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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.
Exercises to age well
Walking is great exercise, but it’s not enough to help you maintain muscle strength as you age. Researchers at the University of Miami are studying how to exercise most effectively to maintain balance, strength, and the ability to perform activities of daily living.
At the Laboratory of Neuromuscular Research and Active Aging in Coral Gables, researchers have enrolled 29 people over 55 in a study on aging. They are comparing traditional weight training to strength training that includes pauses during repetitions to determine which exercise models can best help people in this age group gain strength and mobility.
“These exercises are also meant to help participants be able to carry out everyday tasks, such as lifting a gallon of milk or climbing a flight of stairs,” said Joseph F. Signorile, a University of Miami School of Education and Human Development’s Department of Kinesiology and Sport Sciences professor. “Every time you take a step up a stair, you have to move your body weight against gravity and depend more on muscle function.”
“What we do here is look into the neuromuscular declines that happen as a person ages,” Signorile said. “As people age, they can grow weaker and slower in their movements. We look at someone’s weaknesses in their daily function and try to target that with our training.”
Study participants complete exercises on strength resistance machines that work their legs and arms. Signorile and his graduate student assistants gauge whether the exercises help them gain strength, power, and daily function. Trials on exercise and aging well are ongoing. To participate, call 305-284-4173.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome treatment
Dr. Michael Cohn, an orthopedic hand surgeon with Baptist Health Orthopedic Care in Boca Raton, now offers minimally invasive surgery to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. The procedure uses live ultrasound visualization and a sophisticated single-use device.
Cohn performs the procedure, known as “carpal tunnel release,” in minutes using only local anesthesia and can avoid using stitches.
The method has proven to decrease patients’ pain and significantly reduce their recovery time.
Hospital care at home
Cleveland Clinic Florida has launched a Hospital Care at Home program in Weston that connects patients to a care team via electronic tablets. Doctors and nurses from Cleveland Clinic monitor patients and are available as needed. The hospital has found patients with congestive heart failure, pneumonia, kidney infections and other conditions often prefer to receive care at home and be with their families, benefitting from the same level of care they would receive in a brick-and-mortar hospital.
“It’s important that we acknowledge how significant it is for people to be in their home environment to continue to get better,” said Dr. Irene Rahman-Garcia, a Cleveland Clinic Weston hospitalist.
Cleveland Clinic Florida already had been offering a care-at-home program at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital in Vero Beach and Cleveland Clinic Martin Health. Over the last 28 months, more than 1,800 patients have participated. Most patients in the program transfer directly from the emergency department, bypassing hospital admission.
Orthopedic, rehab services in Palm Beach County
NYU Langone Health has opened a multidisciplinary outpatient center in Centurion Tower in West Palm Beach. The new space offers orthopedic services, full-service physical therapy, pain management, and rehabilitation.
Sports medicine and orthopedic surgeons Dr. Dennis A. Cardone and Dr. John G. Kennedy will relocate their Palm Beach practices to Centurion Tower, allowing them to continue seeing patients in Florida and New York. Additionally, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Berkcan Akpinar and pain management and rehabilitation specialist Dr. Andrew J. Harb and physical therapists Nicole Cox and Zulmary Andino will see patients at Centurion Tower, moving from their previous locations in West Palm Beach.
NYU Langone is still building the Julia Koch Family Ambulatory Care Center at 324 Datura St. in West Palm Beach, which is slated to open in 2026. The eight-story, 77,000-square-foot facility will have space for 50 physicians and serve an estimated 150,000 patients annually, allowing NYU Langone to expand the scope of care it provides in South Florida.
Women’s cancer center
Baptist Health has broken ground on its Al and Jane Nahmad Women’s Cancer Center, which will provide comprehensive cancer care for women. The future 155,000-square-foot facility is on the campus of Baptist Health Baptist Hospital in Kendall and is expected to open by the end of 2026. At the new center, Baptist Health will offer cancer care for women and conduct research for new treatments. Women make up 65% of Miami Cancer Institute’s current patients.
The hospital system announced that its new Women’s Cancer Center will allow it to expand its clinical teams, conduct more research trials and use cutting-edge technology to bring specialized cancer care to more women in Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean..
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com.