Who/What is to Blame?

Is sugar to blame for our global problem? Obesity has become a pandemic in itself. Sugary drinks have been accused of supplying sugar in excess contributing to this epidemic.

These were defined as soda, juice and energy drinks, sports drinks, and home sweetened concoctions.that can contain more than 50 kcal per 1 cup serving.

Study: Children’s Health Sugar
Source: Tuft’s University
Researchers from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University published the findings in the BMJ.

A new global analysis of the dietary habits of children and adolescents from 185 countries revealed that youth, on average, consumed nearly 23% more sugar-sweetened beverages in 2018 compared to 1990.

Overall, intakes were similar in boys and girls, but higher in teens, urban residents, and children of parents with lower levels of education.

Sugar – sweetened beverage intake among young people varied dramatically by world region, averaging 3.6 servings per week globally and ranging from 1.3 servings per week in
South Asia to 9.1 in Latin America and the Caribbean. The researchers found that children and teens in 56 countries, representing 238 million young people or 10 % of the global youth population averaged 7 or more servings per week.

This study highlights the need for targeted education and policy interventions early on and prevent the adverse outcomes associated with sugar-sweetened beverage intake in childhood.

Among the world’s most populous nations, those with the highest sugary drink intakes by youth in 2018 included Mexico, followed by Uganda, Pakistan, South Africa, and the United States. The regions with the highest increase in consumption among youth was sub-Saharan Africa, in which average weekly servings grew 106% to 2.17 servings per week – This acceleration requires attention, say the researchers.

Support of this work came from:
Gates Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors, methodology, limitations and conflicts of interest and is available in the published paper.

Original Study:
DOI:10,1136/bmj-2024-079234

Here Comes Another Study: Telomeres and Heart Disease

Telomeres protect your cells, so the longer your telomeres, the better. As we get older, the shorter they become as a natural process. In 2014, researchers looked at a group of people who regularly consumed 20 ounces (600 mlL) or more of soda daily. The study, was published in the American Journal of Public Health reported that the soda drinkers’ telomeres shortened much more quickly than the norm – the equivalent of more than four and one-half years in addition to the normal aging that would take place over the course of a year.

The subjects of the study included only healthy adults with no history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease. The authors recommended that additional research (as it always does in diet studies) may have linkage between diet and disease.

It’s important to examine the pathways from “soda” to cell” including telomeres and their role in aging as well as understanding them might improve risk factors for cardio metabolic disease, one of the major associations of diet and heart disease. Please search for telomeres in the blog (that have some interesting diagrams of telomeres and their structures.

Source: You Are What Your Grandparents Ate. Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics, & the Origins of Chronic Disease Judith Finlayson 2019.

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?

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.

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

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

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.

Food and Mood? Neuronutrients

Good Mood Foods: How Diet Affects Happiness

Lani Muelrath is a bestselling author, speaker, and TV host known for her expertise in plant-based, active, and mindful living. This article is adapted from her newest book, The Mindful Vegan, a 30-day plan for shedding old thinking patterns and living more joyfully with food.

If you are presently piling plenty of colorful plants on your plate, you are already at a better mood advantage. Research tells us that plant-based diets are associated with healthier mood states. The more fruits and vegetables people eat, the happier, less depressed, and more satisfied they are with their lives. Today, we’ll focus on how, grounded in your biochemistry, eating more plants and eliminating animals and their products from your diet creates greater mental well-being and resilience.

Plantified Plate = Mood Elevator Up

A recent study of nearly 1,000 men and women examined the mood impact of obtaining dietary antioxidants. Antioxidants are health- and disease-protective bioactive chemical compounds produced by plants. In the study, those who ate three or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day reported significantly greater optimism than those who ate less. Eating lots of veggies also bumps up the B vitamins in your diet, positively affecting mood states.

Another recent, large-population, multi-wave study — taking place five times over the course of nine years — focused on the impact of fruit and vegetable intake on depression, anxiety, and mental health disorders.

Results were consistent across all five waves: greater fruit and vegetable consumption was positively associated with reduced depression, less psychological distress, fewer mood and anxiety problems, and improved perceived mental health.

