Cocoa, heart health, stress

A March 2021 study by University of Birmingham said, 

"We found that drinking flavanol-rich cocoa can be an effective dietary strategy to reduce temporary impairments in endothelial function following mental stress and also improve blood flow during stressful episodes”.

"Flavanols are extremely common in a wide range of fruit and vegetables. By utilizing the known cardiovascular benefits of these compounds during periods of acute vascular vulnerability (such as stress) we can offer improved guidance to people about how to make the most of their dietary choices during stressful periods."

"Our findings are significant for everyday diet, given that the daily dosage administered could be achieved by consuming a variety of foods rich in flavanols - particularly apples, black grapes, blackberries, cherries, raspberries, pears, pulses, green tea and unprocessed cocoa. This has important implications for measures to protect the blood vessels of those individuals who are more vulnerable to the effects of mental stress,"

Nutrition Security

An April 2021 ‘viewpoint’ by Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University, Georgetown Law School, and World Central Kitchen, said, 

"Food is essential both for life and human dignity. Every day, I see hunger, but the hunger I see is not only for calories but for nourishing meals. With a new focus on nutrition security, we embrace a solution that nourishes people, instead of filling them with food but leaving them hungry," 

"It's the right time for this evolution," 

"By prioritizing nutrition security, we bring together historically siloed areas - hunger and nutrition - which must be tackled together to effectively address our modern challenges of diet-related diseases and disparities in clinical care, government food and food assistance policies, public health investments, and national research."

"The current approach is not sufficient … traditionally marginalized minority groups as well as people living in rural and lower-income counties are most likely to experience disparities in nutrition quality, food insecurity, and corresponding diet-related diseases."

Shared Meals to Reduce Adolescent Obesity

An April 2021 study by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona said,

"At a time when lockdown due to the pandemic has revived family meals, this study indicates one of the possible positive aspects of the situation that we have had to confront", 

"A healthy diet is not just what we eat but also how we eat it”

"The Mediterranean diet is much more than a list of foods. It is a cultural model which includes how these foods are selected, produced, processed and consumed.”

"It is easier when children are small, but in adolescence there is a disconnect between you and them and, thanks to these conversations, you can gain a little insight into their world", 

"Just as we recommend 5 fruit and veg a day, we could also propose at least one family meal a day".

Muscle Repair and Glucose

An April 2021 study by Tokyo Metropolitan University found that skeletal muscle satellite cells perform better in environments that are low in glucose. 

The researchers noticed also that high glucose had an adverse effect.

Organic meat and multidrug-resistant bacteria

A May 2021 study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said,

"The presence of pathogenic bacteria is worrisome in and of itself, considering the possible increased risk of contracting foodborne illness," 

"If infections turn out to be multidrug resistant, they can be more deadly and more costly to treat."

"The required disinfection of equipment between processing batches of organic and conventional meats may explain our findings of reduced bacterial contamination on products from facilities that process both types of meats,”

"How we raise animals matters,”

"As a veterinarian, I recognize that we sometimes need to use antibiotics to treat sick animals, but taking advantage of opportunities to reduce antibiotics use could benefit everyone. Consumer choice and regulatory oversight are two strategies to do this."

Vitamin C and muscle-mass in the over-50s

A March 2021 study by the University of East Anglia said,

• "People over 50 lose up to one per cent of their skeletal muscle mass each year, and this loss is thought to affect more than 50 million people worldwide."

• "It's a big problem, because it can lead to frailty and other poor outcomes such as sarcopenia, physical disability, type-2 diabetes, reduced quality of life and death."

• "We know that Vitamin C consumption is linked with skeletal muscle mass. It helps defend the cells and tissues that make up the body from potentially harmful free radical substances. Unopposed these free radicals can contribute to the destruction of muscle, thus speeding up age-related decline."

• "But until now, few studies have investigated the importance of Vitamin C intake for older people. We wanted to find out whether people eating more Vitamin C had more muscle mass than other people."

