Corn Oil and Cancer?

The benefits of corn oil keep rolling in. In a new study by Stephen Freedland's group at Duke, feeding mice a diet rich in butter and lard didn't promote the growth of transplanted human prostate cancer cells any more than a low-fat diet (1).

Why do we care? Because other studies, including one from the same investigators, show that corn oil and other industrial seed oils strongly promote prostate cancer cell growth and increase mortality in similar models (2, 3).

From the discussion section:

Current results combined with our prior results suggest that lowering the fat content of a primarily saturated fat diet offers little survival benefit in an intact or castrated LAPC-4 xenograft model. In contrast to the findings when omega-6 fats are used, these results raise the possibility that fat type may be as important as fat amount or perhaps even more important.

There's a large body of evidence implicating excess omega-6 fat in a number of cancer models. Reducing omega-6 to below 4% of calories has a dramatic effect on cancer incidence and progression*. In fact, there have even been several experiments showing that butter and other animal fats promote cancer growth to a lesser degree than margarine and omega-6-rich seed oils. I discussed that here.


* The average American eats 7-8% omega-6 by calories. This means it will be difficult to see a relationship between omega-6 intake and cancer (or heart disease, or most things) in observational studies in the US or other industrial nations, because we virtually all eat more than 4% of calories as omega-6. Until the 20th century, omega-6 intake was below 4%, and usually closer to 2%, in some traditional societies. That's where it remains in contemporary traditional societies unaffected by industrial food habits, such as Kitava.

when life gives you lemons....

3:14 yesterday i found out the fate of my next 17 weeks...bed rest.

with taylor, i spent 3 months on bed rest. and while people think that bed rest would be a luxury, i can assure you otherwise. only being allowed to get up to shower and go to the potty is not what i consider a luxury item....having to have someone wait on you 24/7 and take care of your child is like a prison sentence. it's hard on your whole family.

i have shed my tears and now i am stating that i am not going to dwell on situation but rather make lemonade from it: i'm going to be thankful for my wonderful supportive family, smile as i listen to tay upstairs playing the drums, laugh as i watch warren pick out her outfits and try to do her hair, give lots of kisses to tay when she is sitting in my lap, enjoy being able to catch up w/ my friends when they call to check in, work on expanding my business (e*design and a website are in the works), make my blog better, keep the designer's attic up (a huge thank you to all of the people who have supported that blog), take time to read books (any suggestions?), and most of all- take care of myself so that we can welcome a healthy, baby boy into our lives this june (and hopefully not before then)....

*images courtesy of the love shop, oh hello friend, haven and home, style court, the bottom of the ironing basket, absolutely beautiful things, cup of jo

Olga's CVPR paper

I'd like to congratulate my colleague Olga Barinova on the paper, which is accepted to CVPR international conference! To my knowledge, it is the first paper from our lab, which is accepted to a Rank 1 conference (though it was written during Olga's internship at Microsoft Research).

The paper is on multiple object retrieval. They extend the Hough transform with some graphical model, which makes the results more robust. As soon as the paper become publicly available, I'll add the link here.

UPD. (Apr 20, 2010) PDF

UPD (Jul 30, 2010) Video

a fish and a hat....

the next time your significant other says 'i am going to mount a fish in our house', say 'that's fine...i'm going to spray paint it gold and make it wear a hat'...then you have a happy compromise ;)

*images courtesy of brabourne farms, peacock feather events

Buah Keben, utk atasi Katarak..

Tanaman keben mudah sekali ditemukan di sepanjang pantai papua. saat itu di papua Heinrich sedang mengamati penduduk papua yang sedang membius ikan menggunakan biji keben yang dilumatkan dengan atau tanpa dicampur akar tuba dan ditaburkan ke permukaan kolam.

Setelah beberapa saat, ikan-ikan yang bersembunyi di dalam lopak-lopak dan paluh-paluh kolam akan mengambang di permukaan sehingga lebih mudah ditangkap. Namun, ikan-ikan tersebut tidak mati, hanya pingsan selama sekitar 20 menit. Bila tidak diambil dan efek biusnya habis, ikan yang pingsan akan pulih kembali dan berenang ke habitat asalnya seperti sediakala. Dugaannya, saponin, glukosida, dan beberapa zat lain yang terdapat dalam biji keben melumpuhkan sistem saraf pada badan dan mata ikan.

