Dr. Shawn Talbott will be among the many experts presenting information today during Palm Oil Nutrition Week in Malaysia. Dr. Talbott will talk about Palm Phytonutrient in Athletes. His presentation will be one of many to help researchers understand the many end-user benefits of their work.

In his presentation, Dr. Talbott will discuss the influence of nutrition on mood state and vigor, which is defined by physical energy, mental acuity, and emotional well-being. An expert in this area of study, he will review the measures by which nutrition can affect athletic performance. He will also cover the benefits of the palm fruit nutrients (fatty acids, carotenoids, polyphenols, tocopherols, tocotrienols and phytosterols) and their impact on athletic performance.

Dr. Talbott is MonaVie’s Chief Science & Innovation Officer. He holds a MS in Exercise Science from UMass, an EMP in Entrepreneurship from MIT, and a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Rutgers. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the American College of Nutrition and has educated elite-level athletes in a variety of sports including at the United States Olympic Training Centers. He is the author of over 200 articles and 10 books on nutrition and fitness – and his work has been featured in media outlets around the world, including at the White House as part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity and a variety of segments on The Dr Oz Show.

Palm Oil Nutrition Week aspires to highlight the positive role of palm oil bioactives – including tocotrienols, carotenoids and phenolics – that are now found in many food items. This conference is providing researchers, healthcare professionals and consumers with the latest scientific evidence on the health advantages of dietary palm oil.

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While in Malaysia for the Malaysian Palm Oil Council’s Palm Oil Nutrition Week, Dr. Shawn Talbott got to handle the fruit of the oil palm, and got a first-hand glimpse at a display of its many fractions and applications.

He explores that display in this video, pointing out the rich red color of crude Malaysian Palm Fruit Oil, which is due to its high levels of beta carotenes. His host also reviews some of the many products made with palm oil including heat-stable cooking oil.

Dr. Talbott is MonaVie’s Chief Science & Innovation Officer. He holds a MS in Exercise Science from UMass, an EMP in Entrepreneurship from MIT, and a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from Rutgers. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Sports Medicine and the American College of Nutrition and has educated elite-level athletes in a variety of sports including at the United States Olympic Training Centers. He is the author of over 200 articles and 10 books on nutrition and fitness – and his work has been featured in media outlets around the world, including at the White House as part of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to fight childhood obesity and a variety of segments on The Dr Oz Show.

Palm Oil Nutrition Week aspires to highlight the positive role of palm oil bioactives – including tocotrienols, carotenoids and phenolics – that are now found in many food items. This conference is providing researchers, healthcare professionals and consumers with the latest scientific evidence on the health advantages of dietary palm oil.

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This week, Holistic Pharmacist Sherry Torkos will address an international gathering of researchers and medical practitioners during Palm Oil Nutrition Week 2013. The event, sponsored by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, is being held in Malaysia. Torkos arrived in Malaysia a few days ago, accompanied by three other influential opinion leaders who also will be making presentations during this nutrition conference on dietary palm oil.

During her presentation, titled A Pharmacists Perspective: The Expanding Use and Interest In Dietary Supplements For Health and Disease Prevention, Torkos will talk about the dramatic rise in acceptance of nutritional and dietary supplements by pharmacists. She will also explain how pharmacists and physicians rely on the evidence: well-conducted studies that demonstrate the safety and efficacy of natural ingredients including palm carotenoids.

A frequent media guest, Torkos plans to tell the audience: “Educating consumers and other healthcare professionals about tocotrienols has been a focus of mine for the last few years. As I dug into this research with my co-author Martha Gulati for our book, Saving Women’s Hearts, it’s clear that the research on Malaysian palm fruit bioactives is just starting to take off with research commitments, and the education of healthcare professionals and the public.”

Palm carotenoids are naturally occurring, fat soluble compounds that possess high antioxidant potential. They are well known for their pro-vitamin A activity, and are involved with various biological mechanisms in the body. Red palm oil, in particular, is specially processed to retain its carotene and tocotrienol content. It has sparked the imagination of many nutritionists and culinary experts.

The latest scientific buzz for palm carotenes involves cancer studies, skin health, antioxidant benefits, cell-to-cell signaling, and immune enhancement.

Palm Oil Nutrition Week aspires to highlight the positive role of palm oil bioactives – including tocotrienols, carotenoids and phenolics – that are now found in many food items. This conference is providing researchers, healthcare professionals and consumers with the latest scientific evidence on the health advantages of dietary palm oil.

Sherry Torkos is a holistic pharmacist, author, and lecturer. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1992. Sherry has authored seventeen books and booklets including, The Canadian Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, Saving Women’s Hearts, The Glycemic Index Made Simple, and Breaking the Age Barrier. She is a frequent guest on radio and TV talk shows where she discusses a variety of medical and natural health topics.

