Music: Saint-Säens "The Swan"

Han-Na Chang on cello.


________

Food And The Brain

This post about neuropeptides in food led me to the work of Dr. Sarah Leibowitz (photo at right). She's spent decades studying the relationship between food and the brain.

In a nutshell:

"Specific neurobiological systems and diet intake are functionally linked within a positive feedback loop, whereby a specific diet stimulates particular brain neurochemicals that in turn stimulate further consumption of that same diet. This diet-neurochemical-diet feedback process, while appropriate for producing overeating and gorging under conditions when food is scarce, helps to explain the eating and body weight disorders that develop when sugar- and fat- rich foods are abundant."
- Dr. Sarah Leibowitz, Rockefeller University Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology

A positive feedback loop. So... Eat sugar, crave sugar. Eat fat, crave fat (and alcohol, see below).

Some brain chemicals and their actions:

Norepinephrine - stimulates food intake, preferential to carbs, secreted at weaning and high corticosterone
Neuropeptide Y - stimulates food intake (counteracted by leptin), preferential to carbs, secreted at weaning and high corticosterone
Galanin - stimulates food intake, preferential to fat esp. saturated and to alcohol, secreted at puberty and estrogen-rich periods in a woman's cycle
Enkephalin (opioid) - stimulates food intake, preferential to fat esp. saturated and to alcohol
Dynorphin (opioid) - stimulates food intake, preferential to fat esp. saturated and to alcohol
Orexin - stimulates food intake, preferential to fat esp. saturated and to alcohol
Serotonin - reduces appetite and produces satiety
Dopamine - reduces appetite and produces satiety

Fast Response Times

"These effects of diet on the hypothalamus are found to be amazingly rapid, occurring within the context of a single day — or even a single meal."

Early Exposure to Imbalanced Diets Sets One Up For Obesity

"In a particularly exciting animal model developed and characterized in our laboratory, we have demonstrated that sugar- or fat-rich diets introduced early in life, even during pregnancy, can produce profound changes in circulating nutrients and brain neurochemical systems. These changes persist over time, even after the diet is returned to a balanced mixture, and they result from an increase in cell proliferation and neurogenesis in specific peptide systems that ultimately cause the offspring to overeat and become obese as adults."

Fat And Alcohol Linked

"There exists a positive feedback loop between these peptides [galanin, enkephalin, dynorphin, orexin] and alcohol intake, which is similar to that seen with dietary fat and may be involved in promoting the over-consumption of alcohol as well as a fat-rich diet. ... Together, this evidence suggests for the first time that alcohol and fat intake during a meal may synergize to produce larger meals and greater alcohol consumption."

So... Eat fat, crave fat and alcohol. Eat alcohol, crave fat and alcohol.

High Carbohydrate Diet May Reduce Appetite, Feeding, And Body Weight

Some of Leibowitz's newer research seems to be a leap, or maybe a fine-tuning of her earlier work. She focused on a chemical in the brain called Hypothalamic Huntingtin-associated protein 1 (Hap1). Levels of Hap1 are reduced by a high-carbohydrate diet. Lower levels of Hap1 "mediate the feeding-inhibitory action of insulin in the brain," and can result in a decrease of food intake and body weight.
Hypothalamic Huntingtin-Associated Protein 1 As A Mediator Of Feeding Behavior, Nature Medicine, April 2006

That a high-carb diet could result in weight loss reminded of this study...
A Low-Fat Vegan Diet Improves Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes, Diabetes Care, 2006
...which saw people with type 2 diabetes who were eating a high-carb diet (over 70% of their calories from carbs) lose twice as much weight as people eating the lower-carb, higher-fat ADA diabetes diet. (My review: High-Carb, Low-Fat Diet For Diabetes)
________

Music: Beethoven's Pathétique

The Adagio, 2nd movement. Played by Daniel Barenboim.


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GMO Opponents Vs. GMO Backers

The BBC program Newsnight hosted a live debate on May 17 between opponents and backers of GM technology. The issue: wheat that was genetically engineered to repel aphids needed a trial in an open field and opponents threatened to destroy the crops if the trial went ahead.



It's unfortunate there was so much crosstalk. It made the activists look frenetic and the backers look smug.

Biotech is a business, or group of businesses. They exist first and foremost to make money. That's all well and good, except with their particular product, the public has no choice to opt out, at least in the US. It's difficult to not consume a product that has inundated a market, a product that, being a food, people need.

I can't see an easy resolution to this. Maybe a cheap and desirable competitor?
________Thanks, Shaun!

Foods With Opioid Effects

I've read that certain foods contain either out-and-out opiates, or have molecules that exert opioid effects. I don't know much about this and writing helps me sort things out, so...

