For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

There are a ton of interesting articles and news stories out this week, and unfortunately I did not have room here to include a favorite recipe. See below for instructions on how to find a comprehensive list of my reading recommendations.

There are some heavy topics here, but all are worthy of your full attention. For balance, I posted several contradictory articles to make it clear that these issues are not simple and clear cut. Anyone who claims otherwise is not thinking hard enough.

If you would like to see more of my favorite articles each week or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious, and share with me your favorites as well.

Submissions of your own best food and health articles are also welcome, just drop me an email using the contact form. I am currently accepting guest posts at Summer Tomato for any healthy eating and exercise tips.

For The Love of Food

• You. Need. Fat. <<I love Michelle’s (@MPfennighaus) perspective on dietary fat in this article. Just this week I’ve fielded a ton of questions and confusion about fat. I love oils, and so should you. (The Daily Balance)
• Eating Animal Fat May Lead to Pancreatic Cancer <<Just in case you were thinking about going crazy Atkins-style after that last article, remember that not all the news is good about certain kinds of fat. This study just shows an association (not causation) of animal fat and pancreatic cancer, but moderation is usually a good idea. (HealthDay)
• Horizon organics alert: here comes “natural” <<B.S. of the week Seems like Dean Foods is bent on ruining all the biggest organic products. First Silk Soy Milk, now Horizon. Apparently they want to charge you organic prices for foods that aren’t certified organic (aka conventional). Don’t fall for it. (via @marionnestle at Food Politics)
• This just in: Vegetarian diets are fine <<Looks like the American Dietetics Association has finally issued a bill of approval on vegetarian diets. Not sure what took them so long. Personally I don’t have much of an opinion on the vegetarian thing. Sure it can* be healthier than a typical Western diet (*see next 2 articles), but if health is your concern you have more options as an omnivore. No matter what food religion you subscribe to, vegetables are the cornerstone of any healthy diet. (Los Angeles Times)
• How High Carbohydrate Foods Can Raise Risk For Heart Problems <<Yes, refined carbohydrates are the real culprit in heart disease, not fat. (ScienceDaily)
• Metabolic Syndrome May Make Breast Cancer More Likely <<Metabolic syndrome, also caused by carbohydrates, increases risk for breast cancer. (HealthDay)
• Dear Mark: Freezer Essentials <<Those of you living in states that aren’t California may want to start stocking your freezer now, before your farmers markets close up for the winter. Mark Sisson offers some tips on how to make that dream a reality. (Mark’s Daily Apple)
• Don’t be Fooled by Healthy Food Imposters <<I pick on Diets In Review a lot for being completely full of crap, but I like to give credit where credit is due. Finally some good advice about fake health food from an otherwise irresponsible publication. (Diets In Review)
• It’s Time to Learn From Frogs <<One of the most important articles I’ve read in weeks. This is a fantastic piece in the New York Times about why we should stop being naive about the impact of environmental toxins (especially endocrine disruptors) on our lives.
• Soy isn’t affecting men’s hormone levels…but something is <<Another important piece on the impact of hormones on human development. Looks like soy isn’t the problem some people (not me) thought it was. (Nutrition Data)

What great articles did you read or write this week? Leave your links in the comments.

Tags: B.S. of the week, breast cancer, endocrine disruptors, fake health food, fat, freezer, pancreatic cancer, refined carbohydrates, soy, vegetarian

Today I have an article out in Synapse called “Wine May Increase Heart Healthy Fats in the Blood.” I am making an executive decision that it is too science-y for this blog, so instead I would like to open a discussion about how doctors should treat information like this.

For you uber-nerds (like me), here is the PubMed link to the original paper.

Let’s start with some excerpts from my article:

• “The beauty of this finding is that the improvement in fatty acid profile from wine consumption seems to be clinically relevant. Based on the current consensus, small dietary changes in fatty acid consumption have a large clinical effect, so a 38% to 50% increase in EPA levels among moderate wine drinkers is noteworthy. Similar levels of improvement in lipid profiles from studies of fish consumption have shown considerable benefit for cardiovascular outcome.”

• “Thus, the present finding may offer dietary intervention as a possible method of cardiovascular protection, particularly when combined with increased omega-3 consumption.”

• “In the present study, the difference between participants in the low fatty acid group who did not drink and those in the high fatty acid group who drank the most was an 83% increase in blood EPA, a change associated with a 50% to 75% reduced risk of heart attack. Such a dramatic difference represents a useful alternative to fish consumption for those who may not have access to seafood for whatever reason.”

• “Thus, increasing both dietary omega-3 fatty acids and wine consumption may be helpful to protect against cardiovascular events. Plant-derived omega-3 fatty acids are abundant in walnuts, soy, flax and canola oils, and one gram per day is the current recommendation for heart protection. “Moderate” alcohol intake is one glass per day for women and two for men.”

From a clinical perspective, the evidence that alcohol provides a tremendous protection against mortality from heart disease is undeniable. It is thought to work by both raising good HDL cholesterol and reducing blood clotting.

This effect is not limited to red wine, all spirits elicit substantial protection.

Despite these benefits, there are also a number of obvious reasons to avoid alcohol, particularly excessive consumption. Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with addiction, liver disease, stroke and can cause accidents and other behavioral problems.

Notably, benefits similar to those seen with alcohol can be conferred by increasing exercise amount or intensity.

If you want to experience the benefits of alcohol you need to use it in moderation, which is 1 drink per day for women and 2 for men, or possibly slightly more. More than one drink per day for women is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, however this effect is attenuated by sufficient folate intake.

Doctors have been recommending increasing exercise for decades, but only a small percentage of the population makes an effort to get enough to make it as valuable against heart disease as alcohol. Also, there is a large population of individuals that have physical ailments that prevent them from performing vigorous cardiovascular exercise.

But to this day the American Heart Association–the same agency that recommended the low-fat, high-carb diet that many argue actually promotes heart disease–refuses to recommend moderate alcohol consumption. The basic tenet of their argument is that alcohol is not necessary because heart protection can be achieved in other ways, and the risks outweigh the benefits.

Is this right? I’m not so convinced.

Do you think doctors should discuss the potential benefits of alcohol with their patients? Should the AHA change their recommendation?

Tags: alcohol, American Heart Association, breast cancer, cholesterol, clotting, folic acid, HDL, heart disease, omega-3