Drinking tea a minimum of thrice every week could reduce the risk of dying from heart problems and is linked with a longer and healthier life, at least in China, new research suggests. Chinese researchers found the rewards associated with tea were more pronounced for drinkers of green, rather than black tea, and regarding those who had been drinking tea regularly over the longer period of time. The advantages were also clearer among men, the research indicated.
Researchers checked out data from 100,902 Chinese people without cases of heart attack, stroke or cancer and divided them into two groups: habitual drinkers who drank tea three or more times every week, those who never drank tea, and those who drank it less regularly. They followed up with them following a seven-year period.
Their analysis found that regular tea drinkers had a 20% lower risk of having cardio disease and stroke, and a 22% lower likelihood of dying from heart disease and stroke. Specifically, they found that regular tea drinkers could expect to live 1.26 years longer at age 50 than individuals who didn’t regularly take part in cup of tea.
Reading the tea leaves about whether drinking green tea is good for you “We came to find that the protective outcome of habitual tea consumption were very pronounced and robust across different outcomes for men, but only modest for women,” Dr. Dongfeng Gu from China’s National Center for Cardiovascular Disease, Peking Union Medical College and the Chinese Academy of Medical Science said via email. “One reason might be which the proportion of habitual tea consumers among men was approximately two and a half [times] as high as that among women,” Gu said. Some 48% of the men in the study were regular tea drinkers, compared with 20% of ladies. Gu said Chinese women were very likely to drink herbal tea produced from rosebuds or lotus leaves however this information wasn’t included.
In their analysis, the researchers controlled for some factors like smoking, drinking, eating habits and physical activity that could have explained the link between tea drinking and driving longevity. However, as an observational study it can’t establish cause and effect, only association. “Other things to consider that are not mentioned within the study are: Firstly, what individuals who weren’t drinking tea were drinking — was tea replaced by sugary drinks or caffeinated beverages … and started that what increased their risk…?” said Jodie Relf, a registered dietitian and spokesperson regarding the British Dietetic Association.
Black vs. green The advantages linked to drinking black tea “were not much,” Gu said, but that could be since there were far fewer black tea drinkers present in the research — only about 8% of the habitual tea drinkers engaging in the study said they preferred black tea.
Gu also said that green tea is a richer supply of flavanoids, especially tea polyphenols, and these bioactive compounds could be protective against cardiovascular disease. While from the same plant and containing the same amount of caffeine, black tea is processed differently from green leaf tea after picking. “Black tea is fully fermented and tea polyphenols might be oxidized into pigments and inactivate during fermentation. Thus green tea ends up being more effective than black tea in anti-oxidation, improving blood lipid profile, and in turn, to become more effective in cardiovascular protection,” Gu said.
Can green leaf tea maximize your brainpower and treat disease? Gunter Kuhnle, a professor of nutrition and food science, University of Reading in the UK, who was not engaged with the study but conducts research into the association between flavanoids and health, said it’s not currently known how tea — or even the compounds found in tea — affect health.
“The antioxidant effect of polyphenols found in tea has long been assumed to become responsible, however this has been resoundingly disproved in the last decade. Many of the compounds present in tea might have a brilliant effect, however this is at the moment still under investigation,” he told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London. As the world’s most popular drink after water, Gu said that tea-drinking habits varied from place to place and of course the findings will possibly not apply to Western countries, where black tea has been a more accepted choice — often taken with milk or sugar.
Drinking very hot tea almost doubles likelihood of cancer, new study says “Tea consumption is part of a cultural heritage, along with its health effects might be confounded by other consuming patterns, for instance, intake of other flavanoid-rich food or beverages like coffee.” The conclusions of previous research on the health advantages of tea has been inconsistent, Gu said, with the study noting that green leaf tea were linked to lower risk of cadiovascular disease in Japan however in the british isles no link was observed with black tea taken with milk.
