If you want to drink something uplifting, green tea may be it.

Green tea has been reported to provide many beneficial effects. The study referred to here was related to depression and included 1,058 Japanese individuals aged 70 years or more (Niu K., et al. 2009).

In this study group, 34.1% was found to have mild and severe depressive symptoms and 20.2% severe symptoms of depression. The results documented that a frequent consumption of green tea, 4 cups or more daily was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms.

If you like drinking something hot, green tea would be a good choice.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

Green tea consumption is associated with depressive symptoms in the elderly. Niu K, Hozawa A, Kuriyama S, Ebihara S, Guo H, Nakaya N, Ohmori-Matsuda K, Takahashi H, Masamune Y, Asada M, Sasaki S, Arai H, Awata S, Nagatomi R, Tsuji I. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Dec;90(6):1615-22. Epub 2009 Oct 14.

Small changes can make a big difference in your health and weight.

You can get a good start in the new year by implementing some few healthy behavior. One thing that will make a good start in the morning and make it easier to lose weight or stay at a healthy weight is a high nutrient very low glycemic index breakfast.

Don’t get stuck thinking that you have to have certain things for breakfast. We are used to eating certain foods because of habit not necessarily because it makes sense health wise.

Here are two very healthy choices for breakfast. Start the day with a breakfast salad. An easy way to make it is by taking some few spoons of beans or lentils already cooked and add half a sliced tomato, half an avocado, and some few olives green or Greek if you like them. Sprinkle some few pumpkin seeds on top and add a little bit of olive oil and vinegar dressing. You can of course, also add other vegetables and lettuce to it if you like.

If you want something warm in the morning, try a lentil or bean soup. Put some few spoons of already cooked beans or lentils in a pan, add water, a little bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder and heat it up.

Beans and lentils are the best low glycemic form of carbohydrates you can eat to stabilize your blood sugar and give you prolonged energy. It will reduce cravings for sweets and keep you satisfied and full for a longer period of time.

Either you can cook beans and lentils yourself using dried ones, making enough for at least three days. You can keep them in the refrigerator and put them in different dishes. If you don’t want to cook them yourself use canned ones. It is still a lot better than cereal, bread, potatoes and rice. You can use all kinds of beans, they are all good. Be sure you have what you need at hand in the refrigerator, that way these changes are easy and quick to make.

It is one more thing you can do. Stop drinking soft drinks, juice and other sweet beverages. Fructose and sugar will in addition to make you gain fat, increase your cholesterol, LDL (the bad cholesterol) and triglycerides (Stanhope KL, et al. 2009).

Just by implementing these two suggestions will make a nice difference in the way you feel, function and look.

If you want to know more about this approach and want more recipes, read one of the books “The Food Connection” or “Effective Nutrition for Effective Healing,” click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.




Reference:

Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans. Stanhope KL, Schwarz JM, Keim NL, Griffen SC, Bremer AA, Graham JL, Hatcher B, Cox CL, Dyachenko A, Zhang W, McGahan JP, Seibert A, Krauss RM, Chiu S, Schaefer EJ, Ai M, Otokozawa S, Nakajima K, Nakano T, Beysen C, Hellerstein MK, Berglund L, Havel PJ. J Clin Invest. 2009 May;119(5):1322-34. doi: 10.1172/JCI37385. Epub 2009 Apr 20.

Reduce fructose intake and be healthier.

This does not mean that you should stop eating fruits. The primary sources of fructose are sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup.

It is interesting to notice that as fructose consumption world wide has increased so has the rate of diabetes. Excessive intake of fructose induces features of metabolic syndrome (Johnson RJ, et al. 2009).

The metabolic syndrome is a condition which includes insulin resistance, the stage before developing type 2 diabetes. It usually also includes elevated blood pressure and increased cholesterol and triglycerides.

One of the reasons fructose is inducing metabolic syndrome seems to be by raising uric acid levels. Extensive experimental and clinical data support uric acid as being involved in the development of the metabolic syndrome.

The researchers of this study states that simple public health measures could have a major impact on improving overall health.

Start to read labels and avoid products which use fructose as a sweetener. Also avoid products with high sugar content. Juices, shakes, soft drinks and other sweet beverages are big sources of both. Processed foods in general contain these ingredients to make it taste better and therefore sell better.

For more information and recipes using unprocessed food, read one of the books “The Food Connection” or “Effective Nutrition for Effective Healing,” click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.




Reference:

Hypothesis: could excessive fructose intake and uric acid cause type 2 diabetes? Johnson RJ, Perez-Pozo SE, Sautin YY, Manitius J, Sanchez-Lozada LG, Feig DI, Shafiu M, Segal M, Glassock RJ, Shimada M, Roncal C, Nakagawa T. Endocr Rev. 2009 Feb;30(1):96-116. Epub 2009 Jan 16.

Intelligence affected by fitness

During early adulthood, the central nervous system displays considerable plasticity. This means the nervous system can still adapt and change easily making it more susceptible to input.

