Entries by Chet Zelasko

Variances in Calcium Absorption

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On top of the calcium absorption issues discussed in Tuesday’s message, there are a few more factors that have to be considered. In healthy women, gross absorption efficiency spans at least a threefold range, from 15% to 45%, even after adjustment for differences in intake.

Here’s an example. One woman, absorbing at 45% efficiency, extracts 135 mg of the calcium in an 8-ounce serving of milk containing 300 mg of calcium and after subtracting the calcium used in digestion, her net calcium is 100 mg. But another woman absorbing at 15% efficiency extracts only 45 mg and . . .

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Calcium Absorption

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As you might predict, I get a lot of questions about dietary supplements. People read about some just-discovered source of a nutrient and the claims that it’s better absorbed, and they wonder: is this better than the supplement I’m taking? Such is the case with calcium. A company has claimed that their form of calcium from algae is better absorbed.

Let’s start off with a general overview of calcium absorption. Calcium is poorly absorbed regardless of the source—doesn’t matter whether it’s dairy products, fish with soft bones such as sardines, or in supplements . . .

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Feeding Kids to Support Their Immune System

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You can probably guess what kids should eat every day to keep their immune systems healthy: foods high in antioxidants, and that’s mainly fruits and vegetables. The research on the benefits to children’s immune system is beyond contestation (one of my favorite words).

Apples, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, and on and on and on. How you present them is up to you. I would avoid fruits juices even if you juice foods at home; you want every vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient antioxidant you can give them, and the fiber helps feed the good bacteria that are important to the . . .

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Boost Your Kid’s Immune System

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Kids have been back in school over a week now and exposed to a whole host of viruses and bacteria they didn’t see this summer; I hope yours haven’t been sick already. It’s time to talk about how to keep kids healthy this school year.

The first thing on my list is probiotics, the good bacteria. Many studies have looked at probiotics as a treatment for allergies, dermatitis, and digestive issues in infants and children. That’s the way the healthcare research is done: you’re broken, how can we fix you? Our goal is different—we . . .

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Sleep Restores a Kid’s Immune System

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Continuing with the theme of keeping kids healthy, the second thing to do is to make sure children get plenty of sleep. Based on information from the Centers for Disease Control, getting enough sleep is directly related to how well their immune system functions; sleep deprivation lowers immune function.

Getting enough sleep can be a challenge. Kids involved with sports sometimes have to be at school at 6 a.m. for pre-school practice. They have homework that can take a few hours to complete. When you add in after school activities that range from music lessons to martial arts . . .

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The Bottom Line on MSG

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When it comes to MSG, most people have their minds made up, and they don’t want anyone to create doubts about what they believe. That’s fine. If you’re one of them, read this anyway because I think you’ll read some things you won’t read anywhere else.

Let’s begin with the Letter to the Editor (1); there’s no research to support his opinion. In reality, it was more of an appeal to find out why this might happen after a meal in a Chinese restaurant. The symptoms were numbness of the muscles, generalized weakness . . .

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The MSG Controversy

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How did MSG become so controversial? After reviewing many studies and opinions, I think there are three reasons.

The first reason is a Letter to the Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine by a physician in 1968 (1). In the letter, the physician describes the sensations he felt after eating Chinese food and the reasons he believed the food negatively affected him. He mentions MSG, which was recommended to him by others, as the potential cause. He concludes by talking about how the high amount of sodium could be responsible for his feelings by causing a . . .

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What Is MSG?

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Monosodium glutamate or MSG for short has been on my mind for several months. I’ve gone back to the science numerous times because it’s one of the most demonized food additives. It took a long time to organize the information in a way that makes sense, but I did it. This week, I’m going to present you with the science so you can make an informed decision about MSG.

What prompted me to write about this now was a book I’m reading by Michael Pollan titled Cooked

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Breakfast and Weight Loss, Part 2

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Today we’re going to review the second study that reported eating breakfast may have no relationship to whether you’re overweight. This approach is radically different from the study I talked about on Tuesday. The approach in this study was to examine many variables related to metabolic rate, activity, and measure of fat and sugar metabolism (1). The goal was to answer the question whether breakfast “jumpstarts” metabolism, therefore assisting people to lose weight.

Researchers divided 33 normal-weight men and women into two groups. One group skipped breakfast entirely and didn’t eat until after noon. The other . . .

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Breakfast and Weight Loss

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Two recent studies examined the importance of breakfast and weight loss. The research question is simple: Does eating breakfast help you get to and attain a healthy weight?

Let’s take a look at the first study (1). Researchers in five cities screened 746 people. Of those, 309 overweight people were then randomly assigned to one of three groups; they were then further subdivided into to those who typically ate breakfast and those who were breakfast skippers. All subjects were given a pamphlet called "Let’s Eat for the Health of It" that talked about healthier eating (2). The researchers . . .

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