nutritionwonderland

Blog

  • Plastic Troubles: Bisphenol A

    Plastic Troubles: Bisphenol A

    It’s more than impressive to think about how pervasive plastic use has become. Despite only being around for the past century or so, plastics have become staple in every day life. From grocery bags to drinking bottles, IV bags to the teflon on non-stick pans, plastics really do make everything possible. They’re incredibly versatile: the final product can very in hardness, be shaped in almost any way imaginable, and is chemically inert, all for a bargain basement price. Really, it’s a magical substance.

    Its everywhere…

    Unfortunately, the very properties which make it so useful in so many industries are the same properties which make it one of the worst physical pollutant in the world. Despite recycling efforts, a large amount of plastic ends up in garbage cans (if we’re lucky) or littering the environment. Since the 1950s, one billion tons of plastic has been discarded by people. The ecological impact of all this plastic is devastating. Plastics make up at least 2/3 of marine litter, killing animals of all shapes and sizes. It takes over 450 years for a plastic bottle to degrade – that’s at least twice as long as it takes for an aluminum can to dissolve. And if that’s not bad enough, the forms of plastic that do degrade faster are even worse. Polystyrene – better know by the brand name “Styrofoam” – has been shown to degrade easily in seawater, but it leaves behind potentially damaging styrene molecules.

    But this isn’t an article about the ecological impact of plastics – there’s enough on that for an entire book. The key question isn’t how does it affect the environment, it’s how does it affect us.

    Plastic Chemistry 101

    Plastics are very complex compounds chemically. They are made from combining various carbon-based compounds, called “monomers,” to create long chains, called “polymers.” The most common forms of plastic used are polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. Their names explain what compounds are used to create them – polyethylene is made from strings of elthylene, polypropylene from strings of propylene, and polystyrene from strings of styrene. Another well-known plastic is polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC. Another kind of plastic, polycarbonate, is made from bisphenol A (BPA), and is used extensively in our households in items like bottles, plastic glasses, tupperwares, even DVDs and CDs. There are actually hundreds of different types of plastic, all made from different carbon-based monomers. The different compounds lead to different properties, including different levels of hardness, flexibility, and heat resistance.

    PVC Pipe, one of the most familiar forms of the common plastic

    But there’s a lot more that goes into plastics than just the monomers. Other compounds can be added to further change the textural properties of the plastic. PVC, for example, often has phthalaes added to it to make it less brittle. These compounds are referred to as “plasticizers,” as they add to the fluidity of plastics. Some plasticizers eventually evaporate from the plastics they’re put into – for example, the “new car smell” we associate with a brand new Mercedes is caused mostly by trimelliate plasticizers evaporating from the car’s interior. Others leech out of plastics as they degrade or are exposed to extreme conditions, like the heat in microwave ovens. Bisphenol A is added to certain PVC to make it harder, and other compounds, like brominated flame retardants, make plastics less vulnerable to heat.

    Luckily for us, most pure plastics that are free of such additives are fairly harmless. They are ecologically devastating because they take forever to degrade and ensnare marine and terrestrial animals, but as far as human use goes, they’re non-toxic. Unfortunately, most plastics we use aren’t pure. And even still, the compounds that make up pure plastics can be toxic, as the much more toxic, single monomers can be trapped in the plastic-making process only to be released later into our foods.

    So what’s the harm, exactly?

    What exactly do the chemicals in plastics do to the human body? A lot. And it depends on the compound. I’m going to dive into some of the big players and why you should know about them. First up is the one you’ve probably heard the most about: Bisphenol A, or BPA.

    Bisphenol A

    If you’ve paid attention to the news in the past year, you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about Bisphenol A. Like I mentioned before, it’s a monomer used to create polycarbonate plastics, labeled type 7, and also as a plasticizer in type 3 PVC plastics. It can leech out of either kind into food and water placed in contact with them.

    Plastic ‘resin’ code #7

    BPA is what is called an “endocrine disruptor“. Our endocrine system is the system of signals and hormones which constantly communicate information between cells. The problem with BPA is that it looks similar enough to estrogen that our bodies can’t really tell the difference. Because estrogen is such an important hormone in our bodies (in men as well as women, by the way), the potential affects of BPA on our bodies are severe and range widely.

    The first problem is that, so far, we’re not really sure how much BPA it takes to have a negative effect on our bodies, especially over a lifetime. It’s clear that a high, acute dose is bad, but where the bottom threshold is for humans is unclear. It wasn’t until 1997 that low-dose effects on laboratory animals were reported, though since then a variety of studies have used animal models to warn of the dangers of BPA.

    In animals like mice and rate, doses as low as 0.025 µg/kg/day can causes permanent changes to the genital tract and predispose breast cells to cancerous activity. Between 1 and 30 µg/kg/day can lead to long-term reproductive changes like earlier puberty and longer periods, decline in testicular testosterone, and prostate cell changes indicative of cancer, as well as behavioral effects like decreased maternal instincts and even reversed sex roles. Basically, BPA exposure can affect almost every system in our bodies, particularly those impacted by reproductive hormones.

    Older polycarbonate bottles all contain BPA, thanks flickr user vitameatavegalynn

    Think of anything that makes you manly or womanly – the shape of your body, your muscle mass, neurological systems – all are vulnerable to BPA’s toxic effects. Over 100 studies have been published which reveal different toxic impacts of BPA. The question isn’t “is it harmful,” it’s how harmful, and more specifically, at what dose.

    After all, anything can be toxic when in excess. You can even die from drinking too much water. The big question now among scientists is what level of exposure to Bisphenol A is low enough that it won’t cause major, negative side effects in most people. They also are looking into how much BPA we get exposed to and from where. What they’ve found is that BPA exposure is particularly high in infants, when, of course, it has the most side effects. Developing people and animals are much more strongly affected by hormone levels and disruptors like BPA which mimic those hormones in our bodies. The younger the person, the more of an effect a lower dose of BPA has on them – which is bad news for pregnant moms and newborn infants. Levels that are safe for adults are likely to be unsafe for them. But, to date, no study has looked specifically at the effects of different doses of BPA on in-utero or newborn infant biology.

    Exposure and Effects Still a Mystery

    So what, you ask, is our daily exposure anyway? Well, we’re not entirely sure. Studies have found that infants can consume up to 13 µg/kg/day when fed formula from polycarbonate bottles. Remember – that’s a dose high enough to cause serious reproductive changes in animal models. Adults can get similar levels of BPA exposure from single servings of canned goods (they use a plastic lining to protect the metal) and some from plastic containers, particularly those that are warmed up in the microwave or run through the dishwasher. The EPA has said that 50 µg/kg/day is normal and safe, but recent studies in our closest relatives have shown that level causes adverse neurological effects, even in adults. And even worse, scientists have found that monkeys given 8 times that dose – 400 µg/kg/day – have blood concentrations lower than the average human being. It’s likely, therefore, that we’re getting a lot more BPA than we think, and its probably worse for us than we thought.