• "We studied a large sample of older Norfolk residents and found that people with the highest amounts of vitamin C in their diet or blood had the greatest estimated skeletal muscle mass, compared to those with the lowest amounts.

• "We are very excited by our findings as they suggest that dietary vitamin C is important for muscle health in older men and women and may be useful for preventing age-related muscle loss.

• "This is particularly significant as Vitamin C is readily available in fruits and vegetables, or supplements, so improving intake of this vitamin is relatively straightforward.

• "We found that nearly 60 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women participants were not consuming as much Vitamin C as they should, according to the European Food Safety Agency recommendations.

• "We're not talking about people needing mega-doses. Eating a citrus fruit, such as an orange, each day and having a vegetable side to a meal will be sufficient for most people."

Sardines and Diabetes

A May 2021 study the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's (UOC) Faculty of Health Sciences and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) said,

"Not only are sardines reasonably priced and easy to find, but they are safe and help to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. This is a huge scientific discovery. It is easy to recommend this food during medical check-ups, and it is widely accepted by the population”

"As we get older, restrictive diets (in terms of calories or food groups) can help to prevent the onset of diabetes. However, the cost-benefit ratio is not always positive, as we found in other studies" 

"However, the results lead us to believe that we could obtain an equally significant preventive effect in the younger population."

"Nutrients can play an essential role in the prevention and treatment of many different pathologies, but their effect is usually caused by the synergy that exists between them and the food that they are contained in. Sardines will therefore have a protective element because they are rich in the aforementioned nutrients, whereas nutrients taken in isolation in the form of supplements won't work to the same extent”

Testosterone and Inflammatory Foods

An April 2021 study found that,

“… a pro-inflammatory diet can contribute to testosterone deficiency, among other potentially debilitating health issues," 

"Our results suggest men who eat a pro-inflammatory diet [a refined diet** that scores high on the dietary inflammatory index (DII)], particularly those who are obese, are more likely to have testosterone deficiency," 

**A refined diet includes foods that contain refined carbohydrates and sugar as well as polyunsaturated fats.

The study also said,

"Since men with obesity likely already experience chronic inflammation, physicians should be aware of contributing factors, like diet, that could likely worsen this inflammation and contribute to the risk of other health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.”

A more anti-inflammatory diet "could be a feasible method to reduce the accumulated inflammatory burden, [potentially] leading to an increased testosterone level.”

The excellence of oats

• Filling

• Nutritious

• Cleansing

• Medicinal

• A great alternative to wheat

• A great vehicle for getting other things into your digestion system

Bone Broth

What an excellent thing bone broth is.

Get a large bag of bones from your local butcher. Boil them in water for 24 hours. Throw away the bones. Store the remaining liquid - the broth - and add it to your cooking.

Seed Oils

Polyunsaturated Fats

Any Refined

Any Bleached

Any Deodorized

• Soy oil

• Sesame oil

• Sunflower oil

• Safflower oil

• Canola oil

• Rapeseed oil

• Corn oil

• Cottonseed oil

• Hydrogenated oil

• Refined Palm oil

• Grapeseed oil

• Ricebran oil

Trans Fats

• label says “hydrogentated”

• Fake whipped cream

• Fake butter spreads

• Store-bought pastries

• Chicken nuggets

• Margarine

• Shortening

• Restaurant fried foods

• Most chips

• Most crackers

• Most protein bars

• Most salad dressings

• Most mayonaisse

• Most granola

• Most cereal

ReFined Fats

• Refined peanut oil

• Refined avocado oil

• Refined coconut oil

Caution with heat

• Walnut oil

• Flax oil

• Sesame

• Walnuts

• Seeds

• Fatty fish

• Artisanal grapeseed

Source

Deep Nutrition Dr Catherine Shanahan

Fish Consumption and Heart Disease

A March 2021 study by McMaster University found that, “There is a significant protective benefit of fish consumption in people with cardiovascular disease,"

"This study has important implications for guidelines on fish intake globally. It indicates that increasing fish consumption and particularly oily fish in vascular patients may produce a modest cardiovascular benefit."

