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Some might think that just because we are aging that trying to eat well and lose weight is a lost cause.

Hi, this is Eunice from Diet Center.

That doesnt have to be the case. I have three things that anyone of any age can do.

Makeovers

You may have recipes that you use on a regular basis. Whether they are heirlooms or from a magazine, you can make them over to be healthier without much change in the flavor.

Its simple. Look at the ingredients and pick out high fat, high calorie ingredients. Make a list of these ingredients and their amounts. In a second column, list substitutes. For example, next to sugar and eggs write egg substitute and Stevia. For butter or oil, you can reduce the amounts up to half of what the recipe calls for. Or try using half as much of nonfat yogurt or mashed bananas. Cocoa powder can be used instead of baking chocolate. Use three tablespoons of powder and two teaspoons of water for each ounce of baking chocolate.

Use skim milk instead of whole milk, or evaporated skim milk instead of heavy cream. Use reduced fat cheese or nonfat sour cream instead of regular versions. Try low-sodium broth and add flavor with herbs and spices. You can also reduce portion sizes.

Five a Day

Research shows that consuming at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day may reduce the risk of obesity, hypertension, heart disease, and 35% or more of all causes of cancer! Consuming a variety of fruits and vegetables helps provide many vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber and complex carbohydrates, all of which play a role in everyday functions of our bodies.

Never too late

Some people think that as we age, we become weaker, our metabolism slows down and our body composition is higher in fat. They also believe that these changes tend to make it more difficult to lose weight. That doesnt have to be the case!

These changes are a result of muscle loss that happens naturally with age. After age 40, adults lose.25 to .33 pounds of muscle a year and gain that much in body fat. Muscle loss and fat gain can be prevented with exercise. It doesnt matter how old you are, or how long it has been since youve been active, age-related muscle loss can be reversed!

A couple of 45-minute strength training classes weekly can increase your strength significantly. It will also help improve body composition so that you have less body fat and more lean muscle. You can feel and see the results from building more calorie-burning muscle, with increased energy and smaller clothing sizes.

Try to do strength training exercises regularly. Consult a physician before you begin. Its never too late to start and have your body benefit.

If youre struggling with weight loss call Diet Center at 928-753-5066 or stop by 1848 Hope Ave. in Kingman.

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Diet Center nutrition and exercise tips: 3 for the price of 1 - Kdminer

BakeryandSnacks attended the FDF Scotlands Reformulation for Health Showcase held at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh last week, headlined by Scottish Public Health Minister Maree Todd.

The case for change is really stark, said Todd, noting in Scotland, two thirds of the adult population and 30% of children are overweight or obese which increases substantially for adults and children in more deprived areas.

According to FDF Scotland, recipe reformulation is one of the most effective ways industry can help improve dietary health.

We are working with a range of food and drink businesses who have made small changes to their recipes that are making a big difference to the health of Scotlands people, said Joanne Burns, FDF Scotlands Reformulation for Health manager.

Weve [tackled] some fantastic projects over the past few years and seeing an increase in the health profile of some of the products that are being sold in Scotland.

Highlighted were the moves made by Bells Food Group, Arran Dairies and Macsween of Edinburgh, but there are a wealth of other success stories too. Scotlands top pie brand Bells has cut the salt content of its pie shells by half, Arran Dairies will soon launch a lower calorie ice cream and Macsween of Edinburgh is working with ingredient manufacturer Ulrick & Short to reduce the fat content of its traditional haggis recipe.

So, we really want to celebrate the work thats been done and the network and awareness-raising over the past few years.

Added Todd, The Scottish government is committed to providing practical support small and medium enterprises, so called SMEs, to help them to reformulate their products, making them healthier. Over the past few years, weve invested over 300,000 to support SMEs, to reformulate commonly consumed products.

And I commend Scottish businesses for rising to that challenge. Youve played a vital role in improving dietary house by removing hundreds of millions of calories from Scottish food and drink products.

That's not just for the health of our nation, but by using these innovative practices, we can enhance our reputation as producers of healthier quality produce. And while larger companies might have their own research and development departments at their disposal, other SMEs need to collaborate to succeed. And this means working across sectors and with support agencies so that together we can realise both the public health and the commercial benefits of reformulation.

Scotlands National Chef Gary Maclean added that while Scotlands larder might be the envy of Europe, we have some work to do to improve our diets. It is great to see positive action towards a healthier Scotland and to see the incredible talent we have working towards this.

