Be a conscious eater Try to make conscious choices about what you eat, especially when tempted to overeat. For example, ask yourself, 'I can eat this if I want to, but do I really feel like it?' You can then choose to eat it (or some of it), or not, as you will have considered the consequences. Not only will it help you feel in control and achieve your goals, it will stop you feeling deprived.
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Obesity Genes Revealed A study of 228 women has revealed genetic variants responsible for body shape. Based on work in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, research published today in the open access journal BMC Genetics identifies natural variation in the human LAMA5 gene as a key determinant of weight. As the prevalence of obesity and related health problems continues to increase worldwide, there is considerable effort being devoted to identify genetic mechanisms that control fat storage.
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Latest Dieting News
Obesity epidemic due to increased food intake, and not decreased activity level.
New Scientist: The obesity epidemic had already started by 1982, but Speakman argues that people have always been fairly inactive during the evenings, and that although activities such as watching TV and playing computer games might be relatively new, they have not affected overall energy expenditure.
"Prior to widespread TV ownership we probably spent this time listening to the radio, before that reading, and before electrical lights were discovered we would have been asleep," he says
Monosodium glutamate use associated with weight gain.
EurekAlert: Researchers at UNC and in China studied more than 750 Chinese men and women, aged between 40 and 59, in three rural villages in north and south China. The majority of study participants prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods. About 82 percent of the participants used MSG in their food. Those users were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG they used. The third who used the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users.
"Animal studies have indicated for years that MSG might be associated with weight gain," said Ka He, M.D., assistant professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health. "Ours is the first study to show a link between MSG use and weight in humans.
Prospective study of runners as they aged from 50 through 80 shows substantial benefits.
EurekAlert: Fries' team began tracking 538 runners over age 50, comparing them to a similar group of nonrunners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers have used national death records to learn which participants died, and why. Nineteen years into the study, 34 percent of the nonrunners had died, compared to only 15 percent of the runners.
At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, but they were still seeing health benefits from running.
On average both groups in the study became more disabled after 21 years of aging, but for runners the onset of disability started later.
"Runners' initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners,'" Fries said. "By and large, ...
Bifidobacterium infantis continues to show promise as treatment for irritable bowel syndrome.
EurekAlert: Two new review articles that cover therapeutic approaches to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in the July issue of Nutrition in Clinical Practice, cite growing evidence that probiotics, and specifically Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 (Bifantis®), are effective in helping manage IBS. Both articles point to data that suggest Bifantis (available in the U.S. only in supplement form, marketed as Align) ' has anti-inflammatory properties that help normalize gut function at a cellular level
New study highlights risk of losing bone density while following a low-calorie diet for weight loss.
University of Missouri: When a person is losing a significant amount of weight, they expect to notice changes in their body. However, they may overlook changes happening in their bones. During weight loss through calorie-restricted diets, bones are being remodeled - breaking down old bone and forming new bone - at an accelerated rate. At the same time, bone density is decreasing, causing increased fragility. In a new study, a University of Missouri researcher and collaborators at the University of Kansas found that the potentially harmful effects of weight loss on bone persist during weight maintenance following moderate weight loss.
In acute study, fructose increases lipogenesis relative to glucose.
UT Southwestern: The researchers found that lipogenesis, the process by which sugars are turned into body fat, increased significantly when as little as half the glucose was replaced with fructose. Fructose given at breakfast also changed the way the body handled the food eaten at lunch. After fructose consumption, the liver increased the storage of lunch fats that might have been used for other purposes.
Ice-tea aficionado develops kidney stones
Digital Journal: Once he was an "avid lover" of iced tea, downing up to six glasses a day of the popular summertime thirst-quencher.
"I was a junkie on a bender. I had to have it every day," said Mark Mulac, a resident of Brookfield, Ill. "Iced tea was very refreshing, cheap to buy and easy to make."
Anti-bacterial actions of cranberry juice explained by its action on fimbriae.
