Drink This for That; Don’t Drink This to Avoid That

Drink This for That;

Don’t Drink This to Avoid That

By Gary F. Zeolla

This article is a follow-up to the two-part article Eat This for That; Don’t Eat This to Avoid That. Rather than foods as with that article, this article will overview news articles with recommendations of beverages to drink for various health benefits or not to drink to avoid various health problems.

As I state in that foods article, the types of studies to be discussed I often cite in my books God-given Foods Eating Plan and Creationist Diet: Second Edition. However, I generally cite multiple studies showing the various benefits of a particular food or here beverage. It is always tenuous to base too much on one study.

It is also important to note if it is a clinical study or an observational (or epidemiological) one. For dietary matters, most often, it is the latter, as it is difficult to keep a cohort of people isolated for a clinical trial. You must also note if all possible confounding factors are accounted for. Those would be other habits in the lives of the study participants that could be responsible for the observed effect other than the beverage under question. The number of study participant also matters, as the results of a small study would be more likely to be coincidental than a larger study.

With those general comments, in this article, I will not be covering coffee and tea. I will address those two caffeinated beverages in separate articles later. I will also not cover the most basic beverage, water. Good ol’ H₂O will also be covered in a separate article later. Here, I will look at a variety of other beverages. I will group them together by the type of beverage.

Juices and Juicing

Best of Life. If You Drink This Popular Beverage, the FDA Has a Major New Warning for You.

On April 27 [2022], the FDA posted a new alert about the potential for high lead exposure in apple juice and other juices. In its new warning, the agency now says that decreasing your consumption of juice would “reduce potential exposure to lead.” …

According to the agency, lead can accumulate in the body, so high level exposure and chronic exposure can both put you in harm’s way over time….

With this alert, the FDA noted that it just issued new draft action levels for lead in single-strength (or 100 percent) apple juice and other single-strength juices and juice blends. The agency is proposing establishing industry-wide limits of “10 parts per billion (ppb) for lead in single-strength apple juice and 20 ppb for lead in all other single-strength juice types, including juice blends that contain apple juice,” according to the Federal Register….

The FDA also noted that it issued a “lower draft action level for apple juice because it is the most commonly consumed juice that young children drink.”

In my two nutrition books, I state that commercial fruit juice is not very healthy. The reason is, it is usually highly refined, with all of the fiber and most all of the naturally occurring nutrients removed. About all that is left is pure sugar. It really is not much different than soda.

Both soda and fruit juice will spike the blood sugar, then it will crash. That can lead to fatigue and hunger feelings, leading to overeating at the next meal or snacking between meals. Over time, those blood sugar spikes then the resultant crashes and overeating can lead to weight gain then to pre-diabetes or even full-blown diabetes.

But now, possible lead contamination is another reason to avoid commercial fruit juices. A glass now and then would not be problematic, but regular consumption over time can cause lead to build up in the body. That is especially detrimental to children.

If you want fruit juice, make it yourself at home starting with whole fruits. Various juicers are available. But they also usually remove the fiber. A better way is to use a blender or Vitamix. In that way, you can retain all of the fiber and other nutrients naturally present in the whole fruit. But you do need to add water to make it drinkable. These comments lead to the next two news articles.

Eat This; Not That! Will Drinking Green Juice Really Make You Healthier? A Dietitian Breaks Down the Truth.

Green juicing typically entails pulverizing fresh fruits, veggies, and herbs to separate the liquid components from the fibrous flesh….

While many nutrients remain intact with juicing, others are significantly reduced. This is the case for fiber, a nutrient that can play a role in lowering blood cholesterol, digestive regularity, and blood sugar stabilization.

Newsmax. Why Green Juice Isn’t as Healthy as You Think.

Fiber plays an important role in lowering cholesterol, digestive regularity, and stabilizing blood sugar levels. When the liquid is separated from the pulp of fresh fruits and vegetables during juicing, most of the fiber is left with the pulp which is often discarded. So, the juice doesn’t have the same nutritional value as the whole fruit.

Both of these articles are saying about green juices what I just said about fruit juices. If the manner of juicing removes the fiber, then you are going to end up with a sugar rush, even if you are juicing low calorie greens. The only calories will be in the form of carbs. Without the fiber, or protein or fat, those pure carbs will spike the blood sugar. As both of these quotes indicate, fiber stabilizes blood sugar. So does consuming fat and protein with carbs.

At the very least, if you are going to juice greens, add a scoop of protein powder or a small handful of nuts or seeds to the juice. That protein and / or fat will help to offset the carbs in the veggies.

However, again, use a blender rather than a juicer. Even better would be a Vitamix. A Vitamix is a very powerful blender. That extra power fully pulverizes the fruit or veggie, so there are no solids left to rise to the top and hinder the taste of the juice. The downside is a Vitamix is much more expensive than a regular blender. But they do last. I had one for 20 years before it burned out. I replaced it with a Ninja blender. But I am not fully satisfied with it. as again, it does not fully pulverize the solids. But the Ninja is all I can afford right now. But if I can ever afford it, I will get another Vitamix.

