Researchers in Sweden followed the fruit and vegetable consumption of more than 80,000 men and women over a 13-year period to investigate the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and occurrence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The aorta is the body’s largest artery. A bulge in the aorta’s wall in the abdomen is an abdominal aortic aneurysm. A ruptured aneurysm causes internal bleeding and can cause death. The research team found that people who ate more than two servings of fruit per day had a 25% lower risk of developing AAA and a 43% lower risk of rupture than those who ate less than 7/10 of a serving of fruit per day. They found no relationship between vegetable consumption and risk of AAA.
Circulation. 2013; 128(8):795-802. (Stackelberg, et al.)
Researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and from the CIBER Fisiopatalogía de la Obesidad y Nutritión in Spain have found that the Mediterranean Diet reduces stroke risk in people with a gene variant associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. Working with the data from the PREDIMED study, researchers identified that patients carrying two copies of the Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 (TCF7L2) gene, which is known to place patients at high risk for type 2 diabetes and suspected of connections with other diseases, had a risk factor for stroke almost three times higher than those with only one copy or no copies of the gene. But patients with two copies of the gene who adhered to a Mediterranean Diet reduced their risk for stroke to the same levels as those with one or no copies of the gene.
Diabetes Care. Epub 2013 August 13. [Corella, et al.].
Researchers in Spain followed more than 5,500 high-risk men and women of the PREDIMED Trial ages 55 to 80 for up to seven years to assess the association between alcohol consumption and depression. Participants were free of depression or a history of depression at the beginning of the study and did not have a history of alcohol-related problems. Researchers found that participants who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol (between 2 and 7 drinks per week, most commonly wine over other types of alcoholic beverages) had lower rates of depression than participants who did not consume alcohol. However, heavy drinkers appear to be at higher risk than moderate drinkers and abstainers. Dr. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, one of the researchers for the study, commented, “If you are not a drinker, please don’t start drinking. If you drink alcohol, please keep it in the range of one or less drinks a day and consider drinking wine instead of other alcoholic beverages.”
BMC Med. 2013 Aug; 11(1):192. (Gea, et al.)
In this review, researchers from Spain and the US analyzed existing research on seeds (whole grains, tree nuts, peanuts, pulses, cocoa, and coffee) to determine their relationship to heart health. Based on the research, including over 25 studies on whole grains alone, the scientists found a decreased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and improved cholesterol, when eating seed foods like whole grains. They deemed seeds as “natural health capsules, where the synergistic interaction of their many bioactive constituents may all favorably influence human physiology.” The researchers also noted that “it is often difficult to tease out the effects of the individual components of a whole food,” indicating that seeds are best eaten in their whole form (like whole grains), rather than being refined into individual constituents.
Circulation. 2013 July 30;128(5):553-65. (Ros E et al.)
A cross-sectional study of more than 3.5 million administrative records in the New York State WIC Statewide Information System (WICSIS) was conducted to examine trends from 2008 to 2011 in prevalence of feeding practices after the 2009 implementation of new WIC food packages. Overall positive changes in all reported behaviors were observed. Reported behaviors included daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-/nonfat milk.
Obesity. July 2013; 21(7): E1-E7. (Chiasson et al.)
A study conducted as part of the Adventist Health Study 2 found that adhering to a vegetarian diet led to lower all-cause mortality. The study conducted by scientists from Loma Linda University in California analyzed information collected from a group of Seventh Day Adventists taking part in a cohort study. They found that not only is a vegetarian diet associated with lower all cause mortality but also lower cardiovascular, renal, and endocrine mortality.
JAMA intern Med. 2013; 173(13):1230-1238. (Orlich et al.)
Spanish researchers evaluated more than 5,000 individuals with and without diabetes or pre-diabetes and found that pre-diabetes was less frequent in those who adhered to the Mediterranean Diet. The decrease in risk remained after considering factors like weight and age that could affect the incidence of pre-diabetes.
Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2013 Jul 2; 62(4):339-346. (Ortega et al.)
Intake of whole grains has long been linked to decreases in the systemic inflammation that may be at the root of many chronic diseases. Researchers at the University of Nebraska recently completed a human trial that explored the mechanisms behind whole grains’ anti-inflammatory effects. They found that eating whole grains (barley, brown rice, or especially a mix of the two) even for a short period altered the gut microbiota in ways that coincided with improvements in systemic inflammation.
Gut Microbes, July 1, 2013; 4(4):340-6. (Walter et al.)
A meta-analysis was conducted by a research group in the UK to evaluate the effects of the Mediterranean diet compared to other dietary patterns on measures of glycemic control irrespective of weight loss. Interventions conducted on free-living individuals were included. The Mediterranean diet had no effect of fasting plasma glucose compared to other healthy dietary patterns but improvements in H1AC were noted in those at risk of or with diabetes.
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. [Epub June 22, 2013] (Carter et al.)
A group of scientists in France looked at the relationship between following a Mediterranean diet and fractures in a group of 1,400 elderly people from Bordeaux, France. Researchers collected information on diet and used it to measure how closely they were following the Mediterranean diet. After analyzing the reported fractures and comparing this with adherence to a Mediterranean diet they found no relationship between the two.
Osteoperosis International. [Epub June 20, 2013] (Feart et al.)
Johns Hopkins University researchers followed more than 6,200 men and women, age 44-84, from white, African-American, Hispanic, and Chinese backgrounds for an average of more than 7 years. People who exercised regularly, ate a Mediterranean-style diet, kept a normal weight, and did not smoke had an 80 percent lower death rate over the study’s time period compared to participants with none of the healthy behaviors. Roger Blumenthal, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, director of the Ciccarone Center, president of the American Heart Association’s Maryland affiliate, and senior author of the study says the findings “bolster recent recommendations by the American Heart Association, which call for maintaining a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains and fish, keeping a BMI of less than 25, being physically active and not smoking.”
American Journal of Epidemiology. Epub 2013 June 10. [Ahmed, et al.]
If you want your teens to make it through their formative years with as few road bumps as possible, a good place to start just might be the kitchen table. In a large research review, scientists at Tufts University in Boston found that family meals may be protective against various risky behavior in teens, including alcohol use, tobacco use, disordered eating, aggression or violence, and sexual activity. The results varied largely by gender, with females often being more influenced by their family environments.
Journal of Youth and Adolescence. 2013 July;42(7):943-63. (Skeer MR et al.)
