It's still worth the effort... but...

... weight loss really could be more difficult for some individuals than others, according to new research published by researchers at the Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases division.

Their recent study selected 12 obese individuals (both male and female) to participate in the study.  Allow me to digress for a moment, as I was a little disappointed to see such a small number of participants.  First, males and females have proven to be different in the realm of weight loss.  Second, a statistically significant study should have at least 30 participants, or can it really be applied to the general population?  And third... don't we seem to have an ample supply of obese individuals in this country that could have participated in this?  I'm operating under the assumption that the study was so small simply because there wasn't enough funding for more people.  Now back to the details.

So the participants fasted for a day and then spent some time in an indirect calorimetry room.  Indirect calorimetry, or an indirect calorimeter, is used to measure metabolism - the rate at which we use energy.  Energy is "burned" and the burning of energy creates heat.  Heat is measured in kilocalories or calories.  The indirect calorimeter does this by measures the amount of oxygen we take in and the amount of carbon dioxide we then produce.  Through complex equations with these 2 factors, researchers can then determine how much energy was used by the body (without having to "directly" measure the heat produced as this is much more difficult when working with an animate object).

After the day of fasting, and the measurement of their metabolic rate, all participants then followed a controlled diet for 6 weeks.  The diet provided only 50% of their calorie needs.  At the end of the study, after accounting for differences in age, sex, race and baseline weight, the researchers found that some of the individuals were more resistant to weight loss than others.  This factor itself doesn't seem news-worthy.  What was interesting was that the participants whose metabolism dropped the most following their one-day fast, were the same participants that lost the least amount of weight. 

The ability for the body to adapt to new circumstances seems like a great thing.  But in the face of weight loss, this adaptive metabolism is impressively frustrating.  These people are said to possess a "thrifty" metabolism.  Thrifty is great when you're working with a tight financial budget... but when you're working hard to lose weight and your body is constantly fighting this, it certainly makes the road to success much more difficult.

Interestingly, it doesn't seem that the participants were encouraged to exercise during this study.  That may have been on purpose as exercise can help to increase or at least preserve your metabolic rate (and the study just wanted to see what effect the food restriction had).

So if you find yourself suffering with a thrifty metabolism.  Don't fret.  Your struggle will be harder, but as long as you recognize the need to preserve your metabolism by making smaller diet alterations and increasing activity along the way... your success will taste much sweeter than those for whom weight loss is a breeze.

Next up on the list to study, for these particular researchers, is the effect on metabolism when studying lean individuals who are put on a higher calorie diet.

www.nih.gov/news/health/may2015/niddk-11.htm

What can Asparagus do for Breast Cancer?

Can asparagus do the job that modern medicine struggles to perform?

A short time back I had a friend ask me if I had ever heard what the deal is with asparagus and breast cancer.  At first thought, I was sure I had it figured out.  Asparagus, like other fruits and vegetables, contains a lot of antioxidants.  These antioxidants are know to help prevent cancer by fighting the free radicals with their amazing super powers and preventing the opportunity for those free radicals to alter cell DNA... thus preventing mutant cells that become cancerous.  BAM!  Well, that wasn't quite what I found when I set off to investigate the particulars of asparagus.  Asparagus, while it had antioxidants which are wonderful, also possess other unique characteristics that help it to fight hormone-dependent cancers, like breast cancer.

In a simulation study, scientists suggested that asparagus (asparagus racemosus) could offer protection against the spread (metastasis) of breast cancer cells.  The majority of breast cancer are hormone-responsive.  This means that their growth is dependent upon circulating hormones to promote the tumor growth.

In a normal scenario certain cell receptors are constantly seeking a particular hormone to connect with them to allow molecular pathways to continue.  Think of it like a chain reaction.  If you have some dynamite and a fuse on the dynamite, in order to make the dynamite explode you need a match.  This is also the case with cells.  They need particular hormones to tell them when to start doing their particular job.  This process is normally very effective.  However, in the case of breast cancer, when estrogen connects with some of these cells, it encourages growth to continue, which means the cancer begins to grow rapidly.  Certain plants contain nutrients called phytoestrogens, or plant estrogens.  It would seem that if your body's estrogen was something you wanted less of (while fighting breast cancer), then surely the plant estrogens would be just as dangerous.  What some research has revealed, though, is that these phytoestroens may actually function to block your body's estrogen by binding with these cell receptors.  So in essence, the aggressive cancer growth cannot occur because your body's estrogen couldn't encourage it - the spot was already filled by phytoestrogens and they weren't capable of sending the same cancer growth signal.

