Enough Already With the Bone Broth Hype

There's been very little actual research into bone broth's nutritional benefits. Kamal Patel, director of Examine, a scientific group that investigates nutritional claims about food and supplements, says the only actual study of bone broth he's found is this one—from 1934. What's more, says nutritionist Andy Bellatti, "There are so many different ways to do it that it's hard to make claims about bone broth in general." The nutritional value depends on many variables, including the kind and amount of bones, the length of time it simmers, and the other ingredients.

Enough Already With the Bone Broth Hype

Extreme sports

IARC Monographs evaluate consumption of red meat and processed meat

Guy Winch: Why we all need to practice emotional first aid

Loneliness creates a deep psychological wound, one that distorts our perceptions and scrambles our thinking. It makes us believe that those around us care much less than they actually do. It make us really afraid to reach out, because why set yourself up for rejection and heartache when your heart is already aching more than you can stand? I was in the grips of real loneliness back then, but I was surrounded by people all day, so it never occurred to me. But loneliness is defined purely subjectively. It depends solely on whether you feel emotionally or socially disconnected from those around you. And I did. There is a lot of research on loneliness, and all of it is horrifying. Loneliness won't just make you miserable, it will kill you. I'm not kidding. Chronic loneliness increases your likelihood of an early death by 14 percent. Loneliness causes high blood pressure, high cholesterol. It even suppress the functioning of your immune system, making you vulnerable to all kinds of illnesses and diseases. In fact, scientists have concluded that taken together, chronic loneliness poses as significant a risk for your longterm health and longevity as cigarette smoking. Now cigarette packs come with warnings saying, "This could kill you." But loneliness doesn't. And that's why it's so important that we prioritize our psychological health, that we practice emotional hygiene. Because you can't treat a psychological wound if you don't even know you're injured. Loneliness isn't the only psychological wound that distorts our perceptions and misleads us.

Guy Winch: Why we all need to practice emotional first aid

Think we can end California’s drought by eating differently? Think again

Instead of asking eaters to wade through this complexity every time they pick up a fork, we need policies that make water expensive for farmers in places where it’s scarce. A market price for water would simply eliminate inefficient crops.

Think we can end California’s drought by eating differently? Think again

What Milk Should I Drink?

If what we are looking for in food is resiliency, cows and almond trees might not be the worst candidates. Fernald pointed out that both evolved in drought-prone areas, and in times of stress they will still produce, just not as much. Her recommendations are to find a farmer with lower output (there will be less waste in the system), to get comfortable paying more, and to stop worrying about the milk. The debate over various milks, she says, grows out of misplaced frustration with the industrial food system and the bad choices it forces us into. “We are making a passionate commitment to something we made up,” she said. “On the dairy-versus-almonds thing, if you’re so passionate, just drink your coffee black.”

What Milk Should I Drink?

That sugar problem: sweet poison or paranoia?

"To single out sugar-sweetened beverages as a leading factor of chronic disease oversimplifies a complex public health issue and misleads people to ignore the concept of the total diet," says chief executive Geoff Parker.

That sugar problem: sweet poison or paranoia?

Myths Under The Microscope Part 3: Fat Burning Zone & Fasted Cardio Discussion & Afterthoughts

Fasted cardio is not optimal for reasons spanning beyond its questionable track record in research. There’s unavoidable positive metabolic synergy in fed (read: properly fueled) training, regardless of sport. This effect increases with intensity of training; even in untrained subjects, whatever fat oxidation is suppressed during training is compensated for in the recovery period by multiple mechanisms, many of which are not yet identified.

