Monday, December 23, 2013

Artificial Sweeteners Elicit Same Response in Gut as Water

I am often asked about the safety and side effects of using artificial sweeteners. I prefer people stay away from them, as well as added sugars in general... however, there is no good research showing that the use of artificial sweeteners has negative health implications. I always caution the use of excess, and state that there is no research on the long-term health consequences of prolonged use, since they haven't been around that long. My rule is to try to limit the use of them to 3 "diet" products a day (eg: no more than 3 splendas, or no more than 2 splenda + 1, 8-oz glass of diet iced tea).

A new study out shows that the gut seems to respond to artificial sweeteners the same as water:

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Gut-reaction-Zero-calorie-sweeteners-produce-same-response-as-water

Thursday, December 19, 2013

An Apple a Day DOES Keep the Doctor Away!

I LOVE apples- especially really sweet ones like (ripe) Golden/Yellow Delicious, Ambrosia, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, or Pink Ladies (along with others...). Here is more evidence to support the notion to keep eating that apple a day!
http://www.medicaldaily.com/apple-day-really-keeps-doctor-away-proverbial-fruit-rivals-statins-mortality-model-265255

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Avoid the Multivitamins!

I get asked time and time again if people should take multivitamins. My response is always "If you are eating over 2000 calories/day it is very easy to get all of your nutrients in even with a pretty poor diet. On much lower calorie levels it is hard, but possible- that's why it's important to eat healthy." Then I always go into how vitamins and minerals in isolation act differently than when in food, and if you are consuming too much of one mineral, that can inhibit the absorption of another. So, I usually advise against most supplements... and now the Annals of Internal Medicine have published a report consistent with my recommendations: “Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.” The kicker is the recommendation to AVOID multivitamins... not just that you are wasting money, but you can potentially be causing harm.

Here is an article that summarizes the findings
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-sci-sn-vitamin-supplements-waste-of-money-20131217,0,5499291.story