Monthly Archives: December 2012

Vitamin B12 And Insulin Resistance

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Robert Barrington

It is known that deficiencies of some nutrients during pregnancy can adversely affect the foetus. A folic acid deficiency causing neural tube defects is a well know example. It is likely that other vitamin deficiencies affect the growing foetus, due … Continue reading →

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Vitamin D Fortification of Milk

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Poor vitamin D status is associated with an increasing list of disorders and diseases such as cancer, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The accepted biomarker for vitamin D status is 25-hydroxyvitamin D … Continue reading →

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Lipid Peroxidation and Endothelial Function

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Robert Barrington

The weight of evidence does not support the traditional cholesterol theory of cardiovascular disease. Instead, as molecular biology techniques improve, research is accumulating to suggest that a general poor quality diets lead to systemic inflammation and oxidative stress, and that … Continue reading →

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How Does Calcium Prevent Obesity?

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Epidemiological evidence suggests that low calcium intakes are associated with weight gain and obesity. However, the mechanism by which calcium may influence body weight in humans is not known. Animal studies are impotent tools to help elucidate possible mechanisms of … Continue reading →

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Biotin and Leucine Metabolism

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Conversion of 3-methylcrotonyl CoA to 3-methylglutaconyl CoA is a metabolic step in leucine catabolism pathway that is catalysed by the enzyme methylglutaconyl CoA carboxylase (MCC). Biotin is required as a cofactor for the MCC enzyme, and marginal biotin deficiency reduces … Continue reading →

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Functional and Fortified Foods

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Increasingly, intakes of certain micronutrients are falling in Western populations.  In the developing nations, traditional deficiency diseases are still a cause of high mortality and morbidity amongst the poorest socioeconomic groups. Micronutrient supplementation could be a practical solution to low … Continue reading →

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Wealth and Disease

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Lifestyle diseases predominate in Western nations while immunity related diseases of the upper respiratory tract predominate in developing nations. The associations between poverty and disease has been suggested to result from the amount of animal protein in the diet. High … Continue reading →

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The Cost of High Quality Food

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Robert Barrington

One of the strongest determinants of food choice is the monetary cost to the consumer. Some evidence suggests that low quality diets are forced on poorer individuals because of the prohibitive costs of higher quality nutrition. For example, a cross … Continue reading →

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More on Short Chain Fatty Acids

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Robert Barrington

Resistant starch may be beneficial to health because colonic fermentation by microflora produces short chain fatty acid (SCFA) that cause beneficial physiological changes. These include a decrease in gut pH that inhibits the growth of pathogens, increased electrolyte absorption, increases … Continue reading →

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Vitamin D from Sunlight

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Robert Barrington

The role of vitamin D in human metabolism has expanded in recent years, with the discovery that metabolites of the hormone are required for proper immune function, cellular signalling and insulin receptor sensitivity. Therefore vitamin D is no longer considered … Continue reading →

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