It's my Blogiversary: Celebrating with cottonseed oil and some refelction!

My blog turns 2 today... I can't believe it... they grow up so fast!
I looked it up, and the traditional 2-year anniversary gift is cotton. So....

Did you know that Cottonseed oil accounts for only 5-6% of the American fat and oil market?
It's very low in the omega 3 fatty acid, making it a very stable frying oil at high temperatures. For this reason, and because it has a bland flavour, it's used often as a frying oil by the food industry.
Who knew?

In the last two years, what I've learned is that, both in the field of nutrition, and in my own life, there will always be surprises. There's a line from the movie the Truman Show when, in response to why Truman hadn't figured out he was an actor on a set, his "creator" responds:
"Because we always accept the reality of our surroundings, without question".

Well, this blog has allowed me to question... and what I learned has surprised me:

Caffeinated beverages, including coffee, can be used to meet your fluid requirements. It's not a major diuretic as we once thought.

Whole wheat is NOT a whole grain (in Canada).

A low carb, high fat diet may be what we should be recommending: it can control blood sugar and improve cholesterol level.

A grapefruit a day isn't as healthy as it sounds.

That cool, hip coffee shop in your neighbourhood may actually be a Starbucks, in disguise!

Exercise may not be the answer to weight loss.

Just because my dad is a runner, thin, and a vegetarian, doesn't mean he won't have a heart attack.

So... I continue to question and not just accept, I continue to try to keep an open-mind, and continue to share what I learn...

Thanks for learning with me, and teaching me, over these last 2 years!

Trans Fats Still A Problem...But You Can Do Something About It!

You remember Trans Fats, right?

If not, scroll down for a quick recap!

Denmark and Switzerland have trans fat regulations, as do some American states, including California and New York. While Canada was the first country to make trans fat-labeling mandatory, we haven't been as progressive (except BC, that implemented trans fat regulations in Sept 2009).
The extent of the government's action plan was to ask food companies to voluntarily reduce trans fats from their products in 2 years. That was in 2007.

It's 2010.. so where are we with the voluntarily reductions?

According to the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation... not very far.
While some food companies have taken steps to remove trans fats, many still haven't, and there's still too much trans fats in out food... especially baked products.

What You Can Do:

Clearly, voluntary reductions are getting us nowhere. According to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Canada urgently needs Federal trans fat regulations "to protect our children and all Canadians".

To this end, they've prepared a simple letter that you can forward to the Federal Health Minister, your local MP, and the Prime Minister.

It's so simple. If you're Canadian, you just have to fill in your contact info and click "send".

Click Here to see, and send, the letter. (Thanks to my friend, Lindsay, for bringing this to my attention!).

Click Here for the Top 10 reasons why the Federal Government should implement Trans Fat regulations.

Trans Fats... A Recap

What's a trans fat?
It's the product of taking a healthy liquid oil and pumping it with hydrogen (hydrogenation). This makes this oil spreadable.

Why are they bad?
They not only increase your "lousy" LDL cholesterol but also lower your "healthy" HDL cholesterol. They also increase triglycerides (fat in your blood) and increase the formation of blockages in your heart blood vessels.

How much should you have?
The average Canadian is eating 10 grams trans fats a day! According to Health Canada, we should limit our intake to less than 2 grams a day. According to me, you should aim for closer to 0 grams!!

How do you know you're eating trans fats?
Read the labels! All labels have trans fats on the nutrition information table. Look for products with 0g
BUT
Be aware that, in Canada, companies only have to label a product as having trans fats if the serving contains more than 0.2 grams. (In the States, only if there's more than 0.5 grams trans fats/serving!).
So you must read through the ingredient list. If you see the following ingredients, the product contains trans fats:
hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, shortening.

Click HERE for more information.

The Fun Theory

This is great!



A pilot study in Sweden found that when sedentary people took the stairs for 12 weeks,
their:

• VO2 max (used to measure aerobic capacity) increased by 8.6%,
• Mortality risk decreased by 15%,
• Body fat decreased by 1.7%,
• Waist circumference decreased by 1.8%,
• Diastolic blood pressure decreased by 2.3%, and
• LDL (lousy) cholesterol decreased by 3.9%!
  

