Health and Nutrition News: 6/6 to 6/27

Every few Fridays, I like to make a collection of news stories that revolve around the field of Food Science, Human Nutrition, Vegetarianism, and other Health News. These are studies or reports that are not only super interesting, but also really work to open my mind and remind me that these fields are constantly evolving and finding new information. Click on the links for more info!

University of Gothenburg has studied eight European countries and found that children consuming a diet more in line with the rules of the Mediterranean one are 15% less likely to be overweight or obese than those children who do not.

A new study from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine examines the bone marrow of people at different weights, and finds that obesity correlates with higher fat bones. 

Good news for us vegetarians! Loma Linda University Medical Center has concluded that vegetarian diets result in less greenhouse gasses and longer lifespans. They did it by studying the eating patterns of vegetarians, semi-vegetarians and non-vegetarians, then comparing them.

Garvan Institute of Medical Research has released a super interesting new study about brown fat, the kind that protects humans from obesity and diabetes. Although there were only five subjects, initial findings show that temperature might play a large role in how much brown fat you have. The colder it was, the more brown fat they had (which is good, because people with a high amount of brown fat tend to be leaner and have lower blood sugar levels than those with white fat). This makes sense, because brown fat exists to create heat in the body; the colder it is, the more you need!

These are articles that I find fascinating. If you want to keep up on more news, I suggest going to ScienceDaily, BBC News Health, and EatRight.org. The next news update will be on June 27th.