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PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) All diets are not equal.

Losing weight is never easy, and finding the best diet for you can be harder than you think.

Ariana Chao, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, looked at many of the different types to determine how to select the best eating plan. She found some that did well for a while.

There are some short-term benefits, she said, to lower-calorie and lower-carbohydrate types of diets, typically seen around six months or so. However longer-term, at about 12 months or greater, we tend to see that these tend to deteriorate. So there tends to not really be a difference in terms of long term.

When choosing a personalized diet based on markers like insulin levels, for example, there has been no proof of real success. Chao said exercising and finding a diet you can sustain long-term is still the best plan.

It just may take a few tries to determine if a low-carb, low-fat or plant-based diet works best for you.

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Finding the right diet can be the hardest part of weight loss - KYW Newsradio 1060

When you think about growing old gracefully, you envision yourself healthy,holding hands with your loved one, able to do all the things you love (like hike, play tennis, swim, or just hang out on the porch and visit), and most of all, you picture yourself as healthy. That is the goal,and that's the story of Bob and Fran German (the G is pronounced like girl), who are, in their 80s, active,healthier, and look younger than most people 20 years their junior. After two serious bouts withillness (he had cancer and she an autoimmune disease),they switched to a whole-food, plant-based diet 15 years ago, which they believe saved their lives. Now, they talk about their diet as the fountain of youth, and they want everyone to start drinking from it.

Bob and Franstarted eating plant-based after she was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease and he had the scary diagnosis of kidney cancer. Rather than listen to the dire prognosis of their doctors, they got busy researching holistic approaches to health and changed everything: How they eat, where they lived, even their livelihoods, to be stress-free and able to help others learn more abouthow to eat a plant-based diet. Now, decades after the first piece of devastating health news, Fran received from her doctor, who basically told her that her condition was degenerative and ultimately fatal, they are both symptom-free and living active, healthy, and love-filled lives. They are both as sharp-as-tacks and cheerful, not suffering from the brain fog or memory loss that many people experience in their 80s.

Bob and Fran told The Beetthey love to cook spicy food, especially Asian and Indian dishes full of spice and flavor, andas they describe a typical day's menu, we want them to head to the kitchen and give us a cookinglesson. They could write a cookbook called: How to Cook to Live Long, AgeWell and Keep Love Alive.

Bob: The reason we like to tell our stories is that we truly believe that so many people think that when you get sick there's no hope. They're not given any hope from their doctor, they are just given some medication and told this is the way it's got to be. We actually have a phrase for that, called the "nocebo." You know what a placebo is, when you take a sugar pill? A nocebo is when you go to the doctor, and you are diagnosed with a disease and you are really given no hope. You are told "You will never get better." Or "You will have to take medication and there's just no way you can get better."

Fran: Well, heres my story. In the fall, of 1992, we went on a trip to China for three weeks. And when we were there we both got really sick with upper respiratory infections, and when we came home and I got better, but a few weeks later, I woke up and couldn't open my left eye. We were living in South Florida at the time near Ft. Lauderdale. We went to the doctor and he took one look at me and he said, "I think you have Bell's palsy. And I looked at him and I said I think I have Myasthenia Gravis. Now, dont ask me where this came from, because it's a very uncommon neuroimmune disease, but obviously, my intuition told me there was something going on that he was wrong about.

Bob: Right. I had never heard about that disease.

Fran: At the time, we only knew two people who had ever had it. Aristotle Onassis and Anne Margarets husband.The doctor sends me across the way to the neurologist. The neurologist said, "Well we can find out if you are right." He gave me a little test. He shot something into my arm and my eye popped open. And he said "You are right. It is Myasthenia Gravis." So I went back to my doctor. And this is the nocebo: He saidand this is a friend of ours "It is incurable, you'll have it for the rest of your life, you'll be on medication for the rest of your life, and your lifespan will be shortened."

My Doctorgave me no hope. But I happen to be a very stubborn person and I wasn't going to sit back and take that. And I started researching all the things I could do to get better. But let me tell you, for a while, I was really sick. We were working in real estate at the time, as partnersand I couldn't drive. I had double vision so bad that they couldn't even put a prism in my glasses. It was horrible, I had to wear what looks like blinds going across a piece of plastic in mybad eye.I was so weak that I could barely hold my head up at times. I was just really really very, very sick.

Bob: I have to tell you that the essence of this disease is extreme weakness. In Frans case, from the neck.

Fran: Myasthenia gravis is a Greek expression that means extreme muscle weakness. And it couldn'thave been more exact.

Bob: Her speech was very slurred. She could hardly lift her head up. She hardly could swallow. She losther sense of taste. It was very bad and we were scared.

Fran: I was 52 at the time. We actually stopped working. We worked a bit for the next few years, but I was so sick I couldnt work. And so here we are in the Ft. Lauderdale area with three counties, with millions of people. And I never met another person with Myasthenia Gravis. But I went to many different neurologists. And each time, it was pretty much the same story. Theykept putting me on medication and telling me theres no hope.Then, in 2003, we moved to a small town in western North Carolina. The first week we are here, Bob sees in the newspaper that there is a Myasthenia Gravis support group at the local hospital.

Bob: We couldn't believe it.

Fran: We started going to these meetings every month and didnt really learn anything and I saw a lot of sick people. And of course, they served really healthy snacks, like potato chips, cookies, and soft drinks!

Bob: I have to tell you the town we live in is small. We live in Hendersonville, NC. Its a retirement community. There are only 10,000 people in this town, and they have this support for Myasthenics? So they were a group of very nice, very sick people.

