Diet and Healthspan - Uncertain but High Value

#395

Roger Davis, biologist: ‘If you eat a poor diet, it activates stress throughout your entire body: muscles, liver, fat… everywhere’

The esteemed scientist, one of the world’s leading experts in molecular biology, explains how disruptions at the cellular level influence health

The human body is an extremely complex system that functions well when kept in balance. Diets high in fats or sugar, lack of exercise, toxic substances, or insufficient sleep can disrupt that harmony and lead to all kinds of chronic diseases, such as obesity, cancer, or heart conditions, which rank among the leading causes of illness and death in industrial societies. It has long been known that the body’s inflammatory response to everyday damage — sometimes continuous and low-grade — explains the origin of many of these disorders. Understanding how this response is regulated is one of the most exciting areas for the medicine of the future.

Roger Davis, 67, director of the Department of Molecular Medicine at UMASS Chan Medical School in the U.S., is one of the world’s leading experts in this field. His work in the 1990s led to the cloning of the protein JNK, a switch that activates in our cells when problems are detected, from infections to oxygen deprivation or excess sugar. When the mechanism works properly, it helps cells adapt and survive, but if it becomes overactive or the switch stays on, it contributes to the development of diseases such as arthritis or diabetes.

Davis, one of the most cited scientists in the world, was recently in Madrid to participate in the congress of the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SEBBM), thanks to the collaboration of the BBVA Foundation.

Question. How has the way we understand the effects of stress on cells and our bodies changed since you began your pioneering work?

Answer. It’s been a good number of years since we first cloned JNK — I think some of my current students weren’t even born yet — and the way we think has changed a lot since then. We also know a lot more about the molecular mechanisms and the actual details of how they work. And I think there’s also been a shift in how we think about the purpose of the pathway, why we have it.

Originally, it was defined as a stress pathway, and there were many different types of environmental stimuli that activated it. So, people thought this was a way of responding to stress. Today, we look at it differently, in terms of homeostasis, the balance the body should be in. We now think of stress as the body getting out of balance, and this pathway recognizes the imbalance and corrects it. So it’s more of a physiological balancing act than what we originally thought, where it was simply a bad thing that happened when you were exposed to stress.

Read the full story:

#396

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So you don’t feel anything from eating healthier. At the same time I’ve had massive changes previously from hydration/sodium reduction that I’ve forgotten about.

Basically the EXPERIENCE is neutral – not tasting much, not feeling much, and it’s about delayed gratification. It’s a change in perspective? It’s pretty interesting not tasting much, no hyperpalatable kick experience in pleasure from eating for a long time, except maybe alleviating hunger.

#397

I agree with Aella completely, I do eat “honorary non-vegetables,” corn and peas, and I love baked potatoes. Though I think broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are all cruel jokes and detract from any meal they are served with. :sweat_smile:

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#398

I don’t like cooked broccoli but love it raw in my smoothie. Cauliflower is a different story - it’s great when steamed and served with sour cream and green onions (salt and black pepper to taste).

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#399

I guess I’m a freak of nature, because I love brussel sprouts, and especially if well prepared in a dish. I’m less fond of broccoli, unless specially prepared in some Italian dishes. And I kinda hate potatoes, except the very young red ones in a nice dish - small quantities. Don’t like 'em mashed, fried, baked, in flour form - just hate 'em in general (grew up eating them, and hated every minute of it).

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#400

My daughter does too and I she likes the way I make them baked with olive oil and a little garlic salt.

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#401

Genius! Exactly how I like 'em :yum:

#402

Same recipe:

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https://x.com/SBF_FTX/status/1476615799100133381#m

I first heard about that from Sam Bankman Fried. It’s great. Now he’s living off ramen noodles though.

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#403

I do something similar, but for more ease, I just put them in the oven with a couple cloves of garlic.

I may or may not add some maple syrup at the end.

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#404

The founder making Blueprint foods for delivery used to do this as well.

Since dietary AGE’s doesn’t really have much of an effect according to Olafur except possibly increasing inflammation with you can detect, then baking in oven everything should be easiest and not much of a difference from boiling or steaming.

