
Apple ingredient keeps muscles strong - ph0rque
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110607131718.htm
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wvl
Everyone who reads an article in the press about health and nutrition should
be required to watch this video, Science for Smart People -- a presentation by
Tom Naughton, who wrote and directed the movie "Fat Head". It is a brilliant
deconstruction of bad science and the bad journalists that report the bad
science, in the context of health and nutrition.

One of many points he makes is the ridiculousness of reporting on miraculous
health claims that have only been shown to work on rodents.

The video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1RXvBveht0>

And, I just submitted it to HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2635326>

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miked
>> If so, they don't yet know whether ursolic acid at levels that might be
consumed as part of a normal diet might or might not be enough.

That last sentence may be the most important one for now. Resveratrol has had
some interesting health benefit data published, but positive results were
correlated to much larger quantities than one could get by just drinking red
wine. But if ursolic acid can be cheaply synthesized and proven safe in
clinically beneficial quantities, this could be huge. Note that the article
focused on muscle wasting and only mentioned in passing that it lowered blood
glucose and triglyceride levels and boosted insulin signaling. Talk about
burying the lede.

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spiralganglion
The presence of "Apple" in the title caught my eye... then the realization set
in. I'd love to argue that this is linkbait, even though there's no reasonable
reason it should be. WWDC fever.

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StavrosK
I was about to say, enough with the apple fanboyism already!

Then I read the article.

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blendergasket
Yeah, I was going to ask if I was the only one who thought this was some weird
Steve Jobs metaphor. I guess not.

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jrockway
Why is the focus on apple peels, specifically? Ursolic acid is also in
rosemary and oregano, which have been available as dietary supplements for
quite a while.

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thret
Well, if it is in oregano then it's in every pizza base. Perhaps junk-fooders
are okay.

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zszugyi
What about strength training, which is already proven to work in humans?

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chuhnk
The study is based on dietary factors, there are plenty others out there
focused on strength and hypertrophy training. Obviously diet and exercise go
hand in hand in order to reduce muscle wasting as a result of ageing.

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quattrofan
That's great, but you can prevent nearly all of the degeneration of ageing -
especially muscle wastage - by regular exercise and strength training.

