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Just eyeballed this study abstract – Drinking Water Is Associated With Weight Loss in Overweight Dieting Women Independent of Diet and Activity – and figured I’d pass it on.
Ok, it’s an epidemiological study, so it’s tough to draw a “cause and effect” conclusion here. But we can speculate…what is there about drinking water that might enhance weight loss?
Yeah, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? But that’s what the researchers in this latest study called it…
Background
Ketogenic diets are an effective healthy way of losing weight since they promote a non-atherogenic lipid profile, lower blood pressure and decrease resistance to insulin with an improvement in blood levels of glucose and insulin. On the other hand, Mediterranean diet is well known to be one of the healthiest diets, being the basic ingredients of such diet the olive oil, red wine and vegetables. In Spain the fish is an important component of such diet. The objective of this study was to determine the dietary effects of a protein ketogenic diet rich in olive oil, salad, fish and red wine.
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A new, voluntary, nutrition-labelling system, “Smart Choices,” made its debut at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference this week.
I thought this was really rather cool…
Scientists have developed purple tomatoes which they hope may be able to keep cancer at bay.
The fruit are rich in an antioxidant pigment called anthocyanin which is thought to have anti-cancer properties.
A team from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, created the tomatoes by incorporating genes from the snapdragon flower, which is high in anthocyanin.
The study, published in Nature Biotechnology, found mice who ate the tomatoes lived longer.
Anthocyanins, found in particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry, have been shown to help significantly slow the growth of colon cancer cells.
Genetic engineering of food crops has its critics, to be sure – but this appears to be a perfectly benign (if not downright useful) application. It’s kind of interesting to see the distinction between “functional foods” (i.e., processed foods fortified with health-promoting nutraceuticals) and “whole foods” blur in instances like this. Tomatoes are already quite healthful…this could conceivably push them into “superfood” territory.
Admittedly, they’d look kinda strange in a sandwich or spaghetti sauce, but I guess I could get used to it. ;-)
I had to go play “Mrs. Project Manager” at a party given by my husband’s company last night. It was fun…if mildly ironic.
It was a pretty nice event, actually: open bar and hors d’oeuvres followed by a steak and lobster dinner. I had a glass of merlot and a couple of morsels from the cheese tray before dinner, then ate my spinach salad, lobster tail (lemon, no butter), broccolini and half of the small filet mignon. It was quite satisfying, so I waved off the dessert and asked for coffee.
I was completely matter-of-fact about it, but this heresy didn’t go unnoticed by some of my seatmates. I was even chided for it: “You’re missing the good stuff!”
What’s so “good” about eating until I feel bloated, sleepy and stupid? Ya got me…but just because the food was there wasn’t a reason to eat it, IMHO. I did my usual: focus on nutrient-dense foods, and eat just enough to satisfy my appetite. What I had was great and I enjoyed it: I missed exactly nothing.
The irony? I also gave out several business cards to people who want to get in touch with me…evidently they’re curious to know how I manage to stay in shape. 
Martica Heaner, the exercise “expert” for msn.com is at it again…this time, she’s putting down the benefits of weight training vs. cardio for weight loss.
Just got back from an extended trip, which included a visit to the Natural Products Expo East, which was in Boston, MA this year. It was a fortunate location, as Will Brink – whom I work for/with at the “Bodybuilding Revealed” and “Fat Loss Revealed” forums – lives close by. I stayed – and attended the show – with Will and his GF, Kim. A good time was had by all.
That’s Will to my left. You can read his write up of the show on the Brinkzone Blog.
It was quite a show: while there were some supplement companies there, the industry trend is towards healthy convenience and functional foods – and it showed. There were samples galore: I came back with a sack full of stuff (it was like “Trick Or Treat” for grown-ups): meal bars, drinks (both RTDs and powders), and other munchables…along with a few more therapeutic items (I’ll be interested to try the capsaicin nasal spray – lol).
Some of it came in handy for hotel room and airport snacks – but even after grazing, I barely put a dent in my stash. It was a bit of a pain dragging an extra sack-full of products around (ok, I admit it, I over-packed for the trip), but there was method to my madness: we’re launching a “functional foods” section here on UltimateFatBurner – so I’ll be posting reviews for many of these products in the coming weeks.
