SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Good for him, good for her, good for everyone? Is it really possible that red wine can help even those who don't want to the necessary lifestyle changes? You all know about the limitations of epidemiological studies and the fallacy of the over-generalization of associations between health parameters and red wine consumption in the mainstream media. For me this *bs* is so annoying that I usually don't even take a look at "red wine studies". Luckily, a recent paper by Dirk W. Dorste and his colleagues did still catch my attention: It's about to be published in the December issue of Nutrition Journal and is not based on epidemiological data. The Luxembourgian scientists gathered their data in the course of a randomized unblinded 2-year trial that involved 108 patients with carotid atherosclerosis and >30% reduced blood flow (65% of the patients were on statin therapy). 122 patients, 4 intervention groups, red wine and/or lifestyle changes While half of ...

Boiled Artichokes slow down the absorption of glucose and minimize the insulin + glucose surges (Nomikos. 2007) This article has made quite a remarkable transformation. It started as a Facebook Short News Item , was upgraded to a mini-article for the SuppVersity Short News and, when I realized that those green thistles have surprisingly diverse beneficial effects on human health, eventually became the regular SuppVersity Article you are about to read, right now. Artichoke leaves the future of diabesity treatment!? I have to admit, I am not exactly and artichole expert, but I was still surprised that the paper Joanna Magielse and her colleagues from the University of Antwerp are about to publish in the scientific journal Food & Function claims to be the first to investigate the beneficial health effects of artichoke leave extracts on diabetes-induced oxidation in vivo . I mean, we all have seen the broad range of artichoke supplements on the shelves; and my brief revie...

Are nucleotides a useful supplements for intensity maniacs and can olive oil reduce your free testosterone levels? If you have been visiting the SuppVersity for a while now, you were probably surprised to see that the " Short News " (aka "On Short Notice") are back. The reason, I changed my mind and reintroduced this assembly of short news items is that I realized that there is an intemediate category of news and infos between the very short Facebook news that (a) disappear in the oblivion of the SuppVersity Facebook Wall , (b) don't allow me to post graphics that would illustrate the study results and (c) still take some time to write and the detailed analysis in the "original" SuppVersity articles. So, if you disagree and can give me a good reason why I should not post news compilations like the one at hand more regularly, speak now or forever hold your peace ;-) Nucliotide supplementation counters immune suppressive effects of exercise (O...

Nutrition labels on fresh blueberries - do we really need them? I sill remember that I was shocked, when I bought a pack of blueberries and found a nutrition label underneath the plastic cover of my expensive 150g health-investement... That's probably 2 months ago and the reason I do remember this event now is the publication of a paper that examines the effect a change in the "daily values" (i.e. the references), the figures in the obiquitous black and white table are based on, would have on the average US citizen's nutritional intake of the vitamins A, D, E, C, B-12 and folate, and the minerals calcium and iron. "Daily Values" (DV), fortified foods and nutrient adequacy: Before I dig deeper into the actual study results, it's probably wise to point out that fortified foods are the link between the DV's and micro-nutrient intake of the average American. If manufacturers continue to fortify foods to the same %DV for each nutrient, the extent...

Want to learn more about fiber types? ➫ review past SuppVersity articles I am not telling you a secret, when I say that testosterone alone - in the absence of training - will lead to significant increases in skeletal muscle mass (if you think that sounds like a secret you must have missed my previous article from the "Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle" series | read more ). To a certain extend, the same is true for DHT ( learn more ), and - as a recent 6-week rodent study by Karina Fontana, Gerson E. R. Campos, Robert S. Staron and Maria Alice da Cruz-Höfling shows even by the structurally similar, orally bioavailable derivative Mesterolone (aka Proviron ), which produces pretty drastic, fiber-type specific increases in muscle size, when it is administered in super-physiological doses for 6 weeks (Fontana. 2013). AAS +/- HIT = ? Basically the question the researchers from the universities of Campinas (Brazil) and Ohio had in mind, when they came up with the...

I can't tell if bathing in coffee is healthier than in tea, but my gut tells me that it is. Coffee may rob your sleep (see "Sleepness Nights: Are Pre-Workouts and A Huge Cup of Coffee Messing With Your Sleep?" | more ), but if you look at the currently available epidemiological data, the average coffee drinker is still a pretty healthy chap. Whether this is due or in spite of the stimulating effects of caffeine is not quite certain, but a closer look at its molecular composition reveals that the average cup of real coffee has at least as many potent antioxidants, as green tea. From a molecular perspective coffee is thus by no means inferior to the catechin-laden purported health-elixir green tea. With its glucose-6-phosphatase inhibitory (van Dam. 2006) and insulin sensitizing effects (Shearer. 2003) of its chlorogenic acid and quinide, coffee has, just like green tea, tons of animal data to support its potent anti-diabetic effect. What's healthier tea or coffee...

"Wouldn't have happened if she'd used alanyl-glutamine instead of regular that cheap alanine + glutamine combo!" - True or False? Recent study says: False! If you combine your liver's favorite gluconeogenic amino acids, i.e. alanine and glutamine, into a single peptide the result is called alanyl-glutamine and marketed as the ueber-potent alternative to regular l-glutamine supplements. It goes without saying that a comparison like this is about as stupid as comparing french fries with mayo to regular french fries and saying that the former are worse because they contain more fat, or whatever. Even if we didn't care about the physiological significance of the effects of alanyl-glutamine, we would obviously have to compare the purported cryogenic effects of this "innovative" dipeptide to those of a simple combination of free form amino acids to deserve the bragging rights for having created an advanced form of glutamine. Alanine + glutamine vs. a...

This couple probably didn't have a two huge cups of high-caffeine coffee with 400mg caffeine, each, before bed ;-) The recent publications of a paper by Drake, Roehrs, Shambroom and Roth in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine woke my interest in the quantitative and qualitative significance of the potential negative effects coffee / caffeine can or will have on sleep (Drake.2013). In the experiment, Drake et al. describe in their latest paper, the researchers made (much to my surprise) a first attempt "to investigate the relative effects of a given dose of caffeine administered at different times of day on subsequent sleep." (Drake. 2013) Fixed dose (400mg) + varied times To do so, Drake and his colleagues from the Sleep Disorders & Research Center at the Henry Ford Hospital and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at the Wayne State College of Medicine , in Detroit, as well as a scientist who worked for Zeo Inc in Newton, compa...