Group items tagged

August of this year, the BBC reported that the British Advertising Standards Authority attacked a vegetarian organization for making "alarmist" and "unsubstantiated" claims about the risks of eating meat. Headlines like "Vegetarian group slammed over advertising" splashed across the evening news. What "exaggerated" claims were targeted by the Agency? The vegetarian group claimed that meat-eaters were at increased risk of dying from heart disease and stroke, and that vegetarians lived longer than meateaters. How could the agency possibly find fault with such incontrovertible facts? Because, simply put, our "facts" aren't true. The latest science and the best science that we have that we have suggests that we vegetarians do not live longer than our meat-eating counterparts. The latest published results came out January, 2002 in a journal called Public Health Nutrition. Eight thousand vegetarians were followed for 18 years, and no survival advantage was found. Then April, 2002 the results of a study twice that size were released at the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition held at Loma Linda University. A study involving seventeen thousand vegetarians followed for about 9 years confirms the bad news-no survival advantage for vegetarians. Even more worrisome, both this huge studies found that vegetarians had an increased risk of dying from degenerative brain diseases

The American diet circa 2007 is a disaster - but positive change has begun. Those were the twin themes of the "Fourth Annual Nutrition and Health Conference" held in San Diego, Calif., May 14-16, 2007. The conference was sponsored by the University of Arizona's College of Medicine in conjunction with the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM); PIM was founded and is co-directed by Dr. Weil. \n\nThe three-day event brought together leading nutrition researchers from around the world, bearing plenty of both bad and good news. Some highlights:

Dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids for the prevention of cancer: a review of potential mechanisms. Larsson SC, Kumlin M, Ingelman-Sundberg M, Wolk A. Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;79(6):935-45. Review. PMID: 15159222

Multi-targeted therapy of cancer by omega-3 fatty acids. Berquin IM, Edwards IJ, Chen YQ. Cancer Lett. 2008 Oct 8;269(2):363-77. Epub 2008 May 13. Review. PMID: 18479809 doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2008.03.044

A systematic review of the evidence supporting a causal link between dietary factors and coronary heart disease. Mente A, de Koning L, Shannon HS, Anand SS. Arch Intern Med. 2009 Apr 13;169(7):659-69. PMID: 19364995

A systematic review of the evidence supporting a causal link between dietary factors and coronary heart disease. Mente A, de Koning L, Shannon HS, Anand SS. Arch Intern Med. 2009 Apr 13;169(7):659-69. Review. PMID: 19364995 Conclusions The evidence supports a valid association of a limited number of dietary factors and dietary patterns with CHD. Future evaluation of dietary patterns, including their nutrient and food components, in cohort studies and randomized trials is recommended

Prevention of skeletal muscle insulin resistance by dietary cod protein in high fat-fed rats. Lavigne C, Tremblay F, Asselin G, Jacques H, Marette A. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Jul;281(1):E62-71. PMID: 11404223 These data demonstrate that feeding cod protein prevents obesity-induced muscle insulin resistance in high fat-fed obese rats at least in part through a direct action of amino acids on insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle cells.