“This study strengthens the body of evidence that habitual tea drinking is associated with lower chances of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, though it cannot give proof that it’s definitely the tea that’s responsible,” Dr. Jenna Macciochi, a lecturer in immunology at the University of Sussex, told the SMC. However, she noted that “a body of evidence in nutrition means that whole diet patterns are more informative of diet-disease relationships than any isolated food or nutrient.” Dr. Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and senior teaching fellow at Aston Medical School, Aston University, said that while green leaf tea is safe and may even have benefits, green leaf tea supplements “ought to be considered carefully as there has long been a number of cases of liver damage reported in individuals who have consumed these in large doses.”
Taking calcium and vitamin D could help older adults curb the chance of a bone fracture, but vitamin D alone doesn’t finish the job, a brand new research review concludes.
The analysis of 28 past studies found that senior citizens with higher blood methods of vitamin D were reluctant to suffer a broken hip or other fracture over five to 15 years.
The picture was different in various research that tested the effects of using vitamin D supplements: They found no evidence that vitamin D alone reduced older adults’ chance of fractures.
In comparison, trials that tested mixed calcium and vitamin D showed modest protective effects.
“Combined treatment with both of your calcium and vitamin D reduced the potential risk of hip fracture by one-sixth, which resulted in being harmed more beneficial than taking standard doses of vitamin D alone,” said senior researcher Dr. Robert Clarke, a professor of epidemiology and public health medicine along at the University of Oxford in England.
The findings, published online Dec. 20 in JAMA Network Open, aren’t the last word on vitamin D and fractures. Some ongoing trials are testing high-dose vitamin D in people who are at increased danger of bone breaks.
But for now, there may be no proof that it works by Clarke. In the United States alone, about 54 million people have deep bone tissue or outright osteoporosis—the brittle-bone disease that could bring about fractures, as per the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). It’s estimated that after age 50, much fewer women and one-quarter of males will break a bone as a consequence of osteoporosis.
Calcium is essential to building and maintaining healthy bones, while vitamin D assists the body in absorbing calcium and supports the muscle function needed to avoid falls.
Though when looking at preventing fractures in people with osteoporosis, there’s only so much that supplements can do, said the NOF’s, Beth Kitchin. She wasn’t involved with the study.
“The expectation that vitamin D and calcium, alone, will prevent fractures is likely unrealistic,” said Kitchin, who’s also another person professor of nutrition sciences for the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
To assist preserve bone health go away with muscles strong; people need regular exercise by Kitchin. The activity that will make our bodies move against gravity while staying upright—like jogging, jumping rope, or dancing—can help support bone density. And use that builds muscle strength or improves balance can help lower the chance of falls.
Avoiding smoking and alcoholism is also critical to preventing bone loss, as stated by the NOF.
Once osteoporosis is diagnosed, medications—which either slow bone breakdown or boost bone formation—may be necessary, Kitchin said. “Fall-proofing” your room is another essential step. Meaning getting rid of tripping hazards in and out of the house; installing grab bars in bathrooms; maintaining stairways well lit, among other measures.
Of the studies, Clarke’s team analyzed, 11 were observational. They followed older adults among the “practical,” tracking fracture rates anywhere from five to fifteen years. Overall, the upper a person’s blood stages of vitamin D were at the outset, the lower the potential risk of fracture.
“But that doesn’t prove cause and effect,” Kitchin stressed. “High vitamin D levels are most certainly a marker of something else entirely.”
Few foods contain vitamin D, she noted. Instead, the human body synthesizes it whenever the skin is exposed to sunlight. So people with high vitamin D levels may spend a lot of time outdoors, for example.
The review included too 11 trials testing vitamin D alone, and six testing vitamin D and calcium. Study participants’ average age ranged from 62 to 85, and they were followed for as much as five years.
Overall, people gave calcium, and vitamin D had a 16% lower likelihood of hip fracture than those given placebos or no treatment. Their danger of any bone break was 6% lower.
So how should you know if it is recommended to take supplements? You can ask your doctor to measure your blood level of vitamin D, to detect any deficiency, Kitchin said. As regards to calcium, she added, “evaluate your diet plan.”
If you are genuinely avoiding food much dairy, green veggies, and foods fortified with calcium, you would possibly need to have a supplement.
