Beware of Junk Science

The more I learn about health, the more I realize being healthy should be a no-brainer. Eat more vegetables. Move more. Laugh more. Put down that PopTart. But what about all the scads of conflicting information out there? Low fat, low carb, or low cal? Which of the thousands of antioxidants available should we be taking? Fish oils, resvertrol, goji berries, green tea? Is sunlight good because of the vitamin D, or bad because it increases our odds of skin cancer? Should we eat that egg yolk?

In many cases false information is propagated by one thing- money. I'm not saying that everyone with something to sell is trying to dupe you out of your money... I'm just saying they have something to sell you. As long as we remain objective and never stop asking questions, we will get along just fine in this free market economy, but it's always nice to have a little help to weed through information. Junk science is science (or something that seems scientific) that is produced or interpreted by those with special interests. For example, articles investigating the safety or efficacy of a drug that are being funded by the company that makes said drug. Can you say "conflict of interest"?

But I digress.

There is one particular experiment I have seen recently in the media and on the internet that I just couldn't resist debunking. On websites such as this one, authors say that you can test your vitamins by seeing whether or not they dissolve in water. While I will be the first to admit that most multivitamins sold in the stores are not only junk, but might actually be harming you [1], this is not a valid test by any means.

My favorite example of this lately is this popular commercial for a CoQ10 supplement, Qunol. The makers of this supplement boast that their product dissolves better in water than other CoQ10 supplements... but when did we decide that this was a good thing? Beyond the issues I outline below, CoQ10 is a fat soluble antioxidant, which means it should NOT be able to dissolve in water. The makers of this product are bragging about a quality in their product that is actually undesirable! That's marketing for you.

There is SO much more going on inside your body than in a cup of water it's exhausting to imagine listing them all, but for the sake of the article I will talk about just a few.

1. Stomach acid is extremely acidic- ranging in pH from 1.5 to 3.0 [2]. As we all know, acidic is extremely corrosive- apparently enough so to dissolve razor blades [4]! I should hope such a strong acid would be able to dissolve a pesky pill or two. While the above article did state that vinegar better mimics the stomach's acidic environment than water, vinegar is only moderately acidic with a pH of 4.25-5.0 [3]. Compared to the stomach's pH of about 2, even at it's strongest (we'll say 4.0) vinegar is 100 times weaker than stomach acid.

2. There's more stuff in the stomach than just acid. Even if you did dunk those pills in a vat of acid that is the same strength of stomach acid, you still couldn't hope to make up for all the other stuff in our guts. Digestive enzymes such as salivary amylase start working on your food the moment it enters your mouth and continually get added throughout the digestive process. Amylases, proteases, lipases, pepsinogen, intrinsic factor, mucous, bile salts, bicarbonate, and a plethora of gastric hormones are among the many, many things that get secreted as food moves through the digestive tract.

3. The digestive tract is a muscular tube. The juices that digest our food only make up a part of the whole digestive picture. The stomach is a big muscular bag and the rest of the digestive tract is one long muscular tube that is constantly pulling, pushing, squishing and mashing the ever-loving heck out of the food we eat. Last I checked, cups of water weren't capable of such things... even with the most vigorous of stirring.


The question we should be asking ourselves is not weather our pills can dissolve in a cup of water. Rather, once the pill (or food) is broken down will it be absorbed from the digestive tract and properly used in our body? If there is a leaky gut or inflammation afoot I would say the answer to both of those questions is a "no".

Take care and beware of junk science, dear readers


Nikki Cyr, D.C.


Resources
[1] http://createanewbox.blogspot.com/2012/11/metals-that-might-make-you-mental.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric_acid
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar
[4] http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/infographic-28-odd-facts-about-the-human-body
[5] http://www.ehow.com/how_5641704_test-vitamins-home-dissolving-water.html

To Be or Not To Be "Sugar Free"

"Sugar free" seems like an easy enough thing to figure out. Sugar free foods are foods with no sugar in them, zero sugar, sugarless, if you will. But is that actually the case? In many instances, the answer is no.

