The loss of muscle tone, is a major cause of injury in older people, the weakening of the force affects the stability and resistance to trauma, thus promoting possible skeletal trauma.
About 1 in 3 people who has passed the age of 50 suffers from sarcopenia, which is a constant loss of muscle mass resulting in decreased strength, often accompanied by a lower functionality of the muscles themselves.
Behind this disease appears to be a transcription factor, a protein that is able to "talk" to our genetic DNA, indicating the activation or not of certain metabolic processes. In this case this protein tells our "build" less muscle DNA.
This factor is called ATF4, and start to do more in those subjects suffering from sarcopenia; but this is "only genetic." Yes, these are only details that allow us to identify a possible cause; but today we know that thanks to some epigenetice actions we can intervene in these processes related to our DNA.
We can adopt behaviors (epigenetic factors) designed to modulate these processes, one among them is precisely control their food. It is because they have been identified in foods of substances that can slow down the activity of this transcription factor ATF4.
Specifically we talk about ursolic acid and tomatidina, which are located respectively in apples and green tomatoes. The mere introduction of these substances in the diet of some animals, has produced some interesting results, that it has secured an increase in muscle mass and strength by 10 and 30%.
Again this is a demonstration of how the choices we make at the table, greatly influence our health, which is why today's recipe is a salad of apples and tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 cucumber
- 1 mozzarella
- 1 green apple
- Half red onion
- a few basil leaves
- extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
Cut the tomatoes in half. Peel the cucumber and with a mandolin, slice along with red onions and apples. If the onion flavor is too intense, sprinkle with the salt and soak it in water for 3 minutes; then rinse and dry. Add the mozzarella into pieces, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Garnish with some fresh basil leaves.
Enjoy your meal!
Andrea Busalacchi
