The F-Factor Diet

What is the F-Factor Diet?

The F-Factor, created by celebrity dietitian Tanya Zuckerbrot,  is a very high-fiber diet (the "F" stands for fiber). This means eating fruits, non-starchy vegetables, legumes and select whole grains like high-fiber cereal and bulgur. Since your digestive system cannot break down fiber into energy, it helps make you feel full.

In addition, you also need to eat lean proteins and some fats. While the diet does not limit the number of a dieter's calories per day, the recommendations for other foods ultimately limits overall calorie intake.

The F-Factor Diet consists of three phases:

Phase one: this phase typically lasts two weeks and requires dieters to eat at least 35 grams of fiber per day. It also entails eating fewer than 35 grams of net carbs (i.e.total carbs minus fiber).

Phase two: still sticking with the high fiber count, but net carbs increase to 75 grams per day until you have lost as much weight as you want to lose.

Phase three: known as the maintenance phase, dieters eat 125 grams of net carbs per day but stick with the high fiber count.

In all three phases, dieters are also encouraged to get 30% of their calories from fat, which is around 33 grams per day.  The diet also encourages high protein intake—between 10 and 14 ounces of lean protein per day for women. 

Lastly, water is a huge part of the F-Factor Diet, because fiber needs water to work. The dieters need to drink three liters, or more than 12 cups of water a day. 

Conversely, the F-Factor cautions against eating high-fat meat and dairy, and encourages dieters to avoid saturated fats and added sugar. Alcohol is not off limits and that a 4-ounce glass of wine contributes 2 net carbs to your daily carb count.

However, the diet is far more likely to cause long-term harm than do short-term good of losing weight:

• It is not nutritionally-sound because the total energy looks to fall below what most adults would need to eat in a day. It provides too few calories to be healthy for most people.  This is because in one of the previous starvation studies, it was found that after six months on a low-calorie diet, the subjects experienced significant drops in strength, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive, as well as increased levels of depression, irritability, and fatigue. Worse, they became obsessed with food, dreaming about it often, and talking and reading about it constantly. A 2015 review study published in the International Journal of Obesity explains that rapid weight loss can actually trigger physiological changes that make it really hard to lose more weight and actually promote weight gain, including fewer calories burned, less fat oxidation, increased production of hunger hormones and decreased production in hunger hormones.

• While fiber is good for you, too much fiber can lead to some nasty side effects such as causing GI disruptions like bloating, abdominal pain and constipation, among other symptoms.

• Also, getting too full from fiber-rich foods means you might not have room for adequate protein, fat and starchy carbohydrates.

The Recipe for Healthy Ageing

As you age, your metabolism starts to slow down and you will require less energy from food. It is important, therefore, to pack nutrient-dense foods into your everyday meals. 

The recipe for healthy ageing starts with maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, which include the right amount of food from the different food groups in the daily meals: 

• Fill half of your plate with fruit and vegetables. Be sure to have 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables daily.   
• Fill a quarter of your plate with wholegrains. Include at least one wholegrain staple food like wholemeal bread, brown rice or oats every day.
• Fill a quarter of your plate with meat and others.
• Have protein-rich foods in every meal to help maintain physical function and reduce muscle loss.Protein-rich foods include meat, fish, tofu, eggs, poultry and milk. 
• Make sure to have calcium-rich foods in your daily meals for stronger bones.Calcium-rich foods include milk, sardines and cheese.  
• Lighten up on your salt intake.Season your food naturally with fresh foods, herbs and spices.

Signs of Stroke

Stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is interrupted causing brain damage. This is usually caused by a blockage of a brain blood vessel or bleeding when a brain blood vessel bursts. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain and this is essential for its normal function. When the blood supply is cut off, brain cells die and this causes the signs of stroke. 

The most common signs of a stroke are sudden drooping of one side of the face, weakness of one side of the body and difficulty speaking or understanding speech. 

A stroke may also cause numbness on one side of the body, loss of balance or incoordination, double vision, difficulty seeing with one or both eyes and severe headache.

Certain conditions and lifestyle habits can increase our chances of having a stroke. For example, lifestyle factors such as an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, being obese, smoking or tobacco use and excessive alcohol intake can increase the chance of high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. And certain blood and heart conditions such as atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rate or rhythm) can increase the risk of having a stroke. 

Also, the risk of stroke increases with age. This is because our arteries narrow and harden as we age.

What are the symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency?

A person may not realize that they have a vitamin D deficiency, but there are some symptoms to look out for:

Frequent infections or illnesses

Vitamin D helps support the immune system — it plays a role in regulating immune function and inhibiting inflammatory reactions. It can also help prevent infections in the upper respiratory tract.

Fatigue and muscle weakness

Because vitamin D is key to bone health, an insufficient amount can cause bone and muscle weakness, which can lead to fatigue.

Bone and joint pain

Vitamin D can increase bone mass and prevent bone loss. If someone has bone and joint pain, it may indicate a vitamin D deficiency.

Fractures

Adequate vitamin D in the body helps maintain bone strength by supporting the absorption of calcium. This is particularly important for females after menopause, which can cause bone density to decrease and the risk of osteoporosis to increase.

Depression

Lower levels of vitamin D may increase the risk of depression. This is because there are vitamin D receptors in the brain, and the research indicates that the vitamin has a protective anti-inflammatory effect.

Slow wound healing

If wounds take longer than usual to heal, it might be a sign of low vitamin D levels because it regulates growth factors and other compounds that form new tissue. People with leg ulcers were more likely to have vitamin D deficiencies.

Symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency in children include:

• irritability
• lethargy
• bone pain or fractures
• deformities of the teeth
• developmental delays

Vitamin D is important for health. Some of its roles in the body include: 

1. helping with the absorption of calcium
2. maintaining healthy bones
3. regulating genes and cell growth
4. preventing rickets and osteoporosis. The condition of rickets tends to occur in babies and preschool-age children, though it can arise in older kids. It affects the development of the bones, wrists, knees, and joints in the ribs, and it can cause bowing of the legs.
5. modulating the immune system
6. preventing cardiovascular disease - According to 2013 research, there is a connection between vitamin D levels and the risk of cardiovascular disease — conditions such as hypertension and metabolic syndrome.. This may be because vitamin D protects the heart and combats inflammation.
7. preventing autoimmune disease.Vitamin D is a natural immune modulator, and low levels of the vitamin may be connected to autoimmune diseases, including:

• type 1 diabetes
• multiple sclerosis
• rheumatoid arthritis
• Crohn’s disease

Some sources of vitamin D include milk, white mushrooms, cooked sockeye salmon, cod liver oil and cooked rainbow trout.

Male suicide rate hits two-decade high in England and Wales

Male suicide rate hits two-decade high in England and Wales.

Data from the Office for National Statistics found that in 2019, there were 5,691 suicides registered, with an age-standardised rate of 11 deaths per 100,000 population. Men accounted for about three-quarters of suicide deaths registered, 4,303 compared with 1,388 women. The area with the highest rate in 2019 was Yorkshire and the Humber at 20.6 per 100,000.

The England and Wales male suicide rate of 16.9 deaths per 100,000 was the highest since 2000 but remained in the line with the 2018 rate. The rate for women was 5.3 deaths per 100,000, the highest since 2004.

Samaritans pointed to “worrying trends”, including men aged 45-49 remaining at the highest risk of suicide, and an increase in suicide rates among young people, especially women under 25. An increase in suicide rates among people aged 25 to 44 in recent years continued in 2019.

“Many have been worried about losing their job and/or business and their finances, with common themes around not being able to pay rent/mortgage, inability to support the family and fear of homelessness.”

“Higher rates of suicide among middle-aged men in recent years might be because this group is more likely to be affected by economic adversity, alcoholism and isolation. It could also be that this group is less inclined to seek help.”

Undoubtedly, the pandemic has affected everyone in society, but Samaritans is particularly worried about three groups: people with pre-existing mental health conditions, young people who self-harm, and less well-off middle-aged men.

“With the impact of the pandemic this year taking a huge toll on people’s mental wellbeing, we should be even more concerned,” said the charity’s chief executive, Ruth Sutherland.

Ultra-Processed Junk Food linked to advanced ageing at cellular level

Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured substances composed of some mix of oils, fats, sugars, starch and proteins that contain little if any whole or natural foods.

They often include artificial flavourings, colourings, emulsifiers, preservatives and other additives that increase shelf-life and profit margins.

These properties mean that such foods are nutritionally poor compared to less processed alternatives. Earlier studies have shown strong correlations between ultra-processed foods and hypertension, obesity, depression, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. These conditions are often age-related in so far as they are linked to oxidative stress and inflammation.

Also, people who eat a lot of industrially processed junk food are more likely to exhibit a change in their chromosomes linked to ageing, according to a research.

Three or more servings of so-called "ultra-processed food" per day doubled the odds that strands of DNA and proteins called telomeres, found on the end of chromosomes, would be shorter compared to people who rarely consumed such foods, scientists reported at the European and International Conference on Obesity.

Short telomeres are a marker of biological ageing at the cellular level, and the study suggests that diet is a factor in driving the cells to age faster.

As we get older, our telomeres shorten naturally because each time a cell divides, part of the telomere is lost. That reduction in length has long been recognised as a marker of biological age.

New guidelines encourage people to exercise more per week to reduce their cancer risk

The American Cancer Society has released new guidelines for reducing the risk of cancer.

Here are some of the recommendations:

Adults should engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week. Achieving or exceeding the upper limit of 300 minutes is optimal.

The increase in exercise coincides with a study which found that people with the most sedentary behavior have an 82 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than people with the least sedentary behavior.

Scientific studies also show that exercise can reduce the risk of cancer either directly by stimulating anticancer molecules in the body or indirectly through weight loss and an improvement in lifestyle.

It is best not to drink alcohol.

People who choose to drink alcohol should limit their consumption to no more than one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men.

A healthy eating pattern includes foods high in nutrients in amounts that help achieve and maintain a healthy body weight, a variety of colorful vegetables and fiber-rich legumes (beans and peas), whole fruits with a variety of colors and whole grains.

A healthy eating pattern limits or does not include red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, highly processed foods and refined grain products.

“The guideline continues to reflect the current science that dietary patterns, not specific foods, are important to reduce the risk of cancer and improve overall health,” said Laura Makaroff, DO, the American Cancer Society’s senior vice president of prevention and early detection.

“There is no one food or even food group that is adequate to achieve a significant reduction in cancer risk,” she said.

“Current and evolving scientific evidence supports a shift away from a nutrient-centric approach to a more holistic concept of dietary patterns.”

However, Dr. Steven Clinton, a medical oncologist and researcher with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, and Richard J. Solove Research Institute said, “First, it is important to remember that in the magnitude of all the environmental and lifestyle factors that contribute to cancer risk, tobacco use is the first thing people should be aware of. Data shows more than up to one-third of all cancers are linked to tobacco.”

Can I donate blood if I have a Tattoo?

It is a myth that people with tattoos are barred from donating blood. No, it is not true. People with tattoos can donate blood as long as the tattoo was applied by a regulated entity using sterile needles and ink that was not reused. In some cases, you may need to wait for a few months after getting inked to make sure you did not pick up hepatitis along the way.

Anyway, potential donors should discuss their particular situation with the health historian at the time of donation.