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During a recent segment of the Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family show, hosts Mark Steines and Cristina Ferrare discovered how Malaysian Palm Fruit Oil may benefit their cholesterol. With 87 million subscribers, The Hallmark Channel is the nation’s leading destination for quality family programming. Guest Jonny Bowden, the Rogue Nutritionist and author of The Great Cholesterol Myth, advised viewers to change their regular cooking oil to Malaysian Palm Fruit Oil, partially because of its powerful antioxidants. Additionally, its unique balance of fatty acid makes Palm Oil cholesterol neutral. Palm Oil is a rich source of tocotrienols and contains more beta-carotene than carrots.

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Four prominent health professionals will travel to Malaysia next week to share and exchange knowledge about the health benefits of Malaysian Palm Fruit Oil with medical practitioners and researchers from around the world. While there, the group will also tour local oil palm plantations, processing facilities and wildlife refuges. The trip coincides with the annual Palm Oil Nutrition Week, sponsored by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council.

These participants may be familiar to you because their expert qualifications place them in high demand with the media. They will be anxious to share what they learn with their peers as well as with TV, radio, print and Internet audiences in the U.S. and Canada.

• Bryce Wylde: BSc, DHMHS: An alternative health expert alternative medicine expert, clinician, television host, educator, author and philanthropist who appeared on The Dr. Oz Show in January to help introduce millions of people to the health benefits of palm fruit oil.

• Shawn Talbott, PhD, LDN, FACSM: An exercise physiologist, nutritional biochemist, author and entrepreneur. He is the director of a research and development company (GLH Nutrition) that educates consumers about dietary supplements (via the SupplementWatch website at www.supplementwatch.com).

• Felicia D. Stoler, DCN, MS, RD, FACSM: A registered dietician, exercise physiologist, author and expert consultant in nutrition and healthful living. She was the host for the reality show, Honey We’re Killing the Kids on TLC.

• Sherry Torkos, BSc, Phm: A pharmacist, author, certified fitness instructor and health enthusiast who has won several national pharmacy awards for providing excellence in patient care. As a leading health expert, she has delivered hundreds of lectures to medical professionals and the public.

This exciting trip will be captured by a documentary film crew traveling with the group. Next week’s blog: Highlights of Palm Oil Nutrition Week seminars, including presentations by Drs. Wylde and Torkos.

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Just because coconut oil is also a product of palm trees doesn’t mean that it’s similar to healthy palm fruit oil. The truth is that coconut oil is much more like palm kernel oil in terms of chemical composition and physical characteristics. The fatty acid composition of Malaysian palm fruit oil set it apart from both palm kernel oil and coconut oil.

Palm fruit oil (which may also be referred to as palm oil) also differs from coconut oil with regard to its impact on heart disease risk. Human clinical trials have shown that palm oil tends to be “cholesterol-neutral” while coconut oil is more likely to raise cholesterol.

How is palm oil labeled?

Palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature (20°C). The liquid portion could be physically separated from the solid portion of palm oil by a process called fractionation.

After fractionation the liquid portion is called “palm olein“, which is commonly bottled and sold as cooking oils.

The solid fat portion is called “palm stearin” and it is commonly used to formulate trans-free fats such as margarine, shortening and vegetable ghee.

Sometimes the palm olein is further fractionated to a more liquid fraction called “super palm olein“. This oil fraction could withstand colder temperature than palm olein before they cloud or solidify.

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Mom Talk Radio host Maria Bailey recently welcomed Dr. Felicia Stoler to her show to give listeners advice on taking better care of their health. Dr. Stoler’s advice included eating foods that are helpful at reducing inflammation including salmon and avocados. She also included healthy Malaysian Palm Fruit Oil in that category. Scientists have tied inflammation to cholesterol deposits in the arteries. Red palm oil, in particular, helps keep that inflammation under control. Dr. Stoler is a registered dietitian, an expert on nutrition and healthy living, and author of Living Skinny in Fat Genes.

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Products made with Malaysian Palm Oil are getting a great deal of media attention in part because of their tocotrienol content. A form of vitamin E not found in the typical Vitamin E supplement, researchers have associated tocotrienols with neuroprotective properties after strokes; there is also evidence that tocotrienols may be beneficial in helping to protect against blood clots, cancer and high cholesterol.

Ohio State University Professor Chandan K. Sen, one of the country’s leading authorities on tocotrienols, has commented about why medical researchers are focusing so much attention on this nutrient. Calling scientific research “painstaking and tedious”, he explains that the scientific community gets most excited when the evidence of an ingredient’s effectiveness builds, study after study. “This is a much higher calling than creating a product,” he states, adding that he’s skeptical of products that are based on preliminary studies but no follow-up research is completed.

Dr. Sen is humbled that the National Institutes of Health and other key foundations are very supportive of his work. It’s a slow process, and he’s gratified that many of his peers are now convinced of tocotrienols’ potential benefits. “When I started my research over 10 years ago, there were zero papers on tocotrienols. Now just the neuroprotective claims on tocotrienols have been cited by more than 200 research manuscripts. That is how science builds!”

