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People with celiac disease or who are gluten intolerant may benefit from a low-gluten diet. A considerable number of people who do not have these diseases still adopt a gluten-free diet in the hope that it benefits their health. New research, however, suggests that a low-gluten diet may even have some adverse health effects, by raising the risk of diabetes.

Gluten is a protein mainly found in wheat, barley, and rye, as well as baked goods and other foods that contain these cereals. People with celiac disease - an autoimmune disorder affecting at least 3 million people in the United States - avoid gluten because their immune system responds to it by attacking the small intestine.

However, more and more people are adopting a gluten-free diet, despite its health benefits being unclear.

In fact, some nutritionists advise against avoiding gluten. Instead, they recommend a well-balanced diet that includes fruit and vegetables, as well as whole-grain wheat and other foods containing gluten.

New research - presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle 2017 Scientific Sessions - suggests that a low-gluten diet may have adverse health effects by raising the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Geng Zong, Ph.D. - one of the study's authors and a research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA - explains the motivation behind the study:

"We wanted to determine if gluten consumption will affect health in people with no apparent medical reasons to avoid gluten. Gluten-free foods often have less dietary fiber and other micronutrients, making them less nutritious and they also tend to cost more."

The team approximated the gluten consumption for 199,794 individuals enrolled in three long-term studies: the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) I and II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS).

As part of these studies, participants answered food frequency questionnaires every 2 to 4 years. Overall, participants consumed under 12 grams of gluten per day. The average daily consumption was 5.8 grams for the NHS I study, 6.8 grams for NHS II, and 7.1 grams for HPFS.

Researchers followed the participants for approximately 30 years, between 1984-1990 and 2010-2013.

Throughout the 30-year follow-up period, 15,947 cases of type 2 diabetes were identified.

The study found that participants who had the highest gluten intake - up to 12 grams per day - had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the 30-year follow-up period. Those who ate less gluten also had a lower cereal fiber intake. Fiber is known to protect against type 2 diabetes.

After adjusting for the protective effect of fiber, participants in the upper 20 percent on the gluten consumption scale were 13 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, compared with those on the opposite end of the scale - namely, those whose gluten intake was below 4 grams per day.

"People without celiac disease may reconsider limiting their gluten intake for chronic disease prevention, especially for diabetes," says co-author Zong.

Limitations of the study include its observational nature, which means that it cannot establish causality, and the fact that more research is needed to confirm the findings. Additionally, the researchers did not include data from those who have eliminated gluten from their diet completely.

Learn how gluten may trigger lymphoma in some celiac disease patients.

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Too little gluten in our diet may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes - Medical News Today

Science Daily

Unhealthy diets linked to more than 400000 cardiovascular deaths Science Daily Eating a diet lacking in healthy foods and/or high in unhealthy foods was linked to more than 400,000 deaths from heart and blood vessel diseases in 2015, according to an analysis presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology and ... Bad Diets Tied to 400000 US Deaths in 2015U.S. News & World Report all 6 news articles »

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Unhealthy diets linked to more than 400000 cardiovascular deaths - Science Daily

Professional athletes dont get to the top by accident. It takes superhuman levels of time, dedication, and focusand that includes paying attention to what they put in their bellies. In this series, GQ takes a look at what athletes in different sports eat on a daily basis to perform at their best. Heres a look at the steadfast daily diet of San Antonio Spurs star Kawhi Leonard, who swears by high-alkaline waters.

Kawhi Leonard is typically a man of few words, which actually makes him the perfect star to lead a postTim Duncan Spurs team. (And now hes even getting some MVP contention.) Also fitting: His diet mirrors that same no-nonsense attitude. Grill up some chicken, toss in some vegetables, and youre good to go! Dont make it any harder than it needs to be. Kawhis only real concern: making sure he doesnt have to rush off to the bathroom during a TV timeout.