The study referred to here is interesting because it shows that physical fitness is important for numerous reasons and it is very important to be fit early in life (Abery MA, et al. 2009).

The researchers in this study measured cardiovascular fitness using an ergometer cycle and found that fitness was positively associated with intelligence after adjusting for other relevant factors.

The results documented that changes in cardiovascular fitness between age 15 and 18 years predicted cognitive performance at the age of 18. It was also found that muscles strength was not associated with cognitive performance.

The researchers stated that cardiovascular fitness at age 18 years predicted educational achievements later in life.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.




Reference:

Cardiovascular fitness is associated with cognition in young adulthood. Aberg MA, Pedersen NL, Torén K, Svartengren M, Bäckstrand B, Johnsson T, Cooper-Kuhn CM, Aberg ND, Nilsson M, Kuhn HG. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Nov 30.

Silhouette of men biking photo by photographer Jef Maion. The material remains the intellectual property of their author.

Certain types of fat are contributing to ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory condition of the colon. The cell membranes of tissue cells in the body incorporate fat or so called phospholipids into the membranes.

Omega 6 fatty acids, the type of fat found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds are metabolized into arachidonic acid. Arachidonic acid is a precursor for inflammatory cytokines.

The study referred to here investigated if a high intake of linoleic acid, an omega 6 fatty acid, would increase the risk of developing ulcerative colitis (Tjonneland, A, et al. 2009). The participants were 203,193 men and women aged 30-74 years living in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Italy. They were followed for 4 years.

Of the ones developing ulcerative colitis, 47% were women.

The results showed that the highest quartile of intake of linoleic acid was associated with an increased risk of ulcerative colitis.

Usually you don’t have to worry about the intake of nuts and seeds. If you have a very high intake of omega 6 fat, it is usually caused by a high intake of vegetable oils.

It is healthier for a variety of reasons to decrease the intake of vegetable oils except olive oils, which has shown to be very beneficial.

What is also very important is to be sure you get enough of omega 3 fatty acids, which helps to reduce inflammation. For more information on the benefits of omega 3 fat, click here.

To read the original abstract click the reference below.



Reference:

Linoleic acid, a dietary n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid, and the aetiology of ulcerative colitis: a nested case-control study within a European prospective cohort study. IBD in EPIC Study Investigators, Tjonneland A, Overvad K, Bergmann MM, Nagel G, Linseisen J, Hallmans G, Palmqvist R, Sjodin H, Hagglund G, Berglund G, Lindgren S, Grip O, Palli D, Day NE, Khaw KT, Bingham S, Riboli E, Kennedy H, Hart A. Gut. 2009 Dec;58(12):1606-11. Epub 2009 Jul 23.

The importance of staying lean from a young age.

The study referred to here examined the association of mid-life adiposity and the reduced probability of maintaining optimal health status at age 70 (Sun Q, et al. 2009).

The participants were 17,065 women who survived until at least the age of 70. They provided information on occurrence of chronic disease, cognitive function, physical function and mental function. The definition of healthy survival to the age of 70 and over was having no history of 11 major chronic diseases and having no substantial cognitive, physical, or mental limitations.

9.9% of the women who survived until at least age 70 met the criteria for healthy survival.

Compared with lean women, obese women with a body mass index of 30 or more had 79% lower odds of healthy survival.

The more weight gained from age 18 until mid-life, the less likely was healthy survival after the age of 70.

Click here to find out how to learn more about incorporating healthy eating habits.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.




Reference:

Adiposity and weight change in mid-life in relation to healthy survival after age 70 in women: prospective cohort study. Qi Sun, research associate¹, Mary K Townsend, research fellow², Olivia I Okereke, associate epidemiologist and associate psychiatrist³, Oscar H Franco, assistant clinical professor in public health⁴, Frank B Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology^1,2,3, Francine Grodstein, associate professor of epidemiology^2,3. Published 29 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3796

1 Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 655 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States, 2 Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, 3 Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 4 B-160, Health Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL

Drink green tea and feel better psychologically

42,093 Japanese individuals from the general population aged 40 years or more was assessed for psychological distress and the relationship between green tea consumption (Hozawa A, et al. 2009). Other lifestyle factors were also accounted for.

The results showed that green tea consumption was inversely associated with psychological distress even after adjustment for possible confounding factors.

Green tea is a good source of antioxidants and has been documented to provide several health benefits in addition to lower psychological distress. If you like to drink something warm, green tea would be the choice.

For more information on green tea, click here.

To read the original abstract, click on the reference below.



Reference:

Green tea consumption is associated with lower psychological distress in a general population: the Ohsaki Cohort 2006 Study. Hozawa A, Kuriyama S, Nakaya N, Ohmori-Matsuda K, Kakizaki M, Sone T, Nagai M, Sugawara Y, Nitta A, Tomata Y, Niu K, Tsuji I. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Nov;90(5):1390-6. Epub 2009 Sep 30.