Don’t Blame Your Genes

It’s not your genes, it’s your appetite and eating habits.

But weight loss averaged about 13 pounds over a year, regardless of genes, insulin levels or diet type. Also, some people lost as much as 60 pounds and others gained 15 pounds — more evidence that genetic characteristics and diet type appeared to make no difference.

What seemed to make a difference was healthful eating. Participants on both diets who consumed the fewest processed foods, sugary drinks, unhealthy fats and ate the most vegetables lost the most weight.

The results suggest that "precision medicine is not as important as eating mindfully, getting rid of packaged, processed food" and avoiding unhealthy habits like eating while watching television, said lead author Christopher Gardner.

So, excuses about “it’s my genes” do not justify BMI realities, and fad diets are a waste of time, if key essentials are met: “Participants on both diets who consumed the fewest processed foods, sugary drinks, unhealthy fats and ate the most vegetables lost the most weight."

I for one cut out sugary drinks – including orange juice and other fruit juices – cut back on saturated fats, cut back on foods with lots of added sugar, eat a bit less “packaged food,” while increasing fruits, vegetables, and whole grain as opposed to white.

Apigenin's Anti-Cancer Properties

The dietary factor apigenin has anti-cancer properties, affecting important cell signaling pathways.  Note this factor is found in many fruits and vegetables, once again showing the importance of those foodstuffs. Also note the comment: “Apigenin appears to have the potential to be developed either as a dietary supplement or as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent for cancer therapy.”  Abstract:

Apigenin is a common dietary flavonoid that is abundantly present in many fruits, vegetables and Chinese medicinal herbs and serves multiple physiological functions, such as strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial and antiviral activities and blood pressure reduction. Therefore, apigenin has been used as a traditional medicine for centuries. Recently, apigenin has been widely investigated for its anti-cancer activities and low toxicity. Apigenin was reported to suppress various human cancers in vitro and in vivo by multiple biological effects, such as triggering cell apoptosis and autophagy, inducing cell cycle arrest, suppressing cell migration and invasion, and stimulating an immune response. In this review, we focus on the most recent advances in the anti-cancer effects of apigenin and their underlying mechanisms, and we summarize the signaling pathways modulated by apigenin, including the PI3K/AKT, MAPK/ERK, JAK/STAT, NF-κB and Wnt/β-catenin pathways. We also discuss combinatorial strategies to enhance the anti-cancer effect of apigenin on various cancers and its use as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent to overcome cancer drug resistance or to alleviate other adverse effects of chemotherapy. The functions of apigenin against cancer stem cells are also summarized and discussed. These data demonstrate that apigenin is a promising reagent for cancer therapy. Apigenin appears to have the potential to be developed either as a dietary supplement or as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent for cancer therapy.

Grapes Against Alzheimer's Disease

By Fir0002 - Own work, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=135219

Another benefit of grapes, relevant sections from article:

Chances are that you already like the taste of grapes. If you're looking for another reason to eat them, though, then how about this … a recent study conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles indicates that consuming them helps protect against Alzheimer's disease.

It was discovered that while the placebo group exhibited significant metabolic decline in regions of the brain that are affected by the early stages of Alzheimer's, the grape powder group maintained a healthy level of metabolic activity in those areas. What's more, the grape group also "showed beneficial changes in regional brain metabolism that correlated to improvements in cognition and working memory performance."

This effect is likely due to the known antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the polyphenols. It is believed that they reduce oxidative stress in the brain, while also promoting blood flow within it and maintaining levels of a chemical that boosts memory.

Therefore, here we see more evidence that dietary choices can have profound impacts on human health and the course of even some of the most serious diseases.

Apple Varieties

Eating more fruits and vegetables is an important component of a healthy diet. Adopting such a diet would be easier, if people fully explore the varieties of different fruits and vegetables available, to find those most appealing to their individual taste, or just to have some variety and avoid "taste boredom."

For example, there is a large variety of apples, that differ in sweetness, tartness, crispiness, etc. The image here shows many, but certainly not all, of the varieties. Most people think of apples as "Red Delicious" and, if they are somewhat more adventurous, "Golden Delicious" or "Granny Smith," but there are other varieties as well, and you should at least try some of them, and see what you think.
 

The same principle applies to other plant-based foods, but apples are a good place to start, since there is such a wide variety, and apples have a relatively long "shelf-life" at room temperature, so one can take time trying them out.

Unachievable feat

Here is a perfect example of how Americans are misinformed and confused: 

The science behind why some fruits help your waistline

This article of AOL discusses a recent study on how consumption of fruit and veggies might help you obtain/keep normal weight. The article also refers to a link that does not lead to any particular study (so I have no idea who did the research and how it was done). The interpretation of the mysterious study is that fruit have flavonoids, and some, but not all flavonoids help you stay in shape. 

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

But do we really care why eating fruit keeps us healthy, as long as it really does? (I could write a few pages on the mechanisms, by which this type of diet is beneficial – but again, who cares?)

What we should be concerned about is not spending money on more and more bizarre explanations why eating veggies and fruit helps, but on studies why eating just three fruit a day seems to be an unachievable feat for most Americans.

By the way, the current recommendation is to consume FIVE servings of veggies and fruit a day (each serving is approximately a handful of the cut fruit/vegetable).

Health Benefits of Mulberry Fruit

Here is a study suggesting that mulberry fruit can have positive effects against inflammation, colitis, and cancer:

Here, we investigated the impact of mulberry fruit (MBF) extracts on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in RAW 264.7 macrophages, and the therapeutic efficacy of MBF diet in mice with dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced acute colitis and MUC2(-/-) mice with colorectal cancer. In vitro, LPS-induced nitric oxide (NO) production was significantly inhibited by MBF extracts via suppressing the expression of proinflammatory molecules, including inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), interleukin-1 beta (IL-β) and IL-6. Particularly, a dose-dependent inhibition on LPS-induced inflammatory responses was observed following treatment with MBF dichloromethane extract (MBF-DE), in which linoleic acid and ethyl linolenate were identified as two active compounds. Moreover, we elucidated that MBF-DE attenuated LPS-induced inflammatory responses by blocking activation of both NF-κB/p65 and pERK/MAPK pathways. In vivo, DSS-induced acute colitis was significantly ameliorated in MBF-fed mice as gauged by weight loss, colon morphology and histological damage. In addition, MBF-fed MUC2(-/-) mice displayed significant decrease in intestinal tumor and inflammation incidence compared to control diet-fed group. Overall, our results demonstrated that MBF suppressed the development of intestinal inflammation and tumorgenesis both in vitro and in vivo, and supports the potential of MBF as a therapeutic functional food for testing in human clinical trials.

Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables seems to be a "can't lose" proposition for most - likely, all - people. Add mulberry fruit to the list of those plant-based foods you should consider eating.