GQ: Im catching you right in the midst of an eight-game road trip. How hard is it to keep a consistent diet when youre away from home and in a different city every night? Kawhi Leonard: You definitely have to be focused in on it, but its difficult trying to eat something thats good for you on the road. We usually have a nutritionist who will let us know what we should eat and what we shouldnt eat from the hotel menus. She looks all of that over for us throughout the whole year.

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Thats an incredible resource to have. So what is your usual go-to meal when you land in a new city? I just try to stay away from beef and pork. Ill try to get something like grilled chicken or fish. Something like that with some vegetables.

I know that there are some athletes who travel a lot who rely on places like Chipotle or Subway when theyre on the road. Is there somewhere like that youll go if you need a quick meal? I try to go to hole-in-the-wall sandwich places if I do need something quick. Someplace fresh and healthy, like a juice bar. There arent really any household names that I go to.

More local establishments? Mhmm. Exactly.

You always get a better feel for whatever city youre in when you go that route. Yeah, for sure. You could go to Subway anywhere, even in your own hometown.

When you are in San Antonio and you have more options around you, do you have a routine that youre into? Or are you a guy who will eat whatever you feel like eating on any given day? I pretty much keep it free when it comes to that. I dont eat the same meal or at the same time every single day. You get tired of that real quick. I just try to make sure whatever Im eating is fresh and clean and good for my body. Thats about it.

A few years back, I actually had some of the most insanely delicious pancakes of my life in San Antonio. Those probably dont fall into the category of fresh and clean and good for my body, though. Nah. I rarely eat breakfast because of our schedule, actually. If I do, though, Ill try to do an egg-white omelet with some bell peppers and mushrooms. Maybe a side of a bunch of different fruits.

Playing for the Spurs, youre typically making pretty deep runs into the playoffs. You tend to have a longer season than some other teams in the league. Does that force you to make any changes to your diet the deeper into the season it gets? It depends. As the season goes on into the playoffs, sometimes you do lose a little bit more weight. I usually just try to see where my weight is at and either add more vegetables or proteins to my meals to get my weight where I want it to be.

The Spurs are pretty renowned in every aspect as an organization. Have you picked up any tips from the staff members or the nutritionists you work with that have helped out your career? You know, theres definitely a big difference from college into the league. Being in college, you dont have the money to even get organic foods or eat only organic vegetables, organic drinks. You really just go with what you have in front of you. And the college I was at, we were a mid-major, so we didnt really have all the perks and stuff like that other teams might have. We ended up eating a lot of fast food. Obviously, the NBA is different. This is a professional job, and they want you to play at your highest level. So Ive learned a ton being with the Spurs just about basic nutrition.

Was that a tough transition, going from college to the league? It was actually pretty easy, because I really didnt enjoy eating fast food, especially as I got older. It just didnt taste good to me. Ive always liked home-cooked meals. And my mom moved to San Antonio my rookie year and would cook for me, so it was an easy transition.

Theres nothing like mom cooking you a good meal, right? Nothing. Plus, I wanted to better my eating habits before I even got drafted. That summer, there was a lockout, so I had a long time to get everything situated. It was like a four- or five-month wait until I was actually able to be seen by the Spurs. So learning throughout that entire time about good eating habits was a key.

As someone who used to play basketball, Ive always been interested by whether or not professional players eat right before a game. I was the type of player who was sort of superstitious about it. I didnt like to eat anything within two hours before a game. Then I had teammates chowing down on something right before warm-ups. Where do you fall in that spectrum? I definitely dont like to eat a lot before I play. I dont like to play on a full stomach. Sometimes, if Im feeling hungry before a game, Ill eat one of those protein bars, but thats it.

Something thatll give you energy but doesnt weigh you down? Exactly.

That was always the big thing for me. Theres nothing worse than when youre running up and down and jumping and you feel like there is something in your stomach. Yeah, you got guys in the locker room who will be eating a whole sandwich or something. They want to feel heavy or something, I guess.

Nope, not for me. I wasnt trying to go to the bathroom during the second quarter. Like, youve got other things to be worried about out there. I never wanted to feel like I had to shit my pants. Yeah, I definitely understand that.

