Eats « Weekly Gravy

A new poll suggests that education is all that stops most Americans from embracing plant-based diets that are better for the planet. The poll, of just over 1,000 adults nationwide, found that 51% said they would eat more plant-based foods if they knew more about the environmental impacts of their eating habits, but 70% said they rarely or never discuss this issue with friends or family. Nearly two-thirds said they’d never been asked to eat more plant-based foods, and more than half rarely or never hear about the topic in the media. In addition, more than half said they’re willing to eat more vegetables and plant-based alternatives and/or less red meat. Even though only 4% self-identified as vegan or vegetarian, 20% said they chose plant-based dairy alternatives two to five times a week or more often, and about the same percentage said they didn’t buy products from food companies that aren’t taking measures to reduce their environmental impact. Along with a lack of information, other barriers to eating more plant-based foods include perceived cost, taste and accessibility, according to the survey findings from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the Earth Day Network. For example, 49% of respondents believed a meal with a plant-based main course is more expensive than a meal with a meat-based main course, and many said they would eat… read on >

A specific collection of gut bacteria may be a culprit in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a new study shows. PAH is a chronic disease marked by the narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the lungs. With constant high blood pressure in these arteries, the right side of the heart is forced to work harder, which can result in right-sided heart failure. Symptoms of PAH include shortness of breath, heart palpitations and fatigue. Microbiota, bacteria found in everyone’s gut, aid in digestion. The study showed that having a particular microbiota profile predicted PAH with 83% accuracy. “We showed for the first time that specific bacteria in the gut are present in people with PAH. While current PAH treatments focus on the lungs, looking at the lung/gut axis could open the door to new therapies centered in the digestive system,” said lead study author Mohan Raizada. He is a distinguished professor in the department of physiology and functional genomics at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville. Stool samples from 18 PAH patients and 12 people without cardiopulmonary disease history were collected for the study. The unique bacteria found in the stool of PAH patients led to the association. The findings were published Feb. 24 in the journal Hypertension. Raizada and his team are eager to learn how this bacteria impacts… read on >

Sugar-sweetened drinks can play havoc with your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, which increases your risk for heart disease and stroke, a new study finds. Specifically, drinking more than 12 ounces (1 standard can) of sugary sodas or fruit drinks a day may not bode well for your cardiovascular health, researchers say. “Think before you drink. There is accumulating evidence linking sugar-sweetened beverages to adverse health outcomes, and this message is clear,” said lead researcher Nicola McKeown, a nutritional epidemiologist at the Jean Mayer U.S.D.A. Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. According to the researchers, drinks such as sodas, sports drinks and fruit-flavored drinks are the biggest source of added sugars for Americans. “Efforts and policies aimed at reducing sugar-sweetened beverage intake should continue,” McKeown said. “When it comes to alternative beverages, we need more information about what we are putting into our glasses and how that may make a difference in our health, positively or negatively.” McKeown and her team found that drinking more than 12 ounces of sugary drinks a day was linked to a 53% higher odds of high triglycerides and a 98% higher odds of low HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol), compared with drinking less. The findings came from data on nearly 6,000 people who took part in the Offspring and Generation 3 Framingham Heart Study. Participants… read on >

Little ones who stay up late may have a higher risk of becoming overweight by the time they are school-age, a new study suggests. Researchers found that young children who routinely got to sleep after 9 p.m. tended to gain more body fat between the ages of 2 and 6. Compared with kids who had earlier bedtimes, they had bigger increases in both waist size and body mass index (BMI) — an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. The findings do not prove that later bedtimes cause excess weight gain, said Dr. Nicole Glaser, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study, which was published online Feb. 18 in Pediatrics. But the report adds to evidence linking sleep habits to kids’ weight, according to Glaser, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, Davis. Specifically, studies have found higher rates of obesity among kids who either get too little sleep or have trouble falling or staying asleep. “At this point, I think it’s clear that there is a relationship between [sleep quality and obesity risk],” Glaser said. “The big question is whether the relationship is a causal one.” Dr. Claude Marcus, senior researcher on the study, agreed. “The causality is difficult to establish,” he said. Kids’ sleep habits do not exist in a vacuum, and it’s possible that other factors cause both late… read on >

