Connect with us

Published

on

Share on Pinterest New research finds that previous studies may have underestimated how effective the Mediterranean diet is for lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes. Davide Illini/StocksyThe risk of type 2 diabetes can be significantly reduced by eating a Mediterranean diet.In a first study of its kind, researchers developed a blood test to determine the impact of eating a Mediterranean diet on type 2 diabetes risk.This test identified a stronger link between the Mediterranean diet and a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes than previous tests, which were based on self-reporting.

The Mediterranean diet may reduce type 2 diabetes risk even more than previously thought.

Thats according to new evidence from researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK who have developed a novel blood test to determine the impact of eating a Mediterranean diet on type 2 diabetes risk.

This is the first study of its kind to use a blood test to measure levels of certain molecules and calculate a biomarker score in the blood. Previous research has been limited by self-reporting.

To compare the difference, the study authors also asked participants to self-report food consumed.

Researchers found that using the biomarker score identified a stronger link between the Mediterranean diet and reduced risk of type 2 diabetes than self-reporting.

This may suggest previous self-report-based studies may have underestimated the association between following a Mediterranean diet and type 2 diabetes risk.

The study ultimately examined the biomarker scores of 340,234 people living in eight European countries.

The study authors also note that more research is needed to confirm the new findings since it is currently unknown to what extent the biomarker score is specific to the Mediterranean diet. Nutrition experts agree that the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest

There are many reasons the Mediterranean diet keeps taking the top spot in the U.S. News and World Report annual ranking of best diets year after year.

Experts clearly agree it is one of the most sustainable eating patterns with significant health benefits, including helping to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RDN, a nutritionist and the author of Skinny Liver, who was not involved in the study, says shes not surprised to see this study yield similar results that other studies on the Mediterranean have previously concluded, but what is interesting here is the addition of the link between measured adherence to the diet and health benefit.

Rahaf Al Bochi, RDN, LD Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of Olive Tree Nutrition LLC was also not involved in the study. She says this new research provides a promising association between adhering to a Mediterranean diet and reducing the risk for type 2 diabetes.

Al Bochi also echoes the researchers in saying that more research is required, especially since the sample size is based on only participants living in European countries. What makes the Mediterranean diet healthy?

The American Heart Association has included the Mediterranean-style diet in their most recent update of an American Heart Association tool for evaluating heart health and for good reason.

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, fish, herbs, and olive oil, with some meat, poultry, and dairy incorporated, says Al Bochi. This means it is rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and unsaturated fats that have been associated with health benefits, she explains.

Kirkpatrick agrees saying the diet is very high in nutrient density and contains many foods that, on their own, have been found to decrease mortality and reduce the risk of several chronic conditions. The diet also is limited in added sugars, refined grains, and saturated fats, explains Kirkpatrick.

The American Heart Association explains this Mediterranean-style of eating can help you achieve a healthy eating pattern which plays a big role in preventing heart disease and stroke and reducing risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. How to successfully switch to a Mediterranean diet

Whether youre considering switching to a Mediterranean diet or you simply want to incorporate more foods in this category, health experts say there are a few simple tips to keep in mind that can help you make sustainable changes.Start slowly to begin

Take a baby steps approach, says Kirkpatrick. To do this, she suggests people may want to start with a particular area of their existing or current diet or eating habits.

For example, if you are used to utilizing high amounts of saturated fats, then limiting those and adding in more unsaturated fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats might help, she says. This looks like having nuts and seeds as snacks or utilizing more extra virgin olive oil in cooking, Kirkpatrick adds.

Al Bochi suggests shifting toward a more Mediterranean-style diet by adding an extra serving of vegetables and fruits to your current meals. Prioritize your primary protein

Kirkpatrick says you can also assess your primary protein sources and add some Mediterranean factors here, focusing more on beans, legumes, and fatty fish.

Al Bochi agrees, suggesting adding more plant-based proteins like beans, lentils, nuts and seeds to the menu.

