Healthy Heart

For the first time, a large, randomized clinical trial has found that a Mediterranean-style diet can sharply reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease.

Say goodbye to pork butt.

…and how to make them stick. The secret? Understanding your habits and the dual drivers of your behavior.

A flurry of new studies is raising hope that green tea may someday be a potent weapon in the fight against Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia. Although the studies differ widely in technique, ranging from scan-ning peoples brains to forming Alzheimers plaques in a test tube, all focus on ways polyphenol compounds in green tea affect important areas of the brain.

A lpha-carotene, the often-overlooked cousin of more familiar beta-caro- tene, may help you live longer-and further explain the health benefts of eating vegetables and fruits. Researchers at the CDC, studying data on more than 15,000 adults from a national nutrition survey, report that people with the highest blood levels of alpha-carotene were 39% less likely to die from all causes over almost 14 years.

I f you want to eat a healthier diet, cut out the fat-right? Wrong, according to experts at the American Dietetic As- sociation (ADA) Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, in a panel on The Great Fat Debate. If you replace dietary fat, even saturated fat such as butter and whole milk, with sugar and other carbohydrates, you could actually be increas- ing your risk of heart disease.

T he healthy habits that protect your heart and combat chronic disease also seem to be good for your eyes. New research on a subset of the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) reports that women who eat right, exercise and dont smoke were 71% less likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness among older Americans.

Can foods, beverages or dietary supplements really increase your mental energy? Scientists at the Life Sciences Research Organization (LSRO) recently reported the results of a review of the scientific evidence for such claims regarding ginkgo biloba, ginseng, glucose and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. They defined mental energy as consisting of mood (transient feelings about the presence of fatigue or energy), motivation (determination and enthusiasm) and cognition (sustained attention and vigilance)

Inside Tufts HNRCA Laboratory of Nutrition, Exercise, Physiology and Sarcopenia-on the front lines of the fight against frailty. At 711 Washington Street, in the heart of downtown Boston, you will find the worlds largest research center on nutrition and aging. With over 300 scientists, the Tufts Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) has been advancing the knowledge of human nutrition since 1979

The good news from a new pooled analysis of 57 studies is that, despite some red flags from previous research, vitamin E supplements are safe and dont increase the risk of death. But neither do the once-highly touted supplements help you live longer, the review reports, despite hopes their antioxidant effects might fight chronic disease. Calling their meta-analysis the largest and most inclusive to date, scientists concluded in Current Aging Science that vitamin E supplementation cannot be endorsed as a means of reducing mortality