Lot's of news stories covering new research showing that those who have a genetic predisposition to heart disease can reduce their risk of heart disease to equal that of those who don't have the gene.
A gene called 9p21 can make those who carry it more susceptible to heart disease. Eating as little as two servings of fruit and veggies a day appears to be enough to reduce the ill-health effects of this gene to essentially nullify it's significance.
More research is needed to understand why this works, or why 9p21 can cause health problems, but the bottom line is, you guessed it; eat your fruit and veggies.
Do you have the gene? An article in WebMD quotes the study author saying 50% of the population carries one copy of the gene, while 20% carry two copies.
Raw fruits and veggies seemed to work better.
Cris LaBossiere
Strength training and mountain biking. My two favorites
Showing posts with label foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foods. Show all posts
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Complex Emotional States and Perceptions Drive Healthy-Unhealthy Choices
If you're sad you're more likely to choose unhealthy foods compared to when feeling happy (1) ; that is unless of course you're feeling happy about the present or past. If you're feeling happy about the present or past you're more likely to make the unhealthy choice, compared to having positive hopeful feelings about your future, in which case you're more likely to make a healthy choice. (2)
If only it were that simple. If food is advertised as being organic or some other health inspiring description we're more likely to believe the positive suggestion and perceive we can and should, eat more of the food, regardless of whether it is factually healthy or not. (3) In fact you may actually perceive being more hungry later after having consumed food you were told was healthy, but if you freely choose to eat healthy you will feel satisfied and not feel more hungry later. (4)
Clenching your fists, grit your teeth, and flex your muscles! A new study suggests doing so may stimulate a more potent burst of will power allowing one to overcome a food temptation or cope with an unpleasant situation. (5)
Umm.. can't I just eat and not worry about all this academic mumbo-jumbo? Of course! Err.. if you're emotionally calibrated and aware of how your emotions drive food decisions, otherwise you may blindly eat, and eat, and eat..
Obviously if we eat too much we'll gain fat. Clearly if we keep this up we put ourselves at significant risk of becoming unhealthy. Common sense right?
So.. why is our population becoming more overweight every year? Where is the application of this common sense?
Researchers are showing that despite the obvious negative effects of overeating most people feel compelled to overeat most of the time. We have to move beyond talking about the latest diet and exercise scheme and become more aware of our habits, our social norms (overeating is celebrated), environmental cues, and how our emotions and sense of reward, risk, and harm affect our healthy, or unhealthy decisions.
Let's stop being eating automatons and start feeling good about mindful, healthy choices.
(1) Food-mood Connection: The Sad Are Twice As Likely To Eat Comfort Food
(2) https://www.jcr-admin.org/pressreleases/041711162837_Winterichrelease.pdf
(3) Health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label
(4) JSTOR: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 37, No. 3 (October 2010), pp. 357-367
(5) JSTOR: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 37, No. 6 (April 2011), pp. 1046-1064
If only it were that simple. If food is advertised as being organic or some other health inspiring description we're more likely to believe the positive suggestion and perceive we can and should, eat more of the food, regardless of whether it is factually healthy or not. (3) In fact you may actually perceive being more hungry later after having consumed food you were told was healthy, but if you freely choose to eat healthy you will feel satisfied and not feel more hungry later. (4)
Clenching your fists, grit your teeth, and flex your muscles! A new study suggests doing so may stimulate a more potent burst of will power allowing one to overcome a food temptation or cope with an unpleasant situation. (5)
Umm.. can't I just eat and not worry about all this academic mumbo-jumbo? Of course! Err.. if you're emotionally calibrated and aware of how your emotions drive food decisions, otherwise you may blindly eat, and eat, and eat..
Obviously if we eat too much we'll gain fat. Clearly if we keep this up we put ourselves at significant risk of becoming unhealthy. Common sense right?
So.. why is our population becoming more overweight every year? Where is the application of this common sense?
Researchers are showing that despite the obvious negative effects of overeating most people feel compelled to overeat most of the time. We have to move beyond talking about the latest diet and exercise scheme and become more aware of our habits, our social norms (overeating is celebrated), environmental cues, and how our emotions and sense of reward, risk, and harm affect our healthy, or unhealthy decisions.
