Cranberries can be magic.
Ask any woman who has ever had a slight, but pesky, bladder infection.
Research published in the peer-reviewed journal, Phytomedicine, suggest cranberries to have potent antiviral properties. After the virus known as bacteriophage T2 and T4 was exposed to cranberry juice, the viral count in the cells was no longer detectable. By contrast, orange and grapefruit juices had a much lower effect, inhibiting the virus by only 25 to 35 percent. The researchers noted that cranberry juice could prevent the virus from adhering to cells.
A note of caution to those folks who are on prescription blood thinners: cranberries do contain anti-clotting properties, so you might want to check with your physician before loading up on the bittersweet berries over the long Thanksgiving weekend.
We suggest that you spring for pure cranberry juice instead of the high glycemic cranberry juice cocktail product available in half gallon bottles. That stuff is almost pure sugar!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Time For Thyme
Rosemary and Thyme are often culinary go-togethers.
Thyme is a basic ingredient in French, Italian, Spanish and Turkish cuisines. It's used to flavour meats, soups and stews, and it has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs.
Oil of thyme is a brilliant antiseptic (think Listerine) and has also been shown to be effective against the fungus that commonly infects mens toenails (this type of fungus is linked to mostly male genes, so it rarely affects women).
Thyme tea is great for cough and bronchitis. Its antiseptic properties make this tea effective against inflammation of the throat if you gargle with it a few times a day.
Thyme is a basic ingredient in French, Italian, Spanish and Turkish cuisines. It's used to flavour meats, soups and stews, and it has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs.
Oil of thyme is a brilliant antiseptic (think Listerine) and has also been shown to be effective against the fungus that commonly infects mens toenails (this type of fungus is linked to mostly male genes, so it rarely affects women).
Thyme tea is great for cough and bronchitis. Its antiseptic properties make this tea effective against inflammation of the throat if you gargle with it a few times a day.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Neuroprotection From Rosemary
A study published in the October 2007 issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience. and a study published online November 8 in the Journal of Neurochemistry, show that carnosic acid (CA), the active ingredient in the herb rosemary, activates a novel signaling pathway that protects brain cells from the free radical damage associated with stroke and other neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
CA from rosemary is proving to be neuroprotective, without producing the serious adverse effects characteristic of so many drugs used to treat neurodegenerative disease.
Rosemary has been used since the Middle Ages to treat disorders of the nervous system and to ward off sickness. However, the exact chemical pathways by which it works have, until now, been unknown.
Can you think of anything better than roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic? If only someone would produce a low glycemic index potato!
CA from rosemary is proving to be neuroprotective, without producing the serious adverse effects characteristic of so many drugs used to treat neurodegenerative disease.
Rosemary has been used since the Middle Ages to treat disorders of the nervous system and to ward off sickness. However, the exact chemical pathways by which it works have, until now, been unknown.
Can you think of anything better than roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic? If only someone would produce a low glycemic index potato!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Caper Magic
Capers may explain one of the reasons why the Mediterranean diet is so healthy.
A number of new studies strongly suggest that the flowering buds of Capparis Spinosa L (capers) have one of the highest oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values, as well as diuretic and antihypertensive effects in certain pathological conditions related to uncontrolled lipid peroxidation.
An October 2007 study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found an increasing body of evidence that suggests capers have the antioxidant ability to inhibit a large amount of lipid oxidation associated with gastric digestion, particularly with meat.
A study published in Life Science found that capers contain flavonoids (kaempferol and quercetin derivatives) and hydrocinammic acids with very high anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity.
The Life Science study also observed that caper consumption could counteract the harmful effects induced by the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 and 6.
Since capers have also been suggested to have a chondroprotective effect, they might be used in the management of cartilage damage during the inflammatory process associated with arthritis.
And, you regular martini drinkers might want to consider replacing your olive with a large caper berry.
Addendum: The United States Department of Agriculture just last week published an updated list of ORAC values for over 277 food items. The newer list is more accurate because lipophilic values were included for the first time. The new data shows that all plants have variable amounts of both lipophilic and hydrophilic phytochemicals that contribute to total ORAC.
