August 29, 2010
Fructose stimulates cancer cells
Eating too much sugar is clearly not healthy. It can make you overweight and increase the risk of diabetes, hardening of the arteries, heart disease and stroke. Now we can add cancer to this list.
An article published in the Cancer Research (August 2010) examined the effect of different types of sugar on pancreatic tumor cells. The researchers fed glucose (the main sugar in the blood) and fructose (sugar found in fruits) to tumor cells and found that they had different effects, showing that not all sugars are the same.
August 26, 2010
Fat better than carbohydrates in preventing heart attacks
The politically correct view is that you need to reduce or avoid saturated fat because it increases the risk of heart disease and heart attacks. The infamous food pyramid emphasizes the use of carbohydrates over meat, cheese and other fatty foods.
As I explain in Nutrition and Your Health, not all carbohydrates are the same. Their effect on the body depends on their glycemic index or GI.
August 21, 2010
Moderate drinking protects brain from Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s disease is quite common in older people and is becoming a virtual epidemic. There are a number of ways to try to prevent this problem, such as keeping your mind busy (use it or lose it principle) by learning new language, or new skills, reading books, solving puzzles, etc. Another is to make sure that your sex hormones are normal. That’s estrogen and progesterone in women and testosterone in men.
According to a new study published in a Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (May 2010) there is another way – moderate alcohol consumption. This study was done in Spain, where people usually drink wine and other alcoholic beverages as part of their daily meals.
August 17, 2010
Calcium supplements increase heart attack risk, calcium in food is good for heart
Calcium supplements are very popular and literally millions of people take them hoping to make their bones stronger. The vast majority of these supplements are useless because they contain calcium carbonate, also known as limestone. The manufacturer takes a piece of rock, grinds it into a powder and sells it to unsuspecting consumers. This type of calcium is not well absorbed and is next to useless.
Calcium citrate is a little better because it is more absorbable, but still is not the perfect choice when it comes to bone health.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal (July 2010) found that calcium supplements are not only mostly useless, but can actually be dangerous, because they increase the risk of heart attacks.
August 11, 2010
Why only whole dairy is good for heart health
According to the politically correct point of view, saturated fat is bad for your health because supposedly it can increase the risk of heart disease. However, multiple studies have shown no association between whole-milk dairy products and heart disease.
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (July 2010) explains why. The researchers have looked at 1813 people who had a heart attack and compared them with 1813 people of the same age, sex and area of residence who did not have heart attacks.
They have measured the level of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in the fat tissues of the study participants. Those who had the lowest levels of CLA had three times the risk of having a heart attack than those who had the highest levels.
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