Setelah melihat hal tersebut, membuat Henrich tertarik untuk meneliti lebih jauh apa saja yang terjadi dengan ikan ikan tersebut. saat itu ia berfikir bahwa biji keben yang ditaburkan ke kolam telah memengaruhi sistem saraf mata ikan sehingga menjadi seperti pingsan. Dan karena ikan tersebut ternyata dapat pulih kembali, berarti biji keben tersebut tidak merusak mata. Itulah yang membuat ia yakin bahwa ekstrak biji keben bisa mengobati gangguan mata dan tidak membahayakan kesehatan manusia. dan dari sinilah Heinrich mulai tertarik untuk mencoba memanfaatkan buah keben untuk pengobatan mata


.Sebelumnya memang belum pernah ditemukan pengobatan tradisional yang menggunakan biji buah keben dari spesies Barringtonia asiatica untuk mengobati penyakit mata. Namun spesies lain dari genus Barringtonia, yakni putat hutan (B. macrostachya Kurz.) bagian akarnya dan butun darat (B. racemosa L. Bl. Ex. DC) bagian bijinya telah diguna-kan di Kalimantan dan Jawa untuk mengatasi gangguan mata. Sayangnya, tidak diketahui dengan jelas jenis-jenis penyakitnya.

Sampai akhirnya, pada Desember 2002 Heinrich menemukan komposisi obat tetes mata dari biji keben. Obat tetes ini dibuat dari biji keben yang berspesies 6. asiatica dan fi. exce/sa tanpa campuran bahan lain. Buah keben tersebut diperoleh dari pohon yang tumbuh di tepi pantai Desa Nafri, DistrikAbepura, Kotamadya Jayapura, Provinsi Papua. Bahan baku biji keben dapat pula diperoleh dari pantai Base G, Distrik Jayapura Utara dan pantai Hamadi, Distrik Jayapura Selatan. Buah dipilih yang sudah matang, dicirikan dengan adanya semburat cokelat pada kulitnya. Dalam memproduksi obat tetes ini, Heinrich tidak pernah mengambii Iangsung dari pohonnya, melainkan hanya mengambii buah yang sudah jatuh dengan sendirinya.

Awalnya ia mencobakan obat tetes yang dibuatnya, pada matanya sendiri yang menderita hipermetropia plus 4. Setelah ditetesi sebanyak 20 kali, masing-masing mata 2 tetes (1 tetes = 0,06 ml.) setiap dua hari sekali, ia merasakan ada perbaikan. Saat itu hipermetropia di matanya telah turun menjadi plus 2. Hasil uji coba ini semakin membuatnya yakin bahwa obat ini tidak menimbulkan efek samping atau membahayakan kesehatan orang lain. Hanya saja setelah di tetesi, mata akan terasa pedih sekitar 15 – 30 menit.

Dengan keyakinan ini, ia memberanikan diri untuk mengujikan obat tetes mata buatannya pada penderita gangguan mata di Jayapura, kota tempat tinggalnya. Hasil uji coba ini membuktikan bahwa obat tetes mata keben mampu menyembuhkan penyakit katarak, pterigium, glaukoma baru, miopia, dan hipermetropia. Sampai saat ini belum ada pasien yang mengeluh atau keberatan dengan obat tetes mata keben. Mereka justru memberikan dorongan dan semangat supaya obat ini dapat diperkenalkan kepada masyarakat luas. Heinrich juga mendapat perhatian dan dukungan dari kalangan medis seperti, dr. John Manangsang, dr. Barus Siahaan, dan dr. Lewerissaa (ahli mata di RS Dok 2, Jayapura).

Tanaman Keben

Keben merupakan tanaman yang berbentuk pohon dan berkayu lunak memiliki diameter sekitar 50 cm dengan ketinggian 4-16 meter. keben mempunyai sistem perakaran yang banyak dan sebagian tergenang di air laut ketika sedang pasang. ia juga memiliki banyak percabangan yang terletak di bagian bawah batang mendekati tanah. bentuk daunnya cukup besar, mengkilap dan berdaging. daun mudanya berwarna merah muda dan akan berubah menjadi kekuningan setelah tua.

