Desire for Junk Food is in Your Genes
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent all their waking hours scrounging for food and trying to keep from starving to death. They developed a taste for the most calorie-dense foods that satisfied best, such as honey, meats and starchy roots.
Phytochemicals
Phytochemicals are substances found in plants that have been identified by researchers as beneficial to
humans. We have identified only a few of the thousands of phytochemicals, and we do not fully
understand how they work. Here are a few that have been linked to prevention of specific diseases.
Phytochemicals That Help to Prevent Cancer:
peppers contain...
Mediterranean Diets are Safer than Keto Diets for Controlling Blood Sugar
A 36-week study from Stanford University compared the benefits of two diets -- a Mediterranean diet and a ketogenic diet -- for treating 33 individuals with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Both diets were based on eating lots of non-starchy foods that do not cause a high rise in blood sugar, and avoiding foods that cause a high rise in blood sugar such as sugar-added foods or drinks and foods made from flour (ground-up whole grains).
The Good Food Book
The Good Food Book now available on Amazon as a Kindle eBook for just $0.99. With 100+ of Diana's healthful recipes.
Keto Diet May Lead to Diabetes
A study in mice shows that a ketogenic diet, where you get most of your calories from fat, may cause diabetes. A keto diet may increase risk for developing diabetes by preventing your body from responding to insulin, presumably by causing fat to be deposited in the liver.
When Does Your Metabolism Slow Down?
Many people believe that they gradually gain weight from their 20s onward because their metabolism gets slower over the years, but now it appears that this is not true. The researchers found that metabolism (the rate at which a person burns calories) remains stable through adult mid-life, from ages 20 to 60. After age 60 it begins to slow down at a rate of slightly less than one percent per year.
Why Sugar-Sweetened Drinks are Harmful
About 65 percent of North American adults drink sugar-sweetened beverages every day (NCHS Data Brief, No 270, 2017). Two recent studies show how sugared drinks are associated with liver damage and kidney stones. A study of nearly 100,000 postmenopausal women followed for an average of more than 20 years found that compared to women who had fewer than three sugar-sweetened drinks per month, those who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had an 85 percent increased risk for liver cancer and 68 percent increased risk for death from chronic liver disease.
Fructose is the Worst Sugar
Fructose causes more damage than glucose because it is far more likely to deposit fat in your belly, which causes higher blood sugar levels and increases risk for diabetes, heart attacks and death. Glucose is processed by every cell in your body, but almost all fructose is processed only by your liver where most is converted to fatty triglycerides.
How Gut Bacteria Affect Weight
Since bacteria in your colon eat the same food that you do, what you eat determines which types of bacteria thrive in your colon. These bacteria are a prime driver of how high your blood sugar rises after meals and how many calories you absorb from the food you eat.
Why You Feel Sleepy After Eating
If you feel sleepy after eating, particularly after sweets or bakery products, you are normal. Eating sugary foods causes your brain to make large amounts of the neurotransmitter, serotonin, that makes people fall asleep naturally at night.
Diet Recommendations from the PURE Study
The PURE (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemio.logy) Study, reported at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich on August 28, 2018, concludes that increasing intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, fish, dairy and non-processed red meat is linked to reduced death rate and reduced incidence of heart attacks in three data sets. However, I hope that you do not use these results as a reason to increase your intake of meat.
New Data on Meat
Researchers followed 536,000 men and women, ages 50 to 71, for an average 16 years and found that those who ate the most meat from mammals and processed meat had a 26 percent greater risk of dying within the study period than those who ate the least.
Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Higher Blood Sugar Levels
Obese people who have taken aspartame or saccharin in the last 24 hours had higher blood sugar rises after taking sugar than those who had not used artificial sweeteners. Lead author Dr. Jennifer Kuk says, "Our study shows that individuals with obesity who consume artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame, may have worse glucose management than those who don't take sugar substitutes."
High Blood Levels of Vitamin B12 Usually Caused by Eating Meat
A study of 5571 adults found that people who have higher blood levels of vitamin B12 are more likely to die prematurely. Compared to those with lower B12 blood levels, people with higher B12 levels were likely to be fatter and have higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, and higher blood sugar.
Can Liners and Other Plastic Packaging May Not Be Safe
In April 2022, the Environmental Defense Fund sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) asking them to again consider removing BPA (bisphenol A) from can liners, plastic bottles and anything else that comes in contact with, and can leach into, foods and beverages. They quoted extensive research showing how harmful BPA may really be and stated that there is no longer a reasonable certainty of safety. BPA is a chemical that has been used to make certain plastics used for can liners and other packaging of foods and drinks since 1950, that can potentially harm you.
