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Did your mother ever say, "you should eat your greens"? Well, she was right; you should definitely eat your greens and you should make sure she's eating hers, too.

In recent years a growing body of evidence has shown that diet can play an important role in staving off Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Now scientists are starting to work out the details of what such a diet looks like.

You've probably been hearing about theMediterranean dietfor years, based on its known benefits for heart health. But as the saying goes, "What's good for the heart is good for the brain."

Multiple studies have shown the Mediterranean diet to be associated with reduced dementia risk as well. This is because healthy habits (including regular exercise) that keep the arteries clear let more blood flow to both the heart and the brain, nourishing both organs.

TheMIND dietis the (relatively) new kid on the block. It's a mash-up of the Mediterranean diet and theDASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet. The acronym MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (makes you grateful for acronyms, doesn't it?). And the evidence is strong that it can delay the onset of dementia.

(Credit:Antonina Vlasova/Shutterstock)Balanced nutrition concept for DASH clean eating flexitarian mediterranean diet to stop hypertension and low blood pressure.

According toDavid Geldmacher, a neurologist and director of the Division of Memory Disorders at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine, the evidence is strong because of its consistency. Multiple studies, he says, have supported not only its role in slowing the progression of cognitive decline but also in improving cognitive performance in some people.

Read More: The 4 Main Types of Dementia

But the mechanisms involved in achieving those results were not known. However, a recentstudyhas shed some light on this. Researchers examined the brains of 581 people who had participated in the Memory and Aging Project at Chicago's Rush University.

The volunteers had agreed to donate their brains for dementia research after their deaths. Before death, they provided ongoing details about their diets. The researchers correlated the number of neurofibrillary plaques and tangles in their brains (hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease) with the foods they'd eaten in the years before they died.

The results showed that the people who adhered most closely to the Mediterranean diet had fewer plaques and tangles in their brains in fact, the number of plaques and tangles in their brains was similar to the number found in someone 18 years younger than the people who adhered least to the diet.

There were similar results for the MIND diet. There, the number of plaques and tangles in the people who adhered most closely to the diet was similar to those found in someone 12 years younger than those who adhered least to the diet.

The fact that this study looked at the specific pathology of Alzheimer's suggests that these dietary approaches have an independent beneficial effect on the brain beyond improving circulation, according to Geldmacher.

Read More: Is the Mediterranean Diet Healthy?

This is impressive, even inspiring. But even if completely preventing dementia is not possible now, at least there are dietary steps we can take to delay its onset. The question is: What specifically would anAlzheimer's prevention dietlook like?

Well, for one thing, it would beverygreen. When the researchers drilled down to specific foods, they found that people who ate the most leafy greens seven or more servings a week had plaque levels similar to those found in the brain of someone 19 years younger than people who ate one or fewer servings per week.

But greens aren't the onlyfoods that fight memory loss.Both diets recommend generous amounts of vegetables and fruits and three or more servings of fish per week. The MIND diet calls for three servings of whole grains daily, lots of berries and beans, and plenty of other veggies.

Still, greens take top honors. Why greens? According to Geldmacher, that's likely because of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of these foods. He adds, however, that some of it may be due to "replacement." If you're loading up on greens, which are full of fiber and therefore filling, you're probably eating fewer harmful foods, such as fried foods and sweets.

There's very little downside to this dietary approach, and the benefits could be huge. However, because of the amount of grains called for, Geldmacher points out that people with diabetes need to be careful to ensure they stay within their carbohydrate limits.

While there is no miracle food for preventing dementia, good food can often work miracles.

Read More: TikTok Responsible For Mediterranean Diet Misinformation, New Study Suggests

See the rest here:
Can the MIND Diet Slow the Progression of Alzheimer's? - DISCOVER Magazine

By PATRICK WHITTLE

https://apnews.com/article/conch-overfishing-saving-food-extinction-bahamas-08c4c37a1a1429636186e046eb92bda1

FREEPORT, Bahamas (AP) Tereha Davis, whose family has fished for conch from waters around the Bahamas for five generations, remembers when she could walk into the water from the beach and pick up the marine snails from the seabed.

But in recent years, Davis, 49, and conch fishers like her have had to go further and further from shore - sometimes as far as 30 miles - to find the mollusks that Bahamians eat fried, stewed, smoked and raw and are a pillar of the island nations economy and tourism industry.

Scientists, international conservationists and government officials have sounded the alarm that the conch population is fading due to overfishing, and a food central to Bahamians diet and identity could cease to be commercially viable in as little as six years.

When I was a child, we never had to go that far to get conch, said Davis, speaking at a Freeport market where she sold her catch. Without conch, what are we supposed to do?

Conchs potential demise reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods. Such losses are among the starkest examples of how overfishing has changed peoples lives - how they work, what they eat, how they define themselves.

The overfishing challenges faced by Bahamians are mirrored in places as disparate as Senegal, where overfishing has taken away white grouper, long the basis for the national dish of thieboudienne, and the Philippines, where it has depleted small fish such as sardines that are used in kinilaw, a raw dish similar to ceviche.

No longer a theoretical threat, overfishing has wiped out once abundant species and taken off the table forever beloved culturally important dishes. And its a worsening problem - the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has stated that more than a third of the worlds fish stocks are overfished, and the rate of unsustainable fishing is rising.

Governmental organizations and advocacy groups are working to stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that has expedited the loss of species. They blame poaching, poor regulations and lack of enforcement of existing laws. Regulators, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S., have said cutting down on illegal fishing is critical to prevent losing beloved food options.

The potential loss of conch in the Bahamas reflects the threat overfishing poses around the world to traditional foods. Nowhere is as synonymous with a seafood as the Bahamas is with conch. Overfishing is also threatening the national dish in Senegal. (April 6) (AP Video: Serginho Roosblad/Grace Ekpu)

The loss of such foods jeopardizes the availability of protein and iron in peoples diets in poor countries and alters the course of culture in rich and poor nations, said Richard Wilk, a professor emeritus in the Indiana University Department of Anthropology who has studied food cultures. Nations that fail to control overfishing run the risk of repeating the mistakes of countries such as Japan, where the herring fishery collapsed in the middle of the 20th century, costing jobs, reducing access to a traditional wedding food and leaving the country dependent on foreign supplies, he said.

But the toll is heaviest in developing nations and poorer communities.

The way that environmental changes and overfishing affect people and cuisine is different for subsistence fishers, who may end up going hungry, or local marketers, like the women who smoke fish on the beaches in West Africa, Wilk said.

