Health Journal Online

Category: Nutrition

  • Ideal vs. Normal Cholesterol Levels 

    Ideal vs. Normal Cholesterol Levels 

    Having a “normal” cholesterol level in a society where it’s normal to die from a heart attack isn’t necessarily a good thing.

    “Consistent evidence” from a variety of sources “unequivocally establishes” that so-called bad LDL cholesterol causes atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease—strokes and heart attacks, our leading cause of death. This evidence base includes hundreds of studies involving millions of people. “Cholesterol is the cause of atherosclerosis,” the hardening of the arteries, and “the message is loud and clear.” “It’s the Cholesterol, Stupid!” noted the editor of the American Journal of Cardiology, William Clifford Roberts, whose CV is more than 100 pages long as he has published about 1,700 articles in peer-reviewed medical literature. Yes, there are at least ten traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis, as seen below and at 1:11 in my video How Low Should You Go for Ideal LDL Cholesterol?, but, as Dr. Roberts noted, only one is required for the progression of the disease: elevated cholesterol.

    Your doctor may have just told you that your cholesterol is normal, so you’re relieved. Thank goodness! But, having a “normal” cholesterol level in a society where it’s normal to have a fatal heart attack isn’t necessarily good. With heart disease, the number one killer of men and women, we definitely don’t want to have normal cholesterol levels; we want to have optimal levels—and not optimal by current laboratory standards, but optimal for human health.

    Normal LDL cholesterol levels are associated with the hidden buildup of atherosclerotic plaques in our arteries, even in those who have so-called “optimal risk factors by current standards”: blood pressure under 120/80, normal blood sugars, and total cholesterol under 200 mg/dL. If you went to your doctor with those kinds of numbers, you’d likely get a gold star and a lollipop. But, if your doctor used ultrasound and CT scans to actually peek inside your body, atherosclerotic plaques would be detected in about 38% of individuals with those kinds of “optimal” numbers.

    Maybe we should define an LDL cholesterol level as optimal only when it no longer causes disease. What a concept! When more than a thousand men and women in their 40s were scanned, having an LDL level under 130 mg/dL left them with atherosclerosis throughout their body, and that’s a cholesterol level at which most lab tests would consider normal.

    In fact, atherosclerotic plaques were not found with LDL levels down around 50 or 60, which just so happens to be the levels most people had “before the introduction of western lifestyles.” Indeed, before we started eating a typical American diet, “the majority of the adult population of the world had LDLs of around 50 mg per deciliter (mg/dL)”—so that’s the true normal. “Present average values…should not be regarded as ‘normal.’” We don’t want to have a normal cholesterol based on a sick society; we want a cholesterol that is normal for the human species, which may be down around 30 to 70 mg/dL or 0.8 to 1.8 mmol/L.

    “Although an LDL level of 50 to 70 mg/dl seems excessively low by modern American standards, it is precisely the normal range for individuals living the lifestyle and eating the diet for which we are genetically adapted.” Over millions of years, “through the evolution of the ancestors of man,” we’ve consumed a diet centered around whole plant foods. No wonder we have a killer epidemic of atherosclerosis, given the LDL level “we were ‘genetically designed for’ is less than half of what is presently considered ‘normal.’”

    In medicine, “there is an inappropriate tendency to accept small changes in reversible risk factors,” but “the goal is not to decrease risk but to prevent atherosclerotic plaques!” So, how low should you go? “In light of the latest evidence from trials exploring the benefits and risks of profound LDLc lowering, the answer to the question ‘How low do you go?’ is, arguably, a straightforward ‘As low as you can!’” “‘Lower’ may indeed be better,” but if you’re going to do it with drugs, then you have to balance that with the risk of the drug’s side effects.

    Why don’t we just drug everyone with statins, by putting them in the water supply, for instance? Although it would be great if everyone’s cholesterol were lower, there are the countervailing risks of the drugs. So, doctors aim to use statin drugs at the highest dose possible, achieving the largest LDL cholesterol reduction possible without increasing risk of the muscle damage the drugs may cause. But when you’re using lifestyle changes to bring down your cholesterol, all you get are the benefits.