Animal Products Linked to Increased Heart Attack Risk
For more than 60 years we have heard that saturated fat and cholesterol may be the driving forces behind the high rate of heart attacks in North America. A new study shows strong statistical links between eating a lot of high-cholesterol animal products -- eggs, meat, poultry, and dairy -- and risk for heart attacks.
Diet Shown to Reduce Risk for Dementia
A study from Rush Medical School in Chicago shows that a special diet can reduce the risk for Alzheimer's disease by 53 percent in those who follow the diet rigorously, and by 35 percent in those who follow it and cheat some of the time.
Pesticides
Many people who want to follow a high-plant diet are concerned about pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 20,000 farmers and their families are poisoned by pesticides each year, but no studies have shown pesticide poisoning from routine consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Could the Obesity Epidemic Be Caused By an Immune Defect?
Mice that have a specific defect in their immune system all become obese (Science, Jul 26, 2019:365(6451)). These mice have defective T cells that are unable to recognize harmful invading germs and allow these germs to survive in their colons.
You have about 100 trillion bacteria in your colon that help to control your immune...
Snack On Nuts Fruits and Vegetables
Eating lots of nuts and fruits is associated with reduced risk for diabetes and heart attacks. Nuts are low in absorbable calories and provide many essential nutrients. People who snack regularly on nuts have fewer blood markers for diabetes and arteriosclerosis than the general population, intermittent fasting
Vitamin and Mineral Pills Cannot Protect You from an Unhealthful Diet
Nobody can correct a faulty diet just by taking pills. A review of 18 studies, following more than two million men and women for an average of 12 years, shows that vitamin and mineral pills do not reduce risk for dying from heart disease or strokes, or even getting a stroke, regardless of age.
No Amount of Overweight is Healthful
Researchers at Boston University and Harvard reviewed three studies following more than 225,000 adults over age 50, for eight to twenty years, and showed that being even slightly overweight can increase your risk of dying by six percent, and in those who are obese, by a whopping 73 percent (Annals of Internal Medicine, April...
High Salt Intake and Dehydration Can Hasten Aging
Staying hydrated may slow the aging process. NIH researchers followed 11,255 adults for 30 years and found that compared to those who didn't drink enough fluids, those who stayed well-hydrated aged more slowly, lived longer, and were far less likely to develop chronic diseases such as those of the heart, lungs and kidneys.
Nuts Associated with Reduced Risk for Diabetes and Weight Gain
Nuts are full of fat, but it appears that eating nuts does not increase risk for obesity or diabetes. Almost 1000 people who did not have diabetes or metabolic syndrome were followed for six years. Those who ate nuts at least twice a week were 32 percent less likely to develop metabolic syndrome than...
Artificial Sweeteners
Several papers have raised concerns about the long-term health effects of artificial sweeteners. In one study, researchers showed that a sweeter-tasting, lower-calorie drink caused people to eat more food, to have higher blood sugar levels and to be more likely to gain weight and become diabetic than a less-sweet, higher-calorie drink.
Get Your Calcium from Foods
A study from the Cleveland Clinic found that people with mild to moderate calcification of their aortic valves who took calcium pills were at double risk for dying from heart disease and three times more likely to need surgery to replace their heart valve than the participants who did not take calcium pills.
New Dietary Guidelines
the Dietary Guidelines issued in January 2016 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services recommend * restricting sugar, salt, saturated fat, and trans fats, and eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, and low-fat foods. The recommendation to eat lean meat has caused the most criticism by scientists.
Low Vitamin B12 May Increase Risk for Bleeding Strokes
A surprising study from the UK shows that vegetarians and pescatarians (those who eat fish but not meat) appear to be at increased risk for suffering bleeding strokes, even though they are at reduced risk for heart attacks and are not at increased risk for clotting strokes.
Blood-Type Diets Debunked
Many years ago I criticized a very popular but ridiculous book that said people should follow different diets depending on their blood types. Now, finally, a study of 1,455 mostly young and healthy adults shows that there is no relation whatever between blood type and diet-linked heart attack risk indicators such as...
Eating Meat Still Associated with Heart Disease
There is little debate in the scientific community whether eating mammal meat (beef, pork, lamb) regularly is associated with increased risk for heart disease. An analysis of several studies covering more than 1.4 million people, who were followed for 30 years or more, found that for each 1.75 ounces of beef, lamb or pork consumed, the risk of heart disease increased by nine percent.
