Here's a diet to help you live a long life

 

The sooner one starts eating healthy, the better, but research shows that even making the appropriate dietary changes in one’s 80s can lead to a longer life. — dpa

 

Humans have sought the fountain of youth and long life for millennia.

For longevity at least, scientists think they’ve found a potent intervention: proper nutrition, which, in contrast to our genetic makeup and certain living conditions, is alterable.

And it appears that not only what and how much we eat is important, but also when.

In an article published in the journal Cell, gerontologists Professor Dr Valter Longo and Dr Rozalyn Anderson examine hundreds of ageing and nutrition studies on simple organisms, laboratory animals and humans, and combine them with their own studies to come up with a “longevity diet”.

Lovers of calorie bombs such as burgers, chips and cola, or comfort foods like white chocolate, will be disappointed.

The two experts link limited calorie intake and periodic fasting to a lower disease risk and longer life expectancy.

Their longevity diet calls for 45%-60% of calories from non-refined complex carbohydrates, 10%-15% from mostly plant-based proteins, and 25%-35% from mostly plant-based fats.

Translated into practical terms, this means: “Lots of legumes, whole grains and vegetables; some fish; no red meat or processed meat and very little white meat; low sugar and refined grains; good levels of nuts and olive oil, and some dark chocolate,” says Prof Longo.

While meat lovers may turn their noses up at the sound of the diet, his recommended “recipes for longevity” include couscous with mixed fish, tomatoes, almonds and garlic; Tuscan bread salad; and pasta with eggplant and tomato sauce topped with ricotta salata, which hardly sound unpalatable.

The longevity diet also calls for restricting eating to an 11-12 hour timeframe daily and a few yearly cycles of five-day fasting-mimicking diets – a low-calorie meal plan developed at the Longevity Institute that’s formulated to simulate the body’s fasting state.

Must be adapted

Prof Longo and Dr Anderson emphasise that their longevity diet should be adapted to individuals based on sex, age, lifestyle, health status and genetics,

This is as no diet is equally suited, say, to a physically fit 20-year-old and a 60-year-old with a metabolic disorder.

People over age 65 may need to increase protein intake to prevent frailty and diseases resulting from reduced bone or muscle mass, or low blood cell counts, they write.

According to German Institute of Human Nutrition Department of Nutrition and Gerontology head Dr Kristina Norman, modifications of this kind are very important.

“It’s often difficult in old age to ingest sufficient protein, too little of which can cause muscle loss and increase the risk of falling and breaking a bone.

“Eating somewhat more meat than generally recommended can therefore be advisable.”

She sees many parallels in the proposed diet with familiar dietary recommendations, e.g. those of the German Nutrition Society (DGE), as well as an eating plan aimed at healthy – and environmentally responsible – nutrition proposed by scientists some time ago.

“Contrary to popular belief, recommendations on healthy eating don’t change every few years – for the most part, they’re highly stable,” she notes.

“The Longo study can be regarded as old hat, but the matter has been reassessed and backed by stronger evidence.”

Never too late

In the view of Dr Bernhard Watzl, former head of Hamburg-based Max Rubner Institute’s Department of Physiology and Biochemistry of Nutrition, which advises Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture on consumer health protection in the nutrition sector, the overarching finding in the Cell review is that the quantity and quality of nutrition are key to long life.

“It’s better to consume too few calories than too many,” he says, adding that “The more demands that are placed on a system, the greater the wear it’s subjected to.”

So it’s important, he says, to keep demands at low levels.

As regards fasting, Dr Watzl is less convinced by the available data than Prof Longo and Dr Anderson are.

“Fasting is only for people unable to limit their calorie intake,” he says.

In such people, temporary abstinence from food can help to resensitise certain receptors in the body.

While he stresses it’s never too late in life to start eating healthily, Dr Watzl says sooner is better than later when it comes to preventing diseases that develop gradually over decades.

Prof Longo cited a Norwegian study that found even 60- to 80-year-olds gained several years in life expectancy when they followed many of the recommendations that are also part of the longevity diet.

The biggest gains, according to the study, came from eating more legumes, whole grains and nuts, and less red and processed meat.

Dr Watzl sees the dietary trend towards more wholemeal bread and muesli positively, but says “too much cheese or sliced sausage is often put on the bread – or white bread is eaten.”

He’s also critical of heavily-processed foods, not only because of the additives, but also the quick nutrient availability, which he says overtaxes metabolism.

ALSO READ: Ultra-processed foods are bad for your mind, heart and life

To optimise their longevity diet, Prof Longo and Dr Anderson advise personalising it in consultation with a nutrition specialist.

They also recommend focusing on smaller, more tolerable changes, rather than large ones that cause major weight loss followed – when the diet is abandoned – by a rapid “yo-yo-like” regain of fat.

“We propose that the longevity diet would be a valuable complement to standard healthcare and that, taken as a preventative measure, it could aid in avoiding morbidity, sustaining health into advanced age,” they write. – By Gisela Gross/dpa 

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  Our food choices may be smarter than previously thought.

 

 

Researchers say our food choices may be influenced by nutritional requirements rather than calories.

PIONEERING research has shed new light on what drives people’s basic food preferences.

The international study, led by the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, set out to re-examine and test the widely-held view that humans evolved to favour energy dense foods and our diets are balanced simply by eating a variety of different foods.

Contrary to this belief, its findings revealed people seem to have “nutritional wisdom,” whereby foods are selected in part to meet our need for vitamins and minerals, and avoid nutritional deficiencies.

Lead author Jeff Brunstrom, professor of experimental psychology, said: “The results of our studies are hugely significant and rather surprising. For the first time in almost a century, we’ve shown humans are more sophisticated in their food choices, and appear to select based on specific micronutrients rather than simply eating everything and getting what they need by default.”

The paper, published in the journal Appetite, gives renewed weight to bold research carried out in the 1930s by an American paediatrician, Dr Clara Davis, who put a group of 15 babies on a diet which allowed them to “self-select”, in other words eat whatever they wanted, from 33 different food items.

While no child ate the same combination of foods, they all achieved and maintained a good state of health, which was taken as evidence of “nutritional wisdom”.

Its findings were later scrutinised and criticised, but replicating Dr Davis’ research was not possible because this form of experimentation on babies would today be considered unethical.

Hence, it has been nearly a century since any scientist has attempted to find evidence for nutritional wisdom in humans – a faculty which has also been found in other animals, such as sheep and rodents.

To overcome these barriers, Prof Brunstrom’s team developed a novel technique which involved measuring preference by showing people images of different fruit and vegetable pairings so their choices could be analysed without putting their health or well-being at risk.

In total 128 adults participated in two experiments.

The first study showed people prefer certain food combinations more than others.

For example apple and banana might be chosen slightly more often than apple and blackberries.

Remarkably, these preferences appear to be predicted by the amounts of micronutrients in a pair and whether their combination provides a balance of different micronutrients.

To confirm this, they ran a second experiment with different foods and ruled out other explanations.

To complement and cross-check these findings, real-world meal combinations as reported in the UK’S National Diet and Nutrition Survey were studied.

Similarly, these data demonstrated people combine meals in a way that increases exposure to micronutrients in their diet.

Specifically, components of popular UK meals e.g. fish and chips or curry and rice, seem to offer a wider range of micronutrients than meal combinations generated randomly, such as chips and curry.

The study is also notable as it features an unusual collaboration – Prof Brunstrom’s co-author is Mark Schatzker, a journalist and author.

In 2018, the two met when Schatzker delivered a talk about his book, The Dorito Effect, which examines how the flavour of whole foods and processed foods has changed, and the implications for health and wellness.

Prof Brunstrom explained: “Mark challenged the view among behavioural nutrition scientists that humans only seek calories in food. He pointed out, for example, that fine wine, rare spices and wild mushrooms are highly sought after but are a poor source of calories.

“This was all very intriguing, so I went to see him at the end and basically said: ‘Great talk, but I think you’re probably wrong. Do you want to test it?’

“That marked the start of this journey, which ultimately suggests I was wrong. Far from being a somewhat simple-minded generalist, as previously believed, humans seem to possess a discerning intelligence when it comes to selecting a nutritious diet.”

Schatzker added: “The research questions the modern food environment – does our cultural fixation with fad diets, which limit or forbid consumption of certain types of foods, disrupt or disturb this dietary ‘intelligence’ in ways we do not understand?”

“Studies have shown animals use flavour as a guide to the vitamins and minerals they require.

“If flavour serves a similar role for humans, then we may be imbuing junk foods such as potato chips and fizzy drinks with a false ‘sheen’ of nutrition by adding flavourings to them.