    Can we get our LDL low enough with diet alone? Ask some of the country’s top cholesterol experts what they shoot for, “and the odds are good that many will say 70 or so.” So, yes, we should try to avoid the saturated fats and trans fats found in junk foods and meat, and the dietary cholesterol found mostly in eggs, but “it is unlikely anyone can achieve an LDL cholesterol level of 70 mg/dL with a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet alone.” Really? Many doctors have this mistaken impression. An LDL of 70 isn’t only possible on a healthy enough diet, but it may be normal. Those eating strictly plant-based diets can average an LDL that low, as you can see here and at 5:28 in my video.

    No wonder plant-based diets are the only dietary patterns ever proven to reverse coronary heart disease in a majority of patients. And their side effects? You get to feel better, too! Several randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that more plant-based dietary patterns significantly improve psychological well-being and quality of life, with improvements in depression, anxiety, emotional well-being, physical well-being, and general health.

    For more on cholesterol, see the related posts below.



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  • How culinary nutrition is changing dietetic practice

    How culinary nutrition is changing dietetic practice


    Culinary nutrition is reshaping how dietitians connect food, culture and science – and Sharon Croxford is leading the way. An award-winning academic, chef and dietitian, Sharon shares her journey from Istanbul cooking schools to Australian classrooms, and how she’s helping redefine the role of food and culture in dietetic practice. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation on this evolving field.

    Hosted by Brooke Delfino

    Biography

    Sharon Croxford is an award-winning academic with 30 years’ APD experience. Sharon also trained as a chef, wanting to bridge the gap between nutrition and dietetics, and food and cooking. She lived between London and Istanbul for more than a decade, opening a cooking school focusing on Ottoman and Turkish cuisine. Sharon returned to Australia and has focused on research on dietary acculturation and bringing food and cooking, and culinary nutrition, into nutrition and dietetics curricula. She is a published academic and popular writer, photographer, and a mum.

     


    In this episode, we discuss:

    • What makes culinary nutrition distinct from traditional approaches to food prep and cooking skills
    • Key competencies and pathways into the field
    • Strategies to understand diverse food cultures
    • The importance of curiosity and lifelong learning in dietetics

    Additional resources


    Additional reading:

    The content, products and/or services referred to in this podcast are intended for Health Care Professionals only and are not, and are not intended to be, medical advice, which should be tailored to your individual circumstances. The content is for your information only, and we advise that you exercise your own judgement before deciding to use the information provided. Professional medical advice should be obtained before taking action. The reference to particular products and/or services in this episode does not constitute any form of endorsement. Please see  here  for terms and conditions.


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  • Fasting and Plant-Based Diets for Migraines and Traumatic Brain Injuries 

    Fasting and Plant-Based Diets for Migraines and Traumatic Brain Injuries 

    What effects do fasting and a plant-based diet have on TBI and migraines?

    An uncontrolled and unpublished study purported to show a beneficial effect of fasting on migraine headaches, but fasting may be more likely to trigger a migraine than help it. In fact, “skipped meals are among the most consistently identified dietary triggers” of headaches in general. In a review of hundreds of fasts at the TrueNorth Health Center in California, the incidence of headache was nearly one in three, but TrueNorth also published a remarkable case report on post-traumatic headache.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than a million Americans sustain traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) every year. Chronic pain is a common complication, affecting perhaps three-quarters of those who suffer such an injury. There are drugs, of course, to treat post-traumatic headache. There are always drugs. And if drugs don’t work, there is surgery, cutting the nerves to the head to stop the pain.

    What about fasting and plants? A 52-year-old woman presented with a highly debilitating, difficult-to-manage, unremitting, chronic post-traumatic headache. And when I say chronic, I mean chronic; she experienced pain for 16 years. She then achieved long-term relief after fasting, followed by an exclusively plant-foods diet, free of added sugar, oil, or salt.

    Before then, she had tried drug after drug after drug after drug after drug—with no relief, suffering in constant pain for years. Before the fast, she started out in constant pain. Then, after the fast, the intensity of the pain was cut in half, and though she was still having daily headaches, at least there were some pain-free periods. Six months later, she tried again, and eventually her headaches became mild, lasting less than ten minutes, and infrequent. She continued that way for months and even years, as you can see below and at 1:45 in my video Fasting for Post-Traumatic Brain Injury Headache. 

