The MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) is a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). It focuses more on the weekly consumption of foods like beans, berries, nuts, whole grains, leafy veggies, and recommends low-fat and fat-free dairy foods.
Both diet patterns encourage physical activity and support heart health and the prevention of hypertension.
The patterns are also high in antioxidants and are considered anti-inflammatory. Both diets protect against oxidative damage to blood vessels, which may help reduce the risk of dementia. It appears to “be the best of both worlds” in the healthy diet world.
“WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Could the secret to a sharp brain in old age be as simple as taking a daily multivitamin? New joint research from Wake Forest University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests as much. Scientists conclude that multivitamins can improve thinking skills in older individuals and help stave off cognitive decline.
Study authors note that the findings are still preliminary and require further confirmation before any concrete health recommendations can be made. Nonetheless, establishing a new, affordable such as taking a daily multivitamin way to fight cognitive decline and dementia in old age could potentially benefit millions. Today, over 6.5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease (the most common form of dementia), and a staggering one in three senior citizens pass away with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
“There’s an urgent need for safe and affordable interventions to protect cognition against decline in older adults,” says Dr. Laura D. Baker, a professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and co-principal investigator of the trial, in a statement. Baker worked alongside Dr. Mark Espeland, also a professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest.
Multivitamins versus cocoa extract
This project, named the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study for the Mind (COSMOS-Mind), was funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Participants include 21,442 men and women living all over the United States.
Researchers investigated if taking either a daily cocoa extract supplement or a daily multivitamin-mineral supplement would influence health outcomes and risk profiles in relation to heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other health issues. Why cocoa extract? Prof. Baker explains cocoa extract is rich in compounds known as flavanols. Prior research suggests flavanols may have a positive influence on cognition. Moreover, deficiencies in several essential micronutrients and minerals among older adults may increase the risk for cognitive decline and dementia.
The research team tested the daily intake of a placebo versus a cocoa extract supplement, as well as the daily intake of a multivitamin-mineral versus a placebo. Over 2,200 participants, all aged 65 years and older, were tracked for a period of three years. Additionally, subjects completed memory and cognition tests over the phone at baseline and on an annual basis.
‘First evidence of cognitive benefit in large longer-term study’
“Our study showed that although cocoa extract did not affect cognition, daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation resulted in statistically significant cognitive improvement,” Prof. Baker explains. “This is the first evidence of cognitive benefit in a large longer-term study of multivitamin supplementation in older adults.”
Study authors estimate taking a multivitamin for three years roughly translates to a “60 percent slowing of cognitive decline (about 1.8 years)”. They also note the benefits were especially pronounced among those with significant cardiovascular disease.
“It’s too early to recommend daily multivitamin supplementation to prevent cognitive decline,” Baker concludes. “While these preliminary findings are promising, additional research is needed in a larger and more diverse group of people. Also, we still have work to do to better understand why the multivitamin might benefit cognition in older adults.”
The study is published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Plant based diets are increasingly becoming the new trend in nutrition these days. Plant based diets are also currently thought of as being environmentally friendly with increased attention paid to animal welfare, lower levels of greenhouse gases, land degradation and less water use that are also thought as having a myriad of health benefits. However, some foods are what many people call “junk” foods or ultra—processed foods and not considered “products of nature”.
“All foods according to some standards or sold in supermarkets would be classified as “processed.” The USDA defines a processed food as one that has undergone any changes to its natural state, e.g. cutting or washing. The NOVA classification assigns a group to food products based on how much processing they have been through: Group 1 – Unprocessed or minimally processed foods Group 2 – Processed culinary ingredients Group 3 – Processed foods Group 4 might include ultra-processed foods.” The Institute of Food Technologists includes additional processing terms like storing, filtering, fermenting, extracting, concentrating, microwaving, and packaging.”