I’ll have to go with that, whatever is easiest, and arguably more palatable without any health difference.

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#405

In the morning I put frozen Brussels in a mason jar and eat them in the afternoon after they have thawed out. I’m lazy yet trying to eat enough vegetables and it’s easy. They also don’t go bad if I buy them frozen.

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#406

I really like frozen brussel sprouts and eat them a few times a week… I just wish the flash freezing didn’t destroy most (or all) of the sulforaphane.

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#407

For the first 25 years of my life I would have agreed with you. I absolutely detested them. But then I spent some months with a limited diet whilst on an ‘expedition’ in Africa. There was one particularly bad week where I lived almost entirely on water, oats and honey.

I had a incredibly vivid dream about brussel sprouts and when I got back to the UK months later couldn’t stop eating them. they have been one of my favourite vegetables ever since.

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#408

Your diet is probably dangerously acidic but there’s a simple solution (New Scientist)

Nutrition scientists have unlocked an entirely new way of thinking about why certain foods are good for you and others are harmful. Here’s what to eat to function at your best

I am standing in the bathroom with a strip of litmus paper in my hand. I am going to pee on it and hope that it doesn’t turn red, which would indicate acid. This isn’t for a bet – it is a (ahem) litmus test of whether my diet is slowly killing me. Acidic urine is a crude sign that something called my dietary acid load is too high. If it is, I am opening myself up to a range of ills. Luckily, there is a simple cure: a change of diet. So, if I do see red, I am going to eat some spinach and try again.

This might sound like medical woo-woo, and there are worrying echoes of a discredited fad called the alkaline diet. But nutrition scientists increasingly think that by ignoring dietary acid load we are missing a trick when it comes to healthy eating. “The higher the dietary acid load, the higher the risk of developing chronic diseases,” says Hana Kahleova at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a not-for-profit research centre in Washington DC. These include kidney disease, liver disease, cancer, obesity, hypertension and even anxiety and depression.

Shockingly, almost all of us are getting this wrong – especially if we eat a regular Western diet. But the good news is that, unlike the damage caused by consuming too much salt or more calories than we need, this can be quite easily reversed, provided you know which foods and drinks make your body too acidic. What’s more, the new science of dietary acid load is throwing fresh light on why certain diets promote chronic diseases.

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More perils of a Western diet

At this point, alarm bells may be ringing. Western-style diets are notoriously rich in animal products, salt, refined grains and ultra-processed foods, and low in fruit and vegetables – the perfect recipe for low-grade metabolic acidosis. Indeed, researchers believe that among people consuming the typical Western diet, it is very common, if not ubiquitous. “We have a chronic exposure to a high dietary acid load, so that’s something that we all have,” says Ilias Attaye at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

How acid corrodes you

The link between a high DAL and kidney disease is pretty much nailed down. Now, there is a growing suspicion among nutrition scientists that the acid inside our bodies eats deeper. Low-grade metabolic acidosis has been tentatively linked to multiple chronic conditions, including diabetes, obesity, liver disease, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, anxiety and depression. As yet, these are just associations from small-scale studies. Bigger ones are needed before DAL can be built into dietary guidelines, says Attaye. But they are coming. For example, he has just received funding for a clinical trial to look at how low and high-acid diets affect the metabolic health of people with diabetes.

Read the full article: Your diet is probably dangerously acidic but there’s a simple solution (New Scientist)

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#409

One factor is that some anions such as urate are more soluble in more basic water. My urinary pH is at times 9.

#410

Mine fluctuates between 6 and 6.5. Measure twice a month. 9 is too high, isn’t it?

#411

What do we think of Baking Soda for health?

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#412

I don’t think so. It will vary depending upon what you have recently eaten. When I have drunk a lot of alcohol it tends to move acidic.

There are people who drink alkaline substances which are pH 9.

#413

What do we think of Apple Cider Vinegar? It’s supposed to have a lot of great effects in the body but it’s really acidic.

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#414

Its a good question. I think acetate and citrate both have merits. I prefer to take them without the hydrogen ion.