SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Do you like your 0.1% yogurt? No? Well, what if I told you that it ain't even healthy? A recent study from Sweden ( Warensjö. 2011 ) shows that milk fat is heart healthy! Particularly in women. The study population comprised roughly 1000 Swedish men and women, whose anthropometric, biomarker fatty acid, physical activity, and dietary data were collected and comparisons were made between people with previous myocardial infarctions (cases) and healthy age-mates (controls). In women, proportions of milk fat biomarkers in plasma phospholipids were significantly higher ( P < 0.05) in controls [i.e. healthy individuals] than in cases and were, in general, negatively, albeit weakly, correlated with risk factors for metabolic syndrome. [...] After multivariable adjustment for confounders, the inverse association remained in both sexes and was significant in women. In agreement with biomarker data, quartiles of reported intake of chees...

Diabetes is the big "D" in the metabolic synDrome and probably the most destructive of the various faces of the plague of the century. Now researchers from the United Arabian Emirates have found that licorice may ameliorate the destructive effects of high blood glucose levels on your kidneys. In a rat experiment, Kataya et al. ( Kataya. 2011 ) found that... ... oral ingestion (1 g/kg body weight) of licorice extract for 60 days after the onset of diabetes reversed the adverse effect of diabetes on rats . Licorice extract alleviated blood glucose levels, restored renal function, and attenuated body-weight loss. In addition, licorice extract modulated the adverse effect of diabetes on renal malondialdehyde, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase activity. Further, licorice extract restored the total antioxidant capacity of diabetic rat kidneys. What I find most intriguing is that licorice ingestion at a dosage that would amount to roughly 12g for an average...

I refrained from posting each and every study on vitamin D that has been published within the past weeks - nothing new or exciting there + way too much hype, if you want my opinion... BUT now, finally, there is some additional large-scale scientific data on the issues of how much is enough and how much is too much of supplemental vitamin D ! In the latest issue of Anticancer Research Garland et al. ( Garland. 2011 ) published a study in which self-reported supplemental vitamin D intake in a cohort of 3,667 men and women from different ethnic backgrounds was assessed and corresponding serum vitamin D levels were measured. Figure 1: Reported daily intake of vitamin D vs. measured serum 25(OH)D levels in study cohort of 3,667 subjects ( Garland. 2011 ) Unsurprisingly, "serum 25(OH)D rose as a function of self-reported vitamin D supplement ingestion in a curvilinear fashion", but other than some fear mongers would have us believe, ... no intakes of 10,000 IU/d or lower ...

Lately, whey protein is all the rage. Rightly, as it seems! A recent study on the effect of protein supplementation on appetite and calorie consumption in rats showed that whey is way superior to soy protein in inducing satiety and reducing caloric intake. For 10 weeks rats were fed a standard diet (control), or a high protein diet, with either 24% whey or isoflavone-free soy protein added to the chow. Both dietary interventions, i.e. the increase in protein intake, led to significantly reduced body weight and body fat gains, but ... [...] cumulative food intake measured over the 10-week study period was lower in the HP-W vs. control and HP-S groups (P < 0.01).[...] Plasma concentrations of total GLP-1 [glucagon-like peptide 1] were higher in HP-W and HP-S vs. control group (P < 0.05), whereas plasma CCK, PYY, and leptin did not differ among the three groups. In how far the reduced caloric intake is retractable to the GLP-1 (exclusively?) is questionable. What is certa...

Ever since the "Mediterranean Diet" was/is the talk of the town, more and more people become aware of the potential benefits of the formerly largely ignored mono-unsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). In spite of that, the majority of consumers (probably due to the misinformation coming from the marketing machinery of the food industry) still focuses on avoiding the "bad" saturated fats and consuming as much "healthy" polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) as possible in order not to fall victim to an obesity epidemic which is inseparably intertwined with these kind of black-and-white approaches to nutrition. In an extensive review ( Jones. 2011 ) scientists from the Department of Human Nutritional Sciences at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (University of Manitoba, Canada) evaluated data from over 50 years of research to come to the conclusion: Consumption of dietary MUFA promotes healthy blood lipid profiles , mediates bloo...