There are synthetic and natural vitamin E supplements out there, and Dr. Sen recommends that consumers choose tocotrienols from natural sources, such as palm oil. “It’s now known that the body can discriminate the difference,” he says. “Our human studies are all done with tocotrienols from natural sources.”

iHealthTube.com – What Sets Different Supplements Apart?

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With the right balance, saturated fatty acids maintain your HDL (good cholesterol) while polyunsaturated fatty acids decrease your LDL (bad cholesterol). Palm oil contains approximately 44% palmitic acid (saturated), 5% stearic acid (saturated), 39% oleic acid (monounsaturated), and 10% linoleic acid (polyunsaturated).

Researchers are only on the cusp of understanding how fatty acids work independently and in conjunction with other nutrients to impact our health. The conclusions are evolving. Here’s some of what is known so far about the fatty acids present in palm fruit oil.

Palmitic acid: Until recently, palmitic acid was thought to be associated with raising cholesterol levels. However that line of thinking is changing. A review of all of the related scientific literature on the subject was recently published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. The researchers concluded that the evidence of palmitic acid promoting heart disease was scanty and not convincing. In fact, experts predict that replacing trans fats with palmitic acid (which is also found in chocolate) may actually help to reduce cardiovascular risk factors.

Stearic Acid: Clinical and epidemiologic studies have associated stearic acid with lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol while having a neutral effect on HDL (good) cholesterol.

Oleic Acid: This fatty acid contains antioxidants and promotes healthy cholesterol levels, and may also help prevent cell damage. It is also believed to have anti-inflammatory properties. There is very preliminary evidence that it may boost memory.

Linoleic Acid: Linoleic fatty acid is an essential fatty acid that supports healthy hair as well as wound healing. It is also being investigated for its potential anti-cancer properties.

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Recruited from the AddNeuroMed project, a total of 253 subjects (81 patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 86 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 86 cognitively intact control (CTL) subjects) participated in this research.

The AddNeuroMed project (part of InnoMed – Innovative Medicines in Europe) is a multicenter European longitudinal study on the detection of biomarkers for AD. It is one of the largest cohorts of AD and MCI subjects, gathered from 6 European countries.

In line with the aims of the project, this current research study looked at the effectiveness and accuracy of combined blood vitamin E biomarkers and neuroimaging measurements in identifying and differentiating AD and MCI subjects from CTL subjects. Values of vitamin E and MRI were also used to predict conversion from MCI to AD at follow-up after 1 year.

Consistent with previous study published in Neurobiology of Aging, 2012, researchers found that AD and MCI patients had lower blood plasma levels of different vitamin E isomers, compared to CTL subjects. Both AD and MCI cases have characteristically raised markers of vitamin E oxidative/nitrosative damage. All four forms of tocotrienols and alpha-, gamma-tocopherols levels showed statistically significant association with AD cases compared to CTL. On the other hand, alpha-, delta-, gamma-tocotrienols and gamma-tocopherol levels were statistically significant in MCI subjects compared to CTL.

The researchers also reported high accuracy (98.2%) in detecting AD subjects from CTL subjects using combined MRI and vitamin E measurements; and 90.7% for MCI from CTL subjects. Importantly, “this combination of measurements also identified 85% of individuals with MCI who converted to clinical AD at follow-up after 1 year.” the study stated. The researchers concluded that plasma levels of tocopherols and tocotrienols together with automated MRI measurements can help to differentiate AD and MCI in the elderly as well as to prospectively predict MCI conversion to AD.

“It is encouraging to find consistent and positive research results supporting the importance of full spectrum vitamin E (d-mixed tocotrienols + d-mixed tocopherols or E-Complete) in cognitive improvement. This study shows that alpha and gamma-tocotrienol, as well as gamma-tocopherol are the most important vitamin E forms in differentiating AD and MCI cases from controls,” says Mr. WH Leong, Vice President, Carotech Inc.

“NIH-funded in-vitro and in-vivo studies in the US have conclusively proven the protective effect of full spectrum palm tocotrienol/tocopherol complex (Tocomin SupraBio®) in neuroprotection. This European study adds further to the evidence that increased levels of full spectrum vitamin E in the plasma is beneficial for improvement of cognitive functions especially in elderly,” adds Mr. Leong.

Source:

Journal of Internal Medicine, DOI: 10.1111/joim.12037.

“Classification and prediction of clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease based on MRI and plasma measures of α-/γ-tocotrienols and γ-tocopherol”

Authors: Mangialasche F, Westman E, Kivipelto M, Muehlboeck JS, Cecchetti R, Baglioni M, Tarducci R, Gobbi G, Floridi P, Soininen H, Kłoszewska I, Tsolaki M, Vellas B, Spenger C, Lovestone S, Wahlund LO, Simmons A, Mecocci P; The AddNeuroMed consortium.

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