Author: Sally Feltner MS, PhD

Alzheimer’s Disease: Does Sugar make a difference?

The emphasis in Alzheimer’s disease is best placed with prevention of and eating of certain foods. The goal is to avoid foods that create inflammation in the body to help keep chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes (type 2) and many others from occurring. No one knows yet why cognitive risk is affected.

Blood Sugar ( research).
One hypothesis links to inflammation that accompany blood glucose disorders. Inflammation are reactions of the body to the presence of infectious agents, toxins, or irritants. Inflammation triggers the release of biologically active substances that promote oxidation and other possible harmful reactions.

First of all you should control your glucose intake. Most people with Alzheimer’s have higher than normal levels of blood glucose shown by a simple blood test called hemoglobin A1C. A hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) test is a blood test that shows what your average blood sugar (glucose) level was over the past two to three months …by routine testing at the doctors’ office.

“In a study that tracked more than 2000 patients for about 7 years, those with a glucose reading of 115 mg/dL on average, had a 18% risk for dementia than those with levels of 100 mg/, or lower ranges..The higher the blood sugar levels, the greater the Alzheimer risk.

Alas, many people find it difficult to try (some in vain) to absolutely have to have some sugar and some friends of mine cannot walk by a candy shop, bakery, or other establishments with fancy desserts in the window. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!!

First try to eliminate white foods: bread, rice and sugary cereals, and sugary juices.

Sugar is found in many kinds of foods, ketchup, fruit juices, salad dressing. and pasta sauces. You should not exceed 8 teaspoons a day. Actually to be more specific — 9 for MEN and 6 for WOMEN.

It may be safe to say: there’s added sugar in any kind of processed food .Look at the ingredient list on products. If you see any ingredient that has an _ose______ending like sucrose, that’s sugar and it may be stated on the label as such— choose something else. Sugar is often hidden from the consumer by different names.(to trick us).

SUGAR FACTS:

Added sugars make up about 15% of total sugar intake in the U.S.

A 12 ounce can of soft drink contains about 3 tablespoons of sugar (9 teaspoons). That’s a lot of sugar.

Rates of tooth decay increase in populations as sugar intakes increase.

Source:
Mark Bittman and David L. Katz, M.D. How to Eat: All Your Food and Diet Questions Answered. 2020,

Eating Ultraprocessed Foods Increases Risk of Cancer

450, 111 adults in the European Prospective Investigation were recruited from 1992 to 1999 from 10 different European countries and the United Kingdom.

Results showed that people who consumed just 10% more ultra-processed foods than others in the study had a:

23% higher risk of head and neck cancers and a 24% increases risk of esophageal cancer.

Ultra processed foods include sodas, instant soups, cookies, ice cream, cereal bars and other foods that you might normally use in a regular kitchen. As of 2019, ultra processed food made up about 71% of the food supply in the U.S. A rule: If it comes in a box or package (ready-made), it is most likely to be an example of an ultra processed food. Some are for convenience; use them in moderation. GOO

Other studies have shown that:

Men who consume ultra processed foods have a higher risk of colorectal cancer, heart disease and early death.

For every 10% increase in ultra processed food, there is a 2% increase in developing any kind of cancer and a 19% increased risk of ovarian cancer.
Consuming more ultra-processed foods is connected to depression in women.
Consuming about 20% of daily calories in ultraprocessed foods is linked to 28% increased risk of dementia. Time to clean the pantry????

Source: LifeExtension.com
March, 2024.

Fats and Oils

Eating the right oils can help you avoid some major chronic diseases. Opinion has changed often on these oils – however they still play major roles in heart disease and inflammation.

A problem with the Westernized diet is often due to an imbalance in our fat intake. We have been oversold on both the “dangers” of saturated fat as well as on the alleged goodness of polyunsaturated fats. What about coconut oil? The true picture is more complex. The latest guidelines still limits saturated fat while others contend that “all saturated fat is not bad for you. One thing to keep in mind is: The balance between the omega 6s and the omega 3s are both essential to human health; However, the 6’s are considered inflammatory while the 3 s are anti-inflammatory. We use fats and oils in cooking – so it becomes important to know a few hints on how to use them.

Thus: Our Oil /Fat Guide At A Glance

Some saturated fat is good for us.

Omega-3s are very, very good for us.

Monounsaturated fats are good for us. They have one double bond and usually considered “heart healthy” or neutral in their effects.

Omega-6s are good for us if balanced with the 3’s.( if not processed and refined to death.) Corn oil is a common one.

Reused (reheated) vegetable oils are really, really bad. When used repeatedly as the oil for deep fried foods, they are really, really, bad. So, limit the deep fried.

Trans fats are “metabolic”s poison. The acceptable level in the diet is zero. Read the product’s Nutrition Facts label.

Extra virgin (EVOO) olive oil is in a class by itself, although a plant oil. It contains a lot of compounds called phenols which are antioxidants. Translation: The stuff is really good for you and is a major component of the Mediterranean Diet (a favored way to spend the rest of your diet choices.)

How are your telomeres?

Review Nutr Hosp

. 2019 Dec 26;36(6):1403-1417.

doi: 10.20960/nh.02673.

Diet, physical activity and telomere length in adults

What are telomeres? They are bits of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protects it during cell replication.

What is telomerase? An ezyme, often referred to as “anti-aging”, that maintains telomeres, helping to keep them long, thus active. (SJF)

María Jossé Navarro-Ibarra  1 , Jesús Hernández  2 , Graciela Caire-Juvera  2

Affiliations

Abstract in English, Spanish

Telomere length (TL) is a predictive biomarker of premature aging. Telomere shortening has been linked to age-related diseases and noncommunicable diseases (NCD), and may reflect the effects of behavioral, psychosocial and environmental factors on health status. Telomere attrition can be affected by lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity. The search of studies included in this review was conducted on PubMed Central database. A majority of studies are cross-sectional, as there is a clear lack of prospective studies to evaluate the individual effect of dietary components, dietary patterns, and physical activity on TL in the long term. The current literature suggests that high adherence to Mediterranean diet (MD), with consumption of antioxidants, fiber and vegetables, as well as seeds and walnuts, is associated with longer TL. The dietary components of a healthy diet, such as carotenoids, vitamins A, C, D, E, polyphenols, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids could help maintain TL. In contrast, a high consumption of sugary beverages, processed meat, and proinflammatory diets is associated with telomere shortening. In a majority of studies TL is positively associated with moderate physical activity. The predominant mechanisms through which a healthy diet and moderate physical exercise could mitigate telomere attrition include decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation. We shall not discuss the associations of possible risk or protective factors in terms of causality since the majority of studies are cross-sectional and randomized controlled trials are limited; accordingly, some results are inconclusive. For future research, we suggest evaluating the individual effects of dietary components, dietary patterns and physical activity, considering repeated measurements and exercise intensity, on TL. It is also advisable to include biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation proteins, and to measure telomerase activity.

Keywords: Longitud de los telómeros. Dieta. Actividad física..

PubMed Disclaimer

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Of Mice and Mazes

The Y-maze can be used to assess short term memory in mice. Spontaneous alternation, a measure of spatial working memory, can be assessed by allowing mice to explore all three arms of the maze and is driven by an innate curiosity of rodents to explore previously unvisited areas.

In this study mice were tested for a working memory by using 2 arms of a Y-shaped maze. Given a chance, the mice will naturally explore new environments exposed. An alternative might be that they would remember which arms of the maze already visited.

Each mouse was started out of the maze in the center of the maze and the third arm was blocked. One group had been given a high fat diet; the other group, a heatlhy diet, i.e. not a high fat diet.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) (.gov.)

The results of the maze study resulted in the following:
Mice eating a healthy diet behaved as expected. They chose to explore a new maze previously blocked off from the mice. But mice eating a high fat diet did not prefer any one arm. They seemed to show they could not remember which parts of the maze they had already seen.

Human studies surveyed adults and students and their processed food consumption, especially highly processed foods. Some foods like processed lunch meats have been found to increase inflammation in the body, Some studies surveyed students and the results are indicating that “junk” food fuels the inflammation in the brain. Other studies have found people with depression had 30% more brain inflammation than people who were not depressed. Stay tuned – the research is just beginning.Could diet or other lifestyle factors make a difference in outcomes?

Your Diet and a Stroke??

On one hand, salt is a gift from the sea; on the other hand, it is a hazard to health when consumed in excess. Most of the salt consumed is joined with chloride and travels around as sodium chloride as table salt. Much of that is not consumed from the salt shaker however, but disguised in processed foods.

