http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Sage Project)
Sam Slover is trying to reimagine how we look at food data with Sage Project. Unlike traditional food labels you know, this is an interactive app which deconstructs 20,000 fresh and packaged foods and makes the information you might find on a nutrition label — ingredients, calories, etc. — easier to understand. Instead of just providing you with raw data, the app wants to help explain what these things actually mean.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Tommy Zaferes)
The Olympics are here — neither Zika, nor heat wave, nor presidential impeachment, nor plumbing woes could keep this age-old competition from moving forward. We’re planning marathon Olympic-watching sessions, of course, but all these amazing athletes got us thinking about what it takes to fuel such terrific prowess — in the pool, on the field, in the ring. We asked 10 athletes to share what they eat on a daily basis. Here’s what we found out.
Age: 27
Hometown: Spokane, WA
Event: Triathlon
Training Regimen: Up to 5,000 meters of swimming, 12 miles of running, and three hours of biking, six days a week. On Sundays, four to five hours on the bike.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: elxeneize/Shutterstock)
Throughout human history, spices have been revered not just for their taste, but also for their perceived alchemical powers. Ancient Egyptians believed that spices offered a spiritual connection to the gods, while in the 1500s, Europeans’ lust for nutmeg and its purported medicinal properties helped incite The Spice Wars.
But even though today’s natural health devotees may swear by turmeric as an anti-inflammatory or extoll ginger as a digestive aid, for most of us, spices have lost their mystery. These commodities, once rare and precious, are now readily available at the corner grocery, numbing consumers to issues of quality and care.
We spoke with three purveyors of high-end spices who are passionate about helping cooks rediscover the magic. We asked them to share their top mistakes to avoid to inspire you to up your spice game.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Custom Avocados)
A lot of stress and money go into creating wedding invitations. Do you go with some fancy paper and gold writing? Do you go non-traditional and create a customized digital card? Well, I’m here to let you know there is now a better, more edible option to choose from. Maybe it’s time to consider the customized avocado.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Maria Siriano)
This sweet combo certainly doesn’t come without strong opinions. And we’re of the belief that a little bit of dark, melted chocolate is the one-ingredient upgrade your watermelon needs this summer.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Summer is all about casual and relaxing meals. With the sun shining bright, it’s prime time to spend more time outside than caught up in the kitchen. Enter: the sandwich. Sandwiches are the perfect way to spend less time in the kitchen and less time cleaning while still feeling satisfied after a meal. They come together quickly and, since you don’t need any silverware, you can skip cleaning some dishes. Plus, it’s always more fun to eat with your hands. From juicy cheeseburgers to hearty vegan sandwiches, here are our top picks for simple hand-held meals.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Susanna Hopler)
At some point during the long summer months, one has to reckon with one’s relationship with the grill — especially if one is a she. I’m not sure why, but the trope still persists these days that the male of the species gets the grill and the female gets the rest of the cooking. This is changing, of course, but you only have to tally which sex has authored 99 percent of the grilling cookbooks ever published to understand that we still have a long way to go.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
Late summer is prime tomato season, which means I’m adding them to every meal I can. They’re so versatile that they can be the star of a dish or fabulous garnish. No matter what shape, size, or color you get, they’re sure to brighten any meal. So use these ideas to pack in all the tomatoes you can before the season ends.
http://www.thekitchn.com/feedburnermain
(Image credit: Trombax/Shutterstock)
Picking up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is one of the easiest ways to get dinner on the table, but is it actually cheaper? If you were to compare the prices between a rotisserie chicken and fresh whole chickens, you might be surprised to see that they are similar in price, with rotisserie chicken sometimes even cheaper. Why is that the case?
http://chriskresser.com/
Most of us enjoy, if not even prefer, spending time with others rather than spending all of our free time in social isolation. Some studies even suggest that social connectivity plays a significant role in our overall health and well-being (1, 2). So what is it then that drives this preference to be with others, and similarly, what contributes to the social indifference or even social aversion seen in some neurologic disorders like autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia? It looks like, at least in part, it’s pathogenic microbes like bacteria and viruses.
Exciting new research suggests that our immune system may drive our preference for social interactions, and these new findings raise fundamental questions about human behavior. There’s a quote that’s been circulated widely among researchers studying the interactions between microorganisms and humans that I read in an interview with Justin and Erica Sonnenburg: “Humans are elaborate culturing vessels that have evolved to propagate and pass on these micro-organisms,” and this new research, published last month, suggests that even our behavior may have evolved as a means of supporting the spread of microbes.
There are a few reasons this research is so significant.
The first huge finding to understand is that our brain is intimately connected to our immune system. This may not seem like a novel idea to many people since we intuitively know that we generally feel lousy all around when we’re sick. But up until about a year ago, the widely held notion taught to all medical students was that the brain was a protected organ, essentially separated from the rest of the body by the blood-brain barrier—a fortress of tightly connected cells surrounding the brain’s vessels that allows selective passage of nutrients and protects the brain from an onslaught of invading microbes or overwhelming immune response. The brain had thus been considered “immunologically privileged.”
