Chewing gum ‘helps reduce cravings for sweet snacks’

April 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 20 (ANI): Chewing Extra sugar-free gum may help control appetite, decrease calorie intake and reduce cravings for sweet snacks, a new study has found.

Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and Louisiana State University found that chewing Extra sugar-free gum significantly reduced intake of an afternoon snack by 40 calories.

They also found that chewing gum specifically reduced sweet snack intake by 60 calories.

During the study, researchers found that when participants chewed gum, hunger, desire to eat and sweet snack cravings were significantly suppressed between lunch and an afternoon snack as compared to when they did not chew gum.

When participants chewed gum, they researchers found that their energy levels were maintained between lunch and an afternoon snack, and were significantly less drowsy as compared to when they did not chew gum during this same timeframe.

Overall, this study has shown the role of chewing gum in helping to decrease calorie intake from an afternoon snack, controlling appetite and reducing snack cravings.

This study backs the role of chewing sugar-free gum as an easy, practical tool for helping to manage snack intake and reducing sweet snack cravings. (ANI)

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Beverage consumption plays key role in weight loss plan

April 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): Want to shed those extra pounds? Well, then focus more on what you drink than what you eat, suggest Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.

The researchers studied the relationship between beverage consumption among adults and weight change and found that weight loss was positively linked to a reduction in liquid calorie consumption and liquid calorie intake had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake.

“Both liquid and solid calories were associated with weight change, however, only a reduction in liquid calorie intake was shown to significantly affect weight loss during the 6-month follow up,” said Benjamin Caballero MD, PhD, senior author of the study and a professor with the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health.

“A reduction in liquid calorie intake was associated with a weight loss of 0.25 kg at 6 months and 0.24 kg at 18 months. Among sugar-sweetened beverages, a reduction of 1 serving was associated with a weight loss of 0.5 kg at 6 months and 0.7 kg at 18 months. Of the seven types of beverages examined, sugar-sweetened beverages were the only beverages significantly associated with weight change,” Caballero added.

The researchers carried out a prospective study of 810 adults aged 25-79 years old participating in the PREMIER trial, an 18-month randomized, controlled, behavioral intervention. Caballero along with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute; Duke University; the Pennington Biomedical Research Center; the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research; the University of Alabama; and Pennsylvania State University measured participant’s weight and height using a calibrated scale and a wall-mounted stadiometer at both 6 and 18 months.

Dietary intake was measured by conducting unannounced 24-hour dietary recall interviews by telephone.

Researchers divided beverages into several categories based on calorie content and nutritional composition. They found that at 37 percent sugar-sweetened beverages were the leading source of liquid calories.

The results are published in the April 1, 2009, issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (ANI)

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Heart-healthy, low-cal diets promote weight loss

February 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, Feb 26 (ANI): A new study has suggested that heart-healthy diets that reduce calorie intake – regardless of differing proportions of fat, protein, or carbohydrate – can help overweight and obese adults achieve and maintain weight loss.

During the study, researchers found similar weight loss after six months and two years among participants assigned to four diets that differed in their proportions of these three major nutrients.

The diets were low or high in total fat (20 or 40 percent of calories) with average or high protein (15 or 25 percent of calories). Carbohydrate content ranged from 35 to 65 percent of calories.

The diets all used the same calorie reduction goals and were heart-healthy-low in saturated fat and cholesterol while high in dietary fiber.

Researchers found that on average, participants lost 13 pounds at six months and maintained a 9-pound loss at two years.

They also found that participants reduced their waistlines by 1 to 3 inches by the end of the study. Craving, fullness, hunger, and diet satisfaction were all similar across the four diets.

“These results show that, as long as people follow a heart-healthy, reduced-calorie diet, there is more than one nutritional approach to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“This provides people who need to lose weight with the flexibility to choose an approach that they’re most likely to sustain-one that is most suited to their personal preferences and health needs,” she added.

Research was conducted in Boston at Harvard University School of Public Health and at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La

The study has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)

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