Dieting To Lose Weight
Unilever says new milkshake helps control appetite
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A new weight loss drink that tastes like a milkshake significantly reduces appetite and could soon join Unilever’s $400 million Slim-Fast weight-loss brand, the company’s researchers said on Wednesday.
A study showed that the drink, which works by trapping gas in foods to make people feel full, worked even better than the company’s Slim-Fast weight-loss drink, they said.
The researchers, who presented their findings at the 2008 European Congress on Obesity, said the company has patented the technology.
Advertisements Saying Dairy Products Help You Lose Weight Are Misleading
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There have been recent claims that dairy products can help people lose weight, and the dairy industry has hyped the assertion by investing millions of dollars in commercial advertising. However, a new review of the evidence published in the journal Nutrition Reviews reveals that neither dairy nor calcium intake promotes weight loss.
Amy Joy Lanou of the University of North Carolina at Asheville and Neal Barnard with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC, evaluated evidence from 49 clinical trials from 1966 to 2007 that assessed the effect of milk, dairy products, or calcium intake on body weight and BMI, with or without the use of dieting.
Breakfast keeps teens lean
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Teenagers who regularly eat breakfast tend to weigh less, exercise more and eat a more healthful diet than their breakfast-skipping peers, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study involved 2,216 adolescents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota whose eating patterns, weight and other lifestyle issues were tracked for five years. They were just under 15 years old when they entered the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics.
The more regularly the teens ate breakfast, the lower their body mass index was, according to the study. BMI is a measure of body weight relative to height. Those who always skipped breakfast on average weighed about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) more than their peers who ate the meal every day.
Study confirms that low-calorie sweeteners are helpful in weight control
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A recent review of the scientific literature concluded that low-calorie (or no-calorie) sweeteners may be of help in resolving the obesity problem. Although they are not magic bullets, low-calorie sweeteners in beverages and foods can help people reduce their calorie (energy) intakes. “Low-calorie sweeteners reduce the energy of most beverages to zero and lower the energy density of many foods,” said study co-author, Dr. Adam Drewnowski, Director, Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. “Every dietary guideline these days tells us to bulk up, hydrate, and consume foods with fewer calories but more volume.”
The study by Bellisle and Drewnowski, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, evaluated a variety of laboratory, clinical and epidemiological studies on low-calorie sweeteners, energy density and satiety. Their findings, based on extensive studies with humans, are completely at odds with a new study on 27 Sprague-Dawley rats eating yogurt, published in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience.
The February study, “A Role for Sweet Taste: Caloric Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats,” alleges a link between low-calorie sweeteners and weight gain. However, previous studies in humans have shown that low-calorie sweeteners can be helpful in weight control.
Bone Mineral Content Continues to Increase in Obese Adolescents During Weight Loss
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Obese teenagers who succeeded in losing weight in a year-long medically supervised weight control program also saw their bone mineral content increase over that period, say researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The finding was reassuring, because adolescence is a critical period for bone health in later life.
A study in the current issue of the journal Obesity studied 62 adolescents between the ages of nine and 17 years who participated in a trial looking at the effectiveness of a comprehensive, family-based, behavioral weight control program in conjunction with a weight loss drug, sibutramine. The researchers previously reported the combination of behavioral changes and medication helped very obese teenagers lose weight.
In adults, obesity is associated with increased bone mineral density and voluntary weight loss is associated with a decrease in bone mineral density. The findings in this study show that bone mineral content continues to increase in this adolescent population despite weight loss.
Eat breakfast to curb middle-age weight gain
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Looking for ways to limit middle-age weight gain? Eat more at breakfast and less later in the day, researchers suggest.
“Shifting a greater proportion of a day’s total calorie intake to breakfast time is potentially beneficial for lower weight gain over time among middle-aged men and women,” Dr. Nita Forouhi told Reuters Health.
Forouhi, of the Institute of Metabolic Science, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in Cambridge, UK, and colleagues studied 6,764 men and women, 40 to 75 years old, who were assessed at the start of the study and an average of 3.7 years later.
Exercise, diet improve obese kids’ motor skills
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Obese children who lose weight through diet and exercise may become stronger and more agile in the process, a study shows.
German researchers found that a program that focused on physical activity and diet education was able to not just help obese children shed pounds, but to also improve their endurance, strength, balance and coordination.
Officials battle through “samurai” diet
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Overweight local government officials in Japan have slimmed down with a three-month “samurai” diet, soldiering on despite a fellow samurai’s death.
The mayor of the city of Ise in west Japan and six officials joined forces as the “Seven Metabolic Samurai,” after Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” movie, to fight the so-called metabolic syndrome—excess belly fat, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
High glycemic index diet boosts fatty liver risk
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People who eat lots of high glycemic index (GI) foods not only risk gaining weight, they also run a greater risk of developing a condition that can lead to liver failure and death, finds a new study in mice. The condition is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
GI refers to how rapidly a food causes blood sugar to rise. High-GI foods, like white bread and potatoes, tend to spur a quick surge in blood sugar, while low-GI foods, such as lentils, soybeans, yogurt and many high-fiber grains, create a more gradual increase in blood sugar.
Obese people tend to pick overweight mates
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A new UK study provides additional evidence that heavy people are more likely to choose other overweight individuals as mates.
This phenomenon is known as “assortative mating” - when men and women tend to select partners according to nonrandom attributes such as height, religion, age and smoking habits.
Lo-glycemic index diets help obese lose weight
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Overweight adults who would like to shed some pounds may want to replace their white bread with a serving of beans, a research review suggests.
In an analysis of six clinical trials, Australian researchers found that diets based on the glycemic index were generally effective at helping overweight and obese adults lose weight in the short term. What’s more, these low-glycemic index diets seemed to work somewhat better than traditional calorie- and fat-conscious weight-loss plans.
Low ‘energy density’ foods aid weight loss
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Foods that fill you up without packing a ton of calories can help in the battle of the bulge, results of a new study suggest.
In the study, obese women who reduced the “energy density” of their diet by cutting their intake of fats and adding more fruits and vegetables lost more weight over a 12-month period, and felt less hungry, than did those who simply reduced their fat intake.
Mediterranean Diet Halves Risk of Progressive Lung Disease (COPD)
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A Mediterranean diet halves the chances of developing progressive inflammatory lung disease (COPD), reveals a large study, published ahead of print in Thorax.
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is an umbrella term for chronic progressive lung disease, such as emphysema and bronchitis. It is expected to become the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020, with cigarette smoking the primary factor in its development.
Lesbians at higher risk for obesity: study
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Lesbians are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for obesity-related health problems and death, U.S. researchers said.
The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first large studies to look at obesity among lesbians.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind And Other Tips for Eating Less
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Here’s a diet tip that doesn’t involve counting calories or fat. Research shows that changing how foods are served and stored can help with weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight.
The April issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter offers these tricks for eating less:
