This month: Great British Beef Week — Ketogenic diet in diabetes — Low-fat foods cause weight gain — MUFA’s may extend life — Olive oil helps reverse insulin resistance — Fewer arterial plaques with Med diet — BMJ article triggers saturates fat spat — The perfect cuppa — Conventional thinking on salt challenged again — Health benefits of cheese
George’s Day and Great British Beef Week
I held a St George’s Day party on Sunday 23rd (which is also, rather appropriately, Shakespeare’s birthday), and I served a traditional roast beef joint with parsnips and carrots. Turns out, without knowing it at the time, I was right on the money as April 23rd was the start of the Great British Beef week!
According to the Grimsby Telegraph (April 30th) ,this year was the seventh annual Great British Beef Week, run by The Ladies in Beef, an organisation of female beef farmers who care passionately about British beef. It’s purpose is to support the hard working British beef farmers, which is exactly what I did by purchasing a 3.5 kg organic beef joint from Goodwood – our local producer.
Sunday roast (Source: Hotel du Vin)
My St Goerge’s day roast beef looked like the one above (but without the Yorkie puds (wheat) and tatties (American originally). Interestingly, the Goodwood butcher suggested that I do not season the joint – “Let the flavour of the meat speak for itself” he said, and it certainly did! The unseasoned joint was placed on a bed of thickly sliced onions rings and popped in an oven that had been pre-heated to its highest temperature. Once in, it was turned down to 140°C for 1hr 25 minutes. My guests were full of praise … very gratifying.
If you missed out during this year’s Great British Beef Week, don’t worry, you can cook it all year round! The Telegraph (April 26th) has a range of British Beef recipes to inspire you (just avoid the ones that use gluten)
Ketogenic diet valuable in diabetes
Diabetes.co.uk (Mar 28th) reports on a trial, conducted by Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek who placed 262 overweight participants with type 2 diabetes on a ketogenic diet for 10 weeks (carb intake < 30g per day, increase fat, and modest protein). Key findings:
- HbA1C levels dropped an average of 20%, with half returning to normal (non-diabetic) levels by the end of the study
- 7.2% weight loss; 20% reduction in triglycerides
- 60% had one or more medications reduced in number and dosage or, in some cases, discontinued altogether
A two-year trial is in the pipeline.
Volek and Phinney have been working in this field for a couple of decades and have an excellent track record in low carb high-fat science. They have at least two books on the subject, so please look at their work online.
Low-fat foods can cause weight gain and lead to fatty liver disease
In 2014 The Telegraph undertook a study which found that many low-fat diet foods contained high levels of sugars. In one case a “low fat” meal contained almost six times the sugar levels of its “full fat” equivalent dish. Many people have suggested that the sugar may be less healthy than the fat it replaces, and now a new study reported in Medical Daily (April 26th) confirms this.
In the study mice that were fed a high-sugar, low-fat diet had an increase in liver fat, body weight, and body fat, despite consuming the same amount of calories as the control mice. Compared to mice fed a high-fat diet, sugar calories were found to cause twice as much fat accumulation as the fat calories they replaced.
“Most so-called diet products containing low or no fat have an increased amount of sugar and are camouflaged under fancy names, giving the impression that they are healthy, but the reality is that those foods may damage the liver and lead to obesity as well,” said the study’s lead investigator, Krzysztof Czaja
Monounsaturated fats extend life in animal study
Eureka Alert (April 5th) reports on an intriguing study from Stanford University published in Nature, of longevity in roundworms which found that feeding them monounsaturated fat increased lifespan in a similar way to calorie restriction, despite the fact that they put on weight.
Monounsaturated fats are found in high levels in olive oil, rapeseed and avocado oils, and also in beef fat and lard. Whilst mentioning olive oil a recent study has also shown that…
Olive oil helps reverse insulin resistance
The Express (April 11th) reports on a mouse study that showed a compound found in olive oil (hydroxytyrosol) can reverse insulin resistance and fatty liver induced by an obesogenic diet. This adds to research published in December 2016 that showed this compound also reduced oxidative damage in cells and may contribute to explaining some of the benefits of a Mediterranean diet…
Fewer arterial plaques with real-world adherence to Mediterranean Diet
Adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet showed a dose-dependent protective association with the presence, number, and thickness of atherosclerotic plaques independent of other risk factors, in a new study (Medscape, April 26th).