An opiate, according to Wikipedia, "describes any of the narcotic opioid alkaloids found as natural products in the opium poppy plant." So, an opiate must be an alkaloid, and must come from the poppy plant. Examples of opiates are morphine and codeine. Heroin is a synthetic opiate made from morphine. Prolonged use of opiates causes physical dependance and addiction. Death can occur from overdose. Abrupt abstinence from opiates causes withdrawal symptoms including agitation, headaches, sweats, cramping, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

An opioid, according to Wikipedia, is a "psychoactive chemical that works by binding to opioid receptors, which are found principally in the central and peripheral nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract." So opioids are a larger class of chemicals that include opiates. Our bodies can make their own opioids, e.g. endorphins. Depending upon the particular opioid, prolonged exposure can lead to physical dependance and addiction; death can occur from overdose (e.g. the poppy derivatives); and abrupt abstinence can spur withdrawal symptoms. The effect of the opioid depends upon its chemical structure, the actions its receptors initiate, the exposure level, the genetic makeup of an individual, and an individual's gender, age, and biochemistry. There are clearly a number of variables to assess when determining an opioid's effect.

Opiates and Opioids In Food

Wheat

Dr. William Davis of the Track Your Plaque site, and author of the recent "Wheat Belly," says that wheat contains an opiate which is responsible for what he describes as wheat addiction. He identifies the protein gliadin as the opiate, and says:

"This opiate, while it binds to the opiate receptors of the brain, doesn’t make us high. It makes us hungry."
- Opiate Of The Masses, April 18, 2012

From the definitions at the beginning of this post, gliadin is not an opiate because it doesn't originate from the poppy plant and it is not technically an alkaloid, although it does contain nitrogen.

However, when the body digests gliadin, it produces a fragment peptide that, although not an opiate, can act like an opioid. It's called gliadorphin or gluteomorphin.

Gluten, another protein in wheat (gluten is composed of gliadin and glutenin), when partially digested produces fragment peptides that can also act as opioids, called gluten exorphins.

Dairy

There is a protein in cow's milk called casein which, when partially digested, produces a fragment peptide that acts like an opioid, called casomorphin.

There are proteins in whey called α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin, which, when partially digested, produce fragment peptides that act as opioids, called α-lactorphin and β-lactorphin.

Meat

There is a protein in blood called hemoglobin which, when partially digested, produces a fragment peptide that acts like an opioid, called hemorphin.

Green Plants

There is a protein in green plants, algae, and some bacteria called RuBisCO. It's an enzyme that assists in taking carbon from the atmosphere and converting it into carbon-containing energy molecules like glucose. RuBisCO, when partially digested, produces fragment peptides that act as opioids, called rubiscolins. The structure of 2 rubiscolins have been identified in spinach, although RuBisCO from which rubiscolins are derived is abundant in nature.

Salt, Sugar, and Fat: The Hyperpalatable Combination

All of the opioid peptides above come from outside the body and are thought to be short-lived. In healthy people they're broken down soon after formation and "have limited physiological activity." Also, peptides are fairly large molecules and don't easily squeeze through a healthy, selectively permeable intestinal wall.

When it comes to food cravings, opioids that come from inside the body may be the real players. Former FDA Commissioner and Harvard trained doctor Dr. David Kessler, in his book, The End of Overeating, says that salt, sugar, and dietary fat trigger opioids in the brain which can contribute to overeating.

"The neurons in the brain that are stimulated by taste and other properties of highly palatable food are part of the opioid circuitry, which is the body's primary pleasure system. The "opioids," also known as endorphins, are chemicals produced in the brain that have rewarding effects similar to drugs such as morphine and heroine. Stimulating the opioid circuitry with food drives us to eat."
...
In addition to their stimulating effects the opioids produced by eating high-sugar, high-fat foods can relieve pain or stress and calm us down.
...
In a cyclical process, eating highly palatable food activates the opioid circuits, and activating these circuits increases consumption of highly palatable food."

Here's an interview where he summarizes the ideas in his book:
Dr. David Kessler, Author Of The End of Overeating, On Why We Can't Stop Eating

Two other points from Kessler's book:

1. It is the combination of sugar and fat in food which makes us crave it. Sugar alone and fat alone do not produce the same strong cravings as sugar and fat combined.

2. Variety may be doing us in:

"After eating a certain amount of one food, animals typically become satisfied with its taste and stop eating it - but they'll keep on eating if something else is available."

Josh Wooley, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, demonstrated this with chocolate- and banana-flavored food pellets called Supreme Mini-Treats, which consist primarily of sucrose and fat.

He first allowed his test animals to eat as much chocolate as they wanted for an hour. Then he gave them ninety minutes of unrestricted access to both banana and chocolate, and he observed that the animals chose to eat significantly more banana. Apparently their initial exposure to chocolate had reduced but not eliminated further interest in that flavor, but left them enough appetite for the novel taste of banana. the same thing happened in reverse: When exposed first to banana, an animal later ate more chocolate when given the choice of flavors."

