Not seeing in front of their noses

There is an article in the L.A. Times concerning the obesity problem particularly in Hispanic children. This quote is key:

Looking more closely at the foods the kids ate, 68% of calories came primarily from soda, desserts, pizza, chips, fruit drinks, fruit juice, processed meats and burgers. About one-fourth of the children went over the maximum intake level of 25% for added sugars.

So, after having seen this, what do you suppose the headline is?

Hispanic children are getting most nutrients, but eating too much fat

Say what? That list clearly implicates sugar as the problem! Unbelievable!

Australian researchers still fret over LDL.

This report comes from the 17th Obesity conference in Amsterdam.  It worries that a long-term low-carbohydrate diet increases LDL cholesterol, in spite of quite a hike in HDL!  I thought it was already well known that saturated fat increases both so what's the big surprise here?  I don't have the source of the paper, and they don't mention particle size or VLDL measurements.

The presenter, Dr. Clifton, seems very concerned about the modest rise in LDL, but silent on the substantial rise in HDL, which I thought is known to be a much better marker for low CVD risk. Further, he attributes this rise not to the diet, but to the modest weight loss in the study group!

It's hard to tell what's really going on based solely on the news report.  One thing I will have to check on is "flow-mediated dilation" (FMD) which is a measure the researchers seem concerned with.

Crème fraîche

In my quest to add more fat into my diet, I've reconnected with my Ukrainian roots and been eating a lot of sour cream. I found that the Liberté brand is good because it doesn't have a lot of additives. Here is the list of ingredients on the container: milk, cream, skim milk powder, bacterial culture, microbial enzymes.

One day my local Provigo was out of stock on this, so I picked up a Sealtest brand sour cream. This is what that brand lists: milk ingredients, modified corn starch, guar gum, carrageenan, carob gum, sodium citrate, bacterial culture.

My first thought was that, ideally, sour cream should have two ingredients: cream and bacterial culture. Sealtest doesn't even list cream! I wrote to Sealtest and asked them why they add corn starch, because I don't want to eat that on a grain-free diet. Their courteous and timely response was that the starch was a thickening agent which improves the texture, and that every other ingredient has a specific purpose. I forgot to ask what the difference between "milk" and "milk ingredients" is. Well, no thanks, I'll stick to the Liberté brand for now.

Shortly after that exchange, I stumbled upon another Liberté product in a smaller grocery. It is called "crème fraîche" and it lists exactly two ingredients: cream, bacterial culture. Bingo! At 40% fat, this is yummy stuff, great for smothering a piece of fresh fruit, or just having a tablespoon straight. It has the consistency of ice cream, and although it has yogurt culture in it, it's not sour tasting. This stuff is going to be part of my regular fare for a good while, I think.