The Week's Links

A London specialty ice cream shop starts serving the ultimate primal ice cream today, made from human breast milk.  From the Reuter's article:

The breast milk concoction, called the "Baby Gaga," will be available from Friday at the Icecreamists restaurant in London's Covent Garden.

Icecreamists founder Matt O'Connor was confident his take on the "miracle of motherhood" and priced at a hefty 14 pounds ($23) a serving will go down a treat with the paying public.
The breast milk was provided by mothers who answered an advertisement on online mothers' forum Mumsnet.

Victoria Hiley, 35, from London was one of 15 women who donated milk to the restaurant after seeing the advert.

Hiley works with women who have problems breast-feeding their babies. She said she believes that if adults realized how tasty breast milk actually is, then new mothers would be more willing to breast-feed their own newborns.

"What could be more natural than fresh, free-range mother's milk in an ice cream? And for me it's a recession beater too -- what's the harm in using my assets for a bit of extra cash," Hiley said in a statement.

Duo Li presents the evidence that vegetarians and vegans can have increased platelet stickiness and higher risk of thrombosis due to dietary deficiencies of vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids in his article "Chemistry Behind Vegetarianism" in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry online.

"Collagen- and adenosine-5′-diphosphate (ADP)-stimulated ex vivo whole blood platelet aggregation were significantly higher in both vegetarian and vegan groups than in both high- and moderate-meat-eater groups. The vegan group had a significantly higher mean platelet volume (MPV) than the high- and moderate-meat-eater and ovo-lactovegetarian groups (35). Increased MPV in vegans suggests the presence of larger, activated platelets. Evidence from case control studies has indicated that an increased MPV is an independent risk factor for acute myocardial infarction (MI) (39) and for acute and/or nonacute cerebral ischemia (40). Large platelets, in such cases, have been shown to have increased reactivity. When platelets become activated, they change from their normal resting disk-like structure to assume a spherical shape and their volume increases substantially, leading to the potential for thrombus formation. In a multiple linear regression analysis, after controlling for potential confounding factors such as dietary group, age, exercise, body mass index, and dietary PUFA and saturated fat, cholesterol, carbohydrate, and fiber intake, the MPV was still strongly negatively correlated with platelet PL 20:3n-6 (p = 0.003) and 22:5n-3 (p =0.001). The data suggest that 22:5n-3 and 20:3n-6 may play a role in the structural function of the platelet membrane (41). This, in conjunction with the increased platelet aggregability, suggests what should be an increased thrombosis tendency in vegans, and in the case of the platelet aggregation is associated with low dietary intake of n-3 PUFA. " (emphasis added)

Ronda Bokram, a nutritionist with Olin Health Center in Lansing, Michigan, proves herself ignorant of the biochemistry of eating disorders in this article in the Lansing State Journal online.  Bokram is quoted as endorsing an MSU program that distributed Twix candy bars to students as part of National Eating Disorders Awareness week:

"Students found miniature Twix bars all over campus and were encouraged to eat them without guilt.

It's one of several campus activities in recognition of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.


The message behind the Twix bars?

"Eating disorders are not about food," said Ronda Bokram, a nutritionist with Olin Health Center. "Students come to my office and they say, 'My problem is I like food.' The problem isn't that you love food.

"The problem is you feel guilty about it ... and that leads to a distorted relationship with food. We label food as good or bad, and then when we eat the food, we put that label on ourselves: 'I'm bad if I eat this.' "

I'm sure this is a bonanza for Mars, Inc, but Bokram clearly has not read the research showing that eating refined carbohydrates like Twix bars will elevate insulin and activate dopamine centers of the brain, leading to transient hypoglycemic reactions, sugar addiction, and chronic insulin resistance, all of which can distort appetite.   Anorexia nervosa occurs only in civilization, i.e. it is a disease of civilization, and includes metabolic dysfunction, namely loss of appetite combined with inability to store fat in fat cells.  Most likely we have something like fat cell insulin resistance.  We don't have the details yet but I know that guilt has nothing to do with it.   I suggest Bokram and her colleagues take some time to read Good Calories Bad Calories, particularly Part 3, especially page 440, and also brush up on her human biology.  Its not about whether food is "good" or "bad," its about whether humans have adapted to an item or not.  If chimps developed anorexia nervosa while on a diet of refined carbohydrates, we wouldn't blame it on "distorted relationships with food" and guilt about eating "bad" foods, we would immediately suspect the food.  Why this escapes human nutritionists I don't understand.


Last but not least, new research shows that children with low vitamin D levels have a higher risk of allergies.