Cake for breakfast may help weight loss, is it too good to be true?

A new Israeli study, published in Steroids journal in December 2011, shows encouraging and wonderful findings for cake and chocolate lovers, like myself.

In this study, two groups of women were put on 1,400-calorie diets. One group was following a low-carbohydrate plan with a smaller breakfast (300 calories) and a larger dinner, while the other group was eating protein and carbohydrate rich foods with a breakfast (600 calories) including cake, chocolate, or a cookie and then a smaller supper.

At the end of the diet, which lasted four months, the average weight lost by the participants in both groups was similar. But after another four months, the small-breakfast group regained about two-thirds of what they'd dropped while the other group continued to lose an additional 15 pounds.


So, how wonderful! A sweet dish at breakfast time may actually help weight loss diets. In the morning, when the body’s metabolic rate is faster, measured consumption of sweets can reduce appetite for sweets during the rest of the day. I could surely follow this one myself.

Walking briskly beating fat genes?

I come across an article regarding a study conducted by Qibin Qi, a researcher at Harvard School of Public Health. Based on his research, apparently we should blame our inherited genes for obesity, at least for 50% of the cases. Since we can't really change our parents, it makes it particularly difficult to fight the weight. In this study, Qi and his colleagues proposed a next-to-the-best solution.

They analyzed data from 12,000 people, measured how many "fat genes" each participant had, then looked at his or her body mass index (BMI). The studies included also data about how much time people spent watch TV and walking.

The motivating math: those who briskly walked an hour a day had a 0.06 decrease in BMI and those who spent two hours a day in front of TV had a 0.03 increase. Every 0.2 increase in BMI is related to 1 pound in weight.

We know from a long time that exercising help weight loss. But it is still interesting to see some quantitative numbers.

Vitamin E: cancer promoter or preventer?

Question of whether vitamin E prevents or promotes cancer has been widely debated in scientific journals and in the news media. Recently the research conducted by the scientists at Rutgers seems answer the question.

They believe that two forms of vitamin E, natural forms found in food and the high-dose synthetic E in most supplements, have different effect. The natural forms may lower cancer risk while the synthetic E may actually cancels the benefit of the good vitamin E from food and perhaps increasing the odds to get cancer.

So I guess we probably should rely on foods such as vegetable oil and nuts, not too much on the supplement.

More detail info can be found here: http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2012/04/rutgers-study-vitami-20120420

Cherry, miracle cure for gout?

Ever since my husband had several gout attacks this year, we are forced to pay more attention to this problem. It is not so hard to find the long list of foods that are supposed to avoid. It makes you wonder what are there left to eat?

Reading through different forums, multiple people saying that cherry or cherry juice is working for their gout. So I spend sometime to learn more about this.

It is always very encouraging to see a remedy has been working on other people. Several examples:

"I have had a little soreness for the last couple months in my right foot. Last night; it got so sore after work that all I wanted to do was lay down and watch tv so my wife and I went out to Price Choppers and found Sour Cherries in a Jar Sweetened). I ate a small dish of them when I got home. This am; my foot feels great."

"The Cherry juice remedy works. I have gout and ran out of medicine so I tried concentrated cherry juice it took away the gout in under 24 hours. I did not believe it till I tried it."

"My husband had a very painful gout attack in his large toe which was going into its second day. He drank an eight ounce glass of water mixed with two tablespoons of black cherry concentrate. He felt 80 percent better within a few hours. He then drank another glass of the same mixture and could bend his toe without pain after 6 hours. "

But is there any scientific evidence suggesting cherry is actually good for gout? Any possible explanations?

In one article I found in Natural Medicine Journal, "Health Effects of Tart Cherries", there is a section dedicated to "Cherris and Gout". In fact, the very first credible report of medical benefit from cherries was published in the Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine in 1950 by Ludwig Blau, MD, who himself noticed that eating cherries reduced his own gout symptoms. He tested his ‘remedy’ on 12 other gout sufferers before writing his article. Here is the reference of the original publication.

Blau LW. Cherry diet control for gout and arthritis. Tex Rep Biol Med. 1950;8(3):309-311

"The research conducted by the US Department of Agriculture research facility in Davis, Calif., in 2003 is probably the most direct research related to cherry's effect on reducing uric acid. Ten healthy women, aged 22 to 40 years, consumed about 45 sweet cherries (Prunus avium), or 280 grams, after an overnight fast. Five hours later plasma urate levels had decreased from 214 to 183 umol/L. At 3 hours after consumption, urinary urate levels had increased from 202 to 350 umol/mmol creatinine. Consumption of other fruits did not produce significant changes."

There are also multiple publications showing that cherry has effect on reducing blood levels of substances associated with inflammation and immune cell activity.


Jacob RA, Spinozzi GM, Simon VA, Kelley DS, Prior RL, Hess-Pierce B, Kader AA. Consumption of cherries lowers plasma urate in healthy women. J Nutr. 2003;133(6):1826-1829.
Tall JM, Seeram NP, Zhao C, Nair MG, Meyer RA, Raja SN. Tart cherry anthocyanins suppress inflammation-induced pain behavior in rat. Behav Brain Res. 2004;153(1):181-188.
He YH, Xiao C, Wang YS, et al. [Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of cyanidin from cherries on rat adjuvant-induced arthritis]. Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2005;30(20):1602-1605.
He YH, Zhou J, Wang YS, et al. Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects of cherries on Freund's adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats. Scand J Rheumatol. 2006;35(5):356-358.


However, none of these experiments enrolled people actually having gout and specifically assessed the effects of cherries or cherry juice to prevent or treat gout.

Be careful of fructose!!

A glass of tart cherry juice made by diluting concentrate contains about 12.5 grams of fructose. Based on a 2010 study that consuming fructose-rich beverages is associated with a higher risk of gout. This finding resulted from an analysis of data from the Nurses' Health Study, a cohort study that spanned 22 years and included data from 78,906 women. One glass of orange juice, containing about 10.5 grams of fructose, per day increased the relative risk of a gout attack to 1.41.

Considering this fructose information, one could argue that cherry juice is not suitable for gout patients to drink frequently. Fructose-free cherry extracts might be more appropriate and effective for gout patients than juice concentrates.

My takeaway

I really do not see too much harm on trying cherry. As long as not to eat or drink too much, considering the fructose level. I personally believe more in natural food than medicine. So if it has been working on so many people and have some scientific support, it is good enough. Besides, I have not really read any case after eat or drink cherry become worse.

Power food: Papaya

I am a Chinese and my husband is a Mexican. Often people say it is a rather unusual combination. More interesting is that even though my mom and my mother-in-law have never met in person, they share extremely similar healthy conscience. Both moms like a lot fruit and veggies and not too much meats.

When we visit Mexico, my Mexican mom often gives us a fruit shake, orangish, and with, from my opinion, a little bit funny smell. I grew up in central China and had never eaten papaya before I went to Mexico. I have to admit that I didn't really like too much of its taste and had to drink it totally for politeness. But I was told it is a really healthy fruit so I did some research on it and it turns out to be true: papaya is a power food and you should eat it. I have been getting more used to the flavor: sweet, juicy and it is not all that bad.

Here is what I learned from the book: "Power foods from the editors of the whole living magazine" and USDA's National Nutrient Database.

• Ripe papayas is an excellent source of vitamin C, with one medium papaya containing 303% of daily value, i.e. a three-day supply of vitamin C.   
• Papaya has significant amounts of vitamins A (67%) and E (11%), powerful antioxidants. 
• Papaya may also help improve skin and strengthen nails and hair. 
• Ripe papaya is best known as a potent digestive aid, due to its high fiber content (5g). 
• The fruit also contains a high amount of folate (29%), which aids in cell production and helps prevent anemia.
• Unripe, green papaya contains high levels of the digestive enzyme papain, which behaves much like those enzymes produced by the stocmach's gastric juices.

I also found a tons of similar information on the internet stating the benefit of papaya. However, sometimes it is probably more important to understand under what condition you shouldn't eat something.

Papaya and Pregnancy

During my search, there is in fact a situation that you should avoid eat papaya: If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, avoid eating UNRIPE papaya. An unripe or semi-ripe papaya is rich in a substance called latex. Research shows that this concentrated form of latex may trigger uterine contractions. Contractions of the uterus could lead to a miscarriage. Also, papaya skin and seeds shouldn't be eaten. You can read more on this topic at this site from university of Michigan health system. http://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/tn9779#tn9779-Bib. This is the reference of this research:

Papaya (2004). In A DerMarderosian, J Beutler, eds., Review of Natural Products. St. Louis: Wolters Kluwer Health.

Digging a little more, I found another scientific research also confirmed this results, which is conducted by three researchers in Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University of Singapore and is published on British Journal of Nutrition, Vol 88, Issue 2, pp199-203, 2002. http://www.nutritionsociety.org.uk/bjn/088/bjn0880199.htm.

Papaya and Diabetes

Another topic shows up sometimes on internet is whether papaya is good or bad for diabetes. I have read totally contradictory suggestions. Since these days the internet is flooded with the information you don't really know where it comes from and/or by whom it is provided, I tend not to believe anything that easily. I tried to look for information from more of an official sources.

Papaya is listed among the common fruits to be consumed in the website of American Diabetes Association. So I think it should be ok to eat, as long as within certain limit. http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/fruits.html

I have come cross this site having the list of GI and GL values for more 2000 kinds of food.
http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

The glycemic index (GI) is a numerical system of measuring how much of a rise in circulating blood sugar a carbohydrate triggers–the higher the number, the greater the blood sugar response. So a low GI food will cause a small rise, while a high GI food will trigger a dramatic spike. A GI is 70 or more is high, a GI of 56 to 69 inclusive is medium, and a GI of 55 or less is low.

The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn't tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food's effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.

I am an engineer. I always like more quantitative numbers than just the text. Based on the table, papaya has GI of 56 and LG of 6. It is just at the lower limit of medium range of GI and definitely has low GL value. It seems to have little risk to eat some papaya.