Another study looked at how well asparagus root saponins faired when their toxicity to cancer cells was tested.  The asparagus went up against breast, colon and pancreatic cancer cells and emerged victorious,  Results showed that incubation of these cancer cells with the asparagus root saponins increased the incidence of cancer cell death 12-15% over a 48-hour period.  Their investigation also looked for data on how the asparagus prevented cancers invasion of other organs.  As we've discovered over the years the scariest part of cancer can sometimes be the remission when we ponder whether it will appear somewhere else down the road.  It seemed, from their imagery, that cells that were more likely to spread to nearby cells had round shapes and moved somewhat like an amoeba.  Their shape allowed the cells to remain in close contact with each other, moving somewhat like a gang.  When the same cells were treated with varying concentrations of asparagus root saponins, they found the shape of the cells changed.  Now instead of being round amoebas, they looked more like elongated swords.  While still being bound to the same location and performed their assigned jobs appropriately, the cell shape prevented the treated cells from forming strong bonds to each other and thus reduced the cell movement. 

So what do I think?  Well, I think asparagus is amazing.  It tastes good.  It makes your pee smell funky.  And now look at the amazing benefit that eating it could have if you are faced with a battle against breast cancer!!!  Does this mean you should forego chemotherapy or radiation treatments?  NOOOOO!  Your oncologist knows far more about specialized cancer treatment than I could ever dream of knowing.  But does it mean you might want to add it to your list of weekly vegetable options?  For sure!  If you don't care for asparagus, or if you want a hit of asparagus everyday, you can also look for asparagus root capsules. 

You can even sneak some extra asparagus into things for your family.  I made this soup (pictured above) from a corn chowder recipe, but then I not only added some bite-sized pieces of asparagus, but I also took the usually-discarded bottom parts of the asparagus and pulverized them in the blender and added that to the soup base for bonus asparagus goodness!


Singla R, Jaitak V. Molecular docking simulation study of phytoestrogens from Asparagus racemosus in breast cancer progression. Intl J Pharm Sci Res. 2015;6(1):172-

Wang J, Liu Y, Zhao J, Zhang W, Pang X. Saponins extracted from by-product of Asparagus officinalis L. suppress tumor cell migration and invasion through targeting Rho GTPase signalling pathyway. J Sci Food Agric. 2013;93:1492-1498.

When did popcorn become unhealthy?

Well... not the popcorn, but our desire for super easy ways of preparing foods have led us down a path that now makes popcorn less healthy than it once was.

Microwave-ready popcorn is what you need to be weary of.  It seems like a healthy snack, and compared to some other options at the grocery store it probably still is a better choice.  But just like everything put out to consumer's the products are "doctored" so much to make them appetizing they take on some less desirable ingredients in the process.

So what's the problem with microwave popcorn?

1.  Diacetyl.  Pronounced "die-ah-see-tull".  This is a powder that is added to microwave popcorn to give it that fabulous buttery taste and smell when you open the bag.  It is also added to some other food items where a cheesy flavor is desired.  Diacetyl, like most things in small quantities, is not a big problem.  However, diacetyl has been blamed for lung cancer cases (which was nicknamed "popcorn lung") for a number of individuals working in factories that produced things like microwave popcorn.  Certainly these workers were breathing in massive quantities of diacetyl as compared to what you may inhale when you open your one bag of popcorn.  But if a food additive can be shown to cause lung cancer at larger quantities, I'd rather err on the side of caution and avoid it even in small amounts if I can.

