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Strange Link Between Fat and Brain Health

The AHA! Team — Wed, 15 May 2024 08:09:10 +0000

Al Sears, MD, CNS – By age 60, you have a 50/50 chance of having a clinically enlarged prostate. And it only gets worse every year. When your prostate isn’t functioning properly, it’s hard to enjoy life. The color beige gets a bad rap. It’s often described as boring and blah. But when it comes to protecting your brain from the devastation of Alzheimer’s and dementia, beige is beautiful – especially when it comes to fat. Let me explain… Your body produces two types of fat – white and brown. White, or visceral fat, is the deadliest kind of fat you can have. It wraps itself around vital organs in your abdominal cavity, including your intestines, liver, and pancreas, and releases inflammatory signals that interfere with your body’s normal hormone functions. This inflammation is at the root of today’s chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, breast– and dementia.1 On the other hand, brown fat is good for your body. It’s much more active than white fat and plays an important role in burning energy and decreasing the white fat deposits that build up around your organs. We now know that white fat can be transformed into tissue that acts like brown fat. It’s called beige fat. This beige fat protects your brain from dementia by activating anti-inflammatory chemicals called cytokines. In a recent study, researchers at Augusta University in Georgia removed a gene in mice that prevented white fat from turning beige. Before long, the animals only produced deadly visceral fat. Within three months, the mice became obese and developed dementia-like behavior. But when the researchers transplanted healthier fat from young, lean mice into the visceral areas of the genetically modified obese mice, beige fat began to form. Before long the mice began to show signs of improved memory and increased cognition. The researchers described beige fat as being “indispensable” in protecting the brain from dementia. As you know, I’ve recommended supplementing with high doses of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA as a way to reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s for years. DHA produces a compound called neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1). It’s one of the first defenses your body activates when brain cells are threatened.2 Studies show that NPD1 lowers inflammation in the hippocampus. That’s a seahorse-shaped area deep inside your brain. It’s called the “seat of memory.”3 In other words, it helps stop the damage that eats away at your memory function. Not surprisingly, NPD1 levels have been found to be low in the hippocampus of patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. But DHA plays another important role when it comes to brain protection… New research has found that DHA plays an important role in turning white fat beige.4 In typical fashion, scientists working on turning white fat to beige want to use their research to develop new Alzheimer’s drugs or gene-editing technologies. But as history continues to prove, these so-called solutions don’t work. And they’re not needed. It’s possible to get the effect you want without Big Pharma or Big Tech’s interference. 3 Easy Ways To Rev Up Beige Fat For Brain Protection I recommend a few different ways for turning brown fat beige… Increase the amount of DHA you eat. As I said, this fatty acid is essential for brown fat activity. Foods rich in DHA include wild-caught salmon and cold-water fish like herring, anchovies, and sardines. Other good sources are grass-fed beef, pastured poultry, and eggs, avocados, and olive oil. But most people don’t get enough from their diet. I suggest supplementing with 600 mg of DHA a day. The purest sources come from krill and calamari oils Eat foods that activate your brown fat. Ginger contains a compound called gingerol that triggers beige fat to become more active. A study in the International Journal of Cardiology proved that aged garlic extract alters the ratio of brown fat to white fat. And a study from the University of Iowa found that ursolic acid boosted brown fat in mice. Ursolic acid is what gives apple peels their sheen. Exercise is key to bringing your brown-white fat into balance. Exercise boosts the activity of UCP1 proteins. Your muscles also release the hormone irisin after exercise. Irisin helps white fat mimic brown fat. In other words, it makes beige fat. Research presented to the American Diabetes Association found that exercise prompted the browning of fat in men who worked out on exercise bikes. The benefits continued to increase even after the 12-week study ended. To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD, CNS References: 1. Björntorp P. “Metabolic difference between visceral fat and subcutaneous abdominal fat.” Diabetes Metab. 2000 Jun;26. 2. Bazan NG, et al. “Docosahexaenoic acid and its derivative neuroprotectin D1 display neuroprotective properties in the retina, brain, and central nervous system.” Nestle Nutr Inst Workshop Ser. 2013;77:121-131. 3. Orr SK, et al. “Unesterified docosahexaenoic acid is protective in neuroinflammation.” J Neurochem. 2013;127(3):378-393. 4. Lund J, Hingstrup L, LauritzenL. “Fish oil as a potential activator of brown and beige fat thermogenesis.” Adipocyte. 2018; 7(2): 88–95. To read the original article click here.

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Do You Find Processed Foods Utterly Irresistible? Here’s Why

AHA Publisher — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 07:00:07 +0000

Lorie Johnson via CBN News – Many doctors call processed foods the number one enemy of our health. They are extremely high in calories, which is bad enough, but combined with the fact that a lot of people simply can’t stop eating them leads to a worldwide weight problem that’s only getting worse. Obesity can lead to a number of chronic health problems like heart disease, cancer, and depression to name just a few. In fact, the second leading risk factor for developing complications from Covid-19 behind age is obesity. Rapid Take-Over Processed foods barely existed just fifty years ago, yet now rake in about one trillion dollars each year and are projected to increase their market share by 4% annually in the coming years. In just a generation, we’ve witnessed these packaged products being virtually unseen at the local market to now making up ninety percent of grocery store shelves. Health experts say three-fourths of the calories most Americans consume come from processed foods. Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Michael Moss looked into why we as a culture have become increasingly obsessed with processed foods. He discovered it’s not an accident, but rather a deeply manipulative plan on the part of the food industry giants to make more money regardless of the health implications. “I’ve been crawling through the underbelly of the processed food industry for ten years now,” he told CBN News, “And I continue to be shocked by the level of their cunning, deviousness, if you will, in being able to figure out what draws us to the products…to not just like them…but want more and more.” Exploiting Our Weaknesses In his book, Hooked: Food, Free Will and How the Food Giants Exploit Our Addictions, Moss claims food companies intentionally make their products addictive by first understanding our vulnerabilities and then taking advantage of them. “Biologically, these deep instincts we have make us incredibly vulnerable to overeating,” he said. For example, our bodies are designed to naturally crave sugar, fat, and salt. Processed food is packed with highly condensed amounts of each, much more than we use in home cooking. “They get the brain excited,” Moss explained, “And it sends a signal saying, ‘Wow, Michael, I love that. Can I have some more of that?'” To feed that craving, food manufacturers can add som 56 different types of sugar to their products creating an expectation that everything we consume should taste sweet. “Our brain doesn’t say, ‘Oh wait a minute, Michael, you just ate two-thousand calories in that snack bag. Stop. Wait a minute.’ Your brain is going to be put to sleep and say, ‘OK, let’s have some more. Great taste,'” Moss said. Texture, Low Price, Lots of Choices Getting us hooked on great taste is only the beginning. The processed food industry also spends a lot of time and money engineering just the right texture in their foods and drinks. Smooth, bubbly, crunchy or an irresistible blend of different textures can trigger our brains to crave more. Food makers even have a term for it: “mouthfeel” and a ranking system. The greater the “mouthfeel,” the greater the consumption, the more money made. Getting the price down, often by using less healthy ingredients, is another strategy because it increases a product’s likeability. “But it’s also something that sends that signal to the brain, ‘Wow I love the cheapness of this food. I want more of it,'” Moss said. Food manufacturers understand we get excited by anything new. So they constantly add to an already wide variety, knowing it’ nearly impossible to resist all the choices. “It’s called the ‘smorgasbord effect,'” Moss explained, “And its why you can eat at a smorgasbord, fill up until you’re stuffed, but then look down the table and see something new and go, “OK, I can fit that in.'” Disguised As Healthy, Convenient These food giants take advantage of our desire to feel like we’re making healthy choices. Believe it or not, they also make some of our most popular diet foods using the same tricks to get us hooked. “But really when you looked at the ingredients and the nutrition they weren’t all that different from their full-calorie foods,” Moss said. Plastering healthy-sounding buzz words like “protein” and “fiber” on packages can also mislead. “And so they’re adding protein to sugary cereal that’s still probably not so healthy for you,” Moss said, “They are putting in lots of fiber in products and touting that on the label even though a lot of that fiber really doesn’t work to fill you up like fiber should.” Food companies exploit our desire to make eating easy. “Convenience is another one of those big driving forces,” Moss said. Protect Your Health So now that we understand the tricks of the trade, how do we defend ourselves? Whenever possible, cook at home from scratch. It doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. For example, it only takes five minutes to cook fish in a pan on the stove while microwaving a sweet potato. Moss says the opposite of processed foods is whole foods. These are foods that closely resemble their natural form. They can generally be found around the perimeter of the grocery store such as in the produce, fish, meat, and dairy departments. Generally, the processed foods are in the center of the store. There are some exceptions, however, such as canned fish, tomatoes, and beans as well as frozen blueberries, raw nuts, and olives. To read the original article click here. For more articles from CBN News click here.