Americans and Europeans are by no means the only people with unhealthy weight problems. Korea, where the traditional diet is gradually replaced by an Americanized fast-food diet, faces a similar obesity epidemia. The solution, on both sides, appears to be the same: a significant increase in protein intake. Compared to a 2006 conventional dieting regime the subjects who participated in the 12 week high protein dietary intervention described in a recent study ( Joo. 2011 ) lost more weight (- 4.7 kg vs. -2.3 kg), had a greater reduction in waist circumference (- 6.8 cm vs. 3.3 cm) and lost more body-fat (- 4.2 kg vs. -2.0 kg). In view of the obesity related health issues it is also noteworthy, that... ... the triglyceride reduction was significantly greater (- 30.16 mg/dL, p < 0.001) in the PRO Diet group after intervention compared to the conventional group. Unfortunately, the original study is missing the dietary guidelines the subjects were provided (the file is not on the s...

Regular visitors of the SuppVersity will remember that there has been and still is a controversy about whether or not athletes and average gymrats benefit from antioxidants or whether this may even blunt training induced adaptation effects. Other than a 2009 study by Ristow et al. ( Ristow. 2009 ), a more recent investigation into the effects of antioxidant supplementation ( Yfanti. 2011 ), coming from my northern neighbors from Denmark, did not find any negative effects of antioxidants on the exercise induced rise in insulin sensitivity. In the study 21 young, healthy men, who received 500 mg vitamin C and 400 IU vitamin E (α-tocopherol) daily, completed a 5-days-a-week supervised intense endurance-training (interval training on Tuesday & Thursday; steady-state cardio on Wednesday & Friday). Insulin response, maximal oxygen consumption (VO 2max ), maximal power output (P max ) and body composition (fat mass, fat-free mass) were measured and "muscle biopsies ...

Listeners of Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio already know: Dr. Paul Arciero of Skidmore College is going to publish a study the results of which confirm that obese individuals can lose weight and improve markers of metabolic health by just adding a 20g shake of whey protein 3x a day. While you still have to wait for the detailed results of this study to be published, another group of scientists ( Shertzer. 2011 ) derived similar results from a study on mice. Despite being on a high fat diet, mice who received 100mg of whey protein isolate (WPI) per liter of their drinking water (WPI group) ... had lower rates of body weight gain and percent body fat and greater lean body mass , although energy consumption was unchanged . These results were consistent with WPI mice having higher basal metabolic rates , respiratory quotients , and hepatic mitochondrial respiration . [...] Livers from WPI mice...

You probably take a multivitamin , do you? Well, you eat healthy, as well? But does this mean you get enough of all nutrients? Maybe... maybe not. In a recent study ( Baer. 2011 ) on vitamin B12 deficiency and supplementation in healthy young women, of the 300 participants, 137, i.e. 46%, had low-normal plasma levels of vitamin B12 . Interestingly, in participants with very low B12 levels, neither supplementation with 1000mcg of oral methylcobalamin , nor the consumption of a cereal meal (probably a bad idea, anyway) 4x/week for three months was able to restore B12 to an acceptable level: Supplementation of either vitamin B12 pill or 100% RDA fortified cereal for 3 consecutive months resulted in significant (p < 0.05) increase in mean plasma vitamin B12 levels in all subjects ( Table 4 ). Subjects whose baseline plasma vitamin B12 status was < 200 pg/ml were not observed to increase plasma vitamin B12 levels to at or above the 250 pg/ml benchmark following three months su...