A number of new studies strongly suggest that the flowering buds of Capparis Spinosa L (capers) have one of the highest oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) values, as well as diuretic and antihypertensive effects in certain pathological conditions related to uncontrolled lipid peroxidation.
An October 2007 study published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found an increasing body of evidence that suggests capers have the antioxidant ability to inhibit a large amount of lipid oxidation associated with gastric digestion, particularly with meat.
A study published in Life Science found that capers contain flavonoids (kaempferol and quercetin derivatives) and hydrocinammic acids with very high anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity.
The Life Science study also observed that caper consumption could counteract the harmful effects induced by the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 and 6.
Since capers have also been suggested to have a chondroprotective effect, they might be used in the management of cartilage damage during the inflammatory process associated with arthritis.
And, you regular martini drinkers might want to consider replacing your olive with a large caper berry.
Addendum: The United States Department of Agriculture just last week published an updated list of ORAC values for over 277 food items. The newer list is more accurate because lipophilic values were included for the first time. The new data shows that all plants have variable amounts of both lipophilic and hydrophilic phytochemicals that contribute to total ORAC.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Ripe Fruit & Antioxidants
Don't be so hasty to throw away slightly over-ripe apples and pears.
A group of scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria claim to be the first to identify the decomposition mechanism and products of apples and pears, and their findings suggest that as these fruits start to go bad their antioxidant levels dramatically increase. Key to the process is the change in color that occurs as fruits ripen.
According to lead researcher Berhard Krautler, fruit undergoes a similar decomposition process as leaves turn from green to red to yellow to brown. This color change is caused by the breakdown and disappearance of chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves and fruits their green color.
Through their research with botanists over the past several years, they claim to have identified the first decomposition products in leaves. These are colorless, polar nonfluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes (NCCs) that contain four pyrrole rings - like chlorophyll and iron.
After examining the peels of apples and pears, they found that in ripe fruits, NCCs replace the chlorophyll, especially in the peel and the flesh immediately below it.
"When chlorophyll is released from its protein complexes in the decomposition process, it has a phototoxic effect: when irradiated with light, it absorbs energy and can transfer it to other substances. For example, it can transform oxygen into a highly reactive, destructive form," reported the research team.
"However, the NCCs have the opposite effect," they said.
"These are powerful antioxidants and can thereby play an important physiological role for a plant. In the same way, when these are consumed as part of the human diet, they can play the same anti-oxidative role in humans."
Now isn't this great news at the height of autumn apple and pear season?
A group of scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria claim to be the first to identify the decomposition mechanism and products of apples and pears, and their findings suggest that as these fruits start to go bad their antioxidant levels dramatically increase. Key to the process is the change in color that occurs as fruits ripen.
According to lead researcher Berhard Krautler, fruit undergoes a similar decomposition process as leaves turn from green to red to yellow to brown. This color change is caused by the breakdown and disappearance of chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves and fruits their green color.
Through their research with botanists over the past several years, they claim to have identified the first decomposition products in leaves. These are colorless, polar nonfluorescing chlorophyll catabolytes (NCCs) that contain four pyrrole rings - like chlorophyll and iron.
After examining the peels of apples and pears, they found that in ripe fruits, NCCs replace the chlorophyll, especially in the peel and the flesh immediately below it.
"When chlorophyll is released from its protein complexes in the decomposition process, it has a phototoxic effect: when irradiated with light, it absorbs energy and can transfer it to other substances. For example, it can transform oxygen into a highly reactive, destructive form," reported the research team.
"However, the NCCs have the opposite effect," they said.
"These are powerful antioxidants and can thereby play an important physiological role for a plant. In the same way, when these are consumed as part of the human diet, they can play the same anti-oxidative role in humans."
Now isn't this great news at the height of autumn apple and pear season?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Viruses & Obesity
No one that I know disputes the role that diet and activity play in maintaining a healthy weight - if you consume more calories than you burn in daily activity, you gain weight. But does that fully explain the amazing prevalence of obesity in the United States today?
