A couple new studies find that a ketogenic diet promotes a longer, healthier lifespan. That's great, but the results have only been confirmed for lab mice. I've written about mouse-based dietary studies a few times over the years. None have impressed me much. Some have seemed quite odd. For instance, way back in 2011, I wrote a post entitled "Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims." Scientists fed some little rodents farmed raised salmon, and some the same diet without salmon, and found the … [Read more...]
Shoddy reporting on the diet science beat
Saturday Short Takes When it comes to reporting on the latest diet science news, it's hard to know who to trust. Reporters covering the diet science beat seldom display much in the way of scientific acumen or plain curiosity. Their editors don't seem to care as long as they can illustrate the stories with close-ups of pretty girls putting things in their mouths. 1. The Great Chocolate Con Can eating dark chocolate every day help help you lose weight? Yes, according to a study published … [Read more...]
Of mice brains aflame and other travesties
A note to the editors of ScienceDaily -- this is what a high fat human diet looks like. Or it might look like a plate of scrambled eggs with bacon, or a green salad with cheese, avocado, and black olives. What a high-fat human diet does not look like is that pile of buns, pizza, french-fried potatoes, and onion rings that you used to illustrate your story about a recent mouse study. The collection of carbs shown in your photo would choke a moose, never mind a poor little mouse. Oddly, … [Read more...]
Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims
Just when you thought it was safe to feed salmon fillets to your pet mouse, along comes a study entitled, "Chronic Consumption of Farmed Salmon Containing Persistent Organic Pollutants Causes Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Mice." You have to wonder how many mice are chronically dining on salmon, farmed or wild. It's more likely that if a mouse fell in the water, a salmon would eat it. That would be a better meal than most farm-raised salmon ever get. It's hard to imagine the mouse winning … [Read more...]
Of mice and strawberries
This year, after adopting a low-carb way of eating, I've eaten more strawberries than ever before. That's ironic since strawberries are sweet and sweet things are generally unwelcome when eating low-carb. But a half-dozen large strawberries have only about 35 calories and 6g net carbs (8 total carbs - 2 grams of fiber). Add some heavy cream, and you have a tasty, nutritious, low-carb dessert. Now comes news that eating 37 strawberries a day could lessen the risk of complications from diabetes. … [Read more...]