Dieting
That extra can of soda each day equals 15 pounds extra in weight
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A scientific review says what they are drinking is what is making Americans obese.
According to the new report the average American is drinking far more soda and other sugary drinks than ever before and that is why people have gained weight.
The researchers say that an extra can of soda a day can add 15 pounds in weight in a single year, and they suggest that this increased consumption is a key factor in the obesity problem.
Device helps judge size of wedge-shaped foods
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For people watching how much they eat, it can be difficult to estimate the portion sizes of wedge-shaped foods like pizza, cake and pie. A handy new tool may help, a study shows.
Dr. Sandria Goodwin of Tennessee State University in Nashville and colleagues developed an adjustable wedge to help gauge portion size of triangular foods. They then compared the accuracy of the wedge against a ruler, having 320 people use both tools to estimate the portion size of a variety of foods, including three different-sized slices each of pie, cake and pizza.
Participants viewed each portion for 30 seconds, after which it was removed. They were then asked to estimate its size using the adjustable wedge and then the ruler, and were also asked how confident they were in the accuracy of their estimate.
Diets high in low-calorie foods high in quality
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People who favor lower-calorie foods may eat a lot over the course of a day, but they end up consuming relatively few calories and a healthy dose of nutrients, according to a study published Tuesday.
Using dietary information from 7,500 U.S. adults, researchers found that those who reported eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, fiber-rich grains and other lower-calorie foods typically ate a larger amount of food than their peers who favored richer fare.
Yet they ate several hundred fewer calories a day, while consuming more calcium, iron, potassium and vitamins A, C, B6 and folate.
The facts on dieting
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According to researchers from Tufts University in the U.S. when overweight or obese individuals were placed on currently popular diets such as Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers and Zone diet, after one year, most who stuck to the regime lost weight and all four diets worked equally well.
It appears however that the old adage eat less and exercise more may not be the definitive answer to obesity and other factors may be at work such as a lack of sleep, modern medications, heating and air conditioning, genes, giving up smoking, birth weight, and aging.
In-home eating “rules” may improve teens’ diet
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A team of dietitians and nutritionists in California say they’ve identified a number of promising ways to help adolescents make healthier food choices—like reaching for fruits and vegetables instead of cookies and sweets.
Dr. Marion F. Zabinski from the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues used an online questionnaire to determine psychological and social factors that correlated with fruit, vegetable, and dietary fat intake among 878 girls and boys ages 11 to 15 years.
The researchers also interviewed the adolescents on multiple occasions to ask about what they had eaten the day before.
Calcium may help women keep weight in check
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Getting plenty of calcium might help fight middle-aged spread, a new study shows.
Women in their 50s who took in more than 500 milligrams of calcium daily in supplements gained 4 pounds less over 10 years than women who didn’t use supplements, Dr. Alejandro J. Gonzalez of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues found.
But Gonzalez told Reuters Health it would be “going out on a limb” to recommend calcium as a weight maintenance aid based on his study. Randomized clinical trials are necessary to determine whether calcium really is responsible for limiting weight gain, he added.
Diet Pattern More Important than Specific Food Choices
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Making changes to what you eat is difficult. Often the barrier to change is a preoccupation with specific choices: Can I have eggs for breakfast? Is oatmeal better than raisin bran? Individual choices are meaningful, but if they fit into a sound overall dietary pattern, there will be plenty of wiggle room, says the July issue of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.
A report from Harvard’s Health Professionals Follow-up Study examined the effect of dietary patterns, rather than individual foods, on men’s health. The results: Men who ate a lot of red meat, processed meat, refined grains, and sweets were 64% more likely to develop heart disease than men with the most prudent diets.
Low-carb diets not a threat to bone health
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Contrary to concerns raised by animal studies, people on low-carb diets don’t run a risk of weakening their bones, Florida researchers report.
Scientists had suspected that such diets might leach calcium out of the bones by causing the kidneys to excrete more acid, and research in animals had supported this possibility.
To investigate whether this occurs in humans as well, Dr. John D. Carter and colleagues from the University of South Florida in Tampa had 15 people follow a low-carb diet for three months, comparing them to 15 age- and sex-matched “controls” who ate a normal diet.