Fran: One thing I noticed, Everybody there had not just Myasthenia Gravis, but they also had diabetes, heart trouble.They had kidney problems. Because obviously when your body breaks down it's not just one thing that goes wrong. I went to these meetings every month and really didnt learn much, but then one-month a clinical nutritionist whod come from Asheville to speak to our group. He showed us a slide presentation, and he talked about how important plant-based nutrition was, and that even eating white meat chicken compromises the immune system and he recommended switching to a plant-based diet

He recommended reading The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, and also Diet for a New America by John Robbins. I immediately went home got both books and read them cover to cover. And thats the beginning of the journey of getting well. I had been to maybe 11 neurologists over a period of years, and nobody had ever mentioned food.

Our society doesnt make a connection between what we eat and our health. Thank goodness I met this nutritionist because I do believe that when the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Unfortunately, I was the only person in the group who took his word seriously. I changed my diet. And the others with who I was friends within the group had all passed away. Not from myasthenia. But from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

Bob: They all died.

Fran: Because they did not change their diet.

Fran: Back in 2006, there wasnt nearly as much available in plant-based foods. There are so many resources now that it's easy. Now let me just tell you at this time, when this was all going on, Bob also developed a problem and he will tell you about his.

Bob: Well, I always kept in good shape. I always worked out. Just like Fran always thought we were eating properly when it was white meat chicken, turkey, fish. (Fran: We didnt know any better). We got involved in race walking. This is an exaggerated thing where you are lifting your arms and you are really working out hard.I used to do maybe 8 or 10 miles a day.

I would walk so fast that I was actually passing people who were jogging, and I was doing this racewalking. Well, after some time, I decided to switch from the path I was walking on to another type of surface. Still doing all these miles every day, and I developed a pain in my groin.

I was nottoo pleased about going to a doctor for anything, but my groin--my private parts? I went to the doctor.It was a urologist. The urologist examined me, said, I cant find anything. I want you to take aCT scan test, which I did.

He brought me backand said come into my office, I want to show you something. First of all, you dont have anything wrong with your groin. You probably pulled a muscle and theres nothing to worry abou. But he showed me that the scan on a screen showed where I had a growth on the outside of my left kidney. It was a tumor on my kidney.

And he said youhaveto get this off and I am not qualified to do it. So I got into Duke University Medical Center. Its internationally known, and excellent in every way. They have an incredible cancer center there. I met a urologist there. He was only one of two people in America who used a special type of surgery for this.

They actually froze off the tumor. and as I was waiting for the results, I thought thatthe waiting was worse than anything. The doctor finally comes in and says: "Well, we took three biopsies after we took this tumor off. Two were okay, but one was not."

"You have renal cell carcinoma." I said, "What is that?" Imade him repeat it three times. I said, "What does that mean?" He said, Bob it means you have kidney cancer, but don't worry, we got it all. Well, weve heard that before. Oh, we got all the cancer.

Fran: He said We got it all, but I have to be honest with you, this type of cancer has been known to return.

Bob: He really told me to be aware, to be on guard. This could return. He didnt tell me to change my lifestyle in any way, but on our drive home, its about a four-hour drive, we said We've got to do something here and thats when we both decided: No meat, no dairy, nothing like that at all, butthat we would both eatwhole food, plant-based. And thats how it all started. Sort of a long story. That's how we both went whole-food, plant-based.

Bob: I agree, but I think the diet saved my life. But you need to be ready to make the change. You cant push anyone into it. They have to want to do it. I have a little post-script to my doctor at Duke University. Well, he was a young guy, and I came back for a follow-up visit, and I had to have several of them, and first, he scoffed at me when I told him that I went plant-based. And then, I learned that years later, he went plant-based. That sort of made my day that the doctor did it as well.

Fran: Many, many people don't do what we did. We lost several friends and relatives because of that. We had three friends who died of prostate cancer because they refused to give up meat and dairy.

Bob: I think that Fran had the secret. We eat amazing meals.People that we know who know we are plant-based think that we just eat brown rice with some cooked vegetables on top. So Fran has made cooking more of a hobby, more of a challenge.

Bob: The thing is I think you can eat amazing dishes when you're plant-based.And we eat whole food plant-based, sowe don't eat oil as well. You can be that way by making creative food. By creating some delicious meals. We like international foods for example. Say one of you in your household wants to go plant-based, wants to try it, but thinks: Oh my husband no way, he has to have his meat.

I think one of the breakthroughs for people, can be to create beautiful looking and delicious tasting meals, not just super simple, but with a little bit of flare. And when we used to entertain before COVID, we would entertain people who loved to come to our house, they still want to come to our house because they know they are eating healthy and they are eating delicious food. High tasting food.Its a winner.

Fran: Typically in the morning we have oats in some form. Either oatmeal or I make granola out of rolled oats. On the weekend maybe it's pancakes or french toast, all healthy, all oil-free.

When we switched to the plant-based doctor here, the first thing he had us do was read Reverse and Prevent Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstein. We thought we were eating very healthy because neither one of us has ever had a weight problem so olive oil was never an issue for us. I used it in salad dressing. I used it in cooking.

But reading this book prompted us to cut out all oil, and in the first month we each lost 10 pounds, and we didn't need to lose any weight.

Fran: It's just wasted calories with no nutritional value. So I either use water or vegetable broth in sauteing. We eat a wide variety of foods, in many different countries. Indian, Italian, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese. We are just all over the place.

We can't travel, but we can travel with our tastebuds.I usually have a pot of soup all the time. I have a big pot of soup all the time in the fridge. Wonderful for lunch or if you need a quick dinner, a pot of soup and a baked potato, and I have this cheese sauce that I made with cashews or white beans. Ive got an air fryer, and I love to fryair fry french fries, total oil-free.