Di papua buah keben disebut dengan sebutan rabon pi. bagian luarnya terdiri dari kulit berserabut dan didalamnya terdapat tempurung. di dalam tempurung terdapat sebutir biji yang keras, berlendir dan berwarna putih. buah ini memiliki bunga selebar 16 cm yang berwarna putih dengan benang sari berwarna merah muda. besar buah keben seukuran genggaman tangan orang dewasa, berwarna hijau ketika muda dan akan menjadi kecokelatan setelah tua dan kering.

Taksonomi tanaman keben

Divisi : Magnoliophyta

Kelas : Magnoliopsida

Subkelas : Dilleniidae

Ordo : Lecythidales

Famili : Barringtoniaceae Rudolph! (-Lecythidaceae)

Genus : Barringtonia

Spesies : Barringtonia asiatica Kurz

Sinonim : Barringtonia spedosa J.R. Forster

Nama daerah: Bitung, butun (Menado); butun (Sunda);butung, keben (Jawa); keben-keben (Bali); utong (Alor); bitung tumbak, witung witung (Minahasa); hutu (Gorontalo); wutuna (Buol); hutun (Ambon); keptun (Halmahera Selatan); mijiu, pitu, mijimu (Halmahera Utara); mojiu (Ternate).

Senyawa apa saja yang terkandung dalam buah keben ?

Hingga saat ini telah banyak penelitian yang dilakukan untuk mengungkap kandungan senyawa aktif dalam tanaman keben, Greshoff, peneliti dari Belanda menemukan zat-zat seperti saponin beracun di dalam biji yang sudah diterapkan dalam ilmu kedokteran. Dari penelitian-penelitian lain diketahui bahwa selain saponin, buah dan biji keben juga mengandung asam galat; asam hidrosianat yang terdiri dari monosakarida; serta triterpenoid yang terdiri dari asam bartogenat, asam 19-epibartogenat, dan asam anhidro-bartogenat.

Senyawa aktif dalam biji buah ini, yang diduga kuat memiliki efek penyembuhan dalam pengobatan mata adalah dari golongan saponin. Beberapa jenis saponin telah berhasil diidentifikasi. saponin yang berasal dari buah keben merupakan saponin jenis baru. Dengan kandungan senyawa tersebut buah keben telah dilaporkan memiliki banyak aktivitas farmakologis seperti anti bakteri, anti jamur, analgesik, dan anti tumor.
Sumber :http://radixvitae.com/index.php?id=30


NB: Tersedia Ektrak Buah Keben mampu menyembuhkan penyakit katarak, pterigium, glaukoma baru, miopia, dan hipermetropia. Harga 450rb/8 ml.(jabotabek free ongkos kirim). Pemesanan : 081310343598 / budiprakoso98@gmail.com

Magnesium and Insulin Sensitivity

From a paper based on US NHANES nutrition and health survey data (1):

During 1999–2000, the diet of a large proportion of the U.S. population did not contain adequate magnesium... Furthermore, racial or ethnic differences in magnesium persist and may contribute to some health disparities.... Because magnesium intake is low among many people in the United States and inadequate magnesium status is associated with increased risk of acute and chronic conditions, an urgent need exists to perform a current survey to assess the physiologic status of magnesium in the U.S. population.

Magnesium is an essential mineral that many people apparently don't get enough of. One of the many things it's necessary for in mammals is proper insulin sensitivity and glucose control. A loss of glucose control due to insulin resistance can eventually lead to diabetes and all its complications.

Magnesium status is associated with insulin sensitivity (2, 3), and a low magnesium intake predicts the development of type II diabetes in most studies (4, 5) but not all (6). Magnesium supplements largely prevent diabetes in a rat model* (7). Interestingly, excess blood glucose and insulin themselves seem to reduce magnesium status, possibly creating a vicious cycle.

In a 1993 trial, a low-magnesium diet reduced insulin sensitivity in healthy volunteers by 25% in just four weeks (8). It also increased urinary thromboxane concentration, a potential concern for cardiovascular health**.

At least three trials have shown that magnesium supplementation increases insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant diabetics and non-diabetics (9, 10, 11). In some cases, the results were remarkable. In type II diabetics, 16 weeks of magnesium supplementation improved fasting glucose, calculated insulin sensitivity and HbA1c*** (12). HbA1c dropped by 22 percent.