One last question, just so were not leaving people with that mental image: Now that youre a veteran in the league, do you have any advice, nutrition-wise, for the young kids preparing to make the jump from college ball to the NBA? Id just tell them to try to eat more fresh and natural foods. Eat organic products. Also, watch the type of water youre drinking. Not all water is great for you. I drink a lot of water during the day, but I stay away from certain waters because their pH levels are low. Stick to alkaline waters with a higher pH. Trust me.

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The Real-Life Diet of Kawhi Leonard - GQ Magazine

Men's Health

Bob Harper Switches to Mediterranean Diet After Heart Attack Men's Health By now, you've probably read that Bob Harper suffered a severe heart attack last month that left him unconscious for two days. While he's on the mend, he's also making some changes to his lifestyle. In a new Instagram post, Harper wrote that his doctor ... and more »

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Bob Harper Switches to Mediterranean Diet After Heart Attack - Men's Health

March is National Nutrition Month, a campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that showcases the importance of a healthy diet. March also draws attention to colorectal and kidney cancers, as well as myeloma.

Cancer is becoming a worldwide epidemic, with more than eight million people dying from various forms of the disease each year, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that specializes in public health and corporate accountability, believes that diet plays a key role in the cancer battle. The EWG developed a simple eating regimen that may reduce the risk of cancer. Dubbed the Cancer Defense Diet, the plan places a strong emphasis on fruits, vegetables and unprocessed proteins like beans or low-mercury seafood.

More than half a million people in the US died from cancer in 2012, and a 2011 survey found that the disease is the leading cause of death in the western world.

"Theres a strong body of evidence that shows cancer risks are reduced among people who eat a diet focused on plant foods, keep calories under control, and minimize things like red and processed meats, added sugars and salt," Dr. Curt Della Valle, Ph.D. told us Thursday.

Della Valle is a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group and director of its Cancer Prevention Initiative.

"Weve tried to point out some specific foods that have shown the most promise in terms of being part of a diet that can lower cancer risk," Della Valle explained. "We also tackle the question of how how these foods can affect health. One important way is by helping to keep our cells behaving properly. Things like protecting against inflammation and unwanted cell division these are hallmarks of cancer."

The Cancer Defense Diet is part of a growing movement that's looking beyond traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

"The cancer industry is a multi-billion dollar business," Della Valle said. "What would happen to it if people realize they can prevent cancer through a healthy diet and lifestyle changes?"

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information in 2008, one-third of cancers are caused by factors like "cigarette smoking, diet (fried foods, red meat), alcohol, sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infections, stress, obesity, and physical inactivity."

The study claimed that many cancers are preventable with lifestyle changes.

"...Most cancers are not of hereditary origin and that lifestyle factors...have a profound influence on their development," the study concluded.

How does the Cancer Defense Diet work? What foods are allowed/prohibited?

"Red and processed meats are clearly associated with risk of colorectal cancer," Della Valle explained. "Foods high in added sugar and salt these are generally foods that are highly processed - can also increase cancer, and other health risks, if eaten too frequently."

Alcohol should be consumed in moderation, and processed carbohydrates like potato chips, cookies, cakes and snacks should be eliminated or eaten only occasionally. More information on the Cancer Defense Diet can be found here.

Likewise, beware of so-called nutrition companies touting cure-all superfoods with over-embellished claims. A healthy lifestyle takes time, patience and willpower and won't be accomplished by adding a single food to one's diet.

"I think these labels are marketing strategies that target our general desire to have a simple, easy solution to a problem eat this and you wont get cancer," Della Valle said. "Its not true. Its not that these foods cant help helpful, but the claims are almost always overblown."

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Diet rich in plants, low in processed meats may help fight cancer - WBAL Baltimore

Want to live a long, healthy life? Move to South Korea.

