Improving Health & Medicine

Here’s Why You’re Not a Bad Aunt if You Make their PB&J with White Bread

Savvy Auntie

Being a Savvy Auntie means being savvy about an extensive range of topics, including nutrition. After all, haven’t we all been responsible at some point for feeding our nieces and nephews? And while we occasionally look the other way when it comes to the ice cream, chocolates, and candy that kids love, we also want to ensure that our nieces and nephews develop healthy eating habits. However, being savvy about nutrition may not be as easy as we thought, as some of our traditional assumptions about food are now being challenged. You’re about to make a sandwich. Do your reach for the freshly stone-milled whole-grain wheat flour, sourdough leavening, superior ingredients baked in a stone-hearth oven to create a picture-perfect, super-healthy loaf of artisanal bread.? Or, white bread -- the industrial kind made from white flour.

June 14, 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

Alzheimer’s and Brain Research at the Weizmann Institute

E-News, June 2017

Thanks to advances in healthcare, sanitation, safety, and nutrition, people today are living longer than ever; in fact, in the West, the fastest-growing demographic is age 85 and up.
Fortunately, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers from across the disciplines have long made it a priority to investigate neurodegenerative and neurological disorders, including those that tend to strike older people; just some of these areas of research include Parkinson’s, glaucoma and advanced macular degeneration (AMD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), nerve degeneration as a result of trauma or stroke – and, especially, Alzheimer’s disease.

Improving Health & Medicine

Believe It or Not, White Bread Might Actually Be “Better” For Some of Us

Food & Wine

When it comes to bread, we’ve known for a long time now that it’s better to pick the brown, whole-grain-y stuff over ultra-processed white bread. Right? Well, maybe not, according to a new study published in Cell Metabolism and reported on by Science Daily. Apparently, we should be focusing less on the bread itself and more on who’s eating it. Here’s how the study went down: Researchers at the Weizmann Institute conducted a randomized trial with 20 healthy subjects in order to figure out how processed white bread and “artisanal whole wheat sourdough” might affect the human body in different ways. Half of the participants were asked to eat more white bread for one week than they normally did, and the other half was assigned to eat more whole wheat sourdough. Then, there was a controlled 2-week period with no bread, after which time the two groups swapped diets. The half that had originally consumed the white bread switched over to whole wheat, and vice versa.

June 09, 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

Is Wheat or White Bread Healthier? Listen to Your Gut, Study Says

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s the ultimate health-conscious grocer’s dilemma: Is wheat bread really healthier than white? While people have been told for years that wheat bread is hands-down the healthier choice, new research proves otherwise. A team of Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science conducted a small study in which 20 participants consumed either processed white bread or artisanal whole wheat sourdough. Prior to the study, the participants consumed the same amount of both white and non-white bread for several days. And during the study, the groups consumed at least 100 grams of bread (three to four slices) per day for one week before a two-week break when they switched bread types and repeated the weeklong consumption.

June 09, 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

Bread and Health: A Personal Matter

Science Tips

Bread occupies a unique place in our diet: it accounts for about one-tenth of the calories many people in the West consume and up to 40 percent of the caloric consumption in some non-Western countries – more than any other food product. In the past few decades, since white bread has acquired a bad name, bakeries have been going out of their way to produce high-quality whole grain breads. But a new study conducted at the Weizmann Institute of Science and published recently in Cell Metabolism reveals that these “wholesome” choices are not necessarily the healthiest for everyone.

June 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

The Brain’s Rejuvenating Cells

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease manifested by various neuronal pathological processes and a significant decline in brain function. Aggregates of beta-amyloid protein (“plaques”) accumulate within and between brain cells. Due to both structural changes and the weakening of chemical communication pathways, the junctions of neuronal networks (synapses) are lost. In addition, the cytoskeletal proteins of the axons lose their normal structure, impairing their function and causing massive neuronal death.

June 08, 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

White Bread is Just as Healthy as Wholemeal, Claim Experts

Cosmopolitan

Most people would agree taste-wise, white bread is bae. The thing is, it's had a bad rap for a while health-wise, with many of us believing that wholemeal loaves are simply better for you... But are they? Well, according to new research, it turns out white might be alright after all. We hate to break it to you, but if you've been forcing yourself to eat wholemeal then it might have been a total waste of time. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have discovered that opting for wholemeal over white bread made practically no difference to a person's health, the Evening Standard reports.

June 08, 2017

Improving Health & Medicine

Maya Schuldiner Receives EMBO Gold Medal 2017

EMBO

Heidelberg, 8 June 2017 – Maya Schuldiner from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel is the recipient of the 2017 EMBO Gold Medal. She receives the award for significantly advancing the understanding of protein synthesis, trafficking and quality control. The EMBO Gold Medal is awarded annually and recognizes outstanding contributions to the life sciences in Europe by young independent group leaders.

June 08, 2017