Study after study corroborates. A large Swiss survey reported significant associations between higher fruit and vegetable consumption and reduced distress levels. People who ate less than the five-servings-a-day recommendation had a higher likelihood of reporting stress and anxiety than those who didn’t. A recent study on women’s health from Australia followed over 6,000 women. The findings? Reduced depression among women who simply ate more than two pieces of fruit a day. And the benefit increased when accompanied by higher intakes of vegetables.

Can Cutting Meat Improve Your Mood?

We get it — eating more plants boosts your mood. What if we look at it another way — cutting out the meat? How might that affect your state of mind? As it turns out, emotional resiliency and elevated mood states arise for more reasons than simply because you know you are doing the right thing. There’s a deeper biochemical component that underpins well-being that comes with veganizing your plate.

According to research, reduced intake of animals and their products has mood benefits in addition to those that come with a robust daily intake of fruits and vegetables. Avoiding meat, fish, and poultry leads to more frequent reports of positive states of mind. And vegans report lower anxiety and less stress than omnivores.

Inflammation and Increased Risk of Depression

Putting it all together, the Western diet — characterized by scanty consumption of plant foods, yet heavy on the animal products — is associated with increased risk of depression. Depression is related to inflammation in the body. Arachidonic acid, found only in animal products, is a precursor to inflammation. Research shows that high intakes of arachidonic acid promote changes in the brain that can disturb mood.

Here’s how it works. By eating chicken, eggs, and other animal products high in arachidonic acid, a series of chemical reactions is triggered in your body that results in inflammation. When inflammation reaches the brain, feelings of anxiety, stress, hopelessness, and depression follow. No wonder people who avoid animal flesh and products report a happier, more positive mood. And plant foods — to the rescue, once again — naturally lower inflammation due to their naturally high antioxidant content, antioxidants being one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory agents.

Nutrients provide the biological building blocks for neurotransmitters — the chemicals in your brain that deeply affect how you think and feel. When you aren’t eating enough vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, polyphenols, and related nutrients found in plants — known in this context as neuronutrients — you can’t make adequate mood-enhancing transmitters. These gems of plant nutrition, by the way, are the same goodies proved to be brain protective against Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Diets rich in the kind of saturated fats that are abundant in animal products — and deficient in antioxidants and vitamins — appear to promote the onset of the disease, whereas diets rich in plant-plentiful vitamins, antioxidants, and polyphenols suppress its onset. All the colors plants bring to your plate are evidence of the nutrients your brain needs for better disposition. No wonder just seeing your luncheon salad makes your mood brighten.

_{Author Sources:}

_{1. Bonnie L. Beezhold, Carol S. Johnston, and Deanna R. Daigle, “Vegetarian Diets Are Associated with Healthy Mood States: A Cross-Sectional Study in Seventh Day Adventist Adults,” Nutrition Journal 9, no. 26 (2010), doi:10.1186/1475-2891-9-26.}
_{2. Ciara Rooney, Michelle C. McKinley, and Jayne V. Woodside, “The Potential Role of Fruit and Vegetables in Aspects of Psychological Well-Being: A Review of the Literature and Future Directions,” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 72, no. 4 (2013): 420–32, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24020691.}
_{3. Juila Boehm et al., “Association between Optimism and Serum Antioxidants in the Midlife in the United States Study,” Psychosomatic Medicine 75, no. 1 (2013): 2–10, http://aging.wisc.edu/pdfs/3006.pdf.}
_{4. Ulka Agarwal, “A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of a Nutrition Intervention Program in a Multiethnic Adult Population in the Corporate Setting Reduces Depression and Anxiety and Improves Quality of Life: The GEICO Study,” American Journal of Health Promotion 29, no. 4 (2015), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24524383.}
_{5. Seanna E. McMartin, Felice N. Jacka, and Ian Colman, “The Association between Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Mental Health Disorders: Evidence from Five Waves of a National Survey of Canadians,” Preventative Medicine 56, no. 3–4 (2013): 225–30, doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.12.016.}
_{6. Aline Richard et al., “Associations between Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Psychological Distress: Results from a Population-Based Study,” BMC Psychiatry}
_{endnotes 15, no. 213 (2015), http://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-015-0597-4.}
_{7. S. Mihrshahi, A. J. Dobson, and G. D. Mishra, “Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Prevalence and Incidence of Depressive Symptoms in Mid-age Women: Results from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health,” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 69, no. 5 (2014): 585–91, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25351653.}
_{8. Tamlin S. Conner, et al., “On Carrots and Curiosity: Eating Fruit and Vegetables Is Associated with Greater Flourishing in Daily Life,” British Journal of Health Psychology 20, no. 2 (2015): 413–27, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25080035.}
_{9. Bonnie L. Beezhold et al., “Vegans Report Less Stress and Anxiety Than Omnivores,” Nutritional Neuroscience 18, no. 7 (2014),}

Intermittent Fasting and Heart Disease Risks.