According to the NOF, adults younger than 51 should strive for 1,000 mg of calcium a day; afterward, the advice surges to 1,200 mg. As for vitamin D, people newer 50 should force 400 to 800 international units (IU) daily, while mature workers need 800 to 1,000 IU.
The advice on vitamin D does vary, however, with some more groups recommending more. As per the Institute of Medicine, the safe upper limit of vitamin D is 4,000 IU daily for the majority of grown-ups.
There are many drugs that help fight inflammation, but did you know there are also foods that fight inflammation? Here’s a list of foods that have been found to decrease inflammation in the body.
Extra-virgin olive oil
Extra-virgin olive oil – an unrefined type of olive oil – contains a substance called oleocanthol that interferes with two enzymes (COX-1 and COX-2) involved with inflammation in the body. In fact, a 2005 study in the journal Nature found that oleocanthol inhibits inflammation in a way that’s identical to the painkiller ibuprofen.
Red wine
Red wine contains a compound called resveratrol, which has been found to have both anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Scientists say the presence of this compound may help explain the so-called “French paradox” as to why the French – who drink red wine with most meals – can eat a diet that’s actually quite high in saturated fats and yet have healthy arteries and hearts
Tea
Generally, any beverage that is high in water content will have anti-inflammatory qualities, and tea is a great choice. Teas such as white tea, oolong, and green tea are full of catechins, antioxidant compounds that reduce artery plaque and inflammation. Tea also has been linked to reduced risks of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Grass-fed beef
If you’re eating beef that’s not specifically sold as “grass-fed,” it means the cows were fed a high-calorie diet of corn and grain in an effort to fatten them quickly. Corn and grain are full of omega-6 fatty acids, which have been linked to inflammation. Grass-fed cows are leaner, and their meat is rich in healthy compounds such as omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.
Oily fish
You’ve probably seen bottles of fish oil supplements in your pharmacy or grocery store, but you can get the same healthy boost from going straight to the source, as well. Oily fish such as salmon, sardines, and tuna are fish that have fatty oils throughout the fillets and in the area around the gut, rather than just in just the liver. Experts say eating one to two servings of these fish per week can reduce inflammation.
Cocoa
Cocoa contains anti-inflammatory compounds called flavanols, substances that reduce both blood clotting and inflammation in the body. Enjoying a cup or two of hot cocoa per week can help reduce inflammation, particularly if it’s made with skim or low-fat milk to keep down the drink’s content of saturated fats. Keep in mind, however, that trying to get your cocoa in the form of candy will load you up on saturated fats.
Cranberries
Cranberries are a powerhouse food, with studies linking the red berry to such benefits as inhibiting cancerous tumors and lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol. Scientists say the fact that the berries are rich in anti-inflammatory antioxidants contribute to their healthful effects. As a bonus, cranberries also contain tannins, substances that can act as a natural antibacterial agent to fight urinary tract and E. coli infections
Grapes
A 2004 study found that people with stable coronary disease lowered the amount of inflammatory markers in their blood by drinking Concord grape juice. This finding was likely due to the presence of resveratrol in the grapes’ skins, which inhibits inflammation and may even help to fight cancer. Eating grapes – and not drinking them – also adds fiber to the grapes’ benefits and eliminates any added sugar.
Walnuts
Walnuts contain the “plant version” of omega-3 fatty acids, a substance known as ALA, which reduces inflammation in the body. In a 2004 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, scientists found that people who ate at least 2.3 ounces of walnuts and flaxseed (which also contains ALA) daily had reduced levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), a major indicator of a person’s risk for heart disease.
Broccoli
Broccoli is a virtual disease fighter, rich in such healthy compounds as beta-carotene, vitamin B folate, vitamin C, and the inflammation-fighting flavanoid kaempferol. Broccoli also contains sulforaphane, which experts say helps the body cleanse itself of cancer-causing compounds.
New health claims, symbols, and seals of approval turn up on food packaging when you go grocery shopping. But when you’re one of the many 59% of shoppers who nearly always reads a label before purchasing new food, you’ve seen hardly any change in the nutrition facts label. That number-filled panel upon the back of a given package hadn’t changed since 2003—when trans fat was added. The current updates that started in 2016 and are generally still underway, are considerably more obvious.
