U.K. Shoppers Don’t Follow Portion Sizes

Aug 12, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: Diet-Blog

Flickr: no-frills marilyn.

Portion sizes are a dopey idea. I see a bunch of marketing people staring at an empty tray, deciding how much Salisbury steak to cram into a TV dinner.

Or, go into an Outback Steakhouse, they don’t seem too concerned about portion sizes. A “bloomin’ onion” looks like a deep-fried prehistoric creature.

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UK Government Advised to Change Alcohol Guidelines

Aug 8, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: Diet-Blog

Experts have advised the UK Government to change the guidelines for safe drinking: currently 2-3 units per day for women, and 3-4 units per day for men.

Liver specialist, Dr Nick Sheron (Alcohol Health Alliance UK), says the old guidelines were based on sound research, which stated a weekly limit of 21 units per week for men, and 14 units per week for women, and emphasised the need for alcohol-free days.

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Slide Into Debt Could Bring Wider Waistline

Aug 8, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

Latest Diet & Weight Management News

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FRIDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) — Obesity rates may increase along with rising financial debt, German researchers suggest.In their study, Eva Munster and her colleagues at the University of Mainz tracked the weight of more than 9,000 people.They found that while 11% of those who were not in debt were classified as obese, a full quarter of those who were in debt met the medical criteria for obesity.Writing in the early online edition of BMC Public Health, the researchers say they took into account the income of the participants, and the link between debt and obesity “was …
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Egg substitutes

Aug 7, 2009 Author: Susan | Filed under: LifeTips

There are two types of egg whites’ substitutes – liquid and powered. Liquid egg whites are regular eggs minus the yolk. Take 2 Tbs. of liquid egg whites if a recipe calls for one egg white.

Powdered egg whites can be fat-free. To use, mix with water or both until needed thickness is achieved.

Cooking with egg substitutes are similar to cooking with regular egg whites – add tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers, cheese, spices, broth or cream – and cook omelet or use for baking.

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Freshman 15: College Weight Gain Is Real

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD

1 in 4 College Freshmen Gain About 10 Pounds in First Semester

By
Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by
Louise Chang, MD

July 28, 2009 — Students headed off to college this fall beware: The infamous freshman 15 is for real.

A new study shows that nearly one in four freshmen gain at least 5% of their body weight, an average of about 10 pounds, during their first semester.
“Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college,” researchers Heidi J. Wengreen and Cara Moncur of the department of nutrition and food sciences at Utah State University in Logan write in Nutrition Journal.
“This study provides further evidence that the transition to college life is a critical period of risk for weight gain, and college freshmen are an important target population for obesity prevention strategies.”

College Weight Gain Common

Although other studies have documented the phenomenon of the freshman 15 weight gain, researchers say few have examined the changes …
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Obesity Costs U.S. $147 Billion a Year

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD

Study: Annual Care Costs $1,429 More for Each Obese American

By
Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by
Louise Chang, MD

July 27, 2009 – Obesity costs the U.S. health care system up to $147 billion a year: An extra $1,429 per year for each obese person.

It’s not obesity itself that costs so much. It’s the bad health that comes with it, says a new study.
“The medical costs attributable to obesity are almost entirely a result of costs generated from treating the diseases obesity promotes,” lead study author Eric A. Finkelstein, PhD, director of North Carolina’s RTI Public Health Economics Program, says in a news release.
Those diseases include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and stroke.
If nobody in the U.S. were obese, we’d spend 9% less on health care. But more than a third of us are obese — and another third of us are overweight.
That’s a scary statistic. …
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The Health And Weight Loss Benefits of Magnesium

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Susan | Filed under: LifeTips

Magnesium is an important agent in so many physiological processes that its uses as a supplement range from depression to bone, muscle, and joint strengthening to blood vessels protection. The bone, muscle, and joint part seems to be the reason for your prescription.

Recent research in France showed the role of magnesium in the regulation of thyroid hormones, insulin, estrogen, testosterone, brain chemicals such as dopamine, catecholamines, serotonin, GABA, and body’s electrolytes.

Magnesium also controls the turnover of potassium and calcium in the body so deficit of magnesium causes calcium to be lost with the urine and deposited in the kidneys, arteries, joints, brain, where it is not welcomed.

Magnesium protects the cell from poisonous metals like aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel, which can contribute to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases multiple sclerosis, and learning retardation.

Magnesium glycinate is considered the preferred source of magnesium. …
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Snoozing May Help Women Shed Baby Weight

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

Latest Diet & Weight Management News

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FRIDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) — New moms who can’t zip up their pre-pregnancy jeans might not be catching enough zzzs.Getting a good night’s sleep, in fact, may be just as important as diet and exercise for shedding baby weight.One study of new mothers found that those who slept five or fewer hours a day six months after giving birth were three times as likely to hold onto those extra pounds as were women who got seven or more hours of sleep. Short sleep duration “stood out as an independent risk factor” for weight retention, said Erica P. Gunderson, a research scientist and epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., who worked on the study.For many women, postpartum weight retention is a serious issue because it can lead to long-term weight gain. Some studies show that up to 20% of women retain at least 11 pounds at six to 18 months after giving birth, Finnish researchers reported. Lifestyle …
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Unhooking the Obesity-Diabetes Connection

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

Latest Diabetes News

Unhooking the Obesity-Diabetes Connection
Cellular Protein Yields Clues to Diabetes
Cell Discovery May Bring Diabetes Cure
Medtronic Recalls Insulin Infusion Sets
Electronic System Helps Track Diabetes Care
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SUNDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) — Scientists may be closer to solving a medical mystery with huge implications for personal and public health: Why obese people are prone to developing type 2 diabetes.A series of studies appearing online July 26 in Nature Medicine suggest that inflammation within the fat tissues of heavy individuals could trigger the blood sugar disease. What’s more, each of the four completely independent studies, from two continents and three countries, showed that interfering with these immune-cell processes actually reversed diabetes in mice. The long-term implications of the findings are enticing: perhaps one day a cure for type 2 diabetes, a condition that now plagues more than 23 million people in the United States alone. “This group of papers suggests that cellular immunity may regulate inflammation in fat,” said Dr. Vivian Fonseca, professor of medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College …
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