F: Tonight I am going to make zucchini circles in bread crumbs.I use nutritional yeast and some spices. You air fry them and they're delicious. And of course, I've got an instant pot that makes wonderful soups and stews. And when you make a big soup or stew, youve got food for several meals so you don't have to cook all the time.

It's very affordable to eat this way. With COVID, the price of meat has gone up. How could you possibly eat cheaper? You are buying fruits and vegetables and grainsand you are not buying meat and fish. So it's actually much cheaper to eat plant-based.

Bob: Some of the dinners that we've eaten recently: Enchiladas, and Pho which is the national Vietnamese soup,andweve had Chinese stir fry. Weve had Indian food... lasagna.

We spent many years in Thailand....Fran and I got friendly with a couple of the top chefs in Thailand where our headquarters were, and shes a great Thai cook. So we have delicious Thai curries or Thai stir-fries. Or noodle dishes. I love the noodle dishes Drunken noodles we had this week. Its one of my favorites.

(For more on their cooking and other tips check out theirYouTube Channel.)

Bob: And you dont need oil. I think the idea isbe creative, its fun, experiment with this time, but give it a try. We tell people if you are unsure that you want to go plant-based or not, just give it a try, even if its for one month. Just eat no meat and no dairy products for a month and see how you feel. The energy level alone is a turn on.

Fran: One thing I wanted to mention, is that our stories are not unique. There are scores of people who reverse disease with a plant-based diet. Wemet a man who had type 2 diabetes so badlyhe was a veteran and he was going to a Vahospital, and he hadaninsulin pump. He switched to a plant-based diet, and he went backfirst of all, he had lost 60 pounds. He went back to the VA hospital. They said something's wrong with your insulin pump. Its not working. He said its not working because I am not using it anymore. He reversed his diabetes. And thats not an isolated story.

Fran: Absolutely. Its been 15 years.

Bob: I want to say that people are not living longer, they are dying longer. And our goal is to enjoy the third third of our lives. I dont want to be beholden to doctors and pills and tests and hospitals. I don't want that in my life, and I don't think anyonewants that whole thing. So, we are enjoying being in our 80s. We aren't walking aroundfeeling old.

We are actually reversing our age. We were actually 104 (before we started eating this way) and now we are back down into the 80s. And Fran is older than me.

Fran: I am older than Bob by 3 months. But we plan to keep feeling young

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How to Live Longer on a Plant-Based Diet, From Two 80 Year Olds - The Beet

Study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center finds adding more foods that are part of Western diet may reduce cognitive benefits of Mediterranean diet.

A study by Rush researchers finds that adding more foods that are part of Western diet may reduce cognitive benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

Eating a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, has a positive impact on health, but little is known about the effects of including unhealthy foods in an otherwise healthy diet. Now researchers at Rush University Medical Center have reported diminished benefits of a Mediterranean diet among those who frequently eatunhealthy foods. Results of their study were published in Alzheimers & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimers Association.

Eating a diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruit, fish and whole grains may positively affects a persons health, said Puja Agarwal, PhD, a nutritional epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical College. But when it is combined with fried food, sweets, refined grains, red meat, and processed meat, we observed that the benefits of eating the Mediterranean part of the diet seem to be diminished.

A Mediterranean diet is associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in older adults.

The observational study included 5,001 older adults living in Chicago who were part of the Chicago Health and Aging Project, an evaluation of cognitive health in adults over the age of 65 conducted from 1993 to 2012. Every three years, the study participants completed a cognitive assessment questionnaire that tested basic information processing skills and memory, and they filled out a questionnaire about the frequency with which they consumed 144 food items.

The researchers analyzed how closely each of the study participants adhered to a Mediterranean diet, which includes daily consumption of fruit, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish, potatoes and unrefined cereals, plus moderate wine consumption. They also assessed how much each participant followed a Western diet, which included fried foods, refined grains, sweets, red and processed meats, full-fat dairy products and pizza. They assigned scores of zero to five for each food item to compile a total Mediterranean diet score for each participant along a range from zero to 55.

The researchers then examined the association between Mediterranean diet scores and changes in participants global cognitive function, episodic memory and perceptual speed. Participants with slower cognitive decline over the years of follow up were those who adhered closest to the Mediterranean diet, along with limiting foods that are part of Western diet, whereas participants who ate more of the Western diet had no beneficial effect of healthy food components in slowing cognitive decline.

There was no significant interaction between age, sex, race or education and the association with cognitive decline in either high or low levels of Western diet foods. The study also included models for smoking status, body mass index and other potential variables such as cardiovascular conditions and findings remained the same.

Western diets may adversely affect cognitive health, Agarwal said. Individuals who had a high Mediterranean diet score compared to those who had the lowest score were equivalent to being 5.8 years younger in age cognitively.

Agarwal said that the results complement other studies showing that a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of heart disease, certain cancers and diabetes and also support previous studies on Mediterranean diet and cognition. The study also notes that most of the dietary patterns that have shown improvement in cognitive function among older adults, including the Mediterranean, MIND, and DASH diets, have a unique scoring matrix based on the amount of servings consumed for each diet component.

The more we can incorporate green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, berries, olive oil, and fish into our diets, the better it is for our aging brains and bodies. Other studies show that red and processed meat, fried food and low whole grains intake are associated with higher inflammation and faster cognitive decline in older ages, Agarwal said. To benefit from diets such as the Mediterranean diet, or MIND diet, we would have to limit our consumption of processed foods and other unhealthy foods such as fried foods and sweets.

