With its straightforward focus on a variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins, the Mediterranean diet helps lower inflammation that can drive diabetes and improves insulin sensitivity, making it a simple and effective choice for diabetes prevention.

Now, scientists have taken it a step further and discovered three simple tweaks, practiced along with the diet, can actually slash the risk of diabetes by a whopping 31%.

But first…

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How the Mediterranean promotes healthy blood sugar

Prediabetes is a stage people experience before they’re diagnosed with Type 2. During prediabetes, blood sugar can begin spiking, and inflammation can creep in.

Here’s why the Mediterranean diet can help:

Nutritional profile

On the Mediterranean diet, you’ll eat plenty of high-fiber veggies, legumes, whole grains, and nuts. Together, these foods work to slow your body’s glucose absorption and reduce post-meal blood sugar spikes.

Additionally, the low-glycemic carbs that are a hallmark of the Mediterranean diet, along with healthy fats from fatty fish, help balance blood sugar levels.

Polyphenols baby!

Traditional Mediterranean diet foods are vibrant in color, indicating their high polyphenol content. These polyphenols deliver antioxidant and anti-inflammatory powers to reduce the oxidative stress and inflammation that fuel insulin resistance.

Eating polyphenol-rich foods also populates your gut with bacteria that improve insulin sensitivity.

Some of the spices commonly found in the diet have been shown to decrease fasting glucose, improve A1C and reduce insulin resistance.

Appetite control

Thanks to its healthy fats and high fiber content, the Mediterranean diet is also naturally satisfying.

This means that you feel full for longer and are less likely to reach for high-sugar foods as snacks.

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3 ways to get more from the Mediterranean Diet

Scientists from 23 universities in Spain and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health followed almost 5,000 participants from Europe’s largest nutrition trial ever, the PREDIMED-Plus study, for six years.

The researchers divided participants into an intervention group and a control group. Both groups followed the Mediterranean diet, but the intervention group added three “tweaks” to their routine, including:

1. Reducing their caloric intake by about 600 calories per day
2. Engaging in moderate physical activity, such as brisk walking and strength and balance exercises
3. And receiving professional support for weight loss control.

And it paid off…

Not only did they lower their risk of diabetes by 31%, but they lost an average of 7.28 pounds and reduced their waist circumference by 1.4 inches — compared to just 1.3 pounds and 0.1 inches in the control group.

“We’re facing a global epidemic of diabetes,” said co-author Frank Hu, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Nutrition. “With the highest-level evidence, our study shows that modest, sustained changes in diet and lifestyle could prevent millions of cases of this disease worldwide.”

So if you’re ready to slash your own diabetes risk to the bone, put the Mediterranean diet, plus these three simple tweaks, to work.

Sources:

Mediterranean diet & diabetes: Blood-sugar control backed by science — Mayo Clinic

Scientists found 3 simple tweaks that cut diabetes risk by 31% — ScienceDaily

The post 3 ‘add-ons’ that slash diabetes risk 31% appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to the American Heart Association, American adults consume an average of 77 grams of added sugar a day. That’s about 18 and a half teaspoons!

And all that sugar does our health no favors. One study found that sugar contributes to no less than 45 serious health conditions.

It’s no wonder many of us turn to sugar substitutes, like a very popular class of low-calorie sweeteners known as sugar alcohols.

Erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and mannitol, are found naturally in small quantities in fruits and vegetables. Small amounts are even produced in the human body. So that would make them seem like a safe natural choice, right?

Unfortunately, they’re not without concern: You may remember reading here about erythritol’s link to sticky blood that clots more easily.

Now it turns out, erythritol isn’t the only sugar alcohol harboring that potential danger….

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Xylitol could encourage blood clots

The same research team that made the association between erythritol stroke risk has found a similar link with xylitol.

A lot of heart attacks and strokes happen that defy explanation in people without the typical known risk factors like diabetes — like high blood pressure or elevated cholesterol levels. And that’s what first prompted these researchers to look into sugar alcohols…

First, they decided to monitor the level of naturally occurring xylitol in the blood of more than 3,000 participants after overnight fasting.

Those whose xylitol levels put them in the top 25 percent of the study group had roughly double the risk for heart attack, stroke or death over the next three years compared with participants in the bottom 25 percent.

