Dietary patterns Archive

Q. Why do people over 60 lose height? I've lost a few inches over the years. Can this be prevented?

They're linked to calorie absorption, high blood pressure, and heart trouble.

For weight-conscious people who love the bite of carbonation and the taste of various soft drinks, the advent of sugar-free sodas 60 years ago seemed a blessing: if there were no calories, you didn't have to worry about weight gain—and the diseases that go along with obesity, like diabetes and heart disease. "But there are growing doubts about whether diet sodas really help people lose weight and avoid diabetes," says Dr. Anthony Komaroff, editor in chief of the Health Letter.

It's no secret that healthy living can reduce your risk for developing heart disease. But ever wonder how much it may help? Up to 92%, suggests a study published Jan. 6, 2015, in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It evaluated health habits of 70,000 young and middle-aged women during a 20-year period. The habits included not smoking; exercising for at least 2.5 hours each week; watching TV for fewer than seven hours a week; consuming a diet rich in vegetables, legumes, and whole grains but low in red meat, refined grains, and sugar; consuming no more than one alcoholic drink daily; and having a body mass index in the normal range. Compared with women who had none of those habits, women with all six reduced their risk of developing heart disease by 92%. Why do those habits provide so much protection against heart disease? "Limiting TV watching frees up time for exercise, and the other activities are known to reduce blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and blood sugar, which reduce the three major risk factors for heart disease—hypertension, high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and diabetes," says Dr. Randall Zusman, a cardiologist and Harvard Medical School associate professor. And even though the study involved young and middle-aged women, Dr. Zusman reminds us that it's never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

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Some first-generation diet pills proved risky to the heart. New drugs may have expanded the options for treating obesity.

Soy foods can help you build a healthy diet, but their ability to prevent heart disease and cancer remain unproven. Soy foods, from soy milk to tofu, are often touted for their health benefits. But if you add soy to your diet, be mindful about what you are pushing off the plate.

What's better for you: moderate but prolonged exercise, or a shorter but more intense workout? A recent study in Annals of Internal Medicine found that both levels of exercise will help you lose about the same amount of belly fat if you burn the same number of calories. But only high-intensity exercise helped control blood sugar levels.

In the study, 300 people with abdominal obesity walked and jogged on treadmills at a moderate or high intensity, burning equivalent numbers of calories. The 217 people who stuck through the study for the entire six months lost on average 1.75 inches from their waistlines—about 5% to 6% of body weight. It made no difference whether they huffed through the higher-intensity workout or the more moderate regimen.

You can get some of the same benefits of a low-glycemic-index diet by avoiding highly processed foods.

The glycemic index is a number that indicates how rapidly the body digests a particular type of food and converts it into blood sugar (glucose). Some studies suggest that lower-glycemic-index diets may offer important health benefits for men—like a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Eating whole grains may benefit your heart and lengthen your life. 

Grain foods made from the hard, dry seeds of plants have been a nutritional basic for thousands of years. When you eat a whole grain, you're getting more than just the fiber from the seed's outer layer. You also get all the vitamins, minerals, good fats, enzymes, antioxidants, and phytonutrients that are stripped away when grains are processed.

Adding an avocado a day to a healthy diet may lower harmful LDL cholesterol levels, according to a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Forty-five overweight or obese volunteers followed three different cholesterol-lowering diets, each for five weeks. One diet had 24% of calories from fat; the other two were 34% fat, one of which included an avocado per day. While participants were on the avocado diet, their LDL levels dropped an average of 13.5 points—nearly twice as much as when they were on the other two diets.

Hass avocados (the type used in the study) have bumpy, greenish-black skin. The creamy flesh is rich in monounsaturated fats, which help lower LDL cholesterol when swapped for saturated fat. But other compounds in avocados, such as fiber and plant sterols, may also contribute to their healthful benefits, say the authors. Avocados can be sliced into salads, spread on sandwiches, or mashed to make guacamole. Just be sure to go easy on the high-calorie, salty corn chips often served with the latter.

A youthful attitude may lead to better eating and exercising habits.