    Now, of course, it’s hard to disentangle the effects of the fasting from the effects of the whole food, plant-based diet she remained on for those ensuing years. You’ve heard of analgesics (painkillers). Well, there are some foods that may be pro-algesic (pain-promoting), such as foods high in arachidonic acid, including meats, dairy, and eggs. So, the lowering of arachidonic acid—from which our body makes a range of pro-inflammatory compounds—may be accomplished by eating a more plant-based diet. So, maybe that contributed to the benefit in the fasting case, since many plant foods are high in anti-inflammatory components. In terms of migraine headaches, more plant foods and less animal foods may help, but you don’t know until you put it to the test.

    Researchers figured a plant-based diet may offer the best of both worlds, so they designed a randomized, controlled, crossover study where those with recurrent migraines were randomized to eat a strictly plant-based diet or take a placebo pill. Then, the groups switched. During the placebo phase, half of the participants said their pain improved, and the other half said their pain remained the same or got worse. But, during the dietary phase, they almost all got better, as you can see here and at 3:11 in my video.

    During that first phase, the diet group experienced significant improvements in the number of headaches, pain intensity, and days with headaches, as well as a reduction in the amount of painkillers they needed to take. In fact, it worked a little too well. Many individuals were unwilling to return to their previous diets after they completed the diet phase of the trial, thereby refusing to complete the study. Remember, the participants were supposed to go back to their regular diets and take a placebo pill, but they felt so much better on the plant-based diet that they refused. We’ve seen this with other trials, where those trying plant-based diets felt so good, they often refused to abandon them, harming the study. So, plant-based diets can sometimes work a little too well.

    All my videos on fasting are available in a digital download here.  



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  • Should We Fast for IBS?

    Should We Fast for IBS?

    More than half of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers appear to have a form of atypical food allergy.

    A chronic gastrointestinal disorder, irritable bowel syndrome affects about one in ten people. You may have heard about low-FODMAP diets, but they don’t appear to work any better than the standard advice to avoid things like coffee or spicy and fatty foods. In fact, you can hardly tell which is which, as shown below and at 0:27 in my video Friday Favorites: Fasting for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

    Most IBS patients, however, do seem to react to specific foods, such as eggs, wheat, dairy, or soy sauce, but when they’re tested with skin prick tests for typical food allergies, they may come up negative. We want to know what happens inside their gut when they eat those things, though, not what happens on their skin. Enter confocal laser endomicroscopy.

    You can snake a microscope down the throat, into the gut, and watch in real-time as the gut wall becomes inflamed and leaky after foods are dripped in. Isn’t that fascinating? You can actually see cracks forming within minutes, as shown below and at 1:03 in my video. This had never been tested on a large group of IBS patients, though, until now.

    Using this new technology, researchers found that more than half of IBS sufferers have this kind of reaction to various foods—“an atypical food allergy” that flies under the radar of traditional allergy tests. As you can see below and at 1:28 in my video, when you exclude those foods from the diet, there is a significant alleviation of symptoms.

    However, outside a research setting, there’s no way to know which foods are the culprit without trying an exclusion diet, and there’s no greater exclusion diet than excluding everything. A 25-year-old woman had complained of abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea for a year, and drugs didn’t seem to help. But, after fasting for ten days, her symptoms improved considerably and appeared to stay that way at least 18 months later. It wasn’t just subjective improvement either. Biopsies were taken that showed the inflammation had gone down, her bowel irritability was measured directly, and expanding balloons and electrodes were inserted in her rectum to measure changes in her sensitivity to pressure and electrical stimulation. Fasting seemed to reboot her gut in a way, but just because it worked for her doesn’t mean it works for others. Case reports are most useful when they inspire researchers to put them to the test.

    “Despite research efforts to develop a cure for IBS, medical treatment for this condition is still unsatisfactory.” We can try to suppress the symptoms with drugs, but what do we do when even that doesn’t work? In a study of 84 IBS patients, 58 of whom failed basic treatment (consisting of pharmacotherapy and brief psychotherapy), 36 of the 58 who were still suffering underwent ten days of fasting, whereas the other 22 stuck with the basic treatment. The findings? Those in the fasting group experienced significant improvements in abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, loss of appetite, nausea, anxiety, and interference with life in general, which were significantly better than those of the control group. The researchers concluded that fasting therapy “could be useful for treating moderate to severe patients with IBS.”

