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
Good Fats in Nuts
Nuts are a rich source of fat, but the fat in nuts is absorbed very poorly (Am J Clin Nutr, Jan, 2015;101(1):25-33). For example, the fat in almonds is located inside the cells of the almond kernel. Even after prolonged chewing, most of the almond cells remained intact and the fat is still inside the cells. Humans lack the enzymes to break down these cell walls. You have to liberate fat from inside cells to absorb it into your body.
Chewing Raises Blood Sugar Response to Food
Chewing rice 30 times before swallowing it raised blood sugar much higher than chewing rice 15 times.
Major Alcohol Study Cancelled for Conflict of Interest
The National Institutes of Health cancelled and withdrew funds for a prospective study on how drinking alcohol affects heart attack risk because it was to be largely funded by the alcohol industry itself, and for "concerns about the study design that cast doubt on its ultimate credibility."
Another Reason Not to Take Calcium Pills
A well-planned study shows that taking calcium pills, both with and without vitamin D, is associated with increased risk for pre-malignant serrated colon polyps.
Gluten-Free Diets Can Harm
Two studies in prestigious medical journals show that gluten-free diets can cause nutritional deficiencies in all age groups (Clinical Nutrition, published online May 7, 2016) and interfere with growth and development in children.
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.
Food Industry Pushes Foods You Don’t Need
USDA’s Dietary Guidelines are updated every five years, and most of the changes will be based on the report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee that was released July 15, 2020.
Obesity Epidemic Now Worldwide
The rate of obesity worldwide has doubled in 73 countries since 1980. Today 30 percent of North Americans and 10 percent of the world's population are obese, an estimated 604 million obese adults and 108 million obese children. A recent article suggests that this world-wide increase in obesity is driven by the huge companies that make processed foods, sugared drinks and refined carbohydrates, and the extensive advertising they do for their products.
How Much Alcohol is Safe?
A review of 83 scientific studies covering almost 600,000 current alcohol drinkers in 19 higher-income countries shows that men and women who take in as few as six drinks a week (100 grams of alcohol) are at increased risk for death from strokes, heart failure, heart disease and aortic aneurysms, but not heart attacks.
What Makes a Healthful Recipe?
All of my healthful recipes fit into the Modified DASH Diet that Dr. Mirkin recommends for total health (to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, control weight and prevent or control diabetes):
Up to 8 servings of WHOLE grains (serving size is 1/2 cup)
At least 5 Vegetables
At least 5 Fruits
Up to 3 servings of fat free...
Cheese and Yogurt are OK, but Milk is a High Sugar Drink
Milk is a high-sugar drink. We know that D-galactose, a sugar found in milk, causes the same oxidative damage and chronic inflammation that is associated with diabetes, heart attacks, certain cancers and bone loss.
Plant-Based Diets Help to Prevent Dementia
A review of 14 studies with a total of 224,049 participants found that the MIND diet ("Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay") is associated with reduced dementia risk for middle-aged and older adults, and with reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease
Processed Foods Linked to Heart Attacks, Colon Cancer
Researchers followed 3,000 middle-aged people, average age 53, for 18 years and found out that the more ultra-processed foods they ate, the more likely they were to suffer a heart attack. Each daily serving of ultra-processed food increased heart attack risk by seven percent, and increased risk of death from a heart attack by nine percent.
Coca Cola Pays to Convince You that Sugared Drinks are Safe
Sugared drinks are associated with increased risk for obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, certain cancers and premature death (J Am Coll Cardiol, 2015;66(14):1615-1624). Yet Coca Cola has given more than 118 million dollars to prestigious health research institutions, athletic groups, disease foundations, cancer and diabetes organizations and university researchers over the last five years. These...
Artificial Sweeteners, Dementia and Strokes
People who take one diet soda a day are nearly three times more likely than non-diet soda drinkers to suffer a stroke or to become demented, according to a study published in Stroke (April 20, 2017). Both sugar drinkers and artificial-sweetener drinkers were at increased risk for having smaller brains and advanced brain aging.