“In other words, the food industry may be turning our nutritional wisdom against us, making us eat food we would normally avoid, thus contributing to the obesity epidemic.” - The Star Malaysia 

 

Say goodbye to daily aspirin 

Daily aspirin no longer recommended for adults 60 and older

Doctors reverse recommendation on daily aspirin

THIS might be a tough pill to swallow.

People aged 60 and older are no longer recommended to take aspirin medication as a way of avoiding heart disease because of the potential health risks, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced last week.

The new stance by the leading task force serves as an update to its 2016 guidance, which said people between 60 and 69 years old with at least a 10% risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years should view taking low-dose aspirin daily as an “individual” decision.

“Based on new evidence since the 2016 Task Force recommendation, it is now recommended that once people turn 60 years old, they should not consider starting to take aspirin because the risk of bleeding cancels out the benefits of preventing heart disease,” reads the announcement by the USPSTF.

Meanwhile, people aged 40 to 59 with at least a 10% risk of 10-year cardiovascular disease should look at taking daily aspirin as an individual choice, the task force said.

“Daily aspirin use may help prevent heart attacks and strokes in some people, but it can also cause potentially serious harms, such as internal bleeding,” John Wong, a member of the task force, said in a statement.

“It’s important that people who are 40 to 59 years old and don’t have a history of heart disease have a conversation with their clinician to decide together if starting to take aspirin is right for them.”

The new guidelines apply to people who don’t have cardiovascular disease but are at high risk to develop it and haven’t begun taking aspirin each day.

The organisation also notes that about 605,000 people in the US suffer their first heart attack each year on average, while about 610,000 have their first stroke.

Heart disease accounts for more than 25% of deaths in the US, making it the leading cause in the country.

Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory drug that has been used for more than a century. It’s often taken to treat symptoms such as headaches, body aches and other cold-like ailments.

The task force is made up of 16 appointed volunteers who are each considered leaders within a field of health or medicine.- TNS

A Brain-Food Surprise!

A familiar brain-food takes on yet another starring role! Fat-rich fish.

Fat-rich fish is loaded with vitamin D. Neuroscientists now believe that your brain is the biggest beneficiary of vitamin D.

Consider vitamin D a stealth substance.....it is all around us, but increasingly elusive. You get vit D from the sun. We are told to stay out of the sun or use a sun screen. This makes sense, because of potential skin damage and related cancer concerns. The result, though, is that many people are deficient in vit D. A lack of vit D in the brain is not good news.

Here is what we know:

Too little Vit D in the adult brain increases the risk of stroke and dementia.

Vit D thins blood and protects neurons in your brain. Mood disorders are linked to low levels of vitamin D.

A link has been discovered between inadequate levels of vit D and autism and schizophrenia.

I have started to include more of these vitamin D rich foods in my diet:salmon, mackerel, sardines, shrimp, milk, and eggs

Recipes that use these foods could be considered a day of sunshine!

I have become very aware that I have one brain and that it is involved in every thing I do. I am doing my best to look after it.

For more on the brain benefits of fish check out Brain Bulletins 26 and 33 in the Brain Bulletin Archive.
In the last Brain Bulletin I told you that I had just started reading an amazing book:The End of Overeating by David Kessler

It is an absolutely remarkable book in that it approaches eating as a brain behaviour. I saw myself on just about every page. I could not read it fast enough!

Many of the questions that I get asked in my live presentations relate to eating. Usually about eating too much, or continually eating the wrong foods. I have told people for 25 years that you eat with your brain, not your mouth. The End of Overeating really illuminates how your brain interacts with food. You will enjoy it and remember, I don't get a penny for recommeding it.

Last week I was in Barrie, Ontario keynoting the Aim Language Learning Conference. I met lots of great people and I got to celebrate Canada Day in downtown Barrie. It was lots of fun! This week our daughter and soon to be son-in-law, Taryn and Jeff, get married. I get to spend the rest of the month presenting seminars in beautiful Vancouver.

Everyday new horizons appear in your life and new doors open all around you. Train your brain to look for them and......

Remember: "You are a genius!"

By Terry Small.
Terry Small is a brain expert who resides in Canada and believes that anyone can learn how to learn easier, better, faster, and that learning to learn is the most important skill a person can acquire.
www.terrysmall.com