All posts tagged: diets

Why many doctors don’t like low-carb diets despite weight-loss benefits

Why many doctors don’t like low-carb diets despite weight-loss benefits

Published by Sam Flores

For people looking to lose weight quickly, limiting carbohydrate-rich foods (like fruits, starchy vegetables and grains) and prioritising those high in protein and fat (like meat, eggs and cottage cheese) has long been a reliable strategy. But as with many ways of eating that are based on restriction, nutrition experts say that low-carbohydrate diets can come with some downsides. “I have never recommended a low-carb diet to a patient, and I don’t plan to,” said Dr Nate Wood, an internal medicine and obesity physician and the director of the culinary medicine programme at the Yale School of Medicine. He and other doctors say that if you’re concerned about how carbohydrates may affect your weight, risk for developing diabetes or health in general, it’s better to focus on the types – rather than the number – of carbohydrates you eat. WHAT LOW-CARB EATING CAN AND CAN’T DO Low-carb diets have been around for decades. Some of the first studies exploring their role in weight loss date back to obesity studies from the early 1950s. And the carb-cutting …

Fossil study finds dinosaur parents fed their young special diets

Fossil study finds dinosaur parents fed their young special diets

Published by Jenni Sidey

Maiasaura dinosaur teeth carry a quiet clue: babies were not eating what adults ate. Tiny wear marks suggest young duck-bills got softer, richer food, adding fresh weight to the idea that some dinosaurs cared for offspring in surprisingly bird-like ways. Tiny scratches on fossilized dinosaur teeth are giving scientists a rare glimpse into family life from nearly 80 million years ago. A new study suggests that baby duck-billed dinosaurs may have eaten softer, richer and more nutritious foods than the adults that cared for them. The findings come from a close examination of Maiasaura peeblesorum, a plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. Paleontologists discovered that young Maiasaura had very different tooth wear patterns than adults. Those differences suggest the juveniles likely consumed low-fiber foods such as fruits, buds or other tender plant material, while adults mostly ate tougher vegetation. The study adds new evidence to a long-running idea that Maiasaura were unusually attentive parents. Researchers say the feeding behavior may resemble the way many modern birds feed their young today. “The urge …

Healthy diets may slow chronic disease and aging in older adults

Healthy diets may slow chronic disease and aging in older adults

Published by Jenni Sidey

Healthy eating in older age may do more than support general wellness. A long Swedish study found that diets tied to brain and heart health slowed the buildup of chronic disease, while inflammatory eating patterns appeared to push that burden higher. Growing older often brings new health challenges. Heart disease, dementia, depression and diabetes become more common with age. For many older adults, these conditions do not appear alone. They build over time, creating a complex web of chronic illness that affects daily life, independence and well-being. Now, a major long-term study from Sweden suggests that diet may influence how quickly those diseases accumulate. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet found that healthy eating patterns slowed the buildup of chronic diseases in older adults over 15 years. In contrast, diets linked to inflammation appeared to speed that process up. The findings followed more than 2,400 older adults and examined how four different dietary patterns affected aging and disease progression. “Our results show how important diet is in influencing the development of multimorbidity in ageing populations,” said co-first …

Not All “Plant-Based” Diets Are Equal for Brain Health

Not All “Plant-Based” Diets Are Equal for Brain Health

Published by Jenni Sidey

We tend to reach for simple answers when it comes to protecting our brains: Eat this, avoid that, follow a single “best” diet. But a new large study published in Neurology reminds us that when it comes to nutrition and brain health, it is rarely that simple. Researchers followed nearly 93,000 adults from the Multiethnic Cohort Study for about 11 years, examining how different plant-based dietary patterns related to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The results are compelling, but they need careful interpretation. The headline: Quality matters more than labels. At first glance, the takeaway seems straightforward: People who ate more plant-based diets had different risks of developing dementia. But the real insight is more nuanced and useful: Not all plant-based diets were associated with lower risk. Participants whose diets emphasized healthful plant foods, like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds, tended to have a lower risk of dementia. In contrast, those whose plant-based diets leaned heavily on less healthy plant foods (think: refined grains, sugary beverages, fries, chips, and …

High‑fat diets linked to fast decline in gut health

High‑fat diets linked to fast decline in gut health

Published by Jenni Sidey

Fat hits the gut fast, and one line of immune defense disappears almost right away. That is the unsettling picture from a new preclinical study by researchers at Mass General Brigham. They found that even a brief stretch on a high-fat diet can wipe out key immune cells in the intestine, weaken the gut barrier, and stir inflammation before broader metabolic problems become obvious. The work, led by Selma Boulenouar of the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute and published in Immunity, focused on cells called group 3 innate lymphoid cells, or ILC3s. These cells do an unglamorous but essential job. In the small intestine, they help hold the line between the body and the bacteria, food particles, and other material moving through the gut. They also produce IL-22, a molecule that helps protect the gut lining and supports antimicrobial defenses. When those cells vanished in the study, the intestine became leakier and more inflamed. The speed surprised the team. Graphical abstract of the study. Intestinal ILC3s were reduced in overweight and obese humans and in …

