/oss/taxonomy/term/144/all en /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/dancing-gummy-bears <p>No, Oprah Winfrey and Dolly Parton do not endorse CBD Gummies. Neither does David Suzuki. That may come as a surprise to customers who purchased the gummies thinking that they must deliver the goods given that such high-profile celebrities believe in them. And what are the goods those gummies supposedly deliver? They are said to reduce anxiety, improve sleep quality, and help with muscle pain and inflammation. They also energize, help with weight loss, boost immunity and normalize heart rate. Who says so? Certainly not Oprah, Dolly or David.</p> Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:00:52 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9433 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/just-say-no <p>“A spoonful of sucrose helps the medicine go down,” as Mary Poppins told us. But she neglected to say that it also increases our risk of cardiovascular disease. Actually, Mary didn’t say sucrose, she said a “spoonful of sugar.” Sucrose is the chemical term for table sugar and is actually composed of two smaller molecules, glucose and fructose joined together. All three are referred to as “simple sugars,” in contrast to “complex sugars” such as the starch in food, or the glycogen stored in the liver, that are composed of long chains of glucose molecules. </p><p></p> Wed, 22 Feb 2023 17:34:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9410 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know/why-diet-coke-so-fizzy <p>Whether you’re buying ingredients for an at home “Coke and Mentos” demonstration, asking a flight attendant for a beverage, or just trying to pour a can of soda into a glass before hockey comes back on, you may have noticed something: Diet sugar-free sodas fizz more than regular sugar-rich sodas when opened.</p> <p>The degree of carbonation or “fizziness” of a soda is partly a function of how easily carbon dioxide bubbles can form in the sugary flavour water we call pop. When it’s easier for bubbles to form, you get more of them and therefore an increased “fizziness”.</p> Fri, 16 Sep 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 9223 at /oss /oss/article/student-contributors-health-and-nutrition/cheerios-honey-nut-frosted-flakes-which-one-choose <p>Breakfast of champions. This phrase might make you think of a hearty, greasy bacon platter. Or even a martini if you’ve read the Kurt Vonnegut book with the same title. But it was first coined by General Mills to describe “Wheaties” in the 1930s while sponsoring baseball games; the slogan is used to this day. The popularity of Wheaties has waned and new champions, namely Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Frosted Flakes have emerged.</p> Thu, 30 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +0000 Haleh Cohn 9150 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/does-honey-have-any-value-preservative <p>Yes, in a limited way. Honey is a concentrated solution of various sugars in water. The main sugars are fructose and glucose with smaller amounts of sucrose (table sugar) also present. Of course, there are also various other compounds that are responsible for the flavour and aroma and which may also contribute to the preservative properties. The main preservative action, however, is due to the sugars’ ability to remove water from microorganisms by the process of osmosis.</p> Thu, 26 May 2022 01:43:56 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9121 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/allure-allulose <p>My first meeting with (3R,4R,5R)-1,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexan-2-one, less formally known as “psicose” or “allulose,” was way back in my graduate school days. I was studying the molecular structure of simple sugars, a category of carbohydrates to which allulose belongs. I wasn’t interested in its biochemistry or its sweetness, my focus was on distinguishing it from fructose by the then relatively novel technique of carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (C-13NMR).</p> Fri, 11 Mar 2022 22:54:04 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9051 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-contributors/cancers-sweet-tooth <p>To the surprise of many, however, cancer cells are defective at producing the very fuel they need to grow and spread, but manage to overcome the innate “disability” and out-compete normal healthy cells? How?</p> Fri, 17 Dec 2021 22:29:44 +0000 Nancy Liu-Sullivan, PhD 8953 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-history/sweet-and-sticky-science-sugar <p>Sugar is sweet and sticky.  That’s a fact.  In fact, during the reign of Edward the Confessor in the early eleventh century, "ale tasters" were employed to check on the work of brewers.  They would test the ale by spilling some on a wooden seat and sitting on the spill in their leather breeches.  If they had difficulty getting up after a short time because their breeches stuck to the seat, they knew that the ale had been sugared.  Today we don't have to worry about such adulteration of our ale, and I think in any case we would have a hard time finding leather breeches.  But the stickiness o</p> Fri, 03 Dec 2021 23:31:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8944 at /oss /oss/article/holiday-treat-marshmallows-and-hot-chocolate <p>Believe it or not, the tasty marshmallows we know are inspired by a plant, a perennial that grows up to about four feet high. Its root has a soft and spongy texture and looks like lung tissue, which led to its use in the treatment of lung conditions. Usually, the root was extracted with hot water, sweetened, aerated, and allowed to cool to form the spongy mass. Crystallization was inhibited because the root contains a high percentage of mucilage, carbohydrates which interfere with crystal formation. Today, some people still use marshmallow tea to soothe inflammation.</p> Thu, 10 Dec 2020 01:54:37 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8524 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/small-changes-make-big-difference-diets <p>Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have come up with some interesting data. They analyzed surveys filled out by some 120,000 nurses, physicians, veterinarians and dentists over a period of about twenty years. Starting in the 1980s these subjects answered questionnaires about their diet and weight, including specifics about the number of servings of various foods they consumed per day. Some fascinating revelations have emerged from the massive amount of data collected. First of all, there was an average weight gain of about seventeen pounds over twenty years.</p> Tue, 17 Dec 2019 19:18:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8054 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/will-game-changers-change-your-game <p>The documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSpglxHTJVM">“The Game Changers”</a> has been picking up steam on Netflix. This is basically a two-hour promo for a vegan lifestyle focusing on a few athletes who attribute their high-level performance to a vegan diet. Before going further, let me say that I favour a diet that has lots of fruits, vegetables and nuts, but I think that some meat, mostly poultry and fish can be accommodated.</p> Wed, 11 Dec 2019 20:59:33 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8048 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/will-gymnema-curb-your-sweet-sweet-cravings <p>It would have been easy to dismiss the claim out of hand by playing armchair skeptic, but I decided instead to stuff the lawn clippings in my mouth. It really did look like someone had been chasing after lawn mowers to resell the leftovers for a profit, and though I have never tasted grass clippings, I can imagine what I was sampling wasn’t a million miles away.  </p> Tue, 20 Aug 2019 18:07:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7876 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/lets-tax-sugary-drinks-discourage-consumption <hr /> <p>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-lets-tax-sugary-drinks-to-discourage-consumption?fbclid=IwAR39yQHeK56tp4RdHuRnTtJvmHSiHB8EoHFyFI_dKUJxz5cXpdoDpFAVHj8">The Montreal Gazette.</a></p> <hr /> <p>One way to get people to reduce their consumption of sugary drinks is a soda tax. In fact, the World Health Organization has recommended just that. While New York tried to bring in such a tax and failed, cities like Berkeley and Philadelphia made it happen in 2015 and 2017.</p> Fri, 26 Jul 2019 15:57:12 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 7839 at /oss /oss/article/nutrition-you-asked/what-difference-between-ginger-ale-and-ginger-beer <p>I take a sip from the cup of ginger ale. It tastes of carbonation and sugar, with a faint trail of ginger. I turn to the cup of ginger beer. It already smells of ginger as I bring it to my mouth. The taste is crisp, hot, and strong. This is ginger on steroids, with sugar and carbonation taking a backseat.</p> Thu, 04 Jul 2019 16:22:39 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 7817 at /oss /oss/article/do-diet-drinks-help-weight-loss-its-unclear <p> </p> <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in</em><span> </span><a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-do-diet-drinks-help-with-weight-loss-its-unclear">The Montreal Gazette<span>.</span></a></p> Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:05:43 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 7691 at /oss