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®.

But there is no question that our bodies are left different. Weight gain is easier. Wrinkles appear out of nowhere. Bones become brittle. Cholesterol shoots up.

Having said all that, it is a misconception that postmenopausal women have no influence over our outcomes or our overall sense of well-being.

The previous four blogs dealt with our main pharmacologic option, hormone replacement therapy (HRT). And there is plenty of evidence that HRT would likely be a net positive for many more women than are being offered this intervention today.  If you missed those blogs, you can find them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.  

However, there is much more we can do than just demand to be placed on drugs! We can also help ourselves get through this period and set ourselves up for better health long term through the way we live.

Spoiler alert: If you’re a regular reader of our blogs, you will see a striking similarity to advice I have given many times before…

Turns out, eating right and exercising regularly has a positive impact, regardless of what we are trying to impact positively.

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Mediterranean Diet and Menopausal Symptomatology

The Mediterranean diet, characterized by high consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil, has been associated with reduced severity of menopausal symptoms.

A study involving more than 6,000 postmenopausal women over nine years found that higher adherence to the Mediterranean Diet correlated with a lower incidence of hot flashes and night sweats.

Phytoestrogens: Plant-Derived Estrogenic Compounds

Phytoestrogens, particularly isoflavones found in soy products, have been investigated for their potential to mitigate menopausal symptoms due to their structural similarity to estradiol.

Randomized studies have shown that phytoestrogen-based treatments may reduce the frequency of hot flashes and night sweats. However, efficacy varies among individuals, possibly due to differences in gut microbiome composition affecting isoflavone metabolism. 

By the way, the idea that phytoestrogens increase breast cancer risk has been summarily debunked. Even women who have gone through breast cancer treatment can enjoy soy products.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Mood Regulation

The decline in estrogen during menopause is associated with an increased risk of depression. Omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in Step One Foods, are known to have positive effects on mood, and higher dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids has been inversely associated with depression prevalence in postmenopausal women.

Micronutrients: Calcium and Vitamin D

Postmenopausal women are at increased risk for osteoporosis, and adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D becomes crucial for bone health. For women over 50, the recommended daily allowance includes 1,200 mg of calcium and 600–800 IU of vitamin D. Individual vitamin D requirements may be higher in order to keep vitamin D levels in the normal range. You can have your vitamin D level assessed through a simple blood test. 

Dietary sources of calcium include dairy products, leafy greens, and fortified foods, while sunlight exposure facilitates endogenous vitamin D synthesis. It is typically difficult to get adequate amounts of vitamin D through diet alone, although eating mushrooms can help.

Exercise: Bone Strength and Beyond

If there was any time in a woman’s life when staying physically active was critical, it’s after menopause. We can take all sorts of calcium supplements, but unless we engage in weight-bearing and resistance training, all that calcium will just go toward making kidney stones. And unless we expend more energy, the slowdown in metabolism most women experience during this time will yield progressive weight gain. The good news is that we don’t need to engage in extreme or exceedingly strenuous routines to see meaningful health gains.

For optimal metabolic health, spending the majority of our time in Zone 2 is ideal. This exercise level helps build aerobic capacity, increases mitochondrial efficiency, burns fat for energy, increases insulin sensitivity, and helps lower blood pressure. Interspersing short, high-intensity intervals is also a good idea to help build cardiovascular fitness.

And how do you know if you’re in Zone 2? To estimate your Zone 2 heart rate range, subtract your age from 220 (this estimates your maximum predicted heart rate), and then multiply that number by 0.6 to get the lower range (60%) of Zone 2, and by 0.7 to get the upper range (70%). You can also know that you’re in Zone 2 by using the talk test: your exercise intensity is low enough that you can carry on a conversation, but high enough that you’re somewhat breathless and can’t sing.

And what about resistance training? Do that at least a couple of times a week for 30 minutes at a time. You can get fancy and work with a trainer at a gym — or make a minor investment in resistance bands and follow a do-it-yourself program at home.

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We Have the Power!

Menopause is a time of tremendous change — physically and psychologically. But it’s definitely not a time to suffer in silence or simply accept our fates.

Helping ourselves through nutrition and physical activity (the EXACT SAME interventions as the ones that yield cholesterol improvements) will go a long way to maximizing overall health outcomes, especially after our estrogen is gone. And, for most women, HRT — whether systemic or local — can be considered a safe, effective and in many ways proactive step to ensuring a smoother transition to the second half of our lives. 

The WHI deprived too many women of quality of life for too long. 

It’s time to move on.

The post Menopause and the big lie: You’ve got choices appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But what if you pop a multivitamin or have a bowl of cereal fortified with vitamins and minerals every day? Turns out, many of those supplements and breakfast cereals don’t have nearly enough of the daily nutrients you need.

In fact, research shows there are five specific nutrients most Americans aren’t getting enough of from their diet…

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The 5 nutrients we need the most

A healthy body needs a variety of nutrients, including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water and vitamins and minerals. Carlene Starck, a nutrition scientist and biochemist at the nutrition research and communications company FOODiQ Global, tells ScienceNews Americans’ diets often have tons of high-energy foods but are light on other essential nutrients.

“We know that what we eat affects the prevalence of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer,” Starck says.

An Australian team led by Starck analyzed data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) on people’s intake of 24 essential nutrients. It identified where the participants weren’t meeting recommendations. The analysis also took into account the health benefits of each nutrient based on scientific evidence.

Results narrowed the list to five priority nutrients Americans need to get more of: calcium, fiber, magnesium, and vitamins D and E. Optimal amounts of these nutrients are key for disease prevention. For instance:

• Calcium protects bone health and could help prevent osteoporosis.
• Fiber helps control blood sugar and can lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
• Magnesium improves bone health, regulates blood sugar, balances blood pressure, plays a role in heart rhythm and supports nerve and muscle function.
• Vitamin D supports bone health and can lower your risk of certain types of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
• Vitamin E has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and bolsters your immune system.

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No nutritional ‘magic bullet’

Because the nutrients span different food groups, no one food will give people everything they need, Starck says. “There’s no superfood; there’s no magic bullet,” she tells ScienceNews.

And that includes supplements, according to Sander Kersten, a nutrition scientist at Cornell University. For example, several studies of supplemental vitamins D and E haven’t shown clear benefits.

Instead of focusing on individual nutrient levels, both Kersten and Starck tell ScienceNews people should think more holistically.

“We need nutrients, but ultimately we eat foods,” Kersten says. The results of the study can point to foods that make our diets better, he adds.

Starck recommends thinking in terms of meals that pull a few key nutrients together at one time, like avocado and salmon on whole-grain toast. Avocado has plenty of vitamin E and fiber. At the same time, salmon is rich in vitamin D. The whole-grain toast contributes additional fiber, and all three ingredients add magnesium to the mix.

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The diet that covers all the bases

One thing is clear from this research: supplements are no substitute for a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein. One diet that covers all these bases is the Mediterranean diet, which has plenty of foods that contain one or more of the five nutrients mentioned above.

Servings vary by food group, but generally include:

• 2-3 servings of fruit and 4 or more servings of vegetables per day.
• 3 or more servings of legumes or beans per week.
• 4 servings of nuts or seeds per week (1/4 cup equals one serving). 
• Grains, including whole grains, should be consumed 3 times daily.
• Fish and seafood: 3 or more servings per week.
• Replace butter and refined oils with extra virgin olive oil. 

But, as good as the Mediterranean diet is, it’s not perfect…

One nutrient that’s a little tougher to get from the largely plant-based diet is calcium. Leafy greens like spinach contain calcium, but because your body has a hard time absorbing the calcium from greens, you would have to eat a bucketful to get your daily recommended dose.

The solution? Add some low-fat dairy, like plain yogurt mixed with fresh fruit, for breakfast or a snack. One serving of yogurt contains nearly double the calcium of spinach, and your body absorbs that calcium more easily.

If you need to supplement your calcium, stick to the RDA, and remember the importance of vitamin D3 to boost absorption and K2 to get it to your bones.

Sources:

These 5 nutrients might be lacking in your diet — ScienceNews

Identification of Priority Nutrients in the US: Targeting Malnutrition to Address Diet-Related Disease Across the Lifespan — Nutrients

Food Sources of Calcium — Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Calcium: Fact Sheet for Health Professionals — National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements

The post 5 critical nutrients Americans fall short on appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And obesity is really a form of premature aging.

Being overweight ages us from the inside out, affecting our telomeres, harming our energy-producing mitochondria, and weakening our immune system.

And as if that weren’t enough, it makes our brain get old a lot faster than it normally would, making us more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease.

But according to ongoing research, there’s a simple way to change your diet that will stop the obesity train in its tracks and keep your brain from aging prematurely.

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The brain power of the Green Mediterranean diet

The DIRECT PLUS study (Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial Polyphenols Unprocessed Study) conducted by Israeli scientists in 2017-18 was the first to introduce the concept of the green Mediterranean, high polyphenols diet and its potential for weight loss in older adults.

In this trial, 284 people were divided into three groups. The first ate a healthy diet. The second adhered to a traditional Mediterranean diet, including 28g of polyphenol-rich walnuts.

The third group ate a “green Mediterranean diet.” On top of walnuts, they added three to four cups of green tea daily, as well as a green shake made with Mankai duckweed as a substitute for dinner. They ate almost no red meat.

At the end of the 18-month trial, brain MRIs on all participants showed a significant slowing in brain atrophy (shrinking) in those who ate a Mediterranean diet.

The change was even more noticeable in participants over age 50 who went “green.”

Follow-up study shows even better benefits

Scientists at Ben Gurion University recently conducted a sub-study of the DIRECT PLUS trial to examine the effects of weight loss on brain age and other factors affecting brain health.

The researchers chose 102 individuals who met the criteria for obesity.

Each received a brain scan both before and after the study to examine how weight loss through diet affected their “brain age.”

They found that a one percent reduction in body weight led to brain age being almost nine months younger than expected for a person of that chronological age.

And, as a bonus, these “younger” brains were also associated with a decrease in liver fat and liver enzymes that have been shown to negatively affect the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

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How to go green for a big brain (and slimmer waist and liver)

Now, you may remember we wrote last year about how the green Mediterranean diet doubles fat loss.

That means the green Mediterranean diet is the one diet we could all get on board with, from weight loss to brain health — not to mention the liver benefits.

If you’re not already following a Mediterranean diet, take a look at this guide to getting started.

Then, start to tweak things gradually. Eliminate one portion of meat and substitute fish or a plant-based protein like nuts, seeds or legumes. As you go along your goal should be a diet that includes very little if no meat at all.

Fruits and veggies should make up the bulk of your diet. Don’t forget, whenever possible, raw is better for you.

Pile on whole grains (rich in heart-protective betaines) like brown rice, barley and buckwheat.

Dairy is allowed but in moderation. And don’t forget those healthy fats: olive oil, avocados, walnuts and almonds.

Drink plenty of green tea (though black tea has some impressive benefits of its own!).

Last, but not least, if you must eat processed foods, keep them to a minimum—especially foods with added sugars and refined grains.

Sources:

Could a better diet make your brain younger? — Eureka Alert

The effect of weight loss following 18 months of lifestyle intervention on brain age assessed with resting-state functional connectivity — Epidemiology and Global Health

The effect of a high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet (Green-MED) combined with physical activity on age-related brain atrophy: the Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial Polyphenols Unprocessed Study (DIRECT PLUS) — The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

The effect of high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet on visceral adiposity: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial — BMC Medicine

The post The diet that sheds pounds and keeps your brain from shrinking appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And like our bodies, the aging of each individual’s brain doesn’t occur at the same pace.

Some people have brains that seem to stay younger, longer, while for others, the clock seems to speed by, leaving telltale signs of memory loss, cognitive decline and brain shrinkage in its wake.

I don’t know about you, but I know which of those groups I want to be in.

That’s why when I heard that researchers had identified a specific nutrient profile in the blood of ‘super-agers’ they say keeps their brains young, I had to know what it was and how to make it happen for my brain.

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The super-agers secret to a young brain

The research, from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, compared the brains of 100 cognitively healthy participants, aged 65-75.

Not only did the scientist assess their abilities using cognitive tests, but blood was collected to analyze nutritional biomarkers and MRI scans were performed.

When the data was analyzed, they were able to isolate two types of brain aging among the participants — accelerated and slower-than-expected.

And among those who exhibited signs of slower brain aging, the researchers saw a distinct nutrient profile in their blood work.

The beneficial nutrients were a combination of:

• Various fatty acids: vaccenic, gondoic, alpha-linolenic (omega-3 ALA), eicosapentaenoic (omega-3 EPA), eicosadienoic (an omega-6) and lignoceric acids
• Antioxidants and carotenoids including cis-lutein, trans-lutein and zeaxanthin
• Two forms of vitamin E
• Choline

Not surprisingly, this nutritional profile is associated with one of the healthiest diets — especially in terms of brain aging: the Mediterranean diet!

“We investigated specific nutrient biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, known in nutritional science to potentially offer health benefits. This aligns with the extensive body of research in the field demonstrating the positive health effects of the Mediterranean Diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” said lead study author Aron Barbey, director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska.

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A nutritional profile that stops the clock

Unlike many other studies on nutrition and brain aging that typically rely on food questionnaires and participant self-reporting, Barbey noted that theirs is one of the first and the largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers and validated cognitive assessments.

According to Barbey, “We move beyond simply measuring cognitive performance with traditional neuropsychological tests. Instead, we simultaneously examine brain structure, function, and metabolism, demonstrating a direct link between these brain properties and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, we show that these brain properties are directly linked to diet and nutrition, as revealed by the patterns observed in nutrient biomarkers.”

If you’re convinced of the brain-saving potential of the Mediterranean diet, there are a few versions you can choose from that may also align with existing health goals:

• The basic diet includes eating healthy fats, whole grains, fish and eggs, nuts and seeds, and, most importantly, loads of fresh veggies and fruits.
• MedDairy – Upping the dairy on your Mediterranean diet has been shown to support healthy cognitive function, mood, blood pressure and more.
• Pesco-Mediterranean – Removing white and red meat from the diet and eating more fish and seafood is a great way to keep cardiovascular disease at bay. And we all know that the omega-3s found in fish are also great for our brains.
• Green Mediterranean – This diet sticks to its traditional roots but adds in green tea, walnuts and a shake made with duckweed (an aquatic green plant that is high in protein, iron, vitamin B12, and polyphenols) daily. It delivers the benefits of the normal Mediterranean diet but is twice as effective at burning visceral body fat.

In addition to doing as super-agers do, it’s just as important to avoid the the three factors that age your brain the fastest.

Sources:

Food for thought: Study links key nutrients with slower brain aging – EurekAlert!

The post Blood work of super-agers reveals what keeps a brain young appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And it’s no wonder. Not only is it chock full of bioactive compounds, but recently researchers found many of those nutrients can, incredibly, cross the blood-brain barrier.

But if one food is the centerpiece of this disease-fighting buffet, it would have to be olive oil.

Not only is it a powerhouse on its own, packed with polyphenols, omega-3 and 6 fatty acids and oleic acid (also known as omega-9 fatty acid), but it enhances the extraction of nutrients from other foods.

Previous research shows olive oil fights aging, heart disease and osteoporosis, supports healthy arteries, heals intestinal injury and reduces risks for diabetes and depression. It’s also been linked to reduced mortality from four major health threats.

But it’s the brain benefits that just keep stacking up…

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Olive oil lowers death risk from dementia

Scientists at Harvard University observed more than 92,000 adults over 28 years who were 56 years of age on average at the start of the study. The researchers assessed their diets every four years using a questionnaire and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index, which assigns ratings to foods and nutrients that can predict chronic disease outcomes.

Overall, they found that consuming at least 7 grams of olive oil every day was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of dementia-related death when compared with those who never or rarely ate olive oil. That’s a bit over half a tablespoon of olive oil.

Replacing around 1.2 teaspoons of margarine or mayonnaise with olive oil daily was linked with an 8 to 14 percent lower risk of death from dementia. No significant changes were found when substituting with other vegetable oils or butter.

Participants who had the APOEe4 gene, notorious for raising Alzheimer’s disease risk, were five to nine times more likely than noncarriers to die from dementia. Still, the findings regarding olive oil remained the same even after taking this factor into account.

Another interesting aspect of the study is that these findings stood regardless of the diet quality of the participants, although it could be that those who consume olive oil have healthier lifestyles in general.

The researchers say substituting fats like margarine and mayonnaise with olive oil could potentially improve dementia-free longevity.

“Beyond heart health, the findings extend the current dietary recommendations of choosing olive oil and other vegetable oils for cognitive-related health,” the researchers wrote in the study. They did caution, however, that the findings were observational and did not demonstrate a causal relationship.

