Category: Research Studies

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Moderate Alcohol Consumption is Associated with Reduced Risk of Heart Disease and Death From All Causes

The participants were followed for an average of 4.7 years and the study found that there was a reduced risk of CVD events for individuals consuming alcohol of 51-100, 101-150, and >150 g/week, compared to never consuming alcohol, regardless of gender. Consumption of 51-100 g/week was also associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality. Lead author, Dr Neumann, says the findings need to be interpreted with caution, as study participants were all initially healthy without prior CVD or other severe diseases, and may have been more physically and socially active than the wider ageing population.

Monash University. “Study of 18000+ US and Australian older people reveals moderate drinking protective against heart disease, more than for tea totalers: Moderate drinking of alcohol associated with reduced risk of heart disease and death from all causes, landmark study of older people reveals.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211105103740.htm (accessed November 9, 2021).

I bet I’m not the only one calculating ounces to grams after reading the article.

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Keep a Journal/Food Diary

Journaling, it seems, is one of the most successful strategies for achieving long-term weight loss.[3-4] It increases a person’s awareness of what they’re eating and helps to unveil habits and patterns of eating. A Kaiser Permanente study with 1,700 participants found that those who kept food diaries six days a week lost twice as much as participants who didn’t journal.[5-6] Keeping a food journal also encourages us to take in fewer calories.[4-5]

Could Keeping a Food Journal Be the Missing Link to Finally Losing Weight? — https://nutritionstudies.org/could-keeping-a-food-journal-be-the-missing-link-to-finally-losing-weight/

I write in my journal nearly every day. I used to keep a food diary within my journal but somewhere along The Path I stopped.

I’ve gained some weight.

I have started to track my food intake again.

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Eat More Walnuts – the WAHA Study

“Regularly eating walnuts will lower your LDL cholesterol and improve the quality of LDL particles, rendering them less prone to enter the arterial wall and build up atherosclerosis, and this will occur without unwanted weight gain in spite of the high-fat — healthy vegetable fat, though — content of walnuts,” Emilio Ros, MD, PhD, senior author of the Walnuts and Healthy Aging (WAHA) study, said in an interview.

WAHA is a parallel-group, randomized, controlled trial that followed 636 patients over 2 years at centers in Loma Linda, Calif., and Barcelona. They were randomly assigned to either a walnut-free or walnut-supplemented diet, and every 2 months they were underwent nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and recorded their compliance, toleration, medication changes, and body weight.

Walnuts Lowered LDL Cholesterol in Healthy Seniors: WAHA Study – Medscape – Aug 30, 2021. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/957523?src=rss#vp_1

The study was funded by the California Walnut Commission.

But don’t let that stop you from eating walnuts.

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Scientists Find Missing Link Between High-fat diet, Microbiota and Heart Disease (that many of us already know about)

The collaborating research teams found that a high-fat diet causes inflammation and damages intestinal epithelial cells in animal models. The high-fat diet impairs the function of energy-generating mitochondria, Byndloss explained, causing the intestinal cells to produce more oxygen and nitrate.

These factors, in turn, stimulate the growth of harmful Enterobacteriaceae microbes, such as E. coli, and boost bacterial production of a metabolite called TMA (trimethylamine). The liver converts TMA to TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide), which has been implicated in promoting atherosclerosis and increasing the relative risk for all-cause mortality in patients.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Study reveals missing link between high-fat diet, microbiota and heart disease.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210812145052.htm (accessed August 14, 2021).

OK so maybe I’ve exaggerated a wee bit about most of us having knowledge about TMAO (trimethylamine-N-oxide). If the news about TMAO is new to you I suggest visiting Dr. Michael Greger’s website www.nutritionfacts.org and start here: https://nutritionfacts.org/2020/09/29/updating-our-microbiome-software-and-hardware/

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Eat More Sauerkraut

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00754-6

Over the 10-week randomised dietary intervention, the high-fibre diet increased levels of microbiome-encoded glycan-degrading carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes) without altering the intestinal flora, whereas the high-fermented-food diet incrementally increased microbiota diversity while decreasing inflammatory markers.

Here’s Why You Need To Eat Your Sauerkraut! Dr. Sharma’s Obesity Notes – https://www.drsharma.ca/heres-why-you-need-to-eat-your-sauerkraut

I like sauerkraut. I like pickles. I really like yogurt.

But please don’t come anywhere near me with that kim-chi stuff.

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Vegetarian Journal – 2021 Issue 2 – Scientific Update

One study focused on almost 9,000 breast cancer survivors and asked the women about their diet every four years after their diagnosis. Over the follow-up period, averaging 11.5 years, women who ate more fruits and vegetables and women who ate more vegetables had a lower risk of dying from any cause than did women with lower intakes of these foods. Women with the highest intakes of vegetables and fruits averaged 7.4 servings per day; those with the lowest intake averaged 2.2 servings per day.

Farvid MS, Holmes MD, Chen WY, et al. Postdiagnostic fruit and vegetable consumption and breast cancer survival: prospective analyses in the Nurses’ Health Studies. Cancer Res. 2020;80(22):5134-5143.

Total fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a reduced risk of frailty with those averaging seven or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily having a lower risk than those averaging fewer than three servings a day. Leafy green vegetables, yellow and orange vegetables, and apples and pears were specific fruits and vegetables associated with a lower risk.

Fung TT, Struijk EA, Rodriguez-Artalejo F, Willett WC, Lopez-Garcia E. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of frailty in women 60 years old or older. Am J Clin Nutr. 2020 [published online ahead of print].

The quotes above are just two of the studies profiled in the Vegetarian Journal’s most recent scientific update. Unfortunately the citations are not links to the original studies. Here is the link to the full Vegetarian Journal Scientific Update:

https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2021issue2/2021_issue2_scientific_update.php

Eat your vegetables!

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Turmeric and Curcumin

Turmeric is the whole herb and curcumin is the most abundant bioactive compound found in turmeric. Most studies use standardized extracts that contain mostly curcumin. Both are beneficial for health. 

Minimize Inflammaging & Maximize Your Healthspan with Turmeric — https://www.naturalgrocers.com/health-hotline-article/minimize-inflammaging-maximize-your-healthspan-turmeric?mc_cid=317e1f689f&mc_eid=7c3cb8595d

Here’s a nice little research article on Turmeric with nearly 30 references. It’s always a plus when someone else does the research for you. And it’s free.

I don’t take an abundance of supplements and will start taking a supplement only after I’ve done the research and am convinced of the benefits. I added Turmeric to my daily medications after my doctor suggested I research it for my arthritis. My medications are a low dose statin (10mg), baby aspirin, Vitamin D, Vitamin B-complex and a multivitamin.

And high quality Scotch.

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Eating Disorders – Not Just a Lack of Willpower

Researchers have found that eating disorder behaviors, such as binge-eating, alter the brain’s reward response process and food intake control circuitry, which can reinforce these behaviors. Understanding how eating disorder behaviors and neurobiology interact can shed light on why these disorders often become chronic and could aid in the future development of treatments. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Eating disorder behaviors alter reward response in the brain — https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/eating-disorder-behaviors-alter-reward-response-brain

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Association Between Fruit Intake and Diabetes Risk

A healthy diet including whole fruits, but not fruit juice, may play a role in mitigating T2DM risk.

Associations Between Fruit Intake and Risk of Diabetes in the AusDiab Cohort — The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, dgab335, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgab335

Link to the journal study above.

But if you want the highlights play the video that follows.

I had three servings of fruit today.

I also rescued a tiny turtle.

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SSBs and EO-CRC (Sugar-sweetened beverages and early-onset colorectal cancer)

What is already known on this subject?

Incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC, diagnosed under age 50 years) has been on the rise in many high-income countries over the past two decades.

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) can exert adverse metabolic repercussions throughout the life course, including childhood and adulthood obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Despite the highest level of SSB consumption being characterised among adolescents and young adults, the association between SSBs and EO-CRC has not been investigated.

What are the new findings?

Compared with <1 serving/week of SSB consumption, higher intake (ie, ≥2 servings/day) in adulthood was associated with a 2.2-fold higher risk of EO-CRC.

Each serving/day increment of SSB intake at age 13–18 years was associated with a 32% higher risk of EO-CRC.

Hur J, Otegbeye E, Joh H, et al
Sugar-sweetened beverage intake in adulthood and adolescence and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer among women
Gut Published Online First: 06 May 2021. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2020-323450

Watch your sugar intake! Don’t think too long about that colonoscopy your doctor recommended. If you have a family history of colorectal cancer don’t think about getting tested, do it. I lost a first cousin to metastatic colon cancer.

Bob was just 49.

Yes I am aware correlation is not causation.

But life is short and science takes too long.

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