Thursday, November 17, 2005
Foods in the News
Today for breakfast, I'm having coffee. A large cup, brewed from 50% dark roast Sumatra and 50% dark roast Kenya, with a splash of cream and a pack of sweet-n-low. I will probably have two or three more of these babies today, as I stayed out later than I out to have last night at the DC Bloggers Meetup at Pharaoh (which is a great bar, by the by). Waking up to Peggy Lee is helping.
It's good that I like my caffeine though, because new research indicates that decaf may be bad for you. Decaf drinkers had elevated levels (versus regular and non-coffee drinkers) of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) and apoB, both risk factors for heart disease. Plus, decaf is nasty!
Speaking of strange food effects. If you eat a lot of methionine, you may be permanently deactivating a number of your genes: diet seems to affect methylation. This is one of those times where I had an 'ohshit' moment simultaneously with an 'ohmygodthatsfuckingcool' moment; that diet can influence genes so dramatically is really odd, and kind of scary. Still, I eagerly await where this all goes.
But today's news isn't all bad: it seems that eating sweets may be the best medicine for stress! Not that this isn't something every chocolate lover in the world already knows, but confirmation is nice. Eating sweets seems to decrease glucocorticoid production, which is related to the bad side-effects of stress. Only real sugar works here, not sweet-n-low, so I guess there's more evidence for the jolly fat man archetype! But eating too many sweets in unhealthy, so remember to keep a balance!
It's good that I like my caffeine though, because new research indicates that decaf may be bad for you. Decaf drinkers had elevated levels (versus regular and non-coffee drinkers) of non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) and apoB, both risk factors for heart disease. Plus, decaf is nasty!
Speaking of strange food effects. If you eat a lot of methionine, you may be permanently deactivating a number of your genes: diet seems to affect methylation. This is one of those times where I had an 'ohshit' moment simultaneously with an 'ohmygodthatsfuckingcool' moment; that diet can influence genes so dramatically is really odd, and kind of scary. Still, I eagerly await where this all goes.
But today's news isn't all bad: it seems that eating sweets may be the best medicine for stress! Not that this isn't something every chocolate lover in the world already knows, but confirmation is nice. Eating sweets seems to decrease glucocorticoid production, which is related to the bad side-effects of stress. Only real sugar works here, not sweet-n-low, so I guess there's more evidence for the jolly fat man archetype! But eating too many sweets in unhealthy, so remember to keep a balance!