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Tips on getting the most from olive oil

Olive oil has many uses. You can cook with it, of course, but it’s delicious when used in a meat marinade, salad dressing, vinaigrette or pesto. You can even drizzle it on sandwiches or mix some up with fresh or dried herbs to make a dip for bread.

When shopping for olive oil, the first thing to look for is whether it’s the extra-virgin variety. Unlike regular olive oil, extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) contains more than 200 antioxidant plant compounds, including polyphenols. This gives EVOO an edge in terms of health benefits.

You’ll also want to buy the freshest EVOO you can find, so look for a brand with the harvest date marked on it. The closer to the purchase date, the fresher the oil is and the more of its aroma, flavor and health benefits it retains.

You don’t need to look for terms like “cold-pressed.” EVOO always comes from the first pressing of the olives, and it must be made with no added heat.

Try to find an EVOO that’s stored in a dark glass bottle or (even better) metal tin. If the EVOO is stored in a clear glass bottle, it will have been exposed to light and lost most of its aroma and flavor.

Once you bring it home, store your EVOO in a cool, dark environment, well away from your stove. Exposure to heat over long periods of time will shorten the shelf life of your EVOO.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

Mediterranean staple may lower your risk of death from dementia, study finds — CNN

Consumption of Olive Oil and Diet Quality and Risk of Dementia-Related Death — JAMA Network Open

The post Dementia-free longevity in half a tablespoon a day appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s the diet that improves aging (even in nursing home residents)… doubles fat loss… improves heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol…  and protects against dementia.

It’s that last benefit that caught the attention of one group of European researchers who wanted to get to the bottom of the diet’s seemingly miraculous impact on the brain.

What they found leaves no doubt that if you want to protect your brain — you have to eat the diet that directly feeds your brain what it needs…

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Crossing the blood-brain barrier

One thing that makes the Mediterranean diet so healthy is that it’s loaded with bioactive nutrients — plant compounds that have actions in the body protective enough that they’re being studied for their potential in the prevention of disease.  

Some of the bioactive nutrients associated with the Mediterranean diet include:

• Hydroxytyrosol, a polyphenol found in extra-virgin olive oil that has antioxidant properties, is liver-protective and has shown anti-cancer and anti-diabetic activity, among other benefits.
• Tyrosol, another polyphenol in olive oil with antioxidant properties. As with hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol has potential anti-cancer effects.
• Tyrosine, an amino acid that is essential for the production of several important brain chemicals, including epinephrine and dopamine. Tyrosine is found in soybeans, chicken, turkey, fish, bananas, avocados, sesame seeds and cheese.
• Serotonin, a neurotransmitter that boosts mood. Foods that encourage production of serotonin are plentiful in the Mediterranean diet.
• Protocatechuic acid, a phenolic acid metabolite of anthocyanins found in olives and white grapes, with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antihyperglycemic properties that may also protect against cancer.

It’s an impressive lineup — but the researchers wanted to see if these nutrients could pass the “golden” test…

Crossing the blood-brain barrier — a selective layer of cells that serve as a protective filter — with their health properties intact.

Using laboratory models, the researchers confirmed that all of the bioactives they tested were indeed able to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Not only that, they passed through the barrier in significant percentages:

• Hydroxytyrosol, 70 percent
• Tyrosine, 50 percent
• Tyrosol, 30 percent
• Serotonin, 30 percent
• Protocatechuic acid, 9 percent

According to the researchers, these results prove the Mediterranean diet’s neuroprotective clout.

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Which Mediterranean diet to follow?

The Mediterranean diet’s main components include olive oil, olives, fish, whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. You can also consume some eggs and dairy products, poultry and red wine.

However,  U.S. News & World Report cautions against the “Americanized” version, typically seen on restaurant menus, which often includes way too much refined pasta, beef and cheese.

Healthy variations include MedDairy,  Pesco-Mediterranean or the green Mediterranean diet. When choosing which one of these to follow, it’s best to consider what your health needs and food preferences are.

For instance, if you’re looking to boost your heart health, you may want to give MedDairy a try. Add three to four servings of dairy a day to your Mediterranean roster and watch your blood pressure and cholesterol drop.

The green Mediterranean diet is especially great for blasting away visceral fat. It emphasizes leafy greens, walnuts, green tea and an aquatic vegetable known as duckweed.

The Pesco-Mediterranean diet ditches meat entirely in favor of fish, so it may be the most heart-protective, but most restrictive of the diets.

But if we’re sticking with best diet for brain health, I’d vote for MedDairy. That’s because milk increases brain levels of glutathione, the body’s master antioxidant, to help further ward off cognitive decline.  

As with any new eating plan, it’s best to make gradual changes, like substituting whole grains for refined or fish and poultry for red and processed meats. Add an extra vegetable or two to your plate and switch dessert for fruit. Any of these changes will get you on track to fully adopting a healthy Mediterranean eating style.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a small handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

In vitro study of the blood–brain barrier transport of bioactives from Mediterranean foods — Food & Function

Mediterranean Diet Is Best Diet – Once Again — Scripps

Mediterranean Diet: Beginner’s Guide to a Healthy Heart — U.S. News & World Report

Tyrosine — Mount Sinai

Pharmacological Properties of Protocatechuic Acid and Its Potential Roles as Complementary Medicine — Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Foods that can boost your mood — Mayo Clinic

The post The diet that crosses the blood-brain barrier appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s why the phrase “senior moments” is so common.

But does aging really have to mean giving up such an essential part of ourselves? Or can we stave off memory loss, even in the face of a genetic predisposition to it?

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A 10-year study puts it into perspective

We no longer have to wonder about the answers to those questions thanks to a decade-long study of older adults in China, which pitted a healthy lifestyle against aging when it comes to memory loss.

For the study, researchers analyzed the data of more than 29,000 people over the age of 60, including participants who were found to possess the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene — the strongest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. All had normal cognitive function at the beginning of the study, which allowed the researchers to directly compare any memory declines with how well they embraced a healthy lifestyle.

Lifestyle factors that the researchers looked at included a healthy diet, regular exercise, active social contact (such as spending time with friends and family), cognitive activity (like writing, reading, playing mahjong), not smoking and never drinking alcohol.

And after accounting for all other factors, the researchers found that a healthy lifestyle is a powerful way to preserve your memory.

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Their results showed that each healthy lifestyle behavior was associated with a slower than average decline in memory over 10 years, but not all had equal effects…

The lifestyle factor with the biggest impact was a healthy diet. Practicing cognitive activities and exercise fell very closely behind.

Even better was that their research showed that the memory-saving results of following the healthy lifestyle factors held true even for carriers of the Alzheimer’s gene.

Ultimately the researchers concluded that embracing a healthy lifestyle not only reduced memory loss in those with the APOE gene, it actually kept dementia and cognitive impairment at bay for both groups of participants.

Those with an extremely healthy lifestyle were almost 90 percent less likely to develop dementia. And those with a simply average lifestyle benefitted from a 30 percent reduced risk.

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Putting these findings to work to save your brain

Clearly, if you want to keep your memory going strong as you age, a healthy lifestyle is the way to go.

And since healthy diet and exercise were among the most effective lifestyle factors in this study, let’s talk about how you can optimize their effect, as well as supplements that have shown effective in supporting cognitive health.

A few diets can help support health in general but also shine for supporting the brain against cognitive decline. Those include the DASH diet, the Mind diet and the Mediterranean diet.

I’m partial to the Mediterranean diet because of the findings of one study in particular…

It followed 500 participants and graded them on how well they followed the Med diet and then tested their spinal fluid for biomarkers of amyloid and tau protein. People who didn’t follow the diet closely had higher levels of biomarkers of amyloid and tau pathology than those who did.

If exercise puts you off, I have good news there too…

Research has found that as little as 4000 steps a day increases brain size. Brain shrinkage contributes to brain aging and cognitive decline. But if you can do more, 9800 steps a day have been shown to reduce dementia risk 50 percent.

I’m always going to look for easy health hacks to provide that extra support. Below are my go-to supplements if you’d like to check them out…

• Vitamin D
• Multivitamins
• Phosphatidylserine

Sources:

Healthy lifestyle linked to slower memory decline in older adults — EurekAlert!

The post Decade-long study reveals what slows cognitive decline despite APOE gene appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I don’t mean changing your chronological age — time marches on, no matter what we do.

Instead, I’m talking about slowing down how old your body feels and acts — and, in more scientific terms, that equates to your biological age.

One way to slow the toll of aging is to keep your heart healthy, because, as researchers found, when heart health goes up, biological aging goes down — as much as 6 years!

But your brain runs the show, right? And now there’s new evidence that healthy eating to achieve a very small amount of weight loss can result in a younger, more well-connected brain.

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Even a little weight loss makes your brain younger

In contrast to the many ways obesity accelerates the mechanisms of aging, including changes that mimic Alzheimer’s — a recent study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel suggests that even a small amount of weight loss appears to put the brakes on brain aging.

The researchers took brain scans of 102 participants at the beginning of the trial and then again after 18 months. During the 18-month period, participants ate one of three diets:

• a Mediterranean diet with lots of nuts, fish, and chicken instead of red meat;
• a Mediterranean diet with a few added extras such as green tea (for its polyphenol content);
• or a diet based on healthy dietary guidelines.

Participants’ activity levels were taken into account. They received a free gym membership as part of the trial, so exercise factored in.

Brain age was estimated using a model used in other studies that accurately predicted age from measures based on brain connectivity.

On average, participants lost around 2.3kg (around 5 lbs.).

More importantly, for every one percent of body weight lost, all participants’ brains appeared almost nine months younger than their chronological age.

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More food for thought — and a bigger brain

A previous 2015 study from Columbia University backs the findings of the Israeli study — and reinforces that it’s never too late to turn back the age of your brain…

A group of 674 people aged 80 or older was divided into two groups. One group reported that they followed a Mediterranean diet. The other did not follow any of the principles of a Mediterranean style of eating.

When researchers compared brain scans from the two groups, they found that the people who followed a Mediterranean-style diet had a total brain volume that was 13.11ml. larger than those in the other group.

It’s a well-known fact that brain shrinkage is linked to brain aging and deterioration.

Eat for a younger brain and less weight

At this point, the evidence is undeniable: eating Mediterranean-style is a “no-brainer” if you want a younger brain.

But you don’t have to do it overnight…

In fact, according to Dr. David Katz, a nutrition expert at the Yale School of Medicine, the key is to make small changes.

Don’t try and overhaul your diet overnight. It’s easier to adopt one new food habit at a time, like eating fish once a week if you’re not in the habit already, switching to whole grains the next week, cooking with olive oil instead of butter and enjoying more nuts, seeds and fresh fruits and vegetables. That way, you’ll be able to sustain those changes.

And remember, this isn’t a deprivation “diet.” The Mediterranean “diet” is really a term to describe an overall eating pattern, rather than a strict diet. When you eat the right stuff, you don’t feel like you’re giving anything up — except what’s aging you!

Oh, don’t forget the exercise part, and here’s a tip: Researchers found that a faster walking pace was associated with longer telomeres — regardless of the amount of physical activity — and could translate to the equivalent of turning your biological age back 16 years!

Sources:

Weight Loss Slows Aging in The Brain by Up to 9 Months, Study Finds — Science Alert

The effect of weight loss following 18 months of lifestyle intervention on brain age assessed with resting-state functional connectivity — eLife

Adipose tissue distribution from body MRI is associated with cross-sectional and longitudinal brain age in adults — NeuroImage: Clinical

Mediterranean diet and brain structure in a multiethnic elderly cohort — Neurology

The post Rewind the clock on your brain’s age appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s why breast cancer survivors (really, all cancer survivors) look to take back as much control as they can and want reliable recommendations for how they can minimize their risk of a recurrence.

So it was a relief when the American Cancer Society and the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) came out with their updated “Ten Recommendations for Cancer Prevention” in 2018.

But even better, research has now confirmed the positive impact of these recommendations before, during and after treatment…

7 recommendations that reduce recurrence by 37 percent

A prospective cohort study of 1,340 high-risk breast cancer patients was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

A prospective cohort study is one that focuses on a group of people (a cohort) over a period of time, collecting data on a particular factor of interest — in this case, adherence to seven of the ten cancer prevention recommendations.

The study focused on the following seven recommendations:

• healthy weight
• physical activity
• a diet rich in fruits and vegetables
• not smoking
• limited alcohol consumption
• limited consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages
• limited consumption of red and processed meat

Using both questionnaires and statistical analysis, the study authors determined that strong adherence to these guidelines was associated with a 37 percent reduction in recurrence and a 58 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.

“These are impressive numbers, especially considering that this was a high-risk breast cancer population,” says lead author Dr. Christine Ambrosone.

This study builds on previous research showing that a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce the risk of cancer. For example, a 2020 systematic review of studies found that a healthy diet, normal body weight, physical activity, limiting alcohol, and not smoking were associated with more than a 58 percent reduction in the risk of many types of cancer including breast, colon, and lung.

Diet and breast cancer: A major factor

You’ll notice that five of these seven recommendations have to do with diet (I’m including normal body weight since that will come more easily if you follow the other four).

And the American Cancer Society and the American Institute of Cancer Research offered recommendations about what to eat and what to avoid. But if you need specifics, a couple of diets have been studied for their potential effects on decreasing cancer risk.

In 2017, researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands found that following a Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of ER-negative breast cancer by up to 40 percent. ER-negative breast cancer is a dangerous form of breast cancer that’s particularly hard to treat, so anything that can prevent women from getting this cancer in the first place is a huge deal.

A Mediterranean diet is high in nutrients such as omega-3s, B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, folic acid, selenium and iron. Vitamin D is one of the most studied supplements for cancer prevention and treatment. Foods that can help include:

• mushrooms
• eggs
• yogurt
• cheese
• salmon
• canned tuna
• fortified cereal
• fortified orange juice

Milk and soy milk, good vitamin D sources, have had mixed reviews when it comes to cancer.

Christie Siebel, breast cancer survivor and senior clinical dietician at MD Anderson Cancer Center feels soy is a great alternative to animal protein and that there’s no reason to avoid eating it.

As far as milk goes, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine warns naturally occurring hormones and compounds in dairy products may play a role in increasing not only the risk of breast cancer but also ovarian and prostate cancers, according to a new narrative review published in the International Journal for Disease Reversal and Prevention.

Supplementing is always an option. Since vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be as high as 72 percent among cancer patients, talk to your doctor about adding vitamin D3 to your daily routine if you’re a cancer survivor.

Sources:

Lifestyle Recommendations Make a Difference for Breast Cancer Survivors Before, During, and After Treatment — Integrative Practitioner

Adherence to Cancer Prevention Lifestyle Recommendations Before, During, and 2 Years After Treatment for High-risk Breast Cancer — JAMA

The post 7 habits proven to reduce breast cancer recurrence appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s because when we sleep, restorative and reparative processes take place that trigger slow pulses of cerebrospinal fluid that wash through the brain and remove toxins and buildup.  

It would be easy to assume taking a sleeping pill is the answer. But I’ve read and written about too much research that points to its ill effects on the brain to feel comfortable taking sleep medication even on an occasional basis.

That’s why I was stunned by a new study that indicates there may be one type of sleeping pill that possibly has the opposite effect…

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A sleeping pill that fights brain protein buildup?

Suvorexant, already approved by the FDA to treat insomnia, is part of the dual orexin receptor antagonist class of sleep medicines. Blocking orexin, a natural biomolecule that promotes wakefulness, makes people fall asleep.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recruited 38 healthy middle-aged participants to undergo a two-night sleep study. One group of participants was given a 10 mg dose of the drug suvorexant, another group was given a 20 mg dose, and a third group was given a placebo.

Starting one hour before the sleep aid or placebo was administered, the researchers withdrew a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid every two hours for 36 hours to measure changes in amyloid and tau levels.

Compared with those who took the placebo, the participants who received the higher 20 mg dose of suvorexant showed a 10 to 20 percent drop in amyloid levels and a 10 to 15 percent drop in levels of a form of tau known as hyperphosphorylated tau. There was no significant difference between the people who took the 10 mg dose and those who received the placebo.

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Twenty-four hours after the first dose, hyperphosphorylated tau had risen while levels of amyloid remained low in the 20 mg dose group compared to the placebo group. A second dose of suvorexant administered on the second night of the study again reduced the levels of both proteins for people in the 20 mg group.

“If we can lower amyloid every day, we think the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain will decrease over time,” says Dr. Brendan Lucey, a professor of neurology and director of Washington University’s Sleep Medicine Center.

But Lucey cautions that as a small, proof-of-concept study, it would be premature for people to interpret these results as a reason to start taking suvorexant every night…

“At this point, the best advice I can give is to get a good night’s sleep if you can, and if you can’t, to see a sleep specialist and get your sleep problems treated.”

Don’t reach for the pill bottle just yet

It’s important to reiterate that this study was small and focused on a very specific sleep medication. It does not cancel out the negative cognitive effects associated with other sleep medications.

For instance, one study found that taking the anticholinergic class of drugs that includes some over-the-counter sleep medications could raise your risk of dementia by as much as 54 percent. And another found an elevated risk of dementia in people who took sleep medicines from the benzodiazepine and sedative-hypnotic drug classes which include common sleep aids Halcion and Ambien.

That’s why it’s important to understand the long-term effects of any medication. But there is a non-drug option that was tested in a similar way to what Dr. Lucey’s group did — and it was a bigger study…

That research followed over 500 participants, asking them to complete surveys of what they ate and how often. They also underwent brain scans and memory tests — and had their spinal fluid tested. 

Those researchers found people who adhered most closely to a Mediterranean diet had lower levels of biomarkers of amyloid and tau pathology in their spinal fluid than those who didn’t. They also scored better on memory tests.

More good news? What you eat can improve your sleep — and once again, the Mediterranean diet is the winner at improving sleep duration and lowering insomnia symptoms. Certain key foods that are part of the Mediterranean diet are rich in melatonin, serotonin, and vitamin D.

Sources:

Sleeping pill reduces levels of Alzheimer’s proteins — Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Suvorexant Acutely Decreases Tau Phosphorylation and Aβ in the Human CNS — Annals of Neurology

What Happens to the Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease? — National Institute on Aging

The post Could a sleeping pill prevent Alzheimer’s? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s because, in large part, it’s been seen as a man’s disease — by doctors and by researchers. In fact, most relevant clinical trials have included relatively few women.

An analysis in 2020 found that in a decade’s worth of cardiovascular studies, only about 38.2 percent of subjects were women.

No wonder current guidelines on how best to lower cardiovascular disease risk still don’t give advice targeted specifically for women.

Frustrated by this fact, a group of researchers set out to remedy the situation.

And settled on a diet that can lower women’s risk of coronary heart disease by nearly 25 percent…

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The diet that lowers women’s heart disease risk

To say that the Mediterranean diet has been well-researched would be an understatement. It’s probably the healthiest style of eating with the most powerful effect on diseases linked to inflammation, including diabetes and heart disease.

Olive oil, the heart of the Mediterranean diet, contains oleic acid, an anti-inflammatory substance. Fatty fish, also a mainstay of the diet, contain omega-3 fatty acids that beat back inflammation as well.

The diet also features whole grains. Eating whole grains raises the levels of 5-aminovaleric acid betaine, or 5-AVAB, which is shown to be heart-protective. 5-AVAB builds up in your heart tissue which delivers a protective effect for your heart.

Knowing these proven benefits, researchers at The University of Sydney set out to determine the effects of the Mediterranean diet specifically on women’s heart health.

They began by searching databases for relevant studies. Out of a whopping 190, they were able to settle on 16 relevant to women, published between 2003 and 2021.

Their analysis of these studies found that sticking closely to a Mediterranean diet was not only associated with a 24 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease for women but a 23 percent lower risk of death. 

Women’s unique risk factors and symptoms

According to the Mayo Clinic, the following risk factors for heart disease are ones that women should pay particular attention to:

• Diabetes. Women with diabetes are more likely to develop heart disease than men with diabetes. Also, because diabetes can change the way women feel pain, there’s an increased risk of having a silent heart attack — one without symptoms.
• Emotional stress and depression. Stress and depression affect women’s hearts more than men’s. Takotsubo syndrome, or “broken heart syndrome,” resulting from extreme stress or grief, is notorious for silent heart attacks in women.
• Smoking. Smoking is a greater risk factor for heart disease in women than it is in men.
• Family history of early heart disease. This appears to be a greater risk factor in women than in men.

Also, lower estrogen levels, which occur when women begin to enter menopause, increase a woman’s risk of developing heart problems.

As far as heart attack symptoms, it’s fairly well known, but always worth repeating, that women’s symptoms differ from men’s. Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:

• Neck, jaw, shoulder, upper back or upper belly (abdomen) discomfort
• Shortness of breath
• Pain in one or both arms
• Nausea or vomiting
• Sweating
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Unusual fatigue
• Heartburn (indigestion)

Women should never ignore these signs. If you have any of these symptoms and they’re new, or can’t be explained by other things, go to an emergency room. Better to be safe than sorry.

Sources:

Mediterranean diet cuts women’s cardiovascular disease and death risk by nearly 25% — Eureka Alert

Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in women with a Mediterranean diet: systematic review and meta-analysis — Heart

Anti-Inflammatory Mediterranean Diet Plan — Eating Well

Heart disease in women: Understand symptoms and risk factors — Mayo Clinic

The post Women can eat away a quarter of their heart disease risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Cancer is one area where these different types of treatment and therapies are coming together more often.  Decades of cancer treatments are proving to work better when combined with therapies not typically considered in hospitals and doctor’s offices.

For example, several years ago, scientists at the University Hospitals of Leicester in the United Kingdom gave omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil to people undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, they found that the fats bolstered their response to the medical treatment and improved their quality of life.

More recently, scientists have found the Mediterranean diet, which has been demonstrated to reduce inflammation and improve markers for aging and support good prostate, breast, gut, brain, bone and heart health, may soon improve treatment response and survival rates in advanced melanoma patients.

The Mediterranean diet helps support melanoma therapy

Researchers in the U.K. and the Netherlands recorded the dietary intake of patients with advanced melanoma who were being treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) drugs.

ICIs work by blocking immune system checkpoints, which then prompts the body’s own T cells to attack cancers. These drugs have been very successful in treating melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.

Results showed individuals who followed a Mediterranean diet showed an improved response to ICIs. In addition, the diet was significantly associated with progression-free survival of melanoma 12 months after ICI treatment.

The Mediterranean diet is a mostly plant-based diet rich in mono-and polyunsaturated fats from olive oil, nuts and fish, as well as polyphenols and fiber from vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

Polyphenols are a subset of phytonutrients that are especially “bioactive.” They are known for drug-like effects in human health including anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-spasmodic, anti-cancer, anti-aging, hepatoprotective, hypolipidemic, neuroprotective, hypotensive, diabetes, osteoporosis, analgesic, protection from UVB-induced carcinogenesis and immuno-modulator.

It’s easy to see why the researchers believe the Mediterranean diet could play an important role in immunotherapy success. Clinical trials are being expanded to investigate outcomes for other tumor types, including digestive cancers.

“ICI has helped to revolutionize the treatment of different types of advanced cancers,” says Laura Bolte, author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands,. “Our study underlines the importance of dietary assessment in cancer patients starting ICI treatment and supports a role for dietary strategies to improve patient outcomes and survival.”

Easing into a Mediterranean diet

Even if you don’t have skin cancer, it’s a good idea from an overall health standpoint to adopt a Mediterranean-style diet.

But if you’re used to eating tons of red meat and processed foods, it can be tough to completely overhaul your eating habits in one fell swoop. My suggestion is to take it a step at a time…

• Start by replacing red meat at one meal a week with fish or lean meat.
• Add more leafy greens and fruit to every plate.
• Lean on extra virgin olive oil. The monounsaturated fats and antioxidants in olive oil are fantastic for your heart health, and the spicy, fruity flavor of good olive oil adds a nice depth to many dishes.
• Replace sugary soda or dangerous diet drinks with seltzer water that’s naturally flavored with fruits like lemon, lime, berries or melon.
• If you’re someone who loves to snack on chips between meals, try replacing them with a handful of nuts like almonds, walnuts or pecans.

Finally, if (like me) you’re a fan of dessert, try having an apple, orange or bowl of berries at the end of a meal instead of cookies, cake or ice cream. Make the switch once a week to start, then gradually up the ante until you’re no longer consuming sugary desserts regularly. I can tell you from personal experience you’ll eventually stop craving them and will probably find them too sweet when you do indulge.

Sources:

Mediterranean diet improves immunotherapy response rates and progression-free survival in advanced melanoma, new study suggests — EurekAlert!

Eating a diet rich in nuts, olive oil and legumes helps fight off skin cancer, study finds — Daily Mail

The post Mediterranean diet improves cancer treatment for melanoma appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I could tell that, before he’d even begun, he was anticipating his failure to follow through.

I recommended that instead of trying to switch to a brand new, rigid and unforgiving eating plan in the New Year, a simple change in his mindset could give him a better chance of success…

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Think of it as an “eating style,” not a “diet”

The word “diet” conjures up images of deprivation, tasteless foods, and constant cravings for what we can’t have.

But deprivation diets set you up to fail—unless you have willpower like Superman.

Instead of starting a new “diet,” pledge to gradually change your “eating style,” and you’ll have greater success.

What does changing your eating style mean? It could be as simple as eating better. And when done right, eating better can mean eating more — not less — to maintain a healthier weight and avoid heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Getting started

By now, you probably know about the Mediterranean diet and its many health benefits.

The research is plentiful. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables, nuts and legumes, fish, and whole grains, and low in dairy and unhealthy fats, prevents heart disease and cancer, fights inflammation and keeps your mind sharp.

This eating style has helped many long-term residents of the Greek island of Ikaria live well past 100 years of age in good health. The good news: eating like a Greek doesn’t feel like dieting, and it can become a lifestyle you enjoy!

Turning the old food pyramid on its head

The Mediterranean diet is based on the consumption of healthy fats, whole grains, fish and eggs, nuts and seeds, and, most importantly, loads of fresh veggies and fruits. Oh, and wine (in moderation).

Unlike the USDA dietary guidelines that focus on serving size, the key to the Mediterranean style of eating is choosing high-quality, nutrient-dense foods.

And, unlike the traditional “food pyramid,” the Mediterranean diet emphasizes the consumption of fats daily, provided they are healthy fats.

Make gradual changes

Adopting the delicious foods in the Mediterranean diet is the easy part…

But you’ll also need to make some small shifts in your old food choices to re-train your taste buds to crave more healthy foods — because there is so much to choose from!

According to Dr. David Katz, a nutrition expert at the Yale School of Medicine, the key is to cut back in baby steps. For example, if you typically add three sugars to your coffee, try cutting back to two this week, then one next week.

Research shows that, after about a month of cutting back on sugar, your taste buds can get the same intensity of sweet flavor from smaller and smaller amounts of sweet food.

It’s much easier to adopt one new food habit a week, creating changes you can sustain than to try and overhaul your diet overnight. The Mediterranean “diet” is really a term to describe an overall eating pattern, rather than a strict diet.

Here’s a delicious and easy recipe, along with some food guidelines, that will help you get started on the Mediterranean path to healthier eating: Slow-cooker Greek chicken.

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It’s not just about food

Consider this: there’s no word for “foodie” in Italian.

Why? Because food is central to daily living. The flavors and preparation that go into even the simplest of dishes are held to a high standard. Low-quality, processed foods are not used in traditional Italian eating.

On a family trip through the Mediterranean, including Italy, Greece, and Spain, Washington Post food columnist Ellie Krieger made some important discoveries.

She found that the culture of cooking and eating in these countries adds just as much to the health of the people as do their food choices.

Here are some tips she offers that you can incorporate into your eating in the coming year:

Make good food a priority. Rather than grab the first wrapped item you put your hands on in the cabinet and call that dinner, think ahead and plan what you will be eating for the week. Make a shopping list around these meal plans.

Eat seasonally. Sticking to seasonal produce automatically gives you a more satisfying eating experience. Fruits and vegetables in season are at their peak of flavor and nutritional value, as opposed to stored and frozen produce.

Savor mealtime. In the Mediterranean, meals are never rushed. Families sit down to enjoy fresh food together. Even if you are eating alone, think about carving out time to focus just on your meal, without distractions like cell phones or work.

Consider how food makes you feel. This goes hand in hand with slowing down and savoring your food.

In Mediterranean culture, attention is given to the order in which food is eaten, based on how it feels to the body. For example, salad is served after the entrée, to aid digestion.

Thinking about the foods you eat, and how they tend to affect your digestion, can give you clues to the right eating patterns for your body.

The post Forget dieting: Adopt an ‘eat more-live better’ food style appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But when we hear “healthy diet” our minds usually go straight to thinking of being deprived of some of our favorite foods.

The good news though is that there are many variations of healthy diets. While most will have similarities at the core, variations are the spice of life. And that may be the ticket to finding the right one for you.

That may even be the most important factor. Because the latest research shows the payout is even bigger — if you stick with it…

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Avoid disease and live longer

We’ve written before about a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health study that shows adhering to at least one of four healthy eating patterns can lower the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.

Now, a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan researchers indicates these eating patterns can also reduce your risk of premature death.

Both studies reviewed health data collected from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. This most recent study used data collected over 36 years from 75,230 women and 44,085 men. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of the study and completed dietary questionnaires every four years over the study period.

The information was scored based on each of four dietary pattern indexes. The higher the score, the closer the participant stuck to the dietary pattern. The four patterns they used were:

• Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015)
• Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (AMED)
• Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (HPDI)
• and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)

All four of these indexes share key components like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, though some components differ across the different eating patterns. For instance, HPDI strongly recommends against consuming any animal protein, while AMED includes fish on the list of recommended foods. You can get a more complete rundown of each diet here.

Those who scored at the highest levels of dietary adherence (meaning they stuck it out) — regardless of which healthy diet they followed — had a 14 to 20 percent lower risk of total mortality compared with those whose adherence scores were at the low end.

They also had a 6 to 13 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, a 6 to 15 percent lower risk of death from heart disease and a 7 to 18 percent lower risk of cancer-related death.

The researchers also found those who stuck it out had a 35 to 46 percent reduced risk of death related to respiratory disease — something not realized in previous studies.

In addition, those with the highest scores on the AMED and AHEI diets had a modestly lower risk of death due to neurodegenerative disease.

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The stroke conundrum

Oddly enough, none of the four dietary patterns appeared to be protective against stroke-related deaths. But that doesn’t mean our hands are tied…

Even though overall diet did not make an impact on stroke risk in this study, there’s at least one dietary step I’d put my money on: cutting back on sugar.

One study showed if we were to cut out 40 percent of the sugar from sodas and 20 percent of added sugars from other foods, we could in our lifetime prevent 2.48 million cardiovascular disease events, including strokes, heart attacks and cardiac arrests.

And a healthy diet addition that has been linked with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and stroke is black tea. Just make sure to keep it unsweetened.

Also, remember to go easy on the salt. Eating too much salt can starve your brain of oxygen — creating conditions in the brain that are similar to those created by stroke.

Other natural ways to help reduce stroke risk include adding 15 minutes of yoga to your current aerobic exercise routine and making sure you get the American Heart Association-recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night.

Sources:

Variety of healthy eating patterns linked with lower risk of premature death — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Healthy Eating Linked to Lower Risk of Total Mortality — MedPage Today

Healthy Eating Patterns and Risk of Total and Cause-Specific Mortality — JAMA Internal Medicine

The post Plain and simple: The right diet keeps us from dying early appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Research shows that the “fountain of youth” is hiding inside your microbiome (the collection of microbes that live in your gut).

These microbes impact how long you live, what diseases you do or don’t get and how quickly you age. And that news should have you jumping for joy. Why?

Because there’s so much you can do to influence your microbiome in a positive way. A few simple changes could have you looking and feeling better than you have in years… even if you got your AARP membership card decades ago.

Case in point?

A new study shows the Mediterranean diet could quickly cause changes in your microbiome that make you more youthful and less inflamed…

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The Mediterranean diet triggers big bacterial changes

A recent study published in the journal Gut showed that older adults living in long-term care facilities were able to reduce inflammation and improve markers for aging by eating a Mediterranean diet for a year.

As you probably know, as you age, your body starts breaking down and becomes more inflamed. This leads to frailty… or what’s commonly thought of as “getting old.” You walk slower, feel creakier and weaker and just don’t have as much physical or mental spunk as you once did. But here’s something you may not know…

The onset of frailty is tied to changes in your microbiome. And these changes are usually triggered by a poor or restricted diet.

Older adults living in long-term care facilities, for example, often restrict their diets because of health problems, dental problems or preferences. As a result, they don’t always get the good stuff the gut needs. That’s why researchers wanted to see if a Mediterranean diet could get their guts back in shape… and it did.

The study included 612 people between 65 and 79 years old. Researchers analyzed their microbiomes at the start of the study. Then they asked study participants to eat a Mediterranean diet for 12 months. After 12 months, researchers analyzed their microbiomes again. And guess what? There were some GOOD changes…

• The Mediterranean diet improved bacterial diversity… something that’s usually lost with age.
• It also gave a boost to bacterial strains specifically tied to improvements in aging markers like walking speed, handgrip strength, brain function and memory.
• And it boosted a strain of bacteria tied to lower production of inflammatory chemicals… and one tied to the increased production of bacteria that produce beneficial short-chain fatty acids.
• There was also a decrease in bacteria that produce a type of bile acid associated with insulin resistance, fatty liver and cell damage.

Those are some impressive microbial shifts!

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But do you know what’s even cooler? Researchers say that the bacteria produced as a result of the Mediterranean diet were like a “keystone species.” If you remember high school biology class, you know that keystone species are the foundations of an ecosystem. If you lose a keystone species, the entire ecosystem doesn’t last long after. So, the bacteria produced by the Mediterranean diet are the foundation of a stable gut ecosystem.

You may be wondering why a Mediterranean diet is so good for gut health. Here’s the answer… Fiber, vitamins and minerals.

When you eat a Mediterranean diet, you eat lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, legumes and other foods filled with fiber, as well as vitamin C, vitamin B6, vitamin B9, copper, potassium, iron, manganese and magnesium. You also get healthy fats from olive oil and fish.

Mastering the Mediterranean

Are you ready to go Mediterranean? At this point, how could you not be! If you are, here’s how to get started:

• Eat lots of vegetables and fruit. Produce should make up the majority of your diet. Shoot for five to ten servings of fruits and veggies per day. A serving is about a half-cup cooked or a whole cup raw.
• Pick your animal protein carefully. The Mediterranean diet focuses on lean protein, like fish and poultry. Although, red meat is allowed in moderation. You can also eat eggs.
• Get plenty of plant-based protein. Nuts, seeds, and legumes are all an important part of a Mediterranean diet.
• Only go for whole grains. You’ll have to ditch refined grains in favor of whole grains if you want to reap the benefits of a Mediterranean diet.
• Heap on the healthy fats. Fatty foods like olive oil, avocado, walnuts, and almonds play a huge part in the Mediterranean diet’s health benefits, so eat a lot of them.
• Do dairy in moderation. Some dairy is allowed on the Mediterranean diet. But choose healthier options like probiotic-rich yogurt, cottage cheese or kefir.

Sources:

1. Mediterranean diet promotes gut bacteria linked to ‘healthy ageing’ in older people — MedicalXpress
2. Mediterranean diet intervention alters the gut microbiome in older people reducing frailty and improving health status: the NU-AGE 1-year dietary intervention across five European countries — Gut
3. The Microbiome and Aging — Annual Review of Genetics
4. Can the gut microbiome unlock the secrets of aging? — Medical News Today
5. No Need to Limit Healthy Fats With the Mediterranean Diet, New Study Says — Health
6. 10 Things to Know About the Mediterranean Diet — Health

The post The diet that improves aging (even in nursing home residents!) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But it also goes hand-in-hand with chronic kidney disease. Either way, it can destroy heart function, leading to heart attack and even death.

But, knowing it’s bad for us and actually understanding how it happens (much less how to stop it) are two very different things.

There’s always advice on what to eat and what do — like exercise more — but how much do those things really help?

Well, thanks to a new study, scientists have learned more about the process that causes our arteries to harden — and that’s valuable information if you want to try to avoid that longevity killer…

Mineral accumulation in a surprising place

Put simply, the hardening of the arteries is the accumulation of minerals in their lining. Once these minerals build up, your arteries can no longer flex but instead become stiff, making it harder for your heart to pump the blood your body needs.

Your blood pressure goes up, blood clots are more likely to form, and your life is put at risk.

For decades now, researchers and medical professionals have assumed that this process begins in the collagen that reinforces your artery walls. After all, the theory made sense due to the fact that collagen is essential for the normal mineralization of our teeth and bones.

However, a team of scientists from McGill University has now found the process that happens in our arteries is quite different…

Instead, researchers saw that elastin, the material that gives arteries their elasticity so they can expand and contract in response to the pumping of the heart to facilitate blood flow, is where an abundance of minerals get deposited.

Yup, the elastin that’s supposed to make your arteries stretchy is the part that actually hardens first.

And that happens because of what they discovered in the second part of the study: early-stage calcium phosphate minerals had been collecting in the elastin-containing layers of diseased mouse arteries.

So now, we know that mineralization of elastin is one of the very first (and therefore most important) steps down the dangerous road to hardened arteries, and that information may help modern medicine come up with treatment options to block mineralization in arteries sometime in the future.

Keeping elastin elastic

With my family history of heart disease, I have spent years researching what I can do to keep my arteries healthy. Let me share what I’ve found…

Though still somewhat controversial, as far as conventional medicine goes, scientists are trying a nano chelation therapy to help prevent calcium (a mineral) buildup in the arteries of patients with kidney disease.

The theory behind chelation therapy is that it helps sweep away minerals and heavy metals (it’s government-approved for treating lead poisoning). Typically administered through IV, under the guidance of a doctor, chelation therapy delivers EDTA to help bind to minerals and flush them from the body.

But despite its long history of use, it’s not widely accepted in the medical community. But it looks like that could be changing. Hopefully, the kidney disease research will be successful enough that the treatment will be available for anyone that wants to avoid the hardening of the arteries.

Until then, there are ways to just support the health of our arteries, starting with diet. The Mediterranean diet should top the list of artery-loving diets, because of its focus on healthy oils: olive oil and omega-3s from fish.

The Med diet also includes lots of fruit and vegetables. Many fruits contain resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant shown in studies to reduce artery stiffness, even in people with type 2 diabetes (a condition that increases your risk for hardening of the arteries).

The Med diet is also great to maintain healthy blood pressure. It’s rich in nutrients that support blood vessel health, like:

• Vitamin K2 – found in fermented foods and dairy, like full-fat Greek yogurt, and a Japanese food called natto. A study of 4,807 people supplemented with vitamin K2 found that they experienced a 52 percent reduction in calcium deposits — as well as a 41 percent lower risk of serious heart problems.
• Grape Seed Extract – Grape seed extract delivers heart-healthy polyphenols that activate nitric oxide in the lining of your blood vessels to keep blood platelets from sticking together by relaxing arteries.
• Green Tea Extract – Phytochemicals in green tea, called catechins, have been proven to reduce oxidative stress and soothe inflammation to support better heart and blood vessel health.

Taking care of your arteries can go a long way to maintaining your good health. Start with a healthy Mediterranean-style diet, moderate exercise and take advantage of natural ways to keep your arteries smooth, supple and strong.

Sources:

1. How High Blood Pressure Can Lead to a Heart Attack — American Heart Association
2. McGill research team studies how calcium compounds accumulate in the arteries — EurekAlert!
3. Resveratrol Might Help Diabetics’ Arteries — WebMD

The post There’s more than meets the eye about how our arteries harden appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sadly, this not only compromises men’s mental health — it also leaves them far more vulnerable to chronic diseases that can reduce their lifespan.

Even worse, depression is a significant risk factor for suicide, the leading cause of death in young adults.

That’s could be because roughly 30 percent of patients living with depression won’t respond to traditional treatments, such as therapy and anti-depressant medications.

Even if a medication works, the side effects, which can include everything from fatigue and weight gain to nausea, insomnia and erectile dysfunction may feel just as bad as the issue they’re designed to treat.

Luckily, according to research out of Australia, there may be another way for young men living with depression to feel better.

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Going Mediterranean to get happy

A study, conducted at the University of Technology Sydney, assessed the impact of a Mediterranean diet on the symptoms of depression in men aged 18 to 25 over a 12-week timeframe.

It’s a diet that’s rich in colorful vegetables, legumes and whole grains, as well as oily fish, olive oil and raw, unsalted nuts.

“The primary focus was on increasing diet quality with fresh whole foods while reducing the intake of ‘fast’ foods, sugar and processed red meat,” said lead researcher, Jessica Bayes.

So, how did the men do?

“We were surprised by how willing the young men were to take on a new diet,” Bayes said. “Those assigned to the Mediterranean diet were able to significantly change their original diets, under the guidance of a nutritionist, over a short time frame.”

And when it came to their depression, the results spoke for them themselves.

When the men switch to a healthy Mediterranean diet, they saw a significant improvement in their symptoms of depression.

In fact, the results were so impressive that the researchers say the benefits offered by the Mediterranean diet suggest that doctors and psychologists should consider referring young men who come in for depression to a nutritionist or dietitian for help.

This may be the first study to show the mental health benefits of the diet in men, but a large Swedish study found that women (aged 50 and up) who adhered to the Mediterranean diet also experienced a lower risk of depression.

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The happiness hormone that’s made in the gut

How can a simple diet change affect a change in mood?

Well, there are a number of ways scientists believe food affects mood…

One of the most important of these is the fact that approximately 90 percent of serotonin, a chemical that helps you feel happy, is made in the gut by your gut microbes (the population of good and bad bacteria that populate your intestines).

Increasing amounts of evidence demonstrate the ability of these microbes to communicate with the brain via the vagus nerve along the “gut-brain axis.”

Put simply, when you feed the good microbes in your gut good things, they can send good signals to your brain.

The key here is that you need those good microbes.

The first way to ensure this is to increase the number of probiotics you get through either diet or supplementation each day.

And secondly, to have beneficial microbes, you have to feed them fiber, which is found in the fruits, veggies and legumes that make up such a big part of the Mediterranean diet.

So going Mediterranean can mean getting gut-healthy and happy all in one fell swoop.

For a crash course in all the ways the Mediterranean diet can benefit your gut, be sure to check out this article from my colleague, Jenny Smiechowski.

As a bonus, it lays out the seven simple steps to clear up any questions you might have about the diet, and make eating Mediterranean easy.

Sources:

A better diet helps beat depression in young men – ScienceDaily

Men and Depression – American Psychological Association

Increases in depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents and young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic – NIH

Antidepressants: Get tips to cope with side effects – Mayo Clinic

The post The diet that boosts men’s happiness hormone appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But I’m not just interested in a long life. I want to be healthy, active and alert until I reach those golden years.

To that end, I’m always looking for ways to bolster my health and keep my mind alert – especially ways that I can improve or change my diet.

That’s why a new article has caught my attention. It pulls together old and new research on the ideal “longevity diet.”

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Change is hard

Professor Valter Longo of the University of California is following in the footsteps of his mentor, Dr. Roy Wolford, a gerontologist and leading authority on aging and the concept of using caloric restriction to combat the effects of aging and disease.

He and co-author Rozalyn Anderson reviewed hundreds of studies on nutrition, diseases and longevity in laboratory animals and humans and combined them with their own studies on nutrients and aging.

Their goal? According to Longo, “By adopting a multi-system and multi-pillar approach based on over a century of research, we can begin to define a longevity diet that represents a solid foundation for nutritional recommendation and for future research.”

But he is also realistic about how difficult it is for most of us to change our eating habits.

“The reality is 90 percent of people are never going to change what they eat,” he says.  “Neither the quantities nor the type. They may make small changes, but they’re not going to make big changes in the long run. They could make big changes for six months, for 12 months and then they’d go back. That’s a reality, right? We have a million studies showing that. So then people should start dealing with that reality.”

A diet that mimics fasting

For this reason, Professor Longo does not advocate what may be considered the most difficult type of dieting, but one that has mountains of research behind it — fasting.

Despite acknowledging the power of fasting to promote health and longevity, he urges caution in undertaking it.

“I always say that fasting doesn’t really mean anything. Fasting is like saying eating. As we all know now if you say, ‘Oh, is eating good for you?’ Well, yes and no. So it can be very good or very bad. It depends what you eat, and fasting is the same way. It can be very good or very bad, depending on what you do, how long you do it for, who you are, etc. So, we’d been trying to move away from words that don’t mean anything, like intermittent fasting, and really started saying, ‘Pay attention, be careful,’ because fasting-based intervention can be very powerful or very damaging.”

Instead, his longevity diet incorporates stretches of several days where a person eats a diet that mimics fasting closely enough to trick the body into getting the benefits — without the downsides.

This consists of limiting calories to 900 per day and doing this three times a year for several days. Longo believes this may also help reduce insulin resistance, blood pressure and other disease risks.

And what type of foods should you eat on this longevity diet?

Longo and Anderson settled on key characteristics of what they consider “optimal” for a longevity diet: a mostly plant-based, low protein, Mediterranean type diet.

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How to eat to extend your lifespan

“There is nothing that even comes close to the benefit that we will have for almost nothing, free or close to free, by changing food habits. And it could be revolutionary.”

Professor Longo goes on to describe what those food habits look like.

“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.”

One thing he emphasizes is that, if you’re eating all the right foods, eat more of them, not less.

An example he gives of a “classic” longevity dish is two ounces of pasta, 12 ounces of chickpeas and four ounces of mixed vegetables — a dish that’s full of fiber, but more importantly, will fill your stomach enough to tell your brain it’s time to stop eating.

If you’d like a few recipes to help you get started on a “longevity diet,” look no further than recipes that come out of the Mediterranean diet.

You can also order a five-day fast mimicking diet box, with all your meals ready to go, from companies like ProLon, to make things easier.

This post contains an affiliate link. We may earn a small commission if you make purchases through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Sources:

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

Nutrition, longevity and disease: From molecular mechanisms to interventions — Cell

Professor Valter Longo: fasting and healthy aging — USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology

The post Is this the ‘longevity’ diet you can stick to? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And since it has the word “diet” in the name, you might expect me to write it off. 

But this is one of the rare eating approaches I can get behind — with caveats…  

What is the Nordic diet

As you might guess, the diet is based on the way people in Scandinavia have been eating for years. So while the Nordic diet highlights more lingonberries and fewer olives, the premise is the same: Similar to the Mediterranean diet (my other endorsed method of eating), the Nordic diet is all about eating local, seasonal, mostly plant-based whole foods.

In fact, the biggest difference between the two diets may be the go-to oil, the Nordic diet relies on canola oil, whereas the Mediterranean focuses on olive oil. Both are high in healthier unsaturated fat.

But here’s my big caveat –- conventional canola oil is extracted using a process that can reduce the overall health properties of the oil while leaving unhealthy chemical residues behind. Always look for versions that are “cold pressed”, which means the oil is extracted from seeds using pressure only.

Both the Mediterranean and Nordic approaches de-emphasize meat, but the Nordic diet allows for some game meat (venison, rabbit, bison).

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How should you adapt to this diet if you live in the U.S.?

You could transfer the principles to your local area. For me, in Minnesota, that means more Nordic and less Mediterranean (yes, I can occasionally find lingonberries at my grocery store!) If you’re in California, you can take advantage of year-round produce. If you’re in Maine, load up on those beautiful blueberries and have some lobster from time to time.

Wherever you live, if you eat lots of local produce and cut down on meat, you’ll likely naturally follow the tenets of the Nordic diet. Expect to eat lots of:

• Whole grains, including rye, barley and oats
• Whole fruits (not just the juice)
• Vegetables, including root veggies
• Fatty fish
• Low-fat dairy, such as yogurt
• Legumes

And while they may be prevalent in Nordic countries, you should still consume eggs and game meat in moderation — and alcohol and other red meats only rarely.  And always avoid added sugar, processed meat, foods high in sodium, and fast food (yes, they do have McDonald’s in Sweden, and no, it does not count as local or Nordic.)

According to the Cleveland Clinic, eating the Nordic way should add up to way less sugar than you’d get on a typical American diet, and about twice the fiber and seafood. You’ll reap lots of heart-healthy benefits, too, including reduced inflammation, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and maintenance of a healthy weight

Best of all, this isn’t a diet that you need to make a resolution to follow. In fact, the Nordic diet and the Mediterranean diet aren’t really diets at all. They’re lifestyles, which is why you probably won’t fail when you adopt them.

The post The Nordic diet: Fad or lifestyle? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

This makes following heart disease prevention strategies, like the ones laid out by the American Heart Association that include exercise and weight loss, vital.

However, while some of these strategies are clear, such as getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity a week, others have been murkier. This is especially true in the case of the recommendation to choose a healthy diet.

After all, there are a lot of diets to choose from, including Paleo, Keto, Atkins or Mediterranean. And how much of each food group should you eat?

The questions are endless.

But thanks to new evidence, we have a clearer idea about how to eat to keep our hearts healthy — including how much and how often some of those foods we’ve been told to avoid can be enjoyed…

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Looking at your diet as a whole

The paper, published in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology, says it’s important to remember that, “There is no indication that any food is poison in terms of cardiovascular risk. It’s a matter of quantity and frequency of consumption.”

And the lead author, Professor Gabriele Riccardi of the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, goes on to point out, “A mistake we made in the past was to consider one dietary component the enemy and the only thing we had to change. Instead, we need to look at diets as a whole and if we reduce the amount of one food, it is important to choose a healthy replacement.”

