Every time you turn around there’s another new diet or tip floating around that’s better than the last. Then again, there are the same tried and true methods that have worked for ages. Finally, there’s the other group of half truths and mysteries that are good in theory, but poor in execution. Either that or they’re proven undeniably wrong within a reasonable amount of time. One such story is that of sugars and artificial sweeteners, and with it comes a new study that aims to burst the bubble on the name “diet” soda itself.
As it turns out, diet soda is anything but diet. In a study from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 10 years worth of information from almost 500 participants was analyzed. What was found that among those subjects was that those who drank 2 or more diet sodas per day had waist sizes that increased 6 times more than those who did not drink diet soda at all. A professor and researcher of this study said regarding artificial sweeteners, “They may be free of calories, but not of consequences.”
This information was brought forth at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting, and while shocking enough on its own there’s actually more news regarding artificial sweeteners. Another study that was conducted using mice fed regular chow vs. those fed chow with added aspartame (a very common sweetener in diet drinks and foods) showed that the mice fed the chow with added aspartame actually had higher blood glucose levels.
Aspartame has had its own dark history, being documented for destroying brain neurons and leading to possible outcomes like seizures, strokes, heart disease, and chronic headaches. It’s likely that moving forward there will be groups who rally for the removal of the “diet” tagline on beverages and foods like this, because it’s rather obvious that their products are doing exactly the opposite of that.
Of all the nutrients in existence, perhaps none may play more roles than magnesium. It’s been linked to health issues such as fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, depression, and anxiety among others but still over half of US citizens are deficient in it. The problem with many other conditions that are directly related magnesium consumption is that you can’t always see what’s going on. A German university study has connected the dots to show a correlation between magnesium and something you use every day: your mouth.
Over 4,000 individuals participated in the study that looked at the association between periodontal disease and magnesium. Each participant was matched for things such as age, existing health conditions, and education level and then they were subjected to periodontal examinations to measure probing depth, attachment loss, and number of remaining teeth. The results showed that subjects who were taking magnesium supplements or some form of magnesium drug had reduced probing depths, less loss of attachment, and more remaining teeth on average.
The sad truth is that most people who take magnesium supplements are still part of the deficient population. Most of the magnesium in products you see on store shelves isn’t designed for your body to recognize it as something that needs to be put to work right away. Either that or they’re full of preservatives that actually keep the body from absorbing it. At the same time, there are plenty of prescription drugs on the market that can cause your body to lose magnesium and other vital nutrients.
Don’t take our word for it, because within 5 minutes of doing your own research you can find the benefits of magnesium, and also what’s wrong with so many versions on the market today. If you really want to take control of your health and prevent a multitude of debilitating conditions that could cost you thousands, then click below to read more.
We all know that a dog is a man’s best friend, but can that friendship be enough to make up for lack of other social involvement? Researchers at the University of Miami seem to think so. Of course this isn’t the first time that studies have been conducted to determine how having a pet can benefit the owners’ health, but it is one of the first to examine the social relationship. Most of the people who participated in the study had similar reactions when asked about their pets as when the same questions were posed regarding their other friends.
Multiple studies took place, with the first one targeting dog owners. It was determined that dogs helped their owners achieve higher levels of social happiness regardless of the support of other people. In this case it wasn’t that pets and friends were interchangeable, but rather dog ownership enhanced their owners’ ability to be socially satisfied.
Another study just asked separate groups of pet owners and those who didn’t own pets personality based questions. The result? Pet owners were less lonely, more self esteem, and were in better health while getting more exercise. That could be in part to the owners’ exercising with their pets like walking their dogs, and it wasn’t determined if those characteristics were brought out by the pets or that people with those preexisting characteristics were just more likely to own pets.
The final phase involved asking participants to write about an instance when they were rejected or felt socially awkward, followed by writing about either a friend or pet or drawing a map of their college campus. In this case those who wrote about a friend or pet expressed that they felt better afterwards, while those who chose to draw didn’t have any change in mood. The key here is that feelings of betterment were equal between friends and pets.
With obesity being dubbed an “epidemic” in the US, there are always new diets emerging claiming to provide the most results with the least amount of effort. After all, we’re Americans and we want everything 5 minutes ago right? Crash diets earn their namesake as they often hit a wall with ill consequences, but that doesn’t stop people from churning out idea after wacky idea. Some of these plans are wilder than others, but they all scream danger for your body if you take the lazy approach. Here are some of the worst fad diets circulating today, you may be surprised:
While research suggests that sleep deprivation can contribute to weight gain, does that mean that the inverse is also true? If you believe whoever came up with the “Sleeping Beauty Diet” then the answer is yes. The danger with this diet is that they suggest that you sedate yourself for multiple days to avoid eating and thus lose weight. Elvis apparently swore by it, although if you look at his later years it must not have worked too well. Then again, it could be all the peanut butter and banana sandwiches he ate during his waking hours that days of sleep couldn’t make up for.