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This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Few countries are as synonymous with a seafood as the Bahamas is with conch. Queen conch, the key food species, is a marine snail that reaches up to a foot in length and can live for 30 years. The shells are conical with multiple protruding spines, and all parts except the shell are edible, with a flavor sometimes compared to both clams and salmon.

The shellfish appears prominently at the top of the national coat of arms and conch is widely recognized as the national dish. Conch shells and symbols of the shellfish are everywhere: A giant statue of a conch shell greets tourists at Lynden Pindling International Airport in the capital city of Nassau. Dishes, spoons and art made from conch shells are for sale at street markets. Flags, T-shirts and hats depicting conch sell briskly to visitors. Conch shells serve as paperweights, bowls, musical instruments and Christmas ornaments.

While conch can be pricey in the U.S. and elsewhere, its so ubiquitous in the Bahamas that finding a filling meal of conch for less than $10 is not difficult. That is less than the price of many meats on the island, and conch is also found for sale at most grocery stores for eating at home. In rural parts of the Bahamas, nearly two-fifths of the population eats conch weekly, according to one 2021 study.

The country of about 400,000 is home to 9,000 conch fishers - fully 2% of the population, and the number appears to be holding steady even as conch declines, according to a study in the journal Fisheries Management and Ecology. The meat of the conch itself is worth millions per year at the docks, and its also a key driver of tourism to the islands, in addition to being an important export item to the U.S. and many other countries where conch is a delicacy.

Divers typically harvest conch by hand, preferably in nearshore waters from a small boat and without gear any more sophisticated than a mask, snorkel and flippers. Sometimes working in fairly deep waters of 20 or 30 feet, divers can take home as many as 1,000 conchs in a single trip. Many fish for other species, such as snapper, but identify first as conch fishers. And for many, fishing is both a family tradition and a ticket to middle class life on the chain of islands, where the cost of living is a bit higher than in the U.S.

The conchs are often cracked open with a hammer on the beach soon after theyre harvested, the meat swiftly removed and the shells discarded. Its typical to see discarded shells piled 8 feet high on the shoreline, and some communities have special shell dumping sites where mountains of empty shells reach to the sky. Some of the shoreline shell piles are solid enough that theyre used as jetties or boat docks.

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Sherica Smith, 44, owns Shabos, a popular conch stand on Grand Bahama Island. She too remembers a time when you could walk out there and get conch. She motioned to the ocean behind her stand, where people fishing conch now must head to sea in boats to dive for the shellfish.

According to numerous government authorities and conservation agencies, queen conch has declined precipitously in some of the nations fishing grounds. A 2011 survey of the Exuma Cays, a critical fishing area, found that the density of adult conch had declined by nearly 91% on the islands shelf over a 20-year period, according to documents from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The depletion of conch followed years of heavy nationwide harvesting - fishers who harvested about 1.7 million pounds of conch in the 1970s were up to more than 14 million pounds by 2006, the documents state. The loss of conch intensified on several fishing grounds around the country starting in the 1990s.

Even Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, established in the 1950s as the first marine protected area in the Bahamas, is not immune to the loss of conch because fishing pressure that occurs outside of it limits the number of young conch moving into the park, the Food and Agriculture Organization found.

A 2022 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated that queen conch shows a negative trend over time and the decrease can largely be attributed to overfishing.

The overfishing of conch is so dire that one estimate shows conch could disappear commercially in less than half a generation, said Lester Gittens, senior officer with the Bahamas Department of Marine Resources. A 2019 report from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago said the queen conch fishery could disappear as soon as 2029 without a reduction in harvesting.

Andrew Kough, a biologist with the Shedd Aquarium who has researched conch in Bahamian waters, said one challenge the shellfish face is the lack of enforcement of existing laws that restrict fishing by foreign vessels. Industrialized fishing fleets from other nations have overexploited some of the areas where conch grow, he said. Many Bahamian conch fishers say the poaching is coming from other nations that harvest conch but are subject to stricter restrictions than Bahamian fishers, such as the nearby nations of the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Driven by tough laws in their home countries or depleted conch in their national waters, the poachers turn to illegal fishing in the Bahamas.

Poaching is especially problematic on Cay Sal Bank, an underwater habitat between Cuba, Florida and the Bahamas, Kough said.

Poachers have been operating under the assumption that they wont be caught, Kough said. Enforcement is extremely challenging out there.

The Bahamas national association with conch is also a large part of what has caused its decline, said Lindy Knowles, senior science officer with Bahamas National Trust, a non-profit that manages national parks. Tourist demand for the shellfish has led to its depletion in many areas of the country, Knowles said.

The demand for conch has made it difficult for the shellfish to reproduce fast enough to sustain the population, Knowles said.

The problem of overfishing is worsened by the warming climate, which has brought unpredictable weather that disrupts and damages conch fishing grounds and habitats. The conchs gather in large groups to feed and breed on seagrass beds, some of which have been severely damaged by storms such as Hurricane Maria in 2017. Herds in those areas have thinned, scientists have said.

The growing acidification of the warming ocean is also a threat to conchs because it can cause their shells to deteriorate. The problem is linked to climate change, and is a growing concern for many kinds of shellfish.

And the warming of the seas has also interfered with conchs migration patterns. The shellfish move, slowly, with the use of a single foot, to deeper water in the winter, and return to shallower waters in summer to spawn. However, increasing water temperature due to climate change is likely to alter the timing and duration of the queen conch reproductive season, according to a 2022 study in the journal PLOS One.

Environmentalists and locals in the Bahamas have also said the worsening storms can cause mass conch die-offs, and has caused them to wash up on sand banks.

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In the Bahamas, conservationists want to learn from mistakes in the U.S., which taught the hard lesson that once conchs disappear, its very difficult to bring them back.

Nearly 60 years ago, the once-vibrant Florida conch fishery fell victim to overfishing. Conch was once abundant off the Florida Keys, and Key West still carries the nickname the Conch Republic.

Conch harvesting dates to long before the European settlement of Florida, as Indigenous groups fished for the shellfish millennia ago. It grew to become a commercial enterprise, and reached the point of unsustainability in the middle of the 20th century.

Commercial harvesting of conch, which accelerated after World War II, was banned in Florida in 1975, and even recreational taking of conch was stopped a decade later. The state began attempting to rehabilitate the conch population with a research program in the mid-1980s, but it remains off limits to all harvesters.

