According to a recent company press release, Nestle is launching  ”…a major investigation on the synergistic effect of nutrition and exercise to positively impact the quality and quantity of muscle mass, in both young and ageing adults.” The Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland will be collaborating with RMIT, McMaster University and the Australian Institute of Sport on the project.

It all sounds quite impressive, so you know there has to be a catch.  Here it is:

The results of these studies will be highly relevant for Nestlé to provide functional approaches for consumers that help maintain muscle mass and strength during periods of risk such as weight loss and ageing.

Uh-huh.  I can hardly wait to see the products that the parent company of Haagen-Dazs, Dreyers, Laffy Taffy, Stouffers, Hot Pockets, MILO, Toll House and Juicy Juice will come up with to help me hold on to my muscle mass in my declining years.  I doubt they’ll be any better than the Power Bars Nestle already hustles.

Maybe… according to a new study published in the journal Hepatology.  As reported in the Los Angeles Times…

The study, published in the journal Hepatology, tracked 427 patients with fatty liver disease to see whether consumption of fructose made a difference in the progression of fatty liver to the organ’s failure. The Duke University researchers asked subjects only about how many fructose-sweetened beverages a week they drank, including fruit juices and soft drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup — yielding a conservative accounting, since the stuff is also used in baking and other processed foods.

…Compared to subjects who drank the least fructose beverages, those who drank the most were significantly more likely to have the hepatic scarring that will more often progress to cirrhosis or liver cancer. And older subjects who regularly consumed fructose beverages showed more signs of liver inflammation. After they stripped out the effects of age, gender and body-mass index, the researchers also found that the heavy fructose drinkers also have lower levels of HDL (or “good”) cholesterol.

The study abstract is here.  Excess dietary fructose is implicated in an array of negative health effects, so the idea that it could exacerbate liver injury/disease doesn’t seem too far fetched.

Yesterday, I noted PepsiCo’s pledge to eliminate sales of sugary soft drinks in primary and secondary schools across the world by 2012. Today, yet another mega-food conglomerate stepped up to the plate… sorta.

Kraft Foods Plans to Reduce Sodium in North American Products an Average of 10 Percent by 2012 

More Than 10 Million Pounds of Salt to be Eliminated

NORTHFIELD, Ill., March 17, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) announced today plans to reduce sodium by an average of 10 percent across its North American portfolio over the next two years. This amounts to the elimination of more than 10 million pounds — or more than 750 million teaspoons — of salt from some of North America’s most popular foods.

“We are reducing sodium because it’s good for consumers, and, if done properly, it’s good for business,” said Rhonda Jordan, President, Health & Wellness, Kraft Foods. “A growing number of consumers are concerned about their sodium intake and we want to help them translate their intentions into actions.”

Ummm… yay… I guess… although 10% isn’t exactly a huge drop, from a health perspective. For example, an Oscar Mayer turkey frank (one of the “healthy,” lower fat alternatives), contains a hefty 510mg of sodium – 1/5th of the recommended maximum daily intake. A 10% reduction brings this down to 459mg – which is still pretty high.

But still… as noted yesterday, every little bit helps, I guess.  Baby steps in the right direction are better than none.

PepsiCo. is pledging to eliminate all sales of “full sugar soft drinks” to primary and secondary schools worldwide by 2012.

PURCHASE, N.Y., March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) announced today it is voluntarily adopting a new global policy to stop sales of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools by 2012.  The industry-leading policy establishes for the first time a consistent global approach to the sale of beverages to schools by a major beverage company.    

The policy applies in all countries outside the United States, and is generally consistent with the company’s existing U.S. policy, which remains unchanged.    

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said:  ”We have long advocated for school settings to be made as conducive as possible to promoting the health of students, and we have programs under way with school authorities in several countries to do that.  This includes restoring or expanding physical education and promoting nutrition education.  This global policy will serve as an important part of that mission, by expanding our offerings of low-calorie and nutritious beverages.”

