Another group of macronutrients is carbohydrate or carbs. Now structurally these are mono, di, and oligosaccharides which are the short chain or polysaccharides which are the long chain ie the complex carbs but we don’t usually use these terms when talking about what we eat because they’re complicated terms. We usually use the term glycemic…
There are different types of fats in our diet. Firstly, there’s saturated fat which for many years we’ve been told are the real baddies and we should be cutting down on which is not necessarily the case but nevertheless I would avoid having too many saturated fats because there has been at a link to…
“Beans, Beans, They’re Good For Your Heart” I’ve talked previously about the anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects of various phytochemiclas in beans, but there are protective effects on the cardiovascular system as well. Plant-specific compounds can have a remarkable impact on the health care system and may provide therapeutic health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment…
“Safest Source of B12” What’s the best way to get vitamin B12? Well, B12 is not made by plants; not made by animals either. It’s made by certain bacteria, some of which line the guts of animals, of which people eat and drink. But that’s not the best source, because of the baggage that comes…
“Flax Seeds for Hypertension” A recent article in the journal Meat Science acknowledged that a sector of the population perceives meat as a food that is detrimental to their health because of studies associating meat consumption with heart disease and cancer. For these reasons, these meat consumers look for healthier food alternatives as a means…
the latest Dietary Guidelines the 2015 guidelines won’t be out probably until January 2016 have a chapter on food components to reduce but when they say things like reduce intake of solid fats major sources of saturated and trans fatty acids what does that mean in terms of which foods to reduce similarly there’s a…
millions suffer from asthma attacks triggered by exercise within five minutes of starting exercising people can get short of breath start coughing and wheezing such that lung function significantly drops but on a high salt diet the attack is even worse whereas on a low salt diet there’s hardly a significant drop in function at…
What Causes Insulin Resistance? Studies dating back nearly a century noted a striking finding. If you take young, healthy people, split them up into two groups, half on a fat-rich diet, and half on a carb rich diet, within just two days, this is what happens. The glucose intolerance skyrockets in the fat group. In…
“What Causes Diabetes?” After about age 20, we may have all the insulin-producing beta cells we’re ever going to have in our pancreas, and so if we lose them, we may lose them for good. Autopsy studies show that by the time type 2 diabetes is diagnosed we may have already killed off half of…