tomatoes and IGF-1

[xjohanx]

When i was at the train station waiting for the train a week ago I bought some magazines to read during the trip among them weiders muscle and fitness. in an article called flavor savers there was one thing that I found interesting.

 

Ketchup contains tomatoes and their potent antioxidant lycopene, which neutralizes free radicals and increases production of IGF-1

 

they say this as a positive thing but I'm not so sure I agree. Anyone know more about this?

 

On a side note, the authors were very positive about soy protein and implied a couple of times that it was better than dairy proteins for muscle building. Also vegans were mentioned really quickly in a small column about vega

 

Vegetable matters

PUT THIS IN YOUR BLENDER AND MIX IT

Vegan bodybuilders have it tough. In a world which meat-based proteins rule, they have to work overtime to find the right mix of muscle-building macronutrients. One sollution? Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer. This supplement gets its protein from five different plant-based sources: hemp protein, yellow pea protein, brown rice protein, whole flaxseed and chlorella. Each serving provides 25 grams of protein. Most important, it doesn't taste like bong water. myvega.com

 

not sure if i agree with the whole overtime thing but cool with some mainstream exposure

[Endy]

Wonderful post, xjohanx! Thanks for posting it, man.

 

About the vega part, here's a thought. Publicity might be good, and I like the fact that such a magazine is recognizing the presence of vegan bodybuilders. Yet, at the same time, it perpetuates the stereotype that vegans can't get protein.

 

In cinema, Anna May Wong is known as the first Chinese-American star. Her movies included The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color; Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Baghdad (1924), and Piccadilly (1929). To her dismay, however, she ended up playing supporting roles that reinforced incorrect stereotypes about Asians. Was this progress? She didn't seem to think so, she left the US for Europe in the 1920s, began starring in several notable films and plays, propelling herself to international stardom.

 

Looking at Anna May Wong's career, if she had stayed, reinforcing stereotypes, she might have ended up nowhere close to where she did. I'm really glad to see that vegans are getting some recognition, but if we're going to smash out of those stereotypes, we should give something to those magazines that completely smashes their minds and blows out of any traditional mindset about vegans. Right now, they're just tiptoeing.

 

We do have some wonderful successes here -- Alexander Dargatz comes to mind. Why not somebody do a great PR job?

[Im Your Man]

Ketchup (unless you do it yourself or buy a fresh, organic, home-made one) don't contain anything else than sugar, tomato paste, additives, etc. It's like any other canned fruits, there's no more vitamins and no antioxydants.

Those foods have been exposed to 100 000 rads, enough to kill all insects and bacterias, equivalent to being exposed to 3 million lung X-rays.

[DV]

My best advice is to stop buying that dumbass magazine. But seriously, here's a scientific study on the effects of lycopene which shows that it increases IGF-1 BINDING PROTEIN - which means that it decreases the effects of IGF-1. This study was done to look at the effects of lycopene on prostate cancer - a cancer which appears to grow with higher levels of IGF-1. Here is the abstract.

 

I'm Your Man pointed out that there is sugar in ketchup. Sugar might increase IGF-1 per some studies/theories - but I don't have the time right now to do a detailed search. It's more likely that the author of the magazine article didn't realize that lycopene increases the IGF-1 binding protein.

 

Um, the 3 million lung x-ray comparison is not true. Rather than giving anyone a physics and physiology lesson here, I think it's more responsible that the person stating such an utter untruth should give evidence to back up their statement.

[Im Your Man]

I don't know if it's true that the amount of cesium-137 those foods are radiated with equals the amount of x-rays our lungs would receive if we would go 3 million times to the doctor to see if we have lung cancer, but that's what I've read.

It's sad that we never know if what we read in books is true or false and that we have to try to elucidate if those things are true by reading other books which we don't know if it's true neither, but it's like that. Even when there's quoted studies, we don't know what's the real scientific value of those studies, or the author only chose to quote one sentence from the 20 pages of results of the study, or interprete the results the way he wants.

Also, many studies on the same question may have different results and often are completely contradictory, according to the subjects, experiments and other circumstances.

[xjohanx]

dv: thanks for the facts.

about the sugar, they continue talking about the sugar and saying it's bad and so on and it's pretty clear that it is the tomatoes that raises the hormone level.

and i normally don't buy those magazines but if i have to choose between gardening, motor, porn or fitness the choice is pretty obvious.

[DV]

Understood. I've been known to purchase a People, Us or Vanity Fair when stranded in an airport.