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Researchers Develop the Perfect Nutrition Plan

Your own diet is closely linked to the problems of our planet. With the “Planetary Health Diet”, experts have designed a diet that is intended to solve global problems – from pollutant emissions to diseases.

First of all: The nutrition plan of the so-called “Planetary Health Diet” is not necessarily vegan – although that would be the best solution in terms of the ecological footprint. But vegetables always play a central role.

The special feature of the Planetary Health Diet is that it focuses equally on the health of people and that of our planet. With this in mind, an international team of 37 researchers designed a special menu and published the result in January 2019 in the journal The Lancet.

How can 10 billion people be fed in 2050?

The experts on the panel, the “EAT Lancet Commission”, come from a wide variety of areas, from politics to agricultural science and health to environmental protection. The goal of their two-year research work: to develop a healthy and sustainable strategy for how the world population can be fed in 2050 – which, according to forecasts, will grow to 10 billion. And without the earth being exploited beyond its limits and without global problems such as civilization diseases, famine and global warming gaining the upper hand.

In plain language, this means that humanity must drastically reduce the consumption of red meat and sugar – by half. On the other hand, the proportion of vegetables in our diet must increase enormously. Fruit, nuts and legumes should also be consumed in large quantities.

This is what the Planetary Health Diet plan looks like

Vegetables: 300 grams (200-600 grams)
Dairy products (whole milk or products made from this amount): 250 grams (0-500 grams)
Whole grains (rice, wheat, corn or other): 232 grams
Fruit: 200 grams (100-300 grams)
Legumes: 75 grams (0-100 grams)
Nuts: 50 grams (0-75 grams)
Starchy vegetables (potatoes, cassava): 50 grams (0-100 grams)
Unsaturated fats: 40 grams (20-80 grams)
Sugar (all sweeteners): 31 grams (0-31 grams)
Poultry: 29 grams (0-58 grams)
Fish: 28 grams (0-100 grams)
Red meat (beef, lamb, pork): 14 grams (0-28 grams)
Eggs: 13 grams (0-25 grams)
Saturated fats: 11.8 grams (0-11.8 grams)
Of course, these are daily averages – after all, 28 grams of fish and 13 grams of eggs hardly make a decent meal. But there are guidelines that can help when putting together the food on the plate. In particular, the total of 300 to 900 grams of fruit and vegetables and the small amount of meat are conspicuous fixed points.

The values ​​in brackets mean that a range is provided here that allows the Planetary Health Diet to be implemented flexibly for everyone. For example, an interpretation of this model is possible in which no animal products are consumed at all – and also one for flexitarians who eat a small steak every two weeks.

Recipe ideas

Numerous recipes can be combined with the Planetary Health Diet. We have put together a small selection for you. Of course, these are only examples (in this case without meat and fish), and not a nutritional plan. Anyone wishing to try them must also consider other meals to ensure he or she is following all of the Planetary Health Diet’s recommendations.

Breakfast smoothie: delicious recipes for a good start to the day
Pumpkin Pancakes: This is how you prepare the spicy pumpkin patties
Frittata: A quick recipe that can be varied (caution: one serving already contains the recommended amount of eggs for a week.)
Chickpea Salad: A vegan recipe
Apple Muffins: Recipe with walnuts
Aloo Matar: Indian potato and pea curry

It’s about a new coordinate system

“We know that the world eats very differently,” says Jessica Fanzo, one of the study authors, on The Lancet podcast. “There is no one answer, there is diet,” adds her colleague Tim Lang from the University of London. It does not make sense, for example, to idealize the Mediterranean diet or to generally recommend eating fish to everyone in the world. Fanzo explains that the Planetary Health Diet is much more about providing a reference meal plan that can and should be adapted for any diet around the world.

However, the researchers not only have an eye on our eating habits, but also on other aspects such as food production and food waste. “It’s not enough for the United States to reduce its hamburger consumption while other countries don’t have these resources and options in the first place,” says Fanzo. It is about a new coordinate system that does justice to the challenges and complexity of the global food system. The aim is to create a win-win situation: for us and for the environment.

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Is Salt an Allergy Trigger? Researchers Discover Connection With Neurodermatitis

As the Technical University of Munich found out in a study, salt influences our immune system and thus promotes allergies. The assumption is obvious, especially in the case of neurodermatitis patients.

Misregulation of T cells leads to allergic reactions

Many people are plagued by allergies, in industrialized countries almost every third person. Neurodermatitis in particular is widespread, every tenth child suffers from it. What originally triggered such allergies was previously unknown. A research team from the Technical University of Munich led by Professor Christina Zielinski has now come to new conclusions in a study. When examining cell cultures, it was found that salt leads to the formation of so-called Th2 cells.