Wow.

Visit thefuntheory.com for some more fun.

Preventing a second, or a first, heart attack: Part 3

Eating the right type of fat.

Our dietary fat intake has actually decreased over the years... but heart attack and strokes have increased.

Obviously, fat isn't the enemy and, in fact, including the right type of fat in your diet can help decrease your risk of having a first, or a second, heart attack or stroke.

Unsaturated fats include:

Monounsaturated fat- Olives, olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, nuts, seeds, natural peanut and seed butters and avocadoes.

Polyunsaturated- Fish and corn, soybean, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils.

Replace the Bad with the Good:

Replacing saturated fats or carbs in your diet with unsaturated fats has been shown to decrease the 'lousy' LDL cholesterol (the one that clogs up your arteries), prevent the increase in triglycerides (the fat that's in your blood) that has been linked to heart disease and that increases with high refined carb intake (sweets, desserts, white bread, white pasta, white rice etc.), reduces the risk of blood clot formation, and decreases erratic heartbeats- the main cause of sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Willett and his team at the Harvard School of Public Health calculated that replacing 5% of calories as saturated fat with unsaturated fat reduces the risk of heart attack by 40%!

Assuming you eat 2000 calories, that would means replacing 11g saturated fat with 11g unsaturated fat.

For example, eat 1 oz nuts (about 1/4 cup) instead of 1/2 cup ice cream or eat 2 Tbsp peanut butter instead of 2Tbsp cream cheese or 1 oz hard cheese.

Speaking of nuts, the Nurses' Health Study, published in the British Medical Journal in 1998, looked at the health of more than 86,000 women. It found that those who ate 142 grams (five ounces) of nuts per week were 35% less likely to develop heart disease than women who ate less than one ounce per week.
The 2002 U.S Physicians Health Study found that men who ate nuts two or more times per week were 47% less likely to die of a heart attack and 30% less likely to die of heart disease than men who rarely ate nuts.

Bottom Line

Make sure that every day you replace some of the saturated fat in your diet- found in animal products like meat, milk products, eggs, lard, shortening and butter- and excess refined carbs with various sources of unsaturated fat, including fish, vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, avocadoes, peanut butter, olives and non-hydrogenated margarine.

Want to read more?

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

Coconut oil: Good fat or bad fat?

Saturated fat is a bad fat- it increases your "lousy" LDL cholesterol that transports cholesterol to the arteries, causing plaque to form on your artery walls, increasing your risk of a heart attack or stroke.

In general, foods from animals sources contain mostly saturated fat (ie. meat, milk, cheese, butter, lard) whereas foods from plant sources contain mostly unsaturated fats (olive oil, canola oil, nuts, avocadoes).

There is one main exception though: tropical oils. These so-called tropical oils, like palm oil and coconut oil, are mostly saturated. In fact, coconut oil is 92% saturated! As such, it has generally been recommended to limit intake of coconut oil, along with animal fats, to reduce your risk of heart disease.

That said, recent studies have indicated that coconut oil may not be as bad as we had thought.

In a 1995 study, 28 people with high cholesterol followed a diet providing 36% of total calories from fat, 50% of which came from either butter, coconut oil or safflower oil (only about 10% saturated). After 6 weeks, total cholesterol and the "lousy" LDL cholesterol were significantly higher in those on the butter diet compared to the coconut oil diet. The safflower oil diet was associated with significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels compared to the butter and coconut oil groups. The same researchers confirmed the above results on healthy subjects as well.

Although coconut oil is more saturated, the saturated fat in butter comes from palmitic acid whereas the one in coconut oil comes from lauric acid. Palmitic acid (also the main fat in palm oil) has been found to have a greater negative effect on cholesterol and is therefore more conducive to heart disease than lauric acid.

So... what does this mean?

It means that non-hydrogenated coconut oil can be an alternative to butter or hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils that are high in trans fats, but it shouldn't replace other more healthful, mainly unsaturted, oils such as olive, canola, soybean, corn, safflower or sunflower oils.