There was a bonus too…After I left Boston, I took the long way home, via the Great White North, so I could visit Paul. Yes THAT Paul – the owner, operator and all-around brain trust behind UltimateFatBurner.com. It was a lot of fun – but also part business…he’s got a lot of things planned for the site that will really expand the functionality and interactivity of the site, so stay tuned.
David Ludwig and Marion Nestle are the authors of a recently published commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In it, they question whether the junk food industry is really sincere in its efforts to “combat obesity.” After all, the industry’s shareholders celebrate when stock prices rise (i.e., people consume more of their products) and not the other way around.
In late September, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will mandate Californian restaurant chains to post nutritional information on both menus and menu boards.
That’s a good thing.
As you and I know, obesity is taking an awful toll on the health of North Americans both young and old. And the financial cost is staggering too; from the tax payer’s point of view, it makes good sense for policies like this to be implemented-not just in Canada and the U.S., but worldwide.
Despite this, I have to ask you…
Will this make any difference?
If you’re the sort of person who buys weight supplements online, you need to recognize the importance of “brand.” That is, buying from reputable and recognizable companies.
Let’s face it; even in the “let’s-push-the-advertising-claims-to-the-max” world of sports and weight loss supplements, there’s one reality even the biggest, most recognized companies cannot ignore…
If a customer buys a product and receives no measurable benefit from it, s/he is not likely to buy it again. If that customer has the same experience with several products from the same company, it’s likely s/he will move on to a different brand.
“So what,” you say. After all, there’s a huge supply of customers out there.
I discovered I had a flat tire this morning. Since I’m taking off for Boston early tomorrow morning, I was torn between “Did this have to happen today?” vs. “Thank goodness this happened today!” reactions. I headed (slowly) for the nearest tire center, which happened to be Les Schwab. Fortunately, they weren’t too busy, so they were able to get right on it.
So that’s not actually what I’m ranting about. It was annoying, but c’est la vie.
According to researchers at UC Irvine, dietary oleic acid (the main fatty acid in olive oil and avocados) triggers the production of a hormone, oleoylethanolamide, that helps regulate body weight and appetite.
I had an interesting conversation with my teenaged daughter after I picked her up from school the other day. In her health class, her (male) teacher introduced a unit on “relationships,” and apparently presented the kids with an array of male vs. female stereotypes that (allegedly) play roles in how/why relationships succeed (or don’t, as the case may be). Nick was, understandably, a little hot-under-the-collar, as she, personally, doesn’t engage in most of the ”girl” behaviors he identified, such as “trying on every outfit in the store, then leaving without buying anything.” Rather, she behaves like the “goal-oriented” boys, who evidently stride purposefully into the store, try on one shirt, then pick out 4 others in the same size and leave (actually, this is something I do too 
).
I could sympathize: nothing like having someone who barely knows you, tell you what you’re like. It’s merely annoying if they’re right; but unforgiveably arrogant when they’re wrong…but convinced they’re right.
…at least for the next three years. According to the FTC:
A federal judge has banned Kevin Trudeau from infomercials in which he has an interest for three years and ordered him to pay more than $5 million in profits from his book, “The Weight Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.” The ruling confirms an earlier contempt finding against Trudeau – the second time he has been found in contempt of court in the past four years.
In August, Judge Robert W. Gettleman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois stood by his conclusion in 2007 that Trudeau “clearly, and no doubt intentionally,” violated a provision of a 2004 stipulated court order that prohibits Trudeau from misrepresenting the content of books in his infomercials. The judge stated that “the Infomercial[s] falsely and intentionally led thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of consumers to believe that the Weight Loss Book would describe an ‘easy,’ ’simple’ protocol that, once ‘finished’ would allow the consumer to ‘eat anything’ he or she wants.”
It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy (insert sarcasm).
No – that’s not a typo…on a site like this, you’d think that weight and health would be more heavily stressed (no pun intended), but – as it turns out – height is important too - at least as an indicator of our health as a society.
…Americans have a similar height gap to worry about, and it also appears to be due to a lower standard of living, poor health care and inadequate nutrition. Last summer, the journal Social Science Quarterly reported that Americans are, quite literally, falling short of Europeans. In 1880, Americans were the tallest people in the world. But by 2000, American men, at an average height of 5-feet-10.5-inches, ranked 9th, and women, at about 5-feet-5-inches, fell to 15th. Several Northern European countries rank the highest in height, with the Dutch coming in first, at just over 6 feet for the men and 5-feet-7-inches for the women.
