Frosty Summer Shake Recipe, Spotlight on Bananas, Storing Bananas, Another Look at Intermittent Fasting, plus More Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet
Few recipes are as simple as smoothies—add ingredients to your blender and whirr! At the height of summer, I like to load up on seasonal fruits…and use frozen bananas to add richness. Feel free to add whatever catches your eye at the farmers’ market. My ingredients fit neatly into the Mediterranean diet, perfectly fitting for the two studies I’m sharing. Both center on this diet, offering more evidence of the powerful benefits of this way of eating.
Frosty Summer Shake
Frosty Summer ShakeIn the heat of summer, you want a breakfast that’s not only nourishing but also refreshing. This shake delivers on both counts.
Ingredients
- 1/2 ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
- 3 ounces plain low-fat yogurt or skyr
- 3 ounces frozen banana slices
- 4 ounces fresh blueberries
- 1 peach, halved and pitted
- 1/2 cup your choice of milk
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground flax seeds
Directions
Step 1
Place all the ingredients in a high-powered blender and process until smooth.
Step 2
Serve in two glasses and enjoy.
Yields 2 servings
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight
Bananas
Bananas often get a bad rap for being high in carbohydrates, but they’re high in many nutrients and can be part of most people’s diets, according to the American Heart Association. One medium banana has 375 milligrams of potassium, a mineral essential for heart health. For men, that’s about 11% of the RDA, and for women, 16%. You’ll also get magnesium and 5 grams of fiber, along with beneficial phytochemicals and antioxidants.
There are some differences between slightly unripe (green) bananas and fully ripe (yellow) bananas. Unripe bananas have resistant starch, a prebiotic fiber that feeds good-for-you probiotics, those beneficial gut bacteria needed for digestion. As bananas ripen, that resistant starch is broken down into natural sugars, making them sweeter.
Quick Kitchen Nugget
Storing Bananas
Keep unripe bananas on a counter out of direct sunlight. Once fully yellow, if you’re not going to eat them right away, put them, unwrapped, in the produce drawer of your fridge—the skins will eventually turn brown, but the fruit will stay firm for up to a week. You can also slice ripe bananas, freeze on a tray, and then transfer to a freezer-safe container to have them on hand for smoothies and shakes.
For Your Best Health
Another Look at Intermittent Fasting
According to a new study done in Spain and published in the journal Clinical Nutrition, intermittent fasting, or time-restricted eating, may be practical in the short term while also producing effects that continue well beyond the initial program.
The study followed 99 adults who were overweight or obese. During the first 12 weeks, all participants received education about following a Mediterranean diet. They were then placed into four groups: The control group continued its usual daily eating window of 12 hours or longer. The early fasting group followed an 8-hour window beginning before 10 a.m. The late fasting group used an 8-hour window beginning after 1 p.m. Participants in the self-selected group chose their own 8-hour schedule.
Researchers measured body weight, fat mass, and fat-free mass before and after the intervention. They assessed the same measurements again one year after the program had concluded. At that point, both the early and late fasting groups had maintained significantly more weight loss than participants who continued eating across 12 hours or more each day. Those assigned to the early schedule also preserved a larger reduction in fat mass.
The study’s first author, Dr. Alba Camacho Cardeñosa, a researcher at the University Joint Institute for Sport and Health at the University of Granada and a postdoctoral fellow, explained, “To date, although we knew that intermittent fasting promotes modest weight loss in the short term, it was unclear whether its effects were sustained over time. By evaluating the participants 12 months after the intervention ended, we demonstrated that the changes in body weight persist.”
The researchers also said that the routine may be manageable outside a controlled study, stating that one in three people decided to continue practicing intermittent fasting on their own during that year of follow-up. This suggests that it’s a relatively easy habit to integrate into daily life.
The results also suggest that even a 12-week period of intermittent fasting could provide an effective medium-term option for weight management among adults who are overweight or obese. Because both early and late eating windows produced lasting benefits, patients may be able to choose the schedule that fits their routines most comfortably. That flexibility could make the approach easier to follow and potentially improve its usefulness in obesity treatment.
Fitness Flash
More benefits of the Mediterranean Diet
A Mediterranean-style diet may influence aging through an unexpected biological pathway involving tiny proteins produced inside mitochondria, according to a new study led by researchers at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Mitochondria are best known as the structures that generate energy inside cells, but scientists increasingly recognize that they also release chemical signals that affect metabolism, inflammation, stress responses, and aging.
The researchers found that older adults who followed a Mediterranean diet most closely had higher blood levels of two mitochondrial microproteins, humanin and SHMOOSE. Both have previously been associated with protection against cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration, the gradual loss of nerve cell function seen in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The study was led by Roberto Vicinanza, MD, PhD, an instructional associate professor of gerontology at the Davis School. “These microproteins may act as molecular messengers that translate what we eat into how our cells function and age,” Dr. Vicinanza said. “It’s a new biological pathway that helps explain why the Mediterranean diet is so powerful.”
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes olive oil, fish, legumes, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other minimally processed foods. It generally limits refined carbohydrates, heavily processed products, and foods high in added sugar. Decades of research have linked this eating pattern to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline, and premature death. However, scientists are still working to identify the cellular processes that may produce those benefits.
For the new study, the research team examined blood samples from older adults who followed the Mediterranean diet to different degrees. Participants with the strongest adherence had significantly higher concentrations of humanin and SHMOOSE. They also had lower indicators of oxidative stress—that’s a form of cellular damage caused when unstable molecules known as reactive oxygen species overwhelm the body’s protective systems. Persistent oxidative stress can injure proteins, fats, and DNA and has been associated with aging and many chronic diseases.
The findings suggest that individual parts of the Mediterranean diet may contribute differently to mitochondrial health. Higher consumption of olive oil, fish, and legumes was associated with increased levels of humanin. Olive oil and a lower intake of refined carbohydrates were linked to higher levels of SHMOOSE.
“These findings suggest that specific components of the Mediterranean diet may directly influence mitochondrial biology,” said Pinchas Cohen, MD, USC Distinguished Professor and the study’s senior author. “Humanin and SHMOOSE could serve as biomarkers for adherence to the Mediterranean diet and have clinical significance.” A biomarker is a measurable biological sign that can provide information about health, disease, or how the body is responding to a behavior or treatment. In this case, the two microproteins could potentially help researchers measure how strongly a person’s body is responding to a Mediterranean eating pattern.
The study builds on more than 20 years of research led by Dr. Cohen, who helped pioneer the discovery of peptides produced by mitochondria. Most familiar human proteins are made from instructions contained in the DNA inside the cell nucleus. Mitochondria, however, carry a small amount of their own genetic material, inherited separately from nuclear DNA.
Humanin and SHMOOSE come from short sections of the mitochondrial genome known as small open reading frames. These regions were once thought to have little or no function, but researchers now know that some of them produce biologically active microproteins. Humanin is among the most extensively studied of these molecules. Dr. Cohen and his colleagues first identified it in 2003. Subsequent research has connected it to improved insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular protection, longer life span, and the preservation of cognitive function.
Dr. Cohen’s laboratory later discovered SHMOOSE (Small Human Mitochondrial ORF Over SErine tRNA), which has been linked to brain health. One genetic variant of SHMOOSE has been associated with a greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease, while the normal form appears to help shield neurons from damage related to amyloid, a protein that can accumulate abnormally in the brain and form plaques, one of the major biological features associated with Alzheimer’s.
“These peptides are emerging as key regulators of aging biology,” Dr. Cohen said. “They connect mitochondrial function to diseases like Alzheimer’s and heart disease and now, potentially, to nutrition.”
The researchers also identified a possible connection between humanin and Nox2, an enzyme involved in producing reactive oxygen species. Although reactive oxygen species play useful roles in normal cell signaling and immune defenses, excessive production can damage tissues and increase oxidative stress. Higher humanin levels were associated with lower Nox2 activity. This relationship suggests that humanin could help limit oxidative damage and provide added protection for the heart and blood vessels.
The researchers propose that the Mediterranean diet may protect the cardiovascular system in two complementary ways. It may directly reduce oxidative stress while also increasing mitochondrial microproteins that help restrain damaging cellular pathways. “This could represent a new cardioprotective mechanism of the Mediterranean diet,” Dr. Vicinanza said.
Dr.Vicinanza has also worked to promote the Mediterranean diet beyond the laboratory, presenting it as a model not only for health, but also for culture and environmental sustainability.
He has collaborated with the Municipality of Pollica in Italy, a UNESCO Mediterranean Diet emblematic community, to support the creation of the International Day of the Mediterranean Diet at the United Nations, an observance that will take place each year on November 16. Its goal is to increase awareness of the Mediterranean diet’s health, cultural, and environmental importance around the world.
Dr. Vicinanza said that mission reflects the broader implications of the new findings. “We’re connecting centuries-old dietary traditions with cutting-edge molecular biology,” he said. “It supports the idea that healthy eating patterns with little to no ultra-processed foods reflect how humans have eaten over long periods and may create conditions to which mitochondria—ancient cellular organelles—are likely adapted.”
The study was relatively small and observational. That means it identified associations between diet and microprotein levels but could not prove that following the Mediterranean diet directly caused those biological changes. Other factors, including physical activity, overall health, medication use, genetics, and lifestyle, could also have influenced the findings. Even with those limitations, the results point toward a developing field known as precision nutrition. This approach aims to use biological measurements, genetics, metabolism, and other personal characteristics to design dietary recommendations that are more individualized than standard nutrition advice.
Humanin, SHMOOSE, and related mitochondrial microproteins could eventually help scientists determine which dietary patterns are producing beneficial cellular effects in a particular person.
Future studies will test whether changing a person’s diet can directly raise levels of these peptides and whether those increases result in a measurable reduction in disease risk. “Our goal is to move from observing associations to understanding causality,” Dr. Vicinanza said. “If we can harness these pathways, we may be able to design nutritional strategies that promote healthy aging at the molecular level.”
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