In insulin resistant volunteers with low blood magnesium, magnesium supplementation for four months reduced estimated insulin resistance by 43 percent and decreased fasting insulin by 32 percent (13). This suggests to me that magnesium deficiency was probably one of the main reasons they were insulin resistant in the first place. But the study had another very interesting finding: magnesium improved the subjects' blood lipid profile remarkably. Total cholesterol decreased, LDL decreased, HDL increased and triglycerides decreased by a whopping 39 percent. The same thing had been reported in the medical literature decades earlier when doctors used magnesium injections to treat heart disease, and also in animals treated with magnesium. Magnesium supplementation also suppresses atherosclerosis (thickening and hardening of the arteries) in animal models, a fact that I may discuss in more detail at some point (14, 15).

In the previous study, participants were given 2.5 g magnesium chloride (MgCl2) per day. That's a bit more than the USDA recommended daily allowance (MgCl2 is mostly chloride by weight), in addition to what they were already getting from their diet. Most of a person's magnesium is in their bones, so correcting a deficiency by eating a nutritious diet may take a while.

Speaking of nutritious diets, how does one get magnesium? Good sources include halibut, leafy greens, chocolate and nuts. Bone broths may also be a source of magnesium. Whole grains and beans are also fairly good sources, while refined grains lack most of the magnesium in the whole grain. Organic foods, particularly artisanally produced foods from a farmer's market, are richer in magnesium because they grow on better soil and often use older varieties that are more nutritious.

The problem with seeds such as grains, beans and nuts is that they also contain phytic acid which prevents the absorption of magnesium and other minerals (16). Healthy non-industrial societies that relied on grains took great care in their preparation: they soaked them, often fermented them, and also frequently removed a portion of the bran before cooking (17). These steps all served to reduce the level of phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. I've posted a method for effectively reducing the amount of phytic acid in brown rice (18). Beans should ideally be soaked for 24 hours before cooking, preferably in warm water.

Industrial agriculture has systematically depleted our soil of many minerals, due to high-yield crop varieties and the fact that synthetic fertilizers only replace a few minerals. The mineral content of foods in the US, including magnesium, has dropped sharply in the last 50 years. The reason we need to use fertilizers in the first place is that we've broken the natural nutrient cycle in which minerals always return to the soil in the same place they were removed. In 21st century America, minerals are removed from the soil, pass through our toilets, and end up in the landfill or in waste water. This will continue until we find an acceptable way to return human feces and urine to agricultural soil, as many cultures do to this day****.

I believe that an adequate magnesium intake is critical for proper insulin sensitivity and overall health.


* Zucker rats that lack leptin signaling

** Thromboxane A2 is an omega-6 derived eicosanoid that potently constricts blood vessels and promotes blood clotting. It's interesting that magnesium has such a strong effect on it. It indicates that fatty acid balance is not the only major influence on eicosanoid production.

*** Glycated hemoglobin. A measure of the average blood glucose level over the past few weeks.

**** Anyone interested in further reading on this should look up The Humanure Handbook

Lindeberg on Obesity

I'm currently reading Dr. Staffan Lindeberg's magnum opus Food and Western Disease, recently published in English for the first time. Dr. Lindeberg is one of the world's leading experts on the health and diet of non-industrial cultures, particularly in Papua New Guinea. The book contains 2,034 references. It's also full of quotable statements. Here's what he has to say about obesity:

Middle-age spread is a normal phenomenon - assuming you live in the West. Few people are able to maintain their [youthful] waistline after age 50. The usual explanation - too little exercise and too much food - does not fully take into account the situation among traditional populations. Such people are usually not as physically active as you may think, and they usually eat large quantities of food.

Overweight has been extremely rare among hunter-gatherers and other traditional cultures [18 references]. This simple fact has been quickly apparent to all foreign visitors...

The Kitava study measured height, weight, waist circumference, subcutaneous fat thickness at the back of the upper arm (triceps skinfold) and upper arm circumference on 272 persons ages 4-86 years. Overweight and obesity were absent and average [body mass index] was low across all age groups. ...no one was larger around their waist than around their hips.

