Amazing Collection of Nutrition

Plant Residue and Bacteria as Bases for Increased Stool Weight Accompanying Consumption of Higher Dietary Fiber Diets

Shin’ichi Kurasawa, PhD, Valerie S. Haack, MS, RD, and Judith A. Marlett, PhD, RD

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin (V.S.H., J.A.M.), Laboratory of Nutrition, Faculty of Home Economics, Kanto Gakuin Women’s Junior College, Yokohama, JAPAN (S.K.) E-mail: jmarlett@nutrisci.wisc.edu

Objective: Stool diluting effects of relatively inert material, such as unfermentable dietary fiber, has been proposed as an effect of fiber beneficial to the colon. Stool dilution by increasing bacterial mass may be beneficial or deleterious, depending on bacterial metabolic products. The purpose of this study was to determine the basis for stool weight when two stepwise increases of fiber from all classes of fiber-containing foods were consumed. Continue reading →

Reevaluation of Ascorbate in Cancer Treatment: Emerging Evidence, Open Minds and Serendipity

Sebastian J Padayatty, MRCP, PhD, and Mark Levine, MD, FACN

Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section, Digestive Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland E-mail: MarkL@intra.niddk.nih.gov

Some clinicians and alternate therapy practitioners advocate megadose intravenous and oral ascorbate treatment of cancer. Randomized control studies using oral ascorbate showed no benefit. Continue reading →