Category: Nutrition

One way of brewing coffee increases the chance of heart attacks while another leads to longevity.

Methods for brewing coffee can strongly influence the risk of heart disease and life expectancy.

According to scientists, the healthiest way to make a coffee is a filtered brew because it lowers the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

Unlike filtered coffee, an unfiltered brew is linked to more heart attacks and death from heart disease.

Professor Dag S. Thelle, study co-author, said:

“Our study provides strong and convincing evidence of a link between coffee brewing methods, heart attacks and longevity.

Unfiltered coffee contains substances which increase blood cholesterol.

Using a filter removes these and makes heart attacks and premature death less likely.”

Coffee is not only a popular drink but also the most commonly used stimulant and most likely the safest one.

Professor Thelle, through his work 30 years ago, found that coffee consumption elevates levels of total cholesterol and the “bad” cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) in such a way that can damage the heart.

With more research, Professor Thelle and colleagues detected substances such as diterpenes kahweol and cafestol in coffee, that are responsible for the damage but can be removed by a filter.

In contrast to filtered coffee, a cup of unfiltered coffee has a 30 times higher amount of lipid-raising diterpenes kahweol and cafestol.

Professor Thelle siad:

“We wondered whether this effect on cholesterol would result in more heart attacks and death from heart disease.

But it was unethical to do a trial randomising people to drink coffee or not.

So we set up a large population study and several decades later we are reporting the results.”

They enrolled more than half a million healthy Norwegian adults from 1985 to 2003.

Their data show that drinking coffee was generally a safe habit and actually a filtered brew was healthier compared to not having coffee.

Drinking filtered coffee was associated with a decreased risk of death from any cause by 15 percent.

It also reduced the risk of dying from heart disease by 20 percent in women and 12 percent in men.

The lowest death rate was observed amongst participants who had 1 to 4 cups of filtered coffee daily.

Unfiltered coffee was linked to an increased risk of death from heart disease, heart attacks, and any cause compared to filtered brew.

Professor Thelle said:

“Our analysis shows that this was partly because of the cholesterol-increasing effect of unfiltered coffee.

For people who know they have high cholesterol levels and want to do something about it, stay away from unfiltered brew, including coffee made with a cafetière.

For everyone else, drink your coffee with a clear conscience and go for filtered.”

The study was published in European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (Tverdal et al., 2020).

Research reveals if the ‘sugar rush’ is real.

The so-called ‘sugar rush’ is a complete myth, new research finds.

Sugar has almost no effect on mood.

In fact, it makes people feel more tired and less alert.

Within 30 minutes of eating sugary foods, or other carbohydrate heavy foods, people feel more tired.

Within 60 minutes of eating sugar or other carbs, people feel less alert.

The conclusions come from a review of 31 separate studies including almost 1,300 people.

The studies looked at sugar’s effect on different aspects of mood, including alertness, depression, anger and fatigue.

The results showed that:

• Sugar had almost no effect on mood, no matter how much people consume.
• The idea of a sugar rush is a total myth.
• After eating sugar, people are less alert and more tired than those who had not consumed it.

Dr Konstantinos Mantantzis, the study’s first author, said:

“The idea that sugar can improve mood has been widely influential in popular culture, so much so that people all over the world consume sugary drinks to become more alert or combat fatigue.

Our findings very clearly indicate that such claims are not substantiated — if anything, sugar will probably make you feel worse.”

Dr Sandra Sünram-Lea, study co-author, said:

“The rise in obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome in recent years highlights the need for evidence-based dietary strategies to promote healthy lifestyle across the lifespan.

Our findings indicate that sugary drinks or snacks do not provide a quick ‘fuel refill’ to make us feel more alert.”

The study was published in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews (Mantantzis et al., 2019).

Moving to this diet can put brain health in jeopardy and increase the risk of nutrient deficiency.

A vegan diet can increase the risk of brain malnutrition and damage due to lack of essential nutrients, new research finds.

While a plant-based diet is an effective way to combat heart disease and cancer and it supports environmental sustainability, there are dangers.

Choline is mainly found in meat and, like omega-3 fatty acids, is an essential nutrient that has to be obtained from food.

This vitamin-like essential nutrient is also produced by the liver, but the amount is too small to fulfill the body’s requirements.

Choline is part of lecithin which is known for its effect in treating memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Egg yolk, beef, fish, chicken, wheat germ, soy beans, dairy products, peanuts, almonds are good source of this nutrient and smaller amounts are found in broccoli, cauliflower, spinach and baked beans.

For example, 100g of cooked beef liver provides 431mg of choline, one boiled egg provides nearly 150mg of choline, and 100g cod fish provides 84mg of choline.

Whereas, 100g of broccoli contains 40mg of choline, 100g of baked beans contains 31mg, and a 100g of spinach contains 25mg of choline.

