Is what you are eating giving you cancer? Is it worsening symptoms of depression?
Researchers at Florida universities are working to understand how diet and disease are intertwined.
“Our food is making us sick,” Dr. J. Scott Angle, a University of Florida agriculture expert, told the audience at a Food is Medicine Symposium at Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. “The U.S. is spending a lot of money trying to cure disease caused by poor food quality.”
Everything from high blood pressure to diabetes to cancers to depression are being linked to what people put in their bodies. Research is underway to determine how food can help prevent and possibly treat disease.
The biggest culprits contributing to the most common illnesses are processed foods made with added sugar or flour (like breads, baked goods, cereals, and pasta), animal fats, processed meats like bacon and salami, and butter.
Fruits and vegetables can help prevent disease; five servings a day is recommended. However, most people don’t achieve that recommendation.
“In the diet of the average American, there are not a lot of fruits and vegetables,” said Justin Minnerly, professor of Health Sciences at Palm Beach Atlantic University and co-owner of health cafe Inika Foods in Wilton Manors. Minnerly, who also spoke at the Food is Medicine Symposium at Holy Cross Health, said studies show nearly 60% of calories in most Americans’ diets are from ultra-processed foods, adding that many people don’t recognize what that category includes. “People understand that sugar is bad for you, but they don’t appreciate that flour in pasta and breads is just as bad for you.”
“Food is both a medicine and poison depending, on what you eat,” Minnerly said.
Along with telling Americans what to avoid, researchers are going deeper to learn which foods can be medicine. Some of the findings:
- Lentil beans contain high levels of fiber, which impedes cancer growth.
- Orange peels inhibit the production of harmful chemicals associated with cardiovascular disease.
- The velvet bean’s leaf extracts and seeds show promise for treating Parkinson’s disease.
- Almonds, whose skins are rich in polyphenol antioxidants, can lower LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels.
- Mushrooms have a prebiotic power that can reduce gut inflammation.
At UF, medical professionals and agriculture experts are joining together to learn how to produce more foods that could prevent and potentially cure diseases. “This conversation does not happen often anywhere in the world, but in Florida, we are beginning to have these conversations,” said Angle, University of Florida senior vice president for Agriculture and Natural Resources.
UF scientists are using gene-editing to grow strawberries and blueberries with a higher antioxidant content. They also are growing lettuce and broccoli in a way that will give those vegetables more nutritional value. And they are feeding nutrients to fish to boost the Omega-3 fatty acids in their tissues and reduce inflammation for humans who consume the fish.
Dr. Christoper Gunter, chair and professor of the UF/IFAS Horticultural Sciences Department, said a statistic that caught his attention is that 50% of U.S. adults are suffering from diabetes, either diagnosed or undiagnosed. “That is an eye-opening statistic,” he said.
Gunter said he and other UF scientists want to make each blueberry eaten count more and to extend the shelf life of crops to give more people access to foods that help fight disease.
“Right now, the percentage of adults who meet that five-servings-a-day recommendation of fruits and vegetables is around 10%, so we have such an enormous distance to go,” Gunter said.
At universities across the country, research also is underway on food as medicine for mental health disorders. Several studies have indicated that following a ketogenic diet with meals low in carbohydrates, high in fats, and adequate in protein may increase the circulation of the substances that transmit neurons, potentially improving symptoms of depression. While early studies are showing promise, mental health experts say more research is needed.
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at [email protected].
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