Polyphenols — A Food Cure for High-Fat Foods?
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008We have all heard that red wine is healthy and nutritional. There are studies that show red wine helps reduce heart disease. What is in red wine that makes it such a natural food cure?
A chemical in red wine, fruits and vegetables has been found to counter the unhealthy effects of high-fat foods. This chemical is a natural compound called polyphenols. In a recent study Polyphenols reduced health risks that are associated with high fat foods.
Subjects were fed three different controlled meals consisting of dark meat turkey cutlets. The first meal consisted of turkey meat and water. The second meal consisted of turkey meat with polyphenols that were added after cooking and a glass of red wine. The third meal consisted of turkey meat with polyphenols added before cooking and a glass of red wine.
During the study, researchers took blood and urine samples to measure the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA). MDA is a natural byproduct of fat digestion and is known to increase the risk for heart disease and other chronic conditions. Their research showed that MDA levels nearly quadrupled after the first control meal. However MDA was nearly eliminated after the subjects consumed the other meals with polyphenols.
This report shows that the food industry could make similar approach in reducing health risks associated with fatty foods. Polyphenols could be an additive to foods, just like additives are added to gasoline to burn cleaner. Imagine, eating french fries without plugging your arteries.
Tags: food cures, fruits and vegetables, heart disease, nutrition & health, polyphenols
The idea of going on a strict diet can be a nightmare. Going on the Atkins diet just doesn’t sound like any fun to me. For many people this is a drastic change in lifestyle and hard to stick with the program. No wonder many diets will fail by January 15th. Here are a couple helpful tips that doesn’t mean making a drastic change in your life.
Interestingly though, there is another study that shows if you skip meals every other day that it could actually improve health. Intermittent fasting has resulted measurable metabolic benefit for obese people. People in the study using an alternating dieting pattern lost an average of 8% of their body weight and they also had lower cholesterol and triglycerides.
While researchers are hesitant to directly link smoking to the onset of diabetes, they do theorize that smoking may lead to insulin resistance. Another possible explanation, people that smoke tend not to have the healthiest lifestyle. These unhealthy behaviors include lack of exercise, poor diet, and in some cases large consumption of alcohol.
depression
You bet, and here are a few things you can try:
A study at the University of Washington found that it is more expensive to eat healthy food. They compared 370 different foods at their local supermarkets. The comparison was based on calorie for calorie.
Avoid tans-fats and saturated fats – Trans fats are artery clogging fats are commonly found in commercial products and fast food. Saturated fats are commonly found in read meat and other sources. You need to look at getting your protein and minerals from other sources like vegetables. Use more unsaturated oils like vegetable, olive and canola in your cooking.
Reduce your fat intake – Surprisingly, fat intake is a major predictor of insulin resistance not carbohydrates. So you should eat no more than 30 percent of your calories form fat (50-60 grams per day). Saturated fat needs to be less than 10 percent of total calories. This can be a hard goal for some people to reach considering 2 slices of cheese is 12 grams.
Health authorities have always advocated choosing white meat because it contains less fat and fewer calories. Bottom line is that his is true but the differences are so minimal that you really shouldn’t worry about it.
