Corn Flake Cereal with Blueberries
Courtesy TheBusyBrainOn this date in 1884, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for "flaked cereal". Kellogg was a health-food fanatic, and was trying to improve the diet of patients at his hospital. His search for a digestible bread-substitute led him to boiling wheat and by accident letting it stand too long and become somewhat hardened. Despite the mistake, Kellogg put the concoction through a rolling process that turned each grain of wheat into a flake, which he then baked into a crispy and light breakfast product. Kellogg's brother Will helped improve the process, began marketing it to the general public, and the rest is cereal history.
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The peak of civilization: The haze you see is good ideas, just floating around.
Courtesy Jose P Isern ComasAhoy, Buzzketeers. I’m a-travelling, far across the ocean. I’m not sure which ocean (I fell asleep on the plane), but things are very different here, and I’ll keep you updated with any science I come across as I have the time.
Anyway, the last place I remember being in was Los Angeles. (And even that was pretty hazy.) I saw lots of strange things, including several awesome cyborgs. (Although… if I were to become a cyborg, I think I’d have to go with laser eyes or robot arms. Do bags of silicone give you mega-strength, or something?) I heard some strange things too, including the following exchange between a father and his two tiny children:
“We can go to McDonalds?”
“If your mother said it was OK… yeah!”
“Hooray!”
“But remember… you have to finish your protein before you eat your fries.”
The dad had clearly done some exceptional fathering, according to the look on his face… but what? Were they speaking in some sort of code? Is there a tonal component to west coast language that Midwesterners can’t recognize?
I typed the whole thing into Google, and it came back with a bunch of words like “low-carb,” and “atkins.”
So what’s happening here? When L.A. dad said “protein,” he was probably referring to meat specifically—meat is mostly fat and protein. The fries waiting in the little girls’ future, on the other hand, are high in carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are things like sugar and starch (and starch, kids, if you look at it on the molecular level, is pretty much just a long chain of sugar molecules.) Carbohydrates can be quickly turned into energy in the body, but if you aren’t being very active, they can be stored in your body as fat.
Way back in the way back, before French fries and cake were invented, people were mostly hunter-gatherers, and what they hunted and gathered probably would have been high in protein and fat, and low in the sort of carbohydrates our bodies can digest. So some folks think, with good reason, that our bodies are adapted to function best on that sort of diet.
Also, when we eat sugars, our pancreases have to produce the hormones insulin and glucagon to regulate the amount of sugar in our blood, because having too much blood sugar is toxic, and having too little blood sugar essentially starves our cells. In this time of cake and French fries, though, we eat lots of sugar, and our bodies produce lots of insulin, and our poor little pancreases can’t keep up, and they freak out and get sick and can’t produce those hormones in the right amounts any more—we call that diabetes. So regulating sugars before they enter the body is a good idea.
A good idea! Thanks, dad!
But, wait… what else? It turns out that little kids (or, as I call them, lil’ kids) are often pretty active in the first place, and can probably deal with carbohydrates pretty well. They might get hyper, but those carbs may not ever be turned into fat. Also, when there isn’t enough sugar in one’s diet, the body produces chemicals called ketones, which cause fat to be turned back into carbohydrates. That’s cool if you want to loose weight, but if you’re a lil’ kid, and not a fat lil’ kid, ketosis just makes your body think it’s starving and your lil’ brain is robbed of sugars, making you feel… kind of dull. (So say some scientists, anyway.)
Also, let’s consider dad’s specific protein: we don’t know exactly what the kid were going to order, but let’s go with the McDonald’s standby, the Big Mac hamburger. See, while dad was advocating good, old fashioned (Paleolithic), hunter-gatherer values, the high fat and protein items hunted and gathered back then rarely, if ever, included Big Macs. A Big Mac has almost half of the fat an adult should eat in a day (29 grams, so about 45% of the daily value), and a kid is going to have even lower nutritional requirements than an adult. And a lot of that fat is what is called “trans fat.” There are different kinds of fat, and trans fat (trans fatty acids, partially hydrogenated whatevers, etc) are probably one of the fats that you don’t want to have too much of. I won’t get into it, but trans fats really aren’t that great for you.
