Foods that battle against Alzheimer's

Researchers are finding many links between diet and dementia, and there is evidence that some foods are powerful allies in the battle against Alzheimer's.

Fish, especially oily fish like salmon, mackerel, herring, and sardines, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and should be eaten at least 3x/week. Researchers at Chicago's St. Luke's Medical Center found that people 65 and older who had fish once a week had a 60% lower risk of Alzheimer's than those who did not eat fish. (My sisters: Take note!)

Eggs are a good dietary source of choline - a component of lecithin. They are also a good source of iron, vitamin B12 and other B vitamins, an excellent source of protein, and very easy to eat and digest.

Wheat germ and whole grains high in lecithin and choline, carbohydrate, vitamin E, B vitamins and numerous mineral help forestall Alzheimer's. Whole-grain breads are a popular and readily available item to add to anyone's diet.

Soy products are rich in choline and provide protein, carbohydrate, calcium and fiber. They are a good source of folic acid - also known as folate - and are known to lower blood levels of homocysteine.

Source: Foods that Heal, Foods that Harm, Reader's Digest

Foods and Cancer...

The odds a person will ever be diagnosed with cancer are 1 in 2.44, and the odds a person will die of it are 1 in 4.7. Although most of us think we eat pretty well—the odds an adult considers him- or herself a healthy eater are 1 in 1.56 (64%)—cancer remains the second most common cause of death in America, after heart disease.

Complicating the food-cancer connection is the fact that cancer is a whole constellation of diseases, each with its own risk factors; at the same time, the definition of “eating right” seems to change every time we look at the health news. “Healthy eating” now includes, in addition to the old standbys like fruits and vegetables, some items we used to think of as mere indulgences.

HEROES AND POTENTIAL HEROES

Fruits and vegetables: the American Cancer Society sums it up this way: Vegetables and fruits, particularly if they have lot of color, are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, etc., that collectively reduce the risk of cancer, including lung cancer and cancers of the digestive tract (from mouth to colon). However, some recent research has failed to find major reductions in cancer risk associated with eating the recommended five servings a day. One study that followed nearly half a million people found only a “very small inverse association.” Researchers have suggested that studies of specific plant foods might be more fruitful. For example:

Citrus. Consuming citrus fruits was associated with lower cancer rates in an analysis of 48 international studies. Oranges, the researchers said, have very high antioxidant levels, with flavonoids that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties.

Garlic. Some studies have indicated consuming garlic helps protect against various cancers. An analysis in the Journal of Nutrition of seven population studies, for example, showed that garlic consumption reduced the risk of colorectal and stomach cancers. (The odds a person will ever be diagnosed with colorectal cancer are 1 in 18.45.)

Tomatoes and Broccoli. Evidence that the lycopene found in tomatoes prevents prostate cancer is inconclusive. One study found that eating tomatoes in combination with broccoli shrank prostate tumors in rats by 52%. Evidence that broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables have particular cancer-prevention effects remains merely suggestive, but one compound found in broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts shows promise in stopping the growth of prostate and breast cancer cells.

Red Wine. Drinking moderate amounts of red wine has been shown to lower prostate cancer risk. It contains resveratrol (an antioxidant) and flavonoids (polyphenols also found in chocolate), which appear to be healthful agents. (The odds a male will ever be diagnosed with prostate cancer are 1 in 6.29, and the odds he’ll die of it are 1 in 35.71.) Another study showed a 60% drop in lung cancer risk among male smokers who had one or two glasses of red wine per day. ( Lung cancer kills 1 in 16.75 Americans, more than any other type of cancer.) On the other hand, drinking alcoholic beverages of any kind has been linked with a higher risk of breast cancer in women.

Chocolate. The antioxidants in chocolate may help prevent cancer by fighting cell damage that leads to tumors.

VILLAINS AND POTENTIAL VILLAINS

Some foods may carry increased cancer risk. A new Korean study found a small increase in stomach cancer associated with a saltier diet. (In the US, the odds a person will ever be diagnosed with stomach cancer are 1 in 111.1.) A new study on rats suggests eating a fatty diet during pregnancy carries breast cancer risk for the children—and even grandchildren. A byproduct of cooking (especially burning) carbohydrate-rich foods has been tied to increased cancer risk in postmenopausal women. And soy contains phytoestrogens that may be linked to breast cancer, again in postmenopausal women.

FOOD VS. INGREDIENTS

So there’s no yes or no answer to the question of whether “eating right” prevents cancer. Clearly, some ingredients in some foods are linked to higher or lower risks for some cancers and other health problems. Maybe the best practice of all is just to follow food author Michael Pollan’s advice: If your grandmother wouldn’t recognize it, or you can’t pronounce the ingredients, don’t eat it.

Soy and hypothyroidism

Type A, Thyroid And Soy

March 17th, 2004 , by Peter D'Adamo

QUESTION: I am A and hypothyroid. You state soy is excellent for A's but, from my researching and reading, most sources state that hypothyroid should avoid soy. Any suggestions as how to get protein and vitamins without using soy?

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ANSWER: In a recent response to many of the off-handed accusations about the effects of soy on the thyroid Clare Hasler, Ph.D., one of the world's experts on soy and human nutrition had the following to say:

"There is no convincing evidence that soy protein has an adverse effect on thyroid function, particularly at the moderate level of consumption (25 grams) that would occur due to the approval of a health claim for coronary heart disease.

There is evidence that animals exposed to large amounts of soy protein (e.g., 40%) will develop goiter, particularly when fed an iodine deficient diet (Kimura et al., 1976; Filisetti and Lajolo, 1981). The mechanism for this effect can be explained by the fact that the principal isoflavones in soy, genistein and daidzein, have been shown to inhibit thyroid peroxidase (Divi et al., 1997) and 5'-deiodinase (Cody et al., 1989), key enzymes involved in thyroid hormone biosynthesis. The inhibition of these enzymes results in decreased levels of circulating thyroid hormones (e.g., T4 and T3) which leads to increased secretion of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) by the anterior pituitary. The increased levels of TSH provides a growth stimulus to the thyroid, resulting in goiter. It must be emphasized, however, that this occurs only with large amounts of soy isoflavones in the diet and/or when the diet is low in iodine. Furthermor, soy isoflavones are not the only dietary flavonoids that can inhibit thyroid peroxidase. A variety of other flavonoids have also been shown to be even more potent in inhibiting the activity of this enzyme, including kaempferol, naringenin, and quercetin (Divi and Doerge, 1996) . Such flavonoids are widely distributed in plant-derived foods and would be consumed daily at relatively high levels (possibly up to 1 gram or more per day) by vegetarians or semi-vegetarians, yet such individuals do not have a significant increased incidence of goiter. Goiter has also been reported in infants where soy has served as the sole source of food (Hydovitz, 1960). However, this situation is hardly comparable to adults consuming soy protein in moderate amounts as a means to lower total or LDL cholesterol levels.

In sum, soy products have been consumed as a dietary staple in Asian countries for hundreds of years with no significant occurrence of goiter in that population. Goiter is primarily due to a deficiency of dietary iodine, not the consumption of moderate amounts of soy protein incorporated into a nutritionally sound diet. That goiter would result in adults consuming 25 grams of soy protein per day in response to an approved health claim for coronary heart disease is ludicrous."

In essence, it you don't consume 40% of your body weight in soy protein daily, you've not got much to worry about.