Low Carb and Cancer

In December 1991, I drove from Houston, where I was living at the time, to Alabama to visit my parents for Christmas. When I arrived, I learned that my mom had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Thankfully, the tumor was benign and it was operable, but of course we didn't know that for a while and the surgery was horrible nonetheless. She's now 81 and all of us still live with the specter of the tumor returning.

Why do I tell that story? Because of the heartening results of a recent study out of Boston College that brain tumors can be successfully treated with KetoCal, a diet prescribed to treat epilepsy in children.

What is Ketocal? Well, as you can probably guess from the name, it is a low carb, high fat diet that induces ketosis. The brain tumor is starved of the glucose from carbs that it needs in order to grow, while the brain and body are nourished by the ketones the body produces for fuel. It offers a viable way of treating brain cancer, which is difficult to treat by conventional radiation/chemo treatment because the good brain cells are killed along with the bad.

Ketocal is a powdered diet that is 90% fat, 1.6% carbs, and 8% protein, roughly, and also is low in calories. How a diet of "real" food with a similar nutrient breakdown would work wasn't addressed that I could tell.

The findings were based on a study published this week in the online journal Nutrition & Metabolism. The authors don't extrapolate, of course, but it makes sense to me that a low carb diet that starves tumors of the glucose they need to grow holds promise for other types of cancer as well.

The Insanity Report

Which is going to be my new name for rants about new and "healthy" products.

Like the new Krispy Kreme whole wheat doughnut.

Okay, let me get this straight. Krispy Kreme has bemoaned the loss of profits and blamed low carbers, so now they're going to prove they care about your heart--even though they haven't figured out how to rid their doughnuts of trans fat--by giving you a doughnut they call "whole wheat" and "heart healthy."

Ok, they get brownie points for using 100% whole wheat flour and not just "wheat flour," which is the same as "white flour." But they must not realize that trimming a whopping 20 CALORIES off their regular doughnut really doesn't make a bit of difference, especially since the "healthy" doughnut will be covered with their regular glaze. And adding a miniscule bit of fiber doesn't begin to make up for all the sugar.

Healthy? Don't think so.

News from Oz

Just as the U.S. is getting ready to sell the diet drug Xenical (orlistat) over the counter, Australia is pulling the plug on allowing manufacturer Roche to advertise the prescription-only drug to consumers.

Seems the company was targeting teens by advertising on the popular "Australian Idol" show and, according to the The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee (the Aussie version of the FDA), was thereby encouraging people to take the drug who really don't need it.

Since it works so well anyway. I'm anxious to see what the TV ads for Alli, the new OTC form of Xenical, will look like. If the flash movie that opens their website is any indication, they're going to try and sell us with reverse psychology.

Instead of telling us what Alli will do for us, the movie that opens as you click on the Alli website asks if you're up for the challenge, if you're willing to change, if you're ready to make the commitment to alli--because you can't just try it, you have to commit to it.

In other words, they don't promise Alli is going to do anything for you (or at least anything that doesn't involve the words "oily discharge" -- eeeeuuuuwww), but they imply that if you haven't lost weight before, it is just because you haven't been willing to work hard, make a commitment, and do what it takes. I'm surprised the word "willpower" didn't show up in there somewhere.

Arggghhh. I'm gonna be complaining about this a lot. I apologize in advance.

What Part of 'Healthy' Don't They Get?

I've been seeing them lately--these ads for the new Quaker Oats Life Chocolate Oat Crunch Cereal. The release of this new cereal is the part of the onslaught of adult-marketed chocolate breakfast cereals with the goal of "delivering nutrition."

Quaker developed their chocolate cereal in response to consumer feedback asking for "a healthy cereal that satisfied their cravings and delivered nutrition," according to a MediaPost marketing report.

Next up, the new Special K Chocolatey Delight (that's the name of it, really!), which the company says fits in with their two-week weight-loss challenge touted on their other Special K brands.

So, what's in Chocolately Delight--which Kellogg, by the way, is hyping as a "late-night snack" as well as a breakfast food?