________ What I've learned:

• Wheat does not contain opiates.
• Many foods contain chemicals that have the potential to engage our opioid circuitry (wheat, milk, cheese, yogurt, meat, spinach, lettuce, and other greens), but the effect in a healthy person, if any, is probably weak and short-lived.
• The body's endogenous opioids are pretty powerful.
• Stimulating the brain's opioid circuitry performs a useful function - it drives us to eat. But stimulating it often, with highly palatable foods, can drive us to overeat.

I did further reading on this last point that was illuminating regarding the macronutrients, e.g. carbohydrates and fats. I'll post later.* This topic - how food affects brain chemistry and vice versa - is vast and humbling.

*Here's the follow-up: Food And The Brain. In a few words, eating a particular food often causes us to crave that food, in a positive feedback loop.
________ The photo is from 5minutesformom.com. Look at that face.

Arugula Spider

________

Do-It-Youself GMO label

Oh, this is precious:

"Using her own stickers, Cynthia LaPier surreptitiously labels foods that she knows contain genetically modified organisms."



From: Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food, New York Yimes, 24 May 2012

What's the harm in a label? As one of the commenters, Andrea Pinal, said:

"If everyone in SUPPORT of GMOs is so sure of its "marvelous benefits", then shouldn't they WANT to Label it???? WHY is it that all these companies spend BILLIONS of dollars to Oppose Labeling something that they are supposedly so confident in?

We label food that is Organic because we honestly believe in it, dont we? Why would we go through all the effort to produce food in a method we believe in, and then want to HIDE that we did it that way? Doesn't make sense."

The article said:

"... existing biotech crops have for years let farmers spray fewer or less harmful chemicals, though the emergence of resistant weeds and insects threatens to blunt that effect."

Threatens to blunt that effect? It has already come to pass:

"Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds", according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people."
- GM Crops Promote Superweeds, Food Insecurity and Pesticides, say NGOs, John Vidal, the Guardian

Note the tone of the article:

"... popular suspicions about the health and environmental effects of biotechnology are fueling a movement to require that food from genetically modified crops be labeled, if not eliminated."

Popular suspicions?! It's as if a draft had to be approved by the biotech industry. Does the New York Times sell advertising space to Monsanto?
________Thanks, Seinberg!

Robin Chicks

Remember this nest? The one I thought was a catbird nest?





They're robins! It's looking pretty crowded in there.


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Is Meat Male?

Looks that way. But I wouldn't broach the topic with former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.

First, a study due out in October in the Journal of Consumer Research:

You Are What You Eat: Why Do Male Consumers Avoid Vegetarian Options?, Press Release, Journal of Consumer Research, 16 May 2012

Found:

• There was a strong connection between eating meat — especially muscle meat, like steak — and masculinity.
• That people rated meat as more masculine than vegetables.
• That people viewed male meat eaters as being more masculine than non-meat eaters.
• That across most languages (23 analyzed), meat was related to the male gender.

The authors (one author, Brian Wansink, is author of the popular book, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think) write:

"To the strong, traditional, macho, bicep-flexing, All-American male, red meat is a strong, traditional, macho, bicep-flexing, All-American food. Soy is not. To eat it, they would have to give up a food they saw as strong and powerful like themselves for a food they saw as weak and wimpy."

________
Mike Tyson's take on not eating meat? "I wish I was born this way."
Here's a clip from an interview he did at his home in Arizona last year. (Who knew Tyson was a bird man?)

Greta Van Susteren of FOX News: How long you been a vegan?
Tyson: Two years.

Van Susteren: Notice any difference?
Tyson: I feel awesome. Feel awesome.

Van Susteren: Mentally feel any different with vegan?
Tyson: Incredible. Incredible. I wish I was born this way. Just when you find out about the processed stuff you've been eating. I wonder why I was crazy all those years.

And a clip from an interview he did with Details Magazine in August 2010:

Details: I hear you're vegan now.
Mike Tyson: Yeah, it's been eight months with this vegan stuff, but I get these explosions of energy. I don't know how long they last, but they're like explosions. So powerful.

Details: Is it a calmer energy?
Mike Tyson: Oh, I don't know if I'd go that far. I don't think it's been long enough for that kind of Zen shit.

Details: So you're going to go the rest of your life without eating a candy bar?
Mike Tyson: Maybe so. I'm pretty fucking extreme.

Details: Not even a Baby Ruth?
Mike Tyson: Oh, man, that's the best. Chocolate and peanuts. Nah. I ate, like, the tiniest piece of meat, and I woke up violently sick. It was vicious pain. I was throwing up. And I realized meat's become a poison for me now.

The Details interview is engaging. I don't have a great interest in boxing but the bits about fellow boxers, especially Jack Dempsy and Muhammad Ali, were something else.
________

The Kitten And The Vole

Just when I thought our vole problem was out of control.


