Healthy eating for older adults Archive

In the journals

Even if you believe you're in excellent health, you could still be at risk for a heart attack or stroke, suggests a study of more than 6,800 people, average age 62, published Feb. 15, 2019, in JAMA Network Open. At the study's beginning, participants rated their health as excellent, very good, good, or poor/fair. (More than half the men reported being in very good or excellent health.)

Next, everyone had a coronary artery calcium (CAC) scan, which detects plaque buildup in the arteries of the heart. The scores range from zero to 100 and higher, with zero meaning no plaque buildup is present and cardio-vascular disease risk is at its lowest.

In the journals

Another way to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels? Eat more soy protein, suggests a study published online April 22, 2019, by The Journal of Nutrition.

Researchers examined 43 trials to evaluate the effect soy had on LDL levels. (High LDL levels can lead to a buildup of cholesterol in arteries and increase a person's risk of cardiovascular disease.)

Eating too much salt usually boosts blood pressure, but not in everyone. Understanding the genetic basis of these differences may improve treatment of high blood pressure.

Do you know someone who eats lots of salty food — pizza, pickles, pretzels, and the like — but has naturally low blood pressure? That person may be salt-resistant, which means his or her blood pressure doesn't rise very much in response to a diet high in salt (sodium chloride). In contrast, other people are salt-sensitive, which means their blood pressure rises by 5 points or more if they switch from a low-sodium to a high-sodium diet.

Unfortunately, there isn't an easy test to determine who is salt-sensitive, says endocrinologist Dr. Gordon Williams, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Still, we know that Americans eat far more salt than they actually need, so it makes sense to advise everyone cut back on salt," he says.

The most commonly eaten type of bean in the United States, pinto beans are especially popular in southern states, where they may be known as frijoles (Spanish for "beans") or cowboy beans. These oval, tan-colored beans are mottled with reddish-brown streaks, making them appear painted (pinto means "painted" in Spanish).

Once they're cooked, the colored splotches disappear, leaving a light-brown bean with a soft, creamy texture. In Mexico, Central America, and South America, pintos are cooked with epazote, an herb that purportedly helps reduce the flatulence-producing properties of these and other beans. Another tip for avoiding that problem is to add beans to your diet gradually and eat them regularly.

Research we're watching

A plant-focused diet long touted for its ability to lower blood pressure may also help prevent heart failure, according to a new study.

The DASH diet, which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, and nuts while minimizing salt, sugar, and red meat consumption.

How a healthy lifestyle can make a difference in Alzheimer’s prevention.

Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is characterized by the accumulation of two types of protein in the brain: tangles (tau) and plaques (amyloid-beta). Eventually, Alzheimer's kills brain cells and takes people's lives.

Alzheimer’s causes

What causes Alzheimer's? We still aren't sure. "For 1% of all cases, there are three genes that determine definitively whether or not you will have Alzheimer's, and all three relate to amyloid-beta production, which in these cases is likely the cause of Alzheimer's," says Dr. Gad Marshall, associate medical director of clinical trials at the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "For the other 99%, amyloid and tau are closely associated with Alzheimer's, but many things may contribute to the development of symptoms, such as inflammation in the brain, vascular risk factors, and lifestyle."

Taking your pills with a light snack or at bedtime may help reduce the nausea.

You take medication hoping it will make you feel better. But sometimes it makes you feel worse. "Nausea is one of the most common side effects of medications we hear about," says Joanne Doyle Petrongolo, a pharmacist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

About nausea

Nausea is a queasy feeling in your stomach — you may feel seasick, or you may feel you're about to vomit. Medications that commonly cause nausea as a side effect include antibiotics, such as erythromycin (Erythrocin); aspirin; nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve); and some blood pressure drugs, such as the calcium-channel blocker nifedipine (Nifedical, Procardia).

Q. I keep reading that peanut butter is a healthy food. But it contains saturated fat and has more sodium than potassium. That doesn't sound healthy to me. Is peanut butter good for you?

A. The presence of saturated fat doesn't automatically kick a food into the "unhealthy" camp. Olive oil, wheat germ, and even tofu — all "healthy" foods — have some saturated fat. It's the whole package of nutrients, not just one or two, that determines how good a particular food is for health.

A bad night's sleep can leave you feeling pretty tired the next day. Put a string of those together and nagging fatigue starts to set in.

Getting good sleep, in the right amount, can make a big difference in how you feel. Too little or too much sleep can increase your perception of fatigue. And even if you get enough hours of sleep, you might find yourself dragging the next day if that sleep was interrupted by frequent awakenings or was of poor quality.

There's no mercury to worry about, and flaxseed oil  does contain omega-3 fats...but not the best kind.

Troll the medical literature, and you'll come up with study after study showing that fish and fish oil are good for us, especially for our hearts but maybe also for our moods and immune systems. Various epidemiologic investigations have found that people who eat fish regularly are less likely to have heart attacks, suffer strokes, or die from sudden cardiac arrest. The definition of "regularly" varies, but it usually means at least a couple of times a week, although eating fish even once a month has been shown to make a difference.

Fish, and especially fish oil, have also been the subject of dozens of randomized clinical trials, most involving people with existing heart conditions. In large amounts (several grams a day), fish oil has been shown to nudge various cardiac risk factors ("good" HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure) in the right direction.