Myths Under The Microscope Part 3: Fat Burning Zone & Fasted Cardio Discussion & Afterthoughts

In Defense of Low Fat: A Call for Some Evolution of Thought (Part 1)

Hopefully by now, some things have become clear:

• We can’t categorically blame low-fat, high-carb diets for heart disease and diabetes and obesity. We just can’t. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. This needs to go away.
• We probably can’t even blame refined sugar for that stuff (at least not in isolation). Oh, the pain of shattering assumptions!
• We can’t ascribe the effects of low-fat, plant-based diets to their lack of animal products. Quite a few of the uber-low-fat studies here still allowed a fairly high animal protein intake, and still managed to whip people into diseaseless shape. Sorry, vegans!
• Ancel Keys did not invent low-fat.

In Defense of Low Fat: A Call for Some Evolution of Thought (Part 1)

Un lavado de cáscara

Entre noviembre de 2014 y abril de 2015 se analizaron 60 muestras en busca de insecticidas, fungicidas y herbicidas, y se detectó que el 76,6 por ciento de los alimentos tenía al menos uno de estos compuestos, mientras que el 27,7 por ciento dio positivo a tres de ellos o más. Bottesi explica que “hay sustancias que no deberían detectarse en los alimentos, a menos que el agricultor se haya excedido con la dosis o haya fumigado muy cerca de la cosecha. Y en estudios anteriores se detectó el uso de agroquímicos que se encuentran prohibidos, como los organoclorados”, en referencia al endosulfan, prohibido en la Argentina desde 2013. “Si no se conoce el origen del cultivo, lo que se recomienda es lavar varias veces y con mucha agua frutas y verduras. Algunas verduras como la zanahoria, la papa o el nabo conviene siempre pelarlas, al igual que las frutas”, recomienda Bottesi.

Un lavado de cáscara

Why “Clean Eating” is a Myth

“Clean Eating is a Scam”

— JC Deen

It’s a scam that’s promoted by athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors, government officials, schools, diet book authors, and pretty much everyone else who eats.

“Clean eating” has no objective definition and no scientific support.

It’s also an eating disorder.

Why “Clean Eating” is a Myth

What is the most overused food buzzword?

Healthful. Just all those words trying to get you pay attention to health when in fact everything that’s being sold to us is basically unhealthy.

20 Questions: Alice Waters on McDonald’s, Obama and Blue Apron

Triclosan Antibacterial Soap No Better at Killing Germs Than Regular Soap

There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in bactericidal activity between plain soap and antibacterial soap at either test temperature. However, antibacterial soap showed significantly greater bactericidal effects after 9 h. These results suggest that although triclosan-containing soap does have antibacterial activity, the effects are not apparent during the short time required for hand washing.

Bactericidal effects of triclosan in soap both in vitro and in vivo

How Much Harm Can Sugar Do?

Was it the sugar or the calories? The film makes the good point that a calorie is not simply a calorie—your body processes different kinds in different ways, and added sugar rarely provides benefits. Yet, like the anti-fat credo of my youth, “That Sugar Film” places too much certainty in the belief that a single food can be the problem. If only it were that simple. Many nutritionists believe it’s time to stop demonizing individual components of our diet—whether it’s fat, carbohydrates, cholesterol, or even sugar. It’s time to acknowledge that the special diets that obsess us—whether they consist of fruit or eliminate fruit, rely on meat or banish it—don’t work.

How Much Harm Can Sugar Do?

Should I Eat Three Big Meals Or Lots of Small Ones?

There’s also the fact that the most convenient foods tends to be junk foods. Finding or preparing healthy meals is a challenge. So if you’re eating six times a day as opposed to three, you’re going to have a tougher time sticking with good stuff, Longo says.

…

Longo says studies that support a grazing approach tend to be flawed in predictable ways. They often look only at the short-term effects of increasing meal frequency. While your appetite, metabolism and blood sugar might at first improve, your system will grow accustomed to your new eating schedule after a month or two. When that happens, your body will start expecting and craving food all day long instead of only around midday or dinnertime.

Should I Eat Three Big Meals Or Lots of Small Ones?

