Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function

Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function

Healthy Dark Chocolate

"More evidence that dark chocolate is good for you" says London Nutrition expert Yvonne Bishop-Weston (with a smile)

Dark Chocolate Flavanoids good for bones and heart

A clinical trial led by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) found that patients with advanced heart failure and type 2 diabetes showed improved mitochondrial structure after three months of treatment with epicatechin-enriched cocoa. Epicatechin is a flavonoid found in dark chocolate.

The results of this initial study has led to the implementation of larger, placebo-controlled clinical trial at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VASDHS to assess if patients with heart failure and diabetes show improvement in their exercise capacity when treated with epicatechin-rich cocoa.

The results, which mimicked earlier studies showing improvement in skeletal and heart muscle function

University of California, San Diego Health Sciences (2012, March 2). Cocoa may enhance skeletal muscle function. ScienceDaily.

Pam R. Taub, Israel Ramirez-Sanchez, Theodore P. Ciaraldi, Guy Perkins, Anne N. Murphy, Robert Naviaux, Michael Hogan, Alan S. Maisel, Robert R. Henry, Guillermo Ceballos, Francisco Villarreal. Alterations in Skeletal Muscle Indicators of Mitochondrial Structure and Biogenesis in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Failure: Effects of Epicatechin Rich Cocoa. Clinical and Translational Science, 2012; 5 (1): 43 DOI:

McDonalds Spotlight by Frugal Dad

How Happy is the Meal You’re Paying For (Infographic) | Frugal Dad

You could argue that McDonalds are only providing customers what they want, if they provide fruit kids don't eat it. But this is about what is the acceptable norm. Our culture has become at odds with nature, instead of survival of the fittest it's survival of the sickest. McDonalds should take responsibility for the part they've played in the obesity, heart disease, diabetes and altzhiemer's epidemics of this and the next generation. McDonalds should use their awesome marketing skills and powers of persuasion to save our children from the preventable chronic diseases that blight the world - they need essential fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants - not sugar and fat.

More and more parents are bringing up their children to think that McDonalds are evil. With knowledge comes responsibility, the facts and research is out there, the libel cases being fought- if McDonalds don't now take responsibility sooner or later they will be held responsible and no amount of nifty lobbying and devious state legislation will save them.


Source: http://frugaldad.com

War Against Sugar Begins

War Declared on Sugar Mountain of Death

Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco and should be regulated, claim US health experts. (BBC)

Finally the War against SUGAR , the silent evil killer on our streets, has begun. Governments and polititians, even dieticians have always been wary of pointing their finger at the sugar industry the way they eventually did at the tobacco industry. The sugar industry is so powerful and many of the hereditary richest families in the world have their fingers in the slave trading sugar industry somewhere along the line. People have allegedly mysteriously died for speaking ill of the white stuff in the not too distant past.

Anyway you can imagine the cheer amongst nutritionists to see the start of an international nutritional lynch mob starting to gather and pin the blame of all the world's preventable health woes from infertility to obesity, heart disease to diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, dementia and even the common cold and cancer firmly at the door of the world sugar mountain.

In a comment in the journal Nature, Prof Lustig, a leading child obesity expert, says governments need to consider major shifts in policy, such as taxes, limiting sales of sweet food and drinks during school hours, or even stopping children from buying them below a certain age.

The professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, told the BBC: "It [sugar] meets all the criteria for societal intervention that alcohol and tobacco meet."

The researchers acknowledge that they face "an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby".

Daily dose of diet soda may increase heart attacks ( Re drinks with artificial sweeteners)

The new findings have suggested that just a couple of daily cans of the supposedly 'healthier' (sic) diet artificially sweetened carbonated drinks, such as lemonade or cola, can raise the risk of liver damage, as well as potentially causing diabetes and heart damage. Researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center claim those who drink diet soft drinks are 43 per cent more likely to have heart attacks, vascular disease or strokes than those who have none.The latest study appears in the Journal of General Internal Medicine

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2094681/Just-diet-fizzy-drink-increase-risk-heart-attack-stroke.html#ixzz1lG2u6SFl

But a Danish study suggest non diet soda drinks are just as leathal

Researchers, led by Dr. Bjrn Richelsen at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark asked people to drink either a liter of water, milk, diet cola or regular cola each day for six months.At the end of the study the regular cola drinkers ended up with 25 percent more fat surrounding their organs, and just about doubled the amount of fat in the liver and muscle.