…The global school beverage policy continues to advance PepsiCo’s commitment to reducing calories in schools by offering students a wider range of low-calorie and nutritious beverages in appropriate portions.

PepsiCo worked with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation — a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation and other beverage industry leaders — to change the mix of beverages in U.S. schools through voluntary guidelines.  The guidelines precluded the sale of full-sugar soft drinks to students in elementary and secondary schools, permitting only low-calorie drinks and portion-controlled juices, sports drinks and waters.  In early March, three years after guidelines were announced, it was reported that 98.8% of measured schools were in compliance.

While I can’t help but be a tad suspicious about PepsiCo.’s motives (i.e., this could be more of a PR move than anything else), overall, it still looks like a (small) step in the right direction.

I have to admit, I was tempted to call this post “B***h Right 4 Your Type,” in honor of the review (”Eat Right 4 Your Type“) – and subsequent comment by “Elizabeth Victoria” – that inspired it. But since I already have a post titled “Small, Angry People,” I figured I’d turn this one into a sequel. It’s not as clevah, perhaps, but the shoe (definitely) fits.

So what’s the deal?

Here’s the background:  Like most sensible people, Paul found D’Adamo’s blood type/diet “theory” to be based on pseudoscientific BS…. so he said so in his review. And, like most sensible people who write sensible things, he drew the ire of several “true believers” confused about “cause and effect.”

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Hot off the presses: another study confirming the benefits of high-intensity cardio vs. traditional, low-moderate intensity aerobics…

The usual excuse of “lack of time” for not doing enough exercise is blown away by new research published in The Journal of Physiology.

The study, from scientists at Canada’s McMaster University, adds to the growing evidence for the benefits of short term high-intensity interval training (HIT) as a time-efficient but safe alternative to traditional types of moderate long term exercise. Astonishingly, it is possible to get more by doing less!

“We have shown that interval training does not have to be ‘all out’ in order to be effective,” says Professor Martin Gibala. “Doing 10 one-minute sprints on a standard stationary bike with about one minute of rest in between, three times a week, works as well in improving muscle as many hours of conventional long-term biking less strenuously.”

…To achieve the study’s equivalent results by endurance training you’d need to complete over 10 hours of continuous moderate bicycling exercise over a two-week period.

I’ve been a fan of interval training for a long time.  I won’t lie: it can be grueling.  But it’s also mercifully short, and – more importantly – the alternating pace makes the time seem to fly by.  Whatever else it may be, it ISN”T boring.

Less time, same benefits: works for me!

I get health and fitness e-mail updates from the Washington Post, so I can’t help but be aware of columnist Jennifer LaRue Huget’s “Me Minus 10″ quest to lose 10 pounds.  She’s using her column for motivation, which is cool, in a way. Nothing like having a nation-wide audience to help you stay accountable. 

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The New York City Dept. of Education apparently thinks so.  According to the NYT:

By the time the Panel for Educational Policy was ready to vote on bake sales during its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, it was after 11:30. By then, just one mother, Elizabeth Puccini, was waiting to speak out against the new policy, which bans most bake sales but allows students to sell premade items including Pop-Tarts and Doritos.

Apparently this was done to… combat childhood obesity.
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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.

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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.

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.

Full text here.

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…

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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.

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Kellogg is the target of a class action suit over the company’s Nutri Grain bars.  According to Jon Hood of ConsumerAffairs.com:

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! 

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According to data recently published by the US Centers for Disease Control, slightly over 20% of youths aged 12 – 19 had at least one abnormal blood lipid value (i.e., high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol and/or high serum triglycerides).  According to a Washington Post summary:

One out of every five U.S. teenagers has a cholesterol level that increases the risk of heart disease, federal health officials reported Thursday, providing striking new evidence that obesity is making more children prone to illnesses once primarily limited to adults.

A nationally representative survey of blood test results in American teenagers found that more than 20 percent of those ages 12 to 19 had at least one abnormal level of fat. The rate jumped to 43 percent among those adolescents who were obese.

