Category Archives: Diet And Food

High blood pressure does not always have a specific cause. Certain factors which increase a persons risk of developing high blood pressure include being obese, drinking too much alcohol, eating a lot of salt, smoking or having diabetes. Ageing also increases the risk of high blood pressure because blood vessels become stiffer with age. Being stressed has also been found to be a precursor for developing the condition. With all of this in mind, what are some of the best food types one can eat to help lower their blood pressure?

High blood pressure refers to the pressure of blood against the artery walls.

Over time, high blood pressure can cause blood vessel damage that leads to heart disease, kidney disease, stroke and other serious problems.

High blood pressure is sometimes called the silent killer because it produces no symptoms and can go unnoticed and untreated for many years until something serious happens.

What a person eats can either help or hinder this condition.

READ MORE: Hair loss treatment: Using this oil could unclog hair follicles and increase hair growth

Berries, particularly blueberries, are rich in natural compounds called flavonoids which could help to lower blood pressure.

Blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are easy to add to the diet and are delicious snacks to consume throughout the day.

Berries can be added to your cereal in the morning or can be kept in the freezer for a tasty dessert.

DONT MISS

Skim milk is an excellent source of calcium and is low in fat. These two factors are important elements for helping to lower blood pressure.

According to the American Heart Association, women who ate five or more servings of yoghurt a week experienced a staggering 20 percent reduction in their risk for developing high blood pressure.

For added benefits, try sprinkling some berries or almonds to maximise the blood pressure-lowering capabilities.

Fatty fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids and fish is an excellent source of lean protein.

Fish like mackerel and salmon are some of the healthiest fish you can eat and can lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation and lower triglycerides.

In addition to these benefits, fish contains vitamin D. Foods rarely contain vitamin D which is an essential hormone-like vitamin which has properties that can also help to lower blood pressure.

Dark chocolate is not only deliciousbut it can also help you to lower your blood pressure.

Dark chocolate contains more than 60 percent cocoa solids and has less sugar than regular chocolate.

In a study with BMJ, dark chocolates properties in lowering blood pressurewere investigated.

The study concluded that evidence does suggest that higher dark chocolate intake is associated with a lower risk of future cardiovascular events.

There also appears to be no evidence indicating that dark chocolate should be avoided in those concerned about cardiovascular risk.

The study found that eating dark chocolate was associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease.

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High blood pressure: Best foods to eat to lower reading and reduce risk with coronavirus - Express

In 1945, a domiciled feeding study carried out at the University of Minnesota involved participants being fed a semistarvation diet.

Nutrition is fundamentally important for human health (1), but there is widespread public confusion about what constitutes a healthy diet. Flip-flopping headlines report conflicting information about whether individual foods (e.g., butter, eggs, meat), nutrients (e.g., saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium), or eating patterns (e.g., Mediterranean versus ketogenic diets) result in improved, worsened, or unchanged health. However, public confusion about nutrition belies expert consensus regarding important aspects of healthy diets. For example, it is widely agreed that Western diets high in ultra-processed food are deleterious and that considerable health improvements would likely result from shifting the population toward eating mostly minimally processed foods (2). But expert consensus erodes when discussing detailed questions of optimal human nutrition or the physiological mechanisms underlying the body's response to diet changes. Rigorous controlled feeding studies would help to address such questions and advance human nutrition science, a field whose overall veracity has recently been questioned (3, 4).

Much of the criticism of nutrition science has been directed at nutritional epidemiology, a field that investigates associations between diet and health outcomes in large numbers of people. Although nutritional epidemiology has ardent defenders (5, 6), its critics suggest that it is plagued by measurement error, reverse causality, selection bias, weak effects, analytical flexibility, and unmeasured or residual confounders that can result in spurious relationships between diet variables and health outcomes (7). Increased funding for large, long-term randomized diet intervention trials has been suggested as a way to mitigate reliance on nutritional epidemiology and improve causal inference about the effects of diet on human health (8). However, such trials have their own challenges, including the impracticality of randomizing large numbers of people to eat different diets for months or years while ensuring high levels of adherence throughout.

Indeed, most randomized diet intervention trials do not actually study the effects of different diets; rather, they investigate the effects of differing diet advice. In other words, subjects are randomized to receive education and support to consume diets that are assigned by the investigators. Although diet-advice trials assess real-world effectiveness, their results conflate adherence to a given diet with the effects of that diet.

Knowledge about the effects of diet per se is required for advancement of fundamental nutrition science. However, studies in free-living people have a limited ability to provide such knowledge because it is not currently possible to accurately and objectively quantify their food intake. Indeed, most human nutrition studies rely on self-reported diet measures that are known to have systematic biases, such as underestimation of energy intake. Furthermore, errors in self-reported diet measurements may be associated with other variables (e.g., socioeconomic status) or health outcomes (e.g., obesity) that can result in biased associations (9).