Could hot chocolate deliver relief to those suffering from the painful condition known as peripheral artery disease (PAD)? A small, new study says it’s entirely possible. Though you may be picturing a steaming cup of hot milk chocolate with tiny marshmallows bobbing on the top, the concoction the study volunteers drank was made from dark chocolate, and had a less sweet taste. “A food-derived, nutritional therapy that is accessible, inexpensive and safe may meaningfully improve walking ability in people with peripheral artery disease,” said study author Dr. Mary McDermott. She’s a professor in the departments of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. “Peripheral artery disease is common and underdiagnosed,” she said, adding that it’s a major cause of disability in people over 55. PAD causes narrowing in the blood vessels that supply blood to the legs from the heart. Common symptoms include pain, particularly when walking, cramping and weakness in the leg muscles. McDermott noted that “these findings are particularly important because currently few therapies have been identified to help patients with PAD.” However, the study was a preliminary effort and only 44 people were enrolled, so further research is needed to confirm these findings, she said. The study was published Feb. 14 in the journal Circulation Research. Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. National… read on >

A clinical trial of the weight-loss drug Belviq (lorcaserin) shows an association with an increased risk of cancer, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requesting that its maker withdraw the drug from the U.S. market. Eisai Inc. has already “submitted a request to voluntarily withdraw the drug,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, who directs the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, noted in a statement issued Thursday. Now, “we’re taking steps to notify the public,” she said, adding that “our review of the full clinical trial results shows that the potential risk of cancer associated with the drug outweighs the benefit of treatment.” Woodcock said the FDA is advising that “patients should stop using the medication Belviq and Belviq XR [lorcaserin] and talk to their health care professionals about other treatment options for weight loss. Health care professionals should stop prescribing and dispensing Belviq and Belviq XR.” The agency first announced that Belviq might have links to cancer in a communication issued Jan 15. At the time, the FDA said “we cannot conclude that lorcaserin contributes to the cancer risk,” but “wanted to make the public aware of this potential risk. We are continuing to evaluate the clinical trial results and will communicate our final conclusions and recommendations when we have completed our review.” That review appears to have led to calls for the… read on >

For better or worse, your social media friends might be influencing your eating habits, British researchers report. They asked nearly 400 college students to estimate how much fruit, veggies, snacks and sugary drinks their Facebook friends ate each day. Those participants who believed their social media buddies ate the recommended five daily portions of fruits and vegetables in turn ate one extra serving. But they also helped themselves to an extra portion of unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks for every three portions they believed their online friends had. “This study suggests we may be influenced by our social peers more than we realize when choosing certain foods,” said study co-leader Lily Hawkins, a doctoral student in health psychology at Aston University in Birmingham, England. “We seem to be subconsciously accounting for how others behave when making our own food choices.” The findings offer evidence that online social circles influence people’s eating habits, and they suggest it might be possible to use social media to encourage healthy eating, according to the researchers. “The implication is that we can use social media as a tool to ‘nudge’ each other’s eating behavior within friendship groups, and potentially use this knowledge as a tool for public health interventions,” Hawkins said in a university news release. Researchers found no significant link between participants’ eating habits and their body mass index… read on >

It’s no yolk: Americans for decades have gotten dietary whiplash from the back-and-forth science on whether eggs are good for them. But a major new study will have many egg-lovers relieved: You can enjoy an egg a day without having to worry about your heart. “Moderate egg intake, which is about one egg per day in most people, does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality even if people have a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes,” said study lead author Mahshid Dehghan. She’s an investigator at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. The study, which analyzed data on more than 177,000 people, was funded by various provincial government health agencies in Ontario, and nonprofit groups focused on heart health. It received no funding from the egg industry. Dehghan’s group pored over data from three large, long-term international studies, all conducted at the PHRI. The three studies involved people with various income levels living in 50 countries on six continents, so the results are widely applicable, the researchers said. Most of the people in the studies had one or fewer eggs a day, suggesting that this level of consumption is safe, Dehghan said. “Also, no association was found between egg intake and blood cholesterol, its components or other risk factors,” she said in a McMaster news release.… read on >

Before you throw any leftovers away, heed new research that suggests the choice could hit you right in your pocketbook. It turns out that almost one-third of food in American households goes to waste, costing each household thousands of dollars a year, researchers report. “Our findings are consistent with previous studies, which have shown that 30% to 40% of the total food supply in the United States goes uneaten — and that means that resources used to produce the uneaten food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well,” said study author Edward Jaenicke. He’s a professor of agricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Jaenicke and his team analyzed data from 4,000 households that participated in a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey and found that, on average, about one-third of the food they obtained was wasted. Nationwide, the cost of wasted food could total $240 billion a year. Divided by the nearly 128.6 million households in the United States, that works out to about $1,866 for the average household. “Based on our estimation, the average American household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires,” Jaenicke said in a university news release. “More than two-thirds of households in our study have food-waste estimates of between 20% and 50%. However, even the least wasteful household wastes 8.7% of the food it acquires.”… read on >