Risk Factors For Heart Disease Increased By Fructose Consumption

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that adults who consumed high fructose corn syrup for two weeks as 25 percent of their daily calorie requirement had increased blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, which have been shown to be indicators of increased risk for heart disease.

The American Heart Association recommends that people consume only five percent of calories as added sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 suggest an upper limit of 25 percent or less of daily calories consumed as added sugar. To address this discrepancy in recommended consumption levels, researchers examined what happened when young overweight and normal weight adults consumed fructose, high fructose corn syrup or glucose at the 25 percent upper limit.

"While there is evidence that people who consume sugar are more likely to have heart disease or diabetes, it is controversial as to whether high sugar diets may actually promote these diseases, and dietary guidelines are conflicting," said the study's senior author, Kimber Stanhope, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. "Our findings demonstrate that several factors associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease were increased in individuals consuming 25 percent of their calories as fructose or high fructose corn syrup, but consumption of glucose did not have this effect."

In this study, researchers examined 48 adults between the ages of 18 and 40 years and compared the effects of consuming 25 percent of one's daily calorie requirement as glucose, fructose or high fructose corn syrup on risk factors for cardiovascular disease. They found that within two weeks, study participants consuming fructose or high fructose corn syrup, but not glucose, exhibited increased concentrations of LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and apolipoprotein-B (a protein which can lead to plaques that cause vascular disease).

"These results suggest that consumption of sugar may promote heart disease," said Stanhope. "Additionally our findings provide evidence that the upper limit of 25 percent of daily calories consumed as added sugar as suggested by The Dietary Guidelines for American 2010 may need to be re-evaluated."

Notes:

Also working on the study were: Andrew Bremer, Guoxia Chen, Tak Hou Fong, Vivien Lee, Roseanne Menorca, Valentia Medici, Peter Havel and Nancy Keim of the University of California, Davis; Katsuyuki Nakajima and Takamitsu Nakano of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. in Tokyo, Japan; and Yasuki Ito of Denka Seiken Co. in Tokyo, Japan.

The article, "Consumption of fructose and high fructose corn syrup increase postprandial triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol, and apolipoprotein-B in young men and women," appears in the October 2011 issue of JCEM.

Source:
Aaron Lohr
The Endocrine Society

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/231939.php

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Fructose Consumption Increases Risk Factors for Heart Disease: Study Suggests US Dietary Guideline for Upper Limit of Sugar Consumption Is Too High

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that adults who consumed high fructose corn syrup for two weeks as 25 percent of their daily calorie requirement had increased blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, which have been shown to be indicators of increased risk for heart disease.

The American Heart Association recommends that people consume only five percent of calories as added sugar. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 suggest an upper limit of 25 percent or less of daily calories consumed as added sugar. To address this discrepancy in recommended consumption levels, researchers examined what happened when young overweight and normal weight adults consumed fructose, high fructose corn syrup or glucose at the 25 percent upper limit.

"While there is evidence that people who consume sugar are more likely to have heart disease or diabetes, it is controversial as to whether high sugar diets may actually promote these diseases, and dietary guidelines are conflicting," said the study's senior author, Kimber Stanhope, PhD, of the University of California, Davis. "Our findings demonstrate that several factors associated with an elevated risk for cardiovascular disease were increased in individuals consuming 25 percent of their calories as fructose or high fructose corn syrup, but consumption of glucose did not have this effect."
In this study, researchers examined 48 adults between the ages of 18 and 40 years and compared the effects of consuming 25 percent of one's daily calorie requirement as glucose, fructose or high fructose corn syrup on risk factors for cardiovascular disease. They found that within two weeks, study participants consuming fructose or high fructose corn syrup, but not glucose, exhibited increased concentrations of LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and apolipoprotein-B (a protein which can lead to plaques that cause vascular disease).

"These results suggest that consumption of sugar may promote heart disease," said Stanhope. "Additionally our findings provide evidence that the upper limit of 25 percent of daily calories consumed as added sugar as suggested by The Dietary Guidelines for American 2010 may need to be re-evaluated."

Also working on the study were: Andrew Bremer, Guoxia Chen, Tak Hou Fong, Vivien Lee, Roseanne Menorca, Valentia Medici, Peter Havel and Nancy Keim of the University of California, Davis; Katsuyuki Nakajima and Takamitsu Nakano of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. in Tokyo, Japan; and Yasuki Ito of Denka Seiken Co. in Tokyo, Japan.

