/oss/taxonomy/term/303/all en /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/no-need-avoid-dairy-when-youre-sick <hr /> <p> <em>This article was first published in</em> <a href="https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-fact-and-fiction-of-physiological-phenomena-volume-i/" target="_blank" title="‌"><em>The Skeptical Inquirer.</em></a></p> Fri, 18 Aug 2023 16:00:52 +0000 Ada McVean M.Sc. 9601 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-history/putting-farts-story-our-ancestors-and-animal-milk-they-loved <p>Flatulence has been immortalized in this children’s song: “Beans, beans, the musical fruit / The more you eat, the more you toot.” The same can be said of milk for those of us with lactose intolerance.</p> Fri, 26 Aug 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9213 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/food-glorious-food <hr /> <p style="text-align:center"><em>Food, glorious food<br /> We're anxious to try it<br /> Three banquets a day<br /> Our favourite diet</em></p> <p style="text-align:center"><em>Just picture a great big steak<br /> Fried, roasted or stewed<br /> But food<br /> Wonderful food<br /> Marvellous food<br /> Glorious food!</em></p> Fri, 18 Feb 2022 22:29:58 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9031 at /oss /oss/article/nutrition-you-asked/how-do-we-modify-dairy-be-lactose-free <p>So you’re walking down the refrigerated section of the grocery store and you see all the milks lined up. You got the 3.5s, the 2s, and those watery skims. But then you see some different coloured caps, which indicate “lactose-free”. And the only thing you know about this type of milk is that your sister can drink it. But what exactly does it mean when a dairy product claims that its lactose content has been modified – or “freed” – to ease digestion?</p> <p>Well to understand “lactose-free” we need to understand how lactose gets digested.</p> Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:08:22 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7182 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-quackery/science-and-pseudoscience-vegetarian-culture <p>Hi! I’m Ada and I’m a vegetarian.</p> <p>Forgive me if I sound like I’m confessing to being an alcoholic or naturopath, but with all the misinformation, pseudoscience and nonsense that plague the vegetarian and vegan worlds, being a vegetarian scientist can sometimes feel like being a walking oxymoron.</p> <p>In my experience there are 3 main reasons one becomes a vegetarian (not including a distaste or allergy for meat, in which case their vegetarianism is less of a choice and more of a mandate):</p> Tue, 23 Jan 2018 03:10:35 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 6898 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know/how-does-milk-become-butter <p><span>Cows' milk, as well as that of most other mammals, is a complex mixture of</span><span> proteins, fats, water, carbohydrates, minerals, hormones and various </span><span>other molecules. Some of these components are soluble in water, others are suspended.</span><span> The first step to making butter is to let cow's milk</span><span> rest (or centrifuge it</span><span> to speed up the process) until a lot of the fatty constituents have floated to the top.</span></p> Fri, 22 Sep 2017 17:50:59 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 2639 at /oss /oss/article/environment/milk-wars-trump-and-canadas-dairy-farmers <p>Donald Trump recently attacked Canada’s dairy industry, calling our policies unfair. Milk supply in Canada, like poultry and eggs, is strictly regulated by supply management policies. By regulating the supply of milk by quotas, setting a price for milk, and placing high tariffs on imported dairy products, the government provides a guaranteed return on investment and security for dairy farmers. All the other farmers in Canada, do not share in this luxury, and must compete in the global market.</p> Fri, 28 Apr 2017 16:21:21 +0000 Cheryl Sokoloff P. Dt., Guest Columnist 2421 at /oss /oss/article/food/carnitine <p>The strikes against meat keep piling up. This time it's a study implicating carnitine, a compound found in meat and dairy products, as a factor in heart disease. High cholesterol, hypertension, overweight, family history and a sedentary lifestyle are known risk factors for heart disease but the disease can strike people who have none of these risk factors. According to recent research at the Cleveland Clinic, maybe carnitine plays a role in such cases. Bacteria in the gut convert carnitine to trimethylamine N-oxide which is known to cause damage to the coronary arteries.</p> Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:14:43 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1907 at /oss /oss/article/food-health-science-science-everywhere/milk-hormones-and-cancer <p>Hormones play a role in a number of cancers, particularly testicular, breast and prostate. Breast cancer risk increases with fewer pregnancies, early puberty and late menopause, probably due to increased exposure to estrogens. Prostate cancer is rare in eunuchs, suggesting that testosterone production by the testes is a risk factor. This argument is buttressed by the fact that prostate cancer can be triggered in rats by administering testosterone and that removal of the testes has been shown to be an option for the treatment of this cancer.</p> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:58:48 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1658 at /oss /oss/article/general-science-you-asked/why-milk-white-and-not-green-grass <p>Questions about milk are always interesting because, after all, it is our first food. Milk is meant to be the only sustaining food during early life and therefore it must contain all the required nutrients: water, proteins, fats, milk sugar, vitamins and minerals. Chlorophyll, the green colouring agent in plants, is not a required human nutrient and therefore evolution has not resulted in it being incorporated by the mother's body into milk. This is not to say that milk has no coloured substances in it, it does.</p> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:58:13 +0000 Joe Schwarcz 1730 at /oss /oss/article/food-health-you-asked/what-lactose-intolerance <p>Gas, bloating, stomach pains...that’s what some people experience after drinking milk. And we’re not talking about an occasional problem; some seventy percent of the world’s population can’t handle lactose, the naturally occurring sugar responsible for the sweet taste of cow’s milk. The reason is a deficiency in the enzyme, beta-galactosidase (better known as lactase), which is essential for breaking lactose down into its components of glucose and galactose. If this isn’t done, the undigested lactose moves into the large intestine where bacteria use it as food.</p> Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:01:23 +0000 OSS 1775 at /oss /oss/article/science-science-everywhere/no-dairy-breast-cancer-prevention-program <p>Dr. Jane Plant has caused quite a stir with her book, “The No-Dairy Breast Cancer Prevention Program” in which she proposes a causal link between the consumption of dairy products and breast cancer. Plant is an eminent scientist, but her expertise is in geochemistry and nutritional knowledge is suspect. I am astounded by how an "eminent scientist" can make an argument based on one case history, which happens to be her own. </p> Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:52:29 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1600 at /oss