Beginning January 1, 2020 large food manufacturers needs to be in a location that met with the FDA’s new nutrition facts label design (smaller manufacturers contain an additional year). If you’re a label reader, you’ve noticed many labels already chose new design.
It’s simple: Eat less. Sometimes combined with the directive move more, this mantra has a clear point. In case you can’t reduce weight, you might be either stupid or lazy—or, probably, both.
But if things were that simple, diets would work. Middle-aged people would not suddenly start increasing body weight despite eating and moving similarly every year. No one would need to endure the population of one friend with the “fast metabolism” who can eat anything he wants. And who, even though he knows you’re on any diet, says through his overstuffed mouth, “I couldn’t even add pounds in the event I tried.”
Instead, it is becoming clear that some people’s guts are simply more streamlined than others’ at extracting calories from food. When a couple eats the same 3,000-calorie pizza, for example, their bodies absorb different levels of energy. And those calorie-converting abilities can change over the person’s lifetime with age along with other variables.
The question is, why? And is it possible to make changes, in case a person needed to?
If so, the answer will involve the trillions of microbes in our intestines and how they operate in concert with another variable that’s just beginning to get attention. Your immunity determines stages of inflammation in the gut that are constantly shaping the way we digest food—how many calories get absorbed, and how many nutrients simply pass through.
The partnership between microbes and weight gain has long been overlooked in humans, but people have known about similar effects in animals for decades. After World War II, antibiotics became affordable and abundant for the first time. Farmers began giving the medication for their livestock—for example, as a treatment for a milk cow’s infected udder—and noticed that animals who got antibiotics grew larger and more quickly. This led to a flood of patent applications for antibiotic-laden foods for every variety of livestock. In 1950, the medication company Merck filed a patent for “a method of accelerating the growth of animals” with “a novel growth-promoting factor” that has been, simply, penicillin. Eli Lilly patented three new antibiotics to mix directly into the feed of sheep, goats, and cattle because the microbe-killing agents “increased feed efficiency.” Within the ensuing decades, it became standard practice to give livestock copious doses of antibiotics to make them grow faster and larger, although no person knew why this happened, or what other effects the practice might have.
Researchers have only recently shown that these antibiotics kill off many of the microbes that occur normally in the gut and help livestock, and people, digest food. By breaking up nutrients and helping them flow through the walls of the bowel, these microbes function a sort of gatekeeper between what exactly is eaten as well as what makes it directly into the body. Killing them is not without consequences. Similar to how antibiotics are associated with faster growth in cattle, a decrease in diversity in the human microbiome is associated with obesity. As the usage of animal antibiotics exploded in the twentieth, so too did usage in humans. Increase use of coincides having the obesity epidemic. This might be a spurious correlation, of course—lots of things have already been upon the rise since the ’50s. But dismissing it entirely would require ignoring a growing number of evidence that our metabolic health is inseparable beginning with the health in our gut microbes.
In 2006, Jeffrey Gordon, a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, reported that the microbiomes of obese mice had something in accordance: In comparison to their lean counterparts, the heavier mice had fewer Bacteroides and more Firmicutes species within their guts. What’s more, biochemical analyses showed that this ratio made the microbes better at “energy harvest”—essentially, extracting calories from food and passing it into the human body. That is, even though mice ate precisely the same amount and kind of food, the bacterial populations meant that many developed metabolic problems, while some didn’t. Similar bacterial patterns have since been confirmed in obese humans.
What’s more, Gordon found, the microbiome associated with obesity is transferable. In 2013, his lab took gut bacteria from pairs of human twins in which only one twin was obese, then fed the samples to mice. The mice given bacteria beginning with the obese humans quickly gained weight. The others did not.
Intestinal microorganisms are likewise transferred between humans, using fecal transplants, as a possible experimental treatment for serious infections like Clostridium difficile. In one study, obese patients who received transplants from lean donors later had healthier responses to insulin.