“Ultra- processed foods,” contain minimal whole foods, are high in calories, added sugar, salt and fats. They offer little nutritional value” and have been processed with a list of additives that are difficult to pronounce and would not be recognized as food by our ancestors. The NOVA classification often used to determine the extent of industrial processes as mentioned above may include the following:
Commercially produced breads, pastries, cakes, and cookies
Carbonated beverages
Sugar-sweetened beverages
Pre-packaged snacks
Flavored dairy drinks
Breakfast cereals
Energy bars
Instant soups , noodles, and desserts
Convenience foods
A study in 2019 followed 105,159 adults for 5 years. They reported that even a 10% increase in the consumption of ultra–processed foods was associated with a negative health outcome like higher risks of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. (Associations do not reflect causes). The associations found showed that some vegans and vegetarians often have lower levels of iron, vitamin B 12, calcium, vitamin D and omega-3 fats.
Plant-based diets still may have a health advantage. This can occur if the diet in question also provides the needed nutrients for nutritional health such as adequate fruits and vegetables, non- starchy vegetables, eggs, plant protein, seafood and whole grains (fiber) on a regular basis. However, on the other hand, the bottom line is that a bag of potato chips although plant based, provides few nutrients and should be limited on a healthier plant based diet.
Helpful Hints:
Be sure to read nutrition labels to become aware of the calories, added sugars, salt saturated fats, trans fats and other essential nutrients in one serving.
Monitor fiber and carbohydrate portions. Be sure to check the fiber content of many cereal products.
Focus on proteins, meat substitutions -peas, beans, nuts, seeds, tofu, tempeh, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, and seafood.
If possible, anyone beginning a new eating pattern should consult a dietitian or physician with nutrition knowledge.
Limit your intake of processed foods in general, especially ultra-processed.
As Michael Pollan says in his book, In Defense of Food. “Because most of what we’re consuming today is not food, and how we’re consuming it…in the car, in front of the TV — is not really eating. Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” – no longer the products of nature but of food science.”
October brings thoughts of fall, Halloween, and witches and the witch trials that occurred in 1692 in a fragile Puritan Community, Salem Village, Massachusetts. The theory most often cited was that ergot poisoning from rye bread was to blame – on further evaluation, history “experts” disqualify this theory and others are brought to mind. The following article by Nik DeCosta Klipa explains:
In 2016 a large study confirmed findings from 21 cohort studies (181,000 people)that supported that fish consumption was protective against the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and recommended “fishery products” for a lower risk of cognitive impairment.
Source: Y. Zhang, et al., “Intakes of Fish and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Mild-to-Severe Cognitive Impairment Risks: A Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of 21 Cohort Studies, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 103, no 2 (2016):330-40.
In a study of 105, 159 adults over a period of 5 years, it was found that “even a 10% increase in the consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, the development of some cancers, and type 2 diabetes. In addition, some increased exposure to harmful chemicals from food packages was reported.” Source: Medical News Today, 2019.
Phytochemicals Include hundreds of biologically active nonnutritive chemicals found primarily in plants. Most plant chemicals are for plant protection; however, others are known for their human health promoting properties.
The phytochemicals in our diet protect our health in a variety of ways. Some are carotenoids or antioxidants; others provide benefits because they mimic the structures like those found naturally in the body. For example, phytoestrogens such as those found in soy are called phytoestrogens; others are called phytosterols mimicking estrogen and cholesterol functions.
Some stimulate the body’s natural defenses. Indoles, and isothiocyanates found in broccoli stimulate the activity of enzymes that help deactivate carcinogens. Others are health promoting because they can alter the way in which cells communicate, and affect DNA repair mechanisms.
How to Choose Phytochemicals
Choose a few colors of fruits and vegetables each day to look for any recipes found to be appealing.
Spice up food with herbs and spices.
Add vegetables to sauces and casseroles.
Try baked or dried fruit for dessert.
Double your typical serving of vegetables.
Add pesto, spinach, or artichoke hearts to pizza.
Buy jars of chopped garlic, ginger, and basil and add to cooking.
