DrClydeWilson's NUTRITION BLOG

Hear me speak TUESDAY 10 Nov on EITHER Complete or Sports Nutrition:

My 2-hour key-note address at the Palo Alto VA Obesity Conference

It was so fun in the photo studio today!

I had the BEST time in the photo studio of Richard Eskite today.  Richard, Brad and I took a bunch of photos for my future web site etc in no time, and Brad worked his magic on his computer, in the end producing shots that look MUCH better than I do in real life.  Amazing.  I put a couple contact sheets in the photo album in the left margin of this blog. 

A while back, Richard and Juliann Eskite and Brad took some incredible photos of "Clyde Meals" created by food designer Kim Kissling: see her web site www.kimcookin.com 

See master food photos at www.Eskite.com

Listen to an interview with me on my book "What, When & Water"

I was interviewed by Charles Green of Better Health Talk Radio, an on-line wellness show, covering all the topics in my book "What, When and Water", including macronutrients, weight loss, and managing your nutrition from the ground up.  You can listen to over an hour of discussion by topic at www.BetterHealthTalkRadio.com.

GREAT song about food politics

"What You Don't Know" is a bluegrass song by Million Dollar Nile that I heard about on Michael Pollen's newsletter; sign up at michaelpollan.com.  The song is AWESOME, covering the progress of corn from field to industrial chemistry lab to our mouths to our graves.  It has the f-word in it once.  Hear the song by clicking on the band's song list at www.myspace.com/milliondollarnile

We "like" seeing and tasting food in different parts of our brain

The picture shows where we like seeing milkshakes!  There are different regions in the brain that give us positive emotions when we see or smell foods we like as opposed to actually eating foods we like.  Emotion is partly mediated by dopamine signaling in the amygdala and striatum of the brain.  The striatum has ventral (front) and dorsal (back) parts.  The ventral striatum contains the nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle and responds to food CUES (seeing or smelling food) but NOT to food RECEIPT (taste and consumption) unless the food was unexpected.  On the other hand, the dorsal striatum contains the caudate nucleus ("c" shaped structure) and putamen and responds to food receipt, with a decreasing response as we get full.  So we like chocolate less when we are full [1].  So in the striatum, the front part makes us happy when we see or smell food, and the back part makes us happy when we taste and eat it.  Genetic mutations leading to reduced dopamine signaling strength when we eat foods would be expected to make us eat more foods to compensate.  Using MRI, it has been shown that reduced dopamine signaling in response to consuming a milkshake (compared to water) was correlated to higher body fat levels as well as body fat gains over 1 year in college-aged women [2].  This can be partly due to genetics, and it is known that dopamine signal-strength is down-regulated by excesive intake of palatable foods, a pattern also seen with chronic substance abuse i.e. addiction. 

1. Changes in brain activity related to eating chocolate: from pleasure to aversion", Small DM et al., Brain 124 (1720) 1720

2. "Relation between obesity and blunted striatal response to food is moderated by the TaqIA A1 allele", Stice E et al., Science 322 (2008) 449

Self-Control is a Limited Resource: It Fatigues Like a Muscle

Self-control weakens as it is used, so that continuous attempts at self-control are increasingly likely to fail [1]: People who forced themselves to eat radishes instead of tempting chocolates, or who tried to suppress their emotions, subsequently quit faster when working on puzzles [2].  Trying to regulate one's emotional response to an upsetting movie was followed by a decrease in physical stamina, suppressing forbidden thoughts led to a subsequent tendency to give up faster when working on puzzles, and suppressing one's thoughts impaired subsequent efforts to control expression of amusement and enjoyment [3].  Making decisions, as opposed to just thinking about options without making decisions between consumer goods or between college classes, reduced subsequent self-control in the form of having less physical and mental (persistence in math problems) stamina [4].  Motivation, in the form of knowing that one's efforts would help others or one-self can eliminate the reduction in self-control with use, depending on motivation levels [5]. 

