Most/Least Pesticide Laden Produce

 

One of the main reasons that people spend extra money buying organic foods, particularly fresh produce, is to avoid the residue left on it from the use of commercial pesticides. Both synthetic and organic pesticides have been found to have harmful health effects but at doses much higher than those typically found in fruits and vegetables. One study of 1,139 children found a 50–90% increased risk of ADHD in children with the highest urine levels of pesticides. A study of organic pesticides used in gardening found that the use of rotenone was associated with Parkinson’s disease later in life, and both synthetic and organic pesticides have been associated with increased cancer rates at higher levels in lab animals. However, no increased cancer risk has been linked to the small amounts of pesticides in produce.

Still, some of us prefer to be safe now rather than sorry later. Certainly limiting your exposure to pesticide residue in and on what you eat can do you no harm. But are all fruits and vegetables equal? Do some tend to carry higher amounts to your plate than others? It turns out the answer is yes. 

Here are ten foods that seem to have especially high levels of pesticide residues and ten that have very little. For a longer list, you can look here.

Most Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

1. Strawberries
2. Apples
3. Nectarines
4. Peaches
5. Celery
6. Grapes
7. Cherries
8. Spinach
9. Tomatoes
10. Sweet Bell Peppers

Least Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

1. Avocados
2. Corn
3. Pineapples
4. Cabbage
5. Sweet Peas – Frozen
6. Onions
7. Asparagus
8. Mangos
9. Papayas
10. Kiwi

If, like me, you regularly consume items on the Most list, this is not a recommendation to stop doing so. As was mentioned, the proven risk is quite small. But you may want to be sure to buy them organically grown. And as with all produce, wash it well under cool water before eating. You are probably perfectly safe buying non-organic for items on the Least list.

Holiday Weight Gain: Fact vs Fiction

We are rapidly approaching "the Holidays". Urban legend suggests that we Americans pack on lots extra pounds between Halloween and New Year's Day. The bad news is, most of us will put on some weight. The goods news is that it will likely be much less than the frenzied hype suggests. Here are some of the real facts about Holiday Weight Gain.

The average American is likely to gain about 2 pounds over the Holiday Eating Season. About half of us fall in this range. Now this is an average so there are people who will gain more, perhaps much more. But some will put on none at all.

We are very unlikely to "compensate" for too much eating and drinking with additional exercise. Controlled studies show that only about 20% of the extra calories are burned off by an extra visit to the gym.

Very few people are successful in returning to their pre-Holiday weight with a post-Holiday diet. That means that even one or 2 pounds are likely to stick with you. If you eat more and different foods at all those parties, you will have a very difficult time going cold turkey in January. If you struggled with your weight before the Holidays, it will only be more difficult afterward.

There is no need to deny yourself some overindulgence at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. One or two heavy eating days is not going to have a big impact on your weight. What does is a Holiday diet of booze, sweets, carbs and fat sustained for 6 or 8 weeks.

To give yourself a leg up on the season, start your day with a breakfast high in protein, enjoy the eggnog but do so moderately, and have a plan when you head to the party so far as what and how much you will wolf down. 

Two pounds or so is not really a big deal, unless it sticks with you forever.

Statin Scandal

Ok, perhaps "scandal" is a bit of a rant, but if its not then it should be. Read on and decide for yourself.

Every year, doctors write about 240 million prescriptions in the USA for statin drugs in order to lower a patient's LDL (bad) cholesterol. This amounts to over $11 Billion in sales annually. There is just one problem with this. There is little evidence to support the belief that lowering LDL levels has any effect at all on the risk of heart disease.

A new research study published in the British Medical Journal concluded that 75% of people taking statins or other LDL-lowering drugs showed no reduction in rates of death from heart disease. In many of the studies analyzed large drops in LDL levels produced no reduction in heart attacks, strokes or deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD). The researchers noted that in the USA, CVD deaths are rising despite the heavy use of statins and generally declining levels of LDL within the overall population. The only benefit noted from taking a statin drug was for men under 75 years old who had already suffered a heart attack or stroke. In this case the benefit was from the statin's  blood thinning action, not from lowering LDL levels.