The loss of Florida conch is one factor that has led to the U.S. becoming the worlds biggest importer of conch meat, and that has in turn put pressure on Bahamian fishers to harvest more. Since the Florida ban, the Bahamian harvest increased from about 4 million pounds in the mid-1970s to more than 8 million pounds in the mid-2010s.

Scientists are still hopeful about the possibility of one day rebuilding Floridas conch population, but it remains in bad shape, according to reports published by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

One reason conchs have been difficult to restore in Florida is the mollusks life cycle. Conchs take three to four years to reach reproductive age, and theyre very sensitive to water quality, sometimes failing to reproduce if conditions are not ideal.

Conch also tend to be dependent on a strong local population in a given habitat, Kough said. Other marine species can sometimes replace a lost population with a new population that moves in from elsewhere, but this has proven trickier for Floridas conch.

Once theyre gone, they tend to stay gone, Kough said.

In the Bahamas, the government has explored new conservation measures, such as stricter rules about minimal harvesting size, to reduce fishing pressure and let conchs reproduce.

The government has also pursued more aggressive enforcement of existing laws. And the Bahamas National Trust is working to equip fishers with tools to help them physically measure conchs to ensure theyre big enough to harvest.

The U.S. is considering listing conch under the Endangered Species Act, which could halt imports of it into the country, the largest importer in the world.

Reducing the fishery by half over the next three years, as a new proposal promises to do, is one way to potentially stave off the loss of conch, Knowles said.

Previous efforts to more strictly regulate the conch fishery were often not aggressive enough, Knowles said.

One new rule on the table is a change in how the lip of the conchs shell is measured. Current rules say the conch must have a well-formed flaring lip to be considered an adult. However, that doesnt necessarily mean the conch is mature, and a more effective law would provide more specific guidance about how thick the lip must be, conservationists said.

Another possibility touted by conservationists would reduce the amount of conch that is exported, as international demand is a big driver of fishing pressure. Still another proposal calls for a closed season on conch. But many local fishers strongly oppose that idea.

Kough, of the Shedd Aquarium, has led field work in the Bahamas to try to help craft new management strategies for the conch. Aquaculture has been attempted over the years to try to reduce the need for the wild conch harvest, but it has never panned out, he said.

That means protecting the areas of ocean where baby conchs grow is especially important, Kough said.

Its going to depend heavily on properly managing the wild populations, he said.

The potential loss of conch would be a particularly crushing blow for rural parts of the country that rely on it for protein, said Jewel Beneby, a science officer with the Bahamas National Trust.

It is a source of protein in the Bahamian diet, Beneby said. People eat conch all the time, they love it, its a delicacy, its part of our culture. But its also a protein source.

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Many fishers of conch, such as Davis, acknowledge that there are less conch than there used to be. But there is also much opposition to the possibility of new restrictions on the fishery. Even the possibility of a closed season draws ire.

I dont want to see putting a season on the conch, or banning it, Davis said. The government are putting more emphasis on coming down on us. But theres not so much focus on poachers.

Smith, the owner of the conch stand and a fisher for conch as well, said she thinks the concern over the disappearance of conch is overhyped. Like many members of the fishery, and many residents of the Bahamas, she thinks fishers will just need to exert more effort to keep up with demand.

Conch is going to be here forever. Imagine how far the depths of the sea are, Smith said. Every time, the conch has come back.

Others in the Bahamas, such as Davis father, Leroy Glinton, 67, have tried to find new ways to make money with conch. Glinton, a longtime conch fisher, has created a studio to make conch art in his backyard, just steps from where his daughter heads to sea to harvest the shellfish. Its in McLeans Town, Grand Bahama Island, not far from the ruins of an old church made with crushed conch shells that succumbed to time and storms.

Glintons hope is that encouraging more use of conch shells could help reduce fishing pressure. If fishers can get more money out of each individual conch by selling or using the shells, they might not need to harvest so many to make a living, he said.

He realizes it could be hard to convince others to take fewer conch, but he also believes they might not have a choice.

All Bahamians need to realize, dont mind the fast buck. Because when the material is gone, the money is gone, too, Glinton said.

Conservationists such as Knowles say its important that the Bahamian government succeeds in its efforts to reduce overharvest of the shellfish.

There is no Bahamas without conch, Knowles said.

Go here to read the rest:
In Bahamas, a struggle to save conch, and a way of life - The Associated Press

The excavation of an ancient cemetery in the mountains of northern Mongolia has shed light on the culture and diet of the early inhabitants in the region, according to a new study.

The cemetery is situated in the permafrost, perennially frozen ground, which allowed for the excellent preservation of human remains dating back to 1206 A.D., according to a study published on March 31 in the journal Communications Biology.

The area, known as the Khorig cemetery, has been excavated by archaeologists and scavenged by looters as the melting permafrost has exposed more and more of the site, researchers said.

The skeletal remains of numerous individuals were found alongside bits and pieces of leather, fur and silk, Alicia Ventresca Miller, the lead author of the study, told McClatchy News.

The discovery of opulent goods, such as a silk robe portraying a dragon, indicate aristocratic individuals in the Mongol Empire were buried at the site, researchers said.

The dragon on the robe with five claws is specifically something only used for the imperial family, and so its a bit strange that its that far north, Ventresca Miller said.

The capital of the Mongol Empire was the city of Karakorum, located hundreds of miles south of the cemetery, according to the journal Antiquity.

A gold Buddha figurine was also uncovered, suggesting Buddhism was a significant aspect of elite society in the Mongol Empire. Ventresca Miller was also surprised to see evidence of Buddhism so far north near the Russian border.

Dr. Ventresca Miller excavating a looted burial in Khuvsgul province, Mongolia.

But perhaps the most consequential finding came from analyzing the teeth of 11 buried individuals.

Their dental plaque was examined in a laboratory and various proteins were isolated, allowing researchers to determine what foods the individuals had consumed. Proteins associated with several animal products were found, including yak milk, which was a significant discovery.

This is the first time that yak dairy has been identified in the past - so it is currently the oldest known case of yak milk consumption, Ventresca Miller said.

Until now, little had been known about when early Mongol people domesticated yaks, a species of cattle native to Asia.

The finding helped us verify the long-term use of this iconic animal in the region and its ties to elite rulers, Ventresca Miller, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, said in a press release.

The Mongol Empire, founded by Genghis Khan, was the largest contiguous empire in the world, uniting Chinese, Islamic, Iranian, Central Asian, and nomadic cultures within an overarching Mongol sensibility, according to research from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Khorig site was located at the northern edge of the empire, and its inhabitants likely traded yak dairy products, which would have been precious commodities, with other regions, researchers said.

