FDA announces 3 year phase out of partially hydrogenated oils

Since trans-fats have had their GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status rescinded the FDA is taking the next step and require that partially hydrogenated oils (PHO) be removed from products within 3 years unless companies petition for their incorporation. The FDA takes step to remove artificial trans fats in processed foods This is good news. …

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Simple premises for more precise writing about weight, size, and fat

Among my pet peeves among people writing or speaking about health matters is a lack of precision in word choice that often leads to an increase in confusion about the subject matter. I’m not sure there is any more topic where this is more prevalent in the United States than the subject of “weight” (which …

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A Lifelong Fight Against Trans Fats

From the New York Times: [Dr. Fred Kummerow] became a pioneer of trans-fat research, one of the first scientists to assert a link between heart disease and processed foods. It would be more than three decades before those findings were widely accepted. “Cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, except if it’s oxidized,” Dr. …

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A call to end the demonization of macronutrients

First, fat was declared to be bad, unhealthy, and disease promoting. Though this belief has hardly subsided there also arose a group of individuals declaring that carbohydrates were the real problem behind disease and should be avoided. Most recently there has been a push to declare protein as promoting poor health. All of these beliefs …

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Research Collected: October 2013

Dietary carbohydrate dictates development of Type 2 diabetes in the Nile rat. (2013 Sep) Suggests that the Nile rat has a similar etiology of Type 2 diabetes mellitus to humans: high carbohydrate diets. “Dispersing dietary [carbohydrate] by fiber or replacing it by moderate fat (reducing the glycemic index and load) delayed the onset of diabetes but did …

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Mark Sisson’s fictional dialogue about macronutrients

I think writing a fictional dialogue can be a useful exercise to explore ways of better presenting information. There were 2 passages in Sisson’s piece that stood out to me as being similar to conversations I’ve had as of late and thus worth quoting: Actually, you know how you asked how I never quite need …

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Some research about margarine

According to the Nurses’ Health Study the single biggest dietary predictor of heart disease was consumption of margarine. Eating 4 teaspoons of margarine increased the risk of heart disease in women by 50% compared with those who ate margarine rarely. Trans-fats have been linked to increased risk of coronary heart disease and cancer. Margarine is extremely high …

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