Red meat linked with death

A study published in March’s Archives of Internal Medicine looked at the meat intake of half a million Americans aged 50-71 for 10 years.

After controlling for age, race, BMI, education, smoking history, alcohol intake, caloric intake, fruit and vegetable intake, vitamin intake, hormone therapy and physical activity, researchers found that the more red meat and processed meat people ate, the higher the mortality risk- in fact, they had a 20-40% increased risk of death. They also had a higher risk of heart disease and cancer.

The participants that ate the most meat were more likely to be of white (non-Hispanic) ethnicity, married, smokers, have a higher BMI, higher caloric, fat and saturated fat intake, have lower education and physical activity levels and lower intakes of fibre, fruits and veggies. Remember, that all these factors were controlled for though.

So, how much meat were they eating? The subjects that are the most meat were eating about 160g red meat or processed meat per day- the equivalent of about a 5 oz steak a day. The ones getting the least meat were eating just under 1 oz a day.

This study adds to what we’ve already known: red meat and processed meat are major sources of saturated fat which have been associated with high blood cholesterol, heart disease and cancer. Meat has also been shown to be a source of cancer-causing agents which are formed during high-temperature cooking. Processed meats also contain carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Since it's pretty clear that eating a diet rich in red meat and processed meat puts your health at risk, try to limit your intake- there are so many delicious vegetarians options available now... try them! Also replace your red meat with beans and lentil-based meals, fish and/or white meat as often as possible.

Diet Myth #1: Fat makes you fat

It's almost summer, time to get bikini-ready, and the perfect time to debunk some of those diet myths!

Nope. Dietary fat does not make you fat.

- Randomized weight loss studies show little net weight change after a year of following a low fat diet- although people on the low fat diets generally lost 2-4 lbs after a few weeks, they also tended to regain that weight while continuing with the diet.

- In European country-to-country surveys , women eating the least amount of fat were the most likely to be obese while those with the higher fat intake were least likely to be so. (For European men, there was no relation between fat intake and obesity).

- In the United States, the gradual reduction of the fat content of the average diet from 40% of total calories to about 33% has been accompanied by a gradual increase in the average weight and a dramatic increase in obesity rates.

Bottom line:

The fat in your diet doesn't make you fat. You gain weight when you eat more calories (whether coming from carbs, protein or fat) than you burn off.
The goal is to cut back on bad fats (saturated and trans fats) and increase good fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats).

If you're already on a low fat diet, think about replacing some of those carbs with unsaturated fats.

An added benefit of replacing saturated fats and carbs in your diet with unsaturated fats is that your risk of coronary heart disease and stroke will decrease by :

- Lowering your "lousy" LDL cholesterol, - Preventing the increase of your triglycerides (fat in your blood),
- Reducing development of erratic heartbeats, the main cause of sudden cardiac death,
- Reducing the tendency for arterial blood clots to form.

Warning: Açai Berry Scam

Have you heard of the açai (pronounced "ah-sigh-EE") berries?
They come from South America, look like grapes and have been touted as a superfruit. You can buy açai juice (selling for $40 a quart! ), juice powder, tablets, smoothies, as well as the whole fruit.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is warning the public to stay away from signing up for online "free samples" of açai products since thousands of consumers have had their credit cards charged and have had trouble stopping recurrent charges.


The Claims:

You'll lose weight, flatten your stomach, have more energy, cleanse your colon, improve your digestion, enhance sexual desire, improve heart health, improve your skin, sleep better, reduce your cholesterol levels.

The Science:

There's none. There's no evidence that the berries live up to any of their claims.
A study comparing antioxidant-rich beverages was published in Feb 2008 and found that pomegranate juice, red wine, Concord grape juice, blueberry juice and black cherry juice all had higher levels of antioxidants than açai juice (however, the açai juice had more antioxidants than orange juice, iced tea and apple juice).