Also, a Big Mac has 45 grams of carbohydrates. You’d get the same amount of carbohydrates from eating a Snickers bar and a “fun size” Snickers bar together.
So it looks like those lil’ kids aren’t going to be deprived of carbs after all. Thanks for thinking it all out, dad!
Holy smokes! Are we learning or what? Anyway, LAX was awesome.
Are you gonna eat all of that?: During the peak of his training, Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps was consuming up to 12,000 calories a day. Do you think you could win eight gold medals if you ate like that?
Courtesy White HouseFor the past week, it's been all Michael Phelps, all the time on the media. So why shouldn't Science Buzz jump on the bandwagon as well. Here's an interesting story from National Public Radio about the food consumption that the all-time Olympic gold medal winner puts down as part of his training regimine. Be sure to listen to the listing of the typical Phelps breakfast. It puts Old Country Buffet to shame, right down to the chocolate chip pancakes.
His daily calorie intake during peak times of training is 12,000 calories. Standard diets for mere mortals suggest a caloric intake of up to 2,000 calories. Ah, now I get it. He's winning all those gold medals by eating a lot. That's great news for me with the approach of football season and all the calories I'll be consuming on my sofa while watching the games. I should be in gold medal shape by November, don't you think?
And if you haven't gotten your fill of Michael Phelps info by now, here's another NPR story about the technology behind the timing systems used at the Olympic pool that can figure out the winners of races who are separated by just a hundreth of a second.
New research is exploring the complex relationship between cancer and lifestyle. Doctors now say that if we lost weight, exercised and ate right, we could avoid some 70% of cancers. Food for thought.
Crumbling marketshare: Cookies are no longer the top snack food among youngsters. Cookie Monster is demanding a recount in Florida.
Courtesy brainloc on sxc.huThe cookie is no longer No. 1. Fruit is now the most common snack food consumed by kids ages six and under, according to a new study. NPD Group discovered that youngsters today have much healthier snacking habits than kids did 20-some years ago.
Back in the day, cookies were the most consumed snackible by the younger set with fruit second. But education efforts have flipped those positions, the new study found. It also discovered some other significant diet changes among kids. They are:
• Less likely to have carbonated beverages, ice cream, candy, cake and fruit juice than what kids consumed 20 years ago.
• More likely to be chomping on fruit rolls, gummy snacks, yogurt, cracker, granola bars and bottled water.
Is this a big deal? Nutritionists think so as snack foods make up about one quarter of the calories taken in by youngsters.
And one nutritionist has this new way of thinking of snack foods. Just serve regular food. For instance, a snack might be half a sandwich and a carton of 100% orange juice; bean dip and baby carrots; peanut butter on whole-grain crackers and a small glass of milk; or half a piece of pizza and small glass of milk.
For the record, here are a couple lists showing the biggest movers on the snack food rankings.
The five foods/beverages that have increased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:
1. Fruit rolls/bars/pieces
2. Yogurt
3. Crackers
4. Bars
5. Bottled water
The five foods/beverages that have decreased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:
1. Carbonated soft drinks
2. Ice cream
3. Candy
4. Cake
5. Fruit juice
Forget all that noise about eating dirt. The UN Food and Agriculture Association is apparently encouraging people to eat insects. They are a good source of protein, and, since they grow naturally, do not require large farms changing the environment. All together now: ewwwww!
OK, stop your snickering. A report from England indicates that a high-calorie, high-potassium diet prior to conception increases the likelihood of a woman giving birth to a boy. Low-calorie diets lead to more girls.
You want fries with that?: A high-fat diet may be helpful for some diseases. But it’s still a bad idea to pig out on fat, grease, starch and sugar.
Courtesy pointnshoot
(With apologies to Woody Allen.)
Researchers in England have found that a high-fat diet is effective in reducing seizures among epileptics.