"L-Arginine ameliorates insulin resistance and has beneficial effects on blood pressure", "Fat people love cookies and tend to develop insulin resistance!" - if these two thoughts get together in the head of an Italian scientists, a new product is born: the L-Arginine Biscuit! In a recent study Emanuela Setola ( Setola. 2011 ) investigated the effect of a biscuit with 6.6g arginine on selected metabolic parameters of 7 healthy subjects. The results are encouraging: A significant increase of nitric oxide (NOx) and cGMP levels were significantly increased with Biscuit +L-ARG 6.6 g and Powdered L-ARG as compared to Biscuit. AUC NOx and cGMP were significantly increased (p<0.04vs Biscuit). Percentage incremental increase of post-ischemic blood flow significantly increased with Biscuit +L-ARG 6.6 g and Powdered L-ARG, suggesting a functional effect of L-ARG added to the food preparation. Further, at 240 minute mean arterial blood pressure and peripheral v...

Caffeine is the cornerstone of almost each and every fat-burner on the market. But how effective is it in raising your energy expenditure? A study ( Astorino. 2011 ) conducted at the Department of Kinesiology of the California State University provides an answer: Not very effective. Astorino et al. had 14 strength-trained men who were regular caffeine consumers perform a strength workout with either 6mg/kg (thanks to Ezhan who pointed me to a type here. It's 6mg not 0.6 as it said before) caffeine or placebo supplement pre-workout. What they found was that Caffeine intake increased total energy expenditure by 15% (P<0.05), but the additional calories burned was minimal (+27 kcal). Well, I suppose this is about the amount of calories of a small carrot and not really what you would expect from a fat burner .

Wouldn't it be nice to burn more than 2 pounds of body-fat within 30 minutes of exercise? Well, according to your body impedance scale this is easily possible! You would even gain 1 pound of solid muscle... In a recent study Selma Civar Yavuz (Yavuz. 2011) had 52 healthy volunteers perform an exhaustive treadmill exercise (Bruce test) and evaluated the body composition changes by the means of bioelectrical impedance analysis. The results summarized in Table 1 are amazing: Table 1: Comparison of the body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FTM), fat free mass (FFM), total body water (TBW) and bioelectrical impedance measurements taken before and after the exercises. What is amazing about these results is yet not the amount of fat the subjects burned in <30 min of running. Its rather the inaccuracy of the impedance analysis. In view of the results of this study you better throw your expensive body-fat scale out of the window and revert to using an old fashioned tape measure to ...

I happened onto an interesting patent ( Kneller. 2011 ), published on 02/10/2011 the author of which, Bruce Kneller, who was arrested in the course of a steroid bust back in 2006 , claims to have invented an aromatase inhibitor, 5α-androstane-3,6,17-trione (Kneller's Trione) which produces " substantial and significant increases in plasma testosterone levels in men while inducing no changes outside the accepted normal limits for plasma estradiol levels". This is very different from your usual AI (ATD, Arimidex, Letrozole, etc.) which tend to eradicate estrogen and thus produce nasty side effects. As far as its concrete applications are concerned the author writes: The oral, daily dose of Kneller's Trione can be from about 25 mg to about 750 mg per day , such as, for example, from about 25 mg to about 500 mg per day, from about 25 mg to about 250 mg per day, or from about 25 to about 100 mg per day. [...] In some embodiments of the invention the composition c...

Until not too long ago, scientists thought vitamin D was all about bone. Every follower of this blog knows that this is a way too narrow perspective on what turned out to be more of a hormone than a vitamin. A recent study ( Sogabe. 2011 ) on the effects of vitamin K supplementation in mice does now suggest that vitamin D's "cofactors" phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) and menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) have been similarly mistaken. Figure 1: Weight of visceral fat pad in g after 85 days of  phylloquinone (PK, vitamin K1) or menaquinone-4 (MK-4, vitamin K2) supplementation ( Sogabe. 2011 ) Japanese scientists, who wanted to investigate the effect of 85 days of vitamin K supplementation (PK: 600 mg/kg; MK-4: 600 mg/kg) on bone development in mice, were surprised to find that vitamin K did not only improve bone mass and structure, but that... the addition of PK or MK-4 significantly decreased the total fat accumulation ( p  < 0.01 and p  < ...

