SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Reader's question from the SuppVersity's Instagram page: "I wonder if just having a small serving of beans before a meal would have good effects also. Red velvet, black, etc." - Johan Those of you who already follow the SuppVersity on Facebook will have seen the news item ( in the infographic section ) about the latest bean-carb-blocker study. Some may even have seen that there were a lot of comments, comments in which you repeatedly found the question whether, instead of the stupid bean extract, one wouldn't be able to simply eat a bunch of beans before or with the meal and see the same potentially weight-reducing effects that were reported in the study. Well, it turns out it is not that easy to find an answer to this question - especially not one that is workable, i.e. "eat exactly X grams of THIS type of beans at timepoint T to improve your glucose metabolism by Z and lose BETA kg of weight in GAMMA weeks." What I could come up with, however, ...

Yes, these foods were "allowed" - Even nuts, albeit in limited amounts. Ok, I have to admit that I have repeatedly made fun of "paleo" in the past. Its "cultish", sometimes even "sectarian" appeal is and will remain as hilarious in my eyes as the (for some people life-or-death-)question whether certain foods "are paleo" or not (who cares, as long as they are healthy?). If you happen to have seen my presentation at the Paleo Convention in Berlin, last year, you will know that, despite my apathy against the quasi-religious sides of "paleo", I do appreciate a certain set of "rules" or "principles" (or whatever you may call them) all iterations of "paleo" have in common. These principles work! And they have just been shown to help middle-aged type II diabetics (age 59±8 years) shed a quite impressive 6.7 kg of body fat (w/out exercise "only 5.7kg) in 12 weeks - without  dieting as in not e...

"Fructose handles"? "Glucose handles"? "Saturated fat handles"? No, just the net result of a trashy diet. I don't have to tell you that I don't buy into the "fructose is the devil" hysteria that's rampant in the blogosphere and certain parts of the scientific community. It's a matter of quantity and quality that determines the toxicity of a poison and in most of the "convincing" evidence on the detrimental effects fructose. I mean let's be honest, you don't have to be a rocket scientists to figure out that 5+ cans of Coke a day cannot be good for you (cf. "Fat Content Per Energy Drink 0g, Body Fat Gain Per Energy Drink 18g!"; read more ) "194 Bananas in Three Weeks", on the other hand, are nothing to be afraid of ( learn why ).Have we been fooled again or is it just a high fructose corn syrup producer conspiracy? Enough of the rants, let's get to the facts! I guess that's en...

Image 1: You better make sure you don't miss out on these delicious heart- and brain-healthy cholesterol bombs. Most of you will probably be familiar with the good old saying " An apple a day, keeps the doctor away! ", right? And if you are an otherwise healthy individual the micronutrients from the apple will probably really help you maintain this status. But what if the doctor was already there to put you on the healthy low fat diet, the negative health consequences of which I have addressed in yesterday's blogpost ? In that case, whole eggs probably provide a more promising escape route from that low-fat, high-carb trap - at least this is what the the results of a soon to be published study from the Huazhong Agricultural University in Wuhan, China would suggest ( Yang. 2012 ). Surprising(?) -9% belly-fat reduction on whole egg diet In their 60 to 90 day experiment, the Chinese researchers put a group of 8-week old Sprague-Dawley rats (n=18 for each group...

Image 1: If they are not laden with pesticides and anti-fungals, the small brown beans from the coffee pant can easily compete with green, black oolong and pu-erh teas , when it comes to countering the unwanted side-effects of the "holiday diet" Back in the days, both, tea and coffee were luxury goods and people felt privileged if they could have any of them. Today, they have become another of the endless commodities of our convenience society, where coffee, the former drink of the kings (and popes), has gotten a bad rep lately as being the underlying cause of the "adrenal burnout" that has befallen 90% of the visitors of pertinent Internet bulletin boards. I was thusly not surprised that SuppVersity student Fat Free commented yesterday's blogpost on the anti-obesity effects of tea rather sheepishly. As if his wish for "a coffee" on the list of the anti-holiday-weight-gain items was some atrocious act in the sense that "a coffee" could ...