Hand Coding

LiveScience reports on a study which concluded that “action video games that involve firing guns can improve your eyesight”:

A group of 10 male college students who started out as non-gamers and then received 30 hours of training on first-person action video games showed a substantial increase in their ability to see objects accurately in a cluttered space, compared to 10 non-gamers given the same test, said Daphne Bevelier of the University of Rochester.

[…]

First-person action games helped study subjects improve their spatial resolution, meaning their ability to clearly see small, closely packed together objects, such as letters, she said. Game-playing actually changes the way our brains process visual information. […]

I think this may be just the motivation I need to play Doom 3 more often — it’s for my own good, right? ;).

Just in case you have any bagged spinach at home, you may not want to eat that. The FDA is warning that some cases of E. Coli have been linked with this leafy goodness (well, “non-goodness” for the time being).

The Food and Drug Administration is warning people not to eat bagged spinach after an outbreak of E. Coli bacteria killed one person and sickened at least 50 others in eight states.

The FDA issued the warning Thursday night, just one day after receiving information about the growing number of E. Coli cases, which began in mid-August and stretched from Connecticut to Oregon. […]

The article went on to say that “the elderly, the young and those with weak immune systems are most likely to be at risk”. So, if you’re in good health, you probably wouldn’t die; still, there’s no need to tempt fate, eh?

I brush my teeth — but who doesn’t? Anyhow, on a recent trip to Target, I picked up the Refreshing Vanilla Mint flavor of Crest’s Whitening Expressions line. I had previously tried their orange-flavored toothpaste — titled something like Citrus Blast or something equally ridiculous — and it was a pleasant change from the usual mint flavor that toothpastes generally have. Granted, it wasn't exactly like biting into an orange, or even like biting into a piece of orange-flavored Bubblicious, but it made tooth brushing just a tad more palatable.

Getting back to this other flavor, though, I recently noticed that I was running low on my Citrus Whatever tube and so I picked up “Refreshing Vanilla Mint” to give myself some variety. And, it all just went downhill from there…

The canonical vanilla-flavored food item may be vanilla ice cream (with perhaps vanilla yogurt near the top of the list as well). Well, rest assured, this toothpaste resembled neither of those. There was a hint of vanillaness, to be sure, though it somewhat reminded me of the harsh vanilla-like flavor that you might find in a vanilla-themed hard candies.

As for the mint, well, it was there. What can I say — it was pretty much standard-issue toothpaste-mint. Lowest-bidder, factory-borne mint. That alone is perhaps tolerable on the scale of a few minutes here-and-there, such as when brushing one’s teeth; when fused with factory-vanilla, though, the combination is disastrous. Imagine Crest toothpaste in your vanilla latte. Yeah, kinda like that. (Not that Mermaid Coffee uses cheap vanilla, but the end result would be approximately the same.)

In all, I might otherwise recommend the Citrus Whatever flavor of Crest’s Whitening Expressions line. However, after looking over their site, I don’t see it listed any more and I can’t help but wonder if maybe they discontinued it. All the same, since only one of their flavors turned out to be freakishly bad, the others could conceivably be fine. (And, if you can find their Citrus*.* on store shelves, grab it while you can.)

WebMD is reporting on a study showing that sleep may help weight loss. Apparently, the hormone leptin — which regulates appetite — was found depressed in those who had less sleep:

Leptin is a hormone that is made predominately in fat cells. The amount of leptin in the blood is proportional to the amount of body fat. It is thought to decrease appetite. However, most obesity is characterized by resistance to leptin and its appetite-suppressing effect.

Participants who reported less sleep tended to have lower leptin levels than predicted. That might mean that their bodies weren't using leptin very efficiently. […]

The article goes on to say that it’s not as simple as More Sleep → Lose Weight, since there’re many factors that go into weight gain vs weight loss. Still, there’s nothing to lose (well, other than weight) by getting more sleep.

