This little guy came to keep me company yesterday. He attached himself to the screen right outside where I was working. I couldn’t believe he didn’t fly away as I moved to screen to step outside and take his photograph. He was there for a good hour. (After looking it up, I think it’s a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.) He looks a little beat up, doesn’t he.
Say there are 100 apples to feed 100 people. One apple is organically grown, 99 are conventionally grown. That would about equal the 0.8% of cropland that USDA says is organic right now. So, 1 person gets to eat the organic apple, 99 get to consume the ones with more chemicals. (Maybe they have more chemicals, maybe they don’t.)
Who gets the organic apple?
Or … Let’s say that we could expand organic agriculture to 10% of cropland overnight. In my arguably simplistic example, 10 people would get to eat organic apples, 90 wouldn’t. That’s still a difficult decision.
I say we do away with these dual forms of production – organic and conventional. For starters, it’s more costly to develop and maintain two sets of standards. A close second is that “organic” has become more of a marketing term than an assurance food wasn’t grown without chemicals, or was necessarily better for the environment. There is also, as I’ve laid out, the ethical question of who gets the organic food.
An alternative, in my example, could be to stop using the most egregious chemicals on all apples. No one would get to eat an “organic” apple, but everyone would get to reduce their exposure to our most dangerous chemicals.
What do you think?
I’m reading The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner. An unusually large number of Sardinians live into their 100s and remain fit while doing so. Here’s Buettner writing about their diet.
“Their diet was fairly typical of families in the region before the American-style food culture arrived, as surveys before the 1940s revealed. “Shepherds and peasants in Sardinia have an exceptionally simple diet, which is extraordinarily lean even by Mediterranean standards,” a 1941 survey reported.
“Bread is by far the main food. Peasants leave early in the morning to the fields with a kilogram of bread in their saddlebag … At noon their meal consists only of bread, with some cheese among wealthier families, while the majority of the workers are satisfied with an onion, a little fennel, or a bunch of ravanelli. At dinner, the reunited family eats a single meal consisting of a vegetable soup (minestrone) to which the richest add some pasta.
In most areas, families ate meat only once a week, on Sunday. In 26 of 71 municipalities surveyed, meat is a luxury eaten only during festivals, not more than twice a month. Interestingly for a Mediterranean culture, fish did not figure prominently into the diet.”
Ravanelli are radishes. I had to look that up.
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. That’s a lot of bread! Here’s some info on it:
Much like sourdough bread in the United States, Sardinian sourdough breads are made from whole wheat and use live lactobacilli (rather than yeast) to rise the dough. This process also converts sugars and gluten into lactic acid, lowering the bread’s glycemic index and imparting a pleasant, faintly sour taste.
Pes has demonstrated that this type of bread is able to lower the glycemic load, reducing after-meal glucose and insulin blood levels by 25 percent. This helps protect the pancreas and may help prevent obesity and diabetes.
Photo and caption from Today.com
Japanese green tea (Gyokuro)
I was looking around for studies, specifically randomized control trials (RCTs), on tea’s ability to inhibit the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase. Pumpkin seeds can inhibit 5-alpha-reductase. It’s thought that this inhibition is responsible for the seeds’ positive effect on urination in men with enlarged prostate.*
* Testosterone gets converted to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) via 5-alpha-reductase. DHT is the primary contributing factor in male pattern baldness, and plays a role in the development of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), as well as prostate cancer, by enlarging the prostate gland.
I haven’t found any RCTs yet, but I did find this:
An Update On Plant Derived Anti-Androgens, International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, April 2012
4.10. Green Tea (Camellia sinensis)
In addition to supporting the cardiovascular system and somewhat reducing the risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes (8), green tea may also have an important anti-androgen effect because it contains epigallocatechins, which inhibit the 5-alpha-reductase conversion of normal testosterone into DHT. As previously noted, this anti-androgen mechanism may help to reduce the risk of BPH, acne, and baldness. As yet, no randomized controlled trials of green tea for these androgen dependent conditions have been conducted.
So, green tea can inhibit 5-alpha-reductase, and may also (in conjunction with pumpkin seeds and flax seeds) reduce urination difficulties associated with an enlarged prostate, as well as stimulate hair growth. But, as of 2012 at least, no RCTs.
This review included a list of plants thought to have anti-androgen effects. It’s nice to see. It helps dissipate the fog of magic foods:
Effect Of Pumpkin Seed Oil On Hair Growth In Men With Androgenetic Alopecia: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, April 2014
This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study was designed to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of pumpkin seed oil (PSO) for treatment of hair growth in male patients with mild to moderate androgenetic alopecia (AGA).
