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Just thought I’d draw attention to the fact that Paul has updated his review on a fat loss supp called “Proactol.”
It’s worth reading in full, if for no other reason than to see how low some supp company reps will go to suppress legitimate critiques of their products. Fortunately, Paul isn’t easily intimidated. 
P.S. Speaking of legal threats, this is as good a time as any to link to The Most Hilarious Response To A Legal Threat I’ve ever read. Enjoy!
And it’s a definite thumbs down. According to the Guardian:
Today the Science and Technology Select Committee delivered its verdict on homeopathy and it was devastating. The committee has called for the complete withdrawal of NHS funding and official licensing of homeopathy.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who witnessed the almost farcical nature of the proceedings, with the elite of homeopathy mocked by their own testimony.
…Even the claims that more research is needed have been rebutted. Plenty of evidence has accumulated regarding the effectiveness of homeopathy, and a verdict has been reached. It is useless. As the report states: “It is … unethical to enter patients into trials to answer questions that have been settled already.”
Ouchie!
This Q & A in the New York Times really made me sigh…
Q. Must you eat fruit on an empty stomach, so it won’t mix with other foods and cause fermentation and rot?
A. “The answer is a definite no,” said Dr. Mark Pochapin, director of the Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Fruit can be eaten at any time.”
Nothing can rot in the stomach, Dr. Pochapin said. Rotting, or fermentation, means bacterial action on food resulting in decomposition. And because of the presence of hydrochloric acid, the stomach has very few bacteria.
…Food takes 6 to 10 hours to reach the colon, which explains why it does not really matter when fruit is eaten, Dr. Pochapin said.
Ah, the weird things you find on the internet. Via BoingBoing.net:
i-ramen.net is an amazingly meticulous web site that chronicles one man’s daily consumption of different kinds of instant noodles since 1997. It appears from the way they’re numbered that he is now on his 4,308th bowl. For each new type of instant noodle, he creates a thorough chart that includes a full ingredients list; comments on texture, flavor, quantity, and price; and a starred rating.
It’s in Japanese, so it’s tough to read… but the YouTube channel tells you pretty much all you need to know. 
I read this in Jeannine Stein’s article on “Healthy Dining at Restaurants” in the LA Times just now, and couldn’t quite believe it… 49%???
But it really is what the American Restaurant Association claims:
So here we are today …
With 12.7 million employees, the restaurant industry is now the nation’s largest private-sector employer.
In 2010, Americans are spending about 49 percent of their food dollar at nearly 1 million restaurants.
As the industry flourishes, the National Restaurant Association continues to help restaurateurs meet new challenges. Stay tuned…
Restaurants get nearly half of every dollar spent on food, and – as Stein points out - a lot of restaurants dish out some pretty high cal fare. Even seemingly “healthy” items like salads can clock in at over a thousand calories.
The American Restaurant Association appears to be quite happy about this, but to my mind, it’s a chilling statistic.
I thought this was a fitting tribute to ButchBakery.com, the makers of “manly cupcakes for manly men.”
Very neat… if it works the same way in humans, that is.
Scientists have confirmed that the healthful substances found in green tea — renowned for their powerful antioxidant and disease-fighting properties — do penetrate into tissues of the eye. Their new report, the first documenting how the lens, retina, and other eye tissues absorb these substances, raises the possibility that green tea may protect against glaucoma and other common eye diseases. It appears in ACS’s bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Chi Pui Pang and colleagues point out that so-called green tea “catechins” have been among a number of antioxidants thought capable of protecting the eye. Those include vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Until now, however, nobody knew if the catechins in green tea actually passed from the stomach and gastrointestinal tract into the tissues of the eye.
Pang and his colleagues resolved that uncertainty in experiments with laboratory rats that drank green tea. Analysis of eye tissues showed beyond a doubt that eye structures absorbed significant amounts of individual catechins. The retina, for example, absorbed the highest levels of gallocatechin, while the aqueous humor tended to absorb epigallocatechin. The effects of green tea catechins in reducing harmful oxidative stress in the eye lasted for up to 20 hours. “Our results indicate that green tea consumption could benefit the eye against oxidative stress,” the report concludes.
