Newsletter #028: An insight into the health benefits of hot coffee and the ketogenic diet ☕🥗
Good day friends!
Welcome to the latest humanOS newsletter! Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the terrible fires in California, and we hope everyone on the eastern side of the country is bundled up and staying warm (seems winter has come a bit early this year 😬).
This Week’s Research Highlights
☕ Hot coffee may have more health-promoting properties than cold brew.
Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University analyzed the antioxidant activity of various cold brew coffees, and then compared them to otherwise similar coffee that had been hot brewed. They found that for light-roast coffee, antioxidant content in cold and hot brew was comparable. However, for dark-roast coffee, hot brew contained more antioxidants than cold brew. This may be because hot water helps extract additional bioactive compounds.
👨🏼🦳 Circadian misalignment through shift work might contribute to tissue aging.
Researchers took biopsies from two groups of women: night shift workers and diurnal workers. Analysis of these samples revealed that long-term deregulation of the circadian rhythm from shift work affected clock pathway protein expression and altered regenerative properties of human skin and hair precursor cells.
🥗 A medium-chain triglyceride (MCT)-based ketogenic diet may have neuroprotective effects.
Researchers recruited 20 Japanese patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease. On separate days, the subjects underwent neurocognitive tests 120 min after consuming 50 g of a ketogenic formula containing 20 g of MCTs or an isocaloric placebo formula without MCTs. This increased plasma levels of ketone bodies but had no effect on cognitive test results. Then the researchers had the patients take 50 grams of the ketogenic formula daily for several months. After 8 weeks, they started to show significant improvements in verbal memory, and at 12 weeks they showed improvements in processing speed. The researchers attribute these benefits to reduced insulin resistance, as impaired brain glucose utilization is a known hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- Dale Bredesen: Preventing and Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease. Via FoundMyFitness with Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
- Christine Godwin: Mind Wandering. Via Smart Drug Smarts with Jesse Lawler.
Products We Are Enjoying
Electric kettle.
Ginny says: If you are a tea aficionado like me, this is a definite must - I literally use this kettle every single day. It’s pretty cheap, easy to use, and perhaps the most convenient way to quickly boil water. I keep it plugged in close to my workstation so I can make mate, green tea, etc. at a moment’s notice. 💁Particularly nice for those of us who got hit by #Snowvember this week and really need a steady supply of warm beverages.
New humanOS Content
• humanOS Radio: Protein and Muscle Mass. Podcast with Professor Stu Phillips
This week on humanOS Radio, Greg talked with Professor Stuart Phillips from McMaster University. Dr. Phillips researches the effects of nutrition and exercise on human skeletal muscle protein turnover and has contributed to a dizzying number of studies investigating various aspects of dietary protein and muscle mass.
Protein optimization is relevant to everyone - whether you want to improve sports performance, fight disease, or just look good in a swimsuit. But if you’re surfing the internet for information on the subject, you’ll quickly find that the topic of protein intake is clouded by bro science. That is why we’re grateful to have a renowned expert in the subject like Dr. Phillips to give evidence based-recommendations. Definitely check out this interview!