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Loneliness ‘can cause weight gain’

May 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): The world may have become a global village because of Internet and mobile phones, but many still deal with loneliness and emotional distress that may lead to overeating and serious weight gain.

Mary Jo Rapini, a psychotherapist with The Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston says that people look for comfort food when they feel lonely or depressed.

Some will begin to gain a lot of weight, begin to feel even more self conscious about their appearance, and fall into a deeper depression.

Rapini adds that it is important to express yourself, be it through talking to someone, by journaling, drawing self-portraits of how you are feeling or writing poetry or short stories about your situation. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: appearance, Comfort Food, depression, emotional distress, Global Village, loneliness, lot, Mobile Phones, overeating, psychotherapist, Rapini, Self Portraits, short stories, weight gain, weight management center, Writing Poetry

Easter eggs ‘can help the heart’

April 1, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Easter eggs and other chocolate may be good for the heart and lower blood pressure provided you eat a tiny amount each day and prefer dark rather than milk or white chocolate, new research suggests.

A study of more than 19,000 Germans showed those who ate an average of seven or more grams of chocolate per day had lower blood pressure and a lower risk of stroke and heart attack.

“To put it in terms of absolute risk, if people in the group eating the least amount of chocolate… increased their chocolate intake by six grams a day, 85 fewer heart attacks and strokes per 10,000 people could be expected to occur over a period of about 10 years,” said lead researcher Brian Buijsse of the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

The paper, published online in the European Heart Journal, says further work is needed to explain why chocolate appears to help the heart.

Previous research has suggested that the answer may lie in complex molecules called flavanols, which recruit the gas nitric oxide to the cells that line the inner walls of blood vessels. Nitric oxide causes smooth muscles to relax, which may lower blood pressure.

Flavanols are found in cocoa – and as there is more cocoa in dark chocolate, this could explain why milk chocolate or white chocolate were found to be less effective, the paper says.

Professor Peter Howe from the University of South Australia says the risk of heart attack and stroke was reduced by almost 40 per cent.

“The outcome is fairly convincing that even when people are consuming just regular chocolate, there is an overall benefit with slightly lower blood pressure and apparently less risk of cardiovascular disease,” he said.

The researchers were quick to warn that the study does not endorse the overeating of chocolate, which will result in serious health problems.

The experts warn anyone tempted to gorge on chocolate as a result of these findings.

A 100-gram slab of dark chocolate contains roughly 500 calories, so you would have to subtract this figure from your daily food intake – or do exercise to burn it up – to avoid weight gain.

“Small amounts of chocolate may help to prevent heart disease, but only if it replaces other energy-dense food, such as snacks, in order to keep body weight stable,” Mr Buijsse said.

- ABC/AFP

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How to stay fit in flu season

September 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 20 (ANI): As cold and flu season approaches, giving up junk food for more healthy options would help maintain a strong immune system.

Dr Ara DerMarderosian, professor of pharmacognosy for University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and an expert in nutraceuticals and natural foods, have provided guidance to change how you eat and break habits that pack on the pounds and compromise immunity.

? Don’t play “food police”

Be conscious of what and how much you eat, but don’t overdo self-monitoring to the point that a healthy lifestyle shifts from being a choice to becoming overwhelming, pushing other activities away and interfering with relationships.

? Pay attention to true hunger

Listen to your hunger signals and refrain from eating when you’re not hungry. Eating when your body doesn’t need food can cause you to overindulge.

? Eat slowly

Eat like a gourmet – enjoy each bite to have, chewing methodically, and truly enjoy the taste of your food. Eating slowly gives your body time to break down the food, which can prevent post-meal indigestion and feeling bloated.

? Focus on eating

Do not watch television, read or work while you eat. When you’re not focused on eating, it’s unlikely you’ll notice how much is going in your mouth.

? Avoid eating when stressed

Stress is a well-known cause of overeating and digestive issues, such as heartburn. A relaxing atmosphere, enjoyable company and conversation, and not feeling rushed for time makes for a healthy meal.

? Everything in moderation

Eating food is pleasurable, so enjoy a few morsels of candy, but limit the quantity. (ANI)

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Junk food recipes are engineered to trigger our ‘bliss point’

June 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, June 28 (ANI): Food scientists combine sugar, fat and salt in ways that make junk foods like burgers, chips, cold drinks and pizzas impossible to resist, says a leading expert who claims that cereals and ready meals can act on the brain’s reward centres in the same way as tobacco.

David Kessler, former head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), claims that manufacturers seek to trigger a “bliss point” when people eat certain products.

“It is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese. The real problem is we have created a world where food is always available and where that food is designed to make you want to eat more of it. For millions of people, modern food is simply impossible to resist,” The Times quoted him, as saying.

In his new book, The End of Overeating, David suggests food manufacturers use precise combinations of fat, sugar, salt and texture to make foods “hyper-palatable”.

To reach the conclusion, Kessler with researchers at Yale University conducted a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

About 50 percent of obese people and 30 percent of those who are overweight were prone to so-called “excessive activation”, the study found.

“The right combination of tastes triggers a greater number of neurons, getting them to fire more,” said Kessler.

“The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to look for even more food,” he added.

Kessler said: “Many of us have what’s called a ‘bliss point’ – the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt.

“As more sugar is added, food becomes more pleasurable until we reach the bliss point, after which it becomes too sweet and the pleasure drops off.” (ANI)

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Stress linked to higher obesity risk in teens

May 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 15 (ANI): Increased levels of stress in adolescents are associated with a greater likelihood of them being overweight or obese, a new Iowa State University study has found.

Researchers studied 1,011 adolescents (aged 10-15) and their mothers from low-income families living in three cities — oston, Chicago and San Antonio.

They found that 47 percent of the teens in the sample were overweight or obese, but that percentage increased to 56.2 percent among those who were impacted by four or more stressors.

“We found that an adolescent or youth who’s more stressed — caused by such things as having poor grades, mental health problems, more aggressive behaviour, or doing more drugs and alcohol — is also more likely to be overweight or obese,” said lead author Brenda Lohman, an Iowa State assistant professor of human development and family studies (HDFS).

The five factors researchers used to determine the individual stressor index for the adolescents were academic problems, consumption of drugs and alcohol, depression or poor mental health levels, acting out or aggressive behaviours and lack of future orientation.

The researchers said that the adolescents’ relationship with stress and becoming overweight may be a result of biological as well as behavioral responses to stress, such as overeating and lack of exercise.

“It could possibly be that the obesity is leading to these stressors too. And so the work that we’re doing right now looks at which one of these is really coming first: the stressors or the obesity. We know that it is cyclical and that all of these factors just compound on each other,” Lohman said.

The study also found that a mother’s stress, coupled with food insecurity in the household-a situation in which an individual cannot access enough food to sustain active, healthy living — contributes to a child’s chances of becoming overweight or obese.

The study has been published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health. (ANI)

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New pill that ‘trains people to eat less’ to hit UK shelves

May 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

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London, Apr 27 (ANI): Want to get rid of those extra pounds but cannot do away with that craving to gulp down your favourite food? Well, then it’s time to resort to Appesat-a new diet pill which ‘trains’ people to eat less./pp
Set to go on sale this week, Appesat, which is made from extracts of seaweed, works by expanding in the stomach and stimulating hunger sensors in the stomach wall./pp
The sensors then send a message to the brain saying the stomach is full.
The pill remains in the stomach for three or four hours, and continues to suppress appetite, before being fully digested by the body./pp
With time, the stimulation along with a lower calorie intake may help train people to want less food./pp
In a clinical trial on 139 overweight and obese people, researchers found that those taking three Appesat capsules, three times a day, lost an average of 9.4kg (20.7lb) in 12 weeks, as compared with 5.6kg (12.4lb) among people not taking the drug./pp
The participants in the trial were on a low-calorie and low-fat diet of 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,400 for men./pp
Costing 29.95 pounds for 50 capsules, Appesat, is taken with a glass of water before a meal, and is believed to have no worse side-effects than an upset stomach./pp
The pills are set to hit 1,000 Boots stores in the UK from April 27 and in Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Holland and Barrett from May./pp
According to the makers, Goldshield, Appesat works in a different way to other appetite suppressants on the market – such as fibre-based products – by staying longer in the stomach, helping people feel full up./pp
The natural-based product will be available on supermarket shelves./pp
An intervention product that can help people modify eating behaviour over time will offer serial dieters a real opportunity to break the cycle of overeating and yo-yo dieting, The Telegraph quoted David Towse, marketing manager of strategic brands at Goldshield, as saying.(ANI)/p

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: appetite suppressants, calorie intake, clinical trial, dieters, Extracts, favourite food, glass of water, holland and barrett, low fat diet, marketing manager, new diet pill, overeating, overweight, Overweight People, Sainsbury, Seaweed, stomach wall, supermarket shelves, towse, upset stomach, Yo-yo

Study confirms overeating and obesity’s link with genetics

January 12, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

London, Jan 12 (ANI): A team of British scientists has uncovered further evidence to show that overeating could be genetic.

In a study, researchers examined 131 kids aged four and five who were offered a plate of biscuits right after eating a meal.

They found that kids who kept eating biscuits were more likely to have versions of a gene, which has been linked to eating when full, and being overweight.

“Previous research has shown the FTO gene is linked to larger body size,” the Scotsman quoted Professor Jane Wardle, director of the charity Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London, as saying.

“We believe this (new] research tells us more about how some children are more responsive to signals in their bodies encouraging them to eat when full than others.

“Knowing how the genes work is the first step to minimising these negative effects.

“This study showed some children don’t know when to stop, which could lead to the onset of obesity and a lifetime of health problems,” Wardle added.

The new study failed to find any association between the FTO gene and children’s willingness to take exercise. (ANI)

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