Month: September 2022

Fruit and Vegetables: Disease Fighters!

Phytochemicals: What They Do for Health?

Cruciferous Vegetables

You can’t go wrong with increasing your intake of plants from the Brassica family – broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. There are many studies that even help to prevent cancer and heart disease. What makes them so powerful?  They are high in dietary fiber, polyphenols (phytochemicals) and provide over 40 phenolic compounds labeled “cruciferous” meaning their leaves grow in a cross-pattern.  There is some extensive research that reports that cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli, an anticancer phytochemical named isothiocyanates fights breast cancer in particular. By the way, use the stalks and leafy greenss from the plant since they also contain a good amount of nutrients.

Anthocyanins

The red color of many cruciferous vegetables is significant. Anthocyanins are pigments that cause the red and purple coloring of many kales, cabbage, and other colorful vegetables . They can lower blood cholesterol.  One study found that healthy volunteers a fed a beverage of primarily broccoli and cabbage two times a day for three weeks showed a significant decrease in the so-called ‘bad” cholesterol, LDL. Follow up studies produced the same results.

What Other Foods Lower Blood Pressure? One important group is those who contain polyphenols – such as berries. They are a large family of phytochemicals particularly in cardiovascular health. Lycopene in tomatoes has been reported to fight prostate cancer.

Benefits come from their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, blood vessel dilating properties, and immune system functions. All fruits and vegetables contain polyphenols, but certain ones like berries, cocoa, tea, pomegranate, olives, and grapes contain especially high amounts. All work together so it’s best to consume them that way and in their natural forms.

Phytochemicals: What Do They Do for Health.

Cruciferous Vegetables

You can’t go wrong with increasing your intake of plants from the Brassica family – broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. There are many studies that even help to prevent cancer and heart disease. What makes them so powerful?  They are high in dietary fiber, polyphenols (phytochemicals) and provide over 40 phenolic compounds labeled “cruciferous” meaning their leaves grow in a cross-pattern.  There is some extensive research that reports that cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli, an anticancer phytochemical named isothiocyanates fights breast cancer in particular.

Anthocyanins

The red color of many cruciferous vegetables is significant. Anthocyanins are pigments that cause the red and purple coloring of many kales, cabbage, and other colorful vegetables. They can lower blood cholesterol.  One study found that healthy volunteers a fed a beverage of primarily broccoli and cabbage two times a day for three weeks showed a significant decrease in the so-called ‘bad” cholesterol, LDL. Follow up studies produced the same results.

What Other Foods Lower Blood Pressure? One important group is those who contain polyphenols – such as berries. They are a large family of phytochemicals particularly in cardiovascular health. Their benefits come from their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, blood vessel dilating properties, and immune system functions. Certain ones like berries, cocoa, tea, pomegranate, olives, and grapes contain especially high amounts. However, all work in synergy so try to combine them together as much as possible. This action is what makes a plant-based diet easier to follow.

Source: Judith E. Brown Nutrition Now, 7th Edition

In the News: Keto diets and cancer?

Medical News Today:

New research explores the benefits of keto diets for reversing colorectal cancer in mice.

“Colorectal cancer (CRC) is reported to be the third most common cancer diagnosed in the United States. Studies have shown that high-sugar diets, and excessive consumption of animal protein — especially red meat — increase CRC risk.

On the other hand, studies show that diets involving fasting and caloric restriction are against intestinal tumors in animal models. Whether they may translate over to humans remains unknown.

Recently, researchers conducted a series of mouse studies investigating the underlying protective mechanisms behind a low-carb diet for CRC. A new study demonstrated in a mice model that it prevents colorectal cancer by activating a growth slowing receptor which is found in the lining of the bowel. This receptor may play an important role in preventing cell growth within the intestine,”

Understanding more about the mechanisms underlying the effects of various diets on tumor growth could help researchers develop treatments and preventative options for CRC.“

The new study was published in.

Dmitrieva-Posocco, O., Wong, A.C., Lundgren, P. et al. β-Hydroxybutyrate suppresses colorectal cancer. Nature 605, 160–165 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04649-6

Lifestyle and Longevity

Does chronological age always match biological age? According to a recent study, 1500 elderly women aged 64 to 95 years who sit for more than 10 hours a day have cells that are biologically older by 8 years compared to women who are more active. These women had shorter telomeres which are found on the ends of DNA strands. These structures protect chromosomes from degradation and normally shorten with age but more progressively with unhealthy lifestyles such as obesity or smoking.

