Good overview of Molecular Nutrition and Personalized Nutrition from one of the leaders of the European Food Information Council (EUFIC)
Food to share
June 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Your Plate
June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
What size plate? What about combined foods like spaghetti with meat and tomato sauce? These are my first thoughts as I look at the new simple graphic for “My Plate” display for our food guidance unveiled this week by USDA. I think it is an improvement on the pyramid and perhaps the personalized and interactive nature of the approach will be helpful.
Anxiety and Anorexia
May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
New understanding into why anorexics don’t want to eat even when they are starving themselves has been uncovered by researchers at UC San Diego
Instead of feeling good when they eat, anorexics feel anxious and are calmed when they refuse food.
Food – A Cheap and Legal Addiction for Some
April 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Functional MRI (fMRI) is rather like using Google Earth. It helps us to delve deeper into our understanding of how certain triggers activate centers in the brain associated with cravings and addictive behaviors. A recent study from Yale University published in Archives of General Psychiatry finds that women who completed a questionnaire that identifies substance dependence behaviors around food also responded to seeing and tasting a glass of chocolate milk shake. The reward centers were triggered by this cue just like cocaine in a drug addict. Maybe this is why it is so hard for people to diet – there are just too many cues around in our environment. Further studies will look at how much of this is learned rather than genetic. For most people it is probably a combination of both genes and environment.
The value of smart health assessment
December 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Despite high hopes of genome wide assessment studies providing useful knowledge the results have been disappointing to say the least. Except for rare genetic variations the chronic diseases that are amenable to diet change are elusive using this technique alone. That is why it takes a validated questionnaire format to determine family health history and current health status to make meaningful recommendations. Please visit www.thednadiet.com and answer the questionnaire to receive your free recommendations.
Is your bedroom TV making you fat?
October 13, 2010 By 1 Comment
Thought provoking study suggests that having a bedroom that isn’t completely dark such as sleeping with the TV on may be linked to weight gain and insulin resistance. Simple remedy that may be effective in helping with maintaining a healthy weight is to remove the TV from the bedroom! Light-dark cycles are known to be associated with melatonin release and this in turn is associated with tryptophan uptake in the brain. Tryptophan is an unusual amino acid and is taken up by the brain most rapidly when other amino acids circulate at lower levels such as after a carbohydrate only meal – maybe its not just the TV light but maybe that triggers cravings for soda and chips too. This study looked at mice (admittedly not humans but easier to control!) and found that exposure to a relatively dim light at night over 8 weeks caused a 50% greater weight gain than in mice who had a standard light-dark cycle.
French researcher J Le Magnen back in the 1980′s described fat building (lipogenesis) in association with dark cycles of rats contrasted to fat burning (lipolysis) during the light cycle. His findings were controversial at the time but maybe we should look again at how obesity may be not just about what we eat but how well we sleep.
“Neurobiology of feeding and nutrition” by Jacques Le Magnen
Academic Press, 1992
Body fat as a safe storage site for toxins?
September 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The late Roslyn Alfin Slater, PhD, one of my mentors at UCLA, noted that adipose tissue is a relatively safe place to store toxins that aren’t readily removed (by liver or kidney detoxification processing). A recent examination of NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) showed a highly significant correlation between six environmental pollutants in serum and weight change. A second study found similar changes in 39 obese individuals subjected to a 15 week low calorie diet and looking at 26 organochlorine compounds in blood and body fat (subcutaneous). This underscores the importance of supporting liver and kidney detoxification processes by eating a high fiber, fruit and vegetable rich diet and avoiding environmental pollutants for health.
Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2000 Oct;24(10):1272-8.
Sit less – move more but it may be all in the genes!
September 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
First we learn that it is less about what you do rather how little you sit down that affects your health and mortality. Sit less, move more! (Patel, et al. Am J Epidemiol 2010:172(4)419-429)
Another study (with mice not humans) indicates that voluntary exercise is highly heritable meaning wanting to sit more may be something you are programmed to do (Garland, et al. Proc Roy Soc 2010, DOI 10. 1098/rspb2010,1584). Even if that is the case for humans (and many rodent behavior studies don’t pan out when applied to humans) then it simply means for those of us who find it hard to get to the gym we will still benefit if we get up, pace around and are just more active. “Use it or lose it” as Jack Lalanne would say – one of my heroes who is still amazingly active both physically and mentally in his 90′s. Go Jack!
Experimenting in the Kitchen
August 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Listening to Jeff Potter, a software engineer and author of “Cooking for Geeks” as he demystifies food preparation as Ira Flatow’s guest on Science Friday. Who knew that “Total Textural Preference” describes how one of the proteins in meat (Myosin) changes shape before the other one (Actin) at 120 degrees and apparently we like that?!
Did you know that when it is hot enough to fry an egg it means the sidewalk is at least 142 degrees? I also learned that sugar melts at 367 degrees. I forgot that food science was so interesting. My undergraduate courses never held my attention like that but perhaps it is all in the delivery and Jeff is a self professed kitchen geek. I can’t wait to read his book and start experimenting in the kitchen.