Let's stop being eating automatons and start feeling good about mindful, healthy choices.
(1) Food-mood Connection: The Sad Are Twice As Likely To Eat Comfort Food
(2) https://www.jcr-admin.org/pressreleases/041711162837_Winterichrelease.pdf
(3) Health halo effect: Don't judge a food by its organic label
(4) JSTOR: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 37, No. 3 (October 2010), pp. 357-367
(5) JSTOR: The Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 37, No. 6 (April 2011), pp. 1046-1064
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Going Green; Don't be Naive
It's fair to shop for organic or natural if that's what you want.
A couple things to consider, if something is actually organic or natural, whatever those terms are supposed to mean, is it actually better? Maybe, but a lot of the time there is no additional nutritional benefit to organic foods. There are some exceptions. Strawberries and blueberries when grown organically have been shown to contain more antioxidants and slightly more vitamins. The organic strawberries also had longer shelf life than conventionally grown. There are fewer pesticides on organic fruits and veggies so if that's a concern for you organic makes sense.
The largest benefits come from choosing whole foods over processed foods, not from choosing organic over conventionally grown. You're better off buying dry beans and cooking them yourself rather than buying canned bean soup, as most canned soups are super high in sodium and may have added sugars and fats for flavouring.
Making your own dinner from scratch tastes better and is more nutritious than buying a processed frozen dinner.
That's food, what about products like diapers, shampoo's and cleaning products? Can you trust the label that says "organic" and or "natural"?
CBC's Marketplace busts a few companies who's "natural" and "organic" labels don't represent what you might think they do.
Check out the link
CBC - Videos - /
PS
What do I buy personally? I always buy the big container of organic spinach. Why? It's cheaper than the other spinach. It pays to buy in volume.
When organic broccoli is the same or cheaper price than regular I buy organic, otherwise I buy regular. Organic broccoli is on sale often.
I'll only buy organic strawberries.
I buy local unprocessed honey directly from the bee keeper/ honey guy (Winnipeg MB) (John Russell Honey)
When I don't make my own bread I buy organic because it has no artificial sweeteners or flavours. I don't like the idea of fake stuff in my food. If you can't make your product without fake stuff, then your product doesn't measure up on it's own- that's my opinion.
I look for food products with no or minimal processing, no trans fats, low sodium, and no artificial flavours or colours. Most of what I eat is whole foods.
A couple things to consider, if something is actually organic or natural, whatever those terms are supposed to mean, is it actually better? Maybe, but a lot of the time there is no additional nutritional benefit to organic foods. There are some exceptions. Strawberries and blueberries when grown organically have been shown to contain more antioxidants and slightly more vitamins. The organic strawberries also had longer shelf life than conventionally grown. There are fewer pesticides on organic fruits and veggies so if that's a concern for you organic makes sense.
The largest benefits come from choosing whole foods over processed foods, not from choosing organic over conventionally grown. You're better off buying dry beans and cooking them yourself rather than buying canned bean soup, as most canned soups are super high in sodium and may have added sugars and fats for flavouring.
Making your own dinner from scratch tastes better and is more nutritious than buying a processed frozen dinner.
That's food, what about products like diapers, shampoo's and cleaning products? Can you trust the label that says "organic" and or "natural"?
CBC's Marketplace busts a few companies who's "natural" and "organic" labels don't represent what you might think they do.
Check out the link
CBC - Videos - /
PS
What do I buy personally? I always buy the big container of organic spinach. Why? It's cheaper than the other spinach. It pays to buy in volume.
When organic broccoli is the same or cheaper price than regular I buy organic, otherwise I buy regular. Organic broccoli is on sale often.
I'll only buy organic strawberries.
I buy local unprocessed honey directly from the bee keeper/ honey guy (Winnipeg MB) (John Russell Honey)
When I don't make my own bread I buy organic because it has no artificial sweeteners or flavours. I don't like the idea of fake stuff in my food. If you can't make your product without fake stuff, then your product doesn't measure up on it's own- that's my opinion.
I look for food products with no or minimal processing, no trans fats, low sodium, and no artificial flavours or colours. Most of what I eat is whole foods.
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