I haven’t had a full-sugar soda in several years, but I still enjoy a few diet sodas a week. And, I've occasionally heard, off-handedly, that diet sodas can cause tooth decay just as their full-sugar cousins can. For what it’s worth, I switched to diet soda for the caloric savings, not specifically for the dental advantages (I almost typed “dental benefits” there, but that would have had an entirely different connotation than I intended.) However, as I like to have healthy teeth, I didn’t really want to drink beverages that might work against that (assuming that the notion was true).

A couple months back, I applied my Google-fu and though to get to the bottom of this. As it turns out, it was harder than I thought since some dental professionals said that diet soda doesn’t cause tooth decay while other dental folks said that diet soda does cause tooth decay. Yeesh. At the time, I just gave up on the question and made a mental note to revisit the issue later.

Well, I tried Googling again today and I came across a more definitive answer. One resource that looked promising was a pamphlet sent to parents from the Ohio Dental Association:

While excessive sugar is not healthy, it’s the acid in diet and regular soda that can damage tooth enamel and cause cavities and tooth decay. Acid can begin to harm tooth enamel in only 20 minutes.

That just about concluded my search, though I checked Google once more to see if I could find a national (or international) source in addition to this state-wide source. And, I came across this message from the Academy of General Dentistry about diet soda:

Drinking carbonated soft drinks regularly can contribute to the erosion of tooth enamel surfaces, according to the Academy of General Dentistry.

[…]

Because saliva helps neutralize acids and wash your teeth clean, the worst time to drink soda pop, ironically, is when you are very thirsty or dehydrated due to low levels of saliva. “The larger the volume of intake, the more impact soda pop has on your teeth,” says Gordon Isbell, III, DDS, MAGD, a spokesdentist for the Academy of General Dentistry. “Diet sodas are part of the problem. Women especially like to drink them throughout the day and between meals because they have no calories, yet the higher frequency and volume is putting their teeth at risk.” […]

You hadn’t heard of the “Academy of General Dentistry”? Well, neither had I — but they’re apparently “a non-profit organization of more than 37,000 general dentists”. I suppose that puts the question to rest, then; now I just need to figure out what I can drink instead of diet soda. (I probably won’t cut it out completely, but perhaps my teeth will thank me for drinking less of it.)

PS Is anyone else appalled — and, at the same time, amused — by the Academy’s unnecessary coinage of the term “spokesdentist”? ;)

I’ve been working full time for RD2 since the summer and prior to that I worked for myself. And, at the time, I gave myself benefits, though they were largely of the in-case-I-get-hit-by-a-bus variety. I didn’t give myself dental benefits and so it had been about three years since I had last seen a dentist. But, now that I had a full time job with benefits, I thought that I should have things checked out at a dentist. I hadn’t felt any tooth pain or other obvious signs of tooth anomalies (otherwise I would have gone to see one earlier) but I didn’t know what they’d find either.

There aren’t many things which I fear, but dentists are probably one of them — I’m the kind of guy that winces at the sound of hearing a dentist’s drill on tv (really). So, wanting to educate myself, I Googled around for new dentistry techniques on repairing tooth decay on the chance that there might be something which could be used in lieu of a drill (on the off-chance that I had a cavity after all). And, I came across a technique called air abrasion which, in simplest terms, is like microscopic sand-blasting on your teeth:

Air abrasion works by blowing a stream of powerful dry clean air, mixed with minute abrasive particles of aluminum oxide onto the surface of the teeth. Air abrasion uses the kinetic energy principle, in which particles bounce off the tooth and blasts the decay away. […]

Air abrasion procedures are virtually painless eliminating the need for an anesthetic injection. Air abrasion systems produce no vibration and no heat from friction. The technology can’t harm soft mouth tissue and they operate very quietly.…

“Ah, that sounds good&rdquo, I thought to myself. Of course, I didn’t know if I had a cavity at this point, but I knew that I wanted to go to a dentist that offered air abrasion on the chance that I did have a cavity. The next step: search for dentists and air abrasion in Dallas. I looked through the first few links and 21st Century Dental seemed the most promising. I think I was hooked from the introductory sentence in which they described themselves as a “dental spa”. Among other things, they tout televisions in every room, massage mats on the patient chairs and fresh fresh Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.

