Category: Nutrition

Drinking even one cup a day of this beverage may help you to live longer.

Drinking either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee can reduce the risk of death by nearly 20 percent, experts say.

People who drink at least one cup of coffee a day live longer and have a lower death rate from kidney disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

A study found that people who drank at least one cup of coffee daily compared to none were 12 percent less likely to die early.

Moreover, participants in this study who had two to three cups of coffee per day were 18 percent less likely to die early.

Dr Veronica Setiawan, the study’s lead author, said:

“We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association.

If you like to drink coffee, drink up!

If you’re not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start.”

More than 185,000 adults aged 45- to 75-years-old were enrolled in the study and they were followed-up over 16 years.

Dr Setiawan said:

“This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles.

Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Latino or Asian.”

Previous studies have shown that drinking coffee is linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, cancer, liver disease, and type 2 diabetes.

But don’t forget to drink it when it has cooled as, according to the World Health Organization, drinking very hot beverages can cause esophageal cancer.

Coffee is a good source of phenolic compounds that have antioxidant activity and so is important in lowering the risk of cancer.

This study doesn’t show what makes coffee so special or what components in coffee could be responsible for its effect.

But it clearly shows that drinking coffee provides health benefits and so it can be used along with a healthy diet.

Dr Setiawan said:

“Some people worry drinking coffee can be bad for you because it might increase the risk of heart disease, stunt growth or lead to stomach ulcers and heartburn.

But research on coffee have mostly shown no harm to people’s health.”

The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine (Park et al., 2017).

A vitamin that reduces autoimmune disease risk by almost one-quarter.

Vitamin D supplementation over five years is linked to lower autoimmune disease risk of 22 percent, a study reveals.

Inflammatory disorders such as thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease, and polymyalgia rheumatica are examples of autoimmune diseases (AD).

AD can lead to life-threatening complications and death as currently there are no cures for AD and only a few treatments seem to be effective.

However, past research has highlighted that vitamin D and omega-3 (or n-3) fatty acid supplements may benefit many patients with these conditions.

A study called ‘VITAL’ assessed 25,871 participants to see whether supplementation of vitamin D or omega-3 or a combination of these two have any impact on reducing AD rates.

Participants were divided into different groups; receiving either 2,000 IU vitamin D3 or 1,000 mg of fish oil a day or a combination of both.

The fish oil capsule contained 460 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 380 mg of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

The research team found that those who received vitamin D with fish oil or vitamin D alone were less likely to develop AD.

Dr Karen Costenbader, the study’s senior author, said:

“This is the first direct evidence we have that daily supplementation may reduce AD incidence, and what looks like more pronounced effect after two years of supplementation for vitamin D.

Now, when my patients, colleagues, or friends ask me which vitamins or supplements I’d recommend they take to reduce risk of autoimmune disease, I have new evidence-based recommendations for women age 55 years and older and men 50 years and older.

I suggest vitamin D 2000 IU a day and marine omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil), 1000 mg a day—the doses used in VITAL.”

The results show that 5 years vitamin D supplementation reduced autoimmune disease by 22 percent in patients with AD.

Whereas supplementation of fish oil with or without vitamin D reduced the AD rate by only 15 percent.

Dr Jill Hahn, the study’s first author, said:

“Autoimmune diseases are common in older adults and negatively affect health and life expectancy.

Until now, we have had no proven way of preventing them, and now, for the first time, we do.

It would be exciting if we could go on to verify the same preventive effects in younger individuals.”

The study was published in BMJ (Hahn et al., 2021).

The warning signs that suggest you are at risk of developing fatty liver disease.

Accumulation of fat in the liver can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition seen in overweight or obese people.

NAFLD is not caused by alcohol, but if untreated could lead to cirrhosis resembling the liver damage from too much drinking.

However, foods and beverages containing alcohol or sugar can aggravate the condition, so the advice is to limit intake.

NAFLD is the most common liver disorder globally.

About 70 percent of people with obesity, 60 percent with diabetes, and 20 percent with a healthy weight have this condition.

The human liver normally contains some fat, but when fat is above 5 percent of the liver’s weight, then fatty liver disease may develop.

In the early stages, NAFLD usually does not show any symptoms but it can be detected by a liver function test from the blood sample.

The warning signs appear when it progresses to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or fibrosis in which the liver has become inflamed.

A person with NASH may feel:

• extremely tired,
• fatigued,
• a pain in the top-right of the belly over the lower-right side of the ribs,
• and losing weight for no reason.

