Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Sunday, April 10, 2011
How Many calories?
Do you know how many calories your brain uses? O how many calories your liver uses? If you dont then you really need to read this...you might be killing your body with a low calorie diet...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
White rice 'raises diabetes risk', say US experts
Replacing white rice with brown rice and wholemeal bread could cut the risk of diabetes by a third, US experts say.
White rice poses a diabetes threat because it causes steep rises in blood sugar, say Harvard researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine. Brown rice and other wholegrain foods are a healthier option as they release glucose more gradually, they say.
The study is based on questionnaires; some say the data is not robust enough to base firm conclusions on.
It may be that people who eat less white rice tend to live healthier lifestyles, for example.
'Brown is better' In the study of nearly 200,000 US people, white rice consumption was linked to type 2 diabetes.
After adjusting for age and other diabetes risk factors, those who ate five or more 150g servings of white rice per week had a 17% increased risk of diabetes compared with people who consumed less than one serving - about a cup of rice - per month.
Although few people - only 2% - in the study ate this much white rice, the finding was significant.
Yet eating brown rice appeared to have the opposite effect, cutting the risk of type 2 diabetes.
People who ate two or more servings of brown rice per week had an 11% reduced risk of developing the condition compared with those who ate less than one serving a month.
Based on the results, the researchers estimate that replacing 50g or one-third of a typical serving of white rice with the same amount of brown rice would lead to a 16% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
And replacing the white rice with wholegrains, including brown rice and pasta, wholemeal bread and rolled oats, could cut the risk by more than a third.
Food composition Dr Qi Sun and other researchers say the explanation lies in the composition of the food.
Like other wholegrain foods, brown rice is high in fibre and releases its energy slowly.
In contrast, white rice has had all the bran and some of the germ removed during milling.
This gives white rice a higher glycaemic index (GI) - a measure of how much a food raises blood sugar levels compared with the same amount of glucose or white bread.
"From a public health point of view, replacing refined grains such as white rice by whole grains, including brown rice, should be recommended to facilitate the prevention of type 2 diabetes," according to the researchers.
Experts generally recommend that at least half of carbohydrate intake should come from whole grains like brown rice.
More than 70% of the rice consumed in developed countries such as the US and UK is white.
Dr Victoria King of Diabetes UK said that, since the results were from self-reported food diaries and questionnaires, it was not possible to make conclusive recommendations on how much of certain foods, such as brown rice, might protect against type 2 diabetes at this stage.
"The best way to prevent type 2 diabetes is by keeping active and eating a healthy balanced diet that is low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables," she said.
Page last updated at 23:48 GMT, Monday, 14 June 2010 00:48 UK
Retrieved June 15 2010 10:15 AM eastern standard time USA
40,000 deaths a year due to junk food, says health watchdog Nice
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Published: 10:00PM BST 21 Jun 2010
Retrieved 12:04 PM eastern standard time USA
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) says that unhealthy foods have wreaked a “terrible toll of ill health” on the nation and placed a “substantial” strain on the economy.
For the first time, the organisation publishes landmark guidance on how to prevent the “huge number of unnecessary deaths” from conditions such as heart disease that are linked to the consumption of ready meals and processed food.
It says “toxic” artificial fats known as trans fats, which have no nutritional value and are linked to heart disease, should be banned. The organisation says that ministers should consider introducing legislation if food manufacturers failed to make their products healthier.
Nice says it has brought together all the available evidence to illustrate the link between unhealthy food and public health, partly in response to increasing concern about obesity in Britain, particularly among children.
It says there are about five million people in the country suffering the effects of cardiovascular disease — a “largely avoidable” condition that includes heart attacks, heart disease and stroke — and that it causes 150,000 deaths annually. Nice says 40,000 of these deaths could be prevented, and hundreds of millions of pounds saved, if its measures were introduced.
The guidance, which was commissioned by the Department of Health, also recommends that:
• Low-salt and low-fat foods should be sold more cheaply than their unhealthy counterparts, through the use of subsidies if necessary;
• Advertising of unhealthy foods should be banned until after 9pm and planning laws should be used to restrict the number of fast food outlets, especially near schools;
• The Common Agricultural Policy should focus more on public health, ensuring farmers are paid to produce healthier foods;
• Action should also be taken to introduce a “traffic light” food labelling system, even though the European Parliament recently voted against this;
• Local authorities must act to encourage walking and cycling and public sector caterers must provide healthier meals;
• All lobbying of the Government and its agencies by the food and drink industry should be fully disclosed.