Rather than relying on self-reported diet assessments, some diet intervention trials provide food to their free-living subjects, but these studies seldom verify whether all the food is eaten. Even when subjects are instructed to eat only the food provided by the study, substantial quantities of off-study food may be consumed amounting to several hundred kilocalories per day that can confound study results (10, 11). To understand how these challenges impede the progress of human nutrition science, imagine trying to develop a new drug without being confident that researchers could administer known quantities of the drug or measure its pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, or dose response. Successful pharmaceutical development requires such studies because they investigate benefits and risks of the drug under highly controlled conditions where questions of patient adherence are minimized because the researchers administer the drug. The inability to conduct such trials would severely impede the drug development process. Why should human nutrition science be expected to advance without the benefit of well-controlled diet efficacy studies?

Therefore, it is important to conduct human nutrition studies where subjects can comfortably reside at a research facility, thereby allowing investigators to control and objectively measure their food intake. Subjects enrolled in such domiciled feeding studies are required to stay at the research facility for periods of days, weeks, or months without leaving to ensure that they consume the provided food under observation while avoiding exposure to off-study food.

Domiciled feeding studies have a long history of yielding important discoveries about human nutrition and metabolism. For example, many of the physiological responses to starvation and nutritional rehabilitation were revealed in a controlled feeding study of 32 male volunteers who simultaneously resided at the University of Minnesota for a continuous 48-week period during the Second World War (12) (see the photo). The subjects were fed a baseline diet for 12 weeks followed by a 24-week semistarvation diet, after which they were fed several rehabilitation diets for the final 12 weeks. The resulting detailed physiological and psychological measurements in response to known diets would have been impossible had the subjects not been domiciled during this classic study.

Unfortunately, domiciled feeding studies have become prohibitively expensive in the United States since the National Institutes of Health ceased directly funding Clinical Research Centers (13). Very few centers around the world currently conduct domiciled feeding studies, and their study populations often comprise students, staff, and faculty, which limits their generalizability. Furthermore, the few facilities conducting domiciled feeding studies are typically limited to housing and feeding only a handful of subjects at a time, which restricts their power and duration.

Such limitations are surmountable. Investment in research facilities for domiciled feeding studies could provide the infrastructure and staff required to simultaneously house and feed dozens of subjects comfortably and safely. One possibility would be to create centralized domiciled feeding facilities that could enable teams of researchers from around the world to recruit a wide range of subjects and efficiently conduct rigorous human nutrition studies that currently can only be performed on a much smaller scale in a handful of existing facilities.

Well-designed domiciled feeding studies can increase the rigor of human nutrition science and elucidate the fundamental mechanisms by which diet affects human physiology. For example, such studies can investigate complex interactions among changes in diet, the microbiota, and its role in modulating host physiology. The effects of meal timing and circadian biology could be advanced by enabling precisely controlled periods for eating and sleeping. Personalized nutrition and nutrient-genomic interaction studies could be facilitated by reducing the usual noise of unknown diet variability to focus on individual physiological variability in response to controlled diets. Nutrient requirements and their dependence on overall dietary and physical activity patterns could be assessed in a variety of populations of men and women of different ethnicities and ages. The effects of diet on physical and cognitive performance could also be carefully evaluated. Comprehensive assessment of the effects of diet interventions on common health conditions such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes, as well as rare diseases such as those that result from inborn errors of metabolism, could also be rigorously determined in domiciled subjects.

Although domiciled feeding studies can provide important mechanistic insights, their artificial environment may limit generalizability and application to free-living populations. Furthermore, domiciled feeding studies alone are insufficient for determining what constitutes a healthy diet because it is impossible to continuously house for several years the large numbers of subjects that would be required to objectively measure both food intake and clinical endpoints, such as cardiovascular events or diabetes progression. Therefore, long-term nutrition studies in free-living people will always be required.

Nonetheless, domiciled feeding studies can help to improve long-term human nutrition studies. For example, the development and validation of objective diet assessment technologies requires domiciled feeding studies because the only way to objectively know what people eat is to house them continuously in a research facility and directly measure their food intake. Advancement of objective diet assessment technologies has been identified as a top priority for human nutrition science (14) and promising new technologies are emerging, such as sensors and cameras that detect food intake. Biomarkers of diet are also being developed, such as plasma concentrations of vitamin C and carotenoids as indicators of fruit and vegetable intake. Domiciled feeding studies can validate objective diet assessment technologies and biomarkers in diverse subject groups consuming a variety of known diets. These validated technologies and standardized biomarkers can then be deployed in large, long-term nutrition studies to monitor diet adherence and improve understanding of the relationships between diet and disease, and diet and health.

Domiciled feeding studies can also help researchers to design and interpret large, long-term nutrition studies. For example, surrogate biomarkers of disease risk often change rapidly in response to controlled diet interventions. When surrogate markers are causally related to disease risk, then it may be possible to cautiously extrapolate the results of domiciled feeding studies, especially those that test dose responses, and to estimate the effects of diet changes on long-term disease risk. Such information can be useful for planning long-term randomized diet trials by helping to avoid underpowered studies whose null statistical results might be misinterpreted to conclude that the diet had no real effect when even a small undetected effect might be important, especially on the population scale.