The article, "Consumption of fructose and high fructose corn syrup increase postprandial triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol, and apolipoprotein-B in young men and women," appears in the October 2011 issue of JCEM.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110728082558.htm

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Increased Muscle Mass May Lower Risk of Pre-Diabetes: Study Shows Building Muscle Can Lower Person's Risk of Insulin Resistance

ScienceDaily (July 28, 2011) — A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that the greater an individual's total muscle mass, the lower the person's risk of having insulin resistance, the major precursor of type 2 diabetes.

With recent dramatic increases in obesity worldwide, the prevalence of diabetes, a major source of cardiovascular morbidity, is expected to accelerate. Insulin resistance, which can raise blood glucose levels above the normal range, is a major factor that contributes to the development of diabetes. Previous studies have shown that very low muscle mass is a risk factor for insulin resistance, but until now, no study has examined whether increasing muscle mass to average and above average levels, independent of obesity levels, would lead to improved blood glucose regulation.

"Our findings represent a departure from the usual focus of clinicians, and their patients, on just losing weight to improve metabolic health," said the study's senior author, Preethi Srikanthan, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "Instead, this research suggests a role for maintaining fitness and building muscle. This is a welcome message for many overweight patients who experience difficulty in achieving weight loss, as any effort to get moving and keep fit should be seen as laudable and contributing to metabolic change."

In this study, researchers examined the association of skeletal muscle mass with insulin resistance and blood glucose metabolism disorders in a nationally representative sample of 13,644 individuals. Participants were older than 20 years, non-pregnant and weighed more than 35 kg. The study demonstrated that higher muscle mass (relative to body size) is associated with better insulin sensitivity and lower risk of pre- or overt diabetes.

"Our research shows that beyond monitoring changes in waist circumference or BMI, we should also be monitoring muscle mass," Srikanthan concluded. "Further research is needed to determine the nature and duration of exercise interventions required to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism in at-risk individuals."

Also working on the study was Arun Karlamangla, PhD, MD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110728082601.htm

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When it Comes to Brain Cancer, Let's Look Beyond Chemo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-david-perlmutter-md/brain-cancer-diet_b_893619.html

'Love Your Body' to Lose Weight

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2011) — Almost a quarter of men and women in England and over a third of adults in America are obese. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease and can significantly shorten a person's life expectancy. New research published by BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity shows that improving body image can enhance the effectiveness of weight loss programs based on diet and exercise.

Researchers from the Technical University of Lisbon and Bangor University enrolled overweight and obese women on a year-long weight loss program. Half the women were given general health information about good nutrition, stress management, and the importance of looking after yourself. The other half attended 30 weekly group sessions (the intervention plan) where issues such as exercise, emotional eating, improving body image and the recognition of, and how to overcome, personal barriers to weight loss and lapses from the diet were discussed.

On the behavioral intervention plan women found that the way they thought about their body improved and that concerns about body shape and size were reduced. Compared to the control group they were better able to self-regulate their eating and they lost much more weight, losing on average 7% of their starting weight compared to less than 2% for the control group.

Dr Teixeira from Technical University of Lisbon, who led the research, said, "Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight. Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples' opinions, and positive changes in eating behavior. From this we believe that learning to relate to your body in healthier ways is an important aspect of maintaining weight loss and should be addressed in every weight control program."

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Dentists Can Identify People With Undiagnosed Diabetes

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2011) — In a study, Identification of unrecognized diabetes and pre-diabetes in a dental setting, published in the July 2011 issue of the Journal of Dental Research, researchers at Columbia University College of Dental Medicine found that dental visits represented a chance to intervene in the diabetes epidemic by identifying individuals with diabetes or pre-diabetes who are unaware of their condition. The study sought to develop and evaluate an identification protocol for high blood sugar levels in dental patients and was supported by a research grant from Colgate-Palmolive. The authors report no potential financial or other conflicts.

"Periodontal disease is an early complication of diabetes, and about 70 percent of U.S. adults see a dentist at least once a year," says Dr. Ira Lamster, dean of the College of Dental Medicine, and senior author on the paper. "Prior research focused on identification strategies relevant to medical settings. Oral healthcare settings have not been evaluated before, nor have the contributions of oral findings ever been tested prospectively."

For this study, researchers recruited approximately 600 individuals visiting a dental clinic in Northern Manhattan who were 40-years-old or older (if non-Hispanic white) and 30-years-old or older (if Hispanic or non-white), and had never been told they have diabetes or pre-diabetes.

