More good news about olive oil

Olive oil has several health benefits and research keeps documenting more. The reviewed research evaluated the effect of olive oil related to biomarkers of bone growth (Fernández-Real JM, et al. 2012).

The study participants were elderly men with high cardiovascular risk and the follow up was 2 years. The participants were divided in 3 groups, one group was assigned to a Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts, another group to a Mediterranean diet enriched with virgin olive oil and the control diet was a low fat diet.

One of the markers tested for was osteocalcin which is a protein found in bone. Osteocalcin was also one of the markers that increased in the group assigned to the olive oil.

The researchers concluded that a Mediterranean style diet enriched with olive oil is associated with increased serum osteocalcin levels indicating a protective effect on bone.

If you cook with oil, olive oil seems to be the best oil you can use. You can for example stir fry vegetables and you can also use olive oil and vinegar for salad dressings.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

 

Fernández-Real JM, Bulló M, Moreno-Navarrete JM, Ricart W, Ros E, Estruch R, Salas-Salvadó J. A mediterranean diet enriched with olive oil is associated with higher serum total osteocalcin levels in elderly men at high cardiovascular risk. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Oct;97(10):3792-8. doi: 10.1210/jc.2012-2221. Epub 2012 Aug 1.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

Cruciferous vegetables and breast cancer

Cruciferous vegetables are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts. These vegetables are considered some of the healthiest vegetables you can eat.

The research reviewed investigated the association between the intake of this type of vegetables and the risk of breast cancer (Liu X, Lv K. 2012). This was a meta-analysis where the researchers analyzed several articles on this topic to come up with a conclusion.

The results from this evaluation indicated that high consumption of cruciferous vegetables was significantly associated with reduced breast cancer risk.

A lot of people may not like these types of vegetables, but an easy way to use them is to include them in soups and stews. Steaming them and adding them to a meal with chicken, fish or turkey is another way.

If you know you are not going to eat enough of these vegetables, another way to get the benefits of the major substance responsible for most of the healthy results is to take some capsules of sulforaphane. You can read more about sulforaphane by clicking here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Liu X, Lv K. Cruciferous vegetables intake is inversely associated with risk of breast cancer: A meta-analysis. Breast. 2012 Aug 6.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

Factors affecting cognition

The participants were 6,401 adults, aged 39-63 years in 1991-1993. Data on weight using body mass index (BMI) was collected and metabolic status was evaluated using triglycerides, high density lipoprotein (HDL). The participants were also evaluated for the use of lipid lowering drugs, if they had high blood pressure or if they were using blood pressure medications. Glucose was measured and it was recorded if the participants were using medications for diabetes. Four cognitive tests were administered in 1997-1999, 2002-2004, and 2007-2009. Abnormality of the metabolic status was defined as 2 or more of the above listed factors.

The results documented a faster cognitive decline in the participants with both obesity and metabolic abnormality.

The good news about this is that these are factors we can do something about by adapting a healthy lifestyle and eating habits. For a program that works, log on to thespecialeffectsdiet.com.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Singh-Manoux A, Czernichow S, Elbaz A, Dugravot A, Sabia S, Hagger-Johnson G, Kaffashian S, Zins M, Brunner EJ, Nabi H, Kivimäki M. Obesity phenotypes in midlife and cognition in early old age: the Whitehall II cohort study. Neurology. 2012 Aug 21;79(8):755-62. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182661f63.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

What is the truth about omega 3 fish oil?

If you watched the ABC evening news yesterday you would have seen a report they did on omega 3 fish oil and a study which they claimed showed no benefits of fish oil. They reported that this study, which was a meta analyses of several studies, did not show any cardiovascular benefits from taking omega 3 fish oil. What they did not report was that this study had several flaws and the numerous studies published showing multiple benefits of omega 3 fish oil.

ABC news is apparently not a reliable source of news, but rather an example of inferior reporting not to be trusted. If you search PubMed for omega 3 fish oil you will find a vast amount of research showing multiple benefits of omega 3 fish oil, including reduction of inflammation and pain, cardiovascular benefits and improved mood.

The research reviewed here is an example of one of these very recent studies which documented just the opposite results of what the study ABC reported on showed.

Most of the studies they analyzed included persons with high cardiovascular risk (Delgado-Lista J, et al. 2012). The researchers concluded that marine omega-3 fatty acids are effective in preventing cardiovascular events, cardiac death and coronary events, especially in persons with high cardiovascular risk.

To read more about the benefits of omega 3 fatty acids click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Delgado-Lista J, Perez-Martinez P, Lopez-Miranda J, Perez-Jimenez F. Long chain omega-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease: a systematic review. Br J Nutr. 2012 Jun;107 Suppl 2:S201-13.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

More evidence that it matters where the calories are coming from

There are still so called experts who claim that it does not matter where the calories are coming from when it comes to losing and maintaining your weight. Several studies designed in different ways have documented that it does make a difference where the calories are coming from. When we lose weight the metabolic rate tends to slow down, making it more difficult to maintain the weight. Food that slows the metabolic rate the least would be the most beneficial way to eat for weight loss and weight maintenance.