    The first study of BPA’s effects on humans wasn’t published until September 2008. It looked at urine BPA levels in around 1,500 people to see if they correlated with disease. The researchers found that increased BPA levels were significantly associated with heart disease, diabetes, and high levels of certain liver enzymes. They concluded that “higher BPA exposure, reflected in higher urinary concentrations of BPA, may be associated with avoidable morbidity in the community-dwelling adult population.”  Many researchers claim we have known about this problem for far longer:

    Despite the overwhelming evidence of the dangers of BPA, the FDA recently announced that it still deems the compound “safe.” This preliminary decision was attacked by scientists and consumer groups who said the FDA was being biased towards the industry and not taking into account the science and the safety of the American Public. Canadian officials have already banned BPA use in baby bottles, finding that levels were simply too close to unsafe for formula fed infants, a decision which lead to many leading companies like WalMart and Toys R Us to stop selling them in Canada and the U.S. In June 2009, the FDA decided to “reconsider” its assessment of BPA safety levels, though a new finding has yet to be announced.  Rumor has it that FDA’s next decision on BPA should come down the pipe in late November.

    What To Do:

    In the end, my recommendation is to steer clear of bisphenol A-containing plastics as much as possible, especially when it comes to your kids. Here is a list of easy ways you can avoid BPA:

    • Be wary of all plastics labeled type 7
    • Absolutely, positively, do not buy polycarbonate baby bottles
    • Keep baby from putting hard plastics (like toys) in their mouths
    • Replace older polycarbonate ‘Nalgene’-type water bottles with stainless steel bottles
    • Replace canned foods, especially acid rich tomatoes, with those bought in glass
    • Microwave your food in glass or ceramic containers instead of plastic ones like tupperware
    • Use metal colanders in place of harder plastic ones for straining boiling water
    • Hand-wash hard plastic kitchen cups and utensils in place of hot dishwasher cleaning

    Sadly, BPA is only one of many toxic chemicals that can leech out of plastics. Next, I’ll tell you all about brominated flame retardants, called PBDEs, which unlike BPA, are found in almost every form of plastic.

  • The Social Side of Eating

    The Social Side of Eating

    Much of nutrition focuses on the individual. You are responsible for picking the right foods, eating healthy, exercising, and doing what’s best for your body. Nutrition consultations are one-on-one, focused on the single person’s dietary needs and deficiencies. And that’s great – if you’re single, have no friends, and live and work by yourself. But the truth is most of us are a part of a larger network of people, whether it be because we’re married, work in a large office, or have a tight-knit group of friends. Who we eat with, as it turns out, has a big impact on what we eat. To ignore this influence when thinking about diets and food is a recipe for disaster.

    How who you eat with affects what you eat

    The idea of eating as a social activity is nothing new. Who you eat with has always been important in the social lives of humans, whether it be who eats first at a ritualistic feast or who gets invited to the dinner parties thrown by presidents or diplomats. Heck, even what you eat has social implications – if you can afford to indulge on the finest filet mignon or beluga caviar. Food and social interaction are deeply entwined in the human psyche, a fact which we tend to ignore in our daily lives.

    Of course, our bodies don’t ignore it. Without even realizing it we change how we eat based on the people around us. Women, for example, eat less calories when they’re eating with men than when they eat with women. Both men and women eat less in front of a stranger of the opposite sex, but women eat particularly less if the guy is attractive. In general, people eat about as much as they see other eating, and eat more when in larger groups of people or when we think other people have eaten more. Even more impressively, how much you like a food item can be influenced by seeing the like or dislike of that food by others.

    But the changes aren’t limited to just who is around in terms of number and gender – their relationship to us has a big impact as well. Guys eat more around their guy friends than male strangers. In fact, men eat more around their guy friends than any other pairing of people. Couples and females around strangers eat much, much less. Married couples eat healthier than single people do, and in turn live longer lives and have reduced risks of diseases like diabetes and heart disease according to national health data like that provided by UK’s Office of National Statistics. In the UK, for example, the mortality rate for single men between 30 and 59 is 2.5 times higher than their married counterparts. Other research has found that married elderly couples are more likely to eat breakfast.

    The Big Question: Why?

    Why do we change what and how we eat around other people? There are a number of reasons. The first has to do with cultural attitudes towards eating. In general, people associate eating less with being feminine and more attractive. So, for women, eating less in front of people they want to impress makes sense. Similarly, men around their guy friends might want to seem more macho or masculine by consuming more. One study found that this effect is even more pronounced when participants are shown images of attractive members of their own gender first. Women are trying to conform to a societal expectation to be small and skinny, while men try to prove themselves by being bigger and better.

    Men and women eating less than in front of their same-sex friends. (Thanks flickr user alex_kuruz)

    But even still that only explains some of the effects. Why are married couples so much healthier than the rest of us, for example? You’d think that a single man or woman, in a constant effort to impress members of the opposite sex, would be in peak condition, while their married counterparts, having at least, in part, secured a mate, would begin to eat poorer. This is especially true when you factor in kids. After all, with kids come the tempting snacks that are left over from kid-oriented meals. And scientists have found that parents eat more than other married couples. But even still, in many developed nations like the UK, married women with children are the healthiest group of people, followed closely by married men. If they’re not trying to constantly impress others, why are they eating so well?

    For one, you have to blame the women. Women eat less and healthier than men do on a day to day basis, period. For example, women eat more fruits and vegetables than men, a difference attributed to increased knowledge about nutrition by women. When men marry women, it’s like having a personal nutritionist there 24/7. This is shown by the fact that marriage, while beneficial to both partners, is far more beneficial to a man’s health than a woman’s. When men lose their partner, either due to divorce or death, their health plummets. Wives also take their husbands away from the constant influence of their male peers, who they tend to eat much poorer around. Part of this, of course, is society’s fault. Maintenance of a family’s nutrition and health are seen as a women’s role, whether women like it or not. Perhaps, as society changes and gender roles become more balanced, the marked increase in health for married men compared to married women will disappear.

    Wife keeping her and her husband healthy by cooking the right food at home. (Thanks flickr user stevendepolo)

    Though, of course, it’s important to note that women get health benefits from marriage, too. It’s possible that, by getting married and having kids, women choose the role of a family’s nurturer and eat better for themselves and, in turn, force their families to do the same. But that’s not the whole story. One of the most likely reasons for healthier married women is simple – they’re happier. When we’re happier, we eat healthier, drink less, and exercise more. Of course, another big benefit for couples is shared eating. Couples are much less likely to eat out than single men and women. Mostly, this is attributed to motivation – single men and women simply have less motivation to cook when they’re cooking for one. Cooking at home leads to healthier meals (because you know what actually goes into it) as well as smaller portions. Basically, by getting married, women tend to end up doing those simple dietary changes that are so heavily recommended by nutritionists – eat the right amount of healthy food at home.

    How Do You Use This Knowledge?

    Well, for one, you can get married. I’m just kidding! The key is to act like you’re married, whether you are or not. For example, cook your own meals. Eat regular meals, as if you had to rely on feeding someone else. Or make yourself feed someone else – maybe instead of cooking for one you can arrange packed lunches with your friends, where each of you takes turns bringing in lunch for a small group at work. That way you’re not relying on take out or prepared meals, and you have the motivation to actually cook something. Or cook big meals and freeze them – it’s easier to convince ourselves to cook in big portions, and if you freeze it, it’ll last you as long as you need.