The study and its findings cannot be readily generalized. Future longitudinal studies on diet and cognition among the middle-aged population are needed to extend these findings.

Reference: Unhealthy foods may attenuate the beneficial relation of a Mediterranean diet to cognitive decline by Puja Agarwal, Klodian Dhana, Lisa L. Barnes, Thomas M Holland, Yanyu Zhang, Denis A. Evans and Martha Clare Morris, 7 January 2021, Alzheimers & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimers Association.DOI: 10.1002/alz.12277

Other researchers at Rush involved in the study at Rush were Klodian Dhana, PhD; Lisa Barnes, PhD; Thomas Holland, MD; Yanyu Zhang, MS; Denis Evans, MD; Martha Morris, ScD.

The study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

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Eating Unhealthy Foods May Diminish Positive Effects of an Otherwise Healthy Diet - SciTechDaily

In the first DGA published during a pandemic, you'd think COVID-19 would get some airtime. Unfortunately, it only got one sentence. I know most of us are ready to see coronavirus in our rearview mirrors, but it's not history (yet).

The past 10 months have shown us scientific discoveries in real-time, linking preventable nutrition issues (e.g., vitamin D deficiency) with COVID-19. And considering immunity is a top priority, I think it's a miss that the Dietary Guidelines did not take the opportunity to inform Americans of the links between nutrition and immune function. The singular mention in the DGA explains that, "people living with diet-related chronic conditions and diseases are at an increased risk of severe illness from the novel coronavirus."

I appreciate, however, that the DGAC (remember, they wrote the 835-page scientific report to inform the much shorter DGA) adds more color to the issue, calling out two concurrent epidemics in our country: "These parallel epidemics, one noninfectious (obesity and diet-related chronic diseases) and one infectious (COVID-19), appear to be synergistic."

Schneeman explains the committee faced a logistical, timing challenge: "The COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the committee moved into its final phases of work." She went on to say that, "As a committee, we were struck with the vulnerability of those with diet-related chronic diseases (e.g., obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) to the most serious outcomes from infection with the virus. In addition, the disruptions due to the pandemic have resulted in food insecurity and hunger, increasing the challenges to make healthful dietary choices."

DGAC member Regan Bailey, Ph.D., MPH, R.D., echoes this paradox, sharing that while "nutrition is critical to the immune defense and resistance to pathogens, both undernutrition and overnutrition can impair immune function." (Bailey is a professor in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University, as well as director of the Purdue Diet Assessment Center.)

At mindbodygreen, we recently explored undernutrition in the complex problem of food insecurity, as well as overnutrition (and unhealthy nutrition patterns) in the synergy between metabolic health and immunity.

Based on these insights, I believe embracing healthful nutrition patterns, supporting food security initiatives, addressing nutrient gaps, and maximizing other lifestyle factors (e.g., physical activity, sleep, etc.) are powerful levers we can choose to pull to improve metabolic health and thus our immune system.

Indeed, DGAC member Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., RDN, L.D., professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University and chief of the Nutrition Division at Feinberg School of Medicine, underscores the fact that, "now more than ever, the importance of healthy eating, weight control, and prevention of both cardiometabolic and infectious diseases is a recognized goal, worldwide."

Ultimately, diving deeper into the nutrition/immune system relationship in the Dietary Guidelines was passed onto the next iteration (20252030). In the meantime, Donovan shares these actionable insights: "a healthy immune system depends upon an adequate intake of many nutrients, protein, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially omega-3s), vitamins (e.g., vitamin C and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E), and minerals (e.g., iron and zinc)."

In addition to these macro- and micronutrients, Donovan explains that, "the best place to get immune-supporting nutrients is from whole foods, particularly fruits and vegetables, which provide dietary fiber and phytonutrients that benefit the gut microbiome and immune function."

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I'm A Nutritionist & This Is What I Really Think About The New Dietary Guidelines - mindbodygreen.com

A diet of locally sourced, seasonal food could reduce CO2 emissions, but does that mean we can never eat an avocado again?

Uncertainty around the Brexit trade negotiations shone a spotlight on where the food we eat comes from. People began to think about what would be on our tables if some food products were no longer available or affordable.

Fortunately, the deal that was reached means that, on the whole, there are no tariffs for food imports or exports between the UK and the EU. The scrutiny of the origin of some food and the environmental cost of bringing it to our shores has shifted the consumers focus to the environmental cost of the year-round availability of certain foods.

Around half of the food we eat in the UK is produced here. Eating UK-grown fruit and vegetables when in season means that less CO2 is emitted through transportation.

In 2019, Our World in Data reported that food production is responsible for approximately a quarter of the worlds greenhouse gas emissions. It concluded that the largest contributor is the livestock and fisheries sector.

Raising animals on farms to produce meat, dairy and eggs is responsible for 31 per cent of food emissions. Much of this is methane, which sheep and cattle produce through enteric fermentation in their digestive processes. Methane is emitted when the animal belches. There are also emissions from managing pastures and the fuel used for farm vehicles. In dairy farming, researchers are experimenting with additives introduced to cattle feed, including garlic and cinnamon, to reduce the amount of methane produced in cows stomachs, but this does affect the taste of the milk produced.

Fishing also produces CO2 through the useof fuel for fishing vessels. In Scotland and north-east England, fishing boats go further for what is called distant water fishing and can be away for days or weeks at atime, while in the south-west of England, the catch is from coastal waters, with trawlers out for a day or less.

