Tangy fruits help stay slim

September 6th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »

The study conducted on mice showed that the juice of the blood orange stopped them from piling on weight when fed a high-fat diet.

However, those fed with sweeter oranges gained significant amounts of fat.

The research team from University of Milan believe the fat-busting powers of the fruit, grown in Italy and the US, may be partly due to its high levels of anthocyanin. This red pigment that gives the orange its deep colour is a type of antioxidant, a natural chemical that helps ward off disease.

The juice damages the ability of cells called adipocytes to accumulate fat. Adipocytes are found mostly around the waistline and absorb fat from food to store as energy.

The study appears in International Journal of Obesity.

One egg a day can help you lose weigh

September 4th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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The British study, which analysed 71 research papers on the nutritional composition of eggs and their role in diet, found that eggs are packed with vitamin D, vitamin B12, selenium and choline that could also play a significant role in dieting and weight loss.

According to the researchers, a medium-sized egg has fewer than 80 calories and provides more than 20 per cent of the recommended daily allowance.

Dr Carrie Ruxton, an independent dietitian and lead author of the report, said: “There are clear nutritional benefits to eating eggs on a regular basis. Emerging evidence suggests that eggs may be beneficial for satiety, weight control and eye health.

“With previous limits on egg consumption lifted, most people would benefit from a return to the days of going to work on an egg.”

The study confirmed that eggs contain the richest mix of essential amino acids — crucial for children, adolescents and young adults since a balance of them is required for proper growth and repair, the Daily Mail reported.

It also claimed that the high levels of antioxidants found in eggs could even help prevent age-related muscular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.

The research team highlighted data from studies in the US which found that people who ate eggs had higher intakes of nearly all nutrients compared with non-egg eaters.

Low levels of vitamin D have been linked with a host of medical conditions including poor bone health, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, immune disorders and mental health problems.

The study, which will appear in the June issue of journal Nutrition and Food Science, identified specific groups which could benefit from eating more eggs, including the young, heavy meat-eaters and those who shun milk.

Dr Ruxton added: “The health benefits of eggs would appear to be so great that it’s perhaps no exaggeration to call them a superfood — they are one of the most nutrient-dense foods available.

“Eggs are not only low in calories but are packed with nutrients that are essential to healthy living. They are an ideal food at every stage of life, as well as being easy to cook and enjoyable to eat.”

Wine may help women keep weight in check

September 2nd, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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The study started out with nearly 20,000 trim middle-aged and older women. Over time, women who drank alcohol in moderation put on less weight and were less apt to become overweight compared to non-drinkers. This was true even after taking into account various lifestyle and dietary factors that might influence a woman’s weight.

Red wine seemed best at keeping weight in check, but white wine, beer and spirits also had some benefit.

“Our study results showed that middle-aged and older women who have normal body weight initially and consume light-to-moderate amount of alcohol could maintain their drinking habits without gaining more weight compared with similar women who did not drink any alcohol,” Dr. Lu Wang from the division of preventive medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, noted in an email to Reuters Health.

Many prior studies have suggested that moderate drinking, usually defined as a drink or two a day, can be a healthy habit, particularly with regard to heart health, while heavy drinking can harm health.

The new study, published in the latest issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, is the first to examine ties between alcohol consumption by a normal-weight individual and the risk of becoming overweight or obese.

The women were all at least 39 years old when the study began. About 38 percent said they did not drink alcohol; 33 percent said they drank less than 5 grams daily (a standard drink has about 10 grams of alcohol); 20 percent drank 5 to less than 15 grams daily; 6 percent drank 15 to less than 30 grams daily; and 3 percent downed 30 grams of alcohol or more daily (about 2 to 3 drinks per day or more).

Over an average of about 13 years, the women generally gained weight. However, the teetotalers gained the most weight, with weight gain decreasing with increasing amount of alcohol consumed.
Women who did not drink gained an average of 3.63 kilograms (8 pounds) compared with 1.55 kilograms (3.4 pounds) for those who consumed 30 grams of alcohol or more each day.

During the 13 years the initially normal-weight women were followed, 41 percent became overweight or obese. Women who drank 15 to less than 30 grams per day had the lowest risk of becoming overweight or obese, which was 30 percent less than that of non-drinkers.

Put another way, Wang said an initially trim woman who did not drink alcohol had about a 43 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese over 13 years. Her risk fell to 33 percent if she drank 15 to 30 grams of alcohol a day.

Women who drank higher amounts of alcohol were generally more physically active, weighed slightly less at the outset and were more apt to be smokers, than other women. However,

the association between drinking and less weight gain and risk of becoming overweight or obese remained strong after accounting for these factors. This suggests that alcohol may independently affect body weight beyond its relationship with diet and lifestyle factors.

