SHR

Well, it’s that time of year again and I for one am very happy about it!  Yep, fall is one of my favorite times for baking and cooking.  With a slight chill in the air what better time to have the warmth radiating from your oven and the smell of goodies fill your house?  Pumpkin is showing up everywhere in the form of lattes, breads, cookies and more.  I wondered, hmmm, can I take this relatively healthy treat that has been turned into unhealthy treats and turn it into something that we can consume without feeling guilty? After a few attempts I think that I have done just that!  Actually, when Carl is around this fall inspired, grain free treat disappears like magic.  The beauty about this recipe is that it is flourless and relatively low in carbs and the carbs that do exist are mainly complex carbs. Unlike most muffins...

Sugar hurts boys but not girls when consumed as an infant There are numerous studies documenting a link between sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and increased body weight and cardiometabolic risk in both children and adults, but data for infants is scant. To help fill this knowledge gap, Leermakers et al from University Medical Center Rotterdam examined the relation between SBB intake at 1-year of age and cardiometabolic health at 6 years of age in a Dutch cohort of 1950 children from the Generation R Study. When the infants were 1 year old, the parents (or primary caregiver) filled out a 211-item food-frequency questionnaire about the infant’s habitual diet during the last month. Total SBB included fruit juices, fruit concentrates, lemonades, sodas, and sports drinks, and 1 serving was considered to be 150 mL (~5 fluid ounces). Cardiometabolic risk was assessed via body fat % (DXA), insulin, blood pressure, and blood lipids....

Throughout evolutionary history women have nurtured their offspring with breast milk and there is strong evidence indicating that breastfeeding is associated with a lower risk of developing inflammatory conditions later in life for the suckling infant. It is believed that the provision of immunologic factors in breast milk is amongst the key events that promote maturation of the infant's gut-associated and systemic immune systems. While it has been known for many years that breast milk contains antibodies to fight infection, only recently has evidence for inflammation-resolving bioactive molecules been provided – thanks to a series of animal and in vitro experiments conducted by Arnardottir et al from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Breast milk resolves inflammation First, the researchers obtained human milk-lipid mediator isolates (HLMIs) from healthy donor breast milk and assessed its ability to accelerate the resolution of acute inflammation in mice. After infecting the mice with yeast to stimulate an...

Should Patients with Metabolic Syndrome-related NAFLD be on the Hunter-Gatherer (Paleo) Diet to Decrease Morbidity? The paleo diet is no longer a fad among the alternative health community. It really was only a matter of time before Tarantino et al from Italy asked a central question – can a paleo diet reduce non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) prevalence? Their review begins with a basic recap of the differences between what they call a hunter-gatherer (HG) diet and modern Western diets. This includes the HG diet being anti-atherogenic and high in unsaturated fat, containing a variable amount of carbohydrates from fibrous and starchy vegetables rather than cereal grains, and being relatively high in protein. Additionally, the potassium-sodium ratio and fiber intake is much higher and the overall diet composition is more alkaline.   There is indeed evidence to support the beneficial effects of a HG diet on health. Tarantino et al mention...

If you are a lean, healthy, resistance-training individual interested in building muscle and maximizing body composition, then you are part of a unique and understudied population when it comes to the ideal amount of protein you should be eating. Owed in no small part to the current health state of the world, most research investigating the effects dietary protein on body composition and health is done in unhealthy individuals. From what limited evidence does exist, it has been suggested that protein intakes beyond 2.2 g/kg bodyweight have no additional advantages with regard to body composition or performance. Yet, there is a distinct lack of research looking at intakes beyond this amount. This is what makes research such as the recent study by Antonio et al so exciting – it does investigate the effects of a high-protein diet in a resistance-trained population. The Diet In total, 48 otherwise healthy, resistance-trained men and...