DietBarn.com http://www.dietbarn.com/ Articles and Essays Collection Focusing on Weightloss, Fitness, Diets, Health, Beauty, Psychology en Copyright 2009 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:50:47 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss How to Stay Healthy in College College students and healthy lifestyle. On the one hand it seems like the ultimate contradiction. Pizza boxes, Red Bull cans, Doritos bags, beer bottles, Captain Crunch at every cafeteria meal. They’re as much a cultural vision of college as John Belushi’s sweatshirt. If there were a Primal no man’s land, you’d think the residential campus [...]

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/dear_mark_how_to_stay_healthy_in_college.html http://www.dietbarn.com/dear_mark_how_to_stay_healthy_in_college.html Health How To Nutrition Sleep Stress Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:50:47 -0500 SAD vs Traditional Japanese diet Anyone reading DrBG will by now be aware that Loren Cordain might well be coming in from the cold on the saturated fat front, as a middle author of this nice perspective paper which I've yet to slog through in its entirety. This can only be good.

As always, occasional papers bring to mind studies that need discussing. The introduction to the above paper cites Marmot in this paper and this paper. I've been interested in these two papers ever since I read Dr Ravnskov's "The Cholesterol Myths" back when I found I had a TC of about 7.2mmol/l (gasp) in 2003. It's interesting for the aspects which don't get a mention, in particular the superior health benefits of the SAD compared to the traditional Japanese diet. That's right, the SAD wins.

So here's a paper request. Anyone have the two Marmot papers as pdfs?

The main conclusions are purported to be that Japanese in Japan have low levels of coronary disease. On emigration to Hawaii the incidence increases and in California it is higher still, especially in those who adopted an American lifestyle and values. However, in this later group, there is a subdivision who adopted everything American EXCEPT the diet.

On the traditional Japanese diet, with an American lifestyle, you are twice as likely to suffer heart disease than if you live the American way AND you eat at Burger King (OK, on the SAD of the 1970s).

Needless to say, I'd love to check this out, with the greatest of respect to Dr Ravnskov. Stuff this amusing just has to be seen in the bare pdf form. Copies of the two Marmot papers would be very much appreciated...

Peter

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/sad_vs_traditional_japanese_diet.html http://www.dietbarn.com/sad_vs_traditional_japanese_diet.html SAD vs Traditional Japanese diet Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:38:00 -0500 Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part III Normal Human Occlusion

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization_part_iii.html http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization_part_iii.html archaeology dental health diseases of civilization Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:40:00 -0500 Korean-Style Short Ribs Korean short ribs have an irresistible combination of sweet, salty and spicy flavors. Traditionally, the sweetness comes from sugar or corn syrup, usually half a cup or more. Thanks to Christian Chun, who submitted a fruit-based marinade for Korean-style short ribs to the Primal Blueprint Cookbook Contest, you can lose the processed sugar without losing [...]

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/korean-style_short_ribs.html http://www.dietbarn.com/korean-style_short_ribs.html Recipes Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:00:41 -0500 Chinese Herbal Medicines to Prevent Diabetes? A new Cochrane review of studies of the impact of Chinese herbal medicines on preventing prediabetes. It concludes that,
Meta-analysis of eight trials showed that those receiving Chinese herbal medicines combined with lifestyle modification were more than twice as likely to have their fasting plasma glucose levels return to normal levels (i.e. fasting plasma glucose <7.8 mmol/L and 2hr blood glucose <11.1 mmol/L) compared to lifestyle modification alone (RR 2.07; 95% confidence intervall (CI) 1.52 to 2.82). Those receiving Chinese herbs were less likely to progress to diabetes over the duration of the trial (RR 0.33; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.58)
You can find the abstract, here:

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/chinese_herbal_medicines_to_prevent_diabetes.html http://www.dietbarn.com/chinese_herbal_medicines_to_prevent_diabetes.html Chinese herbs Cochrane Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:31:00 -0500 In Search Of The Perfect Human Diet

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/in_search_of_the_perfect_human_diet.html http://www.dietbarn.com/in_search_of_the_perfect_human_diet.html C.J. Hunt Cyclopean wall Greece Paleolithic The Perfect Human Diet documentary scientific investigation Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:08:00 -0500 My experience with the omega-3 index I just got back my own results from the Gene Smart laboratory reporting my omega-3 index and omega-6:omega-3 ratio.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/my_experience_with_the_omega-3_index.html http://www.dietbarn.com/my_experience_with_the_omega-3_index.html Omeg-3 fatty acids Omega-3 index Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:35:00 -0500 Fat Improves Performance For Pilots A military-funded study conducted by researchers at the University of North Dakota discovered that pilots who ate the most fatty foods, such as butter or gravy, had the quickest response times in mental tests and made fewer mistakes when flying in tricky conditions. Forty-five student pilots were tracked to test their performance on flight simulators while eating four different diets: high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-protein, and a control diet.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/fat_improves_performance_for_pilots.html http://www.dietbarn.com/fat_improves_performance_for_pilots.html High fat diet best diet for pilots fat improves reflexes and brain function low carb diet Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:29:00 -0500 Choose Your Booze: A Guide to Healthy Drinking It’s the question every Primal adherent faces: how does alcohol fit into a low carb lifestyle? Maybe you’re out with friends, bravely resisting the assorted chips and fried concoctions in the center of the table. You don’t mind waiting patiently for the steak and salad you conscientiously selected, but must you be relegated to the [...]