So what and how much should you eat?

#1 – Meats

The study found that since both red and processed meats are linked an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, they should be limited.

Keep your red meat to two 100 gram servings per week. And make processed meats like bacon and sausage an occasional indulgence.

On the other hand, poultry, which shows no relationship to heart disease at moderate intakes, can be consumed at levels of up to three servings of 100 grams per week.

Fish, which is even better for your heart and may actually prevent cardiovascular disease, should be consumed at least twice a week, but up to four times.

One meta-analysis of five dietary studies found that people who eat a pescatarian diet are 34 percent less likely to die from coronary artery disease than people who eat meat.

#2 – Legumes and nuts

The results of the study showed that legumes make a great protein replacement for the red meant you should limit in your diet. So enjoy up to four servings of 180 g per week!

Regarding nuts, a handful (or approximately 30 g) per day is recommended.

#3 – Fruits and veggies

Fruits and veggies have the power to lower your risk of atherosclerosis (that buildup of plaque in your arteries that causes them to harden).

Shoot for daily consumption of these heart-healthy options at a level of 400 grams each.

#4 – Dairy

You may have heard the advice to switch to low-fat dairy for better heart health.

Well, hold onto your hat! This study found that for the healthy population, there is no requirement to use low-fat, instead of full-fat, dairy products to prevent heart disease.

Instead, it found that both full-fat and low-fat dairy products can play a role in a balanced diet, with no increased heart risk, when consumed at moderate levels.

“Small quantities of cheese (three servings of 50 g per week) and regular yogurt consumption (200 g per day) are even linked with a protective effect due to the fact that they are fermented,” said Professor Riccardi. “We now understand that gut bacteria play a major role in influencing cardiovascular risk. Fermented dairy products contain good bacteria which promote health.”

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#5 – Cereals and grains

For cereals and grains, the recommendations are a little different, since they all have to do with their glycemic index or GI.

Glycemic index is a measurement of how quickly a food raises your blood sugar. So, the researchers recommend sticking to low GI foods like whole grain bread, rice, oats, and barley.

And be sure to limit your high GI foods, such as white bread and rice, to two servings per week.

#6 – Beverages

The study also broke down the good, the bad and the ugly of beverages. And it came down to this:

• For heart protection, drink up to three cups daily of coffee and tea.
• Moderate alcohol consumption (equal to two glasses a day of wine in men and one for women or one beer) lowers the risk of heart disease. But it’s important to note that this is a maximum — not a minimum!
• Finally, sodas, including low-calorie options, are linked with a higher risk and should be replaced with water except on limited occasions.

#7 – Chocolate

And it’s time for some really good news for chocolate lovers everywhere.

The researchers say that when it comes to a sweet treat, eating 10 grams of dark chocolate per day can be beneficial to your heart.

If you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, there’s some evidence that milk chocolate has some metabolic benefits.

Lowering your heart disease risk

One last piece of advice from Professor Riccardi…

“We need to rediscover culinary traditions such as the Mediterranean diet which has delicious recipes using beans, whole grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables.”

The Mediterranean diet was endorsed in the 2019 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. And the Pesco-Mediterranean diet gets even bigger accolades, considered by some experts as the ultimate health healthy diet.

Remember, the more you do to protect your heart, the more you protect your life.

Sources:

What should I eat to avoid heart disease? — EurekAlert!

How to Help Prevent Heart Disease At Any Age — American Heart Association

The post What should you eat to avoid heart disease? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And as fads emerge, research often finds health benefits to each.

Yet, when it comes to which diet is the hands-down winner that time and time again scientists say is great for your health, it has to be the Mediterranean diet.

In fact, a brand new study has once again proven the value of going Mediterranean  —  this time for your brain and your memory.

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Protection from plaques

The research was published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. And it specifically looked out how diet can be used to protect against dementia.

It followed over 500 participants, asking them to complete surveys of what they ate and how often and taking brain scans, and administering memory tests. The team even created a Mediterranean diet scoring system. This allowed them to analyze how closely each participant followed the diet on a scale from zero to nine.

And, they went a step farther, testing the spinal fluid of half of the people in the study for amyloid and tau protein biomarkers — one of the main culprits behind Alzheimer’s. Together, these form those harmful plaques that disrupt normal activity and harm the brain.

What did they find?

The diet appears to have the power to prevent the buildup of those amyloid and tau proteins. In fact…

• People who didn’t follow the diet closely had higher levels of biomarkers of amyloid and tau pathology than those who did.
• On memory tests, people who didn’t stick to a Mediterranean diet scored lower than those who did.
• In the area of the brain most closely associated with Alzheimer’s disease, every point lower that a participant scored on the Mediterranean diet scale was equal to almost one year of brain aging.

The researchers say that hands-down eating a Mediterranean diet confers dementia protection and promotes healthy brain aging…

“Our study suggests that eating a diet that’s high in unsaturated fats, fish, fruits and vegetables, and low in dairy and red meat may actually protect your brain from the protein build-up that can lead to memory loss and dementia,” said study author Tommaso Ballarini, Ph.D., of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, Germany.

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Taking your diet to the Mediterranean

With these benefits, it’s clear that if you want to grab some dementia protection, sticking to the Mediterranean diet is the way to go.

Things to include in your daily diet are:

• Fish
• Fresh fruits and veggies
• Legumes
• Nuts and seeds
• Cereals and whole grains
• Monounsaturated fatty acids, like olive oil

On the other hand, you should plan to limit dairy products, red meat, and saturated fatty acids. These saturated fats are ones you would find in beef, lamb, poultry with the skin on, lard, creams and other food sources.

You should also plan to reduce your sugar intake, as well as the amount of processed foods and refined carbs you eat.

So, it’s time to take your diet to the Mediterranean to guard your brain and your memory skills down the road.

Sources:

Saturated Fat — American Heart Association

Mediterranean diet: A heart-healthy eating plan — Mayo Clinic

DOES EATING A MEDITERRANEAN DIET PROTECT AGAINST MEMORY LOSS AND DEMENTIA? — American Academy of Neurology

Mediterranean diet could be key to stopping Alzheimer’s disease from developing — StudyFinds

The post The proof is in the spinal fluid: The Mediterranean diet deters Alzheimer’s appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

There is so much information about weight loss out there, it can be hard to figure out what plan is best for you, especially when you have health concerns.

But if high blood pressure is your main concern, a new study has found that those who need to change their eating habits to normalize their blood pressure should take a pre-diet step… and start with a fast.

Stick with me here. Because not only does it ramp up the health benefits of a healthy diet once the short fast is over — but the improvements last!

If you’d like to lose weight, get control of your blood pressure and even cut down or eliminate BP medication — like these study participants did — read on…

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Fast, then diet for best results

“Switching to a healthy diet has a positive effect on blood pressure. If the diet is preceded by a fast, this effect is intensified.”

This is the advice Dr. Andras Maifeld has for people with metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Maifeld is a German researcher and lead author of a research study that explains why fasting before switching to a healthy diet can help you lose weight and experience improved health effects that last.

A team of twenty-two German researchers recruited 71 volunteers who had both metabolic syndrome and elevated systolic blood pressure (the top number, representing the force your heart exerts on the walls of your arteries each time it beats).

The researchers divided the volunteers into two groups at random.

Both groups followed the DASH diet (a Mediterranean-style diet that includes fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and pulses, fish and lean white meat) for three months. One of the two groups did not consume any solid food at all for five days before starting the DASH diet — and here’s what happened…

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Fasting kick-starts diet benefits

The researchers took stool samples from the group that fasted for five days before starting the diet to examine the effects of the fast on the gut microbiome.

They saw that the composition of the gut bacteria ecosystem changes drastically during fasting. Health-promoting bacteria that help to reduce blood pressure multiply, including bacteria that metabolize dietary fiber into anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids that benefit the immune system.

In fact, some of these changes remain even after resuming solid food intake. According to researcher Dominik Müller, “Body mass index, blood pressure and the need for antihypertensive medication remained lower in the long term among volunteers who started the healthy diet with a five-day fast.”

How to start fasting

If you’ve been discouraged with your past results, even after sticking to a healthy diet for some time, the problem could be a lack of the right bacteria in your gut. Specifically, bacteria that break down dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids, which protect against inflammation and aid weight loss.

That’s why so many of us give up…

“Those who have this problem often feel that it is not worth the effort and go back to their old habits,” says Dr. Sofia Forslund, one of the head researchers of this study.

But instead of giving up, jumpstart your healthy diet with a fast.

“Fasting acts as a catalyst for protective microorganisms in the gut. Health clearly improves very quickly and patients can cut back on their medication or even often stop taking tablets altogether.” 

Fasting doesn’t always mean you give up food completely. The people in this study that fasted gave up solid food for five days. That means you could consume soup broths, nutritional powder drinks or juice fruits and vegetables to help quell your hunger pangs.

Previous studies have shown many health benefits associated with different types of fasting:

Intermittent fasting can reverse type 2 diabetes.

Fasting also reduces the number of inflammatory cells in the blood.

And, if fasting still feels too extreme for you, try the fast-mimicking diet.

Sources:

Fasting can be an effective way to start a diet — Science Daily

Fasting alters the gut microbiome reducing blood pressure and body weight in metabolic syndrome patients — Nature Communications

The post The pre-diet step for lasting lower blood pressure and weight loss appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

So why not go Mediterranean?

The reasons for switching to this popular diet seem to be almost endless…

• The Mediterranean diet has been proven to be the best eating plan for weight loss…
• It can also help you manage stress (we need that more than ever now!) better…
• Following a Mediterranean diet can help prevent prostate cancer, breast cancer and osteoporosis…
• And of course, it’s the best eating plan there is for heart health!

Now, we’re finding out that eating a Mediterranean diet not only keeps your body young, it keeps your brain young, too. In fact, a simple change in eating habits could give you a strong body and a strong mind, well into old age…

Mediterranean diet keeps aging brains sharp

A team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh examined whether Mediterranean eating could make the brain work better with age.

To do so, they tested the cognitive ability of over 500 people averaging 79 years of age, none of whom showed any signs of dementia.

The tests focused on problem solving, thinking speed, memory, and word knowledge. MRI brain scans of over 350 of the participants were also examined.

After looking at questionnaires that participants filled out, describing their typical diets over the past year, it was clear that those who had eaten a Mediterranean-style diet had better brain function.

This included performance in memory, verbal ability, and visuospatial ability (the ability to analyze and mentally alter objects), with the biggest improvement seen in verbal ability.

Even after adjusting for things like IQ, health, and education, people who’d stuck to the Mediterranean diet showed better brain function.

Nutrients in the Mediterranean diet are the key

The brains of those who stuck to the diet functioned differently, but the MRIs showed no changes in the physical brain itself.

How can this be?

Lona Sandon, a registered dietician nutritionist and professor of nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, has some hypotheses.

“We could hypothesize that it has something to do with inflammation for one, as well as with other nutrients like magnesium or folate that are found in the leafy greens,” she says.

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She also notes that healthy fats, found in fatty fish, nuts and olive oil, help reduce inflammation in the body.

“This helps to protect blood vessels, and it’s not just blood vessels that lead to the heart, but blood vessels that lead to the brain and everywhere else in the body,” she explains.

It’s not too late to save your brain

Janie Corley, who led the University of Edinburgh study, says that changing from a lifelong habit of unhealthy eating, even in your 60s or 70s, can benefit your brain.

“Cognitive decline is a risk factor for dementia, for which there is currently no cure,” Corley says. “Therefore, strategies to prevent or delay cognitive decline, by changes in modifiable lifestyle factors such as diet, are important in terms of public health.”

So, what’s the easiest way to start following the Mediterranean diet?

Here is my guide to getting started, including the mental attitudes that will make it not only easier, but downright enjoyable.

Here’s an article that tells you why extra virgin olive oil is the best thing you can feed your brain.

And, for more help, here are a few recipes you can start with:

Sweet Roasted Chickpeas

5 simple green smoothies

Mediterranean sofrito (a great topping for fish or vegetables!)

3 breakfasts to keep you sharp

Source:

Mediterranean Diet Could Keep Aging Brains Sharp Web MD

The post You’re never too old to change your diet and save your brain appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

About a million people in the United States are presently living with various stages of Parkinson’s disease. There is no cure for this progressive disease that slowly robs you of your physical and mental capabilities.

But, as with so many other health conditions, we’re finding that diet can play a part in prevention.

Serotonin is a naturally occurring hormone in the brain that plays an essential role in mood regulation, sleep and other body functions.

In 2019, British researchers found that patients not yet diagnosed with Parkinson’s, but who had a genetic predisposition to the disease, had reduced levels of serotonin, and that eating foods that increase serotonin levels, such as eggs, salmon and pineapple, was associated with a later onset of the disease.

And just this year, a group of Canadian researchers reported that following the Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet, both known for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, can also delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease.

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Mediterranean and MIND diets both delay Parkinson’s

A recent study at the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre at the University of British Columbia found a strong correlation between age of onset of Parkinson’s disease and dietary habits, suggesting that nutritional strategies may be an effective tool to delay the onset of Parkinson’s.

Researchers administered Food Frequency Questionnaires to 167 subjects with Parkinson’s disease, as well as to 119 control subjects.

The questionnaires were scored for how closely the subjects adhered to the MIND diet, as well as to two different versions of the Mediterranean diet.

In women who closely followed the MIND diet, the onset of Parkinson’s was delayed up to 17.4 years, while for men, the Mediterranean diet seemed to have more of an impact, delaying the onset for an average of 8.4 years.

Lead researcher Avril Metcalfe-Roach, a Ph.D. student at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories, is hopeful about these findings.

“If we understand the sex differences between the MIND diet and Mediterranean diet then we might better understand the sex differences that drive Parkinson’s disease in the first place,” he says.

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Eating to live longer and healthier

These new findings are very exciting indeed. But guess what? Mediterranean-style eating is good for almost every part of your body, and, if followed consistently, will add healthy years to your life.

That’s due in large part to the many health-promoting nutrients this diet is rich in. One of those is vitamin D. You may already know that vitamin D helps convert tryptophan to serotonin. A study published in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition determined that adherence to the Mediterranean Diet was independently associated with increased blood levels of the sunshine vitamin.

Consider these other health benefits of eating Mediterranean-style:

• It helps fight prostate cancer
• It’s the most sustainable diet   if you’re trying to lose weight
• It helps fend off old-age frailty (you don’t have to lose your strength and vitality as you age!)
• It makes you more resilient against stress
• It strengthens your heart against the effects of air pollution

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

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How to eat Mediterranean-style

The Mediterranean and the MIND diet are among the most versatile in terms of food selection, and therefore among the easiest diets to follow.

And remember, gradual changes always work best, and are easiest to maintain.

Here’s how to get started:

• Eat more fruits and veggies.
• Switch to whole grains.
• Opt for healthy fats from foods like nuts, avocado and olive oil.
• Add herbs and spices to your meals, like basil, oregano and rosemary.
• Eat fish at least once or twice per week.
• Eat less red meat. And when you do eat red meat, make sure it’s high-quality, meaning local, organic or grass-fed.
• Have a glass of red wine with dinner. But no more than one, otherwise you’ll set yourself up for additional health risks.

Sources:

MIND and Mediterranean diets associated with later onset of Parkinson’s disease  – Eureka Alert

MIND and Mediterranean Diets Associated with Later Onset of Parkinson’s Disease –Movement Disorders

The post The diet that can keep Parkinson’s away appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

According to the CDC, one person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.

We also know that every year, 200,000 Americans suffer a second heart attack.

But a new study points to a simple, nutritious eating plan, one many of us may already be following, that could keep those second heart attacks from happening.

For the first time, the Mediterranean diet which has been shown beneficial for patients with heart disease has been found to help reduce the likelihood of having a second heart attack. And here’s why…

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The Mediterranean diet and heart disease

Study after study has shown that following the Mediterranean diet can help prevent everything from diabetes and osteoporosis to breast cancer, stroke and heart attack.

Studies have also found it to be the easiest eating plan to stick to when you’re trying to lose weight, easier than either the Paleo diet or intermittent fasting, which is helpful for anyone trying to reduce heart attack risk.

Also, it’s been found that Mediterranean eating makes cholesterol-lowering statins more effective.

And finally, a Harvard study shows that replacing butter with olive oil, one of the main components of the Mediterranean diet, significantly lowers the risk for heart disease.

But maybe you’ve been late getting on board the Mediterranean train and you’ve developed heart disease, maybe even suffered a heart attack. Well, the Mediterranean diet is still your best bet…

Mediterranean diet reduces risk of second heart attack

For the first time, researchers examined whether the Mediterranean diet is useful in preventing heart attacks in people who already suffer from heart disease.