Prolonged fibrosis and persistent inflammation will cause cirrhosis where the liver is severely scarred and damaged.

The permeant damage can lead to liver cancer, liver failure, and in the end death.

The symptoms for cirrhosis may include:

• itchy skin,
• oedema (swelling in the legs or tummy),
• and jaundice (the skin and whites of the eyes turn yellow).

We don’t know how a benign fatty liver develops into a serious conditions such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis.

To understand the process, researchers carried out a genetic analysis of the hepatocyte, the main functional cells in the liver.

Professor Stephan Herzig, the study’s co-author, said:

“Understanding the mechanism by which this condition becomes life threatening is key in our quest for the discovery of therapeutic solutions and preventative measures.”

The research team developed a method targeting particular nodes in the protein network to stop the disease progressing or even avoid fibrosis.

A network of proteins called ‘transcription factors’ are involved in the process of the hepatocyte reprogramming.

Failure in the process could result in hepatocyte cell dysfunction.

For example, during NASH development the hepatocyte cells lose their identity.

Dr Ana Alfaro, the study’s first author, said:

“These findings are important because they unravel the cellular mechanisms underlying non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Knowing about the role of the protein networks and the identity loss of hepatocytes gives us potential intervention targets for the development of effective therapies.”

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Loft et al., 2021).

Diet versus popular drugs, found out which one is more powerful on metabolic health and effective anti-aging.

According to a study, what you eat has a bigger impact on your health than any powerful drug when it comes to anti-aging.

Nutrients contained in food are the best medicine to prevent or treat a  number of conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

The research found that diet composition including caloric intake and macronutrients can slow down aging and metabolic disorders more effectively than popular anti-aging drugs such as metformin, rapamycin, and resveratrol.

The study conducted in mice demonstrates the protective effect of diet and its components fat, carbohydrate, and protein against immune dysfunction, aging, heart disease, metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, obesity, and type 2 diabetes).

Professor Stephen Simpson, study co-author, said:

“Drugs can also target the same biochemical pathways as nutrients.

There has been a huge effort to discover drugs aimed at improving metabolic health and aging without requiring a change in diet.

Diet is a powerful medicine.

However, presently drugs are administered without consideration of whether and how they might interact with our diet composition—even when these drugs are designed to act in the same way, and on the same nutrient-signaling pathways as diet.”

To compare and to see the interaction between diet and drugs, researchers used 40 dietary treatments.

Each treatment contained different amounts of calories, fat, carbohydrate, protein, and drug content (metformin, rapamycin, resveratrol).

Professor Simpson said:

“We discovered dietary composition had a far more powerful effect than drugs, which largely dampened responses to diet rather than reshaped them.

Given humans share essentially the same nutrient-signaling pathways as mice, the research suggests people would get better value from changing their diet to improve metabolic health rather than taking the drugs we studied.”

They also found that calorie intake and macronutrients, especially protein, can strongly affect liver and cell function.

Food causes cells to work properly and to produce new cells but drugs will reduce the cell’s response to diet.

For example, rapamycin and metformin lowered cell response to protein while resveratrol supressed the effects of fat and carbohydrates.

Professor David Le Couteur, the study’s first author, said:

“This approach is the only way we can get an overview of the interaction between diet, our health and physiology.

We all know what we eat influences our health, but this study showed how food can dramatically influence many of the processes operating in our cells.

This gives us insights into how diet impacts on health and aging.”

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Le Couteur et al., 2021).

A type of sugar that causes injury to immune cells and promotes inflammation and organ damage.

A person’s immune system could stop functioning properly if they eat or drink high amounts fructose, even for a short period of time.

According to a study, high fructose diets promote inflammation and damage the immune system leading to different diseases.

Sugary drinks such as soft drinks, sports drinks, and energy drinks, processed foods, cakes, and sweets contain fructose.

High fructose corn syrup alone, which is used in many beverages and processed foods, accounts for 10 percent of calories of a typical American.

High fructose intake has been linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

However, until now there has been little research related to the negative effects of fructose on the immune system.

This new research shows that fructose‐rich diets cause the immune cells to produce inflammatory responses (pro-inflammatory cytokines).

Through this process more reactive oxygen species are produced.

These molecules play a key role in the development of inflammatory disorders.

This kind of inflammation can damage cells and stop organs and our body systems, such as the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, from working normally.

In addition, the study gives a better understanding of how consumption of fructose can increase the risk of diabetes and obesity.