There are several reasons why alcohol might help women stay trim, Wang told Reuters Health. In the current study, women consuming more alcohol ate less, particularly carbohydrates — a finding seen in other studies. Moreover, it’s been shown that women tend to expend more energy after drinking alcohol — more so than that contained in the alcohol. “Taken together, regular alcohol consumption in light-to-moderate amount may lead to a net energy loss among women,” Wang said.

An apple a day boosts the immune system

August 30th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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“Soluble fiber changes the personality of immune cells — they go from being pro-inflammatory, angry cells to anti-inflammatory, healing cells that help us recover faster from infection,” said Gregory Freund, a professor in the U of I’s College of Medicine and a faculty member in the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences” Division of Nutritional Sciences.

This happens because soluble fiber causes increased production of an anti-inflammatory protein called interleukin-4, he said.

The study will appear in the May 2010 issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
In the experiment, laboratory mice consumed low-fat diets that were identical except that they contained either soluble or insoluble fiber. After six weeks on the diet, the animals had distinctly different responses when the scientists induced illness by introducing a substance (lipopolysaccharide) that causes the body to mimic a bacterial infection.

“Two hours after lipopolysaccharide injection, the mice fed soluble fiber were only half as sick as the other group, and they recovered 50 percent sooner. And the differences between the groups continued to be pronounced all the way out to 24 hours,” said Christina Sherry, who also worked on the study.

“In only six weeks, these animals had profound, positive changes in their immune systems,” she said.

Zen meditation minimises pain

August 28th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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University of Montreal researchers compared the grey matter thickness of 17 Zen meditators and 18 non-meditators and found evidence that practising the centuries-old discipline can reinforce a central part of the brain called the anterior cingulate.

“Through training, Zen meditators appear to thicken certain areas of their cortex and this appears to underlie their lower sensitivity to pain,” lead author Joshua Grant said in a statement.

Building on an earlier study, the researchers measured thermal pain sensitivity by applying a heated plate to the calf of participants.

This was followed by scanning the brains of subjects with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI results showed central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators.

“The often painful posture associated with Zen meditation may lead to thicker cortex and lower pain sensitivity,” Grant opined.

The study was published yesterday in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion.

In the previous study, the researchers recruited Zen meditators with more than 1,000 hours of practice and non-meditators and measured their respective tolerance to pain.

Midday napping can make you smarter

August 26th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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The new research suggests that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can also make you smarter.

On the other hand, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become, according to the findings.

The new findings support previous data from the same research team that pulling an all-nighter – a common practice at college during midterms and finals — decreases the ability to cram in new facts by nearly 40 percent, due to a shutdown of brain regions during sleep deprivation.

“Sleep not only rights the wrong of prolonged wakefulness but, at a neurocognitive level, it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap,” said Matthew Walker, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of these studies.

In the recent UC Berkeley sleep study, 39 healthy young adults were divided into two groups – nap and no-nap. At noon, all the participants were subjected to a rigorous learning task intended to tax the hippocampus, a region of the brain that helps store fact-based memories. Both groups performed at comparable levels.

At 2 p.m., the nap group took a 90-minute siesta while the no-nap group stayed awake. Later that day, at 6 p.m., participants performed a new round of learning exercises.

The researchers found that those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning but those who napped did markedly better and actually improved in their capacity to learn.

These findings reinforce the researchers” hypothesis that sleep is needed to clear the brain’s short-term memory storage and make room for new information, said Walker.

Boredom ‘can kill you’

August 24th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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To reach the conclusion, researchers at University College London looked at data from 7524 civil servants, aged between 35 and 55, interviewed between 1985 and 1988 about their levels of boredom.

They then found out whether they had died by April last year.

Those who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study, the researchers found.

Scientists said that this could be a result of those unhappy with their lives turning to such unhealthy habits as smoking or drinking, which would cut their life expectancy.

“The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom,” the Courier Mail quoted researcher Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report, as saying.

The study is to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology this week.

New discovery may help reduce obesity complications

August 22nd, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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According to Dr Suneil Koliwad, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, when individuals become obese from overeating, cells called adipocytes located in the fat tissue
fill up with dietary fats and begin to die. Immune cells called macrophages move out of the blood stream and into this tissue, where they accumulate around dying adipocytes.

As the macrophages work to clear away the dead cells, they are exposed to large amounts of dietary fat that can result in unwanted consequences.