Alcoholic Beverages

Newsmax. A Glass of Wine With Dinner Could Reduce Your Risk for Diabetes.

“Drinking moderate amounts of wine with meals may prevent diabetes if your doctor doesn’t object to your drinking,” said lead researcher Dr. Hao Ma, a biostatistical analyst at Tulane University Obesity Research Center, in New Orleans.

“The majority of previous studies focused on the relationship between amounts of alcohol intake and risk of diabetes. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering the timing of alcohol intake in the association between amounts of alcohol intake and risk of type 2 diabetes,” Ma said….

The key to healthful drinking is moderation, defined as one glass of wine or other alcoholic drink daily for women and up to two glasses for men.

“Red wine, as part of a healthy diet, is safe and decreases cardiometabolic risk. It is rich in antioxidants, improves the good cholesterol, keeps the heart healthy and even improves sugar metabolism,” Zonszein said.

Newsmax. More Berries, Red Wine in Diet Might Slow Parkinson’s Progression.

Red wine may be a guilty pleasure, but new research shows it might also be a powerful weapon against the ravages of Parkinson’s disease.

Why? The antioxidants in red wine, and fruit such as berries for that matter, might slow progression of the movement disorder, a new study suggests.

According to researchers, people with Parkinson’s who eat three or more servings per week of foods high in antioxidants called flavonoids may reduce their odds of dying early compared with people who do not eat as many flavonoid-rich foods.

“Flavonoids are naturally occurring, plant-based dietary components, rich in fruit and vegetables. They give various colors in these plants,” said senior researcher Dr. Xiang Gao. He is director of the nutritional epidemiology lab at Pennsylvania State University, in University Park.

“Adapting a healthy dietary pattern, high in colorful fruits and veggies, even after Parkinson diagnosis, could slow disease progression and improve survival rate,” he added.

Still, the study can’t prove that flavonoids prolonged the lives of Parkinson’s patients, only that there may be an association, Gao said.

These two articles are exactly why I warned at the start of this article to be leery about health claims based on just one study. Does drinking red wine indeed lower the risk of diabetes and Parkinson’s disease? Maybe. Or maybe it is something else about red wine drinkers that lowered their risk.

Note also, the second study specifically says you can get the same benefits from eating berries, no alcohol needed. Given the many possible deleterious effects of alcohol, berries are a much safer option.

Newsmax. Beer is Beneficial to a Man’s (Beer) Gut.

Putting a new spin on the term “beer gut,” a small study suggests that a bottle a day may do a man’s gut bacteria some good.

In a clinical trial of 19 healthy men, researchers found that a daily bottle of beer — alcoholic or non-alcoholic — changed the composition of the men’s gut bacteria over four weeks. Specifically, either type of beer boosted the diversity in their gut microbes.

In general, greater diversity in gut bacteria is considered better than less diversity. Experts cautioned, however, that it’s unclear whether people would gain any health benefits from the gut changes seen in this short-term trial….

Past studies have found that diets rich in vegetables, beans, grains, nuts and fish — like the famous Mediterranean diet — may boost gut microbe diversity. There is also evidence that fermented foods, like yogurt and kimchi, can do the same.

When I saw the title of this article, I thought it was going to show beer-drinkers gain weight from their beer drinking. That was the intended effect of the title, to get your attention then pivot to something else. That something else is a bit more complicated.

It has to do with gut microbes; that is the billions of bacteria we all have in my GI tracts. They help to digest food and have other purported biological functions. It is assumed having a greater number and diversity of these good bacteria is beneficial. However, beer drinking is not the best way to attain this greater number and diversity of gut microbes.

Note first the small size of this study—19 people. The previous studies utilized thousands of participants. The larger the study, the less chance the study results are the result of pure chance. To put it another way, the larger a study, the more likely the results are causal and not casual.

Second, as with the previous two articles, this one says there re other ways to attain these beneficial gut bacteria. Even non-alcoholic beer will do the trick, as will many other types of foods, as noted.

In my two books on nutrition, I address the pros and cons of alcohol drinking in depth. I conclude as these articles do, that if you are not currently drinking alcohol, do not start. And there are other ways of attaining the health benefits without the alcohol. But if you do drink, red wine is probably the best choice.

Various Beverages

Newsmax. 5 Drinks That Boost Your Gut Health and Immune System.

Recent research has determined that a healthy gut is not only important for digestion, but also for overall well-being. Studies have linked gut health to beneficial effects on the immune system, mental health, autoimmune diseases, endocrine disorders, cardiovascular disease, and even certain cancers….

Here are some beverages that boost the beneficial bacteria in the gut to help restore health and balance in our bodies:

The five listed beverages are:

1.       Kefir (a fermented milk beverage).

2.       Matcha tea (also mentioned here are “black and green tea, chamomile, ginger with turmeric and holy basil”).

3.       Kombucha (fermented tea).

4.       Water (“Water helps to keep things moving though our digestive system and helps us absorb nutrients from the foods we eat.”)