    Unfortunately, patient allocation was neither blinded nor randomized in the study, so the comparison to the control group doesn’t mean much. They were also given vitamins B1 and C via IV, which seems typical of Japanese fasting trials, even though one would not expect vitamin-deficiency syndromes—beriberi or scurvy—to present within just ten days of fasting. The study participants were also isolated; might that make the psychotherapy work better? It’s hard to tease out just the fasting effects.

    Psychotherapy alone can provide lasting benefits. Researchers randomized 101 outpatients with irritable bowel syndrome to medical treatment or medical treatment with three months of psychotherapy. After three months, the psychotherapy group did better, and the difference was even more pronounced a year later, a year after the psychotherapy ended. Better at three months, and even better at 15 months, as you can see here and at 3:58 in my video.

    Psychological approaches appear to work about as well as antidepressant drugs for IBS, but the placebo response for IBS is on the order of 40%, whether psychological interventions, drugs, or alternative medicine approaches. So, doing essentially nothing—taking a sugar pill—improves symptoms 40% of the time. In that case, I figure one might as well choose a therapy that’s cheap, safe, simple, and free of side effects, which extended fasting is most certainly not. But, if all else fails, it may be worth exploring fasting under close physician supervision.

    All my fasting videos are available in a digital download here.

    Check the videos on the topic that are already on the site here. 

    For more on IBS, see related posts below. 

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  • GDM screening & nutrition updates

    GDM screening & nutrition updates


    With new gestational diabetes guidelines released this year, it’s the perfect time to brush up on the latest evidence and explore what’s changing for dietitians in pregnancy care. In this episode, Accredited Practising Dietitian and researcher, Purva Gulyani, joins us to unpack the updates, dispel common myths and share practical, culturally inclusive strategies to support women through pregnancy.

    Hosted by Brooke Delfino

    Biography

    Purva Gulyani is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, researcher, PhD Candidate at La Trobe University and Director of Diet Yumm, with over 18 years of clinical and community nutrition experience across India and Australia.  Purva is passionate about simplifying nutrition, prevention-focused care, and advocating for culturally safe, evidence-based practice.

     


    In this episode, we discuss:

    • Key changes in the 2025 gestational diabetes guidelines
    • Evidence-based dietary strategies for management
    • Common misconceptions and how to address them
    • How to provide culturally inclusive nutrition advice

    Additional resources

    Connect with Purva at dietyumm.com or on  LinkedIn

    Click here to learn more about the updated recommendations for the screening, diagnosis and classification of gestational diabetes


    Additional reading:

    The content, products and/or services referred to in this podcast are intended for Health Care Professionals only and are not, and are not intended to be, medical advice, which should be tailored to your individual circumstances. The content is for your information only, and we advise that you exercise your own judgement before deciding to use the information provided. Professional medical advice should be obtained before taking action. The reference to particular products and/or services in this episode does not constitute any form of endorsement. Please see  here  for terms and conditions.


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  • Might Meat Trigger Parkinson’s Disease? 

    Might Meat Trigger Parkinson’s Disease? 

    What does the gut have to do with developing Parkinson’s disease?

    Parkinson’s disease is an ever-worsening neurodegenerative disorder that results in death and affects about 1 in 50 people as they get older. A small minority of cases are genetic, running in families, but 85% to 90% of cases are sporadic, meaning they seem to pop up out of nowhere. Parkinson’s is caused by the death of a certain kind of nerve cell in the brain. Once about 70% of them are gone, the symptoms start. What kills off those cells? It still isn’t completely clear, but the abnormal clumping of a protein called alpha-synuclein or α-synuclein is thought to be involved. Why? Researchers injected blended Parkinson’s brains into the heads of rats and monkeys, and Parkinson’s pathology and symptoms were induced. It can even happen when injecting just the pure, clumped α-synuclein strands themselves. How, though, do these clumps naturally end up in the brain?

