Coconut Oil Does Not Make Frying Safe

The author of a popular natural health newsletter is selling coconut oil based on this claim. He is correct that frying with various oils causes carcinogens to form, but nobody has shown that coconut oil doesn't also form these same carcinogens.Fats are classified by how many double bonds they have in their structures. Double bonds are the weak links in a molecule that break down with heating to form all sorts of harmful chemicals that increase cancer risk. Monounsaturated fats have only one double bond in each fatty acid. Polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond. Since saturated fats have no double bonds, and all the others have double bonds, saturated fats are more stable and less like to break down to form heterocyclic amines....

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High Fructose Corn Syrup is No Worse than Sugar

You may have heard that the obesity epidemic in America is caused by high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) found in most sugared drinks and many types of foods. However, the evidence now blames any sugar in drinks and not the high fructose corn syrup in particular.Researchers in the Netherlands showed that beverages sweetened by HFCS do not affect energy levels, appetite-related hormone levels or obesity any more than milk or drinks sweetened with sucrose. People did not eat more food after drinking HFCS beverages than they did after drinking milk or non-HFCS sodas. They also showed that the obesity hormones (insulin, ghrelin, glucose and glucagon-like peptide 1 or GLP-1) were affected similarly by all types of sweetened drinks. Journal referenceA...

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Cramps Probably Caused by Muscle Damage

Even though muscle cramps are extremely common in athletes and exercisers, we really do not know what causes them. Nobody has shown consistent benefit from any of the most common treatments: multivitamin pills; mineral pills with calcium, zinc, magnesium, salt and/or potassium; massage or chiropractic manipulation; drinking large amounts of water; dietary manipulations; or bio-mechanical stretching and strengthening.Known medical causes of muscle cramps are extremely rare in athletes. These include narrowed blood vessels, usually from atherosclerosis; compression of nerves, low thyroid function, or side effects of medications such as diuretics. Some cramps are caused by low mineral or fluid levels. However, for the vast majority of people who...

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Fast Eater? Slow Down!

An interesting study from Japan suggests that eating fast is a risk factor for diabetes. Researchers at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Aichi studied middle-aged men and women and found that the faster a person ate, the more likely he or she was to be fat (Preventive Medicine, February 2008). Furthermore, both insulin levels and blood sugar levels were higher in people who ate faster. High insulin and blood sugar levels are markers for being diabetic or at risk for developing type II diabetes.Before insulin can do its job of driving sugar into cells, it must first attach to special hooks on the surface of cells called insulin receptors. As a person gains weight, excess fat blocks insulin receptors so they cannot drive sugar...

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Bone Density Does Not Necessarily Measure Bone Strength

The greater the force you put on your bones during exercise, the stronger they become. Researchers at the University of Missouri in Columbia showed that recreational runners have denser bones than cyclists (Journal of Metabolism, February 2008). Another study from Université de St-Etienne in France show that youth soccer players have an increase in bone density over three years of playing high level soccer (Joint Bone Spine, January 2008). They failed to show that the soccer players had denser bones than their classmates, yet their intuition told them that heavy forces on bones while playing soccer must strengthen bones, so they stated that "The yearly gain in bone density is greater in soccer players than in controls."These studies and many...

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Sexual Activity or Exercise: Which Stresses the Heart More?

The stress on the heart from making love is relatively insignificant, compared to that caused by exercising, according to a study from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Nineteen men and thirteen women performed a maximal-effort stress test (exercising vigorously on a treadmill) followed by home-monitored sexual activity using heart rate and blood pressure recording devices. During sexual activity the men had maximum heart rates 28 percent lower than during exercise, and systolic blood pressure 20 percent lower. In the women the heart rate was 36 percent lower and blood pressure 25 percent lower. Journal referenceThe duration of treadmill exercise slowed by nine seconds for each additional year of age,...

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Competitive Sports for Children?

Today, if you want your children to be champion athletes, they need to start training at a young age and play their sport 12 months a year. So naturally you want to know if heavy athletic training before and during the period of rapid growth in children will harm then in any way. The most common concern is whether heavy training will make them shorter as adults or damage the growth plates in their bones. Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan studied young gymnasts, swimmers and tennis players and showed that participation in these sports does not shorten their adult height. Furthermore it did not affect the age when they entered puberty. Journal referenceThe biggest concern about starting training this early is not physical, it's whether...

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Weight Gained When You Stop Exercising May Be Hard to Lose

If you want to use exercise to help control your weight, don't stop. Paul Williams of the University of California at Berkeley showed that interrupting an exercise program can cause you to gain weight that won't come off easily even after you resume training (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, February 2008).Williams compared 17,280 men and 5,970 women who decreased their running distances with 4,632 men and 1,953 women who increased their running distances over an eight year period. He found that runners who decreased their distance from five to zero miles per week gained four times as much weight as those who decreased their distance from 25 to 20 miles per week. He also found that people who started running after an exercise...

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