What caused the obesity epidemic? What are the consequences?
HOUSTON – When it comes to the childhood obesity epidemic, the prevailing narrative is that overweight children — and their parents — lack the collective will power to put down the potato chips, pick up a jump rope and work at losing weight.
“… doctors specializing in obesity and weight loss say certain scientific and societal factors — including genetics, the rise of processed foods that include soybean oil and national overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages — are more likely to blame for childhood obesity than lazy kids or indulgent parents.
“Obesity is a disorder which, like venereal disease, is blamed upon the patient,” says obesity researcher Dr. George Bray, the opening lecturer at the first annual U.S. News Combating Childhood Obesity summit, held at Texas Children’s Hospital.
It’s the blame issue that stands in the way of progress in fighting obesity as a disease, when larger factors that can’t be controlled may be at the heart of the issue, says Bray, professor emeritus of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, who has been studying obesity among children for several decades.
“Obesity isn’t a disease of willpower — it’s a biological problem,” he says. “Genes load the gun, and environment pulls the trigger.”
In a panel analyzing why weight is difficult to lose, Kevin Hall, an obesity and diabetes researcher, says a new study he co-produced points the finger at highly processed food.
His study, published Thursday in the medical journal Cell Metabolism, showed that patients who ate minimally-processed food with easily identifiable ingredients ate less, and lost weight without trying, when compared with a group that had highly-processed, prepackaged, ready-to-eat food, even though the diets prepared for both groups had the same number of calories and macronutrients.
“What we saw, on average, was that people consumed 500 calories more” on the processed-food diet than those who ate food that didn’t go through a factory, says Hall, chief of the integrated physiology section at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “The ones on the unprocessed diet — they spontaneously lost weight.” It has been proposed that eating a diet for health (whole, “real” foods) can cause weight loss and maintenance of the loss compared to those who primary goal was simply weight loss alone.
In opening the summit, presenters tackled a question doctors and obesity researchers have grappled with a difficult question in fighting the disease: How did we get here?
Bray says studies trace the epidemic back to the ’60s and ’70s, when U.S consumption of soybean oil, most likely through processed-food production, spiked and, around the same time, Americans, including children, started to weigh more. Fats found in soybean oil, he says, were found in breast milk samples from the era.
“The fats in our food supply may well be playing a part in our inability to regulate” food intake, Bray says. However, this is just the tip of the iceburg. Likewise food portions have been shown graphically to double the size of those served beginning inn the 1970’s.
Meanwhile, the consumption of sugary soft drinks like Coke and Pepsi increased from just a few gallons per person per year to more than triple that by the end of the century. The rise of soft drink consumption between 1950 and 2000, he says, paralleled the increase in obesity; pregnant women who drank sugary soft drinks, Bray added, ended up passing the sugar on to their unborn children.
“It’s kind of maternal abuse of the fetus” where “the child has no control, only the mother has,” he says.
The U.S. News Combating Obesity summit convened top medical experts, hospital executives, pediatricians, community health leaders, advocates to exchange ideas and share practices that are helping to combat the nationwide obesity epidemic.
The percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity “has more than tripled since the 1970s,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to data from 2015-2016, the CDC reports, “nearly 1 in 5 school age children and young people (6 to 19 years) in the United States has obesity.”
Experts say the epidemic has long-term ramifications: Obese children who carry the weight can exhibit heart disease and type 2 diabetes as well as mobility and self-esteem issues. Unfortunately in order to reverse this trend, cultural changes will be required at many levels, to say the least. Can it happen?
U.S. News and World Report
Joseph P. Williams, Senior Editor
May 16, 2109
Scientific, Societal Factors to Blame for the Obesity Epidemic
“A good predictor of who will gain weight is who says they plan to lose some. Last year, 108 million Americans went on diets. Long-term studies of dieters find that they’re more likely to end up gaining weight in the next two to fifteen years than people who don’t diet.” Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D. Why Diets Make Us Fat. 2016.
