Food science & nutrition.

Medicinal purposes A nip of alcohol can be therapeutic, but usually not until middle age (163: 155, 157).

Fractious vitamin People consuming large amounts of vitamin A in foods or supplements appeared more likely to suffer hip fractures than were people who ingested more-modest amounts of the vitamin (163: 52 *).

Food soothies Chronic stress might drive people to consume comfort foods because excess abdominal fat can soothe the brain (164: 165 *).

Brain food As little as one serving offish per month offered some protection against the most common form of stroke (163: 46).

Soy clues A compound from soybeans that have been damaged or stressed interfered with estrogen activity, suggesting new breast-cancer drugs (164: 302).

Cowed not As Canadian health officials investigated a domestic case of mad cow disease, researchers were working on the next generation of defenses against the brain disease in animals and people (163: 340 *).

Supplementary risks In animal tests, an herbal extract called black cohash that some women use to relieve symptoms of menopause increased the likelihood that breast cancer cells would spread (164: 62).

Cancer threat diminished A study found it unlikely that people develop cancer from eating foods containing acrylamide, a building block of many plastics (163: 84).

Many herbal-product makers aren't maintaining quality control, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to propose rules that mandate good manufacturing practices for the industry (163: 359 *).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

* An asterisk indicates that the text of the item is available free on SCIENCE NEWS ONLINE (http://sciencenews.org).