Category: Uncategorized

October 20, 2009 Replace Vitamin D and Make Your Blood Vessels Happy   Competency:  # 17 Vitamin D Reference:  Tarcin et at J Clin Endo Meta Oct 2009 p4023   Now, this is downright fun!  This is a well-done study comparing young, healthy men with low vitamin D levels (average 8 ng) to normal vitamin D levels (32ng)… Continue reading Vitamin D and Flow Mediated Dilation: Link to Heart Disease

October 17, 2009 You May Not be at Risk with Atkins After All?   Competency #2: DASH OMNI and Other Evidence Based Diets Reference:  American Journal Clinical Nutrition 2008:87: 567-76 Keogh et al from Adelaide, Australia. (Published Yesterday!)   Atkins must be bad for you!  I’ve told everyone that for years.  It can’t possibly be okay to eat all… Continue reading The Atkins Diet May not Be So Bad

October 15, 2009Topic: Acts of Unexpected Kindness: Perfect Food for Your Soul Competency # 25  Community Reference: Sonya Lyubomirsky, “The How of Happiness” Published 2008 Sonya Lyubomirsky is our leading social scientist studying happiness.   She is a professor of psychology at UCLA.  This is one lovely book that I’ve just devoured with fascination.  Her research shows… Continue reading Acts of Unexpected Kindness

October 14, 2009 Chili Peppers: “Your Genes Are Hot, Hot, Hot”    Reference: # 14 SUPERFOODS Reference:  Kang, Obesity 2009 Oct 1   We didn’t say your “Jeans  are Hot.”  We said your GENES.  How do chilies make your genes get “hot?”  Actually, chilies are “cool.”  Here’s how.   Chili peppers are very widely consumed.  Ever since Christopher Columbus… Continue reading Chili Peppers: “Your Genes Are Hot, Hot, Hot”

October 07, 2009 Fiber and Fertility   Competency #: Fiber Reference:  Gaskins et al AJCN Oct 2009 The BioCycle Study   Fiber is a hot topic.  The American Diabetes Association recently set targets of 14 grams of fiber per 1000 calories.  Considering that most Americans eat about 15-16 grams of fiber a day, this would be a doubling of… Continue reading Fiber and Fertility

October 07, 2009 A Beer Belly is the Same as a Soda Belly   Competency #11 Sugar and Fructose Reference:  The Bariatrician, Robert H. Lustig, September 2009   Dr. Lustig is a full professor of pediatric endocrinology at UC San Francisco.  He asks the question, “How are the Atkins Diet and the Japanese Diet the same?’”  One is very high… Continue reading A Beer Belly is the Same as a Soda Belly

October 06, 2009 How to Lose Weight without Exercising Differently   Competency # 4 Activity                        Reference:  Barnard et al, Effects of a Low-Fat Plant-Based Diet, Am Jr of Medicine 118, 991 (2005)   Losing weight is just about the hardest thing we ever do.  I have had… Continue reading How to Lose Weight without Exercising Differently

September 01, 2009 Terrible Toxins 6:  Hot, Hot Hot – Perflourinated Non Stick Coatings  Competency #18 TOXINS Reference: The Body Toxic by Nena Baker, Published by Farrar, Strauss 2008   Perfluorinated non-stick coatings, the short name is PFOA.  Imagine a long chain of carbon atoms, just like a fatty acid.  Instead of hydrogens, you substitute fluorine.  Fluorine makes an… Continue reading Terrible Toxins 6: Hot, Hot Hot – Perflourinated Non Stick Coatings

August 26, 2009 Terrible Toxins: 5  Bisphenol A:  Plastics Gone Wild  Competency # 18 Environmental Toxins          Reference: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Sunday, August 23, 2009; The Body Toxic by Nena Baker, Published by Farrar, Strauss 2008   This is a hot topic.  Headline news this week in newspapers, “Chemical Industry to Launch a Publicity Blitz to Protect Bisphenol-A.”  At… Continue reading Terrible Toxins: 5 Bisphenol A: Plastics Gone Wild

August 04, 2009 Terrible Toxins 4: PBDEs   Competency # 18  Environmental Toxins               Reference: The Body Toxic by Nena Baker, Published by Farrar, Strauss 2008 PBDE’s?   What on earth!  Poly Brominated Diphenyl Ether, another possible persistent toxin.  Bromine, attached many times to benzene rings acts as a wonderful flame-retardant.  When the substance… Continue reading Terrible Toxins 4: PBDEs