Category: nutrition

Chocolate is Good For You (part 3)

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A new study in the Journal of Nutrition:

Dark chocolate contains high concentrations of flavonoids and may have antiinflammatory properties. We evaluated the association of dark chocolate intake with serum C-reactive protein (CRP). The Moli-sani Project is an ongoing cohort study of men and women aged 35 y randomly recruited from the general population. By July 2007, 10,994 subjects had been enrolled. Of 4849 subjects apparently free of any chronic disease, 1317 subjects who declared having eaten any chocolate during the past year (mean age 53 ± 12 y; 51% men) and 824 subjects who ate chocolate regularly in the form of dark chocolate only (50 ± 10 y; 55% men) were selected. . . . The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition FFQ was used to evaluate nutritional intake. After adjustment for age, sex, social status, physical activity, systolic blood pressure, BMI, waist:hip ratio, food groups, and total energy intake, dark chocolate consumption was inversely associated with CRP (P = 0.038). When adjusted for nutrient intake, analyses showed similar results (P = 0.016). Serum CRP concentrations [geometric mean (95% CI)] univariate concentrations were 1.32 (1.26—1.39 mg/L) in nonconsumers and 1.10 (1.03—1.17 mg/L) in consumers (P < 0.0001). A J-shaped relationship between dark chocolate consumption and serum CRP was observed; consumers of up to 1 serving (20 g) of dark chocolate every 3 d had serum CRP concentrations that were significantly lower than nonconsumers or higher consumers. Our findings suggest that regular consumption of small doses of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation.

These findings, like previous epidemiology of chocolate, suggest that ordinary dark chocolate produces these benefits. You don’t have to process the chocolate in special ways or preserve it in special ways. Mars, the company behind Cocoavia, a line of chocolate products that emphasizes health benefits, makes the opposite claim:

Like green tea and red wine, cocoa beans contain naturally occurring compounds called flavanols that scientists believe help promote blood flow, circulation and a healthy heart. But traditional cocoa processing often [emphasis added] destroys these natural compounds. After years of research, the makers of Dove® Brand Chocolates have perfected a breakthrough Cocoapro® process, the only patented process that retains high levels of the flavanols found naturally in cocoa.

Well, how often is “often”? And what fraction of the flavanols are destroyed by ordinary processing?

More on the benefits of chocolate: Part 1. Part 2.

New Way to Lose Weight: Don’t Eat Till Your Blood Sugar is Low Enough

Seth Roberts10 Comments

Tim Lundeen‘s sister Miriam wrote this:

Tim and I have been having conversations about health, diet and blood sugars for several years and I figured I was insulin-resistant with mild blood sugar dysregulation, but never was more than interested. About two months ago after a move cross-country with the accompanying stresses, I became more acutely concerned about my metabolic damage and was in a place where I could pay attention and do something about it. At Tim’s recommendation, I read Dr.Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution and Jenny Ruhl’s Blood Sugar 101 and started monitoring my blood sugar with a glucometer. Initially, my morning readings were usually 91-94. Not too bad but not the 83-85 that is “normal” [i.e., optimal]. I started waiting till I was hungry or when I would normally eat and then take my blood sugar again. If it was 85 or below I would eat a normal meal with an awareness of the carb content and eat smaller portions of these foods. Then I would monitor my postprandial (post-meal) blood sugars about every hour and see when and how high my spike was. If it was too high (over 140 for sure, and in the 130′s probably) I would adjust the amount of carbs downward. If my blood sugar was over 86 and I wasn’t famished I would distract myself with some engaging activity and check my sugar again when I noticed I was hungry. If I became really famished but my sugar was still not under 86, I would have a no-to-low carb snack like almonds, walnuts, left-over meat or a salad. Then I’d wait till I was hungry again. After a few weeks of doing this my morning sugar was consistently 81-85. If I ate off-plan and had an occasional 94, that was fine by me. I was happy about my blood sugars, but the pleasant surprise came when I had a physical exam at my doctor’s. I had lost 20 pounds without even noticing! [She is 5 feet 5 inches tall. After losing 20 pounds her weight was 155.] I was amazed since I had tried to diet a number of times over the last 10 years and my weight just kept creeping up. This has been the most fun and healthy weight loss program I could imagine. I am hoping my carbohydrate metaboliism will eventually recover and I will again be able to eat more carbs without weight gain and metabolic damage.

I am doing something similar for a few days, too soon to tell the results. About six months ago, to help write a chapter in my self-experimentation book about diabetes, I got a glucometer and started testing myself regularly. I was displeased to find that my morning readings were about 91, like Muriel’s, and further displeased to find that eating less carbs didn’t help.

Blood sugar testing isn’t cheap, but it’s easy and painless. The glucometer I use is Abbott’s Freestyle Lite (which is free). It’s painless if you get the blood from your arm. The test strips cost about 60 cents each.

The Emperor’s New Clothes: Meta-Analysis

Seth Roberts5 Comments

In an editorial about the effect of vitamin-mineral supplements in the prestigious American Journal of Clnicial Nutrition, the author, Donald McCormick, a professor of nutrition at Emory University, writes:

This study is a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that were previously reported. Of 2311 trials identified, only 16 met the inclusion criteria.

That’s throwing away a lot of data! Maybe, just maybe, something could be learned from other 2295 randomized controlled trials?

Evidence snobs.

Chocolate is Good For You (continued)

Seth Roberts1 Comment

A just-published study compared the effects of dark chocolate (flavonol-rich) and white chocolate (no flavonols) on 19 persons with high blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance. The dark chocolate reduced blood pressure by 4 points (both systolic and diastolic) and improved insulin sensitivity.

I really should test this myself. There is plenty of similar evidence.
Earlier post.