5.       Bone broth (due to it containing “glycine, gelatin, glutamine, and collagen”).

This article is related to the previous one about beer improving gut bacteria. But as said there, you do not need to drink beer to improve your gut health. Listed above are several more non-alcoholic options.

As mentioned, I will address the benefits of tea in a separate article later. But here. note that it is not necessary to drink fermented tea, as regular green or black tea will help as well. Though, I would guess fermented tea would be even more beneficial in this regard, though probably more expensive as well.

In fact, all of the listed beverages can be a bit pricy, except water of course. Less expensive foods that help with gut health would be yogurt and sauerkraut.

Newsmax. Drinking Sugary Beverages Linked to Male-Pattern Baldness.

A new study provides yet another reason to stop drinking sugary sodas. Scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing found that men who drink a lot of sugary beverages, ranging from soft drinks to sweetened juices to energy drinks have an increased risk of developing male-pattern baldness….

The researchers hypothesized that the root cause could be that sugary drinks increased blood sugar levels, and diabetes studies have linked elevated blood sugar levels with hair loss. Sweet drinks are a major risk factor for developing and worsening diabetes, says Futurism.

“I wouldn’t get too hyper about this study,” dermatologist Dr. Kenneth Beer, tells Newsmax. “It was not a large, controlled study nor one that was peer reviewed.” The study authors acknowledged that their findings were preliminary and suggested that further studies are needed.

Possible problems with sugary drinks like fruit juice and soda have already been mentioned. And here is yet another possible problem. However, note the caveats. Again, one small study (this one used just over 1,000 people), does not prove much, especially since it was not a controlled study.

I would caution the reader again about putting too much emphasis on just one study, especially if it is small and not well controlled. But still, it you are concerned about hair loss, this study does give you one more reason to not drink sugary drinks.

Newsmax. Men Who Drink Milk at Higher Risk for Prostate Cancer.

Men who drink lots of milk may be more likely to develop prostate cancer than men who don’t, new research finds.

When compared to men who consumed just 1 or 2 teaspoons of milk every day, men who drank about 1¾ cups of milk daily were about 27% more likely to develop prostate cancer, a new study showed.

What’s more, they had about a 60% increased risk for developing prostate cancer compared with men who steered clear of dairy altogether.

The new study wasn’t designed to say how, or even if, milk consumption ups the risk for prostate cancer, but researchers have their theories.

“Insulin-like growth factor-1 [IGF-1] is known to be a risk factor for prostate and breast cancer, and it turns out that dairy consumption raises the level of this hormone,” said study author Dr. Gary Fraser. He is a professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and School of Public Health in California….

For the study, the researchers asked more than 28,700 men about their diets. A handful of men were also asked to recall all the food and drinks that they consumed in the previous 24 hours.

This is at least a larger study, but note again the caveat. It was not designed to determine cause and effect. But the researchers guessed the increase in cancer risk could be related to IGF-1.

IGF-1 is a double-edge sword. It is need for muscle growth and for retaining muscle mass as we age. That is why you will see supplements that purport to increase IGF-1 levels aimed at gym goers. However, IGF-1 is indiscriminate in what types of cells it causes to grow. It can increase the growth of both muscle cells (which is good) but also cancer cells (which is not good at all).

The study also does not mention what type of milk was consumed. Was it milk derived from factory farm cows or cows raised the old-fashioned way? I discuss the incredible difference between these two types of animal foods in my two nutrition books. But here, the cows in former are often given hormones, while those in the latter are not. Could the former type of milk be the reason for the increased cancer risks? That question was not addressed in the study. But I do in my nutrition books. I also address other controversies about milk drinking.

And again, this is just one study that was done in China. Its applicability to those of us in the USA could be limited.

Conclusion

What you eat and drink can have significant effects on your health, for good and for ill. But do not make any major dietary changes based on just one study that purports to show a particular food or beverage improves your health in some specific way or increases your risk of a specific health problem.

What is needed is to look at a multitude of studies and most of all at your overall eating pattern. A diet composed of mostly whole natural foods and beverages will beat any diet based on mostly processed foods.

Citing a multitude of studies and recommending such a diet is what I do in my two nutrition books: God-given Foods Eating Plan and Creationist Diet: Second Edition. Check those out for much more on the issues raised in this article about beverages and in the two-part prequal about foods. For a follow-up to this article, see Coffee: It’s Potential Benefits and Risks.

Disclaimer: The product links are to Amazon. I receive a commission if a product is purchased after clicking on the link.

Creationist Diet: Second Edition

Disclaimers: The material presented in this article is intended for educational purposes only. The author is not offering medical or legal advice. Accuracy of information is attempted but not guaranteed. Before undertaking any diet, exercise, or health improvement program, one should consult your doctor. The author is in no way responsible or liable for any bodily harm, physical, mental, or emotional, that results from following any of the advice in this article.

The above article was posted on this site April 1, 2023.
It originally appeared in the free email newsletter FitTips for One and All.

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