Prof Klim McPherson, the Chairman of the Nice Guidance Development Group and professor of epidemiology at Oxford University, said: “Where food is concerned, we want the healthy choice to be the easy choice. Going even further, we want the healthy choice to be the less expensive, more attractive choice.
“Put simply, this guidance can help the Government and the food industry to take action to prevent huge numbers of unnecessary deaths and illnesses caused by heart disease and stroke.” The average person in Britain consumes more than eight grams of salt a day. The body only requires one gram to function. Targets are already in place to reduce salt consumption to six grams by 2015 and this should be extended to three grams by 2050, the guidance says.
Nice says children should consume considerably less salt than adults and that, because the bulk of salt in their diets comes from prepared food such as bread, cereal, soups, meat and cheese products, manufacturers have a significant role to play in reducing it.
The organisation says that most consumers did not even notice a difference in taste if salt levels were reduced by
5-10 per cent a year because their taste buds adjusted.
Prof Mike Kelly, the public health director at Nice, added: “This isn’t about telling individuals to choose salad instead of chips — it’s about making sure that the chips we all enjoy occasionally are as healthy as possible.
“That means making further reductions in the salt, trans fats and saturated fats in the food we eat every day.”
Betty McBride, the director of policy and communications at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Creating an environment that makes healthy choices easy is vital. Government, the health service, industry and individuals must all play their part. We must see industry making major efforts now to reformulate products with less saturated fat.
“Cutting our 'sat fat’ intake would have a major impact on heart disease.”
Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, added: “The Nice guidance demonstrates conclusively why we need to change radically our approach to this vast and silent killer.
“Many of the diet-related recommendations made by Nice have the added benefit of costing the public purse little to nothing, while creating an opportunity to reduce the tens of billions of pounds of associated costs the UK loses every year to heart disease.”
While the guidance was welcomed by health experts, representatives of the food and drink industry said significant progress on salt and fat had already been taken.
The Food and Drink Federation accused Nice of being “out of touch with the reality”. Julian Hunt, its director of communications, said: “We are surprised that Nice has found the time and the money to develop guidance that seems to be out of touch with the reality of what has been happening for many years.
“The food industry is leading the world when it comes to voluntarily changing the recipes of popular food brands so that they are lower in salt, fat or sugar; introducing better-for-you choices at the same price as standard lines; and improving the quality of nutrition information available on packs.”
Nice says it has brought together all the available evidence to illustrate the link between unhealthy food and public health, partly in response to increasing concern about obesity in Britain, particularly among children.
It says there are about five million people in the country suffering the effects of cardiovascular disease — a “largely avoidable” condition that includes heart attacks, heart disease and stroke — and that it causes 150,000 deaths annually. Nice says 40,000 of these deaths could be prevented, and hundreds of millions of pounds saved, if its measures were introduced.
The guidance, which was commissioned by the Department of Health, also recommends that:
• Low-salt and low-fat foods should be sold more cheaply than their unhealthy counterparts, through the use of subsidies if necessary;
• Advertising of unhealthy foods should be banned until after 9pm and planning laws should be used to restrict the number of fast food outlets, especially near schools;
• The Common Agricultural Policy should focus more on public health, ensuring farmers are paid to produce healthier foods;
• Action should also be taken to introduce a “traffic light” food labelling system, even though the European Parliament recently voted against this;
• Local authorities must act to encourage walking and cycling and public sector caterers must provide healthier meals;
• All lobbying of the Government and its agencies by the food and drink industry should be fully disclosed.
Prof Klim McPherson, the Chairman of the Nice Guidance Development Group and professor of epidemiology at Oxford University, said: “Where food is concerned, we want the healthy choice to be the easy choice. Going even further, we want the healthy choice to be the less expensive, more attractive choice.
“Put simply, this guidance can help the Government and the food industry to take action to prevent huge numbers of unnecessary deaths and illnesses caused by heart disease and stroke.” The average person in Britain consumes more than eight grams of salt a day. The body only requires one gram to function. Targets are already in place to reduce salt consumption to six grams by 2015 and this should be extended to three grams by 2050, the guidance says.
Nice says children should consume considerably less salt than adults and that, because the bulk of salt in their diets comes from prepared food such as bread, cereal, soups, meat and cheese products, manufacturers have a significant role to play in reducing it.