The height gap between Americans and Northern Europeans can’t be explained by an influx of short immigrants. Experts say the United States takes in too few immigrants to account for the disparity, and the height statistics cited in the article include only English-speaking native-born Americans, and don’t include people of Asian and Hispanic descent.
The real answer may be that Northern European countries do a better job of spreading the wealth and taking care of their children…researchers have found that Americans lose the most height to Northern Europeans in infancy and adolescence, “which implicates pre- and post-natal care and teenage eating habits.”
Ok, this has nothing to do with fat loss or fitness, really…but I thought it was kinda funny. The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research, a tongue-in-cheek scientific society dedicated to highlighting amusing (and eccentric) research.
Our goal is to make people laugh, then make them think. We also hope to spur people’s curiosity, and to raise the question: How do you decide what’s important and what’s not, and what’s real and what’s not — in science and everywhere else?
A few of this year’s winners:
A little while ago, I started a series on some of the dirty rotten tricks I’ve seen perpetrated by retailers on a largely unsuspecting and vulnerable audience (if things continue to proceed in the same manner, I suspect this will be a long, and on-going series).
Anyhow, one other MAJOR pet peeve of mine is retailers who name their products as close as legally possible to any number of major prescription weight loss drugs, and advertise them as being available “without a prescription.”
Of course they are available without prescriptions; they are NOT prescription products.
The problem is that some consumers are going to mistake the often-useless herbal preparations for the similarly-named drug. For example, we’re all aware of the weight loss drug phentermine. Some of the ”all natural” non prescription weight loss products looking to capitalize on this product’s familiarity are Phenterfein and Phentremine. Another product I recently reviewed (Accomplix), appears to be attempting to capitalize on the growing popularity of the use of the drug Accomplia (Rimonabant) to treat obesity.
It’s just another trick in the retailer’s bag of tricks; naming a product so that it “sounds” like a prescription drug does not make it any more effective.
Don’t be fooled.
Interesting new study from the University of North Carolina.
This is of concern, not only because surplus weight means there’s more to lose afterwards, but also because it can increase the risk of complications.
Even women who succeed in controlling their weight before pregnancy tend to gain too much weight while they’re carrying a child, say Anna Maria Siega-Riz, PhD, RD, and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“When they are not pregnant, many women are really trying to hold their weight down. But when they become pregnant the message they get is ‘Eat for two; give in to your cravings,’” Siega-Riz tells WebMD.
The UNC researchers asked 1,223 women who had just become pregnant about their previous dietary habits. About half the women had restrained their eating habits in some way. They simply cut back on what they ate, followed specific diet plans, and/or cycled between gaining and losing weight.
Regardless of how they did it, all normal-weight, overweight, or obese women who had tried to restrict their diets gained more weight during pregnancy than did women who did not diet before pregnancy.
As noted in the linked article, “eating for two” does not require that many extra calories.
That’s not a lot. It’s important to eat well during pregnancy, but a couple of small snacks and/or a few extra bites in each meal towards the middle/end are all that’s really needed.
This is something I confront on my forums all the time: people who a) want to lose weight or improve their health; but b) eat little or no vegetables, or plant foods of any kind. Some have simply fallen out of the habit; while others are clinging to childhood memories of gray-green, plain boiled yeeechh. It’s the latter group that’s the hardest to budge, as they’re resolutely convinced that they just HATE veggies, despite the fact that there are tons of wonderful ways to serve them, that don’t involve cooking them to death.
There are times I wish I had a time machine, so I could go back and “fix” their childhoods. In my opinion, if you learn to like veggies as a kid, then it’s no problem as an adult. I wasn’t a huge veggie eater myself as young ‘un, but I loved salad and cole slaw…along with vegetable soup and stir-fried broccoli, which certainly paved the way.
But it’s a perennial problem for a lot of parents: how to get kids to eat veggies? I know I had this problem, and for a while, there was nothing on Earth that could induce Number One Son to eat even a single bite of something green. And I know I wasn’t alone.