    Whether single or married, be aware of what you order when you’re in a large group when you’re eating out, and pay attention to how much you eat at office parties or other buffet-style meals when you eat in. If possible, do your best to take a moment and really think about what you’re going to eat so that you’re not swept up in the social aspects of the meal. Is someone ordering appetizers? Maybe you should get a smaller meal, knowing that you’ll munch on the chips and salsa first. As hard as it may be, ignore your mom when she tells you what to eat at family gatherings and make decisions for yourself. When people think about what they’re eating, they tend to eat better – so don’t just mindlessly munch! After all, while you may be influenced by the world around you, you’re also able to rise above those influences and control your own behaviors.

    References

    1. Young, M., Mizzau, M., Mai, N., Sirisegaram, A., & Wilson, M. (2009). Food for thought. What you eat depends on your sex and eating companions Appetite, 53 (2), 268-271 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.07.021
    2. Mori D, Chaiken S, & Pliner P (1987). “Eating lightly” and the self-presentation of femininity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 53 (4), 693-702 PMID: 3681647
    3. Herman CP, Roth DA, & Polivy J (2003). Effects of the presence of others on food intake: a normative interpretation. Psychological bulletin, 129 (6), 873-86 PMID: 14599286
    4. SALVY, S., JARRIN, D., PALUCH, R., IRFAN, N., & PLINER, P. (2007). Effects of social influence on eating in couples, friends and strangers Appetite, 49 (1), 92-99 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2006.12.004
    5. Bock, B., & Kanarek, R. (1995). Women and men are what they eat: The effects of gender and reported meal size on perceived characteristics Sex Roles, 33 (1-2), 109-119 DOI: 10.1007/BF01547938
    6. Harrison, K., Taylor, L., & Marske, A. (2006). Women’s and Men’s Eating Behavior Following Exposure to Ideal-Body Images and Text Communication Research, 33 (6), 507-529 DOI: 10.1177/0093650206293247
    7. Eng, P. (2005). Effects of marital transitions on changes in dietary and other health behaviours in US male health professionals Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59 (1), 56-62 DOI: 10.1136/jech.2004.020073
    8. Welch, N., Hunter, W., Butera, K., Willis, K., Cleland, V., Crawford, D., & Ball, K. (2009). Women’s work. Maintaining a healthy body weight Appetite, 53 (1), 9-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.04.221
    9. Welch, N., Hunter, W., Butera, K., Willis, K., Cleland, V., Crawford, D., & Ball, K. (2009). Women’s work. Maintaining a healthy body weight Appetite, 53 (1), 9-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.04.221

  • Nutrition Wonderland’s 2009 Tour of America

    Nutrition Wonderland is taking to the road this Fall to cover the newest developments in the worlds of integrative medicine, nutrition and sustainable agriculture. Below is the official Google Map of our journey – it is an interactive map so feel free to zoom in and check out the whole path.


    View Nutrition Wonderland’s Tour of America – 2009 in a larger map

    We are beginning our survey out in Los Angeles on the West Coast in late September and continue across the United States’ desert southwest into Texas by early October, up through America’s breadbasket in the Great Plains in time for Halloween, examine the hotbed of organic agriculture in the upper Midwest and then head back towards the East Coast and Washington, DC by mid-late November. We should cover roughly 4,000 miles (6K/km) and talk with numerous people and organizations at the forefront of the radical changes going on in medicine and agriculture. If you follow our coverage the whole way, you will begin to see the synergies between the fields and the new way forward they are lighting.

    From Two, Comes One

    One factor in deciding to chronicle where ‘things‘ are with these fields at this particular time has to do with a recent evolution in the approach opinion leaders and policy makers are starting to adopt. Sustainable agriculture blog Civil Eats recently advocated for health care reform while The Integrative Medicine Foundation suggests implementing a sustainable agriculture component as a necessary part of establishing better health care in sub-Saharan Africa. These are not isolated incidents. Many of our stories have been outlining a similar vision, as we have described efforts to reform health care into a proactive system and the ways in which nutrients and diet impact diseases like autism.

    It would appear that the worlds of sustainable agriculture and integrative medicine have started, ever so slowly, to merge.

    The driving force behind this synergy has been the growing awareness that we have a severely broken food system in the United States – and it is a major reason our health care system costs dwarf that of any other industrialized nation on earth. Recent movies like Food Inc and King Corn have exposed the public to the underbelly of industrial agriculture but the connections between compromised growing methods and obesity rates or pesticides and birth defects are just now emerging amongst the public.

    Many proponents of one field inevitably come to see the other as advocating a similar role call of changes. Reductions in harmful agricultural chemicals that effect reproductive health, reform of agricultural and health care insurance incentive structures, limiting large corporate agribusiness and pharmaceutical interests and developing more localized farmers and practitioners networks underscore the overlap between these fields.

    And this development is a logical, even necessary trend. Traditional fields of agriculture and medicine are evolving to better address growing populations that continue to exist on a planet of finite resources. With time, these cutting edge developments will be folded into the mainstream. For now though, these developments are very much new and represent a still premature movement. How they evolve is unknown but we hope to give you a much clearer insight into how they will increasingly combine to represent a new approach to how we live on the planet.

    What We Are Doing

    Our journey aims to survey some of the newest developments in both fields, highlighting how the advancement of both sustainable agriculture and integrative medicine will bring all of us closer to the goal of healthier people on a healthier planet. Below is a list of organizations, locations and people we are in the process of organizing for our trip:

    • Leafy Greens Marketing Association – Sacramento, CA
    • Farms Reach – San Francisco, CA
    • Frank Ford, founder of Arrowhead Mills – Irvine, CA
    • Desert Agriculture – Blythe, CA
    • University of Arizona – Integrative Medicine Center – Tuscon, AZ
    • Gallup Indian Medical Center – Gallup, NM
    • Sunstone Herb Farm – Albuquerque, NM
    • Santa Fe Tree Farm – Santa Fe, NM
    • Plano Community Garden – Plano, TX
    • Food Democracy Now – Clear Lake, IA
    • Iowa State University Sustainable Agriculture Program – Ames, IA
    • Organic Valley Foods – LaFarge, WI
    • Growing Power – Chicago, IL
    • Rodale Institute – Kutztwon, PA

    This is just the preliminary list and it will constantly be updated so check back in regularly. If you are involved in any of these fields and find yourself geographically close to the path we are blazing, drop us a line at [email protected] and we will do our best to drop in to see you and learn about what you are doing.

  • New Study Connects Leptin to Dopamine

    New Study Connects Leptin to Dopamine

    As I’ve been writing the “Understanding Our Bodies: The Physiology of Nutrition” series, I’ve tried to explain how the various chemical systems in our bodies relate to how and what we eat. For example, two of the biggest hormones that affect our eating habits – Leptin, the fullness hormone, and Dopamine, the brain’s reward hormone – seem to have very different and unrelated effects on our bodies. But every day science is discovering just how interwoven and related our bodies different systems are.

