Eating fish during pregnancy may boost baby's development, not impair it

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international agencies are in the process of revising guidelines concerning fish consumption in an attempt to better reflect the nutritional benefits of fish.
Currently, the FDA recommend that pregnant women should eat fish no more than twice a week. The reason for limiting fish consumption is because much of the mercury in the environment ends up in the world's oceans, so fish contain small amounts of the chemical.
Although a link between consumption of fish and childhood developmental problems has never been conclusively proved, experts have previously been concerned about the consequences of elevated mercury levels in pregnant women.
However, fish contain many beneficial nutrients. For example, their fatty acids are essential for good brain development.
A partnership between the University of Rochester Medical Center, NY, Ulster University in Belfast, UK, and the Republic of Seychelles Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education yielded the Seychelles Child Development Study - one of the longest and largest population studies of its kind.
As the 89,000 residents of the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean consume approximately 10 times as much fish in their diet as people in the US or Europe, the region was considered to be an ideal location for measuring the public health impact of low-level mercury exposure over a long period.

Omega-3 may counteract the inflammatory effect of mercury

More than 1,500 mothers and children participated in the study. The development of the children was assessed using a variety of communication skills, behavior and motor skills tests. The tests started at 20 months after birth and the children were followed into their 20s. Hair samples were also collected from the mothers while they were pregnant so that the team could measure levels of prenatal mercury exposure.
Prenatal mercury exposure was not linked with lower test scores, the researchers found. As the children were followed into adulthood, it was established that there was no association between consumption of fish among pregnant mothers and impaired neurological development in their offspring.
Levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were also measured in the women while pregnant. The researchers found that the children of mothers with higher levels of the omega-3 (n3) fatty acid found in fish performed better on some tests.
Another PUFA, n6, which comes from meats and cooking oils, is more prevalent in the US and Europe than it is in regions like the Seychelles. However, n6 is known to promote inflammation - unlike n3, which has anti-inflammatory properties.
In the study, the children of mothers with higher levels of n6 were found to perform less well on the motor skills tests than children with higher levels of n3. This finding supports a theory among some scientists that n3 counteracts the inflammatory effects of mercury.
Philip Davidson, PhD, the principal investigator of the Seychelles Child Development Study, a professor emeritus at the University of Rochester and senior author of the study, says:

"It appears that the relationship between fish nutrients and mercury may be far more complex than previously appreciated. These findings indicate that there may be an optimal balance between the different inflammatory properties of fatty acids that promote fetal development and that these mechanisms warrant further study."

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Losing just half an hour of sleep 'can impact body weight and metabolism'

For the study, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar, recruited 522 patients who had been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
At the start of the study, the participants' height, weight and waist circumference were measured and samples of their blood were analyzed for insulin sensitivity.
The participants were required to keep sleep diaries, from which their weekday "sleep debt" was calculated.
The participants at the start of the study who had weekday sleep debt were found to be 72% more likely to be obese, compared with participants who had no weekday sleep debt. By follow-up at 6 months, the association between weekday sleep debt and obesity and insulin resistance was found to be significant.
At 12-month follow-up, the researchers calculated that for every 30 minutes of weekday sleep debt there was an associated 17% increased risk of obesity and 39% increased risk of insulin resistance.
"While previous studies have shown that short sleep duration is associated with obesity and diabetes, we found that as little as 30 minutes a day sleep debt can have significant effects on obesity and insulin resistance at follow-up," says lead study author Prof. Shahrad Taheri.
The authors suggest in a statement that future interventions designed to combat metabolic disease should also consider sleep and other factors affecting metabolic function. Sleep hygiene and education may be a key component of future trials studying metabolic control, they add.

People often miss out on sleep during the week and try to catch up at weekends

People often accumulate sleep debt during weekdays as a consequence of social and work commitments, making up for the lost sleep at the weekend. However, Prof. Taheri explains that the results reinforce the notion that sleep loss is additive and has metabolic consequences:

"Sleep loss is widespread in modern society, but only in the last decade have we realized its metabolic consequences. Our findings suggest that avoiding sleep debt could have positive benefits for waistlines and metabolism and that incorporating sleep into lifestyle interventions for weight loss and diabetes might improve their success."

