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 […]
Calorie restriction is well documented as the gold standard in terms of minimizing disease risk and maximizing longevity in almost every organism tested-worms, flies, mice, rats, dogs and monkeys. However, eating 10-30% less calories than usual is a difficult task for most people, as evidenced by the continuous rise in […]
Dietary advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are formed as a result of the heat-induced (greater than 100C) binding of sugar to protein, fat or nucleic acids (DNA or RNA). The common way to identify AGE products in food is the browning effect: deep-frying, broiling, roasting, and grilling each produce a […]
Usually, my focus on optimal health involves proper diet and exercise. But, are there other factors that can reduce mortality risk? More specifically, does how often I brush my teeth or floss have an impact on cancer and all-cause mortality? Tooth brushing at night before bed and using dental floss […]
In an earlier article I wrote about how cooking foods at a high temperature (greater than 250ºF, including frying, baking, roasting and grilling) produces the neurotoxic and carcinogenic compound, acrylamide (http://voices.yahoo.com/acrylamide-chocolate-another-10217911.html?cat=5). However, the adverse effects acrylamide that I discussed were solely based on rodent studies. In this follow-up article, I’ll […]
The main drawback to optimal health if you eat store-bought chocolate is that cacao beans are roasted, thereby increasing the concentration of the carcinogen, acrylamide (https://michaellustgarten.com/2014/07/27/acrylamide-is-in-chocolate-another-reason-why-cooking-food-at-high-temperature-is-not-good-for-you/). Besides eating homemade chocolate made from raw cacao beans (https://michaellustgarten.com/2014/09/21/homemade-chocolate-in-2-minutes/), are there any health benefits to drinking raw cacao? The answer is yes, and it comes […]
Dietary calcium is easily obtained from dairy, green leafy vegetables (i.e. kale) or, nuts/seeds (chia, amonds). What about other sources? Do you know that unhulled sesame seeds are a great source of calcium? One ounce of sesame seeds has 270 mg calcium…But, sesame seeds are important for other reasons, too. […]
Our story begins with Michael Rose, who used an experimental evolution approach to breed flies that live more than 2-fold longer than controls (Rose 1999). In contrast with the one gene at a time knockout or overexpression strategy that is ubiquitous in modern biology, Rose separated initially genetically homogeneous flies into […]
Do you eat protein bars and think that they’re a great protein source? Sure, they are. But is there a healthier way to get that protein into your diet? In Table 1 I compared the macronutrient composition and, dietary fiber, sodium and potassium content of 2 popular protein bars, Met-Rx and Pure […]