The Body Fat Setpoint

One pound of human fat contains about 3,500 calories. That represents roughly 40 slices of toast. So if you were to eat one extra slice of...

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Rabbits on a High-Saturated Fat Diet Without Added Cholesterol

I just saw another study that supports my previous post Animal Models of Atherosclerosis: LDL . The hypothesis is that in the absence of ex...

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What's the Ideal Fasting Insulin Level?

[2013 update.  I'm leaving this post up for informational purposes, but I think it's difficult to determine the "ideal" in...

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The Dirty Little Secret of the Diet-Heart Hypothesis

The diet-heart hypothesis is the idea that saturated fat, and in some versions cholesterol, raises blood cholesterol and contributes to the ...

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Butyric Acid: an Ancient Controller of Metabolism, Inflammation and Stress Resistance?

An Interesting Finding Susceptible strains of rodents fed high-fat diets overeat, gain fat and become profoundly insulin resistant. Dr. Jia...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part IX

A Summary For those who didn't want to wade through the entire nerd safari, I offer a simple summary. Our ancestors had straight teeth, ...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VIII

Three Case Studies in Occlusion In this post, I'll review three cultures with different degrees of malocclusion over time, and try to ex...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VII

Jaw Development During Adolescence Beginning at about age 11, the skull undergoes a growth spurt. This corresponds roughly with the growth ...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part V

Prenatal Development of the Face and Jaws The structures of the face and jaws take shape during the first trimester of pregnancy. The 5th t...

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Impressions of Hawai'i

I recently went to Hawai'i for the American Society of Human Genetics meeting in Waikiki, followed by a one-week vacation on Kaua'i ...

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Butter vs. Margarine

I came across an interesting  study the other day, courtesy of Dr. John Briffa's blog . It's titled "Margarine Intake and Sub...

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A Little Hiatus

I'm going to a conference next week, followed by a little vacation. I've written two posts that will publish automatically while I...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part IV

There are three periods during the development of the face and jaws that are uniquely sensitive to environmental influences such as nutritio...

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part III

Normal Human Occlusion In 1967, a team of geneticists and anthropologists published an extensive study of a population of Brazilian hunter...

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