Posts

April 14, 2013

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10:21 PM | The Evolving Health blog is moving to evolvinghealth.wordpress.com

Although I've enjoyed posting from Blogger for five years now, I've found that Wordpress offers me a lot more of the functionality that I need.So, I hope you'll join me for more posts about evidence-based food, nutrition and medicine updates over at http://www.evolvinghealth.wordpress.com.Also, don't miss my coverage of Experimental Biology 2013 from April 19-24!Sincerely,David

April 09, 2013

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7:54 AM | Why we should adopt a "zoobiquitous" approach to health

We are all animals. It's a fact that may be unsettling for some, but for others it is a fountain of understanding and of inspiration. Since 1859, thanks to Charles Darwin, our place in the animal world has been firmly established. Yet, to this day, it is all too common within medicine (and nutrition) to have the tendency to develop a narrow-mindedness. Rarely do medical doctors ever look beyond our own species for a broader perspective about their fields. As the veterinarian insider […]

February 20, 2013

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1:23 AM | Calories aren't right on labels and maybe that’s OK

Has it ever crossed your mind that the number of listed Calories (Kcals) of, say, a large, raw, whole apple at 116 Kcals and that of a glazed doughnut at 125 Kcals might not be an accurate comparison*? Surely, you might think, isn’t the doughnut more likely to add inches to your waistline?You'd be right. The difference that you might have understood intuitively is that, although the number of listed Kcals are similar, your body is likely to extract more of them from the doughnut than the […]

February 12, 2013

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7:57 AM | Experts on the evolution of human nutrition

Want to eat a diet that mimics that of our Paleolithic ancestors? It might be a little more complicated than what the popular books say.The fact is, there was never one Paleo Diet; it's more likely there were hundreds of them and that they were continually changing and broadening over evolutionary time.That was the overarching message of an impressive lineup of experts on ancient human diets at a symposium entitled "The Evolution of Human Nutrition" organized by the Center of Academic Research […]

January 21, 2013

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6:26 AM | The nutritional biology of human skin color

The amount of melanin found within our skin has long been a source of division for humans culturally, but anthropologist Nina Jablonski of Penn State tells the story of how human skin color unites us all biologically. It's become one of my favorite stories to share as it relates to nutritional biology: More pigment was naturally selected because it acted as a sunscreen needed to protect against DNA damage and destruction of folate, needed for reproduction. Depigmentation was selected for […]

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1:28 AM | What a Komodo dragon can teach us about energy balance

Credit: San Diego ZooTry telling a Komodo dragon that physical activity doesn't matter and that all one needs to do to lose weight is eat a diet lower in carbohydrates.Meet Sunny, the obese Komodo dragon. Her San Diego Zoo keepers have put her on a strict diet based on her animal energy and metabolic requirements. She eats only mice, rats, and ground turkey mixed with vitamins and calcium. Yet, it's not enough to keep Sunny from steadily gaining weight. When in captivity, dragons are prone […]

January 20, 2013

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6:14 PM | What journalists should know before writing about fructophobia

"Pick your poison" Sugars by vavroom, on FlickrIn his new book, Fat Chance, Dr. Robert Lustig argues that "sugar is more toxin than it ever was nutrient." He writes that sugar is as addictive as cocaine, that it should be regulated like tobacco, and that children should be carded before having a soda. He compares the fructose component of sugar to ethanol. "Pick your poison," he writes, arguing that fructose will "fry your liver and cause all the same diseases as […]

January 10, 2013

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3:07 AM | #CARTAsymp Evolution of Human Nutrition Storify

[View the story "#CARTAsymp Evolution of Human Nutrition" on Storify]

December 02, 2012

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10:38 PM | Why you can all stop saying meat eating fueled evolution of larger brains right now

Hadza returning from hunt in Tanzania. Credit Andy Lederer.In William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, Sir Andrew, who was worried that a joke may have been made at his expense, reasons out loud that maybe his diet had something to do with his lack of intelligence, saying, "But I am a great eater of beef, and I believe that does harm to my wit" (Act I, Scene III). Dialogue like that was how Shakespeare famously poked fun at what he considered "foolery" in his time; it was a common […]

November 12, 2012

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7:19 AM | Human vs. chimps: What the "regulome" tells us about meat eating & bigger brains