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/choose_your_booze_a_guide_to_healthy_drinking.html http://www.dietbarn.com/choose_your_booze_a_guide_to_healthy_drinking.html Health Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:38:40 -0500 The Omega-3 Index: The higher, the better? So you take a few fish oil capsules every day and eat fish once or twice a week. What is the blood and tissue level of omega-3 fatty acids generated by your habits?

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/the_omega-3_index_the_higher_the_better.html http://www.dietbarn.com/the_omega-3_index_the_higher_the_better.html Cardiovascular disease omega-3 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:09:00 -0500 What Is Really Known about Fatty Liver? The latest fad diets promise to reduce the fat in your liver. This is a noble aim--the amount of fat in your liver correlates closely to cardiovascular risk. Liver fat also appears to increase insulin resistance, though it is interesting to note that very recent research has found that pancreatic fat has a strong relationship to the development of Type 2 diabetes and may in fact be more important than liver fat.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/what_is_really_known_about_fatty_liver.html http://www.dietbarn.com/what_is_really_known_about_fatty_liver.html NAFLD diabetes diet Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:15:00 -0500 Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part II The Nature of the Problem

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization_part_ii.html http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization_part_ii.html dental health diseases of civilization Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:44:00 -0500 Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization In his epic work Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Weston Price documented the abnormal dental development and susceptibility to tooth decay that accompanied the adoption of modern foods in a number of different cultures throughout the world. Although he quantified changes in cavity prevalence (sometimes finding increases as large as 1,000-fold), all we have are Price's anecdotes describing the crooked teeth, narrow arches and "dished" faces these cultures developed as they modernized.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization.html http://www.dietbarn.com/malocclusion_disease_of_civilization.html Pima archaeology dental health diet diseases of civilization genetics Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:00:00 -0500 Another Fatty Liver Reversal, Part II A month ago, I wrote about a reader "Steve" who reversed his fatty liver using a change in diet. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a truly disturbing modern epidemic, rare a few decades ago and now affecting roughly a quarter of the adult population of modern industrialized nations. Researchers cause NAFLD readily in rodents by feeding them industrial vegetable oils or large amounts of sugar.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/another_fatty_liver_reversal_part_ii.html http://www.dietbarn.com/another_fatty_liver_reversal_part_ii.html Success Stories diet disease fats liver low-carb Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:05:00 -0500 Palmitic Acid and Insulin Resistance: a New Paradigm We've been having an interesting discussion in the comments about a recently published paper by Dr. Stephen C. Benoit and colleagues (free full text). They showed that a butter-rich diet causes weight gain and insulin resistance in rats, compared to a low-fat diet or a diet based on olive oil. They published a thorough description of the diets' compositions, which is very much appreciated!

They went on to show that infusing palmitic acid (a 16-carbon saturated fat) directly into the brain of rats also caused insulin resistance relative to oleic acid (an 18-carbon monounsaturated fat, like in olive oil). Here's a representation of palmitic acid. The COOH end is the acid end, and the squiggly line is the fatty end. Thus it's called a "fatty acid", various forms of which are the fat currency of the body.
One of the most interesting things about this study is the butter group that the investigators fed the same number of calories as the low-fat group (this is called pair-feeding). This group did not become overweight, and did not experience elevated fasting insulin and blood glucose relative to the low-fat group*. This shows clearly that the adverse effects of the butter diet were primarily due to the fact that rodents overeat when fed a high-fat diet.

Unfortunately, the paper doesn't provide longitudinal food intake data so we have no idea how many calories the rats in each group ate, beyond knowing that the low-fat group and the pair-fed butter group ate the same amount. We have no assurance that rats in the butter group and olive oil group ate the same number of calories over time. Rats eat less of foods they find bitter. This probably accounts, at least in part, for the beneficial effects of things like blueberry extracts on rodent models of disease. Olive oil may taste bitter to a rat, particularly when it's 20% of the diet by weight. Butter is tasty to calves, humans and rats alike.

]]> http://www.dietbarn.com/palmitic_acid_and_insulin_resistance_a_new_paradig.html http://www.dietbarn.com/palmitic_acid_and_insulin_resistance_a_new_paradig.html diabetes diet disease fats hyperphagia metabolic syndrome Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:00:00 -0500