Is Intermittent Fasting Bad For Your Heart? What to Know
Medically Reviewed by Neha Pathak, MD, FACP, DipABLM on March 22, 2024
Written by Eliott C. McLaughlin
Overheated Media Headlines
Correlation Is Not Causation
Response From Study Authors
5 min read

Does intermittent fasting raise your risk of death from heart disease? That’s what you might think from headlines about early research presented at a recent American Heart Association conference – drawing skepticism from experts and cautions from the researchers themselves.
Here’s what you should know.
Overheated Media Headlines
The American Heart Association issued a news release headlined: “8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death.”
Media outlets piled on with headlines saying some forms of intermittent fasting – a diet plan where food intake is limited on certain days or in certain hours of the day – “may pose risks to your heart” or “could lead to much higher risk” of death, contradicting research showing time-restricted eating can improve heart health factors such as insulin sensitivity, inflammation, obesity, and cholesterol levels.

Among other study findings, according to the AHA news release:
Those with heart disease or cancer also saw an increased risk of cardiovascular death
Among people with heart disease, eating in a window that’s no less than 8 but less than 10 hours a day was linked to a 66% higher risk of death from heart disease or stroke.
Fasting did not reduce the risk of death from any cause.
Those conclusions are premature and misleading, says Christopher Gardner, PhD, a professor of medicine at Stanford University and director of nutrition studies at the school’s Prevention Research Center, who commented on an abstract of the study for the AHA news release before study results were presented in Chicago.

Christopher Gardner, PhD
Gardner tells WebMD that people in the study group who consumed all their food in a daily window of 8 hours or fewer had a higher percentage of men, African Americans, and smokers, and they had a higher BMI than those who ate over longer time spans – any of which could’ve raised the group’s heart disease risk. Also, investigators lacked data on shift work, stress, and other variables, including the important element of the quality of nutrients in their diets, which alone might have provided another explanation, he says.
As with all experts in this story, including the study’s co-authors, Gardner pointed out this research provides no reason to stop intermittent fasting if you currently see benefits.
Gardner, who isn’t a proponent of intermittent fasting, summarized in an email his thoughts on what he feels is the overstatement of the research:
“This particular finding is PRELIMINARY and should be treated with HEALTHY SKEPTICISM, and should await PEER-REVIEW before it receives any additional media coverage.”
In response to questions about the study and the presentation of findings, the AHA said its intention is always “to promote ideas and supporting research – in context – that stimulate and provoke discovery.”
The abstract, news release, and news article were reviewed by scientific experts, the AHA says, and the release included context and background indicating a link, not causality, and it said readers should always consult their doctors before changing their diet.
“We understand and regret that some news stories did not properly include this important context and did not report on this study for what it is – a single study contributing to the larger body of evidence. We will continue our efforts to educate and counsel journalists in this regard,” the statement says.
Correlation Is Not Causation
Questions remain, says Jason Fung, MD, a nephrologist who has written articles and books on intermittent fasting, including The Obesity Code.
With their headlines, Fung feels, the AHA and media made correlation tantamount to causation, a mistake that would get any first-year medical student a failing grade, he says.
“The whole thing is just outrageous.”
Jason Fung, MD
Just because there’s a link between shorter eating windows and bad health outcomes in a particular population doesn’t mean the eating window caused the outcome, Fung says.
For example, he says, research shows you’re more likely to drown if you’ve recently eaten ice cream. It would be easy to conclude that eating ice cream leads to drowning. Yet a closer look shows people eat more ice cream in warmer weather, when they’re more likely to swim and drown. Thus, ice cream correlates with drowning but doesn’t cause drowning.uuu
Another issue, Fung says, is that the study data was taken from a health and nutrition survey done by the CDC between 2003 and 2018, when intermittent fasting was largely unknown as a way to manage health. Most people skipping meals before 2018 weren’t trying to improve their health. They were ignoring what was then standard dietary guidance, he says. It could be that people in this group were more likely to have poor eating habits and diet.
Krista Varady, PhD
In addition, study authors used just 2 days of self-reported eating activity to estimate 16 years of dietary habits, says Krista Varady, PhD, a kinesiology and nutrition professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and co-author of several fasting studies.
“I think the conclusions are extremely overstated,” she says. “Two days of diet record data is NOT at all reflective of an individual’s regular eating pattern – this is a major limitation to the study.”
“The science is very, very sloppy. You expect better,” Fung says.
Response From Study Authors
Study co-author JoAnn Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH, a Harvard University professor of medicine, said in a statement, “Correlation doesn’t prove causation, and we’ll need more research to understand whether the observed associations are cause and effect.”
Randomized clinical trials are necessary to test whether the timing of meals or duration of fasting changes health outcomes. Until those trials, she says, the links “shouldn’t lead to alarm or to changes in one’s preferred and long-term dietary habits.”
Another co-author, Victor Wenze Zhong, PhD, a professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in China, acknowledged that despite controlling for many demographics and health factors, “This is only an observational study that is subject to many limitations.”
The findings do not mean a shorter eating window causes cardiovascular death, he says, but given the lack of long-term data on time-restricted eating, patients should be “extremely cautious” before following the diet for years. Zhong insists in the news release, “Our research clearly shows … a shorter eating duration was not associated with living longer.”

It’s not clear why, Zhong tells WebMD, but those who restricted eating to 8 hours or fewer per day had less lean muscle mass than those with longer eating windows, which “has been linked to higher risk of cardiovascular mortality.”
He, too, calls for randomized clinical trials but notes that a study demanding people stick to eating schedules as investigators follow their progress for years “is challenging to conduct if not impossible.”
“This study unfortunately is not able to well answer the underlying mechanisms driving the observed association between 8-hour (time-restricted eating) and cardiovascular death.”
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SEE STUDY AUTHORS FOR COMMENTS EDITED BY Sally J. Feltner, PhD, MS (RETIRED) FOR FOOD, FACTS AND FADS.

Does Diet affect the immune system?

An excerpt from an article on diets and the human immune system – Both most recently becoming important in our medical culture since the onset of /or prevention of Covid- 19.

Benefits of a vegan versus ketogenic diet

Investigators recruited 20 individuals for the study, which included both men and women, individuals of different ethnicity and body size based on BMI calculationTrusted Source. During the first two weeks, the participants would eat only one type of diet, either vegan or ketogenic, and then switch to the other diet for an additional two weeks.

Both diets included non-starchy vegetables and minimum amounts of highly processed food.

However, that is about where the similarities ended.

A vegan diet is entirely plant-based, excluding all animal products, including meat, fish, milk, and eggs. It includes staples like legumes, rice, root vegetables, whole grains, soy products, fruits, and vegetables On the other hand, the ketogenic or “keto” diet, as it is popularly known, embraces meat and fat, generally derived from animal products.

The difference in the diets also extended to more than the makeup of specific foods.

Those on the vegan diet got the majority of their calories from carbohydrates and almost none from fat — 75% carbs and 10% fat. While the ketogenic was the complete opposite, deriving 75% of calories from fat and 10% from carbohydrates.

Although in both diets participants were able to eat freely, those on the vegan diet tended to eat fewer calories overall.

During the study, researchers collected and analyzed samples, including urine, blood, and stool, to look for biological changes caused by the diets. The samples were investigated using advanced fields of study, including:

Proteomics: the study of proteins and their cellular activities
Metabolomics: the study of metabolites and molecules resulting from metabolic functioning
Transcriptomics: The study of all RNA molecules

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How does diet affect immunity?

Diet is known to affect the microbiome, which results in downstream effects on the immune system and disease risk. The significance of the NIH’s finding is that it helps to shine some light on the complex relationship between diet, microbiome, and immunity.

