News

Chowing Down On Meat, Dairy Alters Gut Bacteria A Lot, And Quickly

Sam West — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 05:22:08 +0000

A new study my wife came across on npr.org tries to represent the results of a Harvard study published in nature.com.

The nature article titled “Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome” seems to be a fair representation of the study as expected. But the sensationalized npr article falls into a couple traps.

They’ve got 1 thing right – Gut flora is one of the most important areas of scientific study taking place today. It effects almost every aspect of our health. 2 Problems…

The lack of consistent terminology. Using the words “meat” and “cheese” to represent protein. But using the word “carbohydrates” to actually mean vegetables.
Extreme “end of the scale” tests can give interesting results but are always compromised by not taking into account the need for balance in the diet.

So pigging out on all meat and not eating any vegetables at all had a significant effect on gut bacteria for the worse? That’s a shocker!

Come on npr – have some integrity. You don’t need to dumb everything down for us to understand what those super smart men are saying… Keep it up and one of these days we really will be thinking we need to irrigate our crops with Gatorade.

Kids eating cereal for breakfast? Why not Twinkies?

Sam West — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:15:39 +0000

Here’s an interesting story discussing how most cereals marketed to children have more sugar than a twinkie. Of course twinkies aren’t fortified with all those vitamins! Yeah well… As Dr. Phill says; How’s that working out for ya?

http://www.care2.com/causes/forget-cereal-feed-your-kids-twinkies.html

Sugary Processed Foods Addictive Like Cocaine

Sam West — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:52:14 +0000

Bloomberg published a story titled Fatty Foods Addictive Like Cocaine in Growing Body of Scientific Research in which they discuss the numerous studies linking sugary foods and drinks to addictive behavior in animals. OK, we’ve been saying this for awhile now but they consistently refer to these foods as “Fatty” foods. This is very misleading to people who are getting mixed messages about foods high in fat being unhealthy.

I think a much better headline would have been mine above. Sugary processed foods are what are addictive. Wouldn’t this have been much more informative and dare I say, controversial? Grab attention and wake people up! Hearing “fatty” foods are bad is nothing new and most people won’t even bother reading the article. We’re trying to correct decades of bad science on what causes heart disease and careless articles aren’t helping matters. I guess I’m just a little bit sensitive on the topic.