For lunch today, I made salmon patties, which I ate with some canned spinach, butter, and a few olives. (Yes, canned spinach. I like fresh and frozen spinach, too, but canned spinach is what I ate as a kid -- what Popeye the Sailor ate to get strong -- so I have a soft spot for it. I like it, especially with melting butter on top.) The salmon patties were an experiment. I added a tablespoon of chia seeds to my usual recipe. I wanted to test the chia as a binding agent. It didn't work all that … [Read more...]
Helping the President raise awareness about childhood obesity
Happy National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month! That's right, September 2011 has been so proclaimed by President Obama. The President notes that a third of American children are obese or over-weight and urges "all Americans to take action by learning about and engaging in activities that promote healthy eating and greater physical activity by all our Nation's children." I can't find a place on the proclamation to leave a comment, so I'll do it here. Mr. President, I'm with you on the … [Read more...]
Reviewing some good and bad advice for spotting bogus diets
Is a diet "bogus" because it bans "fat, sugar or carbs"? Yes claims an article at USA Weekend: Five ways to spot a bogus diet. I'll get to the other signs of dietary bogusosity in a minute. Let us first examine the assertion that banning or limiting particular foods or nutrients from your diet is "both nutritionally deficient and not sustainable." Sure, banning all fat would create a diet that is seriously deficient and unsustainable; in fact, it would kill you. Therefore, no one ever … [Read more...]
Why Americans say they diet
More American adults say they have changed their diets to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables (71%) than say they have changed their diets to lose weight (65%). Right away, you have to wonder how honest the people polled were. Or you have to wonder if they know what constitutes a fruit and vegetable. Two-thirds of Americans say they changed their diet to improve their health. Only one-third say it was to change their appearance. I'm with the majority on this question, but who … [Read more...]
Exploring the HuffPo: Sugar, Paleo and Plaque
Man does not live by steak-and-eggs alone. Woman either, from what I can see. Having consumed plenty of editorial red-meat in recent days, I decided to venture beyond the low-carb blogosphere this weekend to see who else was writing about diet and health. There was bound to be somebody. I ended up at the Huffington Post. All Internet roads seem to lead there. The HuffPo (as we insiders call it) is the New York Times of the Digital Age, except that apparently the HuffPo doesn't pay its … [Read more...]
Snack-filled diet dangerous for rats — and us
Rodent health has never been a major concern of mine, but it seems to worry scientists a lot. For example, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill published a study in the journal Obesity that examines what happens to rats who are fed a snack-filled diet similar to that consumed by millions of Americans. The study makes an important point about modeling human metabolic syndrome in lab rats, but it suggests even more. The snack or "cafeteria" diet consisted … [Read more...]
Major review says it’s time to embrace low-carb diets
An invited, extensive review of experimental studies published in the June 2011 issue of the journal Nutrition in Clinical Practice (vol. 26, no. 3) argues that it is "time to embrace" low-carb diets "as a viable option" in the battle against diabetes, heart disease and obesity, and concludes that "the shift in metabolism that occurs on a LC [low-carbohydrate] diet heralds a shift in our current dietary paradigm." An abstract of the review is freely available online. The following account is … [Read more...]