For example, prior to devoting many millions of dollars to a large, long-term randomized trial of a Westernized Mediterranean diet intended to prevent cardiovascular disease, domiciled feeding studies could be used to help develop and validate biomarkers of varying degrees of adherence to the dietary pattern while also evaluating surrogate markers of disease risk in response to known diet changes. For a relatively small fraction of the overall investment, data from such a domiciled feeding study could be used to help plan and interpret the results of the large, long-term randomized trial.

The advancement of human nutrition science has enormous benefits for health and the economy (15). Knowledge of nutrition requires triangulation of evidence from a variety of study designs, including observational studies and randomized trials in free-living people. Facilitating more domiciled feeding studies will lead to fundamental new discoveries about the mechanistic physiological responses to diet and will improve human nutrition research in all its forms.

Acknowledgments: Thanks to N. K. Fukagawa, M. B. Katan, K. C. Klatt, P. Ohukainen, M. L. Reitman, and E. J. Weiss for insightful comments. Supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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Challenges of human nutrition research - Science Magazine

NEW YORK (CNN) Want to fight fat, wrinkles and chronic disease? Consider slashing the amount of added sugar in your diet.

The empty calories in sugar definitely contribute to weight gain and the obesity epidemic which in turn leads to all sorts of chronic diseases, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more.

Sugar can even make you look older than you are by interrupting the skin's ability to repair itself. The end result is more wrinkles.

Now consider this: The average American eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar per day, according to the American Heart Association. That's a fanatical amount of sweetness a level only addicts would share.

The recommended level? No more than six teaspoons a day for women and nine for men.

To fight your sugar addiction and begin to reclaim your youth and health, start by becoming a sugar detective.

Identify and toss all sugary ingredients in your home, including white and brown sugars, corn syrups, pancake syrups, jams, jellies, honey and molasses.

Add any boxes of ready-to-mix items to the trash as well, such as pancake, brownie, cookie, cake and instant pudding mixes.

Now take a good look at the labels on the rest of the foods in your pantry, and be prepared to be shocked. Sugar is often used by food manufacturers to extend a product's shelf life, so even savory items often contain sugar.

Pasta sauces often contain as much sugar as a cookie. Salad dressings such as French, honey mustard and raspberry vinaigrette can deliver between 5 and 7 grams of sugar in just two tablespoons. Ketchup is worse it has about 4 grams per tablespoon. Barbecue sauce, hoisin sauce, Teriyaki sauce and even pickle relish all contain sugar.

Healthy bran, oat and corn breakfast cereals (not to mention the kids' versions) are packed with sugar, too.

Think the pantry is now danger free? Probably not. That's because manufacturers hide sugar by using different names.

Evaporated cane juice, agave, fruit nectar, fruit juice concentrate, brown rice syrup, malt syrup, corn syrup, date syrup, barley malt and anything that ends in an "ose" think fructose, sucrose, maltose and dextrose are all added sugars.

One advocacy group counted up to 61 different names for sugar on food labels. How can we possibly fight such marketing? Last year the US Food and Drug Administration announced it is making manufacturers list all "added sugars" on food labels. But don't put your detective hat away yet -- manufacturers have until July 1, 2021, to comply.

We all know that one can of soda delivers nearly a day's worth of recommended sugar, but have you looked at your favorite energy drink? Sugar is typically the second main ingredient, and many contain more sugar than a soda.

What about sports beverages, which kids often drink? A 20-ounce Gatorade contains 35 grams of sugar, while some brands of 32-ounce sports drinks have between 56 and 76 grams four to six times the recommended daily amount for kids and teenagers.

Ready-to-drink iced tea can contain up to 32 grams of sugar per bottle. Even fruit-flavored waters typically contain added sugars.

It may seem smart to just switch to a diet soda or other artificially sweetened beverage. But there's a catch: Artificial sweeteners can be 150 times sweeter than sugar.

Why does that matter? Because you're trying to train your brain to detox from an addiction to sugar's delicious sweetness. So why would you feed it something that's going to make it crave even higher levels of sweetness?

Many foods marketed as "health" foods are also full of sugar. Instant oatmeal is healthy, but when it's flavored it can have up to 15 grams of sugar per packet. Even the reduced sugar varieties can have 6 grams. Make your own and add fruit.

Look at the ingredients on that "healthy" granola bar and you'll probably find corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, brown sugar syrup, dextrose or fructose. If they've added yogurt or chocolate? Even more sugar.

Speaking of yogurt, even the low-fat flavored versions can have 30 grams of sugar per 8-ounce serving it's what they do to make up for the lack of fat. That's as much sugar as two scoops of ice cream.

So, detective, you now know what to look for to begin restricting the amount of sugar in the foods you eat. What are you going to replace those foods with?