Approximately 530 patients with at least one additional self-reported diabetes risk factor (family history of diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, or overweight/obesity) received a periodontal examination and a fingerstick, point-of-care hemoglobin A1c test. In order for the investigators to assess and compare the performance of several potential identification protocols, patients returned for a fasting plasma glucose test, which indicates whether an individual has diabetes or pre-diabetes.
Researchers found that, in this at-risk dental population, a simple algorithm composed of only two dental parameters (number of missing teeth and percentage of deep periodontal pockets) was effective in identifying patients with unrecognized pre-diabetes or diabetes. The addition of the point-of-care A1c test was of significant value, further improving the performance of this algorithm.

"Early recognition of diabetes has been the focus of efforts from medical and public health colleagues for years, as early treatment of affected individuals can limit the development of many serious complications," says Dr. Evanthia Lalla, an associate professor at the College of Dental Medicine, and the lead author on the paper. "Relatively simple lifestyle changes in pre-diabetic individuals can prevent progression to frank diabetes, so identifying this group of individuals is also important," she adds. "Our findings provide a simple approach that can be easily used in all dental-care settings."
Other authors who contributed are: Dr. Carol Kunzel, associate clinical professor at the College of Dental Medicine and at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health; Dr. Sandra Burkett, at the College of Dental Medicine; and Dr. Bin Cheng, an assistant professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Mailman School of Public Health.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four people affected with type 2 diabetes in the United States remains undiagnosed. And those with pre-diabetes are at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and also for heart disease, stroke and other vascular conditions typical of individuals with diabetes.

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Exercise May Help Regulate Body Weight By Influencing Gut Hormones Released Before And After Meals

Influecing levels of gut hormones released before and after meals, may be how physical exercise helps to regulate body weight, say researchers presenting to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) that is taking place this week in Clearwater, Florida, in the US.

We already know from previous studies that vigorous exercise like running increases sensitivity to leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells that limits food intake.

Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, suggest they have found more mechanisms that show the benefits of exercise in helping to control body weight.

They told the press that they studied levels of gut hormones released in rats after they ate a tasty meal. They did this both before the rats exercised in running wheels and also afterwards.

They found that after consuming a tasty meal, rats with a lot of running experience had higher levels of amylin in their blood. This pancreas-secreted hormone is known to inhibit food intake, slow digestion, and reduce the rate at which glucose enters the bloodstream.

These same rats also showed a faster rate of reduction of the hormone ghrelin after the meal. Ghrelin, an appetite stimulator, is secreted by the stomach and the pancreas and usually rises before a meal and falls afterwards.

And when the rats with a lot of running experience were given the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK), the researchers found they decreased their food intake more robustly than their sedentary counterparts. Among other things, CCK is a hunger suppressant secreted in the gut.

One of the researchers, Dr Nu-Chu Liang, a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins, said their findings suggest that exercise helps control body weight by modifying how meals release gut hormones that regulate food intake. It may also change people's sensitivity to these gut hormone signals.

Liang added "these findings suggest that both body and brain mechanisms are involved in the effects of exercise to modulate food intake".

A grant from the National Institutes of Health paid for the research.

Source: SSIB.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

Neighborhood Fast Food Availability Related to an Individual's Fast Food Consumption

Living near fast-food restaurants appears related to an individual's consumption of these foods whereas living near grocery stores and supermarkets appears generally unrelated to dietary quality, according to a report in the July 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The federal government has made one of its priorities reducing "food deserts," areas in which healthy food is difficult to find, according to background information in the article. "Such policies stem from limited evidence that food resources are related to obesity and are inequitably allocated according to neighborhood wealth," write the authors. "Implicit in these policy initiatives is that reduced access to fast food and increased access to supermarkets will translate into improvements in diet behavior and health."

Janne Boone-Heinonen, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues assessed this assumption using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, from its baseline in 1985 until 2001. The authors evaluated fast food consumption, diet quality and adherence to fruit-and-vegetable-consumption guidelines as a function of fast food chain, supermarket or grocery store availability within distances of less than one kilometer to more than eight kilometers from study participants' homes. The 5,115 participants (ages 18 to 30 years at baseline) in Birmingham, Ala.; Chicago; Minneapolis; and Oakland were asked how often they ate fast food, and detailed their food consumption during the prior month as well as usual dietary habits.

Among participants at lower income levels, an association between fast food consumption and fast food availability was observed. This relationship was particularly noticeable among men who had access to fast food between one and three kilometers from where they live. The findings did not suggest strong relationships between supermarkets and diet quality or consumption of fruits and vegetables. Availability of grocery stores had a mixed relationship with eating habits.

"These findings have critical implications for existing and proposed policies aimed at improving access to healthy foods," write the researchers. "Overall, classification of food stores and restaurants into 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' according to mode of service (fast food or sit-down) or size (supermarket vs. grocery store) may provide little understanding of how the food environment impacts diet and may overlook innovative policy solutions." The authors call for further research into the effect of the neighborhood food environment on diet and consumption.

