Entries by Chet Zelasko

Health Habits: Just Do Better

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Let’s finish up our look at the recent paper that concluded we’re doing poorly when it comes to our health habits (1). If you thought smoking and exercise were underwhelming, today we’ll look at diet and body fat.

When it comes to following the U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines, just under 38% hit that goal. I’ve talked about this a lot over the years, and this isn’t a debate over what constitutes a good diet. While we are doing somewhat better, adults do not eat enough vegetables, fruits, or beans, and we still . . .

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Smoking and Exercise

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What are we doing well when it comes to health habits? Based on the study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, we seem to be getting the message that we shouldn’t smoke tobacco: 71% of all Americans don’t smoke based on the data from the NHANES data set. This wasn’t just a questionnaire; the participants had their blood tested as part of their participation in the study. You can lie on a questionnaire, but you can’t fool a blood test for metabolites found in cigarette smoke.

Better doesn’t mean good enough in my opinion. I . . .

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Healthy Lifestyle? A Tiny 2.7 Percent

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“Only 2.7% of all Americans achieve all four of the basic behavioral characteristics that experts say add up to a healthy lifestyle.”

Sensational? Yes. True? That’s what we’re going to look at this week. The health news reported about a recent study that examined the health behaviors of a group of people who participated in the Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2002–2006. The researchers picked four behaviors and assessed them with the best techniques available.

This is not the typical BMI and Food Frequency Questionnaire survey; these are numbers based on excellent assessment equipment . . .

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The Bottom Line on High-Fat Dairy

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If you’re a long-time reader, you know that science by headlines makes me crazy because news reports often distort the findings of the research papers to make them seem more important than they are. It doesn’t help that research institutions send out press releases that contribute to the hype of their research findings. Such is the case with the two papers I reviewed this week.

In the first paper, researchers examined blood values of fatty acids found in high-fat dairy products as potentially . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and Obesity

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The second research paper included in many news articles that talked about the potential benefits of full-fat dairy products was a report from the Women’s Health Study (1). Researchers collected dietary data and self-reported body weight and height from over 39,000 women. The analysis included only about 18,000 middle-aged and older women who had a normal BMI when the study began; they analyzed the change in body weight over 11 years of follow up.

All women gained weight over time. Those who had the highest number of high-fat dairy products gained less weight . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and T2D

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Health news headlines got my attention this past week. They announced that full-fat milk products may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and becoming overweight. I don’t know about you, but it’s been decades since I drank whole milk or ate whole-fat yogurt or ice cream. It’s not just about the calories; it just doesn’t seem to taste as good. Have I been missing something? Headlines tend to exaggerate, especially when they’re based on press releases. Let’s take a look at the first study behind the headlines.

In the first paper . . .

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Curcumin and Your Health

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Curcumin certainly has the health experts excited. I understand, but I also think there are some things that you have to know about this phytonutrient before you begin taking mega-doses every day.

Absorption and Bioavailability

Curcumin is not well absorbed in the digestive system—in fact, it’s very poorly absorbed, with some studies showing that no measurable curcuminoids reach the bloodstream at all. That’s why a focus of research has been to get the active part of turmeric into a better delivery system. I mentioned combining it with piperine, a component of black pepper, on . . .

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Curcumin Research

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Curcumin is fast becoming one of the most researched phytonutrients in the world. As evidence, in 2000, there were about 100 papers published on curcumin; in 2015, there were 1,100 papers published. And in the first quarter of this year, there were over 400 papers published. Why all the attention on this yellow phytonutrient?

I mentioned the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities on Tuesday. The focus of a lot of research is for curcumin’s use as a potential cancer treatment and preventive for Alzheimer’s disease. Most of these are test-tube studies. Researchers are trying to examine . . .

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Curcumin and Pepper

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I’m just back from Peoria, and there’s nothing like spending a couple of days with health-conscious people to yield some very interesting questions. This week, I’m going to examine one question in detail: is turmeric absorbed as effectively without pepper in the blend? A phytonutrient found in turmeric called curcumin is being extensively studied for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. But pepper? I checked into it and here’s what I found.

In a study done in 1998, researchers examined the absorption of curcumin with and without piperine, the phytonutrient that provides the pungent smell . . .

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Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat with Protein

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Can you gain muscle while losing weight? Let’s take a look at the final study in this week’s Research Update on protein.

Researchers recruited 40 young overweight men to participate in a four-week diet and exercise weight loss program with an average age of 23 and average BMI of 29.7. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups. The control group had a diet that reduced calories by 40% and provided 1.2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. The protein group had their intake reduced by 40% but were given 2 . . .

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