For research lovers
Fellow/sister research weenies: You loved PubMed. You raved about Google Scholar. Now getta load of BioMedSearch!
BMS is a biomedical search engine that contains NIH/PubMed documents, plus a large collection of theses, dissertations, and other publications not found anywhere else for free, making it the most comprehensive free search on the web.
BioMedSearch also provides advanced account features that allow saved searches, alerts, saving documents to portfolios, commenting on documents and portfolios, and sharing documents with other registered users. Registering for BioMedSearch is free.
Perfect for supporting hypotheses! Never speculate wildly again!
End the War on Fat
Thirty years ago, America declared war against fat. The inaugural edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published in 1980 and subsequently updated every five years, advised people to steer clear of “too much fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol,” because of purported ties between fat intake and heart disease. The message has remained essentially the same ever since, with current guidelines recommending that Americans consume less than 10 percent of their daily calories from saturated fat.
But heart disease continues to devastate the country, and, as you may have noticed, we certainly haven’t gotten any thinner. Ultimately, that’s because fat should never have been our enemy. The big question is whether the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, due out at the end of the year, will finally announce retreat.
Sometimes I wonder about the idea that Americans all went low-fat. From what I can see of the US diet, very few folks do, in fact, eat low fat. I think they think they should eat low-fat… but don’t actually do so.
What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie?
A very interesting, indepth article that gives an overview of the key themes shaping the current obesity and nutrition debate, as well as a good basic introduction to the concepts underlying the problem with high-carb/low-fat diets and their metabolic effects. Of particular note is a little factoid: the oft-cited “95% of all diets fail”. Apparently […]
Gubernatrix’s Women’s Strength Symposium
Do you like to hang around with other chicks and talk about lifting heavy things? Me too!
Head on over to the most excellent Gubernatrix’s site for the Women’s Strength Symposium.
Eating less meat and dairy products won’t have major impact on global warming
Some interesting assertions from the American Chemical Society about the purported effects of meat/dairy consumption on global warming. We’ve all heard that cow farts are the reason that Antarctica is bellyflopping into the ocean, and there are some excellent environmental critiques of the ecological and ethical horror that is industrial livestock production. I think we can all agree that imprisoning PCB-saturated cows that shit into our water supply is a bad idea, and we might need Antarctica in future, so let’s move on from there.
An interesting question, though, is what we can do about the environmental impact of eating animals if we choose to eat them. The ACS offers a somewhat ambivalent solution with lots of intriguing — and undoubtedly contentious — complexities. For example, I’m not quite convinced that spreading the wonders of Western animal husbandry is really the solution. After all, our petrol-based nitrogen fertilizers sure can grow a lot of Monsanto corn, but do we really want to?
(Also, in the context of cow toots, please pause to snicker at “bum rap”. Yes, I am a 36-year old PhD.)
Cutting back on consumption of meat and dairy products will not have a major impact in combating global warming — despite repeated claims that link diets rich in animal products to production of greenhouse gases. That’s the conclusion of a report presented here today at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
Air quality expert Frank Mitloehner, Ph.D., who made the presentation, said that giving cows and pigs a bum rap is not only scientifically inaccurate, but also distracts society from embracing effective solutions to global climate change. He noted that the notion is becoming deeply rooted in efforts to curb global warming, citing campaigns for “meatless Mondays” and a European campaign, called “Less Meat = Less Heat,” launched late last year.
Why I Do Not Dig Diet Soda
The always-wise Pilar Gerasimo on the ills of diet soda — more reasons than you think to avoid the vile brew:
I think diet soda is awful. I think all soda is awful, actually (yes, I know there are no “bad” foods, but I hold soda in approximately the same regard as those puffy orange Circus Peanuts — these are not really “foods,” per se). Diet soda, in my view, is especially insidious.
Add it to the list of “Why HFCS Sucks”
Researchers at Princeton University have found that HFCS is actually much worse than regular sugar when it comes to causing weight gain. The study found that rats with access to HFCS gained significantly more weight than rats with access to table sugar — even when their caloric intake was the same. A second study by […]
Canadian Health Measures Survey: Cholesterol bad, vitamin D good?
Leaving aside for the moment the cholesterol debate about what blood cholesterol actually represents, just-released data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey indicate that Canadians appear to have poor blood lipid profiles. Personally I look at circulating triglycerides more than cholesterol, as the cholesterol hypothesis is undergoing some revision at the moment… however we do know that blood TGs are definitely correlated with things like metabolic syndrome.
High levels of total cholesterol increase with age. About 27% of adults aged 20 to 39 had high levels of total cholesterol from 2007 to 2009. This percentage increased to 47% among those aged 40 to 59 and 54% of those aged 60 to 79. About 36% of adult Canadians had unhealthy levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol, while 30% had unhealthy levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. Unhealthy levels of LDL cholesterol generally increase with age, but peaked at 43% among adults aged 40 to 59. Overall, about 25% of Canadian adults had unhealthy levels of triglycerides. About 36% of Canadians aged 20 to 79 who did not have a healthy level of good cholesterol were obese, compared with 16% of those with a healthy level of good cholesterol. Unhealthy levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and bad cholesterol were generally associated with higher measured hypertension.
On the other hand, the CHMS argues that most Canadians are not vitamin D deficient. Again, a contentious suggestion given that we are all basically dressed like Nanook, living in the dark, for several months of the year. The survey found that the vast majority (90%) of Canadians aged 6 to 79 had concentrations of vitamin D in their blood that were considered adequate for bone health. I find this a bit puzzling, personally… unless everyone is somehow consuming tons of vitamin D-fortified milk…
Anyhoo, make of this what you will.
Yogurt Mania
Some funny stuff from Mark Sisson. Truly, how did we all survive without food companies jacking everything full of “fortification”? Oh wait, that’s right, we ate real food.
“If it weren’t for Yoplait and Dannon enhancing our digestive facilities, I bet we’d never get anything done in the bathroom. I, for one, can’t recall the last time I had a satisfying bowel movement without concurrently sucking on an extra large Purple Gogurt as I sat astride the toilet.”
Personally I swear by my man Chef Kim down the street in Koreatown. Fermented cabbage and panchan FTW!
Scientific evidence for popular supplements — like you’ve never seen it before
Have you ever asked yourself, “Gee, how strong is the evidence for green tea anyway? And could I get that in a pretty bubble graph format?”
Some beautiful data visualizations that explore the clinical research support for popular supplements. Big bubbles for fish oil!
There are multiple bubbles for some supplements — click on each bubble to see the specific disease/health condition to which it refers.
Thanks to reader J for the link.