In February, researchers from the University of Chicago, MI, published the results of their study into the associations between sleep loss and diabetes in the journal Diabetologia.
The Chicago team found that after 3 nights of getting only 4 hours sleep, blood levels of fatty acids remain elevated, rather than peaking and receding overnight as they would normally. This elevated level of fatty acids between 4 am and 9 am reduces the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars, the researchers explained.
Last December, Medical News Today reported on a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics that found chronic lack of sleep and sleep-related breathing problems each double the risk of a child being obese by the age of 15.
Lead author of that study, Prof. Karen Bonuck, from Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, NY, commented:
"If impaired sleep in childhood is conclusively shown to cause future obesity, it may be vital for parents and physicians to identify sleep problems early, so that corrective action can be taken and obesity prevented. With childhood obesity hovering at 17% in the US, we're hopeful that efforts to address both of these risk factors could have a tremendous public health impact."

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Chocolate could prevent obesity and diabetes, study suggests

More than a third of US adults are obese and are, therefore, at higher risk of type 2 diabetes. But new research suggests a surprising prevention strategy for both conditions - eating chocolate.
In a mouse study, led by Andrew P. Neilson of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, researchers discovered that a certain antioxidant in cocoa - the main ingredient in chocolate - prevented mice from gaining weight and lowered their blood sugar levels.
This is not the only study to suggest that consuming chocolate can prevent such health conditions.
Earlier this year, Medical News Today reported on a study claiming that chocolate, as well as wine and berries, protects against type 2 diabetes, while other research found that teens who eat lots of chocolate tend to be slimmer.
Such studies claim that the reason chocolate may have these health benefits is because of the flavanols it contains. These are types of antioxidants.
But the researchers of this most recent study say that not all flavanols are the same. In fact, cocoa has several different types.

Good news for chocolate lovers: a certain flavanol in cocoa may help prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In their study, published in the Journal of Agricultural Food and Chemistry, the investigators set out to determine exactly which flavanol may be responsible for preventing weight gain and lowering blood glucose levels.
For the research, the investigators assigned mice to one of six different diets for 12 weeks.
These consisted of high- and low-fat diets, and high-fat diets supplemented with either monomeric, oligomeric or polymeric procyandins (PCs) - types of flavanols. Mice were given 25 milligrams of these flavanols each day for every kilogram of their body weight (25 mg/kg).

Oligomeric procyandins most effective

The research team found that a high-fat diet supplemented with oligomeric PCs was the most effective for maintaining weight of the mice and improving glucose tolerance - a factor that could help prevent type 2 diabetes.
Commenting on the findings, the researchers say:

"Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study.
Additional studies of prolonged feeding of flavanol fractions in vivo are needed to further identify the fractions with the highest bioactivities and, therefore, the greatest potential for translation to human clinical applications at reasonable doses."

The investigators point out that the doses of flavanols used in this study are significantly lower than doses used in past research and are more feasible when translated into flavanol levels for human consumption.
"Therefore, our data suggest that moderate doses of cocoa flavanols or cocoa powder have the potential to be more effective in human clinical trials than previously thought," they add.
According to previous research, the health benefits of chocolate may reach further than decreasing the likelihood of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Medical News Today recently reported on a study claiming that eating 70 g of dark chocolate every day could reduce the risk of atherosclerosis - the thickening and hardening of the arteries.
But interestingly, this study did not attribute this benefit to the flavanols that chocolate contains. Study participants ate either regular dark chocolate or chocolate with added flavanols. Both types of chocolate had the same effect.
"We provide a more complete picture of the impact of chocolate consumption in vascular health and show that increasing flavanol content has no added beneficial effect on vascular health," says study researcher Prof. Diederik Esser, of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition and the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University, both in the Netherlands.
Other research claims that hot chocolate could help prevent memory decline. Again, the researchers say this finding was not down to flavanols.
Our article on the health benefits of chocolate reveals some of the other ways in which chocolate may be good for you.

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Alcohol does not benefit the heart, claims new study

A new BMJ study finds that even among people who drink only light to moderate amounts of alcohol, reducing consumption can improve heart health, reduce body mass index, and bring down blood pressure.

