The amino acid, asparagine, is thought to be “digested” by cancer cells to help metastasize or spread throughout the body. The study of all the recent headlines used mice, who were in-bred to lack immunity, and then injected with cancer cells.2 The mice were fed a chow with either no, low or high amounts of asparagine. Spread of cancer to the lung was increased in mice on high-asparagine diet. Injecting an enzyme that blocked asparagine lowered...
A recent study1 looked at this exact question. Participants used smart phones to scan food barcodes for 4 weeks. The nutrition labels were then displayed for all the products they scanned. They found that the products for which participants viewed the label, and subsequently purchased were about 13% healthier than the products where the labels were viewed, but were not purchased. The authors conclude that, "nutrition labels may influence healthier food purchases by those consumers who...
Babies suck. Let me explain. Infants have a natural reflex for what is called nonnutritive sucking (NNS), such as sucking on their thumb or a pacifier. They do not get any nutrition from this sucking, as they would with breastfeeding, thus “nonnutritive.” We also see occasional nonnutritive sucking from my favorite sports teams. But, I digress. Due to the rise in the number of obese children, and that breastfeeding can be associated with a reduced...
With chocolate milk suggested as a possible post-workout drink, with both protein and carbohydrate, researchers set out to determine the acute changes in testosterone and isometric strength with some post-exercise chocolate cow’s and goat’s milk.1 Twelve, healthy college-aged men performed a back squat consisting of 5 sets of 8 reps over three separate exercise trials. After each trial, they drank either 1 cup of cow’s milk, 1.5 cups of goat’s milk, or 1.5 cups of water,...
We still hear it all the time – that 3500 calories is equal to one pound of body weight. The thought might be appealing, that one can simply create a 500 calorie per day deficit by either cutting 500 calories from their diet, adding 500 calories per day of exercise, or a combination of both. After one week, the deficit of 3500 calories (500 calories x 7 days) should result of 1 pound of weight loss....
Have you ever felt the urge to reward yourself with food after a workout? Many do. Some might be choosing their food choices off how many calories were "burned" during their workout. For some, being able to eat what they want is a reason they exercise in the first place. Clearly, such a mentality is in opposition to the goal of healthy eating. We have already discussed the conflicting caloric estimations of cardio machines. In other words,...
I was asked this question back on July 4th, where hot dogs are consumed in mass quantities - with or without the 'fattening' buns. I actually forgot about it, until I saw that ESPN Classic was showing the replay of a hot dog eating contest. I guess increasing one's risk of cancer is considered a sport? So, are hot dogs carcinogenic? Yes. And the cancer risk is not just limited to hot dogs, but any processed...
Transcript With juicing becoming quite the phenomenon, especially green juice and juices that claim to “detoxify” or “cleanse”, I have been asked to answer the question, "Am I juicing too much?" I am unaware of an evidence-based prescription for juicing. There is also very little research on the effects of juicing. A 2013 editorial, “Juicing is Not All Juicy” states, “Up to now, there have been no reports of juicing-induced damage, until this issue of...
Here is an interesting article examining a historical and scientific perspective on if skipping breakfast is really that bad (for weight loss). A few notes to add: The Largest Study on Breakfast and Weight Loss The web article does refer to the largest breakfast and weight loss study to date, led by Dr. David Allison's wonderful research team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.1 In this study, 283 participants classified as overweight or obese were...