76 male patients with AGA received 400 mg of PSO per day or a placebo for 24 weeks. Change over time in scalp hair growth was evaluated by four outcomes: assessment of standardized clinical photographs by a blinded investigator; patient self-assessment scores; scalp hair thickness; and scalp hair counts.
After 24 weeks of treatment:
- Self-rated improvement score and self-rated satisfaction scores in the PSO-treated group were higher than in the placebo group (P = 0.013, 0.003).
- The PSO-treated group had more hair after treatment than at baseline, compared to the placebo group (P < 0.001).
- Mean hair count increases of 40% were observed in PSO-treated men at 24 weeks, whereas increases of 10% were observed in placebo-treated men (P < 0.001).
- Adverse effects were not different in the two groups.
The study shows that pumpkin seed oil could improve androgenetic alopecia (AGA, male pattern baldness) and that it should be considered a potential alternative treatment.
Here are before and after photographs of a few men in the study. The effect wasn’t profound, but it was evident. This is after 6 months of pumpkin seed oil, 400 mg daily:
It’s likely the men taking pumpkin seed oil were also experiencing improved urination.
Female pattern baldness
Women also experience androgenetic alopecia – female pattern baldness – especially after a drop in female hormones … from ovarian cysts, hysterectomy, pregnancy, or menopause. Women experience more diffuse thinning throughout the scalp instead of distinct male-pattern bald areas.
The mechanism for hair regrowth in men taking pumpkin seed oil may apply to women as well: pumpkin seed oil inhibits the action of 5-alpha reductase:
Testosterone converts to DHT with the aid of the enzyme Type II 5-alpha reductase, which is held in a hair follicle’s oil glands. Scientists now believe that it’s not the amount of circulating testosterone that’s the problem but the level of DHT binding to receptors in scalp follicles. DHT shrinks hair follicles, making it impossible for healthy hair to survive.
Other foods that inhibit 5-alpha reductase are flax seeds and green tea.
I have something coming up about pumpkin seeds and I wanted to revisit some of my pumpkin seed posts as background. Here’s a post from 2012 about a study that found men who took either pumpkin seed or saw palmetto oil had improvements in urination. The size of their prostate declined over time (improving urination even more) and they had better PSA scores.
To a list which includes saw palmetto and flax seed for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH):
Add pumpkin seed:
Effects Of Pumpkin Seed Oil And Saw Palmetto Oil In Korean Men With Symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Nutrition Research and Practice, December 2009
This is another randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. You don’t get better than this when studying the effectiveness of a drug. And it was long for a study like this, a year.
There were four groups:
Results:
International Prostate Symptom Scores: Symptoms in Groups B, C, and D were significantly reduced after three months. Group D showed the most improvement. Interestingly, Group D showed continual improvement over time. So, the longer they took pumpkin seed/saw palmetto, the better they felt.
Quality of Life Scores: Improvements in Groups B, C, and D. Group D showed the most improvement, and again, they improved continually over time. (The placebo group’s score was unchanged over the 12 months.)
Serum PSA Levels: Only Group D showed a reduction in PSA levels, up to about 50%.
Prostate Volume: Groups B, C and D showed a gradual decline in size over time. (The placebo group remain unchanged.)
Maximal Urinary Flow Rate: Group B was significantly increased after 3 months; Group C after 6 months. Interestingly, Group D showed no improvement, but this could have been influenced by the participants’ higher age (see comment below*). The placebo group experienced a worsening of urinary symptoms, flow rate decreased 22% over a year.
The authors concluded:
“The results of this study show that the symptoms of BPH for all patients receiving treatment with pumpkin seed oil, saw palmetto oil, or a combination of pumpkin seed oil plus saw palmetto oil were improved over 12 months, in comparison with placebo. … During the experimental period, no side effects were reported.”
* One drawback to this study was its small number of participants. In randomization, population characteristics cannot be ensured across groups. More participants mean more similarity across groups. It would be better if all groups had, say, the same percentage of people who were obese. In this study, Group D’s average age was significantly higher than Groups B and C. This may have been why Group D did not show even better outcomes for combination therapy, which one would expect. (Of course, age may not have had any impact, but you can’t tell from this study.)
Why would you expect that combination therapy would be better? Because pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil have different mechanisms of action, they work to improve urinary symptoms in different ways:
“According to the difference in action mechanisms, a synergistic effect on BPH was expected from combination treatment of pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil. In our study, combination treatment of pumpkin seed oil and saw palmetto oil induced a higher symptomatic improvement … than a single treatment.”