The large multi-center international study, which was co-led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, calls into question previous research that suggests light to moderate drinking may be good for the heart.

The researchers found that people with a particular gene consumed 17% less alcohol per week, were less likely to binge drink, and were more likely to abstain from alcohol altogether, than non-carriers.

The study defines light to moderate drinking as consuming 0.6 to 0.8 fluid ounces of alcohol a day, or 17 to 23 ml, which is roughly what a 175 ml glass of wine contains.
The 155 researchers - from the UK, continental Europe, North America, and Australia - pooled and analyzed data about links between drinking habits and heart health from 56 epidemiological studies covering more than 260,000 people of European descent.
They found that people with a particular gene consumed 17% less alcohol per week, were less likely to binge drink, and were more likely to abstain from alcohol altogether, than non- carriers.
These lower alcohol consumers typically had a 10% average reduced risk of coronary heart disease, lower blood pressure and a lower body mass index (BMI).
The researchers conclude that reducing alcohol consumption across all levels of consumption - even light to moderate drinking - is beneficial for heart health.
Co-lead author Michael Holmes, a research assistant professor in Perelman School of Medicine's department of Transplant Surgery, says, "Contrary to what earlier reports have shown, it now appears that any exposure to alcohol has a negative impact upon heart health."
He explains how for some time, observational studies have suggested only heavy drinking is bad for the heart, and that light drinking might even provide some benefit, and this has led some people to believe moderate consumption is good for their health, even lowering their risk of heart disease.

Even for light-to-moderate drinkers, reduced consumption may improve heart health

"However, what we're seeing with this new study, which uses an investigative approach similar to a randomized clinical trial, is that reduced consumption of alcohol, even for light-to-moderate drinkers, may lead to improved cardiovascular health," says Prof. Holmes.
The focus of the study was investigating the heart health of people who carry a particular version of the gene "alcohol dehydrogenase 1B" which codes for a protein that helps to break down alcohol more quickly than in non-carriers.
The rapid breakdown causes nausea, facial flushing, and other symptoms, and is linked to lower levels of alcohol consumption over time.
The team used the gene as an indicator of lower alcohol consumption, and from there found the links between lower consumption and improved heart health.
Funds from the British Heart Foundation and the Medical Research Council in the UK financed the study.
In April 2014, Medical News Today learned how neuroscientists at the University of Utah are investigating a region of the brain that regulates how sensitive we are to the negative effects of alcohol. Inactivating this region of the brain in rats led them to drink more alcohol, at a faster pace.

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Weight 'influenced by gut bacteria'

Past research has suggested that weight may be influenced by genes. A new study builds on this concept, revealing that our genetic makeup shapes what type of bacteria live in the gut, which may affect how heavy we are.

The results of a twin study suggest that our genes influence what type of bacteria we have in our gut, and that the abundance of bacteria could affect our weight.

The findings come from a twin study conducted by researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and King's College London in the UK.
The research team, including Prof. Tim Spector, head of the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, says the results may open the door to personalized probiotic treatments that could reduce the risk of obesity and its related diseases.
For their study, published in the journal Cell, the researchers sequenced the genes of microbes present in over 1,000 fecal samples taken from 416 pairs of twins who were part of the Twins UK data registry.
Of these twins, 171 pairs were identical and 245 were non-identical. Identical twins share 100% of their genes, while non-identical twins share around 50% of their genes.

Increasing certain strain of bacteria in the gut 'could reduce, prevent obesity'

Results of the analysis revealed that identical twins had a similar abundance of specific types of gut bacteria, compared with non-identical twins. The team says this indicates that genes influence the type of bacteria present in the gut.
What is more, the researchers found that the presence of a class of bacteria called Christensenellaceae was most influenced by genes. A certain strain of this bacteria - Christensenellaceae minuta - was found to be more common among individuals of a low body weight.
On introducing this bacteria to the guts of mice, the team found the animals gained less weight than those that did not receive the bacteria. This suggests that increasing the amount of Christensenellaceae minuta bacteria in the gut could help to reduce or prevent obesity, the researchers say.
Commenting on their results, Prof. Spector says:

"Our findings show that specific groups of microbes living in our gut could be protective against obesity - and that their abundance is influenced by our genes. The human microbiome represents an exciting new target for dietary changes and treatments aimed at combating obesity."

