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

Diet and Processed Food

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% increases risk of esophageal cancer.

Ultraprocessed foods include sodas, instant soups, cookies, ice cream, cereal bars and other foods that you would not normally use in a regular kitchen. As of 2019, ultraprocessed 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 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 ultraprocessed foods is linked to 28% increased risk of dementia.

Source: LifeExtension.com
March, 2024.

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.

What are Telomeres?

Everything You Need to Know About Telomere and Longevity

What Is a Telomere?

Telomeres are structural components of DNA. You can find telomeres at the end of each DNA strand.

Think of telomeres as protective protein caps for DNA that help maintain genomic stability. Without telomeres, DNA strands get damaged and may impair cellular function.

Why Are Telomeres Important?

Every cell of your body contains DNA. DNA contains all of the instructions our body needs for optimal functioning.

As a protective protein cap, telomeres help keep the information in DNA safe. So these structures help maintain optimal functioning at a cellular level. Unfortunately, with each cell division, telomeres become shorter.

How Are They Linked to Longevity and Aging?

At a certain point, telomeres will hit the Hayflick limit.

What is the Hayflick limit? This refers to the maximum number of times a cell will divide. After hitting this limit, cells stop dividing because telomeres hit a critically short length.

Once this happens, the cell begins to age and die. Scientists link the rate of telomere shortening to the pace of aging and, ultimately, the lifespan of species.

That’s why many scientists use telomere length as a biomarker for longevity and overall healthspan. Apart from aging in general, studies show that telomere length is linked to various chronic illnesses such as:

Certain cancers
Neurological diseases
Cardiovascular diseases
Osteoporosis
Type 2 diabetes

Given its association with age and illness, scientists believe that Telomere length is a good representation of biological age. As opposed to your chronological age, biological age refers to how well your body is functioning.

There’s nothing you can do about chronological aging. But there may be things you can do to slow down or even reverse biological aging—you just need to know what factors contribute to aging.

What Contributes to Telomere Shortening?

As you age, telomeres naturally shorten. But there may be things that speed it up.

There are environmental and lifestyle factors that can accelerate telomere shortening. These factors include:

Lack of physical activity
Obesity
Smoking
Chronic psychological stress
Traumatic experiences
Poor diet
Oxidative stress

So, if you can, steer clear from these factors to protect your telomeres.

Are There Other Telomere Interventions?

In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak discovered how a specific enzyme could help synthesize telomeres. This groundbreaking discovery won them the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

This enzyme is called telomerase. In 2016, a group of researchers ran the first randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study to test a telomerase activator on humans.

The study shows that their supplement lengthened telomeres in a statistically and clinically significant way. More studies are being done to see how telomerase therapies can target aging and cancer.

What’s Next?

Scientists have come a long way since telomeres were initially discovered in the 1930s. It was only a few decades back when researchers found a link between telomere length and cellular aging. Since then, more than 20,000 journal articles have been written about telomeres.

But there’s still a lot of work ahead of them. They need to run more studies and clinical trials to learn more about the aging process, telomeres, and telomerase therapies.

As we wait to learn more about telomere therapies, there are other epigenetic applications you can take advantage of. If you’re serious about healthspan extension, then it’s important to know your true age or your biological age.

Knowing your biological age will give you an accurate view of your health status. A biological age test measures another biomarker of aging called DNA methylation.

Using a small blood sample, the test measures the pattern of DNA methylation changes to predict the quality of your health and the risk of various diseases. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of a biological age test, visit the TruDiagnostic website.

What concerns you most about aging? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

Up Next:

Food Safety

“Is Your Food Really Safe? New research uncovers a shocking gap in the FDA’s oversight, revealing that thousands of potentially harmful substances could be lurking in our food without proper safety checks. The loophole? Food companies are allowed to decide for themselves whether their ingredients are safe—without any need for FDA approval or public disclosure.”

