Issue 13: Simple Nutrition Swaps for Better Health

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Welcome to Weekly.health’s 13th issue. Every week, we explore cutting-edge research, actionable advice, and science-backed nutrition insights to help you live longer and healthier.

Our aim is to help you live another 10 healthy years and cut your risk of age-related disease.

🗒️ In This Issue:

• 🔬 Longevity Spotlight: Reducing frailty in the elderly

• 📚 Books We’re Reading Right Now

• 📈 Research Digest: What’s new in nutrition science

• 🥓 Simple Nutrition Swaps for Better Health

• 🛍️ Things You Might Like

• ❤️ Support Weekly.health: Help us keep the research flowing

• 📘 Glossary of Terms: Definitions for technical terms in this issue

🔬 Longevity Spotlight: Reducing frailty in the elderly

Narrative review links protein-rich Mediterranean diet and light strength work to reduced frailty in adults 80+:
This narrative review set out to give practical nutrition and lifestyle guidance to help adults aged 80+ stay independent. It looked at gut and immune ageing, mineral deficiencies, sarcopenia and exercise, hydration/UTIs, and options like intermittent fasting and supplements. Key takeaways: favour soft, Mediterranean-style, protein-rich meals; walk and do light resistance work; drink ≥1.6 L (women) or ≥2.0 L (men) daily; and consider vitamin D and probiotics with clinical oversight. (source)

📚 Books We’re Reading Right Now

📈 Research Digest: What’s New in Nutrition Science

Here’s the best of recent nutrition research:

🍳 Skipping breakfast? Here’s why that’s a risk
A review of 66 studies found that regularly skipping breakfast is linked to weight gain, insulin resistance, poor mood, brain fog, and even weaker bones. Morning fasting disrupts hormones and gut health, raising inflammation and long-term disease risk. Eating breakfast helps set your internal clock and stabilise metabolism. So, a simple morning meal could do more for your health than you think. (source)

• It’s worth taking note that, as we have covered in previous issues, (intermittent) fasting has its own benefits. It may be that skipping breakfast every day poses a risk but that the benefits of an occasional fast may outweigh the risks.

🥣 Collagen peptides improve skin over 8 weeks
A double-blind RCT of 70 adults found that 1,650 mg/day low-molecular-weight collagen peptides for 8 weeks (plus a 2-week washout) reduced wrinkle depth/height, improved elasticity (R2/R5/R7), boosted dermal density, and increased both surface and deep hydration; no adverse events were reported. Effects generally persisted 2 weeks after stopping. Practical take: a daily ~1.6 g collagen peptide supplement may visibly improve skin quality within 1–2 months. (source)

• Reliability note: As we noted in a previous issue, collagen trials tend to be positive when industry-sponsored, while non-sponsored results are more mixed. This RCT was conducted at P&K Skin Clinical Research Center with IRB approval, but the test product, funding, and several authors came from Nongshim Co., Ltd., and those authors supplied the study materials. Sponsor bias is plausible, and more research is needed.

💥 Creatine + lifting boosts strength under 50
A meta-analysis of 23 RCTs found ~4.4 kg greater upper-body and ~11.4 kg greater lower-body 1 rep max strength gains vs placebo after 4–12 weeks. Typical dosing: 3–5 g/day; >5 g/day trended to extra lower-body gains. Effects were clear in men; not significant in the few female trials. Practical tip: take 3–5 g creatine monohydrate daily. (source)

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Elevate Your Performance

🥓 Simple nutrition swaps for better health

Refined Grains ➜ Whole Grains

Swap white bread, regular past, white rice, and similar, for whole-grain alternatives to boost fibre and nutritient intake.

Refined grains have been stripped of fibre and micronutrients, causing quick blood sugar spikes, less satiety (feeling full), and are associated with overeating.

Whole-grain alternatives have more of all the good stuff that keeps you full and lowers your risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. (source)

Simply just look for an equivalent product with ‘whole-grain’ on the packet.

• White bread ➜ whole-grain bread

• Regular pasta ➜ whole-grain pasta

• Regular white [any carb] ➜ whole-grain [the same carb]

Sugary Drinks ➜ Water, Tea, or Other Zero-Sugar Beverages

Swap sugar-sweetened drinks like juices, energy drinks, and soda, with plain water, tea, or other zero-sugar drinks, to reduce the impact on your blood sugar levels.

Sugary drinks are associated with weight gain, fatty liver disease, diabetes, and heart disease, and simply eliminating these from your diet and replacing them with any non-sweetened drink removes those risks. (source)

• Energy drinks ➜ tea or coffee

• Soda ➜ sparkling water

• Juice ➜ unsweetened iced tea

Processed & Red Meats ➜ Plant Proteins and Lean Proteins

Processed meats like bacon, sausage, salami and any deli meats like ham, are classified by the World Health Organisation as a carcinogen for colorectal cancer. Even regular non-processed red meat has been associated with disease states. (source)

Swapping these proteins for fish, chicken, eggs, or plant proteins such as chickpeas, reduces risk.

