"queensland" news and stories

Although research is still in preliminary stages, early results from a University of Queensland study presented at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress indicated that compounds in mangoes may offer some surprising health benefits. They seem to act on the "same pathways that diabetes and cholesterol drugs target," blocking or activating receptors known as "peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors." These receptors play key rolls in people with diabetes and high cholesterol, but are also being linked with some types of cancer. If the mango compounds do target them, it is possible that the fruits could ease the effects of diabetes and high cholesterol, or even be able to combat cancerous cells.

The name "nutritional bioactive" is given to the unique components of fruits and vegetables that have particular health effects and study of these bioactives has been primarily directed at temperate, highly common fruits and vegetables (broccoli, etc). The researchers at Queensland have focused on tropical fruits, which is what led to their current findings.

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Who doesn't love a good pub crawl? The camaraderie and the drinking are two selling points that many people are loathe to refuse, though the possibility of breaking a world record should be enough to convince any hesitant participants. The city of Maryborough in Queensland, Australia has just completed the world's largest pub crawl, a feat confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records. About 2,000 of the city's 26,000 residents participated in the crawl, which required that they visit at least 10 pubs in under six hours and down at least one drink in each pub for a stamp on their official card. The drinks did not have to be alcoholic, but it's a safe bet that the majority of the over 19,000 drinks downed were beer or another alcoholic libation. Of all the participants, only 1198 official cards were collected by the city to confirm the record. A city official said that some of the more "confused" participants may have forgotten to turn theirs in. The city will attempt to break their own record when they host another crawl on June 11th, 2006.

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