Weight Loss Max

Good news for the more than 8 million Americans who’ve suffered a heart attack and have been put on a strict American Heart Association low-fat diet.

You can go Mediterranean.

A new study presented at the American College of Cardiology conference on Sunday found that a Mediterranean-style diet high in olive oil and other “healthy” fats is just as good as the classic, but bland, American Heart Association low-fat diet.

People on either diet had one-third the risk of suffering another heart attack, a stroke, death or other heart problem compared with heart patients eating in the usual way.

“Both diets are prudent choices for people at high risk of heart disease,” said Dr. Katherine Tuttle of Providence Medical Research Center and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. She led the study and presented the results at the conference.

Both the Heart Association and the Mediterranean diet are low in saturated fat, less than 7 percent of total calories, and low in cholesterol, less than 200 milligrams a day. “The typical American’s diet contains twice those levels or more,” Tuttle said.

In the study, those on the American Heart diet were told to keep total fat intake to less than 30 percent of calories. The Mediterranean dieters were allowed to go up to 40 percent, with the extra coming from healthier monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and foods like olive oil, avocados and especially fish, which was recommended 3 to 5 times a week.

“A comparison group got the usual advice in the hospital — that was it,” Tuttle said.

All were prescribed standard heart care drugs like aspirin, beta blockers and statins to lower cholesterol. Deaths, second heart attacks, strokes and heart-related hospitalizations were tracked.

After four years, 83 percent of those on the low-fat or Mediterranean diets had survived without such problems; only 53 percent of the others did. Cholesterol levels improved in both diet groups but not the comparison group.

Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic heart specialist and president of the College of Cardiology who had no role in the study, said the study gave an important choice to people who want to reduce their risk.

Originally Posted Here

Scientists in the Netherlands are developing a new generation of foods that can help prevent obesity by making people eat less, a research institute said on Thursday.

The Top Institute Food and Nutrition (TIFN), funded by the Dutch government and food groups like CSM Anglo-Dutch Unilever, is also developing food ingredients which can stop an obese person from developing diabetes.

“We are working on certain food ingredients, which provoke more satiety than others do on the long run, so that our partners can use them in food manufacturing,” said Professor Robert-Jan Brummer, program director at TIFN.

“These products should trigger satiety and stop us eating more and more. They should also meet our dietary requirements, have a very good taste and be enjoyable to eat,” he told Reuters.

Brummer declined to give details, saying it was a commercial secret, but added these nutrients could eventually be used in any kind of food from drinks to spreads and bread.

Several other research centers in the world are working to develop nutrients that could prevent obesity but Brummer said that none of them, including his own, had achieved big breakthroughs so far.

“My feeling is that we will see a breakthrough in the next five years or so,” he added.

Obesity is on the rise in many countries, including the United States, where 60 percent of the population is overweight or obese, Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

It is clearly a matter of people eating more calories than they burn off, but experts argue over whether diet or exercise is more important.

The Dutch public health agency concluded in a research report last ear that poor diet was as deleterious to health as smoking. It said 25 percent of deaths and serious illness caused by overweight and obesity would be avoided if adults shed 3 kg.

Brummer said his institute was developing food ingredients that can raise insulin sensitivity and prevent an obese person from developing diabetes, as well as looking for novel dietary ingredients, which can lower high blood pressure.

The TIFN has invented ingredients that can keep bread crust crispy for longer and a technology that lowers the total fat content in foods without compromising the taste.

Brummer said his institute was one of the first in the world to prove that folic acid vitamins can improve brain function and hearing in elderly people.

The European food industry, faced with increasing demand for healthier foods and competition from lower cost regions, is investing more in R&D to meet the challenge.

“Twenty years ago, the industry was only interested to sell as much as possible. That has changed, the industry now feels responsibility to respond to the health situation,” Brummer said.

“On the other hand, such innovative products have higher margins than those of selling a tomato or a bottle of milk.”

Originally posted here

A compound in blueberries may be good for preventing bowel cancer, US scientists believe.
The key ingredient, pterostilbene, is a natural antioxidant and mops up highly reactive molecules called free radicals that can trigger cancer growth.

Similar antioxidants have already been identified in grapes and red wine, the American Chemical Society heard.

Other work, also in mice, suggests pterostilbene may be good for lowering blood cholesterol too.

Berry good

The researchers, from Rutgers University and the US Department of Agriculture, suggest the compound could be put into a pill.

Lead author Dr Bandaru Reddy said that, in the meantime, their work showed the need to include more berries in the diet, “especially blueberries.”

Rats given a cancer-causing agent but then fed pterostilbene had far fewer pre-cancers in their bowels than other rats.

The blueberry compound also reduced inflammation and the rate of cell division in the bowel, which are both considered to be cancer risk factors.

Although experts do not know the exact causes of colon cancer, the disease has been linked to a high intake of saturated fats and calories.

Dr Reddy and colleagues believe pterostilbene may be able to reverse this process, possibly by lowering fat levels like cholesterol.

Experts already recommend eating plenty of fruit and vegetables - at least five portions a day - to guard against cancer and other diseases.