Short of this kind of hard reset considering the microbiome, preliminary research has demonstrated that adding also a single bacterial species to the person’s gut can alter her metabolism. Within tests reported last month within the journal Nature Medicine, people who took a probiotic containing Akkermansia muciniphila—which is usually found in greater amounts in non-obese people—saw subtle metabolic improvements, including weight loss.
The research authors aren’t suggesting that anyone go out and obtain this bacterium. But is known as a “proof of concept” regarding the idea that it’s possible to change a person’s microbiome in ways which have metabolic benefits.
Because leanness and obesity seem to be transmissible throughout the microbiome, “metabolic disease turns out to be, in certain ways, like an infectious disease,” says Lora Hooper, the chair considering the immunology department at the University of Texas Southwestern Hospital. Hooper did her postdoctoral research in Gordon’s lab in St. Louis. While other researchers focused on the gut microbiome itself, she took an interest within the immunity. Specifically, she wanted to know how an inflammatory response could influence these microscopic populations, and thus be related to gaining weight.
During the last decade or so, multiple studies have proven that obese adults mount less effective immune responses to vaccinations, and also that both overweight and underweight people have elevated rates of infection. But these were long assumed to become effects of obesity, not causes.
“When I started my lab there wasn’t much found how immunity perceives the gut microbes,” Hooper says. “Many people thought the gut immunity might be the type of blind to them.” To her, it was obvious that this couldn’t be the case. A person’s gut is host to be about 100 trillion bacteria. They serve vital metabolic functions, but can quickly kill someone if they get into the bloodstream. “So clearly the immune system has got to become involved in maintaining them,” she says. It made sense to her that even subtle changes within the functioning of the immunity could influence microbial populations—and, hence, gaining weight and metabolism.
This theory was confirmed late last month in a paper in Science. Zac Stephens, a microbial ecologist with the University of Utah, and his colleagues had been collaborating with mice with altered immune T cells. They noticed that over time, these mice “ballooned,” as Stephens puts it. One of his colleagues started summoning them “pancakes.”
To determine how such an immune change may cause obesity, they tested the biomes considering the mice with and without having the immune alteration. They found that healthy mice have lots of bacteria coming from a genus called Clostridia, but few from Desulfovibrio, and also that their guts let most fat pass throughout. People who have a restructured immune system had fewer Clostridia and more Desulfovibrio, and this microbial balance helped the gut absorb more fats from food. These mice gained more weight and exhibited indications of diabetes type 2.
“Whether this applies in humans, we don’t know,” Hooper says, “but this can be a tantalizing clue.”
Mice aren’t humans, but their microbiomes are about as complex as our own. Reduced Clostridia and increased Desulfovibrio are seen in people with obesity and kind 2 diabetes. Bacteria can reasonably be expected to operate similarly within the guts of different species. But even if they can don’t, this experiment is a demonstration of principle: The immune system helps control the composition of the gut microbiome.
It does so by regularly mounting low-level immune responses to maintain populations of bacteria in order. “The gut is under a continuing state of inflammation, so to speak—constant immune stimulation from all the microbes,” says Stephens, pushing back upon the common misconception that inflammation is always bad. The role of considering the immune system within the gut would be to maintain balance. Changes to the body’s defenses, which could happen due to age or illness, can cause certain species to flourish in exchange for others.
This is the interesting part to Steven Lindemann, a researcher at Purdue University who was not involved in the Utah study. He studies the effects of foods upon the gut microbiome. “Although we all know that, on the balance, diet is the strongest contributor to gut microbiome composition,” he explained, this study means that when immune control over the colon stops working, growth could become unchecked and lead to further problems with metabolic regulation.
