Nutrition Frenzy

Caffeine eases aftereffects of athletic exertion, new study suggests

Let’s hear it for Coffee!!! HOORAH!!!

That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

So the researcher, a former competitive cyclist, divided 25 fit, college-aged males into two distinct groups: subjects whose everyday caffeine consumption was extremely low to non-existent, and those with an average caffeine intake of about 400 milligrams a day, the equivalent of three to four cups of coffee.

Unexpected results
After completing an initial exercise test in the lab on a stationary bike to determine maximal oxygen consumption or aerobic power, subjects returned for two monitored high-intensity, 30-minute exercise sessions.

An hour prior to each session, cyclists — who had been instructed not to consume caffeine during the prior 24-hour period — were given a pill. On one occasion, it contained a dose of caffeine measuring 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two to three cups of coffee); the other time, they received a placebo.

During both exercise periods, subjects’ perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain was recorded at regular intervals, along with data on oxygen consumption, heart rate and work rate.

Make vegetables more appealing:

Many vegetables taste great with a dip or dressing. Try a low-fat salad dressing with raw broccoli, red and green peppers, celery sticks or cauliflower.
Add color to salads by adding baby carrots, shredded red cabbage, or spinach leaves. Include in-season vegetables for variety through the year.
Include cooked dry beans or peas in flavorful mixed dishes, such as chili or minestrone soup.
Decorate plates or serving dishes with vegetable slices.
Keep a bowl of cut-up vegetables in a see-through container in the refrigerator. Carrot and celery sticks are traditional, but consider broccoli florettes, cucumber slices, or red or green pepper strips.
Vegetable tips for children:

Set a good example for children by eating vegetables with meals and as snacks.
Let children decide on the dinner vegetables or what goes into salads.
Depending on their age, children can help shop for, clean, peel, or cut up vegetables.
Allow children to pick a new vegetable to try while shopping.
Use cut-up vegetables as part of afternoon snacks.
Children often prefer foods served separately. So, rather than mixed vegetables try serving two vegetables separately.
Keep it safe:

Wash vegetables before preparing or eating them. Under clean, running water, rub vegetables briskly with your hands to remove dirt and surface microorganisms. Dry after washing.
Keep vegetables separate from raw meat, poultry and seafood while shopping, preparing, or storing

Nutrition facts labels prominently display information about protein. But of the three macronutrients in food – protein, fat, and carbohydrates — protein may be the one most of us know least about.

How much protein do you need to stay healthy? What’s the best source of protein?

Protein requirements are complicated because the amount we need changes with age.

Infants require about 10 grams a day.
Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
Adult women need about 46 grams a day.
One important exception is pregnant or lactating women, when the recommended intake rises to 71 grams of protein a day.

Another way to count protein requirements is as a percentage of calories. The USDA’s MyPyramid plan suggests that protein make up between 17% to 21% percent of total calories. The Institute of Medicine recommends we get at least 10% and no more than 35% of calories from protein.

Are You Getting Enough Protein?
Many of us might do well to add a few additional sources of protein.

A 2008 analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2003-2004 found that 7.7% of adolescent females and about 8% of older adult women weren’t hitting the minimum recommended amount of protein.

As a proportion of total calories, the median intake of protein in children was 13.4%, below the ideal range. Men aged 51 to 70 consumed 16% of their calories in protein, also a little below the recommended amount.

The Risks of Too Little Protein
That shortfall could mean trouble. Protein is important to many physiological functions, from building muscle and bone to keeping cells in good working order.

Recent studies suggest that protein makes a meal more satiating, which in turn could help people maintain a healthy weight. Indeed, a 2005 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that increasing protein from 15% to 30% of total calories — and reducing fat from 35% to 20% of calories — resulted in sustained weight loss.

Taking calcium and vitamin D supplements may help overweight women to lose body fat, but only if their calcium intake from food is already quite low, a small study suggests.

The study, which followed 63 overweight or obese women, found that those who took a calcium-plus-vitamin-D supplement in addition to a lower-calorie diet lost no more body fat over 15 weeks than those given a placebo.