Every once in a while, I look in on the “Photoshop Phriday” feature over at SomethingAwful.com. While some of the stuff posted can be crass and tasteless, there are often some laugh-out-loud funny items… like this pic, which I swiped from one of the “Magazine Mayhem” threads.
At any rate, I couldn’t resist posting this, in light of this recent kerfluffle involving Italian TV chef Beppe Bigazzi:
Continue Reading »
I just stumbled over this article, “New Weight Loss Can Burn Caloric Equivalent to 20-Minute Walk” – and had to check it out.
The exact mechanism of how spices work to influence metabolism still remains unclear, but studies suggest that they effectively increase body temperature thus making us burn more calories even without exercising. Now if only scientists could find a way to combine the two methods into an easy to swallow pill.
In fact—they have! It’s called the tri-pepper blend and according to Joel T. Cramer, assistant professor of exercise physiology from the University of Oklahoma, the new weight loss supplement has the potential to burn as many calories as a 20-minute walk. Cramer says General Nutrition Centers contracted with the University to test the benefits of the supplement.
Googling the Tri-Pepper blend, I came up with a number of shorter articles, but similar in tone (one example here). All the ones I looked at repeated – without question or analysis - the same “20-minute walk” claim.
But before we pop the champagne corks in celebration, perhaps we should take a closer look at exactly what that means. Just how many calories does a 20 minute walk actually burn?
Two separate, but similar suits have been filed…
A report from entertainment and celebrity justice website TMZ.Com details that the “Biggest Loser” trainer is facing two lawsuits filed on back-to-back days that are nearly identical, according to the report.
Jillian Michaels Sued – Biggest Loser Trainer Served Twice.The first lawsuit makes this claim: “According to documents filed in L.A. County Superior Court, the Jillian Michaels Maximum Strength Calorie Control dietary supplement is “worthless.”"
…On the second action, “Stephanie Creer claims in her class action lawsuit she has struggled with weight loss her entire life and was “intrigued” into purchasing the product Calorie Control because Michaels was endorsing it,” the report notes.
See more on her claims against the reality TV starlet and trainer here. TMZ writes: “The suit is almost a verbatim copy” of the first suit mentioned above, but they were filed by two different attorneys.
Looking at the product label, I can’t say I’m particularly impressed by it. It’s loaded to the gills with caffeine, but there’s little else that appears to be of value for appetite suppression. For what it’s worth, Paul reviewed Michaels’ “Exreme Maximum Strength Fat Burner,” and wasn’t too impressed by it, either.
Click here to read the court doc filed in the first case. Naturally, Michaels’ insists she’ll prevail. Perhaps she will, although I doubt the publicity will do much to promote sales of her product line.
I have to admit, I’m a little bemused by this ”food fight” - as reported by the Sun Sentinel - between the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, AZ and the Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Delray Beach, FL. The owners of the two restaurants are duking it out over who “owns” the right to serve up massive amounts of unhealthy, fat-and-calorie-laden food, in an atmosphere that pokes light-hearted fun at… being in an intensive care unit.
Based on the info in the article, it seems to me that the Heart Attack Grill has a pretty good case. The differences between the H.A.G (the original) and Heart Stoppers appear to be pretty superficial, so – in the end – I expect Jon Basso (the H.A.G’s owner) will emerge victorious from the fray.
You don’t spit into the wind,
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim.Jim Croce
In this case, “Jim” = Judge Robert Gettleman. And he’s none too happy with our good buddy, infomercial scam artiste and all-around shyster Kevin Trudeau. Why?
In a way… From GlaxoSmithKline’s site for Alli:
break a bad pattern of eating
alli helps you change your approach to food by teaching you to recognize emotional eating and dismantle your external hunger triggers. With the alli plan, you’ll learn how to control your cravings and still enjoy the foods you love. You’ll establish a healthier approach to food.
As Douglas Farrago, MD of the Placebo Journal put it:
The new slogan for the Alli diet plan goes like:
It’s called mindless eating. See how you can control it with Alli.For those that don’t know how the drug works (fat absorption), if you are not mindful and overdo the fat in your diet you will, well, smudge yourself. So I guess this truly is a truth in advertising. Be mindful of what you eat or the next time you reach for the pork chops across the table it may look like you sat on a brownie when you change your draws later on. Okay, I think Larry the Cable Guy came up with that joke first.