Well, let's see--3/4 cup has 120 calories, 2 grams of fat, 24 grams of carbs, less than 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein. Contents: Rice, whole grain wheat, sugar, chocolatey chunks (sugar, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, cocoa processed with alkali, cocoa, soy lecithin, artificial flavor, milk), high fructose corn syrup, salt, malt extract, and a bunch of vitamins.

Yikes.

What about Chocolate Life? The company touts it as "made with whole grain Quaker oats, good source of fiber, helps reduce cholesterol as part of a heart-healthy diet, and low in fat." They forgot to add "brimming with sugar."

A one-cup serving has 190 calories, 2.5 grams fat, 40 grams of carbs, 3 grams fiber, and 5 grams of protein.

What's in it? Whole grain oat flour, sugar, whole wheat flour, corn, flour, rice flour, whole grain rolled oats, whole grain rolled wheat, semisweet chocolate chips (with sugar), crisp rice (with sugar), salt, calcium carbonate, honey, coconut oil, glycerin, corn syrup solids, and miscellaneous vitamins.

Wow. Glad we have these new healthy chocolate breakfast foods to eat!

Is it just me, or does it really irritate you that a few reports on the health benefits of chocolate and now we have an onslaught of "chocolatey health foods" with even more sugar?

Start Me Up

As I sit here thinking I'm kinda edgy, I realize I've just finished my second bottle of Celsius today and it got me to thinking about caffeine.

First off, Celsius is a new bottled "super-water," sold not as a food but as an "energy supplement." On the front of the very cool bottle it says "Celsius: Enjoy the Great Taste of Burning Calories!" It also has a big "No High Fructose Corn Syrup" label on it and you gotta love that.

Ever one to sacrifice myself for blogdom, I bought a case of the stuff to try it out. There's ginger ale, lemon-lime, orange, wild berry, and cola flavors. I had ginger ale and lemon-lime this morning, 16 oz bottle of each. I absolutely adore the taste of ginger, so the fact that both of these flavors are very ginger-heavy is a good thing with me and I love 'em.

Celsius is basically carbonated water sweetened with Splenda and jazzed up with vitamins and a "thermogenic blend" of caffeine, ginger root, green tea extract, guarana extract and taurine...They don't say how much is in their "proprietary blend" (which reads: trade secret), but, boy do I feel GOOD.

Anyhow, I started thinking about caffeine. Coca Cola recently announced that they will begin listing caffeine content labels on all their products, including their much-debated Enviga line. And now Pepsi has announced its own Enviga-like product, Pepsi Max, also laced with caffeine, along with ginseng.

It's all a part of the new buzz, functional foods.

And if that's not enough caffeine for you, sip this through your straw: a recent study has shown that senior adults can benefit from taking in more caffeine. In older adults (over 65), properties in caffeine appear to offer protection against heart disease. The theory is, according to the SUNY researchers, that the older patients' blood pressure is enhanced by the caffeine--the "proactive effect" was only found in patients who didn't have severe high blood pressure.

Interestingly, the protective effect of caffeine was not experienced by people below age 65.

I'm really jiggling my foot now and typing really fast. Wonder if I should save the rest of my Celsius till I turn 65?

The 5 Biggest Food Myths

I read an interesting article in Forbes recently, talking to author Barry Glassner, whose recent book, The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food Is Wrong, is next up on my To-Read pile. Basically, Glassner thinks we've all gone overboard in thinking about food, and assigning it a greater role in our overall health and welfare than it deserves. In the process, he says, we've lost the "pleasure factor" in eating, replacing it with guilt or duty.

More on that when I actually read the book!

What the Forbes article talks about is what they call Five Big Food Myths. And what are they?

1) "Fresh is Best." We tend to think canned or frozen food is inferior to fresh food, and that supermarket fresh food is inferior to farmer's market fresh food. Actually, Glassner points out, flash-frozen produce retains more nutrients than "fresh" produce that is trucked or shipped from parts unknown, unloaded, stocked and then sold. By the time it reaches your plate, many of its healthy properties have been lost or weakened.