EurekAlert: Cranberry juice had no discernible effect on E. coli bacteria without fimbriae, suggesting that compounds in the juice may act directly on the molecular structure of the fimbriae themselves. This reinforces previous work by the WPI team that showed that exposure to cranberry juice alters the shape of the fimbriae, causing them to become compressed. Using an atomic force microscope as a minute strain gauge, the team also showed that the adhesive force exerted by bacteria on urinary tract cells declined in direct proportion to the concentration of cranberry juice in the solution
Whole fruits and fruit juices have opposite effects on diabetes risk in Nurses' Health Study
Food Consumer.org: When it comes to type 2 diabetes, whole fruit and fruit juice do not have equal effects. A study suggests that fruit juice may increase risk of type 2 diabetes in women while whole fruit has an opposite effect.
The study showed that eating an additional three servings of whole fruit each day was linked to a lower risk of developing diabetes. Eating one additional serving of spinach, kale or similar green leafy vegetables was also tied to a lower risk of developing the disease.
But an additional serving of fruit juice was linked to increased risk of type 2 diabetes that affects more than 25 million Americans.
The effects were observed during an 18-year period among 71,000 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study
Atkins was right after all. NEJM study confirms benefits of low-carb and Mediterannean diets vs. low-fat diet.
Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.
A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two in several measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the "good" cholesterol. Some critics had predicted the opposite because the diet allows more fat
Farm-raised tilapia fish has relatively low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
EurekAlert: Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
The researchers say the combination could be a potentially dangerous food source for some patients with heart disease, arthritis, asthma and other allergic and auto-immune diseases that are particularly vulnerable to an "exaggerated inflammatory response." Inflammation is known to cause damage to blood vessels, the heart, lung and joint tissues, skin, and the digestive tract
Fish oil plus red yeast lower cholesterol to the same extent as statin therapy.
Science Blog: The researchers noted that there was a reduction in LDL cholesterol levels in both groups. The alternative treatment group experienced a 42.4 percent reduction, and the statin group experienced a 39.6 percent reduction. Members of the alternative therapy group also had a substantial reduction in triglycerides, another form of fat found in the blood, and lost more weight
Fructose, but not glucose, increases visceral adipose tissue and triglycerides, and lower insulin sensitivity.
EurekAlert: Fears that fructose and HFCS are fuelling the obesity epidemic and triggering insulin resistance and diabetes have been circulating for years (New Scientist, 1 September 2001, p 26), but there have been few direct investigations in humans.
So Peter Havel at the University of California, Davis, persuaded 33 overweight and obese adults to go on a diet that was 30 per cent fat, 55 per cent complex carbohydrates and 15 per cent protein for two weeks. For a further 10 weeks, they switched to a diet in which 25 per cent of their energy came from either fructose or glucose.
In those given fructose there was an increase in the amount of intra-abdominal fat, which wraps around internal organs, causes a pot belly and has been linked to an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This did not happen with the group who consumed glucose instead, even though both gained an average 1.5 kilograms in weight.
Those who consumed fructose also had raised levels of ...
Big breakfast diet more effective than low-carb diet in maintaining weight loss.
EurekAlert: The first half of the eight-month study focused on weight loss, and the last four months on weight maintenance. At four months, the women on the strict low-carb diet dropped an average of about 28 pounds, and the women on the big-breakfast diet lost nearly 23 pounds on average, which according to Jakubowicz was not significantly different. But at 8 months, the low-carb dieters regained an average of 18 pounds, while the big-breakfast group continued to lose weight, shedding another 16.5 pounds. Those on the new diet lost more than 21 percent of their body weight, compared with just 4.5 percent for the low-carb group. Furthermore, the study found that women who ate a big breakfast reported feeling less hungry, especially before lunch, and having fewer cravings for carbs than the other women did
Eating in response to stress? Ghrelin could be the reason why.
Science Blog: New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center may explain why some people who are stressed or depressed overeat.
While levels of the so-called "hunger hormone" ghrelin are known to increase when a person doesn't eat, findings by UT Southwestern scientists suggest that the hormone might also help defend against symptoms of stress-induced depression and anxiety
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