Lindemann says the fact that your immunity regulates the inhabitants of the small intestine is well established. He compares the bowel wall to the customs checkpoint: The goal is to weed out bad actors and illegal cargo, but allow legitimate trade to progress as regularly as possible. In the case of the immune-altered mice, he states, “we have a colonic border patrol that’s seemingly purpose is to lunch, allowing bad actor Desulfovibrio to bloom.” If similar microbial changes have comparable effects in humans, it very well could have far-reaching implications for our particular diets. The very ideas of “nutritional value” and “calorie content” of food seem to vary based on the microbial population of the individual eating it and, potentially, her immune status. A person’s microbes—and those contained in any given food—would need to be regarded as another component considering the already flimsy calories-in, calories-out equation. This would also compound the difficulties already facing nutrition labels. People trying to control their weight might conclude that tinkering with their microbiomes is the solution. This stands to support the already dubious and barely regulated industry of “probiotic” supplements, that have been projected to progress to $7 billion by 2025. But the answer probably won’t be so simple.
“A lot of the most recent research on probiotics suggests it’s really hard to keep and sustain new communities,” Stephens says. The immune system could explain that. “It might be that your immune response gets ‘stuck’ from a young age based upon what you’ve exposed it into. Probiotics might not be enough to change a person’s microbiome, because your immune system determined ahead of time that certain microbes are either appropriate or inappropriate in your gut.”
Stephens says the relationship between weight and the immune system will probably have got a lot more complicated before it gets simpler. Which makes it hard to give concrete advice. “Keeping diverse gut microbes with diverse dietary sources is perhaps the safest advice for now,” he states. “That will stimulate the ideal, strong immunity that can learn and regulate and do all the things it does, in ways we’re just beginning to comprehend.” If all this uncertainty makes nutrition guidelines and nutrition even more inscrutable, additionally it stands to carry out some great by undermining the moralizing and simplistic character judgments often associated with body mass. Seeing obesity being a manifestation of the interplay between many systems—genetic, microbial, environmental—invites the realization that human physiology has changed along with our relationship to the species in and around us. As these new scientific models unfold, they impugn the thought of weight as a possible individual character flaw, revealing it regarding the self-destructive myth it has always been.
By studying a sizable cohort of females that has been already through menopause, researchers are finding that cardiovascular risk is related to body shape, which results from how fat is distributed in the human body.
New research implies that in women over 50, body shape is associated with cardiovascular risk.
Existing research reports have suggested that any particular one’s body mass index (BMI), calculated in mention of the their total weight and height, is linked to the chance of experiencing cardiovascular events.
Thus, the higher an individual’s BMI, the more their chance of experiencing stroke, heart problems, and similar events and conditions.
However, new research, through the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York, NY, as well as other institutions, points to some other potential factor, namely, where fat is stored in the torso — for women older than 50, at the very least.
The latest study — the findings of which appear in European Heart Journal — has looked over data from 161,808 women aged 50–79 to learn whether BMI or fat distribution was associated with cardiovascular risk.
All the participants had enrolled in the ladies’s Health Initiative between 1993 and 1998. Follow-up home elevators the participants’ health was available from that period to your end of February 2017.
None of these women had cardiovascular disease at baseline. Through the entire study period, however, the researchers recorded 291 new cases of cardiovascular disease.
Tahini is typically a common ingredient in popular foods worldwide, including hummus, halva, and baba ghanoush.
Favored to its smooth texture and rich taste, it may be used as a dip, spread, salad dressing, or condiment.
Plus it boasts a dust bin of nutrients and a number of other rewards, that makes it vital for practically any kitchen pantry.
Tahini is typically a paste made out of toasted and ground sesame seeds. Considered essential of Mediterranean cuisine, tahini is often featured in traditional Asian, Middle Eastern, and African dishes too.
It’s a remarkably versatile ingredient which can be served just like a dip, spread, or condiment.
It typically possesses a smooth texture similar to nut butter but a stronger, more savory taste that’s often talked about as bitter.
In addition to providing valuable nutrients, tahini has as well been linked to many perks, including improved heart health, reduced inflammation, and potential cancer-fighting effects.
In line with the CDC, in 2015 only 12 percent of Americans met the suggestions for consuming fruit, and only nine percent consumed enough vegetables – also though eating sufficient fruits & vegetables as an ingredient of a standard nutritious diet reduces the chance of numerous chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers, and obesity.