Aladdin Shadyab. Lead author. Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The research was partly funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Living in a Blue Zone

Longevity appears to not just be due to diet. Lifestyle in general is so important. No one says we have to eat rice and beans every day as they traditionally did in the Blue Zone of Costa Rica. However, there were other factors like keeping active and being social with friends and family. Why not search for the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, to try a more delicious fare?

A DAY of the life of living in a Blue Zone:: Costa Rica

“Aged 94, Saturnino “Sato” Lopez rises early each day, chops wood and takes long walks in a part of Costa Rica that’s a global oddity: like him, people there tend to live a very long time.

Home for Sato is the Nicoya Peninsula, where 1,010 people aged 90 or older live in a so-called “Blue Zone” — five areas around the world where life expectancy is particularly high.

And these people did not move to the peninsula, located in the northwest of Costa Rica. Rather, they have always lived there.

“At my age, I feel well because the Lord gives me strength to walk at ease. I go out, walk maybe a kilometer (around half a mile), or four kilometers, and I return, no problem,” said Lopez.

His house is in a village called Dulce Nombre — Sweet Name — is a sort of nature refuge.

The village’s wood, concrete and stick-and-mud houses are surrounded by vegetation and cicadas drone non-stop. The Covid-19 pandemic has gone easy on this village.

“During the day if I have to sweep the patio, I sweep. If I have to chop wood, I chop, also. A bit of everything,” said Lopez.

Blue Zones –

In the late 20th century, demographer Michel Poulain and a physician named Gianni Pes used a blue marker to highlight on a map the Barbalia region of Sardinia, Italy, where they found people lived a very long time.

In 2005, an American author and National Geographic fellow named Dan Buettner discovered similar characteristics in Loma Linda, California; Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan, and Nicoya.

So what is their secret?

“The main food is rice and beans. A bit of meat, fruit, avocado. That is what you eat. They say this is good food,” said Lopez.

His neighbors Clementina Espinoza, 91, and her husband Agustin, 100, follow a similar diet.

Espinoza has outlived six of her 18 children. She walks slowly but steadily, and still tosses corn to her chickens, prepares meals and washes up afterward.

Clementina Espinoza, 91, tends to her garden in Nicoya. She exhibits robust energy in a country where the life expectancy is a mere 80. For the world in general it is 72, the World Health Organization says.

“Out in the countryside, life is quieter,” said Espinoza, insisting that diet is key. “You are more relaxed and there is not so much danger.”

– Having purpose is key –

Having goals is critical to aging well, said Aleyda Obando, who works in the social security administration in Nicoya.

“They thank God for being alive and they make plans, to plant something or go see friends,” said Obando. “It is a combination of factors that makes these people last longer.”

It also helps to have a social support network, exercise, eat healthy food and minimize stress.

“We grew corn, rice, beans, everything. “We grew what we ate,” said Clementina. Now, her daughter Maria looks after her.

Agustin, one of 53 people in the area who are 100 or older, is blind now and suffered a stroke.

– Back in the saddle –

Jose Villegas is another centenarian, who lives in the neighboring village of San Juan de Quebrada Honda, with one of his eight daughters.

He is hoping that when he turns 105 on May 4 he can once again ride a horse — he used to make his living on horseback, herding livestock. But sometimes he has trouble with his legs.

Being 104, he says, “is a big deal because God has given me a lot of life. It was not fantastic but it was not bad, either,” said Villegas, sitting in the house he was born in.

“Now, lifestyles have changed. It is not the same as before. Things used to be healthier, and people loved each other a little bit more,” said Villegas, who became a widower seven years ago and spends his evenings listening to folk music.

Gilbert Brenes, a demographer at the University of Costa Rica, said the Blue Zone’s elderly population may peak in the next 20 or 30 years and then decline.

Younger generations have different diets and suffer more from diseases like obesity and diabetes. And fewer and fewer people grow what they eat.

But Saturnino Lopez, a father of nine, remains active.

“My children say to me, ‘you no longer work. We have to work to support you.’ But I don’t like that, because I know what keeps me going,” he said, referring to physical activity like cutting wood.

“Even if it is just a couple of blows with the machete, that’s enough.”