Famous Death Row Last Meals
Debunking Beer Can Chicken: A Waste Of Good Beer, And Dangerous
Food manufacturers love bacteria, especially probiotic bacteria. The market for products that contain probiotics has really taken off in the past year in the US, after Dannon launched a line of yogurt, Activa, that included them as an aid to digestive regularity. The company's sales soared to over $100 million dollars and other producers quickly scrambled to work probiotics into their own lines, appealing to health-conscious consumers who are interested in improving their diets and lifestyle with food that is good for them, rather than by taking pills as supplements. In other words, probiotics appeal to the American consumer's growing interest in functional foods.
Probiotics are being called "this decade's oat bran," by trendspotters, who are referring to the fact that that grain rose quickly to popularity in the 1980s - and stayed there - when "it was shown to lower cholesterol levels." Oat bran ended up in everything for a very long period and it seems likely that probiotics will, too, provided that the companies that use them can get the same results from the live cultures than Dannon has. Known benefits include relief from irritable bowel syndrome, yeast infections, and diarrhea, but more claims are being made every day, suggesting "probiotics may help ward off everything from allergies to colon cancer."
For now, most probiotic products are dairy-based, including a TCBY frozen yogurt, StonyField Farm's upcoming dairy-based energy drink and Dannon's Activa and DanActive. There are soy milk products that contain probiotics and Kashi has put it into cereal.
LOOK: Bank Vault Saves 22 Lives During Tornado
Live from Microsoft's New Generation Xbox event!
Demi Looks FANTASTIC In A Bikini
Xbox Reveal liveblog on Joystiq
Dozens Killed in Oklahoma Tornado; Death Toll to Rise
PHOTO: Dog Guards Dead Victim's Body After Oklahoma Tornado Disaster
Xbox One architecture panel liveblog!
H&M's Plus-Size Model Jennie Runk Says She Chose To Gain Weight
Brave Woman Stood Down Armed London Attackers
Okla. Sheriff's Deputy Finds Dog Guarding Body Buried Under Destroyed Home
Man Reportedly Beheaded In Brutal Assault In London Neighborhood
South American 'Crazy' Ants Are a Threat in Southern US
The List #0147: Escape a Car Underwater
Surgeon's Remove Giant Hairball From Tiger
Selena Gomez Leaving Justin Bieber's House: Booty Call Rumors Swirl
Mother Dies With Infant During Oklahoma Tornado
U.S. Acknowledges Four American Citizens Killed In Drone Strikes
Killed Soldier In London Attack Identified
Mum-Of-Two Faces Down Woolwich Attack Suspects
Wolf Blitzer's Embarrassing Moment With Tornado Survivor
Help For Heroes Killing
The World's Most Powerful Women
Singer Sues McDonald's, Claims Chicken Sandwich Incident Ruined Her Voice
PHOTOS: Christie Brinkley Gets Back Into A Swimsuit At 59 Years Old
PHOTOS: Tornado Aftermath Leaves Trail Of Destruction
NY Times Eviscerates Obama White House
Who Won 'DWTS'?
White Father Allegedly Suspected Of Kidnapping Biracial Daughters
Tornadoes Strike Oklahoma
PHOTOS: This Is The Best Response To Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries We've Seen Yet
Police END Search For Susan Powell
1-23-2007 @3:51PM Allison said... How ironic that yogurt makers now have to put back in what used to be there naturally. I used to like Dannon because it was one of the few yogurts available that actually had live bacteria in it. However, they went the way of most yogurt profiteers by turning a healthy product into a basic dessert. And I even saw a couple of other brands recently that contained skim milk (full of oxidized cholesterol that really does lay right down in your arteries) and high fructose corn syrup. Haven't read the labels on the yogurt pictured above but with the various colored bottles, it seems like they probably have different flavors which no doubt means lots of sugar. Yes, just checked out the ingredients on the web site and you're getting 17g of sugars in one of those babies, along with 70g of sodium and that baddy -- reduced fat milk. There are a whole lot of other ways to get healthy probiotics than adding them to an already unhealthy product.
Reply
1-23-2007 @4:13PM Becki said... Allison: what on Earth is "oxidized cholesterol "? I've never once heard that phrase before. I share your concerns on the other aspects of these products, but the oxidized cholesterol comment sounds a bit like food police "corporate agri-business" conspiracy paranoia to me.
Reply
1-23-2007 @4:25PM steph said... The BBC is currently running a series called "The truth about food". In the first show they tested which would increase your gut bacteria more, prebiotic food, which helps your existing bacteria grow better or probiotics which add more. The numbers significantly increased for the prebiotics and stayed the same for the probiotics. The online article is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/healthy/prebiotics.shtml and there are some recipes containing prebiotic foods. Me, I like roasted Jerusalem artichokes.
Reply
1-23-2007 @4:27PM Allison said... Becki, paranoia is always an option. Actually the following information is from Sally Fallon whose fabulous book "Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats" is a must read.
A note on the production of skim milk powder: liquid milk is forced through a tiny hole at high pressure, and then blown out into the air. This causes a lot of nitrates to form and the cholesterol in the milk is oxidized. Those of you who are familiar with my work know that cholesterol is your best friend; you don't have to worry about natural cholesterol in your food; however, you do not want to eat oxidized cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to the buildup of plaque in the arteries, to atherosclerosis. So when you drink reduced-fat milk thinking that it will help you avoid heart disease, you are actually consuming oxidized cholesterol, which initiates the process of heart disease.
Link to westonaprice.org and search skim milk for the full article if you're interested.
Reply
1-23-2007 @4:36PM Becki said... How come, when I search for "oxidized cholesterol" at DrWeil.com, WebMD.com or MayoClinic.com, three of the most trusted - and comprehensive - sources of health info you could find there is no mention of this stuff? None.
Reply
1-23-2007 @5:14PM calamari said... The American Heart Association Journal has heard of it:
http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/6/977
So has the National Institute of Health:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9727605&dopt=Abstract
And the University of San Francisco Medical School:
http://pub.ucsf.edu/newsservices/releases/2004020331/
What's odd is that all these publications are dated 1998, as if this line of research never went anywhere later.
Reply
1-23-2007 @5:30PM Allison said... Good research, Calamari. And an excellent question at the end. Given that it's taken 40 plus years for Adelle Davis's warnings about trans fats to actually impact the processed food industry, guess who's probably going to hope oxidized cholesterol is going to go away if they ignore it long enough. Nevertheless Big Pharma which pushes cholesterol drugs like candy, when it's a whole lote easier -- and free -- to just avoid the stuff in the first place.
And, Becki, those sites are indeed popular, but they all come out of the Disease Model of Western allopathic health care instead of a proactive wellness model. Weil probably comes closest to the optimum, but is still pretty mainstream. End of rant, beginning of health.
Reply
1-23-2007 @6:03PM Becki said... Yes - but not a single mention of skim milk being a source of oxidized cholesterol. The passage in the site Allison says to look at, westonaprice.org reads like bogus science:
...........
"...Powdered Milk
A note on the production of skim milk powder: liquid milk is forced through a tiny hole at high pressure, and then blown out into the air. This causes a lot of nitrates to form and the cholesterol in the milk is oxidized. Those of you who are familiar with my work know that cholesterol is your best friend; you don't have to worry about natural cholesterol in your food; however, you do not want to eat oxidized cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to the buildup of plaque in the arteries, to atherosclerosis. So when you drink reduced-fat milk thinking that it will help you avoid heart disease, you are actually consuming oxidized cholesterol, which initiates the process of heart disease..."
..............
In the first place, what do nitrates have to do with cholesterol?
Secondly, these nitrates are "formed". I suppose they come out of thin air. Now, I realize that nitrogen is the main constituent of air, and that some reaction might be taking place during this process, but the above "explanation" is unscientific and there are no footnotes to back it up.
Thirdly, if the milk has been skimmed then where is the cholesterol in the first place? Skim milk is essentially water and protein.
Reply
1-23-2007 @5:47PM Allison said... Good research, Calamari. And an excellent question at the end. Given that it's taken 40 plus years for Adelle Davis's warnings about trans fats to actually impact the processed food industry, guess who's
probably going to hope oxidized cholesterol is going to go away if they ignore it long enough? Meanwhile, Big Pharma profitably pushes cholesterol drugs like candy, when it's a whole lote easier -- and
free -- to just avoid the stuff in the first place so you don't need drugs. And, Becki, those sites are indeed popular, but they all come out of the Disease Model of Western allopathic care instead of a proactive wellness/health model. Weil probably comes closest to the optimum, but is still pretty Good research, Calamari. And an excellent question at the end. Given that it's taken 40 plus years for Adelle Davis's warnings about trans fats to actually impact the processed food industry, guess who's probably going to hope oxidized cholesterol is going to go away if they ignore it long enough. Nevertheless Big Pharma which pushes cholesterol drugs like candy, when it's a whole lote easier -- and free -- to just avoid the stuff in the first place. And, Becki, those
sites are indeed popular, but they all come out of the Disease Model of Western allopathic care instead of a proactive wellness/health model. Weil probably comes closest to the optimum, but is still pretty mainstream.
