/oss/taxonomy/term/1276/all en /oss/article/food-health/pistachios-reputed-have-some-uplifting-health-benefits <div> <p style="text-align:justify">Remember when it wasn’t hard to determine if someone had been into the pistachio bowl? They’d be caught red-handed! That’s because until artificially coloured foods became a pariah, pistachio nuts, which are actually not nuts but the seeds of a fruit, often used to be coloured red. Exactly why that was the case is a matter of some controversy.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Some suggest that when pistachios were first imported into North America back in the 1930s, mostly from Iran, the shells tended to be blemished as a result of hand-picking. Since Americans didn’t care for blemished food, the pistachios were dyed red.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Others suggest that the red colour was added to distinguish the newly introduced nuts from other varieties to attract attention. Another possibility is that in Iran, traditionally, the nuts were soaked in brine and then roasted in the sun which resulted in a pinkish coloured shell — and importers added red dye to achieve a uniform product.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">The fact is that nobody really knows how the tradition started, or indeed what dye was used, although some accounts make reference to a “vegetable dye,” probably beet juice. With concerns being raised about food additives, red pistachios have mostly disappeared, although a few companies still produce them for consumers mired in nostalgia. The vast majority of pistachios sold in North America now come from California, and instead of attracting consumers with colour, producers hope to attract them with science. The hook is a possible benefit in the prevention of heart disease — and believe it or not, help with erectile dysfunction.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Nuts are low in saturated fats, high in monounsaturates and are rich in antioxidants, so it comes as no great surprise that epidemiological studies have demonstrated a link between increased nut consumption and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease. Pistachios have a chemical profile similar to nuts and have therefore been studied in terms of reducing cardiovascular risk. In one small study, subjects were asked to consume either 40 grams, 80 grams or no pistachios daily. The pistachio consumers lowered their LDL cholesterol (the “bad guy”), but interestingly, there was no difference between the 40 or 80 gram consumers. So one pistachio snack seems to be enough; more is not better.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">But does this extra consumption not lead to weight gain? Apparently not. A study in China examined the pistachio effect in some 90 subjects diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, which is a combination of disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Although there are some variations in the definition of metabolic syndrome, it basically means a high waist circumference combined with any two of elevated triglycerides, reduced HDL cholesterol (the “good guy”), raised blood pressure, raised fasting glucose, or previously diagnosed Type 2 diabetes. In the Chinese study, subjects consumed either no pistachios, or 42 grams or 70 grams for 12 weeks. There were no changes in body-mass index or waist-to-hip ratio. Curiously, there was also a slight improvement in triglyceride levels in the 42-gram group but not the others.</p> </div> <div>Pistachios have also been the subject of a study by Dr. James Painter of Eastern Illinois University who coined the term “pistachio principle,” referring to an effect by which the body is fooled into eating less by using visual cues.</div> <p><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2013/11/09/pistachios-reputed-to-have-some-uplifting-health-benefits">Read more</a></p> Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:11:22 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2031 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-food-health-history/pizza-pie-sky <p>Imagine being admitted to a hospital with a heart attack and a doctor asking how many times a week you eat pizza. This was the actual question that was asked of 507 heart attack victims and 478 others who had been admitted to a hospital in Milan, Italy, between 1995 and 1999. Why? To find out if most Italian foods had any role to play in heart disease. We’ve all heard about the benefits of the highly touted Mediterranean diet, and Italian researchers decided to find out if pizza specifically played a role in protection against cardiovascular disease.</p> Sun, 23 Feb 2014 02:42:52 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2101 at /oss