Neurologic disorders including autism and schizophrenia are directly linked to the immune system.
In addition to the protective blood-brain barrier, the brain was thought to be lacking lymphatic vessels, layering on additional isolation from our immune system. Lymphatic vessels are the third system of vessels, along with arteries and veins, that support the flow of fluid from cells into the bloodstream. Lymphatic vessels importantly drain our lymph nodes, structures situated along these vascular networks that store immune cells. (You can often feel enlarged and sometimes tender lymph nodes when you have a cold or other infection—this is a sign that your immune system is working to fight an infection.)
But last year, lymphatic vessels in the meninges—structures surrounding the central nervous system and containing the reservoir of cerebrospinal fluid—were identified (3). This discovery created a paradigm shift in how we can understand and explore the interaction between the immune system and the brain. It also opened up a whole new avenue from which to explore the interaction between immune dysfunction and disorders like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and autism spectrum disorder.
As the article, published in Nature in June 2015, notes, “The discovery of the central nervous system lymphatic system may call for a reassessment of basic assumptions in neuroimmunology and sheds new light on the aetiology of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases associated with immune dysfunction.” Or put more simply, we now need to reconsider how the immune system affects our brains because our brain is not as isolated and protected as was once believed.
So that’s the first really cool and important discovery to understand here: Our brain and immune system have a direct link.
Next, researchers set out to better understand this interaction. An article published last month clarifies one pathway in which our immune system’s response to pathogens may drive our normal social behavior (4).
Normal social behavior is important for a number of reasons, and in humans, this includes a benefit for our mental health. Social dysfunction is seen in several neurologic and neuropsychiatric conditions including autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and certain types of dementia. Interestingly, these conditions are also associated with immune dysfunction, specifically with cells of the immune system called T cells (5, 6, 7).
Researchers took mice deficient in T cells and showed that these mice, in contrast with normal, or “wild-type,” mice, showed no preference for social interaction over an inanimate object (yes, these are mice, but I think we can still agree this is social dysfunction). Then, these T cell-deficient mice were injected with normal immune cells, specifically with lymphocytes to supply the T cells they were previously missing. After a few weeks, allowing the immune system to respond to this lymphocyte injection, these mice showed a preference for normal social behavior. So the social dysfunction was reversed by restoring immune balance.
Additionally, there is a type of imaging called functional MRI that can assess brain activity (not just structural information, but actual measures of tissue activity). This type of functional imaging has shown hyperconnectivity in certain regions of the brain in people with autism spectrum disorder (8). This functional imaging was also performed in mice and showed a similar pattern of hyperconnectivity in the mice lacking a normal immune system. But again, once these mice were injected with lymphocytes allowing the immune system to normalize, the brain imaging also normalized.
Brain imaging in mice with immune dysfunction has similar abnormalities to brain imaging in children with autism spectrum disorder. The brain imaging normalized after these mice were injected with lymphocytes restoring normal immune function.
This is the second key point: Immune deficiency in mice was associated with a lack of interest in social interaction, but correcting this immune imbalance led to normal social preferences.
Next, researchers set out to discover how the T cells were affecting behavior, and interferon-gamma (IFN-𝛾) was identified as playing a major role in affecting this social behavior. IFN-𝛾 is an important compound, more generally called a cytokine, in the immune system (specifically in the adaptive immune response and produced largely by T cells). This cytokine, IFN-𝛾, is produced when our immune system responds to a pathogen, like a bacteria or virus. So, IFN-𝛾 supports our normal social behavior, and (at least in mice) low IFN-𝛾 is associated with social dysfunction.
This immune molecule, IFN-𝛾, seems to be critical for social behavior.
There’s still much to understand, but most of us are affected in one way or another by someone with autism, dementia, or schizophrenia, and this research shows us that the immune system, and by extension the pathogens that cause an immune response, may actually drive brain function. These new findings open novel pathways for additional research into understanding and treating these complex conditions.
I want to make an important point here that I don’t think autism, schizophrenia, or any of these neurologic disorders will be corrected by one strategy, and at the same time, I do think we need to pay careful attention to the immune system in these conditions. This may mean removing any toxins or chronic infections that could be contributing to an immune imbalance, but there is still much to learn.
And, I think this information provides yet another reason to keep our immune system balanced and functioning well (as if we needed another)!
About Amy: Amy Nett, MD, graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 2007. She subsequently completed a year of internal medicine training at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, followed by five years of specialty training in radiology at Stanford University Hospital, with additional subspecialty training in pediatric radiology.
Along the course of her medical training and working through her own personal health issues, she found her passion for functional medicine, and began training with Chris in June of 2014. She subsequently joined the California Center for Functional Medicine to work with patients through a functional medicine approach, working to identify and treat the root causes of illness. Similar to Chris, she uses nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, supplements, stress management, detoxification and lifestyle changes to restore proper function and improve health.
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