The Skinny Kid

Avocado Nutrition » iFitandHealthy.com

As we grow increasingly health-conscious in our diets, avocado has stepped up to the plate as a choice replacement for fatty meats. Think ALT, hold the bacon. Think of all the veggie wraps teasing you away from those roast beef sandwiches.The small irony here is that avocado is one fat fruit. A typical, medium-sized variety provides 25 percent of your daily intake, if you eat the whole thing. Most of this is monounsaturated fat — the good kind — with no cholesterol and no sodium.

A little fat in the diet is necessary, and the good kind is a good way to get it. Avocado provides great texture and flavor to vegetarian dishes.

BBC NEWS | Health | Organic food ‘better’ for heart

Organic fruit and vegetables may be better for you than conventionally grown crops, US research suggests.A ten-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found almost double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant.

Flavonoids have been shown to reduce high blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart disease and stroke.

I have found that many organic products seem to taste better. Some would argue that I am imagining the difference, but so what? In my mind, the better taste justifies the added cost.

To me it only makes sense that I should be minimizing my intake of fertilizers and pesticides. I don’t need much other justification, though I am not surprised to find them.

Who can resist a headline like that one? As it turns out, however, there are some drawbacks.

ScienceDaily: Could Carrots Be The Secret To A Long-life And Sex Appeal?

Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Exeter have found that eating certain plant substances can slow down the rate of ageing - and that females prefer mates that will be long-lived.Carotenoids are naturally-occurring yellow and red pigments found in plants. Animals that eat those plants can then use the pigments to make themselves colourful in order to attract mates. But carotenoids are also antioxidants, which improve an animal’s ability to combat oxidative stress and strengthen its immune system.

This latest research has found for the first time that males eating more carotenoids were better able to protect their cells from damage and so lived longer - and that females found these long-lived males particularly attractive.

The work was carried out on sticklebacks, and compared the fate of fish that all received the same basic diet but had different amounts of carotenoid supplement. Male sticklebacks need carotenoids to produce the red throat patch that they develop in the breeding season and display to females.

Not being a stickleback, but being a fairly regular carrot eater, I have not noticed swarms of female humans rushing to mate with me. The well-known article outlining the longevity/beta carotene impacts on human sexuality was decidedly less encouraging.

Okay, but what about women who don’t share April’s natural attraction to underweight men? Women like my girlfriend, for instance, who was happy enough to see the first ten pounds drop off my calorie-restricted frame but likes the shape I’m in less and less as my weight keeps dropping?

“You might have to change girlfriends,” Paul quips, though it’s not exactly clear to me he’s kidding. He seems quite serious, for instance, as he barrels on into a brief oration on the beauty of the calorie-restricted male physique and the need to rethink our cultural standards of male beauty. “Men are stereotyped and still associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger and that kind of thing,” he complains. “But to be honest, when I see a man like Michael, I think that’s how a man should be. I think he looks absolutely handsome—intelligent, dapper, sexy. It’s a mark of intelligence, of how a great role model should be: slim, bright, calorie-restricted!”

All eyes now fall on Michael, naturally, and for the first time, I get a good look at his hands. And though I’m sure the light must be playing tricks on me, I can’t help thinking that those hands are actually a vivid shade of …

“I know, isn’t it pretty?” asks April. “I love the orange. I call him the Orange One.”

Michael smiles, just a little. “I consume an enormous amount of carotenoids—beta-carotene and lycopene—which are found in foods like carrots, kale, tomatoes,” he explains. “If I had skin like yours, the effect probably would be barely noticeable, but because my skin is an extremely pasty white to begin with … ”

“So wait,” Adam interjects, “you eat so much kale, tomatoes, and carrots that your hands actually turn orange?”

“Yes, isn’t it pretty?” April asks again.

And sure, I’m thinking, maybe it is. And maybe if I look a little harder, I’ll eventually see with my own eyes just how pretty Michael’s orange hands really are. But first, I’m going to need a moment to deal with the slight attack of existential vertigo that’s hitting me just now. All evening, I have let the bubbling enthusiasm and essential reasonableness of my guests carry me past the little weirdnesses that go with being calorie-restricted. But the weirdnesses are starting to pile up, and my guests are looking weirder and weirder themselves, like emissaries from a future I’m not sure could ever feel like home: a world where the food grows in vats, where the porn industry just barely survives on government subsidies, where the physically ideal male has the BMI of Mary-Kate Olsen and the skin tones of an Oompa-Loompa.

