The growing obesity problem

Drink's Possible Ties To Deaths Are Probed - Yahoo! Finance

Drink's Possible Ties To Deaths Are Probed - Yahoo! Finance:

"The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it has received reports of 13 deaths since 2008 possibly related to the use of 5-hour Energy shots, a disclosure that could heighten scrutiny of drinks and dietary supplements that promise to deliver an energy boost.

A spokeswoman at the federal agency, confirming an earlier report published on the New York Times website, said 5-hour Energy was named in 92 so-called adverse event reports, including 33 involving hospitalization, over the same period."

How Fat Hurts Your Health | Men's Health

How Fat Hurts Your Health | Men's Health:

"When researchers in St. Louis tracked a group of liposuction patients after surgery, they found zero improvement in blood pressure, triglycerides, glucose tolerance, or HDL or LDL cholesterol profiles. The pale, gloppy fat that a patient pays to have removed isn't pretty, but its absence doesn't guarantee the health profile of a lean, fit person. That's because visceral fat, the kind that wraps around your organs and makes you unhealthy, is also the kind that liposuction can't reach."

Interesting article on the differences of how men (around the abdomen)  and women (lower body) store fat and speculates that the differences go back to ancient (and in hunter-gatherer) days. 

It's not just how many calories, but what kind, study finds - latimes.com

It's not just how many calories, but what kind, study finds - latimes.com:

"...from a metabolic perspective, all calories are not alike," said study senior author Dr. David Ludwig, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Children's Hospital Boston. "The quality of the calories going in affects the quantity of the calories going out."

and later:

"...each subject was fed three different diets for four weeks at a time: a traditional low-fat diet (60% carbohydrates, 20% fat and 20% protein), a low glycemic index diet (with 40% carbs, 40% fat and 20% protein) and a very low-carbohydrate diet a la Atkins (with 10% carbohydrates, 60% fat and 30% protein).

the results? The low fat diet had the most severe metabolism reduction.

FYI this is very similar to what Metabolic Effect has been preaching for a while now! :)

To quit smoking, try eating more veggies and fruits

To quit smoking, try eating more veggies and fruits: If you're trying to quit smoking, eating more fruits and vegetables may help you quit and stay tobacco-free for longer, according to a new study published online by University at Buffalo public health researchers.

It's been a great year for asparagus, so I decided to see how nutritious it is:

How Asparagus are You? : Disease Proof:

"...asparagus is a great food. Dr. Fuhrman tells us why:

Asparagus is one of the most healthful foods on the planet. It leads nearly all fruits and vegetables in the wide array of nutrients it supplies. Ten ounces (one box of frozen spears) have only 68 calories and 9 grams of protein, yet it is like a vitamin pill, giving you a variety of minerals such as selenium, zinc, calcium, copper, and manganese. Plus, it is very rich in folate.


Asparagus has an exceptionally high nutrient-per-calorie ratio and is the perfect weight-loss food."

Cancer and LDL cholesterol | theheart.org

Cancer and LDL cholesterol | theheart.org

For well over a decade we have known that low cholesterol can be associated with cancer.  But the question was whether the cancer caused the low levels of cholesterol or the low levels of cholesterol were causing the cancer..  We still do not know but it appears the effect hypothesis (that is that the low levels are a by-product of the cancer) is a bit less likely given new research out of Tuft's:

""Based on these data, it would suggest that lower cholesterol predated the development of cancer by quite a long time. Now, that doesn't necessarily speak to [low cholesterol] causing the cancer; it could have been related to something else altogether, but it's not supportive of the hypothesis that cancer caused the low levels of LDL cholesterol. We don't know why it predates cancer, but it would be premature to attribute it to the cancer itself.""

I must admit I am not sure what to do with this information. Further study is definitely warranted.

Omega-3s May Guard Against Brain Decline | Healthland | TIME.com

Omega-3s May Guard Against Brain Decline | Healthland | TIME.com

"Eating a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids — healthy fats found in abundance in oily fish such as salmon — may protect against premature aging of the brain and memory problems in late middle age, according to a study published today in the journal Neurology.

Fish has long had a reputation as a brain food. The new study, however, is the first to link blood levels of omega-3s with brain shrinkage, mild memory loss, and declines in cognitive function, all of which are associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia"

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/28/omega-3s-may-guard-against-brain-decline/#ixzz1ni3IqvzX

"Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.

From ScienceDaily (a GREAT site: check them out!)


"Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.

"An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.

Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University"

Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have A Dream" Speech - YouTube

In Honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Inadvertent new recipe: cold oatmeal

Image by TheCulinaryGeek via FlickrInadvertent new recipe: cold oatmeal

Sometimes the best findings are not by a planned strategy, but by mistake.  Such was my finding that cold oatmeal is REALLY good!

I was rushing out the other day to work with BonaResponds (who is in need of local volunteers over break with all of the students gone, but that is another story) and just made some oatmeal.  But I got sidetracked and was going to be even later than normal to meet so I threw the already made oatmeal into the refrigerator.   When I came back in the evening I was starving, so I tried the oatmeal.  It was excellent!  So good in fact I have made it a couple of times since.