Commentary: Food Deserts or Food Swamps?

An accompanying commentary by Jonathan E. Fielding, M.D., M.P.H., and Paul A. Simon, M.D., M.P.H., from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the University of California, Los Angeles, provides perspective on the findings by Boone-Heinonen and colleagues. The association between fast food consumption and availability is relevant to an effort that Los Angeles has initiated to limit fast food restaurants in low-income neighborhoods, they write. Fielding and Simon also speculate whether inclusion of data about food quality, pricing and merchandising might provide more conclusive evidence about the relationship between supermarket availability and dietary behaviors.

"The greatest challenge in this area of research is how to address the complexity of local food environments," they state. "In many disadvantaged communities, the food environment is more swamp than desert, with a plethora of fast food; convenience stores selling calorie-dense packaged foods, super-sized sodas, and other sugar-loaded beverages; and other nonfood retail venues selling junk food as a side activity." Reducing access to these products, remark Fielding and Simon, may do more to reduce obesity than might increasing access to healthy foods. "Given the complexity of food environments," they conclude, "it will be important to identify those combinations of interventions that together generate meaningful improvements in dietary practices at the population level and reduce the huge disparities in overweight and obesity."

Modulation of Inhibitory Output Is Key Function of Antiobesity Hormone

Scientists have known for some time that the hormone leptin acts in the brain to prevent obesity, but the specific underlying neurocircuitry has remained a mystery. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the July 14 issue of the journal Neuron reveals neurobiological mechanisms that may underlie the antiobesity effects of leptin.

"Leptin is a hormone that is secreted by fat cells and acts at its receptor in the brain to decrease food intake and promote energy expenditure," explains senior study author Dr. Bradford B. Lowell from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. "However, despite intensive investigation, the underlying mechanisms responsible for this are poorly understood, in part due to incomplete knowledge regarding leptin-responsive neurons."

Previous studies by Dr. Lowell's group and others pinpointed a region of the brain called the arcuate nucleus as the site of key components related to the control of obesity. In particular, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons, which have been shown to play a key role in appetite suppression, reside in this region. Although many POMC neurons express receptors for leptin, direct action of leptin on POMC neurons has not been shown to play a large role in controlling body weight. This suggests that there are likely to be other leptin-responsive neurons that are critical for leptin's antiobesity actions.

In the current study, Dr. Lowell and colleagues took a new approach for identifying these "unidentified" body weight-regulating neurons and investigated whether leptin's effects are mediated primarily by excitatory (glutamate) or inhibitory (GABA) neurons. "Remarkably, we found that leptin's antiobesity effects are mediated predominantly by GABA neurons and that glutamate neurons play only a small role," says Dr. Linh Vong, a first author on the study. Importantly, the GABA neurons are "upstream" of the POMC neurons and, in response to leptin, the GABA neurons are less active. Conversely, a reduction in leptin levels, such as occurs with fasting, increases the activity of these GABA neurons.

Taken together, the findings suggest that modulation of GABA output is a key aspect of leptin action. "Leptin working directly on GABA neurons reduces inhibitory tone to POMC neurons," concludes Dr. Lowell. "As POMC neurons prevent obesity, their disinhibition by leptin action on upstream GABA neurons likely mediates, at least in part, leptin's antiobesity effects. Further, indirect regulation of POMC neurons by leptin reconciles the known important role of POMC neurons in regulating body weight with the relatively unimportant role played by direct action of leptin on POMC neurons."

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The Metabolic Effects of Antipsychotic Drugs

Research to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, may explain why some antipsychotic drugs can promote overeating, weight gain, and insulin resistance.

Olanzapine, an atypical antipsychotic drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, has been associated with body weight gain and impaired glucose homeostasis in humans and in experimental animals. As part of a Dutch research consortium, studies led by Simon Evers (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) sought to reveal underlying mechanisms for olanzapine's metabolic effects by studying healthy adult male volunteers. The research was motivated by observations of what co-author Anton Scheurink described as "a mysterious interaction between schizophrenia and diabetes."

Their results confirmed previous findings that olanzapine induces weight gain by increasing caloric intake, but also revealed that olanzapine reduces body temperature, which contributes to decreased energy expenditure. Indeed, reduced body temperature after olanzapine treatment may generate many of the known side effects of this antipsychotic drug. The authors' new findings also demonstrate that olanzapine alters peripheral glucose metabolism, which may contribute to impaired insulin sensitivity.
According to lead author Simon Evers, "Our research group believes that reduced body temperature is the foremost direct and consistent effect of olanzapine in humans and in experimental animals. Reduced body temperature might explain several of olanzapine's metabolic side effects, including increased food intake, reduced energy expenditure, sedation, high blood sugar, body weight gain, and insulin resistance."