In a study from Imperial College London,published in the journal the Lancet in late February, researchers projected the life expectancy for men and women born in 35 industrialized countries in the year 2030. The study authors used 21 different forecasting models to analyze death rates across various age groups over the past 50-plus years, resulting in predictions that they believe are the most accurate statistics available.

The good news: The study predicts life expectancy will increase in all 35 countries. South Korea is expected to take the top spot for both women and men, with projected life expectancies of 90.8 and 84, respectively.

The bad news: The USA came in dead last in its cohort, with the lowest predicted life expectancy out of all high-income industrialized countries an average of 83.3 years for women, and 79.5 years for men.

Although the study doesnt dig deep into why citizens of certain countries can expect longer life spans than others, co-author James Bennett tells The Post that high-ranking countries do have some commonalities, such as access to health care, low smoking rates and healthy diets.

Below, the life-extending staples that keep these top countries ticking.

Bennett cites Koreas traditional diet as one reason why its citizens are expected to live so long.

Thats thanks in part to kimchee, a popular Korean condiment thats served with most meals. The fermented vegetable mix is packed with gut-healthy probiotics which can help your body fight off disease as well as filling fiber and antioxidants.

Other South Korean staples include bibimbap, a popular dish of rice, vegetables, red pepper paste, egg and a small amount of meat.

It goes down so easily, and its full of healthy foods, says nutritionist Joshua Rosenthal, founder of NYCsInstitute for Integrative Nutrition.

Plus, says Bennett, South Koreas recent economic growth has made health care more accessible across the whole population, leading to huge gains in its life expectancy standing.

France isnt exactly known as a health-food mecca the country is synonymous with baguettes, croissants and healthy pats of butter. Still, its citizens tend to live long lives, with a projected life expectancy of 88.6 years for women and 81.7 for men for those born in 2030.

Whats fascinating is that many of the foods that Americans avoid, like foods that are high in carbs or saturated fat, are things you see in a French diet, says Danielle Rehfeld, a personal chef who specializes in global cuisine.

But the French generally consume foods differently than Americans, opting for smaller portion sizes eaten at mealtimes, rather than snacks or binges.

It also helps that they tend to see meals as social events.

Its not just what youre eating, its how youre eating, says nutritionist Rosenthal. If youre eating while youre watching TV, you dont realize how much food you ate youre unconscious.

And staying connected with friends and family has been shown to aid in healthy aging as does the easy access to health care and social services that the French enjoy.

Click for more from the New York Post.

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Diet secrets from the world's healthiest countries | Fox News - Fox News

Men's Health

Tom Brady Wants You to Pay $78 Per Week to Eat Like Him Men's Health Tom Brady is notorious for his strict diet. The Patriots quarterback reportedly avoids sugar, white flour, gluten, all fruit entirely, eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, dairy, iodized salt, and olive oil. And now, for $78 per week, you too can ...

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Tom Brady Wants You to Pay $78 Per Week to Eat Like Him - Men's Health

Slide: 1 / of 1. Caption: Chang W. Lee/The New York Times/Redux

The nation is in serious danger. The creeping spread of Islam is pushing out Christianity. The countrys borders are swarming with drug-slinging criminals, and its veterans are dying in droves. Heartless, power-hungry liberals snatch guns away from poor, defenseless citizens while openly mocking Gold Star widows. Meanwhile, Democratic operatives are planning a coup from a bunker not far from the White House and wiretapping Trump administration officials, not to mention Trump Tower itselfa looming scandal of Watergate proportions.

The worst part? The propagandistic left-wing media (that subhuman species) wont report a word of it.

At least, thats what I learned spending a few weeks on a self-imposed binge of President Trumps media dieta virtual smorgasbord of Breitbart, Fox News, front-page newspaper headlines, presidential Twitter, and a smattering of Infowars for flavor. I already know what the president thinks of the press, but I wanted to know more about how the world looks to the president through his particular media lens. Yes, even presidents live inside their own filter bubbles. And this past weekend demonstrated just how damaging such media myopia can be when that blinkered vision belongs to the worlds most powerful person.

