‘Dessert’ With Breakfast Boosts Weight Loss
Starting your morning with a high-protein food and a “dessert” — such as a doughnut or a slice of cake — may help you lose weight and keep it off, a new study suggests.
However, several nutritionists said they weren’t ready yet to embrace the study’s conclusions.
When researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Wolfson Medical Center in Israel compared two diet regimens — one featuring alow-carbohydrate breakfast, the other a high-protein, high-carb breakfast — the sweets-with-breakfast group lost more weight after eight months.
“Although dietary restriction often results in initial weight loss, the majority of obese dieters fail to maintain their reduced weight,” wrote the study’s authors.
Diet-related weight loss often triggers hunger and cravings while decreasing suppression of ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger, the researchers said. This may encourage weight gain. But, “a high protein and carbohydrate breakfast may overcome these compensatory changes and prevent obesity relapse,” they concluded.
The findings are scheduled for presentation Monday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Houston.
How to Choose the Healthiest Salad Dressing
When it comes to packing a nutritional punch, a colorful salad can’t be beat. But the dressing you choose may be just as important as the vegetables for maximizing the body’s intake of important nutrients, a new study shows.
When researchers at Purdue University fed study participants vegetable salads topped with different types of oil, they found that dressings containing canola oil best promoted the absorption of fat-soluble carotenoids.
Carotenoids such as lutein, lycopene, beta-carotene, and zeaxanthin are widely believed to promote good health. Specifically, studies suggest that they lower the risk for certain cancers, heart disease, and the age-related eye condition macular degeneration.
In the study, published online in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, salads dressed with canola oil, which is a monounsaturated fat, required the least fat intake to get a substantial level of carotenoid absorption.
People who ate dressings made with polyunsaturated soybean oil and butter, which is a saturated fat, had to eat far more fat to get the same nutritional benefit.
Snacking on Raisins Controls Hunger, Promotes Satiety in Children
New research recently announced at the Canadian Nutrition Society annual meeting in Vancouver, B.C., suggests eating raisins as an after-school snack prevents excessive calorie intake and increases satiety – or feeling of fullness – as compared to other commonly consumed snacks.
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The study, funded by a grant from the California Raisin Marketing Board, was conducted among 26 normal-weight boys and girls ages 8 – 11 during a three-month timeframe. Study participants were randomly assigned to eat raisins or other snacks, including grapes, potato chips or chocolate chip cookies, until they were comfortably full. Additionally, each child received the same standardized breakfast, morning snack and lunch on test days. Subjective appetite was measured before and immediately after snack consumption at 15-minute intervals. Key study findings include:
Food intake following raisin consumption was lower and satiation greater compared to the other snacks
When eating raisins, children consumed significantly fewer calories when compared to the other snacks in the study
Grapes, potato chips and cookies resulted in ~ 56 percent, 70 percent and 108 percent higher calorie intake compared to raisins, respectively
Cumulative calorie intake (breakfast + morning snack + lunch + after-school snack) was 10 percent – 19 percent lower after raisins compared to other snacks
Although all snacks reduced subjective appetite, desire-to-eat was lowest after consuming raisins
Vitamin D could matter in older women’s weight gain
We mostly get our vitamin D by exposure to the sun, and these days, who just goes out in the sun? So there’s been a lot of attention given to — and confusion over — vitamin D supplements, something many doctors recommend.
Now there’s a new study a possible vitamin D benefit: In a group of women older than 65 who had gained weight over 4½ years, those whose levels of the vitamin were low had gained a little more weight, researchers found in a study published Monday.
The study adds to the conversation about vitamin D, but the researchers say more study is needed about any possible connection between weight and vitamin D.
“This is one of the first studies to show that women with low levels of vitamin D gain more weight, and although it was only 2 pounds, over time that can add up,” said Erin LeBlanc, the author of the study and an endocrinologist and researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.
LeBlanc’s study was published online in the Journal of Women’s Health.
Vitamin D Supplements May Stave Off Disability And Mobility Issues In The Elderly
According to a new study published online in the Journal of Gerontologyelderly individuals with insufficient levels of vitamin D, regardless of whether obtained through diet, supplements or sun exposure, could have a higher risk of developing mobility problems and disability.
Leading researcher, Denise Houston, Ph.D., R.D., a nutrition epidemiologist in the Wake Forest Baptist Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology who studies vitamin D and its impact on physical function, declared: “This is one of the first studies to look at the association of vitamin D and the onset of new mobility limitations or disability in older adults.”
The team analyzed the link between vitamin D and onset of mobility limitation and disability over a period of six years, having obtained data from the National Institute on Aging’s Health, Aging, and Body Composition (Health ABC) study that included 3,075 black and white men and women between the ages of 70 to 79 years, of which they 2,099 proved eligible for their study. The team defined the limitation of mobility and disability as any difficulty or inability to walk several blocks or climb a flight of stairs.
Is Higher Water Intake Advice Driven By Business Interests?
The suggestion that our bodies need about two liters of fluids each day is not specifically related to water.
Spero Tsindos from La Trobe University published an editorial in the June edition ofAustralian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, examining the reasons for people’s high water intake.
According to Mr Tsindos, encouraging people to drink more water is not merely to attain a healthier life style. He believes that it is based on vested interests, saying: “Thirty years ago you didn’t see a plastic water bottle anywhere, now they appear as fashion accessories.”