When the researchers looked at only those women with a very low calcium intake before the study, the supplement did seem to have a benefit.

Among the women — who had been getting less than 600 milligrams of calcium per day — the calcium/vitamin D supplement spurred greater reductions in weight and body fat.

While the reason for the benefit is unclear, there was evidence that the supplement helped curb women’s appetite for fatty food, the researchers report in the British Journal of Nutrition.

During a buffet-style test meal, the study found, women who’d been taking the supplement ate less fat than they had at a test meal done at the study’s start. The same was not true of women in the placebo group, however.

For the study, the researchers had 63 overweight middle-aged women go on a calorie-restricted diet. All had been getting inadequate calcium in their diets — less than 800 mg, compared with the recommended 1,000 mg for women ages 19 to 50.

Half of the women were randomly assigned to take a calcium/vitamin D supplement twice a day, which provided 1,200 mg of calcium daily. The other half took placebo pills.

Only women with the lowest calcium intake prior to the study — less than 600 mg — seemed to get added fat-loss benefits from the supplement. Supplement users lost 13 pounds, on average, versus 3 pounds in the placebo group.

While the results from the test meals suggest that extra calcium may help calcium-deficient women curb their appetites while dieting, more research is needed to confirm that, according to Tremblay’s team.

Study finds what people have known for years.

The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That’s compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

For processed meats, the increased risks for large quantities were slightly lower overall than for red meat. The researchers compared deaths in the people with the highest intakes to deaths in people with the lowest to calculate the increased risk.

So watch out for how much red meat you eat. If you have concerns, contact your dietician, health care physican or nurse.

Doctors are puzzling over what seems to be an increase in the number of children with kidney stones, a condition some blame on kids’ love of cheeseburgers, fries and other salty foods.

Kidney stones are usually an adult malady, one that is notorious for causing excruciating pain — pain worse than childbirth. But while the number of affected children isn’t huge, kids with kidney stones have been turning up in rising numbers at hospitals around the country.

At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale.

In a 2007 study in the Journal of Urology, doctors at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center reported a nearly fivefold increase in children brought in with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005. In 2005, 61 youngsters were treated there for stones.

Dr. David Hatch at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., near Chicago, also has seen an increase. His youngest patient was a cranky 8-month-old girl whose mother found a pea-size kidney stone in her diaper.

Kids’ stones have been the talk of recent pediatric kidney specialists’ conferences, said Dr. Uri Alon, director of the bone and mineral disorders clinic at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.

So far, the only evidence is anecdotal. But Alon is involved in research trying to determine if the increase is real and not just the result of greater awareness and better ways of detecting stones. Alon also is studying whether improved nutrition can prevent kids’ kidney stones.

Eating too much salt can result in excess calcium in the urine. In children, most stones are calcium-based, and Alon said their eating habits, plus drinking too little water, puts them at risk. Plenty of water is generally recommended to help prevent kidney stones.

Reside of allergy, cholesterol, other meds were in fish near 5 major cities

Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday.

Findings from this first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations.

“The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it,” said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

In an ongoing investigation, The Associated Press has reported trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals have been detected in drinking water provided to at least 46 million Americans.

The EPA has called for additional studies about the impact on humans of long-term consumption of minute amounts of medicines in their drinking water, especially in unknown combinations. Limited laboratory studies have shown that human cells failed to grow or took unusual shapes when exposed to combinations of some pharmaceuticals found in drinking water.

“This pilot study is one important way that EPA is increasing its scientific knowledge about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment,” said EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Rudzinski. She said the completed and expanded EPA sampling for pharmaceuticals and other compounds in fish and surface water is part of the agency’s National Rivers and Stream Assessment.

From webmd: Here are some common diet mistakes that even food-savvy consumers make:

Healthy Eating Mistake No. 1: Buying Fresh Produce for the Entire Week
Once fruits and vegetables are harvested, they start losing some of their vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. So keeping them in the crisper all week long can mean robbing yourself of nutrition.

