Heena Sharma Blog

High-quality diet, defined by low intake of animal foods such as red meat, and high intake of plant foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains, coupled with a reduced intake of sweetened beverages, could be associated with reduced risk of diabetes, a recent study suggests. Diet is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes . Studying the impact of individual food items, however, does not account for the synergistic effects of diverse foods consumed together. Hence, scientists have turned increasing attention to studying the overall dietary patterns in order to capture the combined effect of a variety of food groups. Finding of the study were published in the Journal of American Journal of Epidemiology Five predetermined dietary patterns originating in Western populations, i.e. the alternative Mediterranean diet (aMED, an international adaptation of the eponymous diet), the Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension...

A diet of fast food, cakes and processed meat may significantly increase risk of depression , a study has found. Researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK found that eating foods which are known to promote inflammation -- such as those high in cholesterol, saturated fats and carbohydrates -- puts people at 40 per cent higher risk of depression. The team analysed data from 11 existing studies that focused on the link between depression and pro-inflammatory diets -- encompassing more than 100,000 participants, between 16 to 72 years old, of varied gender and ethnicity, spanning the USA, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. All the studies recorded the presence of depression or depressive symptoms in the participants -- through self-observation, medical diagnoses and antidepressant use --alongside a detailed questionnaire about the contents of their diet. Each participant was assigned a score of how inflammatory his or her diet is, according to th...