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VERIFYING HEALTH VALUES of FOODS

Abstract:  Life Ahead Model #3 values foods based on Global Scientific Nutrition, a new and powerful method for valuing the health of various diets and foods.  This new method values foods based on their content of up to 23 different nutrients on the risks of up to 15 different major diseases.    The health effects of each of these factors are based on the summed health research results of most or all useful research found published.   By bringing the results of the actually measured nutrient content of foods together with nutrient risks from hundreds of research studies in each analysis, Global Nutrition should provide more comprehensive  and accurate health valuations of foods than has been previously possible.  Conventional studies have provided mostly the risk ratios of only single nutrients on one or two diseases or disease groups. 

It is useful, however, to explore how results of Global Nutrition compare with conventional research study results on foods wherever possible.  Tests of these comparison show that the Life Ahead method does correctly forecast results from conventional research on the values of groups of fruits and vegetables for risks of both cardiovascular diseases and cancer.   But the more comprehensive Global Nutrition method can produce useful health values for each included individual food.  The results of Global Nutrition are consistent with conventional research on the health risks of fats and forecasts directionally the benefits of eating nuts. 

Life Ahead Values Foods from their Nutrient Compositions:  The Life Ahead Model values the long term population health benefit of any food from its  key included nutrients.  Benefits of a food are valued for any reasonable amount of their daily or weekly use and in any starting diet for men or women having any combination of other health habits and risks.   Life Ahead Model #3 values foods from their composition of 23 now research-verified nutrients. These individual nutrients in various multiples affect in modify risks of up to 15 different included major diseases.

This is believed to be the first method yet developed for accomplishing an overall health valuation of individual foods. Unfortunately there is no method now available for directly verifying the accuracy of these results. A question thus becomes “Are these computed health benefits valid?”  Two ways for answering this can be postulated.  A first is "Is the computation method and data base uses adequately reasonable and accurate?  More than 50 different papers now published on  www.lifeahead.net  details the basis of the computations and the research data used.  A second way is to compare results of Global Nutrition with those from conventional epidemiological research obtained to date on various foods.  Although a direct comparison is not possible because conventional research usually  identifies risks of only one nutrient on one disease, or groups of foods on one or two diseases, it is usual to explore comparisons that can be made.

The basis of the Life Ahead Model #3 valuations is extensive but by no means complete.  The present valuations measure principally effects of diet on cardiovascular diseases and cancer and other key diseases that now mostly determine life expectancy and Well-Days longevity of life.  They do not consider the daily effects of foods on general nutrition or on a variety of other health problems as fir example allergies. They do not include some factors of risk that require values on foods that are not now widely available to the general population. And there are a variety of nutrients identified from biochemistry that suggest benefits, but that are not yet verified from sufficient research on populations.  But some research that relates risk of these major diseases to the eating of specific food groups has been published. 

The Life Ahead Nutrient Health Values:   The 23  nutrients factors now included in Life Ahead that have risks adequately established for cardiovascular diseases and/or cancer include  Saturated, Mononsaturated, Polyunsaturated, Omega-3, TransFats, Dietary Cholesterol and Fiber. The Antioxidant model includes the joint effects of Beta Carotene, Vitamins C and E, and Selenium. on cardiovascular disease and different types of cancer.  Additional effects are included for Vitamins B6 and Folate, and of minerals Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc and Lycopene, and Glycemic load.  In addition to the 23 food nutrients, Life Ahead also values Alcohol and Aspirin.

These nutrients in turn are related to risks heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, digestive cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, women's genetic cancers, respiratory disease or COPD, diabetes, dementia or alzheimers, osteoporosis, arthritis, and macular degeneration.  From one to nine different nutrient-disease risks - with a typical number of four or five - are related to each disease.
 

The relationship of each of these individual factors to risks of cardiovascular diseases and cancer is developed from what are intended to be comprehensive  'State-of-Art' reviews and analysis of most or all useful research data found published on each factor.  Risk ratios established for these nutrients all range from adequate to very high significance.  These risks are developed in Life Ahead from 45 different mathematical models, some of which are quite extensive.  Wherever possible, risks are developed as probable casual affects considering the related macro biochemistry.  The risks of some of these factors are duration or age dependent and all are estimated conservatively.

The Life Ahead method of building up an overall risk of each food from the sums of its individual nutrient risks probably is an essential requirement for usefully valuing the health benefits of individual foods.  Population studies of diet have high margins of error, and thus multiple studies are needed for defining a health risk of useful accuracy.  The direct valuing even of the 370 individual foods in the Life Ahead diet library in just one base diet would require an impossible thousands of direct large population population studies to measure the nutrient risk of each disease.   Most of these needed studies would not be feasible because real world population groups will not eat precisely consistent diets over the needed time of many years.  Also, people that eat more of one food usually will eat more of certain others, and it is near impossible to separate out the individual effects of each food in usual population study research. 

