Posts

Showing posts with the label General

Anti-Soy Fiction

I just read a citizen's petition to FDA by Gail Elbek calling for the removal of soy because of antinutrients (trypsin inhibitors and phytates) and endocrine disruptors. Gave me a bit of a laugh, but I expect it will scare a lot of unwitting people. The outrageous claims Ms. Elbek makes are not grounded in any science. Soy phytotoxicity is going to “kill our children”? Please. I’m not about to throw out my soy milk, tofu and soy sauce. What’s next? Spinach. Spinach contains a lot of phytates. Many raw foods like raw soybeans contain all sorts of anti-nutrients, but that’s why we dehull, cook, or ferment these raw foods. Most anti-nutrients are eliminated just by the processing. There is a point to be made about high amounts of concentrated phytoestrogens (soy isoflavones) in a few dietary supplements, which are often marketed to women as natural hormonal therapy. These are basically drugs of which we don’t know enough about. The research is still out on whether or not they’re benef...

Want a reason to get drunk?

An incredibly risky one? If you happen to drink methanol, then you'll end up in the emergency room with an IV intended to get you drunk as fast as possible.1 2 If the treatment isn't applied immediately you could end up blind or worse.1,2p426 Methanol may be good for certain racing cars, but it's toxic to human beings because the body's liver oxidizes it to produce formaldehyde.2p387,426 This particular aldehyde is highly reactive in the body, damaging cells and their vital proteins including DNA.2p426,4 Even the fumes of formaldehyde may be cancerous.1,3 Formaldehyde in the body will lead to loss of eyesight, respiratory failure, convulsions and death.2p426 To keep the liver from oxidizing methanol to formaldehyde, the ER personnel will use ethanol as a distraction.2p426 Ethanol, the by-product of yeast found in alcoholic drinks, is oxidized by the liver using the same enzyme that oxidizes methanol.2p387,426 In fact, it is preferred by the enzyme, which helps minimize ...

Women and Asians can't hold their alcohol as well as European men

If you thought it interesting that women have less of aldehyde dehydrogenase, then you'll no doubt be interested to know that many Asians have a deficiency.(1) This is why Chinese, Japanese and Koreans can be much more sensitive to alcohol than Europeans and Americans of European ancestry.(1) You'll notice that Asians with this deficiency are susceptible to alcohol-induced flushing.(1) The adaptation that those of European ancestry have to be able to handle alcohol may be due differences of water intake in the continents, according to Sharon Moalem, Ph.D.(2) To reduce disease by avoiding pathogens in the water, early Asians boiled water for drinking tea.(2) Early Europeans, however, may have used fermentation so the alcohol would kill the pathogens.(2) 1. Wall, TL, Peterson, CM, Peterson, KP, Johnson, ML, Thomasson, HR, et al. Alcohol Metabolism in Asian-American Men with Genetic Polymorphisms of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase. Annals of Internal Medicine; September 2007:127(5)376-379....

What fluids should I use before my marathon?

Marathon runners can become dehydrated due to the extreme physical activity. What types of fluids should they consume in order to rehydrate their cells? When you’re dehydrated, water is the hypotonic solution of choice for speedily moving via osmosis from blood directly into body cells that need rehydration (Tortora & Derrickson, 2006). Marathon runners, however, may need a little more solutes in the solution. The physical exertion of running can create need of other nutrients for these athletes. Regular sweating and using up of glycogen calls for needs of carbohydrates to maintain blood glucose and salts for proper balance of plasma osmalility (Chen & Zimmerman, 1978). Sports drinks can offer an answer for proper running, but too many solutes in a drink would stop its hydration ability. A good sports drink should remaining effective as a hypotonic solution, but still provide steady electrolytes, carbohydrates and possibly even vitamins. The extra sodium, according to British r...

Should I see a nutritionist or stick to dietary guidelines?

We may all be made of flesh and blood, but each one of us has a body with unique differences. These varying individual distinctions can call for custom measures when it comes to needs for health. For these reasons good clinicians can accept established dietary guidelines as a general route for a population to make sensible eating choices, but, when appropriate, offer a tailored alternative to provide best results for a patient. A suitable deviance from normal recommendations, for example, may be to take milk and cheese off the menu for patients of Native American and African ancestry. Lactose intolerance has been found by Cambridge researchers to affect these populations indiscriminately, which should lead clinicians to diverge from the US Department of Agriculture’s guidelines of dairy intake when caring for such affected patients (Scrimshaw & Murray, 1988). For others increasing dietary intake of dairy may be useful. An athletic patient seeking nutritional advice may find herself...

A&P? Can't I just memorize my vitamins?

If you just read the side panel of a Wheaties box while eating breakfast in the morning you'll already know you need vitamins A, Bs, C, and E. The milk carton next to the cereal you know is a good source of calcium and vitamin D. Why should you know about anatomy and physiology? Understanding the whole picture is, of course, why we break down a complex anything into its parts, including an organism. Cut the body apart into sagittal or transverse sections to discover its cavities and viscera and you learn quite a bit about how a little morsel of might end up in the mouth and through the gastrointestinal tract. As you read these words, you begin to understand the direction of the point of this paragraph. Just as it is the job of a writer to understand how words can be used for impactful sentences that create powerful paragraphs, the nutritionist can use the alphabet of nutritional elements for supporting his or her patient's body at optimal levels. The anatomy-physiology nutriti...

Peanut Butter Can Save the World

See how just a little peanut butter has helped curb malnutrition in Africa http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=79736&m=1NIU913&c=jzmhfgsqdpibpkm -- David