Food Variety, Calorie Intake, and Weight Gain

Let's kick off this post with a quote from a 2001 review paper (1):

Increased variety in the food supply may contribute to the development and maintenance of obesity.  Thirty-nine studies examining dietary variety, energy intake, and body composition are reviewed. Animal and human studies show that food consumption increases when there is more variety in a meal or diet and that greater dietary variety is associated with increased body weight and fat.

This may seem counterintuitive, since variety in the diet is generally seen as a good thing.  In some ways, it is a good thing, however in this post we'll see that it can have a downside.
Read more »

9 Tips for a Longer Life that You Shouldn’t Be Following

Extend Your Life
"Stop drinking coffee and alcohol." "Take an aspirin daily." How many times have you heard that advice for adding years to your life? Turns out, lots of long-held wisdom just isn't true.
 Read on to see which suggestions you should ignore and what actually ups longevity. Photo by Getty Images.

1. Lay off the java.
You've probably read that multiple cups of coffee a day can be bad for you (jitter city), but research published in the New England Journal of Medicine may prove the opposite. Male and female participants who had two or three cups a day and didn't smoke were 10% and 13% less likely, respectively, to have died during the 14-year-long study than those who never or rarely drank coffee.
 Men and women who drank a single daily cup were 6% and 5% less likely, respectively, to pass away. According to the researchers, more cups mean a lower risk of stroke, diabetes and heart and respiratory disease. But watch the cream and sugar-extra fat and calories could negate any longevity benefits. 

2. Get eight hours of sleep every night.
While research suggests snoozing fewer than six or more than nine hours a night raises your mortality risk, "everyone has different sleep needs," says Shelby Harris, PsyD, director of the behavioral sleep medicine program at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, NY. So if you wake naturally after only, say, six-and-a-half hours a night, forcing yourself to reach eight hours won't lengthen your life. To learn how much sleep you need, try awakening without an alarm for a week, if you can swing it. If you feel good and have enough energy most of the day, you've found your ideal amount of rest.

3. Lower your body mass index (BMI).
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, weighing a little more can lengthen your life span. Adults with a BMI that qualified them as overweight but not obese (that's between 25 and 29.9) were 6% less likely than all others in their age groups to die. While BMI isn't always an accurate measurement of a person's health risks, registered dietitian Jen Brewer, author of Stop Dieting and Start Losing Weight, says if the extra weight comes from muscle mass, you're more likely to have lower cholesterol levels and a better ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) to LDL (bad cholesterol). It may also lower your risk for life-threatening heart disease, stroke and diabetes. And that's good for staying alive.

4. Don't worry, be happy.
Actually, being a glass-half-empty kind of person may keep you kicking longer. In a study published in Psychology and Aging, 65- to 96-year-olds who thought life would get worse outlived those who anticipated better days ahead. "Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," says lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. "Pessimism about the future may encourage people to take health and safety precautions."

5. Take a daily aspirin.
Popping that pill can help you live longer by preventing heart attacks, strokes and even cancer-right? "If you're a healthy, 45-year-old female, it may not make a difference," says Nieca Goldberg, MD, medical director of the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women's Health at New York University's Langone Medical Center in New York City. In fact, taking a daily aspirin can lead to bleeding, allergies and upset stomach. Ask your doctor if you can skip the pill, suggests Dr. Goldberg. 

6. Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
Once believed to be the amount everyone needs for proper hydration, a longevity essential, a 2002 study from Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, NH, debunked the 8X8 rule. As Dr. Goldberg explains, "there's no magic number of glasses," emphasizing it's more about getting fluids, not necessarily from straight-up H20. Herbal tea and juices are hydration helpers (though soda isn't), but fruits and vegetables (like celery and leafy greens) are an even healthier way to get your liquids.

7. Milk does the body good.
You're taught that drinking it by the glassful keeps bones healthy and prevents fatal injuries. Yet a 12-year-long Harvard study found that women who drink milk three times a day break more bones than women who drink less than one glass of milk per week. While lowfat dairy may agree with you, calcium is what's key for strong bones. You can get it from leafy greens, beans, vitamin D (sunshine!) and even lifting weights.

8. Cut out booze.
A daily glass of wine not only can help your heart but also add years to your life. University of Texas at Austin researchers found that moderate drinking, such as a small glass of wine (about four ounces) a day, reduces mortality among older and middle-aged adults. Dr. Goldberg says it's because heart disease is the leading killer of women, and wine is chockfull of antioxidants, which prevent serious sickness. So fill 'er up-without overflowing that glass. 