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Originally published April 5, 2023, 11:43 AM

Read more:
Melting permafrost reveals bodies of ancient Mongolians and their diets, study says - AOL

Food Rituals in a Thin-Obsessed World

The first time I broke Passover, I was ten years old.

The sun had set on the sixth day of the holiday, and my family was resting upstairs, innocent to what I was about to do. Shaking, I cowered in a dark corner of the dining room corner with a bag of cinnamon raisin bread that had gone overlooked. I stuffed pieces of fluffy bread into my mouth, testing what it would feel like to eat the forbidden thing. When the thrill subsided, I felt a paralyzing pain grip my body. I wasnt afraid of being punished by God an anxiety I would later hear about from Orthodox friends I was ashamed of myself.

When I was a child, I adored Jewish food rituals. While it wasnt the norm in my community, I vowed to keep kosher at age eight and chose to fast on Yom Kippur years before my Bat Mitzvah. I loved the thoughtfulness of these rituals. The attention to detail brought a divine presence to mundane moments of my days.

It wasnt long before these holy practices were hijacked.

As an athletic teenager, I became immersed in wellness culture, which stamped morality into every ingredient I consumed. I blended an identical smoothie each morning, did intermittent fasting, and cut out bread-related items for years. Fitspo Instagram ruled my feed.

Soon, it became second nature to think of food in binaries: good versus bad, permitted versus forbidden, or innocent versus guilt-ridden. Holidays like Passover and Yom Kippur, with their religiously-sanctioned food restrictions, were frighteningly easy to observe; I was already fasting, and I didnt eat bread anyway.

Thankfully, midway through college, I found the body liberation movement. Slowly, I started to break free from what I had been taught about bodies, food, and exercise. I learned about intuitive eating: listening to the bodys signals of hunger and fullness instead of imposing external rules. I realized that food is just food nothing more, nothing less. I came to understand that there is nothing wrong with gaining weight, and that it is normal for bodies to change over time.

The body liberation movement has made strides to fight for bodies of all sizes, debunking the myth that thinner is better. Activists and researchers argue that body size does not indicate health, and that health does not determine ones worth.

Even so, we all exist within a diet culture, where prioritization of thinness and weight loss is constant and pervasive.

Diet Culture: The Water We Swim In

Even if you dont realize it, youre swimming in a sea of diet culture.

Noom, a weight loss app currently worth 3.7 billion dollars, has been downloaded by 45 million users, who track their food intake and code food they eat as green, yellow or red (good, medium, and bad). Gwyneth Paltrow recently went viral with a video detailing her wellness routine: she drinks coffee instead of eating meals, fasts until 12pm, and drinks bone broth for lunch. This routine isnt just common, its glorified: Influencers what I eat in a day TikTok videos break down every calorie they eat so their followers can follow suit.

Today, the weight loss industry is worth a whopping $470 billion. Every single day, were told that we should monitor the food we eat and consider the moral implications of every bite. With the insidiousness of diet culture, is it any wonder that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness?

We must consider how these conditions affect our relationship to Jewish food rituals and restrictions.

When Diet Culture and Religious Food Rules Collide

It is with the backdrop of diet culture that we enter Passover: a holiday that tells a story of freedom and liberation.

Passover celebrates the ancient Israelites exodus from slavery in Mitzrayim (Egypt). As Jews today, we are commanded to see ourselves in their shoes.

So, on Passover, we refrain from eating chametz (leavened bread and other related items) and we clean our houses meticulously to remove any traces of the substance. This is meant to be a holy action to connect us to our ancestors, reminding us of deliverance from Egypt when we fled so fast we did not have time for bread to rise. For some, however, this ritual can evoke feelings of scarcity and fear, bringing them back to their own Mitzrayim.

Carbs are the first and biggest thing I cut when I was restricting myself. Theyre the most triggering thing to avoid, one Jewish woman told me. Bread equals evil is a scary thing for me to allow myself to think. Yom Kippur is only one day, but Pesach gives my brain time to settle into scary neural pathways. Basically, Im scared for this week.

Ive felt these feelings too. In 2021, I wrote an article questioning whether it is possible to disentangle fasting from the connotations of weight loss and dieting, and maintain its religious value. Years later, I wanted to better understand how religious food rituals and restrictions impact those with or in recovery from eating disorders. On Instagram and Facebook, I asked people to share their experiences. Sadly, I found that I was far from alone.

I used to relapse in my eating disorder almost every Passover, someone said. People would call Passover the weight loss holiday, another wrote.

When cutting out food groups is the norm in our society, how does this affect our relationship to food rituals? For those whose minds have been enslaved by thoughts of food and bodies, how could food restriction remind us of liberation?

Jewish Approaches to Recovery

Jewish people with eating disorders have to navigate two strong, often competing conceptions of food: diet culture and Jewish culture. Between Sabbath and celebrations, there is a preoccupation with food in Judaism, says Sarah Bateman, a clinical social worker and therapist at The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders.

The Renfrew Center hired Bateman specifically to work with Jewish patients. As the organizations Jewish Community Liaison, she considers the unique issues in observance that can be triggering to them.

According to Bateman, Pesach (Passover) observance is filled with potential triggers. We cut out an entire food group for eight days. We engage in an intensive (and often stressful) cleaning process, removing all traces of chametz from our homes down to the tiniest crumbs. We reunite with family members who make comments on our bodies, especially if theyve changed.

The Passover seder itself is filled with counting and portioning of ritual items. It can take hours to arrive at the meal. Those in recovery that have done so much work to undo the idea that certain foods are off-limits. These practices, Bateman says, can resurface dangerous disordered thoughts and behaviors.

Dr. Rachel Millner, a trauma-informed eating disorder therapist, also finds the confluence of food and religious observance to be triggering for her patients. When it comes to deciding whether to observe a Jewish food restriction, she says, Either way, theres guilt. Theres guilt if they observe the ritual, and theres guilt if they dont.

Both therapists noted that shame discourages people from seeking help, particularly when they feel that by doing so, they are betraying their religious practices. The paralyzing shame that I felt while sneaking cinnamon bread as a child has followed many of us into adulthood.

A Mitzvah To Eat, a pluralistic group of Jewish educators and clergy, is working to change this trend. Those who need to follow mitzvot differently, they argue, deserve respectful communal space and be seen as equal members of the Jewish community. This group reminds us that according to the principle of pikuach nefesh, saving a life takes precedence over adhering to the law. Eating disorders are medical threats to mortality, so observing Jewish law is secondary to recovery.