A vegetarian diet also has carbon pitfalls. The US environmental activist group, Environmental Working Group, produced The Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change and Health. It reported that cheese consumption resulted in 13.5kg-CO2e/kg. CO2equivalent, or CO2e, is the collective termfor greenhouse gases and is the amount of CO2 which would have the equivalent impact of global warming. The CO2e figure for cheese is less than for lamb or beef (39kg-CO2e/kg and 27kg-CO2e/kg respectively) but more than pork or farmed salmon (12kgCO2e/kg), chicken (7kgCO2e/kg), and eggs (5kg/CO2e/kg).

The type of cheese also affects greenhouse gas emissions. Hard cheese requires more milk than soft cheese, and therefore has a higher CO2e because of the emissions from milk production.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee broke down the carbon footprint of many foods in his book How Bad are Bananas?. He says that UK farm animals convert 10 per cent of calories they consume into meat and dairy for human consumption and argues that it would be more efficient if crops were consumed directly by the UK population.

The perceived wisdom is that eating fruit and vegetables that have not been grown using artificial heating will result in a lower carbon footprint.

Eating local produce, grown without artificial heating and without shipping or air freight, has the lowest CO2 emission. For example, locally grown apples produce 0.3kg-CO2e/kg, compared with apples shipped in from New Zealand, which produce 0.6kg-CO2e/kg. One of the most dramatic figures in Berners-Lees calculations is asparagus. Grown in the UK it is responsible for 1.1kg-CO2e/kg but imported from Peru, it increases to 18.5kg-CO2e/kg. Root vegetables can be grown locally all year round and are easy to store without needing refrigeration powered by electricity, resulting in 0.3kg-CO2e/kg.

International trade

Brexit has meant some increases in costs for wholesalers. Now that goods cannot travel freely between the UK and the EU, the paperwork required to clear the customs checks adds around 65 (58) per heading (i.e. category). According to Simon Lane, managing director at fruit importer Fruco, a lorryload of root vegetables may contain broccoli, butternut squash and sweet potatoes, which are three headings, incurring a cost of 195 (174). This cost is incurred by growers exporting the vegetables and by importers to clear them at the port of entry, adding around 300-400 per lorry. Lane says wholesalers may have to introduce price increases gradually to recoup these costs.

Covid has also brought changes to traditional business models. The UK seafood industry exports around 70 per cent of its catch and imports around 90 per cent. The UK has a conservative palate, says Andy Gray, trade marketing manager at industry body Seafish. It is principally limited to white fish, cod and haddock, and the supply doesnt meet the demand. White fish from Iceland, Norway and Russia are imported to supplement the UKs catch. Other species caught by UK vessels, like Dover or lemon sole, are largely bought by the restaurant trade while langoustine, crab, lobster and finfish (e.g. salmon) are mostly exported. The closure of overseas markets and restaurants in the UK has meant that many fishermen are selling online to customers who are experimenting with new recipes during lockdown. The days catch is also being sold at the quayside.

Customers can buy directly from wholesalers who used to supply restaurants and customers collect from the depot, says Gray. We expect this to continue as a direct route to the customer. When markets open up again, it remains to be seen if fish like turbot or bass will only be sold overseas where they attract a premium price, or if UK consumers will drive up demand.

Similarly, oysters are not being exported, principally to France, but are now being offered to domestic consumers. In the 17th and 18th centuries they were the main source of protein for poor families because they were so plentiful. If they are readily available to buy, wild and farmed oysters may once again become a staple of our diets.

Professor Dave Reay teaches carbon management and education at the University of Edinburgh. He argues that the issue of food miles is more complicated than simply comparing mileage. Although a food product may come from further away, its production may be more efficient and its emissions may be lower than a home-grown option. In his book Carbon-Smart Food, he estimates that 60 per cent of the carbon footprint of an orange imported to the UK from Brazil is the use of fertiliser, pesticides and fuel for machinery at harvest time. If the orange is used to make juice, he calculates that 22 per cent of its carbon footprint is in distribution.

Consumer food choices play a part in reducing the carbon emission. If we only demand beautiful vegetables there will be more waste and that will have a knock-on effect for production emissions of food which is never consumed, says Reay. If we expect to eat everything we want all year round and ignore the seasons, there will be a production cost in terms of having to ship in food which we cant grow locally or try and grow it locally under conditions where we are using lots of heat and light.

For arable farming, crop production is responsible for 21 per cent of foods CO2 emissions accounts. A contributor is synthetic fertilisers, which contain ammonium and nitrogen, both of which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. There are also CO2 emissions from agricultural machinery used to cultivate thesoil.

Agriculture has led to forests and grasslands being converted for livestock and growing crops, which increased CO2 emissions. Our World In Data estimated land for livestock to produce 16 per cent of emissions and land for arable farming, 8 per cent. The rate of deforestation for cattle ranching in Brazil, for example, means thatthe CO2 emission of its farmed beef is three times that of British beef. Other factors that contribute to CO2 emissions are savannah burning, ploughing or cultivating the soil.

The labour-intensive production of rice is also responsible for considerable methane emissions. Microbes, which thrive in the low-oxygen, high-carbon environment of the flooded paddy fields, are converted into methane. Introducing different varieties can reduce methane emission and increase productivity.

Seafish, the seafood industry body, argues that aquaculture has reduced its feed conversion ratio over the last 25 years. The feed conversion rate for farmed fish can be as low as 1.3:1, it says, compared with 3.5:1 for pigs and 2:1 for chickens. The carbon footprint for seafood varies according to the species; in all cases there is no farmland to convert or cultivate and unfed aquaculture species, such as mussels, have a particularly low carbon footprint.