Senior author Ruth Ley, an associate professor of microbiology at Cornell University, notes that this study is the first to determine that specific gut microbes are heritable and that the variation of these microbes is not solely influenced by diet, environment, lifestyle and health.

Other ways in which gut bacteria may play a role in obesity

Numerous other studies have reported on the association between obesity and gut bacteria, but all of them have different theories.
In September, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that Granny Smith apples could protect against obesity by balancing the proportions of "good" gut bacteria.
The researchers of that study, from Washington State University, explain that the fibers and polyphenols present in Granny Smith apples are unscathed when they reach the colon, even after exposure to stomach acid and digestive enzymes. The bacteria in the colon then ferment these compounds, producing butyric acid that triggers the growth of good gut bacteria.
Another study, reported in July, detailed the creation of a probiotic that researchers say could prevent obesity.
Senior study author Sean Davies, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, and colleagues genetically modified a strain of bacteria that colonizes the human gut - Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 - to produce a compound called N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), which can reduce food intake.
On giving this bacteria to mice fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks, the team found that it significantly reduced their food intake, body fat and incidence of hepatosteatosis (fatty liver), compared with control mice.
"There are lots of people who are doing their best to change their lifestyle and it still isn't enough for them to get to and keep a healthy weight. We think this strategy will really help them," Davies told MNT.

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Tinnitus less common in women who drink more coffee

A new study finds that women who consume more caffeine are less likely to have tinnitus - a condition where a person perceives noise in one or both ears, or in the head, even though there is no external sound.

Researchers found that the more caffeine women consumed, the less likely they were to have tinnitus. The researchers, from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, MA, write about their findings in The American Journal of Medicine.
According to the American Tinnitus Association, around 50 million people in the US experience some degree of tinnitus, which is often described as "ringing in the ears" although some people also hear hissing, buzzing, roaring, clicking or chirping. Of these, about 1 million are so badly affected they cannot function normally day to day.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data on over 65,000 women with and without tinnitus from the Nurses' Health Study II.
The women were aged between 30 and 44 at the start of the study in 1991, when researchers collected a wealth of information on medical history, lifestyle and diet. At this point, the average caffeine intake was 242.3 mg per day - the equivalent of nearly two and a half 8-ounce cups of coffee. Most of the caffeine consumed came from coffee drinking.
In 2009, 18 years after they joined the study, the women were asked questions about tinnitus, including date of onset, where applicable. When a woman reported experiencing symptoms either daily or on a few days per week, the researchers counted it as a case. They identified a total of 5,289 cases of reported incident tinnitus.

Women who consumed more caffeine less likely to be among tinnitus cases

When they analyzed the results, the team found the more caffeine women consumed, the less likely they were to be among the tinnitus cases.
Senior author Gary Curhan, a physician-researcher in BWH's Channing Division of Network Medicine and professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, says:

"We observed a significant inverse association between caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus among these women."

He and his and colleagues found that regardless of age, rates of tinnitus were 15% lower among women who consumed 450-599 mg a day of caffeine, compared with women who drank less than 150 mg a day (about one and a half 8-ounce cups of coffee).
Prof. Curham notes that while the reason behind the finding is unclear, we know that "caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and previous research has demonstrated that caffeine has a direct effect on the inner ear in both bench science and animal studies."
The researchers say more evidence is required before we can say whether increased caffeine intake might improve tinnitus symptoms.
Funds from the National Institutes of Health helped finance the study.
Medical News Today recently reported on another study where researchers found tinnitus affects processing of emotions. Writing in the journal Brain Research, they describe how, compared with people not affected by the condition, those with tinnitus process emotions differently in the brain.

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'Rise of saturated fat in diet does not raise fats in blood'

A new controlled diet study has found that increasing the levels of saturated fat in the diet does not lead to increased levels of saturated fat in the blood. However, increasing the amount of carbohydrates in the diet was found to raise the levels of a fatty acid associated with diabetes and heart disease.