Dr. Millner often recommends that clients struggling with guilt obtain permission from their rabbi to observe mitzvot differently. God wants you to honor this holiday in a way that wont increase sickness or harm, she says.

Creative Interpretations

Bateman uses a two-pronged approach with her Jewish patients.

First, she takes a practical stance, asking her clients, What about this ritual is triggering to you? How can we prepare for that in treatment?

Secondly, she addresses the meaning behind the practice. Why are you engaging in this ritual? What spiritual meaning do you hope to derive from this observance? During Passover, she suggests infusing the holidays themes into ritual practices.

In All Who Are Hungry, an essay in Lilith Magazine, Ilana Kurshan connects the story of Passover to her suffering and eventual freedom from her eating disorder. The words of ha lachma anya (an invitation recited at the beginning of the seder), Let all who are hungry come enter and eat, are an empowering reminder of the possibility of food freedom. Meanwhile, they remind us to sit in empathy and take action, as there are many who, Kurshan says, cannot or will not satisfy their hunger.

Using the symbols of the seder plate, she evokes a dark past (the shank bone) but finds hope in the possibility of rebirth and renewal (the karpas).Reflecting on these connected themes can be useful to all of us not just those in recovery.

Dr. Millner and her friends created a Body Trust Seder complete with a homemade haggadah that marks the journey from diet culture to fat liberation. The haggadah riffs on themes of Passover, and includes the Ten Plagues of Fad Diets and Sonya Renee Taylors The Body Is Not An Apology. Why on this night do we eat whatever the hell we want? the host asks. Because we are free from diet culture.

A Framework of Freedom

For our seders to improve, they must have a liberatory framework. For those in marginalized bodies, Its not just about not eating bread, Dr. Millner says. Those in bigger bodies experience systemic discrimination, or fatphobia, in healthcare, the workplace, media, and more. Creating a seder free of weight stigma begins with thoughtfulness about every detail: the size of chairs, the accessibility of the space, and the way we speak about others bodies and our own.

This isnt just a role for the host: Any guest at a seder can actively foster a more accepting environment for all who wish to celebrate. Simply refraining from commenting on another guests body or food consumption can go a long way.

This Pesach, I leave you with a blessing:

May we have clarity on the ways that diet culture shows up in our lives.

May we remember that no food is morally good or bad.

May we observe rituals in a way that supports our wellbeing, knowing that there is nothing to be ashamed of.

May we create a world where all bodies are valued and treated equally.

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Jewish Food Rituals in the Age of Diet Culture | New Voices - New Voices

How often do you eat each day?

When it comes to meal frequency, each of us has an individual preference, and in a recent interview, Chris Martin revealed his.

On an episode of the Conan OBrien Needs a Friend podcast, the Coldplay frontman said that he eats just one meal a day. Martin shared that he stops eating at 4 pm, and was inspired to follow this meal plan by a fellow musician.

I actually dont have dinner anymore. I stop eating at 4[pm] and I learned that from having lunch with Bruce Springsteen, he shared. I was lucky enough to go over there to lunch the day after we played Philadelphia last year. I was on a really strict diet anyway. But I was like Bruce looks even more in shape than me and Patti [Springsteens wife] said hes only eating one meal a day. I was like, Well, there we go. Thats my next challenge.

However, Martin (and Springsteen) arent the first celebrities to grab headlines after revealing they follow extreme diets.

Martins comments have come shortly after his ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow faced criticism for sharing that her diet mostly consists of vegetables and bone broth.

Like Paltrow, Martins eating pattern has been called restrictive by some online critics and health experts warn that following such restrictive diets can raise health risks.

Abagail Roberts, a nutritionist at bulk.com, says its important to note that diets are highly individual, and influenced by many factors, like genetics, lifestyle, health goals, and cultural norms, but generally speaking, eating one meal a day wont be a good choice for most people.

For the general population, consuming only one meal per day can potentially pose health risks, particularly if done for weight loss reasons and without sufficient knowledge of nutrition, she points out.

Roberts says Chris Martins diet is an extreme form of intermittent fasting, an eating style that encourages people to go long stretches without food.

While intermittent fasting is shown to have some benefits, like weight loss and inflammation reduction, Roberts warns that it carries many risks.

Eating one meal per day may increase the risk of binge eating during that meal, causing digestive discomfort such as bloating and constipation, she explains.

She added that intermittent fasting can disrupt the bodys circadian rhythm and negatively affect sleep patterns, which can lead to physical and mental health problems.

Roberts said that consuming only one meal a day can lead to inadequate nutrient intake, causing deficiencies that may lead to various health problems such as fatigue, weakened immunity, and impaired cognitive function.

If you are choosing to eat only one meal a day, Roberts says its absolutely vital that you ensure it includes all the nutrients and calories your body needs to function optimally.

Ideally, she says you should consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your eating habits.

Ultimately though, Roberts believes that even when you take extra care, this eating pattern is unlikely to be sustainable.

Registered nutritional therapist, gut health expert, and founder of Gutfulness Nutrition Marilia Chamon explained that one reason extreme diets often arent sustainable is because they can lead to increased hunger and cravings.

If you only eat one meal a day, your body may start to produce more ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, she said. This can cause you to feel hungrier and have more intense cravings throughout the day.

Add to that, eating one meal a day may encourage you to eat unhealthy foods more often.

Chamon notes that many people may struggle to eat 2,000 calories (the average recommended daily intake) in one sitting unless they eat fast food.

Chamon also believes eating one meal a day carries an increased risk of disordered eating, calling it a slippery slope toward disordered eating habits.

This is particularly true if youre using one meal a day diet as a way to control your weight, or if you have a history of disordered eating, she points out.

So if youre changing your eating habits to either control your weight or improve your health, eating one meal a day likely isnt the way to go.

What does a healthy eating pattern actually look like?

Both experts agree that there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Optimal meal frequency is dependent on many factors, like age, sex, activity level, and overall health status.

However, Chamon believes most people will function best when they eat a varied diet and spread their meals out throughout the day.

While the ideal meal frequency may vary from person to person, the general recommendation is to eat three to four meals per day, she says.

Eating regularly can help maintain stable blood sugar levels, prevent hunger and cravings, and ensure that your body is getting all the nutrients it needs to function optimally, she explains.

Roberts concurs.

I would recommend the standard three meals a day, with a couple of snacks in between to keep energy levels stable throughout the day. This is particularly important for active individuals, she explains.

