Advanced Mediterranean Diet

From Gina Kolata at the New York Times:

“Nearly everything you have been told about the food you eat and the exercise you do and their effects on your health should be met with a raised eyebrow.

Dozens of studies are publicized every week. But those studies hardly slake people’s thirst for answers to questions about how to eat or how much to exercise. Does exercise help you maintain your memory? What kind? Walking? Intense exercise? Does eating carbohydrates make you fat? Can you prevent breast cancer by exercising when you are young? Do vegetables protect you from heart disease?

The problem is one of signal to noise. You can’t discern the signal — a lower risk of dementia, or a longer life, or less obesity, or less cancer — because the noise, the enormous uncertainty in the measurement of such things as how much you exercise or what exactly you eat, is overwhelming. The signal is often weak, meaning if there is an effect of lifestyle it is minuscule, nothing like the link between smoking and lung cancer, for example.”

Source: We’re So Confused: The Problems With Food and Exercise Studies – The New York Times

Gina and the experts she quotes are right about much of this.

I bet he’s right.

“Cupping is no different than acupuncture, bloodletting, phrenology, or any other medical pseudoscience. The treatment is based in pre-scientific superstitions, and has simply been rebranded to more effectively market the treatment to modern customers.

It is now just another alternative treatment, lacking plausibility, lacking any compelling evidence for efficacy, and promoted for the usual array of subjective symptoms with the usual array of handwaving justifications.

It is unfortunate that elite athletics, including the Olympics, is such a hot bed for pseudoscience. The Olympic Games are supposed to celebrate excellence, hard work, dedication, and friendly competition. Now it also represents gullibility and superstition, and spreads that gullibility to the viewing world.”

Source: Cupping – Olympic Pseudoscience « Science-Based Medicine

“Man’s best friend seems to be experiencing a sharp drop in fertility, and research suggests that it could be due to environmental contamination. Authors of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports believe that contaminants have led to a significant decrease in canine sperm quality.

Is our environment damaging canine fertility?

The findings point to a correlation between reduced sperm function and concentrations of chemicals present in the sperm and testes of adult dogs, as well as some commercially available pet foods.”

Source: Drop in canine fertility may be due to environmental contaminants – Medical News Today

I’m astounded that an article fretting about body composition didn’t mention tests of physical fitness, such as Army Physical Fitness Tests. As long as you can perform up to par, does it really matter what is your percentage of body fat?

From Military Times:

“For the first time in 14 years, the military is rewriting its body composition standards and the methods used to determine whether troops are too fat to serve.

Pentagon officials intend to publish a new policy later this year, a document expected to have sweeping effects on how the military defines and measures health and fitness. The review comes amid rising concern about obesity. Among civilians, it is shrinking the pool of qualified prospective recruits. And in the active-duty force, a rising number of overweight troops poses risks to readiness and health care costs.”

Source: Spooked by obesity trends, the U.S. military is redefining its basic fitness standards

PS: If your your body fat percentage is too high, check out my books.