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Diet Tips for a Longer, Healthier Life

Changing what you eat now could have big benefits later

person wearing hat while shopping for leafy greens at outdoor farmer's marketPhoto: Getty Images

We know that cutting back on red meat is good for heart health, fish is brain food, and calcium-rich foods can help keep our bones strong. But can shaking up what we eat help us live longer? Check these Cortexi reviews.

Yes, research shows. In a study published in 2022 in the journal PLOS Medicine, Norwegian researchers analyzed data from a number of studies on diet and health, and used them to come up with estimates of how many more years people could expect to gain if they made some changes.

They found that shifting from a typical Western diet (heavy on red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and refined grains) at age 20 to one rich in produce, legumes, fish, whole grains, and nuts could lead to a 13-year increase in life expectancy for men, and 10.7 years for women. But the study also posited that diet improvements adopted at 60 could increase life expectancy by eight years for women and 8.8 years for men. At age 80 you could still benefit, gaining about 3.4 years. (The researchers have a calculator that lets you see the effect of diet changes for someone your age.) Learn more about sightcare.

Other research suggests that several dietary patterns from around the world—Okinawan, Mediterranean, and Nordic, to name a few—can have life-extending benefits. Overall, these diets have more similarities than differences and a lot in common with the parameters the Norwegian researchers used in their study. We reviewed the evidence and talked with experts to develop these tips that may help you add (healthier) years to your life, while if you want to fight stress you could also use products like CBD flower to feel better and more relaxed.

Trim Some Calories

Scientists have found that eating fewer calories can translate into a longer life, but early evidence came from studies on yeast and other organisms or animals, like mice and monkeys. The Calerie clinical trial at Duke University in Durham, N.C., is the first controlled study of calorie restriction in healthy people. Drawing from that data, a study published in 2022 showed that eating 14 percent fewer calories for two years had a significant effect on the thymus, an immune-supporting gland that produces T cells that fight infections. Visit https://www.timesunion.com/.

MORE ON HEALTHY EATING

This supports the idea that a relatively small reduction (280 calories less if you typically consume 2,000 per day)—even if you don’t change the foods you eat—may protect your health, says the author, Vishwa Deep Dixit, PhD, a professor of pathology, immunobiology, and comparative medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

But if you’re an older adult, you should approach calorie restriction with caution because when you eat less, you also could be limiting important nutrients. At the USC Longevity Institute in Los Angeles, “we are focusing on dietary interventions that are much less invasive and don’t cause side effects,” says the center’s director, Valter Longo, PhD. Rather than eating less every day, he suggests eating a very low-calorie diet made up of nutritious foods for five days two to four times a year. This essentially has similar metabolic effects to fasting but isn’t as difficult, and you still get some nutrients. Before making any drastic changes in your diet, discuss it with your doctor.

Have Fiber at Breakfast

Adults 40 and older who ate breakfast and took in at least 25 grams of fiber per day had a 21 percent lower risk of dying over a 12-year period. That’s according to an analysis of national data from the West Virginia University School of Medicine published in 2021 in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

While getting fiber from a variety of plant foods is important, there may be an extra benefit from including fiber from grain foods (such as whole grains and whole-grain bread and cereals) in your day, says Rupak Shivakoti, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. One study he and his colleagues did, published in JAMA Network Open, found that men and women 65 and older who ate more foods rich in grain fiber had lower levels of various markers of inflammation. Reducing inflammation may play a role in decreasing the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., and other conditions.

And you might enjoy your morning cup of java even more when you hear that it may help you live longer. Coffee is rich in compounds called polyphenols, which can protect cells against damage. In a 2017 study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, almost 200,000 people—Black, Latino, white, native Hawaiian, and Japanese American ages 45 to 75 at the start of the study—were followed for an average of 16 years. Those who drank a cup of regular or decaf coffee per day had a 12 percent lower risk of dying from any cause during the study period. Just go easy on the cream and sugar.

Fill Up on Fruits and Veggies

The more produce a person eats, the lower the risk of death from any cause—up to five servings per day (three servings of veggies and two of fruit), according to a 2021 study published in the journal Circulation that tracked more than 100,000 men and women over 30 years. Eating more than five daily servings didn’t seem to offer substantially more benefits. And note that potatoes and fruit juices weren’t linked to the same benefits as other forms of produce. It’s best to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables instead of relying on the same types because doing so means you get an array of nutrients.