I think the biggest advice would probably be to actually think about what it is youre putting in your products. I firmly believe that people will pay a little bit more for something that is healthier or made with quality ingredients.

People have got a real sense of not only what theyre putting in their bodies, but also about where does that food come from? What impact does it have on the planet?

Along with a range of presentations by Kantar, Food Standards Scotland and the Scottish Grocers Federation, among others, FDF Scotlands event provided a platform for a handful of exhibitors, including low sodium producers LoSalt, Peacock Salt and Saltwell, ingredient producers Univar Solutions, Kregliner Specialities and Cardowan Creameries, and specialist service providers Scottish Centre for Food Development & Innovation, and R&D tax credit consultancy ForrestBrown, among others.

Im here today really to compel manufacturers that we need to do something and provide them a way of achieving this, said Caroline Klinge, sales and marketing director of LoSalt, a sentiment that was echoed by the other exhibitors we spoke to.

Theres a huge amount of work thats going on at the moment from the reformulation point of view and were really passionate to make sure that companies are aware of the help thats available for them, said Stephen Leishman, lead consultant for ForrestBrown, noting that some reformulators could actually qualify for R&D tax relief.

Concluded Todd, Todays event confirms that we have absolutely a wealth of business, acumen, marketing expertise and nutrition science sitting alongside food technology, public health and academic research.

I urge each of you to take the opportunity to make connections, to forge partnerships and to develop joint ventures so that we can realise that collective ambition for a healthier and wealthier Scotland.

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland is a division of the FDF, the voice of the UKs largest manufacturing sector.

FDF Scotlands Reformulation for Health programme,funded by the Scottish Government, is designed to support SMMEs with expertise and funding to make their products healthier.

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Product reformulation: 'Scotland has a larder that is the envy of Europe, but we have some work to do to improve our diets' - BakeryAndSnacks.com

Researchers discovered that supplementing a diet with the sea organisms Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging in an animal model.

Supplementing your diet with the sea organisms Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging, according to a new study using an animal model.

While the Fountain of Youth, the mythical spring that restores youth to anyone who bathes in it or drinks its waters, is clearly fantasy, scientists are hard at work looking for ways to combat aging. Some of these scientists just had a breakthrough: they discovered that supplementing a diet with sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging.

While more research is needed to verify the effect in humans, as the study was conducted using mice, the findings are very promising.

If youve ever glanced in the mirror and seen greying hair and wrinkles, or if youve forgotten the name of a close friend, you may desire a medication that might halt or even reverse the effects of aging.

According to a new study, this may not be such a silly idea. Researchers from Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Stanford University, Shanghai Jiao tong University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that supplementing a diet with the sea organism Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging in an animal model.

Sea squirts can be eaten raw and are found in dishes from Korea (where it is known as meongge, or ) and Japan (hoya, or ). Credit: Jpatokal

Sea squirts may be eaten raw and can be found in recipes from Korea (where it is known as meongge, or ) and Japan (hoya, or ). These aquatic critters contain plasmalogens, which are essential to human body processes. Plasmalogens are naturally found throughout our bodies, notably in the heart, brain, and immune cells, but the quantity in our bodies declines as we age. This loss is also a characteristic of various neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

The researchers evaluated the effects of adding plasmalogens to the food of elderly mice to see whether increasing plasmalogen levels may prevent the effects of aging. They discovered that the supplements had a significant impact on the mices learning abilities and physical symptoms.

Professor Lei Fu, the corresponding author of the study, says: Our research suggests that plasmalogens may not just stop cognitive decline, but may reverse cognitive impairments in the aging brain. Additionally, aged mice fed with the plasmalogens grow new black hair that is thicker and glossier than aged mice not fed the supplement.

This study is the first to show, in detail, how plasmalogens affect the aging brain.

The sea organisms Ascidiacea, also called sea squirts, contain substances called plasmalogens, which are vital to our body processes. Credit: Prilfish

The effects of the plasmalogen supplement on learning and memory were evaluated by training mice to navigate a Morris water maze, which consists of a pool of water with a platform that acts as a resting place. Mice typicallydislike swimming, so after five days of training, they remember where the platform is and swim directly to it as soon as they enter the pool. Older mice, on the other hand, take longer to locate the platform following the same amount of training.

