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Nuts Associated with Lower Mortality Rate

Researchers examined the eating patterns of more than 76,000 women and more than 42,000 men over 24 to 30 years to assess the health effects of eating nuts. They discovered that eating nuts is associated with a reduced risk of mortality overall and specifically from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease. As nut consumption increased (from none at all, to weekly, to daily), the incidences of mortality also decreased. Researchers noted that all types of nuts appear to have the same health benefit and did not see a difference between individual types, including peanuts and tree nuts.

The New England Journal of Medicine. 2013 November 21; 369:2001-2011 (Bao, et al.)

Med Diet Linked with Better Cognitive Function

Researchers analyzed the food intake and cognitive function in a group of 3,831 older adults in Utah over 11 years. Those most closely following a DASH diet (a healthy diet used to treat hypertension that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy, and limited sweets and salt) or Mediterranean diet at the start of the study were found to have consistently better cognitive function than those not following those diets. In particular, whole grains, nuts, and legumes were all linked with better cognitive function, and the researchers concluded that these “may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe.”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013 Nov;98(5):1263-71. (Wengreen H et al.)

Med Diet Associated with Healthy Aging

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrates that eating a Mediterranean Diet is associated with greater health and well-being in older age. The study analyzed food frequency questionnaires collected between 1984 and 1986 from 10,670 women in their late 50s and early 60s with no major chronic diseases. Fifteen years later researchers again collected data from the same women and found that those who had adhered to a Mediterranean Diet in middle age were about 40% more likely to live past 70 and to have avoided 11 chronic diseases measured in the study including many cancers, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. Those who most closely followed a Med Diet also were more likely to age without physical disabilities, signs of cognitive impairment, or mental health problems.
Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013; 159(9): 584-591. (Samieri, et al.)

Nutrient Profiles of Vegans Point to Lowest BMI

When researchers at Loma Linda University conducted a cross-sectional study of 71,715 subjects from the Adventist Health Study 2 to compare nutrient intakes between dietary patterns characterized by consumption or exclusion of meat and dairy products, they found a clear connection between diet type and weight among five groups: meat-eaters, semi-vegetarians, pescatarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians, and vegans.  Vegans were found to have the lowest average BMI, while meat-eaters showed the highest, along with the highest intake of heart-disease related fatty acids. Vegans also had the lowest occurrence of obesity (9%) compared to 33.3% of meat-eaters. The average age of study participants was 59.

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. August 2013. (Rizzo, Jaceldo-Sigl, Sabate, Fraser.)

 

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Reduces Age-Related Drop in Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Researchers in Quebec measured an anti-inflammatory component of HDL (“good cholesterol”) in ten young adults and ten elderly adults, and found that the older people had less anti-inflammatory activity. After 12 weeks of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) consumption, anti-inflammatory activity increased in both groups and reduced the age-related difference between the two groups.

British Journal of Nutrition. 2013 Oct;110(7):1272:84. Loued et al.

Med Diet with Low Glycemic Load May Reduce Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

Researchers analyzed data from more than 22,000 participants followed over 11 years in the Greek cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) to investigate the relationship between the Mediterranean Diet, glycemic load, and occurrence of type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that people who consumed a low glycemic load diet that adheres to the principles of the Mediterranean Diet may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%.

Diabetologia. 2013 Aug 22. [Epub ahead of print.] [Rossi, et al.]
 

Fruit Consumption May Lower Risk of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

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.)

Mediterranean Diet and Genetic Risk of Stroke

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.].

Wine Consumption and Depression

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.)

Study Shows Vegetarian Diet Leads to Longer Life

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.)

Decreased Risk of Pre-Diabetes in Spaniards Following Mediterranean Diet

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.)

Whole Grains Reduce Inflammation through Gut Changes

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.)

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