5 Fun Facts for your Friday

1. According to the forty-year Framingham study, forced vital capacity (the maximum volume of air that a person can exhale after a maximum inhalation) is the primary predictor for longterm health and vitality. So its good to be full of hot air!

Source: www.nih.gov, www.buffalo.edu/news/4857

2. Your latte has less caffeine then the same size of regular drip coffee. An 8 oz latte has 75 milligrams of caffeine whereas 8 oz of regular coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine. Part of this has to do with the roasting process- the longer the bean is roasted the less caffeine. The other part of this is that espresso is concentrated and typical is drunk in smaller amounts, so a small latte may only contain a 2 oz shot of espresso, the rest of the liquid is steamed milk.

Source: Starbuck Corp., 2007, USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, 2007., personal communication with Jane at Morning Brew.

3. During the 1918 flu epidemic, physicians using solely homeopathic means had a mortality rate of only 1.05% of 26,000 cases while convential physicians (using primarily aspirin) had a mortality rate of 28.2% of 24,000 cases. A report by Dr. Frank Wieland of Chicago stated that of 8,000 employess in the plant where he worked, they only had one death from the flu. No aspirin or vaccines were used, just the remedy Gelsemium.

Source: Perko, Sandra, The Homeopathic Treatment of Influenza: Surviving Influenza Epidemics and Pandemics Past, Present and Future with Homeopathy, Benchmark Homeopathic Publishing, 2005.

4. Not all milk is created equal. A genetic mutation in cows that arose somewhere between 5,000 and 10, 000 years ago, leads some cows to have A1 beta-casein (a type of protein in the milk that some people cannot tolerate) while other cows have A2 beta-casein. When A1 beta-casein is broken down in the human digestive system, it creates a small peptide known as BCM7, that can cross the blood-brain barrier and bind with opiate receptors in the brain. Solid research also shows that BCM7 is linked with higher rates of Type I diabetes, heart disease, autism and schizophrenia. No detectable BCM7 is released from A2 milk. A2 type cows include Jersey and Guernseys, and other Asian & African cattle breeds. Most cows in the U.S. are Holsteins, an A1 type cow.

Source: Woodford, Keith, The Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.

5. Between 1959 and 2004, researchers published at least 50 articles seeking to prove a connection between fat intake or serum cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease. None could find a positive correlation. (See Fun Fact #1, even the repudited Framingham Heart Study found that it was forced vital capacity, not a low-fat diet, that was the best predictor of long-term health & vitality!)

Source: Joel Kaufmann, PhD, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus