Purslane, weed, food or medicine?

I have tried to grow a garden in Salinas of Santa Elena in Ecuador recently. It never occurred to me that it would be that difficult. The temperature is perfect for growing things, around 25 degree Celsius and I water them everyday. However, the ground is extremely salty, as the house sits ocean front. In addition, Salinas, meaning saltworks in Spanish, has been farming salt for many years, thus making it even more salty than other ocean front places.

However, there is one weed that grows extremely well. Even though I plug out some everyday, I just cannot keep up with their growth.

Now I am back in Canada, spending too much time on the internet. I came across some articles regarding edible weeds. Voila, the weed that bothered me so much is called purslane (Verdolaga in Spanish, Portulaca oleracea in Latin) and packed with nutrition. So next time I am in my house in Salinas, instead of trying to eliminate them, I will just eat the weed.

Nutrients and medicinal properties:

1. Purslane contains more omega 3 fatty acids (in the form of alpha-linolenic acid) than any other leafy plant.

2. The two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betananthins (noticeable in the flowers and the slight yellowish tint of the leaves), have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies (a good review of natural antimutagenes can be found here).

3. It is a good source of vitamins and dietary minerals, especially vitamin A, C, E and magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron.

4. Could be a good candidate for anti-aging research, as it contains dopamine and DOPA. Betacyanins isolated from Purslane improved cognition in aged mice.

Harvesting:

The last inch or two of the leafy stem will be the most tender. When stressed by drought, which is where they are in my garden under normal circumstance, purslane switches to a different photosynthesis pathway: the leaves trap carbon dioxide at night and convert them into malic acid (the sour taste of the apple). Under the sun, malic acid is converted into glucose. So when you harvest early in the morning, the leaves are significantly more tangy than harvest in the late afternoon, which have more glucose.

How to eat purslane?

1. Add them in salads

2. Stir fry them with chicken, pork or shrimp

3.Use them as garnish in ceviche

4. Cook them in a soup

I cannot wait to try them.

Air pollution or eating wheat significantly shortened life expectancy?

A recent study linked air pollution to shorten life expectancy. It is probably true except that I found the argument very weak. The authors used data from China and found that the life expectancy is five and half years shorter in the north than in the south. And it argued that for decades (1950 to 1980), a government policy provided free coal for heating, but only in the colder north; researchers found no other government policies that treated China’s north differently from the south; therefore, air pollution must have been the culprit.

However, the authors did not mention that the same policy in the same period also provided rice for the south and wheat for the north as the main staple of food. I am quite surprised that nobody told the authors since anyone who lived in China during that period should have known. I left China in 1988 and for every month since I was an adult, I collected about 10 kilos of rice per month (government issued ration coupon). Since I could not eat that much rice a month, I used to exchange the coupon for eggs in the black market. People in the north got about the same amount in wheat flour. It is true, there was very little migration as the authors stated, since migration was strictly controlled. 

In addition to government policy, the eating habit was very different as well. There was very little availability of green leafy vegetables in the north. There were other vegetables, such as Napa cabbages, eggplants, carrots etc., but almost no green leafy vegetables.

I am sure air pollution poses health risks. However, I could have used exactly the same data from China and concluded that eating wheat or not eating green leafy vegetables shorten life expectancy.

resveratrol increases beneficial hormone adipopectin

The hopeful longevity supplement resveratrol is in the news again. This time it was found to stimulate the expression of adiponectin, a hormone that modulates a number of metabolic processes, including glucose regulation and fatty acid catabolism.

Resveratrol can be found naturally in grapes and other plants and sold as supplement in various purities. It became widely known after Dr. David Sinclair, biologist who studies resveratrol, was interviewed by Barbara Walters.

In the most recent study, resveratrol stimulates the expression of adiponectin, a hormone derived from cells that manufacture and store fat, the team found. Adiponectin has a wide range of beneficial effects on obesity-related medical complications, said senior author Feng Liu, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and member of the Barshop Institute of Longevity and Aging Studies at the Health Science Center.

Both adiponectin and resveratrol display anti-obesity, anti-insulin resistance and anti-aging properties.

“Results from these studies should be of interest to those who are obese, diabetic and growing older,” Dr. Liu said. “The findings should also provide important information on the development of novel therapeutic drugs for the treatment of these diseases.”

The researchers confirmed the finding in cells and animal models.


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Existing cancer drug lenalidomide could restore aging immune system

UCSF “fountain of youth” pill could restore aging immune system

The cancer drug lenalidomide, a a derivative of thalidomide introduced in 2004, is marketed as Revlimid by Celgene.

Lenalidomide has been used to successfully treat both inflammatory disorders and cancers in the past 10 years.

However, as with any scientific research, one should not interpret the result as ready remedy.

You Might As Well Live

I remember watching an interview with a centenarian. Her secret of living a long life is “You just live.”

Scientists apparently agree. “Reaching 100 years of age may be more about attitude and adaptation than health history, UGA study finds”.

By the way, the title comes from a poem by Dorothy Parker when describing suicidal methods

You might as well live

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

Protein

When it comes to nutrition, we seem to know so little. Of the three major components of our diet, we debate quite a lot in this day and age, whether to eat low carb or low fat, mainly because we are preoccupied with obesity.

What about protein?

The US guidelines recommend a daily protein dietary allowance, measured as intake per body weight, is 0.8 g/kg. However, this recommendation is based on structural requirements, but disregards use of protein for energy metabolism. Too much protein puts strains on kidney. Proteolytic fermentation in our gut, breaks down proteins in food, and can produce toxins and carcinogens. Thus, a diet lower in protein reduces exposure to toxins.

Proteins are made of amino acids, out of which 8 (or 9 if we count histidine) are essential for humans and must obtain from food sources.

I do not know how much research has been done, but the optimal levels for essential amino acids as recommended by the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board are as follows:

Essential Amino Acid/ mg/g of Protein
Tryptophan/ 7
Threonine/ 27
Isoleucine/ 25
Leucine/ 55
Lysine/ 51
Methionine+Cystine/ 25
Phenylalanine+Tyrosine/ 47
Valine/ 32
Histidine/ 18

Unfortunately, unless you are doing research, nobody can follow the above profile.

Most animal sources have the complete complement of all the essential amino acids in adequate proportions. Apart from soybeans, vegetable sources of protein are more often lacking in one or more essential amino acids than animal sources, typically being deficient in lysine and methionine. Therefore, it is more complicated to be a vegetarian. I am a non strict vegetarian, as I eat fish, seafood and eggs. My grandmother was a strict vegetarian (vegan) since the age of 60 and lived till 91. So I do believe that one can be healthy and vegetarian. Tofu was her source of essential amino acids.

It is generally accepted that caloric restriction extend life span. Methionine restriction imparts at least some of the effects of CR without the CR.

One interesting aspect of all those long lived Chinese people (over the age of 90), is that they all eat very little in general and even less in meats. Practically people who could remember the years of great famine (1958-61), were forever affected and even if they could have a lot of foods available to them today, they still would not eat a lot. Therefore, it seems to me that they are not only doing CR, but also methionine restriction.

Branched-Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) supplements promote longevity in middle-aged mice

Branched-Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) supplements promote longevity in middle-aged laboratory mice according to the article published in October's Cell Metabolism.

BCAA includes leucine, isoleucine and valine. All three are essential amino acids, which means that our body cannot synthesize them and therefore must be taken in through our diet.

Consuming BCAA supplements is different from consuming proteins containing these three amino acids, as the former enters directly into the blood stream and the latter needs to be digested first.

BCAA are already marketed for human consumption. I would think that it is safe for older males who show signs of sarcopenia. However, one must be careful about the balance of things. Previous studies have shown that protein and methionine restriction increase maximum longevity in rodents, whereas neither carbohydrate nor lipid restriction seem to change rodent longevity.

Additional note regarding this research is that data was compiled on male mice only.

Universal BCAA 2000 Pure Capsules, Free Form BCAAs with Co-Factors, 120-Count Bottles

Optimum Nutrition Instantized Bcaa 5000 Powder, 336 Grams (11.8 Oz)

Scientists urge global investment and action plan to avert impending aging crisis

via eurekalert

July 14, 2010 – (BRONX, NY) – Now that scientists have learned so much about aging through laboratory studies, it's time to translate those findings into medicines that can benefit our aging population. That was the message delivered by a panel of 10 preeminent aging experts that included Jan Vijg, Ph.D., chair of genetics and the Lola and Saul Kramer Chair in Molecular Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

The expert panel was convened by the LifeStar Institute, a nonprofit organization that educates the public about the consequences of global aging and supports medical research aimed at preventing and curing age-related diseases. Their report was published in the July 14 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The aging process results in significant social and medical costs that will rise rapidly in the coming decades as the number of elderly people increases. To prevent what it calls "a global aging crisis," the panel recommends that the U.S. and other countries collaborate in an international initiative that will translate laboratory findings about aging into new kinds of medicines.

More specifically, the panel urged countries to use their public health agencies to inform citizens about how they can improve their lifestyles so that they can live longer and healthier lives. In addition, the panel wrote, there is a need to develop regenerative therapies that could restore youthful structure and function in older people by repairing and neutralizing the cellular damage that occurs with aging.

"There is this misunderstanding that aging is something that just happens to you, like the weather, and cannot be influenced," said Dr. Vijg. "The big surprise of the last decades is that, in many different animals, we can increase healthy life span in various ways. A program of developing and testing similar interventions in humans would make both medical and economic sense."

Meditation or Oxygen Restriction?

There is an interesting article which explores intermittent calorie and oxygen restriction as means for periodic rejuvenation:

Live Happy, Healthy and Long

We do not know what the deciding factors are for us humans to live a long healthy life, say 100 years of independent and disease-free life. But there are some in the world who have achieved this, so it must be possible.

For all I have read and heard, there are at least 4 things we have to do in order to extend our health span.

1. Eat with restrain (Caloric Restriction).
2. Stay physically active.
3. Have a purpose
4. Have a society of friends (a sense of belonging)

- Eat with restrain (Caloric Restriction)

How I tried to achieve this is by first calculating my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate):

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Daily caloric intake can be estimated simplistically as follows:

If you are sedentary: BMR + BMR x 20%
If you are moderately active: BMR + BMR x 30-40%
If you are very active: BMR + BMR x 50%
If you are extra active: BMR + BMR x 60-80%

In my case BMR = 1195
50% more of BMR = 1790

To eat with restrain or to practice caloric restriction, I have decided to cut back 30% from 1780, which comes to 1255.

Next step is to decide what to eat.

The easiest way to cut down calorie is to cut down starch, which includes potatoes, bread, rice and pastas. What we do is to eliminate potatoes and bread, and eat moderate amount of rice and pastas.

We also started to adhere with one rule, which is to avoid refined sugar. Read labels on ingredients, if you see sugar, glucose, fructose or sucrose in the ingredients, simply do not buy them. You will be surprised how much junk food you can avoid. Most ready made foods (even those that claimed healthy) have sugar added. We still drink fruit juices moderately that are processed without added sugar.

Right now food we eat in a typical day constitutes of:

Breakfast: Egg, Apple, Cheese & Tea
Lunch: Frozen Peas (eaten raw), Ceviche (tuna or scallop marinated with lemon juice, tomato, garlic and oregano), Grapes, Raw almonds/ pecans/walnut & cheese
Super: Rice or Spaghetti with fish (tuna, salmon, mahi mahi, haddock & basa) or seafood (shrimp and scallop, lobster if in season) and vegetables (typically carrots, onion, tomatoes, okra, paprika, cauliflowers & broccoli)

The difference between what Richard eat and what I eat is that I do not eat cheese and I only eat one egg yolk.

Calorie intake in a day is around 1400 to 1600, so I am only cutting back 10 to 20% instead of the 30% goal I have set for myself.

This practice reminds me of my youthful days trying to limit my monthly expenses to below $800. I never succeeded strictly speaking, always exceeding by $50 or so, but still cutting down my monthly expenses drastically.

My BMI at the moment is 19.8. Two years ago, my BMI was 17.6, which was way better in my opinion. The normal BMI (18.5-24.9) was probably set for Caucasians. I am Asian and have a small bone structure. At 17.6 BMI, I was way more flexible and felt smarter.

My goal for BMI in 5 months is 18.8 or less.

- Stay physically active

We are walking 8 to 14 km a day which takes 1.5 to 3 hours and I have a small perennial garden, which takes some physical upkeep.

- Have a purpose

Have purpose means that you know why you get up in the morning. I am working on to extend my health span for as long as possible, say 58 more years until I am 105. I want to be able to live independently until the day I die and enjoy every minute of it.

- Have a society of friends

The most important friend is oneself. We often forget that.

According to Marvin Minsky, a human mind is made of many smaller processes, of which he called them agents. I believe whenever conflicts arise among these agents in one’s mind, one is losing oneself as a friend. Or simplistically in Freud’s language, the id, ego and super-ego should all be aligned with the same purpose.

When you have yourself as a friend, the next most important friend is your spouse, whom I am lucky to have.