Eats « Weekly Gravy

Coffee has been tied to many potential health benefits, but people should drink it for pleasure, and not disease prevention. That’s one of the main conclusions of a new research review. In it, researchers give an overview of the evidence on coffee and caffeine — the subjects of many health studies over the years. “The impact of coffee consumption on health is important because there are few other dietary factors that so many people across the world are so frequently exposed to,” said Rob van Dam, the lead author on the review. And overall, his team found, the news is good for coffee lovers: Caffeinated coffee does not appear to raise any disease risks, and is instead linked to lower odds of various diseases. And moderate doses of caffeine are generally safe for most people. “Moderate” is the key, however. Too much caffeine can disrupt sleep or make people jittery. “The amount of caffeine that leads to unpleasant side effects varies greatly from person to person,” said van Dam, a professor at the National University of Singapore. He suggested people pay attention to whether caffeine seems to affect their ability to fall asleep or lead to “agitation or anxiety.” If it does, van Dam said, “they can adapt their level of intake or timing of intake during the day.” That’s the advice for most adults.… read on >

Life in lockdown has led many to overeat and gain weight, a phenomenon referred to as the “COVID-15.” But some small changes can get you back into shape, a weight management specialist suggests. “COVID-19 changed how we eat, what we eat and how we spend our day,” said Dr. Peter Jian, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Unfortunately, for some of us that meant less healthy choices,” Jian added in a Baylor news release. Jian offered these tips for working off the excess pounds and returning to a healthy lifestyle: Learn how to cook. Or start other new hobbies to keep active. “Use this time as an opportunity to focus on the things that we can do in order to improve our health,” Jian said. Stay physically active. If you’re afraid to go to the gym, try biking, hiking and walking outside. You can also join an online fitness program. Eat a healthy diet. Buy nutritious foods with curbside pickup or delivery. If you shop in person, choose foods placed at the front and side aisles, where the fresh and organic produce is available. Avoid prepackaged and processed foods. To lose weight, start small. Gradually introduce new eating and exercise habits. This makes changes easier to adjust to. Stay clear of fad diets. Many of… read on >

Eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods could lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, two new studies suggest. In one study, researchers looked at more than 9,700 people who developed type 2 diabetes and over 13,600 who didn’t. Participants were from eight European countries and part of a long-term cancer and nutrition study. After adjusting for lifestyle, and social and dietary risk factors for diabetes, people with the highest levels of fruit and vegetable consumption were 50% less likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest levels, the researchers found. Every 66 grams a day (2.3 ounces) increase in total fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a 25% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Nita Forouhi, of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues calculated. The other study included more than 158,000 U.S. women and over 36,000 U.S. men. After adjusting for lifestyle and dietary risk factors for diabetes, people with the highest levels of whole grain consumption had a 29% lower rate of type 2 diabetes than those with the lowest levels, the findings showed. In terms of specific whole grain foods, one or more servings a day of whole grain cold breakfast cereal or dark bread was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes (19% and 21%, respectively) compared with less than one… read on >

Cardiologist Dr. Willie Lawrence remains haunted by the memory of police shooting his best friend during a 1966 race riot in Cleveland. “I saw my best friend shot in the back and the leg by police. I saw his sister shot five times. I witnessed all that, and that impacted me for the rest of my life,” said Lawrence, chief of cardiology at HCA Midwest Health’s Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo. “I’d say I’m as afraid of police as anybody you’d ever come across, and that’s a stressor,” added Lawrence, who is Black. The lasting echoes of that trauma left Lawrence not at all surprised by a new study linking racism in the United States to an elevated risk of high blood pressure among Black Americans. Blacks who endure life-altering instances of discrimination are a third to a half more likely to develop high blood pressure than those who haven’t been similarly traumatized, researchers report in the July 1 issue of the journal Hypertension. These results “may explain a lot of the racial differences between people’s health outcomes, and why African Americans are disproportionately impacted by hypertension,” said lead author Allana Forde, a postdoctoral research fellow at Drexel University’s Urban Health Collaborative in Philadelphia. “Discrimination is bad for your health,” Forde said. “Discrimination is measurable and will impact your health in a negative… read on >

Kids as young as age 8 can show signs of being at increased risk for diabetes in adulthood, a British study finds. Researchers analyzed blood samples collected from more than 4,000 participants at ages 8, 16, 18 and 25, looking for patterns specific to early stages of type 2 diabetes development. “We knew that diabetes doesn’t develop overnight. What we didn’t know is how early in life the first signs of disease activity become visible and what these early signs look like,” said study co-author Joshua Bell, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol. While diabetes is most common in older age, signs that one is prone to it can be seen about 50 years before it’s typically diagnosed, the researchers said. “Knowing what these early signs look like widens our window of opportunity to intervene much earlier and stop diabetes before it becomes harmful,” Bell said in a university news release. He and his colleagues found that in susceptible children, certain types of “good” HDL cholesterol were lower at age 8 before other types of cholesterol, including “bad” LDL, increased. By ages 16 and 18, inflammation and amino acids were also elevated, the study showed. These differences widened over time. “We’re talking about the effects of susceptibility rather than of clinical disease itself,” Bell said. “This does not mean that young people ‘already have… read on >