Pharmaceutical drugs like Flomax are potent and can relieve symptoms overnight. Plant-based therapies (phytotherapies) can take several weeks to show effectiveness, but do so without the cost and side effects of drugs. They may also be better choices for long-term use.
Indeed, in this study:
“PV [prostate volume] and MFR [Maximal Urinary Flow Rate] measurements started after 6 months because the urologists advised that there would not be a significant change over a short period such as the first 3 months of treatment.”
Before I comment on this study, I want to say … I noticed that Labdoor, a leading supplement testing lab, has updated their fish oil tests to include 51 supplements, up from 30. They’re still finding that all 51 of those best-selling fish oil supplements “contained measurable amounts of mercury, with 3 products recording 50% or greater of the allowable mercury content per serving.” Many contained either less or more omega-3 than was stated on the label. That’s because no agency, government or otherwise, is regularly checking that what is on a supplement’s label is what is in the bottle. But people love their fish oil, mercury or not.
On to the study … Krill and salmon oils are the next one-up from run-of-the-mill fish oils. Like fish oil, they’re not without their problems. This randomized control trial found that men who took a blend of krill and salmon oil for 8 weeks had reduced insulin sensitivity. When cells become resistant to insulin, glucose can’t get in and blood levels of glucose rise – a precursor to diabetes.
Supplementation With A Blend Of Krill And Salmon Oil Is Associated With Increased Metabolic Risk In Overweight Men, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2015
Background: Krill is an increasingly popular source of marine n–3 (ω-3) PUFA that is seen as a premium product. However, to our knowledge, the effect of krill-oil supplementation on insulin sensitivity in humans has not been reported.
Objective: We assessed whether supplementation with a blend of krill and salmon (KS) oil [which is rich in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)] affects insulin sensitivity in overweight men.
Design: The design was a randomized, double-blind, controlled crossover trial. A total of 47 men with a mean ± SD age of 46.5 ± 5.1 y, who were overweight [body mass index (in kg/m2) from 25 to 30] but otherwise healthy, received 5 1-g capsules of KS oil or a control (canola oil) for 8 wk and crossed over to another treatment after an 8-wk washout period. The primary outcome was insulin sensitivity assessed by using the Matsuda method from an oral-glucose-tolerance test. Secondary outcomes included lipid profiles, inflammatory markers, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure, and carotid artery intimamedia thickness.
Results: Unexpectedly, insulin sensitivity (per the Matsuda index) was 14% lower with the KS oil than with the control oil (P = 0.049). A mediation analysis showed that, after controlling for the likely positive effects of blood EPA and DHA (i.e., the omega-3 index), the reduction in insulin sensitivity after KS-oil supplementation was more marked [27% lower than with the control oil (P = 0.009)].
Conclusions: Supplementation with a blend of KS oil is associated with decreased insulin sensitivity. Thus, krill-oil supplementation in overweight adults could exacerbate risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Saturated fat comes from animal foods, including dairy products (butter, cheese, cream), meats (chicken, hamburger), and eggs.
Here’s the study:
Replacement Of Saturated With Unsaturated Fats Had No Impact On Vascular Function But Beneficial Effects On Lipid Biomarkers, E-selectin, And Blood Pressure: Results From The Randomized, Controlled Dietary Intervention And Vascular Function (DIVAS) Study, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, July 2015
195 men and women, a wide age range (21 to 60), with “moderate cardiovascular disease risk” were split into three groups:
Everyone ate the same amount of calories. All diets were high-fat: 36% of total calories came from fat. They consumed their respective diets for 16 weeks.
Those that ate less saturated fat, replacing it with unsaturated fat, lowered their total and LDL cholesterol, improved their blood pressure, and lowered a biomarker for inflammation and cancer (E-selectin):
Replacement with MUFAs or n–6 PUFAs lowered fasting serum total cholesterol (−8.4% and −9.2%, respectively), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (−11.3% and −13.6%), and total cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (−5.6% and −8.5%) (P ≤ 0.001). These changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol equate to an estimated 17–20% reduction in CVD mortality.
Substitution of SFAs with MUFAs attenuated the increase in night systolic blood pressure (−4.9 mm Hg, P = 0.019) and reduced E-selectin (−7.8%, P = 0.012).
Saturated fat comes primarily from animal food. So, people in this study who reduced their saturated fat intake were reducing their intake of foods like butter, cheese, chicken, bacon, sausage, hamburgers, steak, and eggs.
When people tell you that saturated fat is good for you, or that there are no studies that show reducing satured fat is beneficial, show them this. Tell them there are a lot more where this came from.
Fanatic Cook 