Big business to blame for bulging bellies

A few blogs have recently featured the large Baskin-Robbins’ Heath Shake due to it’s ridiculous amount of calories: 2310 calories! This is equivalent to 11 Dunkin Donuts’ jelly filled donuts or 7.5 McDonald’s cheeseburgers or 25 cups Coke! It's more than the total number of calories most of us should be getting over a whole day!!

It’s pretty disgusting but Marion Nestle, Professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at NYU, introduces an interesting perspective. She points out that corporate execs aren’t sitting around a table trying to find ways to make people fat. Instead, they’re trying to sell food in an “overabundant marketplace” and to simply get sales. According to her, it’s this overabundance of food (and aggressive marketing) that can be blamed for the obesity crisis.

Currently, the US food supply provides an average of 3900 calories per capita for every man, woman and child in the US- that’s more than 2 times the average need for the population. In 1980, the availability was 3300- this 600 calorie increase can be linked to the rising obesity rates. There are numerous “eat more” strategies that help corporations sell off more food:

Increasing portion sizes: the largest movie theatre cups now holds 64 oz soda- that’s ~800 calories worth of soda (without ice)! Portion sizes have increased 2-5 times since the early 80s.

Variety: food marketers introduce 15 000-20 000 new food products every year into a food system that already has more than 300 000 food products! For example, in 1990, there were 6 different types of Oreo cookies- there are now 27 different types!

Low prices: Why is it that at McDonald’s you can buy 5 hamburgers for the price of one salad? Government subsidies support the production of certain foods like partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and corn. Foods that have these subsidized ingredients cost less per calories. Food cost in the US is the lowest in the world- 10% of income. The true food cost is actually paid through taxes rather than at the supermarket.

It’s all just business- the obesity epidemic is just an unfortunate outcome.

Sources:

Remillard G, ed. Understanding and overcoming obesity, the need for action. Health Decision Series. Nestle M. Health, Diet, and the Politics of Dietary Guidelines: Commentary. Montreal: Decision Media. 2006.

http://whattoeatbook.com/?s=baskin

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Beans beans, they're good for your heart; the more you eat the more you

Gas, flatulence, farting, tooting, breaking wind... all words that stand for the same thing- intestinal gas that escapes from “the southern route”.
We all do it- on average 10-20 times a day (although some pass gas up to 50 times a day). Women tend to pass gas less frequently than men but, according to one study*, their emissions are a bit more...aromatic.

Farts are made up of 6 gases: nitrogen and oxygen that come from swallowed air, hydrogen and methane that are produced in the intestine from friendly bacteria that lives there, and sulphur. Sulphur makes up a very small fraction of the total gas but it’s the one that causes the stink. So, because women pass less gas a day, their farts seem to contain a higher concentration of sulphur gas.

Intestinal gas comes from 2 sources:

1. Increased intake of gas (ie. swallowed air).
Swallowed air is also called aerophagia and occurs unconsciously out of habit and/or while drinking and eating. Drinking quickly, chewing gum, using tobacco, sucking candy, drinking carbonated drinks and loose dentures are all things that can increase the amount of air you swallow.

2. The breakdown of undigested foods broken down by bacteria in the intestine. Our intestines contain hundreds of different harmless bacteria in it that feed off the undigested foods we eat.
Gas-forming bacteria feed mostly off of carbohydrates and sugars:

Beans contain a high percentage of sugars- oligosaccharides- that we can’t digest and are a favourite of our friendly bacteria. Soaking beans before cooking them and then getting rid of the water will help cut down on their gas-producing power. Sadly, you lose some water-soluble vitamins when you do this.

Smaller amounts of the same sugar are also found in vegetables like cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower and cucumbers.

Other gas-producing foods include:

Other vegetables like onions, radishes and artichokes.
Fruit, especially apples, apricots, peaches and pears.
Dried fruit, especially prunes and raisins.
Foods high in soluble fibres like oat bran, nuts and seeds.
Sugar alcohols (sugars ending in –ol, like sorbitol and mannitol) found in many diet products.
Whole grains, coffee, dark beer, red wine and fatty foods are also possible culprits.

If you don’t have the enzyme to break down certain food components, you may produce more gas when you eat those foods. For example, people who don’t have the enzyme lactase can’t break down the sugar lactose found in milk products.

Excess flatus?
If there are no medical conditions that’s causing excess gas, try limiting the amount of air you swallow by eating slower, avoiding or limiting foods that contain air- carbonated drinks, whipping cream- and try avoiding drinking from a straw, chewing gum, smoking and get dentures that fit well.

You can also try eliminating gas-producing foods. This requires some trial-and-error. Any of the gas-producing foods can be removed from the diet one group at a time, for a minimum of a week at a time, until you feel relief.

There’s a product called Beano on the market that contains an enzyme called alpha-galatosidase (extracted from mold!) that helps break down the complex sugars in many gassy foods.

However, most experts will tell you that you shouldn’t "give a hoot that you toot”- it’s perfectly normal.