The federal guidelines had previously been shown in a pyramid and guidelines had been described in servings, that could sometimes be complicated since one serving could mean, for instance, a complete piece of medium sized good fresh fruit or 1/2 glass of canned, fresh fruit or 3/4 glass of fruit juice. One practically needed a spreadsheet and a calculator to keep track.
Utilizing the newer introduction of the MyPlate graphic, it is a bit easier. The idea is usually to fill half of a person’s plate with fruits and vegetables; as well as the serving sizes have now been simplified to cups.
Daily fruit recommendation
Women 19 to 30 years old: 2 cups
Women 31+ years old: 1 ½ cups
Men 19 years old and up: 2 cups
Daily vegetable recommendation:
Women 19 to 30 years old: 2 ½ cups
Women 31 to 50 years old: 2 ½ cups
Women 51+ years old: 2 cups
Men 19 to 30 years old: 3 cups
Men 31 to 50 years old: 3 cups
Men 51+ years old: 2 ½ cups
What one cup means Now here’s where it can get a little confusing again, because a cup isn’t always a cup. FRUIT Generally speaking, although not always, one cup of fruit or a ½ cup of dried fruit can be considered as 1 cup through the Fruit Group. Any fruit or 100 percent fruit juice counts (though remember that juice lacks the fiber of whole fruits). Here are a few other equivalents.
1 small apple (2¼” diameter) = 1 cup-equivalent
1 large banana (8-9″ long) = 1 cup-equivalent
½ cup of fruit cocktail = ½ cup-equivalent
½ medium grapefruit (4″ diameter) = ½ cup-equivalent
1 medium bunch of grapes (about 50 grapes) = 1½ cup-equivalents
1 medium mango = 1 cup-equivalent
1 small orange (approx. 2½” diameter) = ½ cup-equivalent
½ cup of 100% orange juice (4 fluid ounces) = ½ cup-equivalent
½ large peach (2¾” diameter) = ½ cup-equivalent
2 large plums (2½” diameter each) = 1 cup-equivalent
¼ cup of raisins = ½ cup-equivalent
VEGETABLES
Any vegetable or 100 percent vegetable juice counts; vegetables may be raw or cooked; fresh, frozen, canned, or dried/dehydrated; and may be whole, cut-up, or mashed. Within the vegetable group, there are sub-groups, of which you should strive to eat a mix of all: Dark-green vegetables; red and orange vegetables; starchy vegetables; beans and peas (which can also satisfy protein requirements), and other vegetables. The equivalents are often equal, but not always. Here is a list to give you a better idea.
½ cup of black beans (cooked) = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of broccoli = ½ cup-equivalent 1 cup of baby carrots = 1 cup-equivalent ½ cup of cauliflower = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of corn = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of green beans (cooked) = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of kidney beans (cooked) = ½ cup-equivalent 1 cup of iceberg lettuce = ½ cup-equivalent 1 cup of romaine lettuce = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of mushrooms = ½ cup-equivalent 2 slices of onion (raw) = ¼ cup-equivalent ½ cup of pinto beans (cooked) = ½ cup-equivalent 1 medium baked or boiled potato (2½-3″ diameter) = 1 cup-equivalent 1 cup of baby spinach (raw) = ½ cup-equivalent 1 large baked sweet potato (2¼” diameter) = 1 cup-equivalent ½ cup of 100% tomato juice (4 fluid ounces) = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of tomatoes (raw) = ½ cup-equivalent ½ cup of zucchini = ½ cup-equivalent
A diet that can help people reduce high blood pressure or hypertension might also lessen the chance of heart failure in people underneath the chronological age of 75, based on research published into the latest version of the United States Journal of Preventive Medicine, and led by doctors at Wake Forest School of Medicine, which will be section of Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, N.C.
‘Only a couple of previous research reports have examined the consequences for the Dash diet in the incidence of heart failure, and they have got yielded conflicting results.’— Claudia Campos, Wake Forest Class of Medicine
An observational study greater than 4,500 people over 13 years revealed that those people under 75 whom most closely adhered towards the Dash diet had a considerably lower danger of developing heart failure compared to those who were least likely to stick to the tenets associated with the diet. (Dash means for Dietary ways to Stop Hypertension.)