If you have ever read up on the general recommendations concerning "cardio on an empty stomach" you will most likely have encountered the advice to supplement with branched-chained amino acids ( BCAA ) before or in the course of the workout. I have always considered this to be a solid advice, up to now, I had yet not seen a study underpinning the common sense reasoning behind the suggestion. Now, Gualano et al. ( Gualano. 2011 ) published a study that investigated the effect of BCAA supplementation on exercise performance and energy metabolism in glycogen-depleted athletes (let's assume by now that an athlete following a low carb diet is in fact glycogen-depleted when he wakes up). In a double-blind placebo controlled fashion the scientists provided their subjects with either 0.3g/kg BCAA or placebo for 3 days ... On the second day, subjects were submitted to an exercise-induced glycogen depletion protocol. They then performed an exhaustive exercise test on the th...

You certainly have heard of the benefits of the meat of grass-fed, i.e. naturally nourished, cows. Well, although I do not want to question its general superiority to corn-fed high omega-6 meat, it probably is not the CLA content which distinguishes good from not so good meat sources. A recent study, which was conducted by scientists from the Iowa State University ( Brown. 2011 ), scientists investigated the effect of a "balanced nutritionally complete diet" (31% energy from lipid, 13% from protein, and 54% from carbohydrate) with either high (1.17 g/d) or low (0.35 g/d) CLA content on various health parameters of 18 healthy women aged between 20 to 39 years over a 8 weeks period. These are the results: The CLA diet did not result in any differences in insulin sensitivity, body composition, circulating blood lipids, or other measured disease risk factors as compared with the control diet. Accordingly, the scientists concluded "that a diet naturally enriched wit...

Many people say: "I need my carbs to relax!" But is it actually true that high-carb meals facilitate better stress management? According to a recently published study ( Lemmens. 2011 ) this claim belongs to the realms of nutritional mysticism - at least in the short run. Subjects (n = 38, 19m/19f, age = 25±9 yrs, BMI = 25.0±3.3 kg/m 2 ) reported to the lab fasted and ingested either a high-carb (-C) or a high-protein (-P) meal before half of them performed a computer based stress test (S-), while the other half served as a "rested" control (R-). Groups were changed and the procedure was repeated. Figure 1: Salivary cortisol concentrations (mean±SEM) at six time points (0, 30, 80, 125, 155, and 205 min) throughout the four test sessions: rest-carbohydrate (RC), stress-carbohydrate (SC), rest-protein (RP), stress-protein (SP); for men (...

BCAAs + Arginine + Carbohydrates before workout!? Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact many of the first generation preworkout products were either formulated like that or consumers were advised to stack them with a branched amino acid (BCAA) product of the same company. Studies which investigated the combined ergogenic effect of these nutrients are yet scarce. So, I thought that it would be worth posting the results of a recent study from China ( Hsu. 2011 ). Before they started exercising on a treadmill, the subjects, 14 male physical active college students, received a beverage containing either 3g of BCAA (2:1:1) + 0.5g Arginine + 12.1g carbohydrates or placebo. Blood samples of each subject were collected before exercise, 0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 120 min and 24 h after exercise and the procedure was repeated after two weeks (cross-over design). The results were as follows: No significant differences in the levels of lactate, ammonia, creatine kinase and glycerol between t...

You probably receive the same amount of daily spam mails trying to refer you to dubious viagra retailers somewhere on the Cayman Islands, or wherever else in the world. In case, you ever even thought about ordering stuff like that, you may as well consider getting some l-citrulline from your local supplement store first. Scientistsfrom the University of Foggia in Italy ( Cormio. 2011 ) have found that supplementation with as little as 1.5g/day l-citrulline improved erection hardness in men with mild erectile dysfunction (and I always thought Italian men would not have any erection problems ;-): Significant improvement in the EHS [erection hardness score] from 3 to 4 was reported by 2 (8.3%) of the 24 men when taking the placebo and 12 (50%) of the 24 men when taking L-citrulline ( P < .01). The mean number of intercourses per month, a nonvalidated patient-reported outcome we have commonly used in patients treated for ED, was 1.37 ± 0.93 at baseline, 1.53 ± 1.00 at the en...