In this study, half the participants followed the Mediterranean diet, based on using plenty of virgin olive oil, eating fruit and vegetables every day, and having three servings each of legumes, fish and nuts a week. They had cut down on eating meat, especially red meat, and avoid additional fats such as margarine and butter as well as foods high in sugar.

A second group was told to follow a very restrictive low-fat diet, based on limiting all kinds of fat, both animal and plant, and increasing their intake of complex carbohydrates. They were told to cut down on red meat, to choose low-fat dairy products, to avoid eating nuts and to reduce their intake of sweets and pastries.

Three aspects of arterial health were examined…

• First, the vasodilation capacity of the patients’ arteries was analyzed. This flexibility is very important in order to adapt to different circumstances, like exercise or stressful situations.
• Second, the degree of permanent endothelium damage was assessed.
• Third, the ability of the arteries to repair themselves was examined.

José López Miranda of the Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute in Cordoba, Spain, a member of the research team, had this to say:

“We observed that the Mediterranean diet model induced better endothelial function, meaning that the arteries were more flexible in adapting to different situations in which greater blood flow is required. Besides, the endothelium’s ability to regenerate was better and we detected a drastic reduction in damage to the endothelium, even in patients at severe risk.”

“If we can take action at the initial stages, prompting endothelium regeneration and better endothelial function, we can help prevent heart attacks and heart disease from reoccurring.”

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How to eat Mediterranean

Whether you’ve never suffered a heart attack, or are looking to prevent a second occurrence, here’s how you can start implementing this heart-healthy eating style.

Foods to avoid:

• Refined grains (white rice, white pasta, white flour)
• Processed meats (bacon, sausage, cold cuts)
• Added sugars
• Butter
• Oils (other than olive oil)
• Red meat
• Hard liquor (substitute a glass of red wine, instead)

Foods to add to your diet:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Whole grains
• Seeds
• Tree nuts
• fish/seafood
• Poultry
• Olives and olive oil
• Eggs and dairy products in moderation

Here’s my primer on making the gradual shift to a “Mediterranean style” of eating.

Sources:

The Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of having another heart attack — Eureka Alert

Mediterranean diet and endothelial function in patients with coronary heart disease: An analysis of the CORDIOPREV randomized controlled trial — PLOS Medicine

35 Chilling Heart Attack Statistics & Facts to Know in 2020 — medalerthelp.org

The post The diet that keeps a 2nd heart attack away appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Now, a new study has found a way to take the benefits of the “Med diet” to a new level, by going green.

Lose more weight, lower cholesterol and blood pressure and beat insulin resistance

The research, published in the journal Heart, specifically focused on whether embracing a green Mediterranean diet — one with even more plant-based foods and very little red meat or poultry — could beat out the benefits of the original diet.

The researchers randomly assigned 294 sedentary and moderately obese people into three dietary groups:

• Group One ate what was considered a healthy diet (but not the Mediterranean) and was given advice on increasing their physical activity.
• Group Two got that same exercise advice but were also told to stick to a calorie-restricted traditional Mediterranean diet (1500-1800 kcal/day for men and 1200-1400 kcal/ day for women). Their diet was low in simple carbohydrates, but rich in vegetables, with poultry and fish replacing red meat. And they also got to enjoy 28 g/day of walnuts.
• Group Three was the “Green Med” group. They were following the same diet and exercise advice as Group Two (including eating 28 g/day of walnuts), but with an emphasis on “greener.” This included avoidance of red/processed meat, and higher quantities of plant matter. It also included 3-4 cups/day of green tea and 100 g frozen cubes of Wolffia globosa (cultivated Mankai strain), a high protein form of the aquatic plant duckweed, taken as a green plant-based protein shake as a partial substitute for animal protein.

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And hands-down, going green resulted in big wins in just six months!

While both the Mediterranean (group 2) and the Green Med (group 3) groups lost more than participants who simply ate a healthy diet (group 1), the greenies lost over 14 percent more.

They also lost more of the bulge around their middle, reducing their waist circumference by 26.5 percent more than the traditional Mediterranean diet group and a whopping three times more than those so-called “healthy dieters.”

And that’s not all…

The green Med diet group benefited from better cholesterol, reducing their LDL or “bad cholesterol” by nearly 4 percent compared to less than one percent in the original Med group and almost no change for the healthy diet group.

The Green Med group even saw big improvements in other cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors including:

• Lower blood pressure
• Reduced insulin resistance
• Lower levels of the inflammation markers associated with hardening of the arteries
• Improved ratios of ‘good’ to ‘bad’ cholesterol

Altogether, the researchers say that taking the Med diet green resulted in a nearly twofold fall in the 10-year Framingham Risk Score for participants, substantially reducing their likelihood of serious heart disease over the next decade.

Green up your diet

So if you want to grab the most from your diet and get heart-healthy, go Mediterranean and go green.

Eat plenty of fruits and veggies, ditch the red and processed meats, drink green tea and add a greens powder to your routine.

No excuses not to go green: A slimmer, trimmer body and a strong healthy heart are waiting.

Sources:

Green Mediterranean (‘green Med’) diet may be even better for health — EurekAlert!

The post New and improved Mediterranean diet reduces heart risks even more appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But managing stress could be even easier — with the right diet… One that’s already well known for its amazing health benefits…

And we need that more than ever…

Stress can be damaging to work and personal relationships, and it can also impact your physical health. It has been linked to an increased risk of chronic conditions like heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease and is associated with higher mortality rates.

At a time when mental health care is tough to access due to social distancing guidelines, we’re all trying other ways to relieve the burden of stress in our lives. And there’s one lifestyle change in particular that offers hope for combating stress….

The stress-busting impact of the Mediterranean diet

A study from researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine found that eating a Mediterranean diet, which focuses heavily on plant-based foods and healthy fats, can be a relatively simple way to help reduce the physiological effects of stress and promote healthy aging.

The preclinical trial involved 38 middle-age macaques that were fed either a Mediterranean or Western diet for 31 months, the human equivalent of 9 years. The diets were formulated to closely mirror human diets, with protein and fat derived mainly from animal sources in the Western group and primarily from plant sources in the Mediterranean group.

Researchers then examined the effects of the chronic stress of low social status and the acute stress of being socially isolated for 30 minutes. They measured changes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, as well as the stress hormone cortisol, to determine the diets’ effect on these stress responses.

The sympathetic nervous system triggers the body’s “fight or flight” response by regulating essential functions such as heart rate and blood pressure. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, returns the body to a calmer state. Maintaining a balance between the two systems is important since high sympathetic nervous system activity can be harmful to health.

A temporary rise in cortisol helps the body access resources to fight or flee. But stress keeps cortisol levels high, damaging tissues within the body.

The macaques fed the Mediterranean diet showed greater resilience to stress. Their sympathetic nervous system and cortisol responses to stress were lower than that of the animals fed the Western diet, and they recovered more quickly after the stress had ended.

As the animals aged over the 31-month study, the researchers observed an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity. However, the Mediterranean diet slowed the aging of the sympathetic nervous system in those macaques on the diet.

These findings suggest a population-wide adoption of a Mediterranean-like diet could be a simple, cost-effective way to reduce psychological stress and its impact on health, as well as delay nervous system aging.

“Previous observational studies have suggested that lower perceived stress is associated with high fruit and vegetable consumption,” says Dr. Carol A. Shively, professor of pathology and comparative medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study. “Unfortunately, Americans consume a diet rich in animal protein and saturated fat, salt and sugar.”

Eating like they do in the Mediterranean

The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet have long been touted. Among the many positive features of the Med diet, the eating plan is best for losing weight and keeping it off, improving healthy aging, prostate health, gut health and sexual function.

Some of the cuisines that are the focus of the Mediterranean diet include those of Greece, Italy, Egypt and Turkey. People from these countries tend to eat large amounts of olive oil, nuts, beans and legumes, fish, poultry, whole grains and fruits and vegetables. Eggs, cheese and dairy are consumed in moderation, and alcohol tends to be avoided or restricted to a glass of red wine with dinner. Sweets are an occasional treat rather than part of the daily menu.

Of course, not all foods consumed in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea are completely healthy. For example, lamb is a popular ingredient in many Mediterranean dishes, but as a red meat, it’s not one that’s meant to be consumed every day. As with any other food plan, try to avoid meals containing deep-fried foods, or that are centered around large portions of red meat, cheese or heavily processed ingredients.

Sources:

Mediterranean Diet Helps Reduce Effects of Stress in Animal Model, Study Shows — Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

Mediterranean diet, stress resilience, and aging in nonhuman primates — Neurobiology of Stress

Stress in America 2020 Survey Signals a Growing National Mental Health Crisis — American Psychological Association

What is the Mediterranean Diet and How to Follow It — The Mediterranean Dish

The post The ultimate diet for stress management appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Turns out, when you eat in a way that helps lower cholesterol and improve overall heart health, you’re also helping lower risks associated with cancer, dementia, arthritis and other diseases.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you already know how passionate I am about the connection between diet and healthy longevity… because lowering your chances of getting a life-threatening disease plays a huge role in extending life span!

Here are some of the specific ways a whole food, plant-based heart-healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, helps prevent other diseases:

1. It’s anti-inflammatory. Simply put, inflammation causes pain. So, when you control your body’s inflammatory response, you can control the discomfort of chronic diseases such as arthritis. Inflammation can also cause more subtle damage: It can impair arteries, metabolic organs and the brain. And that can have negative repercussions on a whole host of health issues, including blood vessel disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. 
   
2. It promotes weight loss. Not everyone needs to lose weight, of course, but obesity is a risk factor for many types of cancer. Maintaining a healthy weight can contribute to a lower chance of developing cancer.
   
3. It helps keep blood pressure in check. Because an unprocessed plant-based diet is naturally low in sodium, following this eating plan means you’re less likely to become hypertensive. A recent survey of studies found a higher risk of kidney, colorectal and breast cancer in people with hypertension, although it’s not clear if the link is causal.
   
4. It reduces exposure to various toxins. Avoiding preservatives and compounds from smoked, cured and processed meats (a natural consequence of a plant-based diet) limits risks associated with developing stomach and colorectal cancers.
   
5. It helps reduce the intake of added sugars. The relationship between diabetes and diet is a complex one, but scientists, doctors and dieticians agree that a few simple guidelines help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. And guess what half of a healthy plate should be filled with for anyone worried about diabetes? Yep, non-starchy vegetables.

The bottom line? If you’ve been eating a heart-healthy, plant-based diet (like my Step One Foods customers!), pat yourself on the back. You’re doing much more for your health than you may have realized.

The post 5 ways a heart-healthy diet helps beat cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But they may be stealing too much of the spotlight because your microbiome is made up of much more than just bacteria… it contains a lot of fungi too. And oftentimes, the number of fungi in the gut and the types of fungi in the gut have just as big an influence on disease risk as bacteria do.

In fact, research shows that people with Crohn’s disease have more fungi and fewer bacteria in their guts than people without the disease. There’s even evidence that Crohn’s disease flare-ups are linked to a surge in gut fungi. Diabetes is linked to more fungi and less bacteria in the gut too.

And now, new research shows that fungi in your gut could even play a role in your Alzheimer’s risk…

People with mild cognitive impairment have much different gut fungi

A recent study from researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine shows that certain fungi in the gut are tied to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

In this small randomized, double-blind crossover pilot study, researchers sequenced the fungal rRNA ITS1 gene in 17 older adults, 11 of whom were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is considered a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. People with MCI are three to five times more likely to develop full-blown dementia than people without the condition.

By sequencing the fungal rRNA ITS1 gene, researchers were able to identify the organisms in participants’ gut microbiomes. They sequenced this gene two times during the study… once before study participants began eating a modified Mediterranean ketogenic diet or the American Heart Association Diet, and once six weeks after they started one of these diets. Researchers also looked at cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to gauge markers for Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s what they found…

Certain fungi families were more abundant in the guts of people with mild cognitive impairment than people without it (Sclerotiniaceae, Phaffomyceteceae, Trichocomaceae, Cystofilobasidiaceae, Togniniaceae). Fungi classified in the genera Botrytis, Kazachstania, Phaeoacremonium and Cladosporium were also more abundant. However, people with MCI had a lower abundance of Meyerozyma fungi.

The composition of fungi in the gut was also linked to markers for Alzheimer’s disease in cerebrospinal fluid. All this points to one conclusion… fungi may make a difference in Alzheimer’s risk, but diet can help. Researchers found that the modified Mediterranean ketogenic diet seemed to influence fungal populations in a way that would have a positive impact on Alzheimer’s risk.

“Although we do not fully understand how these fungi contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, this is the first study of its kind to reveal their role in our mental health, which we hope will ignite thinking in the scientific community to develop a better understanding of them in relation to Alzheimer’s disease,” said principal investigator Hariom Yadav. “It also indicates that dietary habits such as eating a ketogenic diet can reduce harmful fungi in the gut which might help in reducing Alzheimer’s disease processes in the brain.”

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Should you try the Mediterranean-keto mashup?

Clearly, this was a small study… and we need more evidence before we can come to any firm conclusions about the role of fungi in Alzheimer’s risk. But the best news to emerge from this study is that healthy eating could improve your microbiome in a way that lowers your risk. We kind of already knew this… at least in relation to bacteria. But more research that supports the benefits of healthy eating is always welcome.

Does that mean you need to go on a Mediterranean ketogenic diet ASAP to protect your brain?

That’s up to you. Both the Mediterranean diet and the keto diet have been shown in studies to positively impact brain health. So, mashing up the two for a super healthy, brain-supporting diet doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Of course, if one of those diets appeals to you more than the other, you could just choose that one, since they’re both proven to have brain benefits on their own.

If you’re interested in trying a Mediterranean-keto mashup like they used in the study, here’s what you need to know…

The Mediterranean ketogenic diet is just like the Mediterranean diet… except most of your carbohydrate intake comes from green vegetables and salads (rather than the whole grains, fruit, etc. you’re allowed to eat in the traditional Mediterranean diet).

That means you eat lots of healthy fats from fish, nuts and olive oil and lots of healthy veggies like you would on the traditional Mediterranean diet. You just don’t do the whole grain thing. And you have to limit fruit far more.

Give it a try if it sounds appealing to you. If you have a hard time limiting carbs that much, you can always switch to a traditional Mediterranean diet, which includes far more carbs but still boasts impressive brain benefits.

Sources:

Fungi in gut linked to higher Alzheimer’s risk can be reduced through ketogenic diet — EurekAlert!

Gut mycobiome and its interaction with diet, gut bacteria and alzheimer’s disease markers in subjects with mild cognitive impairment: A pilot study — EBioMedicine.

It’s time to highlight our fungus friends in our microbiomes — Massive Science.

Risk Factors for the Progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia — Clinics in Geriatric Medicine.

The Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet: Optimal Health and Weight Loss — Ruled.me.

The post The alarming connection between gut fungi, Alzheimer’s and the diet that can help appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

A man who is otherwise in good health has an excellent chance of recovery if prostate cancer is diagnosed as localized (contained within the prostate) or regional (spread only to nearby structures or lymph nodes).

But once it spreads to parts of the body that are distant from the prostate gland, such as the liver or lungs, prostate cancer survival rates plummet to about 30 percent. A Danish study found that when prostate cancer spreads to the bones, we’re looking at a five-year survival rate of 3 percent.

That’s why avoiding prostate cancer in the first place is your best chance. And the best place to start is with what you eat…

Foods that are bad for the prostate

As with so many diseases, what you eat may have a very real effect on your likelihood of being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The typical American diet of red meat, sugar, trans fats, white flour and processed foods not only increases the likelihood of prostate cancer, but research shows that it more than doubles the chances that prostate cancer will be fatal.

Also, a high intake of dairy foods has been connected with prostate cancer diagnosis, and research has connected whole milk products (as opposed to skim or low fat) with dying of the disease.

Possible explanations include the thought that dairy products may increase cell proliferation in the prostate, which can lead to prostate cancer, and that the hormones often used in milk products may also contribute to cancer development.

Prostate-healthy diets

According to my colleague, Dr. Geo Espinosa, cancer experts estimate that what we choose to eat accounts for up to 90 percent of the risk for certain cancers, including prostate cancer.

The Prostate Diet offers eight dietary principles that can help avoid a prostate cancer diagnosis:

1. Maximize fruits and vegetables
2. Eat healthy fats
3. Choose plant protein over animal protein
4. Eat whole and natural foods
5. Drink green tea
6. Eat omega 3-rich foods
7. Avoid foods and additives that harm prostate health
8. Stay hydrated.