Cutting Calories Can Lower Heart Attack Risk in Healthy-Weight People
Recently I reported a study showing that post-menopausal women who store fat primarily in their bellies are at increased risk for having heart attacks, even if they are not overweight (Eur Heart, June 30, 2019). Now another study shows that adults under age 50 who were not overweight and reduced their intake of food...
Eat Nuts, Live Longer
People who ate nuts five times a week had a significantly lower rate of heart disease than those who ate less or none. The rate of heart disease decreased by 10 percent for every serving per week of increased intake of nuts.
Eggs Do Not Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes
A recent news headline proclaimed, "An Egg a Day May Keep Heart Disease Away" (Time, May 21, 2018), based on a study of 512,891 adults in urban and rural areas of China. Those who ate one egg a day were reported to have an 18 percent reduced incidence of heart attacks and an incredible 26 percent reduction in bleeding strokes.
How Much Water Should You Drink Each Day?
Most people do not need to keep track of how much fluid they take in. The average person takes in 6-8 glasses of liquids each day without even thinking about it, just by following their own thirst sensations. They meet almost 80 percent of their needs for water by drinking anything liquid and get the remaining 20 percent from the food that they eat.
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.
Ignore Grain Brain and Wheat Belly: Eat WHOLE Grains
Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis and Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter are two best-selling books that tell you to avoid wheat and other grains. Dr Davis claims that wheat makes you fat and causes many diseases, and by eliminating wheat you will lose weight and prevent these diseases. Actually, he proposes a low-carbohydrate diet that may cause you to lose weight, but he does not have data to show that it helps you keep that weight off over time. He and Dr. Perlmutter both claim that avoiding wheat cures diseases, but they have no data to support these wild claims . . .
More Research on TMAO
A brilliant and very important breakthrough study shows that restricting mammal meat and eggs markedly lowers blood levels of TMAO. Mammal meat and eggs are rich sources of choline, carnitine and lecithin that are converted in your body to a chemical called TMAO that can damage arteries, which can cause plaques to form and later to break off to cause heart attacks and strokes.
Why We Use Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting does not mean complete avoidance of foods and drinks. Instead, you markedly reduce your intake of food during certain periods. The benefits of intermittent fasting can be seen as long as you significantly reduce your total caloric intake during those periods.
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.
Latest on Eggs
Researchers from Denmark performed a detailed survey of studies published between 2005 and 2015 on the associations between egg consumption, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.. They concluded that "up to seven eggs per week can safely be consumed, but in patients with established cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes, only with special emphasis on a prudent diet and proper medical treatment."
Vitamin B12: One Supplement You May Need
In the last year, I have seen two experienced cyclists who suffered recurrent numbness and tingling of their hands when they rode long distances. Both had low blood levels of vitamin B12 and one was cured by taking 1000 mcg per day of vitamin B12 pills, the other by eating fish.
WHOLE Grains are Better than Any Flour
When grains are processed into flour or cereals, the primary concern is loss of nutrients. This is explained in report #N178, Why Flour is Like Sugar. However, if you grind your own grains or use products that are made from the whole grain without discarding anything, you get all or most of the nutrients of the original grain. But grains that have been broken apart in any way will be digested more quickly. That's a big disadvantage for diabetics and dieters.
Ultra-Processed Foods Associated with Increased Risk for Some Cancers
A UK-based study followed the amounts of ultra-processed foods consumed by 200,000 middle-aged adults for 10 years (EClinicalMedicine, Jan 31, 2023 31;56:101840). The authors found that eating ultra-processed foods was associated with a higher risk of developing cancer, particularly ovarian cancer, breast cancer and brain cancers.
Vegan Diet Helps Obese People Lose Weight and Reduce Risk for Type II Diabetes
A vegan diet with no added fats caused 117 obese people, average age 54, to lose 13 pounds over 16 weeks (JAMA Netw Open, Nov 30, 2020;3(11):e2025454). They decreased their risk of becoming diabetic by increasing the rate that they burned calories by more than 14 percent, and reducing insulin resistance.