Source: Greg WrayThe story about how humans evolved bigger brains begins some seven million years ago in central Africa. There, in a dense rainforest, there lived the last ancestor shared with that of our closest living relatives. Our evolutionary paths diverged when the global climate changed and a new habitat took shape. While ancestors of chimpanzees retreated deeper into the rainforest to subsist on a diet mainly of fruits, our ancestors found themselves in on strange, new, dry […]

November 09, 2012

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1:52 PM | Food is "star stuff"

Champagne supernova. Credit: Space Daily"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." When you eat a slice of apple pie, or any pie, or any food at all today, on Carl Sagan Day, it may be worthwhile to reflect on this quote, one of the beloved television series host's most famous from Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. A look back at our origins is a good way to gain some perspective, amidst the accumulating scientific evidence, on how to understand our […]

November 08, 2012

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1:15 AM | Why lemurs get sick: A lesson for humans

Female blue-eyed lemurWhat […]

October 05, 2012

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11:41 PM | Of bunnies and bacteria

I remember when I first learned that a rabbit ate its food twice.This curious dietary practice, called coprophagy, is something I'd witnessed as a child raising my own rabbits and guinea pigs in the backyard. Disgusted by the sight of my pets eating their own feces, I recall trying to keep their cages as clean as possible. Had I known better, I would not have been so quick to remove droppings from their cage because I might've put these animals at risk for nutritional deficiency (1-2). […]

September 25, 2012

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9:44 PM | Why aren't we talking about organic GMOs? And, why can't we all get along?

Credit: SodaheadYou've heard the rants about Mitt Monsanto versus Organic Obama. You've read the arguments on both sides for "Yes" or "No" on labeling GMOs in California. You've read the research surrounding the wholesomeness of "organic" versus "conventional." There's the divisive talk, the reasoned talk, and the bat-shi# crazy talk.What I want to ask is this: Why aren't there more people, beyond scientists and academics, talking about organically grown GMOs? These last few […]

September 08, 2012

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4:43 AM | Making lazy, stupid plants work harder

Plants with larger root systems take up minerals more easily.Plants these days. They're are coddled, entitled, fed with a silver spoon.Use of man-made fertilizer and traditional breeding, over the years, has selected for traits that led to today's modern-variety plants that grow fat with yields.But the downside of easy access to nutrients is that it has allowed for the breeding out of desirable traits that has left plants, well, acting like enabled, spoiled children."They're lazy," said plant […]

August 24, 2012

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3:39 AM | When I won't accept a guest post

I get regular requests from people who want to guest post on my blog. Then, I got this unbelievable one yesterday. Thought I'd share.

July 08, 2012

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1:26 AM | Sievenpiper: Fructose should not "worry" in diabetes

As the fructose debate rages on, one serious concern has been what the message should be for people who have diabetes. There's no question that the alarming media headlines, articles, and YouTube videos have confused many with prediabetes and both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.Even health professionals and organizations like the American Diabetes Association have taken a cautious approach by recommending avoidance of fructose as a sweetening agent. That is, for fear it may raise plasma […]

June 13, 2012

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11:42 PM | Guest post: Changes in genetic expression during weight loss and weight maintenance

by Amanda Jensen* Losing weight is an ambition with no end. To get fit, live longer, reduce injury, look better, feel better and sleep better will pave the road toward your skinny. Yes, losing weight is known to help the heart and boost insulin sensitivity, but the question still asked is: how?There are differences between losing weight and keeping it off. From the Department of Clinical Sciences Malmo in Sweden, researchers found seven key genes expressed in adipose tissue (fat tissue) […]

June 09, 2012

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4:59 AM | Videos from the Sugar Showdown and a Few Comments from Dr. Lustig

If you've been following this blog, then you're probably aware that back in April I blogged about a highly attended debate at Experimental Biology 2012 in San Diego (dubbed the #sugarshowdown in a hashtag on Twitter; here's the Storify story in case you missed it). The event was sponsored by the Corn Refiners Association. In that symposium, Dr. Robert Lustig, of University of California, San Francisco, who is famed for sensationalizing the position that sugar is "toxic" in media […]

May 30, 2012

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3:33 PM | Why a fat brain made us more vulnerable to heart disease

Natural selection granted us large brains. The evolutionary cost is having to feed them. The human brain's high-energy demands led to development of a strong preference for fat. We consume more fat than any other primate on average. We are also adapted to more easily digest and metabolize fats.There are two major kinds of fat that our brains depend on most for its development and regular maintenance. These are the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid […]

May 28, 2012

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1:32 AM | Good insulin, bad insulin: Its role in obesity?