Diets full of high carbohydrate foods such as cookies could increase the risk of heart disease, according to research. Levels of palmitoleic acid were reduced with low carbohydrate intake and increased as the participants consumed progressively larger amounts of carbohydrates over the course of the study.
According to senior author Prof. Jeff Volek, the study, "challenges the conventional wisdom that has demonized saturated fat and extends our knowledge of why dietary saturated fat doesn't correlate with disease."
In the study, published in PLOS ONE, the authors state that current dietary guidelines in the US recommend the majority of calories should be acquired from carbohydrates, with only 7-10% of total energy coming from saturated fats.
To achieve this, foods containing saturated fat - beef, eggs, high-fat dairy products - should be limited. Typically, a reduction in these foods results in an increased consumption of carbohydrates.
"People believe 'you are what you eat,'" says Prof. Volek, "but in reality, you are what you save from what you eat. The point is you don't necessarily save the saturated fat you eat. And the primary regulator of what you save in terms of fat is the carbohydrate in your diet."

Dietary saturated fat not linked to palmitoleic acid

The study involved 16 adults being given six 3-week diets - each containing 2,500 calories and around 130 grams of protein - that progressively increased the participants' levels of carbohydrates while reducing their consumption of total fat and saturated fat.
Each of the participants had metabolic syndrome - a number of simultaneously occurring conditions that increase the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease. People with metabolic syndrome have at least three of the following conditions: abnormal blood cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood triglycerides, hypertension and obesity.
The researchers spent 3 weeks to get the participants to a baseline reduced carb diet before beginning the 18-week study. The first diet of the study consisted of 47 g of carbohydrates and 84 g of saturated fat daily, with the carb-saturated fat ratio progressively increasing until the final diet, consisting of 346 g of carbs and 32 g of saturated fat daily.
In this final diet, the carb level represented 55% of the participants' daily calories, a figure that is approximately the same as the estimated daily percentage of energy provided by carbohydrates in the American diet.
Across the study, levels of saturated fat in the blood of the participants decreased. Blood glucose, insulin levels and blood pressure also improved and, on average, the participants lost nearly 22 lb by the end of the 18 weeks.
Levels of palmitoleic acid - a fatty acid associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and heart disease - decreased in all of the participants during the high-fat/low-carb diets. In contrast, the acid was found to increase as the levels of carbohydrates progressively rose across the duration of the study.
Increases in palmitoleic acid indicate that more carbs are being converted to fat instead of being burned as fuel, states Prof. Volek. In contrast, reducing carbs and increasing dietary fat in a well-controlled way ensures that the body will burn the saturated fat as fuel, rather than storing it in the body.

Misunderstanding about dietary saturated fat is 'not smart'

The study authors hoped to discover at which point in the increased intake of carbs that the participants began to store fat in their bodies rather than burning it off. Although palmitoleic acid levels increased in all participants, the moment when fat began to be stored varied widely. This finding supports the idea that individual tolerances to carbs can be dramatically different.
Prof. Volek says that there is widespread misunderstanding about saturated fat, stating that despite population studies failing to find a link between dietary saturated fat and heart disease, dietary guidelines continue to advocate restriction of saturated fat:

"That's not scientific and not smart. But studies measuring saturated fat in the blood and risk for heart disease show there is an association. Having a lot of saturated fat in your body is not a good thing. The question is, what causes people to store more saturated fat in their blood, or membranes or tissues?"

