Tag Archive for: nutrition

Phytonutrients: Diet or Supplements?

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The study that we looked at this week demonstrated that flavonoid intake is related to socioeconomic status. It also demonstrated that most of that difference comes from the consumption of tea. All well and good.

What stood out to me was the lack of phytonutrient intake. While there were some small differences in the other flavonoids besides flavan-3-ols, the total intake of flavonoids was low. Even though we’re talking about just one class of phytonutrients, the total flavonoid intake minus the flavonoids from tea was about 140 milligrams per day. That’s reflective of a poor diet that does not include as many sources of phytonutrients as it should: not enough vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts, and others. And it hasn’t changed in the six years of the study. Most people still don’t eat enough plant-based foods to do themselves any good.

Supplements: An Insurance Plan

The study demonstrated the need for the regular use of supplements containing plant concentrates. A plant concentrate is the plant or its fruit or its root or its leaves, minus the water and the fiber. It should also have been harvested at the peak of nutrition, not the peak of flavor and taste. The plant concentrates contain all the phytonutrients that are contained within the plant, and that includes not only the flavonoids that were the subject of this study, but all of the other types of phytonutrients that we need on a regular basis.

The plant concentrates may be found in multivitamin-minerals, as part of a fruit-and-vegetable concentration, or maybe even as a stand-alone. We’re not talking about treating diseases with these supplements; we’re talking about getting the nutrition that you’re supposed to be getting from the foods that you eat (but you’re not). To me, this study pretty much proves that everyone needs to take supplements with plant concentrates every day. They provide good backup while you work on improving your diet.

The Bottom Line

If you want the best chance at preventing degenerative diseases, you need optimal nutrition. That starts with what you eat, including all those phytonutrient-containing vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, and aromatic herbs used to season your food. As a backup, take supplements that contain plant concentrates to complement your diet. It’s not either/or; it’s using them both to get to better health.

Paula and I will be taking some time off to work on more jobs around the house. We’ll be back after a short break.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: J Nutr 2020;150:2147–2155.

You’re Invited to a Live Dr. Chet Seminar in Atlanta!

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The next stop on the Dr. Chet tour is going to be in Atlanta, GA, to talk about Nutrition for the 21st Century.

I’ll start with the most important question: what’s the best diet? The keto craze is in full swing, with Paleo right behind. The opposite side is going vegan, an all plant-based diet. What’s best for weight loss? For more energy? For weight maintenance? I’ll let you know the pros and cons of each approach so you can make the right choice for you.

Second, no matter which diet you choose to follow, will you get adequate nutrients? No matter how healthy the diet, there will always be gaps because of the way our food is grown and processed. This time around, it’s not just getting the right nutrients for your body but also your microbiome, the microbes in your digestive system that are critical to your immune system. They require healthier choices as well. I’ll cover the basic nutritional supplements for adults and children to lay a good foundation.

How do you decide on a quality manufacturer? There are new companies being started every day, and I’ll give you specific criteria you can use to evaluate supplement manufacturers. If you’re going to put supplements in your body, you want to be certain they’re safe and effective. I’ll let you know how to do that.

Next, there are some conditions that may be the result of a lack of adequate nutrients. Supplements don’t cure diseases, but the right nutrition may help your body help itself. I’ll cover some common conditions.

I’ll also have time to answer your questions. The goal is to provide you with enough information for you to make healthy choices every day. Please join me to get the latest information to do exactly that.

Who should attend? People who find themselves confused by the nutrition information available; one day something’s good, the next day it’s bad. I’ll clarify that for you. If you’re concerned about your personal health or that of your family, or you’re a business owner who wants to understand supplementation and diet better, you should be there. Everyone will walk away with something that will help them make healthier choices.