9. Take a multivitamin.
Even though half of all adults pop one, the 2011 Iowa Women's Health Study found that women taking multivitamins don't live longer than those who get their nutrients from food alone. Only calcium supplements are linked to a lower death risk, with 37% of users dying compared to 43% of nonusers in the study. Researchers' conclusion: Get the vitamins and minerals from fruit and vegetables, not capsules.

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... ice cream!!

Read more »

Book Review: Salt, Sugar, Fat

Michael Moss is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who has made a career writing about the US food system.  In his latest book, Salt, Sugar, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, he attempts to explain how the processed food industry has been so successful at increasing its control over US "stomach share".  Although the book doesn't focus on the obesity epidemic, the relevance is obvious.  Salt, Sugar, Fat is required reading for anyone who wants to understand why obesity is becoming more common in the US and throughout the world.

Read more »

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... energy bars!

Read more »

Train your Brain (Brain Health)

Train your Brain to makes it healthier

Our brain, always present, always listening, always learning, and obeying each of our orders, solving all our problems, attending all our emotions and desires, remembering our joys and sorrows, our brain is our best friend. However, environmental conditions such as depression, increased stress, drug and substance abuse, neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, learning disabilities and Alzheimer’s, as well as development processes such as aging, can affect the brain's ability to meet, reason, learn or remember.

 Despite our technological advances and increased educational levels, are increasingly observed in all age cognitive impairment or decline in levels of cognitive function, and the latter may be the result of not only the neurological or development, but also of drug intake and drug abuse, obesity and lack of exercise. Because cognitive impairment affects the performance of daily tasks, including productivity at school, at home, and at work, researchers are trying to maintain or improve cognitive function, using enrichment techniques to enhance the experience of learning. To carry out this task, they rely on the abundant scientific evidence showing brain plasticity and cognitive neural level. A form of enrichment is cognitive training or, as sometimes called, brain training. Brain training, systematic training of cognitive ability, aims at conservation, improvement or development of cognitive abilities such as memory, executive control or coordination, in the same way that physical training develops muscle strength or flexibility. Depending on the circumstances, brain training can be applied in isolation or in combination with medications.

The literature on cognitive training recommends that to be most effective, training must be provided with a scientifically sound theoretical basis. Thus, the training process should be solidly grounded in scientific theory of human cognitive development throughout life. For example, a brain training program aimed at older people should consider the theory of processing speed, which provides a general perception and a decrease in processing speed with age, and executive control theory, which establishes a decline in fluency skills such as attention, inhibition, multiple tasks and working memory.

A second requirement for the researchers is that a cognitive training program should always present a personalized approach to learning, so as to take into account the ability of each person to adapt to the training system. Studies based on a training system show that when operating in training adaptive feedback mechanism, cognitive function can be improved significantly. Research indicates that to improve performance and maximize learning through training, feedback should be appropriate for the student, as well as easily applicable to the practice of task.

The main goal of cognitive training is to allow greater ease in performing real-world tasks, such as driving, managing personal finances, taking medications to control or maintain the capacity for social interaction. Because a large number of cognitive processes operate together when performing daily tasks, researchers have posted a third condition, namely, the design of a multi-domain cognitive training to enhance those activities that integrate several cognitive processes (for example, processing speed or memory).

When these three important requirements are conducted with rigor in the development of scientifically validated brain training, a wide range of diverse people were helped greatly. This training program improved cognitive ability in healthy elderly. Improved memory, attention and processing speed in people with Multiple Sclerosis. Improve understanding and reading speed in people with reading difficulties (dyslexia) and improved gait and mobility in people at risk of falls.

The science of brain training is an exciting journey of discovery that leads to intense debate. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated technology and improved interdisciplinary knowledge, we explore what are the best conditions and circumstances to preserve our mental health. In this way we observe the training related to brain activity at the cellular level and macro-cell. We study neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells) after cognitive training. We discover how neural mechanisms of compensation occur after the formation of the brain (brain regions that have not been damaged learn to carry out the functions supported by brain regions with a deficiency), and this knowledge will be increasing. Today we know that cognitive training increases cognitive reserve capacity and together the accumulated knowledge and experience of an active brain is a powerful protective factor against cognitive decline. In future we will expand this knowledge and be able to introduce in areas of the brain and neurological diseases increasingly concrete.

However, future research on brain training will also address other important issues for humanity. For example, we will investigate whether the human brain can be trained, as well as to preserve and promote cognitive function, for emotional and social resilience. Likewise, we must ask whether the brain can be trained to distinguish between good and evil, peace and violence, justice and injustice. Or if the brain can be trained to like or not to be agree or disagree. The debates in education, philosophy and ethics flourish as the study of the brain go entering the school system and the only goal is no longer optimal mental health and intellectual, but also the assimilation of moral and social values.