The Controversy:

Oprah's famous doctor guest, Dr. Mehmet Oz, included açai, along with tomatoes, blueberries and broccoli as healthy foods. A guest on Rachel Ray also talked about the açai beverages.
As a result, ads and websites such as oprahsamazingdiet.com and rachaelray.drozdiet-acaiberry.com, have been created claiming Oprah and Rachel Ray have endorsed the products and steering visitors to fake blogs of people that have supposedly lost a lot of weight on these products. Free samples are also offered .

Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Rachel Ray have publicly disassociated themselves from the açai sites (and taking legal action).

The Best Business Bureau (BBB) have received thousands of complaints from consumers that have had their credit cards charged (up to almost 200$) after ordering a "free" trial of açai supplements.

Protect Yourself:

The CSPI suggests that if, despite the lack of scientific evidence that the product had any benefit, you still want to try to get a "free" trial of an açai product, check the company on the BBB site first. Click "check out a Business or Charity" and enter the information you have on the company before signing up for anything. For example, FX supplements that markets Acai Berry Maxx received an F rating from the BBB's online report due to the fact that the company received 213 complaints in the last 12 months.
Other açai sites that have received an F rating include FWM Laboratories (runs www.acaiberrydetox.com ), Pure Acai Berry Pro (Advanced Wellness Research), AcaiBurn, Acai Berry Maxx (FX Supplements) and SFL Nutrition.

Furthermore, use a prepaid credit card with a low credit limit or a virtual credit card that shields your real credit card number.

The misleading and deceptive açai health claims are currently being investigated and the fraudulent companies have yet to be caught... so beware.

Note that at least one brand, Açai Berry Select, contains 200 mg added caffeine per capsule-the equivalent of 2 cups of coffee- and they recommend you take 2 capsules a day. Remember that women in childbearing years should aim for less than 300mg caffeine a day as high caffeine intakes have been linked to miscarriages. Something else to consider.

A Greener Diet: How the foods we eat impact our environment

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has a great Eating Green Calculator you should try... it allows you to enter the servings of animal products you eat in a week to determine the impact your diet has on the environment: pounds of fertilizer and pesticides used yearly to grow animal feed, acres of grain and grass needed for animal feed and pounds of manure created by the animals you eat. The program then allows you to make changes to your diet and calculate how those changes can reduce your environmental burden.

The website also allows you to score your diet: you enter the servings of certain foods you eat in a week and the program calculates a Health Score, Environmental Score and Animal Welfare Score. Kinda cool.

The CSPI encourages everyone to take the Pledge to eat less meat and dairy:

To protect my health and the environment, I will eat a more plant-based diet—more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and fewer fatty meat and dairy products. When I do eat animal products, I will emphasize ones that are lower in fat and raised in humane ways that minimize harm to the environment.

What are the CSPI's 6 arguments for a greener diet?

1. Less chronic disease and overall health: The fat and cholesterol in meat, dairy, poultry and egg products cause about 63, 000 deaths from heart disease a year. Apart from heart disease and hypertension, consumption of meat and other animal products have been linked to an increased risk of cancer and diabetes.

2. Less foodborne illnesses: More than 1000 Americans die annually from foodborne illnesses linked to meat, poultry, dairy and egg products.

3. Better soil: Currently in the States, 100 million acres of land is used up to grow crops to feed livestock. In fact, 66% of US grain ends up as livestock feed. This practice depletes the topsoil of nutrients and erodes the soil (a typical acre of US cropland loses an average of 5 tons of soil a year!) , as does overgrazing of grasses by livestock. 22 billion pounds of fertilizer and immense amounts of pesticides are used to grow the animal feed is used, disrupting the ecosystem, poisoning wildlife and polluting waterways.

4. More and cleaner water: 80% of all freshwater in the States is used for agriculture, Half of available irrigation water (14 trillion gallons annually) is used to grow food for US livestock (1 trillion alone is used directly by livestock). Fertilizer, pesticides, manure, antibiotics and eroded soil pollute water.

5. Cleaner air: Methane gas produced by cattle and livestock in 2000 had the same impact on global warming as 33 million cars! Livestock are the largest source of ammonia releases on Earth, contributing to smog, acid rain as well as respiratory and other health problems.