In less than a day, a Breitbart story accusing the Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower became, via tweet, a presidentially asserted fact. As with most Americans, the television Trump watches, the news he consumes, and the people he follows on social media warp and distort his view of the world.

Millions of people share Trumps media habits. His favored outlets have huge, devoted followings. But unlike everyone else, Trump has the authority to turn these often lopsided and misleading narratives into policyor at least 140-character proclamations that, by virtue of his office, the rest of the world must take seriously. Now the Trump administration is calling for a congressional investigation into the wiretapping claims, even though Trump aides have repeatedly failed to point to any hard evidence to back up the presidents allegations.

And I should have seen it all coming. During my weeks on the Trump media diet, I surfed an endless feedback loop circulating between Trump and his preferred media outlets, where speculation leads to justification, ad infinitum. Through this fish-eye, Trumps wiretapping tweets dont look surprising at all. They would instead represent the logical conclusion of what happens when the President of the United States seems to believe everything he hearsand when he limits what he hears to what he wants to hear.

Trumps media diet is tough to stick to. Its like the Paleo of media consumption. It requires extra preparation to fit everything in and a spartan commitment to elimination. (Trump reportedly swore off Morning Joe after years as a devoted viewer).

Trump follows this regimen rigorously. Aloneperhaps in his bathrobein the pre-dawn hours, he flicks on the television to tune into Fox & Friends, which he recently called the most honest morning show. He scours The New York Times and the New York Postin print, not digitaland scans The Wall Street Journal. At night hes been known to tweet reactions to The OReilly Factor and Hannity and hate-tweet his response to Saturday Night Live. And dont forget the Sunday shows.

Its a lot to take in. So, as with any diet Ive ever tried, I cheated a little here and there. Instead of waking up at 6 am to catch the morning shows and staying up late to watch Hannity, I caught the highlights online. And I added outlets that have a known influence on Trump. Every day I checked in on Breitbart, whose former chair Steve Bannon is now Trumps chief strategist, and watched as Alex Jones face grew ever-redder throughout his four-hour Infowars broadcast. (Please know, dear reader, I did this for you.) Trump may not listen to Infowars, but several of his most controversial claimsincluding the idea that millions of people voted illegallyfirst gained traction on Jones show.

I also created a Twitter account to follow everyone Trump follows on Twitter, a list that notably does not include any government agencies, press secretary Sean Spicer, @WhiteHouse, or even @POTUS but which does include Apprentice producer Mark Burnett and his wife, Touched By an Angel star Roma Downey. In the dark dystopia that is Trumps media bubble, Downeys random musings exuded a welcome ray of light.

Otherwise, the world inside the bubble looked bleak. On Infowars, Jones touted what he called a bombshell story about Hillary Clinton planting moles throughout the White House. On Fox, Sean Hannity asked Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu whether Iran was readying a modern day holocaust. Its up to us to prevent it, Netanyahu replied in a sober baritone. Fox & Friends hosts told the story of an undocumented immigrant accused of murder in Colorado and claimed a DREAMer detained under Trumps executive order was a gang member. Breitbart published videos of Palestinian children dancing joyfully to a song called Pull the Trigger, while Ann Coulter filled my Twitter feed with headlines about crimes committed by Latinos.

For the most part, these stories werent fabricated. But they were cherry-picked, selected to convey an overarching message about what Trump might call American carnage. In this world, immigration and Islam serve as the default enemies, along with the mainstream media and the left. Whenever the president comes under attack by either one, his preferred outlets offer him the ammunition he needs to fight back. When the press seized on reports that US attorney general Jeff Sessions didnt say during his confirmation hearing that he had met with a Russian ambassador, Trumps media mirrors scrambled to dismiss the story as hysterical.

This whole smear campaign is really just part of the Democrats larger fake news conspiracy theory that Russian hacking, hacking, is the reason why Hillary Clinton lost the election, Hannity quipped during his opening monologue.

