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Good Nutrition Advice

... and the importance of natural health care

"When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When

diet is correct, medicine is of no need."

- Ayurvedic Proverb

The trans fat saga continues ....

July 2009

OVER the last few years the term trans fat has become a dirty word in the fast food industry and many packaged foods now proudly proclaim themselves to be Trans Fat Free. Well, great, you might think. 

The processing technique that creates trans fat is called partial hydrogenation. If you partially hydrogenate soy oil, you’ll get trans fats. If you partially hydrogenate canola oil, you’ll get trans fats. So the blend doesn’t really tell us much. The big question is how is the blend processed?

This is where a potential problem lies – a new technique called interesterification. Over the past few years, foods prepared with partially hydrogenated oils have come to be known far and wide as a health threat, linked to higher risk of heart disease and cancer. But food manufacturers and restaurant managers have balked at turning away from the convenience of partially hydrogenated oils. That’s why many of them have started to use oils processed by a new method: interesterification. (Yummmy, that sounds healthier already!)

Like partially hydrogenated oils, interesterified oils have a long shelf life, which makes them just about as appealing to restaurants and food manufacturers as oils with trans fats. But there is one little catch: interesterified fats may be nearly as bad for you as trans fats.

From bad to awful

A recent issue of Nutrition and Metabolism published a study that compared the effects of three oils: interesterified soybean oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and palm oil. Three different diets were prepared in which 30 percent of calories came from one of the three oils. Thirty subjects followed each of the diets over the course of three study phases. Each phase lasted four weeks.
Two key results stood out:
 HDL cholesterol levels dropped on the interesterified fat dietInsulin levels dropped 10 percent on the partially hydrogenated soybean oil diet, but dropped more than TWICE as much on the interesterified fat diet, causing average blood sugar to rise by an alarming 20 percent

More research will be needed to confirm these results. And hopefully that research is underway, because one of the study authors, Dr. K.C. Hayes of Brandeis University, told Reuters Health that interesterification is “probably the number-one process that will replace trans fats.”

In the meantime, Dr. Hayes offered a very useful tip on how to determine if a food product contains interesterificated oil. Just check the nutrition panel and look for the words “fully hydrogenated.”

Fully? Partially? It is definitely time call the whole (hydrogenated) thing off.

Green tea and chronic lymphocytic leukemia

What exactly is Green Tea?

green-tea-leaves
green-tea

Mayo Clinic researchers have found a compound in green tea called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) may have beneficial effects in patients with chonic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

CLL is one of four types of leukemia, which affects the blood and bone marrow. CLL typically progresses more slowly than other types of leukemia, and it is most common among adults who are 50 years of age or older.

In the Phase I clinical trial, 33 adults with CLL received eight different doses of Polyphenon E, a substance made from decaffeinated green tea that contains EGCG. Participants received 400-2,000 milligrams of Polyphenon E twice daily for one month.

According to the results, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the supplement was well tolerated, and high doses helped decrease the white blood cells counts in one-third of patients with CLL, indicating cancer regression.

Additionally, most people who had enlarged lymph nodes at the start of the study experienced at least a 50 percent reduction in lymph node size.

The research is now undergoing a second phase of clinical testing in which CLL patients will each receive 2,000 milligrams of Polyphenon E twice daily.

What makes green tea different from black tea? Well, it's not the plant. It’s how the plant parts are processed. Green tea undergoes the most minimal processing of any commercially sold tea, which means that more of the tea’s natural benefits and nutrients are preserved.

The green tea leaves are picked and then they’re “fired” which simply means that they are processed by steaming or heating. Then, the tea leaves are dried and readied to be sold, or for further processing.

Other types of green tea are picked, dried by withering, then they’re rolled or broken, and then dried again. This oxidizes the tea, which removes much of the vital nutrient power that green tea is known for.

Black tea is heavily oxidized, and that’s why it’s considered less healthy than green tea is. Most of the tea we drink in the West is black tea. These teas are characteristically brown in colour. Green tea has a much more delicate colour and flavour.