Outside of those of Indian heritage and athletes, most Americans have never heard of shilajit, which is unfortunate in that it is quite useful as a dietary supplement. Reasonable claims are that it improves the uptake of other nutrients, supports energy production without being a stimulant, enhances mitochondrial function, exerts anti-inflammatory properties, and supports the actions of coenzyme Q-10 (CoQ10). It is generally classified as an adaptogen. At one time, there were serious...

A common nutritional complaint regarding American eating habits is that the culture tends toward a mono-diet, meaning that only a handful of foods account for most of the diet. Favored foods typically include, either directly or in derived and hidden forms, corn, wheat, soy, potatoes, canola oil and a few other items along with foods based on these as feed, such as the meat, fish and fowl raised on them. There are a number of reasons for the narrowness of this range, one of the...

Almost two years ago, this magazine ran an article entitled

"Supplements Target Ketogenesis and Metabolic Flexibility for Sports and Health."¹ (June 2016) Last month there was a review of the state of caloric restriction / fasting and ketogenic diets today. However, many readers have little interest in either caloric restriction or ketogenic diets as lifestyle choices. Both of these approaches are difficult to follow even if being utilized for specific health...

Over the last decade, two related types of eating patterns—caloric restriction / fasting diets and ketogenic diets—have begun to attract ever greater attention among university researchers. In this magazine, the first is discussed in "Caloric Restriction, Fasting and Nicotinamide Riboside" (TotalHealth, February 2015).¹ The second is examined in "

Chicken, Egg or Both?

Are many or even most of the health challenges in modern Western societies—high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease in general, weight problems, etc.—related? There is a good case to be made that they are.

At the core of Syndrome X, now much more commonly known as the metabolic syndrome, are dysregulations and dysfunctions involving glucose and insulin. These manifest as central obesity...

Many of us start off the year with a determination—backed by a gym membership— to get into shape and lose weight. It now is February. How are those New Year's resolutions faring? Is it time for Plan B?

If that means diets and weight loss aids, there is no one-size-fits- all. Choosing the right approach with realistic expectations as to how much can be lost and how quickly will help prevent frustration and disappointment, not to mention major weight regain later in the...

As pointed out in past TotalHealth articles, many fungi and bacteria found in foods are beneficial to health. Whether one is discussing breads, cheeses, fermented tofu, wines, yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchi or a number of other items, very often it turns out that traditional cooking and preserving techniques involving fungi and bacteria offer many benefits that are lost with modern alternatives.

This having been said, a major benefit of modern food science is the...

Most of the substances that are classified as vitamins were discovered decades ago. Required in tiny amounts for normal growth and development, vitamins must be obtained from the diet. Determining vitamin status is not quite as straight forward as this suggests, which is one reason that new vitamins on occasion still are discovered. Ergothioneine, an amino acid that is relatively abundant in certain mushrooms, currently is being proposed by a number of scientists as the latest new vitamin....

Two years ago in this space the topic was the entourage effect and how it differed from nutritional and medical findings involving synergy: "Whereas synergism involves components each of which is active on its own and which in combination yield effects greater than the sum of the individual contributions, the entourage effect may involve components most of which on their own may exhibit little or no benefit or may yield benefits that are...

'A CALORIE IS A CALORIE' IS AN AMBIGUOUS PHRASE. IN ONE SENSE IT IS TRIVIALLY TRUE, AS IN GERTRUDE STEIN'S FAMOUS PHRASE, 'A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE'. In another sense it is obviously questionable, because it assumes no difference between the energy produced by burning food in a bomb calorimeter and that generated by metabolic processes. It also assumes that as far as effect on body weight is concerned, fat is bad because fat by itself is calorie-dense per unit of weight,...

In many older detective stories, the punch line famously is, "the butler did it." In the minds of many contemporary Americans, gluten is the "butler." Increasingly, when individuals experience symptoms such as fatigue, headaches and gastrointestinal distress, including gas, bloating and diarrhea, gluten is called out as the culprit. The passage of partially digested or undigested gluten through the intestines and the gut barrier may also contribute to additional symptoms not...

Meditation, yoga, tai chi and other practices often are mentioned in passing as being good for health. However, it is surprising how little medical research has been devoted to testing such claims. Perhaps equally surprising is that until recently little work had been undertaken to quantify the impact of stress on aging. Of course, people often talk about reducing stress and note that too much stress is not good for us, but how much is too much and what, exactly, is the impact on...

Bone broths are highly valued for their benefits, especially for joints and the digestive tract. Name almost any major cuisine in the world and broths and stocks are essential components. In pre-late 20th Century households, these liquids provided the foundation for sauces, soups, stews and numerous other products of the kitchen. However, they went beyond this to provide the bases for nutrient rich tonic foods considered to be good for the bones, joints, digestive system, immune...

Lack of energy is a constant theme in the lives of countless Americans. For many, tiredness is so routine that they accept it as a natural state. Family and work by themselves are exhausting; unexpected demands or a restless night can deplete the remaining energy reserves. What is to be done? The American answer is caffeine. Pick your flavor: coffee (then more coffee), energy drinks (which flavor and how tall?), sodas (nothing beats caffeine plus sugar!) and the list goes on. The idea...

Insulin ranks as one of the great discoveries of the Twentieth Century. Initially, it was thought of primarily in terms of providing an explanation and a solution to diabetes. Subsequent research reduced expectations that insulin was a "cure" to diabetes, yet broadened the range of conditions in which insulin appeared to be active. Similarly, organs beyond the pancreas became recognized as being linked to insulin’s activities. These included the muscles as repositories for glucose...

In aging and many disease states, the energy production capacity of the body’s cells is diminished. The mitochondria are the structures within the cell responsible for generating energy from oxygen and nutrients. If their number is reduced or their function is impaired, free radicals are produced and damaging toxins accumulate in the cells. These toxins further damage the mitochondria and impair other aspects of cellular function. Many of the most common health problems, such as...

Over the last decade, few dietary supplements have been in the news as much as curcumin and turmeric, the item from which curcumin and related compounds are extracted. The background for modern western interest is much older. Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a yellow spice and a traditional remedy that has been used as a medicine, condiment and flavoring since 600 BC. The rhizome (underground stem) is the part of the plant that is harvested and ground to make the spice. In the...

Much evidence suggests that gastrointestinal tract problems are on the rise in the modern world with significant health consequences that extend well beyond the gut itself. For instance, autism is increasing, especially in male children, and researchers at MIT and elsewhere point to the GI-tract and disturbances caused by glyphosate and other chemicals used in industrial agriculture as among the causes. Food processing with its emulsifiers and storage techniques likewise may play a...

It is New Year's resolution time and one of the perennial resolutions for many Americans is, "this year I am going to lose weight and keep it off."

Literally two thirds of Americans are overweight or worse, so there are a lot of such resolutions being made. Like gym memberships, however, there are far more resolutions initially undertaken than followed through. Nevertheless, this time around things can be different. One key is that the weight loss strategy...

Sometimes lost in the public service messages regarding what to eat is another important component in nutrition—how food is cooked. This is the take home message from a recent article published in Food Chemistry.¹ Moreover, it seems that cooking techniques and materials can cut both ways, either depleting nutrients or enhancing them. Studies have shown, for instance, that using poor quality fats to deep fry fish containing high levels of omega-3 fatty acids can...