So, I scheduled an appointment with them which was earlier this month. Laurie was my hygienist and she was very friendly. One of the first things she did was to take my pulse (with one of those automated arm-cuff machines) and she remarked that mine was a bit high. I commented that I “wasn’t really a ‘dentist person’” and that I may have been a bit nervous to which she replied “I don’t think anyone’s really a ‘dentist person”. And, after a few seconds pondering, she added “… well, except for me” with a smile.

She took x-rays of my teeth with digital x-ray which then displayed the images on an overhead LCD monitor hanging from a multi-jointed arm. And, once she got to cleaning my teeth, she handed me a remote control which set the LCD monitor to television duty. As she worked away, I flipped through the channels and settled on CNN Headline News. Not that teeth cleaning really hurts, but the scraping sound can sometimes be a bit disconcerting; and, watching tv helped get my mind off of the sharp tools in my mouth.

After the cleaning, she called in Dr Roy — Jeff is his first name — who examined the x-rays (back on the LCD monitor, so that I could look over them as well) and informed me that I had a cavity. Well, I wouldn’t say that I was pleased to hear this, but it’s not something that was completely unexpected either (considering how long it had been since I had last been to a dentist).

So, I scheduled another appointment to get the cavity filled, and that appointment was yesterday. And as I drove there, I wasn’t too nervous; but, I was a little uneasy by the time I got to the waiting room. However, the waiting room, to their credit, includes at least one hanging waterfall which actually helped a great deal. Soon enough, Michelle called me back to one of the dental chairs. And, right off the bat, she asked whether I would like laughing gas to help me to relax, to which I readily agreed.

She placed a nosepiece over my face and started the gas. And, after a little while, I did feel a bit more calm. Then Dr Roy came in to anesthetize the tooth (one of the upper-left molars). He used a machine with a jointed mechanical arm which delivered anesthetic to just that tooth (and it made kind of a purring sound in the process which I suppose is one of the better sounds a dental machine can make). However, they needed to wait a few minutes for the anesthetic to take effect. Both Dr Roy and Michelle walked out but, before leaving, Michelle asked if I wanted anything to drink while I waited. She named a few drinks including Diet Coke which is what I settled on.

She brought back a chilled can of Diet Coke and then left me to wait. Really, this wasn’t that much fun. Sure, I had sugar-free refreshment at hand, but I could only ponder the upcoming cavity-filling. I sipped the soda and looked out the window, trying to think of anything but stuff related to teeth. Fortunately, the lights in the patient rooms are always kept dimly lit — about what might come to mind if you were to think of the lighting in a stereotypical web development shop (and the hygienists and dentists use those overhead mouth-spotlights for light when they’re working).

Dr Roy and Michelle eventually returned, about 10-15 minutes later, and they reclined my chair. I asked if I’d be getting an air abrasion filling or a more traditional filling and they said that it would be a regular filling. I was aware of that possibility as not all cavities are suitable for air abrasion; still, I just reminded myself that I needed the filling and that I would just have to stick through it.

Before Dr Roy and Michelle began the procedure, Michelle offered me a variety of Internet radio stations which were listed on the LCD monitor. I asked for some jazz with the provision that I didn’t want “any of that smooth jazz”. She flipped through a few of them and I settled on a jazz classics station. And, after having chosen that, I noticed a browser window in the background which I recognized as DigitallyImported.com. I briefly pondered what it might be like to get a filling with Euro Dance pulsing in the background but thought better of it.

There was some drilling, of course, but it wasn’t as bad as I had envisioned. I was pretty relaxed from the nitrous oxide in ways that I hadn’t anticipated (not that I’m complaining). I could hear the sound of the drill but it was if I was just listening to someone’s cordless drill — my brain wasn’t making the connection of “hey, that’s a drill I hear… in my mouth!”. And, after they finished digging the hole in my tooth, they filled it with a tooth-colored resin.

