Listed below are total protein, essential amino acids, branched chain amino acids, and arginine content for quinoa, oats, corn, millet, barley, brown rice and potato. The values provided are for 100 calories, for each respective grain. Let’s ask some questions: 1. Is there a difference in protein content among these […]
Month: July 2014
If your goal is optimal nutrition, would you choose grapes or raisins? To most, the obvious answer would be grapes, because they’re less calorie dense than raisins. Grapes contain 20 calories per ounce, whereas raisins contain 85 calories/ounce. But, what if I asked the same question, and you had 100 […]
The media often tells us that dark chocolate is “healthier” than milk chocolate because of its high antioxidant content. Yes, this is true: dark chocolate contains more than four times the amount of antioxidants than milk chocolate (~200 Units/gram vs. ~45 Units/gram; Miller et al. 2006): However, as shown below, what […]
Consumption of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been linked to a variety of adverse health conditions, including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, type II diabetes, increased blood pressure, dislipidemia (i.e. decreased good cholesterol, HDL), and obesity (Nseir et al. 2010). So, consumption HFCS is not good for health. But, I’d […]
In a previous article I wrote about how vegans have been shown to have decreased risk of heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality. In addition, in 3 separate articles I’ve written about how cooking food at high temperature (above boiling, 212ºF), whether it is roasting, baking, frying or grilling produces […]
War on drugs? Where is the government war on obesity? The government sponsored war on drugs, at a cost $15.5 billion/year has as its goal to reduce drug use and its consequences in the US (Ref. 1, 2011 FY Budget Summary). Sadly, in 2007 (the most recent year for which […]
To answer the question proposed in the title, today I’ll look at the results of the Oxford Vegetarian study, in which risk for all-cause mortality, ischemic heart disease and malignant neoplasms was determined (Appelby et al. 1999). 6000 vegetarians and 5000 non-vegetarians were recruited, and, all participants were further divided […]
Humans can’t synthesize Vitamin E and therefore, must obtain it from the diet. Vitamin E exists in 8 different forms: alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ) delta (δ)-tocopherol, and α, β, γ, and δ-tocotrienol. The importance of Vitamin E during aging is illustrated by the finding that high blood levels […]
Crispy, brown toast and grill marks on your chicken, fish or beef both contain elevated amounts of Advanced Glycation End (AGE) Products, a group of molecules formed during high temperature cooking (greater than 250ºF; i.e. frying, grilling, roasting, baking). In a previous article (http://michaellustgarten.com/2014/07/25/advanced-glycation-end-products-theres-more-to-health-than-counting-calories-protein-fat-and-carbs/) I wrote about the adverse health […]
How much aluminum is in your food, or in products (which would allow for aluminum to be absorbed through the skin) such as deodorant? When most people think about aluminum, food sources are most likely not to come to mind, but rather, aluminum foil or aluminum pots. However, up to […]