Natural Way Health Blog

Eating Margerine – Results in Low IQ?

The research was conducted by researchers from Auckland University in New Zealand and published in the magazine Intelligence.

Scientists analyzed the nutritional consumption and intelligence results of kids born in the mid-1990s.

“We discovered a number of dietary factors to be considerably associated with intelligence measures, the particular scientists said. “The connection between margarine intake and IQ scores was the most consistent and novel finding.

After adjusting with regard to other reasons which might influence IQ, such as socio-economic level, the researchers discovered that children who ate margarine daily obtained three points lower on IQ assessments by the age of three-and-a-half compared to kids with reduced margarine consumption.

By the age of seven, the typical IQ scores of some margarine eaters were six points below those of their peers. This happened only in children who had been born underweight, suggesting that disadvantaged brains may be far more vulnerable to diet-induced problems.

Because the study was correlational, scientists have been unable to determine what precisely triggered the IQ difference between the two groupings of children. They suspect, however, that the reason may be transfats, also known as partially hydrogenated fats.

Created by introducing hydrogen atoms to unsaturated vegetable fats, transfats have a lengthier shelf life and are more solid at room temperatures compared to natural vegetable oils. In the mid-1990s, margarines had been produced with up to 17 percent transfats. In recent years, however, researchers discovered that not only do transfats have no dietary value, they additionally significantly boost the danger of coronary heart attack and death in individuals who consume them.

The majority of margarines now comprise around 1 percent transfats.

Sian Porter associated with the British Dietetic Association noted that whilst margarine appears to be more healthy compared to butter, dietary consumption of both should be minimised.
Sources for this story include: www.dailymail.co.uk.

Biomarker 4 – Body Fat

The average sedentary 65-year-old woman is about 43 percent “adipose tissue,” the more scientific term for fat. Contrast that with the average 25-year-old woman’s body fat; it hovers around 25 percent. Men, by nature, remain somewhat leaner even as they age. For a man, we see average body fat of 18 percent at age 25, moving up to 38 percent at age 65.

Obesity Rates - Men and Women

Now the interesting thing is that obesity rates remained almost static until the emergence of the figures in the late 1970s. For years the rates had been reasonably static 15-20% for probably a hundred years. In the early to mid 1980s, coincidentally very close to emergence of the belief that fats in foods were very bad, the rates began to rise massively. Why was that?

We were being told to eat less animal fats and more so called “low-fat-spreads”. The fat in foods was often replaced by sugar and that is part of the problem – excess sugar leads to a gain in stored glycogen in fat cells. In my opinion the culprit is not fat but hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats and oils used in industrial food processing.

The estimates for 2010 suggest that for the UK that obesity rates for men and women will exceed 40% and including those overweight the overall figures come out close to 70% either overweight or obese.

Link the carrying of excess fat around the waits as one of the main indicators of elevated cancer risk and suddenly being overweight doesn’t just accelerate ageing but actively shorten life and reduce quality of life accordingly.

Reduce the fat content in our bodies and we should also see the reduction in the rate of ageing.