Yeah, I guess the threat of “anal leakage*” will teach you to “dismantle your external hunger triggers” and “control your cravings” pretty quickly. But – at least in my mind – this isn’t exactly an ideal approach to the problem.
(h/t Placebo Journal Blog)
*GlaxoSmithKline delicately refers to this as a “treatment effect” on their consumer site.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition has a new position paper on caffeine and performance. The highlights:
Even if it’s not quite as good for your waistline.
A recent study from my alma mater, the University of California at Davis, looked at the impact of brewing methods on beer’s content of orthosilicic acid – a highly bioavailable source of silicon.
What’s so important about silicon?
Silicon is present in beer in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA), which yields 50% bioavailability, making beer a major contributor to silicon intake in the Western diet. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dietary silicon (Si), as soluble OSA, may be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue, and beer appears to be a major contributor to Si intake. Based on these findings, some studies suggest moderate beer consumption may help fight osteoporosis, a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.
The precise role silicon plays in human bone/connective tissue health has not been completely elucidated, but there’s some fairly convincing evidence of its importance.
Oh, and beer contains antioxidants too, so while it’s not a license to guzzle, performing the occasional “12 oz. curl” does have its advantages.
Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve read an article about exercise that was THIS carelessly written… From the Telegraph:
Millions of people ‘waste their time by jogging’
Millions of people who strive to keep fit by jogging, swimming or going to the gym are wasting their time, scientists said.
Researchers have discovered that the health benefits of aerobic exercise are determined by our genes – and can vary substantially between individuals.
Around 20 per cent of the population do not get any significant aerobic fitness benefit from regular exercise, according to an international study led by scientists at the University of London.
For these people, regular jogging and gym work will do little to ward off conditions like heart disease and diabetes which aerobic exercise is generally thought to resist.
Researchers say they would be better off abandoning their exercise regime and focusing on other ways of staying healthy – such as improving their diet or taking medication.
Whaaaa???? That isn’t what the researchers actually said! Here’s the actual paper…
According to the New York Times:
…So to get ready for front-of-package nutrition labeling, the F.D.A. is now looking at bringing serving sizes for foods like chips, cookies, breakfast cereals and ice cream into line with how Americans really eat. Combined with more prominent labeling, the result could be a greater sense of public caution about unhealthy foods.
“If you put on a meaningful portion size, it would scare a lot of people,” said Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina. “They would see, ‘I’m going to get 300 calories from that, or 500 calories.’ ”
The problem is important because the standard serving size shown on a package determines all the other nutritional values on the label, including calorie counts. If the serving size is smaller than what people really eat, unless they study the label carefully they may think they are getting fewer calories or other nutrients than they are.
Kellogg is the target of a class action suit over the company’s Nutri Grain bars. According to Jon Hood of ConsumerAffairs.com:
A class-action lawsuit filed Monday accuses Kellogg’s of tricking consumers into believing its Nutri-Grain cereal bars are healthy, when in fact they contain “inherently dangerous” trans fat, which the plaintiffs say makes the product “unfit for human consumption.”
The suit contends that “Kellogg misleads consumers into believing that Nutri-Grain Bars are healthy by making misleading claims on the product packaging. Such statements include ‘Excellent Source of Calcium,’ ‘More of the Whole Grains Your Body Needs,’ and ‘Eat Better All Day.’”
Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, who make some valid points about the dangers of trans fats – namely that they increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes – the suit devolves into weak tea before long.
I was perusing the food/ingredient news this morning, and did a double-take on this headline: “Study: athlete protein supplement abuse common.”
Wow. Athletes just can’t catch a break from some people… now they’re “abusing” protein supps??? Sounds major!
You know the rest of the saying, of course.
What amazes me, however, is the number of people who apparently DON’T know it. ‘Take this recent FTC case, against the marketers of “Chinese Green Diet Tea” and the “Bio-Slim Patch,” for example.