    As I discuss in my video The Role Meat May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease, it all seems to start in the gut. The part of the brain where the pathology often first appears is directly connected to the gut, and we have direct evidence of the spread of Parkinson’s pathology from the gastrointestinal (GI) tract to the brain: α-synuclein from brains of Parkinson’s patients is taken up in the gut wall and creeps up the vagal nerves from the gut into the brain—at least that was the case in rats. If only we could go back and look at people’s colons before they got Parkinson’s. Indeed, we can. Old colon biopsies from people who would later develop Parkinson’s were dredged up, and, years before symptoms arose, you could see the α-synuclein in their gut.

    Research supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation has found that you can reliably distinguish the colons of patients from controls by the presence of this Parkinson’s protein lodged in the gut wall. But how did it get there in the first place? Are “vertebrate food products…a potential source of prion-like α-synuclein”? Indeed, nearly all the animals with backbones that we consume—cows, chickens, pigs, and fish—express the protein α-synuclein. So, when we eat common meat products, when we eat skeletal muscle, we’re eating nerves, blood cells, and the muscle cells themselves. Every pound of meat contains, on average, half a teaspoon of blood, and that alone could be an α-synuclein source to potentially trigger a clumping cascade of our own α-synuclein in the gut. Though “it may seem intuitive that dietary α-synuclein could seed aggregation in the gut,” this kind of buildup, what evidence do we have that it’s actually happening?

    We have some pretty interesting data. There’s a surgical procedure called a vagotomy, in which the big nerve that goes from our gut to our brain—the vagus nerve—is cut as an old-timey treatment for stomach ulcers. Would cutting communication between the gut and the brain reduce Parkinson’s risk? Apparently so, suggesting that the gut to brain’s vagal nerve may be critically involved in the development of Parkinson’s disease.

    Of course, “many people regularly consume meat and dairy products, but only a small fraction of the general population will develop PD,” Parkinson’s disease. So, there must be other factors at play that “may provide an opportunity for unwanted dietary α-synuclein to enter the host, and initiate disease.” For example, our gut becomes leakier as we age, so might that play a role? What else makes our gut leaky? “Dietary fiber deprivation has also been shown to degrade the intestinal barrier and enhance pathogen entry.” So, this raises “possibilities for food-based therapies.”

    Parkinson’s patients have significantly less Prevotella in their gut, a friendly fiber-eating flora that bolsters our intestinal barrier function. So, low levels of Prevotella are linked to a leaky gut, which has been linked to intestinal α-synuclein deposition, but fiber-rich foods may bring Prevotella levels back up. “Therefore, it is possible that by adopting a plant-based diet, in addition to the beneficial effects of phytonutrients, increasing overall fiber intake may modify gut microbiota and gut permeability [leakiness] in beneficial ways for people with PD.”

    So, does a vegan diet—one with lots of fiber and no meat—reduce risk for Parkinson’s? Parkinson’s “appears to be rare in quasi-vegan cultures,” with rates that are about five times lower in rural sub-Saharan Africa, for instance. All this time, we were thinking the benefits seen for Parkinson’s from plant-based diets were due to the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nature of the animal-free diets, but maybe it’s also due to the increased intestinal exposure to fiber and decreased intestinal exposure to ingested nerves, muscles, and blood.

    Wasn’t that fascinating? For more on Parkinson’s, see the related posts below.



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  • Opening session reflections FNCE® 2025

    Opening session reflections FNCE® 2025

    The event started on Saturday, October 11 with a dynamic opening session featuring TV host, author and award winning chef Carla Hall. Hall was the perfect speaker to invigorate dietitians and nutrition professionals before a whirlwind four days in Nashville, TN. A Tennessee native herself, Hall used her professional experience and understanding of culture to inspire those in attendance as she spoke about the ways food connects us. Speaking from the heart, Hall adlibbed her way in and out of her talk, weaving in personal anecdotes from her dinner the night before at local Nashville spot, “The Audry” and reminiscing about personal food memories like savoring her mother’s meatloaf and her grandmother’s specialty dish, hot water cornbread.