Gary Taubes makes insulin out to be a bad guy. In his latest article in Newsweek Magazine commenting on HBO's Weight of the Nation documentary, he once again challenges energy balance (energy intake versus energy expended) as a paradigm for understanding obesity. His alternative theory: refined sugars and grains trigger insulin, which leads to fat accumulation. He also doesn't think much of physical activity as playing a "meaningful role in keeping off the pounds."Is he right? Not […]

May 26, 2012

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3:40 PM | Fate of fructose: Interview with Dr. John Sievenpiper

Sugar is a hot topic these days. Evidently, it's also a touchy topic. I've been a little amazed at some of the responses (both positive and negative) received since my first rant post about hummingbird fuel on this blog. There clearly exists a continued need for education about the state of the evidence as it stands now surrounding sugar and its implications on health.As a follow-up to my report of the "Sugar Showdown" at Experimental Biology, I decided to seek out greater […]

May 21, 2012

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1:27 AM | Have a cuppa pesticide and #dontdestroyresearch

Earlier today, biologist Mary Mangan (@mem_somerville) shared the bad news that anti-biotechnology activists had succeeded in breaking into and damaging a publicly funded research project at Rothamsted Research Station in Harpenden, England. The vandalism happened only a week ahead of a planned demonstration organized by the Take the Flour Back environmentalist group (which I wrote previously about here).Mangan wrote on her Google+ page:Sadly, the destruction has […]

May 18, 2012

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1:10 PM | Confusing messages about sugar are stupid

I'm a bit late in weighing into the "Sugar Makes You Stupid" mess of poor health reporting on a rat study. At the Embargo Watch blog, Ivan Oransky already covered the mishandling of the study's embargo and ripped into the press release for misleading readers into believing that the study had any meaningful conclusions for college students. Then, Deborah Blum at Knight Science Journalism Tracker went further, bringing more reason and logic, by clarifying what the rat study […]

May 13, 2012

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9:11 PM | What environmental groups don't understand about biotech

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.- Charles DarwinOn May 27, the "Take the Flour Back" environmentalist group plans to take "mass action" in efforts to remove more than $1 million worth of research in biotechnology. Their purpose, according to their website, is one of "mass decontamination" of what they see is a threat to farmers, the food supply, health of […]

May 12, 2012

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4:54 AM | BMI puts young Asian-American women at risk of being "skinny fat"

As if we needed any more reason to pick on Body Mass Index (BMI): new research finds that this most accepted approach for assessing overweight and obesity based on height and weight could lead to misclassification of young Asian-American women potentially increasing their risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.In my last post, I discussed the scary, growing problem of sarcopenic obesity (aka "skinny fat") in older adults, described as age-related muscle […]

May 05, 2012

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6:49 PM | Nevermind body fat; put focus on muscle with age

Stuart Phillips, Ph.D.With all the attention given to body fat, a result of the high prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, skeletal muscle is often given the back seat. Yet holding on to lean muscle mass alone, in itself, may be the most important factor in avoiding health problems above. What's often forgotten is that skeletal muscle is a metabolically active tissue that plays a critical role in consuming energy and determining metabolic rate, it's the large site for fat […]

April 25, 2012

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5:38 PM | Holding on to brain function through nutrition

By the year 2050, the number of people in the world over 80 years old will reach 370 million. About 50 percent of adults currently 85 and older have Alzheimer’s disease. The statistics are sobering and warn of a growing and serious epidemic. A high prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease, which is a debilitating and costly disease, can severely impact the population.With this perspective, the American Society for Nutrition hosted a symposium on the nutritional prevention of cognitive decline on […]

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12:50 PM | How to fight "job-esity"

Workplace programs are an effective and worthwhile way for employers to help improve the health of their employees and reduce medical costs, scientists said Tuesday at Experimental Biology 2012 in San Diego at a session organized by the American Society for Nutrition. The medical expenses for employees who are obese are estimated at about 42 percent higher than for those with a healthy weight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet for the approximately 60 […]

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1:41 AM | The future of nutrition research

There is little question that nutrition provides the foundation of health and wellbeing and that research into better nutrition is central to enabling a population live healthier, more productive, and longer lives.With this perspective in mind, the American Society for Nutrition assembled a working group of leading nutrition thought leaders to identify a list of nutritional research areas that required greater or further analysis and prioritization.In a symposium entitled "The Future of […]