Nuances of Carbohydrate Metabolism — What is Starch? Starches are polysaccharides (long chains of sugar molecules) arranged into two main structures — amylopectin and amylose. Most starches in the human diet (wheat, rice, oats etc.) are about 70% amylopectin and 30% amylose and are digested at varying rates, with differing rates of blood glucose increase and insulin release…

Most Americans are Magnesium Deficient — Most Americans (50–85%) don’t get the recommended daily intake of magnesium, according to the National Academy of Science leading to magnesium deficiency. This may contribute to diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and neurologic disease. A 2013 meta-analysis finds that lower dietary magnesium intake is correlated to higher risk…

It’s about Controlling Hunger, not Calories — The GLP-1 Agonist Class of Drugs Semaglutide (trade named Wegovy and Ozempic), is part of the drug class GLP1 (Glucagon Like Peptide 1) agonist. This is not a new drug class, as it has been around since the discovery of exenatide (trade name Byetta) in the venom from the saliva of the Gila monster. It was…

Eating too many refined carbohydrates leads to weight gain and heart disease — The Origins of an Epidemic — the 1977 Dietary Guidelines and Food Pyramid Prior to the 1970s, you ate what your mother cooked. The government, dieticians and doctors didn’t interfere with Mom. The 1970’s ushered in a huge change when the American government, for the first time in history told people what they should to eat to be healthy with its 1977 Dietary…

In high school, English was my worst subject. By far. So what’s the secret to writing? It’s a process and here’s mine. It’s tedious, it’s a lot of hard work, but it worked for me. Write something — anything. Don’t worry that it sucks. When you are trying to create…

Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are extremely serious and occasionally fatal diseases. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological condition of distorted body image, where people see themselves as being very overweight, but in truth are dangerously underweight. Because of this problem, they often engage in extreme diets including…

Type 2 diabetes is a massive but still growing epidemic. More than 10% of the U.S. population — 34.2 million Americans — has diabetes, a share that has doubled within the last 20 years. An additional 34.5% of American adults has pre-diabetes. Even more troubling, the rate of diabetes among…

We often think that we are in control of the decisions that we make, but behavioral psychology suggests otherwise. The Nobel Prize winning work of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler in behavioral economics showed that humans are, as Dan Ariely put it, Predictably Irrational. Consider organ donation rates. In Germany…

What causes cancer? In 2015, researchers updated the landmark 1981 study from the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment noting that the original estimates had “generally [hold] true for 35 years.” At 35% of the attributable risk, tobacco was the single largest contributor to cancer. But very close behind, was…