Pea Protein And Soluble Fiber May Slash Cholesterol LevelsPea protein combined with either oat, or apple pectin, lowers cholesterol more so than any of the ingredients on their own, an effect referred to as synergy, a new study found conducted on rats. Rats are used as a model for human cholesterol metabolism since it is extremely similar in both.Soluble fiber is known to bind bile .....

Children Who Eat Same Food As Parents Eat Healthiest, Study ShowsA new study from the University of Edinburgh which, looked at different aspects of family meals of more than 2000 five year olds, found that children who eat the same meals as their parents tended to have healthier diets overall.This finding was consistent regardless of the families’ backgrounds and was the most important influence on the quality of the children’s d .....

What if yet another common everyday food could help to lower blood pressure? This is a question that scientists investigated and the initial findings are intriguing. High blood pressure, defined as consistently more than 140/90 mm Hg, is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is the number one risk factor for stroke, affecting an estimated 17.1 percent of all Canadians over the age of 12. High blood pressure affects more than 30 percent of those over the age of 55.The .....

 The latest hot topic that made the headlines over the past couple of weeks was a study that appeared in Nature Medicine which suggested an increased risk for heart disease from eating red meat. What was the culprit this time? Carnitine and a complicated sounding compound called trimethylamine, or TMA for short. The researchers proposed an overly simplistic mechanism: red meat, which contains carnitine, is converted to TMA by intestinal bacteria and TMA levels .....

In 2002 researchers from the Swedish National Food Authority made a surprising discovery and shocked many people when they demonstrated that a known toxic compound was found in everyday foods; a compound that was not present due to some industrial accident or contamination but rather as a byproduct of food production. Concern arose because this compound is known to be a carcinogen. The culprit: acrylamide. What is acrylamide? .....

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found an association between what the authors referred to as, ‘very high’ levels of vitamin D and ‘all-cause mortality.’ In other words: death from all causes. Turns out that having very high levels of vitamin D is associated with similar risk for death as are very low levels...or does it?Vitamin D is a pre-hormone that is converted by the bo .....

 Interest in vitamin D is at an all time high and there’s no sign of it letting up with more and more clinical trials being conducted and more on the way. With increased interest comes increased enthusiasm and more and more people are starting to take vitamin D supplements, which vitamin D experts not only think is a good idea but advocate.Vitamin D deficiency, as defined by the vitamin D pioneers, is a blood level below 30ng/L or 75nmol (altho .....

 If nutrition had the Oscars, vitamin D would win best actor in a leading role hands down, and with good reason, as a pro-hormone, vitamin D is a stand out when it comes to promoting health. There are an estimated 2700 vitamin D binding sites on our DNA and those binding sites are located near genes involved if nearly all know chronic diseases.Great actors however don’t work alone and are only as good as their supporting cas .....

 I was recently at a vegetarian restaurant and reminded of the mushroom’s humble status as, what many would say, an under-appreciated side attraction. In this example, a scant few made their requisite appearance as a topping on a burger. In North American cuisine, mushrooms rarely take centre stage but rather take on the role of sidekick with many foods we view as vices; pizza, bacon cheeseburgers, fried in butter for stea .....

 Growing up I used to berate my mother for drinking coffee. When I was 16, I read a pamphlet on nutrition. I can’t remember much more than two salient points. One of them: coffee is taboo. When I asked my grandmother for a firm definition of “taboo”, she simply replied, “forbidden”. That was enough to convince me that coffee was somehow partly responsible for much of what plagues our health. (In my mother’s defense, I would later learn that she was kn .....