Olive Oil May Be Key in Recent Mediterranean Health Benefits Study

The Mediterranean diet, rich in whole fruits, vegetables, grains, lean protein and olive oil, was recently found to be more beneficial than a low fat diet in controlling weight gain and type 2 diabetes , a recent study conducted at the Second University of Naples in Italy suggests.

According to a U.S. News & World Report article dated August 31, eating a Mediterranean diet prevented anti-hyperglycemic drug therapy in about one-third of the patients studied, said study author Dr. Dario Giugliano.

Over 200 type-2 diabetic sufferers were randomly divided into two groups for the study, which is now published in the September issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, according to the report. Half were assigned a low-fat diet and half were assigned a Mediterranean diet.

The low-fat participants were restricted to 1,800 calories per day for males and 1,500 calories per day for females. They were not al lowed to eat more than 30-percent fat.

Those who were assigned the Mediterranean diet, were also restricted to the same amount of calories. The difference being that they were not allowed to eat more than 50-percent carbohydrates, although their fat-intake was not monitored.

After the four-year-study was completed, it was found that 26-percent less of those who participated in the Mediterranean diet had to take diabetes medication compared to those who adhered to the low fat diet.

Also, the study found that body-mass-index was down 1.2 points for the group that followed the Mediterranean diet, compared to only 0.9 to those who followed the low fat diet.

The difference could be in the olive oil.

“People feel more satisfied eating healthy fats,” certified dietician and nutritionist Mary Killian from Gainesville said.

It is important to note, however, that participants in both groups were restricted to the same caloric-intake.

“Most people who have diabetes are insulin-resistant,” Killian said. “Their bodies over-produce insulin when they take in too many carbohydrates.”

“The more insulin you produced, the hungrier you become, and you store more f at,” Killian said.

"Healthy fat can give you the benefit of keeping your glucose well-maintained for longer periods of time," said University of Florida nutritionist Liz Lagasse. “That is the name of the game in diabetes."

“Olive oil is primarily a mono-unsaturated fat,” Lagasse said. “Mono-unsaturated fat is heart-healthy, so it can actually clear out and balance fat that has been clogged in the arteries.”

“Extra-virgin olive oil is from the first pressing of the olive,” she said. “Olives are anti-oxidant rich and there is an even higher level of that in extra-virgin.”

“I don’t think it is genetic, that people from Italy will necessarily thrive better on an Italian diet,” Lagasse said, in response to the notion that conducting the study among Mediterranean people could have skewed the results.

“They may have felt more comfortable and more satisfied eating food that were more familiar.”

She did, however, concede that the fact the doctors knew which patients were on which diets could have brought out possible biases for the Mediterranean diet.

“There is not one magic food or activity that will prevent type 2 diabetes,” she said.

“A really great way to eat is by listening to your hunger cues,” she said. “When you do that, you eat before getting too hungry and your glucose dropping below normal.”

“When you get too hungry, then you have to get too full, creating a low-blood sugar, followed by a really high-blood sugar.”

“The way to avoid that is to eat something balanced nutritionally when you get hungry, which should be about every three or four hours.”

“The Mediterranean diet has complex carbohydrates; it has whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and has mono-unsaturated oil," she said. "It can keep you from getting too hungry and overall balance your glucose and prevent you from overeating."

The Psychology of Danger

Hearing of another terrorist plot on U.S. soil uncovered, reminds me of the vedic passage,"Padam padam yad vipadam na tesam," or, roughly translated into English, "In the material world there is danger at every step."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092201113.html?hpid=moreheadlines

We innately know this at all times, yet when such news surfaces, we feel more vulnerable.  The fact is, millions of people ride the transit system in New York every day; if a handful of people are killed, what are the odds it will be you, even if you regularly use the system?  Miniscule. That's right.  On the other hand, the odds of dying in some way eventually, are 100-percent.

Why are we so afraid of becoming a victim of terrorism when the fact remains that we are already destined to become a victim of the worst result of terrorism, namely death?  We don't walk around in fear of that everyday, do we? But the fact also remains that it could come at any time and happen in any way.

I, for one, while a reasonably prudent man, don't want to live the rest of my life in fear. Perhaps Bob Dylan, in his song "Let Me Die in My Footsteps," put it best:

I will not go down under the ground

Cause somebody tells me that death's comin' 'round
An' I will not carry myself down to die
When I go to my grave my head will be high,
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

The Pipe Dream

It is often argued that people should turn to tap water to help the cause of the environment.  Well, I'm all for preserving the environment and my activities hopefully show it.  I recycle, drive a car that gets 40 mph, and perhaps, most importantly, am a vegetarian.  I, however, have balked at the idea of drinking tap water over bottled water for the very reason reported here:

http://www.aolhealth.com/healthy-living/pollution-water-effects?icid=main|main|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolhealth.com%2Fhealthy-living%2Fpollution-water-effects

According to the article, about 40-percent of all U.S. community drinking water supplies violate the Safe Water Drinking Act.

In short, I'm not drinking it.  Therefore, I go to those reverse-osmosis machines and fill up 5-gallon containers for $1.50.  They last a long time.  If I do use bottled water, I only use the companies that have actually been tested pure, and I recycle.  Even if I have to carry the plastic bottle around all day or leave it in the back of my car until I get home.

So, yeah, clean it up and I'll drink it but I'm not drinking toxic waste in the name of recycling.  Until then, it's just a pipe dream.

