rolling nutrition nazis 2011

Neat scientific article I just came across:

Measurements of aggregate antioxidant activity in plants is generally done by observing how much a given plant extract inhibits a free-radical oxidative reaction in a tube, providing an ORAC value. Since free-radicals are thought to play a part in both aging and cancer initiation, ORAC values are considered a proxy for a plant's value in preventing oxidative aging or free-radical caused mutations.

But what about a plant's ability to prevent proliferation of existing tumors? This is important both for those with diagnosed cancer, and those who don't want the thousands of initiated but as yet nonproliferating neoplasms in our bodies to advance to disease. A team in Quebec tested just that, applying extracts of 32 vegetables to 8 different cultured tumor cell lines, and measuring how much the culture growth was inhibited or halted entirely.

Antiproliferative and antioxidant activities of common vegetables: A comparative study. Food Chem 112:2 pg 374-380

Some vegetables inhibited some tumor lines but not others, but there were some clear winners. Inhibitory effect on cancer cell proliferation in vitro:

Very High: Brussel sprouts, Cabbage, Curly cabbage, Garlic, Green onion, Kale, Leek, Spinach
High: Asparagus, Beetroot, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Fiddlehead, Green bean, Radish, Red cabbage, Rutabaga, Yellow onion
Intermediate: Celery, Eggplant
Little: Acorn squash, Bok choy, Eggplant, Boston lettuce, Carrot, Endive, Cucumber, Fennel bulb, Jalapeno, Orange sweet pepper, Potato, Radicchio, Romaine lettuce, Tomato

Its a confirmation of the known anticancer properties of Alliaceae (garlic, onion, leeks), and cruciferous vegetables (brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli), but curiously bok choy (another Brassicaceae) has no effect in this test. Tomato, rich in lycopene, is believed to be particularly potent against prostate cancer but its extract does little in vitro. The paper says nothing about whether any antiproliferative compounds will be digested and find their way to a tumor.

But it does restore my faith in the lowly onion, which is otherwise a fairly mediocre vegetable in nutrition density. And doesn't help my rather dismal view of the potato (mostly empty calories + solanine, seems to increase kidney cancer).

Inhibitory effect on cancer cell proliferation in vitro

= wtf this isn't actual science

I mean here's the thing. I have grown plenty of cancer cells in culture, and I could piss on them and their proliferation rate would decrease. Do you want to drink my piss because if so will fedex.

As have I some time ago, though a conventional urinal was nearby.

In vitro studies almost always preceed in vivo work. Try this one on:

Ornish D. et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol. 2005 Sep;174(3):1065-9

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4840/ornishserum.gif

94 prostate cancer patients electing to not receive conventional treatment were randomly placed on experimental groups (vegan diets with daily tofu and exercising), or control groups. At 12 months, blood serum from each group was added to prostate cancer cultures. The serum from the control group inhibited cell growth by 9%, while the serum from the experimental group knocked culture growth down by 70%.

Was serum from the vegans absorbing something from digestion of plants or the tofu that the omni's weren't? Maybe there was an indirect stimulation of apoptosis signaling pathways elsewhere in the body? Perhaps something in the control diet was inhibiting normal apoptosis? Its impossible to say at this point.

The notable things about that Montreal study is that 1) The vegetable extracts were selectively poisoning cancer cells and not normal cells, and 2) the veggies that had the most pronounced effect were not (in general) the ones most commonly eaten. The vegetables in the American diet are primarily potatoes, tomatoes, lettuces (all), onions, carrots, and cucumber (in that order), of which only onions ranked highly above. Just after those are highly ranked cabbage & broccoli. Kale & brussels sprouts are pretty trivial in comparison.

That, in itself, is interesting to me, a helpful reminder to myself that eating the unusual veggies may be better, and I wanted to share. As an interested outsider I can only hope to extract better detail on emerging themes from contemporary work, hopefully without too much selection bias, as by the time any consensus emerges we'll all be decades older.

giving up HFCS 100% in the new year

need advice: is "corn syrup solids" a sneaky term for HFCS or something different that is just as bad or something different that is less bad?

Mentioned last year, but these videos on HFCS/sucrose are IMO required viewing:

Robert Lustig - Sugar: the Bitter Truth (90 min)
Sean/UndergroundWellness - Sugar: The Bitter Truth (The SHORT Version) (11 min)

HFCS = glucose + fructose = table sugar = bad. There no significant chemical difference, both (when consumed in quantities common in the modern SAD) induce the liver to increase (LDL) bad cholesterol lipoproteins and obesity via de novo lipogenesis.

Get your fructose from fruits.

