When oil and water do mix: health alert

When you hear the phrase “Those two go together like oil and water,” you know they don’t get along. But what if you had to make them compatible? To do that for oil and water, what’s needed is an emulsifier, a binding agent that keeps everything well-mixed. Today the list of foods that contain fat-stabilizing, shelf-life-extending, texture-enhancing emulsifiers could fill a big box store (oh, wait, they do!). From cooking sprays and butter substitutes to soft-serve and hard ice creams, bottled sauces, candy bars and baked goods, emulsifiers keep unlikely pairings together for fun and profit. But, it turns out, when manufacturers mess with your food by adding emulsifiers, your metabolism, endocrine system and digestive tract become a mess.

A new study in the journal Nature found two commonly used emulsifiers, carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate 80, seem to change the balance of gut bacteria and damage the mucus lining of the intestines in lab animals. For some, emulsifiers caused pro-inflammatory bacteria to move from the gut into the body – bad news for the immune system. For others, they produced intestinal inflammation, leading to obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes. And, the researchers say, “the broad use of emulsifying agents might be contributing to … (people’s development of) obesity/metabolic syndrome and other chronic inflammatory diseases.” This is just one more reason to avoid products containing the Five Food Felons (all added sugars and syrups, any grain that isn’t 100 percent whole, all trans fats and most saturated fats) and to skip prepared and processed foods; they often contain emulsifiers.

Hand-washing dishes is good for your immune system

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, a superstar on “Iron Chef America,” once said: “Japanese chefs believe our soul goes into our knives once we start using them. You wouldn’t put your soul in a dishwasher!”

He’s right; that modern utility isn’t very soulful, but for a newly discovered and surprising reason. A Swedish study found that kids who grow up in households using dishwashers are more likely to develop allergies, eczema and asthma than kids in households where dishes are hand-washed. (In the same vein, another study found that if parents clean off their kid’s pacifier by sucking on it, the children develop fewer allergies.)

The researchers followed over 1,000 7- and 8-year-olds. They found that 38 percent of kids whose parents had dishwashers reported eczema, while only 23 percent of hand-washers did. And in dishwasher families, 7.3 percent of the kids developed asthma, while only 1.7 percent of kids in hand-washing families did.

Why? Well, it could be another vote for the hygiene hypothesis. That theory says our lack of exposure to microbes makes us susceptible to autoimmune disease, allergies, etc. Perhaps a dishwasher’s wash-and-dry cycles don’t leave any immune-system-strengthening germs on dishes for us to ingest.

But we’re not saying you should give up your dishwasher (it may be soulless, but it sure is convenient); just don’t get oversanitized. Lose the antibacterial soaps and household cleaners; they trigger antibiotic resistance, and their chemicals often include hormone disruptors. Trust your immune system. Soap, water and elbow grease do a fine job.

‘D’ is for ‘diabetes’ (vitamin D, that is)

The 1991 film “Night on Earth” tells the story of five taxi rides in five locations around the world, from Los Angeles to Rome. In it, most characters, including Corky (Winona Ryder) and Angela (Rosie Perez), seem determined to avoid the light of day. That’s something familiar to the 1 billion people across the globe who don’t have healthy levels of vitamin D because of lack of exposure to the sun.

The repercussions of low D are significant: D regulates the function of more than 200 genes that control growth and development; deficiency has been linked to obesity, hypertension, depression, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease. It also might contribute to development of breast, prostate and colon cancers. And now it seems that low D is more likely to contribute to Type 2 diabetes than being overweight. (And we know that is a major risk factor.)

Spanish researchers looked at folks (some lean, some obese) and found two things: Lean people with diabetes had lower D levels than lean folks without diabetes; and obese people without diabetes had higher levels of vitamin D than obese people with diabetes. So for a diabetes-free health plan, in addition to maintaining a healthy weight, eating plenty of fresh produce and walking 10,000 steps a day – get your vitamin D levels checked and take 1,000 IU of D-3 a day. If you’re D-ficient, bring it up with extra supplements and 15 minutes of sunshine daily. Remember, sunscreen doesn’t interfere with your body making vitamin D, but night on Earth does!

This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 7:11 PM with the headline "When oil and water do mix: health alert."