    Hall shared her personal connection to food through her African American roots inspiring attendees to think about their own food memories, and she challenged everyone to think beyond food as energy. Having this perspective is crucial for dietitans to better counsel clients and patients in an inclusive and culturally appropriate way. Hall spoke about the difference between a “celebration food” versus an “everyday food,” and also called on those in the food industry to consider the nutrient density of the items on their menus as so many rely on takeout or dine at restaurants regularly. She even gave the example of another chef changing his menu after he realized he couldn’t routinely eat in his own restaurant. Just as dietitians adapt to new and emerging trends others in the food industry should too. Hall emphasized that, “Food is nourishment. Food is fuel. And food is connection.”

    The passionate way Hall talked about food and the impact it has had on her life shined through every moment of her session. Attendees left inspired, energized and empowered to connect with food in ways that nourish their body and well-being.

     

    Alyssa Smolen, MS, RDN, CDN, is a community dietitian, communications cochair for the NJAND, and nutrition content creator on Instagram. She has been quoted as a nutrition expert in Food Network, Forbes, Parade and US News and World Report. Her account, @arugalyssa, promotes simple recipes and is a source for myth-busting nutrition misinformation.

    You can connect with Alyssa on Instagram, TikTokand LinkedIn



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  • That’s a wrap on FNCE® 2025

    That’s a wrap on FNCE® 2025

     

    FNCE 2025 offered a broad look at emerging trends, technologies, and conversations shaping the nutrition profession. Held in Nashville, USA, from October 11-14, it was an incredible opportunity for the Dietitian Connection team to connect with so many trail-blazers in the field, and we came away with so many lessons.

    Here are five key takeaways from this year’s conference:

    • Food as connection, culture, and community

    Chef Carla Hall opened FNCE with an inspiring reminder that food is more than fuel. It’s a reflection of who we are and how we connect. Her message set an uplifting tone for the week and grounded the conference in what truly brings us together.

    • Creatine is having a moment

    Creatine was everywhere — from the expo floor to the learning lounge and education sessions. Interest in this area is expanding beyond performance into areas like cognition, aging, and women’s health.

    • Is fiber the new protein?

    After several years of protein-focused products, this year brought a noticeable shift back to fiber. With “fibermaxxing” trending in the media, fiber-forward products had the opportunity to seize the moment.

    • AI will reshape nutrition communication

    AI is influencing how dietitians create, share, and even see their content re-used online. Conversations around accuracy, evidence-based information, and how the RD voice can feed large language models are becoming increasingly important.

    • But, where was the food in the expo hall?

    To us, the expo floor looked a little different. There seemed to be fewer commodity boards and food samples and more supplements, tech, and business solutions. Innovation in the industry is exciting, but it raised a question: have we moved a bit too far from the plate at a food and nutrition conference?

     

    Find out more in these recaps from trailblazing early-career dietitian Alyssa Smolen, MS, RDN, CDN:

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  • Opening session reflections FNCE® 2025

    Opening session reflections FNCE® 2025

    Reflections from the 2025 FNCE® Closing Session

    By Maree Ferguson

     

    Staying Authentic and Playing the Long Game: Joy Bauer in Conversation with Andy Cohen

     

    At FNCE, Joy Bauer sat down with Andy Cohen for a candid conversation about building a career that blends passion, authenticity, and balance.

    There was some controversy with Andy being chosen as the keynote speaker.  Not knowing too much about him, as an Australian who doesn’t watch The Real Housewives, I went in with an open mind..

    Andy shared that while his “day job” has always remained his main focus, but side projects keep things interesting. His mantra? Lean into the mess. Be yourself, stay relaxed, and go with what you know. Audiences can sense when you’re genuine, and authenticity always wins.

    He encouraged dietitians to see today’s media landscape and digital world as full of opportunity. Start small, focus on doing one thing really well, then build from there. “This is a great time for content creators,” Andy said. “There are so many platforms; use them strategically to expand your footprint.”

    To stay visible and relevant, Andy suggested focusing on what people already recognize you for, then using that as the foundation to pivot into new areas. A podcast, blog, or social media can help new audiences discover you.

    Andy also stressed the importance of discipline and consistency, from meeting every deadline to keeping a clear perspective on what really matters. He shared that writing daily for years helped him reflect, stay grounded and be intentional about life choices.  When it comes to balance, family keeps Andy’s career in perspective. He makes time for what matters most, even if that means saying no to opportunities that don’t align.