Previous studies had indicated that unhealthy cholesterol levels, once a condition thought isolated to the middle-aged and elderly, were increasingly becoming a problem among the young, but the new data document the scope of the threat on a national level.

“This is the future of America,” said Linda Van Horn, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University who heads the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee. “These data really confirm the seriousness of our obesity epidemic. This really is an urgent call for health-care providers and families to take this issue seriously.”

The CDC report is here.

Men’s Health has a pretty good slideshow on deceptively labeled food products. Some of the examples are no-brainers (”fat-free” jelly beans, lol), but it highlights the need to parse label claims carefully… There are far too many unhealthy foods masquerading as healthy ones in your local supermarket.

Needless to state, the ”information” on the front of the package doesn’t always provide an accurate picture of what’s inside.

Click here to read “18 Supermarket Lies Revealed.”

This article by Chris Woolston – “The Healthy Skeptic” - made me do a facepalm.  Obviously, there are people out there with more money than sense.

Ionic foot baths are a “detoxifying” treatment that have become popular at health fairs, alternative health clinics and spas. Many companies also sell ionic foot baths online for home use. Wherever they show up, ionic foot baths follow the same basic approach to detoxification. Users stick their feet in a basin of salt water that’s buzzing with a small electric charge from two submerged electrodes. The water starts out clear, but after 30 minutes or so it tends to get brackish and foamy.

…A 30-minute foot bath at Le Petite Retreat day spa in L.A. costs $85. Lysa Kustek, the spa owner, says that about a dozen people get the treatment each day and that foot bath detoxes are popular for couples, although she warns them not to kiss during the procedure: “They could get a spark.”

If you want to detox your feet in the comfort of your home, you can — but it’ll cost you. The website ionicfootbath.com, run by Meridian Lifeforce Inc., sells Aqua Health Ionizer kits of various kinds for $1,495 to $1,995. The ionSpa Professional Foot Bath Kit from Bella Spa Products sells online for $1,395.

Kinoki Foot Pads are cheaper, and certainly just as effective (which is to say, not at all).  This quote says it all:

According to Gilbert, there’s simply no way to draw large amounts of chemicals, toxic or otherwise, through skin. “The skin is a darn good barrier that’s designed to keep things in the body. [Claiming to pull] stuff across that barrier is nutty.”

Indeed it is.

Normally, I roll my eyes when I see anti-supplement articles printed in the mainstream media.  But I’m going to make an exception for this article in the Chicago Tribune by Trine Tsouderos.

An industrial chemical developed to help separate heavy metals from polluted soil and mining drainage is being sold as a dietary supplement by a luminary in the world of alternative autism treatments.

Called OSR#1, the supplement is described on its Web site as an antioxidant not meant to treat any disease. But the site lists pharmacies and doctors who sell it to parents of children with autism, and the compound has been promoted to parents on popular autism Web sites.

…In an interview, Haley said that the compound had been tested on rats and that a food safety study was conducted on 10 people. Asked to provide documentation of the studies, he stopped communicating with the Tribune.

Experts expressed dismay upon hearing children were consuming a chemical not evaluated in formal clinical trials for safety, as would be required for a drug prescribed by doctors.

Ellen Silbergeld, an expert in environmental health and a researcher funded by the National Institutes of Health studying mercury and autism at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, said she found the sale of the chemical as a supplement for children “appalling.”

Creepy…

Now, it’s possible that the stuff is perfectly safe at recommended doses… and the hand-wringing is so much ado over nothing.

BUT: anyone who knows me, also knows that I’m a stickler for good science and transparency.  In addition, children represent a real gray area when it comes to drugs and – by extension – supplements.  So there’s no excuse – particularly for a former professor like Boyd Haley – for failing to produce toxicity/safety data.  Needless to state, controlled studies looking at efficacy are indicated too - especially when desperate people are involved. To offer false hope is cruel beyond belief.