Food transportation accounts for 6 per cent of foods total CO2 emissions, whereas processing, refrigeration and storage account for 18 per cent. Buying from local retailers, markets or directly from producers on a smaller scale can reduce the need for processing and energy for storage. Small quantities of seasonal food for immediate consumption can also contribute to reductions in packaging and waste. Doing this reduces energy consumption by the manufacture of packaging. A redesign, rather than elimination, of packaging is preferable, as durable packaging can prevent food waste.

The energy consumed in refrigerating and processing food has to be weighed against the environmental cost of having to throw away food. In 2017, research found that food waste accounts for 8 per cent of total greenhouse emissions.

Researchers at the University of Belgrade and the University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, analysed the levels of CO2 emission in food.

For bricks and mortar food retailers, they noted that the main sources of CO2 emission are electricity, transport, ventilation and heating, refrigeration and waste.

Taking the entire food value chain, from the farm to processing, the researchers found that meat processing has an average emission of 0.66kgCO2e/kg. Vegetable processing has a mean value of 0.07kgCO2e/kg and transportation to a regional distribution centre carries an average emission value of 0.13kgCO2e/kg.

Using renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and refrigeration in stores and maximising the efficiency of its vehicles,US chain Wal-Mart nearly doubled the size of its stores between 2005 and 2014 but limited its CO2 emission, which rose from 18.9 million ton CO2e to 21.9 million in the same period.

Reducing carbon emissions does not mean a poor or limited diet. It could open up a world of new tastes as consumers embrace a broader variety of seasonal food and introduce new food and flavours.

Protein

Producing animal feed for farm animals is the cause of 6 per cent of foods CO2 emissions. Sugar beet is used as a supplement in cattle feed to provide digestible fibre that helps fermentation in the rumen (the cows first stomach) to produce milk.

Sugar beet produced in the UK and fed to UK herds has few food miles, but other animal feed, such as soy bean for chicken feed, has a higher carbon footprint.

Soy production is responsible for deforestation in Brazil and Argentina, and also involves fertilisers, agricultural machinery and long-distance transportation.

Different ways to provide animal protein for animal feed are being researched by the React First project. Nottingham-based Deep Branch Biotechnology has developed a process to use CO2 from industrial emissions to generate a single-cell protein called Proton.

Nottingham Trent Universitys Poultry Research Unit is benchmarking Protons nutritional quality while the University of Stirlings Institute of Aquaculture is investigating the feasibility of a microbial single-cell protein with an amino acid profile for the aquafeed industry as an alternative to anchovies shipped from Peru and Chile.

The Institutes Dr Mnica Betancor explains: Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector, with the UK salmon industry expected to increase significantly. Such growth can only be achieved in a sustainable manner by replacing the traditionally used marine ingredients in aquafeeds fishmeal and fish oil for more sustainable options.

Feeds produced with this protein will require no arable land and minimal water usage for feeds with a carbon footprint that is 65-75 per cent smaller than todays feeds for farmed fish and chicken.

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A varied diet need not cost the Earth - E&T Magazine

Shopping for a new juicer is no easy task, which is why in the Good Housekeeping Kitchen Appliances Lab, we test juicers to find the best ones that are actually worth your money. We do so by juicing just about everything pulpy apples that have a large diameter and oxidize quickly, floppy kale which can often jam machines, and hard, fibrous carrots. We then measure multiple data points around key features to find the top juicers, including:

Output: How much juice does the machine create? How much pulp does it yield, and how dry is the pulp? (Hint: It should be dry, as this indicates more juice has been squeezed out.)

Taste: How sweet is the juice and how smooth is it? The sweeter and less pulp the better.

Temperature: What is the temperature of the resulting liquid? And how does it compare to others that are being tested at the same exact time?

Out of the dozen cold press juicers we tested, these are the best cold press juicers to buy in 2021, according to both Good Housekeeping Institute Lab tests and best-sellers with lots of glowing reviews online:

If you've been hearing a lot of buzz about cold press juicers lately, you may be wondering what exactly they are and how they differ from all the other types of juicers on the market. The key distinction is in how they work:

If you're looking to get more nutrients into your diet, most experts say a cold press juicer is the way to go because the slow juicing process is more gentle on ingredients and retains more nutrients though Stefani Sassos, MS, RDN, Registered Dietitian for the Good Housekeeping Institute, points out that recent research suggests juice storage may matter more than how exactly you make it.

It seems that storage conditions are more important when it comes to the nutrient capacity of juice, she says,so drink it immediately or store it in the coldest part of the fridge but dont let it sit out at room temperature. It's also worth noting that generally cold press juicers require a bit more prep work (read: you'll need to cut smaller chunks of fruits and vegetables) than centrifugal juicers due to their small feed tubes.

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Sneak More Fruits and Veggies Into Your Diet With a Top-Rated Cold Press Juicer - msnNOW

I miss Mardi Gras. I miss being in crowds on Fat Tuesday. Im hoping for a speedy recovery from the pandemic so we can all congregate again.

After Fat Tuesday, Lent begins. Lent is the 40-day period before Easter when Christians stop eating meat and dairy in remembrance of Jesus 40 days of reflection. As a Christian, Lent has meaning to me.

For me, I already dont eat meat and dairy. My plant-based diet helps reduce chronic diseases, environmental degradation and animal abuse. Countless reports have linked consumption of animal products with risk of heart failure, stroke, cancer and other diseases. A U.N. report named meat production as a source of greenhouse gases and water pollution. Investigations have revealed animals raised for food under horrible conditions of caging, crowding, drugging and mutilation. These actions go against what I believe.