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Influence of water drinking on resting energy expenditure in overweight children

International Journal of Obesity , (12 July 2011) | doi:10.1038/ijo.2011.130

Influence of water drinking on resting energy expenditure in overweight children

G Dubnov-Raz, N W Constantini, H Yariv, S Nice and N Shapira

Abstract

Background:

It was previously demonstrated that drinking water significantly elevates the resting energy expenditure (REE) in adults, and that low water intake is associated with obesity and lesser success in weight reduction. This study addressed the potential of water drinking to increase the REE in children, as an additional tool for weight management.

Objective:

To examine the effect of drinking water on the REE of overweight children.

Design:

A total of 21 overweight, otherwise-healthy children (age 9.9±1.4 years, 11 males) drank 10 ml kg⁻¹ cold water (4 °C). REE was measured before and after water ingestion, for 66 min. The main outcome measure was the change in mean REE from baseline values.

Results:

Immediately after drinking water, there was a transient decrease in REE, from a baseline value of 3.32±1.15 kilojoule (kJ) per min to 2.56±0.66 kJ per min at minute 3 (P=0.005). A subsequent rise in REE was then observed, which was significantly higher than baseline after 24 min (3.89±0.78 kJ/min (P=0.021)), and at most time points thereafter. Maximal mean REE values were seen at 57 min after water drinking (4.16±1.43 kJ per min (P=0.004)), which were 25% higher than baseline. REE was significantly correlated with age, height, weight and fat-free mass; the correlations with maximal REE values after water drinking were stronger than with baseline REE values.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrated an increase of up to 25% in REE following the drinking of 10 ml kg⁻¹ of cold water in overweight children, lasting for over 40 min. Consuming the recommended daily amount of water for children could result in an energy expenditure equivalent to an additional weight loss of about 1.2 kg per year. These findings reinforce the concept of water-induced REE elevation shown in adults, suggesting that water drinking could assist overweight children in weight loss or maintenance, and may warrant emphasis in dietary guidelines against the obesity epidemic.

http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ijo2011130a.html

__________________________________________________________________________________

Interesting and exciting study here Folks :)

In 2003, German reserachers wated to see if drinking 500 mls of... water would increase resting energy expenditure (calories) in normal weight individuals. After drinking 2 cups of water the resting energy expenditure increased by 30%, and this increase lasted for over an hour.
The same group conducted a similar study in 2007, but this time used overweight and obese subjects. After drinking 2 cups of water the REE was about 24%.

These increases amount to about 20-25 calories. So basically drinking 2 cups of water results in 25 calories burned even though water is a non-caloric beverage.

In the study above, Isreali reserachers wated to see if drinking water ( 10ml per KG) would raise REE in children with the average age of 9.9. The water did raise REE to the tune of 25% above baseline values, and this effect lasted for over 40 minutes.

" These findings reinforce the concept of water-induced REE elevation shown in adults, suggesting that water drinking could assist overweight children in weight loss or maintenance, and may warrant emphasis in dietary guidelines against the obesity epidemic."

In a study done in early 2010, drinking 2 cups of water (500ml, same as the study done in 2003 and 2007 above) before meals (3 meals per day) on a calorie reduced diet (1500 calories for the men, 1200 calories for thw woman) for 12 weeks resulted in 5.4 kilograms of fat lost.

 

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Eggs' Antioxidant Properties May Help Prevent Heart Disease and Cancer, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2011) — One of nature's most perfect foods may be even better for us than previously thought.

While eggs are well known to be an excellent source of proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals, researchers at the University of Alberta recently discovered they also contain antioxidant properties, which helps in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Jianping Wu, Andreas Schieber and graduate students Chamila Nimalaratne and Daise Lopes-Lutz of the U of A Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science examined egg yolks produced by hens fed typical diets of either primarily wheat or corn. They found the yolks contained two amino acids, tryptophan and tyrosine, which have high antioxidant properties.

After analyzing the properties, the researchers determined that two egg yolks in their raw state have almost twice as many antioxidant properties as an apple and about the same as half a serving (25 grams) of cranberries.

However, when the eggs were fried or boiled, antioxidant properties were reduced by about half, and a little more than half if the eggs were cooked in a microwave.

"It's a big reduction but it still leaves eggs equal to apples in their antioxidant value," said Wu.
The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Food Chemistry.
The discovery of these two amino acids, while important, may only signify the beginning of finding antioxidant properties in egg yolks, said Wu, an associate professor of agricultural, food and nutritional science.

"Ultimately, we're trying to map antioxidants in egg yolks so we have to look at all of the properties in the yolks that could contain antioxidants, as well as how the eggs are ingested," said Wu, adding that he and his team will examine the other type of antioxidant already known to be in eggs, carotenoids, the yellow pigment in egg yolk, as well as peptides.

In previous research, Wu found that egg proteins were converted by enzymes in the stomach and small intestines and produced peptides that act the same way as ACE inhibitors, prescriptions drugs that are used to lower high blood pressure.

That finding defied common wisdom and contradicted the public perception that eggs increased high blood pressure because of their high cholesterol content. Additional research by Wu suggests the peptides can be formulated to help prevent and treat hypertension.

Wu is convinced the peptides also have some antioxidant properties, which leads him to suggest that when he completes the next step in his research, the result will likely be that eggs have more antioxidant properties than we currently know.

Losing Weight, Keeping It Off Might Require Distinct Skill Sets

A new study indicates that the practices that help people to lose weight and the practices that help them keep it off do not overlap much.
No one announces to a dieter, 'You're moving into the weight-maintenance stage. You'll have to do things differently,' said lead author Christopher Sciamanna, M.D. His group investigated whether two distinct sets of behaviors and thought patterns were involved in weight loss and its maintenance.

Practices associated with successful weight loss only were:

- Participate in a weight-loss program
- Look for information about weight loss, nutrition or exercise
- Eat healthy snacks
- Limit the amount of sugar you eat or drink
- Plan what you'll eat ahead of time
- Avoid skipping a meal, including breakfast
- Do different kinds of exercise
- Do exercise that you enjoy
- Think about how much better you feel when you are thinner

Practices significantly associated with successful maintenance only were:

- Eat plenty of low-fat sources of protein
- Follow a consistent exercise routine
- Reward yourself for sticking to your diet or exercise plan
- Remind yourself why you need to control your weight

If the two stages do demand different practices, then weight loss programs might need to guide people about key strategies for each phase explicitly, said Sciamanna, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine. The study appears online and in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Lawrence Cheskin, M.D., director of the Weight Management Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, "We do often tell patients about the different skills that are needed and the different approaches to take to achieve weight loss and weight maintenance. This work adds substance to that general statement." Cheskin has no affiliation with the study.

Sciamanna's group surveyed a random sample of 1,165 adults by telephone. Some had been successful at losing weight; some had also maintained a weight loss. They asked them about 36 things they might do and think about to lose weight and keep it off. The researchers defined long-term success as losing at least 30 pounds and keeping if off for a year.

Fourteen practices were associated with either successful loss or successful weight loss maintenance, but not both. The overlap between practices associated with weight loss and those associated with weight loss maintenance was 61 percent, not much higher than that expected by chance.

"Some people are 'black and white,'" Cheskin said. "They'll diet strictly, eating nothing they're not meant to eat, or they won't be careful at all. Maintenance requires something in between. This research could have implications for what we should emphasize when we are trying to help people lose versus maintain their weight."

Terms Of Use: This story is protected by copyright. When reproducing any material, including interview excerpts, attribution to the Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health, is required.

Sciamanna CN, et al. Practices associated with weight loss versus weight loss maintenance: results of a national survey. Am J Prev Med 41(2), 2011.

Source:
Health Behavior News Service

Natural Marijuana-Like Chemicals In Our Bodies Make Fatty Foods Hard To Resist

Recent studies have revealed potato chips and french fries to be the worst contributors to weight gain - and with good reason. Have you ever wondered why you can't eat just one chip or a single fry? It's not just the carbohydrates at fault.

UC Irvine researchers Daniele Piomelli, Nicholas DiPatrizio and colleagues found that fats in these foods make them nearly irresistible and trigger a surprising biological mechanism that likely drives our gluttonous behavior. The apparent culprit? Natural marijuana-like chemicals in the body called endocannabinoids.

In their study, the Piomelli team discovered that when rats tasted something fatty, cells in their upper gut started producing endocannabinoids. Sugars and proteins, the researchers noted, did not have this effect.

The process starts on the tongue, where fats in food generate a signal that travels first to the brain and then through a nerve bundle called the vagus to the intestines. There, the signal stimulates the production of endocannabinoids, which initiates a surge in cell signaling that prompts the wanton intake of fatty foods, Piomelli said, probably by initiating the release of digestive chemicals linked to hunger and satiety that compel us to eat more.