Of all the diets you can blame on the fashion industry, probably the wildest one is the “Cotton Ball Diet”. No fancy buildup here, it’s exactly what it sounds like: eat cotton balls. The genius who came up with this weight loss miracle got lots of people to go along with the idea that cotton balls, while terribly bland and dry, are high in fiber and low in calories. Sure, you can soak them in juice or some other liquid first to add some flavor, but it turns out that’s not exactly the kind of fiber your body needs, and it can lead to some major problems in the digestive system.
The absolute unhealthiest diet of all though has got to be the “Air Diet” that apparently is loved by French women. This one is just plain starvation, only you get to tease yourself while you’re at it. Never consuming food, but only holding it up to your mouth. Leave it to the French to create a diet that requires you to mime eating.
When the food safety act was passed by congress earlier this year, we knew that it would allow the FDA the authority to shut down any food growers they deemed unsafe. A story out of Michigan is dangerously close to that sort of situation, but on a smaller scale. Who knew that depending on your city codes could be illegal to grow vegetables in your own yard? Apparently if you live in Oak Park, MI that’s exactly the case and you can ask Julie Bass all about it.
Bass’ front yard was dug up due to construction on sewer lines, and instead of sewing grass seeds over the soil it would be much more beneficial to plant a vegetable garden instead. Not only would it be cheaper to provide food for her family, but it would also be a sure fire way to avoid all the chemicals that usually come into contact with mass produced vegetables and teach her children about providing for themselves at the same time. The city planner for Oak Park doesn’t quite agree with Julie though, and has already cited and fined her for her garden on the grounds that front yards aren’t “suitable” for gardens.
“Suitable” is the exact word used too, as the city code says “All unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass, shrubbery, or other suitable live plant material.” However, Oak Park’s city planner has created his own definition for suitable as he refers to it as meaning “common” and claims that “You can look all throughout the entire city and you’ll never find a vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.”
Julie has an upcoming jury trial that she asked for herself, and hopefully her so-called peers that witness that trial will have more common sense. After all, she hasn’t received any other complaints.
If you’ve ever been a smoker, or even known one in the past few years you’re probably familiar with Chantix. The new “wonder drug” to help people quit smoking, if you can afford it that is. As is always the case with the mega popular prescription drugs pushed on Americans, there are side effects. With Chantix however, the side effects are significant enough that the FDA has actually stepped in and required a new set of clinical trials that could possibly end up causing the drug to be pulled from the market. It turns out that Chantix actually increased the risk of cardiovascular health issues including heart attack that smokers already face.
700 smokers who already had some issue with cardiovascular disease were participants in a trial where some took placebos while others took Chantix. Up to a year Chantix was helpful to patients trying to quit smoking, but they also had more cardiovascular events like heart attacks than those on the placebo.
Chantix has already had somewhat of a rough road regarding side effects like depression and suicidal thoughts in patients with no previous history of mental illness. There have also been many reports of traffic accidents blamed on seizures and loss of consciousness caused by the drug. While it was once a very promising aid in smoking cessation, it’s a shame that what smokers have turned to in order to avoid cardiovascular health problems can be just as likely to cause them.
While there’s no immediate plans to remove Chantix it is good to see that the FDA is carefully considering the situation. The only reason that more severe restrictions haven’t been placed on it yet is that the benefits to those trying to quit smoking still outweigh the side effects it can present.
You know that things are bad in the world of nutrition when food manufacturers have to tout that products are made with “real sugar” so highly. When soda companies make special batches of their products and market them as nostalgic just because they have real ingredients, you should really wonder what things have come to. Go down any random aisle in your local supermarket and you’ll likely find more items containing high fructose corn syrup than those that don’t. It’s a manufacturers dream due to how easy to obtain and how cheap it is. It’s also a nightmare, being blamed for spikes in obesity and type 2 diabetes. If that wasn’t bad enough, the manufacturing process brings in some other ingredients that are way more questionable than the final product itself.
The process used to turn corn to corn starch, and then finally into high fructose corn syrup is something out of a mad scientist’s recipe book. Multiple toxic chemicals are used, and one of them has other applications such as sterilizing medical equipment and treating water systems because it kills living cells. Glutaraldehyde is also used as an embalming chemical, and according to the CDC it causes eye, nose, throat, and lung irritation. The chemicals material safety data sheet even explains that if ingested it could actually burn a hole in your stomach.
Some of the other chemicals used in this process actually bring mercury into the mix, which is highly toxic on its own. A 2009 Study found that up to half of the food products containing high fructose corn syrup that are currently being sold were positive for mercury contamination. It was so bad that researchers estimated the average American could easily ingest more than five times the maximum recommended amount of mercury within a year.
The moral of this story is read carefully. There are plenty of food items that you would never think to contain artificial sweeteners that actually do. It may be more expensive to avoid these products, but you’ll likely be around much longer to enjoy them if you do.
