The real MAHA
RFK Jr isn’t exactly wrong about how Americans need to improve their diets. But vilifying ultraprocessed foods and food dyes won’t do it. The actual problem is that most Americans get too many of their calories from fat, sugar and red meat, when they should get most of their calories from fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and fish.
This isn’t just about obesity and type 2 diabetes. 15-25% Americans carry the APOE4 haplotype, which confers an elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis.
“Adherence to the Mediterranean diet more effectively modulated dementia-related metabolites in APOE4 homozygotes than in people with lower genetic risk, wrote Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Mass General Brigham in Boston, and colleagues in Nature Medicine.
I’m not a fan of medicalizing food, but the role of diet in health is well-established. While people with the APOE4 haplotype can reduce their risk of dementia and atherosclerosis with statins, diet is an inexpensive way of mitigating risk as well. And, of course, the Mediterranean diet is good for you anyway.
APOE4 and the Mediterranean diet
This isn’t just about obesity and type 2 diabetes. 15-25% Americans carry the APOE4 haplotype, which confers an elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease and atherosclerosis.
“Adherence to the Mediterranean diet more effectively modulated dementia-related metabolites in APOE4 homozygotes than in people with lower genetic risk, wrote Dong Wang, MD, ScD, of Mass General Brigham in Boston, and colleagues in Nature Medicine.
I’m not a fan of medicalizing food, but the role of diet in health is well-established. While people with the APOE4 haplotype can reduce their risk of dementia and atherosclerosis with statins, diet is an inexpensive way of mitigating risk as well. And, of course, the Mediterranean diet is good for you anyway.
APOE4 and the Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet means eating fish.
Fish is plentiful and inexpensive in Med countries such as: España, Italia, Ελλάς.
Fish is expensive in the USA. Where we live in Denver, our local excellent fishmonger charges $30-$60 per pound. That makes ground beef at $9 seem cheap.
I hear you. I like fish too.
Cost is a factor. You can always eat the canned wild tuna which I do. Its “ok.” Stick with theleaner meats and a lot of salad (romaine) and veggies.
@Dave,
Wow! Seafood is way cheaper in St. Louis!
Here in Rhode Island, I got a salmon fillet for $20/lb last week at Whole Paycheck*. Tuna was $30/lb at the same vendor. Prices are half that at Stop and Shop. Maybe not an “excellent” fishmonger, but I can’t taste the difference.
*only bought it there while I was shopping for sushi, which the other local groceries don’t stock.
Of course . . .
Just rub it in . . .
@Bill,
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OH1yEnENG0
The University of Copenhagen published in Cell Metabolism a study showing even short term eating of “ultra processed” foods was harmful compared to an “unprocessed” diet. The subjects increased fat. Good luck on getting Americans to improve their diets voluntarily. I know better, but sometimes the only thing I want is a fast food taco and burrito. At least their taco meat is now a good part soy protein.
@Jane,
From the paper:
“Participants were provided either an ultra-processed or unprocessed type diet for 3 weeks . . .”
Also too:
“3-week diet interventions may have induced acute responses that may normalize with time if diets were prolonged.”
Three weeks on a diet of ultra-processed food is different from eating a single meal of ultra-processed food every couple of weeks. As any pharmacologist or toxicologist will tell you, it’s the dose that makes the poison. An occasional Big Mac* ain’t gonna kill ya, and there’s nothing in this paper that says otherwise.
*I can’t recall the last time I had a Big Mac, but it was probably over 50 years ago. I don’t defend processed food, I just defend data and reason.
As a little kid, I asked my mother about a family in church all of whom were obese and she explained that they were poor and that poor people ate inexpensive foods that were high in calories. Taste and ease of preparation certainly plays a role, but as the above comments suggest, price plays a big role too. And with all the undocumented deportations the supply of fresh produce is shrinking–already non existent in “food deserts”– and the price is going up. For the record, I usually get tuna steaks for under $15 a pound in Indiana, but confess to almost always ordering steak when I eat out which is rarely and how I like it prepared.