The wiretapping story wasnt the only one Trump ran with and repeated to millions of people across the country. After a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox about Swedens issues with refugees, the president held a rally in Florida, where he compared Sweden to Brussels, Paris, and Niceall places that have experienced deadly terror attacks. More recently, the president tweeted that 122 prisoners released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield, a phony line he repeated verbatim from Fox & Friends.

I surfed an endless feedback loop where speculation leads to justification, ad infinitum.

This alternate universe to which I traveled taught me as much about my bubble as it did the presidents. Im a 30-year-old college-educated writer living in Brooklyn, and my media diet is pretty much what youd expect given those credentials: The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, CNN, WIRED (duh), and a whole lot of Refinery29 in my Facebook feed. In Trumps filter bubble, senator John McCain is a politically motivated warmonger. In mine, he and Lindsey Graham represent the lone Republican voices standing up to a rogue president. In my bubble, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau wins over hearts and minds with his good butt and welcoming approach to refugees. In Trumps, the Trudeau effect is steadily decimating trust in government among the Canadian people.

My Trump media diet reminded me that I could also benefit from breaking out of the bubbleexcept Im not the president. Theres no subset of the media who make it their job to convince me Im right. For Trump, there is.

Time and again, Trumps pet outlets find a way to rationalize the presidents claims, even claims as apparently baseless as the wiretapping conspiracy. By Monday morning, while other outlets pressed the administration on the origins of the presidents theories, Utah representative Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, sat stiffly beside the hosts on the Fox & Friends couch, vowing to get to the bottom of this.

The real danger in all of this is not that Trump lacks media literacy. Indeed, he may understand the machinations of the media better than anyone. The danger is that an increasingly large number of media outlets today have built their business models around telling the presidents supportersand the president himselfonly what they want to hear. As long as that cycle exists, the wiretapping claim wont be the last online conspiracy theory to become state-sanctioned.

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I Tried Trump's Media Diet. Now Nothing Surprises Me Anymore ... - WIRED

March 8, 2017 Neanderthals probably weren't the simple, club-wielding, meat-gnawing brutes of cartoon lore. Clues like cave art, tombs, and complex constructed structuresall point to the extinct human species being more culturally advanced than classically thought.

Now the evidence is mounting from a new place: plaque preserved on Neanderthals' teeth.

Examining the contents of the calcified plaque of five Neanderthal specimens that range from 42,000 to 50,000 years old, researchers who study ancient DNA were able to determine their diet. And, it turns out, not all Neanderthals ate alike.

Some dined on a lot of meat, eating the flesh of animals like woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep. But others may have been complete vegetarians, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. In the plaque of these Neanderthal vegetarians, researchers found no evidence of any meat. Instead, they say these individuals dined on mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss.

It's unlikely that these diets reflected any sort of moral or sociopolitical statement. "We really think that these are just reflective of the particular environments that the Neanderthals were in at the time," study lead author Laura Weyrich, a paleomicrobiologist at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, tells The Christian Science Monitor.

The meat-munching Neanderthal teeth were unearthed at Spy Cave in Belgium, a region that researchers think was more of a steppe environment, with big, rolling, grassy hills or small mountains, when Neanderthals lived there. The moss-munching Neanderthal specimens are from El Sidrn Cave in Spain, which was probably densely forested at the time.

"It's easy to understand how a big woolly rhino could have been wandering through a grassy field," Dr. Weyrich says. But "it's very difficult to picture that big beastly animal trying to squeeze its way through a densely forested area. It's much easier to eat pine nuts that are all over the ground."

This suggests that "they weren't maybe as different from us as a lot of people think," Shara Bailey, a paleoanthropologist at New York University who was not involved in the research, tells the Monitor. "They did what any human would do. They ate what was available to them."

Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, an anthropologist at Ohio State University who also was not involved in the research, agrees in an email to the Monitor. "Traditionally Neanderthal diets have been considered less variable than those of the anatomically modern humans they coexisted with. On this basis, Neanderthals were assumed to have been less adaptable than anatomically modern humans."