...The circumference of the upper arm [mostly indicating muscle mass] was only negligibly smaller on Kitava [compared with Sweden], which indicates that there was no malnutrition. It is obvious from our investigations that lack of food is an unknown concept, and that the surplus of fruits and vegetables regularly rots or is eaten by dogs.

The Population of Kitava occupies a unique position in the world in terms of the negligible effect that the Western lifestyle has had on the island.

The only obese Kitavans Dr. Lindeberg observed were two people who had spent several years off the island living a modern, urban lifestyle, and were back on Kitava for a visit.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a scholarly interest in health and nutrition, and somewhat of a background in science and medicine. It's extremely well referenced, which makes it much more valuable.

New Year New Post

Hello everyone,
I'm still alive, sorry for the lapse in content for the last 6 months. The second edition of the book is out, we will be at the RSA conference doing a book signing next week so make sure to stop by and say hi.

I'll be finishing the current series today and then moving on to new topics.

monday's....

sometimes when your child wakes you up really early, it's hard to get out words to go along w/ posts....so will a collection of pretty images do?

*images courtesy of barbourne farm, house beautiful, city sage, tartanscot blog, high street market

Visual Assist's Tip of the Century

Probably you know the Visual Assist plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio, which makes C++ programming in the environment zillion times handier. The story is about the bootstrap tip that highlights the feature of restoring files. While the tip window is shown, there is a second dialog box painted in the window. Since it is centred w.r.t. the screen, you perceive it as a real dialog box. Moreover, it is the usual case when Visual Assist suggests you to load some files from backup while MSVS is loading, because it does not always shut down properly. Thus, you try to close it clicking Yes or No, but nothing happens! The box is still in its place! That was really annoying.

In the later versions the developers solved the problem. They just marked the box as the example. The nice lack and the nice solution.

if these walls could talk.

sometimes it's a good thing that people can't see you....i'm waiting on a phone interview i have in thirty minutes for a magazine shoot that is coming out this summer. if only the interviewer knew i was hanging out in my bathrobe, pj pants, and had a towel in my hair. i swear i'm professional :) and that my sweet husband had to put a post it note on my desk lamp to make sure i remembered about it (oh, and the refrigerator...he knows where a pregnant girl hangs out)

i have a secret....i love watching the halfpipe (although i have to admit, i have been calling it the half pike until my husband corrected me last night)...shaun white ROCKS!! he is so good!! the olympics was so fun to watch last night...i am so happy for lindsey vonn too.

*images courtesy of concrete and honey, brilliant asylum, la masion boheme, canadian house and home, bryn alexandra

tay's room....

last night taylor told me she missed her pink room...i guess that means it's time to give her new room a little attention....starting w/ the walls.....

*images courtesy of unknown, new york times, hgtv, unknown, domino, ny social diary, pottery barn kids, this is glamourous, serena and lilly, elle decor (please forgive me, i have had a lot of these images saved in my personal folder which is why the photos are unknown)

snow...

49 states got snow this weekend....quite a big deal for a girl who grew up in middle GA and now lives on the coast in SC b/c snow is something i rarely see or drive in.....

*images courtesy of unknown, elizabeth bauer, katey elliot, yay everyday

Quantum Machine Learning

Recently, Google announced their intentions to use quantum algorithms for the search. They implemented Grover's algorithm on the D-Wave chip. Whatever they say about D-Wave, we should admit that quantum computers are going to change the nature of machine learning, it is only a matter of time.

In spite of I had the university course on quantum computing, I am not able to make head or tails of it. (See my recent post about our university education) But, as far as I know, the key idea is a computer can perform exhaustive search in constant time. This means that for quantum algorithms P=NP. For example, the problem of exact MAP inference in an MRF could be efficiently solved via exhaustive search in the space of all possible assignments.

However, quantum computers return probabilistic results, so there remains a work for mathematicians. But it is the work of the different kind. In the field of MRF MAP inference, all the algorithms like loopy BP will be forgotten. Another example: Google's Hartmut Neven developed a quantum version of AdaBoost. So, machine learners, go study quantum mechanics!

heart u

happy valentine's day to you and you and you.....

*images courtesy of house of bliss, snippet and ink, kate french, daisy chain

University education reform

Recently, me and my friend Andrew Korolev came up with the plan of reforming Russian higher education system.