Seminario de Filosofía de la Ciencia: "Idolatría por las correlaciones. El éxito de la mala ciencia en nutrición"

7 de octubre de 2015, desde las 18 hs, en el Aula 8 (Subsuelo Pab. 2), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160 - Ciudad Universitaria. La entrada es libre y gratuita.

Las recomendaciones nutricionales en el mundo se fundan en investigaciones científicas de baja calidad: estudios observacionales, correlaciones sin prueba de causalidad. La compleja y multideterminada naturaleza del fenómeno de la alimentación hace difícil estudiarla en condiciones controladas, algo que debería aclararse cuando se formulan políticas públicas basadas en ciencia débil. La mitología urbana transmitida de boca en boca y la adopción acrítica de pseudo-verdades incorporadas al sentido común hacen el resto del trabajo. Debería resultar al menos llamativo que, en un planeta global con difusión masiva de ciertas pautas alimentarias, la epidemia de obesidad y de diabetes sea cada vez mayor: ¿el fenómeno crece porque las personas NO cumplen con el consejo nutricional? o, por el contrario, ¿el fenómeno crece porque la población SÍ cumple con recomendaciones inapropiadas y sin fundamento? Analizaremos dos mitos de hondo arraigo cultural: (1) las grasas saturadas de la dieta causan enfermedad cardiovascular, y (2) es necesario hidratarse permanentemente ingiriendo agua, en particular durante la actividad física.

Idolatría por las correlaciones. El éxito de la mala ciencia en nutrición.

Should I Drink Diet Soda?

So next time you’re craving an aluminum can of carbonated non-food constituents like artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners, remember Nettleton’s voice in your head. If you’re thirsty, she says, drink water. If you’re tired, have a cup of coffee. And if you want a weight-loss aid to squash those hunger pangs, “Take a walk around the block.”

Still feel hungry? “Then eat,” she says. “You are hungry.”

Should I Drink Diet Soda?

Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements

The negative impact of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages on weight and other health outcomes has been increasingly recognized; therefore, many people have turned to high-intensity sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin as a way to reduce the risk of these consequences. However, accumulating evidence suggests that frequent consumers of these sugar substitutes may also be at increased risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. This paper discusses these findings and considers the hypothesis that consuming sweet-tasting but noncaloric or reduced-calorie food and beverages interferes with learned responses that normally contribute to glucose and energy homeostasis. Because of this interference, frequent consumption of high-intensity sweeteners may have the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.

Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.

How Coke Is Subtly Blaming You for Obesity

“If you want to live a healthful life and maintain a healthy body weight, you need to go out of your way to live abnormally in an environment where normal isn’t healthy,” says Freedhoff. “It should really be the other way around.”

How Coke Is Subtly Blaming You for Obesity

How Soda Affects Kids’ Cholesterol Levels

Children consuming more sugared drinks had higher levels of triglycerides, which are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, and when Van Rompay looked at children who changed the amount of sugared drinks they consumed over the year, she found that those who drank one serving less on average from the start to the end of the study showed higher levels of HDL, the good cholesterol that can protect against heart problems.

How Soda Affects Kids’ Cholesterol Levels

Distraction, restrained eating and disinhibition: An experimental study of food intake and the impact of ‘eating on the go’

while those higher in restrained eating consumed less overall and fewer calories after watching TV or talking, they consumed more overall and more calories (specifically five times more chocolate) if the cereal bar was eaten while walking. ‘Eating on the go’ may disinhibit restrained eaters either as a form of distraction or by offering a justification to overeat.

Distraction, restrained eating and disinhibition: An experimental study of food intake and the impact of ‘eating on the go’

What is the solution to obesity?

To battle obesity effectively, governments must take the side of the citizen over the corporation for the health of the populace, by doing things like:

Subsidizing the right foods, and taxing the wrong ones
A 2012 release from the US Public Interest Research Group determined that government subsidization of treat-food additives pay for 21 Twinkies per taxpayer per year, but those same taxpayers only get half an apple paid for. There is something seriously wrong with that math. Making healthy food less expensive and treat food more expensive can go a long way to improve eating habits.

