SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

There's very little "natural" about the natural sweetener stevia when it ends up in your food in form of purified and decolorized steviosids. As a SuppVersity  reader you'll know that "natural" does not equate "healthy". This, the proven anti-microbial effects stevia exerts in your gut and the fact that the currently available steviosid-based stevia products undergo more processing steps than than the dreaded aspartame warrant the question whether (a) stevia is safe and (b) as effective as other sweeteners when it comes to weight loss promotion. Since the optimal dosage of stevia to achieve meaningful effects is also not known, yet, scientists from the  Alexandria University  in Egypt investigated the safety ad efficacy of different amounts of stevia sweeteners (25, 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight per day) as a substitute for sucrose on weight gain or the weight loss and weight management of female rats on an ad-libitum diet. You can l...

Can you pump them up w/ silicon and to negate their atherosclerotic effects!?  In today's installment of the Nutrition Research Update in the Short News , I am going to tackle three studies that deal with the surprisingly pronounced, yet practically potentially irrelevant benefits of eating a high protein breakfast, silicon... not in breasts, but sausages as a means to protect you from heart disease and the fact that calories count  so much that even on a "healthy diet" only those who eat in moderation will age healthily. That sounds interesting? Fine! I am not going to waste any more time and will fast forward to the first study... Read more short news  on various topics here at the SuppVersity Exercise Research Uptake Nov '14 1/2 Exercise Research Uptake Nov '14 2/2 Nutrition and (Anti-)Aging News Special Exercise Supplementation Quickie Exercise Research Uptake Jan 12, 2015 Read the Latest Ex. Science Update Breakfasts Higher in P...

There are more than a dozen of options for virgin coconut oil on the market and there's no way the normal custumer can tell which one is actually "virgin" and which is a fraud and maybe even adulterated with palm oil - the technology to identify adulterations is there (Manaf. 2007), but I haven't heard of a label that would prove that the products were tested. You are probably as fed-up with the hype around coconut oil as I am, right? Coconut oil here, coconut oil there. For this, for that and "did you know that coconut oil will also ..." Yes, you can even argue that a new branch of broscientists and snake oil vendors is dealing with little else than coconut oil. In spite of that, I consider it at least remotely possible that the data from a recent rodent study that was published in the  UK Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biosciences (Sharig. 2015) will catch your attention. I am sure you won't catch fire, though, but maybe at least some sparks, whe...

Resistance training alone won't make up for a sloppy diet - no matter if you do it before or after meals. I am not sure how feasible this is going to be for you, but if you are a type II diabetic or anyone concerned about the potential detrimental health effects of the rise in glucose and triglycerides after a meal, working out 45 minutes after dinner is the way to go. Abnormally elevated postprandial glucose and triacylglycerol (TAG) concentrations are strong risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with type-2 diabetes. Therefore, scientists expect that interventions that reduce postprandial glucose and TAG concentrations should lower the risk of CVD (Krook. 2003; O'Gorman. 2008). Learn more about the effects of your diet on your health at the SuppVersity Only Whey, Not Soy Works for Wheytloss Taste Matters - Role of the Taste Receptors Dairy Protein Satiety Shoot-Out: Casein vs. Whey How Much Carbs Before Fat is Unhealthy? 5 Tips t...

Yes! I freely admit that I do have a problem with the subliminal "binge and starve" of the popular every other day fast, because it paves the not so royal road to binge eating disorders. Only 2 years ago, there was hardly anyone but the followers of Martin Berkhan's "Lean Gains" regimen who knew what intermittent fasting would be. Ironically, now that mainstream is catching on, the hype within the fitness community is slowly abating  - maybe part of the reason is that it's no longer "cool" enough now that your fat neighbor does it ;-). It goes without saying that the mainstream version comes without an obligatory exercise component and - what's probably even worse - in the absence of macronutrient, let alone food prescriptions that would make sure that the every other day fasts that are becoming increasingly popular these days become "binge and starve" protocols. The every other day fast, a gateway to eating disorders? I c...

Image 1: Already in "pill form" - Coffee beans Caffeine, the world's #1 drug certainly is a remarkable substance. It does not only have myriads of well-established physiological effects, already, but it seems that - if you wanted to - you could identify another one everyday. It is thus not really surprising that a recently published study by Abd El-Ghany, M.A., Rasha, M. Nagib and Hagar, M. El-Saiyed from the Mansoura University in Egypt casts yet another, in this case, however, pretty scary light on the lifeblood of the average Starbucks junkie ( El-Ghany. 2012 ). Caffeine prevents weight gain - whohooo! Or not? The scientists set out to investigate the differential effects the oral administration of 10mg/day of pure caffeine, or dose-equivalents from coffee, (black) tea, cacao and Nescafe ( note : this is my understanding of the somewhat sloppy English translation of the methods) would have on the lipid levels of rats who had been pretreated with a lard-based h...