Hint add raisins and a bit of extra water!

Extra hint: add chia seeds if you have them!  

Benefits:

• You can make it ahead.
• Good for you.
• Have for a snack throughout the day.
• Tastes wonderful!
• Cheap

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Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM ALL OF US,  Pie by Nicole

Can of Soup a Day Linked to High BPA Levels in Urine

Can of Soup a Day Linked to High BPA Levels in Urine:

"Eating just one 12-ounce serving of canned soup a day for five days straight may lead to more than a 1,000% increase in the amount of the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in your urine, a new study shows.

BPA is a chemical used in the manufacturing of many metal food and beverage cans, among other uses.

The canned soup study did not look at how -- or even if -- the BPA spike in urine affects health. This is a major sticking point for many critics of the study who caution against overinterpreting the findings."

Related articles

• Eating Canned Soup Makes BPA Levels Soar (npr.org)
• Canned soup 'poses chemical risk' (bbc.co.uk)

Sugary drinks hurt even skinny women's hearts - TODAY Health - TODAY.com

Sugary drinks hurt even skinny women's hearts - TODAY Health - TODAY.com:

"Whatever the form — sweet tea, soda, or coffee drinks that look like desserts — women who drank two or more sweet beverages a day were at an increased risk for heart disease, even if they did not gain weight over the five-year study, according to the findings presented Sunday at the American Heart Association's meeting in Orlando, Fla"

Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science - Bloomberg

Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science - Bloomberg:

A growing body of medical research at leading universities and government laboratories suggests that processed foods and sugary drinks made by the likes of PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) aren’t simply unhealthy. They can hijack the brain in ways that resemble addictions to cocaine, nicotine and other drugs.

“The data is so overwhelming the field has to accept it,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We are finding tremendous overlap between drugs in the brain and food in the brain.”

BBC News - Aspirin and cancer prevention

BBC News - Aspirin and cancer prevention:

DO NOT GO CRAZY ON THIS...go ask your doctor.

"New research from Newcastle University seems to support the theory that aspirin may have a preventive effect.

Also published in the Lancet, it shows that, over two years, taking aspirin reduced the incidence of bowel cancer by 63% in a group of 861 people who were at high risk of the disease because they had Lynch syndrome.

Last year's study had been designed to look at preventing heart disease, but it also found that long-term use of aspirin reduced deaths from cancer by around 25%."

Eating your greens can change the effect of your genes on heart disease

Eating your greens can change the effect of your genes on heart disease

"The researchers discovered the gene that is the strongest marker for heart disease can actually be modified by generous amounts of fruit and raw vegetables. The results of their study are published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.

"We know that 9p21 genetic variants increase the risk of heart disease for those that carry it," said Dr. Jamie Engert, joint principal investigator of the study, who is a researcher in cardiovascular diseases at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and associate member in the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University. "But it was a surprise to find that a healthy diet could significantly weaken its effect.""

Certain foods may be the best medicine for lowering 'bad' cholesterol - latimes.com

Certain foods may be the best medicine for lowering 'bad' cholesterol - latimes.com:

"...new research has found that when it comes to lowering artery-clogging cholesterol, what you eat may be more important than what you don't eat.

Released online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., the study found that incorporating several cholesterol-lowering foods — such as soy protein and nuts — into a diet can reduce bad cholesterol far more effectively than a diet low in saturated fat.

In fact, the authors assert, levels of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol, can drop to half that seen by many patients who take statins..."

Read more here

The 'heart attack proof' diet? - CNN.com

The 'heart attack proof' diet? - CNN.com:

" For more than 20 years, the Cleveland Clinic doctor has tried to get Americans to eat like the Papua New Guinea highlanders, rural Chinese, central Africans and the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico.

Follow his dietary prescription, the 77-year-old Esselstyn says, and you will be "heart attack proof" -- regardless of your family history.

"It's a foodborne illness, and we're never going to end the epidemic with stents, with bypasses, with the drugs, because none of it is treating causation of the illness," Esselstyn says.

The Esselstyn diet is tough for most Americans to swallow: no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no added oils."

BTW the Tarahumara Indians are showcased in the Born to Run book. HIGHLY recommended! Here is a good video on them.

Related articles

• The 'heart attack proof' diet (smokesomething.wordpress.com)
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: The Last Heart Attack (autoimmunephoenix.wordpress.com)
• From omnivore to vegan: The dietary education of Bill Clinton (cnn.com)
• Heart attack survivors 'unaware of risks' (news.theage.com.au)

Eating dried plums prevent osteoporosis - The Times of India

Eating dried plums prevent osteoporosis - The Times of India:

"The group that consumed dried plums had significantly higher bone mineral density in the ulna (one of two long bones in the forearm) and spine, in comparison with the group that ate dried apples.

This, according to Arjmandi, was due in part to the ability of dried plums to suppress the rate of bone resorption, or the breakdown of bone, which tends to exceed the rate of new bone growth as people age.

Arjmandi encourages people who are interested in maintaining or improving their bone health to take note of the extraordinarily positive effect that dried plums have on bone density."