    Just this week, for example, after explaining everything I could find about how dopamine relates to eating, scientists from the University of Michigan have discovered a new way that leptin regulates dopamine levels. The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, reveals for the first time that the brain’s lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) has neurons which receive signals from leptin and in turn directly feed into the central dopamine system in another area of the brain, the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Because of this, the amount of fat in our bodies (and everything I talked about in the Leptin article) has a direct influence on the amount of dopamine circulating in our brains.

    What did the researchers do?

    Leptin is high when you are full, low when you are hungry

    Most studies that look at leptin focus on one area of the brain: the arcuate nucleus. This is the area that is largely affected by leptin levels and the subsequent effect on appetite. Remember, when leptin levels are relatively high, we aren’t hungry, and when they drop, we want to eat. But this area of the brain isn’t the only one with leptin-responsive neurons, called “LepRb” neurons.

    The researchers found that the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) also contains these LepRb neurons. Other studies have found that a related area, the ventral tegmental area (VTA) also contained a few of these LepRb neurons, and that leptin stimulation there had an effect on dopamine. Other researchers have found that, in general, the LHA has a strong affect on the VTA. But no one had ever looked at how the LHA related to leptin or the VTA’s dopamine. So, the scientists decided to probe a little deeper.

    They took rats and injected leptin directly into the LHA portion of their brains. What they found was that these rats ate less and lost weight. In turn, by sampling brain tissue from the rats, they found that leptin in the LHA caused a 40% increase in dopamine in the VTA as well as a 2.5-fold increase in gene transcription related to dopamine. Simply put, leptin in this area of the brain caused a strong increase in dopamine that was previously unknown to science.

    What does this mean?

    The fact that leptin has a direct affect on dopamine levels means that its controlling more that just our appetites in terms of the food we feel a need to eat, it’s controlling what we want to eat. It’s affecting both our needs and our desires. This increase in brain dopamine likely influences our abilities to avoid tempting foods like sugars and carbs when our bodies don’t actually need them. So if you’re leptin-deficient because of crash dieting or leptin-insensitive because of obesity, you likely feel stronger and harder to resist urges for these foods, making staying healthy or losing weight even more difficult.

    The body’s systems are linked in ways we are only beginning to understand

    It makes sense that leptin would have an effect on the brain’s reward systems. After all, we know that a decrease in dopamine can lead to cravings for food even though our bodies doesn’t need it. If a hormone is to properly control appetite, it would have to have some affect on the dopamine system to prevent unnecessary overeating. Way back when, when humans were evolving, overeating could be costly. When food is scarce, using up what little food is available could mean starvation. So there would be a strong selective pressure to prevent the body from eating too much when it doesn’t need it nutritionally.

    The good news is, these results suggest that our bodies do some of the hard work for us. If we can get our bodies to a healthy weight with good nutrition, the natural leptin levels will help control our desires for bad foods, making it easier to stick to the good we’ve done. On the downside, it means that upsets to our leptin system like crash dieting or obesity have an even more marked impact because they throw off our dopamine levels, too. The scientists in this study note that exactly what happens to dopamine when the leptin system is off is a key area of study for the future.

    As always, this study is yet another reminder that there is a cost to eating poorly and a much bigger benefit to eating healthy and being fit. It’s not just about weight. Dopamine controls our overall needs and desires, feelings of self gratification, and overall happiness. Eating right is about not only how good we look but how good we feel. You’d be surprised at how strong an effect nutrition has on our emotions.

    Reference: Leinninger, G., Jo, Y., Leshan, R., Louis, G., Yang, H., Barrera, J., Wilson, H., Opland, D., Faouzi, M., & Gong, Y. (2009). Leptin Acts via Leptin Receptor-Expressing Lateral Hypothalamic Neurons to Modulate the Mesolimbic Dopamine System and Suppress Feeding Cell Metabolism, 10 (2), 89-98 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2009.06.011

  • Understanding our Bodies: Dopamine and Its Rewards

    Understanding our Bodies: Dopamine and Its Rewards

    As much as we’d like to deny it, there’s a lot more involved in our decision making when it comes to food than just the advice of our inner and outer nutritionists. For the most part, we know that we should be eating. Yet time and time again when a friend asks us if we want to go grab a Big Mac or when we’re walking down the aisles in the grocery store, we neglect our own advice. Why? Why are those foods that are so terrible for us so darned appealing?

    Would you believe me if I said it all has to do with 4-(2-aminoethyl)benzene-1,2-diol? Well, you might, if I explained that “4-(2-aminoethyl)benzene-1,2-diol” is the chemical name for the infamous addiction neurotransmitter Dopamine.

    The Deal with Dopamine

    The reason bad foods taste so good, dopamine.

    Dopamine is one of our body’s neurotransmitters. It’s one of the most common biochemical compounds in animals, and is found in everything from invertebrates to us. It has a variety of functions, not all of which are fully understood. We do know that it is key in behavior, cognition, motivation and reward. In other words, it helps tell your body when you’ve done something good, and promotes our brains to remember what we did that was good and repeat to get the reward again.

    When we receive a reward of any kind, dopamine is released in our brains. Over time, this stimulus and release of dopamine can lead to learning. Researchers have recently found that how quickly and permanently we learn things relates directly to how much dopamine we have available in our brains. As we get rewarded over and over again for something, we learn that we should keep doing whatever that is very deeply, and it’s hard to unlearn those kinds of behaviors.

    Logically, it’s one of the neurotransmitters targeted for treatment of addictions. Whether chemical or psychological, addictions are made when our brain gets a dopamine boost over and over from a behavior. We learn to not only associate that behavior with the happy reward, but to crave to do that behavior when the rewards aren’t around. Even when there are better, easier, and less destructive ways to make ourselves feel better, our brains are trained to do that one action that it is used to doing – a drug, a drink, sex, whatever – to feel that satisfaction again.

    One of the reasons cocaine is so addictive, for example, is that it prevents the brain from removing dopamine from the space between neurons as quickly, causing reward circuits to fire for longer and more intensely than they normally would. Thus anything done on cocaine that causes a dopamine release feels even better – like if someone hands you a dollar, you feel like you’ve been given a twenty instead. When users stop, suddenly life itself just seems less rewarding, and their bodies crave that happier, more-fulfilled state of mind.

    Effects of cocaine on dopamine activity in the brain

    The important thing to note is that dopmaine doesn’t change the pleasure (or lack thereof) involved with a behavior, just how much we want to do it. For example, rats who have been artificially depleted of dopamine simply won’t eat, but when force fed, they make facial expressions which suggest they actually enjoy it. Similarly, increasing dopamine makes rats crave sweet rewards more, but doesnt change how much they actually like them. Even if you don’t like something at all you can end up wanting to do it if it causes some kind of consistent dopamine release.

    Dopamine and Eating Behaviors

    This is important to our diets because, for one, we get little dopamine rewards when we eat. The more spaced out your meals are, the more time your body spends with lowered dopamine levels. Thus eating smaller meals more frequently actually keeps dopamine levels higher. People who have genetically low levels of dopamine have been shown to be more likely to overeat, most likely because they aren’t getting enough of a dopmaine response. Similarly, the more dopamine receptors a person has, the better control they have of their diet and what they eat. Unfortunately, genetics can have a lot to do with it, so for some people, sweet rewards are harder to fight.