Please don't use any of the information in this post as an excuse to pig out, because it's still theory at this point.
Richard Atkinson, MD, suggests there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that viruses may play a role in causing obesity in humans.
Dr Atkinson is the director of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, VA. One of his recent articles, published in the October 2007 Mayo Clinic Proceedings, discusses five animal viruses and three human viruses than have been shown to cause obesity in laboratory studies.
According to Dr. Atkinson, several studies offer ample evidence that animals infected with certain human viruses experience excess weight gain and fat storage.
When researchers infected animal subjects with a human virus known as Human Ad-36, they reported measurable increases in the infected animals' body fat and the visceral fat that surrounds the organs deep within the belly. In addition, studies also demonstrated that infection with Ad-36 and the resulting weight gain could be transmitted from infected animals to uninfected animals.
Information on virus-induced obesity in human subjects is much more limited. Citing his own study conducted in 2005, Dr. Atkinson also showed a connection between obesity and exposure to the Ad-36 virus in humans.
Dr. Atkinson's study screened for antibodies to Ad-36 (a sign of exposure to this virus) in 502 people of varying body weights, both obese and non-obese, from three cities in the United States. Ad-36 antibodies were found in 30 percent of obese individuals and 11 percent of lean individuals. Study results also showed highly significant differences in body mass index (BMI) between antibody-positive and antibody-negative individuals.
Dr. Atkinson also highlighted a study that looked at 89 sets of American adult twins and screened them for Ad-36. Because twins tend to be similar in many characteristics, including body weight, the researchers looked at twin pairs where one twin tested positively for Ad-36 and the other did not.
"Antibody-positive twins were slightly, but significantly, heavier and fatter than their antibody negative co-twins," says Dr. Atkinson. "The infected twins had a higher BMI and a greater percent of body fat than the uninfected co-twins."
Dr. Atkinson's article also explores what current research has to say about the possible mechanisms underlying virus-induced obesity. Some research suggests that viral infections have a direct effect on adipocytes, cells that manufacture and store fat, turning on the enzymes of fat accumulation and recruitment of new adipocytes.
What's the next step for this research? According to Dr. Atkinson, "the body of evidence linking adenoviruses to obesity in humans is now sufficient to think about the next step. Ideally, we could prevent infection and virus-induced obesity with a vaccine for the obesity viruses."
Should this be true, development of a human vaccine of this sort would take several years, so it's way too early to give up watching your diet and getting plenty of exercise.
Please don't use any of the information in this post as an excuse to pig out, because it's still theory at this point.
Richard Atkinson, MD, suggests there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that viruses may play a role in causing obesity in humans.
Dr Atkinson is the director of Obetech Obesity Research Center in Richmond, VA. One of his recent articles, published in the October 2007 Mayo Clinic Proceedings, discusses five animal viruses and three human viruses than have been shown to cause obesity in laboratory studies.
According to Dr. Atkinson, several studies offer ample evidence that animals infected with certain human viruses experience excess weight gain and fat storage.
When researchers infected animal subjects with a human virus known as Human Ad-36, they reported measurable increases in the infected animals' body fat and the visceral fat that surrounds the organs deep within the belly. In addition, studies also demonstrated that infection with Ad-36 and the resulting weight gain could be transmitted from infected animals to uninfected animals.
Information on virus-induced obesity in human subjects is much more limited. Citing his own study conducted in 2005, Dr. Atkinson also showed a connection between obesity and exposure to the Ad-36 virus in humans.
Dr. Atkinson's study screened for antibodies to Ad-36 (a sign of exposure to this virus) in 502 people of varying body weights, both obese and non-obese, from three cities in the United States. Ad-36 antibodies were found in 30 percent of obese individuals and 11 percent of lean individuals. Study results also showed highly significant differences in body mass index (BMI) between antibody-positive and antibody-negative individuals.
Dr. Atkinson also highlighted a study that looked at 89 sets of American adult twins and screened them for Ad-36. Because twins tend to be similar in many characteristics, including body weight, the researchers looked at twin pairs where one twin tested positively for Ad-36 and the other did not.