Pterostilbene is also found in cranberries, sparkleberries, lingonberries and grapes.

Ed Yong of Cancer Research UK said: “While pterostilbene could lower the risk of bowel cancers in rats, it is unclear if it will produce the same benefits in humans.

“More research will help to determine whether this chemical could have a role in the fight against cancer.”

“For the moment, the best advice is to eat a healthy, balanced diet rather than rely on specific ’superfoods,’” he added.

Childhood obesity may lead to earlier onset of puberty for girls, a U.S. study concludes.

The study of 354 girls from 10 different regions in the United States found that increased body fat in girls as young as age 3 and large increases in body fat between the age of 3 and the start of first grade were associated with earlier puberty, defined as the presence of breast development by age 9.

“Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls,” study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement.

Her team published the findings in the March issue of Pediatrics.

Lee noted that girls in the United States are entering puberty at younger ages than they were 30 years ago. Over that same time, there’s been a significant increase in obesity rates among American children.

“Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have higher body mass index (BMI), but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty. Our study offers evidence that it is the latter,” said Lee, who is also assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the U-M Medical School.

“Beyond identifying how obesity causes early puberty, it’s also important to determine whether weight control interventions at an early age have the potential to slow the progression of puberty,” she noted.

Originally Posted Here

People who use garlic supplements to lower cholesterol may endure stinky breath for nothing, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers.

Garlic has long been thought to possess cholesterol-lowering properties, and many Americans take garlic supplements in hopes of improving their health.

They’re wasting their money, says Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and a senior author of the study.

‘It works in a test tube, on cells. In rats, it works. In humans, nothing,’ Gardner said. ‘We are very disappointed with the results, but it was an excellently done study.’

Some previous studies in people have shown that garlic can slightly reduce cholesterol levels, but the majority of them were sponsored by supplement makers. Other studies were conducted using poor methodology, making their conclusions suspect, Gardner said.

The Stanford researchers say their study is the first independent, long-term study to examine whether both raw garlic and garlic supplements can reduce cholesterol in people with moderately high cholesterol levels. The study is published in today’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Too much cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease, and patients are encouraged to lower their levels through diet, exercise and medication. The 192 participants in the study had levels high enough to merit lowering them with diet or exercise, but not enough to require cholesterol-lowering prescription medication.

The researchers gave the subjects either raw garlic, garlic supplements or a placebo six days a week for six months. Stanford staff added raw garlic to sandwiches, making more than 30,000 for the study. The participants ate the equivalent of a clove of garlic each day, a bit more than a standard garlic supplement pill.

Everyone was monitored to make sure they didn’t gain or lose weight, which can affect cholesterol levels, and Gardner said the subjects didn’t significantly change their exercise or diet habits. In monthly checks, researchers found that the participants’ levels of LDL cholesterol, or ‘bad cholesterol,’ remained nearly constant throughout the study.

Garlic may have other disease-fighting properties that should be studied further, but lowering cholesterol isn’t one of them, Gardner said.

Still, there were some study participants who simply didn’t believe the results, he said. ‘They were such zealots. They were going to keep taking it,’ he said. ‘Garlic has such a strong following.’

Story Original Posted Here

For millions of Americans, losing weight is a constant struggle, but local nutrition expert claims it may have less to do with what you’re eating, and more to do with what you’re thinking.

Shortly after the birth of her second child, Ange Eaton weighed nearly 230 pounds. “I was overweight,” said Eaton.

She tried to lose the weight by dieting.

“We’ve all been on a ‘diet’ where you have a set amount of food you’re supposed to eat and then you waver a little bit, you cheat a little bit, and suddenly, I blew my diet. I failed,” said Eaton.

“The weight loss effort dies an untimely death,” said Gary Avignon, a psychotherapist in Austin. He says it’s one of several “psychological traps” that can “sabotage weight control.” Those “traps” are the focus of his new book, Psyche your Weight.

Psychological Trap #1: You think that you want weight loss

“Most people focus on weight and weight loss like it’s the highest good, but what people really want is to achieve a desired weight, which certainly involves weight loss, but they also want to sustain it for life with a relative degree of ease — while they live and participate in the real world,” said Avignon.

Psychological Trap #2: You think that weight control is simple and should be easy

“In the subconscious mind, most people who are overweight, they think it should be simple and easy because they’ve been told it should be simple and easy, ‘Just have some will power, just push yourself away from the table, this is not that complicated, just buck it up. You can do this,’”

Psychological Trap #3: You have unrealistic weight loss expectations

“All you have to do is stand in the checkout line in the grocery store and look at the magazines and you see — 14 pounds in two weeks and you see nine pounds every 11 days, lose five pounds by tomorrow. You have to take 3,500 calories less than you need to lose one pound of fat, so losing 5 pounds in a week is not possible week in and week out,” said Avignon. “When we don’t meet these realistic expectations, then we feel like we’re not doing something right, the diet’s not working, and what happens when we feel like the diet’s not working and we’re a failure — we quit,” said Avignon.

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