    But it gets worse. The exact conditions when we receive our “reward” stimulus are imprinted on our brains, too. Research has shown that rats that are given chocolate in a given situation learn to expect it, and the same situation triggers reward networks in the brain even without the chocolate being present. So once our brains connect bad food with a particular mood, feeling or state of mind, it’s hard to reverse it. For example, if eating dinner is a time when family gets together, people feel warm and friendly, and are bonding, then when later in life you’re feeling lonely, you might try eating to make yourself feel better. This is especially true for people who are conditioned at a young age to associate sweets with some kind of good deed – get an A, get to eat a sweet otherwise forbidden. Later, when they want the same feeling of accomplishment, they often turn to the food stimulus to create the feeling. It’s exactly why we all know what “comfort food” is.

    The temptations of your sweet tooth. (thanks jujuly25)

    And, of course, then there’s the worst part: unhealthy foods actually trigger the brain’s reward systems better than healthy ones. Sugar and sweets can trigger the brains reward systems completely separate of their tastes. In our bodies, it appears, dopamine release is calorie-dependent, thus the more you eat in a sitting, the more dopamine is released, and the more rewarding the meal is. Of course, very dense calorie-packed junk foods just lying around waiting to trigger your brain’s reward system make it that much harder to eat healthy. And, of course, over time if you eat a lot of sugary, high-calorie foods, your brain’s dopamine system gets desensitized, making it harder and harder to get the same reward from those foods, meaning you eat more and more of them.

    But despite the bad news, there is a lot of good that can come from understanding your body’s reward system and how it relates to diet. Instead of being defeated by your brain, you can actually train it.

    Dopamine and Diet

    There are things you can do to train your body and brain to eat healthier. For one, do your damnedest to avoid those calorie-packed, super sugary, and generally bad foods. If you never eat them, your brain never gets the chance to associate them with the dopamine reward, thus making it so you don’t crave them. Resisting the initial temptation makes it easier to resist the temptation in the future, and instead of getting dopamine boosts from sugar, you’ll get them when you eat your healthy meals. Soon enough, your brain associates good food with dopamine rewards, and you’ll start to find yourself wanting to eat something healthy when you want a rewarding brain boost.

    Eating smaller, more frequent meals, or meals with healthy snacks in between, can also help keep your brain feeling rewarded, and thus less likely to want those dopamine-boosting bad boys like sugar and sweets.

    There are also nutritional elements that you can ensure are in your diet to make your body less dopamine-seeking, thus less craving of those unhealthy foods period. Research suggests that Iron, Vitamin B6, Folate and Vitamin E are key to maintaining healthy levels of dopamine and dopamine receptors in your brain, so you get the proper reward you deserve from your healthy meals, too. By keeping your brain dopamine-stocked at natural levels, you make it so you don’t need super stimulus like a Cinnabon to get the dopamine flowing.

    Dopamine pathways in the brain thanks to flickr user mathplourde.

    There’s also some research which suggests that Flavonoids, those lovely antioxidants found in berries and red wine, promote healthy dopamine neurons. So ensuring that you make room in your diet for some blueberries isn’t a bad idea, either.

    Closing Note

    Keep in mind that research into how exactly dopamine relates to eating – what we eat, how we eat, etc – is still very new. While we know quite a bit, new studies are released every day which increase our understanding of this incredibly complex system. It’s not a good idea, yet, to try to take any kind of dopamine supplement or drug for weight loss or management, as extreme excess dopamine can have devastating neurological effects. For that matter, direct dietary ingestion of dopamine is a fruitless endeavor, since dopamine itself can’t cross the blood-brain barrier.

    In short, there’s no easy way out of this one: you have to just eat right, daily, to train your brain to enjoy it. It’s like exercise – you’re never going to get in shape without putting in the hours, no matter what the infomercials try to tell you. You won’t have a healthy, level and balanced dopamine system until you cut out the extremely-excessive calorie foods and eat healthy day in and day out. Eating a well rounded diet is the best way to make your body crave a healthy diet.

    Previous posts in the Understanding Our Bodies series:

    References:

    1. Guilarte TR (1989). Effect of vitamin B-6 nutrition on the levels of dopamine, dopamine metabolites, dopa decarboxylase activity, tyrosine, and GABA in the developing rat corpus striatum. Neurochemical research, 14 (6), 571-8 PMID: 2761676
    2. Duan, W., Ladenheim, B., Cutler, R., Kruman, I., Cadet, J., & Mattson, M. (2002). Dietary folate deficiency and elevated homocysteine levels endanger dopaminergic neurons in models of Parkinson’s disease Journal of Neurochemistry, 80 (1), 101-110 DOI: 10.1046/j.0022-3042.2001.00676.x
    3. Martin A, Prior R, Shukitt-Hale B, Cao G, & Joseph JA (2000). Effect of fruits, vegetables, or vitamin E–rich diet on vitamins E and C distribution in peripheral and brain tissues: implications for brain function. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 55 (3) PMID: 10795718
    4. McGuire, S., Sortwell, C., Shukitt-Hale, B., Joseph, J., Hejna, M., & Collier, T. (2006). Dietary supplementation with blueberry extract improves survival of transplanted dopamine neurons Nutritional Neuroscience, 9 (5-6), 251-258 DOI: 10.1080/10284150601086134
    5. Pleger, B., Ruff, C., Blankenburg, F., Klöppel, S., Driver, J., & Dolan, R. (2009). Influence of Dopaminergically Mediated Reward on Somatosensory Decision-Making PLoS Biology, 7 (7) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000164
    6. Arias-Carrión O, & Pŏppel E (2007). Dopamine, learning, and reward-seeking behavior. Acta neurobiologiae experimentalis, 67 (4), 481-8 PMID: 18320725
    7. Radhakishun FS, van Ree JM, & Westerink BH (1988). Scheduled eating increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens of food-deprived rats as assessed with on-line brain dialysis. Neuroscience letters, 85 (3), 351-6 PMID: 3362423
    8. de Araujo, I., Oliveira-Maia, A., Sotnikova, T., Gainetdinov, R., Caron, M., Nicolelis, M., & Simon, S. (2008). Food Reward in the Absence of Taste Receptor Signaling Neuron, 57 (6), 930-941 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.01.032
    9. Erikson KM, Jones BC, & Beard JL (2000). Iron deficiency alters dopamine transporter functioning in rat striatum. The Journal of nutrition, 130 (11), 2831-7 PMID: 11053528
  • Coconut Blasted Pork Loin With Grilled Scallions

    Coconut Blasted Pork Loin With Grilled Scallions

     

    Yummy Pork Loin, thanks to flickr user Joshbousel

    4 to 6 servings

     

    • 2 trimmed pork tenderloins, about 2 pounds
    • 2 cups shredded, unsweetened coconut flakes
    • 4 scallions, washed
    • Olive oil, for cooking
    • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

     

     

     

    Coconut milk in the making. (Thanks to flickr user TravelMuse…)

    Ingredients for marinade/sauce:

     

    • 2, 14 oz. cans, unsweetened coconut milk
    • 4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
    • 1, 1” piece fresh ginger, peeled and rough chopped
    • 1 lemongrass stalk, rough chopped
    • 1 large jalapeño, seeds removed, and rough chopped
    • 2 limes, juiced
    • 2 tablespoons soy or ponzu sauce
    • 2 teaspoons sugar
    • ½ bunch cilantro, rough chopped
    • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

     

    First, prepare the marinade by adding all of the marinade ingredients into a blender and puree. Pat the tenderloins dry with a paper towel and lay them into a vessel large enough to contain them and the marinade. Pour in the marinade. Don’t worry if the loins are not fully submerged. Cover the loins with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least four hours. If the loins were not fully submerged in the marinade, turn the loins over in the vessel at about halfway through the process and recover until the marinating process is finished.