The authors acknowledge that the study is limited by the relatively short timeframe that the diets were followed for. However, a small number of the participants were given the diets in reverse order, starting with the highest carb diet, and the same observations regarding palmitoleic acid were made.
"A higher proportion of plasma saturated fat is related to increased risk of diabetes and heart disease," conclude the authors. "Thus, there is a need to better understand the relationship between dietary and plasma saturated fat."
Recently, Medical News Today reported on an analysis of clinical trials for four popular diets, questioning the long-term benefits of the Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers and Zone diets.
Written by James McIntosh

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Too much protein in middle age 'as bad as smoking'

Two new studies conclude that low protein intake may hold the key to a long and healthy life, at least until old age. They also emphasize the need to examine not only calories when deciding what constitutes a healthy diet, but also where those calories come from - such as whether protein is animal or plant-based.
Another key finding is the suggestion that while a high-protein diet may in the short term help people lose weight and body fat, in the long term it may harm health and reduce lifespan.
Both studies are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The first study was led by Valter Longo, a professor at the University of Southern California, who counts longevity and cell biology among his areas of expertise.
He and his colleagues showed that high protein consumption is linked to increased risk of cancer, diabetes and death in middle-aged adults, although this was not the case for older adults who may benefit from moderate protein consumption. Also, the effect is much reduced when the protein comes from plant sources.
The second study was led by Stephen Simpson, a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia, whose group works at the interface of physiology, ecology, and behavior. From studying mice, he and his fellow authors concluded that diets low in protein and high in carbohydrates are linked to the longest lifespans.
Both studies suggest it is not just calories, but also diet composition - particularly in terms of amount and type of protein - that may determine the length and health of a lifespan.
Prof. Longo says:

"We studied simple organisms, mice and humans, and provide convincing evidence that a high- protein diet - particularly if the proteins are derived from animals - is nearly as bad as smoking for your health."

High-protein diet had highest risk, except in older adults

In their study, Prof. Longo and colleagues analyzed data on over 6,800 American adults who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III, a US national survey that assesses health and diet.
They found that:

The researchers found that consuming a high-protein diet in middle age significantly increases the likelihood of dying from cancer or diabetes.

• Participants aged 50 and over who said they ate a high-protein diet were four times more likely to die from cancer or diabetes, and twice as likely to die from any cause, in the following 18 years.
• Those who consumed moderate amounts of protein had a three-fold higher chance of dying of cancer.
• These effects either reduced or disappeared altogether among participants whose high-protein diet was mainly plant-based.
• However, in those aged 65 and over, the effect was nearly the opposite - high protein intake was linked to a 60% reduced risk of dying from cancer and a 28% reduced risk of dying from any cause, with similar effects for moderate protein intake.

The researchers defined a high-protein diet as one where at least 20% of the calories consumed come from protein.

Growth hormone, amino acid damage, ability to process protein may be key factors

The team suggests, because of evidence from other studies, that growth hormone and the growth factor IGF-1 may be responsible for these effects, as Prof. Longo explains:
"Notably, the activity of these factors, but also body weight, declines naturally with aging, which may explain why older people not only did not benefit but appeared to do worse if they ate a low-protein diet."
Cell experiments have suggested the amino acids that proteins are made of can reduce cellular protection and increase damage to DNA, both of which might explain why high-protein intake is linked to cancer.
Also, experiments in mice have shown that the body's ability to process protein declines with age.

Researchers trialed 25 different diets in hundreds of mice

In the second study, Prof. Simpson and his group trialed the effects of 25 different diets on hundreds of mice to see how different amounts and types of proteins, fats and carbohydrates affected energy intake, metabolic health, aging and lifespan.
They discovered that:

• Mice on diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates had reduced food intake and lower levels of body fat, but they also died earlier and had poorer cardiometabolic health.
• Mice on low-protein, high-fat diets had the poorest health and shortest lifespans.
• The healthiest, longest living mice were those on diets high in carbohydrates and low in protein - this was in spite of increased food intake and having higher levels of body fat.
• A calorie-restricted diet did not increase lifespan - which is contrary to evidence from previous studies on mice, other animals, yeast and worms that show calorie restriction lengthens life as long as supplemented with essential nutrients.

Prof. Simpson says:

"We have shown explicitly why it is that calories aren't all the same - we need to look at where the calories come from and how they interact. This research has enormous implications for how much food we eat, our body fat, our heart and metabolic health, and ultimately the duration of our lives."

He and his colleagues suggest the ideal diet for a long and healthy life is one with moderate amounts of high-quality protein, low in fat, and high in complex carbohydrates.
Meanwhile, Medical News Today recently learned of a study by researchers at the University of Granada in Spain that found high-protein diets may increase risk of kidney disease.

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