"This study suggests that the adverse effects of sugary beverages go beyond just weight gain or fat gain. It's the gaining of the wrong fat in the wrong places," said Dr. Frank Hu, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health

Read More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/us-sugary-soda-idUSTRE80B1WS20120112

Oh and after many years of rediculousness in the US and UK/ Europe The sweet herb Stevia is now available for sale as a sweetener - get it raw and unadulterated here 
http://www.thesuperfoodco.co.uk/stevia-powder-250g-natural-sweetener-p-290.html

UK children and adults lack Vitamin D

Yvonne Bishop-Weston Nutritionist London: 25% UK toddlers lacking Vitamin D

Lack of of Vitamin D linked to depression by Bristol University study.

Ain't no sunshine? Then she's gone! Vitamin D deficiency rocks Britain's health



The Independent - BBC News

Government advice to take supplements? I think you'll find we told you so, many times, but just in case we'll tell you again about the importance of Vitamin D...

Back in 2009 we blogged about a study linking vitamin D to increased health risks , and on numerous other occasions including this one about Nutrients Men aren't getting enough of .

We reported

Vitamin D is Great for bone health but it's so much more: A study in Circulation found that people deficient in D were up to 80 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Ask your doctor to test your blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. "You need to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter," said Michael Holick, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University, in the report. If you come up short, Holick recommends taking 1,400 IU of vitamin D daily from a supplement and a multivitamin.

Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins, especially for your immune system and for building and maintaining bone health.

Meanwhile Bristol University revealed new research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol, which has been charting the health of 14,500 children since their birth in the early 1990s, shows that the link between low levels of vitamin D and depression is established in childhood and that ensuring children have a good intake of vitamin D could help reduce depression in adolescence and adulthood.


Your body makes vitamin D from sunshine - as the song goes (ish) "If there ain't no sunshine, then she's gone, there ain't no vitamin D when she goes away."

"If you spend your time playing nintendo or computer games instead of running about outside, riding in a car instead of on a bike, taking the tube / bus instead of walking through the park, thinking you look cool always wearing dark glasses or if you have dark skin to genetically protect you from a hot equatorial sun and you live in northern Europe or north America then you are going to benefit from a vitamin D supplement. A vitamin D deficiency leaves you with a greater risk of a number of different diseases not just bone problems such as rickets." says Nutritionist in London Yvonne Bishop-Weston


Vitamin D Supplement - Special Offer - Vitashine - Buy Now

French Ignore Nutrition Health Research

Mad France Disease? Eat Meat! New Law in France!

French Government Ban Vegetarian Meals

"Whilst many health advisory organisations are suggesting we cut down on meat and eat more fruit and vegetables Nicolas Sarkozy and the French government are going against the wholegrain and have legislated that meat, fish and saturated fat rich animal products always be served." London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston revealed today

In a recent Press Release from the World Cancer Research Fund they said.

Women in the UK are 17 per cent more likely to develop cancer by the age of 75 than the European average
‘Together with other factors such as being physically active and eating a healthy plant-based diet without too much salt or red and processed meat, these changes could make a real difference to the number of women who develop cancer before the age of 75.
“Overall, we estimate about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented by eating healthily, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight. And for breast cancer, which is the most common type of cancer, about four in 10 cases could be prevented through lifestyle changes.

http://www.wcrf-uk.org/audience/media/press_release.php?recid=160

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) was asked by the UK Department of Health to review dietary advice on meat consumption as a source of iron.
Based on that report a government committee, which included a number of doctors, said those consuming more than 100g of red or processed meats per day - the equivalent of as little as two thick cut back bacon rashers in one leading supermarket - may need to be told to cut their intake to reduce risk of colerectal cancer.

http://plantarian.blogspot.com/2011/02/sacn-iron-and-health-report-sacn.html

The EVU (European Vegetarian Union) report, in a typically defiant, fly in the face of the facts move,
the Government in France are moving in totally the opposite direction

Following a law voted last year by the French Parliament(1) The French have legislated meat must be served in schools, similar decrees will be taken shortly regarding almost all forms of catering from kindergarten to hospital, prisons and retirement homes. Vegetarianism will then have effectively been banned for a large part of the population.

