Health & WellnessS

Bacon

Saturated fat heart disease 'myth': UK cardiologist calls for change in public health advice on saturated fat


BBC News
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:37 UTC
Triple Burger
© ThinkstockThat eating a diet high in saturated fat can raise the risk of heart disease is not supported by scientific evidence

A UK cardiologist is calling for a change in public health advice on saturated fat.

Dr Aseem Malhotra says the risks have been overstated, with other factors such as sugar intake being overlooked.

It is time to "bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease", he writes in an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal.

The British Heart Foundation says reducing cholesterol through drugs or other means does lower heart risk.

Studies on the link between diet and disease have led to dietary advice and guidelines on how much saturated fat, particularly cholesterol, it is healthy to eat.
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Apple Green

Everything you've been told about how to eat is wrong

Aaron Gordon
Alternet
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 19:04 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock.com/ Uros Zunic
If you go to the National Institute of Health's website today, you will find a section on a "Healthy Eating Plan." That plan recommends a diet "low in saturated fats, trans fat, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars, and controls portion sizes." These recommendations may well have been copied and pasted from 1977.

Nothing has changed over the past 36 years, except for this: everyone is fatter.

The U.S. government began issuing dietary guidelines in 1977, when the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, led by Senator George McGovern, issued the first dietary recommendations for the American people. Although these recommendations were made some 36 years ago, you probably recognize them immediately: "Increase consumption of complex carbohydrates and 'naturally occurring sugars;' and reduce consumption of refined and processed sugars, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium." And those should sound identical to your doctor's advice: decreased consumption of refined and processed sugars; foods high in total and animal fat, eggs, butterfat, and other high-cholesterol foods; and foods high in salt.

Comment: Saturated Fat is where it's at! Enjoy Saturated Fats, They're Good for You!:

The saturated fat myth
Wrongly Convicted? The Case for Saturated Fat
Animal fats are better for you than vegetable fats
The Forbidden Food You Should Never Stop Eating
The Big Lie: "Saturated Fats Are Bad For You"
Saturated fat is not the culprit in heart disease

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Arrow Up

Here's why eating Bambi may be the best thing for deer habitats

Willy Blackmore
Take Part
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 18:50 UTC
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© William Shaw/GettyVenison- Deer Meat
We needed a heart.

It was for an art project, something Damien Hirst-esque, the organ floating in a jar of alcohol in the window of the art gallery space we had during high school in a small Iowa town. The meat department at Hy-Vee dealt with pre-packaged cuts, and beef heart doesn't play quite as well as double-cut pork chops in my hometown. But the woman behind the counter enthusiastically offered up the deer heart that was sitting in her freezer back home.

The price for the butcher paper-wrapped organ, surprisingly small and un-heart-like in appearance? Free. Which makes sense for a hunk of venison that's far less desirable than, say, the tenderloin. But even if the butcher lady had been passing us a prime cut from the deer her husband felled across the Hy-Vee counter, it would have been illegal to sell.

In fact, the sale of any and all wild game is banned in the United States, and has been for more than a century. But with whitetail deer populations booming, some are saying its time to bring back commercial hunting as a means of conservation-minded population control.
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Stop

Veterinary scientists track the origin of a deadly emerging pig virus in the United States

Michael Sutphin
Virginia Tech
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:29 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Veterinary researchers at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech have helped identify the origin and possible evolution of an emerging swine virus with high mortality rates that has already spread to at least 17 states.

A team of researchers led by Dr. X.J. Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology, has used virus strains isolated from the ongoing outbreaks in Minnesota and Iowa to trace the likely origin of the emergent porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) to a strain from the Anhui province in China. The virus, which causes a high mortality rate in piglets, was first recognized in the United States in May of this year.

