Striving4Zen

I always like to recommend foods as close to their whole, natural forms as possible. Yet, in the case of tuna, it is difficult for me to stick with this principle 100% due to the types of fresh (and frozen) tuna most widely available in the marketplace and their relative risk of mercury toxicity.

Canned light tuna, ordinarily made from skipjack tuna, actually poses a substantially lower risk in terms of mercury exposure than fresh yellowfin or albacore tuna. So this type of tuna - canned light tuna - is the type that's best for you to buy if you want to eat tuna relatively often (for example, about one meal per week). If you are only interested in eating tuna about once per month, other options include yellowfin or albacore tuna (that is either fresh or frozen, troll or pole caught), which I would describe as having a medium mercury exposure risk. While from an ecological standpoint, I would rank these tuna as "best choices" most of us will probably want to consider the mercury and health risks right alongside of the ecological ones when deciding upon our food purchases.

While canned light tuna is my "best choice" recommendation when it comes to canned tuna, it's important to take a close look at the "canned light" label as skipjack, yellowfin, bluefin, and tongol can all be sold as "light" tuna. Skipjack is your best choice among these light tuna options for lowering your risk of mercury exposure.

I also recommend water-packed versus oil-packed tuna whenever you are buying canned tuna. In addition to questioning the quality of non-organic oils used in oil-packed tuna (and the unnecessary, lower-quality fat calories they provide), water-packed tuna, on average, contains a slightly higher omega-3 fat content than oil-packed tuna. However small it may be, it is yet another important benefit that it offers.

There are also more expensive, specialty brands of canned tuna available in the marketplace that may serve as a good option. Some of these specialty products give you better flavor and more omega-3 fatty acids due to higher-quality production methods.

They may also involve more sustainable fishing methods than many other forms of canned tuna.

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Labels: canned tuna, health and safety, healthy diet, mercury, Omega-3s, tuna, world's healthiest foods

In the vast majority of cases, four bananas per day are probably too many. One large banana contains about 18 grams of sugar and 125 calories. Four would contain about 72 grams of sugar and 500 calories. If a person ate about 2,000 calories per day, that person's diet would be approximately 14% sugar from the bananas alone, and about 25% of all calories would come from the bananas. From my perspective, that's too much daily sugar and too many daily calories from a single food.

I have no way of knowing, of course, whether or not four bananas per day are supportive of your personal health. That answer depends upon your individual health status, your daily diet, the amount and type of exercise you are doing, and your current nutritional needs. A healthcare practitioner who can take all of these factors into account would be the best person to help determine the number of bananas that would be best for you to consume to meet your nutrient and health needs.

But I can suggest a set of questions that you might ask yourself about your banana-plus-protein shakes. Does your diet have room for the calories that four bananas per day provide? Do you have to cut out any other nutrient-rich foods that provide other nutrients in which bananas may not be concentrated in order to make room for the bananas? Do you feel good when you eat the bananas? Do the bananas give you the energy and stamina that you desire?

In general, our website approach is to encourage consumption of whole, natural foods. We believe that the benefits of these foods are so unique and so overwhelming that major changes in lifestyle are worthwhile in order to make way for these foods. While you may be getting the nutrients you need from your protein shakes, you also might not be, and you will always increase your chances of getting the full spectrum of nutrients you need by eating a variety of whole, natural foods.

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Labels: bananas, diet, nutrition, question of the day, Whole Foods, world's healthiest foods

When thinking about apple cider vinegar and its potential benefits, it's important to keep in mind that it is not a whole food, but rather a liquid derived from processing. While vinegar can be both delicious and nourishing, it is still not possible to consider it as a whole food.

High acidity

First and foremost, vinegar is usually highly acidic. The acidity of vinegar is typically related to its acetic acid content, and this content can vary fairly widely from vinegar to vinegar. For some individuals, especially those with stomach or digestive problems including acid reflux, vinegar might not be a desirable food component to include in their meal plan because it can serve as an irritant. I've seen some websites that recommend use of vinegar precisely because of its acidity. These websites suggest that vinegar can be used to help offset problems with acid deficiency in the stomach or other digestive problems. I'm not aware of any scientific research that supports this recommendation.