Eating at regular intervals isnt just good for your energy levels; Chamon says it can benefit your digestive system as well. Spreading out your meals adds less pressure to your digestive system resulting in less bloating and more regular bowel movements. This is particularly important for those that have decreased digestive capacity or those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, she notes.

Ultimately though, the ideal diet is one that makes you feel your best. Its highly individual and Roberts recommends listening to your body to determine what exactly you need.

The key is to listen to your body and eat when youre hungry, and stop when youre full, rather than rigidly adhering to a specific meal frequency or schedule, she notes.

Paying attention to your hunger and fullness cues, keeping a food diary, and noticing how energized you feel after eating may help you figure out your ideal eating pattern.

In the end, how you choose to eat is up to you, but for the most part, Roberts says balanced, sustainable eating patterns that promote overall health and well-being tend to work best.

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Chris Martin Eats 1 Meal Per Day. Here's Why That's a Bad Idea - Healthline

If you want to normalize blood sugar and reduce your risk for full-blown type-2 diabetes, could adopting a low-carb diet help? A new study suggests that it could, in certain cases.

The work looked at what happened in people with prediabetes, a condition characterized by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that put people at higher risk for diabetes, adopted a low-carb diet. Prediabetes may affect 96 million US adults.

However, the effects of a low-carb diet did not have the same result in white and black participants. The study found a low-carb diet was much more effective in lowering blood sugar in white participants compared to black ones.

Black people represented 59 percent of the study participants.

The randomized clinical trial the gold standard in scientific research enrolled 150 older adults with prediabetes. All were overweight (average BMI was 35), and nearly three-quarters were women.

Over six months, half were randomly assigned to a low-carb diet with frequent dietary counselling, while the others continued with their usual eating habits.

During the first three months, the low-carb group had to keep carbohydrate intake below 40 grams per day, which is roughly the amount found in an English muffin and apple. From the fourth month onwards, the limit increased to 60 grams daily.The low-carb group was told to focus on eating non-starchy vegetables, fish, poultry, lean meat, eggs, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds, Greek yogurt, low-carb milk, and small amounts of cheese. They were told to avoid fruits, other forms of dairy, legumes, beans, and grains.

The low-carb group lost an average of 13 pounds during the trial period. They also saw greater improvements in A1C and fasting blood glucose levels, which represented a 60 percent lower risk of developing diabetes within the next three years.

It is unclear, however, if the improved blood sugar resulted from the low-carb diet or the fat loss.

Adopting a diet where carbohydrates are kept this low is unsustainable in the long term. Instead, people should focus on making better nutritional decisions and dialling down bread, sweets, and starchy vegetables.

Focusing on weight loss and including more activity can also help promote lower blood sugar and reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes.

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Can Low-Carb Diets Help Cut the Risk of Diabetes? - Bel Marra Health

Granger Wootz - Getty Images Intuitive eating is non-dieting approach to food that emphasizes trusting your body's internal signals of fullness. Here, nutritionists explain how it works.

If you're feeling like diet culture has done you wrong, youre not alone the constant cycle of weight-loss trends in the media can be overwhelming. In fact, approximately 8 million people in the U.S. struggle with disordered eating.

Enter intuitive eating, a non-diet approach to health and wellness that is designed to help you break the cycle of chronic dieting and cultivate a positive relationship between food, your body and your mind.

Founded by registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, intuitive eating is a flexible approach to food that emphasizes trusting your bodys internal signals of hunger and fullness rather than relying on external rules or restrictions. "It involves tuning in to your bodys needs, desires, and cravings and making food choices that honor your physical and emotional well-being," explains Jessica Jones, R.D.

In practice, that means you'll need to closely tune into your body's hunger and fullness cues to determine when and how much to eat. "It's about giving yourself unconditional permission to eat what you want to eat when you are hungry and knowing the difference between physical and emotional hunger," says Melissa Prest, D.C.N., R.D.N., a national media spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and a member of the Prevention Medical Review Board.

In short, intuitive eating is all about learning how to take care of yourself in a holistic and comprehensive way, says Jones. But if you're used to following all the rules and regulations of diet culture, that may sound a bit abstract. So we tapped Jones to distinguish the 10 core principles of intuitive eating according to Tribole and Resch's program, and how to apply each in your everyday life.

Intuitive eating research is ongoing, but thus far, studies have found that intuitive eating is linked to having a more positive emotional outlook, higher satisfaction with life, and greater body appreciation, as well as weight maintenance. But overall, it's important to remember that intuitive eating is not a weight-loss program or a diet.

"Being mindful of what you are eating and how you are feeling helps people to naturally eat less," says Prest, who adds that most diet plans are short-term fixes that lead to weight regain once the diet has stopped. "Intuitive eating is a way of eating that is sustainable for life leading to weight stability."

"Its a way of life focusing on self-care, body respect, and your well-being over weight loss," adds Jones. "It can take time and practice to embrace intuitive eating fully, but it can help people transform their entire life and have a greater, healthier appreciation for their bodies."

It's important to seek the support of a medical professional before starting any new eating plan, but especially if you have a history with eating disorders. "If someone has an active eating disorder, its best to consult a registered dietitian and health care team before implementing intuitive eating," advises Jones.

If you think intuitive eating is an approach that could benefit you, here are a few ways to kick things off:

Intuitive eating is not a diet, but a body-positive approach to food that allows your internal cues of hunger and fullness to guide when, what, and how much you eat. If you're intrigued, you can work with health professionals that specialize in intuitive eating for support and guidance.

Try 200+ at home workout videos from Mens Health, Womens Health, Prevention, and more on All Out Studio free for 14 days!

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Why Everyone's Talking About "Intuitive Eating," the Non-Diet ... - msnNOW

Despite their claims, no over-the-counter supplements have been shown to prevent or treat heart disease.

Image Credit: Nastasic/E+/GettyImages

Knowledge is power when it comes to protecting your heart. In the case of heart disease (the leading cause of death in the U.S.), that means being able to separate misinformation from fact.

Heart disease is an umbrella term for many types of health problems. The most common is coronary artery disease, which occurs when plaque builds up in the arteries that send blood to the heart. Over time, this buildup can slow or block blood flow to the heart and lead to a heart attack or heart failure, according to the National Library of Medicine.

But because heart disease develops slowly, it's never too late to make changes that can better support your heart health.

Here's a look at some of the heart disease myths that could be getting in your way, plus the facts you can use to keep your heart better protected.

