Whole grains are an important source of carbohydrates, but some fad diets discourage this essential food group. To study how this may affect heart disease risk, researchers analyzed the diets and medical records of over 40,000 Swedish women for 15 years. They found that women eating a low carbohydrate diet were at a higher risk of heart disease, and that every 20g decrease in carbohydrates per day and 5g increase in protein per day corresponds to a 5% higher risk of heart disease. This suggests that grain-based diets rich in carbohydrates, the centuries-old traditional food pattern of our ancestors, are associated with a lower risk of heart disease than low carbohydrate diets.
British Medical Journal. 2012 Jun 26;344:e4026. (Lagiou P et al.)
Researchers from Towson University and the University of Pennsylvania conducted two studies on a total of 486 participants to determine whether diet type (vegan, lacto ovo vegetarian, semi-vegetarian including pescatarians and red meat vegetarians, and omnivorous) was associated with eating disordered behavior including emotional eating, restrained eating, and desire for thinness. They found that the semi-vegetarians were relatively the most disordered in terms of their food-related behaviors and attitudes. Vegans had the healthiest attitudes toward food, closely followed by vegetarians – a somewhat surprising result, given the inherent restrictions of the diets. The authors call for further research on the relationship between semi-vegetarianism and disordered eating.
Appetite. 2012 Jun;58:982-90. (Timko et al.)
This report documents the problem of childhood obesity in China. One of the key contributing factors is the consumption of fast food. Fast food establishments are growing rapidly in China. Eating at McDonald’s is convenient for Chinese families and also signifies social status.
International Journal of Cardiology. 2012 June 14;157(3):315-317. (Cheng)
researchers involved with the PREDIMED trial compared inflammatory markers in three groups of adults involved in an intervention trial where one group’s diet was supplemented with virgin olive oil (VOO), the second group’s diet was supplemented with nuts, and the third group ate a low fat diet. After three months, both the VOO group and the nuts group had lower levels of several inflammation markers.
Pharmacological Research. 2012 Jun;65(6):577-83. Urpi-Sarda et al.
As part of the PREDIMED Trial, scientists in Spain studied 447 elderly men and women at high cardiovascular risk to find possible associations between polyphenol-rich foods common to the Mediterranean Diet and better cognitive function. They found that overall consumption of anti-oxidant-rich foods was associated with better cognitive performance, and that olive oil, coffee, and walnuts were especially associated with cognitive health.
Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 2012 April; 29(4):773-82. [Valis-Pedret et al.]
Red mold rice is a fermented food product common in China (where it’s used to enhance flavor and color of foods) and valued in Chinese medicine. Scientists at National Taiwan University reviewed the properties of this functional food, highlighting potential antidiabetic and antioxidant effects.
Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 2012 Apr;94(1):47-55 (Shi et al.)
Researchers studied the effect of traditional Japanese breakfast foods on insulin sensitivity in a small sample of individuals with impaired glucose tolerance. The group which ate foods such as natto (fermented soybeans) and viscous vegetables (such as Japanese yams and okra) for 2 weeks demonstrated improved insulin sensitivity, serum lipids, and oxidative stress compared to the control group.
British Journal of Nutrition. 2012 Apr;107(8):1184-1191. (Taniguchi-Fukatsu et al.)
Danish researchers at the University of Copenhagen followed 79 overweight or obese women for 12 weeks as they ate calorie-restricted comparable diets with either refined wheat or whole wheat. Throughout the study, body weight and composition, blood pressure and several risk markers were measured. Though both groups lost weight, the whole wheat eaters showed a greater reduction in body fat mass, while total cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol increased with the refined wheat group, “which may suggest a cardioprotective role for whole grain.”
The Journal of Nutrition, April 2012; 142(4):710-6. (Kristensen et al.)
Individuals who choose to follow a vegan diet are at increased risk for being deficient in vitamin B-12, which occurs in meaningful bio-available amounts only in animal foods. This type of vitamin deficiency is very serious and can cause many irreversible health problems, yet vegans often don’t take B-12 supplements because they consider them “un-natural.” Polish scientists followed 20 healthy adult volunteers for five years after they switched from an omnivorous diet to a strict vegan diet. Ten consumed only natural products, while the other ten consumed foods fortified with B-12. Not surprisingly, B-12 serum levels were down in the natural group, but not in the fortified group.
Acta Scientiarum Polonorum, Technologia Alimentaria April 2, 2012; 11(2):209-213. [Lisowska A et al.]
Folate, found in foods such as spinach, is an important vitamin necessary to prevent neural tube defects (birth defects of the brain, spine, and spinal cord). In a study in Egypt, researchers found that sprouting wheat increased folate levels 3- to 4-fold depending on temperature. The scientists concluded that making pita bread with just 50% sprouted wheat flour is enough to increase the daily folate intake by 75 micrograms, or almost 20% of the adult recommended intake.
Food and Nutrition Research. 2012 April 2;56 (Hefni et al.)
935 women and 817 controls participating in the MASTOS case-control study in Cyprus answered a 32-item Food Frequency Questionnaire to assess their adherence to a Mediterranean Diet. Although overall Med Diet adherence did not prove to be correlated with breast cancer risk in this study, researchers found that a diet high in fish, vegetables, legumes and olive oil may reduce the risk of breast cancer.
BMC Cancer. 2012 March 23; 12:113. [Demetriou et al.]
At the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, researchers performed a cross-sectional study on 2,198 men and women in the larger EPIC study, searching for biological predictors of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. They found that higher consumption of whole grain bread was significantly associated with lower levels of several biomarkers of obesity, inflammation and glucose metabolism, while higher consumption of red meat was associated with higher levels of GGT (gamma-glutamyl transferase, which can be indicative of congestive heart failure) and hs-CRP (a measure of inflammation also associated with heart disease).
European Journal of Nutrition, 2012 March 18. [Epub ahead of print] (Montonen et al)
