National Nutrient Database Updated to Include Vitamin D Values

202 new foods added this year including restaurant foods and Latino cuisine

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The next time you run nutritionals
using the government's database, you might be pleasantly surprised that some
of your favorite foods seem to have received a nutrient boost, virtually
overnight.

The addition of vitamin D values to nearly half of all food entries -
including mushrooms, the only fruit or vegetable with natural vitamin D -
topped the list of important updates made to the United States Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) release 22 of the National Nutrient Database for Standard
Reference. The database is available for anyone to search or download from the
Nutrient Data Laboratory Web site and can be found here:
www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata.

The database - which contains nutrient data for over 7,500 food items for up
to 143 food components, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty
acids - is the foundation of most food and nutrition databases in the U.S.,
used for determining the nutritional components of recipes, along with serving
as a resource in food policy and research.

"Nutrition and health professionals regard the database as the authoritative
source of information about food composition in the United States," said Mary
Jo Feeney, Fellow of the American Dietetic Association and nutrition research
coordinator for the Mushroom Council. There is a substantial amount of
research and public health interest in the role of vitamin D in health. The
inclusion of vitamin D values for mushrooms in the database enables health
professionals to assess consumers' intake of vitamin D and use mushrooms to
help meet their dietary needs."

Similar to the way that humans absorb sunlight and convert it to vitamin D,
mushrooms contain a plant sterol--ergosterol--that converts to vitamin D when
exposed to sunlight. The top three selling mushroom varieties (button, crimini
and portabella) have vitamin D ranging from 1 to 118 percent of the Daily
Value (400 IU).

The Vitamin D Download
Interest in vitamin D, also called the "sunshine vitamin" has exploded in the
past year, making D the new hot nutrient among consumers and health
professionals alike.
-- This year, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a committee on
calcium and vitamin D to determine if the current intake
recommendations
should be increased for all Americans. The report is expected in 2010.
-- The American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the amount of vitamin D it
recommends for children and infants.
-- An emerging body of science, including laboratory, animal and
epidemiological studies, suggests that higher intakes of vitamin D may
be protective against some cancers, including pancreatic, breast,
colon
and colorectal cancers. (1)(2)(3)(4)
-- Scientists are also exploring links between low vitamin D status and
increased risk for a number of chronic diseases, including heart
disease, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.(5)(6)(7)

-- Influential scientists and researchers have gathered this week in
Belgium to further explore vitamin D and its importance in health at
the
Vitamin D Workshop, hosted every three years by the University of
California-Riverside.

Plantains, Gold Kiwifruit and Energy Drinks
Some other interesting facts about the database and the newly added foods and
beverages:
-- The muscadine grape - which is a new addition to the database - is
considered "America's First Grape," according to the USDA Agriculture
Research Service. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote of their abundance when he
landed on the coast of North Carolina in 1584.
-- Plantains are also referred to as "cooking bananas" and are often used
in Latino cooking which is why they were recently added to the
database.
In many countries, this fruit is used more like a vegetable or for
cooking rather than being eaten like a fruit. It is starchier in
flavor
and is not suitable for eating unless very ripe, when the peel turns
completely black.
-- Other Latino foods added include tostada shells, sweetened Latino
breads, cakes, cookies, muffins, horchata beverage and dulce de leche.
-- Horchata is a popular, usually "milky," Latino beverage made of ground
sesame seeds, almonds, rice, barley or tigernuts, sugar and spices.
There are now two entries of this sweet drink in the database.
-- One cup of the gold kiwifruit - another new addition - has
approximately
100 mg more vitamin C than one cup of a fresh, navel orange.
-- There are now 10 entries for "energy drink."

-- The database now includes 13 "formulated bars," which includes popular
brands of bars fortified with various nutrients such as protein and
fiber.

For more information on mushrooms and vitamin D, visit www.MushroomInfo.com.

The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who
average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually.
The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and
Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council
under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and
promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual
agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry
self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they
serve. For more information on the Mushroom Council, visit
mushroomcouncil.org.

(1) Skinner HG, Michaud DS, Giovannucci E, Willett WC, et al. Vitamin D intake
and the risk for pancreatic cancer in two cohort studies. Cancer Epidemiol
Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15(9):1688-1695.
(2) Giovannucci E, Liu Y, Rimm EB, Hollis BW, et al. Prospective study of
predictors of vitamin D status and cancer incidence and mortality in men. J
Natl Cancer Inst. 2006;98:451-9.
(3) Spina CS, et al. Vitamin D and cancer. Anticancer Res.
2006;26(4A):2515-24.
(4) Palmieri C, MacGregor T, Girgis S, Vigushin D. Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D
levels in early and advanced breast cancer. J Clin Pathol.2006; online
edition: http://jcp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/59/12/1334
(5) Zitterman A, Koerfer R. Vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of
coronary heart disease. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2008 Nov;11(6):752-7.
(6) Bailey R, et al. Association of the vitamin D metabolism gene CYP27B1 with
type 1 diabetes. Diabetes, 2007 Oct;56(10):2616-21. Epub 2007 Jul 2.
(7) Munger KL, et al. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and risk of multiple
sclerosis. JAMA, 2006 Dec 20;296(23):2832-8.

CONTACT:
Kirsten Stahlberg (312) 233-1324
kirsten.stahlberg@edelman.com

SOURCE The Mushroom Council

Kirsten Stahlberg, +1-312-233-1324, kirsten.stahlberg@edelman.com, for The
Mushroom Council