For anyone with poorly-seasoned/stripped cast iron cookware, and even carbon steel woks, I was thumbing through a Cook's Illustrated at the grocery checkout, and stumbled upon Sheryl Canter's novel approach to seasoning which CI highly praised, and just tried it myself with great success.

Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning: A Science-Based How-To

Summary: seasoning is a polymerization process, not cooking. Stable saturated and monounsaturated oils don't polymerize easily, but low-smoke point, high PUFA oils do. The best unstable food oil by far? Flax oil.

are brown rice/white rice/brown pasta/white pasta/potatoes/white bread/whole grain bread all equally bad? are potatoes the lesser evil?

xp roxymuzak:

Corn syrup solids, like ordinary cooking (not high fructose) corn syrup, is 100% glucose. Less sweet by dry weight than HFCS/sucrose, and according to Dr. Lustig above, less harmful, but still empty calories.

xp just1n3:

Oh, now you're just teasing me. Nearly all the fiber, vitamins & minerals of grains are in the bran & endosperm, which are milled off in the production of white rice, white pasta, and white flour/bread. Dr. Fuhrman's ranking of grains/starches by aggregate nutritional density runs:

Oats 53
Brown Rice 40
Sprouted Grain Bread 39
Potato (white) 34
Barley 32
Whole Wheat Bread 24
Quinoa 21
Whole Wheat Pasta 19
White Pasta 18
White Bread 17
Bagel 18
White Rice 12

His methodology and results seems reasonable to me (though his recipes still suck).

I don't like whole wheat pasta either, but Dr. Greger has turned me on to bionaturae brand as the closest to white pasta in texture. $3/lb at Whole Foods, $2.50 in bulk from Amazon, when my order arrives I'll let everyone know how it fares.

thanks!

Also, while it looks like cooked whole wheat pasta is indistinguishable from cooked white pasta in Fuhrman's ranking, that's because fiber doesn't figure into his calculation, and many of the other nutrients leach into the cooking water. That wouldn't be an issue making in soup with pasta.

Q: Does anyone have any experience with hemp oil?

Hippy Dr. Andrew Weil says it doesn't have the offensive undertones of flax oil (which frankly is better for seasoning woks than for eating - sadly I've concluded we should our flax from smoothies and porridge).

seems like there's not much point in eating grains beside the calories, really.

fiber is good for you?

It beats

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PC3aIMjVWm8/SRVUg48L2yI/AAAAAAAAArI/fNeHAusPw64/s400/divertic350.jpg

btw made this and my breath is on fire! haw.

ohmigod that looks amazing. I would totally make. maybe I'll start cooking for myself again.

also I never got the big deal w/r/t garlic and body odor. maybe I just don't notice it when I reek of garlic. is that something you notice, when your BO starts to smell like garlic? \o_O/

i notice weird body odor with curry

my hands smell funny after eating curry but I dunno how long that lasts for

I used to notice that my sweat was, uh, not good the day after eating spring onions. Not oniony, just a strong chemical smell, almost petrol-ish. </tmi>

Haven't noticed it lately, but maybe that is because I no longer convince myself to use more than one spring onion per recipe in an always futile attempt to get through the bunch before they start to look droopy.

(have a feeling they are "scallions" to Americans but might be imagining that since there are regions of the UK where "scallion" is probably dominant)

maybe the key is to load up on garlic and curry in winter when you don't sweat

they call them both here but spring onions (whenever i buy them and they are named that) seem to be much larger

i've never had garlic affect my body odor that i'm aware of, but my breath...

xps yeah grains are a pretty high-calorie way to get fiber

xp lol it's a chinese custom to eat raw garlic with DUMPLINGS! so I've been doing that when I'm having DUMPLINGS!, why, because DUMPLINGS! are delicious and everybody should eat DUMPLINGS!

the thing is, if you don't get your calories from grains then where else are you supposed to get your calories from??

meat, beans, nuts, vegetables, fruit, and dairy

Beans are pretty ideal.

Speaking of which, Turkish Lentil Spinach Soup from the Sundays at M00sewood tonight, and it gets 4 thumbs up.

