What a surprise! :rolleyes: So obviously eating at places like McDonalds is detrimental to health. Why are fast food companies allowed to advertise their toxic crap and why is McDs virtually the only available restaurant on Connecticut's portion of I-95? Who in government is getting paid off and how much do they get at the expense of the health of Americans who don't know better?

Thursday November 15 12:58 PM ET
Whole Grains Improve Children's Heart Health

ANAHEIM, Calif. (Reuters Health) - Studies have proven that adults can lower their risk of heart disease by increasing their daily intake of whole grains. Nutrition researchers reported here Wednesday that the same holds true for children.

Children who eat whole grains tend to be leaner and have greater sensitivity to insulin, Dr. Lyn M. Steffen of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, reported at the American Heart Association 2001 Scientific Sessions.

Obesity and insulin resistance are strong markers for both heart disease and diabetes. The body uses insulin to regulate sugar metabolism, and loss of sensitivity to this hormone increases diabetes risk.

Steffen and colleagues studied 285 children whose average age was 13 in 1996 and followed up with them one and three years later. The investigators measured height, weight and skin-fold thickness. They questioned the children about their dietary habits and activity levels, and gave them tests to measure how they metabolized sugar.

The children in the top third in terms of whole grain intake tended to be the leanest, Steffen reported. They also tended to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat, and to have higher activity levels compared with the other two thirds of children.

Steffen told Reuters Health that the children with the highest whole grain intake averaged 1.5 or more servings of whole grains a day. Current nutritional guidelines call for 3 servings a day, she noted. Children in the second third averaged 0.5 to 1.5 servings a day, while children with the lowest intake averaged less than a half serving daily.

The higher the whole grain intake, the greater the insulin sensitivity and the lower the risk for diabetes and heart disease, Steffen commented.

Steffen said that she specifically asked the children about their intake of oatmeal, brown rice, dark bread, bran, wheat germ, kasha and bulgur wheat, but she acknowledged there wasn't much interest among any of the children in the last two items

I love whole grain bread. The nuttier and grainer, the better!

Organic nut? Obviously! :p

Oh how i HATE wheat/rye bread. I feel like I might as well eat corrugated cardboard. White bread is the best.

Ill get my grains from Oatmeal/Cream of Wheat instead of suffering the nasty taste of non-white bread. ;)

I just wonder how much money they spent figuring out what people already generally knew to be true...

It is hard to find decent tasting whole grain breads, etc... but not impossibe. There are some good ones out there:)

Im waiting for the day when someone who has had a heart attack sues McDonalds for selling a harmful product.
Its bound to happen sooner or later.

I used to HATE wheat bread...but then I got into Rye bread...

My current fav is extra sour russian rye. It is SOOO good. Now magically I like the 'sweet' wheat breads...

There is also this 7 grain bread I like.

I get The Baker brand Seeded Whole Wheat. Hopefully it or something similar is available out West. After you eat that you will never go back. ;)

http://www.the-baker.com/Default.htm

Bill, I hate to say it but that is probably the only way something may get done the way this system works. At a minimum MCD's should post a sign at the door saying that your blood pressure will increase immediately after eating their toxically-sodium enriched, fatty, reconsituted, greasy slop.


Fatty Meals May Trigger Heart Attack

Jennifer Warner, Medical Writer

May 31 (CBS HealthWatch) Eating a big, fatty meal may not only make you feel full, it could increase your risk of suffering a heart attack soon after indulging. A new study shows the excess fatty particles left circulating in your blood after a high-fat meal can interfere with blood flow to the heart, which can lead to a heart attack.

Experts have long speculated about a possible link between eating heavy, fatty meals and immediate risk of heart attack, but only recently have scientific studies backed up the hypothesis. In this study, Australian researchers found a newly recognized cardiovascular risk factor called systemic arterial compliance (SAC) may help explain the correlation.

SAC refers to the ability of the arteries to dilate and accommodate the blood brought by each heartbeat. It is also known as elasticity. When the arteries lose elasticity, they become stiff or harden--causing blood pressure to rise and increase the risk of heart attack.

In the study, researchers gave 16 people a high-fat meal and then checked the arterial compliance of their largest arteries, such as the aorta. They found three hours after the high-fat meal the participants SAC had dropped by 25%. Six hours later it had dropped by 27%. No such drop was found in a control group of 20 people who ate a low-fat meal.

"Our subjects ate 50 grams of fat, about half the amount eaten each day by US males," writes study author Paul Nestel, MD, via electronic mail from Melbourne, Australia. "About as much as I see Americans eat for breakfast in a hotel, so it's a realistic test." For comparison, a meal consisting of a Big Mac and large order of French fries at McDonald's contains about 60 grams of fat.

"The probable lesson is that people should reduce the total amount of fat they eat and not have large amounts at any single meal," writes Nestel. He adds that arteries also become less elastic as people age, so these findings are particularly relevant for people in middle-age and beyond.

Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, MD, staff physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, recently presented a study of nearly 2,000 heart attack patients that found the risk for heart attack increased by as much as four to 10 times within two hours of eating a heavy meal.

Lopez-Jimenez says several factors have been suggested to explain the link between big meals and heart attacks. In addition to hampering elasticity and dilation of the arteries, heavy meals may interfere with the normal functioning of the inner lining of the arteries and blood clotting, making the blood thicker and more likely to cause a heart attack.

"The message to people should be to try to exercise moderation rather than seeking quick fixes with pills, etc," says Lopez Jimenez. "The easiest way [to reduce your heart attack risk] is to just avoid fatty meals."

Nestel's study appears in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

On the flip side however, I've seen one study of Australian Aboriginee hunters who always ate the straight fat off of prey they had hunted, (then took the rest of the animal back to the tribe). To make a long story short, they were determined to have a pretty high fat diet, but due to all the exercise they got it wasn't harmful to them at all.

Wish I still had the story somewhere but... If Americans got more exercise, they might not have to worry about every gram of fat they consume.

That's true Shadow, the difference though is if you did that with an American factory Cow you wouldn't be living very long. Some of the people with the longest lifespans in the world also consume the highest percentage of fat in their diets. It's just that they eat the good fats like Fish oil, olive oil, etc.
Those aboriginees were eating wild healthy animals that didn't have any chemicals, antibiotics and hormones in them. Also the fat cells are where the animals bodies store all the crap, so it would be important to eat only animals that come from a free range organic farm that does not poison their animals..

Very valid point CA, and one I obviously overlooked :D

Still, proper exercise often gets overlooked during discussions like this one...

Oh yes, without exercise then forget it.

I wish i could exercise, go to the gym, whatever. I'm in a constant state of injury..:confused:

Yah gotta quit bungee jumping out of those UFOs guy! LMAO! :D

Yea I know, but you should see the looks on peoples faces when they see me dangling from a speeding disc..

I can just imagine... Just don't smile during it. You'll get bugs in your teeth!:eek: :D