To understand the mechanism behind xylitol’s impact on cardiovascular risks, the researchers also:

• fed xylitol to mice;
• added it to blood and plasma samples in a lab;
• and gave a drink containing xylitol to 10 healthy volunteers.

In all three cases, xylitol appeared to activate platelets in the blood, which encourages blood clotting. Blood clots are the leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

Next, they intend to pursue research that will answer why naturally occurring xylitol is elevated in some people — and most importantly, how to lower it. In the meantime, they have a warning for us…

“We’re throwing this stuff into our food pyramid, and the very people who are most likely to be consuming it are the ones who are most likely to be at risk,” reported lead author Dr. Stanely Hazen, chair of cardiovascular and metabolic sciences at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, in an interview with NBC News.

The participants who had their xylitol levels measured were at high risk for or had documented heart disease, so if that sounds like you, by all means, you want to avoid sugar alcohol.

“All it takes is xylitol to interact with platelets alone for a very brief period of time, a matter of minutes, and the platelet becomes supercharged and much more prone to clot,” Hazen added.

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Use natural sweeteners instead

Because the study was observational, the researchers can’t state that xylitol was unequivocally the cause of heart attack or stroke. But there’s no denying there appears to be a link — so cutting down on sweeteners like xylitol and erythritol is the best thing to do.

When used as a sweetener, it’s in much higher concentrations than found in nature. For example, the amount of erythritol used in foods was 1,000-fold higher than what you’d find in nature.

Hazen is telling his patients to avoid consuming xylitol and other sugar alcohols. Instead, he recommends sweetening foods with small amounts of sugar, honey or fruit. Be very cautious of keto-friendly products that often use alcohol sweeteners.

He says it’s probably not dangerous to use toothpaste or gum, also commonly sweetened with sugar alcohols, since so little is ingested in these cases. Still, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry and avoid sugar alcohols — in any product — altogether.

You may wonder if using other artificial sweeteners instead of sugar alcohols is safe. Judging by the research, we would also recommend avoiding those. There are simply too many potential health issues involved to take the risk.

If you are a fan of stevia, a plant-based sweetener that is not a sugar alcohol, be sure to look at the ingredient list to be sure you are getting pure stevia. Some brands mix erythritol with it.

Sources:

Common sugar substitute linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke — NBC News

Xylitol is prothrombotic and associated with cardiovascular risk — European Heart Journal

The post The growing blood clot concern over low-calorie sweeteners appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You probably guessed that one of them has to do with diet. And you would be right…

Several studies have shown that restricting your calorie intake can slow the pace of aging in both animals and humans. One in particular, the CALERIE study conducted in early 2023, showed that reducing calories by about 12 percent slowed the pace of aging by 2 to 3 percent. This translates to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in mortality risk — about the same as the impact of quitting smoking!

These results have prompted investigators to continue to study the effects of calorie restriction, hoping to get to the bottom of exactly how it works in the body to slow aging. Along the way, they’ve discovered how calorie restriction works on the genetic level…

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The gene that delays aging

Researchers have previously shown mechanisms that improve health and lifespan through dietary restriction. However, there is so much variability in response to reduced calories across individuals and different tissues that they wanted to understand why different people respond to diets in different ways.

International researchers started by scanning about 200 strains of fruit flies with different genetic backgrounds. The flies were raised on two diets: one normal diet and one in which they were given 10 percent of normal nutrition.

The team identified five genes with specific variants significantly affecting longevity when put under calorie restriction. Of those five, two had counterparts in human genetics.

There was one gene in particular the researchers chose to explore more thoroughly. It was known as “mustard” (mtd) in fruit flies and “Oxidation Resistance 1” (OXR1) in humans and mice. This gene protects cells from oxidative damage.

In humans, losing OXR1 results in severe neurological defects and premature death. By contrast, extra OXR1 improves survival in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

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OXR1 could be linked to neurodegenerative disease

The researchers found that OXR1 affects a complex called the retromer, a set of proteins necessary for recycling cellular proteins and lipids.

“The retromer is an important mechanism in neurons because it determines the fate of all proteins that are brought into the cell,” says Dr. Kenneth Wilson, a postdoc at Buck Institute for Research on Aging and first author of the study. Retromer dysfunction has been associated with age-related neurodegenerative diseases, specifically Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, both of which are protected by calorie restriction.

