More On Sugar And Obesity

Here is yet another study linking sugar and sweetened beverages to obesity.  The importance of avoiding excess sugar consumption and of avoiding drinking empty calories is underscored here. These sorts of dietary changes can have a large impact on overall health.

Newstart Lifestyle?

The Newstart Lifestyle program claims the ability to lower blood pressure as effectively as medication.  In general, I approve of such approaches’ it is good if physicians and patients use medication as a last resort instead of a first-line treatment.  I quibble with some details; for example, I doubt that a strictly vegan diet is really necessary, not desirable for optimal health.  As regards the “spiritual activities” at least they are deemed “optional” – if that was required I would more strongly object.  In my case I lowered blood pressure by: losing abdominal fat (“spare tire”), reducing saturated fat and excess sugar, eating more fruit, and getting more aerobic exercise mostly in the form of walking with some occasional brief jumping rope thrown in several days per week.

June 11 (UPI) -- By modifying their lifestyle, including diet and exercise, people can lower their blood pressure just as effectively as with medication, according to a study.

Researchers studied the effects of adapting the Newstart Lifestyle program, which includes a vegan diet, daily outside walks, substantial quantities of water, adequate daily sleep and optional spiritual activities. The findings will be presented Monday at the American Society for Nutrition's annual meeting, Nutrition 2018, in Boston.

The idea of altering diet as part of treatment for high blood pressure is not a new one -- most people with hypertension, among other cardiovascular conditions, are advised to change their diet, and often also to get some exercise.

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2017 also found that a low-salt and heart-healthy diet may be just as effective as medication. The diet for that study, called the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, has been endorsed by the American Heart Association.

The latest research involved the Newstart program of lifestyle changes.

"The Newstart Lifestyle program works quickly, is inexpensive and uses a palatable diet that allows for moderate amounts of salt and healthy fats from nuts, olives, avocado and certain vegetable oils," M. Alfredo Mejia, an associate professor at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Mich., said in a press release.

On its website, Newstart touts that half of all hypertensives are off medication and return to normal blood pressure. Also, 50 percent of type 2 diabetics who adopt the system are off insulin and medications in as little as 18 days.

The website includes testimonials from people getting off medication.

The researchers' study confirmed the results. They found half of people in the study achieved normal blood pressure --- the recommended 120 mmHg -- within two weeks and avoided the side effects and costs of blood pressure medications, despite lowering their blood pressure on average 14 percent.

Researchers evaluated data from 117 people with high blood pressure who had participated in the Newstart Lifestyle program at the Weimer Institute in California for 16 days in 2014. Their average age was 66.5 years old with a body mass index of 31.6 and blood pressure of 138 mmHg.

Blood pressure was lower in people who have several medical conditions but are healthy otherwise -- women and people with diabetes, who are obese or have high cholesterol levels.

The researchers plan to expand studies of the program to more people, and over a longer time period. They also want to see if the diet improves other health problems, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

The Mayo Clinic offers a set of lifestyle changes that can lower blood pressure and reduce risk of heart disease which are reminiscent to those noted in the new study, as well as in previous research on high blood pressure and diet.

Changes spotlighted by researchers at Mayo include regular exercise, healthy diet, limiting alcohol, smoking cessation, reduces caffeine and sodium and lower stress.

"If you successfully control your blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, you might avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication," the organization has included in its recommendations.

"Bribery" For Changing Dietary Habits

By Unnamed photographer for U.S. Attorney’s Office - U.S. Attorney’s Office photo entered into evidence in trial of William J. Jefferson, exhibit number 20-45C. Via online copy at Baton Rouge "Advocate" website [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7260728

Can economic incentives alter eating habits?  One study says yes.  From the abstract:

In pooled analyses, a 10% decrease in price (i.e., subsidy) increased consumption of healthful foods by 12% ...whereas a 10% increase price (i.e. tax) decreased consumption of unhealthful foods by 6%...By food group, subsidies increased intake of fruits and vegetables by 14%...and other healthful foods, by 16%...without significant effects on more healthful beverages...Each 10% price increase reduced sugar-sweetened beverage intake by 7% ...fast foods, by 3%...and other unhealthful foods, by 9%...Changes in price of fruits and vegetables reduced body mass index..These prospective results, largely from interventional studies, support efficacy of subsidies to increase consumption of healthful foods; and taxation to reduce intake of unhealthful beverages and foods. Use of subsidies and combined multicomponent interventions appear most effective.