Swap Out Saturated Fat

Too much saturated fat (found in red meat and butter) can lead to clogged arteries and raise the risk for heart disease. Even cutting small amounts can have a benefit. A study in the journal Circulation Research reviewed data from more than 500,000 people collected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 16 years. It found that replacing just 5 percent of calories from saturated fat with foods rich in monounsaturated fat, like avocados, or linoleic acid, a type of polyunsaturated fat found in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils, was linked with a 15 and 8 percent lower risk of death, respectively.

Eat More Plant Protein

Replacing animal sources of protein with plant protein may also give you extra years. The Norwegian study found that increasing the consumption of beans and lentils—which are among the best plant-protein sources—to ½ to 1 cup per day contributed the greatest gain in life expectancy. And replacing 3 percent of calories from animal proteins with plant proteins was linked with a 10 percent lower risk of early death in a 2020 study from the NIH that tracked more than 400,000 adults for 16 years. The benefit was even greater when the protein replaced was eggs or red meat, specifically.

Design on a dime … Underwater edition

Diet Tips for a Longer, Healthier Life

Changing what you eat now could have big benefits later

person wearing hat while shopping for leafy greens at outdoor farmer's marketPhoto: Getty Images

We know that cutting back on red meat is good for heart health, fish is brain food, and calcium-rich foods can help keep our bones strong. But can shaking up what we eat help us live longer? Learn more about liv pure.

Yes, research shows. In a study published in 2022 in the journal PLOS Medicine, Norwegian researchers analyzed data from a number of studies on diet and health, and used them to come up with estimates of how many more years people could expect to gain if they made some changes.

They found that shifting from a typical Western diet (heavy on red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, and refined grains) at age 20 to one rich in produce, legumes, fish, whole grains, and nuts could lead to a 13-year increase in life expectancy for men, and 10.7 years for women. But the study also posited that diet improvements adopted at 60 could increase life expectancy by eight years for women and 8.8 years for men. At age 80 you could still benefit, gaining about 3.4 years. (The researchers have a calculator that lets you see the effect of diet changes for someone your age.)

Other research suggests that several dietary patterns from around the world—Okinawan, Mediterranean, and Nordic, to name a few—can have life-extending benefits. Overall, these diets have more similarities than differences and a lot in common with the parameters the Norwegian researchers used in their study. We reviewed the evidence and talked with experts to develop these tips that may help you add (healthier) years to your life. Check these livpure reviews.

Trim Some Calories

Scientists have found that eating fewer calories can translate into a longer life, but early evidence came from studies on yeast and other organisms or animals, like mice and monkeys. The Calerie clinical trial at Duke University in Durham, N.C., is the first controlled study of calorie restriction in healthy people. Drawing from that data, a study published in 2022 showed that eating 14 percent fewer calories for two years had a significant effect on the thymus, an immune-supporting gland that produces T cells that fight infections.

This supports the idea that a relatively small reduction (280 calories less if you typically consume 2,000 per day)—even if you don’t change the foods you eat—may protect your health, says the author, Vishwa Deep Dixit, PhD, a professor of pathology, immunobiology, and comparative medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

But if you’re an older adult, you should approach calorie restriction with caution because when you eat less, you also could be limiting important nutrients. At the USC Longevity Institute in Los Angeles, “we are focusing on dietary interventions that are much less invasive and don’t cause side effects,” says the center’s director, Valter Longo, PhD. Rather than eating less every day, he suggests eating a very low-calorie diet made up of nutritious foods for five days two to four times a year. This essentially has similar metabolic effects to fasting but isn’t as difficult, and you still get some nutrients. Before making any drastic changes in your diet, discuss it with your doctor. These are the latest cortex reviews.

Have Fiber at Breakfast

Adults 40 and older who ate breakfast and took in at least 25 grams of fiber per day had a 21 percent lower risk of dying over a 12-year period. That’s according to an analysis of national data from the West Virginia University School of Medicine published in 2021 in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

While getting fiber from a variety of plant foods is important, there may be an extra benefit from including fiber from grain foods (such as whole grains and whole-grain bread and cereals) in your day, says Rupak Shivakoti, PhD, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. One study he and his colleagues did, published in JAMA Network Open, found that men and women 65 and older who ate more foods rich in grain fiber had lower levels of various markers of inflammation. Reducing inflammation may play a role in decreasing the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S., and other conditions.