Astonishingly, when fed with plasmalogens, aged mice perform more like young mice, finding the platform much quicker than the control group of aged mice that have not been given the supplement.

To find the reason for the improvement shown by plasmalogen-fed mice, the researchers took a closer look at changes happening within the brain. They found that mice that were fed the plasmalogen supplement had a higher number and quality of synapses the connections between neurons than the aged mice not given the supplements.

Aged mice showed improved learning and memory when fed with plasmalogen supplements from Ascidiacea also known as sea squirts. In this study, mice were trained to find a hidden platform in a pool of water (Morris water maze), and the image shows the paths they took to reach the platform. After five days of training, young mice were able to remember the platforms location, whereas aged mice took longer and swam further to reach the platform as they forgot its location. However, when fed a plasmalogen supplement, the aged mice took a shorter, quicker route to the platform than those not given the supplement suggesting improved cognitive function. Credit: Lei Fu

Synapses are a fundamental part of our neural networks and, therefore, crucial for learning and memory. Our synapses tend to be very plastic as children, but they decrease in number and deteriorate with age and in neurogenerative diseases, resulting in cognitive impairments.

Accordingly, in this study, the aged mice fed with plasmalogen supplements showed greater potential for learning new skills and creating new neural networks than the aged mice whose diet was not supplemented. This suggests that dietary plasmalogens can halt the age-related deterioration of synapses.

A further characteristic of getting older, and thought to be a significant factor in neurodegeneration, is inflammation in the brain. Too much inflammation can have a negative effect on cognitive ability, as the brains immune system becomes overactive and turns on itself, attacking neurons and preventing synapses from functioning correctly.

In this study, the inflammation in aged mice was greatly decreased in those given plasmalogen supplements compared to those on a normal diet, providing some insight as to why they performed better in learning and memory tasks.

There are many varieties of sea squirts (Ascidiae). Some are shown in Ernst Haeckels Kunstformen der Natur (1904). Credit: Ernst Haeckel

Although it is still unclear how dietary plasmalogen supplements seem to cause such significant changes in learning and memory, Professor Fu speculates on possible pathways of action.

We found that plasmalogens significantly increase the number of molecules that aid the growth and development of neurons and synapses in the brain. This suggests that plasmalogens can promote neuroregeneration.

There is also an increasing body of evidence that plasmalogens directly affect the structural properties of synapses. Plasmalogens may increase the fluidity and flexibility of synaptic membranes, affecting the transmission of impulses between neurons.

Additionally, Professor Fu explains that plasmalogens may also have indirect effects on our brains.

Some studies have shown that dietary plasmalogens affect the microorganisms in the gut. It has been widely reported that the connection between the organisms in our gut and our brain influences neurodegeneration. It may be the plasmalogens effect on this connection that causes the improvements in learning and memory are seen in this study.

Professor Fu is so convinced by the results of this study that he takes a plasmalogen supplement each day.

For the first time, we show that plasmalogen supplements might be a potential intervention strategy for halting neurodegeneration and promoting neuroregeneration.

The oral intake of plasmalogens could be a feasible therapeutic strategy to improve cognitive function in older people.

So, it could be that a pill to keep you young may not be such an unrealistic proposition after all as long as it contains sea squirts.

Reference: Plasmalogens Eliminate Aging-Associated Synaptic Defects and Microglia-Mediated Neuroinflammation in Mice by Jinxin Gu, Lixue Chen, Ran Sun, Jie-Li Wang, Juntao Wang, Yingjun Lin, Shuwen Lei, Yang Zhang, Dan Lv, Faqin Jiang, Yuru Deng, James P. Collman and Lei Fu, 23 February 2022, Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences.DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.815320

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Stanford Scientists Discover That Adding a Particular Seafood to Your Diet Can Reverse Signs of Aging - SciTechDaily

Plant-based diets are on the rise. In 2021, the sales of plant-based foods increased three times faster than overall food sales. This fast-paced growth comes as no surprise, considering that eating a plant-based diet and eliminating meat and dairy is one of the most impactful steps you can take to improve your health and reduce your carbon footprint. But the term plant-based is broad and has varied definitions depending on who you ask. Whether youre a vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, or pescatarian, your diet may fall under the umbrella of plant-based.

With so many options available, figuring out which plant-based diet works for you can be downright confusing. As a result, many of us throw our hands up in surrender and dig our heels in the dirt with old eating habits. Fortunately, we spoke with a registered dietitian who gives useful insights to help you determine which one could work best for you to reduce your meat intake and eat more plants.

Firstly, its important to define what aplant-based diet is, states Katie Cavuto, MS, RD, Execute Chef for Saladworks. Aplant-based diet [emphasizes] eating plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and beans. However, this doesnt mean you dont eat meat. Here are various ways you can limit animal products and adopt a plant-based diet:

A 2017 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology compared the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) between three different categories ofplant-based dietsby examining the dietary data of over 209,000 adults spanning two decades. The categories included:

So which diet came out on top with the lowest risk of heart disease? You guessed it, the healthyplant-based diet that emphasized whole plant foods. Conversely, the highest CHD risk category was the unhealthyplant-based diet which focused on refined grains and processed foods.

The takeaway is that eating more whole plant-based foods is good for you, regardless of your overall dietary choices. Most studies show that any increase in the amount of plant-based foods you eat will offer health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, explains Cavuto. [In addition], there are some general ideas that we can all agree [on], including the fact that whole, unprocessed foods are more nourishing than their highly processed counterparts.

As a starting point for achieving a well-balanced plant-based diet, fill half your plate with colorful fruits and vegetables. Then, fill the rest of your plate with balanced amounts of plant protein, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats such as avocado or extra virgin olive oil. (Looking for healthy meal inspiration? Check out these 10 Easy and Healthy Plant-Based Soups and Salad Recipes.)

Instead of focusing on percentages of specific nutrients, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) recommends we simplify the way we view our food choices [...] by consuming a variety of whole foods while cutting down on foods that contain excessive amounts of salt, added sugars, and saturated fats, says Cavuto.

The most important thing to remember is to choose the eating plan that feels the best for your body. Recognize that this may change depending on the season or your life stage. Cavuto advises, Be open to listening to what your body needs versus subscribing to a way of eating that you think is healthy, as this will vary from person to person.

Start small if youre on the fence about embracing a fully plant-based diet. A minor shift in your diet, such as reducing animal products or swapping meat for tofu or beans at one or two meals a day can significantly improve your health and reduce your environmental impact.

Ultimately, there is no single diet that works for everyone. The best diet for you is whichever one gets you eating primarily whole foods from plant-based sources.

Which type of eating plan you choose is a personal decision as our nutrition needs are all different, and while one way of eating may work for one person, it doesnt mean it works for everyone, says Cavuto.

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How to Choose the Best Plant-Based Diet for You, From Experts - The Beet

For a long time, researchers believed the diets of ancient people were nutritionally poor.

Everyday ancient Mediterranean civilizations relied on a diet of grains and pulses (chickpeas, lentils and other members of the bean family). Researchers thought this food lacked micronutrients such as zinc and iron, while also containing components that inhibit the uptake of what nutrients the food did have.

But a University of Michigan pilot study on crops grown in Egypt during Roman times suggests that ancient grains were more nutrient dense than grains grown in the same region today. Now, building on that study, U-M is part of a five-university consortium to receive a 3.7 million grant (about $3.85 million), called the AGROS project, awarded by the Belgian program Excellence of Science.

The researchers will use cutting-edge technologies to examine the nutritional profile of the food and how its nutrients changed based on the historical methods of food preparation.

In the first century, Egypt was the breadbasket of Rome. The village of Karanis, in Egypt, was one of the main suppliers of food to the city of Rome, its army and its public granaries, said paleoethnobotanist Laura Motta, principal investigator of the U-M portion of the grant and assistant research scientist at U-Ms Kelsey Museum of Archeology. They were producing, in the premodern time, at the early industrial scale here, and they were able to do so at the margin of the desert.

But as the Roman Empire began to collapse, the city began to struggle. By the sixth century, Karanis had been abandoned. As its citizens left, the storehouses of the city were left emptybut in the homes of the city were baskets and bins of grains, the bodies of animals that had been eaten, and recipes and food preparation techniques recorded on papyri. Archaeologists call it a veritable Egyptian Pompeii.'

In the 1920s, the city was excavated, and since, stores of grains, pulses and animal bones have been preserved at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

Motta previously led the pilot study to do an initial assessment of the nutritional content of crops in the Karanis collection. That pilot study, currently in the final publication stage, examined the trace element content of these ancient crops and compared it to modern samples collected from the same area. It found that some of the crops trace elements, such as iron, were 45% higher in the ancient grains compared to the modern specimens.