________

Chef Mario Batali On Food Stamp Challenge

Melinda sent this:
Mario Batali Food Stamp Challenge: Chef Spending $31 On Food For One Week

What did he eat? Lentil chili, peanut butter and jelly, apples, rice and beans, pasta, a chicken, a pork shoulder roast, pork chops. I would guess those last items were factory-farmed. In fact, most of his food was probably industrially produced, since he also said:

"One lesson: forget organic and anything pesticide- or hormone-free. "The organic word slides out and saves you about 50 percent."

I'm not familiar with Mario Batali so I watched a few videos. This one reminded me of how volatile kitchens can be:


________

Robin Gibb Has Died

BBC: Bee Gees' Singer Robin Gibb Dies After Cancer Battle. He was 62.

The song "I Started A Joke" was written in 1968. This is a live performance in 1968 at Festival Hall, Melbourne, Australia. Robin is around 19 years old here.



"Massachusetts" was written in 1967. Robin said of this song, "it is not literally talking about people going back to Massachusetts but represents all the people who want to go back to somewhere or something."

This is live at Melbourne in 1989. He's about 40 years old here and has sang this song probably hundreds of times. Still puts his soul into it.



I posted about him back in November of last year when I saw this photo. His emaciated face reminded me of someone with cachexia, a wasting condition seen with late-stage cancer.
________

Not All "Good Cholesterol" Is Good (The Chameleon HDL)

HDL cholesterol, known as "good cholesterol" has for years been an enigma. It's not always good, depending on the type. It is the pathology state which, in part, determines how HDL acts - whether HDL is good or bad. If someone has diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, or some other inflammatory condition, their HDL is not as health-promoting as someone who does not have these conditions.

High levels of "bad" HDL have been shown to be detrimental; they can promote heart disease.

Back in 2003 or so, I began reading that HDL was not always good, that it could sometimes promote inflammation.

Here's a study:
HDL And The Inflammatory Response Induced By LDL-derived Oxidized Phospholipids, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2001

"It is proposed that LDL-derived oxidized phospholipids and HDL may be part of a system of nonspecific innate immunity and that the detection of proinflammatory HDL may be a useful marker of susceptibility to atherosclerosis."

It seems HDL that promotes inflammation is protective and immune-related, in that inflammation is an immune response. But if your inflammation is chronic, as it is with diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, then your pro-inflammatory HDL may also be chronic. And that might not be good.

Move up to 2008, and some types of HDL were being revealed as, not just markers, but able to promote the development of atherosclerosis, and so heart disease:
HDL: Bridging Past And Present With A Look At The Future, FASEB, December 2008

"All of these atheroprotective functions are lost in the post-translational dependent dysfunctional plasma HDLs of subjects with systemic inflammation, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and chronic renal disease. The emerging notion that particle quality has more predictive power than quantity has stimulated further exploration of the HDL proteome, already revealing unsuspected pro- or antiatherogenic proteins/peptides associated with HDL."

First author of this study, Angelo Scanu MD:

"For many years, HDL has been viewed as good cholesterol and has generated a false perception that the more HDL in the blood, the better. ... It is now apparent that subjects with high HDL are not necessarily protected from heart problems and should ask their doctor to find out whether their HDL is good or bad."
- Some 'Good Cholesterol' Is Actually Bad, Study Shows, ScienceDaily, December, 2008

Coincidentally, as I was writing this today I saw this study in The Lancet:
Plasma HDL Cholesterol And Risk Of Myocardial Infarction: A Mendelian Randomisation Study, The Lancet, May 17, 2012

"Some genetic mechanisms that raise plasma HDL cholesterol do not seem to lower risk of myocardial infarction. These data challenge the concept that raising of plasma HDL cholesterol will uniformly translate into reductions in risk of myocardial infarction."

Senior author Sekar Kathiresan:

"It's been assumed that if a patient, or group of patients, did something to cause their HDL levels to go up, then you can safely assume that their risk of heart attack will go down. ... This work fundamentally questions that."
- Not All 'Good Cholesterol' Is 'Good': Raising HDL Not A Sure Route To Countering Heart Disease, ScienceDaily, May 16, 2012

I think there is probably more to learn about HDL, and whether therapies to boost it are warranted.

I like how a chameleon changes depending on its environment. Like the chameleon HDL.



Update, May 17, later in the day ... Boy, HDL is a hot topic right now. Here's another study I saw today:

Apolipoprotein C-III As A Potential Modulator Of The Association Between HDL-Cholesterol And Incident Coronary Heart Disease, Journal of the American Heart Association, April 2012.

It just identifies a protein on the HDL membrane, apoC-III, that is pro-inflammatory.

Unfortunately, these studies will be used as a foundation for designing drugs to lower levels of the offending HDL particle. When all along the pro-inflammatory HDL is performing a needed function! Inflammation keeps us alive. It is a complex series of events that attempt to remove harmful stimuli and initiate healing. The problem occurs when pro-inflammatory HDL (or other pro-inflammatory molecules) stick around too long. That happens when we are in a state of chronic disease ... like diabetes, arthritis, kidney disease. How to avoid chronic disease? Don't smoke, manage weight, eat healthfully, stay physically active, get enough sleep, manage stress, laugh and love. Boring but effective.
________

93-Year-Old Yoga Instructor

from BBC:

Tao Porchon-Lynch has been named the oldest yoga teacher in the world by Guinness World Records.
The 93-year-old, who has had a hip replacement, said she would continue teaching "until I can't breathe any more".
"I love yoga, it brightens my day and makes everybody smile."

Welp, I just found a little inspiration today.
________

Serious About Reducing Cholesterol? Do 2 Things.

If someone is serious about reducing cholesterol, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn says to do 2 things:

1. Stop eating all animal foods (meat, fish, dairy, eggs, butter, cheese).
2. Stop eating all processed oil (olive, soy, canola, vegetable, coconut), including packaged foods made with oil.

That's it! Try it for 30 days and get your cholesterol checked again. It works.



A snippet from that Clinton video above:

BLITZER: My last question ... How did you lose so much weight? What kind of diet are you on?

CLINTON: Well, the short answer is, I went on essentially a plant-based diet. I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit. ... No dairy, no meat of any kind, no chicken or turkey, and I eat very little fish. Once in a while, I will have a little fish, not often.

Take a look at the coronary artery beginning at 1:47 minutes in:


________

Three Good Things Exercise

On page 132 of Dr. Weil's latest book on mental health, in a chapter entitled "Optimizing Well-Being By Retraining The Mind," he mentions an exercise called "Three Good Things." It's from the field of Positive Psychology and has been tested and promoted extensively by Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania.

1. Each night before you go to sleep, write down three things that went well that day.
2. Beside each item, write down the reasons why you think it went well.

Seligman:

"It works because it changes your focus from the things that go wrong in life to things that you might take for granted, that go well."

Here's Dr. Seligman describing it:



The reflection part, thinking about the reasons why something went well, if you really immerse yourself in it, can be revealing.
________

Rye Bread, Grinding And Baking

This was a dud. But it was only my first attempt. It's the end of my series in making 100% sprouted rye bread. See here for buying the grain, here for soaking the grain, here for sprouting the grain. This is the exact same process I use for making my 100% sprouted wheat bread, with which I'm happy. Although the wheat bread I've made close to 100 times. I guess grains act differently.

The rye at the end of about 36 hours of sprouting. The wet towel and plastic wrap keep it moist:



Here are the sprouts. First indication that things aren't going well ... the grains are sprouting unevenly. Some oversprouted, some didn't sprout at all:



This is after I put the sprouts (and 1/4 teaspoon salt) through the food grinder twice. (I'm only using 1 cup of grains here instead of the 2 cups I use for wheat bread.) This looks okay, if a little wet. I didn't add any water when I kneaded:



The loaf formed, on parchment, and ready for the oven. Again, looks ok:



Gently placing it in a preheated dutch oven:



And here's the result after 3 hours baking and a couple hours setting up in a cooling oven. My rye dud. It spread too much. I suspect less gluten means less protein structure to hold it together while it baked. It also could have been too wet.



This is the underside. You can see the impression of the original loaf:



As much as I like baking free-form, I'd use a small loaf pan for this the next time. And I wouldn't rinse it while it sprouted to cut back on moisture. I'd sprout it less too, just 24 hours. The taste? To be honest, this grain isn't the freshest. I detect some rancidness, maybe due to older grains, the ones that failed to sprout. This is the difficulty in buying ingredients that don't have a decent turnover. I mean, who's buying whole rye berries? ________

Catbird Nest Vs. Cardinal Nest

I had to take these photos fast or I would have been clobbered. I thought it was a robin's nest because of the blue eggs but someone showed me a catbird's nest and I changed my mind. We had 3 noisy grey catbirds move into the area recently and this must be what they're protecting.

The most unusual feature was the nest's density. I never saw anything like it. It was over an inch thick and downright impenetrable. In the second photo you can see bits of dried mud she probably used as mortar (right side, near the top of the nest). Her own personal bomb shelter. After all that work, she'll abandon it. There were 3 eggs.





Below is a cardinal's nest, Chuck and Charlene's nest. It's not as sturdy as the catbird vault above and looks like it was assembled hastily. Where the catbird opts for strength with a clean, tight, no-frills braid, the cardinal goes for camouflage, weaving in leaves for disguise. From afar, this nest looked like a clump of debris stuck in a bush. Last year she built a nest in a flowering white azalea and wove white blooms throughout. It was glorious! And well-hidden.

Can you spot it? The nest is dead center in the photo.


Closer...


Closer...


Here I bent the branch down to take a shot from above. I'm glad it was empty. I don't like to toy with them when they're occupied. Chicks duck down and are quiet when their parents are out getting food, so I wasn't sure.