Whole foods like fruit, vegetables and whole grains. They too contain sugar an apple can have around 20 grams of sugar, a banana 14 grams and a sweet potato 7 grams.

But the fiber in that apple, banana and sweet potato can satisfy your hunger and make your body absorb the sugar from the fruit more slowly. Fruits and vegetables also support your health with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients instead of empty, non-nourishing calories.

There are other substitutions you can make to reduce sugar, too. Instead of sugar-laden store-bought salad dressings, use olive oil, red wine vinegar, Italian spices and garlic to make an easy vinaigrette.

Substitute dates, unsweetened applesauce or ripe bananas for sugar in your cakes, cookies, muffins and banana bread.

Fresh fruit and purees like apricot can cut the tartness of unsweetened yogurt. Fresh or dried herbs can add flavor to vegetables and meats. Balsamic vinegar can glaze Brussels sprouts and asparagus. Roasting veggies brings out their natural sweetness.

After a while, you'll find your addiction to sugar has faded and the natural sweetness of fruit may become all you need for dessert.

And just look at your skin!

The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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The top 5 ways to cut sugar from your diet - KSL.com

Just like being overweight for humans can lead to serious health conditionsthe same applies to dogs. According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP),55.8% of dogs are classified as over weight. To make matters worse, 95% of owners dont even know their pets are overweight, which the APOP refers to as the fat pet gap.

Dr. Alex Schechter, DVMatPure Paws Veterinary Care of Hells Kitchentells me, Dog obesity is a major problem with our New York dog population. Limited exercise, high calorie intake, and non-nutritious foods tend to be the major culprits.In general, most pet parents actually think an overweight dog is a normal healthy baseline.

The Farmer's Dog

Its very prevalent, Dr. Joseph Martins DVM and Certified Fear Free Professional atBelle Mead Animal Hospitaltells me of the dog obesity he sees in his practice. My guesstimate is over 50% of dogs and cats are overweight and over 20% are obese.So 70-80% of pets weigh too much and this problem is growing. Its getting worse nationwide every year and especially the past few years.

So what makes a dog obese, what kind of health issues can obesity cause, and with all the brands popping up promoting whole food diets for dogs are these a viable solution?

The American Kennel Club says that figuring out whether your dog is overweight or not is a matter of both appearance of the body constitution and touch. You should be able to feel your dogs ribs when you press the sides of their body. Extra weight can lead to a variety of issues including Type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, a range of orthopedic issues, skin disease, heart and respiratory disease, and even decreased life expectancy.

The Farmer's Dog

While there arent many lifetime studies on dogs, Martins tells me, There is one on Labrador retrievers that shows that labs who are over fed get overweight and consequently get more painful arthritis at earlier ages. Many of these pets require life long arthritis meds for pain years earlier than if they were kept lean. Another shocking part of this study also showed that 50% of overweight dogs were dead by 10 years of age and that dogs kept at an ideal weight lived 2-3 years longer than overweight dogs. This is a huge statistical fact every pet owner needs to knowlean dogs on average live years longer.

Schechter is a fan ofThe Farmers Dog, a breed-specific customized dog food made from fresh ingredients thats delivered to your door, for his adult dog patients because he believes the nutritional value of fresh food is far superior than processed dog food. I recommend The Farmer's Dog for all of my adult patients. I think they have revolutionized the pet food industry with a simple conceptfeed our pets fresher nutritious foods. We vaccinate our patients to prevent disease and have them on monthly medication to prevent against gastrointestinal parasites and ticks. However, I think we often forget that food can also be preventative medicine!

Before and after pic of Jasmine

Pet owner Linda Glass transitioned to The Farmers Dog when her Dalmatian, Jasmine, who suffered from persistent diarrhea was diagnosed with various infections and put on antibiotics, but the diarrhea continued.I tried a variety of food changes and combinations, explains Glass. I added wet food to dry food. I even started boiling chicken and rice. Nothing worked. Then I came across an ad on Facebook for Farmers Dog. After the first week of eating their food, Jasmine went to the vet and she weighed 82 pounds. Two months later they weighed her at 64 pounds. The vet was so impressed. Her coat was shiny, she didnt have flaky skin, and she had very little shedding. I told the vet about the food change and provided them a leaflet with the ingredients, which is now part of her chart. Glass says the only thing that changed to achieve these results is the dog food and the diarrhea is gone. Its worth every penny.

Brett Podolsky, Co-founder ofThe Farmers Dogtells me, Weve heard thousands of success stories from customers over the years. Its one of the most rewarding parts of our day! Its a constant reminder that making a simple change from highly processed products to real, fresh food can have a transformational impact on health. We hear how easy it becomes for people to manage their dogs weight and help eliminate all kinds of other health issues like allergies and stomach problems.

