Supersize Me

[Sakura-chan]

Very interesting thread . I for myself never eat fast food nor do I eat desserts more than once a month (I owe all this mostly to my parents that educated me this way ).

About aspartame, there is no real proof out there, only warnings. Also, to cause bad effects to your body like cancers, the doses you'd have to take would be extremely high, more than what one would eat in one's life. And so everybody knows, many things contain aspartame, like most of the chewing gums.

Caffeine is really bad for many reasons, and should be avoided. The recommendations out there say that a person should not drink more than one cup of coffee per day, and some studies even say less. Add other caffeine products and you're done .

Also, some people don't realize the effect of plain sugar. Even if you don't eat much fats, sugar in too big quantities can be converted and stored like fats. Like somebody already pointed out, it can also lead to some forms of diabetes and well, bring all the risks that comes with more adipose tissue in your body.

I guess seeing the bads effects with my own eyes has helped a lot to consider what I'm eating/drinking. That's why I think the movie "Supersize Me" is actually a very good way to help people see the facts better.

[kenshikenji]

Very interesting thread . I for myself never eat fast food nor do I eat desserts more than once a month (I owe all this mostly to my parents that educated me this way ).

About aspartame, there is no real proof out there, only warnings. Also, to cause bad effects to your body like cancers, the doses you'd have to take would be extremely high, more than what one would eat in one's life. And so everybody knows, many things contain aspartame, like most of the chewing gums.

Caffeine is really bad for many reasons, and should be avoided. The recommendations out there say that a person should not drink more than one cup of coffee per day, and some studies even say less. Add other caffeine products and you're done .

Also, some people don't realize the effect of plain sugar. Even if you don't eat much fats, sugar in too big quantities can be converted and stored like fats. Like somebody already pointed out, it can also lead to some forms of diabetes and well, bring all the risks that comes with more adipose tissue in your body.

I guess seeing the bads effects with my own eyes has helped a lot to consider what I'm eating/drinking. That's why I think the movie "Supersize Me" is actually a very good way to help people see the facts better.

wow, youre really educated. I wish my parents had that info to teach me. You must have doctors or dieticians for parents. You even mentioned the connective adipose tissue.

also caffeine stimulates your sympathetic nervous system which tells your body to store fat in the visceral area (belly fat), which is one of the best indicators for cardiovascular risk.

[jenn-b]

I never, EVER eat fast food. Mostly, it's because I have a strangely delicate digestive system. Plus, it just plain grosses me out. But I particularly dislike McDs because of that evil, EVIL clown!

[hanaeleh]

You know, caffeine is one of those very interesting drugs. One minute I hear about its evils and the next I hear glorious praises about how it helps reduce alzeimers, how caffeine actually stimulates the brain, etc., etc., etc.

Personally, I think everything in moderation. Too much of anything is terrible for you....

[kenshikenji]

You know, caffeine is one of those very interesting drugs. One minute I hear about its evils and the next I hear glorious praises about how it helps reduce alzeimers, how caffeine actually stimulates the brain, etc., etc., etc.

Personally, I think everything in moderation. Too much of anything is terrible for you....

i think studies show that it prevents colon cancer, im not sure how but thats what i hear.

if you want to avoid alzheimer disease one should excercise the brain every day and eat a lot of omega 3 fatty acids (particularly the ones from deep sea fish) and folate. it is caused by plaques and tangles of the cerebral cortex neurons due to c-reactive protein.

im not sure a mechanism of how it can stimulate the brain unless again it increases blood flow through the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system which is a reaction when one has exciting or dangerous stimulation.

caffeine is a mild anti-depressant, and studies show a correlation with caffeine's ability to help prevent kidney and gallstones.

caffeine in excess is a mild health risk but very low on the priority totem pole to worry about.

[hanaeleh]

I dunno... there is quite a bit of very exciting research being done regarding alzeimer's, actually- the latest news I heard was that they're about three years away from a cure.

Alzeimer's has also been linked to high cholesterol, although I'm not sure how exactly- one doctor did a post-mortem study of alzeimer's patients and discovered that every single one of them had high cholesterol, but the interview never went into whether they had high cholesterol before they were diagnosed.

[Cloud]

There sure is.

[kenshikenji]

I dunno... there is quite a bit of very exciting research being done regarding alzeimer's, actually- the latest news I heard was that they're about three years away from a cure.

Alzeimer's has also been linked to high cholesterol, although I'm not sure how exactly- one doctor did a post-mortem study of alzeimer's patients and discovered that every single one of them had high cholesterol, but the interview never went into whether they had high cholesterol before they were diagnosed.

in statistics we probably wouldnt automatically say the high cholesterol would cause alzheimer's, there is a relation but causation can be far from the fact. Total cholesterol isnt as important as the actual cholesterol profile of HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol ratio. eat good fats and stay away from animal saturated and trans fats as much as possible. transfats is a case where moderation is not the optimum senario.

[Sakura-chan]

wow, youre really educated. I wish my parents had that info to teach me. You must have doctors or dieticians for parents. You even mentioned the connective adipose tissue.

also caffeine stimulates your sympathetic nervous system which tells your body to store fat in the visceral area (belly fat), which is one of the best indicators for cardiovascular risk.

Actually, nah, no doctors in my family, except me , go figure. But I'm still not done with all my studies yet .

You are very educated yourself, most of your posts are very impressive.

Btw, Alzheimer has a very big genetic factor, about 40% of patients with Alzheimer have a first-degree parent that had it too. So, although there are external causes to Alzheimer, usually it remains idiopathic, which means that there are no obvious cause, and that it's probably due to some genetic transmission along the way. I won't go into details though, not the point of this post .

And about Alzheimer's cure, there have been saying that for a long time now, as it is now, we doctors are educated that there is no known cure, but only support treatments, like taking aspirine, which has shown to reduce Alzheimer risks and the course of the disease.

[Cloud]

What will you do instead?

[Sakura-chan]

Hope that a cure gets found in the next years , my great great grandmother had Alzheimer .

[Cloud]

Why do you hope for that a cure gets found in the next years smile his or her great great grandmother had Alzheimer

[Sakura-chan]

I think you should read my post again , it's all there ^_^.

[kenshikenji]

Btw, Alzheimer has a very big genetic factor, about 40% of patients with Alzheimer have a first-degree parent that had it too. So, although there are external causes to Alzheimer, usually it remains idiopathic, which means that there are no obvious cause, and that it's probably due to some genetic transmission along the way. I won't go into details though, not the point of this post .

One should take observational studies with a big table spoon of salt. when it isnt experiemental studies where the variable isnt actually imposed on the test subjects, lurking variables can skew the interpretation of the data.

for instance the whole "is wine good for you" study. observational data shows a clear relationship between wine being good for you your cardiovascular health in moderation, but what the study doesnt explicitly show is that people who drink wine are more likely to be affluent and smarter than those who dont drink wine, partially contributing to heart health. i think they have proven through experimental blind studies that alcohol does improve vascular health, but the relation wasnt as strong as the observational studies.

the alzheimer data could mean that maybe the first degree relation with a relative with alzheimer could show that habits of "lack of mental exercise" or diet have been passed on to the relatives. Just a thought.

[Sakura-chan]

I totally agree with you . It was only to answer some debate about external factors causing Alzheimer, which basically have proven to be less decisive in the course of the disease than genetics have.