Lent offers an opportunity to honor Jesus powerful message of compassion and love for all living beings, stop subsidizing the meat industry and choose a nonviolent plant-based diet. Its a diet that goes back to the Bible (Genesis I:29) and observed in the Garden of Eden.

Enter plant-based Lent in Google and explore hundreds of meat-free recipes.

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Now more than ever, your financial support is critical to help us keep our communities informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having on our residents and businesses. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.

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Letter to the editor: Consider a meat-free diet to protect the planet and animals - Summit Daily News

Sunday night, Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, earning MVP in the process. He did so at the age of 43, sparking comments about his appearance and diet. Several fans wondered what Brady eats to look like he is in his mid-30s while continuing to perform long after other players retire.

According to the Daily Mail, Brady follows an organic, gluten-free diet. He does not consume white sugar and white flour, nor does he drink coffee. He also avoids certain vegetables that can cause inflammation, including tomatoes, eggplant, capsicum and mushrooms. Dairy is out of the question for the seven-time Super Bowl champion. In order to remain hydrated, Brady tries to drink at least a gallon of water each day.

The outlet provided a graphic that showed off some meal samples for the veteran quarterback. He starts his day with a glass of electrolyte-infused water and then eats a breakfast featuring eggs and avocado. He caps off his morning workout with another glass of electrolyte water and a protein shake, setting the stage for a lunchtime salad with nuts and fish.

Dinner is straightforward and features chicken with roasted vegetables. If Brady gets hungry between meals, he relies on hummus, guacamole or mixed nuts. Gameday is different in that Brady consumes a smoothie, as well as an almond butter and peanut butter jelly sandwich, which fuel him on the football field. Brady's reported favorite smoothie features blueberries, banana, hemp and chia seeds, walnuts, almond butter and hemp milk.

"The regimen I follow is a mix of Eastern and Western philosophies," Brady wrote in his 2017 book, The TB12 Method. "Some of these principles have been around for thousands of years. My nutritional regimen may seem restrictive to some people, but to me it feels unnatural to eat any other way. Many people have conditioned their bodies to a nutritional regiment made up of lots of white or pale-looking foods french fries, potato chips, white bread, chicken nuggets that dont exist in nature."

While Brady may follow a strict diet, that does not mean that he skips out on treats. He previously conducted an interview with Men's Health to discuss his daily routine and revealed that he eats bacon if he has a craving. Additionally, Brady will also kick back with some pizza or eat some dark chocolate.

"If Im craving bacon, I have a piece. Same with pizza. You should never restrict what you really want. Were humans, here for one life," Brady said during the interview. "Whats changed as Ive gotten older is now if I want pizza, I want the best pizza. I dont eat a slice that tastes like s and then wonder, 'Why am I eating s pizza?'"

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Tom Brady's Diet: What the Super Bowl MVP Eats to Stay in Incredible Shape - PopCulture.com

National Review

Six months ago, when President Joe Biden was candidate Joe Biden, he spoke of a crisis being felt all across the United States of America. The crisis was school closures. Millions of children were staring at laptops rather than learning in a classroom. Biden said: This is a national emergency. President Trump doesnt have a real plan for opening schools safely. Hes offering nothing but failures and delusions. Six months later, the education crisis abounds, and now-President Biden is so far just making it worse. At Tuesdays press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the new White House goal was to have the majority of schools, so more than 50 percent, open by Day 100 of his presidency. She defined that as some teaching in classrooms, so at least one day a week, hopefully its more. This isnt just walking back a promise; its completely erasing one. According to school-data aggregator Burbio, we are already well past Psakis spring milestone today, and we were before Biden took office. Over 60 percent of school districts are already open with at least a hybrid model. Hybrid colloquially means two to three days a week of in-person learning. One day a week was not originally part of this debate. Its a new and lower standard one Team Biden has introduced. At first, I thought the transgression was simply they had put the issue on the backburner and were not paying attention to it, given the strange one-day-a-week utterance. But after 24 hours of blowback, Psaki was asked to clarify these remarks and she doubled down, calling the plan bold and ambitious. And sticking to the one-day standard, she said they hoped to exceed it. Again, this supposed bold and ambitious plan was exceeded before the inauguration. Politico Playbook said: It is a goal so modest and lacking in ambition as to be almost meaningless. President Bidens ambitious rhetoric around schools was always going to have a collision course with his teachers-union benefactors, who simply do not want schools to fully reopen any time soon. Not even after teachers got priority in vaccinations, and K12 schools received over $68 billion in 2020 to mitigate COVID issues. I just didnt expect that he would be breaking a core campaign promise so early in his presidency. So whats holding Biden back from keeping his word? The White House would argue its funding, ventilation, and class sizes. Lets look at each in turn. As mentioned, Congress allocated over $68 billion in 2020 for COVID mitigation in K12 schools. So far, most of this money has not been spent. That hasnt stopped the Biden administration from demanding another $130 billion. But lets ignore the currently unspent billions of dollars for a moment and ask the essential question: Will more funding help? In fact, the schools that are currently open five days a week in America are parochial schools, which generally have less per-pupil funding than their public counterparts, and public schools that dont compete with the per-pupil wealth of closed but well-funded districts such as Chicago, Fairfax County, San Francisco, and others. The issue is will, not resources. Ventilation is simply a crutch to excuse doing nothing. It was a problem identified early in 2020, again to mitigate the return to school before a coronavirus vaccine was available. The $68 billion Congress authorized provided funding specifically for ventilation. But most schools did little or nothing in the past year to improve ventilation, and it is more likely that we finally return to school before any substantive changes are made to the thousands of schools that remain shuttered. The absence of new ventilation systems has not held back the majority of schools that have opened up to some degree without disruption. Meanwhile, focusing the debate on the importance of class size is a way to disguise proposing that kids will go to school two days a week indefinitely. The idea is that a full class increases risk, so we need to cut class sizes in half. But nobody realistically believes that America is about to double its school-building capacity, at least not in the next year. Anyone whose kid has gone to class in a trailer behind a school building knows that it takes years to develop plans for new buildings, personnel, and district lines. The two-day-a-week hybrid model, with its implicitly smaller class sizes, was created to get kids back into the classroom before a vaccine was available. Inept school boards kept delaying the end of this temporary measure. Now, after it has been done for so long, it is being deceptively embraced as the post-vaccine ideal. This is simply nuts. After teachers in closed school districts are vaccinated, schools should be open full-time, five-days-a-week, just as so many of their counterparts already are doing (and as some were doing before vaccines were even available). Now that teachers are being vaccinated, for whom are we making these vast infrastructure changes anyway? Its not for the teachers, whose risk will thankfully soon be measured in decimal points. And its not for children, who public-health officials often and repeatedly remind us are not significant spreaders or victims of this virus. In fact, the major health crises facing children today depression, suicide, lack of confidence, academic failures, lack of socialization, poor nutrition, insufficient exercise are being caused by the closures, not by the virus. In September 2020, Joe Biden said: President Trump may not think this is a national emergency, but I think going back to school for millions of children and the impacts on their families and the community is a national emergency. I believe thats what it is. If this was a national emergency six months ago, and remains one today, wheres Joe? Some would argue that he should have more time, and that patience is required. Hes only been in office a few weeks. But we shouldnt be surprised that many parents are simply out of patience. Others argue that advocating for school openings is anti-teacher. Its a convenient way to shut down debate, because teachers are often underpaid and undervalued and thus not open to critique. But I love my kids teachers, who are doing the best they can. This is about being pro-children, not anti-teacher. In September, President Biden said: Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos havent stepped up. Were all seeing the results. Millions of students are now starting the new school year in the same way they finished the last one, at home. At home. Parents are doing their best, but more and more theyre finding themselves at wits end struggling to balance work and childcare and educational duties or worrying about their lost paycheck and how theyll make ends meet while trying to keep their kids on track with remote learning. Under Bidens current plan, he has failed to live up to the standard he set for Trump. Its time for Biden to purposefully engage this issue. He has enormous influence over unions and those who are advocating for kids to remain locked out of in-person instruction indefinitely. He has a serious group of public-health advisers who can persuade nervous parents and teachers of the low risks they face returning to the classroom (especially after a vaccine). As Joe Biden said six months ago on this subject: Mr. President, where are you? Where are you? Why arent you working on this? Mr. President, thats your job. Thats what you should be focused on right now. Getting our kids back to school safely.

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Intuitive eating is the anti-diet diet that listens to your gut - Yahoo News

Keep your cardiac health in the best possible shape by choosing nutrient-rich foods that are low in sugar and unhealthy fats. The foods that we put on our plates can make or break our wellness goals. So choose wisely.

The American Heart Association recommends foods that contain an abundance of vitamins and minerals, such as fiber and protein. What you don't eat also matters -- look for foods that are low in saturated fat, sodium and trans fats.

Key ingredients

If you are looking for a few superfoods to add to your heart-healthy diet, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends:

Dairy foods that are low-fat or fat-free

Eggs, legumes, lean meats, poultry and other protein-rich foods

Fish that is high in omega-3 fatty acids, such as mackerel, salmon and tuna

Fruits and vegetables

Oils and foods high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, including avocados, salmon and trout, almonds, pine nuts and walnuts, and canola, sunflower and corn oils

Whole grains

Get creative as you cook to support cardiac health. Try different flavors and combinations and incorporate seasonal ingredients to keep your menus as inspiring as they are nourishing.

Foods that can sabotage your heart-healthy diet

You have been working diligently to fill up on heart-healthy fruits, vegetables and fiber-filled whole grains. Well done! Eating healthy foods is only one piece of the puzzle if you are trying to improve the well-being of your heart. Limiting your intake of salt-laden, sugar-rich items is also important.

Skip these menu items:

Processed meats -- Deli meats, such as bologna, sausage and turkey, are typically preserved with nitrites and salt.

Refined grains -- Items like white rice and bread may cause blood sugar spikes. They're also missing lots of the nutrients found in their whole-grain counterparts, such as dietary fiber and phytonutrients.

Soda -- A 12-ounce can of this bubbly drink can pack as much as 10 teaspoons of sugar and more than 100 empty calories. To keep your diet on track, consider sugar-free teas and low-calorie juices instead.

Concerned about your heart health? Quality cardiovascular care is right around the corner at Northwest Cardiology -- Siloam Springs. To schedule an appointment, call 479-215-3060.

About Siloam Springs Regional Hospital

Siloam Springs Regional Hospital is a 73 licensed bed facility with 42 private patient rooms. It is accredited by the State of Arkansas Department of Health Services and The Joint Commission. Some services include inpatient and outpatient surgery, emergency medicine, medical, surgical and intensive care units, obstetrics, outpatient diagnostic services and inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. With more than 50 physicians on the medical staff, Siloam Springs Regional Hospital provides compassionate, customer-focused care. SSRH is an affiliate of Northwest Health, the largest health system in Northwest Arkansas. Siloam Springs Regional Hospital is located at 603 N. Progress Ave. in Siloam Springs. For more information, visit NorthwestHealth.com.

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Healthy Living: Dietary tips your heart will love - Westside Eagle Observer

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