The Farmer's Dog

Whats unique about The Farmers Dogs subscription-basedfresh food plans is that they allow people to tailor their dogs daily caloric intake to their very specific requirements based on breed, age, and a variety of other factors which are asked about during theonline questionnaire. Furthermore, the plan allows people to adapt their plan to their dogs changing needs.

A kibble bag offers broad, and vague guidelines that dont take into account an individual dogs needs, making it very easy to over-feed and kibble-bag guidelines will always err on the side of too much food, so you end up buying more, continues Podolsky. Dr. Ernie Ward who runs APOP has told us at Farmers Dog that hehears about so many pet owners feeding exactly what they suggest on the bag and those suggestions are too much.

The Farmers Dog is madefrom human-grade meat and vegetables that provides more bioavailable nutrients for a dog. Because our food is gently steamed, not processed multiple times at high heat like kibble, it also retains a lot of moisture and the natural nutrients from our whole food ingredients, which is another factor in keeping a dog healthy and satisfied, explains Podolsky. Kibble type dog foods, on the other hand, are dried and devoid of moisture, which is what allows for the long shelf life.

The Farmer's Dog

On why a customized diet is the way to go for our pets, Podolsky tells me, Customized plans allow people to precisely control their dogs caloric intake based on their very specific needs. If you have a 16-pound elderly Pug who needs to lose weight, thats a VERY different caloric demand than a 25-pound Rat Terrier who is younger and extremely active. Yet the guideline on a kibble bag might recommend that any dog between 16 and 25 pounds is fed between one and two cups. Thats a massive gap, and into that gap falls the health of too many dogs, even though the owner has the best intentions.

Martins is also a fan of whole food diets likeFreshpet,which creates meals from100% natural farm-raised poultry, beef and fish and incorporates fiber-packed vegetables and anti-oxidant rich fruits that are gently cooked without preservatives and kept refrigerated (and can be found at major retailers nationwide).

FreshPet

I am a fan of whole food diets like Freshpet that are properly nutritionally balanced using fresh ingredients that are prepared and cooked according to FDA and USDA standards, Martins tells me. Actually pets age 7-10 times faster than we do and dont live as long so maybe its even more important for them. So feeding fresh foods like Freshpet that are gently cooked but provide more moisture, high quality protein, more natural fiber, and highest quality antioxidants makes good sense and pets seem to feel better and look better.

Veterinary nutritionists know now more than ever that cats and dogs have their own species specific trace nutrient requirements different from each other and definitely different from humans, to keep their hearts and other vital organs healthy, continues Martins. Its imperative that owners know you cant just feed pets what people eat long term and keep up with their vital micronutrient needs.We are all constantly looking to keep our pets healthier, happier and living longer. One piece of the puzzle to do that right now is to keep pets from becoming overweight by feeding them the freshest, most balanced measured meals daily along with exercise.

Protein in the diet is essential for dogs. Dr. Gerardo Perez-Camargo DVM, VP of Research and Development at Freshpettells me,Freshpetdelivers to the pet twice the amount of protein and half the amount of carbohydrates than dry foods. Pets need protein to maintain, repair and grow muscle. Muscle is metabolically active, that means that it consumes energy.A dog with muscle will be able to burn more energy and maintain a healthier body weight than the same dog with a lower level of muscle in its body.

https://www.instagram.com/barkleydoodles

Like The Farmers Dog, Freshpet has heard stories from thousands of pet parents whove experienced incredible transformations once their pets have transitioned to Freshpet. Pet parent Melissa Stewarts 9-year old overweight Chihuahua Benji had a complete turnaround with his weight once she switched over to Freshpet.She tells me, After switching, he slimmed down and acts like he did as a puppy! It really is a miracle! He loves to go on walks and can jump on to the couch again. Benji is a happy dog and so am I!

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With Dog Obesity Becoming More Prevalent Is A Whole Food Diet The Answer? - Forbes

One of the main reasons you embarked on a plant-based dietwas likely the health benefits of eating this way. In fact, newresearch has found that eating a plant-based diet can help you boost your immunity andlower your risk of diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

When you eat more plant-based foods, youre getting benefits purely from eating more plants, says Torey Armul, MS, RDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. We know plants are some of the best sources of vitamins and minerals, and fiber--things that are all heart-healthy and body-healthy. The other factor that's happening is that people tend to eat less unhealthy food. So, youre improving your diet by eating less of the worst foods and more of the best foods.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine lists plant-based foods high in vitamins as one way to boost your immune system right now. They suggest eating foods high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to fight off COVID-19 and other seasonal flu.

Studies have shown that fruits and vegetables provide nutrientslike beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin Ethat can boost immune function. Because many vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based foods are also rich in antioxidants, they help reduce oxidative stress.

Beta-Carotene:Beta-carotene is a powerful antioxidant that can reduce inflammation and boost immune function by increasing disease-fighting cells in the body, according to the PCRM. Excellent sources include sweet potatoes, carrots, and green leafy vegetables.

Vitamins C and E:Vitamins C and E are antioxidants that help to destroy free radicals and support the bodys natural immune response, the PCRM says. Sources of vitamin C include red peppers, oranges, strawberries, broccoli, mangoes, lemons, and other fruits and vegetables. Vitamin E sources include nuts, seeds, spinach, and broccoli.

Vitamin D:Research shows that vitamin D may reduce the risk for viral infections, including respiratory tract infections, so try to get yours from shiitake or portobello mushrooms.

Zinc:Zinc is a mineral that can help boost white blood cells, which defend against invaders. Since your body can't store zinc it's a good idea to get it daily. Sources include nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, beans, and lentils.

While a plant-based diet definitely improves your overall health now, there are also serious chronic diseasesthat a plant-based diet can protect you from, lowering your risk factor. Here a rundown of those diseases and why a plant-based diet is often the first line of defense.

A recent article published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found that sticking to a more plant-based diet was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Those subjects who ate healthy plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts, as part of their diet had a 23% lower risk of type 2 diabetesthan those who didnt follow as much of a plant-based diet.

Eating this way can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes because, first, youre paying more attention to your diet, says Armul. When someone makes a change and starts reading food labels, planning ahead, and making their own meals, you tend to see some great health benefits.

So how many plant-based foods should you aim for daily to lower your type 2 diabetes risk? If I had to estimate, it looks like the majority of studies showed that around eight to 10 servings of plant foodsincluding beverages such as coffee and teaseemed to demonstrate the strongest protective association, says Frank Qian, who conducted the research published in JAMA Internal Medicine as a masters student in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

When you eat less meat or ditch it completely, youre doing your ticker a number of favors, like reducing the risk of heart disease, obesity, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Thats because a lot of meat is loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat, both of which can increase your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and create buildup and blockages in your arteries. But on top of lowering your meat consumption, eating a diet filled with high-quality plant foods is associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular diseases, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study saw a 19% decrease in cardiovascular-related mortality and up to 25% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease to start.

A plant-based diet can help your kidney health, and there are a few different reasons for that. Weight management in itself is very important for kidney disease, says Armul. Eating fewer animal-based foods reduces the acid-based load in your body, so youre putting less stress on your kidneys. Plant-based foods also contain phytates, which bind phosphorus. Since youre eating less processed foods, youre not absorbing as much phosphorus, which tends to build up in the blood of those with kidney disease, damaging bones, and blood vessels, according to the National Kidney Foundation.

As of right now, eating patterns that show a reduction in the risk of cognitive diseases through a plant-based diet is association-based research (like this study published in Advances in Food and Nutrition Research), says Armul. Meaning, we cant say eating this way definitely has that result. I think these diets tend to be full of healthy omega-3 fats and we know that's brain-boosting food, she says. Youre getting the one-two punch because youre consuming less processed foods, simple sugars, high sodium foods, and saturated fats which we know are not brain boosters. Then, youre boosting the nutrients we know are good for healthy brains, memory, and acuity, says Armul.

By eating more prebiotics (good gut bacteria) that are naturally found in plant-based diets, you tend to nourish the healthy bacteria in your gut, says Armul. That strengthens your immune system and it helps with weight control. It even assists with things like blood sugar management and blood pressure, she says.

When you boost the healthy gut flora you also crowd out the less healthy gut flora. That means youre reducing the less healthy bacteria that live in your digestive tract that can lead to chronic disease, she says. Gut bacteria has been linked to chronic diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and even certain cancers, making a plant-based diet a long-lasting eating prescription to help protect your health today as well as into the future.

Read more from the original source:
Want to Boost Immunity and Lower Your Risk of Disease? Go Plant-Based - The Beet

Coyotes have been leaving behind a clue to keeping the hungry omnivores out of neighborhoods and away from your pets.

Thing is, that clue is hidden in their poop.

Researchers have held what they call scat parties for the last two years. After collecting coyote turds into brown paper lunch sacks along some 50 routes in Los Angeles County, the scientists have gathered to see exactly what they have.

But first, they bake the poop to kill all parasites. Then, the stuff goes into a laboratory version of a washer and a dryer. Finally, researchers sit down and carefully pick apart what remains to analyze the content. In all, 3,100 samples were examined.

The producers of the poop fall into two categories: suburban coyotes and city coyotes. And the difference in their output is dramatic.

For starters, domestic cat remains were found in 20% of urban coyote scat, but just 4% of the scat produced by their suburban counterparts, who were mostly from the Thousand Oaks area and had broader access to wild habitat.

Overall, as much as 75% of urban coyote poo came from the human landscape: In addition to cats they eat garbage and fruit from ornamental trees particularly ficus berries, but also grapes, palm tree fruit and loquat, according to the study by the National Park Service and Cal State Northridge.

For the suburban coyotes, 30% to 43% of their stool contained food from those same human-related sources.

Whether its cats, fruits or garbage, the food resources that we have left out for them is why coyotes hang around, said the National Park Services Justin Brown, lead researcher for the two-year study.