Calorie restriction slows brain aging through mtd/OXR1’s maintenance of the retromer. The study found that mtd/OXR1 preserves retromer function and is necessary for neuronal function, healthy brain aging and the lifespan extension seen with calorie restriction.

“Diet is influencing this gene,” Wilson says. “By eating less, you are actually enhancing this mechanism of proteins being sorted properly in your cells, because your cells are enhancing the expression of OXR1.”

The team also discovered that boosting mtd in fruit flies caused them to live longer. This could mean that more OXR1 might help extend lifespan in humans.

“Our next step is to identify specific compounds that increase the levels of OXR1 during aging to delay brain aging,” says Buck professor Dr. Lisa Ellerby, co-senior author of the study.

Researchers hope this work will help identify potential therapeutic targets to slow aging and age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

If you want to give calorie restriction a try but are intimidated by the idea of intermittent fasting, Virginia Tims-Lawson has some ideas to help you cut your calories by 15 percent. Since I like to eat out a lot, my favorite trick is to ask my server to bring a to-go box with my meal. I then put half the meal inside the box to ensure I don’t overeat.

And if you’re someone who can’t calorie restrict because of health issues or your life situation, check out nicotinamide riboside. This supplement could provide some of the benefits of calorie restriction without the hassle or hunger.

Other ways to slow brain aging include eating a daily serving of green leafy vegetables and exercise.

Sources:

Scientists identify how dietary restriction slows brain aging and increases lifespan — Science Daily

OXR1 maintains the retromer to delay brain aging under dietary restriction — Nature Communications

The post Activating a gene that slows brain aging and increases lifespan appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In early 2023, a first-of-its-kind study proved Dr. Longo’s point, showing how calorie restriction can indeed slow the pace of aging, not just in mice, but in humans.

More recently, scientists are going back and taking a closer look at this breakthrough study to find out precisely how calorie restriction changes the body, and how these changes help us to age more slowly.

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The CALERIE study

In early 2023, researchers at Columbia University conducted the CALERIE study— which stands for Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy — the first-ever investigation into the effects of long-term calorie restriction in humans.

They chose 220 healthy and non-obese clinical trial participants who were randomly assigned to either a 25 percent calorie-restricted diet or a normal diet for two years.

They analyzed blood samples at the start of the trial, then again at 12 and 24 months, looking for chemical tags on each participant’s DNA sequence that are known to change with aging.

These measurements are sometimes referred to as epigenetic clocks. The researchers focused on three of these:

• PhenoAge and GrimAge are like the odometers of aging. They give a static measure of how much aging “mileage” a person has experienced.
• DunedinPACE is more like a “speedometer” that shows how fast the aging process is going.

Most participants were only able to restrict calories by about 12 percent, but the effect of this calorie restriction intervention on DunedinPACE represented a 2 to 3 percent slowing in the pace of aging.

This translates to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in mortality risk, which is similar to the impact of quitting smoking!

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Calorie restriction, genes, muscles and inflammation

So how exactly does calorie restriction change the body and slow the aging process?

To find out, scientists at the National Institute on Aging used thigh muscle biopsies from CALERIE participants that were collected when individuals joined the study and at one-year and two-year follow-ups.

Their analysis yielded two significant conclusions…

First, a lower caloric intake upregulated genes responsible for energy generation and metabolism, and downregulated inflammatory genes leading to lower inflammation.

In other words, restricting calories resulted in genetic changes leading to lower inflammation.

“Since inflammation and aging are strongly coupled, calorie restriction represents a powerful approach to preventing the pro-inflammatory state that is developed by many older people,” says the study’s corresponding author, Dr. Luigi Ferrucci.

And second, calorie restriction strengthened muscles.

Although CALERIE subjects lost muscle mass over the first year, they did not lose muscle strength.

Calorie restriction improved something called muscle specific force, the amount of force generated by each unit of muscle mass. With sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) being a huge factor in accelerating the aging process, this is good news indeed!

 Want to give it a try?

If you want to give calorie restriction a try but are feeling intimidated, it’s probably best to start slow. Pick one day a week and cut back your calorie intake just by 500 calories. If you can handle that two days a week, give it a go for a couple of weeks and decide if you want to try it for three days.

Or, give Dr. Valter Longo’s “longevity diet” a try. It mimics fasting but is not as strenuous.

