Western Style Diet Makes You Die Young: Study : Health & Medicine : Science World Report

 

Adhering to a western style diet lowers a person’s chances of achieving older ages in good health and with higher functionality. (Photo : Reuters)

Adhering to a western style diet lowers a person's chances of achieving older age in good health and with higher functionality, according to a news release.

The latest study, published in The American Journal of Medicine, states that a western style diet, which includes fried and sweet food, processed and red meat, high fat dairy products and refined grains leads to a greater risk of premature death.

"The impact of diet on specific age-related diseases has been studied extensively, but few investigations have adopted a more holistic approach to determine the association of diet with overall health at older ages," says lead investigator Tasnime Akbaraly, PhD, Inserm, Montpellier, France. "We examined whether diet, assessed in midlife, using dietary patterns and adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), is associated with aging phenotypes, identified after a mean 16-year follow-up."

For the study, researchers examined the findings from the British Whitehall II cohort study. The study states that AHEI increases the odds of reversing metabolic syndrome. This syndrome can trigger heart diseases, and in worst cases, even compromise a person's mortality.  Hence the researchers looked for dietary factors that lower the risk of premature death and also improve ideal aging.

They worked on data that included 3,775 men and 1,575 women having a mean age of 51 years. The study was conducted from 1985-2009. Screenings were conducted every five years and with this the researchers identified the mortality and chronic disease among participants.

Based on the data, it was seen that nearly 7.3 percent of the participants had non-cardiovascular death, 2.8 percent had cardiovascular death, 12.7 percent was nonfatal cardiovascular event, 73.2 percent was normal aging, and ideal aging was 4 percent.

Those with low adherence to AHEI had an increased risk of cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular death. Consuming a western style diet lowered the chances of ideal aging.

Western Style Diet Makes You Die Young: Study : Health & Medicine : Science World Report

Indian bitter melon aka 'karela' may hold cure for cancer

 

An Indian origin scientist has received a 39,42-dollar grant from the Lottie Caroline Hardy Charitable Trust to continue her research on treating cancer with an extract from bitter melon, a vegetable common in India and known as 'karela' in Hindi.

Ratna Ray, Ph.D., professor of pathology at Saint Louis University, is studying the effect of the extract from the vegetable, which is often used in Indian and Chinese cooking, on head and neck cancer cells.

“The goal of our study is to see if a complementary alternative medicine treatment based upon bitter melon can stop the spread of head and neck cancer,” she said.

Ray studies using bitter melon extract to prevent or treat cancer by thwarting the spread of cancer cells. In a controlled lab setting, she previously found that bitter melon extract activated a pathway that triggered the death of breast cancer cells, stopping them from growing and spreading. The effectiveness of using bitter melon extract to treat breast cancer in people has not been tested.

Then, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, she expanded her research on bitter melon extract to include prostate cancer prevention.

With that research underway, Ray discussed her bitter melon research with Dr. Mark Varvares, a SLUCare head and neck cancer specialist and director of the Saint Louis University Cancer Center, who thought her findings could have implications for treating head and neck cancer and warranted more study.

“We have pretty good indications that bitter melon extract works in cancer cell lines to halt the growth. I think it might be effective to treat solid tumors, and our grant will help us to get pre-clinical data to show whether something that looks promising in fighting breast cancer could work in other cancers,” Ray said.

For her research, she will feed bitter melon extract to mice that have head and neck cancer to see if the substance sparks anti-tumor activity.

If bitter melon extract stops the growth of cancer cells in animals, the findings could lay the groundwork for studying the treatment in a phase I clinical trial of human patients who have head and neck cancer, Ray said.

Head and neck cancers, which account for 6 percent of all cancer cases, start in the mouth, nose, sinuses, voicebox and throat. They frequently are aggressive, and often spread from one part of the head or neck to another.

Indian bitter melon aka 'karela' may hold cure for cancer - Health - DNA

Eating protein-rich breakfast reduces unhealthy snacking in the evening

 

Eating a breakfast rich in protein significantly improves appetite control and reduces unhealthy snacking on high-fat or high-sugar foods in the evening, according to an expert.

This could help improve the diets of more than 25 million overweight or obese young adults in the US.

Heather Leidy, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, is the first to examine the impact of breakfast consumption on daily appetite and evening snacking in young people who habitually skip breakfast.

In her study, 20 overweight or obese adolescent females ages 18-20 either skipped breakfast, consumed a high-protein breakfast consisting of eggs and lean beef, or ate a normal-protein breakfast of ready-to-eat cereal.

Every breakfast consisted of 350 calories and was matched for dietary fat, fiber, sugar and energy density.