If you’re thinking, “This sounds an awful lot like the Mediterranean diet,” you’re right. Both diets emphasize plant sources of protein, high-fiber foods and omega 3-rich fatty fish. Research by University of South Australia says the Mediterranean diet is what anyone should eat to avoid prostate cancer and to improve treatment effects.

And there’s still more to choose from…

• A recent study from the University of California and published in the Journal of Medicinal Food found that eating walnuts decreases levels of the hormone IGF-1, which is linked to prostate and other cancers.
• Also, the healthy fats in avocados and the catechins (a type of antioxidant) in green tea fight inflammation and can help with prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate).
• Finally, all you coffee-loving men will be happy to know that drinking four to five cups of coffee a day can lower your chances of fatal and advanced prostate cancer, according to a 2014 review of clinical studies.

Why Japanese men don’t get prostate cancer

Japan has the lowest prostate cancer rates in the world.

If you’re concerned about becoming a prostate cancer statistic, why not take a look at a Japanese man’s diet and lifestyle, and do what you can to duplicate it right here at home?

Do:

• Drink green tea
• Eat fish and fresh, whole foods
• Exercise regularly

Don’t:

• Eat sugar and processed foods
• Overeat
• Drive when you can walk

Prostate cancer is common, but you can make it harder for the disease to target you. And, if it does, it doesn’t need to be a death sentence, not if you pay attention to what you eat and make the right choices.

Sources:

10 Foundations of the Prostate Diet  — prostate.net

Skeletal Related Events, Bone Metastasis and Survival of Prostate Cancer: A Population Based Cohort Study in Denmark (1999 to 2007) — sciencedirect.com

Western diet may reduce survival odds for prostate cancer — Reuters Health

Whole Milk Intake Is Associated with Prostate Cancer-Specific Mortality among U.S. Male Physicians — The Journal of Nutrition

The benefits of walnuts include slowing down prostate cancer — Natural Health 365

Coffee consumption and prostate cancer risk: an updated meta-analysis — PubMed.gov

The post Diet tips for dodging prostate cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

A lot of people opt for extreme diets to get themselves healthy, like raw food diets, vegan diets or keto diets. But these diets are hard to stick to and may only work long-term for the most iron-willed among us.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have people who don’t do much to make sure they’re eating a healthy diet. They’re downing hot dogs, lunch meat and plastic-wrapped desserts like nobody’s business… and it’s only a matter of time before this approach to eating takes a toll on their health (if it hasn’t already).

Part of the reason getting the whole diet thing right is so difficult is the fact that we have a lot of options. Humans are omnivores who can survive on a long list of foods… plants, meat, fish, dairy, fruit grains, nuts, whatever the heck is in all those processed, packaged foods we eat. But which of these foods will help us not just survive but thrive?

The author Michael Pollan called this the omnivore’s dilemma. But researchers believe they may have solved this dilemma, at least when it comes to preventing heart disease. After looking at loads of research, a team of researchers has proposed the ideal diet for us omnivores if we want to keep our hearts healthy…

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Ditching meat for fish makes the Mediterranean diet even healthier

A group of researchers from the U.S. and Spain has declared that the best diet for omnivores looking to prevent heart disease is a Pesco-Mediterranean diet with a dash of intermittent fasting thrown in for good measure.

The traditional Mediterranean diet was already endorsed as the 2019 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. That guideline is a compilation of the most important studies and guidelines for preventing cardiovascular disease.

But after looking at all the research, this group of researchers decided a Mediterranean diet that ditched meat entirely for fish is the way to go if you want to keep cardiovascular disease risk down. Here’s why…

First off, people in modern Western cultures eat way too much meat… especially processed meat from animals raised in inhumane, unsanitary conditions. But these researchers didn’t necessarily want to suggest a fully vegetarian or vegan diet (even though they’re linked to better heart health) because they know those can be hard to stick to and in some cases can even result in certain nutrient deficiencies. So, they thought a Pesco- Mediterranean diet was the perfect middle ground.

Just so you know, the term “pesco” is a shortened version of pescatarian, which refers to relying on fish and seafood as your primary source of protein. Beyond the fact that including fish in your diet makes eating healthy somewhat easier than going full-on vegetarian or vegan, fish are also extremely heart-healthy. In fact, one meta-analysis of five dietary studies found that people who eat a pescatarian diet are 34 percent less likely to die from coronary artery disease than people who eat meat.

This group of researchers also recommends a form of intermittent fasting called time-restricted eating. This involves limiting your daily calorie intake to an eight to twelve-hour window each day. Research shows it can reduce inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity, which is why they recommend it. It provides these benefits because it forces the body to switch from using glucose as fuel to using fatty acids as fuel… and often these fatty acids come from belly fat.

What can you eat on the Pesco-Mediterranean diet?

You may already be familiar with the traditional Mediterranean diet. But in case you’re not, it includes:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Whole grains
• Seeds
• Tree nuts
• Fish/seafood
• Poultry
• Olives and olive oil
• Eggs and dairy products (mainly yogurt and cheese) in moderation
• Limited amounts of red meat

This diet alone has been linked to a reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, depression and some cancers. So, even if you decide to just do the traditional Mediterranean diet and not the pescatarian version, your heart health is in good hands.

If you do decide to go pesco that means white and red meat is off limits. Researchers also recommend swapping all butter or fats in your diet for extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). That’s because EVOO is high in polyphenol antioxidants and has proven cardiometabolic benefits, like reducing low-density lipoprotein (bad) cholesterol and increasing high-density lipoprotein (good) cholesterol.

Researchers also recommend a daily serving of nuts as part of your heart-healthy pesco-Mediterranean diet because research shows it’s a healthy snack habit that can lower your heart disease risk by 28 percent.

Sources:

Pesco-Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting may lower heart disease risk — MedicalXpress.

A Pesco-Mediterranean Diet With Intermittent Fasting: JACC Review Topic of the Week — Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The post Why the Pesco-Mediterranean diet is the ultimate heart-healthy diet appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But have you ever wondered which is more important? After all, there are whole industries out there that focus on weight reduction as the end-goal, with little regard for how you get there. Is that actually OK?

The relative importance of diet quality versus body weight has never been determined.

Does a normal weight protect you against adverse health outcomes even if you don’t eat particularly well? And what if you’re obese? Is your outcome equally poor regardless of what lands on your plate?

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Let’s see what the research says

A recently published trial has provided new insights. Carried out in Sweden, involving nearly 80 thousand men and women with an average starting age of 61 years, investigators looked at the extent of adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet (MED-D) as well as body mass index (BMI, normal <25 kg/m2, overweight 25-29.9 kg/m2, obese >30 kg/m2) and tracked outcomes over some 17 years.

And what the researchers found was unexpected…

Even obese individuals who adhered strongly to a MED-D approach experienced survival rates similar to their skinnier counterparts! This was in stark contrast to even normal-weight individuals with poor adherence to the MED-D approach who experienced significantly INCREASED rates of death.

In fact, the only thing that the MED-D approach did not fully overcome was the slightly higher rates of death due to heart disease seen in obese individuals. Meanwhile, simply being skinny was not all that protective.

This should be a wake-up call 

If we’re focusing on weight alone, we’re focusing on the wrong thing! There’s way more benefit to paying attention to what’s on your plate than what your scale says.

And doesn’t this make complete sense? After all, food doesn’t affect just weight. It also affects our gut microbiome, sets off or quells inflammation, determines cholesterol levels, contributes to mood. The list goes on and on. And our bodies are incredibly complex machines. Doesn’t it follow that the better we fuel them the longer they will last?

I hope that you find this information incredibly freeing — especially if you’re one of the millions of Americans struggling to lose weight. Your success need no longer be measured solely by the pounds you have shed. Instead — you can just focus on the types of foods you are eating. Way bigger bang for your efforts and usually much easier to do.

The best part? There’s a hidden bonus I see in my medical practice all the time — people who focus on food quality tend to lose weight over time without even trying!  It’s a frequently reported side benefit of using Step One as a substitute for something you’re eating already. Turns out real food helps bring everything back into balance.

A word of caution: This study is not meant to imply that obesity is all of a sudden OK and something we can ignore. But it does tell us that perhaps we can be a little gentler with ourselves as to how we approach weight loss and health restoration.

So… eat better!  You will be rewarded many times over.

The post Which is more important: Lose weight or eat better? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, glaucoma is among the top causes of blindness in the U.S. About 5 percent of people with glaucoma end up going blind and about 10 percent end up with sight impairment. That may not sound like a lot, but when you consider that there are over 2.3 million cases of glaucoma in the U.S. each year, you’ll see how the number of people going blind as the result of this disease could still really add up.

But do you want to know what I find most alarming about glaucoma?

The initial symptoms — blind spots, tunnel vision, eye pain and blurred vision — are signs your optic nerve is already being damaged, which means you don’t have a lot of time to putz around before you get diagnosed and start treatment. If you write off your symptoms as normal signs of aging and don’t go to your doctor right away or if your doctor misdiagnoses you initially, you can start experiencing irreversible losses to your vision pretty quickly. Luckily, there are a few bright spots when it comes to glaucoma…

The first is that glaucoma is relatively treatable. If you catch it and treat it early, you can prevent the disease from damaging your eyes much. The second is that there are effective ways to greatly reduce your odds of ever developing the disease in the first place… and the latest research shows one of the most effective is healthy eating.

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A low-carb, high-fat diet cuts glaucoma risk by 20 percent

A new study from researchers at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) shows that a low-carb, high-fat diet could provide critical protection against glaucoma.

The study included data from 185,000 adults who were between 40 and 75 years old. Participants filled out food frequency questionnaires every two to four years and answered questions about their health over the course of several decades. If they reported being diagnosed with glaucoma, researchers asked their treating eye care providers to send medical records.

Researchers used the food frequency questionnaires to divide participants up by carbohydrate and fat intake. And here’s what they found…

People who ate a low-carbohydrate diet that included a lot of plant-based fat and protein had a 20 percent lower risk of developing primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), which is the most common type. Here’s why that type of eating pattern successfully lowered glaucoma risk, according to the co-corresponding author of the study Louis R. Pasquale, M.D.

“A diet low in carbohydrates and higher in fats and proteins results in the generation of metabolites favorable for the mitochondrion-rich optic nerve head, which is the site of damage in POAG. This dietary pattern has already been shown to have favorable results for epilepsy and showed some promising results for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.”

What low-carb, high-fat diet works best?

Now, if you’re contemplating going keto to protect yourself from glaucoma, there’s one other point I need to mention. People who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet based around animal fat and protein didn’t receive the same glaucoma protection as people who ate a low-carb, high-fat diet based around plant fat and protein. So, a traditional keto diet wouldn’t do the trick most likely.

But you could embrace a (mostly) vegetarian take on the low-carb lifestyle. Or you could even try the ketogenic Mediterranean diet, which is low-carb but includes far less animal fat and protein than the usual take on keto. It involves getting most of your carbs from green vegetables and salads and getting healthy fats from fish, nuts and olive oil.

The good news is, if you decide to go that route, you’ll receive an added bonus because the ketogenic Mediterranean diet has been shown to have a positive impact on brain health, too.

Sources:

Low-Carbohydrate Diet May Be Associated With Lower Risk of Blinding Eye Disease — Mount Sinai.

The post Why a low-carb, high-fat diet could keep you safe from glaucoma appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You’ve probably heard a variety of advice about heart-healthy eating… some of it conflicting. That’s because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to preventing heart disease through diet. A lot of dietary paths can lead you to the same end goal — a healthy heart.

But even though there isn’t one diet that everyone must follow to keep their heart healthy, there are some guidelines you need to know… otherwise, you might stray too far into diet habits that harm your heart rather than help it.

Luckily, a new study identified four approaches to healthy eating that can keep you on the right track when it comes to eating for a healthy heart…

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Eating approaches that lower heart disease risk by up to 21 percent

Recent research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health identified four healthy eating patterns that lower the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease.

In the study, researchers examined data from 74,930 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study, 90,864 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II and 43,339 men in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Participants in these studies were asked to share their eating habits every two to four years for several decades.

Researchers compared study participants’ eating habits to four healthy eating patterns using a scoring system. The higher a person’s score, the more closely they stuck to one of these patterns. The four healthy eating patterns they used were:

• Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015);
• Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (AMED);
• Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (HPDI);
• and Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI).

After crunching all the numbers, researchers found that people who followed one of these four eating patterns most closely reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 14 to 21 percent. In fact, all these eating patterns were statistically significantly associated with a lower risk of both coronary heart disease and stroke.

“There is no one-size-fits-all diet that is best for everyone. One can combine foods in a variety of flexible ways to achieve healthy eating patterns according to individuals’ health needs, food preferences and cultural traditions,” said study author Frank Hu, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Nutrition.

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The down-low on each of these heart-healthy diets

So, now, the question of the hour is… what do the heart-healthy eating patterns used in this study entail? What can you eat? Here’s a quick summary of each:

#1 — Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015)

Healthy Eating Index-2015 is based on recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It includes 13 dietary components that reflect different food groups. Based on how much of these 13 components you consume, you get a score ranging from 0-100, with 100 being the healthiest score you can get. The 13 dietary components included in HEI-2015 are:

• Total fruits
• Whole fruits
• Total vegetables
• Greens and beans
• Whole grains
• Dairy
• Total protein foods
• Seafood and plant proteins
• Fatty acids
• Refined grains
• Sodium
• Added sugars
• Saturated fats

The last four components on the list should be consumed in moderation. And all components have a maximum amount of points you can receive from their category that ranges from 5-10. If you want to learn more about HEI-2015, check out the USDA’s scoring guidelines.

#2 — Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (AMED)

As you’d imagine, Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score (AMED) is based on the eating principles of the Mediterranean diet, but it’s adapted to meet the needs of people in non-Mediterranean countries. This eating approach calculates healthy eating scores based on how much food you’re consuming in nine categories:

1. Whole grains
2. Vegetables (excluding potatoes)
3. Fruits (including juices)
4. Legumes
5. Nuts
6. Fish
7. The ratio of monounsaturated fat (MUF) to saturated fat (SF)
8. Red and processed meats
9. Alcohol

#3 — Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (HPDI)

Healthful Plant-Based Diet Index (HPDI) is (as the name suggests) a plant-based healthy eating plan. It gives healthy plant foods positive scores and less healthy plant foods, as well as animal foods, reverse scores. Here are the food categories that receive positive scores:

• Whole grains
• Fruits/vegetables
• Nuts/legumes
• Healthy oils
• Tea/coffee

Here are the categories that receive negative scores:

• Juices/sweetened beverages
• Refined grains
• Potatoes/fries
• Sweets
• Animal foods

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#4 — Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)

The Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) was created by researchers in response to the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) created by the USDA in 1995. These researchers noticed that the guidelines in the original Healthy Eating Index (HEI) weren’t improving health outcomes in the people they studied. So, they made a few changes to make it healthier. More specifically, the AHEI stopped issuing a blanket recommendation to lower total fat and increase carbohydrate intake and focused on the quality of foods people were consuming. Here are the foods that the AHEI encourages you to eat:

• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Whole grains
• Nuts and legumes
• Polyunsaturated fats (especially omega-3 fatty acids)

Here are the foods it encourages you to eat less of:

• Sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice (Fruit juice can shorten your life faster than soda)
• Red meat
• Sodium
• Alcohol

Clearly, there are a lot of important similarities to these healthy eating patterns… but there are also important differences. Whether you prefer to go plant-based, enjoy a good steak or have any other particular diet preferences you can pick one of these approaches and make it work for you. You don’t have to follow any one perfectly, just follow one closely… and years from now you’ll thank yourself because you’ll still have fantastic heart health.

Sources:

1. Following a variety of healthy eating patterns associated with lower heart disease risk — MedicalXpress.
2. Association Between Healthy Eating Patterns and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease — JAMA Internal Medicine.
3. Healthy Eating Index (HEI) — USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
4. How the HEI Is Scored — USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
5. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with a higher BMD in middle-aged and elderly Chinese — Scientific Reports.
6. Healthy Plant-Based Diet What Does it Really Mean? Editorial – Healthful and Unhealthful Plant-Based Diets and the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in U.S. Adults — Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
7. The Best Diet You’ve Never Heard Of — Next Avenue.

The post 4 food habits Harvard says will lower heart disease risk appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s why we’re counting down six seemingly harmless habits that can leave your face looking like a road map. If you’re doing any of these, you’ll want to make some changes:

#1 — Drinking from straws or plastic water bottles

Grabbing a drink of water is one of the best anti-aging tools in your arsenal. After all, water helps to keep your cells, including those of your skin, hydrated and plump. However, if you’re drinking using either a straw or plastic water bottle, you could be destroying much of its benefits.