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Low-Carbohydrate Diet May Be Associated With Lower Risk of Blinding Eye Disease

AHA Publisher — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 07:00:19 +0000

Mount Sinai Health System via Newswise – Following a long-term diet that’s low in carbohydrates and high in fat and protein from vegetables may lower the risk of the most common subtype of glaucoma. In a first-of-its-kind study, a researcher at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEE) helped discover that if at-risk groups adhere to these dietary restrictions, they may reduce their risk of developing primary open angle glaucoma with early paracentral visual loss by 20 percent. Results from the research have been published in the July 22 issue of Eye-Nature. The study is important because glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States and primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type. POAG is the leading cause of optic nerve degeneration that is related to the pressure level inside the eye, but other factors also contribute to this condition. Patients typically experience few or no symptoms until the disease progresses and they have vision loss. “A diet low in carbohydrates and higher in fats and proteins results in the generation of metabolites favorable for the mitochondrion-rich optic nerve head, which is the site of damage in POAG. This dietary pattern has already been shown to have favorable results for epilepsy and showed some promising results for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases,” said co-corresponding author Louis R. Pasquale, MD, FARVO, Deputy Chair for Ophthalmology Research for the Mount Sinai Health System. “It’s important to note that a low-carbohydrate diet won’t stop glaucoma progression if you already have it, but it may be a means to preventing glaucoma in high-risk groups. If more patients in these high-risk categories—including those with a family history of glaucoma—adhered to this diet, there might be fewer cases of vision loss.” Past studies have shown that a ketogenic diet (low-carbohydrate and high-fat) has a protective effect against neurologic disorders. Ketone bodies (energy compounds produced as the body metabolizes fats) are substituted for glucose as a major energy source for the brain and using more of these under a ketogenic diet may improve function and slow down neuronal degeneration. However, more recent studies have shown that a low-carbohydrate diet that does not restrict protein or total calories may have similar neuroprotective properties; this diet has been recognized as a more practical alternative to a ketogenic diet, as it’s easier to follow and does not have the adverse effects of the ketogenic diet (which range from headache, weakness, and irritability to constipation, nausea, and vomiting). A team of researchers wanted to know if a low-carbohydrate diet could positively impact the optic nerve. The optic nerve sits in the back of the eye and transfers visual information from the retina to the brain through electrical impulses. The optic nerve has a large concentration of mitochondria (mitochondria represent the major source of a cell’s energy supply and lead to a cell’s survival), and has high-energy requirements. Since glaucoma is a condition that may be associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, researchers wanted to find out if substituting protein and fat for carbohydrates in the diet would enhance mitochondrial activity, maintain optic nerve function, and prevent optic nerve degeneration in this blinding eye disease. They performed a large-scale meta-analysis to get this answer. They followed 185,000 adult participants from three large studies in the United States, conducted between 1976 and 2017. Participants were female nurses and male health professionals between the ages of 40 and 75. Every two to four years, they filled out food frequency questionnaires that assessed what they ate and drank. They also answered questions about their health and what diseases, if any, they might be developing. If they said they had glaucoma, the researchers asked their treating eye care providers to send medical records to determine if they had POAG. The research team created statistical models based on the patients’ questionnaire responses, dividing them into groups based on carbohydrate intake, so they could look across the spectrum from high to low carbohydrate intake and see any possible relationship with POAG. They specifically looked at three different ways of achieving a low-carbohydrate diet: substituting animal-based fats and proteins for carbohydrates; substituting plant-based based fats and proteins for carbohydrates; and replacing carbohydrates with high fats and proteins regardless of the source. Researchers then calculated the relative risk of POAG after adjusting for multiple factors for each of the dietary patterns including age, race, and body mass index. Patients in the low-carbohydrate intake group who followed a diet of increased plant-based fat and protein were associated with a 20 percent lower risk of developing POAG subtype with paracentral visual field loss compared to those in the high-carbohydrate intake group. However, the researchers did not find any association between POAG and a low-carbohydrate diet without accounting for the source protein or fat, and they did not find any association between glaucoma and an animal-based low-carbohydrate diet. Their findings suggest vegetable sources may be more beneficial than animal sources for a low-carbohydrate diet with respect to reducing risk of the specific glaucoma subtype with early paracentral visual loss. “This was an observational study and not a clinical trial, so more work is needed as this is the first study looking at this dietary pattern in relation to POAG. The next step is to use artificial intelligence to objectively quantify paracentral visual loss in our glaucoma cases and repeat the analysis,” adds Dr. Pasquale. “It’s also important to identify patients who have a genetic makeup of primary open angle glaucoma who may benefit from a low-carbohydrate diet. This dietary pattern may be protective only in people with a certain genetic makeup.” To read the original article click here.