Dr. Longo describes what eating for longevity could look like in real life: “Lots of legumes, whole grains, and vegetables; some fish; no red meat or processed meat and very low white meat; low sugar and refined grains; good levels of nuts and olive oil, and some dark chocolate.”

If you’re thinking it sounds a lot like the Mediterranean diet, you’re not wrong!

Sources:

Calorie restriction in humans builds strong muscle and stimulates healthy aging genes — Science Daily

Calorie restriction modulates the transcription of genes related to stress response and longevity in human muscle: The CALERIE study —  Aging Cell

Calorie Restriction Slows Pace of Aging in Healthy Adults —  Columbia University

New article outlines the characteristics of a “longevity diet” —  Eureka Alert

The post How calorie restriction changes your body to slow aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could stop this from happening? While we can’t halt the inevitable march of time, research has revealed a few ways to at least slow the aging process…

Exercise can definitely help, as can getting enough sleep, quitting smoking and managing your stress load. So can the right diet.

But by far the most convincing evidence for slowing aging has come from calorie restriction.

For years, studies involving fruit flies, worms and even mice have shown calorie restriction — with proper nutrition — seems to extend lifespan and delay the onset of age-related disorders by reducing what is called reactive oxygen species in the body.

And now, drum roll please, they’ve finally gone a done it…

An international team of researchers led by Columbia University conducted the CALERIE study — which stands for Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy — the first-ever investigation into the effects of long-term calorie restriction… in humans.

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Slowing the pace of human aging

They chose 220 healthy and non-obese clinical trial participants who were randomly assigned to a 25 percent calorie-restricted diet or a normal diet for two years.

To measure their biological aging, researchers analyzed the participants’ blood samples at the start of the trial, then again at 12 months and 24 months. Specifically, they looked at chemical tags on each participant’s DNA sequence that are known to change with aging, measurements that are sometimes referred to as “epigenetic clocks.”

The researchers focused on three such measurements. The first two are the PhenoAge and GrimAge epigenetic clocks, which estimate the chronological age at which a person’s biology would appear normal. The third, DunedinPACE, estimates the pace at which biological deterioration, or aging, occurs over time.

The researchers say to think of the first two measurements as “odometers” that give a static measure of how much “aging mileage” a person has experienced. The third measurement is more like a “speedometer” that shows how fast the aging process is going — and this is the measurement that related most to slowing aging.

In fact, the effect of the calorie restriction intervention on DunedinPACE represented a 2 to 3 percent slowing in the pace of aging. This translates to a 10 to 15 percent reduction in mortality risk, which is similar to the impact of quitting smoking.

“In contrast to the results for DunedinPace, there were no effects of intervention on other epigenetic clocks,” notes Dr. Calen Ryan, a research scientist at Columbia’s Butler Aging Center and co-lead author of the study. “The difference in results suggests that dynamic ‘pace of aging’ measures like DunedinPACE may be more sensitive to the effects of intervention than measures of static biological age.”

There is an ongoing follow-up of trial participants to determine if the calorie restriction intervention had long-term effects on healthy aging. In other studies, a slower DunedinPACE has been linked with a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, disability and dementia.

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Simplifying calorie restriction

Ryan cautions that calorie restriction may not be for everyone.

Most of the CALERIE participants couldn’t attain the full 25 percent restriction goal but still saw considerable weight loss, changes in body composition and age-associated physiological alterations.

“Our findings are important because they provide evidence from a randomized trial that slowing human aging may be possible,” he says. “They also give us a sense of the kinds of effects we might look for in trials of interventions that could appeal to more people, like intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating.”

But if you want to give calorie restriction a try but are feeling intimidated, it’s probably best to start slow. Pick one day a week and cut back your calorie intake just by 500 calories. If you can handle that two days a week, give it a go for a couple of weeks and decide if you want to try it for 3 days.

Then if you want to take your calorie-restricting efforts up a notch, try a fast-mimicking diet. This eating plan specifically reduces your calorie intake while proportioning your protein, fat and carbohydrate consumption in a very specific way that mimics the effects of a 5-day water fast.

Obviously, there’s nothing easy about slowing aging this way. You may also want to consider supplements that have been studied for their effects on aging processes…

•  Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), is an antioxidant naturally occurring in the body that’s important to mitochondrial function. According to research, CoQ10 can revive ailing mitochondria, restore lost function and slow the aging process. Since CoQ10 levels decline with age, taking a CoQ10 supplement can help.

• Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Brighton have delved into the aging process and found that the antioxidant resveratrol can make old cells act like younger cells.

• And lastly, another powerful antioxidant, astaxanthin gives the body’s aging processes quite a challenge, in part because of its powerful impacts on the body’s most vital systems and organs.

Sources:

Calorie Restriction Slows Pace of Aging in Healthy Adults — Columbia Mailman School of Public Health

Effect of Long-Term Caloric Restriction on DNA Methylation Measures of Biological Aging in Healthy Adults: CALERIE Trial Analysis — Nature Aging

Aging: What to expect — Mayo Clinic

The post ‘First of its kind’ study: Restricting calories slows pace of aging appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

She was home visiting a few weeks ago, so we got together with a few of our other girlfriends from our college days. And let me tell you, the difference in aging among us was dramatic.

While Gena not only looked great, she was as healthy as a 30-year-old… thin, energetic — and not on half the medications the rest of us were.

When everyone saw her again, they were determined to learn how she did it — how she stayed so fit, healthy, and yes — young.

Her answer?

“I take my vitamins, walk daily, drink plenty of water and don’t eat too much.”

Everyone just looked at her because it sounded too simple to be true. But, a new study is bearing out the truth in her words…

Anti-aging calorie restriction

The study known as CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of the Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy) was the first randomized controlled trial to test the metabolic effects of calorie restriction on people who were NOT overweight.

But bigger still, it was one of the first trials using human subjects that put the effects of calorie restriction on aging to the test. Previous studies have shown that calorie restriction resulted in longer life spans for monkeys. The bigger winners, rats and worms, saw longer lifespans and acted younger than their counterparts in prior tests.

So, in the CALERIE study, healthy men and women were asked to cut their caloric intake by 15 percent over 2 years, versus a control group who made no diet changes. And the results were impressive…

Even this slight reduction in calories slowed aging and metabolism and protected against age-related disease. To top it off, those in the calorie restriction group lost an average of almost 20 pounds, even though they didn’t follow any particular diet. And, guess what, the calorie restriction also led to improvements in mood and quality of life itself.

That’s a lot of benefits for losing just 15 percent of your calories!

But how does it work?

Cutting calories decreases systemic oxidative stress. You see, oxidative stress results from free radicals, the byproducts of cell metabolism. Like oxygen rusts steel or air browns sliced fruit, free-radical damage occurs in your body through the natural process of metabolizing the oxygen you breathe.

According to lead author Leanne M. Redman, associate professor of Clinical Sciences at Pennington Biomedical Research in Baton Rouge, LA, “Restricting calories can slow your basal metabolism, and if by-products of metabolism accelerate aging processes, calorie restriction sustained over several years may help to decrease risk for chronic disease and prolong life.”

We live in exciting times! And there’s more the come… the CALERIE researchers plan to next examine the effects of calorie restriction in conjunction with antioxidant foods or substances like resveratrol, which mimic calorie restriction.

Time to cut calories and follow Gena’s advice

Clearly, not eating too much, as Gena put it — and the research shown — is the first step. If you’re ready to give it a try, here are some ideas to help you cut your calories by 15 percent:

• Plan your meals ahead of time.
• When you eat out, ask your waiter to bring only half your meal to the table. The other half can be brought in a to-go box. And tell him to ditch the roll.
• If you snack several times a day, cut down and choose healthier snacks, like fruits and fresh vegetables.
• Skip the coffee house drive-thru and get your caffeine fix at home (less sugar and calories).
• Limit your food intake to an eight-hour window each day.

Besides cutting calories, my friend’s other advice for staying young and vibrant holds true as well…

Taking the right supplements can give you big gains in the anti-aging and longevity department, especially when you include ones like:

• Fish oil – The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil have been shown to reduce inflammation and make your skin appear more youthful.
• Antioxidants – Some foods, especially fruits, are high on the ORAC scale. That means they can elevate antioxidants and help prevent oxidative stress, thus lowering free radical cellular damage. If you don’t eat enough fruit, try a powdered drink mix.

And, finally be sure to drink enough pure, filtered water each day. It’s no secret that water is essential for hydrating all parts of your body, including your skin. Without it, your skin will look dull, lifeless and let’s just say it… old.

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