He continues: “As tokens of instant gratification and symbolism, the very bottle itself is seen as cool and hip.” With regard to drinking water in terms of people’s constant desire to loose weight, he says: “
How to avoid weight gain? Eat on a schedule
Weight gain may caused in part by eating on an odd eating schedule, rather than only by eating too many calories, a new study in mice suggests.
Mice in the study that were fed a high-fat diet and allowed to eat whenever they wanted to, not surprisingly, gained weight. In contrast, mice that had their feeding restricted to eight hours a day were protected against obesity, despite the fact that they consumed just as many calories as the unrestricted mice.
The findings suggest that restricting meal times might be an underappreciated way to help people keep off the pounds, the researchers said.
“Every organ has a clock,” said study researcher Satchidananda Panda, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles and other organs work at peak efficiency, and other times when they are — more or less — sleeping, Panda said.
These metabolic cycles are critical for processes such as cholesterol breakdown, and they should be turned on when we eat and turned off when we don’t, Panda said. When mice or people eat frequently throughout the day and night, it can throw off those normal metabolic cycles, he added.
Over the 18-week study, the time-restricted mice were protected from the adverse effects of their high-fat diet, and showed improvements in their metabolism compared with the unrestricted mice. They gained 28 percent less weight than unrestricted mice and suffered less liver damage.
Ginseng Can Help Relieve Fatigue
Known for its bitter taste and potent effects, ginseng has for ages had a reputation as a natural energy booster.
Now there is some evidence that ginseng’s claim to fight fatigue may be deserved. In a small number of independent studies, researchers have found that ginseng extracts seem to help combatcancer-related fatigue, one of the most common side effects ofchemotherapy and other treatments. The fatigue can be so severe thatpatients often call it paralyzing, and there are few options for alleviating it.
In a randomized double-blind study with 290 cancer patients at the Mayo Clinic in 2010, more than twice as many patients taking 1,000 or 2,000 milligrams of ginseng a day reported less fatigue and more energy after eight weeks compared with those given a placebo. In another large study, presented this month to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the same researchers found that cancer patients given 1,000 milligrams of ginseng twice a day for two weeks saw significant improvements in fatigue compared with a placebo group; the effect on nausea was similar in both groups.
Other studies suggest that ginseng may be able to relieve moderate fatiguein people without cancer, too. But scientists say more research on ginseng’s long-term safety is needed.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Evidence suggests that ginseng may help fight fatigue, but whether there are long-term side effects is not clear.
Most essential vitamins for children
Vitamin A.
- Vitamin A is essential for developing strong bones, keeping the eyes healthy. It also helps to prepare the body to fight of various infections. This means that without vitamin A, the body would easily be susceptible to diseases.
- The main sources of vitamin A are entirely foods. The age of the child dictates the type of food to be fed as very young kids; often less than 6 months are still unfit to be fed on solids. Foods that are particularly rich in Vitamin A include liver, milk, fortified cereals and cheese. Fruits like oranges, carrots and vegetables are also suitable sources of vitamin A.
Vitamin C
- The functions of vitamin C in children include; stimulating the body to protect itself against diseases such as common cold, Neutralizing any toxic or harmful substances in the body, contributing to healthy and normal growth of gums and strong teeth thereby preventing any occurrences of gum bleeding and playing a very integral role in the breakdown of hormonal fluids that are released by the body. Worth noting is the fact that vitamin C is essential in the generation of Vitamin E within the body.
- The main sources of Vitamin C are mainly fruits like oranges, mango salad and red pepper among others.
Vitamin D
- Vitamin D is known majorly for the role it plays in developing strong bones. It is also involved in the development of strong teeth.
- Calcium, together with sunlight is the main source of Vitamin D. Other sources include eggs, fish and cereals. Experts in children health recommend that all children should spend a considerable amount of time outside in the sun. The bodies of children effectively manufacture vitamin D when exposed to sunlight.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E can be manufactured by the body but supplements are required to increase its sufficiency.
- The role of Vitamin C is to protect the body cells from free radicals hence eliminating incidences of heart or cancer diseases.
- Oils are the main sources of vitamin E. Almonds and sunflower are also notable sources of this particular type of vitamin. However, parents are advised to avoid nuts as they may choke the children.
Protein-Rich Meal Replacement Helps Diabetes Type 2 Patients Lose Weight And Have Better Glucose Control
Individuals with type 2 diabetes could significantly benefit from a protein-rich meal replacement called Almased®, according to results of a pilot study.
The researchers enrolled 22 obese adults with type 2 diabetes in the 12 week pilot study. For the first week, participants replaced all three daily meals with Almased. For the second to forth week, they ate a protein-rich lunch in addition to two meals with Almased, and for the rest of the study duration they only replaced one meal.
Of the 68% of participants who completed the study, the researchers found that they:
- lost weight
- gained better control of their blood glucose levels
- reduced their daily insulin dose
- had lower body mass index (BMI)
- had lowered waist and hip circumference
- improved their HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides
- had lower fasting glucose levels
The gluten-free all natural meal replacement is made from yogurt, soy and honey – it contains no artificial flavors, preservatives, added sugars, fillers, or stimulants, and contains no genetically modified organisms.