    Despite his success, Andy reminded everyone that “nobody is immune to haters.” His advice: focus on your community, stay true to what you do best, and put your phone down when things feel overwhelming.  Reconnect with real people, and remember that what feels big online often isn’t.

    Ultimately, Andy’s message was about playing the long game: prioritize what fuels you, protect your time, and keep showing up with passion and purpose.

    And a big shoutout to Joy Bauer who nailed the interview!  Joy led a dynamic, engaging conversation blending career insights with personal stories, and kept the energy high from start to finish. A truly gifted interviewer!

    To see more of Joy in conversation with dietitians – check out our Dietitian to Dietitian webseries. 

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  • Lose Weight with Cumin and Saffron? 

    Lose Weight with Cumin and Saffron? 

    The spice cumin can work as well as orlistat, the “anal leakage” obesity drug.

    In my video Friday Favorites: Benefits of Black Cumin for Weight Loss, I discussed how a total of 17 randomized controlled trials showed that the simple spice could reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels. And its side effects? A weight-loss effect.

    Saffron is another spice found to be effective for treating a major cause of suffering—depression, in this study, with a side effect of decreased appetite. Indeed, when put to the test in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, saffron was found to lead to significant weight loss, five pounds more than placebo, and an extra inch off the waist in eight weeks. The dose of saffron used in the study was the equivalent of drinking a cup of tea made from a large pinch of saffron threads.

    Suspecting the active ingredient might be crocin, the pigment in saffron that accounts for its crimson color, as shown here and at 0:59 in my video Friday Favorites: Benefits of Cumin and Saffron for Weight Loss, researchers also tried giving people just the purified pigment.

    That also led to weight loss, but it didn’t do as well as the full saffron extract and only beat the placebo by two pounds and half an inch off the waist. The mechanism appeared to be appetite suppression, as the crocin group ended up averaging about 80 fewer calories a day, whereas the full saffron group consumed an average of 170 fewer daily calories, as you can see below and at 1:21 in my video.

    A similar study looked specifically at snacking frequency. The researchers thought that the mood-boosting effects of saffron might cut down on stress-related eating. Indeed, eight weeks of a saffron extract halved snack intake, compared to a placebo. There was also a slight but statistically significant weight loss of about two pounds, as you can see here and at 1:41 in my video, which is pretty remarkable, given that tiny doses were utilized—about 100 milligrams, which is equivalent to about an eighth of a teaspoon of the spice.

    The problem is that saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. It’s composed of delicate threads sticking out of the saffron crocus flower. Each flower produces only a few threads, so about 50,000 flowers are needed to make a single pound of spice. That’s enough flowers to cover a football field. So, that pinch of saffron could cost a dollar a day.

    That’s why, in my 21 Tweaks to accelerate weight loss in How Not to Diet, I include black cumin, instead of saffron, as you can see here and at 2:30 in my video. And, at a quarter teaspoon a day, the daily dose of black cumin would only cost three cents.

    What about just regular cumin? Used in cuisines around the world from Tex-Mex to South Asian, cumin is the second most popular spice on Earth after black pepper. It is one of the oldest cultivated plants with a range of purported medicinal uses, but only recently has it been put to the test for weight loss. Those randomized to a half teaspoon at both lunch and dinner over three months lost about four more pounds and an extra inch off their waist. The spice was found to be comparable to the obesity drug known as orlistat.

    If you remember, orlistat is the “anal leakage” drug sold under the brand names Alli and Xenical. The drug company apparently prefers the term “faecal spotting” to describe the rectal discharge it causes, though. The drug company’s website offered some helpful tips, including: “It’s probably a smart idea to wear dark pants, and bring a change of clothes with you to work.” You know, just in case their drug causes you to poop in your pants at the office.

    I think I’ll stick with the cumin, thank you very much.

    Doctor’s Note

    The video on black cumin that I mentioned is Friday Favorites: Benefits of Black Cumin Seed (Nigella Sativa) for Weight Loss.

    My other videos on saffron are in the related posts below.

    For an in-depth dive into weight loss, see my book How Not to Diet. 



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