Nutrition for the 21st Century
March 22, 2020, 2 – 5 p.m.
Dunwoody Country Club
1600 Dunwoody Drive
Atlanta GA 30350

$29.95

Important note: Country club rules say you can’t buy tickets at the door, but you can buy them on your smartphone in the hallway or on your way there by going to drchet.com; please complete your purchase by 1:45. Your name will be added electronically to the list.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

News on Food as Medicine

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As a conventional medical journal and one of the leading medical journals in the world, The Journal of the American Medical Association doesn’t often publish reviews of the impact of food on health. However, a recent edition of the Journal included a summary of three such studies, and that’s the topic for this week.

The first study examined whether mushrooms, which are full of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or type 2 diabetes (T2D). The researchers re-analyzed the data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. When they compared more than five servings of mushrooms per day with less than one serving per day, they found no differences in the rate of symptoms or markers associated with CVD or T2D. One interesting note was that if mushrooms were substituted for meat, there was a decreased risk of T2D.

This is one of the first studies to acknowledge the problems with nutrition data in these types of studies. The data on mushrooms were only collected at the beginning of the studies; that doesn’t allow for comparisons over time. Further, the questionnaire didn’t allow for data on a variety of types of mushrooms. The best observation at this point is that we don’t know whether mushrooms or specific types of mushrooms are beneficial for reducing the risk of disease until more research is done.

We do know they’re good for you, so enjoy your mushrooms; sautéed mushrooms are a great addition to many dishes. Here’s another way to enjoy mushrooms: Creamy Mushroom Soup from the Health Info page at drchet.com. Check out the other recipes while you’re there.

We’ll look at another study on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

P.S. Don’t forget to complete the survey on Dr. Chet’s Traveling Health Show. I could be coming to a city near you in 2020! Click the link below to go to the survey.

Survey

Reference: AJCN https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqz057.

The Command Center

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We’re going to finish this month’s look at living life instead of just being alive by talking about brain health. The brain is the command center of the body, telling it what to do 24/7 without you having to think about it. Be honest: when was the last time you consciously told your heart to beat? It also handles conscious requests from you. Probably the most important part of our brain is our ability to think and recall memories.

In the past 10 to 15 years, a lot has been written about how to keep our brains healthy. For all we think we know, we really don’t know all that much, but there are three things that we need to do. I’ve already talked enough about exercise; what was good for the heart, muscles, joints, and balance is also good for the brain. But another type of exercise involves using the brain, such as reading, doing puzzles, listening to music, and learning new skills. For more on this topic, see How to Have a Healthy Brain.

Second, what we eat can impact brain health, as well as what we shouldn’t eat. This will come as no surprise: your diet should start with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and nuts. Whole grains are good as are quality oils such as olive oil and flaxseed oil. What we should avoid are overly processed foods, especially limiting refined carbohydrates and sugars.

Hand in glove with that, the majority of us need to eat less. Eating too much not only exposes us to usually highly processed foods, it contributes to being overweight and type 2 diabetes. Both can contribute to poor brain function over time.

We’ll finish this month’s look at living every day on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Can Fasting Reduce Inflammation?

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In this Memo, I’ll review the third paper from the recent journal Cell on fasting and summarize what this all may mean for the use of intermittent fasting.

Researchers used both mice and humans as subjects in a series of studies. The objective was to examine how the immune system responded to a fasting protocol. For the study in humans, the subjects fasted for 19 hours after eating, with blood samples taken before and after the fast. In the mice, a variety of protocols were used. The most common was mice were fed for a short time before food was withheld for the remainder of 24 hours.

In mice and humans, circulating monocytes were reduced. This was important because they were pro-inflammatory in nature; thus inflammation decreased in response to the fasting protocol. In some of the studies, this reduction was maintained even with exposure to pathogens. That means the immune response was not compromised even in animals with induced autoimmune diseases.

Fasting Protocols

Three different studies used at least three different approaches to fasting. In the first study, food was withheld completely for 36 hours. In some phases of the second study, calories were reduced by 50% although the vitamins, minerals, and protein were maintained at normal levels. The final study used a fasting protocol we’re most familiar with: eat within a few hours and liquids only the remainder of the day.

