Nutrition and Epidemiologic Studies
Submitted by David Weaver on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 8:34am
I recently attended the nutrition module for the coaching program I am currently working through. The speakers included Mat Lalonde, Ph.D and James Fitzgerald (OPT). These guys had an immense wealth of information and experience to share. There are many, many things I would like to share, and am in the works on how best to deliver the information to you. So stay tuned for that! In the mean time...there are some things I would like to discuss via the blog. The topic for today is: Epidemiological studies.
Here is Wikipedia's definition:
"Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventative medicine. It is considered a cornerstone methodology of public health research, and is highly regarded in evidence-based medicine for identifying risk factors for disease and determining optimal treatment approaches to clinical practice."
Epidemiology was originally founded to study epidemics and infectious disease. Scientists collect large amounts of data from a large number of people and look for trends and patterns. The purpose is to find the source of the disease.
This has been taken another step and is now widely used in the study of human metabolism and nutrition. The problem with this is that there are just way too many variables involved to come up with accurate facts. Think about yourself and your best friend. How many variables are there just between you and them? Too many to count, right? Therefore, an epidemiological study should only be used to come up with correlations. Further controlled trials must be done to achieve accurate results and conclusions.
So what does this matter to you and I? This matters greatly! This statement: "It is considered a cornerstone methodology of public health research" rings very true. We have taken BIASED, epidemiological studies and made recommendations to the general public. For example: "Fat is bad and causes heart disease." Some seriously flawed conclusions have been made that have NOT helped us all to achieve better health.
In conclusion, be CRITICAL of what you read. Is it a controlled scientific study? Or is it an interesting study that may lead to a hypothesis that should be studied further? Mat took us all the way down to the cellular level to show us exactly what happens within the cell. He broke it down to show exactly what the science points to in an unbiased manner. As a former vegetarian he was able to dissociate himself from his personal beliefs and follow the science that has led him to today.
More reading:
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/statistics/observational-studies-2/
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/08/china-study.aspx?aid=CD945
Recipes
Cinnamon Muffins
These are a delicious alternative to cinnamon rolls for a quick addition at breakfast or part of brunch!
Ingredients:
Muffin mix-
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon coconut milk
1/2 cup honey
Glaze-
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix together all the dry batter ingredients. Add the wet batter ingredients and mix well with a whisk. Pour batter evenly into twelve muffin cups.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
Mix all the topping ingredients in a separate bowl, and drizzle over the muffins.
*Recipe has been modified from original recipe from tropicaltraditions.com
