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.

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:
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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?

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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.

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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?

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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:

1. Caffeine is effective for enhancing sport performance in trained athletes when consumed in low-to-moderate dosages (~3-6 mg/kg). Higher dosages do not result in additional performance benefits.
2. Caffeine exerts a greater ergogenic effect when consumed in an anhydrous state as compared to coffee.
3. Caffeine has been shown to enhance vigilance during bouts of extended exhaustive exercise, as well as periods of sustained sleep deprivation.
4. Caffeine is ergogenic for sustained maximal endurance exercise and has been shown to be highly effective for time-trial performance.
5. Caffeine supplementation is beneficial for high-intensity exercise.
6. The literature is equivocal on caffeine’s benefit in strength-power performance.
7. The scientific literature does not support caffeine induced dieresis during exercise or any harmful change in fluid balance that would negatively affect performance

Full paper 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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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.

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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.

I was just over at the GNC web site, browsing through their list of popular new weight loss products when I came across Lipo 6 Black Hers. Since I’ve already completed a Lipo 6 Black review, I thought I’d take a quick look at the “just for women” version to see if it confirmed what I suspected…

… that it’s a “just-as-expensive-but-slightly-watered-down” version of the original formula. In the midst of my investigation, I reviewed the list of ingredients and while doing so, the “warning” label. Preceding the obligatory and standard warnings that accompany any stimulant-based product were these words…

“WARNING: NOT FOR USE BY SISSY GIRLS. NOT TO BE USED BY ANYONE UNDER THE AGE OF 21 OR THE UNDEDICATED AND/OR WEAK-HEARTED. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO EXPERIENCE EXTREME UNDERGROUND FAT-DESTROYING STIMULANTS, DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT.”

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But I’d vastly prefer to spend an hour pumping some REAL weight in the gym, vs. doing “Taskercise™.”  Working simple calisthenics into a housecleaning routine would burn some extra cals, I suppose, but life is just too short to be constantly focusing on “busywork” exercise.

It’s a good thing I shave my head. Seriously. Because every time I see Kevin Trudeau on television I am seized by a powerful and compelling desire to tear my hair out. Alas, with my locks so closely shorn, all I can do instead is grit my teeth in frustration and plan my next workout in earnest.

Anyhow, I digress. Let me explain how this all came about…

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The company actually got off pretty easily: a $500,000 fine vs. $5.6 million in revenue.

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.”