2.  Perflourooctanoic Acid (PFOA).  Um, I'll just let you guess at how to pronounce that one for a bit... Per-floor-oh-ock-tan-oh-ick???  Jeez, good thing I'm writing and not reading out loud.  Anywhoo, this is what they put on the lining of the microwave popcorn bag.  It keeps the popcorn from sticking to the bag.  Can't have that.  Might ruin your movie experience.  Instead let's just spray the bag with these delicious chemical that are also used in the production of things like Gore-tex and teflon.  Lovely, right?  The human half-life for PFOA is 3 years!  Ahhhh!  That means if you have 10 grams of it in your body, it would take 3 years just to get down to having only 5 grams.  So while this stuff sits around taking its sweet time leaving your body, it wreaks havoc.  In the few human studies out there, it has been shown to elevate cholesterol and uric acid (which can cause gout - crystals form in the joints causing pain).  In animal studies it has shown negative effects on the immune system, liver, and endocrine systems (diabetes, thyroid, and other hormones).

So is that bag of microwave popcorn really worth it?  Why not pick up a container of popcorn kernels... toss them (1/4-1/2 cup) in a brown paper bag... fold down the open end of the bag 3 times... and microwave for about 2-2.5 minutes (just like you would with your old microwave popcorn).  Voila!  No additive and super simple popcorn.  Just add your own seasonings or eat it plain.

 

Steenland K, Fletcher T, Savitz DA. Epidemiologic Evidence on the Health Effects of Perflourooctanoic Acid (PFOA). Environ Health Perspect. 2010;118(8):1100-1108.

Are you taking your Green Tea extract wrong?

Have you heard that green tea can help you to lose weight, or at least improve your body composition?  There may be some fact to these claims as several studies have shown deceases in body fat in groups consuming green tea as compared to those consuming a placebo.  Green tea is a source of caffeine and the caffeine may contribute to these effects, but the presence of catechins in the green tea has explained more of the weight loss benefit in drinking the tea or taking the supplement.   

Not familiar with catechins?  What about EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate)?  EGCG boasts about having a great effect on thermogenesis which is heat production in the body.  Why do you want more heat production?  An increase in thermogenesis uses more stored energy, and that typically means using up stored fat.

A study published in 2005 showed that Japanese men who consumed a green tea beverage containing 690 mg of catechins demonstrated significant weight loss and fat loss as compared to the control group who consumed a tea with only 22 mg of catechins.  Research like this prompted EGCG to be included in numerous over-the-counter weight loss supplements.  The EGCG seemed to have an effect on food intake as well when it was tested in a study using rats.  Those receiving EGCG seemed to consume less food as compared to the control group even though both groups were given unregulated access to the same food.

So why aren’t you losing weight when you drink green tea?  Or when you take a green tea supplement?  Maybe you’re taking it wrong… and it wasn’t your fault!  I happen to have a green tea supplement in my supplement basket, and the directions on it specifically say, “For adults, take two (2) capsules twice daily, preferably with meals”.  I looked up another one, pictured above, and it gave similar instructions to consume it with a meal.  I suppose this makes sense to most people as you might have an upset stomach if you were taking a capsule or tablet on an empty stomach and it contained high levels of EGCG… but Green Tea, for weight loss and antioxidant purposes, should be taken on an empty stomach!

A study published in 2005 showed their tested green tea supplement to be 3.5 times more potent when consumed on an empty stomach (after an overnight fast) as compared to taking the supplement with a meal.  EGCG levels of 1200 mg did result in mild nausea when taken on an empty stomach, whereas 800 mg of EGCG was well-tolerated without nausea.

If your supplement doesn’t happen to say how much of the extract is EGCG, a good general rule is about 30%.  So mine has 420 mg Green Tea Leaf Extract, which means it contains 126 mg of EGCG.  If I were to take one capsule, three times per day (as they manufacturer suggest), that would still be far below the nausea-generating level of 1200 mg.  And certainly well below the level as it takes 1200 mg at one time on an empty stomach to create the mild nausea.

So what’s the take home message?  Perhaps you could take a smaller dose of Green Tea Extract and just consume it on an empty stomach.  Would save you money by lowering your dose and give you greater benefit at the same time!  Or keep your same dose and take it 30 minutes before a meal to get an almost four-fold boost in effectiveness.

