A study in which 23 healthy volunteers ate half a kilo of strawberries every day for a month has found that their levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides reduced significantly.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/f-sf-slc022514.php
Strawberries lower cholesterol
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Grape skin extract may help treat diabetes
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Preliminary studies have demonstrated that grape skin extract exerts a novel inhibitory activity on hyperglycemia and could be developed to aid in diabetes management.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/wsu--gse050814.php
Meal-time affects cholesterol in liver
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A mouse study suggests that merely changing meal times could have a significant effect on the levels of triglycerides in the liver. Levels of triglycerides followed a circadian rhythm, with levels peaking about eight hours after sunrise (note that mice are nocturnal). Mice generally eat 20% of their food during the day, and 80% at night. Mice lacking a functional body clock eat constantly during the day. When normal mice were given the same amount of food, but had to eat it only at night, there was a quick and dramatic 50% decrease in overall liver TAG levels.
Dietary guidelines for choline may be insufficient
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A study involving healthy men and women fed a baseline diet containing 550 mg choline/day (the adequate intake level set by the Institute of Medicine) for 10 days, then put on a low choline diet (50 mg choline/day) for up to 42 days, has found that the "right" amount of choline depends on many factors, including gender, age, and ethnicity.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/foas-osd032714.php
Large waist linked to poor health even when BMI healthy
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Data from 11 different cohort studies, involving more than 600,000 people from around the world, has found that:
Meat and cheese may be as bad for you as smoking
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A large long-running study has found that eating a diet rich in animal proteins during middle age makes you four times more likely to die of cancer than a low-protein diet (a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking), 74% more likely to die of any cause within the 20-year study period, and five times more likely to die of diabetes. Even those eating a moderate amount of protein had much higher levels of mortality risk.
However, a high or moderate protein diet is helpful for those over 65, when levels of the growth hormone IGF-I drop off dramatically.
Abdominal fat accumulation prevented by unsaturated fat
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A study involving 39 young adult men and women of normal weight, who ate 750 extra calories in the form of muffins every day for seven weeks, found that those whose muffins were made with palm oil built significantly more fat and less muscle than those whose muffins were made with sunflower oil. Moreover, the palm oil group developed the fat in more dangerous places — in the liver and abdomen. The groups gained the same amount of weight.
Can resveratrol balance out a fatty diet?
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A mouse study suggests that resveratrol—a compound abundant in red wine—may moderate some of a high-fat diet’s negative effects on the immune system.
Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later
Data from the population-based Finnish Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Incidence of Dementia (CAIDE) study has revealed that healthy dietary choices in midlife may prevent dementia in later years. Out of 2,000 participants, 1,449 took part in the follow-up. The participants were 39 to 64 years old at baseline and 65 to 75 years old at follow-up.
Those who ate the healthiest diet at around age 50 had an almost 90% lower risk of dementia in a 14-year follow-up study than those whose diet was the least healthy.
Mediterranean diet reduces brain shrinkage in old age
Another study adds to the growing evidence that a Mediterranean diet is good for the aging brain.
The New York study used data from 674 non-demented older adults (average age 80). It found that those who closely followed such a diet showed significantly less brain shrinkage. Specifically, total brain volume was an average 13.11 milliliters greater, with grey matter volume 5 millilitres greater, and white matter 6.4 millilitres greater.
Canola oil impairs brains of Alzheimer's mice; olive oil helps them
A mouse study has found that canola oil in the diet was associated with worsened memory, worsened learning ability, and weight gain in Alzheimer's mice.
Canola oil-treated animals also had greatly reduced levels of amyloid beta 1-40 (the “good” version), leading to more amyloid-beta plaques (made from amyloid beta 1-42), and a significant decrease in synapses.
The mice were given the equivalent of about two tablespoons of canola oil daily. The mice began their enriched diet at 6 months of age, before they developed any signs of Alzheimer's.