Despite knowing that diet affects the microbiome and that the microbiome affects immunity, the direct mechanisms between diet and immunity still aren’t clear.

“Microbiomes are organisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites) present throughout our body, with the largest composition in the GI tract (small and large intestines)…The co-existence of these microorganisms in the body helps produce immunity by exposing, conditioning, and training the body to numerous organisms since birth,” said Dr. Roopa NaikTrusted Source, MD, who spoke with Healthline about the study and has previously published on the impactTrusted Source of vegan diets on health.

Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, a Professor of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, told Healthline that the NIH research indicates, “We’re coming full circle in terms of trying to understand how diet can impact immunity. It seems that both types of diets are able to help the host cope with viral infection.”

Healthline. Eating Vegan, Keto Diets May Help Improve Your Immune System in 2 weeks. Feb.2, 2024

Written by: Gigan Mammoser

Edited by: Jase Peeples

Fact Checked By: Amanda Ward.

Is There a Longevity Diet?

‘Longevity diet’ may help people live longer by fasting for half the day, banning red meat
April 28, 2022
by StudyFinds

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Fad diets are a dime a dozen these days, but researchers at USC say they’ve finally put one together that has everything you need to live a long and healthy life. Their “longevity diet” favors fish and plant-based proteins, and even welcomes a good amount of carbs, while avoiding red and processed meats.
This diet also requires people to eat their meals within a certain time frame and allow time for periods of fasting. Dieters looking to follow a healthy diet have no shortage of options these days, with most of these plans focusing on cutting carbs and calories. However, it’s been unclear if these diets help people actually stay healthy and live longer.
Now, the USC team has found that it’s not only about what people eat, but also when they eat it.

“We explored the link between nutrients, fasting, genes and longevity in short-lived species, and connected these links to clinical and epidemiological studies in primates and humans – including centenarians,” says Professor Valter Longo in a university release.
“By adopting an approach based on over a century of research, we can begin to define a longevity diet that represents a solid foundation for nutritional recommendations and for future research.”

Taking the best parts of popular diets
The researchers reviewed hundreds of studies on nutrition, diseases, and long life, involving both animals and humans, and combined them with their own research. Their analysis included a wide range of calorie-cutting diets such as the popular keto diet, as well as vegetarian, vegan, and Mediterranean diets. It also looked at various forms of fasting, including cutting out food intermittently or over longer periods of time — sometimes for two or more days several times a month.
The team found several factors linked to living longer and certain illnesses, such as insulin, cholesterol, and certain protein levels. Overall, study authors believe the secret to living longer is eating a moderate to high amount of carbohydrates from unrefined sources.
Also, getting the right amount of protein and enough fats from plant-based sources can provide about 30 percent of a person’s energy needs. Ideally, a person’s meals would take place within an 11 or 12-hour window, allowing for a daily period of fasting. A five-day cycle of fasting or fasting-mimicking diet every three to four months could also maintain healthy insulin levels and blood pressure, the study finds.
So, what’s in the longevity diet?
“Lots of legumes, whole grains, and vegetables; some fish; no red meat or processed meat and very low white meat; low sugar and refined grains; good levels of nuts and olive oil, and some dark chocolate,” Prof. Longo says while describing the longevity diet.
Their new menu resembles Mediterranean diets, found in so-called “Blue Zones” like Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, and Loma Linda in California. These diets are usually plant-based with some seafood and relatively low in protein.
The researchers’ diet adds to this by also providing time frames for meals and fasting periods which people can adapt to fit their sex, age, health status, and genetics. For example, people over age 65 benefited from more protein to counter the loss of lean body mass and frailty. Next, the researchers are planning on carrying out a 500-person study using the longevity diet in southern Italy.

Study authors suggest anyone looking to follow the longevity diet should work with a healthcare provider to come up with a plan which focuses on making small changes. This is because making drastic changes can be harmful, causing major loss of body fat and lean mass. Moreover, people often put the weight back on once they abandon a highly restrictive diet.
The findings are published in the journal Cell.

South West News Service writer Tom Campbell contributed to this report.
Tags: healthy eating, intermittent fasting, longevity, meat, Mediterranean diet, red meat

Edited for Food, Facts, and Fads by Sally J Feltner, MS, Ph.D