What’s Hiding in Your Food? While the FDA carefully reviews some additives, many others slip through the cracks, classified as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) by the very companies that produce them. This means that from everyday spices to questionable chemicals, countless substances in our food may never have been independently tested or even reported to the FDA.”

“Why This Matters for You With diet-related diseases on the rise, experts argue that this regulatory gap puts us all at risk. Our full article dives into how this oversight began, why it’s a growing concern, and what needs to change to ensure our food supply is truly safe. Don’t miss out on the full story at studyfinds.org—your health could depend on it.”

#FDA #FDAapproval #foodsafety

Quote “Think of all the processed foods with names of ingredients that most of us cannot pronounce. Wonder what the body does when “it” encounters these and causes the body to assume their status as an inflammatory trigger of the immune system.” Just a thought!

Sally J. Feltner, MS, PhD.

The MIND DIET; Avoiding cognitive decline

By Dr. Faith Colema

Reviewed by Chris Melore

Jul 25, 2024

Fact Checked

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Brain food

(Image by Lightspring on Shutterstock)

One of the greatest fears many people have is suffering cognitive decline – or difficulty with memory, thought-processing, and learning. The thought of progression to dementia, the most common type being Alzheimer’s disease, is terrifying. That fear centers around the loss of independence and self-determination.

However, there are powerful tools to prevent or slow down cognitive decline, one of which is the MIND diet, the offspring of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet. It was designed by Martha Clare Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist.

The Mediterranean diet consists of grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish. The DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet consists of fruits, vegetables, poultry, fish, whole grains, and nuts. The MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet is plant-based, includes poultry and fish, and discourages saturated fats, red meat, and excessive sugar. Compared to these diets, the MIND diet differs in the number of daily and weekly servings of some foods and food groups.

What’s The MIND Diet’s Goal?

The purpose of the MIND diet is to help improve brain function and contribute to cognitive resilience in older adults. Healthy lifestyle factors, such as a high-quality diet, can benefit the health of the brain. As such, following this diet may help slow cognitive decline and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

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Food used in MIND diet. (credit: RUSH University)

What Are The Benefits?

Research shows that the MIND diet can decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 35 to 53%, which seems to vary with how strictly an individual follows the diet. A study published in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy showed that better adherence to the MIND diet correlated to a greater decrease in the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The studies demonstrating this effect must be reproduced for confirmation, but the diet is certainly promising as a strategy to prevent cognitive decline.

Multiple factors contribute to your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. You cannot change your age and genetics, but you can control other risk factors, such as exercise, cognitive training (such as brain games), and diet. A 2019 review noted that certain diets may help protect the brain due to their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. These diets include the MIND diet.

Other evidence shows a potential link between closely following the MIND diet and a slower rate of cognitive decline after a stroke. In addition to reducing the risk of cognitive decline, the MIND diet may help prevent heart disease and some forms of cancer.

Both the Mediterranean and DASH diets promote cardiovascular health. The MIND diet, which includes features of both, is also likely beneficial for heart health.

A 2021 study also identified a link between following the MIND diet and a lower risk of developing breast cancer. However, more research is necessary to explore the links between diet and cancer.

Sources

https://11b2d87a821b0c73cdd0ec46d2a9f931.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

A Sample Menu (from National Geographic: Happy Gut, Happy Brain) Reviewed by Sally J. Feltner, MS, PhD.

Fiber Source: Nutritionists recommend eating about 30 grams of fiber a day. Here are some of the top-fiber-filled foods. Consult with your primary care physician or registered dietitian(RD, RDN)

Legumes 12-18 g.

Beans; 12-15 g.

Berries 8 g.

Whole grains 5-7 g.

