Tag Archives: study

Diet food could increase weight gain

If we’re starting a diet, the first thing we think about heading for is the low calorie, low fat food options in the supermarket.

But, according to new research doing this is, in fact, could lead us to actually put on more weight.

Researchers at America’s Purdue University have found that a person’s body prepares itself to receive a large number of calories even when it tastes a diet version of a food. So when it only gets a low calorie hit, it confuses the body and actually makes you eat more.

Susan Swithers, professor of pschological science at the university, says: “Substituting a part of the diet with a similar tasting item that has fewer calories sounds like a common sense approach to lose weight, but there are other psychological functions at work.

“Tastes normally alert the body to expect calories.

“When those calories aren’t present, we believe the systems become confused and one of the body’s mechanisms to control food inake can become ineffective.”

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A cure for the craving of chocolate?

If you’re anything like me, when you’re craving chocolate you usually just give in to the temptation. Then feel guilty afterwards for eating it. Especially if it’s late at night, or early in the morning.

But new research suggests that there may be something we can do to stop this craving.

A brisk walk could be the answer to our diet problems and cravings.

Experts found that volunteers who left work for a 15-minute stroll ate fewer Malteasers or chocolate buttons than those who sat quietly.

The results, published in the journal Appetite, suggest brief bursts of exercise through the day could help to curb workplace snacking.

Researchers at the ­University of Exeter told the Daily Mirror: “Passive participants ate almost twice as much chocolate as those who exercised.

“This study suggests that a brief bout of physical activity can reduce ‘ad lib’ eating of chocolate in regular eaters.”

So, if you’re reading this at your desk considering a snack on something sweet, pick yourself up and go for a walk. It may do wonders for your diet.

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Pomegranate, the elixir or youth

Pomegranates have been hailed as superfoods for years, promising to prevent heart disease, relieve stress and has even been shown to improve your sex life.

If there wasn’t enough plus points, it’s now been found to be the elixir of youth.

A recent £2 million study, funded by Pomegreat PurePlus, has discovered that a daily dose of pomegranate could slow down the ageing process of DNA.

Researchers at the ProbelteBio laboratory in Murcia, Spain, gave an extract of the whole fruit – including pith, peel and seeds – to 60 volunteers everyday for a month in the form of a capsule.

They monitored the activity of chemicals in their bodies compared with those who took a placebo.

They found a significant decrease in a marker associated with cell damage, which caused impaired brain, muscle, liver and kidney function as well as ageing effects on the skin.

Dr Sergio Streitenberger, who led the study, says: “We are very excited about this study which we believe demonstrates that regular consumption of this pomegranate extract can slow down the process of DNA oxidation.

“One way to look at ageing is to think of it as rusting, or oxidising, a damaging process. Being able to gaurd against this process would be a significant breakthrough.”

A study in Edinburgh recently revealed that drinking pomegranate juice reduces stress in the workplace.

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Drinking cherry juice improves sleep

Drinking cherry juice can help you sleep an extra 25 minutes a night, a new study has found.

Researchers from the School of Life Sciences at Northumbria University have found that Montmorency cherry juice significantly increases the levels of melatonin in the body, the hormone which regulates sleep.

In the study, led by Dr Glyn Howatson, 20 healthy volunteers drank a 30ml serving of either tart cherry juice or a placebo juice twice a day for seven days.

The results show cherry juice can be a natural aid to those who have difficulty sleeping because of insomnia, shift work or jet lag, said study leader Dr Glyn Howatson.

‘Although melatonin is available over the counter in other countries, it is not freely available in the UK. What makes these findings exciting is that the melatonin contained in tart cherry juice is sufficient to elicit a healthy sleep response,’ added co-author Dr Jason Ellis.

‘What’s more, these results provide us with more evidence surrounding the relationship between how we sleep and what we consume.’

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Vitamins and supplements apparently do more harm than good

After being told for years that the best thing we can do for our health – in an instant – is to take a vitamin or food supplement, they pull the rug from under us and inform us that they could actually be doing more harm than good.

New research has resulted in scientists advising that there is little evidence to suggest that the pills do any good and that some may actually be causing serious harm. I bet that makes you feel great when you think about the amount you’ve taken over the years?

But here comes the worst of it, the study of 39,000 people has found multivitamins, vitamin B, folic acid, iron, magnesium and copper all increased the statistical risk of premature death.

Yes, they may only be small percentages but they’re still an increased risk.

The scientists have yet to discover why they increase the risk of premature death, but they may interfere with the body’s natural defences.

Jaakko Mursu, from the University of Eastern Finland, said: ‘Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements.

‘We recommend that they be used with strong medically-based cause, such as symptomatic nutrient deficiency disease.’

Other experts have claimed that most of the people were most likely taking the supplements for underlying health problems so were more likely to die early anyway.

This news certainly won’t be useful to the £675 million – a year –  industry of health supplements. Will this news deter you from taking them? If not, why not?

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Green tea found to slow down weight gain

Some good news in the health department, finally. We’re always being told what not to eat, what not to drink and how much exercise we should be part-taking in. Sometimes, we just want to eat bad things, drink even worse things and sit on the couch. It’s comfortable isn’t it?

Thanks to science and one of the hundreds of studies that they carry out on a day-to-day basis, we have the following news.

Drinking green tea can slow down weight gain – even if you’re already fat too.

The study found that a compound within in the drink - epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) - significantly slows down weight gain associated with a high-fat diet.

The research was conducted using a group of obese mice who were on a fatty diet. One of the control groups were fed the EGCG and they were found to gain weight 45 per cent more slowly than the mice that weren’t.

The mice fed the supplement also appeared to absorb 30 per cent less fat.

‘There seem to be two prongs to this,’ said Dr Joshua Lambert, a food scientist at Penn State University in the U.S.

‘First, EGCG reduces the ability to absorb fat and, second, it enhances the ability to use fat.’

The study found that the green tea was not suppressing the appetite, as both groups of mice were being fed the exact same diet.

However, for people to receive the same amount of EGCG they would have to drink ten cups of green tea a day.

I might give this a try, I think after drinking ten cups of green tea, there would be little time left to eat after spending all day running the loo.

 

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