Every 40 seconds someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke. Fortunately, about 80% are thought to be preventable. The average American eats about 8500 milligrams of salt, double the recommended amounts, almost none of which comes from the salt shaker. It comes from processed food, an industry that hauls in $ trillions in annual sales. Your brain and your heart are the organs mostly affected which occurs when oxygen and and nutrients cannot get to the brain. “Hypertension can then damage the blood vessesls and cholesterol and can cause a buildup of fatty deposits that narrows arteries”.
says cardiologist Phillip Ades, M.D., Eating Well Advisor.

The Role of the Sodium/Potassium Ratio

What does sodium do in the body? Sodium closely works with potassium
and the two help to maintain water balance in the body. They both attract water nornally and each draws sufficinent water to the outside or inside of cells to maintain an optimal level of water in both places, Water balance and cell function are upset when there’s an imbalance in the body’s supply of sodium and potassium. High dietary intakes of sodiun appear to play an important role in the development of hypertension (high blood pressure) in many people. Bottom Line!!

Risk Factors for Hypertension
Obesity is a major risk factor for hypertension and the most effective treatment is weight loss. Others are age, family history, high sodium/low potassium diet, excessive alcohol intake (<2 glasses /day, smoking, frequent stress, anxiety.

Restricting highly processed foods is very effective to improve your potassium intake. High salt processed meals, salad dressings, canned soups, ham, sausages and biscuits are often the culprits. Reading food labels are also an excellent way to beware of your high sodium intake.

Approaches to Treatment:
Weight Loss (if needed)
Salt intake <1500 mg of sodium per day.)
Moderate alcohol consumption (if any)
30 minutes of exercise a day
Meditation, yoga
If blood pressure remains elevated and lifestyle changes have been implemented, or if blood pressure is quite high when diagnosed, anti-hypertensive drugs are usually prescribed. SEE YOUR DOCTOR OR LICENSED NUTRITIONIST SALLY FELTNER, MS PHD, RETIRED RD,

Is Sea Salt a Better Choice Than Table Salt

A survey by the American Heart Association of 1000 adults discovered that 6 out of 10 thought sea salt was a low sodium alternative to table salt. Equal amounts of se salt and table salt contain the same amount of sodium (40%). Unlike table salt, sea salt as well as Kosher salt, is generally not fortified with iodine. Iodized table salt is a leading source of iodine in U.S. diets.

How else can I decrease my intake of sodium? Increase your potassium-rich foods?

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans has designated potassium as a nutrient likely to be under-consumed by Americans in general. Food listed are good sources and try to include the foods at least four of these foods or twice a week. This will help you balance your sodium/potassium intake.

Beans, orange juice lima beans, banana, baked potato, sweet potato, winter squash spinach, tomato juice, yogurt, fish are potassium-rich

Snacking on some walnuts at least once a week was associated with a 17% lower risk of stroke, according to research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Walnuts are a top source of heart-healthy alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid. It can help improve blood vessel function and reduced inflammation which has been shown to damage arteries. All this together helps prevent blood clots and vascular weakening.

Getting nearly twice as much sodium as potassium is associated with a 22% greater stroke risk. Sodium makes your body hold onto water, which raises blood pressure “ Potassium helps the regulate this fluid retention.

Limit sodium to 2300 milligrams a day (1500 if you have hypertension) and aim to get 4700 milligrams of potassium – a double target if your diet is rich in fruits and vegetables.

Warning: Eat ultra-processed foods only in moderation~~~

Eating Ultraprocessed Foods Increases Risk of Cancer

450, 111 adults in the European Propective Invesigation were recruited from 1992 to 1999 from 10 different European countries and the United Kingdom.

Results showed that people who consumed just 10% more ultra-processed foods than others in the study had a:

23% higher risk of head and neck cancers and a 24% increased risk of esophageal cancer.

Ultra processed foods include sodas, instant soups, cookies, ice cream, cereal bars and other foods that make up about 71% of the food supply in the U.S. A rule: If it comes in a box or package (ready-made), it is most likely to be an example of an ultraprocessed food. Some are for convenience; use them in moderation.

Other studies have shown that:

Men who consume ultraprocessed foods have a higher risk of colorectal cancer, heart disease and early death.

For every 10% increase in ultraprocessed food, there is a 2% increase in developing any kind of cancer and a 19% increased risk of ovarian cancer.
Consuming more ultra-processed foods is connected to depression in women.
Consuming about 20% of daily calories in ultra processed foods is linked to 28% increased risk of dementia.

Source: LifeExtension.com
March, 2024.

What Could Go Wrong?

Concept Check: How DID We Get this OLD?