________

Cruciferous Vegetables And Thyroid Function

From the Linus Pauling Institute:
Cruciferous Vegetables, Iodine, And Thyroid Function

"Very high intakes of cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and turnips, have been found to cause hypothyroidism (insufficient thyroid hormone) in animals.

Two mechanisms have been identified to explain this effect:

1. The hydrolysis of some glucosinolates found in cruciferous vegetables (e.g., progoitrin) may yield a compound known as goitrin, which has been found to interfere with thyroid hormone synthesis.
2. The hydrolysis of another class of glucosinolates, known as indole glucosinolates, results in the release of thiocyanate ions, which can compete with iodine for uptake by the thyroid gland.

Increased exposure to thiocyanate ions from cruciferous vegetable consumption or, more commonly, from cigarette smoking, does not appear to increase the risk of hypothyroidism unless accompanied by iodine deficiency. One study in humans found that the consumption of 150 g/day (5 oz/day) of cooked Brussels sprouts for four weeks had no adverse effects on thyroid function."

The RDA for iodine for adults is 150mcg (150 micrograms/day). Seafood and sea vegetables (seaweeds like kelp) are good sources of iodine.

So, if you eat a lot of cabbage, cole slaw, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, turnips, and the like, it would be a good idea to make sure you're getting 150 mcg of iodine a day, either through a supplement or sea foods. (If you use sea salt or other non-iodized salt, you need to be even more attentive. A 1/4 teaspoon of iodized salt, at 70 mcg, contributes about half of the day's requirements.)



DV = Daily Value. The Daily Value used here is 150 mcg. A food that provides 50% of the DV provides 75 mcg iodine.

According to the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, dairy is a good source of iodine "due to the use of iodine feed supplements and iodophor sanitizing agents in the dairy industry."
________

Recipe: 100% Sprouted Wheat Bread

It took me about a year to fine-tune this bread. I threw out a lot in the beginning. Here are the basic steps:

1. Soak the grain.
2. Sprout the grain.
3. Grind the grain.
4. Bake the grain.
5. Condition the loaf.

The bread is flourless and has no yeast, no dairy, no eggs, no oil or fat, no sweetener. It is only sprouted grain and salt.

Here are the steps in detail:

1. Soak the grain.

1. Rinse 2 cups of grain. I use organic hard red wheat berries. Lately I've replaced 1/4 of the wheat with barley (it's called "hulled", not pearled). The barley gives a moister consistency and more of a caramelly or malty flavor. But it's not necessary.
2. Place grain in a large bowl, large enough for the grain to double in size. Cover the grain with water. Let grain soak under water for 8 or 9 hours.

2. Sprout the grain.

1. At the end of the 8-hour soak, strain the grain and return it to the bowl.
2. Cover the bowl with a wet towel. Cover the towel with a sheet of plastic wrap.
3. Place bowl in an undisturbed place away from direct heat.
4. Sprout for about 36 hours. Rinse the grain once or twice during the course of sprouting to prevent it from drying out. Do this by filling the bowl with water, straining it, and returning it to the (rinsed) bowl.
5. Sprouting times will vary based on how hot the room is. It is better to undersprout than oversprout. If the sprouts get too hairy or start to turn green, your loaf will be edible but mushy.

The sprouts at 36 hours. They're just starting to turn green. These are on the cusp of being oversprouted, but they made a good loaf anyway.



A few more photos. The first one is after an 8-hour soak plus 8 hours sprouting. The next two are ready to grind at 36 hours of sprouting.







3. Grind the grain.

1. First, place a covered dutch oven or other heavy covered pot into a 270 degree F oven to preheat.
2. Grinding is the most labor-intensive part of the job. I sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon salt over the sprouts, mix it in, then feed it all through a food grinder.
3. I've tried a blender and a food processor. I'd go back to the blender if I didn't have this food grinder attachment on my mixer. The food processor left a lot of intact grain stuck to the sides. You can buy a hand-cranked food grinder that might also do the job. Whatever you employ, use a light touch. You only have to crack open the grains, not whiz it to a mash.
4. After the grain is ground it will be very sticky. Add about 3 tablespoons of water to the mash* and do your best to knead it, about 20 times, just to consolidate it and form it into a cohesive shape. Kneading to develop gluten structure is not necessary with this type of bread.
5. Place the shaped loaf onto a piece of parchment paper.

* This is very variable. It takes feel. Very sprouted grain will require little to no added water, less sprouted grain will require more. If you rinsed it a lot while sprouting, the residual water on the grain will be enough. I'm sorry I can't be more precise. It's a living thing!

Here's the food grinder working its magic.



Here's my go with the blender. Lots of scraping down the sides but it works. Be careful not to overprocess it.



