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Does Black Cumin Seed (Nigella Sativa) Help with Weight Loss? 

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For three cents a day, black cumin may improve our cholesterol and triglyceride levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar control, as well as accelerate the loss of body fat. Black cumin, also known as Nigella sativa or simply “black seed,” is not related to cumin; it’s a member of the buttercup family rather than the carrot family. Black cumin, with its peppery flavor, is a spice commonly used in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines, but it’s also been prized for its purported medicinal benefits. Described as “a miracle herb,” with mentions going back to the Old Testament, it was found cached in King Tut’s tomb, and it’s been reported that the “Islamic prophet Muhammad once stated that the black seed can heal every disease except death.” Only in the last 50 years or so has it been put to the test, though, culminating in more than a thousand papers published in the medical literature. Typical doses used in studies are one or two grams a day, which is only about a quarter teaspoon. This...
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Should We Drink Kombucha 

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What are the risks versus benefits of drinking kombucha? Is Kombucha Tea Good for You? is one of my first videos. It was featured in a blog entry entitled “NutritionFacts.org: the first month,” where I marveled the video had reached nearly 100,000 people. You can see it below and at 0:20 in my video Kombucha’s Side Effects: Is It Bad for You? . I’m honored to say that we now reach more than 100,000 people a day . In that first kombucha video, I profiled a report published in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine of “a case of kombucha tea toxicity” in which a young man ended up in an acidotic coma. The authors concluded, “While Kombucha tea is considered a healthy elixir, the limited evidence currently available raises considerable concern that it may pose serious health risks. Consumption of this tea should be discouraged, as it may be associated with life-threatening lactic acidosis.” And this was just one of several case reports of “serious, and sometimes fatal, hepatic [live...
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Treating Hashimoto’s Disease (Hypothyroidism) Naturally with Diet 

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What were the results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a daily half teaspoon of powdered black cumin in Hashimoto’s patients? “Autoimmune thyroiditis, also known as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, is an organ-specific autoimmune disorder,” where our body attacks our own thyroid gland, often leading to hypothyroidism due to destruction and scarring of the gland itself. We know there’s a genetic component, since identical twins are more likely to share the disease than fraternal twins. “However, even with identical twins, the concordance rate was only about 50%, emphasizing that important factors such as the environment play a role in disease pathogenesis.” Indeed, even if your identical twin, who has basically your exact same DNA, has the disease, there’s only like a flip of a coin’s chance you’ll get it. Genes load the gun, but the environment may pull the trigger. More than 90 synthetic chemicals were noted to show disruption of hormonal balance or thyroid dysfunc...
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Eating with Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism 

Is the apparent protection of plant-based diets for thyroid health due to the exclusion of animal foods, the benefits of plant foods, or both? Several autoimmune diseases affect the thyroid gland, and Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis are the most common. Graves’ disease results in hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid gland. Though slaughter plants are supposed to remove animals’ thyroid glands as they “shall not be used for human food,” should some neck meat slip in, you can suffer a similar syndrome called Hamburger thyrotoxicosis. That isn’t from your body making too much thyroid hormone, though. Rather, it’s from your body eating too much thyroid hormone. Graves’ disease is much more common, and meat-free diets may be able to help with both diseases, as plant-based diets may be associated with a low prevalence of autoimmune disease in general, as observed, for example, in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Maybe it’s because plants are packed with “high amounts of antioxida...
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A Healthy, Natural Source of Iodine? 

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How much nori, dulse, or arame approximates the recommended daily allowance for iodine? Dairy milk supplies between a quarter and a half of the daily iodine requirement in the United States, though milk itself has “little native iodine.” The iodine content in cow’s milk is mainly determined by factors like “the application of iodine-containing teat disinfectants,” and the “iodine residues in milk originate mainly from the contamination of the teat surface…” Indeed, the teats of dairy cows are typically sprayed or dipped with betadine-type disinfectants, and the iodine just kind of leaches into their milk, as you can see at 0:35 in my video Friday Favorites: The Healthiest Natural Source of Iodine .  Too bad most of the plant-based milks on the market aren’t enriched with iodine, too. Fortified soy milk is probably the healthiest of the plant milks, but even if it were enriched with iodine, what about the effects soy may have on thyroid function? When I searched the medical...
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Vegans and Iodine Deficiency Risk 

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Most plant-based milks are not fortified with iodine. “Adequate dietary iodine is required for normal thyroid function.” In fact, the two thyroid hormones are named after how many iodine atoms they contain: T3 and T4. “Given that iodine is extensively stored in the thyroid gland itself, it can safely be consumed intermittently,” so we don’t need to consume it every day. However, our overall diet does need a good source of it. Unfortunately, the common sources aren’t particularly health-promoting: iodized salt and dairy foods. (Iodine-based cleansers like betadine are used on cows “to sanitize the udders, resulting in leaching of iodine in the milk.”) Iodine may also be added to cattle feed, and some commercially produced breads contain food additives with iodine. If you put people on a paleo-type diet and cut out their dairy and table salt, they can develop an iodine deficiency, even though they double their intake of seafood, which can also be a source of iodine. What about th...
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What About Elderberry, Echinacea, and Cranberries for Colds and the Flu? 

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How effective are flu shots, elderberries, echinacea, and cranberries? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone over the age of six months get a routine flu shot every year, unless you have some sort of contraindication, such as an allergy to any of the vaccine’s components. CDC recommends getting vaccinated by the end of October, but it may even be beneficial when received in December or later. How effective are flu vaccines? It depends on the year, but, as you can see below and at 0:33 in my video Friday Favorites: Elderberry Benefits and Side Effects: Does It Help with Colds and the Flu? , the flu vaccine typically reduces the risk of getting the flu by about 40 to 50 percent. So, in healthy adults, we can say with moderate certainty that we can decrease our risk of influenza from about 2 percent each year down to just under 1 percent. Older adults may get a similar relative risk reduction, but the baseline risk is higher and the c...
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