Rebound’ Weight Gain: A Disconnect Between Brain and Gut May Be a Factor
Healthline. By Christopher Curley, September 15, 2022
Fact Checked: Jennifer Chesak
“Experts say weight gain after weight loss is common among adults and children.
Researchers say a new study indicates that a disconnect between the brain and the gut may be a reason that people tend to gain weight after initially losing weight.
They say in many people who have lost weight their gut will tell them they’re full after eating a meal, but their brain will try to tell them they’re still hungry.
Experts say the disconnect may be due to the body’s attempt to store fat during weight loss.
Nearly halfTrusted Source of adults in the United States try to lose weight each year, but many will not keep that weight off long-term.
In fact, only about one in five people who are overweight can maintain weight loss for a year or longer, research showsTrusted Source.
While there are many competing theories about why that is, ranging from psychological to biological, a new study of children with obesity suggests the answer might lie in a disconnect between gut hormones and brain signals.
Researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington put children with obesity on a 24-week weight loss program, monitoring their brain activity and gut hormone responses before and after the trial.
At the end of the weight loss program, the researchers reported that after eating a meal the children’s gut showed normal levels of regulatory hormones indicating that they were full and satisfied.
Their brains, however, showed levels of activity signaling that they were still hungry.
The researchers also found that the more weight a child lost, the more likely they were to react to food cues after completing a meal —their brain essentially telling them they were still hungry while their gut was telling them the reverse.
“Our results imply that during weight loss intervention, your body acts to conserve fat through maintaining hunger responses in the brain and that this needs to be addressed,” Dr. Christian Roth, a lead study author and professor at Seattle Children’s Hospital, said in a press release.
Roth said larger, more extensive studies would be required to confirm these findings.
“It would also be useful to investigate how long the disconnect between central and local appetite regulation persists after maintained weight loss, to guide intervention plans,” he added.
“This is a very interesting study and I think that a lot of these findings are applicable to adults as well,” said Dr. Mir Ali, a bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in California.
“I see in my patients that they feel the need to eat, even if their stomach feels full,” Ali told Healthline. “There is certainly a strong psychological component to eating behavior that surgery and medications cannot always address completely.”
“I feel this research is on the right track and we need to find a way to satisfy the brain as well as the gut,” he added. “This will require extensive research in both children and adults to find the right solution.”
One of the more notable aspects of the study is how it complicates our understanding of how hormones affect appetite and rebound weight gain.
Previous studies have shown that an increase in appetite hormones after weight loss might be a key driver of these rebound gains.
The results of this study paint a more nuanced picture where even if gut hormones are normal, the brain is out of sync.
“The study underscores our understanding of obesity and weight homeostasis as a chronic disease of the brain,” said Dr. Mert Erogul, an attending physician at Maimonides Medical Center in New York.
“The regulation of appetite is enormously complex and layered,” he told Healthline. “From the digestive tract, there are hormones that signal fullness, such as leptin, CCK, and peptide YY. There are also hormones that signal hunger, such as ghrelin. These are in constant interplay with seemingly subjective feelings that come from the brain such as food preference and liking as well as motivation to eat.”
Ultimately, experts say this may require a holistic approach to weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight.
“Rebound weight gain is very common and happens for many physiological, behavioral, and psychological reasons,” said Dr, Steve Patching, a medical director of bariatric surgery at Sutter Hospital in Sacramento, California.
“Believe it or not, weight loss actually sets up your body for weight gain,” he told Healthline. “This is because the body always strives for symbiosis. This is why we often still feel hungry or even starving after we eat a ‘normally satiating’ meal. It is also why correct weight loss should be done slower than we often want.”
Weight loss needs to occur in the context of a durable commitment to changes in diet and lifestyle,” he said. “Even then, obesity medicine specialists recognize that people who are overweight often need lifelong therapy with medications to maintain weight loss.”
FOOD, FACTS and FADS 