I shape it like this, although this was only 1.5 cups of wheat so it's not as long as the baked loaf below. The bread will flatten as it bakes. If it's too wet it will look like a pancake no matter how you shape it. Don't shape it too high or it will develop deep fissures as it flattens in the oven.



4. Bake the grain.

1. Using heat-resistant mitts (or folded towels), open the oven, remove the hot lid, place the loaf-plus-parchment into the pot, replace the lid, close the oven.
2. Bake for 2 hours at 270 degrees F.
3. After 2 hours, turn the oven off, take the pot out, remove the lid, carefully pick out the browned loaf holding the parchment, place the loaf-plus-parchment back into the oven on a rack. Let sit in the warm oven for 2 or 3 more hours. (This, I found, helps hold the loaf together and develops a more caramelly flavor.)
4. Remove the loaf from the oven, discard the parchment, and let sit at room temperature until it is no longer warm to the touch, another hour or two. (This sounds like a lot of work but it's more about being around to move things than actually doing work.)

Here's the loaf out of the pot and setting up in the oven as the oven cools.



5. Condition the loaf.

1. Place the cooled loaf into a plastic bag and put into the refrigerator for 1 or 2 days - at least!
2. It was not understanding the importance of this last step that had me throwing out so many loaves in the beginning. The bread, after it cools, will be very hard on the outside and very wet on the inside. Conditioning it in the fridge will allow the exterior to soften and the interior to firm up.

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The entire process takes about 5 days, from start to edible product. I live up to the name Fanatic Cook with this, don't I. I start on Thursday morning with soaking the grain. I strain it that night to start sprouting, rinse it Friday morning and again Friday night, and finally grind and bake it on Saturday. It's ready to eat on Tuesday. Saturday is the only day I have to really be doing anything to it.

If you attempt it, I'd really like to know how it goes, what you change, how it turns out, and if you like it or not. I'm trying rye grain for the first time this weekend.


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Rye Bread, Sprouting The Grain

This is the rye after 24 hours of sprouting:





So, the grain soaked under water to reconstitute it for about 8 hours. Then I strained off the water, put it back in the same bowl, covered the bowl with a wet towel and a sheet of plastic wrap, and let it sprout. I do rinse the grain once or twice so it doesn't dry out. (Fill the bowl with water and strain it again.)

I'm pretty happy with the looks of this. I've had grain that didn't sprout at all. I don't know if it was exposed to some anti-sprouting chemical or radiation? So far so good.
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Sprouted Wheat Bread PBJ

These photos were on my camera and since we were talking about my wheat bread...
I shouldn't show them because everybody and his brother will find something to criticize ... the wheat, the grain, the carbs, the, I don't know, decadence? Oh, well.

This is what my sprouted wheat-and-barley bread looks like. The ingredients are sprouted wheat, sprouted barley, and salt. That's all. No flour, yeast, dairy, eggs, sweeteners ... nothing. It's squat because I bake it free-form instead of in a pan; I think it cooks more evenly. It's really moist and sweet, caramelly or malty, and addictive! I put slices in a baggie and take them with me.



Peanut butter and jelly makes it decadent. Doesn't it. It does. Raspberry jelly.

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Rye Bread, Soaking The Grain

This is one cup of rye berries. I usually use 2 cups of grain for wheat bread but I see these as experiments. I'll let this soak for about 8 hours, then drain it and sprout it for ... I don't know yet. I'll try 36 hours.


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Mad Cow: A Case Of Spontaneous Generation

Ronald's comment about "spontaneous generation" of worms on onions reminded me of the cause given for the latest incident of mad cow:

"Experts [from USDA] said the case was "atypical" - meaning it was a rare occurrence in which a cow contracts the disease spontaneously, rather than through the feed supply."
- Mad Cow Disease Found In California; No Human Threat Seen, Reuters, 25 April 2012

So, it was a case of spontaneous generation.

Why then is CNN reporting this morning:

"Two farms have been quarantined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as the agency continues to investigate last month's discovery of mad cow disease at a California dairy farm. ... Determining if the cow became sick from feed is an area where investigators are focusing close attention."
- USDA Quarantines 2 Farms In Mad Cow Investigation, CNN, 3 May 2012

The cow did not become sick from feed. It couldn't because feed does not contain animal parts. This was a rare case of spontaneous generation.
________Photo of dairy cows feeding on April 25, 2012, near Hanford, California, where the mad cow was found at a rendering plant, from Reuters.

Rye Bread, The Beginning

The journey begins ... I bought the rye. They're called "rye berries." Odd.

I couldn't decide which photo, inside or outside, showed it the best so here they both are. In these photos, the rye is on the far right. For comparison, spelt is in the middle, and wheat (hard red winter) is on the far left. (Click to enlarge.) Look how green the rye is.