Sources:

Nagao T, Komine Y, Soga S, Meguro S, Hase T, Tanaka Y, Tokimitsu I. Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2005;81(1):122-129.

Kao YH, Hiipakka RA, Liao S. Modulation of endocrine systems and food intake by green tea epigallocatechin gallate. Endocrinology. 2000;141:980-987.

Chow HH, Hakim IA, Vining DR, Crowell JA, Ranger-Moore J, Chew WM, et al. Effects of dosing condition on the oral bioavailability of green tea catechins after single-dose administration of Polyphenon E in healthy individuals. Clin Cancer Res. 2005;11(12):4627-4633.

High Fructose Corn Syrup impairs learning ability in adolescents…

…and my dislike for this “food” invention continues.

A study, published in the February 2015 issue of Hippocampus, demonstrated yet another reason not to consume High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  I will say that when I first went digging for some research, I was more looking for something showing the relationship between consumption of HFCS and inflammation when I came across this one.  This study showed that when adolescent rats were given a HFCS beverage, it created inflammation in the hippocampal region of the brain which impaired their spatial learning and memory.

There were 3 groups of rats, each group was given ad lib access to the same type of food.  One group, the control group, had extra water to drink.  The second group had an 11% sucrose (table sugar) drink.  The third group had an 11% HFCS drink.  Now the reason they had a sucrose and a HFCS drink, I believe, is to show the resulting differences between consuming these two very similar, yet remarkably different types of sugar-sweetened-beverages.  The makers of HFCS would like you to believe that HFCS and Sucrose are the same simply because they are chemically similar.  However, they vary significantly in that the Sucrose has a bond where the HFCS does not… and unfortunately for the HFCS promoters, this “tiny” difference is what makes HFCS more detrimental than Sucrose to our health.

So the rats were allowed to eat and drink as they pleased and then were placed in a particular maze (Barnes maze) to test their learning and memory processes.  The time it took the HFCS group to progress through the maze was slower than that for the Sucrose group, with the fastest group being the control group.  They also documented metabolic changes in the adolescent rats, showing increased insulin levels, impaired glucose tolerance,  increased levels of pro-inflammatory proteins in the liver (interleukin-1B), and pro-inflammatory proteins in the hippocampus (interleukin-6 and interleukin-1B).  Similar impairment was seen in those drinking the Sucrose beverage (plasma insulin as interestingly the highest in this group), but were typically less severe than in the HFCS group.

It is important to remember that the study was performed on rats, as opposed to humans, and thus not always directly transferable.  But, even if it is only partially applicable to humans, I’m sold.

The hippocampal region of the brain is where spatial learning and memory occurs.  So while this is incredibly important information when we are choosing what to feed, or not feed, to adolescents, it is also of the utmost importance when we start thinking about the health of aging adults as well.  Inflammation in the hippocampus typically comes before dysfunction of this region, and failing of this region can be the precursor to Alzheimer’s.

So what’s the take home message?  High Fructose Corn Syrup and Sucrose sweetened beverages may impair learning ability in adolescents and create an environment that encourages Alzheimer’s in adults. 

Is that bottle of soda or bag of candy really worth it?

Hsu TM, Konanur VR, Taing L, Usui R, Kayser BD, Goran MI, et al. Effects of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup consumption on spatial memory function and hippocampal neuroinflammation in adolescent rats. Hippocampus. 2015:25(2);227-239.

Yet Another Reason to NOT Snack Between Meals

Are you familiar with IBS?  Or perhaps you suffer from IBS?  IBS stand for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  Those who suffer from IBS may find themselves battling bouts of diarrhea followed by constipation, and endless hours of gas and bloating.  It’s a very frustrating condition because until recently there wasn’t a solid plan for treating it.  In another post I’ll discuss more about the FODMAPs diet plan for helping those with IBS.  But for now, it’s just a quick post about one important dietary habit that can help those with IBS and also those with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth).

Stop SNACKING!

