Nuts, to eat or not to eat? That is the question.

Two questions in two night, what are the odds? But who cares? Anyway....

So this question comes from mom,
Mom's question goes

Ben (the food scientist), is it true that we can only eat limited nos of nuts per day? Eg 8 chashew / day , 10 almonds/ day . I tend to eat a big amount when i m in mood. pls advise. 

First off....remember to address by Ben the food scientist for a formal blog post answer, other than that, you can just call me Ben sweetie....

Secondly, are you nuts?!!? (No pun intended). Tree nuts or peanuts are intended for you to enjoy, in small quantities, with a beer or perhaps a glass of Cabernet. Nuts are not meant to be consumed by style of gavache, because geese and ducks are fed gavache, humans don't.

Ok, enough shit talk, back to the more sciency stuff. Nuts such as almonds, pecans and pistachios, are really gaining popularity among people that are more health conscious, primarily due to its more widely known unsaturated fatty acids content. Unsaturated fatty acids either monounsaturated (MUFA) or polyunsaturated (PUFA) are known to have benefits especially in protecting against cardiovascular diseases and chronic inflammation.

However, what people don't know is besides the healthy fats, tree nuts and peanuts are also notoriously known for their high phytate content. Phytate, or phytic acid, is a common phytochemical found in grains and seeds, and unfortunately, even though the word "phytochemical" may sound sexy and deceivingly healthy, the irony is, phytate serves as an anti-nutritional. Take almonds for example. 100 g of almonds contain betwen 1200-1400 mg of phytate. A high phytate content in the diet will inhibit the absorption of certain minerals, such as zinc, iron, magnesium, and calcium (1,2,3). Yes, we all know that nuts are also good sources of these minerals, however, presence does not equate availability.

So, the gist of it is, consume everything in moderation. Just like Paracelsus said, "the dose makes the poison". Even water, thought to be the purest form of inorganic material, when taken in large enough volume, can be deadly. So, nuts are meant to be enjoyed in small quantities (say, 50 g or a handful of almonds), and that's it. That way, we make sure that we harvest the oily goodness and the nutty flavor of roasted nuts, but is spared of the anti-nutritional properties of phytate.

Cotton and oxygen scavengers in the bottle

Yay! Finally...another blog post!

Anyway, the question comes from Wei Ling, and her question goes

Is it true that we must remove cotton or oxygen absorber from bottle medication or vitamins once opened? Why?

Well...first and foremost, you have to understand the purposes of having cotton and/or an oxygen scavenger in the bottle of either you over-the-counter (OTC) drugs or nutritional supplements.

Both cotton and the oxygen scavenger sachets functions the same, just in the different way. They both are inserted into the bottle to minimize oxygen in the bottle. Cotton fills in head space in the bottle; the less head space in the bottle, the less air, hence less oxygen. The oxygen scavenger works more directly by binding free oxygen in the bottle after sealing, hence creating an anaerobic or oxygen-free environment.

We all understand that oxygen oxidizes, especially the active components in your OTC drugs and/or supplements. Take ascorbic acid (or more widely known as vitamin C) as an example:


Figure 1. Oxidation of ascorbic acid.

With the presence of oxygen, oxidation occurs from the antioxidant ascorbic acid to the oxidized dehydroascorbic acid, and you don't want dehydroascorbic acid in your expensive vitamin C supplements.

So, bottom line answer......would I keep the cotton and oxygen scavenger in the bottle once it's opened? No. Why? Just because now that the bottle is opened, and will be opened at least once a day, I don't feel the need for anybody to reinsert the cotton and oxypads back into the bottle. One easy way to minimize oxidation is to simply store your medication and supplements in the refrigerator, because we all know that the rate of oxidation is directly proportional with storage temperature. In the other words, the colder it is, the better.

Well....hope this isn't information overload....

 

Mango: The New Diabetes and Cancer Buster

Duagu sent me an email about a month ago asking me to verify the claim of whether mango is a diabetes buster. Well duagu, I can't really verify claims, but what I can do is to offer my two cents worth as a trained food science professional.