The American Heart Association offers the following serving size tips for people who prefer eating meat:a piece of meat about the size of a deck of cardsone small chicken drumstick or thigh3/4 cup of fish, flaked2 thin slices of lean roast beef (sliced 3? x 3? x 1/4?)Focus on what to add rather than subtract

Focus on what you can add to your diet, instead of limit, says Al Bochi. Kirkpatrick says you cant go wrong with simply adding more fruits and vegetables into your existing diet.

She says this will be a step towards a more Mediterranean approach that can be maintained over time.

Al Bochi also suggests adding more Mediterranean foods to the diet by using olive oil as your main fat. Its a lifestyle, not a diet

While following a Mediterranean eating plan is about what you do and do not consume, Al Bochi says its important to keep in mind that it is more a lifestyle than a diet.

The Mediterranean diet is a lifestyle that encourages mindful eating, socializing over food, and adding daily movement, she says. The American Heart Association echoes this by saying diet isnt the only part of Mediterranean living thats important for heart health.

According to the AHA, its an eating pattern that is historically associated with lifestyles that include exercise and social activity.

Continue Reading

Sports

Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

Published

on

By

Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

Continue Reading

Environment

SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

Published

on

By

SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


If you live in an area that has frequent natural disaster events, and are interested in making your home more resilient to power outages, consider going solar and adding a battery storage system. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Published

on

By

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO, Circle 

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an initial public offering and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

The prospectus, filed with the SEC on Tuesday, lays the groundwork for Circle’s long-anticipated entry into the public markets.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are serving as lead underwriters, and the company is reportedly aiming for a valuation of up to $5 billion. It will trade under ticker symbol CRCL.

It marks Circle’s second attempt at going public. A prior merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) collapsed in late 2022 amid regulatory challenges. Since then, Circle has made strategic moves to position itself closer to the heart of global finance, including the announcement last year that it would relocate its headquarters from Boston to One World Trade Center in New York.

Circle reported $1.68 billion in revenue and reserve income in 2024, up from $1.45 billion in 2023 and $772 million in 2022. The company reported net income last year of about $156 million., down from $268 million a year earlier.

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

A successful IPO would make Circle one of the most prominent pure-play crypto companies to list on a U.S. exchange. Coinbase went public through a direct listing in 2021 and has a market cap of about $44 billion.

Circle will be trying to hit the public markets at a volatile moment for tech stocks, with the Nasdaq having just wrapped up its steepest quarterly drop since 2022. The tech IPO market has been mostly dry for over three years, though there are signs of life. Online lender Klarna, digital health company Hinge Health and ticketing marketplace StubHub have all filed their prospectuses recently. Late last week, artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave held the biggest IPO for a U.S. venture-backed tech company since 2021. But the company scaled back the offering and the stock had a disappointing first two days of trading before rebounding on Tuesday.

Circle is best known as the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation and makes up about 26% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether‘s 67% dominance. Its market cap has grown 36% this year, however, compared with Tether’s 5% growth.

The company’s push into public markets reflects a broader moment for the crypto industry, which is enjoying political favor under a more crypto-friendly U.S. administration. The stablecoin sector specifically has been ramping up as the industry gains confidence that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins. President Donald Trump has said he hopes lawmakers will send stablecoin legislation to his desk before Congress’s August recess.

Stablecoins’ growth could have investment implications for crypto exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase as they become a bigger part of crypto trading and cross-border transfers. Coinbase also has an agreement with Circle to share 50% of the revenue of its USDC stablecoin, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on the company’s most recent earnings call that it has a “stretch goal to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin.” 

The stablecoin market has grown about 11% so far this year and about 47% in the past year, and has become a “systemically important” part of the crypto market, according to Bernstein. Historically, digital assets in this sector have been used for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market.

WATCH: Circle CEO on launching first stablecoin in Japan

Circle CEO on launching the first stablecoin in Japan

Continue Reading

Trending