In a very recent investigation, researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center ( Wang. 2011 ) found that high-fat diet fed mice gained less weight and had less compromised insulin response, if they received an (unfortunately) unspecified amount of an aquaeus extract from bitter melon : Body weight, plasma glucose, insulin, leptin levels and HOMA-IR values were significantly lower in the BM-fed HFD group when compared to the HFD group. BM supplementation significantly increased IRS-2, IR β, PI 3K and GLUT4 protein abundance in skeletal muscle, as well as phosphorylation of IRS-1, Akt1 and Akt2 when compared with HFD ( P <.05 and P <.01). BM also significantly reduced muscle lipid content in the HFD mice. BM extract greatly increased glucose uptake and enhanced insulin signaling in L6 myotubes.  There is however two major caveat to these findings. Firstly, mice ain't a particularly good model for predictions concerning the effect of supplements that are add...

"Fats are bad, carbs are healthy!" I hope nobody out there still believes this late 20th Century slogan. If you do, chances are you will soon forget about it due to the neuronal damage you are inflicting to your brain by eating a high carb diet. In a very recent review, a group of international scientists ( Seneff. 2011 ) summarize the current state of research as follows: [...] an excess of dietary carbohydrates, particularly fructose, alongside a relative deficiency in dietary fats and cholesterol, may lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease. A first step in the pathophysiology of the disease is represented by advanced glycation end-products in crucial plasma proteins concerned with fat, cholesterol, and oxygen transport. This leads to cholesterol deficiency in neurons, which significantly impairs their ability to function. Over time, a cascade response leads to impaired glutamate signaling, increased oxidative damage, mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfu...

Groundbreaking research ;-) at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Teikyo University in Tokyo, Japan, did now reveal that Kiwis, especially the golden variate outperforms other highly acclaimed health foods in terms of their antioxidant potential. Comparison of the anti-oxidant effects in vitro demonstrated that kiwi fruit had stronger anti-oxidant effects than orange and grapefruit, which are rich in vitamin C; gold kiwi had the strongest anti-oxidant effects. Kiwi fruit inhibited oxidation of biological substances in the human body. In particular, kiwi fruit may inhibit early lipid oxidation. While it is common knowledge that Kiwis contain a lot of vitamin C, the scientists underline that most of its beneficial effects come from the various forms of polyphenols in the fruits. Fig. 1: Inhibition of Lipid Oxidant by Fruit Juices ( Iwasawa. 2011 ) So, next time you see some of these hairy little Chinese gooseberries at your local grocery store, grab some golden one...

"Your levels are in range!" Did you ever have your doctor say that to you? It appears as if next time you hear that sentence, you better ask him "Where 'in range' are my levels, exactly?" At least, the results of a recently published study by Menendez et al. ( Menendez. 2011 ) suggests that it might be worth digging somewhat deeper into this issue. Studying a cohort of 282 men (aged 36 to 85 years) who had "normal concentrations of total testosterone", the scientists found: Serum concentrations of testosterone and bioavailable testosterone were negatively correlated with age, body mass index, waist circumference, blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin levels and insulin. Serum concentrations of total testosterone, bioavailable testosterone and SHBG were lower in men with glucose intolerance or diabetes than in those with normal glucose tolerance. After multivariate analysis, age and total testosterone levels were independent predictors of the pr...