According to the journal article published in the British Journal of Nutrition, researchers from both OK State U and NCSU suggested that the inclusion of freeze-dried (FD) mangoes in the diet of experimental mices were able to show improvements in terms of glucose tolerance and overall lipid profile.

Now duagu, if this really is the case, that would be wonderful, mainly based one reason. Mangoes are so abundant in the tropical region of the world like Malaysia, if mangoes are really diabetes busters, this would be a huge deal for mango farmers (although I don't think most Malaysians really care about the additional health benefits, because regardless of whether it is good or bad, we do love our kerabu mangga).

However I am presenting my skepticism based on a few reasons:

1. I can never reiterate any much more than this is an animal study, and most people have no idea about the vast amount of experimental biological studies that failed to transpose comparable results (if not the same) from mice models to human beings. So in order for us to fully conclude that mangoes indeed help counter diabetes in human, a similar study will have to be done with humans. With this mice study, we can only at most say that mangoes are potentially effective in regulating glucose levels. 

2. Surprisingly with the high levels of naturally occurring sugars in mangoes, mice fed with a diet supplemented with FD mangoes were still able to show the improvement in glucose tolerance. I am saying that this is fabricated, it's just that it's a bit too good to be true, but then this paper is published in the BJN which is highly reputed. To me, it is just like trying to achieve a goal with something that is not conventional and indirect. It's like you are trying to follow a sugar-free diet and just because lard is sugar-free, all you eat is just lard. But then again, they are still unclear of how this actually is happening biochemically in the mice, so until more studies are done, I rest my case.

TNF in bananas?

I received a question about bananas from Mom last week (exciting!), but have only had time to respond to it today (Sorry mom, been very busy analyzing all ye poop samples!). Anyway, mom's question goes,

Hi Ben,

Is it true that a full ripe banana with dark patches on d skin produces TNF ( tumor necrosis factor) which has the ability to combat abnormal cells. Therefore the riper the banana the better the anti cancer quality. Pls enlighten us. Tq

Very interesting question, mom.

I actually did some research online and found this Japanese journal article, and what I can say is that I am actually quite skeptical. There are a few reasons for my skepticism.

1. This is actually a mice model. You all outside of the scientific community have no idea how mice model results failed to transpose to humans.

2. The banana extract is given intravenously to mice. Anybody with some biology in high school will understand that taking things orally and intravenously can be totally different. If the Japanese scientists found that there are increase in immune cells in the mice, I would argue that anything that is injected intravenously would somehow induce the immune response against this xenobiotic, hence the proliferation of immune cells.

From a food scientist point of view, again I am skeptical that the black part of the bananas are producing TNF. Why?

1. We understand the blackening of bananas as one of the two mechanisms: a. The diminishing of carotenoids, hence exposing black pigments or b. The aggregation of compounds, creating a mass of black pigments, hence covering up the indigenous yellow pigments. I am more inclined towards the latter. We also know that banana emits ethylene constantly (Yes, banana is an ethylene producing machine, so if you want to ripen whatever fruit, just put it in a bag with bananas, and yes if you put it one day longer, everything will rot, haha!). So the black pigments are actually signs of cell death. Just like when you put your bananas in the refrigerator. Bananas are so chill-labile, that once exposed to even refrigeration temperature (4 deg Celsius), oxygen transfer across the cell membrane becomes impaired, so your banana dies and becomes black.

2. Even if bananas produces TNF, how likely is it to survive your stomach acid and digestive proteases in your gastrointestinal tract, and still is able to be absorbed into your bloodstream intact as TNF? We all know that TNF is a protein complex, and most protein complex diminishes into smaller units to aid transfer into the bloodstream.

All in all, I just think that this needs more research. We can either do an oral challenge in mice model again, or simply do a human study (It's not like you're feeding them arsenic, you're feeding them banana extract, duh!)