Placing tighter restrictions on food labeling
The average consumer is easily fooled; they don’t understand how often they are misled by food corporations via tactics such as “health washing” (also called nutritionism): making an unhealthy food seem healthy by promoting a certain ingredient it contains. Sorry, but macaroni and cheese from a box where the noodles are made from hyper-refined cauliflower is just as bad for you as the regular kind, and just because the cereal with the cartoon character on the front says it is made with whole grains doesn’t mean it makes for a healthy breakfast. And we’re supposed to believe that Fruity Pebbles are healthy because they have added Vitamin D? Come on!

Corporations also mess around with their labeling so they include four different types of sugar to keep sugar from being listed as the first ingredient.

Restricting food advertising to children
Again, it will require government intervention to do this, just like they did with smoking. Right now it’s the Wild West, where anything goes. Food advertising to children of unhealthy treats is over the top. Not only that, but it’s all about making food fun. Food that tattoos your tongue, is shaped like bugs, has cartoon promotion … and don’t forget about the movie partnerships with fast food restaurants. You can’t get the latest Avengers toy unless you buy the kids’ meal at the burger joint, and all their sports and movie heroes are chugging Coke these days, so if you want to be like them, just drink this sugar water.

Stop corporate-government partnerships and rein in lobbying
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) is funded by myriad food companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Kellogg’s, and the National Restaurant Association is a strategic partner to promote the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) “MyPlate” (which replaced the “food pyramid” in 2011). Restaurants, like food corporations, are also vested in repeat business, which means making food taste great, which translates to “irresistible and high in calories.” Having an association whose raison d’être is to promote the interests of restaurants partner with the USDA on guidelines for how Americans should eat is ludicrous.

These are just a couple of examples. The dairy industry has a long history of influencing the food pyramid, and Coca-Cola is very active in lobbying government to keep regulations lax around the sale of sugar water.

Revamp home economics in school, and make it mandatory
Cooking at home using fresh ingredients purchased from a grocery store is a powerful tool for battling obesity. My kids had the option to take home-ec, and mostly what they learned how to make was cookies and cinnamon buns. Here is a better approach.

Place tighter controls on the weight loss industry
As I pointed out in this piece, the weight loss industry is so full of crap its eyes are brown. Outlandish weight loss scams run rampant, making it the #1 form of fraud in the US many years running. Consumers are brainwashed into believing the quick and easy miracle cure from people such as Dr. Oz, and so rational and evidence-based approaches to weight loss (the kind that actually work) have a hard time reaching the public through all the noisy snake oil.

Stop promoting physical activity as the solution for weight loss
While exercise can play an important role in sustained weight loss, much of the messaging that persists gives a false impression that it is possible for you to outrun your fork. The amount of exercise it takes to compensate for poor dietary choices is impossible for most people.

Create better access to evidence-based weight management programs
“Better access” means government funding. It’s a worthwhile investment that will not only decrease healthcare costs, but also improve productivity, as obesity is shown to have a negative effect on workplace productivity.

Create national advertising campaigns that promote healthier eating
Some campaigns exist, but they could be done better, and they could be done more. Like with smoking cessation, the message needs to be hammered home again and again.

Make prejudice against people with obesity against the law
As it stands, we have laws to prevent prejudice against people based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, but no laws exist to protect the obese against unfair treatment. The reality is that shaming and mistreatment of the obese has the opposite of the intended effect; it leads to weight gain, not weight loss.

What is the solution to obesity?

Here's what your food would look like if it wasn't genetically modified over millennia

Genetically modified foods, or GMOs, inspire strong reactions nowadays, but humans have been tweaking the genetics of our favourite produce for millennia.

