The search for the perfect diet—one that promotes
weight loss and optimal health—has left many people
empty handed.A Perspectives article written by
University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers and
appearing in the Feb. 22, 2013, edition of Science
suggests that a broad focus on the negative effects
of high-fat or processed carbohydrate-rich diets
could be misplaced.
Authors Randy Seeley, PhD, and Karen Ryan, PhD, say
that rather than focusing on macronutrients that
make up food (fats, proteins and sugars), it might
be better to focus at an even deeper level—the
micronutrients derived from certain foods that act
at the cellular level.
They suggest that food should be viewed and studied
as if it is a cocktail of "hormones” because of the
way its derivatives act on cells within the body.
For example, the authors cite the amino acid leucine—which
isn’t made in the body and must be ingested. Leucine
has been found to trigger brain pathways that reduce
food intake and body weight. Leucine is a
micronutrient of many foods including soybeans, some
cuts of beef, brown rice, chicken egg yolks and
cow’s milk.
"What we eat is not just made up of various amounts
of fat, protein and sugar,” says Seeley, professor
of medicine at UC and director of the Cincinnati
Diabetes and Obesity Center.
"As food is broken down, its micronutrient
components circulate in the blood and act on
cell-surface receptors on multiple organs to change
the activities of those cells in the same way that
hormones made in our body do. In this way our bodies
can ‘listen’ and respond to what foods we are eating.”
Seeley says that just as different levels of various
hormones can influence our health, so can the "hormones”
that come from our food. By viewing food as hormones,
Seeley adds, diets could be designed in a "bottom-up”
fashion to reduce disease and promote wellness.
"Designing a diet based on how its various
micronutrients turn on or off certain receptors in
different tissues is a ‘bottom-up’ way to design
diets,” says Seeley. "Just as different levels of
various hormones can influence our health, so can
the ‘hormones’ that come in from our food.”
For more information
http://www.uc.edu/
http://www.sciencemag.org/
(MDN)
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