A governmental order issued on October 2, 2011(2) has determined that all meals served in school canteens in France must contain animal products, and that meat and fish will be served at a certain minimum frequency. This implies that by law from now on no vegetarian can eat at any public or private school in France.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is binding on member states including France, holds that: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or in private, to manifest religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.(4)

The public debate regarding animal rights and the moral status of animals is active in France as in many other countries. Citizens are entitled to choose freely where they stand on these issues, and those who believe that they cannot, in conscience, accept to eat animals must not be discriminated against.

A government cannot settle a philosophical, ethical and political debate by restricting the rights of those who disagree with its own positions. For years, the official policy of the French government has been openly hostile to vegetarianism.(5) The French agriculture minister, Bruno Lemaire, declared in January 2010 that the government's aim in determining its public nutritional policy was to defend the French agricultural model and specifically to counter initiatives such as those of Paul McCartney calling for a reduced consumption of meat.(6)

Footnotes:
1. "Law for the modernization of agriculture and fisheries", published on July 27, 2010.

2. Décret n° 2011-1227 du 30 septembre 2011; arrêté du 30 septembre 2011.
3. Position statement of the American Dietetic Association
4. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, article 10.1
5.An example is the site mangerbouger.fr, where the only nutritional advice given to a teenager contemplating becoming a vegan is "By all means, do not follow that diet!" (www.mangerbouger.fr/pro/IMG/pdf/guide_adolescents-2.pdf, page 11).
6. http://tinyurl.com/FlashLeFigaro


http://oneworldday.blogspot.com/2011/10/french-ban-vegetarian-and-vegan-meals.html

Oooh La La ! Could this be the start of a new epidemic MFD? Mad France Disease?

What The World Eats - Shocking Photos

What The World Eats - Shocking Photos: Very interesting look in photos at typical weekly shopping for families around the world

These images are from the book 'Hungry Planet: What the World Eats' by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluision. It's an inspired idea, to better understand the human diet, explore what culturally diverse families eat for a week. Their portraits feature pictures of each family with a week's worth of food purchases. We soon learn that diet is determined by largely uncontrollable forces like poverty, conflict and globalization, which can bring change with startling speed. Thus cultures can move, sometimes in a single jump, from traditional diets to the vexed plenty of global-food production. People have more to eat and, too often, eat more of nutritionally questionable food. And their health suffers.

An apple a day keeps the Doctor away? Research

Apple: The health fruit? | The Why Files:

“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”? That question has been on the mind of Bahram Arjmandi, professor and chair of the department of nutrition, food and exercise sciences at Florida State University.
His answer, presented at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington this week, is that "Apples have a profound effect on total cholesterol, and also on the “good” and “bad” types of cholesterol. They caused a major reduction in inflammatory proteins that are implicated in a number of serious diseases."
Arjmandi rounded up 100 women who had just passed menopause — a time when dropping levels of estrogen lead to unhealthy changes in cholesterol levels that allow women to catch up with the male rate of cardiovascular disease.
Randomly dividing his volunteers, Arjmandi asked one group to supplement their normal diet with dried prunes. The treatment group got one-a-day packages containing 75 grams — about 2.5 ounces — of dried apple.
Arjmandi used dry apples rather than the equivalent one or two fresh apples as a way to standardize the “dose,” but he says fresh fruit is likely to be even more healthy.
If the object of these tests was a pill, the results after one year would certainly boost the stock of the drugmaker: among the apple-eaters, total cholesterol fell by 14 percent and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, the harmful fraction of cholesterol) fell 23 percent. High levels of both total cholesterol and LDL are linked to damage to blood vessels, heart attacks and strokes.
Meanwhile, the level of a protective type of cholesterol called high-density lipoprotein (HDL) rose 3 to 4 percent.

(Anti-) inflammatory results

Moving beyond cholesterol, the level of C-reactive protein fell 32 percent. “This is significant, and not just in a statistical sense but in clinical relevance,” says Arjmandi. “CRP is associated with inflammation, and is considered a marker for cardiovascular disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”
The study was partly funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, and got no funding from the apple industry.