6. Less animal suffering: 140 million cattle, pigs and sheep, 9 billion chicken and turkeys and millions of fish, shellfish and other sea creatures are slaughtered a year in the United States. Food animals are not protected by federal animal welfare laws making common procedures such as chopping animals' beaks, horns, tails, or testes legal.

Click Here to download their entire "6 Arguments for a Greener Diet" book.

Happy Earth Day!

Eggs: From Hen Eggs to Easter Eggs

Hen Eggs















Hens are busy in the US: 240 million laying hens produce 66 billion eggs a year. There are white eggs and brown eggs (difference is only in the hen's breed), free-range eggs, omega 3- rich eggs (laid by hens fed a diet rich in flax seeds... note that it's the "wrong" type of omega 3 for heart health). One hen egg has about 75 calories but more cholesterol than any other single food, all of it in the yolk: 210mg cholesterol. The American Heart Association and The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada recommend limiting cholesterol to less than 300mg/day, less than 200mg if you’ve had a heart attack or stroke, if you have diabetes and if you have high LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Ostrich Eggs

Of all the world’s bird species, the ostrich produces the largest egg: one egg weighs about 3lbs and yields the equivalent of two-dozen chicken eggs! An egg can also be refrigerated for up to a full year thanks to its substantial shell (roughly 1/8-inch thick). Supposedly, ostrich eggs taste very similar to hen eggs but contain a day's worth of calories (2000!) and take a bit longer to cook: start-to-finish time for hard-boiling an ostrich egg is roughly an hour and a half. One ostrich egg white can make 100 meringues or 32 souffles.

Turkey Eggs














Turkey eggs are not very popular, largely due to the expense of producing them: an average turkey weighs 5 times more than a chicken, taking up more space in the coop, and whereas the average chicken lays 300 eggs a year, turkeys lay only 100.

Seagull Eggs















Who knew?! You can eat the eggs of what are often referred to as 'urban pests'... although you shouldn't eat too many as they contain high levels of PCBs (environmental pollutants). Supposedly, their strong nutty, slightly fishy, flavour make them quite the delicacy: in Norway they're served hard-boiled in the shell alongside a glass of beer, in the UK- where around 40 000 eggs are sold yearly- they are often served hard-boiled with celery salt. Just recently, the UK's Telegraph reported that the highly sought after delicacy of black-headed seagull eggs may disappear from the nation's top restaurants. There are 25 people licensed to collect seagull eggs but sources say that only about 1/3 of them, all over retirement age, are still actively involved and there is reluctance in issuing new licenses. Conservationists are also concerned over the impact the practice may be having on the black-headed seagull population which is in long-term decline.

Emu Eggs
















The emu is the national bird of Australia but emu meat and eggs are starting to make an appearance in the States. Artists known as “eggers” carve intricate designs in the emu shells or use them in jewelry making. Slightly smaller than an ostrich egg, an emu egg provides the equivalent of 10 chicken eggs. The eggs can be refrigerated for up to two months.

Duck Eggs














Duck eggs are richer and fattier than chicken eggs. In parts of Asia, fertilized duck eggs with small developing ducks inside (known as balut) are served boiled and are thought to be an aphrodisiac.

Quail Eggs















Gourmets report that quail eggs are among the most delicious in the world. The eggs are small and fine, about 1/5 the weight of a chicken’s egg and contain about 1/5 of the calories of a chicken egg (15 calories) and 1/5 of the protein (1.2g). In Asia, raw quail yolks are used in sushi; Colombians dress hot dogs with hard-boiled quail eggs along with pineapple jam and potato chips; In some Latin American countries, quail eggs are considered an aphrodisiac; Brazilians eat more than half a million quail eggs a day.

