SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Curcumin has become increasingly popular over the past years. No wonder in view of the ever-extending list of potential health benefits - "potential" is, as T. Tsuda highlights , yet a keyword in this context. No, you don't have to email me asking for the brand names of the 87 products Skiba et al. bought and analyzed (32 of them) for their latest study in Molecular Nutrition and Food Science  ( Skiba 2018 ) ... honestly, bros: I would have told you the names if I knew them. Unfortunately, the scientists from the  University of Arizona, Tucson , follow the example of so many colleagues before them and tell us only the criteria they used to narrow down the 228 surveyed items to a list of 87, of which they later sent 32 to the HLPC analysis. After excluding identical products available at multiple retailers (n = 99) or containing different capsule counts (n = 42), Skiba et al. recorded the exact type, amount, and recommended daily dosage of turmeric; whether or not a...

Carrots and blueberries - superfoods you cannot ruin by grinding, blending and even the falsely depreciated use of the microwave oven. Cooking / Food-Processing Done Right: 5 Things to Remember to Make the Most of the Antioxidant Prowess of Your Foods Cooking or the preparation of food (food processing at home) is something I would love to address more often. Unfortunately, studies such as Boyan­ Gao's recently published paper in "Food Science & Nutrition" are truly rare. In said paper, the Chinese scientists followed up on recent studies that indicate that different food preparation methods could significantly change the chemical profiles and bioactivities including the antioxidant and real-world anti-inflammatory activity of (super-)foods. Learn more about the effects of your diet on your health at the SuppVersity All About Almonds and Their Health Effects Taste Matters - Role of the Taste Receptors Egg-Ology, Today: Why Eggs are Awesome Walnut...

While being misinterpreted as an "anti-whey" study by one of you, the latest whey as your main protein source study from Brazil only adds to the evidence that there's something special about whey. One thing I like about writing this blog is that I have a lot of contact to you, the readers. One of you recently sent me the link to a study from the  University of Ouro Preto  in which the authors report what he called a "disconcerting" weight gain when exercise and weight training were combined. A closer look at the study reveals, however, that this "disconcerting" weight gain (even though that is not totally obvious) is probably good news. But before we get to the implications and interpretations, let's first take a look at what the scientists did and what they observed. You'll see that this is of paramount importance wrt to not misinterpreting the weight gain in  Figure 1 . Note that the study at hand is not about High-protein diets - w...

If someone markets his program the way Hof does, i.e. as a means to "Become A 'Super' Version Of Yourself In Just 10 Short, Life Transforming Weeks" (WimHofMethod.com), you should rightly be skeptical. You know that I am no fan of "works for me (N=1) , so buy my e-book"-approaches. Until recently, the so-called "Wim Hof Method" was yet exactly that: an N=1 (+ dubious X) approach to health and performance enhancement... and yes, that is "until recently", or rather "until two years ago", because two years ago, Matthijs Kox and colleagues from the Nijmegen Institute for Infection, Inflammation and Immunity , the Radboud University (will wonders never cease) the  Yale University School of Medicine  (Kox. 2014) published a study with the not so telling title "Voluntary activation of the sympathetic nervous system and attenuation of the innate immune response in humans" in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PNAS. T...

No one says you cannot add other ingredients to the yogurt to make it more tasty if you add the curcumin before fermenting the buttermilk. If you're a regular at the SuppVersity  you will know that curcuminoids, the polyphenols found in turmeric roots (Curcuma longa), have health effects that are similar, in some cases even superior to several anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and lipid-lowering drugs. Yes, their consumption has even been linked to significant reductions in cancer risk. Unfortunately, there's a problem with these powerful polyphenols: they are hydrophopbic (Tønnesen. 2002) and prone to degradation in an aqueous environment at neutral and alkaline pH (Tønnesen. 1985; Wang. 1997) - two properties of which Gupta and others (2013) believe that they are responsible their poor oral bioavailability. Unlike other supps and practices curcumin has not been shown to interfere with hormesis Is Vitamin E Good for the Sedentary Slob, Only? Even Ice-Baths Impair ...