"This is the first demonstration that endocannabinoid signaling in the gut plays an important role in regulating fat intake," added the Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences and professor of pharmacology.

Study results appear this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Piomelli said that from an evolutionary standpoint, there's a compelling need for animals to consume fats, which are scarce in nature but crucial for proper cell functioning. In contemporary human society, however, fats are readily available, and the innate drive to eat fatty foods leads to obesity, diabetes and cancer.

The findings suggest it might be possible to curb this tendency by obstructing endocannabinoid activity - for example, by using drugs that "clog" cannabinoid receptors. Since these drugs wouldn't need to enter the brain, they shouldn't cause the central side effects - anxiety and depression - seen when endocannabinoid signaling is blocked in the brain, Piomelli noted.

Director of the UCI School of Medicine's Center for Drug Discovery & Development, Piomelli is one of the world's leading researchers on endocannabinoids. His groundbreaking work is showing that this system can be targeted by new treatments for anxiety, depression and obesity.

Giuseppe Astarita of UCI and Gary Schwartz and Xiaosong Li of New York's Yeshiva University contributed to the study, which received support from the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Source:
Tom Vasich
University of California - Irvine

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Bulbs With Benefits The Surprising Effects of Garlic By Jerry Brainum

http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/site/bulbs-with-benefits/

In this era of high-tech super supplements it’s easy to overlook some of the good old standbys. One example is garlic, which is not found in the typical bodybuilding-nutrition regimen. If more bodybuilders knew about the good things that garlic does, though, they might consider adding a garlic supplement or even eating garlic itself.

Garlic’s benefits come from its sulfur content, which also is true to an extent of onions. The sulfur compounds in garlic have been shown in clinical studies to lower elevated blood lipids, such as cholesterol, provide antioxidant activity and lower elevated blood glucose, which may help prevent diabetes. In addition, garlic has shown anticancer activity in a number of studies, most famously lowering blood pressure. In fact, a new study turned up that effect.

How garlic brings down blood pressure is of interest to bodybuilders. Just a few years ago nitric oxide was an obscure substance known only to medical researchers. It gained prominence in the bodybuilding community with the advent of supplements touted to boost its presence in the body. The reasoning: Since one of the primary effects of NO is that it dilates blood vessels, the enhanced blood flow that results will increase the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to working muscles, which will have an ergogenic effect. In addition, NO is involved in the release of anabolic hormones, including testosterone and growth hormone.

Typical NO bodybuilding supplements contain the amino acid L-arginine as their primary ingredient. Arginine is the immediate precursor of NO synthesis in the body. Still, what determines how much NO is produced isn’t arginine but rather the activity of enzymes that convert arginine into NO.
It turns out that garlic also boosts NO in the body. That’s likely the reason that garlic lowers blood pressure, since the increased NO that results from eating garlic will dilate blood vessels. In addition, NO is rapidly degraded because of oxidants, and garlic’s antioxidant activity should help extend NO activity.

Garlic is also great for your brain. Studies show that garlic helps protect the brain through its antioxidant activity. That’s significant because the brain is loaded with polyunsaturated fat, such as the omega-3 fatty acid DHA. Such fats are highly prone to oxidation, however, and that opens the door to brain degeneration. Oxidation often produces excess inflammation, which is associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other brain ills.

Animal-based studies show that garlic intake appears to help prevent various brain maladies. Research done with rats given garlic shows increased memory retention.¹ The mechanism is increased delivery of the amino acid L-tryptophane to the brain. Tryptophane is the precursor of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin, which helps memory and learning. Garlic helps shunt more tryptophane into the brain for conversion into serotonin.

From an exercise standpoint, garlic offers several benefits. For one thing, it may reduce fatigue. In ancient Egypt garlic was freely distributed to the laborers who built the pyramids because it decreased fatigue and aided rapid recovery. For the same reasons it was given as a tonic to soldiers and athletes in ancient Rome. Other studies link garlic to increased muscle strength. No doubt the enhanced blood circulation that it brings plays a role. Mice and other lab animals supplemented with garlic show increased running times to exhaustion on treadmills, as well as longer swimming times.

Human studies with garlic show that it reduces the workload on the heart during exercise and reduces peak heart rate, which points to less heart stress during vigorous exercise. By helping lower high counts of cytokines, immune proteins that increase during exercise, garlic helps lower excess inflammation and speed up and improve exercise recovery.

