Viva! Health
Meat is as much to blame for excess weight as sugar
Sensational research that analysed data from 170 countries resulted in an important finding in two papers. After adjusting for factors such as people’s activity levels, income, lifestyle and calorie consumption, meat intake was directly and significantly linked to excess weight. In fact, meat turned out to be as bad as sugar and these two food groups together explain almost all the variation in people’s body weights.
Every few months the headlines say butter is back, saturated fat is good for you and calorie counting is over. Every time this happens, the study in question is later discredited, but the damage is done…
In March 2014, national headlines declared “Saturated fat 'ISN'T bad for your heart'” suggesting it is safe to gorge on butter, cheese and sausages.
Flavonoids are bioactive compounds that naturally occur in fruits and vegetables. Previous research suggested there was a link between the intake of specific fruits and vegetables and maintaining a healthy weight. As a part of an enormous study involving over 120,000 healthy American men and women, their diets and weight were followed for up to 24 years.
Public Health England has just published new dietary advice recommending people halve their dairy intake and eat less meat, replacing it with beans and pulses!
Viva!Health have been campaigning for change for years and it’s been a long time coming, but it seems things are beginning to change.
An epic, 24-year study of over 130,000 people focused on fruit and vegetable intake (including pulses) and body weight. The results showed that increased fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with good, long-term weight management. The benefits were specifically greater for fruits compared to vegetables and strongest for berries, apples and pears, tofu and soya products, cauliflower, cruciferous and green leafy vegetables.
New study shows lifestyle is more important than genes when it comes to cancer
An ambitious Spanish study set out to map the main risk factors for colorectal cancer which included both genetic and lifestyle factors. After examining the health, family history, gene variants, diet, lifestyle, drug use, age and some other considerations of over 4,000 participants, the authors came to the conclusion that lifestyle factors are more important than genetics in the development of colorectal cancer.
Plant-based diets can be potent in preventing prostate cancer
Genetic factors can play an important role in prostate cancer but lifestyle and diet choices are crucial – they can significantly increase or reduce the risk. Obesity poses a particular risk because it raises the levels of sex hormones which, in turn, increase the risk of this hormone-sensitive cancer. Some sexually transmitted diseases have been linked to a higher risk too, as well as physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consumption.
Nurses from across the US were recruited to try veganism and the results are astonishing
Nineteen nurses participated in a nutrition educational program by following a plant-based diet for 21 days. The aim was to improve their knowledge of plant-based nutrition and experience its benefits. They were encouraged to eat fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, pulses and nuts and seeds; cut out meat, seafood,dairy products and eggs and limit highly refined foods, such as white flour, oils and sugar.
Carbs – love them or hate them, we all need them. Despite a wealth of low-carb fad diets there’s no good reason for avoiding carbohydrates. The key is in choosing the right ones.
Our cells - every single cell in your body – run on carbs. Your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose and other molecules and it’s glucose that is used as cell fuel. But that’s not an invitation to feast on sugary snacks!
Weight-loss diets high in protein can have detrimental effect on your metabolism
Being overweight or obese puts you at a high risk for type 2 diabetes because it reduces your insulin sensitivity – the ability of your body to react to the hormone insulin, essential for energy metabolism. Weight loss usually means improved insulin sensitivity – a win-win. However, in a study of obese postmenopausal women, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine found that using high-protein diets for weight loss doesn’t improve insulin sensitivity at all!
Let’s face it, we all know we could eat healthier but we also want to be able to treat ourselves every now and then.
A healthy vegan diet is based on fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, pulses (lentils, beans, soya, chickpeas), nuts and seeds (with the obligate addition of vitamin B12 supplement).
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic risk factors associated with premature death, an increased risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The main symptoms are abdominal obesity, raised fat levels in the blood, higher blood pressure and higher than normal blood sugar levels. Between 20 and 30 per cent of the adult population worldwide are estimated to have metabolic syndrome. Nut consumption has been shown to improve blood fat levels and reduce the risk of heart disease but because nuts are high fat, they are perceived as fattening.
Fibre as a natural part of our diet, improves our fat and sugar metabolism, blood vessel function, helps control blood pressure and facilitates weight loss. Our bodies evolved on fibre-rich foods and we need plenty to be healthy. A recent study looked at the diet of people who had suffered a heart attack in order to assess how changes in their diet post-heart attack might influence their health and survival chances.
We all know that fibre is good for us and we should eat plenty of fibre-rich foods every day but a new study shows it’s even more beneficial than we thought! Six meat-eating obese people with type 2 diabetes and/or high blood pressure were assigned to a strict vegetarian, high-fibre, low-fat diet for one month. At the end of the month, the diet had not only achieved weight loss but just about every marker of previous bad health – cholesterol, fats and blood sugar - was improved. Two people’s results showed they could no longer be diagnosed as diabetics.
A study of almost 72,000 people and their diets has brought very reassuring results. It examined the nutrient intake of people who belonged to one of these groups: non-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, pesco-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian and strict vegetarian (people who don’t eat meat, fish, eggs and dairy products at all or less than once per month). Average protein and vitamin B12 intake was similar in all groups.
Just how much can a low-fat vegan diet improve your health? Quite a lot, it seems, as a recent large study shows. People who were either overweight and/or diabetic (type 2) were asked to follow a wholesome vegan diet for 18 weeks whilst they carried on with their normal lives. A control group (people with similar characteristics to those who were prescribed a vegan diet) changed nothing about their lifestyle but were followed for comparison.
One of the branches of the extensive EPIC-Oxford study focusing on lifestyle and various diseases produced exciting results. Data gained from over 44,000 people, each of them being followed for about 11 years were analysed. Compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarians had lower body weight, blood cholesterol and blood pressure. Overall, vegetarians had a 32 per cent lower risk of heart disease than non-vegetarians.
A new study suggests that eating pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, etc.) on a regular basis can prevent metabolic syndrome - characterised by being overweight or obese with the accumulation of fat mainly around the waist, raised blood pressure and increased fat and sugar levels in the blood (considered to be pre-diabetic). In the study, people who consumed the most pulses (around 2.5 portions per week) had lower blood pressure, blood sugar levels and a better ratio of bad v good fats in the blood than those people who consumed less.
Obesity is spiralling out of control and spreading across the globe.
It’s a huge problem, it’s growing rapidly and one thing that won’t help i
A study looking at the diets of almost 800 middle-aged and elderly people clearly showed that vegetarians were at a much lower risk of metabolic syndrome – a bunch of health problems (such as high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, blood sugar, body weight and waist circumference) increasing the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease – than meat-eaters. A plant based diet was therefore recommended for maintaining good health.
