Water: A "Deep Dive" (Pun Intended)

"It's time for the truest nutrient to have its time. While many well intentioned people will debate over other important nutrients: protein, fats, sugars, and fibers, studies show many of them are missing out on what makes that debate even possible: water. It really needs no introduction beyond that."

Click on the link below for the video:

The True Nutrients: Water

Insects As A Human Food Source Clarified

"How do you feel about eating bugs? This question has been gaining more attention as edible insects become a more popular alternative protein source. However, with this growing interest comes conspiracy theories with a “bug-eating agenda” claim that billionaires like Bill Gates are promoting edible insects to reduce meat consumption. However, there is no evidence to support these theories. While the Gates Foundation supports research on edible insects as a sustainable food source, claims that Gates recommended eating crickets “to stay healthy” remain unverified."

Click on the link below for more:

The Truth About Edible Insects And The Billionaire Conspiracy Theory

Coffee: A Health Food

"Coffee does more than boost your energy. A few daily cups of coffee may also lower your risk of type 2 diabetes and depression, support weight management, and help you live a longer life. Just keep in mind that experts recommend limiting caffeine if you’re pregnant or nursing."

It has the following benefits:

• 1. Boosts energy levels
• 2. May be linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• 3. Could support brain health
• 4. May promote weight management
• 5. Linked to a lower risk of depression
• 6. Could protect against liver conditions
• 7. Supports heart health
• 8. Could increase longevity
• 9. May enhance athletic performance

Click on the link below for the details and supporting research:

9 Unique Benefits of Coffee

Nutrition: A Science Evolving

The history of nutrition science has had many false findings. Among the reasons for this is the complexity of human biology and inadequate research design. However, as usual, if science is in error it is the only discipline that will correct it, learn from it, and, thus, add to human knowledge. Click on the link below for a video pointing to what we now know is the main nutrient responsible for poor health:

The REAL Killers - Added Sugars

A Science-Based Nutrition Resource

The "Gold Standard" of up-to-date information on healthy human nutrition is the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. I recently found a YouTube Channel, Talon Fitness, that has produced, and will add to it, a series of videos based on this database that ranks foods in appropriate categories. It admits that it is a "work in progress" and acknowledges that others may rank the foods differently by emphasizing categories differently. That said, I have found the series interesting and enlightening. I think if you watch them you will find some surprises as I have.

Food Labels: Can You Trust Them?

Most of us who are health conscious read food labels and expect the results of rigid scientific research. Click on the link below for an enlightening 20-min video from Sabine Hossenfelder shattering that confidence:

How Much Can You Trust Calorie Labels?

The Meaning Of "Organic"

"Words matter. Imagine someone who only speaks English trying to communicate with someone who only speaks Mandarin Chinese. Imagine a physicist trying to discuss energy with a Therapeutic Touch practitioner who claims to be sensing and manipulating a mythical human energy field. For a meaningful discussion, both parties have to speak the same language and have to agree on the definition of the words they are using. Precision of language is essential, especially in science."

I have posted on the deception of "Organic" several times (link). Click on the link below for an article focused on the true definition of the word and how it is being misused for false, greedy purposes:

The Word "Organic" Has Been Hijacked

A Promising Legitimate Obesity Treatment

"New study in The New England Journal of Medicine finds impressive evidence that weekly semaglutide injections produce clinically significant weight loss as well as many other benefits, approaching the improvements seen with weight loss surgery. Not a definitive answer to obesity, but a very encouraging step in the right direction. Science works."

Click on the link below for more on this promising addition to legitimate treatment for clinical obesity, as well as an overview of treatment for obesity, good and bad, from a science-based perspective:

A New Medication to Combat Obesity

Processed Food

The term "Processed Food" is used in the media mainly as a negative. While most of the time this is justified, the links below give a clearer picture of the term:

Eating Processed Foods

10 Processed Foods To Avoid

How Do Processed Foods Affect Your Health?

Dieting Vs Fasting: The Science

"This is about the drastic physiological differences between fasting and eating less"

If you are one of the many people who are frustrated over losing weight, this video is informative. The main message I get is that sometimes new ideas that seem wacky at first are shown to be valid. Is Robert Atkins vindicated? Keep in mind that diet and nutrition are not "hard" sciences like physics and chemistry and that there is a lot to learn in these areas.

Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (The Science of Fasting)

Sugar Is Sugar

One pseudoscience food misunderstanding involves high fructose corn syrup. Yes, one has to be careful with how much of it we eat, but, essentially, it is not much different than any other sugar. This article clarifies it.

Fat Or Sugar?

"For decades, we’ve heard how terrible fat is for us, but more recently, sugar has become the new villain. What does the science actually say about these two macronutrients and how they affect our health?"

A science-based look at the issue.

Which Is Worse For You: Sugar or Fat?

A Science-Based Look At Milk And Milk Substitutes

"Milk has been praised and vilified. Vegans eschew it. Babies thrive on it. Adults who are lactose-intolerant learn to avoid it. Maasai men thrive on a diet of mainly milk, meat, and blood. The recommended intake of milk, cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products in the US is 3 servings, to meet calcium requirements and reduce the risk of bone fractures; but the average adult only gets 1.6 servings. In the China Study, T. Colin Campbell recommended avoiding all meat and dairy products. He claims that the casein in milk is harmful, extrapolating from animal studies to demonstrate that casein causes cancer. The evidence is clearly mixed enough that different people have reached different conclusions. What does the science actually show?" 

(click on link below:)

Milk and Health: The Evidence

- - - - - - -

"In this week's episode we will be looking at the TRUTH about plant milks. Specifically, I look at the health benefits and claims of four of the most common plant milks in use - Soy milk, Almond milk, Coconut milk, and Rice milk. Are they all better than dairy or is one type better than the other? Is one particular type of milk better suited for you than the other available types? Take a look and find out!"

(click on link below:)

Dairy, Soy Milk, Almond Milk, or Coconut Milk: Which is Better?

Is Lab-Grown Meat Commercially Viable?

"A Dutch company that presented the world’s first lab-grown beef burger five years ago said Tuesday it has received funding to pursue its plans to make and sell artificially grown meat to restaurants from 2021."

Lab-grown meat could be in restaurants in 3 years

(Future Meat Technologies)

A Look At Veganism

In recent years, there has been more publicity regarding the value of veganism. On the surface, it looks like a more healthy and ethical way of eating. What does science have to say?

You may be surprised, but an omnivorous diet is clearly healthier, especially if minimally processed meats are consumed (1), (2).  In fact, a meatless diet may even effect the human genome negatively (3).

Even in the US, 1/6 of people are "food insecure" (4).  It is not realistic to expect a vegan diet to meet all of the nutrition needs of these, or other poor and malnourished people in the world.

While factory farming has its horrors, many organizations are working to improve conditions to make them more humane (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10). The environment and animals are also negatively effected by growing fruits and vegetables (5).

"Free Range" is talked about as an improvement in humane treatment, but it also has its problems (11), (12).

I end with two links arguing for meat eating being ethical (13), (14).

Your call on the value of the above information. I am not preaching in favor of vegan vs omnivor. This is just an attempt to provide some evidence addressing this controversial topic.

(MyCity-Web)

Added Sugar Is Pure Empty Carlories

"There are some important nuances here. As the Sugar Association points out, sugar does not technically cause obesity; rather, eating more calories than you burn does. This is at best a half truth. The truer statement, as Action on Sugar makes plain, is that there is absolutely no need for added sugar in the human diet—added sugar is purely empty calories."

Big Sugar Is the New Big Tobacco

This link addresses sugar and refined carbohydrates, but also looks at a type of fat.

What's wrong with the Western diet.

Is Diet Another Word For Fad?

"Anytime the Zeitgeist is that any one nutrient is either a miracle cure or a root of all evil, it's probably wrong. People have lost weight using all sorts of variations in foods and nutrients. Rather than follow the fads, it would be more useful to learn to incorporate reasonable amounts of fat and sugars in one's diet — and to first determine the appropriate number of calories one should consume to either lose weight or maintain a healthy weight."

Fat Is Back And Diet Food Is Out!

A Change In The Types Of Supplements Used By The Public

"Dr. Kantor and colleagues suggest that much of the changes in supplement use reflected media reports of the efficacy of the various items in addressing the risk of various chronic ailments — they noted several expert bodies concluded that 'there is either insufficient or no evidence to support uses of MVMM [multivitamin multimineral supplements] or supplements to prevent chronic disease". (See here for our take on those conclusions)."

Americans Catching on that Dietary Supplements are More Fad than Fact

Nutrition Activists Go After American Diabetes Association, CDC And Everyone Else

"We're not picking and choosing science and health positions based on donors or their marketing or lobbying agendas, inadvertently or not. If we mollified our statements based on that we wouldn't be the trusted consumer advocates we are (2) and we wouldn't get donations from the public. Some shills can be funded - U.S. Right To Know is 97 percent funded by organic food corporations who pay them to scaremonger genetically modified foods - but individuals won't give you money if they don't like your work and believe in your mission."

Link

Good Health And Nutrition Advise Available

"What caught our attention was the results of a survey run by the Independent Women's Forum that found:

-    '83 percent of women said they have trouble telling the difference between a legitimate scientific study and one designed to scare them; and

-    87 percent of women say they have a tough time finding sources for health and wellness information that they can trust.'

While we have no further information about the reliability of this survey or its generalization, these figures surprised us, and motivated us to reprint some advice about who to trust, and who not to trust."

It's Easy to Find Good Health/Wellness Information — Read ACSH