A more recent study showed that an active ingredient in garlic may even help prevent excess muscle breakdown.² The research involved isolated-muscle-cell exposure to garlic, specifically an ingredient in aged garlic called diallyl sulphide, or DAS. The cells were exposed to high heat, which results in cell breakdown, but when DAS was added to the muscle cell culture, the breakdown was blocked.
In another part of the study, rats with implanted tumors, which experience cachexia, or the accelerated loss of muscle that occurs in 80 percent of human cancer patients, were given DAS. So was a group of normal rats. While the cancer-stricken rats didn’t show any effects from the garlic compound, the normal rats had significant increases in muscle. Again, the mechanism was thought to be a blunting of the normal catabolic effects in muscle, which would tip the metabolic scales toward anabolism, or growth. Anabolic steroid drugs produce larger muscles because they provide both anabolic and anticatabolic effects.

While garlic cannot be characterized as a “super muscle growth” supplement, the fact that it helps prevent excess muscle breakdown in normal animals suggests that it may encourage similar effects in bodybuilders when used in conjunction with other anticatabolic supplements, such as whey and casein proteins, HMB and fish oil.
—Jerry Brainum

Editor’s note: Have you been ripped off by supplement makers whose products don’t work as advertised? Want to know the truth about them? Check out Natural Anabolics, available at JerryBrainum.com.

References

¹ Haider, S., et al. (2008). Repeated administration of fresh garlic increases memory retention in rats. J Med Food. 11:675-79.

² Olivan, M., et al. (2010). Nutraceutical inhibition of muscle proteolysis: A role of diallyl sulphide in the treatment of muscle wasting. Clin Nutr. In press.

Red Wine: Exercise in a Bottle?

ScienceDaily (June 30, 2011) — As strange as it sounds, a new research study published in the FASEB Journal, suggests that the "healthy" ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that spaceflight and sedentary lifestyles have on people. The report describes experiments in rats that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight, during which the group fed resveratrol did not develop insulin resistance or a loss of bone mineral density, as did those who were not fed resveratrol.

According to Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "There are overwhelming data showing that the human body needs physical activity, but for some of us, getting that activity isn't easy. A low gravity environment makes it nearly impossible for astronauts. For the earthbound, barriers to physical activity are equally challenging, whether they be disease, injury, or a desk job. Resveratrol may not be a substitute for exercise, but it could slow deterioration until someone can get moving again."

Scientists studied rats that underwent simulated weightlessness by hindlimb tail suspension and were given a daily oral load of resveratrol. The control group showed a decrease in soleus muscle mass and strength, the development of insulin resistance, and a loss of bone mineral density and resistance to breakage. The group receiving resveratrol showed none of these complications. Study results further demonstrated some of the underlying mechanisms by which resveratrol acts to prevent the wasting adaptations to disuse-induced mechanical unloading. This study also suggests that resveratrol may be able to prevent the deleterious consequences of sedentary behaviors in humans.

"If resveratrol supplements are not your cup of tea," Weissmann added, "then there's good news. You can find it naturally in red wine, making it the toast of the Milky Way."

Food, Not Diet Soda, Makes You Fat

You are making a healthier choice when opting for a diet soda instead of a calorie-laden drink, but beware that you don't sabotage your good behavior by indulging in fat-adding foods. "I suspect that people are likely drinking those diet sodas to wash down high fat and high-calorie fast food or take-out meals, not as a complement to a healthy meal prepared at home or to quench a thirst after a tough workout, " says Jessica Bartfield, MD, internal medicine who specializes in weight and nutrition at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital Dr. Bartfield takes issue with two recent studies were presented at the American Diabetes Association in June that conclude that diet soda negatively impacts your waistline.

One study tracked 474 people, all 65 to 74 years old, for nearly a decade. It measured height, weight, waist circumference and diet soda intake every 3.6 years. The waists of those who drank soft drinks grew 70 percent more than those who did not.

Another study found that after three months of eating food containing aspartame, mice had higher blood sugar levels than rodents who ate regular food. Researchers concluded that aspartame could trigger the appetite but not satisfy it, leading you to eat more in general.

"The association studies are significant and provocative, but don't prove cause and effect," says Bartfield who counsels weight-loss patients at the Chicago-area Loyola University Health System. "Although these studies controlled for many factors, such as age, physical activity, calories consumed and smoking, there are still a tremendous number of factors such as dietary patters, sleep, genetics, and medication use that account for the metabolic syndome/weight gain."

For people trying to lose weight, switiching from sugar-sweetened beverages to diet soda can have a tremendous impact on calorie reduction but Dr. Bartfield feels it comes down to one basic principle. "It still comes down to moderation," she says. "I caution patients to keep it to one or two diet sodas per day."

Source:
Loyola University Health System