A recent study by scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota ( Irving. 2011 ) found that the most reliable indicators of LDL & HDL particle size in 84 healthy non-diabetic men and women were a huge amount of trunk fat and high triglyceride levels. [...] the accumulation of atherogenic lipoprotein particles (e.g. small, dense, low-density lipoprotein particles and small, high-density lipoprotein particles) was associated with low levels of insulin sensitivity, cardiorespiratory fitness, and higher levels of adiposity. However, multivariate forward-stepwise regression revealed that triglycerides, followed by truncal fat mass, were the strongest predictors of the lipoprotein particle size and concentration data. These results are of particular interest to those who cannot afford having a comprehensive lipid panel done. Since the standard tests often do not provide any information about the size of the cholesterol particles, looking and triglycerides and truncal fat may be a...

Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes are omnipresent in today's food-abundance. Healthy, wholesome and nutrient dense foods, on the other hand are either rare or people are just too lazy to obtain them. Thus, it is no wonder that researchers found that mineral supplementation will benefit people with onset or full-blown diabetes. Table 1: Nutrient composition of the preparation for the MVM/Z group ( Gunasekara. 2011 ) In their study, Gunasekara et al. ( Gunasekara. 2011 ) investigated the effect of 4 months of either oral multivitamin/mineral plus zinc sulfate (22 mg/day) (MVM/Z, cf. Table 1) or multivitamin/mineral supplementation alone on blood glucose (fasting and postprandial) and glycosylated hemoglobin (Hb A1C %) and serum levels of zinc , creatinine , and lipids . The zinc+MVM group had a mean change of fasting blood sugar -0.33 mmol/L (standard error of the mean 0.21 mmol/L) and was significant ( P = 0.05) when compared with the other two groups (mean change in the MVM gro...

The verdict is still out there on whether antioxidant supplementation before or around exercise is a good or a bad thing for professional athletes. A recent study by Yamai et al. ( Yamai. 2011 ) which investigated the effect of 1.5g of vitamin C /day on the neutrophil function of judoists found no evidence for either of the propositions - neutrophil counts were not statistically different between the two groups of the 22 male judoists after a 7-day intensified training camp for: [...]although the typical changes seen following a single bout of normal exercise, namely an increase in SOA [serum opsonic activity] and ROS [reactive oxygen species], and a decrease in PA [neutrophil phagocytic activity], were recorded following the pre- and post-camp ULEs in both groups, significant difference in change rates were not seen between both groups. These results go hand in hand with many other more recent investigations into the beneficial effects of vitamin C and combinations of antioxidants (a...

Sometimes it is interesting to see how agents that have been around all along reappear back on the medical scene, all of a sudden. A recent study conducted by a group of scientists from Florida ( Yarrow. 2011 ) that compared the effect of different doses of 17{beta}-hydroxyestra-4,9,11-trien-3-one aka Trenbolone on muscle hypertrophy and prostate health of testosterone seems to have the potential to trigger such a "revival": In both intact and orchiectomized animals, all TREN doses and supraphysiologic testosterone-enanthate augmented androgen-sensitive levator ani/bulbocavernosus muscle mass by 35-40% above Shams (p≤0.001), and produced a dose-dependent partial protection against orchiectomy-induced total and trabecular bone mineral density losses (<0.05) and visceral fat accumulation (<0.05). The lowest doses of TREN successfully maintained prostate mass and hemoglobin concent...

Faithful readers of the SuppVersity will probably remember my short write-up on USP Labs Test Booster " Pink Magic ". Now that the initial fuss about how "brilliant" and "unique" the product is, is over there is finally another study on the efficiency of its main ingredient, a shrub called massularia acuminata . Two scientists from Nigeria ( Yakubo. 2011 ) published an article on the "Effect of Aqueous Extract of Massularia acuminata Stem on Sexual Behaviour of Male Wistar Rats" in the January issue of Evidence Based Complementary Alternative Medicine . The scientists found that supplementation with 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight (equivalent to 6.8g and 13.6g) of an aqueous extract of the stem of the botanical... ... increased the frequencies of mount and intromission. In addition, the ejaculation latency was significantly prolonged ( P < .05). The latencies of mount and intromission were reduced significantly whereas ejaculation fre...