Here's what your food would look like if it wasn't genetically modified over millennia

How This Common Drug Can Have Lasting Effects on Kids

Compared to the mice taking the placebo, the antibiotic-treated animals had less diverse communities of bacteria, and the proportions of the bugs living in their guts were also different. The macrolides seemed to have the biggest effect on reducing microbial richness, while amoxicillin led to abnormally large bones. The changes in the microbiome persisted even to the animals’ death, nearly four months after their last antibiotic dose.

“There are really long-term, probably permanent effects on the microbiome from antibiotics,” says Blaser. “We showed changes in the richness and the community structure, and also the genes present in the bacteria.”

How This Common Drug Can Have Lasting Effects on Kids

Antibiotics Are Linked To Type-2 Diabetes

“When you take antibiotics,” he says, “you change the composition of the microbiota”—your personal collection of bacteria in the body that communicates with human cells. Blaser has a hypothesis for how this might work in children who develop type-1 diabetes: the change in composition from taking antibiotics also alters metabolism, possibly making people more likely to become diabetic.

Antibiotics Are Linked To Type-2 Diabetes

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

Or as one prescient reader of the 4 April story in the Daily Express put it, “Every day is April Fool’s in nutrition.”

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

“There does not appear to be evidence that chocolate should be avoided in terms of impact on cardiovascular risk.”

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us

Although the scientific process tries to makes sense of problems by isolating every variable—imagining a blood vessel, say, if HDL alone were raised—reality doesn’t work like that. Instead, we live in a world in which everything is knotted together, an impregnable tangle of causes and effects. Even when a system is dissected into its basic parts, those parts are still influenced by a whirligig of forces we can’t understand or haven’t considered or don’t think matter.

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing UsTrials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us

Really-low-fat vs somewhat-lower-carb - a nuanced analysis

As usual, don’t bother with media headlines -- this study is NOT a blow to low-carb dieting, which can be quite effective due to factors such as typically higher protein and more limited junk food options. Rather, this study shows that a low-carb diet isn’t necessary for fat loss and that lowering carbs and insulin doesn’t provide a magical metabolic advantage.

[…]

… weight loss does not rely on certain carb levels or manipulation of insulin, it relies on eating less. Don’t be scared that eating carbs will cause insulin to trap fat inside your fat cells.

Really-low-fat vs somewhat-lower-carb - a nuanced analysis

Regular Mealtimes Make You Eat More Healthily, Study Finds

In a new study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition researchers found that college students who made their meals at home and regularly consumed breakfast and an evening meal, had overall better diets. They avoided fast food and sugary drinks and ate more vegetables and fruit compared to people who did not keep an eating routine. People who ate on the run, or used media while they ate or purchased food often ate less healthily.

Regular Mealtimes Make You Eat More Healthily, Study Finds

Work Hard, Live Well

Several of them asked me about things I wish I had done or learned earlier in life, or regrets I had from earlier in my career. Again and again, I came back to the idea that I wish I had lived my life differently.

I wish I had slept more hours, and exercised regularly. I wish I had made better decisions about what to eat or drink — at times I consumed more soda and energy drinks than water.

Work Hard, Live Well

Sugary Drinks Take a Deathly Toll

Worldwide, they estimate that sweetened drinks cause 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 45,000 from cardiovascular disease, and 6,450 from cancers.

Sugary Drinks Take a Deathly Toll

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

“There does not appear to be evidence that chocolate should be avoided in terms of impact on cardiovascular risk.”

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

Sugars intake for adults and children

In both adults and children, WHO recommends reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake (strong recommendation).

Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015.

Candy brain

When faced with stress, just ‘‘think about an action path that improves your choice,’’ says Todd Hare, lead author of the study. Go for a walk instead of eating. ‘‘If you know you will have a hard time resisting,’’ he adds, ‘‘don’t store snacks at home.’’

Candy brain

The Lure of Forbidden Food

… it’s almost impossible to binge on apples. But process the apple into applesauce or juice, and it becomes a junk food that is easy to overeat.

The Lure of Forbidden Food