In the face of this lack of measurable benefits, statin drugs come with a number of undesirableside effects, including muscle pain and (rarely) rhabdomyolysis, liver damage, increased blood sugar levels, memory loss or confusion, headache, insomnia, dizziness and low blood platelet counts. You get all these bonuses for taking a drug that lowers LDL just as claimed but has little or no impact on your CVD risk.

I have a fiend who was placed on Crestor to reduce his high LDL levels. Within 2 years he experienced "a problem with his liver enzymes" that caused his doctor to take him off the statin. In their place the doctor suggested "diet and lifestyle changes". My question was, why was that not the FIRST suggestion instead of Plan B?

For the answer, we need to go back to 1967 and the landmark study conducted at Harvard University and published in JAMA. At that time, the dietary underpinnings of CVD were still under debate. One camp proposed that cholesterol-raising saturated fats were the cause. The other suggested that it was the inflammatory effect of sugar on arteries that was responsible. The Harvard study reviewed the link between sugar and heart disease and concluded that sugar played no role.

Only much later was it learned that the study was discreetly funded, designed and directed by the Sugar Research Foundation, a trade group representing the sugar industry. If this were the only problem it would not be an issue. Regardless of the funding source, a study can still be credible, right? But it's not.

In the 1990s, statin drugs became available and were quite successful in lowering LDL levels, so they were heavily promoted as the best preventative for heart disease. However the results of research into the relationship between LDL levels and CVD were, to be charitable, greatly exaggerated by the pharmaceutical companies conducting it.

In contrast, the authors of the BMJ study concluded that using statins to reduce the risk of CVD is "a failed strategy". "Considering that dozens of randomly controlled trials of LDL-cholesterol reduction have failed to demonstrate a consistency of benefit," they wrote, "we should question the validity of this theory." They went to to critically note that, "In most fields of science the existence of contradictory evidence usually leads to a paradigm shift or, at least, a modification of the theory in question, but in this case the contradictory evidence has been largely ignored."

So then if LDL cholesterol is not the culprit, what is? 

So far, the best predictor of future CVD is insulin resistance, which has been show in research by Dr. Gerald Raven of Standford University to dramatically increase the risk of CVD. If this is true, the biggest threat to your heart is not saturated fats but... sugar. 

Now this in no way suggests that saturated fats are healthy or good for you. They are significant sources of cellular inflammation, which is a root cause of many chronic health issues. But it does suggest that taking statin drugs for heart health benefits nobody by the pharmaceutical companies that produce them.

If you are presently taking a statin to lower your LDL cholesterol, DO NOT stop taking them suddenly. But DO start doing your own research into the risks and benefits for you and then have a conversation with your doctor about it.

(On Monday I will discuss insulin resistance in more detail and suggest some dietary and lifestyle approaches you can adopt to address it.)

Dementia Patients Overprescribed Unnecessary Drugs

 

Donovan Maust, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, recently published a study in JAMA that concluded that nearly three quarters of dementia patients had been prescribed antidepressants, opioid pain medications, anxiety drugs or antipsychotics despite "the lack of evidence that they actually ease the dementia-related behavior problems that often prompt a doctor's prescription in patients with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders". Worse, many of these drugs "have been linked to worse cognitive symptoms in old adults". That is in addition to the increased risk from unintended side effects and drug interactions.

None of the drug classes studied has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use in dementia, and Maust says that evidence supporting their off-label use is slim. But all of the drugs are associated with special risks to people in their 60s and older, including falls or dependence that could lead to withdrawal.

If someone you care for has dementia, do them a favor and keep a list of all the prescription drugs that they are taking. Ask a doctor or pharmacist what symptoms each drug is intended to alleviate and also about its proven effectiveness for those specific symptoms. These are vulnerable people who often cannot do this for themselves.

 

 

Is There an Anti-inflammation Diet?

Not really. There just is no magic diet that will drastically reduce the chronic cellular inflammation that is at the root of much of the cancer, heart disease, diabetes, allergies and arthritis that cause us so much suffering. But that does not mean that diet and lifestyle have no effect - for good or ill.

In a study conducted at Emory University, a diet consisting of diverse fruits and vegetables (surprise, right?) was associated with lower levels of inflammation, while a more typical diet high in processed foods was associated with higher levels. Regular physical activity (who would have thought it!) was also associated with lower levels, while obesity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption (more than 1 drink a day according to the latest guidelines) was associated with higher inflammation levels.

The study concluded that adding or removing any one component of the healthier diet and lifestyle did not have any major impact on the results, suggesting that it is the broad pattern of diet and lifestyle that was important rather than trying to focus on any one food or activity. (Which is how we got this way in the first place.) The best approach is to eat more anti-iflammatory foods while reducing those that tend to cause inflammation (they actually paid people to conclude that!).

In order to help people make those adjustments, the study authors developed a scoring system to rate various foods and activities according to their impact on raising or lowering inflammation.

The bottom line is that there is really not any special diet or routine that you can try for a while that will seriously reverse years of poor eating and limited physical activity. It is a lifestyle problem, and creating a healthy lifestyle is the solution to this, as it is to so many other health problems.

Five Foods that Support Immune System Health

 

In today's COVID-19 world, supplements and foods that supposedly support, boost, enhance, strengthen or otherwise buff up your immune system are everywhere. Can you say "Once in a Lifetime Marketing Opportunity"? Do any of them actually do you any good?

Well, yes. And no.

The actual science suggests that the way to keep your immune system strong and functioning effectively is - get ready for this - eating a healthy, balanced diet, plenty of moderate exercise, getting a good night's sleep most nights and managing your stress level. This does not mean that certain foods can not help you get the job done. Just don't expect them or a supplement to make any real difference absent the lifestyle steps listed above.

Currently, no research supports the use of any supplement to strengthen the human immune system (systems, really), let alone to protect against COVID-19 specifically. But you can add any of the following foods to your diet to help make sure you are giving your immune functions all the ingredients that they need to do their job.

1. Garlic
     Garlic has been used in folk medicine for centuries for its mild
     anti-biotic properties. There is some evidence that it can modestly
     boost the number of virus-fighting T-cells in your blood and the
     sulfer in garlic can aid your ability to absorb zinc, long used as
     a cold preventative. Plus, it makes so many dishes taste better!

2. Onions
     Cousins of garlic, onions are loaded with key nutrients that your
     immune system requires like zinc, Vitamin C and selenium. They
     are also potent sources of flavenoid antioxidants. And like their
     cousin, tossing them into a recipe is nearly always tasty too.

3. Citrus Fruits
     Almost all citrus fruits are very high in vitamin C and with the wide
     variety there is to choose from it is easy to fit them into your
     diet. Beside Vitamin C they are also rich in other vitamins and
     minerals that your body needs to work properly, including B
     vitamins, potassium and magnesium.

4. Spinach
     Come on, put on your Big Boy Pants and revisit this nutritional
     powerhouse. I know you hated it as a kid, but that was then and
     this is now. Spinach packs a myriad of of antioxidants, beta-
     carotene, iron, folate, Vitamin K, magnesium and calcium. You
     can eat it raw or cooked and toss it into salads, egg dishes, soups
     and stews. Buy it frozen and already chopped - its just as good
     for you and super convenient.

5. Poultry
     Yes, poultry. I bet you didn't expect to find that on this list. It is
     high in protein and Vitamin B6, which is important for the
     creation of new red blood cells. Chicken soup has long been
     touted for colds and with good reason.

For a more extensive list of immune supporting foods, you can look here.

Cinnamon and Diabetes

In a study by the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, cinnamon was found to improve blood sugar control in subjects with pre-diabetes.

Participants were given 500mg of cinnamon in capsule form three times a day for 12 weeks. Fasting glucose levels were reduced by the end of the study and carbohydrates produced a lesser glucose spike for those on the cinnamon regimen.

Further research is needed but the preliminary evidence is that cinnamon might be used to reduce the risk of people who are pre-diabetic developing Type-2 diabetes over time.

In the meantime, think about using cinnamon more in your diet. It can't hurt any and is a nice stand in for sugar. It works in eggs, on toast, frozen deserts and many other way. Plus how often does something good for you taste great?