Sunday, April 13, 2008
Foods that people avoid
When sitting down to eat with others I refrain from commenting about unhealthy practices at the food table. Yet, it is difficult not to wince sometimes at dietary habits. People reach for artificial sweeteners like aspartame with no hesitation. They carefully remove any onions from their salads or cooked foods, saying onions don’t agree with them. I’ve even sat at a meal table and heard people say they don’t eat anything that is colored green. To make up for these quirks in people’s diets, people get to take problematic prescription drugs, which doesn’t seem to bother them a bit.
Surprisingly, most people who reach for non-caloric sweeteners might try honey as an alternative. When given to laboratory rats, honey produced less weight gain and improved blood sugar markers compared to table sugar (sucrose). [Journal Food Science 73: H1-7, 2008]
It is interesting to note that fructose is not a very desirable form of sugar for human health, but honey is rich in fructose. When rats are given a honey-based diet or refined sugars as fructose, the honey fructose did not raise triglycerides like the refined sugars did. In fact, honey-fed rodents have higher vitamin E levels than refined sugar-fed animals. [Journal Nutrition 132: 3379-82, 2002]
In another striking experiment, weight gain was about the same for rats fed a sugar-free diet or a honey diet. Weight gain was lower for honey-fed versus sucrose (table sugar) diets. [Journal Food Science 72: S224-29, 2007]
So much for lab rats, what about humans? When humans with mild diabetes were given honey in an experiment, they exhibited better glucose tolerance. [Journal Medicinal Food 10: 473-78, 2007] In another human study, honey lowered blood plasma glucose levels compared to sucrose or dextrose. Honey also reduced markers of inflammation, C-reactive protein and homocysteine. [J Medicinal Food. 2004 Spring; 7(1):100-7]
Finding dark-green leafy vegetables to eat is a dietary prize, but for many, they haven’t seen a bowl of spinach, kale, romaine or bok choy in decades. Imagine now, those dark greens are chocked full of folic acid (which reduces homocysteine and is needed for DNA repair), magnesium (which prevents calcifications and is needed to make cellular energy), carotenoids like lutein and beta carotene (which are good for the eyes), and vitamin K (which is not only good for bone health, but also to prevent calcification of arteries and prevents hemorrhage among patients taking blood thinners). No, the smattering of iceberg lettuce on your hamburger doesn’t count as a serving of dark-greens.
As for onions, they do contain one of the most powerful antioxidants, quercetin, about 30 mg per onion [Molecular Nutrition Food Research 2006 Nov; 50(11):996-1005], and quercetin inhibits viruses, is a natural antihistamine, thins the bloods, aids in bone formation, and helps to maintain health blood pressure in humans. [Journal Orthopedic Research March 26, 2008; Journal Nutrition 2007 Nov; 137(11):2405-11] Red onions offer more antioxidants than white onions. [Journal Agriculture Food Chemistry 55: 10067-80, 2007] Quercetin also reduces the overall risk for cancer. [Am J Clinical Nutrition 2006 Nov; 84(5):1027-32] A bowl of onion soup, providing quercetin, will inhibit blood clotting that causes all heart attacks. [British Journal Nutrition 96: 482-88, 2006] Ah, skip the onions. They cause bad breath.
Constipation is a common problem that many never link to their diet or supplements. Population studies reveal constipation is a chronic problem in some countries, affecting 20-40% of adults in many countries. [BMC Gastroenterology 2008 Feb 12; 8:5]
Calcium supplements in particular will often induce constipation. Magnesium is a good antidote. [Southern Medical Journal 1999 Nov; 92(11):1040-7]
It’s striking how many times this writer has recommended dried plums (prunes) for people with constipation. Why would prunes not come to mind? By the way, check the color of your stool. Yellow and pale? Now eat a couple of dried plums (prunes). Your stool will turn a healthy brown, indicative of the strong antioxidants in plums. Eating plums reduces the risk of colon cancer. [Nutrition Cancer 53: 117-25, 2005] -Copyright 2008 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
Labels: green leafy vegetables, honey, onions, prunes
posted by Knowledge of Health at 9:05 PM
