Thursday, July 23, 2009

Breakfast cereals and risks for heart failure

Okay, so I'm on a kick of popular articles that have a science slant. This one comes from the Health blog at the Wall Street Journal linking to an article published in JAMA. The gist of the article is the correlation of eating breakfast cereals, particularly whole grain cereals, with a reduced risk of heart failure. The more fiber the cereal contained the greater the reduction of the risk of heart failure.

There are two things that are interesting to me. First, eating a breakfast. Don't skip eating breakfast. Eating a low-carb, high protein breakfast sets a great tone for the rest of the day. The second thing about the article is the use of a whole grain cereals for breakfast. In my home, we eat Mini-wheats or Raisin Bran which deliver 5.1 and 6.5 grams of fiber per serving respectively. This is almost exlcusively insoluble bran fiber which has nice benefits dealing primarily with bowel regularity. Why not double those numbers with a packet of Bios Life Slim or Bios Life Complete? This way you will ensure a diet high in fiber, one that includes soluble fiber which will make your meals last longer, reducing the amount you eat throughout the rest of day. Think about - it's a simple choice and one that is backed by independent research.

Interesting tidbit about green tea...

I saw this article on Yahoo news (not exactly the site for premier scientific news). The listed benefits are fun and the suggestion to add ascorbic acid is a good tip. Unicity just launched an energy drink called Bios Life Energy that is available in a ready to drink (RTD) can and a powder. The powder version has 200 mg of catechins as well as 80 mg of vitamin C. It's a great low calorie drink (we have testing the effects of the drink on serum glucose levels with terrific results) that provides a smooth energy lift. I'll post more of our results when our testing is completed.