People with high cholesterol should eliminate carbs, not saturated fat

July 6, 2020

Science Daily/University of South Florida (USF Innovation)

For decades, people diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia have been instructed to minimize their consumption of saturated fats to lower cholesterol and reduce their risks of heart disease. But a new study published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine found no evidence to support those claims.

Familial hypercholesterolemia is a genetic disorder that causes people to have cholesterol levels 2-4 times higher than the average person. Organizations, including the American Heart Association, have suggested they avoid eating food from animal sources, such as meat, eggs and cheese, and to avoid coconut oil. An international team of experts on heart disease and diet, including five cardiologists, reviewed dietary guidelines for people with familial hypercholesterolemia. They say they couldn't find any justification for health experts to recommend a low saturated fat diet.

"For the past 80 years, people with familial hypercholesterolemia have been told to lower their cholesterol with a low saturated fat diet," said lead author David Diamond, professor and heart disease researcher at the University of South Florida. "Our study showed that a more 'heart healthy' diet is one low in sugar, not saturated fat."

Diamond and his co-authors say following a low-carb diet is most effective for people at increased risk of heart disease, such as those who are overweight, hypertensive and diabetic. Their findings are consistent with another paper recently published in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology," which provided strong evidence that food that raises blood sugar, such as bread, potatoes and sweets, should be minimized, rather than tropical oils and animal-based food.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200706113955.htm

Mediterranean diet ingredient may extend life

Olive oil in the diet may also help mitigate aging-related diseases

February 21, 2020

Science Daily/University of Minnesota Medical School

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School discover a potential new way in which diet influences aging-related diseases.

Doug Mashek, PhD, a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, leads a team of researchers who discovered that olive oil in the Mediterranean diet may hold the key to improving lifespan and mitigating aging-related diseases. Over the last eight years, with the help of multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, their research findings were recently published in Molecular Cell.

Early studies on the diet suggested red wine was a major contributor to the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet because it contains a compound called resveratrol, which activated a certain pathway in cells known to increase lifespan and prevent aging-related diseases. However, work in Mashek's lab suggests that it is the fat in olive oil, another component of the Mediterranean diet, that is actually activating this pathway.

According to Mashek, merely consuming olive oil is not enough to elicit all of the health benefits. His team's studies suggest that when coupled with fasting, limiting caloric intake and exercising, the effects of consuming olive oil will be most pronounced.

"We found that the way this fat works is it first has to get stored in microscopic things called lipid droplets, which is how our cells store fat. And then, when the fat is broken down during exercising or fasting, for example, is when the signaling and beneficial effects are realized," Mashek said.

The next steps for their research are to translate it to humans with the goal of discovering new drugs or to further tailor dietary regimens that improve health, both short-term and long-term.

"We want to understand the biology, and then translate it to humans, hopefully changing the paradigm of healthcare from someone going to eight different doctors to treat his or her eight different disorders," Mashek said. "These are all aging-related diseases, so let's treat aging."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200221125120.htm

People who eat a big breakfast may burn twice as many calories

Study finds eating more at breakfast instead of dinner could prevent obesity

February 19, 2020

Science Daily/The Endocrine Society

Eating a big breakfast rather than a large dinner may prevent obesity and high blood sugar, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Our body expends energy when we digest food for the absorption, digestion, transport and storage of nutrients. This process, known as diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT), is a measure of how well our metabolism is working, and can differ depending on mealtime.

"Our results show that a meal eaten for breakfast, regardless of the amount of calories it contains, creates twice as high diet-induced thermogenesis as the same meal consumed for dinner," said the study's corresponding author, Juliane Richter, M.Sc., Ph.D., of University of Lübeck in Germany. "This finding is significant for all people as it underlines the value of eating enough at breakfast."

The researchers conducted a three-day laboratory study of 16 men who consumed a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner, and vice versa in a second round. They found identical calorie consumption led to 2.5 times higher DIT in the morning than in the evening after high-calorie and low-calorie meals. The food-induced increase of blood sugar and insulin concentrations was diminished after breakfast compared with dinner. The results also show eating a low-calorie breakfast increased appetite, specifically for sweets.

"We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a large breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases," Richter said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200219092539.htm

Western diet rich in fat and sugar linked to skin inflammation

February 18, 2020

Science Daily/University of California - Davis Health

A Western diet rich in fat and sugar may lead to inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, a study by UC Davis Health researchers has found.

The study, published today in Journal of Investigative Dermatology, suggests that dietary components, rather than obesity itself, may lead to skin inflammation and the development of psoriasis. A common and chronic skin disease, psoriasis causes skin cells to form scales and red patches that are itchy and sometimes painful.

Diet and Skin Inflammation

Previous studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for the development or worsening of psoriasis. The Western diet, characterized by a high dietary intake of saturated fats and sucrose and low intake of fiber, has been linked to the increased prevalence of obesity in the world.

