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A Diet to Lower Cholesterol
Ask someone what is the best way to reduce the risk of heart disease and chances are they’ll say “reduce your cholesterol.” That message has been ingrained in our psyche. Read more
View ArticleAre all Fats created equal? Are some more bad for you than others?
Not all saturated fats are created equal. They have a different effect on blood cholesterol depending on the number of carbon atoms in their molecular structure. Lauric acid, the predominant fatty acid...
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Can Red Yeast Rice Reduce Cholesterol?
When is a substance a food and when is it a drug? That may sound like a simple question but the answer can be complicated. Suppose you take some rice, inoculate it with a type of yeast, let it ferment...
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Does Policosanol Reduce Cholesterol?
When you think of sugar, you don’t think of lowering cholesterol. But Cuban researchers do. In fact they think that a byproduct of the sugar industry, policosanol, is an effective alternative to...
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Carnitine
The strikes against meat keep piling up. This time it's a study implicating carnitine, a compound found in meat and dairy products, as a factor in heart disease. High cholesterol, hypertension,...
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Virtually everyone is aware of the connection between dietary cholesterol and...
Many cosmetics, ranging from lipstick to moisturizing creams, contain ingredients referred to as emollients. Their main purpose is to keep moisture in the skin from evaporating. It is the loss of water...
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The Perils of Inflammation
A couple of years ago the Montreal Gazette had a stunning headline: “Floss or Die!” it screamed on the front page. Another sensationalized piece of journalism, I thought. Not flossing may make you lose...
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Joe Mercola and “Foods You Should Never Eat.”
Joe Mercola is an osteopath who runs a popular health website on which he offers all sorts of advice, mostly questionable. He also sells a huge variety of products ranging from an array of supplements...
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Pistachios reputed to have some uplifting health benefits
Remember when it wasn’t hard to determine if someone had been into the pistachio bowl? They’d be caught red-handed! That’s because until artificially coloured foods became a pariah, pistachio nuts,...
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Advice About Food Is Sometimes Half-Baked
Back in the early 70s, just as I was developing an interest in the chemistry of food, I came across a witty quote by Mark Twain. “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let...
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There’s a big hole in Cheerios’ boast
Make no mistake about it: General Mills’s introduction of Cheerios sporting the label “Not made with genetically modified ingredients” is a mere marketing ploy and has nothing to do with health or...
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The end of a debate? Fat chance.
The bloggers are abuzz about a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that after reviewing 72 major studies found no relationship between saturated fat intake and heart disease. The reaction was...
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A miracle bites the dust
It's frustrating, but most scientific studies end with the line, "more research is needed." But not always. We have one of these rare cases in a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine...
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Weighing the benefits of tea
“Get in here and sit your ass down!” Not exactly what you expect to hear when you are peacefully walking in San Francisco’s Chinatown. But the boisterous elderly Chinese gentleman seemed charismatic...
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Whole grains and protein, part of a complete breakfast
"Eat Your Oatmeal! Study Finds That A Bowl A Day May Keep The Grim Reaper Away,” screams a headline reporting on a study by researchers at Harvard University. Somewhat overly optimistic, given that...
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VegeGreens products’ unfounded claims hide behind great marketing
I opened the door to pick up my morning Gazette and found a package with an anonymous note. “Can you please discuss in a column whether this is good to take?” Inside was a bottle of “VegeGreens.”...
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Unexpected consequences are part and parcel of science
Science is as a quest for knowledge. Sometimes it ends with a clear-cut result, often not. The Earth goes around the sun. Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. The speed of light is 299,792,458...
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