November and December 2014 Nutrition News!

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.

Harvard School of Public Health has found, not surprisingly, that weight training and exercise combined are more beneficial for your waistline than just cardio! Even when comparing twenty minutes of weight training versus the same amount of cardio, those who did weight training had a smaller increase in age-related abdominal fat. 

A bit of controversy for the end of the year: vegan-ism and carbohydrates. The University of South Carolina has found that following a vegan diet led to greater weight loss in its participants, even when carbohydrates were included. The participants were "randomly assigned to one of five diets on the dietary spectrum: vegan which excludes all animal products, semi-vegetarian with occasional meat intake; pesco-vegetarian which excludes all meat except seafood; vegetarian which excludes all meat and seafood but includes animal products, and omnivorous, which excludes no foods." Among the groups, vegans saw the greatest improvement in weight, BMI, macro-nutrient levels, and fat levels. Furthermore, I find this encouraging in terms of stomping out the stigma against carbohydrates and weight gain. Carbs aren't the enemy, people! Even the vegans who ate carbs had fantastic results.

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!

Health and Nutrition News: October

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! 

  

There is yet more news on how eating healthy can benefit people! The study released by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) found that in those who were undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer, patients assigned to a program of exercise, nutritional counseling with protein supplementation and relaxation exercises before the actual operation recovered much more quickly afterwards. This type of surgery is known to have a huge reduction in mobility, but the results were amazing: prehabilitation patients walked an average of 23.2 meters farther than they did prior to the surgery, while rehabilitation-only patients actually saw a mobility reduction, walking an average of 21.8 meters less.

A hormone has become the center of focus for those who develop weight-loss drugs. Said hormone works by directly targeting the brain and triggering activity in the nervous system, obesity researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. A hormone encourages the activity of brown adipose tissue (the kind that creates energy via burning fat).

The University of East Anglia has found a link between eating citrus fruits, drinking tea, and having lower ovarian cancer risk. The study of 171,940 women (25-55 years old) took place for more than three decades, and found that those who consume flavonols (found in tea, red wine, apples and grapes) and flavanones (found in citrus fruit and juices) were less likely to develop the disease.

 

Although the amount of trans fats that Americans eat has decreased, a new release from the American Heart Association asserts that we are still eating too many. Americans are eating less trans and saturated fats compared to thirty years ago, but we are still eating these bad fats more than what's recommended for good cardiovascular health. Remember to watch those trans fats, folks! (It is important to note, however, that the study was largely conducted in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and therefore may not represent the entire population). 

 

Sunshine could relieve some asthma symptoms! According to the American Friends of Tel Aviv University, "The Vitamin D levels of 307,900 people were measured between 2008 and 2012. Researchers also took into account key predictors of asthma, such as obesity, smoking, and other chronic diseases. Of some 21,000 asthma patients in Israel studied, those with a Vitamin D deficiency were 25 percent more likely than other asthmatics to have had at least one flare-up in the recent past" (Science Daily quote). Vitamin D can be naturally synthesized by getting some rays, or obtained through a vitamin form (although Vitamin D can cause toxicity, so make sure to not take too much!)  

 

Eating breakfast, particularly those high in protein, has been shown to increase the chemical that is associated with feelings of reward in young adults' brains, according to the University of Missouri-Columbia. This is a huge step in fighting against food cravings and overeating later in the day, particularly for such a vulnerable group (young adults' rates of obesity have quadrupled in the past three decades). 

 

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 at the end of November.