Nutrition

Am JClin Nutr Feb, 2005

Obesity in childhood: what’s activity got to do with it?
” There are multiple etiologies of obesity, and attempts to curb the rising prevalence of obesity by addressing any single etiology are notoriously unsuccessful… it has been difficult to tie changes in activity patterns to the development of obesity in a cause-and-effect manner when we leave the realm of television viewing…They found that only 4% of the variation in body fat was related to the level of self-reported physical activity, and they found even this small relation only in males…For the girls in the current study, fat mass was more closely related to the mother’s fat mass than to the girls’ physical activity, and that was also shown in earlier studies… The authors correctly stated that self-reported activity might reflect errors that were due to the perceptions of the respondents…Clearly, physical activity is not likely to counteract a poor diet. It would take >1–2 h of extremely vigorous activity to counteract a single large-sized (ie, 785 kcal) children’s meal at a fast food restaurant…There is no risk to a decrease in sedentary activity or to a reasonable and sustainable increase in physical activity, and there is benefit in terms of improved insulin sensitivity, among other factors.”
Reviewing your investment strategy: where does diet fit in your personal portfolio http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/81/2/339
” comparison of 3 cholesterol-lowering interventions: a low-fat vegetarian diet, the same diet combined with 20 mg of the cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin, and a diet containing a “portfolio” of foods with enhanced cholesterol-lowering properties.The results of this short-term study are impressive—consumption of the portfolio diet resulted in a nearly 30% reduction in LDL cholesterol. Even though statin therapy achieved a small but significantly greater reduction in LDL than did the portfolio diet, the authors concluded that both therapies permitted a similar number of persons to achieve their LDL therapeutic target. ”
Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st century http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/2/341
” food staples and food-processing procedures introduced during the Neolithic and Industrial Periods have fundamentally altered 7 crucial nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets: 1) glycemic load, 2) fatty acid composition, 3) macronutrient composition, 4) micronutrient density, 5) acid-base balance, 6) sodium-potassium ratio, and 7) fiber content. The evolutionary collision of our ancient genome with the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods may underlie many of the chronic diseases of Western civilization.”
Notes: 65% of adults are overweight in the US, adding 280,184 unnecessary deaths per year. 64 million have cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of mortality (38.5%). Fifty million are hypertensive; 11 million have type 2 diabetes, and 37 million have high cholesterol over 240 mg/dL. In post-menopausal women 7.2% have osteoporosis and 39.6% have osteopenia. Hip fractures case 20% excess mortality in the year after fracture. Cancer is second leading cause of death at 25%, and 1/3 of cancer death is due to nutrition including obesity.
Below are the “good” diets they suggest we evolved with vs. the “bad” diets many of us consume today.

*basic (high pH) diet prevents and treats osteoporosis, muscle wasting, kidney stones, hypertension, asthma, and renal (kidney) damage.
Influence of changes in sedentary behavior on energy and macronutrient intake in youth http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/2/361
Conclusions: Decreasing sedentary behaviors can decrease energy intake in nonoverweight adolescent youth and should be considered an important component of interventions to prevent obesity and to regulate body weight.

Direct comparison of a dietary portfolio of cholesterol-lowering foods with a statin in hypercholesterolemic participants
” a diet high in plant sterols (1.0 g/1000 kcal), soy-protein foods (including soy milks and soy burgers, 21.4 g/1000 kcal), almonds (14 g/1000 kcal), and viscous fibers from oats, barley, psyllium, and the vegetables okra and eggplant (10 g/1000 kcal) (portfolio diets)…Conclusions: Dietary combinations may not differ in potency from first-generation statins in achieving current lipid goals for primary prevention. “

Deleterious effects of omitting breakfast on insulin sensitivity and fasting lipid profiles in healthy lean women
” Conclusion: Omitting Breakfast impairs fasting lipids and postprandial insulin sensitivity and could lead to weight gain if the observed higher energy intake was sustained.”
Meta-analysis of the effects of soy protein containing isoflavones on the lipid profile http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/2/397
” Conclusions: Soy protein containing isoflavones significantly reduced serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol and significantly increased HDL cholesterol, but the changes were related to the level and duration of intake and the sex and initial serum lipid concentrations of the subjects. “

Effects of n–3 [omega-3] fatty acids from fish on premature ventricular complexes and heart rate in humans
” Conclusions:Supplementation with 1.5 g n–3 fatty acids/d from fish does not substantially suppress the number of PVCs [heart irregularities] in a patient population with frequent PVCs. However, n–3 fatty acids decreased heart rate by 2.1 beats/min, a significant decrease that predicts a lower risk of sudden death. “

Choline deficiency in mice and humans is associated with increased plasma homocysteine concentration after a methionine load
” Conclusion: These results suggest that choline, like folate, plays an important role in the metabolism of homocysteine in humans and that response to a methionine load may be useful when assessing choline nutriture. ”
Relation of the tocopherol forms to incident Alzheimer disease and to cognitive change http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/81/2/508
” Conclusion: The results suggest that various tocopherol forms rather than alpha – tocopherol alone may be important in the vitamin E protective association with Alzheimer disease. “