The research reviewed here provides even more evidence that the kind of food we eat makes a difference when it comes to resting energy expenditure, total energy expenditure and inflammation (Ebbeling CB, et al. 2012).

In this study 3 different diets were compared and the participants were overweight and obese young adults. After the participants lost 10-15% of their weight, they were either put on a low-fat diet (60% of energy from carbohydrate, 20% from fat, 20% from protein; high glycemic load), low-glycemic index diet (40% from carbohydrate, 40% from fat, and 20% from protein; moderate glycemic load), and very low-carbohydrate diet (10% from carbohydrate, 60% from fat, and 30% from protein; low glycemic load) in random order, each for 4 weeks.

The results showed that the decrease in resting energy expenditure was greatest with the low fat diet, intermediate with the low glycemic index diet and the least with the very low carbohydrate diet.

There are two things which are important here; the low glycemic index diet was not all that low since it was moderate glycemic load. What a lot of people call low glycemic index is in reality moderate glycemic index. The other important point is that the results also showed that the low carbohydrate diet increased inflammation.

One thing you don't want is increased inflammation, that contributes to chronic disease and pain, so the low carbohydrate diet is not a good choice. The low-fat, high glycemic load diet slowed the resting energy expenditure the most, so that is also not a good choice.

The best choice is a very low glycemic index diet based on carbohydrates without a huge amount of fat, but including good amounts of the healthy essential fats. That would decrease the resting energy expenditure the least and also decrease inflammation.

These are the type of recommendations you will find on thespecialeffectsdiet.com, providing you a program which can be downloaded directly to your computer.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Ebbeling CB, Swain JF, Feldman HA, Wong WW, Hachey DL, Garcia-Lago E, Ludwig DS. Effects of dietary composition on energy expenditure during weight-loss maintenance. JAMA. 2012 Jun

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

More evidence that certain foods will reduce inflammation

There has been a lot of debate and also confusion when it comes to different types of diets, as it relates to weight loss and health. There are however more and more research providing evidence that what the diet consists of (where the calories are coming from) is very important. It makes a big difference where the calories are coming from, both as it relates to losing weight and certainly when it relates to health.

One thing everybody agrees on is that if we reduce chronic inflammation our health will improve.

The research reviewed compared two different diets, one was low glycemic load, the other one was high glycemic load, and the researchers evaluated the effect they had on the inflammatory marker highly sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and some other markers (Neuhouser, ML,et al. 2012). The participants were healthy adults; one group had normal weight while one group was overweight. All participants completed two 28 days periods. After finishing one period eating low glycemic load food, they were switched to a high glycemic load period. The diets had identical macronutrient content as percentage calorie count, which means they had equal amounts of carbohydrates, fat and protein. All food was provided and the participants maintained weight and usual physical activity.

The results were interesting. The low glycemic load diet reduced hs-CRP for the participants with a high body fat percentage. The researchers concluded that carbohydrate quality independent of energy is important, and low glycemic load foods may improve inflammation.

This is especially interesting since these participants did not lose any weight, the weight was purposely kept the same, but inflammation still decreased.

The program you find at www.thespecialeffectsdiet.com is a very effective approach to reduce inflammation, and you will also lose weight if you need to.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Neuhouser ML, Schwarz Y, Wang C, Breymeyer K, Coronado G, Wang CY, Noar K, Song X, Lampe JW. A low-glycemic load diet reduces serum C-reactive protein and modestly increases adiponectin in overweight and obese adults. J Nutr. 2012 Feb;142(2):369-74. Epub 2011 Dec 21.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.

The way meat is cooked can increase prostate cancer risk

The reviewed research investigated the association between red meat and poultry intake and advanced prostate cancer (Joshi AD, et al. 2012). The researchers looked at the cooking practices and the carcinogens that accumulate in cooked meats.

The researchers observed a positive association between risk of advanced prostate cancer and high intake of red meat cooked at high temperatures, cooked by pan-frying and cooked until well-done. An inverse association was observed for baked poultry. The carcinogens which accumulate in meat when cooked at high temperatures seem to be the problem.

Eliminating red meat from your diet and finding other alternatives like chicken, fish and turkey or eating a vegetarian diet seems to be safer, since there are also other studies showing that red meat may not be the healthiest food.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.

Reference:

Joshi AD, Corral R, Catsburg C, Lewinger JP, Koo J, John EM, Ingles SA, Stern MC. Red meat and poultry, cooking practices, genetic susceptibility and risk of prostate cancer: results from a multiethnic case-control study. Carcinogenesis. 2012 Aug 28.

Published with permission by Didrik Sopler, Ph.D., L.Ac : www.TissueRecovery.com Dr. Marsh has worked with and referrers patients to Dr. Sopler for co-management for years . . . He is quite simply San Diego's top functional medicine consultant.