Although life span has not changed, life expectancy has increased dramatically over the past century,

With rare exceptions, life expectancy has been on the rise in the U.S. It was 47 years in 1900, 68 years in 1950, and by 2019 it had risen to nearly 79 years. But it fell to 77 in 2020 and dropped further to just over 76 in 2021. (can you think Covid?) Harvard Health.

The causes of aging are still a mystery.Most likely, aging results from an interaction of genetic and the changes listed in the table below: The science of epigenetics also can offer lifestyle factors to further influence the changes that normally occur with “normal aging”.

Aging occurs due when:
Errors occur in copying the genetic blueprint (DNA)
Connective tissue stiffens. Parallel muscle proteins cross link.
Electron – seeking compounds (free radicals) damage cell.
Hormone functions change.
Blood glucose attaches to various blood and body proteins. Occurs in poorly controllled diabetes
The immune system loses some efficiency and fails to recognize foreign substances.
Autoimmunity develops. Immune function cells destroy “self”.
Death is programmed into the cell, e.g. each cell can only divide about 50 times; after that the cell dies and succumbs.
Excess energy intake speeds body breakdown and may even cause premature death. In research, underfed animals live longer by calorie restriction. Diet can slow down some of these processes?

Source: Gordon M. Wardlaw. Contemporary Nutrition: Issues and Insights. Page 518-520.
Edited for Food, Facts and Fads by: Sally J. Feltner, MS, PhD

WOW!!! What else could go wrong?

U.S. Diets: (Sally J. Feltner)

Assessing the latest U.S. dietary guidelines: Will they be able to make a difference? Sally J. Feltner, MS.,Ph.D

Eric Rimm

January 20, 2021—Eric Rimm, professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed the recently released 2020–2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Rimm served on the Scientific Advisory Committee in 2010.

What’s your assessment of the new guidelines?

This is the first time that the guidelines include advice for children under two. They now actually address healthy eating across the lifespan. I think this is an important change because of the likely role that early diet plays in laying the foundation for healthy dietary habits and a lifetime of disease prevention. The government made a conscious effort to include more pediatricians on the advisory committee, including Elsie Tavares, who has an appointment in our Department of Nutrition. These guidelines will be used to inform government nutrition policy, so I think that was a good step forward.

What was disappointing to me was that the government decided to take a pass on changing recommendations for daily calories from added sugar. The scientific advisory committee had recommended lowering limits from 10% to 6%, but the official government guidelines kept the recommendation at the upper level.

However, I agreed with the decision to leave out the committee’s recommendation to lower alcohol guidelines for men from a maximum of two daily drinks to one. I was the alcohol expert in 2010, and I believe the science still supports what was in the previous guidelines in 2010 and 2015, that is, up to two drinks a day for men and one for women. I think it is important that if a government body is going to make a substantial change in policy statement about alcohol that it be as scientifically accurate as possible.

Going forward, we need to focus on understanding and promoting healthy drinking patterns. The guidelines are very clear on up to two drinks for men in any given day—not seven on Friday and seven on Saturday. With people drinking a lot more at home during the pandemic, it may be a good time to remind people that binge drinking is harmful.

How can the average person make sense of the guidelines and apply some of the recommendations in their own diets?

The guidelines are primarily aimed at policy makers and academics, so people may find some of the recommendations difficult to translate to their lives. Take counting calories, for example. If you give most people a plate of food and ask them how many calories it contains, they won’t know. I don’t blame them. It’s a really hard thing to think about when you’re making a meal.

I think a perhaps more helpful thing to focus on is eating whole foods instead of processed foods. We know that it’s better for you to eat food in its natural form. Highly processed grains like white bread, for example, strip all the good stuff out. Another important step is to choose healthier proteins—chicken and fish over red meat, or soy proteins over animal proteins.

Much of the guidelines do discuss healthy dietary patterns including the Mediterranean Diet or vegetarian diet. To help make them affordable, you can buy inexpensive proteins like dried beans, and also incorporate frozen fruits and vegetables into your diet.

What nutrition policy changes do you hope to see in the next few years?

In 2015, the advisory committee recommended incorporating sustainability into the dietary guidelines—for example, encouraging a more plant-based diet to lower the production of greenhouse gases. This was not included in the government’s official 2015 guidelines, and it did not improve in 2020. The 2020 guidelines were set up by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services with very specific parameters around what topics the scientists on the Advisory Committee could address, and sustainability was not listed. Recently, the EAT-Lancet report has really become the source for thinking about sustainability in the way we eat, but I think these conversations still have a place in the guidelines. I’m optimistic that they will eventually be included.

