Did Advice to Cut Saturated Fats Go Very Wrong? | Medpage Today.
Read this article before you order that triple stack cheeseburger with a side of drug eluding stents.
Or go ahead and order that triple stack cheeseburger and be confused along with the rest of us.
Now, a new study published in the journal Nature introduces a new idea: Diet sodas may alter our gut microbes in a way that increases the risk of metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes — at least in some of us.
In the paper, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel describe what happened when they fed zero-calorie sweeteners, including saccharin, aspartame and sucralose, to mice.
“To our surprise, [the mice] developed glucose intolerance,” Weizmann researcher Eran Elinav tells us.
Diet Soda May Alter Our Gut Microbes And Raise The Risk Of Diabetes : The Salt : NPR.
You’re a Vegetarian. Have You Lost Your Mind? | Psychology Today.
The question however remains the same. Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Just when you think you’ve got it figured out…
Update
http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/2014/02/here-we-go-again-vegetarian-diets-and.html
Same author with a recent blog post.
USPharmacist.com > Vitamin Deficiencies in Seniors.
Follow this link for some nice charts on nutritional deficiencies in seniors. Read the article and I promise you will never read an APS the same way ever again.
Dietary consumption of baked or broiled fish is related to larger gray matter volumes independent of omega-3 fatty acid content. These findings suggest that a confluence of lifestyle factors influence brain health, adding to the growing body of evidence that prevention strategies for late-life brain health need to begin decades earlier.
Frozen fish sticks were a staple in my childhood diet.
I hope it helped.
The inverse association between increased fruit and vegetable consumption and mortality was particularly noticeable for cardiovascular mortality; higher consumption was not significantly linked with reduced risk of cancer mortality
All of the pitfalls of the component studies are present in the meta-analysis, the authors warn, including the fact that fruit and vegetable intake is typically self-reported. Not all studies adjusted for other types of foods consumed, including saturated fats, processed meats, etc. The definition of “portions” may also have been different across studies, the authors caution.
via Fruit, Veg Intake Has Dose-Response Link With CV Death.
Vegans and radical vegetarians take note. Bold in quote above is my emphasis.
Stupidity is worse for us than either sugar or saturated fat.
Read this article and you’ll encounter a well reasoned rant with lots of links for further reading enjoyment. My personal journey includes a significant weight loss experience in my early 20’s. Over the years I’ve gained back some of the 200 plus pounds lost. Over the years I’ve also gotten lazy with my dietary habits. Too many calories and an aging metabolism is not a combination for staying trim. So I got serious (again) and have dropped 12 pounds the past three months. I’ve always known what to do but failed to do what needed to be done.
And so it goes. Change. Adapt. Repeat.
Reprinted from the original email.
Potassium and Sodium:
Achieving the Proper Balance
Why potassium is important. Potassium is an electrolyte with many essential jobs: It helps conduct nerve impulses and muscle contractions, regulates the flow of fluids and nutrients into and out of body cells, and helps keep your blood pressure in check. Essentially, the level of potassium in your blood can make the difference between normal and abnormal activity in your heart and blood vessels.
Potassium does not act in a vacuum, though. It interacts with other electrolytes, including sodium. It’s long been known that sodium raises blood pressure, while potassium lowers it. But it’s becoming clearer that getting the right balance between sodium and potassium in the diet may be key to your heart health.
How much potassium do you need? In general, adults should get at least 4,700 mg of potassium daily, while limiting themselves to 1,500 mg of sodium. But most Americans are not meeting either goal.
Why is this? The main culprit is too many packaged and prepared foods. During processing, typically a large amount of salt (and, therefore, sodium) is added to foods, while any natural potassium may be stripped away. In contrast, many unprocessed whole foods — fruits and vegetables, in particular — contain adequate levels of potassium but little sodium.
In fact, the vast majority of salt in your diet comes not from your salt shaker, but from processed foods. And some of the biggest sources may surprise you: bread and rolls, prepared pasta dishes, and fresh poultry, for example. Others are less surprising — like cold cuts and cured meats, canned soups and sauces, and snack foods like chips, pretzels and popcorn. So you can optimize your potassium intake and minimize sodium intake by emphasizing fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, beans, fish and lean meat in your daily diet.
Here are some examples of high-potassium foods followed by healthy alternatives that you can substitute:
Re-posted from the Johns Hopkins Health Alert email The Compelling Case Against Sugar
For years, nutrition experts have warned that consuming too much sugar contributes to excess weight gain. Now, a mounting body of scientific evidence suggests that sugar is even more detrimental to the body than was previously believed. As a result, a growing chorus of scientists and public health advocates is urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to set safe limits for sugar consumption.
Recently, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, took matters even further, suggesting that sugar should be regulated by the government to protect public health — just like alcohol and tobacco. Sugar, they argue, is a toxic substance with a tremendous potential for abuse because it affects the brain in a way that encourages people to consume larger amounts, even when they should be satisfied with what they’ve already had.
What’s more, they contend, sugar changes a person’s metabolism, altering the signaling of hormones (including leptin, ghrelin, and dopamine, which regulate satiety, hunger, and pleasure, respectively) in a detrimental way. In other words, the researchers say, sugar is addictive.
That point of view is quite controversial, however, so it’s not likely that sugar is going to be banned or regulated by the government — at least not anytime soon. Nevertheless, the latest research makes a compelling case for determining just how much sugar is safe for human consumption — and for cutting back on the amount of sugar you consume.
The dangers of added sugar. First, it’s important to distinguish natural sugars from added sugars. Natural sugars are an essential part of our diet because the human body converts them to glucose to meet its energy needs. Natural sugars are found in varying amounts in fruits and vegetables, which contain fructose, and in dairy products, which contain lactose.
Added sugars, on the other hand, are not essential. Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages when they are processed or prepared, as well as the sugar you add to your coffee, tea, cereal or other foods. Whether it’s added in the form of white sugar, raw sugar, brown sugar, high fructose corn syrup, honey or molasses, it’s all sugar.
Added sugar has been implicated in a variety of ills, from raising blood pressure and increasing the risk of gout to causing liver damage and accelerating the aging process. Some of the strongest evidence to date shows associations between excess sugar consumption and diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
How much added sugar is too much? Surprisingly, the answer to this question varies. Currently, the USDA recommends that people consume no more than 10 teaspoons of added sugar in a 2,000-calorie per day diet. At 16 calories per teaspoon, that’s 160 calories each day. These days people typically consume twice that amount.
Conclusion: Hepatic steatosis is associated with a greater intake of fat and fried foods, whereas visceral obesity is associated with increased consumption of sugar and reduced consumption of fiber in overweight and obese adolescents at risk of type 2 diabetes. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00755547.
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