There are a lot of supplements out there. Their claims can be based on a range of unpublished reports, studies lacking of credibility, and urban legends. It’s difficult to wade through all of the advertisements and marketing to find a legitimate product. Coupling my work experience in the supplement industry with my degree in nutrition; … Read More
Vitriol won’t help anything here and I’d even recommend you bask in your friends’ OBVIOUS envy. However, the assumption that health can be determined solely on weight is a dangerous world to live in. The British Journal of Nutrition published an interesting article about low-grade systemic inflammation they coined “metaflammation”. It suggested that obesity may … Read More
I’ll tackle the simpler part first: bad breath. It can come from two possible processes working independently or in conjunction with each other. The first is ketones being released through exhalation. There are three common forms of ketone bodies: acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. Depending on diet and lifestyle, the ratio of these ketones in the … Read More
Short answer: yes. Sugar can play on the same neural systems as some commonly abused drugs, according to an article that reviewed 70 pieces of clinical literature in The Journal of Nutrition . Binge eating is a prevalent behavior that is multifaceted. Although we have diagnoses that define certain behaviors as eating disorders, there is … Read More
There’s no guaranteed path to an easy answer. My suggestion is to get acquainted with http://scholar.google.com and their ‘advanced search’ functions. Find clinical articles that support (or counter) the claims being made. If there are multiple (10+) studies, I would say there’s a foundation. Also keep an eye out for clinical reviews. These are usually … Read More
I’d like to start by saying that fear is a prominent marketing tactic. If you fear something, I recommend you learn as much as you can about it. Here’s a (very basic) education of what research says about cancer: Cancer is not a single disease but a group of related diseases. The common activity these … Read More
Bummer! That must have been quite a disappointment. To start, I highly recommend reading about the “lipid hypothesis” to understand how the ‘low-fat’ mindset came to be. What I realized relatively recently is that the number of contradictory studies might actually exceed the ones that support it. Mind. Blown. There’s also research out there that … Read More
Is red wine really good for you? Jury is out. Are people just using that as an excuse to drink more? Of course. There are multiple variables that require additional research. Right off the bat we have the grapes themselves which can have significant variation depending on where they’re grown and how they are cultivated. … Read More
Bottle of dead, rotting fish huh? What a visual that is. Your doctor is right in telling you that omega-3’s are important as they are considered “essential fatty acids” which means our body cannot create them so we need to find them in food. It’s true, omega-3 fatty acids (FA) can be found in fish … Read More
I’ve read a few (non-research) articles about the supposed benefit of combining or separating certain foods in order to optimize digestion. Overall, I’m not buying it. A term you may have heard or read about is ‘dissociated diet’. The idea behind this is that you are supposed to eat one food group at a time. … Read More