I make bread every week with the wheat, that's why some of it is used. I've never made bread with spelt, which Wikipedia says is an ancient form of wheat. I'm curious how it tastes and bakes. I'll be mixing it into my weekly bread.
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The "Subtle Corruption" Of Prostate Cancer Screening

I have to post this excerpt from Naomi Freundlich's blog, Reforming Health. It gets to the heart of why screening for prostate cancer is better at generating revenue than it is at saving lives:

On Prostate Cancer Screening, Warren Buffett and Ignoring Science

Here she writes about Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and an oncologist at Emory University:

"[Otis Brawley's] new book, “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Rank About Being Sick in America” sheds a needed light on the financial conflicts that determine the kind of care we receive, and at a recent meeting of the Association of Health Care Journalists, he said that health care today suffers from “a subtle form of corruption.”
...
Brawley bemoans the lack of science and evidence to back up many of the most-used treatments and interventions for major ills like diabetes, prostate cancer and heart disease. He calls out drug companies, hospitals and doctors for valuing profits over patient care and calls for a greater emphasis on prevention and evidence-based care."

About prostate cancer, Naomi cites a paper by Brawley where he says:

“Many men who thought their lives were saved by being screened, diagnosed, and treated for localized prostate cancer are perplexed to learn that so few benefit. They may be even more amazed that this is not a new finding. What is new is the fact that many health professionals are finally accepting it as true.”

And here she transcribes some of Brawley's address as keynote speaker at Health Journalism 2012, the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists. This part is unbelievable ... Brawley is recounting an experience he had on a visit to a hospital in 1998 while an Assistant Director at the National Cancer Institute. During the visit a marketing executive explained to Brawley the publicity value and financial rewards of a free prostate screening program:

This is the marketing director speaking, as recounted by Brawley:

“If they screen 1,000 men they’re going to have 145 abnormals. They’re going to charge about $3,000 to figure out what is abnormal about these abnormals, that’s how they pay for the free screening. About 10 of the 145 won’t come to this hospital so that’s business for their competitors, but they’ll get 135 times $3,500 on average. Of the 135, 45 are going to die of prostate cancer and the other percentage are going to get radical prostatectomy at about $30-40,000 a case; there’s a percentage that’s going to get seeds at about $30,000 a case; a percentage were going to get radiation therapy that (at the time) was about $60,000. Then [the marketing executive’s] business plan goes further, he knows how many guys are going to have so much incontinence that diapers aren’t going to do it so he had in his business plan how many artificial sphincters urologists were going to implant. And then he was a little apologetic because there was this new thing called Viagra that screwed up his estimates for how many penile implants he was going to sell because guys were upset about impotence related to prostate cancer treatment.”

Brawley says, “this is 1998, I ask him, if you screen 1,000 people how many lives are you going to save? He took off his glasses and looked at me like I was some kind of fool and said, ‘Don’t you know, nobody’s ever shown that prostate cancer screening saves lives, I can’t give you an estimate on that.’”

These practices, according to Naomi, are still in effect today, 14 years later. ________

Prostate Cancer: Watchful Waiting May Be Best

MRI showing prostate cancer in a 75 year old male.
 Photo: The Telegraph

So, the second leading cause of cancer death in men is prostate cancer. And although screening and surgery are the recommended course of action for the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in men, colorectal cancer, that's not turning out to be the case for prostate cancer.

Early results of the PIVOT study (Prostate Intervention Versus Observation Trust, 731 participants over 12 years) show that those who had their prostate gland removed had no better chance of survival than those who had no treatment:

Prostate Cancer Surgery 'Has No Significant Survival Benefit', Study Suggests, The Telegraph, 28 April, 2012

Dr. Kate Holmes, head of Research Management at the UK's Prostate Cancer Charity, said:

"Early data from the PIVOT trial certainly suggests that surgery to remove the prostate does not provide any significant survival benefit for men with low to medium risk prostate cancer."

"Watchful waiting" is not the kind of finding that excites for-profit health providers. Indeed, even though, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force, the PSA test:

"... results in small or no reduction in prostate cancer–specific mortality and is associated with harms related to subsequent evaluation and treatments, some of which may be unnecessary."

And even though the test is unreliable - positive results are mostly false ("7 out of 10 men in this category will still not have prostate cancer") and 25% of men with prostate cancer have no elevation in PSA - the test is still aggressively promoted.

I don't know, this is a tough one. Maybe, as the CDC says, it's best left to each man and his provider.

"Currently, there is not enough evidence to decide if the potential benefits of prostate cancer screening outweigh the potential risks. Given the uncertainty about the benefit of screening, CDC supports informed decision making."

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Cancer In Men, A Quiz

1. More men in the US die from this type of cancer than any other type.
2. This cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in men in the US. It is, however, the most common cancer in men after skin cancer.
3. This cancer is the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in men in the US.
________Answers: 1. Lung cancer, 2. Prostate cancer, 3. Colorectal cancer
Source: Cancer And Men, CDC
Related post: Prostate Cancer: Watchful Waiting May Be Best