The organisation says that most consumers did not even notice a difference in taste if salt levels were reduced by
5-10 per cent a year because their taste buds adjusted.
Prof Mike Kelly, the public health director at Nice, added: “This isn’t about telling individuals to choose salad instead of chips — it’s about making sure that the chips we all enjoy occasionally are as healthy as possible.
“That means making further reductions in the salt, trans fats and saturated fats in the food we eat every day.”
Betty McBride, the director of policy and communications at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Creating an environment that makes healthy choices easy is vital. Government, the health service, industry and individuals must all play their part. We must see industry making major efforts now to reformulate products with less saturated fat.
“Cutting our 'sat fat’ intake would have a major impact on heart disease.”
Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, added: “The Nice guidance demonstrates conclusively why we need to change radically our approach to this vast and silent killer.
“Many of the diet-related recommendations made by Nice have the added benefit of costing the public purse little to nothing, while creating an opportunity to reduce the tens of billions of pounds of associated costs the UK loses every year to heart disease.”
While the guidance was welcomed by health experts, representatives of the food and drink industry said significant progress on salt and fat had already been taken.
The Food and Drink Federation accused Nice of being “out of touch with the reality”. Julian Hunt, its director of communications, said: “We are surprised that Nice has found the time and the money to develop guidance that seems to be out of touch with the reality of what has been happening for many years.
“The food industry is leading the world when it comes to voluntarily changing the recipes of popular food brands so that they are lower in salt, fat or sugar; introducing better-for-you choices at the same price as standard lines; and improving the quality of nutrition information available on packs.”
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Paleolithic Diet
Since 2001 I have been reading about the paleolithic diet also known as cave man diet or whole food diet by some authors.
What is All About?
The concept is not old and it is well known by scientist that study the past of humanity. What they have found is that our biology (or should I say biochemistry) has not changed that much.
The "human" that walked this planet between 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago obviously had a different diet but what was this diet all about?
First we have to bare in mind our ancestors were nomads and they gathered and hunted their food. By nomad I mean they would be constantly moving to where food supply abounded (take under consideration the seasons like winter). They collected the fruits of trees, shrubs and any plant whose fruit were edible. They ate meat but this one was limited to availability: if they were lucky enough to hunt an animal which makes us assume that their diet was high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, probably roots with some meat...it is assumed that grains were not part of their diet. When they hunted an animal they would eat everything from it: internal organs such as gall bladder, kidneys, liver even brain. We can see prove of this meat eating habit when we notice how in ancient China animal parts such as gall bladder, testicles and other parts were used for medicinal purposes.
Dr Collins in his book The China Study compares Chinese farmers' diet versus modern diet and in his study he found that only .8% of their diet came from animal products or derivatives...most of their diet relied heavily on fruits, vegetables, some roots and grains.
What the Cave Men Diet Lacked
The cave man diet lacked of animals fed of grains, farmed and confined into small, dirty areas. Those animals were free and ate grass making their meat extremely lean and rich on omega 3, vitamins and minerals... It is well known that our modern ways of agriculture and farming have increased disproportionately the ratio of omega 6 vs omega 3, it is well known that our soils are deprived of some minerals or are running low on mineral content making our vegetables and fruits poor in nutrients compare with 50 years ago...if our food supply has deteriorated so much in just 50 years just imagine how rich in nutrients it was thousands or millions of years ago. The cave man diet lacked of vegetable oils, salt, dairy products, refined and processed food.
What The Cave Men Diet Included
Our ancestors' diet included foods rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins, proteins and enzymes...the oils and fat they consumed was the ones inherent in the food supply: oil and fats from nuts, fruits and vegetables and not the bottled oils we find in the supermarket. The proteins came mainly from plant based diet.
The China Study and The Cave Man Diet
The China Study shows that modern day diseases named by the author as diseases from abundance were absent in the 25 provinces that were researched and when modern diseases or abundance diseases (diabetes, cardio-vascular, and cancer among others) were present the people had a rich animal based diet and less or no fruits and vegetables at all.
The Bushmen Diet
The bushmen from Africa is one of the oldest tribes with at least 20,000 years of existence, this tribe is a hunter-gatherer like our paleolithic ancestors therefore we can expect similarities with the cave man diet: mainly of fruits, vegetables, roots and small portion of meat (remember that hunter-gatherers 'tribes' were small and did not have refrigerators).
What Can We Learn From These Cave Men?