When it was all done, I felt less bad than I thought I would. I had some numbness but it was mostly just that one tooth which they had anesthetized. And, my jaw was a bit stiff from having it propped open while they worked, but nothing really hurt. I walked back to the main desk and, before I left, they offered me a milkshake in a choice of vanilla, strawberry or chocolate. I asked for strawberry and they brought one by shortly. They also motioned towards a plate of the warm chocolate chip cookies under a glass lid and I helped myself to one of those as well.

I still don’t know if I’d call myself a “dentist person” but this was almost pleasant, all things considered. I found Dr Roy and his staff very down-to-earth and that really helped put me at ease. Everyone was very friendly and not once were they condescending (which is probably my number-one pet peeve of dentists). I have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday and, while I can’t say that I’m looking forward to it, I’m not fretting about it. And, if anyone needs a dentist in the Dallas/Irving area, I can’t recommend these guys highly enough.

The Baltimore Sun (via the registration-free Sun-Sentinel) reports that trans fat could impair memory and intellect, according to studies releases at this year’s annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience. Trans fat is created when hydrogen is bubbled through liquid fats, turning them solid (which makes them easier to bake with). However, trans fat both raises your bad cholesterol (LDL) and lowers your good cholesterol (HDL) — even saturated fat doesn’t affect the good cholesterol.

Fortunately, the government has mandated the inclusion of trans fat on nutrition labels by 2006. But, you can already avoid most of them today by looking out for “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated” on ingredients labels. And, on top of the cholesterol issue, these findings on memory are another good reason to look out for trans fats.

Last year, Granholm fed one group of rats a diet that contained 10 percent hydrogenated coconut oil, a common trans fat. She gave another group the same diet, but replaced the coconut oil with soybean oil, which is not a trans fat.

After six weeks, the animals were tested in a series of mazes. The coconut oil group made far more errors, especially on the tests that required more mental energy.

“The trans fats made memory significantly worse,” said Granholm, who is director of the Center On Aging at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. […]

The article goes on to say that Granholm threw out all the trans fat foods in her fridge after getting her findings. And, I might do the same; but, I’m not sure if I have many trans fat foods around these days. I’ve already switched switched from margarine to butter and even the Lindt 70% Cocoa bar in my cupboard is trans fat free ;).

I’m not quite sure about my protein bars, though — most of them list “fractionated palm kernel oil” among the ingredients in the coating, but I don’t know how much of the bar’s fat goes into the coating. Maybe I’ll have to wait until 2006 for the answer to that one.

HealthTalk reports on findings by researchers from the University of Newcastle that drinking tea might prevent Alzheimer’s disease. I’m a tea drinker, so this was pleasant news (not that I plan on having Alzheimer’s, but every bit helps).

During laboratory testing, the researchers found green and black tea inhibited the activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which breaks down the chemical messenger or neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. Alzheimer’s is characterized by a drop in acetylcholine.

Both teas [black and green] also were found to hinder the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), a substance found in protein deposits on the brain of Alzheimer’s patients. […]

I enjoy tea each morning, which I brew at home and take to work with me in my stainless steel “coffee mug”. In addition to being a tasty start to the morning, perhaps this offers a health benefit. I suppose that most people have tried tea and have already decided whether they like it or not.

But, if you’re undecided on tea or if you want to give it another try, I find that The Republic of Tea makes some good teas. If you’re not sure where to start, British Breakfast is a good all-around tea (and Earl Grey is another of my favorites). And, for the best flavor, I would recommend “full leaf” teas (as opposed to tea bags). But, that doesn’t mean a mess of loose tea in your mug — a Brew Basket (about $4.50) can steep single-serving mugs of tea without leaving tea leaves in your glass.