"In our study, we found that short-term exposure to Western diet is able to induce psoriasis before significant body weight gain," said Sam T. Hwang, professor and chair of dermatology at UC Davis and senior author on the study.

For the UC Davis Health study, which used a mouse model, Hwang and his colleagues found that a diet containing both high fat and high sugar (mimicking the Western diet in human) was required to induce observable skin inflammation. In four weeks only, mice on Western diet had significantly increased ear swelling and visible dermatitis compared to mice fed a controlled diet and those on high fat diet alone.

"Eating an unhealthy diet does not affect your waistline alone, but your skin immunity too," said Zhenrui Shi, visiting assistant researcher in UC Davis Department of Dermatology and lead author on the study.

Bile Acids and Skin Inflammation

The study detailed the mechanisms by which inflammation happens following a Western diet. It identified bile acids as key signaling molecules in the regulation of skin immunity. Bile acids are produced in the liver from cholesterol and metabolized in the intestine by the gut microbiota. They play an important role in dietary lipid absorption and cholesterol balance in the blood.

The study found that cholestyramine, a drug used to lower cholesterol levels by binding to bile acids in the intestine, helped reduce the risk of skin inflammation. The finding suggests that bile acids mediate the development of psoriasis. The binding of cholestyramine to bile acids in the gut and its subsequent release through the stool allows for lowering of skin inflammation.

Further studies are needed to understand the mechanism behind diet-induced skin inflammation and the interaction between metabolism, microbes and immunity.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200218161720.htm

Mediterranean diet for one year promotes gut bacteria linked to 'healthy aging'

It may help curb advance of frailty and cognitive decline, suggest researchers

February 17, 2020

Science Daily/BMJ

Eating a Mediterranean diet for a year boosts the types of gut bacteria linked to 'healthy' ageing, while reducing those associated with harmful inflammation in older people, indicates a five-country study, published online in the journal Gut.

As ageing is associated with deteriorating bodily functions and increasing inflammation, both of which herald the onset of frailty, this diet might act on gut bacteria in such a way as to help curb the advance of physical frailty and cognitive decline in older age, suggest the researchers.

Previous research suggests that a poor/restrictive diet, which is common among older people, particularly those in long term residential care, reduces the range and types of bacteria (microbiome) found in the gut and helps to speed up the onset of frailty.

The researchers therefore wanted to see if a Mediterranean diet might maintain the microbiome in older people's guts, and promote the retention or even proliferation of bacteria associated with 'healthy' ageing.

They analysed the gut microbiome of 612 people aged 65 to 79, before and after 12 months of either eating their usual diet (n = 289) or a Mediterranean diet (n = 323), rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, olive oil and fish and low in red meat and saturated fats, and specially tailored to older people (NU-AGE diet).

The participants, who were either frail (n=28), on the verge of frailty (n=151), or not frail (n=433) at the beginning of the study, lived in five different countries: France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and the UK.

Sticking to the Mediterranean diet for 12 months was associated with beneficial changes to the gut microbiome.

It was associated with stemming the loss of bacterial diversity; an increase in the types of bacteria previously associated with several indicators of reduced frailty, such as walking speed and hand grip strength, and improved brain function, such as memory; and with reduced production of potentially harmful inflammatory chemicals.

More detailed analysis revealed that the microbiome changes were associated with an increase in bacteria known to produce beneficial short chain fatty acids and a decrease in bacteria involved in producing particular bile acids, overproduction of which are linked to a heightened risk of bowel cancer, insulin resistance, fatty liver and cell damage.

What's more, the bacteria that proliferated in response to the Mediterranean diet acted as 'keystone' species, meaning they were critical for a stable 'gut ecosystem,' pushing out those microbes associated with indicators of frailty.

The changes were largely driven by an increase in dietary fibre and associated vitamins and minerals -- specifically, C, B6, B9, copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and magnesium.

The findings were independent of the person's age or weight (body mass index), both of which influence the make-up of the microbiome.

And while there were some differences in the make-up of a person's gut microbiome, depending on country of origin to start with, the response to the Mediterranean diet after 12 months was similar and consistent, irrespective of nationality.

The study findings can't establish a causative role for the microbiome in health, added to which some of the implications are inferred rather than directly measured, say the researchers.

"The interplay of diet, microbiome and host health is a complex phenomenon influenced by several factors," they emphasise.

"While the results of this study shed light on some of the rules of this three-way interplay, several factors such as age, body mass index, disease status and initial dietary patterns may play a key role in determining the extent of success of these interactions," they explain.