That’s because drinking from a bottle or straw requires that you purse your lips, which according to dermatologists, can result in wrinkles and lip lines that leave you looking older due to the repetitive muscle motion required.

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#2 — Drinking too much coffee

If you’re like me, you can’t start your morning without coffee to wake you up and make you feel human again. However, you might want to put a one or two cup limit on your habit.

Since coffee is a diuretic, it can cause dehydration. And the simple fact is that dehydration is a major risk factor for skin aging.

In fact, Cammie Cannella, Senior VP of Global Education and Customer Relations of Kiehl’s (a major skincare brand) says that signs of dehydration include visible fine lines, loss of plumpness and dull, tired, rough-looking skin.

#3 — Using chemical-laden skincare products

When you cleanse your face, slather on your moisturizer or swipe on sunscreen, you probably believe you’re doing something good for your skin and warding off signs of aging.

But depending on what’s in those products, you could be accelerating skin problems and the aging that comes with them. That’s because many skincare products on the shelf are laden with chemicals that can damage your skin’s health and lead to premature aging.

Ingredients to avoid include:

• Alcohols, like SD alcohol 40, denatured alcohol, ethanol and isopropyl alcohol
• Sulfates, like sodium lauryl sulfate, ammonium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate
• Chemical sunscreens like oxybenzone and avobenzone

#4 — Not cleansing your face enough

While cleansing your face too often can lead to dryness, the American Academy of Dermatology says that you should wash your face morning and night, plus whenever you sweat.

That last part is important because perspiration that sits on your face can irritate and inflame your skin, which speeds up the aging process.

#5 — Not maintaining pH balance

According to New York dermatologist Jeannette Graf, MD, “The body functions optimally with an internal pH of 7.4 — slightly alkaline. After 40, our internal natural buffering pH capacity decreases, and we become progressively acidic. This is a problem because metabolic acidosis leads to enhanced skin aging, as well as problems with internal organs due to acid buildup.”

What would she suggest? A diet like the Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fiber, colorful vegetables and plenty of alkalinizing foods. Alkalinity helps improve the skin’s enzyme function. That means more green leafy vegetables and alkalinizing grains, likes oats, wild rice and quinoa.

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#6 — Drinking too much dairy

If you consume dairy on a regular basis, especially if you’re lactose intolerant, you may be setting yourself up for “inflammaging,” a term scientists coined a few years ago to describe the effects of inflammation on aging and chronic disease.

Inflammation is a major factor in skin aging and, worse, it’s thought to be behind a number of age-related conditions and diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, heart disease, type II diabetes and cancer.

The good news is that kicking these habits now can help you look more youthful in the long run. So say goodbye to premature aging and hello to happiness every time you look in the mirror!

Sources:

1. Do Straws Cause Lip Lines And Wrinkles? Top Derms Give Us The Answer — HuffPost Style & Beauty
2. Why dehydration is ageing your skin — Cosmopolitan
3. The One Common Skincare Ingredient That’s a Total Red Flag — Byrdie
4. What Ingredients Should I Avoid and Why? — Glowbiotics
5. 7 Controversial Beauty Ingredients You Should Know About — Allure
6. What you need to know about the chemicals in your sunscreen — The Washington Post
7. Face washing 101 — American Academy of Dermatology Association
8. Here’s What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Sleep (And How Much You Really Need a Night) — Cleveland Clinic
9. Anti-Aging News: The Facts About Inflammation — Allure
10. Soothe Chronic Inflammation & Slow Premature Aging — Shape
11. Lactose intolerance — Genetics Home Reference
12. Why alkalinity is crucial to your anti-aging plant — New Beauty

The post 6 habits that age you, kick them to keep your age a secret appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

While the “typical” American diet, even one on the healthy end of the scale, includes a lot of meat, dairy, starches, and fats, there are five places in the world where people don’t eat much of those foods at all.

What’s always surprised me about these places is how uniform people’s eating habits are.

Maybe it’s because a lot of the food comes from local sources, or because it’s a way of eating that’s been handed down over generations, and because multi-generational living is still a way of life in places like Japan and Italy.

Regardless, science has studied these traditional diets and found proof that they are working to keep minds sharp, bodies active and hearts healthy.

So, which one is the best for you? How easy is it to follow these eating plans? And is it something you’ll enjoy enough to stick with?

To help you decide for yourself, here’s a recap of four of these diets from different parts of the world, as well as the one thing that makes any of them work better for wellness…

1. Mediterranean diet

The health benefits of this way of eating have been studied since the 1970s, and you’ve heard a lot about it.

It’s a way of eating that’s traditional to Greece, Spain, and Italy, where cooking and eating are often a family or even a community event.

I’ll never forget a meal I had with a new friend on a trip to Italy many years ago. I was not a guest. I was invited into the kitchen to roll up my sleeves and help prepare lunch. (The meal itself lasted at least three hours!)

Related: My favorite cancer-fighting recipe

Each of these diets has its “signature foods.” The Mediterranean diet features fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and olive oil, with some fish, poultry and red wine, and little or no red meat, salt or sugar.

A recent U.S. News and World Report ranking placed this diet as #1, calling it “eminently sensible.” Olive oil can help with weight loss, lower the risk of heart disease, and even reverse diabetes.

2. New Nordic diet

Scientists actually designed this diet around the eating habits and food choices of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).

This “new” Nordic diet contains 35 percent less meat than the average Danish diet, with more whole grains and local produce, including 75 percent organic produce. Like the Mediterranean diet, it leans heavily on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, eggs, oil, and fish.

But instead of olive oil, it uses rapeseed oil. Also, the produce is native to the region and includes turnips, lingonberries, parsnips, and beets. Mackerel and herring are featured, as well as salmon.

Recent research indicates that a healthy Nordic diet seemed to have an impact on genes in abdominal fat, turning off genes that cause inflammation.

3. Okinawa diet

The Japanese island of Okinawa has a larger percentage of people living to be 100 or more than anywhere else in the world. Science attributes this largely to their diet.

The majority of the Okinawan diet (82 percent) consists of vegetables and legumes. The purple sweet potato is a staple food. Like most purple produce, it is rich in anthocyanins (antioxidants) that protect against dementia and cancer.

Related: Why Japanese men don’t get prostate cancer

Okinawans also eat tofu and miso, both soy-based. They eat virtually no meat, grains or dairy. And those soy-based foods are just one reason that researchers speculate Japanese men don’t often get prostate cancer.

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4. “French paradox” diet

This diet is indeed a paradox.

While most of the healthiest people in the world center their diets on produce, grains, and fish, the French, who have some of the lowest obesity rates in the world, indulge in rich foods like butter, cheese, yogurt and chocolate… and, there’s that French bread!

But there’s a difference in how the French eat these foods. Their portions are notably smaller than anything you’d find on a plate here, and they know how to eat slowly and savor their food. As in Italy, mealtime is an event.

Also, the French walk everywhere. And they indulge in a fair amount of red wine, which has resveratrol, which according to David Sinclair, Ph.D., associate professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, “may have wide-ranging health effects including anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory benefits and may even protect the brain from stroke, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

The one thing that makes these diets work

The best diet plan for you is one that you’ll follow.

If you can’t bear the thought of eating only vegetables for the rest of your life, the Okinawan diet probably isn’t for you.

On the other hand, if you need some bread in your life, take a look at how the French eat.

But the one thing that all of these populations have in common?

They WALK.

They are physically active. They are not couch potatoes. And this is a crucially important factor in preventing heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.

So, pick the diet the feels right for you. Combine elements of several. But make sure you are physically active every single day.

Sources:

1. Tasty Foods That Reduce Alzheimer’s and Dementia Risk — Verywell Health
2. What The World’s Healthiest Diets Have In Common — HuffPost Life
3. Mediterranean Diet Linked to Heart Health — WebMD
4. What is a healthy Nordic diet? Foods and nutrients in the NORDIET study — Food & Nutrition Research
5. Healthy Nordic diet downregulates the expression of genes involved in inflammation in subcutaneous adipose tissue in individuals with features of the metabolic syndrome — The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
6. The ecology of eating: smaller portion sizes in France Than in the United States help explain the French paradox — Psychological Science

The post 4 disease-fighting diets (and the one reason they work) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

You might blink a few times, thinking it’s just “sleep dust.” But it doesn’t go away. Not when you wash your face. Not at all.

As the days go on, it just gets bigger.

This is what happens for a person who develops the greatest vision-stealer we know…

What is macular degeneration

Macular degeneration (MD) is an eye disease that causes more blindness than glaucoma and cataracts combined. More than ten million Americans have MD.

MD is a leading cause of vision loss among people age 50 and older, affecting 1.8 million Americans. By 2020, that number is expected to climb to nearly 3 million.

MD causes the retina of the eye to deteriorate. The retina is like your eye’s camera. It records images and sends through the optic nerve to the brain.

The macula is the central portion of the retina. Without its powers of focus, you cannot do things like reading or driving a car. The macula enables us to recognize faces and see bright colors.

People with macular degeneration may not notice it at first. But soon, a dark spot will appear in their central field of vision, and it will grow until the person is left only with peripheral vision.

As this happens, a person’s quality of life deteriorates as well. They lose their independence when they cannot drive or even take a walk on their own. The pleasure of escaping into a good book becomes impossible. And the faces of loved ones disappear from sight.

Until now, MD was considered an incurable disease.

But recent research has totally changed that and brought new hope.

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The Mediterranean diet slashes MD risk

Here’s the beauty of good research: it can uncover things that were hiding in plain sight. By looking at data from a different angle, new facts emerge.

Such is the case with a study done recently by a large group of researchers from throughout the European Union who re-visited two previous large-scale studies.

The Rotterdam Study evaluated disease risk in people 55 and older, while the Alienor Study assessed the association between eye diseases and nutritional factors in people aged 73 and older.

By re-examining these studies, the European researchers discovered that people who followed a strictly Mediterranean diet were 41 percent less likely to develop macular degeneration than those who didn’t follow the diet.

What’s more, they found that eating just a few of the foods from the Mediterranean diet had no effect. It was the combination of foods and the diet as a whole that prevented MD.

Another European study confirms this exciting news.

Doctors at the University of Coimbra in Portugal analyzed diet questionnaires from 883 people age 55 or older.

Of those who adhered to a Mediterranean diet, only 39% had MD, as compared to 50% for those who did not.

Two interesting trends emerged in this study: eating five ounces of fruit a day and drinking more caffeine both made the odds against developing MD even better.

How to eat a Mediterranean diet

You’ve read quite a bit from us regarding the wonders of the Mediterranean diet. Its staple foods are fish, nuts, olive oil, fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, and whole grains.

And this style of eating could save more than your sight: It beats inflammation and that can help keep your brain young and save you from heart disease.

Here are a few recipes to entice you into trying this sight-saving, heart-loving diet!

• Spicy Marinated Olives
• Slow Cooker Greek Chicken
• Mediterranean Watermelon Salad

Sources:

1. New study confirms Mediterranean diet prevents a leading cause of blindness — American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2. Mediterranean Diet and Incidence of Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration — Ophthalmology
3. Tracking benefits of the Mediterranean diet for AMD prevention — EyeWorld

The post The best diet to fight off macular degeneration appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But they can be… especially if you fracture your hip bone and you’re over 50.

Did you know that one in three adults over the age of 50 who fractures a hip dies within 12 months? It’s scary but true. 50 isn’t even very old.

So, how can you keep dangerous fractures out of your future?

Take better care of your bone health. And if you’re already dealing with signs of osteoporosis, do it ASAP.

Osteoporosis (weak, brittle bones) is the biggest risk factor for fractures. And unfortunately, it’s super common.

Luckily, a recent study found that a certain diet can help get your bone health back on track and your fracture risk down within a year.

The anti-osteoporosis diet

The latest study from the University of East Anglia found that people with osteoporosis can improve their bone health within a year by eating a Mediterranean diet.

That means you could improve the results of your bone density scan between yearly checkups!

The study included more than 1,000 people between 65 and 79 years old. Half of them followed a Mediterranean diet for a year and the other half ate their usual diet. Researchers checked bone density at the start and end of the year. And here’s what they found…

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Eating a Mediterranean diet didn’t affect bone density in people without osteoporosis. But people with osteoporosis had better bone density after sticking to this diet for just a year.

Researchers looked at bone density in one area in particular… the femoral neck, the area that connects the thigh bone shaft to the rounded head that fits in the hip joint. When bone density is weak here, it sets you up for a hip fracture, since it’s connected to your hip.

Now, you may be thinking… I want my bone health to improve quicker than that. A year is a long time. Here’s the thing… bone takes a long time to form. So, you can’t get stronger bones overnight. But if you’re willing to eat a Mediterranean diet for twelve months, it will pay off. Just stick to it.

What to eat for stronger bones

If you’re not familiar with the Mediterranean diet, the rules are simple. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts. Choose healthy oils like olive oil. Opt for chicken and fish more often than red meat. And drink red wine in moderation.

But there’s one more thing you should do to protect your bones…

Get ample vitamin D. Researchers had people in the study do this along with their Mediterranean diet. They only did it to even out the difference between sun exposure for people in different countries. But previous research shows that D3 can help prevent osteoporosis and strengthen bone density. So, you might want to take it too.

People in the study only took 400 IU of D per day. But you can take more. In fact, Dr. Cedric F. Garland, a researcher who’s been studying the connection between vitamin D and cancer for decades, recommends taking far more than that. He recommends taking 4,000 to 6,000 international units (IU) of D per day… especially if you don’t get much sun. If you eat a Mediterranean diet and take your D supplement daily, there’s a good chance your future will be fracture-free.

Sources:

1. Why hip fractures in the elderly are often a death sentence — The Conversation.
2. How a Mediterranean diet could reduce osteoporosis — MedicalXpress.
3. Mediterranean diet: A heart-healthy eating plan — Mayo Clinic.
4. Greater levels of vitamin D associated with decreasing risk of breast cancer — MedicalXpress.
5. Osteoporosis explained — Medical News Today.
6. Hip Fracture Prevention — The American Academy for Orthopaedic Surgeons.
7. Osteoporosis — Mayo Clinic.

The post How to stop osteoporosis before your next bone density checkup appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of vision loss in people over 50, and it can eventually lead to almost complete blindness. If you’re a woman, you’re at heightened risk…

If you have macular degeneration, your first symptoms are usually pretty mild. You may notice your vision is a little blurry while you read, sew or perform other detailed tasks. Straight lines may look a bit distorted or bent. Eventually, you’ll develop a big blind spot in the center of your field of vision. And it will gradually grow.

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Now, there are two types of macular degeneration. And how quickly and severely your eyesight worsens depends on which type you have. Dry macular degeneration is the most common. It usually progresses slowly, which means it can take years before your vision gets really bad. Wet macular degeneration, on the other hand, can cause a sudden and severe change in vision that can make you almost completely blind in a matter of months.

But either way, you end up losing most of your eyesight. And that’s not a pretty picture. Just imagine spending your golden years unable to drive, read, write, travel, cook or even get around the house on your own. The good news is there’s an easy, scientifically-proven way to prevent macular degeneration right now — your diet.

‘Eye’ some fruit to keep healthy eyes

A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Coimbra in Portugal found that people who ate a Mediterranean diet were a third less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration.

Now, the Mediterranean diet includes an array of tasty and healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, healthy fats and fish. But there was one type of food in particular that seemed to really pack a punch against macular degeneration… fruit.

People who ate the most fruit were the least likely of anyone to develop age-related macular degeneration. More specifically, eating five ounces of fruit per day or more slashed macular degeneration risk by 15 percent.

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Researchers also determined that what you drink can make big difference in your macular degeneration risk — especially if you enjoy caffeinated beverages.

Caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea contain antioxidants that protect your eyes from macular degeneration. That’s why people who consumed about 75 mg of caffeine per day (about one shot of espresso) were less likely to develop the disease. Antioxidants delivered to your eyes from beta-carotene, vitamin C and vitamin E were also important vision protectors.

So what does all this mean for you? Well, it means that if you:

• Eat a healthy, fruit-filled Mediterranean diet;
• Enjoy your daily cup of coffee or tea;
• Get enough beta-carotene, vitamin C and vitamin E;

… you greatly increase your chances of seeing clearly until the day you die. Sounds like an easy and enjoyable way to stave off age-related vision loss to me!

Sources:

1. “Age-Related Macular Degeneration.” National Eye Institute. https://nei.nih.gov. Retrieved October 18, 2016.

2. “Dry macular degeneration.” The Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.org. Retrieved October 18, 2016.

3. “Fruit-rich Mediterranean diet with antioxidants may cut age-related macular degeneration risk by more than a third.” American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com. Retrieved October 18, 2016

The post 3 ways to beat macular degeneration and save your sight appeared first on Easy Health Options®.