Promoting healthy plant-based foods to protect the environment is important, but restricting eggs, animal protein, and dairy can reduce choline and other essential nutrients.

According to the US Institute of Medicine the minimum daily intake of choline for men is 550mg and 425mg for women.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women require at least 450mg and 550mg choline per day respectively, due to the crucial role of this nutrient in infant development.

Despite these daily requirements, national dietary surveys show that choline intake on average is low in the US, Europe and Australia.

Choline is not only essential for brain health but also influences liver function as shortfalls in this nutrient can cause cell damage and irregularities in fat metabolism.

These insights come from a study authored by Dr Emma Derbyshire who said:

“This is….concerning given that current trends appear to be towards meat reduction and plant-based diets.”

Currently, choline is excluded from UK dietary guidelines, food composition databases and dietary surveys.

Dr Derbyshire said:

“Given the important physiological roles of choline and authorisation of certain health claims, it is questionable why choline has been overlooked for so long in the UK.

More needs to be done to educate healthcare professionals and consumers about the importance of a choline-rich diet, and how to achieve this.

If choline is not obtained in the levels needed from dietary sources per se then supplementation strategies will be required, especially in relation to key stages of the life cycle, such as pregnancy, when choline intakes are critical to infant development.”

The study was published in the journal BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health (Derbyshire, 2019).

This common health condition is linked to lower than normal zinc levels, a study found.

High blood pressure can be related to zinc deficiency by changing the way that sodium is handled in kidneys, research finds.

People with chronic diseases like kidney failure or type 2 diabetes are deficient in zinc.

Zinc is a mineral vital for the immune system, wound healing, cognitive functions, vision, taste, smell and so on.

Cacao, red meats, cashew nuts, peanuts, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, shellfish, dairy products, and eggs are good sources of zinc.

Now, a study reveals that people who have lower than normal zinc levels are more likely to develop hypertension.

Sodium is filtered by the kidneys either by sending it back into the bloodstream or passing it into the urine.

A pathway called the sodium chloride co-transporter (NCC) is responsible for filtration of sodium in the kidney.

Normally, less sodium in the urine indicates higher blood pressure and so NCC is important for controlling blood pressure.

Zinc plays an important role here as it helps regulate specific proteins which are causing the NCC activity.

The study compared healthy mice that had normal zinc levels to mice that were zinc deficient.

Sodium excretion in the urine was low in mice with zinc deficiency and they had high blood pressure.

After feeding these mice a zinc-rich diet, their zinc level began to improve.

Once they were no longer zinc deficient, their urinary sodium levels improved and their blood pressure dropped.

The research team wrote:

“These significant findings demonstrate that enhanced renal [sodium] reabsorption plays a critical role in [zinc-deficiency]-induced hypertension.

Understanding the specific mechanisms by which [zinc deficiency] contributes to [blood pressure] dysregulation may have an important effect on the treatment of hypertension in chronic disease settings.”

Sodium is a mineral and an important electrolyte that helps keep the body’s water in balance.

It is key to maintaining normal blood pressure levels as well as being necessary for muscle and nerve function.

However, consuming salt or foods high in salt will increase the sodium level in the bloodstream and damage the balance and so the kidneys cannot remove the sodium.

Higher blood pressure is the result and, if this abnormality is left uncontrolled, it will harm the delicate blood vessels around the kidneys.

Injured kidney arteries cannot filter blood well enough and deliver blood to the kidney tissue, resulting in chronic kidney disease.

The study was published in American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology (Williams et al., 2019).

This plant-based nutrient can keep us avoid disability and disease into old age.

Dietary fibre consumed from fruits, cereals and breads are linked to aging successfully over many years.

The surprising benefits of fibre-rich foods has been underestimated, but Australian researchers reveal that fibre makes a big difference in order to age successfully.

They studied 1,609 adults who were 49 years and older for 10 years to find out the relationship between healthy aging and carbohydrate nutrition.

Total carbohydrate intake, total fiber intake, sugar intake, glycemic load and glycemic index factors were examined.

Fibre had the largest impact on what the researchers called ‘successful aging.’

Successful aging was defined as the absence of:

• cognitive impairment,
• disability,
• depressive symptoms,
• respiratory symptoms,
• and chronic diseases including coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

Professor Bamini Gopinath, the study’s lead author, said:

“Out of all the variables that we looked at, fiber intake — which is a type of carbohydrate that the body can’t digest — had the strongest influence.

Essentially, we found that those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up.

That is, they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression, and functional disability.”

We might expect that sugar intake would have a big impact on healthy aging, but in this study it was not linked to successful aging.

Professor Gopinath pointed out that the older adults who participated in this study had a low intake of carbonated and sugary drinks in their diet.

The study was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (Gopinath et al., 2016).