2) "Vitamin-Enhanced Foods Are Better." It's the big thing now, the so-called "functional foods." We think that "blurring the line between food and vitamins or medications" means we're eating healthier. Just watch to see how many foods are released in coming months with Omega-3s. But Glassner says the vitamins are altered in the process of adding them to foods in which they don't normally occur--like Omega-3 Pasta--and we don't really know if they're effective, or even harmful.

3) "A Meal is Worthy for What It Lacks." By focusing on what our meal doesn't contain--such as fat, salt, or carbs--we lose sight of the pleasure a great meal can bring us, Glassner says.

4) "Natural Means Less Processed." There's no rules concerning the word "natural," Glassner says (unlike "organic," which does have some legal restrictions)-- "The only thing the terrm natural seems to consistently mean is a higher price," says Forbes.

5) "Some Foods Are Inherently Bad for You." Categorizing a food as "inherently bad" is unnecessary, Glassner says. Too much of anything--sugar, fat, whatever--is bad.But the food itself isn't. "Food like potato chips, which most of us enjoy, can still have a place in our diet," Glassner says.

Yeah, but what if you can't eat just one?

Happy Cherry Pie Day!

Yep, today is National Cherry Pie Day and oh how I wish the fresh cherries were in the stores! But not yet. I never ate fresh cherries as a kid--in fact, I only discovered them a few years ago. Cherries, to me, came in cans or, more often, as maraschino cherries in bottles.

But cherry pie is an easy, quick and healthy dessert to make--make a crust with your almond or nut flours and check out a low-carb cherry pie filling like Steel's (5 net carbs per serving) or no-sugar-added pie filling like Lucky Leaf. Top with a little whipped cream. Yum.

Guilty Pleasures

Does it seem like the "forbidden" element of eating food you shouldn't makes it all that more attractive? And why do we give food choice the power to elicit guilt or shame?

There's an interesting new poll from Canada that shows Canadians are just as food-possessed as Americans. The poll was conducted by the President's Choice Healthy Insider's Report. It was a big enough poll (more than 1,100 adults) to have some statistical accuracy.

Some of the results...have you done any of these things?

* Six of 10 respondents say they have eaten over the sink or directly from the fridge in the past month. [Yep. Yesterday.]

* Half of adults have eaten out of boredom. [Yawn. Give me a snack.]

* One-third of adults have eaten on the run in the past month. [I ate at my desk while I worked today and don't actually even remember eating.]

* One-fourth ate a bag of chips or popcorn for dinner in the past month. [Not guilty on this one.]

* One in seven have picked food off someone else's plate in a restaurant because they didn't want to order it themselves. [Not in the last month, but, yep, I've done it.]

Interestingly--not surprisingly--there also were gender differences in the answers. Fifty-six percent of women (vs. 41 percent of men) feel guilty after eating something "bad." And 30 percent of women (as opposed to 25 percent of men) think about every single bite that goes into their mouths.

Only 30 percent? Now, that's surprising!

Savor the Flavor

Has anyone tried the new Splenda Flavor Blends for Coffee? They come in three flavors--French Vanilla, Hazelnut and Mocha. As a big fan of the DaVinci syrups--I can't drink coffee without a splash of hazelnut or Kahlua--I like the idea of these. Plus, they come in small packets that are easily portable. The website also has some recipes to use them in, although most would need a few tweaks to make them more carb-conscious.

Now, I know there are many folks who don't go in for the artificial sweeteners, but I'm with my pal Jimmy Mooreon this one (Jimmy recently gave up his boycott of diet sodas)--it just helps keep me honest. Certainly the merits/demerits of Aspartame are much-debated, and there are already people questioning the long-term safety of Splenda. Are they dangerous? I maintain that they're no worse than sugar, sugar and more sugar.

Off the Rails

As I flittered around the streets today dressed as....what? Here I am--you tell me! Oh, and Happy Mardi Gras! Yes, I know, everywhere else, it's just Tuesday : )