Fish eggs

Some people insist that only properly processed eggs from Caspian or Black Sea sturgeon (sieved to remove the egg sacs, leaving only the eggs) merit being called caviar (it is the most expensive) whereas others will include salted and sieved eggs from salmon, trout, flying fish, and paddlefish, and even land animals—French snail farmers introduced escargot caviar in 2007. Dwindling fishing yields, overfishing and pollution have resulted in certain restrictions, ie. the US Fish and Wildlife Service banned the import of Black and Caspian Sea Beluga caviar. In general, the lighter the colour of the fish eggs, the more expensive it is. The most expensive caviar comes from the Beluga Sturgeon of the Caspian sea. The only known outlet of this "Almas" caviar is the Caviar House & Prunier in London’s Picadilly that sells a kilo in a 24-karat gold tin for £16,000. It also sells a £800 tin for those on a smaller budget.

Easter (Painted) Eggs

The egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in Pagan celebrations of Spring and was adopted by early Christians as a symbol of rebirth. Painting eggs dates back some 2500 years to the ancient Persians who did so to celebrate Nawrooz, their New Year that falls on the Spring Equinox. These eggs are not meant to be eaten!

Chocolate Eggs
















Chocolate eggs appeared in the early 1800s in France and Germany after manufacturers developed a way to make solid eating chocolate. Today, chocolate eggs account for roughly 8% of all annual chocolate sales, and people buy more chocolate candy for Easter than for any other holiday except Valentine’s Day- 90% of adults buy chocolate on Easter in North America.

Source: Gourmet

Take the stairs!

I'm sure that, at some point, you resolved to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Researchers from the University Hospital of Geneva in Switzerland decided to see what happens when people actually follow through on this resolution.

69 sedentary (less than 2 hrs exercise a week) employees were asked to exclusively take the stairs instead of the elevator for 12 weeks.

The result:

VO2 max (used to measure aerobic capacity) increased by 8.6%.
The mean increase of aerobic capacity corresponds to a 15% decrease in all-cause mortality risk.

Body fat decreased by 1.7%.

Waist circumference decreased by 1.8%.

Diastolic blood pressure decreased by 2.3%.

LDL (lousy) cholesterol decreased by 3.9%.

Although the results of this pilot study need to be confirmed in a larger randomised controlled trial,
maybe these results will motivate you to ditch the elevator...?!

Paula Deen's Heart Attack on a Plate

This is horrible!



Using Calorie King’s Food Database, I calculated that this meal has approximately:
907 calories- which is about half of your daily requirement, 60% of which comes from fat (and 25% of which comes from saturated fat)!
It also has a total of 350 mg of cholesterol which exceeds your day's requirement.

Eating this burger is equivalent to eating 15 pats of butter or 3/4 of a stick of butter!


Bon Appétit!

Do you have diabetes and not know it?

Did you know that being over the age of 40 alone puts you at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes? Everybody over that age should get their blood sugar checked at least every three years.

More than 2 million Canadians and 23.6 million Americans have diabetes but at least a quarter of them don't know it!

Most people diagnosed with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes.

If you're over the age of 40 and have any of the following risk factors, you're at a higher risk of developing diabetes and should have your blood sugar checked earlier and more often:

Overweight or obese,
Have a family history of diabetes,
Are a member of any of the following high-risk ethnic groups: African, Hispanic, Native American/Aboriginal, Asian American and South Asian, Pacific Islander,
Have high blood pressure or high cholesterol,
Had gestational diabetes when you were pregnant,
Gave birth to a baby that weighed more than 9lbs (4kg),
Been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, acanthosins nigricans or scizophrenia.

Click here to determine your risk for having diabetes.

Symptoms of diabetes include:

Being very thristy,
Having to urinate frequently,
Weight change,
Low energy and fatigue,
Blurred vision,
Recurring infections,
Cuts that take time healing,
Tingling or numb hands and feet,
Trouble getting or maintaining an erection.

If you have any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor.
If diabetes goes undiagnosed and untreated, you have a high risk of having a stroke or heart attack, of organ and nerve damage, of having eye problems than can lead to blindness, gum and mouth disease and skin disorders.

The good news is that all these complications can be avoided with early detection and treatment.

Visit the CDA and the ADA websites for more information and talk to your doctor to schedule your next blood test!