“Only a couple of previous research reports have examined the results regarding the Dash diet in the incidence of heart failure, and they have got yielded conflicting outcomes,” said Claudia Campos, associate teacher of essential interior medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine. “Following the Dash diet can lessen the possibility of developing heart failure by almost half.”
The study recommends cutting five things from the diet: This Dash diet recommends fruits, veggies, nuts, whole grain products, poultry, fish and low-fat dairy food while reducing the use of three main components: salt, red meat, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages. It is very just like the Mediterranean diet. Nevertheless, the Dash diet recommends reducing two more things: full cream (and only low-fat milk products) and alcohol consumption.
There are various other approaches to eat healthiest too. Those who eat gradually are less inclined to become overweight or develop a metabolic problem, a group of cardiovascular illnesses, diabetic issues and stroke danger factors, following research presented during the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017. They might be more aware of what they are eating and drinking and tend to be less prone to overeating.
The Dash diet is quite like the Mediterranean diet, but, unlike that diet, it advises low-fat milk products and excluding alcohol consumption.
Dietitians also advise against snacking and takeouts. Men and women have less control over what gets into their dishes when they order in. Americans get a majority of their daily sodium — more than 75% — from processed food and restaurant food, in line with the Centers for Infection Control and Prevention. Individuals eat, on average, 200 calories more per meal if they eat food from restaurants.
“Excess salt can boost your blood pressure levels as well as your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke,” the Centers for Infection Control and Prevention states. “Together, cardiovascular illnesses and stroke kill more Americans each year than just about any other cause.” Americans get 71% of the day-to-day sodium from processed and restaurant meals. Cooking on your own could be the best and healthiest option.
Artificially sweetened beverages could be associated with a heightened risk of stroke and dementia, following the American Heart Association’s peer-reviewed journal Stroke. Another 2015 study unearthed that older ladies who consume several diet carbonated drinks per day are 30% prone to suffer a cardiovascular occasion. Include that to more research suggesting regular soft drink is related to obesity.
Professionals have some excellent news to fairly share: no, eating fats does not automatically make you fat. Overeating, macronutrient (fat, protein, or carbs) boosts the threat of weight gain, said registered dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick at Cleveland Clinic Wellness, but “fat in and of itself just is not a thing that is likely to make you fat,” despite the somewhat misleadingly identical terminology.
You can understand where in actuality the misconception arises from, however. “Fat can be a fairly scary nutrient” for individuals who count calories, Kristin said, since it is more calorie-dense: one gram of fat contains nine calories, in comparison to four calories per gram of protein and four calories per gram of carbohydrate. “People also may associate fat with more ‘indulgent’ foods, such as butter and steak,” Kristin told POPSUGAR, adding to the misconception that every fat are unhealthy. Then there is the simple association that eating fats might create fat within the body, which is not just the situation; you are likely to gain weight if you eat processed or processed foods or overeat consistently, including fats, but fats do not inherently lead to weight gain.
Kristin said, nearly all her clients have now been able to lose weight on high-fat diets, often since they replace refined carbs and sugars with healthy fats (snacking on nuts as opposed to pretzels, for example). The popular ketogenic diet, which can be high-fat and low-carb, is the one which has helped many people drop some weight, even though it is still controversial among dietitians.
According to Kristin, fats will also be harder to digest than other nutrients, such as carbs. This means they take longer to move throughout your digestive system, that will help you stay full for longer and have fewer snacking cravings. Fats improve your metabolism for the same reason; the body needs more energy (aka burns more calories) to digest them.
Exactly how much fat should you eat, then? On average, seek to keep fats as 30 percent of one’s healthy daily diet, though Kristin noted that this would probably vary based on the body, activity level, and general health; consult a health care provider or dietitian for guidelines specific to the body. You ought to also adhere to healthy fats as much as possible, including avocados, nuts, whole soy, olive oil, and fatty fish like tuna and salmon.
So no, you most likely do not need to go nonfat to get rid of weight or remain healthy. Keeping those healthy fat sources as part of your regular diet, balanced with carbs and much protein, is the better way to go.
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