Control Freaks Gone Over the Edge

It appears as if Anie Le's accused killer, Raymond Clark, is being described by those who knew him a little differently than how accused killers are normally described.  The ABC News headline, "Raymond Clark's Co-Workers Describe Him as a 'Control Freak,' " marks the first time I can remember that a neighbor or co-worker hasn't described a man accused of a horrible murder or host of murders as a "quiet" or "nice" guy who "mostly kept to himself."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/raymond-clark-silent-motive-annie-le-murder/story?id=8607846

While perusing through Barnes & Nobles Booksellers on Thursday, I noticed a book that claimed that 1 in 25 of us are psychologically capable of killing someone in a cold and calculating manner.  If that is indeed true, it's something for me to think about considering how many people I come across every day just walking around campus. 

I would think to kill someone so coldly, you would have to be an extremely self-centered person with very little respect or internal emphasis on the value of life.  To take something away from someone so dear and vital, is vile and offensive to any individual with any semblance of a heart.

Whether a person keeps it to his or herself or wears it on their sleeve- it would seem that a person who commits cold-calculating murder is a person with major control issues.  I can only  imagine that such a person sees the free will of others as far less significant than his or her own.  

In such a state of consciousness,  such a person's illusory sense of  domain increases exponentially to the point where they become quite capable of pulling the trigger, stabbing with the knife or strangling with the hands, in order to somehow appease their false sense of place in the world.

It's In His Kiss

What's that song called written by Rudy Clark and performed by Betty Everret, who made it a number one song in 1964?  I believe it's called "The Shoop Shoop Song," or perhaps it is better known as "It's In His Kiss."  It goes something like, "If you want to know if he loves you so; it's in his kiss."

Well, here's a kiss of a different nature, that although seemed to start sweet enough, almost turned into the kiss of death:  

http://news.aol.com/article/kiss-cited-as-cause-for-pennsylvania-car/675483

According to the story, as posted by AOL, a man proposes marriage while driving with his girl in their car, kisses her, and then crashes. Someone could have been killed , but fortunately, no one did.

Which just goes to show you, as Gilda Radner used to say-  Even if your vision is tainted by love,  you still have to at least somewhat watch what you're doing. 

Thoughts On Summer Celebrity Deaths

In the summer of '08, I was flipping through some George Carlin cds at a Virgin store in Times Square.  Later, I found out that he died that day.  While I was there, I had bought a T-shirt with John Lennon in military fatigues with the caption "Revolution" on it.  It brought me back to the night of December 8, 1980, when a 16-year-old version of myself visited a local record store in my home state of Connecticut and purchased John and Yoko's Double Fantasy album.    That night, I heard of Lennon's terrible murder.  The next day, there was no school because of a snow storm and I walked around the snow-covered yard in shock.

Just a few nights before Carlin's death, I had watched an HBO special with Carlin broaching the subject of erotic asphyxiation, where a man cuts off his air-supply at the point of sexual climax in order to enhance his orgasm.  Apparently, many males have died this way during the act of masturbation.  Suffice it to say, Carlin didn't recommend it, calling it "too risky."  Whatever the case, he died shortly thereafter of heart failure despite his caution.

One person who did not make it through the summer of '09 was David Carradine.  According to reports, it is likely that the 73-year-old died by this very method of erotic asphyxiation.  Not a very dignified way to go, in my opinion but, after all,  everyone has got to go somehow.  According to the website Pop Eater, (http://www.popeater.com/2009/09/01/summer-of-death/?icid=main|main|dl2|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2F2009%2F09%2F01%2Fsummer-of-death%2F), 21 celebrities left us during the summer of 2009, including Micael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, who died on the same day.  Usually, publications report on obituaries of note at year's end but this time they felt the numbers significant enough to file a report of summer celebrity deaths.  

My visit to Virgin that day has become somehow significant to me.  It loosely brought together three of my childhood heroes, Lennon, Carlin, and Carradine, in one day, all who have now met their demise.  Shortly after the visit, the Virgin Mega Store also bit the dust, a reflection of the dying cd.  Times Square just doesn't seem the same to me anymore.

White House Backing Down on Health Care Reform

When Barack Obama campaigned for the office of president, one of his main platforms was health care reform.  Now it appears, with the announcement that the White House is not completely firm on the need for a public option (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD9AHRLFG0), that health care reform may be falling flat again, just as it did during the early Clinton administration.  

So, in light of this turn of events, the question that naturally arises is- If every industrialized nation in the world has free health care available to their citizens, then what is the problem with the United States?

When asked about the struggle for health care reform, 30-time emmy-award-winning journalist Bill Moyer had this to say on a recent Real Time with Bill Maher show:

"This is harder because there's more money on the side of those who oppose health care reform than there was in the '60s.  Money was important in the '60s but it was not as persuasive and as powerful as it is today  Having been there, I find it hard to understand why this country has not embraced the notion of health care reform as a common human need to which everyone should have access- regardless of their economic resources."

Apparently,  the position of President of the United States is not as powerful of a position as many think it is. Now, assuming that President Obama actually cares about all the citizens of the United States having access to affordable health care, the question naturally begs- Should President Obama compromise with these powerful interests (i.e. the insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries) in hopes of staying in political power come 2012 or should he fight for what he believes in and go down a noble man if he has to?  Time will tell what he decides.  At least 50 million people's future hangs in the balance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSQ2DWkVE0