“Gluten-free diet linked to increased depression and eating disorders” – the headline immediately caught my attention. As I read the first article, I was theorizing in my head about the chemical impact of gluten and carbohydrates in our brains and bodies, as well as the mental strain of adhering to a strict diet and the extra effort it requires. I thought a correlation between depression and a gluten-free lifestyle was possible, I thought about all my friends and family members living gluten-free, and I started digging for the actual research to investigate the experimental method used. What I found was that the alarming headline was taken from partial statements made by an experimenter, but the entire findings were not taken into account.
Unfortunately, this can be common in the news media and blogosphere where the focus is more on attention-grabbing sound bites rather than in-depth analysis and education. It is my sincere hope that everything I write (here and elsewhere) and everything you read at DietsInReview is researched and thought out, and we are not jumping to conclusions or publishing alarmist headlines simply because it is provocative.
In this case, the research found that those women with celiac disease (177 surveyed) who were most compliant with a gluten-free diet reported “increased vitality, lower stress, decreased depressive symptoms, and greater overall emotional health,” according to Josh Smyth of Penn State. This sounds like the opposite of the alarmist headline that grabbed my attention. The caveat is that those surveyed, even those managing celiac disease well through a gluten-free lifestyle, reported “higher rates of stress, depression, and a range of issues clustered around body dissatisfaction, weight and shape” compared to the general population.”
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Fish oil has long been touted for its heart, neurological, and cancer risk-lowering health benefits. Now, an ingredient that can be extracted from fish oil may lead to a cure for leukemia.
According to Penn State researchers, a compound called delta-12-protaglandin J3 (D12-PGJ3) appears to target leukemia stem cells. The compound killed the stem cells of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in mice, said Sandeep Prabhu, Penn State associate professor of immunology and molecular toxicology in the Department of Veterinary and Medical Sciences.
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A study conducted by two Harvard University researchers suggests that people’s wandering minds are to blame for their unhappiness. In addition, they found that happiness was not necessarily a consequence of what someone was doing, but how focused they were while doing it.
Using an Internet-based cell phone application to gather feedback, the researchers asked their subjects if they were focused while engaged in certain activities, or if their minds were drifting towards something totally different. The subjects were then asked to describe their level of contentment during each activity.
The results concluded that people’s minds wander at least 50% of the time and while the mind is wandering, most people feel unhappy. It is worth noting that in this experiment minds wandered less during sex, exercise or while engaged in conversation and more in those who were working, using a home computer or resting. However you want to interpret this, the important message is that we only spend half of our waking hours focused and experiencing happiness.
Do you want to be happy more than 50% of the time, whether you are working, exercising or spending time with others? The following tips will help you focus, and “be here now” as esteemed spiritual leader Ram Dass famously states.
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By Kelsey Murray
According to the Beef in an Optimal Lean Diet study, including lean beef in your daily diet is as effective in reducing your total and bad cholesterol levels as the more commonly accepted DASH diet. The diet was conducted by researchers at the Pennsylvania State University and studied adults who have moderately elevated cholesterol levels. The adults’ cholesterol levels were then measured and evaluated, depending on how much lean beef they ate.
“This research sheds new light on evidence supporting lean beef’s role in a heart-healthy diet,” said Penny Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, the principal investigator of the study and a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University. “Study participants ate lean beef every day and still met targets for saturated fat intake.”
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Several preliminary studies show that supplements Jack3d and OxyElite Pro have minimal side effects for short-term use while boosting the body’s metabolism, however we still have some concerns. The four small-scale studies focused on the two supplements were published on the open-access research site Libertas Academica. Both supplements contain “dimethylamylamine” (DMAA), which is a stimulant similar to caffeine and is also used as a nasal decongestant.
Two separate two-week studies analyzed the safety of the supplements by measuring various health indicators, including renal and liver function, blood pressure and heart rate. They showed report that Jack3d and OxyElite Pro have low rates of side-effects for short-term use, although both triggered increased heart rate. In addition to DMMA, both supplements contain caffeine equivalent to two to four cups of coffee, which may account for elevated heart rate. Subjects were asked to take one or two capsules per day. Some participants taking two pills reported feeling jittery, on-edge, shaky and trouble sleeping while taking two capsules, however these symptoms disappeared when the dose was reduced to one capsule per day.
“I think its reasonable to think that the caffeine is what is doing this not the DMAA,” says DietInReview’s pharmaceutical expert Dr. Sarah Khan. “Studies would need to be conducted head to head to compare the results for just DMAA alone versus caffeine. The first study did find an increase in systolic blood pressure so anyone with pre-hypertension or hypertension would definitely want to avoid this supplement.”
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