Morning smoke more harmful than other times of day: Study

The sooner a person smokes a cigarette upon waking in the morning, the more likely he or she is to acquire lung or oral cancer, according to Penn State researchers.

Levels of a tobacco-specific carcinogen were highest among people who smoked the soonest upon waking “regardless of the frequency of smoking,” study author Steven Branstetter said.

The assistant professor of biobehavioural health at Penn State said the reason may be that people who smoke sooner after waking “inhale more deeply and more thoroughly,” he said.

That could explain the higher levels of NNAL — a metabolite of the carcinogen NNK —in their blood, as well as their higher risk of developing oral or lung cancer, he said.

As a result, the timing of that first cigarette “might be an important factor in the identification of high-risk smokers and in the development of interventions targeted toward early-morning smokers.”
Branstetter and his colleague Joshua Muscat, professor of public health sciences, examined data on 1,945 smoking adult participants.

Participants provided urine samples for analysis as well as information about their smoking behaviour, including how soon they typically smoked after waking.

The researchers found that around 32 per cent of the participants they examined smoked their first cigarette of the day within five minutes of waking; 31 per cent smoked within 6 to 30 minutes of waking; 18 per cent smoked within 31 to 60 minutes of waking; and 19 per cent smoked more than one hour after waking.

Dr. Oz's Top 5 Weight-Loss Tips

If you're a fan of the Dr. Oz Show like I am, you'll know that Dr. Oz has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight. From covering the HCG diet to concocting delicious smoothies to showcasing the latest workout trends, The Dr. Oz Show almost always teaches you something new. One of the best parts of the show though is Dr. Oz's weight-loss advice. We recently scoured a list of his top weight-loss tips to find the 10 tips that you can incorporate into your routine starting now!

1. Never eat out of the box or carton. Sure, buying in bulk saves money, but it doesn't do anything for your waistline when your portions get out of whack with the enormous packaging. Instead of eating straight out of the box, pre-portion your snacks into small individual baggies. They're perfect portion control for on the go!

2. Get frisky. Skip dessert and instead have a roll in the hay with your honey. Healthy sex may also help control the amount of food you eat — and it's great exercise, Dr. Oz says.

3. Spice it up. Be sure to stock some red pepper flakes to your pantry. When eaten early in the day, Dr. Oz says that red pepper can reduce the amount of food you consumer later.

4. Become a weekend warrior. Many of us hit the gym and eat right during the week but cut loose on the weekends by indulging in fried foods and trading in workouts for sleep. Be healthy seven days a week by planning your weekend ahead of time. Think about what healthy foods you'll eat and plan your workouts, Dr. Oz says. Also schedule some relaxation time!

5. Have a puree party. Who said healthy foods have to be boring? Puree peaches, pears and berries and spread them on wheat pita for a healthy and delish treat that's perfect for spring and summer!

3 Fat-Burning Preworkout Snacks

Head to the kitchen before you go to the gym. By noshing on one of these snacks or meals before your sweat sesh, you can turn your body into a fat-burning machine! SHAPE editor-at-large, Bahar Takhtehchian, explains which foods will do the trick and why.

Glucagon, Dietary Protein, and Low-Carbohydrate Diets

Glucagon is a hormone that plays an important role in blood glucose control.  Like insulin, it's secreted by the pancreas, though it's secreted by a different cell population than insulin (alpha vs. beta cells).  In some ways, glucagon opposes insulin.  However, the role of glucagon in metabolism is frequently misunderstood in diet-health circles.

The liver normally stores glucose in the form of glycogen and releases it into the bloodstream as needed.  It can also manufacture glucose from glycerol, lactate, and certain amino acids.  Glucagon's main job is to keep blood glucose from dipping too low by making sure the liver releases enough glucose.  There are a few situations where this is particularly important:

Read more »

Are Animal Crackers Paleo?

Warning -- Satire -- April Fool's Post

Every child loves animal crackers, those sweet and crunchy animal-shaped biscuits.  But are they compatible with a Paleo diet?  Some people might think they already know the answer, but consider this: our ancestors evolved on the African savanna, eating the plants and animals found there.  Inside each box of animal crackers is an assortment of tiny savanna creatures such as giraffes and elephants.

To get to the bottom of this, I interviewed Robert Pearson, CEO of Animal Cracker Products Inc., who explained to me how these crackers are made.

Read more »