We do have some control over coyotes being here, and its all tied to us, Brown added. If we dont provide the food sources in our neighborhoods, they would not be living in them.

Beside cats, fruit and garbage, the coyotes are also attracted to pet food which is sometimes intentionally left out for the wild canines by people concerned by their hunger. Brown dismissed that do-gooder concern.

He said a smaller available food supply would reduce the birth and survival rates for coyote pups, and would encourage the animals to forage in more natural habitats.

Coyotes are very mobile, he said. They would not sit there and starve. They would move on.

The dietary study is part of broader research into Los Angeles-area coyotes begun in 2015, which has included tracking the animals with radio collars. The research is intended to help residents and policy makers develop more successful strategies to reducing conflict between the animals and humans.

Among the findings: While urban coyotes will relocate if necessary to find food, they generally stick to a home range of 1 1/4 to 2 1/4 square miles, Brown said.

It looks like the home ranges are a bit smaller in the urban areas than out in the wild, he said.

Beside analyzing coyote poo for the dietary study, the scientists also looked at coyote whiskers, taking them from captured animals and road kill before performing a stable isotope analysis. Scat samples dont give a full picture of an animals diet because it doesnt include what has been retained by the body after defecation. Because so much people food in the United States contains corn and corn syrup products, it was fairly clear how much human food was in the coyote diet.

What we were surprised about is how much of their diet came from a corn-based food chain, said Cal State Northridge graduate student Rachel Larson, who performed the whisker analysis. The stable isotopes indicate that up to 38% of their diet could come from human leftovers.

Thats for urban coyotes. The primary food for suburban coyotes is rabbits 48% of the diet with squirrels and rats also core parts of the menu, according to Brown. In wet, winter months, suburban coyotes diet is the most natural. During that time, fruit from ornamental trees was found in 17% suburban coyote scat.

When it gets dry and warm, fruit from ornamental trees becomes more prevalent in their habitat and was found in about 30% of suburban coyotes about the same as urban coyotes throughout the year. Additionally, about 18% of feces from both city and country coyotes contained insects, with beetles and potato bugs the most common.

Both urban and suburban coyotes are likely to stick around, even if people clean up their ficus berries, lock down their garbage, and keep their cats and small dogs indoors.

Its just that theyll be more likely to stay out of sight and off neighborhood streets, Brown said.

We have coyotes living in urban areas that we dont get any complaints about, he added.

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Coyotes diet points to ways to keep the animals from neighborhoods - Woodland Daily Democrat

THE GOOD NEWS is that your kitchen table is perfect desk height. The bad news is that its right next to two weeks worth of Cool Ranch Doritos. Pile onto that stress snacking, this Pop-Tart will comfort me thinking, a disrupted routine, and a closed gym, and thats the Quarantine 15.

But you can actually come out of this healthymaybe even better off than you started. First of all, without your usual commute time sucking up valuable minutes of your day, youve probably got a few extra minutes between hand washes to devote to self-care.

Managing what you eat and how you move isn't that removed from deciding to quarantine, practice social distancing, or otherwise dealing with this new reality. They're all a matter of deciding what mattersand making it a priority. And having the tools to make it happen. Which you do now, with the science-tested, expert-approved strategies below:

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Our Best Workout and Diet Advice for People in Social Isolation - Men's Health

At 43, Kerry Washington is looking better than everbut its not by accident. The Little Fires Everywhere star told Allure that exercise is part of her everyday life. I love to work out. Its really important to me; its part of the culture of my family, she said.

But when it comes to food, Washington is all about balance. In general in life I try to live it, not diet, she previously told People. I think thats hard when youre restricting a lot. So I try to take it easy on a daily basis and do whats going to make me feel good.

You guessed it: That includes tons of fruits and veggies. Heres a snapshot of how Washington approaches her daily diet.

One of Washingtons personal trainers, Nonna Gleyzer, told Shape that the actress has always been an extremely healthy eater.

She eats a lot of vegan products, with little clean meals throughout the day, she explained, adding that the star focuses on lean proteins and veggies.

Washington also told ELLE that shes also really into juices and smoothies, particularly from Kim Snyder. The celebrity nutritionist is known for her recipes, like this Glowing Green Smoothie, which is packed with spinach, celery, lemon juice, cilantro, and more. I try to keep it consistent year-round, Washington said.

Is there anything coconut cant do? You can cook with it, slather it onto dry hair, and even use it to remove makeup. Washington swears by it to stay hydrated, according to her trainer. She loves coconut water, which gives her potassium and important electrolytes, Gleyzer told Shape. With the long hours she works, theres really no room for her to play around. She needs to be in the best shape every single day, and she definitely is.

Youll often notice a glass of wine in Washingtons hand as she stars as Olivia Pope in Scandal. But the actress told ELLE its always grape juice in her cup, because she would never be able to remember the two-page monologues otherwise.