And you might enjoy your morning cup of java even more when you hear that it may help you live longer. Coffee is rich in compounds called polyphenols, which can protect cells against damage. In a 2017 study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, almost 200,000 people—Black, Latino, white, native Hawaiian, and Japanese American ages 45 to 75 at the start of the study—were followed for an average of 16 years. Those who drank a cup of regular or decaf coffee per day had a 12 percent lower risk of dying from any cause during the study period. Just go easy on the cream and sugar.

Fill Up on Fruits and Veggies

The more produce a person eats, the lower the risk of death from any cause—up to five servings per day (three servings of veggies and two of fruit), according to a 2021 study published in the journal Circulation that tracked more than 100,000 men and women over 30 years. Eating more than five daily servings didn’t seem to offer substantially more benefits. And note that potatoes and fruit juices weren’t linked to the same benefits as other forms of produce. It’s best to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables instead of relying on the same types because doing so means you get an array of nutrients.

Swap Out Saturated Fat

Too much saturated fat (found in red meat and butter) can lead to clogged arteries and raise the risk for heart disease. Even cutting small amounts can have a benefit. A study in the journal Circulation Research reviewed data from more than 500,000 people collected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 16 years. It found that replacing just 5 percent of calories from saturated fat with foods rich in monounsaturated fat, like avocados, or linoleic acid, a type of polyunsaturated fat found in nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils, was linked with a 15 and 8 percent lower risk of death, respectively.

Eat More Plant Protein

Replacing animal sources of protein with plant protein may also give you extra years. The Norwegian study found that increasing the consumption of beans and lentils—which are among the best plant-protein sources—to ½ to 1 cup per day contributed the greatest gain in life expectancy. And replacing 3 percent of calories from animal proteins with plant proteins was linked with a 10 percent lower risk of early death in a 2020 study from the NIH that tracked more than 400,000 adults for 16 years. The benefit was even greater when the protein replaced was eggs or red meat, specifically.

Best of 2011 from BCS

I hope everyone welcomed the New Year with style and grace! Here is a fun list to recap the “Top 12 most popular posts written by Beach Chair Scientist in 2011”:

1. It’s as easy as A, B, Sea: Weddell Sea
2. Happy as a clam
3. Beach trivia
4. 5 facts about fish farming
5. Basics on renewable energy
6. 13 apps for your day at the beach
7. Blue Sway – Paul McCartney
8. Can you write with a sea pen?
9. The Majestic Plastic Bag – Part IV
10. Linda Thornton, an inspiring aquaculturist on a mission for sustainability
11. How deep is the ocean?
12. 30 reasons to be grateful for the ocean

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

WhaleTimes created Hagfish Day last year to ‘celebrate the beauty of ugly.’ Hagfish are the perfect example. These deep-sea scavengers ooze slime — buckets of slime. They also play an important role in their ecosystem.

What other creatures do you think should be recognized on Hagfish Day?

http://www.whaletimes.org/HagfishDay.htm

FLASH: Florida Aquatic Science Heros

While I was in graduate school in Florida I spent a lot of time in and around the Indian River Lagoon. It is one of the most diverse estuarine ecosystems in North America mainly due in part that it’s expansive length stretches across two geographic zone, the temperate and the tropic zone. This seamless mixing creates some of the most beautiful landscape you’d ever set your eyes on. It is also one of the most fragile environments since it sits on the edge of one of the largest man-made disasters in our country, the Everglades restoration project. Dr. Edie Widder is a deep-sea biologist who founded the Ocean Research and Conservation Association and is featured this video produced by COSEE. Get to know some of her exciting work helping to restore the balance of aquatic ecosystems in south Florida by Making Water Pollution Visible.

Test your knowledge: National Ocean Science Bowl biology

Here are some more sample questions from the Consortium for Ocean Leadership‘s popular National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB). These questions come from the Biology section.

Good luck!