There are some evident problems in the system one can notice even in our faculty. The most courses are obsolete (or, well, legacy), a lot of courses are not enough developed (e.g. they contain only lectures without any support), some of them are also over-theorized and not applicable in real world (or at least they don't touch upon their applications). As a result, students are not motivated, they don't attend lectures and learn everything during the two-day period prior to the exam. The grades are often lousy, but nobody cares since such grades are sufficient to continue studying. (It is difficult to fail totally, especially for non-freshmen). Such knowledge is not solid and quite useless.

We make use of the following facts. The professors are well-qualified here, the students are witty and communicate with each other and with the graduates. Also, we suppose that everyone wants get more money, which is not always hold though is pretty common.

First, we need to improve the quality of courses. The problem is how to measure the quality. We state that it is proportional to the number of students who choose the course. Since the students have enough information about the course (from the lecturers and other students) and they all want to make a magnificent career, the useful courses become popular. The professors should be paid according to the number of students who attend their courses. But students also want to save their time. So, they are likely to choose the least challenging courses, which are not useful. In order to penalize them, the course part of professor's salary should be eliminated by the fraction of positive grades students get. Thus, a professor is motivated to make a comprehensive course (to attract students) and to implement a severe grade policy (to eliminate the freebie).

However, it will never work if the students are not motivated to get the good grades. In Russia, we have 4-level grades (2 through 5; 3 is enough for the pass), and most of the students are happy with 3s. Today, there are two stimuli to get greater grades, but they are quite subtle. The first is one need almost all 5s to receive the degree with honours, but who needs that? The second is 20% increment to the scholarship, which amounts not as much as one can desire. I have all excellent grades and receive some personal Sberbank scholarship, and totally it is about €100 per month. So, this is not a stimulus.

Well, one can ask, why do the students study now, if the courses are far from perfect? The answer is the conscription. In Russia, while you keep studying, you have a delay. If you fail at an exam, you get expelled and go to the army. Obviously, nobody wants to go to the Russian Army. So, everybody can learn a bit to pass an exam. Our point is to motivate students this way: if you have lousy grades, instead of summer holidays you move to a military camp. Better grades you get, less term you should serve. Thus, students WILL get good grades! But it is hard to get them, because professors loose their money. It is kind of a dual problem.

Surely, the model is way rough and could not be applied directly. Moreover, it is too funny to be taken seriously, though, as Russian proverb says, every joke contains a bit of truth.

our valentine's cards...

so here's my attempt to get the mommy of the year award: homemade valentine's day cards made with taylor. i saw the cutest ones in february's better homes and gardens (it's not online for some reason) and thought i could totally do that. and we did :) well, let's just say taylor did a lot of cutting on a random sheet of paper (she got bored pretty quickly) and then her little helpers pasted, cut, and assembled. and then she chimed back in to do her own "original artwork" on the inside of the cards. it was a lot of fun and super inexpensive (cupcake holders, construction paper, heart stickers, and scrapbook paper). sadly, we are leaving for atlanta today so she will miss her class valentine's party but i promise to make it up to her :)

Saturated Fat and Insulin Sensitivity

Insulin sensitivity is a measure of the tissue response to insulin. Typically, it refers to insulin's ability to cause tissues to absorb glucose from the blood. A loss of insulin sensitivity, also called insulin resistance, is a core part of the metabolic disorder that affects many people in industrial nations.

It is commonly asserted in journal articles and on the internet that saturated fat reduces insulin sensitivity. The idea is that saturated fat reduces the body's ability to handle glucose effectively, placing people on the road to diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Perhaps this particular claim deserves a closer look.

The Evidence

I found a review article from 2008 that addressed this question (1). I like this review because it only includes high-quality trials that used reliable methods of determining insulin sensitivity*.

On to the meat of it. There were 5 studies in which non-diabetic people were fed diets rich in saturated fat, and compared with a group eating a diet rich in monounsaturated (like olive oil) or polyunsaturated (like corn oil) fat. They ranged in duration from one week to 3 months. Four of the five studies found that fat quality did not affect insulin sensitivity, including one of the 3-month studies.

