DNA sequenced of woman who lived to 115

The entire DNA sequence of a woman who lived to 115 has been pieced together by scientists.
The woman, who was the oldest in the world at the time of her death, had the mind of someone decades younger and no signs of dementia, say Dutch experts.
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Is fast food really cheaper than home-cooked meal?

Mark Bittman, a NYT Columnist, wrote an interesting article regarding the state of junk food consumption in US. Here are some nuggets of interesting paragraphs.

In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home. 

In comparing prices of real food and junk food, I used supermarket ingredients, not the pricier organic or local food that many people would consider ideal. But food choices are not black and white; the alternative to fast food is not necessarily organic food, any more than the alternative to soda is Bordeaux. The alternative to soda is water, and the alternative to junk food is not grass-fed beef and greens from a trendy farmers’ market, but anything other than junk food

in recent decades the adjusted for inflation price of fresh produce has increased by 40 percent while the price of soda and processed food has decreased by as much as 30 percent

A 2009 study by the Scripps Research Institute indicates that overconsumption of fast food “triggers addiction-like neuroaddictive responses” in the brain, making it harder to trigger the release of dopamine. In other words the more fast food we eat, the more we need to give us pleasure; thus the report suggests that the same mechanisms underlie drug addiction and obesity.

Is sugar toxic?

It's great to find that Lustig's argument on sugar caught public attention. Yesterday I found that NY-Times carry an article about this. Here is the link for the Lustig's lecture that I have posted sometime October last year.

To read more detail about all this sugar debate, I would recommend to go over to Alan Aragon's Blog.

Extremist in Veganism

"French vegans face trial after death of baby fed only on breast milk

Court hears parents became vegan after watching documentary about abattoirs and refused to eat any animal products"

This recent news is very sad. I guess these kind of people behavior that lead to the typical stereotype of a vegan as a eccentric and fanatical people. Human life is far more important than any animals in the world. Therefore I believe taking a moderate view of diet, such as flexitarian, is a better way to go.
For more historical records of such extremist parents, visit here: http://naturalhygienesociety.org/diet-veganbaby.html

Health Status

It's been a while since I started the shift to flexiterian diet (I didn't switch 100% vegan immediately but gradual) I already notice the benefit.

I just had my regular health checkup early this year and the result / improvement is great (considering that it is just a gradual change only over like 3 months). My triglycerides fall 45%. My LDL only drops a little bit (good thing it is not increase anymore). My HDL level remains the same, which I hope to increase through some exercise (it seems Pilates and Aerobic are good choice).

My BMI is back on normal range (I drop 5 kg since Oct 2010). It feels great that now I can use back my old pants  :-)

Key Concepts in Healthy Diet

After reading number of books on a good diet practices, I believe most of it could be boiled down to two key concepts.


Calorie Density
The idea is that to leave healthy long live one should adopt Calorie Restriction on their diet. One example of this is the Okinawan diet. Calorie density is roughly defined as the numbers of calories per gram of the food. Hence the idea is that you'll get full faster by simple consuming large quantity/mass of low calorie food.

Nutrient Density
This second concept, coined by Dr. Fuhrman, is getting food that have higher nutrient content with respect to the calorie/energy content. In other word nutrient-dense foods are those foods that provide substantial amounts of vitamins and minerals and relatively few calorie.

These two concepts are few of the reason why low-glycemic-index carbohydrates are the preferable choice for the health concious people. Glycemic Index tells us how much our blood sugar rises after we eat a particular kind of carbohydrate food. Increase of blood sugar leads to increase of insulin level, which have been linked to host of problems.

The usual choice of low-GI carbohydrates are the Whole Grain products such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread. Aside the benefit of low-GI, the bran from whole grain is rich in dietary fiber, essential fatty-acids, various antioxidant and, not to forget, Niacin (Vit. B3) which has been proven (in pharmacological doses) to reverse atherosclerosis by reducing total cholesterol, triglycerides, very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Why protein from animal-source should be reduced?

The requirement of daily intake of protein has been a subject of great debate with many unresolved questions. After reading Esselstyn's book "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease", I learn certain bio-chemical process in our body that answer the question.


The internal surface of our blood vessels are lined with thin-layer of endothelium cells which  (one of its function) is responsible for vasodilation. It does that by making Nitric Oxide (NO) through Nitric Oxide Synthases (NOS3). To make NO, NOS3 require L-arginine which is a L-from alpha-amino-acid. Though Arginine is non-essential amino acid (that means our body can manufacture it), the biosynthetic pathway does not produce enough hence require supplementation through diet (either through animal-sources or plant-sources).

However there are other chemicals that compete/interfere with L-Arginine on the production of NO, for example Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and MMA. ADMA is naturally found in blood-plasma as a metabolic by-product of protein methylation process. This is why too much protein is not good. As a general guideline, human breast-milk which is optimized for newborn baby unusually high protein requirement, contain only 5% calories from protein (compared to 20% in cow's milk). The Okinawan Diet, which have the world highest number of Centenarian and most healthy people, only have 10% calories from protein on their diet.

In healthy person (that is total cholesterol level less 150mg/dL and LDL cholesterol less than 80mg/dL), presence of ADMA and MMA are not a big issue since our body will also have Dimethylargininase (DDAH) enzyme which function is to degrades those methylarginines (ADMA and MMA). Unfortunately, DDAH itself is sensitive to oxidative stress, such as oxidized LDL-cholestrol. Hence the attenuation of DDAH level cause the elevation in ADMA, blocking the NO synthesis which lead to vasoconstriction. This is why when we try to fulfill our protein requirement, we should try to get it from plant (which have less fat) rather than animal (where even a lean meat, that is defined by USDA as 90% lean and 10% fat, actually calculated to be about 50% calories from fat). The actual correlation between high fat content and rise of LDL level is very complex, read more in the "Regulation of cholesterol synthesis" section of Wikipedia article.

Nitric Oxide aside, two more things to consider. First of all, animal-sourced protein have a high level of methionine amino-acid. One need to be careful here, methionine amino-acid is part of essential amino-acid that our body need, however high level of it can lead to increase of homocysteine level which is an artery-toxic substance that strongly linked to coronary heart disease and aging. Second is that meat protein have higher sulfur content that will increase uric-acid which will lead to medical condition such as kidney stones and gout.

In conclusion, the general dietary literature that recommend very high protein diet is false. One only need 10% of their calories from protein. Sourcing protein from animal-product unfortunately will bring in more unwanted stuff, hence the safer option to meet your protein requirement is through plant-based food. But remember, we still need protein. It helps with satiety (i.e. make us feel full) and preserving our muscle tissue.

If you have any comment on potential pitfall on my arguments, do drop me a comment.