The results were similar in sustaining and perhaps improving the immune system of the animals when placed under pathogenic stress. The only issue is what form of dietary restriction worked best? You can’t ask mice how they felt; you can only check immune system markers. In one of the approaches, the skin of the mice was injured at different times of continued fasting. The healing ability continued until the fast went beyond 48 hours; after that wound-healing was impaired.

The Bottom Line

These studies haven’t changed my approach to fasting. If you’re going to fast to rejuvenate your immune system, don’t play games. Reduce caloric intake to 500 to 800 calories per day for two to three days; those studies show the best benefit. Be sure to select small quantities of the healthiest foods.

Fasting is not abstinence. The current approaches to intermittent fasting are really intermittent abstinence. The idea is to abstain from food completely for 12 to 18 hours while still drinking liquids. That may not be possible for everyone. Some medications have to be taken in relation to food intake. Pre-diabetics and type 2 diabetics should still monitor blood sugar, especially if exercising during the fasting times. The current intermittent fasting approach is more about controlling when you eat than anything else, and that’s something you should do anyway.

I believe in fasting. That’s why I wrote Real-Life Detox—so you could do it right and gain the most benefit. The critical thing is to find a way to eat that you can sustain for the rest of your life, and that includes occasional fasts.

Eat less. Eat better. Move more. That’s always the goal.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Cell. 2019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.047.
2. Cell. 2019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.049.
3. Cell. 2019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.050

Fasting and Immune Function

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Intermittent fasting is the latest health fad. When I say fad, I mean there are as many definitions of what it means as there are experts. In a recent edition of the journal Cell, three papers were published that provided some insight into the effects of three different types of intermittent fasting on three different systems involved in immune function. That’s our topic of the week. I’ll present each study and comment on the implications on Saturday.

In the first paper, researchers used juvenile mice to examine changes in immune function in sections of the intestine called Peyer’s patches (PP). These patches form an important part of the immune system by monitoring intestinal bacteria populations and preventing the growth of pathogenic bacteria in the intestines. The mice were fasted for 36 hours. Results were compared with normally fed mice that served as controls.

During fasting, immune cells were disrupted and thus compromised the typical immune response; specifically, B cells were sent to bone marrow. It’s difficult to say whether this is a protective mechanism or not. The B cells were returned to the PP during re-feeding. There were many more parts of the study, but the bottom line was that the immune system was compromised during fasting and remained impaired for a time after re-feeding.

We’ll take a look at the second study on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. Cell. 2019. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2019.07.047.
2. http://bit.ly/2lxYIRa.

How Methionine Affects Cancer Treatment

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If you’ve ever been diagnosed with cancer and you start searching the Internet, one of the things that you’ll come across is using a vegetarian diet to help treat the cancer. I’ve recommended it myself combined with conventional treatment. The question is why? Yes, the phytonutrients from plants are healthier, but is there something in animal products that’s detrimental?

A research group examined the impact of the amino acid methionine on a pathway of one-carbon metabolism; this pathway is the target of a variety of cancer interventions that involve chemotherapy and radiation. They demonstrated that removal of methionine from the diet of mice and humans resulted in more effective treatment in two types of cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation were more effective in both types of cancer once the diet was changed.

There are a couple of important points. First, this was tested on only two types of cancer. There’s no reason to think it would benefit every type of cancer treatment because this one-carbon pathway is not a target for every treatment. Second, because methionine is found in all meat and seafood, it would mean giving up all meat for the duration of treatment.

For myself, I’d give up meat and seafood during treatment whether we have the research or not. It wouldn’t have to be forever and combined with giving up refined carbs to reduce the risk of C diff, it could lead to a better chance for treatments to work. And that’s the key. It’s not in place of treatment; it’s combined with treatment. The goal is to put the odds in your favor. This seems like a simple way to do that.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Nature Vol 572: 397–401 (2019).

Should Your DNA Guide Your Diet?

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In an opinion piece, a college professor in the U.K. who had written about personalized nutrition wanted to find out whether she should change her diet based on her genetic profile. She decided to send her DNA to Norway for analysis.