You might want to add mercola.com to your list since it's clear you are interested in food health. Good for you! With statistics that are publicly verifiable, he's the @1 health site with 800,000 newsletter subscribers. End of rant, beginning of health.
Reply
1-23-2007 @6:28PM Becki said... DrWeil.com is almost nothing but "proactive wellness/health". The others, less so, but they're fine sources of information.
Frankly, I get suspicious of people who use "Western" as a perjorative word. And I have no problem with "Big Pharma" either. Big Pharma has done plenty of good for my sick friends and relatives. I'm certainly a big advocate of pro-active wellness etc., but I have no problem with any form of medicine that works.
I'm interested in this skim milk-"oxidized cholesterol" connection. If that can be scientifically explained I might be inclined to listen further. Sure - trans fats are now known to be far more harmful than we thought before, but that doesn't mean that "oxidized cholesterol" is the next great hidden health threat.
People who worry about "Big Pharma" and the processed food industry never seem to consider that people working in those industries, food scientists, biologists, engineers, etc. actually believe in their work, and they consume the products they produce. If they were so cynical about the harmful effects of the foodstuffs and drugs they produce and are just in it for the money then how come they eat it up just like the rest of us?
Reply
1-23-2007 @6:47PM calamari said... So what *has* happened to the research since 1998?
My point was only that "oxidized cholesterol" is a legitimate term that Becki could find in reputable sources, not that I agreed with you, Allison. The reputable sources seem to be at the "let's inject things in rabbits" phase of research, which is a long way from establishing a medical fact. When I look at what articles cite my first link, I see a wave of excitement around 2000, then a dwindling number of citations. Something made this line of research *less* interesting to researchers, and it wasn't widespread acceptance by the medical community.
When nitrates oxidize cholesterols, you get an explosion. Exploding powdered milk, much?
Big Pharma tackles a lot of diseases that aren't treatable through diet and exercise in the first place; it's a money-making industry, but that doesn't mean it's not helping people.
Reply
1-23-2007 @8:00PM Allison said... First, my apologies to all that my last post got screwed up and sent twice. Way overkill. Sorry.
Becki and Calamari -- I think we could have some fascinating discussions in person. I like the way your minds work, your curiousity, and wanting substantiated information.
I really encourage you to visit westonaprice.com. Search just oxidized cholesterol, if that's your main focus. For every commentary like the one I intially posted, you'll also find the commentary was based on several other studies published on their site, many of whose pages of footnotes outnumber the text portions. These guys are no lightweights.
Iagree that pulling an isolated paragraph out of anything can look like bogus science. So can studies which are skewed to achieve a desired outcome, or squelched if they have an undesirable outcome.
Thanks everyone for keeping our minds open, alert, questioning and caring.
Reply
1-23-2007 @8:22PM Becki said... Allison - there are no footnotes that I can find that link skim milk to oxidized cholesterol. The only milk I drink is a dash in coffee or tea. There's no evidence I can see to make me consider giving it up.
Reply
1-23-2007 @8:56PM Allison said... Becki, I would hope to never be a diet dictocrat. I'm an educator, not a dictator. I simply know that now that you saw oxidized cholesterol linked to the American fast food diet in the links Calamari provided, you'll start to be conscious of how much it exists in our diets. Awareness is all!
Be well.
Reply
1-24-2007 @12:05AM Becki said... Sorry Allison, but no matter how well-intentioned your postings about oxidized cholesterol are, your message is undermined if you make an unfounded statement.
You don't do yourself any favors if you make the - to my mind - outrageous claim that fat-free skim milk contains not only cholesterol, but the really awful "oxidized" version.
You posted: "...This causes a lot of nitrates to form and the cholesterol in the milk is oxidized. ..." Using the bogey-words, "nitrates" "oxidized" and "cholesterol" in the same sentence might seem like a powerful tactic in casual conversation, but in actual fact it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Reply
1-24-2007 @3:46PM Allison said... Becki, because you asked, it got me thinking. Always a good outcome. The following is a link to making dried milk, which is added to skim milk to give it more bulk and flavor. If you do the additional link to lipolysis under the "powdered milk" section, you will see why the process oxidises the ingredients.
http://www.foodsci.uoguelph.ca/dairyedu/concprod.html#d1
Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion I seemed to have spawned.
Reply