The high-protein breakfast contained 35 grams of protein.

Participants completed questionnaires and provided blood samples throughout the day.

Prior to dinner, a brain scan using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed to track brain signals that control food motivation and reward-driven eating behaviour.

The consumption of the high-protein breakfast led to increased fullness or “satiety” along with reductions in brain activity that is responsible for controlling food cravings.

The high-protein breakfast also reduced evening snacking on high-fat and high-sugar foods compared to when breakfast was skipped or when a normal protein, ready-to-eat cereal breakfast was consumed, Leidy said.

“Eating a protein-rich breakfast impacts the drive to eat later in the day, when people are more likely to consume high-fat or high-sugar snacks,” Leidy said.

“These data suggest that eating a protein-rich breakfast is one potential strategy to prevent overeating and improve diet quality by replacing unhealthy snacks with high quality breakfast foods,” she added.

Eating protein-rich breakfast reduces unhealthy snacking in the evening - Health - DNA

Benefits of Soya Lecithin

 

Health benefits of soy lecithin include natural weight loss, natural removal of fatty deposits from our body, facilitation of digestion by stimulating bowel function, natural protection of liver, naturally reduced cholesterol levels, improved mental performance, natural prevention of neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. Soya lecithin is also beneficial for slimming and facilitating blood circulation in our body. Soya lecithin also prevents the formation of gallstones. These many benefits of soy lecithin have encouraged weight loss experts to use soy lecithin in slimming and weight loss diets because of its most important function of removal of fat stored inside our body. Moreover, it helps in weight loss in fast way because it helps in regulation of digestive system and speeding up the process of intestinal absorption of nutrients, essential vitamins, and minerals. Soy lecithin protects our liver, decreases bad cholesterol, facilitates blood circulation, and improves memory capacity and mental performance and therefore has become a popular dietary supplement. Soya lecithin has been recognized to have many benefits by natural and alternative medicine doctors because of its medical use and properties, especially its use in regulation of rate of blood cholesterol and reducing the risk of its accumulation on walls of arteries.

Benefits of soy lecithin

Soy lecithin is an all-natural complex of phospholipids that is made up from oil extracted from the soybeans. Soya lecithin’s historical origin is in the East but has now become really popular in European and American countries due to its many health benefits. Lecithin is not a vitamin but contains components that can be attributed to affect a kind of vitamin. These elements are essential fatty acids.

These essential fatty acids of lecithin facilitate the transport of cholesterol. Also phosphatidylcholine contained in soya lecithin decreases the intestinal absorption of fats and stimulates the body's ability to remove the fat at a rapid rate. Other important benefit of phosphatidylcholine is that it enhances liver health and function.

Soy lecithin has a selective action on the lipoproteins that carry cholesterol in the blood, it reduces high levels of lipoproteins LDL while raising the level of HDL lipoproteins favoring the removal of excess cellular cholesterol.

Besides this basic function, there are many other noteworthy benefits of soy lecithin. It also helps in digestion and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins namely vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, and lipids. Soya lecithin enhances the health and beauty of skin maintaining its elasticity and keeping it hydrated.

Soy Lecithin also helps keep a smooth transmission of nerve impulses and therefore it becomes a valuable restorative for our nervous system and this is the reason how soya lecithin helps in improving memory and mental performance. Moreover, phosphatidylcholine contained in soy lecithin is important for the formation and maintenance of brain neurotransmitters between neurons, as it exerts a major action on each stage of memory development and mental activity and performance.

Lecithin phospholipids protect the liver cell membranes, therefore, preventing accumulation of fatty deposits in the liver. It also helps the liver in prevention of abuse-related disorders like alcohol, snuff, and drugs harmful for the liver.

Highly bioavailable minerals present in soy lecithin namely iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium, and some trace amounts of zinc, selenium, copper, and strontium are recommended for use in food for prevention of cerebral vascular accident and reduction of risk of thrombus formation.

It is interesting to note that vitamin E contained in soybean lecithin creates antioxidant properties, which protects our body from both free radical formation and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Soy lecithin is beneficial in tissue renewal and regeneration of cells.

Least but not last, soy based products like soy ice cream, soy sandwiches, soy milk, soy sauce, and other low fat soy foods are not harmful but have extraordinary benefits. Soy lecithin is an important element in the formation of a balanced diet rich in nutrition.

Why it is hard to lose the extra weight?

 

Why it is hard to lose the extra weight?