Simmer 1 cup lentils in 5 cups stock (or water + tsp salt), covered for 40 minutes. Meanwhile in a 4 qt or larger soup pot heat 1/4 cup oo and saute 2 cups chopped onions. When translucent, add 3 pressed garlic cloves, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 2 bay leaves, and 1/2 cup bulghur. Stir til onions and bulghur are lightly browned. Mix in 2 cups chopped tomatoes, 1/4 cup chopped parsley, and when the tomatoes give up their juice 1/4 cup tomato paste. Add the lentils and broth. Simmer for 15 minues, add pinch rosemary, salt/pepper to taste and water if its getting thick. Before serving, stir in 2 cups chopped spinach to wilt in soup.

yum

The whole starch-based vs. high nutrition density (veggies, fruit, beans, and nuts, in that order) thing is a matter of some debate. Either will spare us diseases of affluence, much of the planet can only afford starch-based, but it seems high-nutrition density has the edge wrt immune-support & cancer.

i just ate a whole bunch of dinosaur kale with carmelized onions and it was the jam. yum yum yum.

thanks for those links sanpaku

I discovered sprouted wheat berries over winter break. Once I get my car battery recharged and can start my car again, I will go find some. I broke down and ordered tuna in bulk from amazon. This is making me question whether or not I need a car.

i decided to track down this product at costco to replace the flax oil i'd been using in smoothies and mixing in with oatmeal.

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Organic-Pre-ground-Milled-Golden/dp/B000TTNMNO/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1294873635&sr=1-1

apparently it's much cheaper there.

today's whole foods lunch: quinoa cake sandwich with spinach, roasted red peppers, red onion + a side of kale with oranges and dried cranberries.

i'm kind of "over" potatoes to some extent, i've been switching more to sweet potatoes of late. really been trying to get back on the nutrition nazi train after spending most of the past year not really eating as well as i should have ("healthy", i guess, but not up to my previous standards.)

The holidays murdered my nazi diet. I now eat a spinach salad everyday as penance, also I love spinach.

what is a quinoa cake sandwich? is it quinoa cake in bread or does the quinoa cake replace the bread?

quinoa cake is in the bread (not vv nazi)

i noticed not a lot of people went on DIETS for their new years resolution this year. i am thankful, as merely hearing about people's diets makes me rage. especially lean cuisine lunches.

so where are my NN's at? it's been quiet around these parts. i finally got a decent blender and it's taken my smoothie experiences to a whole new level.

the cynicism displayed by food shops in january is just too much: M&S especially with their low-cal lunch range front and center of their shops, including low-cal portions of sweets and crisps. smdh

Whole flax seeds (~ $2.50/lb for organic at WF) have a pantry life of about a year, while pre-milled flax (like the oil) needs to be refrigerated. I toss a couple tablespoons in the blender (by themselves) and run at liquify/obliterate for 30 secs, and then add my other ingredients once flax-dust tornado subsides. I've tried ground flaxmeal and the grit/texture is about the same.

do you use whole flax seeds then?

Just saying, whole flax can work fine for smoothies, without much hassle. If I ate porridge/oatmeal more often, I'd probably process some flax into meal in the coffee grinder regularly.

Follow-up on the Bionaturae brand whole wheat pasta: yes its texture is way better than other WW pastas I've tried, but it still has the bran-y taste of whole wheat, for better or worse.

yeah i worried about that. i buy flax seeds and throw em in, i didn't know if that was the thing to do or not. they have to be kind of broken up to 'work' i guess?

Otherwise you're giving your public sewer system/humanure compost pile an omega-3 supplement.

i bought a bunch of ground flax seed for my uk version of steel cut oatmeal. it is working out well, as in i am presumably doubling down on omega 3 (i eat sardines a couple of times a week). it comes in a sealable bag.

i have also been enjoying a red lentil daal with sweet potato, maybe i got the recipe link from ilx?

and salmon and quinoa, as per.

Could someone tell me how much sprouted wheat berries cost at Whole Foods in the bulk section so I won't have to drive to Milford?

you could try calling your local store?

NEW YEAR NEW U

;)

http://thevegg.com/

I just bought some amaranth. Does anyone have any good recipes?

You can use it in practically any recipe for quinoa, with no alterations. I don't know if amaranth requires a wash, as quinoa is reported to.

I think I will rinse it anyway, just to be on the safe side. Thanks Sanpaku!

NNs I need inspiration. Also a 2012 thread, pls.

me too!!!

i feel like we have both been saying this for months :(

start a thread! i would start it but i feel like a nutrition disappointment most of the time

wah wah wah

i need nn motivation! quincie, maybe we can start a support group?

― tehresa, Tuesday, April 5, 2011 12:19 PM

11 months ago :(

i think i'm gonna go to the gym now.

fine i'll start the thread

thanks, harbl

I am going to visit a gym today! Not to work out, mind you, but to see if I there is any possibility that I might actually show up were I to join.

Also going to the farmer's market, which should help on the nutritional front.

Already, T, let's do a daily check-in on the new thread to keep us motivated and, er, accountable.

sweet. i generally do fine for breakfast/lunch but dinners with nutrition-indiscriminate bf is killing me.

i also think that for me if i don't exercise enough, it doesn't matter how healthy i eat. i will be fat. so. more gym for me.

~~~~~nutrition nazis 2012~~~~~