In other words, without finding motivation, doing things we don't like is short lived.  Eating radishes will help keep you alive longer than eating sweets, so a recognition of delayed gratification (live longer from radishes) rather than short-term gratification (sweets) provides stamina in self-control.  Perhaps this is because motivation replaces the NEED for self-control i.e. living longer becomes a desired objective, making radishes a desired objective, rather than something consumed against one's will.  Addiction research supports this idea in that the two things critical for overcoming addictive habits are an acceptance a new vision of one's self, implying a new motivation to take care of one's self.

Thank you Debra Moffitt for making me aware of these papers.  Debra writes articles for young athletes at www.kidshealth.org/kid/nutrition
1. "Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: does self-control resemble a muscle?", Muraven M and Baumeister RF, Psychol Bull 126 (2000) 247
2. "Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource?", Baumeister RF et al., J Pers Soc Psychol 74 (1998) 1252
3. "Self-control as a limited resource: regulatory depletion patterns", Muraven M et al., J Pers Soc Psychol 74 (1998) 774
4. "Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.", Vohs KD et al., J Pers Soc Psychol 94 (2008) 883
5. "Mechanisms of self-control failure: motivation and limited resources", Muraven M and Slessareva E, J Pers Soc Psychol 29 (2003) 894

Vegetables with Breakfast

Vegetables slow down the digestion of everything we eat, allowing significantly more nutrients to go to muscle and other active tissue rather than body fat.  In addition, vegetables have the twice the amount of phytonutrients compared to whole grains and fruits, reducing the rate at which we age.  So include vegetables with every meal to get the most out of every meal.  To me, if its easy and pays big dividends, no reason not to do it, so I have vegetables whenever possible, including most of my breakfasts.  Pictured is me having a couple mouth-fulls of leafy greens half-way through eating my breakfast oatmeal.  My girlfriend Dana said "I HAVE to get a picture of this!"  While this may go above the call for some, at least include vegetables with lunch and dinner, and if you are getting tired of vegetables, eat them WITH your meal simultaneously so that they take on the flavor of the meal itself.

YouTube: McDonald's 1st time in > 30 yrs

When I was 8 years old in the 3rd grade I had a Happy Meal and haven't been to McDonald's since.  It was OK, but not enough to draw me back (I preferred macaroni and cheese or Captain Crunch cereal).  On the road a few days ago, early in the morning, I was short on food and McDonald's was the only convenient place open at the time.  My Egg McMuffin contained 300 kcals, 120 of which was refined carbs (roughly the cut-off before blood sugar spikes), 72 was protein, 108 was fat (45 saturated) and it contained 840 mg of sodium (the amount in 1-2 quarts of perspiration from a hard workout).  There is nothing healthy about this breakfast other than the fact that eating some carbs and amino acids avoids your body eating itself (mainly your muscle tissue) when you haven't eaten for over 3-6 hours (the timing depending on your needs and what you ate at your last meal).  Protein and fats slow the digestion of ~100 kcals carbs, but are insufficient to slow a larger amount than this.  Although the fats are less than half saturated, it is all animal fats.  Animal fats, saturated or unsaturated, contribute to heart disease and insulin resistance syndrome (including a reduced metabolism and higher body fat levels).  Refined carbs with animals fats, together, is a one-two punch your body cannot recover from if consumed on a regular basis.  I countered some of this effect by  keeping the total "meal" small and eating spinach with it that I had in my car.  NOTE: When you are in a bind and have few options, do the best you can and ENJOY it.  There is no possible reason that I can think of why anyone should feel bad when they simply do the best they can.  From the YouTube image IT LOOKS LIKE JUST WALKING INTO MCDONALDS IS SPIKING MY BLOOD SUGAR AND PUTTING ME TO SLEEP:

LDL cholesterol and plant sterols

A paper came out in Science this week showing that the LDL cholesterol receptor is a major player in determining LDL cholesterol levels in the body: Read the abstract here.  Inhibition of this receptor in the intestine by plant sterols dramatically lowers cholesterol, but an excess of plant sterols in the blood can inhibit LDL uptake into the  liver, raising LDL blood levels.  Therefore, a diet high in vegetables should be central to any LDL-lowering diet, but supplementing with phytonutrient concentrates (powders, liquids) could hypothetically increase cardiovascular disease risk relative to raw plant consumption (salad and cooked vegetables).