It is always interesting to keep up with news about food and how it can support your health.
Initially, let’s look at vegetarian and vegan diets. Scientists believe they have finally worked out why these diets are so much better for our hearts. Red meat is rich in the amino-acid derivative carnitine, which triggers the process that leads to hardening and clogging of the arteries.
Meat eaters raise their risk of atherosclerosis even further if they also regularly have energy drinks because they contain carnitine too. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic made the discovery when they examined the records of 2,595 people who had taken heart tests.
Vegetarians and vegans had far lower levels of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), which is a bacteria living in our gut having been metabolised by carnitine. These levels remained low even after they consumed high levels of carnitine, suggesting that the problem is caused by a long-term diet of meat eating (Nat. Med., 2013).
Beetroot is such a versatile vegetable. However, it may not be the most delicious when it comes to drinking its juice.
A glass of beetroot juice a day can lower your blood pressure. People with high blood pressure, who drink eight ounces of beetroot juice per day, will observe it falling by around 10 mmHg, says a team of researchers led by Amrita Ahluwalia at the William Harvey Research Institute in London.
If beetroot is totally unpalatable, you could try dark, leafy vegetables; a bowl of lettuce could have the same effect on blood pressure. All these food items are rich in nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels, allowing the circulation flow more freely (Hypertension, 2013).
I am sure you know someone who suffers from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is one of the most common causes of sight loss and blindness as we grow old. It can, however, be prevented with antioxidant and zinc supplements.
These supplements can slow the progress of the disease or even prevent AMD altogether. This has been confirmed by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the US. However, they cannot reverse the disease or cure it once it has taken hold.
AMD is associated with a high-fat diet, according to the lead researcher, although it has not been absolutely established that diet is the true cause of the disease. However, there is no doubt that a healthy diet will help prevent it.
Leo Semes of the University of Alabama has worked with the American Optometric Association to produce an AMD-prevention diet. On the list are fruit, vegetables, fleshy fish such as tuna and salmon, red meats and wholegrains and vegetable oil as having the essential nutrients that keep our eyes healthy (Optometry Times, 2010).
Olive oil is one of the successful ingredients of the Mediterranean diet. Even more good news comes from researchers who say that adding olive oil to a meal, or having it as a side dish, gives the body a sense of feeling full. Apparently, you can even get the same effects just by sniffing oil, because it is the aroma that is the key to the full feeling.
Red meat is rich in the amino-acid carnitine, which triggers the process that leads to hardening and clogging of the arteries
Researchers at the Technical University of Munich tested the oil against lard, butterfat and rapeseed oil by adding each one to 500g of low-fat yogurt. Study participants ate one of the four offerings every day for three months. The olive oil group always reported feeling full, with no one in the group increasing weight or body fat during the trial.
The researchers then tried a different approach: one group ate the yogurt with olive oil extract added, while the rest ate plain yoghurt. At the end of the second trial, the olive oil group continued to eat roughly the same calories, but the others had increased their daily calorie intake by 176 kcals a day.
A diet high in fat from dairy products encourages the development of breast cancer. Women who continue to eat dairy products after they are diagnosed with cancer are 64 per cent more likely to die than women who cut these foods out of their diets.
One serving or more per day of a high-fat product, such as cheese, cream, whole milk and yoghurt, has a significant impact on breast cancer survival, say researchers from the Kaiser Permanente research division in Oakland, California.
Women who continue eating dairy products are 49 per cent more likely to die from cancer and 64 per cent more likely to die from any other cause, within 12 years.
The researchers had tracked the health of 1,893 women for up to 12 years after they had been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer (J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 2013).
Finally, and briefly, how do you mix your beverages? Research has come up with some interesting conclusions.
Drink one cup of coffee and two cups of green tea every day and you will reduce your risk of stroke by a third.
Drinking both tea and coffee each day has the most protective effect compared with drinking either one on its own, researchers from Japan’s Public Health Centre have discovered.
kathryn@maltanet.net