Can Two-Minute Sprints Burn as Many Calories as a 30-Minute Workout?
There’s been no shortage of articles touting the benefits of quick, intense exercise. A new studyin the International Journal Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism just dug a little deeper to compare oxygen consumption — an indication of metabolism speed — between athletes who performed sprint intervals versus longer bouts of endurance exercise.
The Study
The researchers asked eight male students to partake in either 30 minutes of endurance exercise or two-minutes of sprint intervals, three times a week for six weeks. Researchers measured their oxygen consumption (VO2) during and after 24 hours of exercise. Their VO2 was 150 percent higher during endurance exercise than sprinting intervals, yet after 24 hours the overall amount of oxygen consumed between athletes was nearly identical.
Dried apples may cut heart disease risk
Consumption of dried apples may lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women by slashing levels of cholesterol by almost a quarter, according to new research data.
The one year clinical trial published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics evaluated the effect of dried apple and plum (prune) consumption in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors in postmenopausal women.
Led by Professor Bahram Arjmandi of Florida State University, USA, the research team found that neither after three months total cholesterol levels in the group that ate apples dropped by 9% and LDL often referred to as cholesterol dropped by 16%. These levels were found to be even lower after six months, with total cholesterol down 13% and LDL levels slashed by 24%.
Our findings show that daily incorporation of dried apple into diets favorably improves cardiovascular health in postmenopausal women,” said Arjmandi and his colleagues, who noted that whilst prunes lowered cholesterol levels slightly, they did not achieve cholesterol reductions to the same extent as dried apple.
High-carb diet increases breast cancer risk
OLDER women, who eat a lot of starchy and sweet carbohydrates may be at increased risk of a less common but deadlier form of breast cancer, a new study suggests.
The findings, from a study of nearly 335,000 European women, do not prove that your French fries, sweets and white bread contribute to breast cancer. But they do hint at a potential factor in a little understood form of breast cancer, according to a researcher not involved in the work.
The findings, which appear in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, are based on a long-running European study on nutrition factors and cancer risk.
Specifically, the study found a connection between high “glycemic load” and breast cancers that lack receptors for the female sex hormone estrogen.
5 Minute Tone Body Legs Workout, Fitness Training
Eating fructose leads to high plasma uric acid level
Weight Training will reduce your chances to get diabetes
With the booming popularity of weight-lifting DVD’s like P90X and Insanity, many men — the target audience of these videos — have made strength training their only form of exercise. As it turns out, working to bulk up those muscles not only helps build strength and prevent age-related muscle loss, but may help ward off type 2 diabetes as well.
In fact, it may work nearly as well as steady aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, and biking.
That’s what Harvard School of Public Health researchers found when they followed more than 32,000 men for nearly two decades: Those who reported doing 30 minutes a day of resistance training at the beginning of the study had a 34 percent decrease in their diabetes risk compared with those who didn’t exercise. Men who did 30 minutes a day of aerobic activity had a 52 percent lower risk of diabetes compared with couch potatoes, according to the study published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The best form of exercise when it comes to diabetes prevention? Doing a combination of steady exercise and weight training for at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week. Study participants who did both had nearly a 60 percent reduction in their diabetes risk.
(Among all the men, about 7 percent developed diabetes during the study.)
Exercise cuts CV and all-cause mortality in diabetes
In patients with diabetes mellitus, even moderate levels of regular exercise can reduce risk of death by up to 38%, according to a newly published study that combines prospective cohort data with a meta-analysis of 12 previous studies [1].
The new study is published online August 6, 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The authors, led by Diewertje Sluik (German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany), note that physical activity has long been considered a cornerstone of diabetes management. However, they write, “Several prospective cohort studies have found that higher physical-activity levels were associated with reduced CVD and total mortality rates, but conclusive high-level evidence is lacking.”
Therefore, the researchers conducted a prospective cohort study of 5859 patients with diabetes who had been enrolled from 1992 to 2000 in the ongoing European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC). Participants ranged in age from 35 to 70 years.
“No information was available to distinguish type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus,” the authors write. “To be considered diabetic, a self-reported diagnosis at baseline had to be confirmed by at least one additional information source.”
Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup Perform Equally on Reduced Calorie Diet
High fructose corn syrup is an ingredient in most of the things we consume on a daily basis. Some health officials have warned against it claiming it is contributing to America’s growing rate of obesity.
Now, researchers are suggesting that high fructose corn syrup is not as bad for the body and can actually help people shed some pounds.
According to a study published in the Nutrition Journal, people can lose weight while consuming typical amounts of sugar or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) if their overall caloric intake is reduced.
James Rippe, one of the study’s authors, said this new research discredits the criticisms of high fructose corn syrup in the diet.
“The results show that equally reduced-calorie diets caused similar weight loss regardless of the type or amount of added sugars,” Rippe said. “This lends further support to findings by our research group and others that table sugar and HFCS are metabolically equivalent.”
Low Vitamin D Levels May Raise Death Risk in Older Adults
Older adults with low vitamin D levels — especially those who are frail — have an increased risk of death.
That’s the finding of Oregon State University researchers who analyzed data from a survey of more than 4,300 U.S. adults older than 60.
Those with low vitamin D levels had a 30 percent greater risk of death during the study period than those with higher levels. Frail people had more than double the risk of death than those who were not frail. And those who were both frail and had low vitamin D levels were three times more likely to die than those who were not frail and had higher vitamin D levels.
The study was published online recently in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“What this really means is that it is important to assess vitamin D levels in older adults, and especially among people who are frail,” lead author and nutritional epidemiologist Ellen Smit said in a university news release. “Older adults need to be screened for vitamin D.”
Almonds Contain Fewer Calories Than We Thought
If almonds are your favorite snack but you’re conscious of eating too many for calories’ sake, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition may provide some relief. Scientists now believe almonds contain fewer calories than we originally thought.
As reported by NPR, the study was conducted by USDA food scientists who found that almonds contain fewer calories than were previously calculated.
Findings determined that there was close to a 30 percent margin of error when it came to the calories in this popular nut. USDA researcher David Baer said he and his team were just as surprised as anyone about the findings.
To conduct the study, researchers split 18 healthy participants into three groups and tracked their diets for 18 days. One group was put on a controlled diet that included 84 grams of almonds per day, another was prescribed 42 grams of almonds per day, and another was instructed to eat a diet completely free of nuts.
