Olive Oil Good; Nutrition Keys Bad; Dishwasher Fungi Ugly
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, June 24th, 2011
Today’s Gut Check is a round-up of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of health news.
First the Good . . .
(Image: Luis Carlos Jimenez del rio/Shutterstock)
Yale University School of Medicine has come a step closer in understanding the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. This may be due in part to a polyphenol called oleuropein found in olive oil. The “short” of it is that oleuropein has a beneficial effect on smooth muscle cells (“SMC”), preventing them from proliferating and thereby contributing to heart disease.
Wine Spectator gives us a slightly more complex picture for those of you who like science (keep reading, it is good for you). The scientists harvested SMC from cows and grew them in the lab. Vascular SMC controls blood flow. When the muscle cells contract, blood pressure increases. When they relax, blood pressure decreases. If a person has a lot of “bad” cholesterol (or LDL), it damages the SMC and white blood cells come to the rescue to fight off inflammation. Sounds good at first?
Well, unfortunately, white blood cells also combine with the LDL and form “foam cells,” which cause more damage to the SMC. As the SMC “proliferates to try to heal itself,” it “combine[s] with the foam cells” to form arterial plaque. And arterial plaque can snowball into atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and heart disease. All bad stuff.
So this is where oleuropein comes in to save the day. The more oleuropein that was added to the cultured SMC, the less SMC developed to mix with foam cells and form arterial plaque.
Admittedly, the oleuropein study was not conducted on human cells, and you “would need to drink an extraordinary amount of extra-virgin oil to reach the high levels used in the study” (about 2 kilograms worth, to be specific!), but it is hypothesized that “olive oil consumption could have cumulative effects throughout one’s lifetime.”
The oleuropein study was recently published in the journal European Society for Vascular Surgery. For some Ah Love Oil, click here.
The Bad
In other Yale news, NPR reports on dissatisfaction with front-of-package labels called Nutrition Keys proposed by the food industry. The Nutrition Keys consist of boxes with “information on saturated fat, salt, sugar and calories,” plus two so-called “optional nutrients” of the industry’s choosing. The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale is critical of the Nutrition Keys for several reasons, and is calling for the food industry to await an upcoming report by the Institute of Medicine before implementing the Keys.
First, the Nutrition Keys labeling system is controversial because it is preempting White House, FDA, and Institute of Medicine endeavors to formulate an ideal front-of-package system. Second, the food industry’s previous labeling system was ill-considered and resulted, for instance, in Froot Loops and Cocoa Krispies being designated “Smart Choices” for their vitamin content! The Rudd Center is also critical of the minute size of the Keys — they account for only 1.5% of the surface area of the front of a box. As Kelly Brownell notes in the NPR piece, “My guess is that consumers will be lucky if they even notice it, much less make use of it.”
And Now the Ugly
It took me a LONG time to get over what I learned about pathogens in my Food Safety Manager Certification course. And just when I thought I had reined in my mysophobia, I read this Independent post. More than just your kitchen utensils are dishwasher safe these days. Apparently, a black yeast called Exophiala dermatitidis, and its so-called “cousin” E. phaeomuriformis, may be surviving and thriving in the rubber seal on your dishwasher door. A small sample was done of 189 homes in 101 cities and six continents and these two were found to outlast “high temperatures, aggressive doses of detergents and rinsing salts and both acid and alkaline types of water.” Blech! It is not known at this time what, if any, health threats the fungi present, but know that you are not alone:
-Johnisha M. Levi
Tags: Ah Love Oil & Vinegar, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, dishwasher, fungus, gross stuff, Gut Check, health news, heart disease, high blood pressure, Institute of Medicine, Johnisha M. Levi, Mediterranean diet, Michael Jackson, Mighty Mouse, mysophobia, Northern Virginia, Northern Virginia Magazine, NoVA, NPR, Nutrition Keys, oleuropein, olive oil, Rudd Center, Yale School of Medicine, Yeast, You are not Alone