Bold statement, I know.  I mean every diet article written in the tabloids at the supermarket checkout seems to tell you how you could lose 20, 30, or 50 pounds with their meal plan that always involves snacking.  It’s a big gripe of mine.  Snacking.  Are we all growing children?  Are we pregnant women?  Are we undergoing chemotherapy?  Are we older adults who have lost a significant amount of weight that we need to replace?  No??  Then quit snacking!  I strongly feel that snacking is what kills any weight loss diet plan.  We do not need to be eating every 2-3 hours.  This doesn’t lend itself to weight loss.  Yes, part of what sets your metabolic rate is the existence of food in your system – because your body works a little harder when it’s having to digest food.  This doesn’t mean that you’re going to drop weight like crazy just because you shovel more food in your mouth every few hours.  In fact that opposite normally occurs.  You end up eating more food than you would if you had just eaten three meals each day, and completely counteract any beneficial effect it may have had on your metabolism.

But I digress.  This post is not just my campaign to stop snacking.  It really is to help those with IBS and/or SIBO.  So the function we are looking at is called the migrating motor complex (MMC).  The MMC helps to keep the small intestine free of debris and excess bacteria by activating a cleanse every 90 minutes when we are not eating.  So when you avoid snacking between meals, your body activates this migrating motor complex to help keep things moving through your intestines and to keep bacteria from migrating to the small intestine when it belongs in the large intestine.  It’s sort of like the itsy bitsy spider (bacteria) which was trying to crawl up the water spout (your intestine) and down came the rain and washed the spider out… well not out, but back to where it belonged.  Snacking negatively effects the MMC because there’s no need for this cleanse to happen if you are sending more food in there because theoretically the food should be working its way down through your intestine and also keeping bacteria where it belongs – not always the case, though for those with IBS.  Stress is the other key factor that affects this MMC, and is also why we often talk about the gut being linked closely to our brain.  Stressful situations will often manifest themselves in some irregular intestinal function.  Ever noticed that?  Maybe you will now.

So what’s the take-away message?  If you suffer from IBS or SIBO, you need to quit snacking between meals… and of course find ways to manage your stress levels.  If you don’t suffer from IBS or SIBO… you still need to quit snacking between meals and manage your stress levels, though you won’t have the benefit of intestinal cramping and gas to remind you to do so.

What Drives Your Metabolism

It's a new year, filled with all kinds of New Year resolutions.  Lots of people put losing weight at the top of their list of things to do this year.  The unfortunate reality is that in January the gym will be crowded and the grocery store will be out of their healthiest foods - and come March the gym empties out and the ice cream section of the store looks bare.  With that in mind, I thought it might be a good time to talk about the dirty details of what your metabolism really is and what makes it tick.

Your metabolism is not a static thing.  This means it is constantly changing.  You cannot think that on Monday if your body requires 1798 calories to maintain itself, that on Tuesday it will need the same.  It changes everyday depending on more circumstances that you can fathom.  Webster's Dictionary defines metabolism as "the chemical processes by which a plant or an animal uses food, water, etc., to grow and heal and to make energy".  So our metabolism is kind of like our engine.  It is the force that keeps our body running.

There are a number of things that determine how fast our engine (metabolism) runs.