Myth 1: You're Bound to Get Heart Disease if It Runs in Your Family

If you have a family history of heart disease, you're at higher risk yourself, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). That doesn't mean you're doomed, though. You'll just have to work harder to protect your cardiovascular health.

"While the genetic component is a strong influence, 90 percent of the identifiable heart disease risk factors including high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure can be controlled by changing eating and exercise habits," says Deepak Vivek, MD, a board-certified interventional cardiologist at Orlando Health Heart & Vascular Institute.

In other words, eating heart-healthy foods and getting the recommended amount of movement (that's at least 150 minutes of moderate cardio exercise each week for adults, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans) can go a long way toward keeping your heart healthy and strong.

Taking steps to reach or maintain a healthy weight, keeping your blood sugar in check and quitting smoking are important, too, per the AHA.

Myth 2: You Don't Need to Worry About Heart Disease When You're Young

Often, heart disease doesn't show up until a person is in their 50s, 60s or older. But it's possible to develop heart disease much earlier in life, and many adults in their 30s and 40s experience heart disease risk factors like obesity and high blood pressure, which set the stage for the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Taking steps to protect your heart now like eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep will help it stay healthier down the road, and keep your heart disease risk lower as you age.

Myth 3: Diabetes Medication Will Protect You From Heart Disease

While it's true you're twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke when you have diabetes (per the CDC), that doesn't mean diabetes medication alone protects you from this risk.

Over time, high blood sugar can damage blood vessels and have a negative effect on cardiovascular function. Medications can help keep your blood sugar under control, but you'll still need to take steps to address the factors that caused you to develop diabetes in the first place, like having overweight and high blood pressure, per the AHA.

"Modifying behaviors like diet and exercise, therefore, helps improve heart health," Dr. Vivek says.

Myth 4: You Should Avoid Exercise After Having a Heart Attack

Not only is it safe to engage in moderate exercise while recovering from a heart attack, doing so can help you live longer, per the AHA. Exercise improves your cardiovascular endurance, so as soon as you've gotten the green light from your doctor, you should begin easing back into regular activity.

Working with a trained expert can help you find the right balance. "A cardiac rehabilitation program offers a phased approach to exercise in a supervised setting and is an option if someone is reluctant to return to exercise on their own," Dr. Vivek says.

There, you'll do activities like walking, riding a recumbent bicycle and performing resistance exercises with weights.

Myth 5: You Should Avoid Dietary Fats if You Have Heart Disease

When it comes to heart health, it's not all fat, but the type of fat that's important to limit.

Dr. Vivek says try to reduce saturated fat, found in foods like red meat, butter, cheese and some cooking oil, as they can raise your cholesterol and increase heart disease risk.

However, you can and should eat foods high in unsaturated fat, such as olive oil, nuts, avocado and fatty fish like salmon, to help protect your heart and support healthier blood sugar levels, according to the Mayo Clinic. Many of these sources of unsaturated fat are found in the Mediterranean diet, which research has found to be one of the best diets for heart health.

Myth 6: Supplements Can Lower Your Risk for Heart Disease

While foods high in vitamins C, E and beta-carotene seem to play a role in heart health, that doesn't seem to be the case with their supplement counterparts.

It's true: Vitamin supplements haven't been shown to prevent or treat heart disease, according to Harvard Health Publishing. So skip the pills and focus on getting your nutrients by eating a wide variety of colorful foods.

"A well-balanced diet will provide the daily recommendations of vitamins," Dr. Vivek says.

Myth 7: If You've Smoked for Years, Quitting Now Won't Reduce Your Heart Disease Risk

While smoking can have a serious negative effect on your heart, quitting has a positive one. Basically, you're never "too far gone" to reduce the damage smoking causes.

"Quitting smoking [at any point] prevents future heart attacks and stroke," Dr. Vivek says.

According to the CDC, heart disease risk plummets within the first one to two years after quitting, and over the years, that risk becomes even with someone who's never smoked.

Talk with your doctor about your options if you find it hard to quit. Quitting isn't easy, but it's possible and it's never too late.

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7 Heart Disease Myths You Can Stop Believing | livestrong - Livestrong

Food

Long lunch breaks, firm divisions between work and leisure and the occasional treat enchant food writer who swapped London for a village in southern France

Sun 19 Mar 2023 07.00 EDT

If I look out of my window at 4pm, winter and summer, in all weathers apart from horizontal rain, there will be a group of women sitting on the bench, sometimes on two benches. There might be half a dozen of them or more, ranging in age from their 60s to their 80s, possibly older. There are always at least a couple of little dogs, very occasionally a husband. In summer, when the windows are open, I can hear their laughter, and conversations I like to think theyve picked up every afternoon at four since they were girls. As futures go, this doesnt look like a bad one.

We moved to this village 17 months ago, swapping a terraced house in Hackney, east London, for a long-neglected one yes, that cliche in Marseillan on the tang de Thau, a saltwater lagoon in southern France that opens into the Mediterranean.

This month, two separate reports were published lauding the health-giving properties of the Mediterranean diet. The first appeared in the journal BMC Medicine, using data from more than 60,000 people. It stated that this diet traditionally rich in fruits and vegetables, grains, seafood, nuts and healthy fats could potentially lower the risk of dementia by almost a quarter.

The second, based on the work of a team at Sydney University and published in the journal Heart, stated that women who followed the Mediterranean diet could reduce the risk of early death by almost a quarter. Id tell the women on the benches but I think theyre too busy having a good time to care about the numbers.

Im a food writer, so one of the great draws of this corner of France is close proximity to wonderful ingredients. The tang produces 13,000 tonnes of oysters every year and 3,000 tonnes of mussels. In a village of 8,000 inhabitants, there are three greengrocers, four bakers, a large butcher and several small shops selling oysters, mussels, and fish from the lagoon.

Vines creep up to the edge of the village. When I walk my dogs through the fields each morning, chances are were weaving past the grapes I used to add to my Ocado order when I lived in London, in the form of bottles of picpoul.

As each month goes by, it takes me longer to walk around the Tuesday market. I know more people now and they know me. We talk about whats good last week, the first gariguette strawberries, prickly sea urchins, and bundles of asparagus, yours for only 14.99 (13).

Everyone is scandalised at the cost, sniffing that theyre from Spain, waiting for the French asparagus to come in and the price to come down. By late spring, well be eating it every day.

Then onwards to the summer, with its artichokes, peas and beans, tomatoes and aubergines, peaches, melons and cherries, the best grown nearby and picked when theyre perfectly ripe. And with every new season, I gather new recipes, from the greengrocer, a neighbour, the man in the wine shop, one of our builders.