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Sugar Gets the Red Light From Consumers in New Study

AHA Publisher — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:00:56 +0000

University of Nottingham via EurekAlert – Researchers have found that sugar content is the most important factor for people when making healthy food choices – overriding fat and salt. A team from the University of Nottingham’s Division of Food, Nutrition and Dietetics carried out a choice-based survey with 858 participants using the traffic light labelling system (TLL) to select healthy foods. The results showed that when deciding on the healthiness of items sugar was significantly the most important macronutrient for participants. Dietician and PhD researcher Ola Anabtawi led the research published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, she explains: “When using the TLL consumers often have to make trade-offs between undesirable attributes and decide which to use to guide them in making a choice. We wanted to find out whether it was fat, saturated fat, sugar or salt they most wanted to avoid and see whether the traffic light labelling was influencing this decision.” Traffic light labelling was introduced to aid the selection of healthier choices with a simple red, amber green colour coding system. Supermarkets and food manufacturers use this on packaging to highlight nutritional information. Participants in the study were shown three options of the same food item with different nutrition traffic light label combinations, this was repeated for three products- prepacked sandwiches, breakfast cereals and biscuits. They were asked to select which they thought was the healthiest product. Foods with a high sugar content were by far perceived to be the worst for health with participants avoiding these products, with excess fat, saturated fat and salt being less off-putting. Products flagged with a red label were also avoided much more and had a more significant impact on making a healthy choice than the green label. Ola continues: “Despite the lack of knowledge about the recommendations underpinning the TLL criteria participants’ decisions about the healthiness of food products were significantly influenced by TLL information on the items’ sugar content. TLL do, therefore, appear to be guide consumers beliefs in the absence of deep knowledge. The dominance of sugar in decision-making shows the labelling system is having an impact in the current public health climate. However, it is important to consider the effect of disregarding other nutrients (i.e. fat and salt) for people with different nutritional needs. We suggest raising awareness of all nutrients to help the public achieve the well- balanced diet.” To read the original article click here.

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Western Diet Rich in Fat and Sugar Linked to Skin Inflammation

AHA Publisher — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 08:00:23 +0000

UC Davis Health via Newswise – A Western diet rich in fat and sugar may lead to inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, a study by UC Davis Health researchers has found. Newswise — (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A Western diet rich in fat and sugar may lead to inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, a study by UC Davis Health researchers has found. The study, published today in Journal of Investigative Dermatology, suggests that dietary components, rather than obesity itself, may lead to skin inflammation and the development of psoriasis. A common and chronic skin disease, psoriasis causes skin cells to form scales and red patches that are itchy and sometimes painful. Diet and Skin Inflammation Previous studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for the development or worsening of psoriasis. The Western diet, characterized by a high dietary intake of saturated fats and sucrose and low intake of fiber, has been linked to the increased prevalence of obesity in the world. “In our study, we found that short-term exposure to Western diet is able to induce psoriasis before significant body weight gain,” said Sam T. Hwang, professor and chair of dermatology at UC Davis and senior author on the study. For the UC Davis Health study, which used a mouse model, Hwang and his colleagues found that a diet containing both high fat and high sugar (mimicking the Western diet in human) was required to induce observable skin inflammation. In four weeks only, mice on Western diet had significantly increased ear swelling and visible dermatitis compared to mice fed a controlled diet and those on high fat diet alone. “Eating an unhealthy diet does not affect your waistline alone, but your skin immunity too,” said Zhenrui Shi, visiting assistant researcher in UC Davis Department of Dermatology and lead author on the study. Bile Acids and Skin Inflammation The study detailed the mechanisms by which inflammation happens following a Western diet. It identified bile acids as key signaling molecules in the regulation of skin immunity. Bile acids are produced in the liver from cholesterol and metabolized in the intestine by the gut microbiota. They play an important role in dietary lipid absorption and cholesterol balance in the blood. The study found that cholestyramine, a drug used to lower cholesterol levels by binding to bile acids in the intestine, helped reduce the risk of skin inflammation. The finding suggests that bile acids mediate the development of psoriasis. The binding of cholestyramine to bile acids in the gut and its subsequent release through the stool allows for lowering of skin inflammation. Further studies are needed to understand the mechanism behind diet-induced skin inflammation and the interaction between metabolism, microbes and immunity. This study was supported by a National Psoriasis Foundation Discovery Grant, an NIH/NIAMS R01 grant (1R01AR063091-01A1) and an NCI/NIH grant (U01-CA179582-03A1). Other collaborators include Xuesong Wu, Mindy Huynh and Mimi Nguyen from Department of Dermatology at UC Davis, Prasant Jena and Yui-Jui Yvonne Wan from Medical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UC Davis and Sebastian Yu from Department of Dermatology at Kaohsiung Medical University. To read the original article click here.

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