Her genetic profile indicated that she was at risk for having high cholesterol and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. To deal with that, she became a vegetarian. She also takes high levels of B vitamins because she doesn’t process one of the B vitamins very well. Her point was that knowing her genetics gave her the motivation to take control of her diet and lifestyle. She now advocates that all of us should take control of our health through personalized nutrition based on our DNA analysis.

I’m not so sure. I think genetics are one piece of a complex puzzle. What causes the genes to express themselves? What turns them off? More than anything, what role does the microbiome play when combined with the genes? We still don’t know the answers to any of those questions.

Someday we may be at a point where we can be very specific about nutrition, but we’re not there yet because we not only don’t know the answers—we don’t know the correct questions to ask. For reliable results, it still comes down to what I always tell you: Eat better. Eat less. Move more.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: http://bit.ly/2ZclpII

Nutrition Education: The Best Solution

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The scientific paper about nutrition education programs from South America was an opinion piece derived from a student’s dissertation defense. It addressed nutrition labels in Brazil: the labels were too focused on the caloric content instead of the ingredient information.

The paper gives an example of two foods that have 97 calories but are vastly different in nutritional value. Chewy fruit-flavored candy had 21 grams of carbs, no protein, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, and no fiber; 14 almonds had 3.6 grams of carbohydrate, 3.5 grams of protein, 8.4 grams of healthy fat, and 2.1 grams of fiber. The almonds also had several vitamins and minerals while the chewy fruit candy had none.

The question is whether labels alone can change the nutritional health of a nation. Hard to say. Brazil came up with a simple public health approach using three recommendations:

  1. Choose whole, minimally processed foods
  2. Cook those foods yourself
  3. Eat those foods with other people

I think that’s an excellent approach. It means that people may have to shop a little more often and spend more time preparing food. But when you consider travel to get take-out or fast food, or the expense of food delivery, we can get better and fresher quality foods with fewer preservatives and more nutrition for around the same price.

Eating those foods with other people, at a minimum, means that families eat at least one meal together daily, possibly two if we include breakfast. The other possibility is to invite neighbors, friends, or other family members. We don’t have to fix feasts; just fresh, healthier foods that are simple to cook and share.

The Bottom Line

I think the Brazilian approach could work in the U.S. If we were to use the public health nutrition education program from WWII with an emphasis on the benefits of the foods for our health along with videos people could use to prepare the foods simply, and even scale that down to individual communities where small groups could learn how to shop and cook, we can change the health of the nation.

I also think it begins with parents: they’ll have to lead the way if they expect children to eat better. When we visited Paula’s cousin, who has three children under two (a toddler girl and identical twin baby boys), we remarked at the variety of food their daughter was willing to eat. Her dad said that she may be the only kid in preschool asking, “Excuse me, where is the hummus?” It may mean that parents will have to learn more about healthier foods and how to prepare them. I think it’s a small price to pay to improve their kids’ potential for better health.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Adv. Nutr. 2019;10:549–556.

How Can We Improve Nutrition and Public Health?

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I recently read a couple of articles, one from a newspaper and another from a journal, that talked about South American countries and how their governments should deal with the obesity epidemic and how some are approaching this issue. There may be lessons we can use here for us in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Some historical perspective: the last public health initiative that actually worked well in the U.S. was during WWII. To direct more meat to the people fighting the war, the government enlisted any and all means to convince the public that organ meats were actually delicacies. Instead of a simple call to support the war movement, the pitch was to help consumers understand how organ meats such as brains, intestines, liver, and kidneys were nutritious. Along with that, they provided recipes for how to prepare these special parts of cows and pigs. It worked and those cuts were really considered delicacies. After the war ended, the special nature of these parts gradually drifted away.

In my opinion, that was the most successful public health education program ever done. When you consider all that’s been done related to educating the public about cholesterol, fat, trans fat, and sugar, nothing has ever gotten people to change their habits; the nutrition facts label is often more confusing that helpful. It’s obvious we need help, but what and how? We’ll take a look at what these countries in South America have tried on Thursday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet