Hello lovelies, and Happy New Years! Before it technically becomes 2015 here in CA, where I've been hunkered down for the holidays before returning to CO mid-Jan, I decided to stop procrastinating and actually post all the Nutrition News that I've been hearing for the last two months. This is one text-heavy post, but it's full of super cool food science stuff! Wooo-hooo!
Every month, 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!
Yay for Potassium! A study done by Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, and published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, found that women who had higher-potassium diets had a lower risk of stroke and death! The results are pretty major: 27% reduction in stroke risk, and 10% reduction in death. New Years Resolution: work some more of that into your diet?
Turns out that the attitude behind your
weight loss matters... a lot! Brigham Young University reported that
overweight teens who lost weight --and kept it off-- often had intrinsic motivation guiding them.
Those who lost weight in order to be healthy and feel good, instead of
doing it for others, were more successful! Another thing I love about
this study: many of the teens talked about losing weight is a slow process, which is so true! One or two pounds a week is average, and much more sustainable than crash diets.
Binge drinking is a pretty common phenomenon nowadays, particularly among the college crowd, but it has even more repercussions than originally thought. A researcher at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine has found that immune system activity is also greatly compromised by binge drinking in young adults. At first, the immune system activity increases (around 20 minutes after the drinks); however, two hours later, the opposite occurs.
Boston University Medical Center has recently reported that there may be a relationship between lung health and memory in older adults. The study tested both younger and older participants; and while no association was found in the younger group, older adults who had higher cardiorespiratory levels (aka were more fit) performed as well as young adults and much better than the non-active in their age group. Just another great benefit of exercise when you are older!
I could kiss the European Society of Cardiology right now, because they have great news about Yoga! After reviewing 37 other studies (for a total of 2768 subjects), they have found that Yoga could reduce the risk factors of cardiovascular illness as much as brisk walking or biking. Not everyone can do intense exercise, so Yoga is a great alternative if you aren't able to lower these risk factors in traditional ways. Even if you do exercise, consider adding it on. Compared to now exercise, yoga had a beneficial impact on: body
mass index,
systolic blood pressure reduced, low-density (bad)
lipoprotein cholesterol, and high-density (good)
lipoprotein cholesterol. Yipee!
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