This is because chronic inflammation or a long-term low level of inflammation throughout the body is frequently linked to obesity.

Dr Nicholas Jones, the study’s first author, said:

“Research into different components of our diet can help us understand what might contribute to inflammation and disease and what could be best harnessed to improve health and wellbeing.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications (Jones et al., 2021).

Switching to this drink could reduce aging by more than 4 years.

Adults who drink low-fat or non-fat cow’s milk every day could enjoy 4.5 years less of aging.

According to a study, drinking either skimmed or nonfat milk (1 percent milk) reduces biological aging more than drinking high-fat milk (2 percent milk and whole milk).

About 6,000 American adults were examined to see if milk fat consumption and frequency of drinking milk have any impact on telomere length.

The telomere is a region at the end of a chromosome which acts like an aging clock for each cell.

As we get older our telomeres get shorter, causing the cells to age.

Diet is one key to biological aging, for example, habitually eating healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds and fibre intake is linked to longer telomeres.

Unhealthy foods, like processed meats and high consumption of fats and oils, have been shown to shorten telomeres and speed up biological aging.

This study found that for each 1 percent increase in milk fat (e.g. drinking 1 percent milk versus 2 percent milk) the telomeres were 69 base pairs shorter.

This is is equivalent to more than four years of aging.

The situation was worse for regular whole fat milk drinkers as their telomeres were 145 base pairs shorter than those who often drank non-fat milk.

Professor Larry Tucker, the study’s author, said:

“It was surprising how strong the difference was.

If you’re going to drink high-fat milk, you should be aware that doing so is predictive of or related to some significant consequences.”

Milk contains many nutrients, whole milk contains higher calories but it is richer in vitamin A and vitamin D and some other nutrients compared to nonfat milk.

The fat content of milk may increase inflammation, oxidative stress, and cell aging as well as body weight.

Professor Tucker said:

“Milk is probably the most controversial food in our country.

If someone asked me to put together a presentation on the value of drinking milk, I could put together a 1-hour presentation that would knock your socks off.

You’d think, ‘Whoa, everybody should be drinking more milk.’

If someone said do the opposite, I could also do that.

At the very least, the findings of this study are definitely worth pondering.

Maybe there’s something here that requires a little more attention.”

The study was published in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (Tucker, 2019).

Diets rich in two nutrients harm immune cells in the gut, putting people at high risk of intestinal infections.

A diet rich in fat and sugar damages particular immune cells named Paneth cells that produce antimicrobial molecules keeping inflammation and microbes under control.

Highly specialised Paneth cells are located in the small intestine where nutrients from food are absorbed and sent to the bloodstream.

Western diets are high in processed foods and fat and sugar, which cause Paneth cells to not work properly.

Paneth cell dysfunction cause abnormalities in the gut immune system which in turn leads to infections (disease-causing microbes) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a study has found.

Dr Ta-Chiang Liu, the study’s first author, said:

“Inflammatory bowel disease has historically been a problem primarily in Western countries such as the U.S., but it’s becoming more common globally as more and more people adopt Western lifestyles.

Our research showed that long-term consumption of a Western-style diet high in fat and sugar impairs the function of immune cells in the gut in ways that could promote inflammatory bowel disease or increase the risk of intestinal infections.”

IBD patients often have defective Paneth cells, which are responsible for setting off inflammation in the small intestine.

For instance, Paneth cells can no longer function in patients with Crohn’s disease, which is a type of IBD and marked by fatigue, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and anaemia.

The research team examined Paneth cells of 400 adults and found that the higher the body mass index (BMI) the worse these cells looked.

Frequent consumption of foods high in sugar and fat causes weight gain and has many health consequences.

These two macronutrients generally make up more than 40 percent of the calories of a typical Western diet.

The scientists fed mice a high sugar, high fat diet and in two months they became obese and had abnormal Paneth cells.

Dr Liu said:

“Eating too much of a healthy diet didn’t affect the Paneth cells.

It was the high-fat, high-sugar diet that was the problem.”

When a healthy diet replaced the Western diet, within four weeks, the Paneth cells were restored to normal.

Dr Liu said:

“This was a short-term experiment, just eight weeks.

In people, obesity doesn’t occur overnight or even in eight weeks.

It’s possible that if you have Western diet for so long, you cross a point of no return and your Paneth cells don’t recover even if you change your diet.

We’d need to do more research before we can say whether this process is reversible in people.”