And the active ingredient is…

What makes apples so healthy? Although both pectin, a soluble fiber, and chemicals called polyphenols are thought to confer health benefits, Arjmandi says, “an apple is more than these compounds. I’ve been working on functional foods [which give health benefits] for 20 years, and I find it’s not good to approach whole fruit or whole vegetables like drugs. If you isolate the component chemicals and take them, you get some benefits, but you will deprive yourself of greater benefits.”

The World's Healthiest Foods www.whfoods.com tells us

The phytonutrients in apples can help you regulate your blood sugar. Recent research has shown that apple polyphenols can help prevent spikes in blood sugar through a variety of mechanisms. Flavonoids like quercetin found in apples can inhibit enzymes like alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. Since these enzymes are involved in the breakdown of complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, your blood sugar has fewer simple sugars to deal with when these enzymes are inhibited. In addition, the polyphenols in apple have been shown to lessen absorption of glucose from the digestive tract; to stimulate the beta cells of the pancreas to secrete insulin; and to increase uptake of glucose from the blood via stimulation of insulin receptors. All of these mechanisms triggered by apple polyphenols can make it easier for you to regulate your blood sugar.

Scientists have recently shown that important health benefits of apples may stem from their impact on bacteria in the digestive tract. In studies on laboratory animals, intake of apples is now known to significantly alter amounts of two bacteria (Clostridiales and Bacteriodes) in the large intestine. As a result of these bacterial changes, metabolism in the large intestine is also changed, and many of these changes appear to provide health benefits. For example, due to bacterial changes in the large intestine, there appears to be more fuel available to the large intestine cells (in the form of butyric acid) after apple is consumed. 

Vitamin B12 Crying Babies & Pregnancy

Crybabies may lack vitamin B12 mothers advised

The meat manufacturing, production, processing and industry is now clutching at straws following the UK Government's announcement that we should eat no more than the equivalent of a small lamb chop and restrict our meat consumption to the bare minimum to avoid increased risks of cancer.

Once again ignoring the facts that there are safer plant based sources of all of the handful of nutrients that are found in meat, and that meat is not only missing most anti-oxidants, fibre and many other essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals but is also implicated in thwarting our ability to attain a healthy synergistic balance of these nutrients.

Once again it's the essential vitamin B12 that meat industry lobbyists have got their blood stained mitts on.

Acording to FIGO The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics almost 3,000 pregnant women took part in the study, in which researchers in the Netherlands measured the levels of vitamin B12 in the bloodstream of the mothers-to-be.

The Dutch researchers found the women with the least amount of the vitamin B12 nutrient in their blood had babies who were eight times more prone to crying.

Leading UK Nutritionist, London Yvonne Bishop-Weston explains the implications of the new findings.

The new study (reference) has shown a link between the level of vitamin B12 in the mother and excessive infant crying (more than 3 hours a day for more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks). The reasons for this are not fully understood but it could be due to the fact that a lack of vitamin B12 and folic acid hinder the foetal development of the nervous system before birth and also that in the first 6 months after birth lack of these vitamins can affect the development of the protective myelin which surrounds the nerve cells and helps them communicate.

Excessive infant crying is also called infant colic and may also be due to B12 deficiency. Excessive infant crying was found to be stronger when the mother experienced high levels of psychological problems so could affect the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm of the body controls the sleep/wake cycle, the development of which starts in the womb.It also takes about 3 months after birth to settle into a rhythm. As lack of B12 has been seen in people with sleep disorders it is suggested that lack of B12 may the infant circadian rhythm interfere with serotonin melatonin and trigger gut cramps and crying.

The developing baby relies on the mother to provide B12 and if it is deficient in her diet and her stores are too low the baby is likely to be deficient too. B12 is made by bacteria in the gut and meat, fish and eggs the usual source recommended by NHS dietitians.

Plantarians and Vegans maintain there are healthier, safer, more sustainable sources of vitamin B12  that come without the extra calories and detrimental effects of saturated animal fat and natural hormones but with essential fats and a range of useful vitamins, minerals,  anti oxidants and fibre.

