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Showing posts from January, 2013

JAMA Network | JAMA | Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal WomenThe A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial

JAMA Network | JAMA | Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal WomenThe A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial ABSTRACT ABSTRACT | METHODS | RESULTS |

Paleolithic diets: Should we eat like our ancestors? | PCC Natural Markets

Paleolithic diets: Should we eat like our ancestors? | PCC Natural Markets By the time modern humans emerged roughly 50,000 years ago, our ancestors had adopted an omnivorous diet of cooked starches, meats (including organs), nuts, fruit and other plant foods. Although very few hunter-gatherer groups survive today, we know they eat a wide range of diets, from the nut-based diet of the African !Kung, and the palm starch diet of New Guinean hunter-gatherers, to the meat- and fat-rich diet of the Arctic Inuit. As Michael Pollan writes in "Food Rules," "There is no single, ideal human diet." Modern hunter-gatherer diets, however, tend to have certain things in common. They don't rely heavily on foods that became dominant after the development of agriculture, including dairy, grains and legumes. Starch comes from root vegetables similar to sweet potatoes, potatoes and taro. But most important, they do not eat industrial, processed foods. Other aspects of lifest

Fat Head - Why We Get Fat: Interview With Gary Taubes

Fat Head Why We Get Fat: Interview With Gary Taubes Fat Head: Dr. Robert Lustig insists it’s fructose that makes us insulin resistant, not starchy foods. If he’s right, then it was the Coca-Cola and Captain Crunch that turned me into a fat kid, not the mashed potatoes. But as an adult, I’ve avoided sugar yet found that starches most definitely make me gain weight. So assuming for the sake of argument that Lustig is correct, would you say that once fructose has done the damage, we lose our tolerance for carbohydrates in general? If so, why? Gary Taubes: That’s exactly the possibility I’m discussing. Once you become insulin resistant, your body responds to carbs by secreting more insulin. So it is quite possible — and laboratory work backs this up — that sugar causes the initial insulin resistance because of the effect of the fructose on the liver. So if we never had sugar, we’d be able to eat the other carbs with relative impunity. But being possible doesn’t mean it’s true. I suspe

Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets

Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets1,2,3 Carol S Johnston, Sherrie L Tjonn, Pamela D Swan, Andrea White, Heather Hutchins, and Barry Sears + Author Affiliations 1From the Department of Nutrition, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ (CSJ, PDS, and AW); Conscious Cuisine, Scottsdale, AZ (SLT); and Inflammation Research Foundation, Marblehead, MA (HH and BS) Abstract Background:Low-carbohydrate diets may promote greater weight loss than does the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Objective:We compared weight loss and biomarker change in adults adhering to a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (KLC) diet or a nonketogenic low-carbohydrate (NLC) diet. Design:Twenty adults [body mass index (in kg/m2): 34.4 ± 1.0] were randomly assigned to the KLC (60% of energy as fat, beginning with ≈5% of energy as carb

Synthesis: Low-Carb and Food Reward/Palatability, and Why Calories Count | Free The Animal

Synthesis: Low-Carb and Food Reward/Palatability, and Why Calories Count | Free The Animal What's the distinction? Food Reward & Palatability is the short answer. Again, I'll get to that in more depth later. First, let me ask you a few questions, aimed at LC/Paleo, or Plain Vanilla LC. Do you find it pretty easy to draw a distinction between say, a free range, organically fed whole turkey you bake in the oven, and supermarket turkey franks with a side helping of "animal by-products," hormones, fillers, texture enhancers, preservatives, nitrites, added sodium, coloring, and cruelty...that you nuke? Additionally, do you find it easy to draw a distinction between say, leaf lard from a pastured pig that gets lots of time in the sunshine, and industrially processed, extracted, heated, churned, & turned, deodorized and left out to dry soy oil...in a plastic container? Yes and yes? OK, then how come you find it so difficult to draw a distinction bet

JAMA Network | JAMA Internal Medicine | Therapeutic Fasting in Morbid ObesityLong-term Follow-up

JAMA Network | JAMA Internal Medicine | Therapeutic Fasting in Morbid ObesityLong-term Follow-up ABSTRACT The weights of 207 morbidly obese patients were reduced via prolonged fasting. Half the patients fasted for close to two months, losing a mean of 28.2 kg; one fourth fasted for less than one month; and the other fourth fasted for more than two months, with a mean 41.4-kg loss. This latter group was heavier initially, and more than 50% attained near-normal weight. Patients with onset of obesity in childhood had the lowest tolerance for fasting and the lowest success rate in attaining normal weight. Over a 7.3-year follow-up period in 121 patients, the reduced weight was maintained for the first 12 to 18 months. Subsequently, regain proceeded equally in all groups irrespective of length of fast, extent of weight loss, or age at onset of obesity. Regain to original weight occurred in 50% within two to three years and only seven patients remained at their reduced weights. Regain to

DNA pioneer James Watson takes aim at cancer establishments and antioxidants

DNA pioneer James Watson takes aim at cancer establishments | Reuters One such commonality is oxygen radicals. Those forms of oxygen rip apart other components of cells, such as DNA. That is why antioxidants, which have become near-ubiquitous additives in grocery foods from snack bars to soda, are thought to be healthful: they mop up damaging oxygen radicals. That simple picture becomes more complicated, however, once cancer is present. Radiation therapy and many chemotherapies kill cancer cells by generating oxygen radicals, which trigger cell suicide. If a cancer patient is binging on berries and other antioxidants, it can actually keep therapies from working, Watson proposed. "Everyone thought antioxidants were great," he said. "But I'm saying they can prevent us from killing cancer cells." 'ANTI-ANTIOXIDANTS' Research backs him up. A number of studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin E do not reduce the risk of cancer but

Profits over your dead body | Ars Technica

Profits over your dead body | Ars Technica : Profits over your dead body Health regulatory and advocacy groups are deliberately corrupted. Now, the conspiracy minded among you might be thinking of cartoon villains covering up dastardly poison pills, but this is not actually the case. Ben Goldacre, a physician who writes the Bad Science blog, has now made a comprehensive catalog of these practices published in a book called Bad Pharma. In examining the healthcare industry, he paints a complicated picture in which almost all the actors are both bad guys and good guys. It can be read as a stinging rebuke, but more than anything it's criticism from someone who appreciates everything modern medicine has done—but wants to see it do even better.

Appetite Heightened By Ingestion Of Fructose - Health News - redOrbit

Appetite Heightened By Ingestion Of Fructose - Health News - redOrbit A new study from Yale University School of Medicine examines possible factors regarding the association between fructose consumption and weight gain. The researchers used brain magnetic resonance imaging, which indicated that ingestion of glucose but not fructose reduces cerebral blood flow. Activity in brain regions that regulate appetite was also reduced. The participants reported an increase in feeling sated and full from the ingestion of glucose but not fructose. “Increases in fructose consumption have paralleled the increasing prevalence of obesity, and high-fructose diets are thought to promote weight gain and insulin resistance. Fructose ingestion produces smaller increases in circulating satiety hormones compared with glucose ingestion, and central administration of fructose provokes feeding in rodents, whereas centrally administered glucose promotes satiety,” according to the authors. “Thus, fructose p