Cheese

Suyuti in his “Prophetic Medicine” said,

“Fresh cheese is cold & damp; dried cheese is hot & dry. Its excellence is moderate. Damp cheese is a very fattening food, but salted cheese makes one thin although it increases the sexual urge." 

Weight Loss and Diabetes Risk

It appears that just a few kilograms in weight loss can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes.

A November 2020 study by the University of East Anglia said, "We have now shown a significant effect in Type 2 diabetes prevention, and we can be very optimistic that even a modest weight loss, and an increase in physical activity, in real world programmes like this have a big effect on the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes.”

"This is really great news for the eight million people in the UK with a prediabetes diagnosis. The results of this trial, show that diabetes prevention is possible in the same prediabetes populations being treated in the NHS national diabetes prevention programme.”

"This is important to know, as the clinical methods for diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes have changed a lot in recent years."

Some avocado daily for gut health

A January 2021 study by the University of Illinois said, "We know eating avocados helps you feel full and reduces blood cholesterol concentration, but we did not know how it influences the gut microbes, and the metabolites the microbes produce.”

The study found that, “people who ate avocado every day as part of a meal had a greater abundance of gut microbes that break down fiber and produce metabolites that support gut health. They also had greater microbial diversity compared to people who did not receive the avocado meals in the study.”

Vitamin D - Autism Spectrum Disorder link

A December 2020 study by the University of Queensland finds that there may be a link between vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder in boys.

The researchers found “…vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy caused an increase in testosterone in the developing brain of male rats … The biological cause of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is unknown but we have shown that one of the many risk factors--low vitamin D in mothers--causes an increase in testosterone in the brain of the male foetuses, as well as the maternal blood and amniotic fluid…In addition to its role in calcium absorption, vitamin D is crucial to many developmental processes…Our research also showed that in vitamin D-deficient male foetuses, an enzyme which breaks down testosterone was silenced and could be contributing to the presence of high testosterone levels.”

Walnuts for Longevity

A February 2020 study funded by the California Walnut Commission found that eating two portions of walnuts a week had positive health and longevity benefits for mature women.

Dietary cholesterol or egg consumption and the risk of stroke

A May 2019 study by the University of Eastern Finland found that dietary cholesterol that is moderately high or one egg a day does not increase the risk of a stroke.

1 egg = 200 mg cholesterol.

Restricted Diets and Longevity

A February 2020 study by the University of Sheffield said,

• “Dietary restriction [defined as “a reduction of particular or total nutrient intake without causing malnutrition”] is an unusual paradox which has attracted a great deal of interest within the field of ageing. Our results have now pointed us towards a more refined explanation of why it occurs, and have the potential to wholly shift the focus of future research.”

• "Our most surprising finding was that under certain circumstances, restricted diets can also be the origin of particular types of damage to the individual. This enhanced understanding of the penalties and benefits of certain types of diets, will expedite the quest to identify pharmaceutical interventions which mimic dietary restriction."

• "The effects of diet on health are huge, but we understand little of the exact mechanisms. Our work has now uncovered a surprising property of dietary restriction, in that it makes flies ill-prepared for rich diets. This was contrary to our expectations and contrary to current evolutionary theory. In the biology of ageing field evolutionary biology has been highly influential in guiding interpretation of more mechanistic research. Our work thereby contributes to the broader understanding of dietary restriction and the efforts to translate its benefits to humans."

Tart Cherry Juice and Endurance Training

A February 2020 study by the University of Saskatchewan said, "The recovery benefits of tart cherry concentrate are well researched, yet evidence on performance enhancement is scarce and results have been mixed …The results of this meta-analysis found that tart cherries did help improve performance, and we gained greater insight into the potential mechanism responsible for this benefit."