Yvonne seems to agree;

I would be cautious in recommending women eat more animal foods as meat and dairy comes along with saturated fats which can hinder the body's use of essential fats which are needed for the baby's brain and nervous system development. Due to the potential levels of toxicity in fish no more than 2 portions a week should be eaten in pregnancy and egg consumption tends to be lower in pregnancy as they can only be eaten fully cooked. If anything this study is a strong argument for basic nutrient testing at the start of women's pregnancies and addressing any deficiencies as well as of course more promotion of either better, more nutritious diets or the need for effective, easily absorbable prenatal supplements.

Vitamin B12 is made by mimicing the human digestive system's ability to produce B12 from yeasts and bacteria in the gut and is then added to a number of foods from breafast cereals and plant milks to fruit juice.

Unfortunately, most natural plant sources of vitamin B12 have been proven to contain biologically inactive vitamin B12 analogues (non absorbable pseudo-vitamin B12) , inadequate for human supplementation.

Algae seems to be the most reliable plant based source of true Vitamin B12 so far. Following a research study in France in 1978 (Greiko et al) scientists in Finland (Rauma et al ) and  Japan (Watanabe et al)  have found true vitamin B12 in Nori and Chlorella (but only non-absorbable pseudo-vitamin B12 in Spirulina) whilst Italian researchers say a strain of Klamath blue green algae appears to be, in a preliminary study, an adequate and reliable source of vitamin B12 in humans (L Baroni et al , published in The International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research 2009)

Size Zero 0 Anorexic Chic Horror of London Fashion Week

 Anorexia chic returns to the catwalk as Size Zero models return - mirror.co.uk:

"I FIND it shocking the fashion world has gone back to this look. Super-skinny models today look pale and ­emaciated as if they should be in a ­hospital ward." Says Yvonne Bishop-Weston Nutritionist London in The Sunday Mirror today

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/27/harley-street-nutritionist-yvonne-bishop-weston-gives-her-expert-opinion-on-the-new-waif-models-115875-22951407/#ixzz1FA3wuLgp

The biggest risk is to young girls, it fuels their weight obsessions adding to their delusions that this is 'normal' and healthy

The designers that choose these girls and encourage this look may just as well be putting up alcoholics swigging from a bottle of vodka or heroin addicts smoking crack up their on the catwalks - it's totally irresponsible!.

Yvonne says"I see recovering anorexic girls in my Harley street clinic and it's a nasty, vicious and spiteful disease that rob's girls of their self esteem and chances of long term health.
Young women come in with pictures of models and they say “I want to look like this.” They aspire to look like the people who are chosen to show off clothes.
A recovering anorexic would see women like these as a healthy body weight. And the tragedy, of course, is that not all anorexics recover."

Most of us could do with losing a few pounds to reduce the risks of heart disease, Diabetes, cancer, stroke, but by going to the other extreme these girls are risking all those usual chronic diseases plus osteoporosis , infertility and any chance of ever being mothers, Alzheimer's, arthritis and as soon as the bloom of youth runs out their skin will look likes it's been peeled off, screwed up and tumble dried and then stuck back on with blue tack

Lets face it there are only 4 ways to achieve a size 0 body that looks like this

1. Obsessively starving yourself - Anorexia or bulimia, depriving your body of nutrients
   
2. Dangerous drug abuse - depriving your body of nutrients
   
3. Obsessive exercise - Stressing the body and depriving the body of nutrients
4. Disease - A muscle wasting disease, parasite infestation or cancer that deprives the body of nutrients
   

The restrictions placed on calories mean it is very difficult to get adequate nutrients into the body for it to function properly - typically the reproductive system is first to go (as non essential) then the digestive detox system as the body goes into emergency short term crisis management mode to try and keep the brain and heart alive at least.

If the models drink alcohol, take drugs or smoke in addition to starving themselves then they are pretty much doomed despite Kate Moss's best efforts to prove otherwise.

The only way to remotely healthy on this low calorie level would be a dangerously low fat diet of vegan raw food but then only nutrient rich vegetables and no high sugar fruits such as bananas and no nuts. However without the essential fats from nuts and seeds they would still risk heart disease and hormonal problems and brain function as essential fats are needed for every cell membrane in the body. Vegans can get these from nuts, seeds and algae but these size zero models are often fat phobic so are likely to avoid essential fats along with detrimental saturated animal fats.