I take a deep breath then and think, A world where 80 is the new 40. And suddenly, all those little weirdnesses seem quite manageable again.”

You’ll have to make up your own mind on this one.

Dispelling The Top 10 Nutrition Myths

Don’t drink alcohol. Take vitamins. Avoid eating eggs. We’ve heard these pieces of nutritional advice for years - but are they accurate?Not necessarily, say two exercise physiologists presenting at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 11th-annual Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition in Dallas, Texas. Wendy Repovich, Ph.D., FACSM, and Janet Peterson, Dr.P.H., FACSM, set out to debunk the “Top 10 Nutrition Myths.”

It’s worth a quick read.

Pomegranate Juice May Be Good For The Prostate And Heart, Reports The Harvard Men’s Health Watch

Two recent studies suggest that pomegranate juice may help fight prostate cancer. In one study, scientists grew cells from highly aggressive cases of human prostate cancer in tissue cultures. Pomegranate fruit extracts slowed the growth of the cultured cancer cells and promoted cell death. The researchers then implanted the cancer cells in mice. A group of mice that received water laced with pomegranate juice developed significantly smaller tumors than the untreated animals. In a preliminary study of men with prostate cancer, pomegranate juice lengthened patients’ PSA doubling time (the longer the doubling time, the slower the tumor is growing) from 15 months before treatment to 54 months on the juice.Preliminary results in test tubes, animals, and humans suggest that pomegranates may also have beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease. Studies show that pomegranate juice can protect LDL (bad) cholesterol from oxidative damage. The juice has also been shown to slow the progression of plaques in mice with atherosclerosis. Results from two small clinical studies are even more intriguing, showing that carotid artery thickness decreased and cardiac blood flow improved in pomegranate juice drinkers. However, preliminary research also suggests that pomegranate juice may interact with certain medications, much like grapefruit juice does.

I have been alternating between pomegranate and grapefruit juice with breakfast.

Aspirin May Help You Live Longer

A study found women who took aspirin regularly had a 25% lower risk of death from all causes, not just heart problems. The new findings actually contradict prior research, so experts say women should not take aspirin without talking to their doctor first.

Don’t you just love contradictory studies? At least you shouldn’t have to worry if you’re taking aspirin for the occasional headache.

ScienceDaily: Organic Is Healthier: Kiwis Prove That Green Is Good

In one of the most comprehensive and definitive studies of its kind to date, a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis have proven that organically grown kiwifruit contain more health-promoting factors than those grown under conventional conditions.

It’s interesting, because just today my local store had only organic kiwis, and I was wondering whether it really made a difference. I’m glad I bought them (and ate one.)

Family meal seen as way to reconnect families | Health | Reuters

A national study of kids between 3 and 12 found that more meal time at home was the single strongest predictor of better achievement scores, ahead of time studying or in church.Researchers found a strong link between eating at least five dinners a week with a parent and children who are less likely to use drugs and develop good eating habits.

I must admit, my family has come to consider it a “family meal” if we eat simultaneously in different parts of the house.

Fish haters can get strong bones too - Yahoo! News

“Our findings suggest that by eating plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid, such as walnuts and flaxseed oil, you can strengthen bones,” senior author Dr. Rebecca L. Corwin, from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, told Reuters Health. “This is good news for people who don’t like fish.”

Vitamin and Supplements > Folate and B12 may influence cognition in seniors (Found via the Tao of Health)

Folate and vitamin B12, two important nutrients for the development of healthy nerves and blood cells, may work together to protect cognitive function among seniors, reports a new epidemiological study from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA). According to Martha Savaria Morris, PhD, epidemiologist at the USDA HNRCA, “we found a strong relationship between high folate status and good cognitive function among people 60 and older who also had adequate levels of vitamin B12.” The study, published in the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also determined that low vitamin B12 status was associated with increased cognitive impairment.

Vitamin B12 is normally consumed in meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, and folate is found in leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits, and beans. Although folate occurs naturally in many foods, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998 required that all enriched cereal-grain products be fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of folate, in order to help prevent birth defects in infants.

Better to stick with the natural sources, we say. You should be eating them anyway.