Will cutting down on calories slow your ageing clock as well as help cut extra weight off your waistline? Since 1930’s scientists have known that restricting calories not only delays ageing but even reverses some of its consequences in laboratory rats and mice. By feeding these animals a very low calorie diet, a mere 30 to 50 percent of what they normally eat, scientists have been able to extend the lives of not only mice but also fruit flies.
One studies was designed to see whether monkeys, fed a diet that included all required nutrients but two-thirds the usual calories, would live longer than normal. Data suggests that the primates who ingested a lean meal, as compared to their peers who ate all the food they wanted, had a lower incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. One theory as to why there’s a link between eating less and live longer? Metabolism of foods leads to the production of free radicals; the less food consumed, the fewer damaging free radicals produced.
Rats and monkeys, however, are not humans. Before caloric restriction is recommended as a potential antiaging strategy for people, carefully supervised studies on human need to be done. Caloric restriction is risky to try on your own: While it is generally known that seniors require few calories, the ageing body is also less efficient in absorbing and using some nutrients. Knowing how to cut calories without compromising essential nutrients can be tricky; becoming undernourished would erase any benefits of such a diet – if indeed there are benefits to be had.
Choose soft-tub margarine made with non-hydrogenated fats. Check labels and select a product with high levels of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats; margarines made from canola, safflower, sunflower, olive, and corn oils are all good choices. Avoid products with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils; they have more trans fatty acids than the other types do.
Margarines that have added sitostanol or sitosterol that reduce blood cholesterol can be sold only in a few countries, not all. Scientists theorize that due to chemical similarity to cholesterol, those compounds compete with cholesterol for absorption into the blood stream from the intestine. This interferes with the uptake of cholesterol from the diet, but more importantly also lowers the amount of cholesterol synthesis in the liver. Cholesterol is an essential biochemical that our liver can supply. Much of it though arrives in the bloodstream in an indirect fashion. It is first secreted into the intestine via the bile, where it plays a role in fat absorption and then is absorbed into the blood. Sitostanol and Sitosterol block this absorption. Two table spoons of margarine featuring these compounds are needed per day for cholesterol lowering effect.
The human diet worldwide is based on complex carbohydrates. Populations that eat a higher carbohydrate, low fat diet generally enjoy good health. Vegetarian, Mediterranean and Asian diets typically provide a high percentage of calories from complex carbohydrates in foods such as whole grains, lentils, beans, fruits and vegetables. In North America, too much too much of carbohydrates is in the form of simple sugars due to the high consumption of refined and processed foods. Another factor has been the proliferation of low-fat foods. Consumers often assume that these are also low calorie foods. In many cases, fats have been replaced by carbohydrates with no great savings in calories. The many low-fat, high carbohydrate foods available, including low-fat cookies, cakes, muffins, baked chips, and oversized bagels are all adding to expanding waistlines.
In order to promote healing and tissue repair, it is essential for victims of extensive burns to have a well balanced diet that provides extra calories, protein, vitamins and minerals. Burn victims also require extra fluids, sodium and potassium to replace those substances that seep out through damaged skin; if this is not done, there is a danger of dehydration and imbalanced body chemistry. Second and third degree burns that cause blistering and tissue damage are very serious; they have a high risk of becoming infected by germs that enter the body through damaged skin.
Patents hospitalized with extensive burns are usually given intravenous fluids and antibiotics. If they are unable to eat, they will also be fed intravenously. A diet that provides extra calories, protein and zinc is needed for tissue repair. Zinc found in seafood, meat, poultry and in slightly lesser amount in eggs, milk, beans, nuts and whole grains is essential for wound healing; It also bolsters the body’s immune defenses to fight infection.
A hormone produced by the brain, melatonin is instrumental in regulating the body’s sleep wake cycles. Researchers think that it may control the onset of puberty, a women’s menstrual cycle, mood and the release of growth hormones. Melatonin can alleviate insomnia, although in some cases it has caused disturbed sleep. When taken correctly it can prevent jet lag but the many other claims for melatonin –for example that it can prevent cancer, boost immunity and forestall ageing are unproved.
Melatonin appears to be safe when it’s taken in small amounts to overcome a temporary bout of insomnia. But experts caution against taking large doses or long term use because of potential melatonin side affects, which includes grogginess, depression and sexual dysfunction. Melatonin should not be taken by women who are attempting to conceive, pregnant or breast feeding; nor should it be administered by children or used by anyone with severe allergies, mental illness, rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune diseases and lymphoma and certain other types of cancers.
Omega-3 fatty acids are called essential fatty acids because they are needed for human health but the body can’t make them itself. That is why we need to get it from the food we eat. These fats can be found in fatty fish and certain types of plant oils.
It is important to maintain a good balance of omega-3s and omega-6s fatty acids, (another essential fatty acid found in many seeds, nuts and vegetable oils) in the diet as these two substances work together to promote health. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation and most omega-6 fatty acid tend to promote inflammation. So an imbalance of these essential fatty acids contributes to the development of disease. A healthy diet should only contain approximately one to four times more omega-6s than omega-3s, but the typical diet contains 11 to 30 times more. So most of us needs to pay special attention to good food sources of Omega-3s
Millions of people around the world take dietary supplements. Some take them because they think they don’t eat well enough for their diet to provide optimal levels pf nutrients. Others take supplements because of a particular health problem they want to treat or try to prevent.
Nutritionists have always stressed that our diet is the best source of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids and fiber, and that food and minerals in their natural form are best adapted to the human digestive system. In contrast, supplements contain only one isolated form of a nutrient, which lacks energy, fiber and other dietary components that provide nutritional balance.
In recent years, we have shifted our focus from prevention of deficiency diseases to maximizing health and preventing chronic disease, interest in supplements has increased dramatically. However, it is not an easy task for researchers to prove the benefits of supplementation. Effects of supplements demand on the level of nutrients already being absorbed from the diet, as well as factors that influence the nutrient absorption and metabolism. In addition, supplements may take years to have a significant beneficial effect, making their impact difficult to observe and measure. Despite these challenges, research is beginning to emerge supporting the benefits of certain supplements.
The term probiotic means for life. Probiotics are organisms that contribute to the health and balance of the intestinal tract and are commonly referred to as friendly , beneficial or good bacteria which when ingested act to maintain a healthy intestinal tract and help fight disease.
The concept of probiotics is in contrast to antibiotics, which are compounds that suppress or destroy bacteria. Probiotics combat bad bacteria and also help maintain the health of the cells that line the gastrointestinal tract. There are many different probiotics with lactobacillus acidophilus, L.rhamnous GG, and bifidobacteria, among those more commonly studied
Probiotics have a number of modes of activity, including affecting inflammation processes, secreting compounds that regulate cell function, and protecting the intestine against invasive bad bacteria. They inhibit the growth of disease causing bacteria by preventing their attachment to the intestine and by producing substances that suppress their growth.
A large body of scientist research has examined the role of probiotics in the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea; inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis; as well as the urinary tract infections, asthma and some cancers. While exactly how they do so is not understood completely, probiotics appear to affect‘s the body’s immune system. These bacteria can be obtained through consumption of fermented foods such as yogurt as long as these are produced using live cultures of lactobacillus or bifidobacteria. Probiotics are also available as dietary supplement in pill or powder form. Like many items sold in health food store, commercial probiotics vary considerably in their effectiveness.