In summary we could say a diet high in fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts (and highly probable seeds) and relatively low in meat was the diet of the cave men...this diet have proved to be healthier than our modern diet rich in processed foods, salt, sugar and low in fiber.
You probably have clicked on the links I have provided and have read the information, but now you might be noticing that the cave men diet was low on meat but high on fat...therefore the question you might be asking is: is saturated fat good or bad? and how much saturated fat is good for our health? These questions and many more will be purposely left unanswered so you, the reader, can embark in a turbulent, interesting and yet conflicting-confrontational adventure.
Please remember these words from Jesus recorded by Thomas in his secret gospel: "let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled; when he becomes troubled, he will be astonished and will rule over all things".
Other References
What is All About?
The concept is not old and it is well known by scientist that study the past of humanity. What they have found is that our biology (or should I say biochemistry) has not changed that much.
The "human" that walked this planet between 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago obviously had a different diet but what was this diet all about?
First we have to bare in mind our ancestors were nomads and they gathered and hunted their food. By nomad I mean they would be constantly moving to where food supply abounded (take under consideration the seasons like winter). They collected the fruits of trees, shrubs and any plant whose fruit were edible. They ate meat but this one was limited to availability: if they were lucky enough to hunt an animal which makes us assume that their diet was high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, probably roots with some meat...it is assumed that grains were not part of their diet. When they hunted an animal they would eat everything from it: internal organs such as gall bladder, kidneys, liver even brain. We can see prove of this meat eating habit when we notice how in ancient China animal parts such as gall bladder, testicles and other parts were used for medicinal purposes.
Dr Collins in his book The China Study compares Chinese farmers' diet versus modern diet and in his study he found that only .8% of their diet came from animal products or derivatives...most of their diet relied heavily on fruits, vegetables, some roots and grains.
What the Cave Men Diet Lacked
The cave man diet lacked of animals fed of grains, farmed and confined into small, dirty areas. Those animals were free and ate grass making their meat extremely lean and rich on omega 3, vitamins and minerals... It is well known that our modern ways of agriculture and farming have increased disproportionately the ratio of omega 6 vs omega 3, it is well known that our soils are deprived of some minerals or are running low on mineral content making our vegetables and fruits poor in nutrients compare with 50 years ago...if our food supply has deteriorated so much in just 50 years just imagine how rich in nutrients it was thousands or millions of years ago. The cave man diet lacked of vegetable oils, salt, dairy products, refined and processed food.
What The Cave Men Diet Included
Our ancestors' diet included foods rich in fiber, minerals, vitamins, proteins and enzymes...the oils and fat they consumed was the ones inherent in the food supply: oil and fats from nuts, fruits and vegetables and not the bottled oils we find in the supermarket. The proteins came mainly from plant based diet.
The China Study and The Cave Man Diet
The China Study shows that modern day diseases named by the author as diseases from abundance were absent in the 25 provinces that were researched and when modern diseases or abundance diseases (diabetes, cardio-vascular, and cancer among others) were present the people had a rich animal based diet and less or no fruits and vegetables at all.
The Bushmen Diet
The bushmen from Africa is one of the oldest tribes with at least 20,000 years of existence, this tribe is a hunter-gatherer like our paleolithic ancestors therefore we can expect similarities with the cave man diet: mainly of fruits, vegetables, roots and small portion of meat (remember that hunter-gatherers 'tribes' were small and did not have refrigerators).
What Can We Learn From These Cave Men?
In summary we could say a diet high in fruits, vegetables, roots, nuts (and highly probable seeds) and relatively low in meat was the diet of the cave men...this diet have proved to be healthier than our modern diet rich in processed foods, salt, sugar and low in fiber.
You probably have clicked on the links I have provided and have read the information, but now you might be noticing that the cave men diet was low on meat but high on fat...therefore the question you might be asking is: is saturated fat good or bad? and how much saturated fat is good for our health? These questions and many more will be purposely left unanswered so you, the reader, can embark in a turbulent, interesting and yet conflicting-confrontational adventure.
Please remember these words from Jesus recorded by Thomas in his secret gospel: "let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled; when he becomes troubled, he will be astonished and will rule over all things".
Other References
- The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book 2nd edition. 1997. Shari Lieberman, PhD and Nancy Bruning.
- The Way We Were. Psychology Today May/June 2010 Vol 43 No 3 pp 51,52 by Leyla Muedin.
- The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. 2006. T Colin Campbell PhD and Thomas M Campbell II.
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