Thus the key question that must be answered is “Do the separate effects of the presently included food nutrients on major disease actually forecast the actual differences in disease risk that result from eating these foods?”  The Life Ahead method that effectively combines the results of up to several hundred individual population studies in a valuation of each food should have a far greater resolving accuracy of risk than can be obtained from any practical direct study.  A related problem is:  "Are at least most of the major factors affecting major disease now included in the factors now valued?"

Direct Research on Cardiovascular Disease:  Most actual direct population research on the values of foods has been done for fruits and vegetables.  The appended Table F lists 10 different research comparisons on the effect of fruits and vegetables on cardiovascular diseases.  Each of the 10 studies show that eating fruits or vegetables reduce risk of cardiovascular disease significantly.  The risks summarized are:

 For Heart Disease                             Approximate

         Food         Study No  Risk Ratio  Risk per Serving/day

 Fruits                (CH1)        0.43          0.77

                       (CH5)        0.80          0.93

                       (CH6)        0.66          0.88

 Vegetables            (CH2)        0.39          0.84

                       (CH6)        0.79          0.96

                       (CV1)        0.75          0.95

 Fruits & Vegetables   (CV4)        0.54          0.93

 For Stroke

 Fruits & Vegetables    (S1)        0.69          0.92

                        (S2)        0.76          0.94

Some values from these studies have quite wide margins of error. Thus only an average risk value from all studies develops a level of accuracy useful for the comparisons that follow. The average measured risk ratio per serving for fruits is 0.86 and for vegetables is 0.91.  The average for all fruits and vegetables from all studies of CVD disease is a risk ratio of 0.90 per serving with an approximate 5-95% error range of about 0.86-0.94. 

The above individual studies consider only groups of all fruits or all vegetables eaten. The number of individual fruits or vegetables in the ‘Fruits’ and ‘Vegetable’ groups usually is not reported. Life ahead computes quite different effects on diseases for each food because each includes quite differing amounts of vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients.  Also, the composition of the base diets in which these differing foods were eaten was variable and was not provided.  As will be shown following the benefit or debit of any individual food can depend importantly on the diet in which they were included.

Recognizing these limitations, the question now becomes “What reduction in risk would Life Ahead forecast for the above actual results using only the individual nutrient values of the included foods?”  Although a specification of the diets used in these studies is not provided, the program estimates that follow assume the addition of an arbitrary basket of fruits and vegetables to a typical US diet..   The computed risks of heart disease from Life Ahead are:

 The average risk value from 15 fruits in included in the Life Ahead Diet program:

   A risk ratio of 0.88 per serving/day         (Average population research value from above was 0.86)

 The average risk value for 22 vegetables included in the Life Ahead Diet program:

   A risk ratio of 0.90 per serving/day         (Average population research value from above was 0.91)

These values are in very close agreement with the average values from the epidemiological studies, and well within their limits of accuracy.  Note that the direct research includes results of the Nurses and Health professionals that are state-of-art research of its kind.  It is unlikely that sufficient further population studies will become available in the foreseeable future that could add much to these comparisons. Also, this comparison is only for the risk of heart disease, and this comprises only a part of the total risk computed by Life Ahead.

Keep in mind that no actual direct research results on fruits of vegetables on risk of disease were used in the Life Ahead development. (An exception was the valuation of lycopene from tomatoes.)  The above risks are developed entirely and independently from the content of fats, vitamins, and minerals in these foods.  The good agreement with Life Ahead computations with measured results suggests importantly that the cardiovascular health value of foods depends mostly on their content of these now known nutrients.  Although factors other than these probably can contribute further to the value of foods on risk, it seems likely that the food nutrient values now included in Life Ahead do explain the major long term health benefits for fruits and vegetables. Other studies as those on dietary fats confirm Life Ahead benefits for meats and other foods.

Note here that the new Global Scientific Nutrition method provides far more accurate and complete health valuations of individual foods than are possible from the above comparison that includes only conventional research results on baskets of fruits and vegetables.  This method shows that based on the actual included amounts of up to 23 different nutrients individual fruits and vegetables can have vastly different effects on risk of heart disease and contributions to Well-Days of life. Another companion site shows that Well-Days values of 36 different fruits and 40 different vegetables.  The Life Ahead #3 program can display likely changes in the risk of heart and cardiovascular diseases for continued us of various individual or combinations of fruits and vegetables.  But this comparison does confirm that Life Ahead Global food values are nearly always consistent with the best available conventional study results for these foods where comparisons have been made. .