Older people may have dental problems and/or difficulty swallowing, so it may be impractical for them to eat a Mediterranean diet, they add. But the beneficial bacteria implicated in healthy ageing found in this study might yet prove useful therapeutic agents to ward off frailty, they suggest.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200217192025.htm

The skinny on why poor sleep may increase heart risk in women

February 17, 2020

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Women who sleep poorly tend to overeat and consume a lower-quality diet, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The findings provide new insight into how poor sleep quality can increase the risk of heart disease and obesity and points to possible interventions for improving women's heart health.

Previous studies have shown that people who get less sleep are more likely to develop obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease -- and that the relationship may be partially explained by diet. But these studies were narrowly focused on specific foods or nutrients (such as fish, sweets, or saturated fat) or only measured sleep duration, not sleep quality.

The new study was designed to get a more comprehensive picture in women by examining associations between overall diet quality and multiple aspects of sleep quality.

"Women are particularly prone to sleep disturbances across the life span, because they often shoulder the responsibilities of caring for children and family and, later, because of menopausal hormones," says Brooke Aggarwal, EdD, assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study.

The study of nearly 500 women was published online today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The researchers analyzed the sleep and eating habits of an ethnically diverse group of 495 women, ages 20 to 76. The study looked at sleep quality, the time it took to fall asleep, and insomnia. The women also reported on the types and amounts of foods they typically eat throughout the year, allowing researchers to measure their typical dietary patterns.

Similar to previous studies of sleep and diet, the study found that those with worse overall sleep quality consumed more of the added sugars associated with obesity and diabetes.

Women who took longer to fall asleep had higher caloric intake and ate more food by weight.

And women with more severe insomnia symptoms consumed more food by weight and fewer unsaturated fats than women with milder insomnia.

"Our interpretation is that women with poor-quality sleep could be overeating during subsequent meals and making more unhealthy food choices," says Aggarwal.

The question remains: How might poor sleep contribute to poor eating?

"Poor sleep quality may lead to excessive food and calorie intake by stimulating hunger signals or suppressing signals of fullness," says Faris Zuraikat, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and lead author of the study. "Fullness is largely affected by the weight or volume of food consumed, and it could be that women with insomnia consume a greater amount of food in an effort to feel full.

"However, it's also possible that poor diet has a negative impact on women's sleep quality," adds Zuraikat. "Eating more could also cause gastrointestinal discomfort, for instance, making it harder to fall asleep or remain asleep."

"Given that poor diet and overeating may lead to obesity -- a well-established risk factor for heart disease -- future studies should test whether therapies that improve sleep quality can promote cardiometabolic health in women," says Aggarwal.

About the Study

The women in the study were participants in the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Two other research teams in Columbia's Go Red for Women network are studying the impact of sleep restriction on risk factors for heart disease and on the cells that line blood vessels.

The study is titled "Measures of Poor Sleep Quality Are Associated with Higher Energy Intake and Poor Diet Quality in a Diverse Sample of Women from the Go Red for Women Strategically Focused Research Network."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200217085214.htm

Fast food intake leads to weight gain in preschoolers

February 14, 2020

Science Daily/The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

There is a strong link between the amount of fast food that pre-school age children consume and their likelihood of becoming overweight or obese, according to a new Dartmouth-led study, published in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 25 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 5 years are overweight or obese in the U.S. These conditions increase the risk of numerous physical and psychosocial problems during childhood, including fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and depression.

"We now know from our studies and others, that kids who start on the path of extra weight gain during this really important timeframe tend to carry it forward into adolescence and adulthood, and this sets them up for major health consequences as they get older," says first author Jennifer Emond, PhD, MS, an assistant professor of biomedical data science and of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

Previous research has shown that fast-food intake is common among children -- about one-third of U.S. children consume fast food daily -- and has suggested that there is an association between fast food consumption and children becoming overweight or obese. But it hasn't been clear whether eating fast food independently contributes to excess weight gain at such a young age.

In an effort to make this determination, the investigators followed a cohort of more than 500 pre-school age children (ages 3 to 5) and their families in southern New Hampshire for one year. The height and weight of the children were measured at the beginning and end of the study. Parents reported their children's fast-food intake frequency weekly -- from 11 chain fast-food restaurants -- in six online surveys that were completed at two-month intervals.

The researchers found that at the beginning of the study, about 18 percent of the children were overweight and nearly 10 percent were obese. Importantly, about 8 percent of children transitioned to a greater weight status over the one-year period.

"To our knowledge, ours is the first study to follow a cohort over time and to show that fast food, by itself, uniquely contributes to weight gain," explains Emond. "Unlike with past research, we were able to adjust for other factors -- such as exercise and screen time -- that could possibly explain away this relationship.

"Findings from this research," says Emond, "should be used to inform guidelines and policies that can reduce fast-food marketing exposure to children and help support parents who may be struggling to adopt healthier eating behaviors for their kids."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200214134723.htm