Avocado nutrition: Health benefits and easy recipes
Swimming lessons save lives: What parents should know
Preventing and treating iliotibial (IT) band syndrome: Tips for pain-free movement
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
What can magnesium do for you and how much do you need?
Dry socket: Preventing and treating a painful condition that can occur after tooth extraction
What happens during sleep — and how to improve it
How is metastatic prostate cancer detected and treated in men over 70?
Could biofeedback help your migraines?
What is autism spectrum disorder?
Nutrition Archive
Articles
Food ingredients under the microscope
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.
Red meat, TMAO, and your heart
A substance called trimethylamine N-oxide, which is produced when your body digests red meat, may raise the risk of cardiovascular problems.
Experts used to think that red meat raised your risk of heart disease simply because it was high in saturated fat. But today that picture has gotten more complicated thanks to the discovery of a metabolite — a substance produced during digestion and metabolism — called trimethylamine N-oxide, or TMAO.
According to a news article published June 11 in JAMA, three recent analyses have linked high blood levels of TMAO with a higher risk for both cardiovascular disease and early death from any cause. In one of those studies, researchers found that people with higher levels of TMAO in their blood may have more than twice the risk of heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular problems, compared with people who have lower levels. Other studies have found links between high TMAO levels and heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
Maximizing home food delivery
Take advantage of the many delivery options to keep your diet fresh, healthy, and full of variety.
Getting groceries or prepared meals without leaving your couch is easier than ever in this era of home delivery. That's important for people who have difficulty getting to the grocery store because they don't drive or because they're struggling with a chronic condition.
But the many options for food delivery may have you wondering where to begin. Here's a look at some widely used services and what to keep in mind when you use them.
Skip vitamins, focus on lifestyle to avoid dementia
News briefs
Vitamins and supplements won't help stave off dementia, but a healthy lifestyle might, suggest new guidelines released May 19, 2019, by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO warns that the number of new dementia cases around the world — currently 10 million per year — is set to triple by 2050. While there's no cure for any kind of dementia (such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia), the WHO says it may be possible to delay the onset of the disease or slow its progression. The key: managing modifiable risks, such as chronic disease and unhealthy habits. The guidelines recommend that you keep your weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar under control; get lots of exercise; and eat a Mediterranean-style diet (which emphasizes olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish; minimizes red meats and processed meats; and includes a moderate amount of cheese and wine). The WHO also advises that you don't smoke and you avoid harmful use of alcohol (no more than one drink per day for women, no more than two drinks for men). But don't count on supplements to help you stave off dementia. The WHO says there's no evidence that vitamin B, vitamin E, multivitamins, or fish oil supplements help reduce the risk for dementia. The agency recommends against using supplements as a means to ward off cognitive decline.
Image: © kali9/Getty Images
Ultra-processed foods appear to cause overeating and weight gain
News briefs
Eating food that's ultra-processed — not just chips or cookies, but also things like breakfast cereal, deli meat, or canned fruit in syrup — makes people overeat and gain weight, compared with eating food that's unprocessed. That's according to a small randomized controlled trial published online May 16, 2019, by Cell Metabolism. It involved 20 men and women who stayed at a research facility for a month and were randomly assigned to one of two diets. One group was given ultra-processed foods (such as a breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese and turkey bacon), and the other group was fed unprocessed foods (such as a breakfast of oatmeal with bananas, walnuts, and skim milk). After two weeks, participants were switched to the opposite diets. Both diets were evenly matched for total calories, macronutrients, fiber, sugars, and sodium, and participants were allowed to eat as much or as little as they wanted. But they ate more calories when they were eating ultra-processed foods, compared with when they ate unprocessed foods, and they gained more weight on the ultra-processed diet. Why? It's not exactly clear, but researchers did find that appetite-suppressing hormones decreased and hunger hormones increased when people ate processed foods. Bottom line: Eat whole, unprocessed foods with as few ingredients as possible.
Image: © 4kodiak/Getty Images
Counting on calories
How many daily calories do you really need? It depends on many factors.
When it comes to nutrition, calories embody the ultimate love-hate relationship. Consume too little, and you don't have the energy to function at your best. Eat too much, and you risk weight gain. It's no surprise, then, that counting calories can be such an obsession.
But how much do you really need every day? Unfortunately, there is not a single, simple answer. Men ages 50 and older require 2,000 to 2,800 calories per day, or an average of about 2,500, says Dr. Qi Sun, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Soy protein helps lower bad cholesterol a small but important amount
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.)
Salt sensitivity: Sorting out the science
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.
Avocado nutrition: Health benefits and easy recipes
Swimming lessons save lives: What parents should know
Preventing and treating iliotibial (IT) band syndrome: Tips for pain-free movement
Wildfires: How to cope when smoke affects air quality and health
What can magnesium do for you and how much do you need?
Dry socket: Preventing and treating a painful condition that can occur after tooth extraction
What happens during sleep — and how to improve it
How is metastatic prostate cancer detected and treated in men over 70?
Could biofeedback help your migraines?
What is autism spectrum disorder?
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