• Are you sick?  Illness increases our metabolism because we now have to pump cells quickly around our body and work harder to fight infection and viruses.  A fever is an excellent example of this.  We are increasing our body temperature to kill off a virus or bacteria, and that heat is produced by increasing our metabolic rate.
• Sweating is a result of increased metabolism.  Part of the end-product of energy use is carbon dioxide production (which we expel through our lungs) but another part is heat production.  Think about the definition of a calorie - the amount of heat it takes to raise 1 kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.  The number of calories we burn is calculated using this same formula.  So anything you do to sweat causes your metabolism to run at a faster rate (even if it's just temporarily) and it proves this by raising your body temperature which makes you sweat.  Not feeling like working out?  Try leaving the air conditioning off and induce your own fever!  A little temperature shift outside your comfort zone isn't always a bad thing
• How much of your body is fat and how much is lean muscle mass?  Muscle weighs more than fat, it takes up less space than fat, and it also requires more calories to maintain it.  In non-obese subjects it was estimated that 13 calories/kg were burned per day for muscle mass while only 4.5 calories/kg were burned per day for fat tissue. (1)  So for every pound of muscle you are burning an extra 5.9 calories per day.  While that sounds somewhat sad and pathetic, just remember that if you burned off one pound of fat and built one pound of muscle, it may only change your weight by 0.5-1 pound per year, but the health benefits and your size would show much more benefit than the scale weight.
• Have you eaten?  This metabolic factor is know as the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) aka Specific Dynamic Action (SDA) of food or Dietary Induced Thermogenesis (DIT).  Don't we love to sound super fancy when we talk about whether or not you have food in your system?  When we eat something, it requires energy for our mouth to chew it up, it to churn in our stomach and then to be further broken down/digested and absorbed by the body.  The result of eating one meal can continue to show an increase in energy use 6 hours later!  Having food in your system can increase your metabolic rate by 10% if we utilize the Harris Benedict equation for estimating daily energy expenditure.  This does not mean you need to constantly be shoveling food in your trap to keep your TEF revved up.  It does mean you have to make it a priority to eat within an hour of waking up in the morning.
• Rev up your mitochondria.  Yes, let's take a step way back as far as high school biology... which is probably the last time most people thought about the mitochondria in your cells.  This is the "power plant" in the cell.  It generates ATP which is the energy all your other cells use.  So it would stand to reason that the more ATP you're producing, the more energy you will have.  How can you get more mitochondria to work their magic?  Create some more with exercise!  Endurance exercise, in particular, was shown to increase the size and number of mitochondria in your skeletal muscle cells (2).  So if you exercise, you create more mitochondria, which keeps your body working more efficiently and producing more energy.  This in-turn makes it easier to burn more and have more energy for tomorrow's workout.
• Are you male or female?  Sorry ladies, but men genetically will have a faster metabolism simply because biology predisposes them to have a higher muscle mass.  Now, take a little look around your local Walmart and you can see that obesity doesn't really care what bathroom you use, but from a medical standpoint, a healthy weight male will typically have more muscle and less fat tissue than a healthy weight female.
• Are you old or young?  Or somewhere in the middle?  As we age, our metabolic rate will naturally trend down.  Doesn't have to be that way.  I actually feel that this is due somewhat to changes in hormones, but more importantly due to a sedentary lifestyles as we age.  So I don't usually consider age a factor, but more so what you've done with your body as you've aged.

So right about now you're probably looking for the magic pill!  The one thing that I can recommend that will completely transform your metabolism so that you can sit around on your chubby butt, watching tv show marathons, eating whatever you want while the fat just melts off you.  Seriously???  Was that your New Year resolution?  To put in no effort at all?

Get up.  Do something.  DO ANYTHING!  Stop watching tv... it's all garbage anyway!  You have to move your body.  You have to change the foods you eat.  You have to change your whole approach to the treatment of your body.  It's not just about squeezing into that smaller pair of jeans, or prepping for the big High School reunion.  Your job right now is to get your engine running so you don't find yourself at retirement age, unable to take a ride on your luxury sport boat without your iron lung and motorized wheelchair.

If you took one trip to the gym this week, you would instantly change the number and size of the mitochondria in your cells just with the walk into the facility.  If you started eating breakfast at 7 instead of waiting until 11 to begin your food for the day imagine the difference such a small change could make!

Want to know how to "rev-up" your metabolism?  How about if we start by changing your perspective a little and stop blaming this mystical equation on your weight loss problem and start looking at the problem with your motivation?  Changing your body for the better is going to take hard work, but I guarantee you won't regret it when you get that ball rolling in the right direction.  You increase your metabolic rate by constantly telling your body that it needs to become better at producing more energy.  So you have to get your body to use more energy so that it will understand that it needs to make more.

(1)  Wang Z, Ying Z, Bosy-WEstphal A, Zhang J, Zhang J, Heller M, et al. Evaluation of Specific Metabolic Rate of Major Organs and Tissues: Comparison Between Men and Women. Am J Hum Biol. 2011;23(3):333-338.
(2)  Holloszy JO. Regulation by exercise of skeletal muscle content of mitochondria and GLUT4. J Physiol Pharmacol. 2008;59(7):5-18.