Healthy eating for older adults Archive

Sweet drinks go down easy, but they may be hard on your heart. Aside from plain water, the healthiest choices are unsweetened tea, coffee, and flavored waters.

When you want to quench your thirst with something a little more exciting than plain old water, there are a dizzying array of choices these days. However, many of the beverages in supermarkets and convenience store aisles are loaded with added sugar. Even many of those that sound healthy (such as 100% fruit juice and vitamin-enhanced water) contain as much sugar as regular sodas.

Yes, the sugar in fruit juice is naturally occurring, as opposed to the processed sugar (usually high-fructose corn syrup) found in many carbonated and noncarbonated drinks such as sodas, vitamin water, and the like. But people should still be mindful about consuming too much fruit juice, says Vasanti Malik, a nutrition researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Unlike many other common bean varieties, soybeans don't usually show up in canned or dried forms on super-market shelves. But other versions of this versatile legume can be found in many sections of well-stocked stores.

In the freezer section, for example, you can find packaged green soybeans, usually still in their pods (pictured above). Called edamame — a Japanese word meaning "stem beans" — they're commonly served as an appetizer in Asian restaurants. Squeeze the pods to pop out the bright green beans, which are good source of fiber and several vitamins, most notably B₉ (folate) and K. Soybeans are a complete protein, meaning they contain all nine essential amino acids.

Research we're watching

Eating ultra-processed foods — such as packaged snacks, sugary cereals and drinks, chicken nuggets, and instant soup — may leave people more prone to heart disease and an early death, two new studies suggest. Both were published May 29 in The BMJ.

One study followed more than 105,000 adults for just over five years. Researchers found that for every 10% increase in the amount of ultra-processed foods people ate, their risk of a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event was 12% higher. The other study tracked nearly 20,000 people over an average of 10 years. People who ate more than four servings of ultra-processed foods daily had a 62% higher risk of dying from all causes compared with those who ate only two servings per day.

This approach to eating has numerous health benefits. What's the best way to follow it?

For years, the Mediterranean diet has been touted for its heart- and cancer-fighting abilities, and countless studies have backed up its reputation as one of the world's healthiest eating patterns.

So what is the best way to begin eating the Mediterranean way? Approach it as a lifestyle and not a structured, rules-oriented diet, suggests Dr. Qi Sun, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

On call

Q. I've always been a night owl, but now really drag in the morning. Is it too late to adjust my sleep-wake times?

A. It's never too late to reset your sleep-wake schedule. In fact, by doing so, you can improve your quality of life and potentially your overall health.

The plank pose is perfect for strengthening your core.

Almost every move you make revolves around your core — from picking up items on the floor, to twisting to see if the coast is clear when driving, to playing with your grandkids.

Your core is made up of several muscle groups (see "To the core"), so keeping each one equally strong and healthy can be a challenge.

The right athletic footwear can protect against injuries.

When one's feet hurt, one hurts all over. That saying, often attributed to the Greek philosopher Socrates, is as true now as it was more than 2,000 years ago.

One of the best ways to prevent age-old foot pain and the soreness that can come with it, like in the knees, hips, and back, is to invest in quality athletic footwear.

In the journals

Eating large amounts of red meat can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, but new research suggests you should curb your intake of white meat, too. The findings were published online June 4, 2019, by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Researchers randomly assigned 113 healthy adults, ages 21 to 65, to follow a four-week diet with high levels of either red meat, white meat (chicken and turkey), or plant-based protein (such as nuts, whole grains, soy products, and legumes). Afterward, LDL levels in the high-red-meat diet group rose, as predicted, but the researchers found that high levels of poultry had the same effect on LDL levels as red meat.

At least one additive — a preservative called propionate — could be linked to diabetes and obesity.

Scientists are giving food additives and other ingredients more scrutiny these days, thanks to new technology that allows them to get an up-close view of how individual molecules affect the body. And they are already discovering some surprising information that could change what you put on your plate in the future.

Consider propionate, or propionic acid, a naturally oc-curring fatty acid and a common preservative found in everything from bread and animal feeds to pudding and cheese. A study published online April 24 by Science Translational Medicine found that this ingredient may disrupt the metabolism, triggering the body to produce excess glucose (blood sugar), which could lead to diabetes and obesity.

Ask the doctors

Q. I heard that the FDA recently issued a warning related to a specific treatment for Clostridium difficile infections. Can you explain what this warning is about?

A. The FDA issued a warning in June aimed at health care providers who are using fecal transplants to treat Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) infections that have not responded to traditional treatments, such as antibiotics. Doctors perform fecal transplants (which are still considered investigational by the FDA) by introducing stool from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract of the person infected with C. difficile. The introduction of healthful bacteria can sometimes treat the infection, which typically inflames the colon causing symptoms such as severe diarrhea, cramps, and fever. The FDA issued its warning after two immunocompromised adults developed infections from an antibiotic-resistant strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) following transplants from stool contaminated with the bacteria. Both people got transplants from the same donor. One of the two people died following the infection. To prevent similar problems in the future, the FDA now recommends that doctors performing these transplants follow some new safety measures, including the following: