Entries by Chet Zelasko

Building a Healthy Microbiome

After last week’s Memos on the importance of a healthy microbiome and immune health, let’s review how to have a healthy microbiome to protect your brain and boost your immune system. First, eat a mostly plant-based diet: some raw, some cooked, some fermented. The raw will give you probiotics and fiber. The cooked, especially whole […]

Science at Work

The challenge this week was to watch two video podcasts, think about what you heard, and then provide comments and questions. For those of you who did it, thank you. For those that didn’t, I recommend that you take some time this weekend and listen to them. I’m going to share my thoughts but there’s […]

How Science Works, Part 2

How did you enjoy the first video? If you’re like me, there were some surprises and a whole lot more questions. The second video is another interview with Dr. Jay Lombard recorded this year. Just like the other video, it isn’t an ad for a product but it does contain ads as do all YouTube […]

How Science Works, Part 1

If there’s one topic we’re all interested in, it’s making sure that we keep our minds clear and able to learn and recall things every day we’re alive. That’s confirmed by checking the number of people who read last week’s Memos on EAAs and brain health. A long-time reader sent me a link to a […]

Should You Increase Your Essential Amino Acids?

The question from Tuesday was this: how did the essential amino acids affect the transgenic tau mice on the low-protein and normal-protein diets? The addition of EAA to the transgenic mice on either diet appeared to neutralize the impact of the genetic mutation. The brain scans appeared to mimic the scans of the control mice […]

New Research Links EAAs and Brain Function

I’ve talked about essential amino acids in the past as it relates to increasing muscle mass in those of us 50 and older. A recently published study may give us another reason for taking essential amino acids: it may reduce, delay, and perhaps reverse neurological signs of dementia. To understand the research, you have to […]

It’s All About the Calories

The paper advocating the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) for explaining the obesity pandemic, not only in the U.S. but throughout the world, was written by the leading experts in endocrinology and nutrition. There were experts who’ve conducted some of the major nutritional studies that you’ve heard about over the years, from the Women’s Health Initiative to […]

The Weight Loss Battle: Carbs vs Calories

As a member of the American Society of Nutrition, I get a news feed that lets me know what’s being published in their journals. A recent article talked about the carbohydrate-insulin model (CIM) as a cause of the obesity pandemic. The debate surrounded the question of whether the energy balance model (EBM) that says calories […]

The Actual Effects of Sucralose

Continuing the examination of the study on diet drinks and appetite, let’s get into the details of the study. The MRI portion of the study is difficult to interpret for the layperson. The researchers seemed to think that based on the brain response, obese women would be more susceptible to overeating after consuming a drink […]

Does Diet Soda Increase Appetite?

“Diet soda may prompt food cravings.” If you regularly drink diet soda with non-nutritive sweeteners such as sucralose, that headline would give you pause. Could drinking drinks with artificial sweeteners cause you to compensate later for being cheated out of calories? That’s what researchers attempted to find out in a very complex study conducted at […]