much as 60 percent, Moore said.

Turning the oven up to 550 degrees, from 400, can raise levels as much as 82 percent, he said.

Bakers have to be careful not to burn the pizza.

“Food has to taste good and look good first,” said Yu, who said she likes onions, peppers and pineapple on pizza.

For people who make their own whole-wheat pizza crust, other simple techniques can help, Moore said.

For example, pizza dough allowed as much as 48 hours to rise had twice the potential to scrub tissues as dough that rises faster, he said.Trans fats linked to greater heart riskNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — A study published today supports recent efforts to rid the American diet of trans fats.In the study, women with the highest levels of trans fat in their blood had triple the risk of heart disease as those with the lowest levels.

“Humans cannot synthesise, or create, trans fatty acid. The only source is through diet,” study chief Dr. Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, said in a written statement.

The main source of trans fat in the diet is partially hydrogenated oils that are plentiful in cookies, crackers, pastries and fried foods. “Eliminating the use of partially hydrogenated oils and other sources of trans fat in the U.S. diet — as long as saturated fat intake doesn’t increase — will likely help reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease,” Hu said.

Hu and colleagues analysed blood samples obtained from 32,826 nurses between 1989 and 1990 as part of a long-term study that looked at the effect of oral contraceptives, diet and lifestyle on the development of heart and other diseases.

During six years of follow-up, 166 women developed heart disease and these women were matched to 327 healthy control women.More walking, less TV help new moms trimNEW YORK (Reuters Health) — Walking, avoiding trans fats, and turning off the TV may go along way towards helping new mothers pare off extra post-baby pounds, a new study shows.“There are things that women can do that don’t seem to me to be particularly onerous to avoid retaining a lot of weight after pregnancy,” Dr. Emily Oken of Harvard Medical School, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

Many women don’t lose all their “baby weight” after the baby is born, and there is evidence that this type of weight gain can be particularly hazardous to health, Oken noted in an interview; for example, it is more likely to collect around the abdomen.

Oken and her colleagues followed 902 women to determine which behaviours were associated with retaining weight after childbirth. Six months after their infant was born, mothers reported how much time they spent watching TV and being physically active, and also filled out a diet questionnaire.