So far in 2011, some long strides have been taken in the fight against fluoride and water fluoridation. Even though numerous studies have been in publication for decades, they’re finally gaining more credibility and action is being taken. Even the CDC has lowered the levels of fluoride added to water supplies in many areas following the release of their own studies showing rapid increases in adolescent dental fluorosis, and while this isn’t a total victory yet, it’s certainly a blow worthy of recognition. New research continues to pile up, and as recently as the month of June a new analysis of reports has been published in the Spanish Journal Neurologia that confirms neurological damage from repeated exposure to fluoride, and how it’s especially dangerous for children to consume.
While this new study specifies children being the most at risk, it can cause similar damage to anyone. “Fluoride can be toxic by ingesting one part per million and the effects are not immediate, as they can take 20 years or more to become evident,” say researchers. We may see effects like dental fluorosis more quickly, but the other dangers are much more than cosmetic. Researchers add that “Fluoride is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, which may cause biochemical and functional changes in the nervous system during pregnancy, since the fluoride accumulates in brain tissue before birth.” This is the first time that such emphasis has been placed on fluoride absorption prior to birth.
The hits keep on coming too, as the US National Research Council’s fluoride panel says that “Fluorides also increase the production of free radicals in the brain through several different biological pathways. These changes have a bearing on the possibility that fluorides act to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.” It’s amazing to think that at one time adding fluoride to water was dubbed one of the greatest health innovations of the 20th century, and then in 2010 TIME magazine listed it as one of the top 10 common household toxins, saying that it is “neurotoxic and potentially tumorigenic if swallowed.”
This new study doesn’t single out fluoridated water either. It also suggests steering clear of dental products containing fluoride because of the amount of increased exposure that leads to. There are so many ways that we come into contact with fluoride whether it be out tap water or showers, or other beverages that are produced with water that has been fluoridated. Dental products with additional fluoride are the easiest to avoid, and have the most immediate impact by way of fluorosis. The war against fluoride rages on, but 2011 is shaping up to be a major offensive for those opposed to adding poisons to our water supplies.
In another instance of prescription drugs causing more problems than they solve, a new diabetes drug that is currently being tested has already been linked to numerous types of cancer and increases in various types of infections. Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca’s new medication dapaglifozin actually fares worse than the more well known diabetes drug metformin. Side effects like nausea, diarrhea, chest pain, difficulty breathing, fever, muscle pain, and unusual tiredness or weakness should be enough to make anyone look for other treatment options. However, This new drug jumps past all of the digestive system issues and problems with general wellbeing straight into serious diseases.
The two year study showed that those taking dapaglifozin were five times more likely to develop bladder cancer than those being treated with other medications. Similar numbers were discovered when comparing rates of breast cancer, with dapaglifozin users developing it at four times the rate of those not taking it. Only a single person in each control group for both bladder and breast cancer developed the condition in the 2 year period of the study.
While increases in cancers are certainly serious issues, the more common effects were infections in the genitals and urinary tract. This is most like attributed to the way that dapaglifozin works. It prevents glucose from being absorbed through the kidneys and into the blood stream. Instead, it disposes of excess glucose directly through urine and other bodily waste. This causes an increase in bacterial infections that could be avoided if the sugars were processed and disposed of in other ways.
Diabetes can be reversed naturally, and without drugs of any kind. It’s important to remember that there are other options besides turning to pills for every ailment. While some are helpful, most carry side effects worse than the condition they’re meant to treat.
According to the Internet Stroke Center, roughly 795,000 Americans suffer strokes every year. They are the 3rd leading cause of death in the US, with more than 140,000 deaths annually attributed to stroke. In 2005, 1 out of every 17 deaths that occurred in the US was due to stroke. High blood pressure is the greatest risk factor for stroke, and while maintaining a normal range of blood pressure is important for all aspects of health, it is even more necessary when trying to prevent vascular incidents like stroke. There are some dietary supplementations that have been proven to help lower blood pressure, but none have ever been directly connected with incidents like stroke. However, new research conducted in France intends to prove otherwise.
Strokes is much more common among older people, and according to a French study of 7,000 people age 65 and older Scientists believe that regular use of olive oil may have preventative effects. The medical journal Neurology features their published study that shows people who use more olive oil in cooking or methods of consumption had lower rates of stroke. Researchers now believe that there should be new dietary recommendations for the elderly based upon their findings.
Olive oil has been known for quite some time to have possible health benefits. Other studies have shown it to help prevent oxidative stress, and are also believed to help prevent high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and because of that, heart disease. The American Cancer Society has even said that extra virgin olive oil can help fight breast cancer, of which a new case is diagnosed every 3 minutes in the US. It’s hoped that this protective effect rings true in relation to stroke, but more research is needed.
Every time you turn around there’s another new diet or tip floating around that’s better than the last. Then again, there are the same tried and true methods that have worked for ages. Finally, there’s the other group of half truths and mysteries that are good in theory, but poor in execution. Either that or they’re proven undeniably wrong within a reasonable amount of time. One such story is that of sugars and artificial sweeteners, and with it comes a new study that aims to burst the bubble on the name “diet” soda itself.