Identifying ancient foods trace elements is just the first step in determining its nutritional value. The researchers need to consider the foods bioavailability, or how well a persons body can absorb the nutrition in a particular food. For example, calcium limits the uptake of ironbut the way food is prepared can affect the way nutrients are absorbed.

Thats why, Motta says, its important to consider these ancient grains in their historical context rather than estimating the nutritional value of these diets based on modern grains.

Laura Motta, University of Michigan paleoethnobotanist, shows lupins excavated from the Karanis site in Egypt. Image credit: Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography

There is this general assumption that there was chronic malnutrition in most people whose diets were based on grains and pulses, she said. But these crops may have had a much higher nutritional content than their modern counterparts, which are the result of selection for the purpose of higher crop yields. And the higher crop yields, the less nutrient in the same plant. Its more complex than thatbut you can imagine that the more seeds a plant has, the less nutrient in each seed.

Under the first pillar of the grant, Motta and fellow U-M researchers will identify the different kinds of grains, pulses and animal products, determine the contexts where these foods have been found, and radiocarbon date them. They will also select samples of the crops and animal bones for stable isotope analysis.

Mottas work will reconstruct local food production, including some aspects related to agricultural practices, such as irrigation and soil fertility. Once the grains have been fully identified and carbon dated, Paul Erdkamp and Frederic Leroy of the Free University of Brussels will use biochemistry analysis to determine their nutrient content.

Richard Redding, zooarchaeologist and research scientist at the Kelsey Museum of Archeology and chief research officer of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, will study the animal bone and tissue excavated from Karanis. He will identify animal bones using the comparative collection in the bioarchaeology lab at Kelsey.

The study of the bones will help the researchers understand what proportion of the ancient diet was fish and what proportion of the diet was domesticated animals, such as sheep, pigs and poultry. His work will also focus on body part identification, age structure, evidence of pathology and evidence of other human activities on the bone.

A collection of crops, grains and other artifacts excavated from the Karanis site in Egypt are on display at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News

Team members will also use isotopic identification to examine oxygen, nitrogen, strontium and carbon isotopes in the bones and tissue.

The overall goal is to get a really good view of what animal products were used, and the nutritive contribution of animals to the diet, Redding said. Examining the isotopes will give us a good bit of information on water usage and whether theyre moving animals seasonally. Examining strontium isotopes will be a way of looking for evidence of pastoring animals in different environments and moving them back and forth.

Were really trying to get a good view of the seasonality of movement, how movement was going on, and between what areas. All of this feeds into your ability to control and use animals in the long run.

Redding says one of the grants intentions is to challenge current thinking about the level of nutrition ancient diets contained.

Wheat ears excavated from the Karanis site in Egypt are on display at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News

We have this normative view about plants and animals that these ancient diets were similar to those today, and thats clearly not the case, he said. Theres been a lot of change over the years. The Green Revolution of the 1950s introduced high yield varieties of wheat. But it was at the cost of probably a lot of the nutritional value.

It may behoove us to look at some of these older varieties of wheat and older processes that were more nutritionally advantageous, and maybe productivity is not the major factor we should be looking at, as we have a burgeoning problem of shortages of nutrition.

We maybe should look at and advocate for reconsideration of the nutritive value of the foods we are eating, and we can look to the past to see how thats changed. The past is a really nice record for that, and as much as it gives us insight into climate change, it also gives us insight into diet change. Not all change is good.

The collection of ancient crops at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology includes safflower seeds. Image credit: Jeremy Marble, Michigan News

The second pillar of the grant, conducted by Marie-Louise Scippo of the University of Lige and Katelijn Vandorpe at KU Leuven, will examine how the nutritional profile of food changes based on how the food was processed.

To do this, the researchers will use ancient recipes written on papyrus excavated from Karanis, as well as other texts and papyri from the wider Greco-Roman Egyptian world. They will then recreate these recipes and processing methods in a lab setting, after which they will study how the nutritional profile might change.

Finally, Ren Preys of the University of Namur will study the literary and artistic context of the diet.

The research is funded by the FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen) and the F.R.S.-FNRS (Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS).

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Ancient grains: Grant will help U-M researchers rethink Roman diets - University of Michigan News