Does Eating More of This Make You Healthier?

Hi and welcome to this week’s look at what’s making headlines in natural health on iHealthTube.com…

How much fiber do you get in your diet?  A certain amount could have a big impact on your health and your risk of disease.  A new study commissioned by the World Health Organization over a 40 year period showed the health benefits of eating at least 25 to 29 grams of dietary fiber a day.  The analysis showed a 15 to 30 percent decrease in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality for those who ate that much compared to those who ate the least.  Eating fiber rich foods also reduced incidences of type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer by up to 24 percent.

However most people worldwide consume less than 20 grams a day… in for comparison… fiber intake among adults in the US averages 15 grams per day.  Rich sources of fiber include whole grains, vegetables and fruit.

And there’s more research pointing to the benefits of intermittent fasting.  A study out of Australia shows that obese women lost more weight and found improved health by fasting intermittently and following a controlled diet.

The study had participants eat breakfast, then refrain from eating for 24 hours… followed by 24 hours of eating, then fasting again the following day.  Other groups in the study fasted intermittently without controlling diet… others did not fast… and others did not restrict diet at all.  The results showed that those who stuck to the fasting and dieting found significant weight loss and more improvements in health markers like heart disease, than those who didn’t follow both diet and fasting.

Are you getting bigger around the waist?  It could lead to your brain getting smaller.

That’s the conclusion of a study done in the UK.  Almost 10 thousand participants had their BMI, and waist-to-hip ratio measured.  They also measured brain volume with MRI.  After facorting age, physical activity, smoking and high blood pressure… they found a linear connection… those with the higher BMI and waist-to-hip ratio had the lowest gray matter brain volume.  Those with healthy BMI scores had larger brain volume.  Gray imatter is the part of the brain that houses most o the brains 100 billion nerve cells.

Future research hopes to look closer at the connection between the two as well as inflammation and nutrition’s role in both.

That’s a look at what’s making headlines in natural health this week.  Make sure to go to iHealthTube.com and sign up for our free email newsletter!