Notable research from this year may steer you toward bringing a heaping dish of cruciferous vegetables to your next holiday meal. Continue reading
A Reason to Ask for Seconds of Broccoli?
Category Archives: Feature Stories
Q: I’m in my 50s. Should I consider taking a lipoic acid supplement?
Answer: Perhaps, but it is good to know more about it first.
Lipoic acid is a naturally-occurring compound that is found in small amounts in food and is also synthesized in small amounts by humans. The amount of lipoic acid available in dietary supplements (200-600 mg) is likely as much as 1,000 times greater than the amount that could be obtained from the diet alone. Continue reading
Linus Pauling Institute Director Steps Down, Reflects on the Evolving Field of Diet and Optimum Health
Nutrition’s legacy as a “soft science”
Nutrition has always been considered a “soft science”—a field rife with studies showing associations but no firm causation. Conclusive trials in humans are very difficult to do, and long-term studies assessing disease prevention are often cost prohibitive. In the past, the status quo was to do studies with laboratory animals to test whether a certain food or nutrient had an effect on cancer incidence or the hardening of arteries that can lead to heart disease or another such end point, but this approach lacked a critical element: the “why” was missing. “Something went in, something possibly resulted from it, but what happened in-between was largely a black box,” said Linus Pauling Institute Director and Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics Balz Frei, PhD. “What was lacking was mechanisms.”
Hops for Health
Although it doesn’t have the extensive history of other herbal remedies, hop flowers have been used medicinally for centuries to combat indigestion, calm anxiety, and help with insomnia. Of course, the most famous application of hops is the brewing of beer.
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