Smelly flatus?
The gas produced by bacterial fermentation can smell, depending on the food eaten. Suggestions include limiting common culprits such as garlic, onions, spicy foods and beer.

Loud flatus?
This is caused by the muscles of the bowel forcing air through the tight ring of muscle at the anus. Suggestions include passing the air with less power and reducing the amount of intestinal gas by making dietary adjustments.

*Farting study- thought it was worth including the procedure! Volunteer producers -- primed by a diet of pinto beans -- farted into aluminum bags via a rectal tube. The contents of the bags were measured for volume and for sulphur concentration. (Sulphur gases give farts their foul odour.) Syringes full of gas were withdrawn from the bags and wafted by the nostrils of the unfortunate judges. Fun job!

Sources:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071228/flatulence_expert_07122
Leyner M, Goldber B. Why do men have nipples? Three River Press. 2005.
http://www.gicare.com/pated/edtgs12.htm
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/flatulence_gas/page7_em.htm#Self-Care%20at%20Home
http://www.beanogas.com/Default.aspxhttp://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/BHCV2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Flatulence?open

Steven the Vegan

This is too funny... thanks Chrys!

Does your pee stink after eating asparagus?

After eating asparagus, some people's urine has a very distinct, stinky smell.

Asparagus contains a compound called mercaptan. The smelly pee is a result of this compound being broken down in your digestive system. However, not everyone has the gene for the enzyme that breaks down mercaptan. One British study found that 46% of British people tested produced odour after eating asparagus.

Another study of a random sample of 115 people showed that 40% had stinky pee after eating asparagus and they determined that it's inherited through an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. Interestingly, another study found that all the subjects broke down mercaptan, but their ability to smell it in the urine differed. Those who were able to smell the odour in their own urine could smell it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus irrespective of whether or not that person could smell it. The authors suggested that the ability to smell the stinky urine is also genetically determined.

So are we all stinkers, but only some of us smellers? Not exactly. People, like myself (too much information?!), don't break down mercaptan (so are non-stinkers) but can smell it in other people's urine. Conversely, some people who break down the compound (stinkers) were unable to detect the smell in urine others had identified as outright putrid.

Don't worry, even if your urine smells after eating asparagus, it's not a bad thing and definitely not a reason why you should avoid asparagus. Asparagus is great source of folic acid, thiamin, vitamin B6, fibre and one of the richest sources of rutin, a compound that strengthens capillary walls.

So... are you a stinker?

Sources:
Leyner M, Goldberg B. Why do men have nipples? NY: Three Rivers Press. 2005.
http://student.bmj.com/back_issues/0800/education/277.html
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/asparagus-stinky-pee-and-scientific-curiosity/
http://www.asparagus.org/maab/nutrition.html

Coffee with breakfast spikes blood glucose

A new Canadian study just appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and is getting a bit of press. Participants were non-diabetic men, aged 18-50 (average age was 23) with a BMI between 19-29 (average was 25).

The men were either given caffeinated coffee or decaf coffee 1 hour before their breakfast. The ones that received caffeinated coffee were given an amount of Maxwell House Original Roast that provided an equivalent of 5 mg caffeine/kg. The average weight of the participants was 78.5kg so they got an average of 390mg caffeine* or about 2.5 cups of this coffee (which had 62g caffeine/100mL). The decaf group received an equivalent volume of decaf.

The participants were then given either a high glycemic index bowl of cereal – Crispex- or a low glycemic index breakfast- All Bran- with the same amount of milk. The amount of cereal was calculated so that both meals provided 75g carbohydrates.

The subjects were randomly placed in all 4 groups with 1-2 weeks between them. 2 days before each trial, subjects were asked to not drink any caffeinated or alcoholic beverages or do any strenuous exercise.

As expected, blood glucose rose after they ate either meal. What was surprising, however, was that blood glucose rose significantly higher when the participants had the caffeinated coffee versus decaf- regardless of whether they had the low GI or high GI meal. At the same time, the caffeine made the people more resistant to insulin, causing their blood glucose to rise higher.

According to the researchers, this is no big deal for healthy, non-diabetic people since their blood sugar will get back to normal automatically. However, they point out that “caffeine should be considered a dietary risk factor for blood sugar control” for people with diabetes and, as a result, they would benefit from drinking decaf coffee.

In my opinion, more research has to be done. There were only 10 participants, all men, enrolled in this study and none of them had diabetes. What would be the effect in people that were actually insulin resistant? Moreover, we all know caffeine affects everybody differently, especially if you're not used to having it. 2 of the 10 participants didn't normally drink coffee and the others were light to moderate caffeine consumers. This should be controlled in future studies.

If you do have diabetes, test your blood sugar before your meal and 2 hours after and check to see if there's a difference whether you drink decaf versus caffeinated coffee.

*Health Canada recommends an intake of less than 400mg caffeine/day, but <300mg class="MsoNormal">Sources: Moisey LL, Kacker S, Bickerton AC, Robinson LE, Graham T. Caffeinated coffee consumption impairs blood glucose homeostasis in response to high and low glycemic index meals in healthy men. Am J Clin Nutr 2008; 87:1254-61.