These cells are a subset of T cells, also called T helper cells. They are part of the immune system and play an important role in immune disorders. They are therefore part of the body’s defense against infections, for example. However, these cells can also develop malfunctions. Then they turn against parts of their own body or the environment. If such a malfunction occurs in Th2 cells, it can trigger allergic inflammation of the skin, such as neurodermatitis. Certain messenger substances are released in the process. Until now, it was not known what triggers such a dysregulation of Th2 cells.

More Th2 cells from saline

Salt is essential for humans and animals. Table salt, scientifically sodium chloride, is found in the body in the form of sodium and chloride ions. As Christina Zielinski’s team at the Institute of Virology has now discovered, table salt can influence human T cells in such a way that they increasingly release the messenger substances that trigger allergic reactions.

These T cells are not supposed to cause allergies, but exposure to salt can reprogram them into Th2 cells, which are potential causes of allergic reactions. This influence of the salt on the cells is declining. This means that the cells are reprogrammed when they are exposed to less high levels of salt. “Signals from the ions from the salt thus play a role in the formation and control of Th2 cells,” says Christina Zielinski in a statement from the university.

Eczema patients have more salt in their skin

As a dermatological specialist, Christina Zielinski also examined the effects on neurodermatitis patients. With her research team, she examined whether the diseased skin areas of those affected by neurodermatitis have higher salt levels. However, such measurements are difficult. “Measuring sodium concentrations within the tissue is complicated,” says Julia Matthias, the study’s first author. “While one can measure the soluble salt in the blood using standard clinical methods, for the skin we enlisted the help of colleagues from nuclear chemistry and physics reliant.” The skin samples examined at the TUM and the University of Mainz showed that the sodium value in the diseased skin areas was up to 30 times higher than in healthy ones.

Salt level of the skin is conducive to bacteria

With regard to neurodermatitis, the researchers were able to explain another phenomenon. Neurodermatitis sufferers often have a strong accumulation of the bacterium “Staphylococcus aureus” on their skin. “The elevated sodium levels in affected skin go well with another characteristic of neurodermatitis,” says Christina Zielinski. Because the presence of the bacteria has been known for a long time. The bacterium multiplies in salty conditions. Salt, on the other hand, is harmful to other bacteria on the skin.

According to Christina Zielinski, if you combine the findings of the new study with those already known, you come to the conclusion that there could be a connection between salt and the occurrence of neurodermatitis.

However, the professor limits the assumption, since it has not yet been possible to prove how the salt gets into the skin in large quantities. “We also don’t know whether a low-salt or high-salt diet can influence the development or course of neurodermatitis or other allergic diseases,” she says. The dermatologist and her team want to find out these and other open questions in future studies.

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Fast Food Can Trigger Dementia: Researchers Warn of Brain Atrophy Through Diet

Is there a link between eating fast food and dementia? Yes, say researchers from Australia. Accordingly, brain function can be significantly impaired by an unhealthy diet.

People would “eat their brains out” with fast food

The scientists at the Australian National University put forward the thesis that people who eat unhealthy food and do not exercise enough “the brain

The researchers presented the worrying results in the journal Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology. The Australian scientists evaluated around 200 international studies. They found that a person’s diet increases their likelihood of developing cognitive dysfunction.

Impaired brain function due to type 2 diabetes

Impaired brain function can result from type 2 diabetes, which is also triggered by fast food. However, there is also a direct connection between the performance of the brain and the diet – so the brain is damaged even without diabetes. ‘We found a clear link between brain deterioration and unhealthy lifestyle choices,’ the scientists explain.

Unhealthy Diet: Damage is irreversible

According to the researchers, anyone who had an unhealthy diet and exercised little up to their middle age can no longer reverse this damage – it is therefore irreversible. That’s why the Australians want to encourage people to think more about a healthy lifestyle and implement it as early as possible. This can protect you from dementia.

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Researchers are Investigating The Cause of Fatty Liver: a Specific Protein Counteracts The Development of Fatty Liver

Fatty liver is often triggered by a combination of causes. On the one hand due to the wrong diet and too little exercise, but on the other hand also due to epigenetic factors. Here’s what you can do to reduce heart disease and cancer from fatty liver.

Fatty Liver: The most common liver disease

No, Ali Canbay doesn’t want to scare anyone, but he does want to shake them up. After all, it is a threatening scenario: If someone is overweight and also has diabetes, then there is a high probability that they also suffer from fatty liver, says the professor. According to the German Liver Aid, non-alcoholic fatty liver is already the most common liver finding in this country, i.e. the most common liver disease – and also a kind of “accelerator” for other chronic liver diseases.

Fatty liver leads to coronary artery disease

But that’s not all: If you have a fatty liver, you will also get coronary heart disease in a few decades, warns Canbay, director of the clinic for gastroenterology, hepatology and infectiology at the University Hospital Magdeburg. Because the liver is a power machine for the entire body. And if this power machine no longer works properly due to obesity, substances would be released that attack the coronary arteries. Conclusion: Canbay warns that if you suffer from fatty liver and do nothing about it, you are more likely to develop heart disease or even a heart attack.

Genetic factors in the development of fatty liver

Researchers from the German Center for Diabetes Research e. V. (DZD) have discovered new genes that play a role in the development of fatty liver. In both humans and mice, these genes ensure the production of regulatory proteins that counteract fat accumulation in the liver. However, if there is a genetic change, fewer of these proteins are produced.

Studies confirmed that the livers of patients and mice with non-alcoholic fatty liver have far lower levels of the protein. In the mouse, these are the proteins IFGGA2 and IFGGA4. In humans, the protein is called IRGM (immunity-related GTPase M = immunity-related protein of the GTPase family M), which increases a certain form of fat breakdown and thus counteracts the development of fatty liver.

“Our work has identified other important genes that cause fatty liver disease. In addition, the study results deepen our understanding of which cellular processes must be stimulated to counteract fatty liver,” summarizes Professor Annette Schürmann, head of the Experimental Diabetology department at the German Institute for Nutrition Research Potsdam Brücke and spokeswoman for the DZD.

Healthy diet and exercise as a solution to fatty liver

The disease is often not triggered by excessive alcohol consumption or fatty food, as was previously assumed, but by a lack of exercise and an associated excessive body weight. professor dr Michael P. Manns, CEO of the German Liver Foundation, says that the causes of fatty liver usually occur in combination. It is a well-known fact that poor nutrition and lack of exercise often lead to obesity, which, according to the expert, is also one of the triggering factors.

Losing weight reduces liver fat and fibrosis

Since the drug treatment of fatty liver is still difficult because various drugs are still being developed, according to Professor Manns, weight loss is at least one effective method. Because: A “reduction in body weight always leads to a reduction in liver fat and fibrosis,” says Professor Manns.

The fact that there is a direct connection between liver health and body weight or physical activity is being confirmed in more and more study results. In many cases, a weight loss of just ten percent causes the regression of non-alcoholic fatty liver and an improvement in liver fibrosis.

Fatty liver as a basis for liver cirrhosis and liver cancer

In a recent article in the journal, researchers Norbert Stefan, Hans-Ulrich Häring and Kenneth Cusi point out the need for new treatment methods. Because personalized therapies and the combination of different treatment options would offer the best chances of recovery in the future.

It is well known that drinking too much alcohol is harmful to the liver. Anyone who drinks may set a fateful cascade in motion: the liver becomes fatty, later it becomes inflamed, then the connective tissue multiplies (fibrosis), and finally cirrhosis of the liver occurs, the scarred remodeling of the organ that performs its numerous vital tasks in human metabolism consequently can no longer fulfil. In a small percentage it even develops into liver cell cancer.

So much for the possible processes in the event of excessive alcohol consumption. But the chain reaction can also take place without alcohol. For example, if someone is overweight – and as is well known, overweight has increased sharply worldwide in recent decades.

endless suffering of the liver

A fatty liver usually causes hardly any symptoms. At best, feelings of pressure in the upper right abdomen, tiredness and concentration problems are mentioned by the German Liver Aid as possible symptoms. A “non-alcoholic fatty liver” (NAFL) is therefore often an incidental finding during a health check by the family doctor. But most doctors said it wasn’t that bad. “Fatty liver is much more dangerous than we think,” says the expert.

Together with his team, he has published a publication that states that the function of a fatty liver is already restricted, even if you can’t see anything of it. Unlike alcoholic liver disease, NAFL, as the name suggests, has nothing to do with drinking too much alcohol, but rather with poor diet and lack of exercise. Both factors played a “decisive role” – and are widespread.

Intestinal germs: Interesting for fatty liver research

The development of a fatty liver is extremely complex and depends on various factors. The colonization of the intestine with germs, the so-called microbiome, has also increasingly become the focus of scientific interest in fatty liver. “We know that the microbiome plays a big role,” says Canbay. He recently reported on this at the German Microbiome Days.

It seems that the community of intestinal germs has changed in overweight or fatty liver patients. The ratio between the Firmicutes and Bacteroides bacterial groups is shifted in favor of Firmicutes, which can increase the energy yield from food.

Against fatty liver: exercise and a healthy diet

It is known that Firmicutes could extract many more calories from food than the Bacteroides. The Firmicutes would be fed with carbohydrate-rich food and fast food. One day probiotics may help, or stool transplants, that is, a transfer of “good” bacteria from healthy, lean people to those who suffer from obesity and fatty liver.

Until then, lifestyle changes are the only way to get rid of the fat in the liver. The expert advises more exercise in everyday life and a change in diet with more vegetables and not too much fruit. Because fruit contains fruit sugar (fructose), which is known to promote fatty liver. He recommends his patients a protein-rich, not too fatty diet with few carbohydrates and plenty of salad: “Meat and salad is great,” he says, and “You can eat anything

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