In addition, deoxycholic acid (a secondary bile acid produce by bacteria in the gut) is involved in carbohydrate and fat metabolism.

Bile acid plays a key role regarding Paneth cell abnormality since it increases the activity of the farnesoid X receptor (involved in sugar and fat metabolism) and type 1 interferon (part of the immune system active in the antiviral responses) thus hindersing Paneth cell from working properly.

The study was published in the Cell Host & Microbe (Liu et al., 2021).

The vitamin helps ward off respiratory infections and enhances the immune response to the virus.

Vitamin D deficiency makes people vulnerable to coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, a report reveals.

Vitamin D is crucial for the immune system: it improves the body’s defence response against infections, helps avert respiratory infections, and reduces the need for antibiotics.

The scientists point out that vitamin D is a seasonal vitamin and and so emphasise the need for vitamin D intake.

The study highlights that one-in-five Irish adults aged 55 and older are deficient during the winter and one-in-eight adults over 50 are deficient all year round.

Exposure to the sun for even 15 minutes daily can give the body a chance to make enough vitamin D.

In Northern countries, vitamin D cannot be produced in winter so the only chance to make it is between late March and late September.

The amount of exposure to the sun through this period also depends on factors such as rainy days, cloud cover, and so on.

In that case, with the correct diet and supplementation, deficiency can be avoided.

Vitamin D is found in foods such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel, and sardines, eggs, liver, and some fortified foods including diary.

People who are in isolation at home and have no exposure to the sun are at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

The other vulnerable group are those who are physically inactive, obese, have chronic lung disease or asthma.

For these reasons it may be important to consume a diet high in vitamin D or take vitamin D supplements, which are available over-the-counter.

The research team say that vitamin D supplementation is advisable for people over 50 who don’t get enough sunlight or those who are ‘cocooning’ because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Professor Rose Anne Kenny, the lead researcher of the study, said:

“We have evidence to support a role for Vitamin D in the prevention of chest infections, particularly in older adults who have low levels.

In one study Vitamin D reduced the risk of chest infections to half in people who took supplements.

Though we do not know specifically of the role of Vitamin D in COVID infections, given its wider implications for improving immune responses and clear evidence for bone and muscle health, those cocooning and other at-risk cohorts should ensure they have an adequate intake of Vitamin D.

Cocooning is a necessity but will reduce physical activity.

Muscle deconditioning occurs rapidly in these circumstances and Vitamin D will help to maintain muscle health and strength in the current crisis.”

The report was published by Trinity College Dublin (Kenny et al., 2020).

Following this diet plan for one year promotes certain gut bacteria which lead to healthy ageing.

Sticking to a Mediterranean diet for one year will enhance specific gut bacteria associated with ‘healthy’ ageing.

Older people will also get more benefit from adopting this regimen as it lowers harmful inflammation which are responsible for loss of cognitive function, sarcopenia (muscle loss), development of diabetes, and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries).

A person’s bodily functions deteriorate and inflammation increases with aging and the result is physiological decline in late life.

Now experts say that a Mediterranean diet helps those bacteria associated with healthy ageing to increase rapidly, which in turn hinders age-related cognitive decline and physical diseases.

Past studies have found that restrictive or poor diets commonly consumed by older people, especially those who live in residential care homes, reduces good gut bacteria and increases aging-associated diseases.

A research team examined the effect of a 12-month Mediterranean diet on people between 65 to 79 years old to find out if changing to a healthy diet would reverse the negative outcomes of a poor diet.

They compared the gut microbiome of these subjects before and after with those who continued their usual diet.

The Mediterranean diet is low in saturated fats and red meat but high in legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables, fish, and olive oil.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fibre, vitamin C, B1, B6 and B9 vitamins, high in minerals including iron, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and copper.

They saw changes in the gut microbiome, including a reduction of bacteria producing bile acids and an increase in bacteria producing beneficial short chain fatty acids.

High production of bile acids damages the cells as well as increasing the risk of fatty liver, insulin resistance, and bowel cancer.

Furthermore, the Mediterranean diet worked as a ‘keystone’ for the beneficial bacteria helping them to multiply and improving the gut ecosystem.

The authors wrote:

“The interplay of diet, microbiome and host health is a complex phenomenon influenced by several factors.

While the results of this study shed light on some of the rules of this three-way interplay, several factors such as age, body mass index, disease status and initial dietary patterns may play a key role in determining the extent of success of these interactions.”

The study was published in the journal of GUT (Ghosh et al., 2020).