Its not Mediterranean food, its just food. Its not a diet, its just how things are. People eat seasonally here, on the whole, not just because its better but because its cheaper. No ones measuring out their (local, organic) olive oil in joy-defying teaspoons or weighing their walnuts. Peoples diets contain leafy veg and oily fish, of course, but many people slice into rich cheeses most days, and invariably pair it with good glasses of red.

On Sundays, the queue to pick up cakes from the baker is long and sociable. Here, in this provincial corner of France at least, balance is everything. Pouring small pleasures into each day is admired, gluttony or excess is not.

Its about more than just food. Most businesses close at lunchtime for an hour, two hours, three, four. Im joking. No one closes for just an hour. After all these months, I still get confused about what time the local Spar (shelves of biscuits, cat food, pasta and washing up liquid, plus a 12th-century wine cave in the back), butcher, greengrocers and bakeries open after lunch.

Almost everything is closed on Sundays. The idea of spending time with your family and friends, or simply having time to yourself, is sacrosanct. Its frowned upon to contact people about work outside of normal work hours. These are a very boundaried people.

The climate helps. We spend a lot of time outside. Isolation, for many the torture of old age, is less likely to happen here. The ladies on the benches take up their space. If one of them didnt appear one day, the others would notice, would check on her. Their daily laughter must be worth more than a ton of healthy grains.

Its easy to romanticise Mediterranean village life. Its certainly not all baguettes and brie carried home lovingly in a straw basket. Le fast food, le restauration rapide, is increasingly popular. With more than 1,500 branches, France remains McDonalds largest market outside the US. Many insist they love McDo for the free wifi (sure, Jean), but the one nearest us often has large queues of people wanting, controversially, to eat outside conventional mealtimes, young people on dates and parents with small children who dont want to sit down for a two-hour lunch.

French women do get fat. Obesity is on the rise; 17% of French adults are now obese, double the number of 25 years ago (in the UK, its 26%).

But there remains, in this village at least, a gentle rhythm of life, an attitude to seizing moments of pleasure, eating well, resting well and cultivating friendships, thats entirely life enhancing and, ultimately, potentially life-prolonging.

Debora Robertson is the author of Notes From a Small Kitchen Island: Recipes and Stories From the Heart of the Home

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Its about more than just food: Mediterranean diet is part of a whole way of life - The Guardian

You've probably heard about the medication Ozempic, used to manage type 2 diabetes and as a weight-loss drug.

Ozempic (and the similar drug Wegovy) has had more than its fair share of headlines and controversies. A global supply shortage, tweets about using it from Elon Musk, approval for adolescent weight loss in the United States.

Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel even joked about it on film's night of nights last week.

But how much do we really need drugs like Ozempic? Can we use food as medicine to replace them?

The active ingredient in Ozempic is semaglutide, which works by inducing satiety. This feeling of being satisfied or "full", suppresses appetite. This is why it works for weight loss.

Semaglutide also helps the pancreas produce insulin, which is how it helps manage type 2 diabetes. Our body needs insulin to move the glucose (or blood sugar) we get from food inside cells, so we can use it as energy.

Semaglutide works by mimicking the role of a natural hormone, called GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) normally produced in response to detecting nutrients when we eat. GLP-1 is part of the signaling pathway that tells your body you have eaten, and prepares it to use the energy that comes from your food.

The nutrients that trigger GLP-1 secretion are macronutrients simple sugars (monosaccharides), peptides and amino acids (from proteins), and short chain fatty acids (from fats and also produced by good gut bacteria).

There are lots of these macronutrients in energy-dense foods, which tend to be foods high in fat or sugars with a low water content. There is evidence that by choosing foods high in these nutrients, GLP-1 levels can be increased.

This means a healthy diet, high in GLP-1 stimulating nutrients can increase GLP-1 levels. This could be foods with good fats, like avocado or nuts, or lean protein sources like eggs.

And foods high in fermentable fibres, like vegetables and whole grains, feed our gut bacteria, which then produce short chain fatty acids able to trigger GLP-1 secretion.

This is why high fat, high fiber, and high protein diets can all help you feel fuller for longer. It's also why diet change is part of both weight and type 2 diabetes management.

However, it's not necessarily that simple for everyone. This system also means that when we diet, and restrict energy intake, we get more hungry. And for some people that "set point" for weight and hunger might be different.

Some studies have shown GLP-1 levels, particularly after meals, are lower in people with obesity. This could be from reduced production of GLP-1, or increased breakdown. The receptors that detect it might also be less sensitive or there might be fewer receptors.

This could be because of differences in the genes that code for GLP-1, the receptors or parts of the pathways that regulate production. These genetic differences are things we can't change

While diet and drugs can both work, both have their challenges.

Medications like Ozempic can have side effects including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and issues in other organs.

Plus, when you stop taking it the feelings of suppressed appetite will start to go away, and people will start to feel hungry at their old levels. If you've lost lots of weight quickly, you may feel even hungrier than before.

Dietary changes have much fewer risks in terms of side effects, but the responses will take more time and effort.

In our busy modern society, costs, times, skills, accessibility, and other pressures can also be barriers to healthy eating, feeling full, and insulin levels.

Dietary and medication solutions often put the focus on the individual making changes to improve health outcomes, but systemic changes, that reduce the pressures and barriers that make healthy eating hard (like shortening work weeks or raising the minimum wage) are much more likely to make a difference.

It's also important to remember weight is only one part of the health equation. If you suppress your appetite but maintain a diet high in ultra-processed foods low in micronutrients, you could lose weight but not increase your actual nourishment.

So support to improve dietary choices is needed, regardless of medication use or weight loss, for true health improvements.

The old quote: "Let food be thy medicine" is catchy and often based on science, especially when drugs are deliberately chosen or designed to mimic hormones and compounds already naturally occurring in the body.

Changing diet is a way to modify our health and our biological responses. But these effects occur on a background of our personal biology and our unique life circumstances.

For some people, medication will be a tool to improve weight and insulin-related outcomes. For others, food alone is a reasonable pathway to success.

While the science is for populations, health care is individual and decisions around food and/or medicine should be made with the considered advice of health care professionals. GPs and dietitians can work with your individual situation and needs.

Emma Beckett, Senior Lecturer (Food Science and Human Nutrition), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Ozempic Is a Weight-Loss Sensation, But These Foods Give The ... - ScienceAlert

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