Claimed benefit - blood sugar control

First, there are some studies linking vinegar to improved control of blood sugar following a test meal. About half of the limited studies in this area have been conducted on genetically modified rats and do not provide any immediately helpful information about humans and the way we eat everyday. The human studies in this area tend to focus on delivery of a test food or test meal-typically highly processed and devoid of any whole, natural foods-that has been augmented with a dose of vinegar. While these studies do show a trend toward improvement in blood sugar response in the range of 2-20%, it seems reasonable to assume that a key problem here is the poor quality of the test foods and test meals.

Several authors have mentioned delayed stomach emptying as a likely mechanism for the impact of added vinegar on blood sugar response. If that hunch turns out to be correct, the idea of poor quality foods makes even more sense. Our stomach tends to empty too quickly if it is filled with highly processed, low-nutrient, fiber-free foods. I would expect whole, natural foods with excellent fiber content and nutrient variety to be more effective in improving blood sugar control than vinegar added to a meal that is composed of poor quality foods.

Claimed benefit - enhanced calcium absorption

Second is the area of calcium absorption. This area has only been explored in animal studies so far, and both the doses and experimental conditions have been limited and difficult to match up with everyday consumption of vinegar on a salad or in a marinade. But the results of these studies showed the vinegar to increase the solubility of calcium within the intestinal tract of the test animals and to increase absorption in this way. Once again, I would question the value of these rat experiments for decision-making about whole, natural foods. From my perspective, the degree of calcium solubility in whole, natural foods that are properly handled and properly cooked is exactly what it should be.

Some websites tout the nutritional benefits of apple cider vinegar from a mineral standpoint. Based on nutrient database values, the amount of minerals in a tablespoon of this food is very, very limited and cannot be thought of as a significant contribution to any diet.

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Labels: Alpha Lipoic Acid, apple cider vinegar, calcium, digestion, world's healthiest foods

QUESTION: Should I be concerned about drinking coffee?

ANSWER:

Our one word answer to this coffee question would be: yes. We think you should be concerned about drinking coffee - but perhaps for some different reasons that you might expect. Few research studies have found direct links between coffee and disease - based on this type of research, coffee appears to be in a different category than saturated fat, or alcohol. But virtually all research studies show definite impacts of coffee on metabolism, and on overall body function. In many sports events, for example, caffeine-containing beverages - including coffee - are disallowed 24 hours prior to certain events. Why? Because the caffeine in coffee is chemically classified as a methylxanthine, and methylxanthines are chemical substances that can act as phosphodiesterase inhibitors (substances that shut down the activity of the phosphodiesterase enzyme), and when they do, they shift the body away from sugar as a source of fuel and toward fat as a fuel source instead.

For certain athletic events, this shift from sugar to fat would give the athlete an unfair advantage, and so coffee and caffeine are disallowed. Does this set of events mean coffee is bad for the average non-athlete? No, but it does mean that the caffeine in coffee affects your metabolism at a fundamental level. Coffee - again, largely thanks to its caffeine - is also a diuretic, and unless accompanied by increased water intake, can be dehydrating. Is this bad? Yes. Keeping optimal water balance in the body is essential for health.

One of the most problematic aspects of coffee, however, is its ability to make a person feel awake, alert, and ready to go - even when that person's body is exhausted, drowsy, and in need of rest and sleep. The caffeine in coffee provides a false feeling of vitality - the exact opposite of the world's healthiest foods. These foods provide real vitality - complete with conventional nutrients, phytonutrients, and the wisdom of the earth that produced them.

Finally, what about decaf? Organically grown, water-decaffeinated coffee is the best choice here, since other methods of decaffeination typically add small amounts of toxic substances to the beverage. But unless it is simply the taste and aroma of coffee that are desired, why not experiment with other hot beverages from the cornucopia of herbal teas that most cultures include in their traditional cuisines and that provide the nutrients and phytonutrients that are characteristic of the world's healthiest foods?

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Labels: atheletes, caffeine, coffee, herbal teas, world's healthiest foods