Daily Protein Consumption Can Lower Your Risk of Stroke.

An interesting article posted by The Telegraph reported on a new study that found that eating just one chicken breast a day could lower your risk of stroke by 20%. 

So is it the chicken that does the trick? No, its the protein - or more specifically 20g of protein a day that lowers your risk of stroke. And you know our Serious Oats Team is a hugh fan of protein and it's health benefits, so we had to repost. Check out the article below. 

Eating a high protein diet significantly lowers the risk of stroke and could prevent 10,000 deaths in Britain every year, a study has suggested.
Consuming as little as one chicken breast, or a salmon fillet – the equivalent of 20g – reduces the risk of stroke by 20 per cent. And for every additional 20 grams per day of protein that people ate, their risk of stroke decreased a further 26 per cent.
"If everyone's protein intake were at this level, that would translate to more than 1.4 million fewer deaths from stroke each year worldwide, plus a decreased level of disability from stroke, “ said study author Dr Xinfeng Liu, of Nanjing University School of Medicine in Nanjing, China.
"The amount of protein that led to the reduced risk was moderate — equal to 20 grams per day.”
Researchers followed 254,489 people for an average of 14 years and monitored their diets and health.
Dr Liu said that people should avoid red meat, which has been associated with increased stroke risk.
Two of the studies were conducted in Japan, where people eat less red meat than westerners do and more fish, which has been associated with decreased risk of stroke.
"These results indicate that stroke risk may be reduced by replacing red meat with other protein sources, such as fish," Liu said.
Protein has the effect of lowering blood pressure, which may play a role in reducing stroke risk.
The reduced risk of stroke was stronger for animal protein than vegetable protein.
The research was published in the journal Neurology.

What is the connection between food and disease?

It is becoming increasingly clear that food, diet and disease walk together hand and hand. Knowledge about how your food is functioning inside of your body gives you the power to make educated and preventative decisions that can effect your health and your future. 

At Serious Foods we are committed to spreading awareness and knowledge of nutrition via a mix of nutrient education and anatomy and physiology. It is our belief that good health requires an understanding of both topics. Stay tuned for more blog posts regarding FOOD as MEDICINE. 

For now, here is an exceprt from an article posted by the University of Minnesota to raise awareness of the connection between food and disease. 

As a society we are facing significant health problems.

·       The United States ranks ninth in life expectancy among nations in the developed world.

·       We have a workforce plagued with absenteeism and reduced productivity because of chronic health problems, including depression.

·       78 percent of healthcare expenditures are for the treatment of chronic disease.

Many researchers now believe that these problems are partly related to diet. While they used to believe that diseases-such as type II diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, and certaincancers - were caused by a single gene mutation, they are now generally attributing these conditions to a network of biological dysfunction. And the food we eat is an important factor in that dysfunction, in part because our diets lack the necessary balance of nutrients (Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 2004).

To prevent the onset of these diseases, we need to know how multiple nutrients in a diet interact and affect the human body's functions, 

according to the Nutrition Society, Europe's largest nutritional organization.

Almonds, Can they Help Protect Against Diabetes?

We all know that almonds pack a pretty impressive nutritious and delicious punch. They offer a wonderful supply of nutrients such as biotin, vitamin E, manganese, copper and magnesium along with high levels of protein. They are also high in the good fat that your body needs and thrives from.

But, did you know that almonds are a great defense against Diabetes and Cardio Vascular disease? 

According to an article posted on whfoods.com:

Lessening after-meal surges in blood sugar helps protect against diabetes and cardiovascular disease, most likely by lessening the increase in cholesterol-damaging free radicals that accompanies large elevations in blood sugar. This is one reason why low- glycemic index diets result in lower risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Almonds appear to not only decrease after-meal rises in blood sugar, but also provide antioxidants to mop up the smaller amounts of free radicals that still result. (Jenkins DJ, Kendall CW, Journal of Nutrition)
Researchers fed 15 healthy subjects 5 meals providing a comparable amount of carbohydrate, fat and protein: 3 test meals (almonds and bread, parboiled rice, and instant mashed potatoes) and 2 bread control meals. Blood samples, taken before each meal and 4 hours afterwards, showed levels of protective antioxidants increased after the almond meal, but decreased after the other meals. And not only did the almond meal increase antioxidant levels, but unlike the other foods, almonds also lowered the rise in blood sugar and insulin seen after eating.

Further research shows that eating almonds along with a high glycemic index food significantly lowers the glycemic index of the meal and lessens the rise in blood sugar after eating. (Jones AR, Kendall CW, Metabolism)

In this study, after an overnight 10-12 hour fast, 9 healthy volunteers were randomly fed 3 test meals and 2 white bread (high glycemic) control meals on separate days. Each meal contained 50 grams of carbohydrate from white bread eaten either alone or in combination with 1, 2, or 3 ounces of almonds. To check subjects' rise in blood sugar, blood samples were taken for glucose analysis immediately after eating, and at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes.

Eating almonds reduced the glycemic index (GI) of the meal and subjects' rise in blood sugar in a dose-dependent manner—the more almonds consumed, the lower the meal's GI and the less the rise in subjects' blood sugar after eating.

When one-ounce of almonds was eaten along with white bread, the GI of the meal (105.8) was comparable to eating white bread alone, but when two ounces of almonds were consumed with the white bread, the GI dropped to 63, and when 3 ounces of almonds were eaten, the GI was only 45.2—less than half the GI of the white bread only meal.

Subjects' blood sugar rose 2.8 mmol/L after eating only white bread. When one ounce of almonds was eaten with the bread, blood sugar rose 2.2 mmol/L. Eating two ounces of almonds with the bread resulted in a rise in blood sugar of 2.0 mmol/L, and eating three ounces of almonds caused blood sugar to rise only 1.6 mmol/L—less than half the rise seen after eating white bread alone.

So what are you waiting for? We are lucky that almonds are not only good for you; they taste good too. So next time you reach for a snack, don’t hesitate to spread a little almond butter on your toast or down the center of a stalk of celery.  Or add a handful of lightly roasted almonds to your salad. When eating foods with a higher glycemic index, including almonds in the meal can help keep your blood sugar under control.


And don’t forget, Serious Oats packs 4 grams of almonds into every delicious serving!

For more information on the benefits of including almonds in your diet, head over and check out the whfoods.com article that provides a comprehensive summary of how seriously nutritious nuts are. 

Oatmeal Promotes a Better Feeling of Fullness

According to a recent article posted by the Huffington Post, oatmeal may be your key to feeling satiated through out the day. Feeling fuller longer keeps you from making poor nutrition and eating decisions and keeps you on track for a healthy lifestyle.

When compared to ready to eat cereals, eating oatmeal for breakfast provided a greater feeling of fullness and a decreased desire to eat again for up to four hours later.

We all know the key to losing weight and maintain good nutrition is a delicate dance between quantity and quality. It is not only important to monitor your portion sizes and frequency of your snacking but also the quality of what it is that you are eating. You should be sure you are getting the most nutritional bang for your buck. And sometimes the foods we eat can work in our favor to help us on our path to good health and nutrition. As we see in the study published by The Journal of the American College of Nutrition, when compared to ready to eat cereals, oatmeal provides a fuller more satisfied sensation, thus negating your need to snack more or go back to the kitchen for your next meal sooner.

"The increase in satiety may be attributed to the viscosity of oatmeal," researchers wrote in the study. "Increased viscosity was due to the hydration properties, higher molecular weight, and concentration of the beta-glucan in oatmeal compared to the [ready-to-eat cereal]."

So eat up that Oatmeal folks!