Canadian provinces that allow retail displays promoting e-cigarettes had nearly three times the teen vaping rate, a new study found. Until May 2018, e-cigarettes weren’t widely available in Canada and it was illegal to advertise those containing nicotine. When the law changed, Quebec and Manitoba adopted their own restrictions, including bans on retail displays and ads for e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Study author David Hammond, a professor of public health at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said this situation set up a “unique natural experiment” for researchers as Canada went from ban to a more open market. “It allowed us to answer the hypothetical question: Would lifting the restrictions make a difference in teen e-cigarette use?” he said. The answer? “E-cigarette marketing does make a difference,” Hammond said. “It does reach minors. What our study says is that regulating marketing limited the amount of vaping.” He said trends are similar to those in the United States — advertisers appear to be targeting a younger audience. “There’s social media marketing, digital media and retail stores themselves,” Hammond said. “Retail stores are one of the most common areas of exposure — you go in for a bag of chips or some milk, and you’re confronted with product supplies and ads.” While Canada requires retailers to keep traditional cigarettes out of sight, many now have e-cigarette… read on >

Loving pet parents only want the finest fare for their furry friends, but with a dizzying array of choices, it’s hard to know which pet diet is best. Raw food is all the rage, but is it really better than commercial kibble or homemade? Owners are trying to figure this out. New research found that only 13% of dog owners and about one-third of cat owners exclusively fed their pets conventional pet foods as their main meals all of the time. Nearly two-thirds of dogs and about half of cats were given homemade meals at least some of the time. And more than two-thirds of pooches and more than half of kitties sometimes got raw meals. “Fewer dogs and cats are being fed conventional, heat-processed foods,” said study author Dr. Sarah Dodd, a veterinarian and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Guelph Ontario Veterinary College in Canada. The study included surveys from more than 3,600 pet owners from countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. “Commercial pet diets have only been around for a few decades, and one of the reasons these products were developed was an increased interest in animals’ well-being. Pets have evolved to become part of the family and people wanted to provide a more balanced diet with better nutrition,” Dodd explained. She said typical grocery… read on >

The latest cancer prevention guidelines may change your typical backyard barbecue: Gone are the hot dogs and booze. In are veggie kebobs and maybe a swim or some badminton. The American Cancer Society’s new cancer prevention recommendations suggest, among other things, adding more physical activity to your days. About 20 minutes a day is the minimum, but 40 minutes or more daily is even better. The new guidelines also add emphasis on avoiding unhealthy foods, including red and processed meats, refined grains and alcohol. “The new recommendations really increase emphasis on a few key areas [including healthy weight and diet, physical activity, and avoiding or limiting alcohol],” said Dr. Laura Makaroff, senior vice president of prevention and early detection for the American Cancer Society (ACS). These factors accounted for up to 18% of cancer cases and 16% of cancer deaths in the United States, according to the new report. Along with recommendations for individual lifestyle practices, the ACS also included guidance for communities to take action. “In addition to recommendations for individual choices, ACS recognizes that making healthy choices can be challenging for many people. We need to reduce barriers to living well and achieving a healthy lifestyle, and that will require working collaboratively at all levels to develop and implement policies to ensure access to healthy foods and opportunities for exercise,” Makaroff said. Registered… read on >

Many female athletes lack knowledge about nutrition, which could harm their performance and put them at risk for health problems, a researcher says. A review of two decades of literature on female athletes older than 13 found “a lack of general knowledge of nutrition among athletes, coaches and other sports team specialists,” said study author Mary Downes Gastrich, an associate professor at Rutgers University Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. “Other factors included poor time management and food availability, disordered eating behaviors such as chronic dieting or a drive for lower body weight,” Gastrich added in a Rutgers news release. “Some female athletes may purposefully restrict their calorie intake for performance or aesthetic reasons, while others may unintentionally have low energy expenditure due to increased training or lack of education on how to properly fuel themselves for their sports’ demands.” She pointed out that the problem may be worse with particular sports and activities. “In addition, specific sports, such as gymnastics, distance running, diving, figure skating and classical ballet emphasize a low body weight; thus, making these athletes at greater risk for inadequate calorie consumption, poor body image, disordered eating or a serious mental health disorder diagnosis of an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa,” Gastrich said. When nutrition doesn’t meet the needs of energy output for sports or for proper body… read on >

Among patients in China with COVID-19, researchers found that those with high blood pressure had twice the risk of death from the coronavirus compared with patients who didn’t have high blood pressure. And patients with high blood pressure who were not taking drugs to control it were at even higher risk, the findings showed. However, the study only found an association and could not prove cause-and-effect. For the study, researchers in China and Ireland analyzed data on nearly 2,900 COVID-19 patients who entered one hospital in Wuhan, China, between Feb. 5 and March 15. Nearly 30% of these patients had a history of high blood pressure. The analysis revealed that 4% of patients with high blood pressure died versus 1% of other patients, according to the report published June 5 in the European Heart Journal. Among those not taking medication for their high blood pressure, 8% died. That compared with 3% of patients who were taking blood pressure medication. The researchers, led by Fei Li and Ling Tao from Xijing Hospital in Xi’an, then pooled that data with data from three other studies involving 2,300 high blood pressure patients. The investigators found that patients taking angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) were less likely to die than patients on other blood pressure drugs. But the researchers stressed that due to the size… read on >