But, she writes, "Together with other recent work, this study adds further evidence to the conclusion that Neanderthal diets were quite variable."

Studies of the isotopic composition of some Neanderthal bones published a decade ago suggested that the extinct humans were top-level carnivores. With a diet as meat-heavy as a polar bear, this was hailed as evidence that Neanderthals hunted for many of their meals.

But more recent research looking at wear on Neanderthal teeth from plant roughage and microfossils of plants in their plaquestarted to paint a more nuanced picture of the Neanderthal diet and foraging habits.

Erik Trinkaus, a paleoanthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis and an author on a 2009 study examining the isotopes in Neanderthal bones, calls this new work "a nice supporting analysis of the inferences concerning Neanderthal diet from faunal remains, starch grains in calculus, and stable isotopes," in an email to the Monitor.

Their regular diet wasn't the only hint as to how Neanderthals benefited from their environments. One of the individuals from El Sidrn displayed evidence of being ill, and the researchers found that he had been eating poplar, which is known to be a natural source of the active ingredient in common painkillers used in modern medicine.

"It's not these individuals that were toting clubs and grunting and running around in caves," Weyrich says. Instead, she says, they led "a very nuanced lifestyle."

How do you determine diet from plaque?

Weyrich and her team weren't looking at fossilized chunks of food in the Neanderthals' dental plaque (although that has been done). Instead, they used a technique called metagenomics and sequenced all the DNA preserved in this built-up, calcified tooth gunk. Once they had all the pieces of DNA, they had to assemble them like puzzle pieces to reconstruct the genomes of organisms preserved on the prehistoric teeth.

This plaque isn't quite the same as modern humans scrub off their teeth every night and morning with a toothbrush (or at least tell their dentists they do). The stuff Weyrich and her colleagues looked at is calcified plaque, called calculus, that forms when plaque has built up over a long period of time.

Because plaque traps microorganisms that live in the mouth and bits of food that get stuck there, calculus is a treasure-trove of insights for geneticists like Weyrich, particularly in people who didn't brush their teeth.

"In an ancient individual that didn't have modern dentistry, we have to assume that these calculus samples likely represent a lifelong record of the microorganisms and things that were present in their mouth," Weyrich explains.

It is possible that the calculus might not be a complete record of all the plaque and food that has ever been in an individual's mouth in their lifetime, she admits. That's because there are many factors that go into how much calculus might form and how much food debris might get caught there.

But, Weyrich points out, "because our results matched the isotopes [and other previous research], we really do think we're looking at long-term trends rather than just their last meal that happens to randomly be stuck in there."

"We have to keep in mind that these are individuals," Dr. Bailey cautions. And individuals may not represent the whole group that they live in, so it may be too much of a leap to generalize one population as vegetarians and one as carnivores.

Still, "The kinds of advances that we've been able to make in assessing Neanderthals from such obscure data like dental calculus I think is pretty amazing. The technology blows me away," Bailey says. And, she jokes, thanks to modern dentistry, "the archaeologists of the future are going to be upset that we don't have any of this on our teeth."

Were Neanderthals and Homo sapiens kissing cousins?

Because Weyrich and her team sequenced all the DNA in the Neanderthal plaque, they saw more than just plant and meat matter.

One detail the researchers extracted from one of the El Sidrn Neanderthals' plaque was a nearly complete genome of a microbe, Methanobrevibacter oralis, a strain of which is found todayin H. sapiens' microbiome. Weyrich and her team were able to determine that the Neanderthal strain and the modern human one diverged between 112,000 to 143,000 years ago long after Neanderthals and H. sapiens diverged from their last common ancestor.

This, Weyrich and her colleagues say, suggests that the mouth-inhabiting microbe was being passed between the two species.

The two human species are known to have interbred, but "those interactions of interbreeding were always described as something that was very brash and brutal," Weyrich says. "But if they're swapping spit and they're sharing oral microorganisms, that means that there's something much more friendly, or certainly something much more intimate going on with those interactions."

Bailey isn't sure that that's the only explanation. "Maybe, maybe not," she says. It's possible that the divergence date could be shifted due to other factors, like ongoing selection in the microbe, she explains. "I wouldn't want anybody to read too much into that thinking that this is evidence of Neanderthals and modern humans making out."

Regardless, Weyrich maintains that the overall revelation about Neanderthals from her work is that they "were very capable, very intelligent, probably very friendly beings," she says. "We really need to rewrite the history books as far as how we see them and how we view their lifestyle."

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Paleo diet revamped? Prehistoric plaque reveals what Neanderthals ate. - Christian Science Monitor

You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and while good dietary choices boost your own health, they also could improve the health care system and even benefit the planet. Healthier people mean not only less disease but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from health care.

As it turns out, some relatively small diet tweaks could add up to significant inroads in addressing climate change.

That's the finding of a new study led by UC Santa Barbara researchers, who analyzed the potential effects of healthier model diets for the United States. The results appear in the journal Climatic Change.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has done this," said study director David Cleveland, a research professor in UCSB's environmental studies program and geography department. "People have looked at what effect diets have both on climate and on health, but they've never examined the potential to mitigate climate change through the food system and the health care system together."

The food system contributes about 30 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with the largest proportion coming from animal-based food. In addition, the poor quality of the standard U.S. diet -- including high levels of red and processed meat and low levels of fruits and vegetables -- is a major factor in a number of preventable diseases. The U.S. spends $3 trillion on health care every year -- 18 percent of the gross domestic product -- much of it allocated to diseases associated with poor diets.

Cleveland and colleagues first used data from published meta-analyses that examined the effect of foods on diseases. Then, using life-cycle assessment data for the foods that changed in the healthier model diets, they analyzed the effects of the diets on greenhouse gas emissions for the food system. For the health care system, the researchers estimated the change in risk of diabetes, colorectal cancer and coronary heart disease due to the healthier diets and the subsequent effect on both health care costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

To create healthier model diets, the researchers altered the standard 2,000-calorie-a-day U.S. diet, changing the sources of about half of those calories. The different model diets progressively reduced the amount of red and processed meats, with the most stringent diet eliminating them completely. Fruit and vegetable intake was doubled, and peas and beans increased to replace the meat protein removed. Refined grains were partially replaced with whole grains. Added sugar, which Cleveland noted is a known health risk, was not reduced. Neither was dairy, eggs, fish or non-red meat.

"This means our estimates are probably very conservative, both in terms of health and climate change implications," Cleveland said. "Just changing half of the diet and including only some of the diseases associated with diets, we found a huge effect.

"Food has a tremendous impact on the environment," he added. "That means that there is enormous potential for our food choices to have positive effects on our environment as well on our health and our health care costs."

That is exactly what the scientists found. The adoption of healthier model diets reduced the relative risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes by 20 to 40 percent. Health care costs went down by $77 billion to $93 billion annually and direct greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 222 kilograms to 826 kilograms per person per year.

"In the third diet -- which contained no red or processed meats -- there was a savings of $95 billion out of the total annual cost of $230 billion for those three diseases," Cleveland explained. "That's not huge compared to the $3 trillion total in health care costs, but it's a start. Results like these can also help motivate individual and policy changes."

In terms of climate policy, the healthier diets could contribute up to 23 percent of the U.S. Climate Action Plan goal to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, Cleveland said. Further, the diets could generate up to 134 percent of California's goal of reaching 1990 emission levels by 2020.

According to Cleveland, the findings add weight to the conclusion of several other recent studies: Diet change must be part of successful climate change mitigation policies, and climate change mitigation must be included in policies to improve the food system.

This creates an important opportunity for the University of California, Cleveland noted. "The UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative should have a major focus on climate change mitigation via the food system," he said. "And the UC Global Food Initiative should have a major focus on the relationships among food, climate and health."

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Diet and global climate change: Eating healthier food could reduce ... - Science Daily

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