Im also not a drinker. I love a drink occasionally, but I wouldnt be able to handle it. You see one sip, but I have to drink three cups to get the scene done, she said. I tend to be a when in Rome drinker. With that, she doesnt particularly have a favorite beverage. When Im traveling, I drink what they have there or Ill get a special cocktail.

Instead, Washington focuses on drinking lots of water. The things my mother always stressed were to drink a lot of water and get a lot of rest, which I used to roll my eyes at, she told Oprah Magazine. Now I think shes a genius. Health and wellness really are the sources of beauty.

Well, dont we all! Apparently, Washington saves room on her menu for some sweetness. The Little Fires Everywhere star previously told Glamour that shes a fan of Sprinkles Cupcakes and Elenis Cookies.

Elenis cookies are like the crack of cookies, she told the magazine, adding that she once sent them to her Scandal castmates while they were filming. In fact, the day that I brought Elenis cookies, we were shooting in downtown L.A. and there was a robbery and a shoot-out downstairs at the store below our set, and we were like, They heard we have crack! We were only kidding about the crack in the cookies! she jokingly recalled.

Like what you just read? Youll love our magazine! Go here to subscribe. Dont miss a thing by downloading Apple News here and following Prevention. Oh, and were on Instagram too.

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Kerry Washingtons Diet Includes Very Little AlcoholAnd She Prefers It That Way - Prevention.com

Kelly Ripa is opening up about her eating habits. The Live With Kelly and Ryan cohost is the latest star to participate in Harpers Bazaars Food Diaries series in which she revealed everything she eats in a day.

The first thing Ripa, 49, does each morning is take a glass of water and mix it with a powder made of greens in order to alkaline her digestive system. Next in the drink department is a cup of coffee blended with ghee, followed by vitamins.

Believe it or not, the popular television personality doesnt actually eat any food until after she hosts Live with Ryan Seacrest each morning. I dont have any, sort of, chewing food before I talk on the air, she explained. When were finished, what I will have is a green apple, cut up, and then I take two tablespoons of almond butter and a teaspoon of cinnamon. I blend it all together, I put the apples in there and then I eat that like a porridge, if you will. That is my first chewable food of the day.

While most people consider lunch their second meal of the day, Ripa said hers is more of a brunch, because her morning schedule is such that her lunches often occur very early in the day. I eat lunch at such a weird hour, she noted. Its really like a breakfast/lunch.

Her hybrid meal of choice? A big salad with with microgreens, avocado and toasted nuts on top.

When it comes to dinner, the All My Children alum eats a smaller version of her midday staple salad and sticks to seasonal vegetables with a plant-based protein. Her favorites include grilled or fried tofu and tahini. Drinks however, are off the table, since Ripa revealed in January 2020 that she gave up alcohol the previous year.

Given her healthy eating regimen, its no surprise that Ripa doesnt exactly buy into the whole cheat meal philosophy. I try not to have that many cheat meals, because cheat meals leads to a cheat lifestyle, she shared. At my age now, I find that it takes too much effort to get ready, so I just stay ready.

However, that doesnt mean the Hope and Faith alum doesnt indulge from time to time. On my birthday will I have cake? Of course, Im not a monster, she quipped. At Christmas do I eat cookies? Yes, Im a human being.

Continued Ripa: What I will indulge in is, like, a delicious chocolate-covered almond or chocolate-covered cashew so I still feel like theres something healthy in there.

Scroll down to see more of what Ripa eats in a day!

Read more here:
Kelly Ripa Eats Her First Chewable Food of the Day Only After Recording Live Plus More Eating Habits - Us Weekly

Docket Number: FDA-2008-D-0610 Issued by:

Guidance Issuing Office

Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Office of Medical Products and Tobacco, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research

Office of Medical Products and Tobacco, Center for Devices and Radiological Health

Office of Medical Products and Tobacco, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research

This guidance provides recommendations to industry regarding postmarketing adverse event reporting for drugs, biologics, medical devices, combination products,2 and dietary supplements during a pandemic. FDA anticipates that during a pandemic, industry and FDA workforces may be reduced because of high employee absenteeism while reporting of adverse events3 related to widespread use of medical products indicated for the treatment or prevention of the pathogen causing the pandemic may increase. The extent of these possible changes is unknown. This guidance discusses FDAs intended approach to enforcement of adverse event reporting requirements for medical products and dietary supplements during a pandemic. FDA believes this approach will make it possible for firms with reporting responsibilities to focus their limited resources on the following types of reports:

reports related to medical products indicated for the treatment or prevention of the pathogen causing the pandemic

You can submit online or written comments on any guidance at any time (see 21 CFR 10.115(g)(5))

If unable to submit comments online, please mail written comments to:

Dockets ManagementFood and Drug Administration5630 Fishers Lane, Rm 1061Rockville, MD 20852

All written comments should be identified with this document's docket number: FDA-2008-D-0610.

03/19/2020

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Postmarketing Adverse Event Reporting for Medical Products and Dietary - FDA.gov