Probiotics and prebiotics restore appetite control in mice raised on unhealthy diets

Probiotics and prebiotics restore appetite control in mice raised on unhealthy diets

Published by José Betancourt

Consuming a diet heavy in fat and sugar during childhood can permanently alter how the brain regulates appetite later in life, even if healthy eating habits are adopted in adulthood. However, supplementing the diet with specific beneficial gut bacteria or dietary fibers can reverse these long-lasting brain changes and restore normal eating habits. These discoveries were recently published in the journal Nature Communications. The environment a child grows up in heavily influences their physical development. A diet filled with highly processed, sugary, and fatty foods is common in many modern households. Frequent consumption of these energy-dense, nutrient-poor meals can establish unhealthy eating patterns that last well into adulthood. The digestive system is home to trillions of bacteria and other microscopic organisms, collectively called the gut microbiome. These microbes help digest food, produce vitamins, and send chemical signals to the brain. This biological highway is often called the gut-brain axis. Through the gut-brain axis, bacteria influence the production of neurotransmitters, which are the chemical messengers of the nervous system. This communication network helps control feelings of …

Why some people gain weight more easily on diets high in soybean oil

Why some people gain weight more easily on diets high in soybean oil

Published by Jenni Sidey

A bottle of cooking oil may seem harmless on the kitchen counter. It pours easily, smells neutral, and appears in countless packaged foods. Yet new research suggests that soybean oil, the most widely consumed cooking oil in the United States, may affect bodies in deeper and more personal ways than once believed. Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have uncovered biological clues that help explain why some bodies gain weight more easily on diets high in soybean oil. Their findings reveal that the answer may not lie in willpower or calories alone. Instead, it may come down to how the liver handles certain fats at the molecular level. The study focuses on linoleic acid, a major fat found in soybean oil. This type of fat appears in many processed foods and now makes up a much larger share of the American diet than it did a century ago. While linoleic acid is essential in small amounts, researchers say the modern scale of consumption may push the body into metabolic pathways it never evolved to …

Hunger Games: Why Diets Fail and Weight Loss Medicines Succeed

Hunger Games: Why Diets Fail and Weight Loss Medicines Succeed

Published by Jenni Sidey

After a century of futility, the seemingly impenetrable mystery of weight loss is nearly solved. Until late 2022, most of us were taught that the weight loss journey was paved with willpower. Our Sisyphean task was to create a caloric deficit through diet and exercise and maintain it indefinitely through deliberate effort, food, and activity tracking, and enduring lifestyle changes. For the minority, this formula succeeded.1 Yet most people found that weight loss was a revolving door: No matter the method or the motivation, their weight eventually returned to roughly the same starting point.2 Then something unexpected happened. Following decades of clinical trials yielding ineffective or even dangerous weight loss medicines,3 a new class of injectable medicines called GLP-1 agonists (GLP=glucagon-like peptide) arrived in 2022-2023.4 Not only did the average GLP-1 user experience weight loss far surpassing that usually achieved through lifestyle changes alone, their weight loss generally came with minimal conscious effort. For the first time, people were suddenly achieving clinically significant weight loss without tracking calories, practicing specific diets, or willpowering themselves through …

These 5 diets could add years to your life even if you have bad genes

These 5 diets could add years to your life even if you have bad genes

Published by skeptic

A healthy diet has long been linked to living into old age – and you don’t have to adhere to it perfectly to reap the benefits SolStock/Getty Images Five dietary patterns have been associated with living years longer, regardless of someone’s genetic risk factors for disease, in a study of more than 100,000 people. “If you want to live a long life, it’s definitely worth trying to have a healthier dietary pattern, and the good news is that it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect,” says Clare Collins at the University of Newcastle in Australia, who wasn’t involved in the study. Yanling Lv at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China and her colleagues looked at the association between diet and longevity by analysing data from 103,000 participants in the UK Biobank study. The individuals were scored based on how closely they reported adhering to five previously validated healthy diets: a Mediterranean-type diet, a plant-based diet, the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, the DRRD (Diabetes Risk Reduction Diet), and the AHEI (Alternative …

Healthy Diets Are Getting Pricier, Yet More Affordable

Healthy Diets Are Getting Pricier, Yet More Affordable

Published by Jenni Sidey

A healthy diet is often discussed as a top public health issue, but affordability remains one of its biggest barriers. Over the past decade, food prices have climbed due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and climate-related shocks. At the same time, incomes and food access have improved in many regions. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte, highlights how these competing forces have shaped the global cost of eating well—and who is still being left behind. The data for this visualization comes from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. It tracks the average daily cost of a healthy diet worldwide. Healthy Diet Costs Are Rising A healthy diet is defined as providing 2,330 kilocalories per day, with nutritionally adequate proportions across six food groups. These include starchy staples, vegetables, fruits, animal-source foods, legumes, nuts and seeds, and oils and fats. In 2017, the average global cost of a healthy diet was $3.14 per person per day. By 2024, that figure had climbed to $4.46. The sharpest increases occurred after 2020, coinciding with pandemic-related disruptions and …