Sep
15
2018

Moderate Carb Intake Has The Lowest Mortality

By | diet, exercise, heart attack, lifestyle, Mortality, Nutrition, Stroke

A 25-year long study has shown that a moderate carb intake has the lowest mortality. A comprehensive study from the US has followed more than 15,000 men and women for 25 years. They were between 45-64 years when they entered the study and they were from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors chose mortality as an end point. Dr. Sara Seidelmann is a clinical and research fellow in cardiovascular medicine from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She was the lead author of this study. The research group used food questionnaires and analyzed the carb content in the food. They also determined what percentage of the food composition was of animal origin or plant origin.

Research study finds moderate carb intake has the lowest mortality

The main findings of the study were that less than 40% of carbs in the diet led to an increased death rate with a mortality of between 1.4-fold and 1.8-fold. On the other hand, more than 70% of carbs in the diet also had increased mortality rates of 1.2-fold. The lowest mortality was in the group that consumed a diet where carbs were between 50% and 55%. Dr. Seidelmann explained that in terms of life expectancy the result of the study could be summarized as follows. A 50-year-old person had another 33 years to live when carb intake was in the moderate range. The low-carb person had only another 29 years to live (4 years less than the moderate carb person). The high-carb person lived another 32 years, 1 year less than the moderate carb person.

Plant-derived versus animal-derived fat and protein

The study showed that there was increased longevity when carbohydrates were exchanged for proteins and fats from plant sources. Mortality was 18% less for this group. Conversely, when carbs were replaced for animal-derived fat or protein mortality was 18% more!

Dr. Seidelmann noted that this study was coming from a US based population. In the case of an Asian group they would consume much more carbs on average, but they would replace a lot of the animal fat and protein with fish. Fish is a healthier source of protein and fat than beef or pork.

A moderate carb intake group that used protein and fat from animal sources was compared to plant sources. When protein and fat had the origin from lamb, beef, pork, and chicken the mortality over 25 years was higher. When protein and fat came from vegetables, such as nuts, peanut butter, seeds and whole-grain breads there was a lower mortality rate.

Other studies comparing the effect of animal protein versus plant protein

  1. A 2016 study that had gone on for 49 years was involving 131,342 participants. Animal protein intake showed an association with higher mortality from heart attacks and strokes. 3% of energy from processed red meat was now substituted by an equivalent amount of plant protein. This reduced the all-cause mortality by 34%, for unprocessed red meat by 12% and for egg by 19%.

 

  1. Red meat is cancer-producing. Several studies have shown this. When red meat is digested, cancer-causing substances are released that can be the cause of cancer in the lining of the stomach and the colon. The above link says we should limit red meat consumption to 65 grams (2oz.) per day or 2 servings (130 grams or 4 oz.) 3 to 4 times per week. We should avoid eating more than 455 grams (1 pound) of lean red meat per week.

Triglycerides are an independent risk factor for heart attacks

In this publication evidence is also present that triglycerides are an independent risk factor that can cause heart attacks.

When you eat too many carbs, the body produces the excess you don’t need into triglycerides, and it deposits its subsequently as fat in fatty tissue.  Physical activity burns up some of the triglycerides. But when we eat too much refined sugar and starchy foods, there will be an excess of triglycerides putting our blood vessels and our hearts at risk.

Regular exercise prevents disease and premature deaths

Many studies have shown that regular exercise prevents heart attacks and premature deaths. We even know the mechanism of why this is so. Exercise releases nitric oxide ((NO) from our blood vessels, which widens the arteries. This also prevents high blood pressure. Exercise elevates the protective HDL cholesterol. When regular exercisers were compared to a non-active group they had a 41% lower risk of death. All-cause hospitalizations were down by 21% and cardiac hospitalizations were down 32%.

Discussion

  1. Barry Sears is the inventor of the Zone Diet. I attended a lecture in 2001 at an Anti-Aging Conference in San Diego. Dr. Sears was the keynote speaker at this conference. He stressed that a diet with 55% of complex carbs would be the best diet. It is interesting that Dr. Seidelmann in the study mentioned in beginning of this blog found the same thing. The lowest mortality was in the group that consumed a diet where carbs were between 50% and 55%.
  2. The second point that is important to note is that it matters whether we eat protein derived from animals or from plants. Even small steps help. When we reduce our animal protein intake by only 3% of the energy intake, and replace it by plant protein, there is a significant reduction in mortality.
  3. Exercise is rarely mentioned in relation to diets. But exercise needs to be included every day and you will experience a reduction of cardiac hospitalizations of 32% as mentioned above.
Moderate Carb Intake Has The Lowest Mortality

Moderate Carb Intake Has The Lowest Mortality

Conclusion

A moderate carb intake, as is the case in the Mediterranean diet and in the Zone Diet of Barry Sears, has the lowest mortality rate. Complex carbs (in vegetables) are absorbed much slower. As a result the risk for heart attacks is much lower. The opposite is true for refined carbs from sugar. They cause heart attacks and strokes with premature mortality. Dr. Sara Seidelmann led a study at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston that lasted 25 years. Less than 40% of carbs in the diet led to an increased death rate with a mortality of between 1.4-fold and 1.8-fold. These diets are paleo-type diets, the Atkins diet and the ketogenic diet. More than 70% of carbs in the diet also had increased mortality rates of 1.2-fold.

