RSS FeedDigest - Organic Crop Yields, Antioxidants, Little Timmy Needs Produce, And Don’t Believe Lipitor Ads
An artifact of a previous time
A grand “Gee, ya think?” moment. Children with healthier diets do better in school - “‘We demonstrated that above and beyond socioeconomic factors, diet quality is important to academic performance,’ the authors conclude. ‘These findings support the broader implementation and investment in effective school nutrition programs that have the potential to improve student’s diet quality, academic performance, and, over the long term, their health.’”
And speaking of kids, what happened to walking to school? Why don’t kids walk to school anymore? - “It’s not necessarily because they’re spoiled, lazy or over scheduled. According to a University of Michigan researcher, concerns about safety are the main reason that less than 13 percent of U.S. children walked or biked to school in 2004, compared to more than 50 percent who did so in 1969.” Don’t get me started on how we’re all kept scared by the media.
So much for the argument that organic can’t feed the world. Are organic crops as productive as conventional? - “Although researchers found that diverse, low-input/organic cropping systems were as productive as conventional systems most of the time, there is a need for further research, according to the study’s author Dr. Joshua L. Posner, University of Wisconsin.”
Guess what! Produce is good for you. Still. Eating Causes Stress, But Antioxidants Can Help - “The scientists found that the antioxidant capacity of volunteers’ blood plasma samples declined after eating a test meal that lacked antioxidants. But the scientists also found, for the first time, that consuming grapes with that same test meal prevented the decline in plasma antioxidant capacity of the volunteers during the first two hours following the test meal—the time digestion is the most rapid.”
Yes, and lots of other misleading ads too. Have You Seen Those Misleading Lipitor Ads? - “I’m sure you’ve seen the ads. Dr. Robert Jarvik…Well, it turns out that Jarvik doesn’t actually row. And he isn’t actually a cardiologist and currently isn’t even licensed to practice medicine. …Maybe, just maybe, we’ve been concentrating on the wrong thing. Maybe lowering cholesterol isn’t the be-all and end-all of a heart healthy lifestyle. Remember, fully half of people with heart attacks have normal cholesterol. And half of the people with “elevated” cholesterol have perfectly fine tickers.”
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Filed in Digest 4 Comments so far
Dave in Ohio on 07 Apr 2008 at 1:21 pm #
Thought I was on the wrong web site for a second there. Looks good — easier to read with a white background.
Read your site daily. Sensible and informative articles.
Thanks.
Debs on 07 Apr 2008 at 4:58 pm #
About that linked article on kids with healthy diets doing better in school, the red-flag phrase that stuck out at me was, “Less healthful dietary components included saturated fat and salt, while healthy foods were classified by fruits, vegetables, grains, dietary fiber, protein, calcium and moderate fat intake.”
Since good quality saturated fat and salt aren’t “less healthful” and a diet high in grains is, I’m skeptical about the particular results of their study. I wonder if they controlled for socio-economic factors for instance, or if they looked at what kind of fats the kids were eating.
I do think diet plays a big role in school success and healthy development, I’m just not sure if they looked at the right things. It would be great to put a bunch of kids on an optimal diet and see how they do.
I tried emailing the journal for a copy of the study, but the email address the article provides is wrong. I emailed the researcher, who says in the article he’s available for questions.
Food Is Love
Scott Kustes on 08 Apr 2008 at 8:02 am #
Debs, that is true about the saturated fat and grains, but we have to remember what it was being compared to: the Standard American Diet. It sounds like the kids were eating something similar to a Mediterranean Diet, which while not as good as a Paleo Diet, is a vast improvement over what most people, kids especially, are eating. They can only look at what our misguided science has told them to look at, but I do think the diet those kids were eating is a step in the right direction compared to the SAD. I’d love to see them put kids on a proper Paleo Diet and do the comparison too, but we should be cautious of being so dogmatically against grains and for saturated fat that we automatically reject any diet that is a step in the right direction.
Cheers
Scott
Debs on 10 Apr 2008 at 1:36 am #
Scott,
I agree with you. I think there were probably other factors in the diet than what they measured for that accounted for the benefits, but that even if what they measured was misguided it probably also indicated a better diet. Kids who are eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and so forth are probably more likely to be eating higher quality foods, come from higher income families that have more nutritional options, be eating less fast food, etc. The standard American who is eating a lot of saturated fat, on the other hand, is probably not eating good quality saturated fat. Again, fast food.
I work in a field where we’re always looking for things that help kids succeed in school and in life, and I’ve started trying to gather what information I can on diet’s relationship to kids’ success. I appreciate having any source on this stuff.
Debs