"Antibody-positive twins were slightly, but significantly, heavier and fatter than their antibody negative co-twins," says Dr. Atkinson. "The infected twins had a higher BMI and a greater percent of body fat than the uninfected co-twins."
Dr. Atkinson's article also explores what current research has to say about the possible mechanisms underlying virus-induced obesity. Some research suggests that viral infections have a direct effect on adipocytes, cells that manufacture and store fat, turning on the enzymes of fat accumulation and recruitment of new adipocytes.
What's the next step for this research? According to Dr. Atkinson, "the body of evidence linking adenoviruses to obesity in humans is now sufficient to think about the next step. Ideally, we could prevent infection and virus-induced obesity with a vaccine for the obesity viruses."
Should this be true, development of a human vaccine of this sort would take several years, so it's way too early to give up watching your diet and getting plenty of exercise.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Nutrient Synergy
Is there more to a carrot than beta carotene? Is lycopene the best we get from tomatoes? Is vitamin C the only reason to eat an orange? And when we heap our plates with wild salmon, are we serving up something other than Omega3s?
Meta-analysis of several individual vitamin studies suggests that food may be more than just a sum of its nutrient parts.
Well, duh!!
In order to publish or perish, some people in the scientific research community used the funding-dependent pharmaceutical paradigm and designed nutrition studies around individual nutrients including beta carotene, lutein, calcium, lycopene, individual vitamin and minerals, along with other phytochemical nutrients, in order to look at their health benefits in the human body.
The less creative, and usually desperate, publish or perish research folks are now doing meta-analysis on those poorly designed studies, which if nothing else, provides frequently much-needed headline material for the lay press.
University of Minnesota professor of epidemiology, David R. Jacobs, PhD, argued in a piece in yesterday's NYT that nutrition researchers should focus on whole foods and the full-spectrum of nutrients rather than only on single nutrients.
Well, duh again!!
He also argued that we need to study the effects of whole foods and the full-spectrum of nutrients on disease prevention in the healthy population, not just on sick people. He stated in the interview, "Food and nutrient synergy, rather than the biological activity of just a few key nutrients, is the real reason that certain diets, like those consumed in parts of the Mediterranean and Japan, appear to lower the risks of heart disease and other health problems."
We can only hope that those folks who are overdosing on the latest nutrient craze like it might be the second anti-aging coming (think fish oil capsules) will take Dr. Jacobs' nutrient synergy concerns to heart and eat a balanced diet with a full-spectrum multiple along with their fish oil to guarantee the nutrients that are lost during today's food processing methods.
Meta-analysis of several individual vitamin studies suggests that food may be more than just a sum of its nutrient parts.
Well, duh!!
In order to publish or perish, some people in the scientific research community used the funding-dependent pharmaceutical paradigm and designed nutrition studies around individual nutrients including beta carotene, lutein, calcium, lycopene, individual vitamin and minerals, along with other phytochemical nutrients, in order to look at their health benefits in the human body.
The less creative, and usually desperate, publish or perish research folks are now doing meta-analysis on those poorly designed studies, which if nothing else, provides frequently much-needed headline material for the lay press.
University of Minnesota professor of epidemiology, David R. Jacobs, PhD, argued in a piece in yesterday's NYT that nutrition researchers should focus on whole foods and the full-spectrum of nutrients rather than only on single nutrients.
Well, duh again!!
He also argued that we need to study the effects of whole foods and the full-spectrum of nutrients on disease prevention in the healthy population, not just on sick people. He stated in the interview, "Food and nutrient synergy, rather than the biological activity of just a few key nutrients, is the real reason that certain diets, like those consumed in parts of the Mediterranean and Japan, appear to lower the risks of heart disease and other health problems."
We can only hope that those folks who are overdosing on the latest nutrient craze like it might be the second anti-aging coming (think fish oil capsules) will take Dr. Jacobs' nutrient synergy concerns to heart and eat a balanced diet with a full-spectrum multiple along with their fish oil to guarantee the nutrients that are lost during today's food processing methods.
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