For starters, let's look at how the USDA defines "sugar free". Technically, food manufacturers can say that their product has zero sugar if it contains 0.5 grams of sugar per serving or less [1]. The same is true of labels that boast claims of "cholesterol free", "calorie free", and "fat free". Certainly this is a negligible amount if you eat one serving, but what if you eat more than one serving? This tactic is commonly used when labeling junk food, foods which people are far more likely to consume more than one serving. Sure, two grams of sugar still isn't much if you eat four or more servings, but it's not what I would call "sugar free", either.

The other problem with processed foods that boast the sugar free label is that they are usually riddled with artificial sweeteners that are even worse for you than sugar. Aspartame consumption, for example, has been linked to numerous types of tumors. Add to that the fact that the ingestion of artificial sweeteners has been shown to increase sugar cravings, the exact opposite of what the average diet Coke drinker wants to do, and it just doesn't make sense to consume this stuff. On the other hand, low glycemic index (read: low glucose, high fructose) sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup and agave nectar are technically low in the sugar that raises your blood sugar (glucose), but are preferentially stored as fat making them even worse for diabetics and people trying to lose weight than regular sugar. For more on these topics, please see my previous posts here.

 I don't think the Pillsbury dough boy will ever advertise something that is truly healthy...

However, my most recent pet-peeve has been the use of the term "sugar free" in various health food recipes such as this one. This recipe calls for bananas and honey, both of which have a pretty hefty amount of sugar in them [2].I see this type of thing all too often in paleo and vegan recipes- the use of maple syrup, honey, coconut crystals, dates, raisins, bananas, etc and yet they still call the recipe sugar free. I think what the author meant to say is that this fudge is refined sugar-free. Now, don't get me wrong, I make these types of recipes more frequently than I'd like to admit... I just think it's incorrect to call them sugar free. Actually, I made that fudge recipe this weekend and highly recommend it! Just don't go crazy and eat a lot of it because you think it's sugar free ; )


So where do we go from here? I think the best way to tackle this once and for all is to take a moment to define sugar. Hopefully if we know what sugar is we will know how to best avoid it.

Sugar
1. Table sugar, the white crystalline form of the disaccharide sucralose*.
2. The simplest form of carbohydrate, consisting of one, two or three carbon-based rings. Examples include glucose, fructose, and galactose (monosaccharides), as well as combinations of the three such as lactose (one glucose and one galactose) and sucrose* (one glucose and one fructose).

I hope this post has made you think of something you hadn't ever thought about before. Don't take anything at face value- even something as seeminly simple as the term "sugar free".



Nikki Cyr, D.C.



References
[1] http://www.fsis.usda.gov/pdf/labeling_requirements_guide.pdf
[2] http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1846/2

Live and Lent Live

Ah, Lent. A season for sacrifice, for discipline. Each year thousands of Christians choose something to give up for forty days as they prepare for Easter. But have you ever noticed how many of these happen to be unhealthy habits? Chocolate, ice cream, soda, fast food and alcohol are among the things I have seen people give up for Lent.

In a weird way Lent is like New Years part two for Christians- with each holiday thousands of people give up an unhealthy habit each year. There are several key differences, however. New Years resolutions are intended to be permanent (although, sadly, many of them do not turn out that way). On the other hand, Lent is known to be a only temporary inconvenience. I think this creates a predictable, yearly yo-yo diet. Every year people give up something for Lent only to over-indulge and go back to their old, bad habits after the Easter finish line has come and gone. Yes, this almost always happens with New Year's resolutions, too, but at least the initial intention is for some degree of permanency.

Additionally, the motivation for Lent (sacrificing for something bigger than oneself, i.e. religion) is completely different than the motivation that drives New Year's resolutions. But that brings up an important question- why is it that we are able to buckle down and make a healthy choice for our religion, but not for our own health? I do not mean this to belittle the meaning of Lent, but I do think that there is nothing more important than taking care of our bodies. Arguably, without our bodies none of us would be able to worship the deities of our choosing, so shouldn't we regard our health with at least the same degree of importance as our religions?

My challenge to you, dear readers, is to not let Lent be yet another yo-yo diet. They say it takes 30 days to form a habit. So, since Lent is 40 days that means that if you can successfully make it through Lent you've already made it through the hardest part of kicking a bad habit! This year use Lent as a spring board into your new, healthy lifestyle, not just another fad diet.

Yours in health,

Nikki Cyr, D.C.