Direct Research on Foods and Cancer:  The results for studies CC!  through CC5 in Table F on cancer are not consistent.  But the impressively low margin of error for the combination result of studies CC3 and CC4 suggest that any overall average effect of fruits and vegetables on cancer must rather small   Life Ahead forecasts a 0.97 risk factor on cancer per serving for fruits and a 0.97 risk per serving for vegetables on all-cause cancer for the average of all fruits and vegetables included in its food library in a healthful diet. This very low overall risk factor is in essential agreement with the actual results, and would be invisible from any practical health study on a population. 

The 0.97 Life Ahead computed risk ratio for cancer on vegetables includes an average of 19 vegetables with 3 potato items.  Potatoes as an average of baked, fried, and mashed compute via Life Ahead to a 1.06 risk factor.  An actual diet will have a higher proportion of potatoes to other vegetables than this 3/19 ratio, and this will bring the computed value for a more likely real combination of diet vegetables closer to zero effect on cancer – the actual result of important Studies 13 and 14.  The study value is for colorectal cancer only; the Life Ahead result is for all-cause cancer. But the various Life Ahead papers show that risks for different types of cancer from diet and exercise usually are similar.  As shown elsewhere dietary fats can substantially increase the risk of cancer, and individual fruits and vegetables can contribute differing risks.

As noted for cardiovascular disease, Life Ahead Global Nutrition that should have a much greater accuracy can compute the health values of individual foods on the risk of each of 6 groups of cancer.  These valuations can be obtained by testing the addition of a food via the Life Ahead Demo or user  program.

Life Ahead Valuations of some Individual Foods:  With confidence in the accuracy of the model confirmed by these and other comparisons, the new Life Ahead model technology opens up a fascinating new window about the value of specific foods to risks of major disease and longevity.  As mentioned, the BioChemical Engineering derived model that focuses the results both nutrient composition and risks from hundreds of studies on the valuation of each food from multiple diseases should have much greater resolving power than will results from a state-of art direct study of a food on one disease.  First, the Life Ahead Global Scientific Nutrition method can forecast the overall health value of any food.  And second, the value of any food can be valued for persons of any combination of overall diet or other combination of risk habits.  

The table following shows Life Ahead computations for adding two daily portions of different foods to two quite different diets.  Overall diet calories are maintained constant by subtracting similar calories of the starting diet, and no diet supplements are included in these examples.  The portions assumed are those typically used as identified in Life Ahead Diet, and those used by individuals can vary considerably in actual grams or calories. Risk ratios of heart attack as myocardial infarction are computed as totals from age 50 to age 60. 

As noted elsewhere, health values of antioxidants and some other nutrients develop substantially only after 10 or more year’s duration of eating.  The values following for Well-Days of life assume that the individual foods are used for the past 20 years or more, and will continue to be used for entire life.  Well-Days benefits or debits for adding these same foods to diets for shorter durations will be lower.

The health values of specific fruits and vegetables can be much different than the above average risk value of 0.90 per serving or 0.81 for two daily servings of  'overall'  fruits and vegetables. Two daily servings of the most  healthful fruits of melon and grapefruit produce risk ratios for heart disease of 0.57 and 0.65.  Together with their associated benefits on cancer two added portions of these eaten for life with Diet #1 are computed to add 890 and 730 Well-Days of healthful life. This assumes that these diet changes are the only health modification made.  Grapes and berries add much less to risk and Well-Days because their content of contributing vitamins is much lower.  The contribution of foods becomes lower when added to the more healthful diet.  This is true because the fraction of diet a food replaces is healthier than that for the unhealthful diet.  Replacing a least healthful food in a diet with an equivalent calorie amount of one of these foods can produce larger improvements in health than these values.  Note that these values were computed with Life Ahead Model #2.  Values from Life Ahead Model #3 that includes results for one portion per day from several more diseases using updated risk models will differ somewhat but show the same general pattern of results.  The obtaining of results such as these on individual foods is felt to be much beyond the capability of today's conventional research. 

            Diet 3:  Unhealthful    Diet 2:  Healthful

            Total Cholesterol 228   Total Cholesterol 200

            And other higher risks  and low risk Risk

            Risk Ratio              Ratio    

         Heart Disease Well-Days  Heart Disease Well-Days

Well Days base 8390 (23.0 yrs)       10980 (30.1 yrs)

Two Daily 

Servings of: 

½ Melon        0.57      890         0.67         390    

½ Grapefruit   0.65      730         0.73         320    

Pear           0.75      660         0.88         240    

Bananas        0.85      460         0.99         158    

Berries        0.89      230         0.95         130     

Grapes         1.00      150         1.08         -50

Broccoli       0.68      680         0.73         380     

Cauliflower    0.78      450         0.82         190       

Asparagus      0.81      380         0.86         240     

Beets          1.01      120         1.13        -105      

Fried Potatoes 1.15     -132         1.45        -387       

Although not listed, the eating of two added portions per day of these foods also produces differing risks for cancer than the near zero risk for average food and vegetables developed from direct research study results.  Two daily portions of melon or grapefruit eaten with an average US diet develop lowest cancer risks of 0.84 and 0.88 times.  Bananas and berries develop smaller gains of  0.95 risk.  The reasons for these differences are partly due to their content of antioxidant vitamins and folic acid, but content of other nutrients also contributed differently for the different foods.  For example the pear benefited further from higher fiber and selenium than usual.  For vegetables, broccoli, and asparagus develop small favorable cancer risks of about 0.89 whereas mashed potatoes increase risk by 1.04 and fried potatoes increase risk by 1.09 times. Another negative for fried potatoes was its content of saturated fat not present in fruits and other vegetables.  And health values of any food can be modified substantially by additions of butter, sour cream, salad dressings, etc. 

The above healthful diet #2 (#2 in the Life Ahead Demo) used regularly over time provides an impressive seven years more Well-Days of life than does the least healthful included diet (Diet #3 in the Demo).  The above values computed for food depend on amounts of actual nutrients assumed in the Life Ahead library, and foods can have quite different amounts of nutrients depending on their source and amount, as for example the size of a fruit or amount of a vegetable. Life Ahead provides for entering additional foods and for modifying presently assumed nutrient values of existing foods.  Thus computations of this type can be made for any food or combination of foods desired in any assumed starting diet.

Much of the health value of foods derives from their content of vitamins.  Thus not surprisingly a quite different picture of the health value of different foods emerges from Life Ahead when vitamin supplements are used.  The above foods usually continue to be beneficial, but their contribution becomes lower than the values shown above.  But vitamins from supplements will have to be used for extended durations to contribute equally to those usual for foods in a regularly maintained long-term diet.  See the articles on vitamins for more on how vitamin supplements contribute to health in combination with those in foods.  Although values of foods by Life Ahead usually seem consistent with values from direct research, a difference is noted for the valuation of Nuts.  Possible reasons for this difference are suggested.

Gaining Maximum Well-Days:   The BioChemical Engineering Scientific analysis of Life Ahead confirms the validity of general advice on diet such as “Eat so many fruits and vegetables, eat less fatty meat, more nuts, etc” that has evolved from direct population research.  The average person probably can achieve useful long range health benefit from diet by simply following this general advice.

But Life Ahead moves potential dietary advice much beyond these generalities for the more sophisticated health-interested person.  The program identifies different individually based specific goals for each food nutrient for each different individual, and shows the extent to which these goals are being achieved by present dietary habits. Adhering to this more specific advice about diet may be able to add several more years to Well-Days of life beyond that from faithfully following so called ‘General’ dietary advice.

For an Improved Diet Model:  Refinement of some present nutrient factor risks and extension of nutrients to include other factors not now included can improve the present model.  Also a better understanding of the role of different monounsaturated fats is needed.  The amounts of some nutrients as for example transfats are not yet conveniently available on all foods but complete nutrient listings are provided for nearly all  foods included in the Life Ahead Library.

You can easily view the effect of adding any amount of any fruit or vegetable to any of the 11 diets in the Life Ahead Demo program, or for adding any of them to any diet you enter for yourself.   Download the free Life Ahead computer program from  Download Life.  You can start the demo program, and select any of the included diets but preferably Weekly Diet #1, and compute a result.  Then simply click on 'Health Value a Food'  or 'Diet Entry' to go back to the diet entry.  Add any amount of any food listed in the left hand panel to the diet by clicking it as asked, enter portions if other than one, and for the weekly diet the number of days in the week it will be taken.  Then re-compute the result again.  The display will show the change in risks of heart disease and cancer and change in Well-Days of life for this change made for all rest of life. You can experiment with adding or subtracting various amounts of foods from the base diet.  Better, you can do this after you enter your own diet to see how changes in specific foods change your risk of disease and Well-Days of future life. Any food, either in the original diet or one added, can be deleted from the diet via a simple double click on its listing in the right or diet panel.

Of particular interest are the new displays in Life Ahead Model #3 that show how nutrient changes for an added food or diet changed the component risks in Well-Days by nutrient and by disease. Adding a food as cantaloupe that is high in beneficial nutrients will show contributions to Well-Day for nearly ever nutrient, and reductions in the risk of several key diseases.  Adding a food with low nutrients can  produce losses in Well-Days for nearly every included nutrient and increases in risks of most included diseases. . It becomes nearly self-evident from these comparative analyses why one food can be more healthful than another.

                                                           Table F

            FRUITS and VEGETABLES and MAJOR DISEASE