When I won't accept a guest post


I get regular requests from people who want to guest post on my blog. Then, I got this unbelievable one yesterday. More unbelievable was that I saw it almost directly after giving a lecture on evidence-based nutrition. Thought I'd share.

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Why dark chocolate is good for her heart

Listen up, men! On this Valentine's Day, why not surprise your special lady with chocolates that are healthier for her heart? Dark chocolate eaten in moderate amounts weekly is associated with improved cardiovascular fitness in women, research suggests. Scientists are only beginning to understand why dark chocolate is heart healthy, but a new study offers this explanation—its rich content of cocoa antioxidant compounds, called polyphenols, could enhance activity of special proteins called sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs), which are involved in cholesterol metabolism. These activated SREBPs then bind to genes on DNA (sterol regulatory element sequences) that boost liver production of another protein called apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), which is the major protein component of HDL "good" cholesterol. Correspondingly, cocoa polyphenols also decreased production of another protein in the liver called apolipoprotein B (ApoB), which is the major protein componen...
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Is working standing up too expensive? It could cost you as little as $10

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Spending too much time sitting down is clearly unnatural, particularly if you sit down on very comfortable chairs . Sitting down per se is probably natural, given the human anatomy, but not sitting down for hours in the same position. Also, comfortable furniture is an apparently benign Neolithic invention, but over several years it may stealthily contributed to the metabolic syndrome and the diseases of civilization. Getting an elevated workstation may be a bit expensive. At work, you may have to go through a bit of a battle with your employer to get it (unless you are " teh boz "), only to find out that having to work standing up all the time is not what you really wanted. That may not be very natural either. So what is one to do? One possible solution is to buy a small foldable plastic table (or chair) like the one on the figure below, which may cost you less than $10, and put it on your work desk. I have been doing this for quite a while now, and it works fine for me. The...
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Designing biology

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Photo credit: Sara Fulcher on Flickr Where can we find a cure for cancer, new semiconductor technology, or the solution for turning waste plant materials into biofuels? The answer is enzymes that are produced through "directed evolution," according to Frances H. Arnold , professor of chemical engineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Arnold's lab doesn't synthesize enzymes as other labs do. She and her team "evolve them" toward a certain desired goal in the same way that nature has done it for 3.5 billion years. Aronold presented an overview of her budding field of work to an audience at American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting (#AAASmtg) in Washington DC. The field of directed evolution is relatively new and includes few people at the present time, but Arnold sees high hopes for the future. "When I started engineering proteins a long time ago, there appeared to me an algorithm that dos a really go...
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