Exposure to saturated fats, in particular, causes the macrophages to enter an inflammatory state. In this state, the macrophages secrete cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF) alpha, that encourage the development of insulin resistance, diabetes, and heart disease.

They hope that enhancing the capacity of macrophages to store dietary fats might alter this. The researchers focused their study on an enzyme called DGAT1, which makes triglycerides from dietary fats for storage as cellular energy reserves.

They examined a transgenic strain of mice (aP2-Dgat1) that make large amounts of DGAT1 in both adipocytes and macrophages.

On a high-fat diet, these mice became obese, but the macrophages in their fat tissue did not undergo inflammatory activation, and the mice were protected from developing systemic inflammation, insulin resistance, and fatty livers, all problems that were profound in the control mice.

“We found in experimental mice that a single enzyme, DGAT1, in macrophages is involved in many of the problems associated with obesity,” said Koliwad.

“This is exciting because humans have this enzyme as well, providing the potential for a therapeutic target to examine,” he added.

Freedom of choice causes depression

August 20th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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Researchers have carried out the study and found that while the ability to choose is generally a good thing too much freedom of choice is actually crippling people with indecision and making them unhappy.

According to the researchers, the problem is that when people have too much choice, they become obsessed about what your decision will say about you. And then when you have made the choice you worry that it is wrong. Choice can also foster selfishness and a lack of empathy because it can focus people on their own preferences and on themselves at the expense of what is good for society as a whole.

Lead author Prof Hazel Rose Markus of Stanford University says that we cannot assume that choice, as understood by educated, affluent Westerners, It is a universal aspiration, and that the provision of choice will necessarily foster freedom and well-being.

Even in contexts where choice can foster freedom, empowerment, and independence, it is not an unalloyed good. Choice can also produce a numbing uncertainty, depression, and selfishness.

In their study, the researchers looked at a body of research into the cultural ideas surrounding choice. They found that among non-Western cultures and among working class Westerners, freedom and choice are less important or mean something different than they do for educated people.

The enormous opportunity for growth and self- advancement that flows from unlimited freedom of choice may diminish rather than enhance subjective well-being. The findings are to be published in the upcoming issue of the ‘Journal of Consumer Research’.

Tips to stay healthy when you go abroad

August 18th, 2010 . Posted in Health | No Comments »
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*Carry a weighing scale along. Stand on it at least once a week to know how you are doing.

* Watch your drink. Avoid cheap and abundant sources of calories such as sweetened sodas, beverages and fruit juices. Ask for water, unsweetened beverages, coconut water, lemon

water, green tea, iced tea without sugar, soups and low-fat dairy. Also, limit alcohol intake to two drinks (for men) and one drink (43 ml) for women in a day.

* If you have a predisposition to gain weight, limit your intake of high-starch meals like bread, pasta, noodles, wraps, pizzas and burgers

* Include vegetables and fruits at least in two meals a day. Soups, salads or cooked vegetables are easy ways to make up for five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a

day. One serving is equivalent to half a cup.

* Snack healthy every three hours with fresh fruits, dry fruits, nuts, seeds, roasted gram, yoghurt, roasted whole grains and cheese.

* Don’t skip breakfast. If you are on the run, have milk/yoghurt/cheese with fresh fruits, muesli or nuts. On weekends, egg and toast (whole wheat or multi-grain) or whole grain

sandwiches are good options.

* Stock smart.Make sure you have most or some of these around in your room: fresh fruits, nuts, seeds, roasted snacks, roasted gram, peanuts, low-fat milk, yoghurt, tofu and

soups. If you have a cooking facility, stock vegetables and buy prepared sauces and dressings. Quick stir-fry or fruit-and-vegetable salads are great choices.

* Usually, there is considerable walking on campus. But engaging in active sports and participating in outdoor physical activities must be a priority.

* If you are studying till late night, snack on fruits, nuts, seeds or have a cup of hot chocolate.

* Critical nutrients for the 18-25 age group include calcium, iron, vitamin C and vitamin E. Take multi-vitamin supplements under supervision.

AIM:
5-8 servings of cereal a day (1 serving = 1 slice of bread/ 1 chapatti/ ½ cup rice, cooked cereal.)
2-3 servings of low-fat dairy (milk / curd/ paneer) a day. 1 serving = 200 ml of milk/ yogurt or 30 grams of paneer
2 servings of dal, lentils or pulses (1 serving = 1 small cup or 30 grams)
1-2 servings of egg/chicken/fish lean meat (1 serving= 100 grams or 1 egg)
5-9 servings of coloured fruits and vegetables (1 serving=1/2 cup)
Handful of nuts (1 serving=30 grams)

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