A study has found that a chemical called the Neuropeptide (NPY), known to stimulate appetite, plays an important role in controlling whether the body burns or conserves energy. Researchers at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research have showed that when the body takes in less energy or is on a diet, high levels of NPY signal to the body that it’s in starvation mode. Then, human body stores as much energy as possible. In this way, this study explains why fad diets simply do not work. Besides, people often underestimate that weight loss needs a long period of time to obtain results. However, this discovers could lead to develop treatments which can control this neuronal connection and so help to lose extra weight.

Why it is hard to lose the extra weight? - West

SOYA ISOFLAVONES

 

SOYA ISOFLAVONES

Isoflavones are naturally occuring non-steroidal compounds of plant origin,found primarily in soyabeans, generally classified as Phytoestrogens,meaning that their chemical structure are similar to estrogen. The main isoflavones in soy are Genistein, Daidzein, Glycitein and Genistin. Isoflavones are beneficial for reducing the risk of hormone related problems because they have a structure similar to that of (real) estrogen produced by the body.

1), A Non Nutrient Cancer Fighting Anti- oxidant,Protect against Cancers:

Isoflavones are similar in structure to estrogen, compete with estrogen for attachment to the receptors, reducing the amount of estrogen. This in turn reduces the risk of hormone related cancers,namely breast, ovarian, cervical, uterine, colon and prostate cancers.

2) Reduces Menopausal Symptoms: Menopausal symptoms brings plenty of discomfort with it , i.e. ranging from hot flashes, very dry skin & rashes, headaches, muscle aches, weight gain, mood swings, vaginal dryness and hair loss. Isoflavones reduces hot flashes by 50 % including night sweats and help maintain normal sleep without carrying any significant side effects including gastrointestinal discomfort or weight gain.

3) Help Prevent Osteoporosis: Osteoporosis is a silent disease that progresses without any symptom i.e. until irreversible pain, loss of height and bone fracture occur. Women are more likely to develope osteoporosis because of their relatively weaker bones and the hormonal changes that accompany menopause. Isoflavones promotes bone health by increasing bone density.

4) Lowers the Risk Of Heart Diseases: It has been found that constituents of soy isoflavones are associated with significant decrease in serum cholesterol,LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides and increases the HDL.

5) Promotes immunity enhancement.

Acts as an anti-coagulant- inhibits the action of thrombin.

Have an anti- angiogenic effects.

Have pro-estrogenic and Anti-estrogenic action.

6) Advantages Over Other Therapy / Drugs

ERT- a preventive aid of bone loss in post-menopausal women increases the risk of breast and uterine cancers and vascular thrombosis.

Isoflavones have no side effects as bisphosphonates have in treatment of osteoporosis.

Almonds, tomatoes, fish, chicken, soya beans - some foods over 40s must eat! | Health News |

 

When we are younger, our body’s levels of recovery are higher. However, as we grow older we are more prone to various lifestyle diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular ailments, hypertension, and cholesterol issues. The only way to keep these ailments at bay is to modify our lifestyle, particularly our eating habits. According to an article in the Daily Mail, some food items which can help ward of these ailments include oats, tomatoes, almonds, fish, chicken, etc.  

Research suggests eating even 3g of oats a day is enough to reduce cholesterol levels by five to ten per cent. This is because oats contain beta-glucans, a fibre that helps lower LDL levels.

Tomatoes are also a wonder-food for over 40 years as they are an excellent source of antioxidant lycopene.  They offer a degree of protection against the formation and spread of cancer cells as well as protecting arteries from atherosclerosis. Drinking tomato juice also protects against prostate, lung and stomach cancers and heart disease.

Another study found that eating 60 g of almonds a day lowered blood-sugar levels, which means that almonds too offer protection against cardiovascular disease and diabetes. And of course we can’t forget omega 3 fatty acids which are commonly found in fish, almonds and other plants. It is said that they can make you smarter, prevent heart disease, boost your memory, cut down the damages caused due to smoking and help repair never cells and a lot more. 

Another food item which is good is soya beans which contain isoflavones that lower cholesterol, increase bone density and improve male fertility.

Cherries are useful in combating several conditions common in middle age, including gout and arthritis. They are a rich source of the antioxidant anthocyanin.

Full-fat milk can help combat the reduction in muscle mass associated with getting older, especially after the age of 50, experts say. A 2006 study found that drinking full-fat milk after exercise helped ensure that muscle mass was enhanced.

And lastly chicken, which is a great source of protein that can help combat common cold. Highlighting the benefits of chicken, a study in 2012 found that a moderate increase in protein resulted in maintenance of weight loss compared to low protein, high carbohydrate diets.

Almonds, tomatoes, fish, chicken, soya beans - some foods over 40s must eat! | Health News | Health Research | Diet & Weight Loss Tips| Health Products | Medicines & Drugs | Health.India.com