Researchers from the University of Granada’s Institute of Biotechnology say a study proves that melatonin, a substance naturally found in some foods, reduces oxidative stress on cells and slows the aging process.

Now, I am all for slowing the aging process – the slower the better. The good news is that melatonin can be found in foods easily incorporated into your diet, foods like onions, cherries and bananas, and in cereals like corn, oats and rice, and in red wine.

The researchers found that the first sign of aging, oxidative stress and illness from it, began at 5 months of age in the mice used in the study. That age relates to age 30 in humans! Imagine that you are old at 30; I thought we dispensed with idea from the sixties. In fact, didn’t I see a magazine article once touting that 50 is the new 30? Regardless, age 30 is when it all starts to go downhill apparently, but eating foods rich in melatonin staves off the processes of aging.

I have been keeping a short list of foods that researchers now say carry health benefits and the menu looks a lot more appealing than those boxes of fruit-flavored cardboard in the health food aisle.

How about dark chocolate, strawberry daquiris and red wine? Fresh blackberries on oatmeal? It looks like the food we always knew was good for us, really is. I think I can do this eating healthy thing.

Berries have been shown to contain compounds called polyphenals and anthocyanins which are known for their antioxidant activity and for being cancer preventative.

Studying ways to keep strawberries fresh during storage let to an interesting discovery by researchers from the US and Thailand – treating the fruit with alcohol increased not only its shelf life and helped it resist decay, it increased its antioxidant qualities, making it healthier to eat. The same effects were noted in blackberries.

So the next time you serve up a strawberry daiquiri, you may actually be serving a health drink.

Anyone who has been on a diet knows the hard work of counting calories, fat and carbs – and sometimes the sacrificing of flavor for function as we eat whole bran and dry fat-free cardboard food. The worst part about dieting is that nearly all people who manage to lose weight don’t succeed in keeping it off – in most cases the weight returns and sometimes dieters regain more than they lost.

A study at UCLA found that only a small minority of dieters consistently kept the weight off after losing it. Researchers also say that the yo-yo of losing and gaining weight may be linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and altered immune function. The researchers concluded that many people would have been better off had they not gone on a diet at all.

Although a number of diets will work in the short term, researchers found that the largest predictor of future weight gain was whether or not the individual had recently lost weight on a diet.

According to Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study, the evidence suggests that exercise, not dieting, may be the key to maintaining weight loss.

“Eating in moderation is a good idea for everybody, and so is regular exercise,” Mann said. “That is not what we looked at in this study. Exercise may well be the key factor leading to sustained weight loss. Studies consistently find that people who reported the most exercise also had the most weight loss.”

Dieting Does Not Work, UCLA Researchers Report

Diet has once more been implicated in the development of breast cancer. An extensive study at the University of Leeds followed 35,000 women for seven years, tracking eating habits and health.

The findings indicate that eating red meat increases a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and the risk is even higher for post-menopausal women. The higher the intake of red meat, the higher the chance of breast cancer.

For those eating red meat once a day, the risk is 56% higher than those who abstain from red meat.

The risks are even greater for women eating processed meat, such as bacon, sausage or ham. The women eating the highest amount of these meats increased their chance of developing breast cancer by 64%.

Diet does matter when it comes to breast cancer risk. Other studies have shown that, for pre-menopausal women, a diet high in fiber can cut a woman’s risk of breast cancer in half.

Red meat linked to breast cancer University of Leeds