The healthiest diet

People who consumed a diet where carbs were between 50% and 55% had the lowest mortality rate (Zone Diet). Another finding of this study, which was confirmed by others is that animal-based protein is unhealthier than plant-based protein. Even replacing 3% of energy from an animal-based diet with plant-derived protein delayed mortality significantly.

If you want to live longer and stay healthy you need to critically evaluate what you eat.

Jan
22
2013

Long-Term Multistep Weight Management

By | Cancer, Diabetes, Fitness, Health, Heart Disease, Hormones, Nutrition, Obesity, Prevention, Stroke, Vitamins and supplements, Weight loss

In February of 2001 my wife and I attended an anti-aging conference in San Diego. The keynote speaker was Dr. Barry Sears who is the inventor of the zone diet. We had read a book from him before the conference and were excited to hear him speak in person. We liked the book; we liked the talk, so we cut out sugar, starchy foods and stuck to a diet where the calories derived 50% from low-glycemic, complex carbohydrates, 25-30% from lean meat, poultry and fish. Calories derived from fat were reduced to about 15-20% (there is hidden fat even in lean meat). No butter, but instead some lean cheeses and olive oil for cooking and in salad dressings. We shed both 50 pounds within 3 months without any hunger pangs. Our energy increased and this has stayed  this way ever since. There was no problem getting down with our BMI’s (body mass index) to 23.5 or 24.0, which is usually viewed as normal by the medical profession. We noticed, however, that when we did not exercise, there was a problem maintaining our normal weight.  We are under the care of an anti-aging physician who did special tests like fasting insulin, C- reactive protein, and hormone tests. They were all normal. We took up ballroom dancing really seriously having been inspired by “Dancing With the Stars”. This was 6 years ago. What started innocently with only a few basic ballroom lessons three times per week has now blossomed into dancing more than 10 different dance styles 5 times per week.

Long-term Multistep Weight Management

Long-term Multistep Weight Management

3 ½ years ago both of our energy levels were slowly going down, particularly after a long night of dancing. Hormone tests revealed the initial stages of age-related hormone deficiencies which did not come as a surprise , as  decreasing hormone levels was a topic discussed  in detail at the conference in San Diego in 2001 (we also attended several other anti-aging conferences on a yearly basis from 2009 onwards). With bioidentical hormone replacements these levels normalized within one year, our energy was back and our weight stayed normal. We enjoy travelling, but there can be problems with our multistep weight management program. We need to watch our diet (no toxins, preferably only organic food), and physical exercise may be less regimented. In 2008 we read Suzanne Somers’ book “Breakthrough”. We ordered urine tests for toxic metals and we were shocked that we had noticeable levels of mercury and lead. Since then we started to cut our salmon consumption from 3 to 4 times per week down to once or twice per week. To get rid of the heavy metals we started intravenous chelation treatments with vitamin C (10 Gm) and Glutathione (1250 mg) every two weeks. In July 2012 there were reports of radioactive salmon from the Japan nuclear disaster earlier that year in the Canadian media. After this news we stopped eating all fish and other seafood, not only because of radioactivity, but also because of other toxins like mercury, cadmium, PBC’s etc.  We do take high doses of molecularly distilled omega-3 fatty acids along with our other supplements. We also started eating mostly organic foods as we do not want to ingest insecticides, herbicides and other toxins.

We acquired body composition scales, which give information about fat percentage including visceral fat percentage, muscle mass percentage, BMI, weight and the basic metabolic rate. We wanted to define the end point of what our ideal body weight would be. We noticed that our dance program was not good enough to lower the BMI below about 23.5; using the body composition scales we noted that our body fat content was still too high and the visceral fat percentage was still in the 6% range. It took a prolonged trip to the US where we could not find enough dance events to decide that we would introduce a one hour gym program consisting of 30 minutes of treadmill, 15 minutes of upper body circuits, and 15 minutes of lower body circuits every day as a basis to our exercise program. Any dance activity would be just an additional exercise on top of the base exercise from the gym. It took only about 2 months before our fat composition decreased, our muscle mass increased, the visceral fat went to a normal at 5% and the BMI was now stabilized at the 21.5 to 22.0 range. We feel a lot more confident in managing our weight long-term without really thinking much about the weight. It is now a routine we follow, like an athlete would do to stay in shape. While nobody has a permanent guarantee to everlasting health, we do it to prevent the diseases we do not need in our retirement like diabetes, arthritis, heart attacks, strokes, cancer or Alzheimer’s.

What we did not know until after the 20th A4M Anti-Aging Conference in Las Vegas (mid December 2012) was that inadvertently we were protected from exposure to chemically modified wheat from 2001 onwards as we had cut out all refined carbohydrates and starchy foods (including wheat) since then. Unfortunately many Americans still expose themselves unknowingly to larger or smaller quantities of wheat, suffer from leaky gut syndrome with the associated changes in the immune system and the development of autoimmune diseases.

Personally, I believe that long term weight management is possible: you can turn older and hopefully wiser…not wider. The good news: it can be done. The bad news: this is not an instant fix, but a program that needs to be part of your lifestyle package.

More information on weight loss: http://nethealthbook.com/health-nutrition-and-fitness/weight-loss-and-diet/

Last updated Nov. 6, 2014