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  • Rights: University of Waikato
    Published 18 March 2011 Referencing Hub media
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    Dr David Stevenson, a senior scientist with Plant & Food Research, bases his advice for health and wellbeing on what scientists are discovering about cellular components called mitochondria1. By choosing a lifestyle with plenty of exercise and a well balanced diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables but low in sugar, the mitochondria will be stimulated to function efficiently, lessening the susceptibility2 to degenerative diseases3.

    Transcript

    DR DAVID STEVENSON
    The advice I would give to 13- and 14-year-olds on lifestyle and diet is based on what we are discovering about mitochondria. The more we learn about them, the more important we discover they are in every aspect of life, health and many of the diseases that we get.

    We found that inefficient or lazy mitochondria are responsible for or involved in all the major health concerns of modern life such as premature ageing or degenerative diseases, possibly even cancer4 and heart disease5. So the advice is to try and stop them being lazy and inefficient, and tune them up, and one of the best ways of doing that is to do exercise, because they are essential for any kind of movement we do. So the more of it you do, the more you will tune them up.

    One of the worst things we found for making mitochondria lazy is eating too much sugar because sugar is metabolised outside the mitochondria. So if you eat nothing but sugar, then the mitochondria don’t really have much to do, and they get very inefficient, so every time you move, they generate heaps of free radicals6.

    And the third piece of advice is eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, because we know that the polyphenols appear to tune up the mitochondria in a similar way to exercise.

    Acknowledgements:
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    1. mitochondria: Organelles where energy is generated. Found in all eukaryotic cells. They contain a small amount of genetic material, allowing them to make some of their own proteins.
    2. susceptibility: An increased chance of being affected by something, for example, a disease.
    3. diseases: 1. An abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions. 2. In plants, an abnormal condition that interferes with vital physiological processes.
    4. cancer: The term for a group of more than 100 diseases in which abnormal cells divide and multiply uncontrollably.
    5. heart disease: A condition that affects the heart muscle or the blood vessels of the heart.
    6. free radical: An atom or group of atoms with an unpaired electron. Because they have a 'free' electron, free radicals are very unstable and highly reactive. The hydroxyl radical (OH.) is an example of a free radical found in cells.
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      mitochondria

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    2. Organelles where energy is generated. Found in all eukaryotic cells. They contain a small amount of genetic material, allowing them to make some of their own proteins.

      cancer

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    4. The term for a group of more than 100 diseases in which abnormal cells divide and multiply uncontrollably.

      susceptibility

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    6. An increased chance of being affected by something, for example, a disease.

      heart disease

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    8. A condition that affects the heart muscle or the blood vessels of the heart.

      diseases

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    10. 1. An abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions.

      2. In plants, an abnormal condition that interferes with vital physiological processes.

      free radical

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    12. An atom or group of atoms with an unpaired electron. Because they have a 'free' electron, free radicals are very unstable and highly reactive. The hydroxyl radical (OH.) is an example of a free radical found in cells.