Subsidizing healthy foods increased their consumption, while increasing the price of more unhealthy foods decreased their consumption, with body effects on body mass index.  This shows the way for altering public eating habits, if the power of the food industry/food lobby can be resisted by politicians who would have to pass legislation mandating these incentives.  One can other economic incentives - from insurance companies for example - for maintaining a healthy bodyweight.

Reasons Or Excuses?

Reasons or excuses - it's a bit of both.

The link is to an article citing 20 reasons why losing weight is allegedly more difficult now then ever before. While some of these reasons may be just excusing laziness and lack of discipline, there is some truth to many of them. One common thread is the increasing acceptance of obesity, and accommodation of it in society. Therefore, the fact that so many people around us are overweight/obese "normalizes" the condition, so that physiques that decades ago would be clearly recognized as abnormally overweight are now the "new normal." Also, as indicated in the article, clothes sizes are being adjusted so that larger waistlines are being redesignated as smaller sizes, again accommodating and normalizing unhealthy weight gain.

The ever-changing dietary guidelines are cited, and there is some truth to that. On the one hand, science is all about keeping an open mind and changing paradigms when presented with new evidence, so we perhaps should not be too surprised when guidelines change (although in some cases, the radical changes and complete "U-turns" are indeed disconcerting). One thing that may make these changes more palatable is for any guidelines to be presented somewhat less rigidly, less definitively. To tell people one day that it is absolutely true that "eating X,Y,Z" is unhealthy for you, and then to tell these people five years later the exact opposite, with equal certitude, is going to confuse and discourage them. I understand that some people may say that "hedging bets" about conclusions will make dietary guidelines and health suggestions less powerful and will weaken their ability to alter peoples' behavior. That may be true, but the constant changes in "this is definitely true" probably does more damage. Also, explaining to people why the changes were made would help, and also explaining how and why some evidence is stronger than others may help as well. To just radically change guidelines without explanation or discussion is going to, as I said before, confuse and discourage.

Microbiota And Infant Growth

More evidence emphasizing the importance of the gut microbiota:
 

Malnutrition in children is a persistent challenge that is not always remedied by improvements in nutrition. This is because a characteristic community of gut microbes seems to mediate some of the pathology. Human gut microbes can be transplanted effectively into germ-free mice to recapitulate their associated phenotypes. Using this model, Blanton et al. found that the microbiota of healthy children relieved the harmful effects on growth caused by the microbiota of malnourished children. In infant mammals, chronic undernutrition results in growth hormone resistance and stunting. In mice, Schwarzer et al. showed that strains of Lactobacillus plantarum in the gut microbiota sustained growth hormone activity via signaling pathways in the liver, thus overcoming growth hormone resistance. Together these studies reveal that specific beneficial microbes could potentially be exploited to resolve undernutrition syndromes.

Therefore: certain phenotypes of organisms (mice, humans, etc.) are due to their gut microbiota, and these phenotypes can to some extent be mimicked by transferring the microbiota from one host to another. Replacing the unhealthy microbiota of malnourished children with that of healthy children enhanced the growth of the malnourished children. Keeping in mind that the human gut microbiota is very sensitive to diet, this underscores the important connections between a healthy diet, a healthy microbiome, and the overall health of the human being.

Start with a clean slate

Here is an interesting parallel between simplifying our life and weight loss. Maybe similar to nature that re-vamps itself each season and takes on a new beginning each spring, we can re-start our lives? Maybe simplifying life by keeping only the most essential will help us improve our dietary habits through proven pathways?

A recent trend, this of "zero waste life" is an example of a simpler life that imposes on us to say good-bye to most, if not all, processed foods. The zero-waste enthusiasts do not buy anything packaged; they are limited to what they can buy (in bulk) with their own re-usable bags and jars. Usually this limits the choices to wholesome, fresh foods. I personally cannot go to "zero waste", simply because I do not have time to shop every few days.  However, I try my best to minimize my waste.

Actionable
Undertaking dietary changes in the context of larger lifestyle changes might be helpful. Starting your dietary change with a "clean slate" in life, and being passionate about the cause (for "zero waste life" fans, this is our impact on the environment) might be pivotal to the success.

How to wean yourself from processed foods

Here is one good advice on how to switch to better food, the food that your great-grandma would have recognized as edible:

Start reading the labels on your food. If the ingredients you find listed there don’t make you lose your appetite, good for you. I find the more I read labels, the less likely I am to buy anything but real, whole food like fresh fruits and veggies.