In his December newsletter, Dr. McDougall urges all of the New Years Resolutions people to use a plan built on three decades of success: his, of course.

McDougall also provides resources for diabetic patients, urging them to get off all diabetes drugs ASAP, though lifestyle management: “By great good fortune, this same low-fat, no-cholesterol diet successfully used for diet-therapy for diabetes has been shown to prevent and treat heart and kidney disease, and prevent many common forms of cancer.”

And since the McDougall Program is all about eating good food, and not limiting yourself or starving, there are a lot of good recipes, including Beans and Greens Soup, Mika’s Rice & Beans, Gingered Baby Bok Choy, Perfect No-Oil Balsamic Dressing, and Rich Chocolate Mousse.

Diabetes risk increases with higher intake of total protein and animal protein, according to a new study in this month’s issue of Diabetes Care. Researchers analyzed the diets of 38,094 Dutch participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study and found that for every 5 percent of calories consumed from protein instead of carbohydrate or fat, the risk of developing diabetes increased 30 percent. Increased animal protein intake coincided with increased intakes of saturated fat, cholesterol, and heme iron, and with increased body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure. Vegetable protein intake was not associated with diabetes risk.

Sluijs I, Beulens JWJ, Van Der A DL, Spijkerman AMW, Grobbee DE, Van Der Shouw YT. Dietary intake of total, animal, and vegetable protein and risk of type 2 diabetes in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-NL study. Diabetes Care. 2010; 33:43-48.

Bacteria from chicken products may be a major cause of urinary tract infections, according to a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers examined urine samples from women who had urinary tract infections and matched E. coli in the samples to E. coli from contaminated foods. They found that most of the E. coli was ingested through retail meat products (61 percent of which were chicken products) and ready-to-eat products (73 percent of which were meat products). The authors concluded that chicken was the main source of urinary tract infection-causing E. coli. Researchers also warned that animal product sources of E. coli might be drug-resistant which can require more costly and complicated treatments.

Vincent C, Boerlin P, Daignault D, et al. Food reservoir for Escherichia coli causing urinary tract infections. Emerg Infect Dis. 2010;16:88-95.

Hamburgers and fried chicken significantly increase type 2 diabetes risk, according to an upcoming article for the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that African-American women who ate two or more restaurant hamburgers per week were 40 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, while two or more fried chicken meals led to a 68 percent increase in diabetes risk. The research followed 44,072 participants who were originally diabetes-free and were part of the Black Women’s Health Study. Consumption of restaurant meals were counted and categorized in the following groups: hamburgers, fried chicken, fried fish, Chinese food, Mexican food, and pizza. All categories were associated with increased diabetes risk except for Mexican food and pizza.

The prevalence of diabetes among African-American women is twice that of white women.

Krishnan S, Coogan PF, Boggs, DA, Rosenberg L, Palmer JR. Consumption of restaurant foods and incidence of type 2 diabetes in African-American women. Am J Clin Nutr. Dec 16, 2009. DOI:10.3945/ajcn.2009.28682.

McDougall offers a pretty straightforward take on the recent cancer screening changes: “Physicians, screening clinics, hospitals, medical associations, and medical societies must be forced, under the penalty of law if necessary, to tell the truth: Their testing does more harm than good.”

He also weighs in on our holiday tradition of eating nuts: “These days, eating nuts is as convenient as unscrewing the lid of a glass jar, and then pouring an ounce of shelled, oil-roasted, nuts directly into your mouth. After seven chews and a swallow, in fewer than five seconds, 120 calories of fat are gulped down. Within three hours much of that fat is stored as metabolic dollars to be spent during the next famine.”

McDougall also holds back on his view of blood pressure drugs: “blood-pressure-lowering drugs function by poisoning the body in various ways.”

On the recipe front, this is a great time of year for some Three Sisters Stew (corn, beans, and squash). Yumm…

Soy consumption improves breast cancer survival, according to a report in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that women diagnosed with breast cancer who consume soy products, such as soymilk, tofu, or edamame, have a 32 percent lower risk of recurrence and a 29 percent decreased risk of death, compared with women who consume little or no soy. The report included 5,042 women in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study, the largest population-based study of breast cancer survival, and followed them for a four-year period.

In the past, soy has been a controversial topic for cancer patients. However, an editorial accompanying this new study suggests that inconsistencies in prior research may be attributable to the comparatively low soy consumption in the United States, making beneficial effects harder to identify. In China, soy intake is higher and diets tend to include traditional food sources of soy, rather than soy supplements.

Shu XO, Zheng Y, Cai H, et al. Soy food intake and breast cancer survival. JAMA. 2009;302:2437-2443.

Ballard-Barbash R, Neuhouser ML. Challenges in design and interpretation of observational research on health behaviors and cancer survival. JAMA. 2009;302:2483-2484.

Omnivores who cut all meat out of their diets experience mood improvements, according to a poster session presented this week at the annual American Public Health Association conference. Researchers at Arizona State University divided 39 omnivorous participants into three dietary groups: control (made no changes to diet), fish (consumed three to four servings of fish per week and no other meat), and vegetarian (consumed no meat and no eggs). The vegetarian group experienced mood improvements in both tension and confusion categories, while the meat-eating participants and fish eaters showed no significant changes in mood.

Beezhold BL, Johnston CS, Daigle DR. Restriction of flesh foods in omnivores improves mood: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Poster presented at: American Public Health Association’s 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition; November 9, 2009: Philadelphia, PA.

In a new study published in Pediatric Diabetes, researchers found that women who consumed the least amount of vegetables during pregnancy were more likely to have babies who developed type 1 diabetes.

Compared with women who ate vegetables daily, those consuming vegetables only three to five times per week had a 71 percent increased risk of having a child with diabetes.

Brekke HK, Ludvigsson J. Daily vegetable intake during pregnancy negatively associated to islet autoimmunity in the offspring – The ABIS study. Pediatr Diabetes. Advanced access published September 16, 2009. DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-5448.2009.00563.x.

A new review published in the journal Diabetologia adds more evidence linking meat consumption to diabetes risk. The people who ate the most meat had the highest risk of type 2 diabetes. Intakes of red meat and processed meat were associated with 21 and 41 percent increased risk, respectively. The study was a systematic review compiling data from 12 prior studies.

Aune D, Ursin G, Veierod MB. Meat consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. Diabetologia. 2009;52:2277-2287.

In a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, intake of soy products reduced the risk of hip factures as much as 36 percent among women who consumed more than the least amount of soy. All intakes above the least amount consumed, for example any amount greater than one-fourth cup tofu per day, averaged a 30 percent protective effect. The study was part of the Singapore Chinese Health Study and looked at more than 63,000 male and female adults.

Koh WP, Wu AH, Wang R, et al. Gender-specific associations between soy and risk of hip fracture in the Singapore Chinese Health Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2009;170:901-909.