A healthy diet is more important than your weight when it comes to risk of death, study finds

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-09-23/health-bmi-vs-diet-for-risk-of-death/12688270

Could your gut be harming your heart?

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2020/11/26/could-your-gut-be-harming-your-heart?fbclid=IwAR32WeVPn9nUumv7NNY-Df6J_qrk8fCIY7RlyuB8N31ryYP_ANpRbYFjtBs

“New Australian research has found that eating just a handful of leafy greens each day could supercharge your muscles.

Adding as little as one cup of leafy green vegetables to your diet each day could be enough to boost muscle function, according to a study by researchers from Edith Cowan University (ECU) published in the Journal of Nutrition on Thursday.

Leafy green vegetables are rich in nitrates, and researchers found that people who ate a diet rich in the naturally occuring compounds had significantly better muscle function of their lower limbs than those who didn’t.”

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2021/03/25/leafy-green-vegetables-muscles/

“Scientists uncover secret of the hunger switch in the brain

A 3D structure reveals how a unique molecular switch in our brain causes us to feel full – and may help develop improved anti-obesity drugs.”

Article: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2021/smd/scientists-uncover-secret-of-the-hunger-switch-in-the-brain.html

Research: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/04/14/science.abf7958

Eat those veggies folks!

“Gut Microbiome May Help or Hinder Defenses Against SARS-CoV-2”

Could the gut microbiome play a key role in #COVID19 outcomes? Emerging evidence suggests a disturbed microbiome is associated with more severe COVID19, but which comes first?

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/gut-microbiome-can-help-or-hinder-defenses-against-sars-cov-2-69143

Hi Couscous, good to read your post.

Hello everyone,

An interesting piece of here saying that not enough autophagy might be the cause of Altzeimer’s Disease.

Fasting can help with autophagy.

https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/11/29/scientists-discover-potential-cause-alzheimers-disease

Not sure if everyone can listen to this, but I could from Australia. It is really interesting on ultra processed food and obesity.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019yw1

“In the UK poor diet is a worrying public health issue, and we rank one of the worst in Europe for levels of obesity, particularly among children. Reformulating the most unhealthy foods to reduce sugar, salt and fat is the food industry’s main strategy to turn things around, and this is echoed by the government. Reformulation has been going on for decades, and there has been some real progress recently, for example reducing sugar in soft drinks and some breakfast cereals. However, overall there is much work still to be done and government sugar reduction targets are way-off being met according to recent figures.

The focus on reformulation has always been on reducing the level of ‘bad’ nutrients in food. Now the concept of ‘ultra-processed’ food is calling that strategy into question. It defines food on the level of processing rather than on nutrients – if a product includes ingredients you wouldn’t find in your kitchen and was made in a factory, then it’s probably ultra-processed. UPF food makes up half of the average diet in the UK, and there is growing evidence to show that it’s very likely driving the rise in diet-related diseases, and the global obesity epidemic.

So when it comes to nutrients, what are the technical challenges for reformulating our food, and how far can this approach go in improving the quality of ultra-processed food? And if the problem really lies with processing rather than nutrients, do we need a different approach entirely?

Presented by Sheila Dillon and produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol”