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If you'relooking for easy ways to lose weight now, and want a list of healthy foods to eat that help burnfatnaturally, there are tricks to losing weight without dieting, butthey maynot be what you think. What does not work, science tells us, is extreme dieting and calorie restriction. As counterintuitive as it sounds, the secret to losing weight and keeping it offcan be foundin the produce aisle, not in extreme dieting. Counting calories is the opposite of what you need to do for lasting success. The key to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight your whole life is fairly simple, and it involves prioritizing foods that are whole and plant-based, not processedor full of animal fat.

In a follow-up study that looked at 14 contestants from TheBiggest Losersix years later after being on the show, all of them had gained backweight, even after successfully shedding enormous amounts of fat on a quick-fix program, driven largely by extreme calorie restriction, exercise, and the motivation of being seen in spandex on national TV. The ratings were high, but the weight loss success was fleeting. That's because of what experts call "metabolic adaptation," where the body learns to slow down its metabolism in response to being starved. Long after the fad diet is over, the body still burns up to 500 fewer calories a day, which is significant, the study found.

According to an Australian study into why extreme diets don't work, people who try extreme calorie-restricting diets end up gaining more weightthan those who don't, since by virtually starving yourself, your body gets confused and believes that you're not kidding around; to survive, your brain tells the body to put itself into power-saving mode. When, after the extreme diet is done and you go back to eating normally, your body continues to storethe calories as fat, to insulate you against starvation. The result is that just by eating the same amount of calories as you did before, you gain weight. The researchers' conclusion: "Dieting to lose weight can contribute to the risk of future obesity and weight gain." Ouch.

So what does work for losing weight, when all is said and done? There are five basic rules that people who have lost weight and kept it off follow. These are not diets, nor do they require counting calories. They do require that you toss the junk food, the processed carbs, and the added sugar, oil, fat, and essentially anything that comes in a bag (chips) or a box (cookies) or lasts longer on a shelf than it logically should (pop-tarts). French fries are out (added oil, sorry), but a baked potato makes the cut (because it's a whole food).

Here are five easy rules to lose weight without dieting or counting calories and if you think these are "unsexy" and too much like your mom's best advice, that's because they work.

Eat a whole food plant-based diet. Carbs are not all created equal. What you get nutritionally from a blueberry is not the same as a blue M&M. Essentially, the trick to losing weight is to keep blood sugar steady, and not allow it to spike, by eating a bagel or donut or pastry for example these foods are full of empty calories and added sugar that rushes through the digestive system, get absorbed in minutes,and create a surge in glucose, then insulin, then fat. Add fiber to neutralize this. How does fiber magically prevent this, and boost weight loss?

Fiber acts as a miracle ingredient in the body, to slow down the absorption of your food, keeping the calorie flow to your bloodstream and cells down to a manageable trickle, and never flooding the body with more sugar than it needs at any given moment. (Essentially unless you are running a marathon and need a gu or gel to get to your muscles as quickly as possible, you don't need all that sugar all at once.)

Fast fact: Your bloodstream can only contain one teaspoon of sugar at a time.The bloodstream only holds four grams of glucose at a time, equal to just under a teaspoon full. After that, it forces sugar to go into storage, in the muscles, the liver, or cells that need energy because they are being used. If you have too much sugar and the cells are topped off, and your liver's glycogen storage is full, the excess gets stored as fat. Eat a donut and that sugar spikes, and in order to not have more than you can burn off right away, your insulin hormone goes into action and "sells" the calories to the cells. If your muscles and organs aren't buying the extra gets carted off to storage. That's fat.

In a recent study, adding a salad to a meal can keep blood sugar low or steady, even if the rest of the meal was high in carbs and fat. The idea then is to add high-fiber foods whenever possible. If you must have a slice of pizza, load it up with peppers, spinach, mushrooms, and onions, to add fiber so that your body slows down the absorption of calories from the dough. Rather than beat yourself up for eating extra calories add fiber to every meal to burn fat faster.

How do you get fiber? It's not in animal products like meat or dairy, but it is in things that grow in the ground, meaning all plant foods, since plants need fiber to reach for the sky. Eat anything you can or could grow: Vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains that are as unprocessed as possible. The idea that carbs exist in starchy vegetables has been misconstrued by the low-carb dieting world. When you eat a carrot the carbs come with nutrients and vitamins, essential to your metabolism and healthy body functions. You also get plenty of fiber (so long as you don't cook it to mush).

Aim to get at least 21 to25 grams of fiberdaily (for a woman) and30 to 38 grams a day (for a man), according to the Mayo Clinic.Don't count calories but do add up your fiber. Remember that fiber is not just for old folks or to go to the bathroom regularly. It keeps blood sugar steady and normal, which means that your body, when it needs to burn calories because you're moving and active, will dip into storage for fuel, and burn fat as needed.

Here's a crazy thought: Your grandmother was smaller than you were at the same age. That's a guess but look back at her wedding photos, or any old photos for that matter. Chances are the people all look more slender than our contemporary Americans do today. The obesity epidemic only took flight in the 1980s when foods became packed with added sugar and drinks were sticky with high fructose corn syrup.

Back in the sixties and seventies,portions were smaller (by nearly half) and so were we. As Americans, we move less, eat more, and are subsequently larger than our ancestors. More than 40 percent of Americans are obese. Because of this, half of all Americans have heart disease (or 48 percent) who know it. Doctors believe many more have heart disease who don't know it yet.

Meanwhile, more than 1 in 3 adults or 88 million people have pre-diabetes and millions more have full-blown type 2 diabetes, which is a disease when the pancreas is unable to make insulin, so we need to replace it. But it didn't start out that way (unless you have type 1 diabetes which is considered genetic). The type that more Americans have is like an over-use injury. First, the insulin system gets put into overdrive when too many calories come in that can't get used up by normal cell function or muscle activity then it gets stuck in the "on" position, which is what happens during insulin resistance when your cells stop listening to the signal to use up the glucose in your bloodstream, or all these extra calories must get stored as fat, and the system wears out.

Simply put, we're eating too much. The average person eats about 3,600 calories a day. We only need, on average 2,000. For some people, even that's too much. If you're active or a large male you may need more. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN calculates how much energy a person needs to cover their basicmetabolism and their daily activity levels, and simply put, we are eating more than our fair share. We don't need almost double the number of calories in a day than we can burn. Nor does it do us any good.

Protein is good up to a point, and then after that, it's just extra calories. Eating more of anything, whether it's carbs or vegetable oil (which has seen the steepest rise of all calorie intake since 1961) or protein is just too much. Americans are obsessed with getting more protein, but once you eat more than you need, it just gets converted into sugar and stored as fat.

To compute how much protein you need, multiply your weight in kilograms by .8 grams. If you work out a lot or are older you may need more, so you can multiply your weight in kilograms by 1.4 grams. But beyond that, if you eat more, it just leads to gaining weight, which is why the obesity trend has risen up in the past few decades, along with our obsession with protein. We are just eating too much food, protein included, by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1.

Eating too much not only leads to weight gain and diabetes but cancer too. In his excellent book on the growth of cancer over the past few decades, Dr. Jason Fung connects the dots between the surge in calories to the body's insulin hormone, which signals the cells to "grow" and the growth in obesity-related cancers. The Cancer Codemakes a clear case for cutting our portions and eating less of everything. So rather than count calories, simply tell yourself to only eat half of what you would consider a normal potion.

The kind of sugar in fruit and the kind of oil in olives or avocados are fine. The problems come from added sugar, or extra oil, which are found in processed foods like crackers, chips, and cookies. Even tomato sauce bought at the store has added sugar. If you want to lose weight, make your own meals, cook your own (mostly) plant-based food, and don't buy store-bought anything, especially foods that are processed.

Animal products like meat and dairy, such as eggs and cheese, are high in omega-6 fatty acids that lead to inflammation, insulin insensitivity, and obesity, as well as mood disorders. The more packaged foods and animal products you eat, the higher your chance of having too many omega-6 fatty acids, and of gaining weight.

As our intake of omega-6s has gone up, our intake of omega-3s has not, contributing to the prevalence of obesity. "An increase in the omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio increases the risk for obesity," researchers have found. To get more omega-3 in your diet eat chia seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds,edamame, kidneybeans, and other plant-based foods that are great sources of omega-3 healthy fats.

There are diets that restrict bananas and grapes, and any other high glycemic index foods that turn starchy vegetables like potatoes into sugar quickly but if you tried, you could not gain a lot of weight on whole foods, since they contain fiber. The kind of fructose in ahalf cup of berries is also packed with fiber, nutrients, vitamins and natural compounds that actually boost your metabolism and strengthen your immunity, so avoiding fruit is a terrible idea right now.

What isn't? Avoid processed food that masquerades as healthy when it is, in fact, junk. Get rid of cereals (unless it's oatmeal) and crackers, bread, pasta, and rice unless they have fiber content that is 3 to 4 grams per serving. Read every label and look for a carb to fiber ratio that is 5-to-1, meaning for 5 grams of carbs you need 1 gram of fiber. The more fiber the better. Multigrain Cheerios have a ratio of 7-to-1 so even if a boxed food sounds healthy, check it!

As for which whole plant-based foods are the best bargain, in terms of carbs to fiber, you can look at the net carbs of a food. No need to go crazy worrying about the carbs in whole foods, however since they are full of vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals, and immune-boosting antioxidants, but if your goal is to keep an eye on total carbs, just subtracts fiber from total carbs to calculate net carbs. Here is a quick glance at some of the best bargains in the produce aisle.

You don't need to intermittent fast in order to lose weight, but studies have shown that eating at the same time every day will help keep your blood sugar normal (not spiking) and that your body does best when you stick to eating within a window of 10 to 12 hours or evenfewer and allows it to take care of "other business" in the remaining hours.

So if you slightly delay eating in the morning to start at 10 am or 11 am and then eat a healthy whole foods diet throughout the day (skipping the processed food) and end at 7 pm. with an early supper, then tell yourself "kitchen is closed." It can help to take a shower, brush your teeth and settle in with a cup of herbal tea and a good book to wind down. If you want to watch TV, thendisassociate screens with snacking.Tell yourself you can enjoyyour Hulu habit or Netflix shows with mindlessly munching. One visual treat does not need to be accompanied by another type of sweet treat.

By quitting eating early you give your body time to do the important cleanup work it needs to do, in terms of immune system function and "search and destroy" missions that will let it find and sweep out any broken bits of viruses or invaders that are hoping to avert detection.

Called "autophagy," this clean-up work requires the body to not need to do the work of metabolizing the food and accompanying toxins that we eat. Studies show that intermittent fasting, or any kind of long stretch between eating (even if it's just 12 to 14 hours), can help the immune system fight off infection. So to lose weight and stay healthy, leave space and time between eating.

You know that exercise burns calories, and the longer you stay on your feet and in motion, the better for fat-burning purposes. Your body has a ready supply of energy packed into the muscles in the form of glycogen stored in your liver and this is your "first" energy system, but once it gets depleted after about 45 minutes of steady jogging, biking, or swimming, or other steady exertion, your body switches over to burning fat in the mix. But that's quite a long time to aska body to keep going, without actually seeing dramatic results other than slowly burning off the weight. If you work out for 45 minutes as a 150 person you can burn about 400 to 600 calories. But you can eat the same calories you burned, pretty easily, in about 10 minutes.

Build a better engine,don't just burn off the gas. Strength training helps you build more muscle fiber, which burns more calories at rest so just sitting there in your chair reading this, you'll burn more calories if you have more muscle tone than fat.

Because you lose muscle tone every decade after 30, strength train three times a week to keep your body healthy and toned and to burn more energy even at rest. Then add in HIIT or high-intensity interval training to your weekly schedule, and the three types of working out taken together: Cardio, Strength, and HIIT will ensure that you turn yourself into a calorie-burning machine. That's how you lose weight without dieting, and you can even enjoy more extra treats when you're working out on a daily basis.

The key to lasting weight loss is not calorie restriction, but focusing on eating a plant-based diet of whole foods that are high in fiber to slow down absorption and allow blood sugar to remain steady, and not spike. The other aspect is that since 1961 our calorie intake has soared, so to fight obesity and maintain a healthy weight, we should cut down on our portion sizes and eat about half of what we have gotten used to eating and stay away from junk food.

For more great nutrition, weight loss and healthy eating content check outThe Beet's story on Everything You Need to Know AboutWeight Loss on a Plant-Based Diet.

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5 Easy No-Diet Tricks to Lose Weight Without Counting Calories - The Beet

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Emotional, non-rational, even explosive remarks in public discourse have escalated in recent years. Politicians endure insults during legislative discussions; scientists receive emails and tweets containing verbal abuse and threats.

Whats going on? This escalation in angry rhetoric is sometimes attributed to social media. But are there other influences altering communication styles?

As researchers in the field of nutrition and mental health, and authors of The Better Brain, we recognize that many in our society experience brain hunger, impairing their cognitive function and emotion regulation.

Obviously, we are not deficient in macronutrients: North Americans tend to get sufficient protein, fats (though usually not the best fats) and carbohydrates (usually not the good complex carbs). But we are being cheated of micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), particularly in those whose food choices are dominated by ultra-processed products.

Ultra-processed products include things like soft drinks, packaged snacks, sweetened breakfast cereal and chicken nuggets. They generally contain only trivial amounts of a few micronutrients unless they are fortified, but even then, only a few at higher amounts.

Three published analyses from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey and the 2018 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey revealed these sobering statistics: in Canada, in 2004, 48 per cent of the caloric intake across all ages came from ultra-processed products; in the United States 67 per cent of what children aged two to 19 years consumed and 57 per cent of what adults consumed in 2018 were ultra-processed products.

Most of us are aware that dietary intake is a huge issue in physical health because diet quality is associated with chronic health conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The public is less aware of the impact of nutrition on brain health.

Given that our societys food choices have moved so strongly toward ultra-processed products, we need to learn about the substantial scientific evidence proving that micronutrient intake influences mental health symptoms, especially irritability, explosive rage and unstable mood.

The scientific evidence base for this statement is now vast, though it is so rarely mentioned in the media that few in the public are familiar with it. A dozen studies from countries like Canada, Spain, Japan and Australia have shown that people who eat a healthy, whole foods diet have fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety than people who eat a poor diet (mostly ultra-processed products).

Correlational studies cannot prove that nutritional choices are the cause of mental health problems: for that we turn to some compelling prospective longitudinal studies in which people with no apparent mental health problems enter the study, are evaluated for their health and dietary patterns, and are then followed over time. Some of the results have been astonishing.

In a study of about 89,000 people in Japan with 10-15 years of followup, the suicide rate in those consuming a whole foods diet was half that of those eating less healthy diets, highlighting an important new direction not yet covered in current suicide prevention programs.

Here in Canada, similarly powerful findings show how childrens dietary patterns, as well as following other health guidelines on exercise and screen time, predicted which children aged 10 to 11 years would be referred for diagnosis of a mental disorder in the subsequent two years. It follows that nutrition education ought to be one of the first lines of treatment for children in this situation.

Irritability and unstable mood often characterize depression, so its relevant that multiple independent studies have found that teaching people with depression, who were consuming relatively poor diets, how to change to a whole foods Mediterranean-style diet resulted in significant improvements. A Mediterranean-style diet is typically high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, seafood and unsaturated fats such as olive oil.

In one such study, about one-third of the people who changed to a whole foods diet in addition to their regular treatment found their depression to be in remission after 12 weeks.

The remission rate in the control group using regular treatment but no diet changes was fewer than one in 10. The whole foods diet group also reported a cost savings of about 20 per cent in their weekly food budget. This final point helps to dispel the myth that eating a diet of ultra-processed products is a way to save money.

Important evidence that irritability, explosive rage and unstable mood can be resolved with improved micronutrient intake comes from studies evaluating micronutrient supplements to treat mental health problems. Most public awareness is restricted to the ill-fated search for magic bullets: studies of a single nutrient at a time. That is a common way to think about causality (for problem X, you need medication Y), but that is not how our brains work.

To support brain metabolism, our brains require at least 30 micronutrients to ensure the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, as well as breaking down and removing metabolic byproducts. Many studies of multi-nutrient treatments have found improved mood regulation and reduced irritability and explosive rage, including in placebo-controlled randomized trials of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and mood dysregulation.

The evidence is clear: a well-nourished population is better able to withstand stress. Hidden brain hunger is one modifiable factor contributing to emotional outbursts, aggression and even the loss of civility in public discourse.

Originally posted here:
Junk food and the brain: How modern diets lacking in micronutrients may contribute to angry rhetoric - The Conversation CA

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With the number of people exploring veganism growing, and more people just feeling generally curious about what a vegan diet entails, let's explore the benefits of going vegan.

A vegan diet is void of any animal products, such as meat, eggs, milk and honey. It consists exclusively of plant-based products, but there are plant-based alternatives for many non-vegan foods. For some, veganism is not just their diet, but a lifestyle. In this case, they may avoid beauty products that have been tested on animals, avoid wearing real fur or leather, and consider whether something had a detrimental impact on animals before buying it.

Dr Sunni Patel is a gut health coach and he says 'plant-based vegans', who do not necessarily incorporate veganism into all aspects of their lives, often eat:

Dr Patel says there are a number of reasons why people go vegan or embrace a plant-based diet. Most have different goals and motivators for their diet and lifestyle choices.

"Many people turn vegan due to the poor treatment of animals on factory farms, where they live in conditions that are widely condemned," he says.

Those who go vegan for ethical reasons believe the production of animal products causes animals to have suffering or premature death. In this case, someone may live a fully vegan lifestyle shaped by their desire to avoid cruelty to animals at all costs. While there are other benefits of veganism, preventing suffering for animals is the main motivator for ethical vegans.

Veganism also has environmental benefits for those who believe the way animals are mass-produced is bad for the environment.

Dr Patel says the intensive animal agriculture industry has a wide variety of environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions and its role in water pollution and deforestation. Factory farming is actually one of the biggest causes of pollution on a global scale from manure runoff, soil destruction and poisoning of the water table.

"The efficacy of antibiotics decreases when they are over-used on farm animals, as the pathogens they are designed to fight off begin to develop resistance. Antibiotic resistance is considered one of the most dangerous threats the world currently faces," shares Dr Patel.

"A vegan diet can provide many important benefits, from improving heart health to decreasing the risk ofdiabetesandcancers, while providing essential vitamins and nutrients required for a long, healthy life," says Dr Patel.

"Science doesn't lie when it comes to the health benefits of a plant-based diet. It benefits various aspects of life in a number of positive ways, whether that's opening your mind to new recipes, or fighting for the greater cause of animal rights," Dr Patel says.

Vegan diets provide rich sources of fibre and micronutrients that supportgut function. Dr Patel stresses the importance of good gut health to aid digestion and other critical functions, like immunity, skincare,hair health, libido and sleep, as well as mood.

According to multiple studies, animal products can worsen types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) -Crohn's disease, for example. They can also worsen irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). While different conditions are triggered by different foods, the lower amount of sulphur in plant protein can provide relief for those who struggle with bowel issues.

A plant-based diet has been shown to reduce people's risk of various cancers.

Soy milk is a vegan alternative to cow's milk, and it has many health benefits, being naturally lactose-free and low in cholesterol. Soy products are also associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer. Research in Shanghai shows women with breast cancer, who consume 11 g of soy protein each day, can reduce their mortality and risk of recurrence by 30%.

A vegan diet can also reduce the risk of breast cancer, since it does not involve dairy. High-fat dairy products, when consumed regularly, have been linked by studies to an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer. Research from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the World Cancer Research Fund found that one cup of cow's milk per day increased women's risk of developing breast cancer by 50%.

Additionally, grilled meat releases carcinogens (agents with the capacity to cause cancer in humans). Therefore, not eating grilled meat reduces the risk of these carcinogens interacting with cell DNA and inducing genetic mutations.

Finally, a plant-based diet tends to be more colourful, thanks to fruit and vegetables. The pigments in these foods contain cancer-fighting compounds. For example, the pigment giving sweet potatoes their bright colour (which is known as beta carotene) can help fight cancer. Vegetables like broccoli, kale and cabbage have been linked to reducing the risk of colorectal, lung and stomach cancers.

"It is recommended that we get 30 g of fibre each day, which we generally lack in the UK. So, going plant-based provides an easier way to hit our daily fibre goal," says Dr Patel.

He highlights how important fibre is for our daily needs. For example, insoluble sources of fibre help to bulk up our stools, and soluble fibre allows our stools to absorb water. This makes it easier toavoid constipation.

A vegan diet includes fibre with whole grains (oats, quinoa, brown rice), legumes (split peas, lentils, black beans, chickpeas), and nuts and seeds (chia seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds).

Other benefits of a high-fibre diet include:

Furthermore, Dr Patel says adding more plants into your diet has been shown to reduce (and in cases eliminate or reverse) symptoms associated with:

A vegan diet has been shown to improve brain health by providing a rich source of antioxidants and polyphenols, which play a protective role. They also promote the production of short chain fatty acids, like butyrate. These benefit gut health, inflammation and brain health.

Dr Patel says there are some occasions where a vegan diet wouldn't be recommended. While health conditions do not necessarily make veganism impossible, they can make it much more difficult.

Ultimately, a plant-based diet is the choice of the individual.

Dr Patel says the cons surrounding veganism often derive from myths or misunderstandings around vegan diets.

"For example, many people assume a vegan diet doesn't give you enough protein. However, plant-based diets provide an adequate amount of protein and all non-essential amino acids needed to maintain muscle and provide energy. These sources of protein include legumes, tofu, soy, textured vegan protein and vital wheat gluten. Their protein levels can actually be higher than that of some meat products," he shares.

People also assume a vegan diet will make them feel lethargic. Dr Patel says there are certain nutrients you can't get from plant items (such as vitam B12, vitamin D3, and iron), hence why people say going vegan made them less energised. However, there are supplements you can take.

"We have to remember that vitamin B comes from naturally produced bacteria, so it would be common to add a vitamin B supplement. The same can be said for vitamin D, whereby sunshine is our main source. It is known that all of us in the UK should consider a vitamin D supplement anyway from late autumn to spring."

To boost other nutrients that a vegan diet might not provide, Dr Patel suggests trying iodised salt and seaweed for iodine, as well as spinach, nuts and seeds and apricots for iron.

Moreover, a vegan diet can be more expensive.

"People frequently compare the prices of processed plant-based foods with meat. Plant-based produce tends to carry a more premium price in supermarkets because there is less demand for it compared to meat products. However, incorporating more plant-based meals into your diet needn't be expensive. You can buy and cook with any fruit and vegetables, which can be your best friend from reduced-price sections, farmers markets, or even the cheaper odd-shaped [produce] boxes in supermarkets," Dr Patel says. And lentils and pulses are high in nutrients and flavour as well as much more cost-effective than most meats.

"Essentially, ensure you are taking the time to listen to your body and are getting adequate supplementation. Make sure your meals are well-rounded and balanced to get the full benefits of a plant-based diet."

Dr Patel says, if you need assistance with curating a plant-based diet, you should seek advice from qualified dieticians and coaches who can help you come up with meal plans that are well balanced and nutrient-dense.

You can also find help and inspiration at:

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What are the health benefits of a vegan diet? - Patient.info

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While there's no magic trick to maintain a youthful appearance, there are things we can do to help slow the aging process. Eat This, Not That! Heath talked to experts who reveal their secrets for staying young. Read the five tips below on how to look younger longer. Read onand to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had COVID.

According to Dr. Taylor Graber MD Anesthesiologist and owner of ASAP IVs: "Staying active is without question the best personal habit to slow aging. It doesn't matter much what the activity is. Just getting outside and walking each day stimulates the cardiovascular system, keeps muscles healthy by continuing to use them and preventing atrophy, and increases sunlight exposure which can increase your natural absorption of Vitamin D (which can help prevent mood swings and depression, strengthens bones, helps prevent osteoporosis). If walking doesn't work for you, then a low intensity weight lifting program is additionally helpful. It doesn't matter much what the activity is. All movement is helpful!"

"Eating less sugar and high glycemic foods will reduce the process of glycation and slow aging. Cynthia Bailey, MD, FAAD Board Certified Dermatologist CEO and Founder Dr. Bailey SkinCare, explains. "High sugar loads in the body damage proteins to result in loss of protein function and reduced elasticity of tissues including skin, tendons and blood vessels. From a dermatological perspective, glycation leads to premature skin aging and loss of elasticity.. In addition to eating a lower glycemic diet, eating a plant slant diet emphasizing fresh or steamed antioxidant rich foods has been shown to reduce glycation."

"These diets are very similar, and are what people who live the longest in the Blue Zones eat. This diet regimen can reduce your risk of developing heart disease and many types of cancer, which are leading causes of death in the world," says Kent Probst, personal trainer and kinesiotherapist.

Probst states, "Get annual comprehensive blood testing specifically designed for relevant disease risk markers that you need for healthy aging and longevity. Annual blood testing is important because it can detect a problem well in advance of symptoms, so you can correct the problem before it becomes a serious disease."

Working out has numerous health benefits, but to maintain a youthful look, Probst recommends strength training which, "will help you slow and reverse the aging process by preventing sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) and increasing bone mass to prevent osteoporosis. Strength training also improves cognitive function by increasing blood flow to the brain and the formation of new neurons."

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#1 Proven Health Habits to Avoid Aging Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

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When children suffer malnutrition, their gut microbiomes suffer as well. Although malnourished children gain some weight and grow better when fed a nutrient-rich supplement, they fail to catch up to their well-fed counterparts. Their gut microbiomes also fail to recover.

This conundrum weighed on microbiologist Jeffrey Gordon, who for more than a decade has tracked how a poor diet affects childrens health in Bangladesh, Malawi, and other parts of the world. So Gordon and his team at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, began to gauge the precise role that the microbiome might play in the connections between diet and health.

Ensuring that malnourished children and their microbiomes recover requires more than just dietary supplements. Image credit: Shutterstock/Dana Ward.

Over time, the team started to home in on food as the link between the microbiome and human health. In April, they reported that a unique mix of foods such as peanuts, bananas, and more that supported the growth of age-appropriate microbes helped restore the health of malnourished toddlersand was more effective at improving their health than standard supplements used to treat malnutrition (1). Their food blend worked not just by feeding the kids but by feeding their microbes too.

The teams work is helping to find better ways to define a healthy microbiome, Gordon says, potentially using diet to help the malnourished microbiomes recover. Its not the only approach aiming to treat ailments by targeting microbiotaother studies are looking to treat diabetes and other metabolic conditions.

Changes in the gut microbiome have been correlated with allergies in babies, Alzheimers disease, cancers, and several other diseases, making our bacteria an appealing target to treat a variety of conditions. But attempts to apply these data to fix the microbiome have had limited success. Thats in part attributable to a long struggle to define exactly what a healthy microbiome looks like, says Justin Sonnenburg, a microbiologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Researchers have consistently found that individuals have a core microbiome, the activities of which remain consistent over long periods of time, but the composition of this core community differs based on a persons lifestyle, habits, or health.

Gut microbes associated with a Western-style diet have been linked to inflammatory disorders, diabetes, and other diseases. But the microbiomes of healthy people in developed countries are also starkly different from those of people in huntergatherer communities. And within an individual, diet, exercise, sleep, and many other factors can shift the proportions and activity of various species greatly from one day to the next, or even over the course of a single day. Theres just such a huge array of species, Sonnenburg says. To promote overall health, its not quite clear what facets of the microbiome we would be trying to maintain or change.

Discerning this answer was part of Gordons aim. Through a series of studies, his team mapped out how the microbial community develops in a healthy child and how that process is disrupted in malnutrition.

In 2014, the researchers sampled gut bacteria from children up to age 2 with and without malnutrition and found consistent differences in the proportions and species of bacteria present (2). Microbial communities in children with malnutrition appeared more similar to those from well-fed children who were younger. Even after children in the former group were fed standard supplements, their microbiomes failed to recover from malnutrition.

The researchers transplanted microbial samples from under-nourished infants and their healthy counterparts into germ-free mice to test whether these differences could account for differences in the childrens health. The mice responded much like the children: Despite eating the same foods, those mice with under-developed microbiomes failed to gain weight and thrive as well as those with age-appropriate microbes. Transplanting bacteria from healthy animals into malnourished ones improved their microbiome and helped the animals thrive.

Diet has a big impact on microbiome function, potentially pointing to ways to improve long-term health. Image credit: Reprinted from ref. 3, with permission from Elsevier.

For children in resource-poor regions, though, such transplants wouldnt be a practical solution. These microbes only grow in the absence of oxygen, making them expensive to culture, store, and turn into probiotic pills, which are the most common way to deliver beneficial bacteria to the gut. The question was, what could we do to repair the microbiota of these kids that was both culturally acceptable and scalable? says Gordon.

In recent years, efforts to repair the gut microbiome have focused on two approaches: probiotic supplements that aim to deliver beneficial gut bacteria, and fecal microbial transplants (FMT), which aim to supplant a disease-linked microbiome with a healthy one. Neither one offers a clear path forward for treating malnutrition. Probiotic pills could prove not only expensive to manufacture and distribute on a large scale, but also less than effective. There's still scant evidence of long-term benefit from adding what are presumed to be beneficial bacteria. FMT has not been tested in the context of malnutrition and would pose cultural and logistical challenges in resource-poor regions where malnutrition is common. And the procedure has only proven effective in very limited conditions, such as gut infections caused by Clostridium difficile. FMT is like restarting a computer to fix a problem, says gastroenterologist Purna Kashyap of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.

Difficulties with modifying the microbiome arise, in part, because an established gut community is simultaneously in constant fluxchanging with food, sleep, or jet lagand resistant to long-term change. If you change diet, you see this very short-term perturbation where the community changes in response to the chemicals in food, Sonnenburg says. But over time, it will rebound back to something similar to its starting state.

That starting state likely reflects an individuals core microbiome. But Sonnenburg and others have begun to find hints of how to use microbiome-directed foods to drive long-term changes in both the gut community and human health. He and his colleagues tested two dietary changes thought to benefit gut bacteria: plant-based diets high in fiber, and diets high in fermented foods such as kombucha and kefir (3). The researchers monitored changes in the participants microbiomes as well as their health after several weeks of the diets.

Those who consumed high-fiber plant-based meals rich in fruits, vegetables, and legumes showed an increase in certain carbohydrate-digesting enzymes produced by gut microbes but no changes in the proportion of different species. Fermented foods, however, were kind of the food equivalent of probiotics, Sonnenburg says. Those who ate more of these foods showed an increase in their gut microbial diversity and a decrease in inflammatory immune markers, perhaps because these foods are rich in so-called prebiotic chemicals that feed beneficial gut bacteria (see ref. 4). Still, neither group showed long-term effects on weight loss, fatigue, stress, or other general markers of well-being.

To understand those links, epidemiologist Tim Spector and nutrition researcher Sarah Berry, both at Kings College in London, UK, and their team, homed in on a long-overlooked aspect of human metabolism: our response to meals. Most research on glucose or fat metabolism has focused on the levels of these chemicals after a long period of not eating. Typically, doctors will request a fasting blood test to gauge a persons metabolic health. But most people eat two or three meals a day interspersed with snacksand every bite contributes to short, sharp rises in circulating sugars and fats. If we were to map blood levels of these metabolites into a typical eating pattern, you actually see that we spend most of our time not fasting, Berry says. The long-term effects of diets, certain foods, or nutrients arise because of their short-term impacts on circulating metabolites, according to Berry.

The researchers also found that peoples genetics showed only a weak correlation to their metabolic responses to food; rather, the microbiome composition was much more strongly associated with how certain metabolites changed after meals. In follow-up studies, the team identified specific groups of microbes associated with metabolic responses to different foods. Then the team developed a machine-learning model to predict how a person might respond to food, based on several factors including their microbiomes (5). Nearly 1,100 study participants had their microbial composition, blood glucose levels, and lipid levels assessed after eating a specific set of foods (6). They then received a set of personalized diet recommendations aimed at health outcomes such as weight loss or improving blood sugar levels in participants with diabetes.

The researchers are still studying whether the recommended dietary changes alter gut microbes as well. But the data so far suggest that different foods promote a change in the microbiome composition, Berry says. The more data that emerge, the more well start to see this symbiotic relationship: Its not enough to just consume beneficial bacteria, but we also need to ensure were giving them the appropriate food.

Gordon and his team wanted to find the appropriate foods for children with severe malnutrition. They designed dietary supplements using different proportions of bananas, peanuts, chickpeas, and other common foods that in laboratory tests in mice appeared to support a healthy microbiome. In mice carrying microbiomes of malnourished children, one specific cocktail helped transform these microbiomes to resemble those found in healthy children. When the researchers fed malnourished toddlers in Dhaka this particular supplement twice a day for three months, their health improved: The children gained height and weight in patterns similar to healthy peersan effect not seen with the standard treatments used for malnutrition. Blood tests also showed that, compared with current remedies, children who received the microbiome-targeting supplement had higher levels of circulating proteins linked to bone growth and brain development (1). Its a nutrient substrate that benefits both the microbes and the host, Gordon says. We have to think of their development together.

In future studies, the group plans to test how long the benefits last and the mechanisms linking host and bacterial metabolism. They emphasize that the work does not try to define a single normal microbiome. Instead, their goal is to identify a community that most benefits a persons health in the context of their individual circumstances.

The results could also help parents seeking ways to optimize childrens nutrition as they shift from infant diets of milk or formula to solid foods. If were able to connect the dots between food and the development of microbiota that drive human growth, we could have a microbiome-informed sequence of foods [to improve childrens health], Gordon says.

Their approach could also extend to other disorders where the microbiome has been implicated, he and others on the team add. What were trying to emphasize with our studies is that we have to change the way we think about food in many ways, says Robert Chen, Gordons doctoral student at Washington University who co-authored the new study. The supplement, Chen adds, is a food designed with a specific purpose and specific targets. And in that way, he says, it is more like a bridge between food and medicine.

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Inner Workings: Can feeding the gut microbiome treat malnutrition? - pnas.org

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Yesha Rughani opened up about the challenges she had to go through after finding out that she has PCOD (Polycystic Ovarian Disease). Yesha, in an exclusive interview with ETimes TV, shared that she, too, follows intermittent fasting to keep her weight in control, which helps her lead a healthy lifestyle. "I do intermittent fasting because I have the issue of PCOD to keep it in control and keep a track on it, I am following this healthy diet lifestyle. I do not step much on the weighing scale, but I have managed to lose 8 kgs. Honestly, it is very difficult when you have PCOD. You have to deal with weight issues. So, fortunately, I realised about it during lockdown when I underwent a weight loss programme. I started looking after myself, I used to eat and sleep on time. I used to keep myself hydrated, wake up on time, so I followed a proper routine and my mother took care of each and every small thing. I was not stressed, because I was at home in my comfort zone, not working and doing anything else, but concentrating on my health. So, it made things easier for me. Usually, we are working round the clock, we wake up late, sleep late, we work for long hours, we miss our lunches or dinner, so all this affects our health. It gets difficult to maintain," said the Hero - Gayab Mode On actress.

Originally posted here:
Quitting roti, rice for years to following intermittent fasting; extreme diets followed by these TV celebs to lose weight - Times of India

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Danone North America, whose plant-based food and beverage offerings include products sold under the Silk and So Delicious brands, has released new research on the relationship between multicultural audiences and plant-based products. According to At the Table: The Multicultural Plant-Based Food Perspective, plant-based eating is on the rise among multicultural consumers, particularly the younger Millennial and Gen Z demographics. However, while the popularity of plant-based foods has skyrocketed and multicultural consumers are major contributors to this increased interest, the research also uncovered such issues as cultural stigmas and accessibility barriers.

Plant-based eating has the potential to be a real beacon of healthy living, especially for diverse communities, noted John Starkey, president of plant-based food and beverage for White Plains, N.Y.-based Danone North America. To hear that multicultural audiences are more willing to add plant-based foods into their diets was personally inspiring and affirming to me, as my family and many friends have adopted flexitarian lifestyles over the last few years. With this research and the breadth of our product portfolio, the ability to help move Danone North America and the plant-based industry forward is one of the biggest reasons why I joined the company. Weve made a conscious effort to be more inclusive and reach underrepresented communities, particularly through our Silk and So Delicious brands, which have a long legacy in the plant-based space. Yet there is still a lot of work to be done in understanding how different communities are experiencing plant-based food and beverages and how we can do more to engage and appeal to multicultural consumers, from our innovation choices and marketing efforts to our community impact work and sustainability strategies.

Key findings from the research include the following:

At the Table: The Multicultural Plant-Based Food Perspective further revealed that multicultural consumers believe plant-based eating is healthy and nutritious, better for the environment, and more ethical. However, these shoppers want more plant-based companies and brands to engage with them in a deeper, more meaningful way, not just through marketing efforts, but also through ingredient choices, education and sustainability work.

In response to this research, Danone North America is looking to take further action in 2022 by expanding its inclusive marketing and customer efforts through new internal and external partnerships encompassing sales and marketing, nutrition and innovation.

At Danone North America, we believe making progress toward a more inclusive, just and diverse culture is an essential part of using our business as a force for good, said Terrance Irizarry, the companys head of inclusive diversity. Our commitments to inclusive diversity are put into action through a strategy that focuses on four major areas our people, the marketplace, community engagement, and advocacy, for a number of topics that demonstrate our support for racial equity and social justice. Marketing efforts for our portfolio should reflect the diversity of our consumers and society and also reach those consumers meaningfully. Conducting this important research on behalf of our plant-based portfolio is a huge step forward in listening, learning and ultimately taking action. Its also part of our larger journey and work toward enhancing the overall diversity in our content and our partnerships with diverse suppliers in the industry.

Initiatives already undertaken by the company include the following Silk and So Delicious initiatives: a focus on diverse talent and influencer marketing efforts, financial support for major African American and Asian American foundations, and advocating for the social and economic empowerment of farming partners across the supply chain.

In partnership with global integrated communications agency Zeno Group, Danone North America fielded an online survey of 4,027 adults in the United States, including Asian Americans, Black/African Americans, and Hispanic/Latino communities, between April 27 and May 19. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

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Multicultural Shoppers More Open to Plant-Based Products Than Total Population - Progressive Grocer

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Diabetes can be a life-altering disease and hence requires one to make lifestyle and diet changes. As such, there are many things a diabetic must keep in mind to ensure their blood sugar levels are always under control.

If you have just been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, heres some help from Ridhima Batra, certified diabetic educator, sports nutritionist, and founder of Nutrition Defined.

Recognise that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease and managing it soon after diagnosis (or before) will pay off now and in the long term. It is a serious disease that demands your attention. Ignoring it may not seem to have significant short-term consequences (chronic high blood glucose levels are not painful), but over time, elevated glucose levels can damage your nervous system, blood vessels, eyes, heart, and kidneys, she said.

Which is why, managing your blood glucose levels now, along with other health risk factors (e.g., cholesterol, blood pressure, weight), is necessary for preventing these complications. Losing even a small amount of weight and keeping it off can improve glucose control as well as have other clinical benefits. Better diabetes management will also benefit you in the here and now your mood and energy levels are adversely affected when your glucose levels are high, the expert added.

She added that food has a major impact on blood glucose so optimising your mealtime, making informed food choices, and exercising portion control play a huge role in blood glucose management.

The life you lead and the food you eat are two important factors when it comes to diabetes. Whole foods that are not processed should always be on the menu. But also remember that some items must always be away from the dining table if you want to steer clear of diabetes, she advised.

Additionally, avoid special diets and stick to what you make at home. Just follow the basic rules:

*Avoid drinks with lots of added sugars and carbohydrates (unless you have low blood sugar, also called hypoglycemia). Staying away from regular soda and large amounts of fruit juice is usually wise.

*Add more low GI (glycemic index) foods in your diet.

*Avoid all refined and processed foods, especially the packaged variety.

*Impose portion control. Make sure you fill half your plate with veggies or salad, portion of your complex carbohydrates and the other portion with a protein source.

*Add healthy fats and protein to your meals to balance the sugar levels (helps in lowering the GI of the meal) and curb sugar cravings.

Incorporate activity into your routine

Physical activity is the perfect partner to your healthy eating plan: Food gives you energy, and activity can help to burn it up! The American Diabetes Association recommends accumulating 30 minutes of aerobic activity such as walking on most days, with the addition of resistance training (pushing, pulling, lifting) two or three times a week.

Your physical activity plan should, over time, include three types of activity:

*Aerobic or cardiovascular activity that benefits the heart and lungs (walking, biking, swimming, dancing, stair-climbing).*Resistance or strength training (lifting, pulling, pushing).*Stretching and flexibility.

Use blood glucose testing to identify patterns and be regular with your follow-ups

Check-ups are an important part of diabetes care. The only way you can confidently know what your blood glucose level is at any given time is by testing it. Regular testing will help you identify high and low levels before serious problems develop. When testing is performed on a regular basis, it helps you assess how well you are balancing your insulin therapy, meal planning, and exercise to manage diabetes, she added.

These test results will also provide valuable information for your doctor to help make adjustments to your overall care plan.

Simple sugar checks can be done at home using a glucometer, while advanced checks are done at health centers. Advanced sugar checks are done on a weekly, monthly and annual basis, and include checking the condition of blood sugar, cholesterol, and kidney performance.

Work with a diabetic educator

Diabetes educators are certified health care professionals with specialised knowledge in diabetes self-management and education. Early detection, prevention, and treatment are the keys to minimising diabetes complications. Work with your diabetic educator to customise your diabetes care schedule, including personal goals and targets.

For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and dont miss out on the latest updates!

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Things to keep in mind if you have just been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes - The Indian Express

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ANGOLA If youve ever been to the Steuben County Farmers Market, youve likely seen the black-and-white logo of The Rooted Vegan, a food brand with vegan selections made by Craig and Kristi Collins.

The Collinses have frequented the farmers market since beginning the brand last summer and have now expanded to a year-round operation with an official storefront in downtown Angola at 30 N. Public Square.

While they only had baked goods available at the farmers market, the Collinses are now able to provide meals and drinks all vegan.

We started it because of the lack of vegan options in town, Kristi said. Were vegan ourselves and thought theres got to be other people who are as well and have the same struggles, but it turned into so much more than that. There are so many people that have allergies or illnesses or whatever it may be that limits their diets in so many different ways, and we can accommodate that even.

The Collinses chose to go vegan three years ago after Kristi experienced a foot injury. Recovery was not going as she had hoped, and after being recommended a vegan diet and researching its effectiveness, she decided to give it a shot.

I was really skeptical, but there was tons of research out there that supported it, Kristi said. I thought, what have I got to lose? Im suffering from this, and nothing else that I was doing was working. So we made that change, and within about two weeks, the injury was gone and it hasnt returned.

Making the decision to switch diets may have been simple, but actually implementing a vegan lifestyle proved to be not quite so easy.

When we started, there were very limited options in the area as far as going out to eat. Even going grocery shopping was difficult. We had to go to Fort Wayne most of the time. It was the closest that we could find a lot of the products that we were eating or cooking with, Kristi said. As we decided that we were going to stick with it, the frustration that we felt with not having options locally grew.

The Collinses often had to visit stores like Fresh Thyme in Fort Wayne that offered satisfying substitutions for meals and experimental cooking.

Last summer, they decided to make the leap and create a local vegan option for themselves and anyone else who might benefit from it.

A lot of other restaurants in town, I think, are starting to accommodate more of those situations, but it may be one or two options that theyre limited to. Where here, they can come in, and everythings available to them, Kristi said. Theres people who have allergies to dairy or to eggs or to a lot of things, and they find they can come in here and they dont have to worry about running into any of those ingredients or the possibility of cross contamination because we dont even have them in the building. So theyre safe to eat anything.

While the Collinses had never owned a restaurant before, theyre not entirely unfamiliar with the culinary business. Kristi has almost 25 years in the food industry, and growing up in a family of 16 brothers and sisters, Craig had plenty of experience cooking with his mother. As such, Kristi handles most of the stores operations while Craig puts his skills to the test back in the kitchen.

Through trial and error, the Collinses have curated a menu of vegan options that can appeal to a variety of diets.

Yes, its different, but at the same time, we want the average person to be able to walk in and feel comfortable eating anything, Kristi said. We really go all out on developing our recipes, and if its not similar to what we would have had prior to being vegan, then we dont want it in here.

Kristi and Craig have found vegan substitutes for commonly used foods such as cheese, eggs and meat that retain the same texture, but a little creativeness is required to get the taste to match as well.

A lot of it comes down to just knowing the seasonings and spices and what will give it that authentic taste, Kristi said. We add ingredients to get that natural taste that somebody off the street who isnt vegan, when they come, they would say it tastes just like the real thing.

Many curious passersby have found the store already since it opened in late October, and regulars have started to migrate to the shopfront since the farmers market closed for the year.

The Collinses may have moved on from the market, but they are still grateful for the experience and people they met while there.

We didnt really know that there were people out there struggling with that kind of situation until we went to the farmers market and started meeting these people, Craig said.

The market helped establish an initial clientele with both locals and tourists who only stayed during the summer months and were looking for more diverse food options in the area.

They found out that we were at the market, so we were seeing people from Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Craig said.

Even further than that, Kristi added. We had some I would call them regulars throughout the summer that lived in Arizona and some that lived out in California. This stuff is common there, but here, when they come, they cant find it.

Many of the downtown Angola businesses have also been showing their support for The Rooted Vegan long before the shops opening, whether by purchasing something or passing on the name by word of mouth or simply encouraging the Collinses to pursue their goals.

Now with their own storefront, Craig and Kristi are excited to work with the other businesses on equal footing and contribute to the vibrancy of downtown Angola.

I want to increase the life of downtown, Craig said. Its beautiful down here, and we want to add to everybody else.

Of course, everybody wants their own business to succeed, but ultimately, their goal is, lets work together so that we all can succeed, Kristi said. We couldnt ask for or have dreamed of a better location, not only because of the traffic, obviously, but just the support from all the other businesses around. Its been overwhelmingly amazing, and we appreciate it so much.

For more information about The Rooted Vegan or to follow the shops daily updates, visit The Rooted Vegan on Facebook.

Excerpt from:
Dec. 9 - The Rooted Vegan sets roots in downtown Angola - FW Business

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Theres no mistake. Theyre home.

Children, even those with just an ounce of sneakiness, look for cues to alert them of when their parents arrive home. The sound of gravel being uniformly crunched by wheels can serve as a signal to hide any evidence of the candy we overindulged in or a sign to abruptly turn off video game consoles. One source of stimuli I seldom missed was a distinct blend of scents. Usually generated from the manual labor jobs my parents are employed in, this lingering concoction of smells could only be achieved over the span of several hours, the duration required for grease, gasoline and sweat to slowly embed themselves between individual cotton fibers.

These aforementioned scents would arrive at two intervals clustered around the late evening, which is often when Id either be reading about current events or completing homework. The former activity was a favorite pastime of mine. I was a gluttonous inquisitor that consistently consumed articles through Business Insider and Bloomberg (prior to the existence of their paywalls). Regardless, Id bury my attention into textbooks or digital screens as my parents attempted to decompress after an arduous day of work. This exact scenario unfolded over countless evenings throughout high school. Our households seemingly mundane routine proved to be transformative with each passing day, as I was becoming more embedded in different environments, like speech and debate club and eventually college, and drifting further away from the spaces my parents are left behind in.

Social class has outsized influence over the connections a person forms based on physical and relational proximity, and these connections serve as important conduits for a wide spectrum of knowledge. Sociologists often refer to these concepts as social and cultural capital respectively. The advent of the Internet, and the tools and services that have followed, like Coursera and Googles search engine, have often been promoted as great equalizers of information and opportunity.

To the dismay of egalitarians, this noble assertion is not fully true as some, like my working-class family, are still living in darkness. Essentially, the technological illiteracy of, and subsequent lack of integration and resources for, my older working-class family members inhibits their access to social media, online news platforms and other digital-native information channels. This stifles their ability to develop relevant skills and capitalize on opportunities through the vast resources and information that are increasingly becoming digital-exclusive.

This observation is noteworthy because our information diets have significant influence over how we perceive and interact with the world, and my working-class family is at greater risk of being put in a disadvantageous position when unplugged. For example, if they are unaware of rising inflation, it limits their ability to make appropriate financial adjustments, such as modifying their grocery list and budget. As the Internet enters the early stages of Web 3.0, my familys information bubble remains much less dynamic relative to most people Ive encountered throughout life. They rely on their budget smartphones for calls and rudimentary tasks, seldom use computers and one of my parents doesnt even have an email address, unfamiliar with the enormous influence digital media platforms wield over society.

At the surface level, my family misses out on innocuous content. Memes are littered across every digital space to serve as a colloquial, humorous form of expression, yet despite their influence on contemporary culture, they have yet to permeate the spaces my older family members typically occupy. As a result, my family likely doesnt know what a Karen is, the characteristics of a Chad, or any other concept with digital origins that might be deciphered with the Urban Dictionary website. But this exclusion impacts them much more severely than missing out on widespread comedy. They have missed out on participating in and observing viral phenomena in real-time, such as the Gamestop short squeeze and various major political and activist-oriented movements. A plethora of politicians, celebrities and influential figures are active on these virtual public forums, just a few keystrokes and clicks away, but due to my familys technological illiteracy, they are not within reach. They have limited digital avenues for participating in digital activism, accumulating political capital, and projecting their voices on various existential matters.

Digital developments such as direct-to-consumer brands and ghost kitchens were unfathomable not too long ago and we now take them for granted, but they have yet to reach my family. Although there are fewer gatekept barriers associated with digitally-integrated products and services, there is a spectrum in terms of awareness and affordability. For example, ride sharing and food delivery apps have widespread use among the public, whereas coveted, niche NFTs have skyrocketed to exorbitant prices exclusive affordable for the wealthy while non-esoteric NFTs are reasonable to obtain. Despite the generic accessibility associated with these emerging technologies, my older working-class family members have limited funds and little to no awareness, the latter of which is primarily due to their unfamiliarity with technology at a more basic level and their consequential minimal usage.

The limited literacy and usage of technology within my family does not only restrict them from digital information and convenience services, but it also prohibits their participation in digitized data collection. Corporations and businesses that seek public input do not reach them and will unintentionally innovate without their input. Consequently, these nascent technologies will cater exclusively towards those with the means to utilize them. After several iterations, my family is no longer a part of the target audience, leaving them further behind in this technological ecosystem.

When I inform my parents of some of the aforementioned trends and events, as I am one of their few consistent sources of information, they share lived experiences that represent direct impacts of the global and national trends they remain unaware of, which affirms their relative proximity to the very shifting digital and economic ecosystems that harm them. Terms associated with current trends and events like the creator economy, the metaverse, transitory inflation and the reconciliation bill are at best on their periphery. But these nebulous words are increasingly becoming a part of societys lexicon, and their implications on the workforce, financial markets and government will prove to be disruptive, whether my family knows about them in advance or not. For example, one of my parents is a fast food crew member and works at a routinely understaffed location. The rise of the gig and creator economies, alongside other forces, have diminished the applicant pool and results in my parents frequently working overtime without understanding the macro forces at play.

The tragic irony in writing this piece is that my family, without inorganic intervention, will never lay their eyes upon this work. Yet another stark reminder of how my family and I are at times worlds apart, our respective environments separated by underlying forces influenced along social strata lines. We are all living in a world submerged in a deep pool of information, whose ocean currents are propelled by the Internet and the tectonic plates of the digital landscape are shifting at warp speeds. I am merely an aqueduct that filters high volumes of data and drips out condensed droplets in a desolate desert.

Despite the drastic changes and amount of experiences Ive gone through, I will always have the working-class experience as a part of my story. Ive absorbed plenty of information and memories, but my nose will never forget to register whiffs of manual labor. The blue-collar smells of gasoline, grease and sweat now serve as a signal to involuntarily reminisce about my parents coming home from work. Over the span of several hours, base notes of stability and unconditional love have been imbued into their signature scents. Its quite clear that my familys scant engagement with the digital world due to their unfamiliarity and limited resources places them in a disadvantageous position. Their procurement of information takes place primarily through in-person interactions and conversations, which pales in comparison to the deep reservoir of information most people access through social media and digital news outlets. This means that my parents are unlikely to hear about news coverage and discourse over relevant and significant matters as they arise, further perpetuating the discrepancies in information they experience as late adopters to technology, yet their lived experiences, labor and love would make their contributions to these digital spheres incredibly valuable. The consequences of this for families like mine are that they rely on a handful of connections to those they deem as technology savants to keep them in the loop. What this means for society is that, without intervention, information deserts in underrepresented areas will persist and worsen. The stories and input of underrepresented people will continue to be meager across the digital landscape and the consequential social, political and economic movements the landscape informs. If society hopes to foster a more inclusive future, it is imperative to reflect on who is not present, and we must ensure everyone has a seat at both the physical and digital tables.

MiC Columnist Gustavo Sacramento can be reached at gsacrame@umich.edu.

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barriers to information from the digital ecosystem - The Michigan Daily

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