As food companies try to lower the sugar content of their foods, they’ll try just about anything. In addition to the usual white-flour-to-soy-flour conversion, sugar is often taken out and replaced with a sugar alcohol. The name is a bit misleading as it’s neither a sugar nor an alcohol; rather, its chemical structure is merely similar to sugars and alcohols.

And, food companies generally subtract food alcohols from the “carb count” on the back of the package as they reason that sugar alcohols have a negligible effect on blood sugar levels. But, is that really the case? To find out, I searched for the glycemic values for various sugar alcohols. For those not aware, the Glycemic Index is a measure of a food’s effect on blood sugar levels. The scale is set up so that sugar has a value of 100. But, that’s not to say that foods can’t exceed 100 — potatoes can reach into the 150s, for example.

While a glycemic value of zero would truly represent a food which has “no effect” on blood sugar levels, that’s not to say that any effect is bad. Really, it’s the spikes in blood sugar levels brought on by foods with high glycemic values which cause mischief. Getting back to the sugar alcohols, I discovered that many of them aren’t that low:

• Maltitol syrup, intermediate: 53
• Maltitol syrup, regular: 52
• Maltitol syrup, high: 48
• Polyglycitol / hydrogenated starch hydrolysate: 39
• Maltitol syrup, high-polymer: 36
• Maltitol: 36
• Xylitol: 13
• Isomalt: 9
• Sorbitol: 9
• Lactitol: 6
• Erythritol: 0
• Mannitol: 0

Obviously, maltitol and its variants stick out. But, how bad is it? For comparison, corn syrup (a sugar derived from corn) is around 85-92. Sure, maltitol is lower than that, but it’s not that far off. As a rule of thumb, a glycemic value in the 40s (or below) is considered low. But maltitol syrup (53) is almost at the level of new potatoes (57).

So, which sugar alcohols are used commonly? Speakingly only anecdotally — from my recollections of food labels at my local Target — maltitol seems to be the sugar alcohol of choice for many manufacturers. I think we’d all like to find some double chocolate chip cookies make with erythritol (with its zero glycemic value), but I’ve never actually seen erythritol on any ingredient label :-/.

It may initially seem confusing to have all these sugar alcohols and glycemic values to remember — especially since so many food manufacturers liken all of them to having a minimal effect. But, just keep in mind these two: maltitol (36-53, depending on variant) and polyglycitol (also called “hydrogenated starch hydrolysate”, at 39). If you steer clear of those, the rest shouldn’t be an issue — the next-highest sugar alcohol is xylitol and that only has a glycemic value of 13.

The other day at work, we got to talking about foods which promote fitness and Larry mentioned that he had read a new study about caffeine. He didn’t go into it much at the time, but I was curious since I gingerly sip caffeine every morning (tea — Earl Grey — hot). So, later that day, I went to see what I could find at the Health section of Google News.

Sure enough, researchers at Duke University did a study of caffeine’s effect on blood sugar levels. They tested 14 people with type 2 diabetes and discovered that large doses of caffeine can cause blood sugar levels to climb:

The study showed that caffeine had little effect on glucose and insulin levels during the fasting period, but it caused significant surges after eating a meal. People who received the 375-milligram dose of caffeine experienced a 21% larger increase in glucose levels and a 48% larger increase in insulin levels compared with those who took the placebo during the two hours following their meals.

“It seems that caffeine, by further impairing the metabolism of meals, is something diabetics ought to consider avoiding. Some people already watch their diet and exercise regularly,” says Lane. “Avoiding caffeine might be another way to better manage their disease. In fact, it’s possible that staying away from caffeine could provide bigger benefits altogether.” […]

It’s not that caffeine creates blood sugar, but it seems to aggravate blood sugar levels when consumed with a high-carbohydrate meal. So, I may be out of the woods on this one — I generally have a mid-carb breakfast of diced apples with cottage cheese (+ cinnamon + Splenda) but I drink my tea about an hour after I eat breakfast. With any luck, most of my breakfast-based blood sugars would have been metabolized by then.