Healthy Eating Mistake No. 2: Buying Too Much Processed Food
Processed foods tend to have more sodium and saturated fat, and less fiber and nutrients. Instead, start with fresh, whole foods as much as possible. When you do choose convenience products, look for those that contain whole grains (like whole-wheat bread and hot dog buns, whole-grain tortillas, and whole-grain blend pasta), have no trans fat, and are low in saturated fat (like bottled marinara made with olive oil, light salad dressing made with canola or olive oil, and some broth- or tomato-based soups.)

Healthy Eating Mistake No. 3: Eating Out or Ordering Takeout More Often Than Not
“According to our research, the average American adult purchases a meal or snack from a restaurant 5.8 times per week,” says Annika Stensson, director of media relations for the National Restaurant Association.

Healthy Eating Mistake No. 4: Not Taking Advantage of Food Synergy
Do you peel your apples or tomatoes? Do you eat your veggie-rich green salad with fat-free dressing? Do you like to peel and chop your garlic right before adding it into your stir-fry or sauce? If you answered “yes” to any of the above, you are decreasing the availability to your body of important nutrients found in these foods.

That’s because there are all sorts of relationships between the various components within certain foods and between certain foods, a concept called “food synergy.” For example, certain phytochemicals in apple peel account for most of apples’ healthy antioxidant activity, so peeling apples isn’t the healthiest way to go.

Also, it’s a good idea to let your minced or chopped garlic rest for 15 minutes before proceeding with cooking, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research. This helps ensure that the enzymatic reaction that begins when garlic is chopped releases as much of the antioxidant allyl sulfur as possible — and thus maximizes the cancer-fighting benefits.

Healthy Eating Mistake No. 5: Avoiding High-Fat Plant Foods
The three foods that come to mind are avocados, nuts, and olives, which are relatively high in calories and fat but low in saturated fat. These foods contribute smart fats to our diet, and they come with fiber and phytochemicals, too.

Moderation is the key here. So enjoy a quarter of an avocado on sandwiches and in salads, or a handful of nuts as a snack or added to your salad, cereal, or pasta. Use a light drizzle of olive oil in cooking. And add olives to salads, sandwiches, and casseroles, or eat them as a snack.

Lab study offers new clues about how the body metabolizes carbohydrates

From MSNBC Health: Very interesting study. We may not be all that responsible for weight gain, and therefore, must work all that much harder to get rid of that fat.

Researchers have found a gene responsible for turning a plate of pasta into fat, offering new clues about how the body metabolizes carbohydrates and how they contribute to obesity.

The gene, called DNA-PK, appears to regulate the process in the liver that turns carbohydrates into fat, the University of California, Berkeley team reported on Thursday in the journal Cell.

“We hope that this research will one day help people eat bread, pasta and rice and not worry about getting fat,” Roger Wong, a graduate student who worked on the study, said in a statement.

When they bred mice with a disabled version of this gene, the mice stayed slim even when fed the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat pasta buffet.

“The DNA-PK disabled mice were leaner and had 40 percent less body fat compared with a control group of normal mice because of their deficiency in turning carbs into fat,” Wong said.

He said the mice who lacked this gene did not get fat when they ate high-carb food and they had lower levels of blood cholesterol, which can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Since humans have the same gene, the team thinks it may serve as a potential target for drugs to prevent obesity.

Just think of the possibilities.

7 products that claim to shrink your belly, fight cancer and help your heart

Acai Berry

Claims: This small purple berry, harvested from the Açai Palm in Brazil, is said to fight heart disease due to a potent mix of antioxidants, minerals and amino and fatty acids. Some product makers also claim the berry helps people lose weight, prevents aging and stops cancer.

Reality check: Açai berries do contain beneficial fatty acids and high levels of phytochemicals, an anti-inflammatory, fibrous, antioxidant blend that research suggests may reduce chronic-disease risk. However, there isn’t enough scientific evidence to claim that açai berries are more beneficial than other phytochemical-rich berries such as blueberries, raspberries or cranberries

Claims: This relatively low-caffeine, less processed form of tea is said to contain high levels of antioxidants that help prevent cancer and heart disease. Some vendors also claim it helps people lose weight.