So, if you think you should eat black bananas versus yellow bananas, you are wise. It's not because it produces TNF, it's because it's sweeter and tastier (because most starch have broken down to simple sugars by now).


I hope I answered your question, mom.

Schizophrenia

It's been a really long time since that very first post on my food science blog. Well, nobody actually follow my blog, but anyway....Today we are going to look into something different. We are going to talk about Schizophrenia.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), schizophrenia is defined as "a complex mental disorder that makes it difficult to 1) tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, 2) think logically, and 3) have normal emotional responses, among other symptoms. A lot of the times, an individual that is genetically more prone to developing schizophrenia will have had long term exposure and mishandling of stress and emotional instability, and certain life events would actually trigger the onset of schizophrenic symptoms.

It is believed that schizophrenia is actually life-long, and symptoms can only be suppressed (not cured) via medication to control the brain chemical composition/distribution.

I, being a food scientist, can only offer a few dietary suggestions for schizophrenic patients to follow. Keep in mind, that I am not a registered dietitian, nor a psychiatrist. I am only providing some of my thoughts after years of formal training in food science and nutrition, to alleviate some high potential side effects that may bring about by long term medication.

It is almost common sense that metabolism of every chemical compounds (including pharmaceuticals) takes place in the liver, mainly by Cyt P450 via Stage 1 and Stage 2 metabolism. It is also known that most patients who received constant medication (regardless of symptoms) will very likely to develop organ damage primarily in the liver, and sometimes the kidney. To relate a personal experience, my grandma had suffered severe Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia before she died. Consequential of the daily medication that she consumed, she also developed stones in her gallbladder. The symptoms were so intense, as a matter of fact, she died due to complications and pain caused by the gall stone (and not schizophrenia).

Coming back to our discussion here, so to "protect" your organs, mainly the liver, I would suggest that patients consume Vitamin B complex (B1, B2, etc. ). Vitamin B complex is known widely to enhance the immune and nervous system, and works as a "natural" tranquilizer, among some of the health benefits. To aid in the tranquilizing effects synergistically, I would suggest that patients also consume foods rich in/supplements serving calcium and magnesium. These two macrominerals are essential key players in aiding in the parasympathetic nervous system (i.e. peristalsis in the gut, salivation, palpitation). So they will absolutely aid in relieving the symptoms. Also, Vitamins C and E, and other antioxidative phenolics to help in counteracting the oxidative effects in the body.

Selective diet is also very important. I would suggest that patients increase their fruits and vegetables intake as an overall. Mild exercise and relaxation practices (i.e. Taichi, yoga) will definitely improve both the patients' mental and physical abilities.

But the most important players here are the family members. Love makes everything turn okay. :)

Nutritional panel - Fats

This question is submitted by mom.
Mom asks: "Dear Ben The Food Scientist, I am very curious about the nutrition panel. Can you tell me more about how to read the nutrition panel, for example of a serving of peanuts? Especially on the fats."

Very good question, mom. The truth is, it is very important for every consumer to understand how the nutrition label works, and how to interpret apparent and not-so-apparent bits of information.



Let's take this label for example. It seems that one serving of peanuts (30g) contains 18 g of fat, 2.9 g of it is saturated fat, and 0 g of trans fat. Pretty straight-forward till now. Where is the other 15.1 g?

Some of you may be concerned about the 15.1 g of fat? Why is the manufacturer not showing it on the label? The truth is, it is optional for the industry to either showing it or not showing it. For this case, it is common sense to assume that the rest 15.1 g of fats are either mono- (MUFA) or poly-unsaturated fats (PUFA).

Mom raised the concern of the possibilities of the 15.1 g being "artificial", just due to the fact that the manufacturer exclude it from the nutrition panel. To precisely find out the fact, you will have to connect dots with the ingredients list as well. In case of peanuts, it is rest assured that the 15.1g is the unsaturated fat, not anything artificial.

So that is all for this time about the fat portion of the nutrition panel. Want to know more about the nutrition panel or about other kinds of fat-like substances? Send me a question for my next blog post.