BMJ article triggers saturated fat spat
The Guardian (April 25th) gives a good account of the controversy taking place amongst scientists over recent claims and counterclaims over the health credentials surrounding saturated fat. Worth a read: Good for a laugh.
The Perfect Cuppa
The Mail Online (April 18th) reports on a study that found the beneficial compounds in tea are most available when the tea has been brewed for longer. The study author also found that adding milk does not reduce the availability of these compounds. He recommends drinking three cups per day.
- See our article ‘5 everyday ancestral foods with proven health benefits‘
Conventional thinking on salt challenged again… and again.
We have written several posts challenging conventional thinking on the supposed harms of salt (see here and here). So we were interested to read in The Independent (April 17th) that a study investigating a simulated mission to mars which kept 10 men sealed in living quarters and given a strictly controlled diet for a period of 205 days. Unexpectedly, when given a high salt diet the participants drank less but were also hungrier. The results were confirmed in mice too. It appears that although salty food leads to an initial thirst (hence salted peanuts in the pub) over the long term the total intake of water is less.
More news on salt front came in on April 26th, in The Express, with an article on a recent study looking at blood pressure and sodium intake. The researchers found the participants who consumed less than 2,500 milligrams of sodium a day – about the equivalent of 6g of salt, had higher blood pressure than participants who consumed higher amounts of sodium.
“We saw no evidence that a diet lower in sodium had any long-term beneficial effects on blood pressure. Our findings add to growing evidence that current recommendations for sodium intake may be misguided.”
Salt – good or bad?
Seems that worrying about it is more likely to raise your blood pressure than eating it!
Health Benefits of Cheese
Wow. April 2017 was quite the month for cheese news. Goggle (April 28th) celebrated the 256th birthday of Marie Harel, the creator of Camembert in 1791, with a Google Doodle which provided a slideshow showing the steps involved in making this famous cheese (take a look here). As an aside, I think Brie and Camembert are the same thing, just in different shapes. Any comments anyone…?
Meanwhile, yet another study showing the benefits of cheese made the headlines with The Mail (April 24th) claiming “Eating cheese could prevent you from getting liver cancer – and it may even help you to reach 100!” – weirdly due to it containing spermidine (?!?)
Spurred on by the spermidine The Telegraph (April 25th) went further, pushing out the cheese boat with ‘5 surprising health benefits of cheese’. Here are their headings to tempt you to read more…
- Boosts your immune system
- The secret to a longer life?
- Prevents tooth decay
- Helps with weight loss
- Makes you smarter
Finally, The Huff Post UK (April 25th) went just a bit too far with “7 Perfectly Valid Reasons To Eat More Cheese”. But really, that’s just showing off. Let’s just gaze at a picture of lots of lovely cheeses…
An important and often overlooked benefit of cheeses, is that many – especially aged varieties – contain the precious vitamin K2, also known as menaquinone 7. This is not the same as vitamin K which is found in green vegetables, but is bacterially produced in cheeses during fermentation and is particularly high in Brie and Gouda.
In the body K2 functions to guide calcium to the skeletal tissue, and prevent it being deposited, or rather, dumped, in soft tissues such as the aorta and other blood vessels where it contributes to atherosclerosis (sclerosis means hardening). Calcium in the wrong place leads to ‘calcification’ and having enough K2 to prevent this is one of the reasons for cheeses being a ‘top food’ in my reckoning.
Although some people are allergic to cows milk, many find they can tolerate goat and sheep milk cheeses which are increasingly available. The true unfortunates are those that cannot even tolerate these dairy products and they will need a regular K2 supplementation. Without sufficient K2 osteoporosis and calcification will occur. Clearly not a good state of affairs, so bring on the cheese trolley!
- Also, see our article ‘5 everyday ancestral foods with proven health benefits‘
- And, ‘Study: dairy, not plant-based diets is the best way to feed the planet‘