I’m also hopeful that standards around school meals set during the Obama administration, such as lowering amounts of saturated fat and sodium, will be restored. We’re essentially training kids’ palates for unhealthy food for life, which is so disheartening, especially since we know it’s possible to serve healthy school meals that kids will actually eat and enjoy.

Another important area is the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Food insecure people in the program should be free to purchase what they want, but I think we are setting them up to fail. We need to provide incentives to help people on SNAP buy healthier food. There is robust evidence to show that if you do this, it works.

—Amy Roeder

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Aging: Slow Down

A healthier diet is linked with a slower pace of aging, reduced dementia risk, study shows.
Date:
March 14, 2024
Source:
Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health
Summary:
A healthier diet is associated with a reduced dementia risk and slower pace of aging, according to a new study. The findings show that a diet-dementia association was at least partially facilitated by multi-system processes of aging. Until now, the biological mechanism of this protection was not well understood.
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FULL STORY
A healthier diet is associated with a reduced dementia risk and slower pace of aging, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and The Robert Butler Columbia Aging Center. The findings show that a diet-dementia association was at least partially facilitated by multi-system processes of aging. While literature had suggested that people who followed a healthy diet experienced a slowdown in the processes of biological aging and were less likely to develop dementia, until now the biological mechanism of this protection was not well understood. The findings are published in the Annals of Neurology.
“Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain” said Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia School of Public Health and the Columbia Aging Center, and a senior author of the study.
“We tested the hypothesis that a healthy diet protects against dementia by slowing down the body’s overall pace of biological aging.”
The researchers used data from the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study, the Offspring Cohort.
Originating in 1971, participants in the latter were 60 years of age or older, were free of dementia, and also had available dietary, epigenetic, and follow-up data.
The Offspring Cohort were followed-up at nine examinations, approximately every 4 to 7 years.
At each follow-up visit, data collection included a physical examination, lifestyle-related questionnaires, blood sampling, and, starting in 1991, neurocognitive testing.
Of 1,644 participants included in the analyses, 140 of the participants developed dementia.
To measure the pace of aging, the researchers used an epigenetic clock called DunedinPACE developed by Belsky and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Otago.
The clock measures how fast a person’s body is deteriorating as they grow older, “like a speedometer for the biological processes of aging,” explained Belsky.
“We have some strong evidence that a healthy diet can protect against dementia,” said Yian Gu, PhD, associate professor of Neurological Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the other senior author of the study, “But the mechanism of this protection is not well understood.” Past research linked both diet and dementia risk to an accelerated pace of biological aging
“Testing the hypothesis that multi-system biological aging is a mechanism of underlying diet-dementia associations was the logical next step,” explained Belsky.
The research determined that higher adherence to the Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet (MIND) slowed the pace of aging as measured by DunedinPACE and reduced risks for dementia and mortality.
Furthermore, slower DunedinPACE accounted for 27 percent of the diet-dementia association and 57 percent of the diet-mortality association.

“Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention,” said first author Aline Thomas, PhD, a Postdoc at the Columbia Department of Neurology and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain.
“However, a portion of the diet-dementia association remains unexplained, therefore we believe that continued investigation of brain-specific mechanisms in well-designed mediation studies is warranted.”
“We suggest that additional observational studies be conducted to investigate direct associations of nutrients with brain aging, and if our observations are also confirmed in more diverse populations, monitoring biological aging, may indeed, inform dementia prevention,” noted Belsky.

Co-authors are Calen Ryan and Jiayi Zhou, Columbia Aging Center; and Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, and Karen Sugden, Duke University
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging grants R01AG061378, R01AG073402, R01AG059013, R01AG061008, R01AG073207 and R01AG049789
Story Source:
Materials provided by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Aline Thomas, Calen P. Ryan, Avshalom Caspi, Zhonghua Liu, Terrie E. Moffitt, Karen Sugden, Jiayi Zhou, Daniel W. Belsky, Yian Gu. Diet, Pace of Biological Aging, and Risk of Dementia in the Framingham Heart Study. Annals of Neurology, 2024; DOI: 10.1002/ana.26900
Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “A healthier diet is linked with a slower pace of aging, reduced dementia risk, study shows.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 March 2024. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/03/240314122123.htm.

Edited for Food, Facts and and Fads: Sally J. Feltner, PhD., MS.