• Ham sandwiches ➜ tuna sandwiches (or a tuna salad)

• Bacon ➜ egg, smoked salmon, or turkey bacon

• Ground beef ➜ lentils and quinoa with mashed black beans

• Beef burger ➜ quorn, veggie burgers, chicken, or fish

Swapping processed meat for unprocessed meat reduces mortality risk (source), but you can likely reduce this further by choosing plant-based options instead.

Fried and Fast Foods ➜ Baked or Home-Cooked Alternatives

Fried and fast foods are often loaded with unhealthy fats, including saturated fats that in our last issue we showed contribute to poor cholesterol levels.

Those eating the most fried foods were shown to be 28% more likely to have heart problems. (source)

• Fried foods ➜ grilled or oven-cooked foods

• Deep fry ➜ air fry for crispiness

Pan-sear or grill meats with a small amount of healthy oils like olive oil, but avoid over-cooking on high temperatures, as this can oxidise the oils.

• Fast-food meal ➜ home cooked meal (just give yourself more time)

• Fast-food burger and fried ➜ store-bought pizza

  • A high-quality cook-yourself pizza is cooked at lower temperatures and likely has lower levels of saturated fat and low-quality ingredients than a fast-food burger and fries

If you must eat fast food, make one swap. Swap either the burger or the fries for a salad. Add as much salad to burgers as reasonably possible, and reduce or omit any sauces you use.

High-Sugar Desserts ➜ Fruit and Antioxidant-Rich Treats

Swap frequent sugary desserts for fruit and lower-sugar treats to satisfy cravings in a healthier way.

• Ice cream ➜ frozen yoghurt (make your own frozen banana dessert by mixing yoghurt with mashed banana and then freezing)

• Any dessert ➜ fruit and dark chocolate

Swap any dessert for fruit for an immediate boost of nutrition. Add dark chocolate if you need something more indulgent, but aim for 70% or higher, and look for lower-sugar options. Phytochemicals in dark chocolate may support vascular health and lower blood pressure.

High-Sugar Baked Goods ➜ Healthier Homemade Versions

While baked foods such as cakes are often not high on our list of healthy foods, homemade versions give you control over their ingredients, meaning you can bake healthier equivalents.

• White flour ➜ whole-grain flower

• Full sugar from recipe ➜ halve the recipe’s sugar

• Sugar and cream ➜ mashed banana or applies

• No spices ➜ add an abundance of healthy spices like cinnamon to blunt the blood sugar impact

Unhealthy Fats ➜ Healthy Fats (Olive Oil, Avocado, Nuts)

Butter, margarine, cream, and similar are considered sources of unhealthy fats.

Using mashed avocado or olive oil as a spread is a great example of how monounsaturated fats, like those in olive oil and avocado, have been shown to be beneficial as part of the Mediterranean diet - as a replacement for saturated fats.

• Butter or margarine as a spread ➜ mashed avocado, or refrigerate olive oil until it solidifies and use as a spread

• Cooking with butter or palm oil ➜ cooking with olive oil

• Snacking on crisps / chips ➜ snacking on nuts and seeds

Small Changes ➜ Big Rewards

Improving your diet doesn’t require a complete lifestyle overhaul.

We’re mindful that some of these swaps might require extra planning, more time, and may even come at a higher financial cost, so we’re not going to say that doing this is easy for all.

By gradually swapping out high-sugar, high-fat, high-saturated-fat, low-nutrient, low-fibre, and ultra-processed foods for the exact opposites, you supply your body with the fuel it needs to not only survive, but thrive.

Consider that each of the foods you’re swapping out puts your body under some amount of stress. By swapping them out, you’re opting for low-stress options that give your body a better chance with lower risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments.

In essence, you’d be transitioning toward a dietary pattern that mimics those of the world’s longest-lived populations: rich in plants, fibre, and healthy fats, with minimal refined sugars and processed foods.

🛍️ Things You Might Like

Discover the products, services, and retailers we’ve mentioned in past Weekly Health issues, all in one place so you can explore at your own pace.

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🙏 Thanks for Reading!

That’s the end of this issue of Weekly.health.

This newsletter is written by a small, independent team, led by James — who’s been following nutrition science for nearly 20 years and is now working towards a formal, industry-recognised qualification.

We’re based in England, so if you’re over the pond, you might notice a few strange spellings.

Our goal is to make cutting-edge, evidence-based nutrition advice simple, useful, and genuinely applicable to everyday life.

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We’ll keep improving with every issue. If you’ve got any feedback or suggestions, we’d love to hear them (just reply to this email).

See you next week!

📖 Glossary of Terms in This Issue (Alphabetical Order)

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