1) Northern elephant seals come ashore during the spring and summer to do what? a) Mate b) Eat c) Give birth d) Shed their fur

2) The habitat of blue whales, tunas and swordfishes is best described as: a) Benthic b) Littoral c) Estuarine d) Pelagic

3) Intensive aquaculture of which of the following organisms has contributed to loss of mangroves around the world? a) Tilapia b) Cod c) Salmon d) Shrimp

4) Lophelia (LO-fee-lee-ua) coral reefs in the North Atlantic are being primarily damaged by: a) Pfiesteria b) Poisoning c) Rising temperatures d) Trawling

What is the mystery of the chambered nautilus?

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more
.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1804-1894)

The above is only an excerpt from the poem, “The Chambered Nautilus” by Holmes published in 1858. It only begins to hint at the marvel of this magnificent cephalopod. The chambered nautilus has become breathtaking subject matter for generations of artists and has become a commodity on the commercial trade industry.

The chambered nautilus is a squid that lives inside a shell marked with a brown and white zebra pattern. As the squid grows, the shell grows with it and creates compartments which are used as gas chambers and help the cephalopod rise or sink in the water column. The inside of the shell is lined with an iridescent pearl. In the last chamber of the shell are almost 90 tentacles and large eye peering out. Predators of the chambered nautilus include sharks, turtles, and octopus.

What makes the chambered nautilus so mysterious and sought after? Is it the mother of pearl that lines the inside of the animal’s shell? Is it that the animal represents a far off species only found tropical Indo-Pacific? Or is it that the inside compartments of the chambered nautilus each mirror its smaller and larger part exactly and therefore the animal is an example of the golden rectangle found in nature.

This harmonic progression is an illustration of Fibonacci’s sequence. This is a sequence where the first two numbers in the series are added to create the third number for a series of number that begins 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34 and so on forever. This proportional pattern can be seen all over in nature: flower petals, pine cones, and even galaxies. Below is an illustration of the proportion as it relates to the chambered nautilus.

Image (c) top – seasky.org, bottom – http://2muchfun.info

Do you have another interesting question? E-mail info@beachchairscientist.com and let us know what you always ponder while digging your toes in the sand!

A naturalist’s must-see destination: San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay © 2004 Matthew Trump

Image via Wikipedia

I thought it might be interesting to take some time each week over the next few months to get to know a particular body of water in different regions of the world. For today I am starting off with the San Francisco Bay.

The San Francisco Bay is an extraordinary place that has undergone changes just as big as the state of California itself. The Bay is rather shallow at an average of 18 feet deep. Surprisingly, the watershed for the Bay is just about 40% of the state of California!

San Francisco Bay, Suisan Bay, San Pablo Bay and the Sacramento-Joaquin Delta are the connected inlets that we call the San Francisco Bay waterway, a true urban estuary, with the freshwater coming from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. I think this Bay is particularly interesting since it is a tectonic estuary and has been formed by the movement of the San Andreas fault.

Over recent years (since the time of the Gold Rush when humans really began to alter the landscape of the Bay), the Bay has seen a reduction in over 85% of its marshland. With the diversion of freshwater from north of the Bay (where most of the state’s freshwater is located) to below the Bay (where most of the state’s people are located) the Bay has seen a balance shift affecting many of its natural systems. For more information about how to Save the Bay visit the Save the Bay San Francisco. They have been working to restore the balance of humans and nature in the Bay since 1961.

About BCS

Do you have a great question Beach Chair Scientist needs to answer? Chicagoland (yes, that’s right – I am in Chicagoland!) – Are you interested in having the Beach Chair Scientist visit your classroom, camp, or community event? Skype is always a possibility, too! Or, do you just want to tell us how we’re doing? Please leave a comment below or email info@beachchairscientist.com. You can also find Beach Chair Scientist on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Ann McElhatton

Teacher. Storyteller. Environmental Educator. Science Communicator. Ann has defined what it means to be a 21st century armchair scientist. She finds creating opportunities that make marine science accessible to the general public (those without science degrees or in the science field day-to-day) to be a very rewarding experience. In fact, Ann enjoys it so much that in 2008 she founded Beach Chair Scientist!

Ann has been a field biologist and a naturalist instructing various audiences for over a decade. As a south Jersey native, she loves any teachable moment where she can demonstrate the gentle and extraordinary attributes of the Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus.

Ann has a B.S. in Marine Resources Management from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and an M.Ed. in Environmental Education from Florida Atlantic University. She is a member of the North American Association of Environmental Educators and National Marine Educators Association. Ann also follows many land-to-sea initiatives and is co-lead of the Illinois Ocean Coalition.