    Now, once the loins have been marinated, remove them from the mixture and once again, pat dry with a paper towel, (you may have to scrape away some of the remnants from the marinade). Lay the loins on a large platter. Reserve the marinating mixture for later. Season the loin with the salt and pepper. Brush a thin layer of olive oil all over the loins, and the scallions. You are now prepared to grill.

     

    A nice addition to hearty tenderloins

    Before grilling the loins, first preheat an oven to 375 degrees. Spread the coconut flakes evenly over a sheet pan and bake until toasted and golden brown, about ten minutes. Remove and allow to cool. Next, strain the marinating mixture into a saucepan. Bring the sauce to a boil for a minimum of fifteen seconds. Reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for an additional five minutes. Adjust seasoning and keep warm until service.

    Now, grill the pork loins. Turn after five minutes or until a nice crusty brown sear is achieved on all sides. Tenderloins will be done when slightly pink in the middle. Allow to rest or cool slightly. While cooling, mark the scallion on the grill, both sides, and cook just until slightly limp.

    Roll the cooked pork loin into the coconut flakes. Try to cover evenly. Slice and arrange the pork loin on a platter with the grilled scallions. Drizzle the sauce over and enjoy.

  • Understanding Our Bodies: Amino Acids Are Important

    Understanding Our Bodies: Amino Acids Are Important

    Just about every diet I know of supports eating a large portion of protein. Whether the strategy is to cut carbs or to cut fat or to cut calories in general, just about everyone agrees that protein is good for you. But why? And do the sources make a difference? What about protein makes it so important, and what do you need to include in your diet to reap the benefits?

    Why Protein?

    In biochemistry, there are 4 main types of compounds:

    • fats
    • carbohydrates
    • nucleic acids
    • proteins

    They’re distinguished by their chemical structures. Proteins are compounds which are made up of amino acids, which all contain an amino (nitrogen-containing) and carboxyl (like carbon dioxide) group. Proteins are made when these amino acids are strung together and (often) folded into complex shapes. They can be structural proteins, like the keratin in our fingernails or the actin in our muscles, or they can be chemically functional, like enzymes. Proteins can also be very important in communication in the body – insulin, for example, is a protein. In fact, if you take away the water, 75% of our bodies are protein. All of these proteins require the right amino acids found in our bodies and our diets to be made. Watch this video to understand how they are made:

    Can’t make amino acids. Still a cute guy though. Credit: Aaron Logan

    While most microorganisms and plants can produce whatever amino acids they want, animals, including us, have lost the ability to produce certain amino acids. These amino acids are called the “essential” amino acids, or the ones we must intake in our diet. Without enough of a dietary source of these essential amino acids (of which, in humans, there are about 8, with 4 others needed by children), our bodies can have trouble making the proteins needed for ordinary functioning, and we can end up malnourished. On top of this, our bodies don’t store amino acids like they do fats or carbohydrates. To ensure we have the amino acids we need, we have to get them daily.

    It would be easy to attain the amino acids we need if all we had to do was eat enough of them as needed to make proteins, but alas, as always, our bodies are far more complicated. As the body digests protein, a large portion of the amino acids that result are deaminated and are used for fuel instead of as protein building blocks. This is done by a two processes, either gluconeogenesis where proteins are converted to glucose directly or an alternate pathway where they are fed into the natural energy cycle (the citric acid cycle) at a later point to produce even less fuel. This particularly occurs under starvation conditions, where the body will actually start breaking down its own muscle and other protein sources for fuel. As far as energy goes, protein is a poor source of it, containing only 4 kilocalories per gram as opposed to the 9 in fats.

    Our bodies don’t fluctuate in amino acid concentrations like they do with other molecules. Levels of amino acids in the blood are almost constant, regardless of diet. However, that’s not because diet isn’t important, it’s because the body will begin to attack itself and break down muscle and other tissue to keep amino acid concentrations level. This can be why some extreme dieters seem to lose weight but feel lethargic or unable to exercise – by massively cutting calories, they probably cut a lot of protein out of their diets, too, and their bodies are basically eating their muscle tissue to get amino acids for more essential uses like cell signaling. Therefore, to get the total amount of amino acids we need on a daily basis, we actually have to eat a high amount of excess amino acids.

    When it comes to dietary intake, the weakest link is the most important. The most limited essential amino acid in our diet affects how well our bodies uptake the rest of them, so balance is key. In other words, whatever amino acid we’re most lacking in will set the bar for how our bodies intake all the others, and so to have healthy levels of all amino acids we have to have good balance and enough of each.

    The Essentials and Our Diets

    There are roughly 20 common amino acids, with 8 of them considered essential for adults and another 4 essential for children and infants. The essential ones for adults are:

    • isoleucine
    • leucine
    • valine
    • methionine
    • phenylalanine
    • threonine
    • tryptophan
    • lysine.

    Additionally, cysteine, tyrosine, histidine and arginine are required by infants and young children. It’s rare that a person needs to supplement their diet with any form of pill or powder to get enough amino acids, and doing so can be dangerous if not closely watched. For example, body-building supplements contain a high concentration of the first three amino acids mentioned, but over time, extreme excess of these acids can lead to nerve degeneration or even liver and kidney toxicity. In general, extreme excess of any amino acid is bad for the body. It’s hard to get that kind of excess from eating – our bodies naturally just turn most excess deitary protein into fuel, but you can over-supplement.

    Impact of Protein Deficiencies

    Because of the many uses and importance of amino acids in our bodies, it’s key that we get enough and a balanced amount of the essentials, which is far more often the problem than excess amino acids. Protein deficiency is a huge medical issue in developing nations, with protein-energy malnutrition affecting 500 million people every year and killing 10 million of them. Severe cases tend to include complete loss of immune function and thus increased risks from other diseases. While it’s fairly rare in developed nations, protein deficiency can affect the poor and often occurs in those who are crash dieting to lose weight or in older adults, particularly leading to conditions like osteoporosis, as protein is key when it comes to bone health. Those recovering from surgery, trauma or illness can also be protein deficient if they don’t increase their dietary intake to match their increased needs. Our bodies use protein when we’re healing, so its important to eat lots of it when we’re sick or recovering.

     

    Distended stomachs, a sign of malnutrition (thanks to Flickr user TKnoxB)

    It’s even possible that protein deficiency is a far more common problem than we think, and that many simply suffer from very mild affects. There are studies which have shown lower protein intake in certain minorities. Some biologists, like Bob Lanier, a biology professor at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, have argued that a very slight protein deficiency might actually explain some of the variance in academic performance between poor minority and richer majority students. Since so much of brain function is tied to proper nutrition and protein intake, it’s entirely possible that even smaller changes in protein consumption, like that of crash dieters, could have an impact on mood and cognition, though few studies have looked deeper into this idea in adults. In children, however, a deficit in dietary protein as infants can have a marked affect on intelligence as older children, especially for boys.

    How to Get Amino Acids

    Steak could be the answer for your amino acids

    Overall, adults require approximately 60 grams of protein per day, with higher intake required in pregnant and nursing women and, to a lesser extent, men, due to their higher overall muscle mass. Nutritionally speaking, food sources for protein are generally referred to as “complete,” as in containing all of the essential amino acids, or “incomplete,” as in only containing some essential amino acids. Complete protein sources include meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, while vegetables, beans and other plant products are considered incomplete. By far, meats are the best sources of complete dietary protein, but they also tend to be high in fat. Fish and poultry tend to be fantastic protein sources since they’re lower in fat and contain other, valuable nutrients.

    This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to get all of your essential amino acids from meat, fish or dairy. Instead, a carefully balanced diet including a good variety of ‘incomplete’ sources can give you the full array of essential amino acids. For example, you can combine beans with brown rice, corn, wheat or nuts to get a complete set of amino acids. Also, soybean products like tofu and soymilk are complete proteins, so you can have a meat-less diet and still get plenty of dietary protein.

     

    Eat Salmon!

    The key is to eat 2 to 3 servings a day, or roughly 20 g per meal. If you get less in the morning, be sure to bulk up at lunch and dinner with lean meats or extra vegetables. And you have to eat protein DAILY, otherwise your body lacks the amino acids it needs for the day and begins to take them from places you might want them, like your sexy abs that you worked so hard for!

    Previous posts in the Understanding Our Bodies series:

    References:

    1. Peng Y, Gubin J, Harper AE, Vavich MG, & Kemmerer AR (1973). Food intake regulation: amino acid toxicity and changes in rat brain and plasma amino acids. The Journal of nutrition, 103 (4), 608-17 PMID: 4693672
    2. Müller O, & Krawinkel M (2005). Malnutrition and health in developing countries. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l’Association medicale canadienne, 173 (3), 279-86 PMID: 16076825
    3. Bonjour JP (2005). Dietary protein: an essential nutrient for bone health. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 24 (6 Suppl) PMID: 16373952
    4. Lovejoy JC, Champagne CM, Smith SR, de Jonge L, & Xie H (2001). Ethnic differences in dietary intakes, physical activity, and energy expenditure in middle-aged, premenopausal women: the Healthy Transitions Study. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 74 (1), 90-5 PMID: 11451722
    5. Lucas A, Morley R, & Cole TJ (1998). Randomised trial of early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 317 (7171), 1481-7 PMID: 9831573
  • Green Tea Coco Chiller

    Green Tea Coco Chiller

    A good way to eat (or drink) some coconut after reading Christie’s article.

    A delicious way to enjoy some coconut. Thanks flickr user Mel B.

    Ingredients:

    • 1 ½ cup ice
    • ½ cup diced honeydew melon
    • 2 oz. honey
    • 2 ounces coconut cream (Coco Lopez)
    • 2 ½ ounces brewed and chilled green tea
    • 10-15 fresh mint leaves

    First, add the ice into a blender, followed by the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth or preferred texture desired. Pour into glasses (maybe cut some orange wedges for garnish), find a porch swing and enjoy! Recipe makes two drinks.

  • Hawaiian Health and the Coconut

    Hawaiian Health and the Coconut

    Upon moving to Hawaii, it’s hard not to be instantly swept up in the culture and nature of the world around you. It’s as if even the air is different here – and, in some ways, it probably is. The islands are rich with pleasant flowers, and the consistent trade winds blowing in mix the fragrant smell of plumerias, gingers, and the sea with a whole variety of other wonderful scents. The mood is relaxed and cheerful, and the people just seem healthier and happier.

    Coconut! Thanks flickr use bionicteaching

    Well, maybe they are healthier. Hawaii has some of the lowest rates of heart disease, childhood obesity, cancer, and even deaths by Alzheimer’s in the US. While part of this might be due to good health care coverage and availability (Hawaii has the second lowest rate of uninsured individuals in the US), it might also have a lot to do with the food.

    The Coconut, as Food

    If there’s one thing that Hawaiians know how to do well, it is eat. Traditionally, Hawaiians welcome others to their home by saying “Kahea ai. Ai a ma’ona,” which roughly translates to “Come in and eat all you want.”  Often, coconuts will be waiting for you.

    Called Niu, the coconut was raised from an ordinary food item to a sacred tree. It is shown in mythical art and verbal lore as a magical tree, an image of Ku, the ancestor of the Hawaiian people and the link to their original home. Of course, it had its culinary uses, too. Most common in Hawaiian cuisine is coconut pudding, called haupia, which is a staple at every luau.

    While the trunks and leaves were used for tools and shelters, it was the nut alone that provides the coconut’s nutritious benefits. In botanical terms, the coconut is truly a nut.  On the outside is the husk, called the mesocarp, which must be removed to gain access to the inner fruit. The precious interior is further protected by the endocarp, or the hard surface known as the shell. Lining the inside of this protective shell is the white, fleshy endosperm or “meat” of the coconut.

    Coconuts, though, unlike most other nuts, have a hollow interior filled with a liquid often referred to as coconut water.  This water is not the coconut milk often used in cooking – that is created by grating the meat and mixing it with water. Thus coconut milk, used mainly in Asian cuisine, is nutritionally comparable to coconut meat not coconut water.

    Coconuts grow on big trees, thanks to flickr user Swami Stream

    Green, immature coconuts can contain up to one liter of coconut water, which is much sweeter and cleaner tasting than coconut milk. In either case, the liquid is high in electrolytes, and is thus very good for preventing dehydration or diarrhea. It has long since been a popular drink where coconuts are found, and is sold fresh, canned, or bottled. The water contains very few calories but because it contains potassium and other electrolytes it’s even marketed as a sports drink. Coconut water can even be used as an intravenous fluid if desperate, when medical saline is unavailable.

    The main part of the coconut used nutritionally is the meat. Mature coconut meat is about 50% water, 35% fats and oil, 10% carbohydrates and 3.5% protein. Compared to other nuts, the meat is actually fairly low in fat, although it is mostly comprised of short-chain saturated fats instead of the unsaturated fats found in nuts like almonds and peanuts. Ninety percent of the fat in coconuts is saturated, exceeding lard and butter for saturated fat content. However, there is some debate as to whether the saturated fats found in the coconut are unhealthy.

