What makes that movie popcorn so bad for you?

Often, it's coconut oil. 90% saturated fat. I feel like coconut oil is all over the place lately, such as in a big display at the checkout counter at Whole Foods in Cambridge the other day. Coconut oil is not a healthy alternative to anything. Despite the fact that it sounds healthy.

I want to reiterate that label reading is important.

More talk about movie popcorn at Well. Also, CSPI is a great source for level-headed, evidence based advice on nutrition.

Evidence

The internet is a beautiful and dangerous thing. When a friend said she knew someone who had been diagnosed with hypoglycemia and asked me what that meant, I went looking for some resources I could link her to. The internet provided me with a wealth of reputable websites I could link her to that demonstrated, quite nicely, that hypoglycemia is a state, resulting from altered blood sugar levels, and not a disease or condition, like diabetes, which can cause hypoglycemia. (Check out this great site from the NIH if you are interested) Unfortunately, I also came across all kinds of quackery.

As a medical researcher, I spent years of my training focused on how to evaluate the evidence base. We do this often through systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We also learn how to generate reliable and valid original data, as through randomized controlled trials or observational studies. These might suggest that exercise reduces your risk of colon cancer (seen in a wealth of studies and confirmed through meta-analysis) or that, contrary to what the folks marketing SnackWells might want you to believe, all fats aren’t bad for you – just saturated and trans fats.

What alarms me is that the freedom of the internet allows anyone to make health claims without substantiating them in any form. So what can the average consumer do when faced with the assertion that, say, shark cartilage cures cancer? As with everything, consider the source.

Does the website provide the source of the information?

Does it cite a research study or set of research studies?

Did it come from a research study, done by an individual at an accredited school of medicine, nutrition, or public health? And was it published in a peer reviewed journal? If yes, that’s a good sign. If no, start to be skeptical.

Who is hosting or sponsoring the website? Is it someone you’ve heard of – a national organization – like the American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Association, or American Medical Association? Anyone can come up with the name of an organization so a fancy-sounding name doesn’t mean much.

There is LOTS of good science out there. And there is a LOT you can do to prevent disease (for some personalized tips, try Your Disease Risk). But there is also a lot of junk science.

BPA

All this talk about BPA got me thinking it's time to toss (read: recycle) the old reusable plastic bottles we'd been using for the gym and at work/school.

But what about those expensive Sigg bottles I just purchased last summer before school? Were they lined in BPA? I'd heard that Sigg had BPA-free bottles, but had no idea if mine made the cut. Thankfully, TIME magazine has the answer: peer inside. If you have a shiny, coppery lining, it's not BPA free. If it's a pale, matte yellow, it's a keeper. Sigg claims that their old liners, with BPA, didn't leach the way plastic bottles did.

Read more about the controversy here.

As for us, we're switching to BPA-free stainless steel. In fact, I purchased ours through a charity started by my wonderful dentist and his family called One4Three. 100% of the proceeds go to providing clean water (through buiding wells and filtration systems) in Anitgua, Guatelmala and Gitwe, Rwanda. It takes the sting out of replacing those expensive Sigg bottles to do a little good in the world!

(If you would like to purchase a bottle, click here.)

Nutrition Myth of the Day: Does Saturated Fat fight Inflammation?

The answer is no. Not surprising. Healthy fats are still unsaturated fats, like those found in vegetable oils (but NOT palm or coconut oil, which are loaded with saturated fat), and fish oils.

Read more here.

And cook with more heart healthy vegetable oils (0live, canola, etc) when you can. They are known to raise HDL levels in blood- the healthy fats that are protective against heart disease.

Wise Words from "The Economist"

Regarding health claims and current attempts at reguation:

"A few helpings of vegetables will do more good than any probiotic yogurt."

Hear, Hear.

Juice Cleanses

I often get questions about "cleanses" or juice fasts. Other than starving yourself to drop a few pounds in a few days, there's not much to it. I've heard all kinds of justifications for them, such as it gives your digestive system time to "rest" (as if it needs a break) and that it detoxifies your body (yes, one of the functions of the digestive tract is waste removal). Then, I read the following in the Dean's Letter for Tufts Nutrition, and think faculty member Dr. Edward Saltzman sums it up best:

In an Associated Press article about the popularity of fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, Associate Professor Edward Saltzman, M.D., debunked some of the more extravagant claims that such juices detoxify organs and cleanse the digestive tract. "I honestly don’t understand the concept of intestinal cleansing. It’s not like you’d find old tin cans or spare tires in the colon," he said. "Anything that results in increased motility or movement in the intestines, such as intake of fiber and fluid, would result in the evacuation of bowel contents."

Finally, these juice cleanse regimes are expensive. Spend those hard earned pennies on something else!