A spoonful of trehalose
Over the past 15 years or so, some makers of ice cream and other processed foods – from pasta to ground beef products – have changed their recipes to swap out some of the table sugar (sucrose) with a sweetening/texturizing ingredient called trehalose, which depresses the freezing point of food. Both sucrose and trehalose are “disaccharides.” Though they have different chemical linkages, both get broken down into glucose in the body. A study in the journal Nature indicates that trehalose-laden food may have helped fuel the recent epidemic spread of Clostridium difficile (C. diff.), which is a microbe that can cause life-threatening gastrointestinal distress, especially in older patients getting antibiotics and antacid medicines. In laboratory experiments, a National Institutes of Health-funded team found that the two strains of C. diff. most likely to make people sick possess an unusual ability to thrive on trehalose, even at very low levels. What’s more, a diet containing trehalose significantly increased the severity of symptoms in a mouse model of C. diff. infection.
Keep it real
The LinkSquare is a magic marker-sized scanner that can tell if meat is rotten, whether alcohol is fake, or prescription pills are what they’re supposed to be, reports USA Today in a report about the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. It can even tell if the money in your pocket is counterfeit. It pairs with an app on your phone. Price is $300.
Protect your skin
Another gadget worth noting at the Consumer Electronics Show was L’Oreal’s UV Sense, a wearable small enough to fit on your fingertip, reports USA Today. The dot tells you UV, pollen, humidity, temperature and air quality levels. It pairs with an app on your smartphone and can give you reminders to put on more sunscreen (L’Oreal is suggested!) or stay out of the sun altogether. Costs about $40.
Dieting? Watch the clock
Don’t focus so much on how much you eat, but rather, on when you eat. That’s the concept behind time-restricted feeding, or TRF, a strategy increasingly being studied by researchers as a tool for weight loss, diabetes prevention and even longevity, according to Sumathi Reddy of the Wall Street Journal. In TRF, you can eat whatever you want and as much as you want – just not whenever you want, she writes. (That doesn’t mean you can stuff yourself with goodies; rather, eat as you normally would.) Daily food intake should be limited to a 12-hour window, and ideally cut down to eight to 10 hours. Despite a lack of dietary restrictions, most people following TRF end up consuming fewer calories and lose weight. Preliminary evidence also shows other health benefits of fasting for 12 hours or more, including lower blood pressure and improved glucose levels, and physiological changes linked to slowing the aging process.
DASH ranked best diet
For the eighth consecutive year, U.S. News and World Report ranked the National Institutes of Health-developed DASH Diet “best overall” diet among nearly 40 it reviewed. The announcement came as new research suggests that combining DASH, or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, with a low-sodium diet has the potential to lower blood pressure as well as or better than many anti-hypertension medications. DASH is a healthy eating plan that supports long-term lifestyle changes, according to NIH. It is low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. It emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, and includes whole grains, poultry, fish, lean meats, beans, and nuts. It is rich in potassium, calcium, and magnesium, as well as protein and fiber. However, it calls for a reduction in high fat red meat, sweets, and sugary beverages. To read more about DASH, go to https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/dash-eating-plan.
Even the frail can benefit
Physicians should prescribe physical activity to all older patients, regardless of frailty status, according to researchers at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and Geneva University Hospitals. Although a structured, moderate-intensity physical activity program was not associated with a reduced risk for frailty over two years among sedentary older adults, it did reduce major mobility disability in both frail and nonfrail patients. Study participants were randomly assigned to a program consisting of aerobic, resistance, and flexibility activities or a health education program consisting of workshops and stretching exercise. Findings from a secondary analysis of the LIFE (Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders) trial are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Bummer
Vitamin D and calcium supplements do not seem to be warranted to prevent bone breaks or hip fractures in adults over the age of 50, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Dec. 26. Such supplements had no clear benefit regardless of dose, the gender of the patient, history of fractures or the amount of calcium in the diet, reports the Washington Post. The analysis, conducted by Jia-Guo Zhao of Tianjin Hospital in China, was focused on older adults who live in the general community and did not include those in nursing homes, hospitals and other facilities.