Alzheimer’s and Food: Can it 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,

Guidelines for Healthy Diets

WHO releases updated guidelines on defining healthy diets

Harvard experts say most recommendations are well-supported, but guidance on total fat intake omits decades of evidence

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released updated guidelines for defining healthy diets, with particular attention to carbohydrates, total fat, and specific types of fat such as saturated and trans fats. The guidelines are an addition to their previous recommendations on added sugars, sodium, and non-sugar sweeteners. With the exception of total fat intake, the recommendations below are geared toward everyone ages 2 and older:

A healthy dietary pattern—a combination of foods that is influenced by availability, affordability, preferences, culture, traditions, and other factors—is encouraged with the core tenets of adequacy, diversity, balance, and moderation.
A variety of food groups and a variety of foods within each food group are encouraged to reduce the risk of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and to provide health-promoting components found in a diverse diet.
Carbohydrate intake should comprise 40-70% of total calorie intake and come mainly from minimally processed whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and legumes, with research finding that these foods are associated with a reduced risk of deaths from any cause and diet-related non-communicable diseases (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer). They advised 400 grams of fruits and vegetables daily (equivalent to about 2 servings each), and 25 grams fiber daily.
Saturated fatty acid intake should be reduced to 10% or less of total calorie intake, and trans fat intake to 1% of total calorie intake, which is associated with reduced risk of deaths from any cause, reduced cardiovascular disease, and lower LDL levels. They advise replacing saturated fatty acids with polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Total fat intake for adults ages 20 and older should comprise 30% or less of total calorie intake for the prevention of unhealthy weight gain, and the type of fat consumed should be mostly unsaturated fatty acids. This amount was associated with reduced body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat percentage. They cited evidence that suggested a dose response, in that the more fat intake was reduced, the greater the reduction in body weight. A reduced-fat intake was associated with a lower calorie intake, leading to decreased weight. The guidelines also cited that individuals who can maintain their weight may be able to consume higher levels of fat greater than 30%; for example, one may consume 40% of calories from fat but intakes of carbohydrate and protein would decrease in order to maintain energy balance by consuming the same calorie level. [1]

Experts in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health disagreed with the WHO guidelines to limit total fat intake to 30% or less of total calorie intake, citing evidence from dozens of long-term cohort studies and randomized trials that showed a lack of benefit of low-fat diets for lowering risk of chronic conditions including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and weight loss. For example, the PREDIMED trials—which randomly assigned people to a Mediterranean diet with a higher fat intake of 39-42% of total calories (mostly from unsaturated fats) or a low-fat diet—found a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes on the higher fat diet. [2,3] The Harvard researchers also expressed concern that lowering total fat intake could mean increasing carbohydrate intake, especially refined carbohydrates and sugars, which has been shown to increase blood pressure and triglycerides.

“The new WHO recommendation that intake of total fat be limited to 30% of calories is narrowly based on one deeply flawed meta-analysis of weight gain,” said Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition. “This ignores the last several decades of research on dietary fat and excludes the traditional Mediterranean diet, which has been widely recognized as a healthy model for eating, based on a massive body of evidence. Although other aspects of the WHO dietary recommendations are well-supported, the limit on total fat is best ignored.”

In the meta-analyses supporting the WHO guidelines, Willett and colleagues noted that the WHO report did not include a comprehensive assembly of randomized controlled trials but rather selective studies in which weight change was not the primary outcome, and many participants had chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and therefore were not considered healthy.

They also noted that the meta-analyses excluded studies that were carefully designed to look at dietary fat and weight changes, and that many of the included studies provided an unequal intervention. For example, in many studies, the low-fat diet group received intensive guidance and monitoring of fat reduction, whereas the control group received no advice or monitoring. This is meaningful as close dietary guidance and monitoring itself results in small reductions in weight.

“Even if the result of the meta-analysis were to be believed, the difference between the low- and high-total fat groups was only about two pounds (0.9 kg after accounting for sample size), hardly sufficient to be setting global dietary recommendations,” Willett added. “On the other hand, the type of dietary fat has major implications for long term health and wellbeing, and the recommendation to emphasize unsaturated sources of fat from plants over those high in saturated and trans fat is well-founded.” References

Last updated July 18.

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Your Diet and Your IMMUNE SYSTEM Is there a benefit?

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.

Alzheimer’s Disease: Does Sugar make a difference?