Green Tea

Reality check: Research confirms that green tea is rich in antioxidants. However, evidence that it benefits heart health or prevents cancer is not conclusive, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

What about the weight-loss claims? They’re not completely unfounded, says Washington, D.C., nutritionist Katherine Tallmadge, an American Dietetic Association spokesperson. Green tea contains the fat-burning compounds catechins, but you’d have to drink at least three cups of it daily for the slightest drop in weight, she says.
Black tea actually packs a bigger weight-loss wallop, she says, because in addition to catechins, it contains more caffeine — also a weight-loss aid.

Mangosteen fruit

Claims: This purple fruit from Asia is said to contain powerful antioxidants called xanthones, which are found in a few tropical fruits. Xanthones are supposed to boost the immune system, improve intestinal health and ward off cancer.

Reality check: As with some açai berry manufacturers, a marketing network is selling mangosteen as a blended juice. In the U.S., a bottle of XanGo goes for $37. And as with the açai berry, no rigorous research on humans exists to back the immunity-boosting claims, notes nutritionist Salge Blake.

Dark chocolate

Claims: The cocoa in dark chocolate contains phytochemicals known as flavonols, which marketers say help the heart by controlling bad cholesterol and ease blood pressure by expanding blood vessels.

Reality check: The flavonols in dark chocolate — not regular or milk chocolate — do appear to fight cholesterol and may even give your brain a boost, research indicates.

(more…)

Teenage boys who regularly eat fish may be doing their brains some good, a new study suggests.

Swedish researchers found that among nearly 5,000 15-year-old boys they surveyed, those who ate fish more than once per week tended to score higher on intelligence tests three years later.

The findings, published in the journal Acta Pediatrica, add to evidence that fish may indeed be brain food.

Researchers believe that the omega-3 fats found in fish — particularly oily fish like salmon, mackerel and, to a lesser extent, albacore tuna — are important to early brain development and to maintaining healthy brain function throughout life.

Past studies have found, for instance, that children whose mothers who ate fish regularly during pregnancy tend to have higher intelligence scores than their peers, and older fish-eaters have been shown to have a lower risk of cognitive impairment.

The new study appears to be the first large-scale one to look at the effects of fish on teenagers’ intelligence, lead researcher Dr. Maria Aberg, of Goteborg University, told Reuters Health.

This is important, she explained, because the late-teens are a critical period for the brain “plasticity” that underlies intelligence and emotional and social behavior. Plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to reorganize the connections among cells in response to normal experience, like learning a new skill, or to injury.

The findings are based on data from 4,792 male adolescents who completed detailed questionnaires on diet and lifestyle when they were 15 years old, then underwent standard intelligence tests when they were 18.

Extra pounds as bad for health as lifetime of smoking, large study says

Being obese can take years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking, a new study says.

British researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed 57 studies mostly in Europe and North America, following nearly one million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 100,000 of those people died.

The studies used Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement that divides a person’s weight in kilograms by their height squared in meters to determine obesity. Researchers found that death rates were lowest in people who had a BMI of 23 to 24, on the high side of the normal range.

Health officials generally define overweight people as those with a BMI from 25 to 29, and obese people as those with a BMI above 30.

The study was published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and others.

“If you are heading towards obesity, it may be a good idea to lose weight,” said Sir Richard Peto, the study’s main statistician and a professor at Oxford University.

He said that obese people were also two thirds more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke, and up to four times more likely to die of diabetes, kidney or liver problems. They were one sixth more likely to die of cancer.Previous studies have found that death rates increase both above and below a normal BMI score, and that people who are moderately overweight live longer than underweight or normal-weight people.

To mark St Patrick’s Day, Faith Central has compiled 10 celebratory tidbits, some myth, some fact, on the Patron Saint of the Irish.