Low Carbohydrate Diet Did Not Increase Bone Loss
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A strict low-carbohydrate diet had no effect on bone loss for adults following an Adkins-type diet for weight loss, a three-month study by rheumatologists at the University of South Florida found. The clinical study was published this week in the online issue of the journal Osteoporosis International.
Low carbohydrate diets have become popular as a weight loss technique; however, critics contend such diets may have harmful side effects. One concern has been that low carbohydrate diets, which replace calories from carbohydrates with more consumption of high-protein foods like meat and eggs, alter the body’s acid balance. This imbalance could lead to increased bone turnover (more rapid depletion than formation of bone)—increasing the risk for osteoporosis.
“That’s not what our study found,” said lead author John D. Carter, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, USF College of Medicine. “Patients on the low carbohydrate diet did lose weight, but the diet did not appear to compromise bone integrity or lead to bone loss.”
Signs of long-term problems seen in teens’ dieting
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Teenagers who go on diets or take unhealthy measures to lose weight may end up gaining pounds in the long run, according to a new study.
What’s more, researchers found, these teens seem likely to get trapped in a pattern of unhealthy eating, extreme weight-loss tactics and, in some cases, overt eating disorders.
Among more than 2,500 teenagers in the study, those who said they were trying to control their weight were three times more likely than their peers to be overweight five years later. They were also at greater risk of having a binge-eating disorder, or to be vomiting or using diet pills, laxatives or diuretics in an effort to lose weight.
Passive smoking increases diabetes risk
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A study published on the British Medical Journal website shows for the first time that breathing other people’s smoke raises the risk of developing glucose intolerance, the precursor to diabetes.
The US research also shows that overall, white Americans are more susceptible to this effect than African-Americans.
Researchers examined 4572 men and women in four US cities, dividing them into four categories of smoking status: ranging from those who smoked, to those who had neither smoked nor breathed in other people’s smoke. The study focussed only on those who were white or African-American.
Scientists seek biotech answer to hunger
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As he pores over plant tissue and Petri dishes in a biotech seed lab in Johnston, Iowa, Luke Mehlo is half a world away from his home in South Africa.
Although the corn fields of Iowa bear little resemblance to the arid plains of Africa, the research center where Mehlo toils has become home to a unique joint venture that is merging African agricultural interests with U.S. money and technology.
The goal is to turn sorghum—a common U.S. row crop used in animal feed, cereals and industrial products—into a plant that can not only weather devastating drought but also yield a rich blend of vitamins and minerals. Researchers believe such a combination could help combat the hunger and malnutrition ravaging parts of Africa.
Pregnancy diet has lifelong effects for baby
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University of Nottingham researchers are targeting Europe’s biggest killer diseases - by focusing on the diet of unborn babies.
Poor nutrition in the womb and in the first months of infancy can condemn an individual to a life of poor health including higher risks of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Scientists believe a baby is ‘programmed’ for a lifetime of good or poor health in its first few months by the type and amount of nutrition they receive.
Low sugar, reduced calorie apples
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The technology to produce low sugar fruits with up to half the calories of the natural variety has been developed by US scientists, writes Jennifer Rohn in Chemistry & Industry magazine.
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have developed apples with high levels of the natural sweetener sorbitol. Sorbitol has only 2.6 calories per gram, 45% less than sucrose and fructose. Sorbitol, fructose and sucrose are all naturally found in fruit.
Although researcher Abhaya Dandekar has worked primarily on apples, he says that related fruits, such as pears, peaches, plums and cherries could also be produced as a low-sugar variety. Dandekar used genetic modification, but he says that plant breeders could use natural methods to achieve the same end.
Low-carb diets effective, but may raise cholesterol levels
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A synthesis of data from five previous clinical trials suggests that both low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets appear to be effective for weight loss up to one year, but low-carbohydrate diets may be linked to higher overall and LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
As obesity levels increase, more American adults are dieting—at any one time, 45 percent of women and 30 percent of men are trying to lose weight, according to background information in the article. Those who succeed may reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes, control their hypertension and decrease their chances of cardiovascular disease and related death. Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets have become a popular alternative to the generally recommended low-fat, calorie-restricted diet, the authors report. However, because these diets contain large amounts of protein and fat, concern remains about their effect on cholesterol levels and the cardiovascular system, they write.