"The virus typically only affects nursery pigs and has many similarities with transmissible gastroenteritis virus of swine," said Meng, who is a faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology. "There is currently no vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United States. Although some vaccines are in use in Asia, we do not know whether they would work against the U.S. strains of the virus."
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Info

Shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality linked to Alzheimer's disease biomarker

Natalie Wood-Wright
Johns Hopkins University
Mon, 21 Oct 2013 14:37 UTC
Poor sleep quality may impact Alzheimer's disease onset and progression. This is according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who examined the association between sleep variables and a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease in older adults. The researchers found that reports of shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality were associated with a greater ฮฒ-Amyloid burden, a hallmark of the disease. The results are featured online in the October issue of JAMA Neurology.

"Our study found that among older adults, reports of shorter sleep duration and poorer sleep quality were associated with higher levels of ฮฒ-Amyloid measured by PET scans of the brain," said Adam Spira, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Mental Health. "These results could have significant public health implications as Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, and approximately half of older adults have insomnia symptoms."

Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. According to the National Institutes of Health, as many as 5.1 million Americans may have the disease, with first symptoms appearing after age 60. Previous studies have linked disturbed sleep to cognitive impairment in older people.
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Eggs Fried

Ate a High-Fat Diet - Lost 200 lbs

Andreas Eenfeldt, MD.
Dietdoctor.com
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 09:17 UTC
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The frequent reader here has no doubt heard Tommy Runesson's impressive story before. But now it's also in the Swedish newspaper Corren and we get to admire some new pictures of Tommy. Like the one above - it's probably time for a new pair of pants.

Here's the full article, translated into English.

Ate a High-Fat Diet - Lost 200 lbs

In two years Tommy Runesson lost 200 lbs. By exercising and eating fruit? No, with fat.

Initially, the diabetes nurse had trouble believing what she saw. The patient Tommy Runesson's blood sugar, cholesterol and lipid levels just kept improving, while he was eating exactly the opposite of what the official dietary guidelines dictate.

Tommy is full of contradictions in many ways. Despite always being obese, he has felt fine both physically and mentally. He has no idea what his health markers looked like when he was obese, as he had hardly ever seen a doctor. But he can take a guess...

- Oddly enough, I was never bullied, nor did I feel awkward as a fat boy. Perhaps someone yelled "fatso" at me in school at times, but it never stuck with me.

Tommy has a background as a trained chef and has always loved food, "real" food as he calls it, in the old traditional style. Meat and fish and rich sauces with piles of pasta, bread and potatoes. And Coca Cola. He had big portions and was obese already as a child. But he never had a sweet tooth, and was never particularly fond of pastries and candy.

As he felt fine, he didn't consider losing weight, even though deep inside he of course knew he should.

Comment: An impressive story indeed, one that should be the norm, not the exception:

Sweden becomes first Western nation to reject low-fat diet dogma in favor of low-carb high-fat nutrition

The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview

Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet

Read More...
Attention

Health dangers of eating wheat

Jan Johansen
Newswire
Sat, 19 Oct 2013 18:42 UTC
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There has been a lot of talk about the dangers of wheat lately. A lot of it has been sparked by the book 'Wheat Belly" by William Davis, M.D. It has a lot of information that is presented in a very believable way.

Many experts are saying we are faced with an epidemic of gluten intolerance. There is a whole industry of gluten free products springing up. Many people are reading about gluten free lifestyles. Even if they aren't having the classic symptoms of gluten intolerance they are opting for this change in their lifestyle.

Other experts are saying that it isn't just the gluten we need to be aware of. One of the main health-harming culprits is found with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a category of lectins. Regardless if the wheat is soaked, sprouted or cooked, these compounds remain intact. Tiny and hard to digest, lectins can accumulate within the body and wreak havoc on physical and mental well-being. WGA is neurotoxic, crossing the blood brain barrier and attaching to the myelin sheath, consequentially inhibiting nerve growth - a serious consideration for those suffering from degenerative neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's. These and other aspects of wheat have also been linked to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
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Smoking

Air pollution leading cause of cancer, World Health Organisation warns


South China Morning Post
Fri, 18 Oct 2013 16:05 UTC
Hong Kong island
© Photo: Sam TsangA tourist from mainland poses for photo in front of a large outdoor banner with an image of the Hong Kong island skyline at the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The World Health Organisation has classified outdoor air pollution as a leading cause of cancer.