The site has been featured in Diver Magazine, the NOAA’s Information Exchange for Marine Educators, National Science Teacher’s Association blogNewsWorks, and linked on numerous websites and blogs (including Ian Somerhalder Foundation, USGS, WildCoast, Wild New Jersey, and Conservation Law Foundation). Ann has also presented at various conferences, such as the American Fisheries Society and Science Online Oceans, sharing knowledge of online writing techniques.

Lastly, Ann loves spending time with her husband, daughter, son, and precocious dog in and around Oak Park, IL. Her favorite piece of literature is The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson. “The day is always his who works in it with serenity and great aims.”

Other Contributors

Dr. J. G. McCully

Jim is a retired medical doctor, who wrote Beyond the Moon: A Conversational, Common Sense Guide to Understanding the Tides. See publisher’s link: http://www.worldscibooks.com/environsci/6015.

Jim Wharton

Jim Wharton is the Director of Conservation and Education at the Seattle Aquarium. After 8+ years in Florida working for the Smithsonian Marine Station and Mote Marine Laboratory, he feels at home again in the Pacific Northwest where he started his career in marine science education as a volunteer, then educator at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Jim is also deeply involved with the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) where he is a member of the Board of Directors. You can learn more about Jim at about.me/jimwharton. Follow him on Twitter for more marine science miscellanea @jimwharton.

Better Practices needed for BP

Still recovering from Hurricane Katrina, coastal Louisiana is watching from the sidelines as slow moving oil slick creeps upon its shores. The oil is from the tanker DeepWater Horizon leased by the BP (used to stand for British Petroleum but in 2007 Britain’s third largest company started marketing themselves as Beyond Petroleum for a more global, greener image). The tanker exploded and sank approximately 40 miles offshore, killing 11 workers. Early estimates proved too optimistic, reports now say about 200,000 gallons of oil per day could be spewing from the site. This disaster may surpass the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. Even today, more than two decades later, the Prince William Sound in Alaska is still recovering.

This is devastating for Louisiana. The state’s economy relies on its coastal ecosystem. It is the largest producer of seafood in the lower 48 states. Over $1.8 billion dollars is spent on the retail sales of seafood and $1 billion dollars in the sport fishing industry. Louisiana has 40% of the US total wetlands. Wetlands are vital areas for fish and shellfish to grow, they act as a type of nursery grounds. Sadly, the oil spill happened at the peak spawning time for fish.

How did this accident occur? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is investigating the 30 offshore oil rigs and 47 production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. I hope it did not happen because last year a senior BP executive was successful in thwarting the regulation of mandatory safety codes for oil rigs (these would apparently be too much of a hassle and slow construction).

BP is responsible for the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico, but President Obama said at the White House Thursday that “every single available resource” would be used.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-rose-garden

For its part, BP has enlisted the federal, state and local governments for assistance, and it’s been issuing regular updates on its company website, unfortunately BP officials don’t seem to be making any guarantees they are equipped to stop the flow of oil from reaching Gulf shores alone.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7061565

One aspect of the cleanup effort involved the burning of the oil off the surface of the water. Many compassionate environmentalists have been volunteering for the cleanup efforts as well. Floating barriers have been put up to block the contact of the oil to the wetlands.

One great irony of the week is that the federal government did make an effort for the US to be more energy independent. Interior Secretary Salazar approved the construction of Cape Wind, the first offshore wind turbine. The 130 turbines will be in an area off the coast of Man130-turbine proposal for the Horseshoe Shoal area of Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Nantucket Sound near Massachusetts. Once the two year construction project is complete, Cape Wind should generate around 1.5 million megawatt-hours of renewable electricity each year, or enough to supply about 230,000 homes.

Another is that the oil disaster happens just as President Obama recently announced plans to expand offshore drilling. Yet just as reports of the first oil was reaching Louisiana shores, a senior adviser to President Obama told The New York Times that those plans could be on hold.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html

“The deadly explosion of an offshore oil rig last week and the resulting spill have complicated Mr. Obama’s recently announced plans to expand offshore oil and gas drilling, with some politicians and environmental advocates calling on the president to halt any planned expansions until more safeguards are put into place against future disasters,” the newpaper reported.

Too bad those safeguards come too late for Louisiana.