The fifth study, which is the one that's most commonly cited, requires some discussion. This was the KANWU study (2). Over the course of three months, investigators fed 163 volunteers a diet rich in either saturated fat or monounsaturated fat.

The SAFA diet included butter and a table margarine containing a relatively high proportion of SAFAs. The MUFA diet included a spread and a margarine containing high proportions of oleic acid derived from high-oleic sunflower oil and negligible amounts of trans fatty acids and n-3 fatty acids and olive oil.

Yummy. After three months of these diets, there was no significant difference in insulin sensitivity between the saturated fat group and the monounsaturated fat group. Yes, you read that right. Even the study that's commonly cited as evidence that saturated fat causes insulin resistance found no significant difference between the diets. I'll be generous and acknowledge that the small difference was almost statistically significant (p = 0.053).

What the authors focused on is the fact that insulin sensitivity declined slightly but significantly on the saturated fat diet compared with the pre-diet baseline. That's why this study is cited as evidence that saturated fat impairs insulin sensitivity. But those of you with a science background may be able to spot the problem here. You need a control group for comparison, to take into account normal fluctuations caused by such things as the season, eating a new diet provided by the investigators, and having a doctor poking at you. That control group was the group eating monounsaturated fat. The comparison between diet groups was the comparison that matters most, and it wasn't quite significant.  I think the most you can say about this study is that it provides weak evidence that saturated fat decreases insulin sensitivity.

So we have five studies through 2008, which overall offer little support the idea that saturated fat reduces insulin sensitivity in non-diabetics. Since the review paper was published, I know of one subsequent study that asked the same question (3). Susan J. van Dijk and colleagues fed volunteers with abdominal overweight a diet rich in either saturated fat or monounsaturated fat. I e-mailed the senior author and she said the saturated fat diet was "mostly butter".  After 8 weeks, insulin sensitivity was virtually identical between the two groups. This study appeared well controlled and used the gold standard method for assessing insulin sensitivity, called the euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp technique***.

The evidence from controlled trials is rather consistent that saturated fat has no major effect on insulin sensitivity in humans, at least on time scales of a few months.

UPDATE: other trials have added to this finding.  The large European LIPIGENE randomized controlled diet trial found that substantial differences in SFA intake had no effect on insulin sensitivity over 12 weeks in people with the metabolic syndrome (3b).


* For the nerds: euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp (the gold standard), insulin suppression test, or intravenous glucose tolerance test with Minimal Model. They didn't include studies that reported HOMA as their only measure, because it's not very accurate.

*** They did find that markers of inflammation in fat tissue were higher after the saturated fat diet.

industrialized.....

isn't it insane how something so simple can make such an amazing impact?

*images courtesy of the laurel hedge, lake jane, patricia mcdonagh, name is grace, sarah's fab day

How NOT to finish a 100km race

Jennifer Anne Meneray showing off her bandages that were put on at an aid station so she could complete the 100Km portion of the HURT 100 in Hawaii.

Thank You

I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who has supported me through donations this year. The money has allowed me to buy materials that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to afford, and I feel it has enriched the blog for everyone. Here are some of the books I've bought using donations. Some were quite expensive:

Food and western disease: health and nutrition from an evolutionary perspective. Staffan Lindeberg (just released!!)

Nutrition and disease. Edward Mellanby

Migration and health in a small society: the case of Tokelau. Edited by Albert F. Wessen

The saccharine disease. T. L. Cleave

Culture, ecology and dental anthropology. John R. Lukacs

Vitamin K in health and disease. John W. Suttie

Craniofacial development. Geoffrey H. Sperber

Western diseases: their emergence and prevention. Hugh C. Trowell and Denis P. Burkitt

The ultimate omega-3 diet. Evelyn Tribole

Our changing fare. John Yudkin and colleagues


Donations have also paid for many, many photocopies at the medical library. I'd also like to thank everyone who participates in the community by leaving comments, or by linking to my posts. I appreciate your encouragement, and also the learning opportunities.

it's the weekend....

yay! we have officially almost made it through the week....and my cold is almost gone. we are suppose to go to an oyster roast tonight but there is a 100% chance of rain....not ideal for outdoor cooking.

i hope y'all have a fabulous weekend!

*images courtesy of pink monkey, real living, katie brown, unknown, you are my fav, yay everyday