"The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances. We consider this to be the most important environmental carcinogen, more so than passive smoking," said Kurt Straif, head of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The agency evaluates cancer-causing substances.

Previously, air pollution had been found to boost the chances of heart and respiratory diseases and the agency had deemed some of the components in air pollution, such as diesel fumes, to be carcinogens.

But this is the first time it has classified air pollution in its entirety as causing cancer.

Comment: In theacclaimed 2005 article: Aliens Don't Like to Eat People That Smoke!, Laura Knight-Jadzcyk wrote:
Has anyone ever wondered if the illnesses that are blamed on smoking might very well be caused by the pollution and toxins in our air, water, and food, and are blamed on smoking so as to maintain the commercial viability of the real causes, while at the same time, creating a nation of law-breakers so that the government can cash in on the guilt as Ayn Rand suggested?
See also: 5 Health Benefits of Smoking

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Attention

Siberian alert on dangers of new virulent HIV strain


The Siberian Times
Thu, 17 Oct 2013 12:18 UTC
Scientists warn over 'rapid rate' of spread now accounting for 50% of new infections in Novosibirsk.
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© The Siberian TimesThe new strain isn't limited to Siberia but has been detected in the Caucasus as well as in the central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The strain called 02_AG/A was discovered at the world famous biotechnology research centre Vektor but there is a need for a boost in research funding, it is claimed.

'02_AG/A might be the most virulent form of HIV in Russia,' warned Natalya Gashnikova, head of the Retroviruses Department at Vektor, in the scientific city of Koltsovo. 'The number of HIV-positive people living in the Novosibirsk Region has leaped from about 2,000 in 2007 up to 15,000 in 2012,' said a RIA Novosti report. And 02_AG/A accounts for more than 50 percent of new HIV infections.

'The new strain isn't limited to Siberia but has been detected in the Caucasus as well as in the central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan', said Vektor in a statement.

HIV-1 is the most common strain, and divides into subtypes based on various forms that are grouped in geographic regions around the world.
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Bacon n Eggs

Sweden becomes first Western nation to reject low-fat diet dogma in favor of low-carb high-fat nutrition

Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News
Fri, 18 Oct 2013 10:19 UTC
Swedish Meatballs
© Health Impact NewsSwedish meatballs now โ€œOKโ€
Sweden has become the first Western nation to develop national dietary guidelines that reject the popular low-fat diet dogma in favor of low-carb high-fat nutrition advice.

The switch in dietary advice followed the publication of a two-year study by the independent Swedish Council on Health Technology Assessment. The committee reviewed 16,000 studies published through May 31, 2013.

Swedish doctor, Andreas Eenfeldt, who runs the most popular health blog in Scandinavia (DietDoctor.com) published some of the highlights of this study in English:
Health markers will improve on a low-carbohydrate diet:

...a greater increase in HDL cholesterol ("the good cholesterol") without having any adverse affects on LDL cholesterol ("the bad cholesterol"). This applies to both the moderate low-carbohydrate intake of less than 40 percent of the total energy intake, as well as to the stricter low-carbohydrate diet, where carbohydrate intake is less than 20 percent of the total energy intake. In addition, the stricter low-carbohydrate diet will lead to improved glucose levels for individuals with obesity and diabetes, and to marginally decreased levels of triglycerides." (Source.)

Comment: For more information on the health benefits of a ketogenic diet, see:

The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview

Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet

High-Fat Ketogenic Diet Effectively Treats Persistent Childhood Seizures

Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets

Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects

Read More...