Meanwhile, doctors in Boston report that having fat around your bottom may help prevent diabetes.
*NOTE: as with all medical news, we here at Science Buzz are not qualified to give medical advice. If you suffer from epilepsy or diabetes, consult with your doctor before changing your diet. And if you do not suffer from these diseases, DO NOT use this news item as an excuse to pig out. Really, the basic fast food meal of a burger, fries and a soft drink is just about the worst thing you can put in your body, short of arsenic.
A burger a day?
With a diet soda, please!
Courtesy ebruli
Researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health have found that adults who eat two or more servings of meat a day increase their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 25% compared with those who eat meat twice a week. The study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association also linked a greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome with eating fried foods and drinking diet soda.
What is metabolic syndrome?
Metabolic syndrome is a group of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including:
- elevated waist circumference (a waist measurement larger than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men);
- high blood pressure:
- elevated triglycerides (the chemical form in which most fat exists in food and in the body);
- low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol;
- and high fasting glucose (blood sugar) levels.
If a person has three or more of these risk factors, their risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease increases.
The study
The U of M findings came from a study of 9,514 participants from four U.S. communities in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study , funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The researchers divided the group based on an assessment of their food intake. One group ate a "Western-pattern diet" with many refined grains, processed meat, fried foods, red meat, eggs and soda, and an overall lack of fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grain products. Another group ate a "prudent-pattern diet" with vegetables, fruit, fish and seafood, poultry and whole grains, and low fat dairy.
After following the the participants for nine years, almost 40% of study participants had three or more risk factors for metabolic syndrome. When researchers analyzed the results based on specific foods, meat, fried foods, and diet soda were red flags for an increased risk for metabolic syndrome. The good news? They found that regular consumption of low-fat dairy products was beneficial in avoiding the same risk factors.
The authors acknowledge that more research is needed to determine how these specific foods, particularly diet soda, raise risk factors.
The lesson? Follow a balanced diet, include low-fat dairy, exercise, and eat your vegetables!
Sources and additional information:
"Dietary Intake and the Development of the Metabolic Syndrome. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study." Pamela L. Lutsey, Lyn M. Steffen and June Stevens. Circulation; published online Jan 22, 2008.
University of Minnesota Academic Health Center
Posted by Meredith Craven, a communications assistant in the Academic Health Center Office of Clinical Research at the University of Minnesota
You're getting sleepy: Is it the tryptophan in the turkey that makes you tired on Thanksgiving or other ingredients of your big feast?
Courtesy LonelyBobI’ve got some friends who are already pushing the Thanksgiving envelope and having some early holiday dinners this weekend. Most of us will wait until Nov. 22 to gorge out on a big meal of turkey, and then feel quite tired and bloated from the experience.
And all of us scientific-minded people like to sound very sciency at those moments and talk about the effects that tryptophan in the turkey are having on our bodies. I’ve bought into that thinking for decades and thought I’d Google around the net to learn more about that, and was surprised to see that I’ve probably been duped.
Turkey does in fact contain high levels of tryptophan, but not anything significantly higher than lots of other meats. Tryptophan is an amino acid that our bodies can’t produce. And taken on an empty stomach, it can have a soothing, calming effect. It was even marketing as an anti-insomnia drug in the 1980s until some other significant side effects – muscle pain and death – led the government to ban it as a medication.
After a big feast, out stomachs are dealing with the amino acids from many different food sources, meaning that the tryptophan has a lot of competition in our body chemistry.
Here’s what’s more likely going on in our bodies to make us tired: the impacts of having lots of other carbohydrates in our stomachs. Carbo-heavy items like mashed potatoes, stuffing and pie take our bodies a lot of effort to digest. That internal work is a lot to handle and our bodies tire out.
So that’s the nutritional answer to why Thanksgiving dinners make us tired. I think you might also be able to chalk up your tiredness to the quality of conversation with the relatives you’re sharing the meal with or the fact that the Detroit Lions are always playing football that afternoon.
How do you deal with post-Thanksgiving dinner lethargy? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.
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