SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: Newsweek title from the year 2000 - "Fat for Life?"; did his mother love her soy protein more than her son's health? Those of you who listened to my dissertations on yesterday's fourth installment of the Amino Acid Series on Carl Lenore's Super Human Radio will probably remember the lack of carnitine in the not-yet-enriched soy based baby-formula of the late 1970s. Now, a recently published rodent study suggests that the negative effects of soy may well begin before the offspring is even born : Exposure of pregnant and lactating rats to a soy (vs. a casein) based diet "increased the presence of the characteristics of the metabolic syndrome in the offspring" ( Jahan-mihan. 2011 ). In the course of their study, the results which was published in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition , the scientists randomly assigned pregnant rats (at day 3 of gestation) to one out of two calorica...

Supplemental fish oil: Panacea or rat poison? Well, I know you all love your fish oil. And you probably know I don't ;-) And this is why I am "happy" (yes, I am biased, here) to report the unfortunate results of a Danish study ( Cheatham. 2011 ), which investigated the effects of moderate dose fish oil supplementation @ 1.5 g/d n-3 LCPUFA (vs. olive oil as placebo) during the first 4 months of lactation on the cognitive performance of 98 children. The data was obtained at the age of seven by a combination of an "age-appropriate Stroop task , and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire ". The results were quite unequivocal: [...] analyses including all participants revealed the speed of processing scores were predicted by maternal n-3 LCPUFA intake during the intervention period ( negative relation ) and maternal education (positive relation). Stroop scores indicative of working memory and inhibitory control wer...