HDL and Vitamin D

Seth Roberts2 Comments

Vitamin D supplementation raises HDL enormously, says William Davis:

Add vitamin D to achieve our target serum level . . . HDL jumps to 50, 60, 70, even 90 mg/dl.

The first few times this occurred, I thought it was an error or fluke. But now that I’ve witnessed this effect many dozens of time, I am convinced that it is real. Just today, I saw a 40-year old man whose starting HDL was 25 mg/dl increase to 87 mg/dl.

Responses like this are supposed to be impossible. Before vitamin D, I had never witnessed increases of this magnitude.

Thanks to Dave Lull.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Seth Roberts10 Comments

Weston Price’s masterpiece, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects (1939), is online here. The chapters I like are the ones where he visits eleven groups of people around the world and compares those eating traditional diets with those eating modern ones. Those eating traditional diets had very few cavities, even though they didn’t brush their teeth. They also had very little “dental malocculsion” — crooked teeth caused by a too-small jaw. This was presumably because they got enough of certain growth factors in childhood. (The NIH health encyclopedia says dental malocclusion “is most often hereditary”–a mistake that speaks volumes.) The main thing I learned from this book was the importance of fat (to supply fat-soluble micronutrients) including animal fat. (There’s an evolutionary reason we like the taste of fat.) Swiss in isolated areas had to grow almost all of their food in spite of living in the mountains. They ate lots of dairy products, especially butter; apparently they were in good health because their dairy animals ate lots of fresh green grass, high in all sorts of necessary micronutrients including ones that may not yet have been identified. The isolated Swiss also ate lots of whole grain bread. To walk around any supermarket and see all these labels saying “low-fat” as if it were a good thing makes me think of the Middle Ages when people had all sorts of strange ideas about what caused disease — such as too much excitement.

This book seems to be emerging from obscurity due to mentions by Michael Pollan in In Defense of Food (2008) and Gary Taubes in Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007).

Chocolate is Good For You

Seth Roberts6 Comments

I put cocoa powder in my black tea. I like the complexity it adds and believe it’s good for you. More evidence of its health benefits has just been published:

Design: Randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blind crossover trial of 45 healthy adults [mean age: 53 y; mean body mass index (in kg/m2): 30]. In phase 1, subjects were randomly assigned to consume a solid dark chocolate bar (containing 22 g cocoa powder) or a cocoa-free placebo bar (containing 0 g cocoa powder). In phase 2, subjects were randomly assigned to consume sugar-free cocoa (containing 22 g cocoa powder), sugared cocoa (containing 22 g cocoa powder), or a placebo (containing 0 g cocoa powder).

Results: Solid dark chocolate and liquid cocoa ingestion improved endothelial function (measured as flow-mediated dilatation) compared with placebo (dark chocolate: 4.3 ± 3.4% compared with —1.8 ± 3.3%; p < 0.001; sugar-free and sugared cocoa: 5.7 ± 2.6% and 2.0 ± 1.8% compared with —1.5 ± 2.8%; p < 0.001). Blood pressure decreased after the ingestion of dark chocolate and sugar-free cocoa compared with placebo (dark chocolate: systolic, —3.2 ± 5.8 mm Hg compared with 2.7 ± 6.6 mm Hg; p < 0.001; and diastolic, —1.4 ± 3.9 mm Hg compared with 2.7 ± 6.4 mm Hg; p = 0.01; sugar-free cocoa: systolic, —2.1 ± 7.0 mm Hg compared with 3.2 ± 5.6 mm Hg; p < 0.001; and diastolic: —1.2 ± 8.7 mm Hg compared with 2.8 ± 5.6 mm Hg; p = 0.014). Endothelial function improved significantly more with sugar-free than with regular cocoa (5.7 ± 2.6% compared with 2.0 ± 1.8%; p < 0.001).

Conclusions: The acute ingestion of both solid dark chocolate and liquid cocoa improved endothelial function and lowered blood pressure in overweight adults.

22 g cocoa powder = 2.5 tablespoons. If you live near Berkeley, you might want to attend the Charles Chocolates annual open house, which is this Saturday (July 12) at 2 pm. They are located in Emeryville at 6259 Hollis.

The Ketogenic Diet (continued)

Seth Roberts14 Comments

Thanks to Honest Medicine, I found some interesting videos about the ketogenic diet. The first two are from Dateline NBC: Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 1, Dr. Donald Shields, head of pediatric neurology at the UCLA Medical Center, says, in answer to a question about why he didn’t recommend the ketogenic diet to the Abramsons, who discovered it for themselves:

Because I don’t think we had exhausted all the medical approaches [to treating their son’s epilepsy] yet. There were actually still other medications that we hadn’t tried yet.

The last is a great talk (9 minutes) by Dr. Deborah Snyder. “To say the ketogenic diet has touched my heart would be a great understatement,” said Dr. Snyder.

More videos from The Charlie Foundation. The Ketogenic Diet and Evidence Snobs.

Scott Adams, Magnesium, and Knee Pain

Seth Roberts8 Comments

The creator of Dilbert blogs:

About two years ago I started taking magnesium supplements because I saw something on the Internet that indicated it might help my knees problems. (My knees always hurt after exercise.) The magnesium either worked, or it was a remarkable coincidence, that after 15 years of knee pain it suddenly went away and has stayed away.

Recently I realized I haven’t had any allergy or asthma symptoms for well over a year. For the first time in my life I went through the entire allergy season without so much as a sniffle or a wheeze. And I didn’t even use my allergy or asthma meds. On a hunch, I googled “magnesium allergy” and discovered that doctors sometimes use magnesium to treat asthma attacks. And a magnesium deficiency apparently does promote allergies.

One of the comments is curious: “There’s nothing wrong sharing what happens to you, Scott.”

Thanks to cp.