    The Coconut, as Medicine

    The major component of the fats in coconut meat is Lauric Acid, a rare medium-chain fatty acid that, as far as our diets go, is primarily found in human breast milk. Despite the general nutritious distaste for saturated fats, studies have shown that coconut oil (which is made from pressing the fatty acids out of the meat) might actually help reduce abdominal fat and obesity. And despite LDL cholesterol concerns, studies have found that increased lauric acid dietary intake is linked to reduced heart problems. Studies have even found that virgin coconut oil has antioxidant properties.

    Research has been mounting which suggests health benefits of lauric acid and other coconut fatty acid derivatives. Lauric acid has also been investigated for its antibiotic properties. In study after study after study, lauric acid has been shown to kill a variety of bacteria and fungi. For this reason, as well as its general moisturizing properties, coconut oil may be a good treatment for many skin conditions, from acne to dermatitis. But even beyond antimicrobial properties, gaining research seems to support lauric acid as a possible treatment for chronic diseases. Lauric acid and similar fatty acids have been found to inhibit cancer cell growth.

    Lauric acid may slow HIV down

    But the most staggering, and of course controversial, effect of lauric acid seems to be its ability to slow or stop the progression of viruses. Lauric acid and its similar saturated fatty acids have been shown to interfere with virus maturation in different viruses, and has even been shown to slow the spread of HIV viruses by preventing viral budding. Unfortunately, very few clinical studies have yet to be done utilizing coconut, and so how effective or useful dietary supplementation of coconut meat or oil is on such diseases is unknown.

    Even considering the possible downsides of saturated fats, there is still room for them in our diets, so even ignoring the possible benefits of lauric acid, coconut meat isn’t unhealthy. Coconut meat contains far less sugar than other fruit choices, and is fairly high in protein witha bout 9% fiber by volumn, making it actually quite good for you. And on top of that, coconut meat is uniquely high in vitamins and minerals, including many Vitamin Bs (like Thiamine and Niacin, which promote good mood), Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc.

    Aloha, and Enjoy

    Of course, the sun, scenery and wonderful weather might also have something to do with the mood of Hawaii. While it might not just be the coconut which makes Hawaiians so healthy and happy, it certainly is a nutritious way to spruce up your meals with a little tropical flavor. Curries and other Asian recipes often use coconut milk as a base. But if you’re going for raw coconut meat, the most important thing to consider is freshness.

    As a liquid-filled nut that often has to be transported from the tropics, it can go bad quickly. The best way to make sure it’s fresh is to examine it closely, ensuring there is no mold or cracks. You want one with a little weight for its size, and be sure to shake it to hear the water sloshing within. Cracking it on your own, of course, it a bit of an art form – I’ve heard that a screwdriver to the “eyes” (three, small spots which become holes where the seed germinates out of) or power drills do the trick well if you want to save the water. Otherwise, a machete or a hammer can go a long way! Other than that, Aloha, and enjoy!

  • Does McDonalds Own Chipotle? – Mailbag

    Does McDonalds Own Chipotle? – Mailbag

    Hi – I was watching Nightline a couple weeks back and they had a special on Chipotle using free-range animals. Then I remembered that Chipotle is owned by McDonalds [America’s #1 buyer of factory farm beef -ed]. Is this true?

    – James, Minneapolis, MN

    This is an excellent question we have also heard many times. After some research, the short answer is, no, Chipotle is not owned by McDonalds as of 2009 but it once was. The story is quite complicated actually.

    How deep does the love go?

    Chipotle was founded in 1993 by Steve Ells in Denver, Colorado, funded by an $85,000 loan from his dad, according to an excellent article by the Rocky Mountain News, Denver’s now defunct paper. The restaurant was based upon Ells time in San Francisco where he studied the burrito stands in the city’s Mission district. His instincts were vindicated as the restaurant was an immediate success. Ells managed to open a chain of five stores around Denver by 1998.

    After this initial success, McDonalds did enter the picture, purely as an investment partner in 1998, technically making Chipotle a subsidiary of McDonalds. That same article from the Rocky Mountain News mentions, very briefly, that Ells family connections to McDonalds helped pave the road for Chipotle’s massive expansion. We did not independently verify this fact, but it was published in a major American newspaper, giving it substantial weight in our minds.

    From Investor to Owner

    With McDonalds onboard, Chipotle started to build out beyond their Denver market – into Kansas City, Ohio and Minneapolis. That success that would lead McDonalds to become the majority owner of the firm in 2001, making Chipotle fully-owned subsidiary of McDonalds. This is when Chipotle ascended into a household name across the United States. From 2001 to 2006, Chipotle went from under 100 stores to 466 – expanding into more than 30 states [1].

    It was then in January 2006 that McDonalds said goodbye to Chipotle, spinning off the company in an IPO on the NYSE, saying they wanted to concentrate on their core business.

    Technically though, that was not the end. McDonalds continued to hold a large amount of class B shares of Chipotle for another 6 months, and these class B shares contained over 80% of the voting rights to the company [2]. McDonalds then authorized the final divestment deal in October of 2006 whereby their own shareholders could exchange McDonalds stock for the remaining class B voting shares of Chipotle. According to SEC documents, this was done for tax purposes [2].

    So, since October 2006, Chipotle has not been owned by McDonalds but much of the company’s DNA and supply chain management is likely taken directly from McDonalds. Chipotle now trades as an independent company on the NYSE under the call sign, CMG [3].

    Chipotle Vs. McDonalds

    Here is the Nightline story and video James was referencing:

    Chipotle and Pastured Pigs

    (Click picture to view video, its well done)

    The video highlights Chipotle’s commitment to buying from pasture-raised hog rearing operations. Many of these operations are small in nature, so there is an implicit commitment to sustainable farming practices. We cannot be sure of exactly how local or regional Chipotle’s supply chain (those are trade secrets), but in the fast food arena, they are the leader in this space. Chipotle was the first restaurant to remove rBGH for all their milk products, buys from family farms and makes a real, financial commitment to sustainable meat.

    The real conundrum James is implying with this question of Chipotle’s ownership is how could McDonalds, known for poor food quality and nutrition, simultaneously invest in a company with such divergent values.

    McDonalds is a business and will do whatever it takes to make money. Chipotle hit a nerve with the public and McDonalds likely did extremely well with their investment.

    For their part, McDonalds does keep a “Values in Practice” section on the corporate responsibility portion of their website. It mentions some laudable things – namely that:

    In 2007, 91% of our fish was sourced from fisheries without any unsatisfactory sustainability ratings.

    But, as is the case with most ingredient labels you see in the store, what isn’t said is usually more important than what is. McDonalds is well known as the leading buyer of meat from factory farming operations. And while McDonalds does certify that their operations are humane, whatever guidelines they are using as not publicly available so they cannot be verified.

    Their operations are so large that even if they made a small commitment to sustainable farming practices, massive changes would occur throughout the supply chain – effecting what’s in the grocery store for everyone. Hopefully, that day is near.

    In the mean time, you can enjoy either Chipotle or McDonalds foods knowing they are two, separate corporate entities.

    Full Disclosure – This author owns no stake in either one of these companies.

    Chipotle Nutrition Information

    A late edition here, this is the nutrition information for the Chipotle menu.