1. The potato crop was traditionally planted in Ireland after March 17

2. Blue not green is the color originally associated with St Patrick. “St Patrick’s Blue” is used on Ireland’s Presidential Standard or flag, while the Irish Guards sport a plume of St Patrick’s blue in their bearskins. The emphasis on green is thought to be linked to “wearing the Green”, a symbol from the 18th century on, of sympathy with Irish independence.

3. St Patrick is patron of fishermen in the Loire, where a legend associates him with a blackthorn bush. The saint is said to have slept beneath it, and when he awoke the next day, Christmas, the bush flowered, and was said to have continued to do so every Christmas until its destruction during the First World War.

4. A regiment of the Mexican army in the 1846 -8 War between Mexico and America was named after St Patrick. Members of the Batellón de San Patricio included Afro-Americans freshly liberated from the slave plantations of the South, and the soldiers were granted Mexican citizenship afterwards.

. The first St Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston, followed in 1762 by New York. George Washington allowed his soldiers a holiday on March 17, 1780 as “an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence.”

6. Until the 1970’s, all pubs were shut in Ireland on St Patrick’s Day, and the sole venue selling drink the annual dog show. Lenten fasting – and the obligation to abstain from meat – were lifted on the day, which most families would begin with Mass.

7. St Patrick’s Day is a public holiday in Ireland and also in Monserrat “the Emerald Isle of the Carribean,” so called because it was settled in 1633 by Irish migrants from St Kitts.

8. According to legend, on the day of Judgement, while Christ judges all other nations, St Patrick will be the judge of the Irish.

9. Since 1962, tons of green dye are tipped on St Patrick’s Day into the Chicago river, although the quantity has reduced, for environmental reasons, from 100 to 40.

10. Should you wish to carry on celebrating St Patrick after March 17, in the United States, you might visit the four Shamrocks in the USA including Mount Gay-Shamrock, W.Va or the nine cities named Dublin, including Dublin, Ohio (the largest Dublin in the U.S.) and Dublin, Georgia.

Five easy ways to helpyour metabolism speed up.

Exercise more. When you walk, run, or lift weights, you increase the energy required of your body, which raises your metabolism then, and for hours afterward.

Work out with weights. During weight training, muscle tissue is stressed; afterward, it’s repaired — which raises metabolism.

Practice portion control. This helps ensure you don’t overload your metabolism with a surplus of unusable energy (that is, food).

Use a food scale or measuring cups to identify proper portions. Or use your hand as a guide. A fist equals a serving of fruit, a cupped hand equals a serving of cereal or grains, two cupped handfuls equal a serving of leafy green vegetables and an open palm equals a serving of meat.

Eat smaller meals more often. Some experts recommend eating smaller meals throughout the day, known as grazing. “Grazing helps normalize blood sugar levels rather than producing three large spikes, which is what happens eating three meals a day,” says Nick Flynn, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas.

Determine the amount of calories you need at Mypyramid.gov. Then keep that number in mind as you transition from eating three ordinary-sized meals to five smaller ones.

Laugh it off. When researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, put people into a “metabolic chamber” (a small room that measures heat output in order to calculate a person’s metabolic rate) and showed them funny videos, the subjects’ metabolic rates rose by 10 to 40 calories. It’s a small increase, but every calorie counts for those seeking weight loss, says lead researcher Maciej Buchowksi, PhD.

iReporter Jason Dinant on a quest for six-pack abs has sweet tooth binge; Men’s Health model and fitness expert said falling off wagon is OK if temporary; Dinant reports that so far, his abs are looking more like a four-pack He eats 16 egg whites, 1¼ pounds of meat, 4 cups of veggies, potatoes, rice a day.

Midway through Jason Dinant’s fitness journey to get six-pack abs by June, the 27-year-old had a breakdown.

After months of eschewing junk food in favor of lean protein — egg whites, chicken breast and vegetables — he devoured pie. The slice came from Marie Callender’s, drizzled with caramel, loaded with candied apples and layered with cream cheese.

Yes, it was delicious, Dinant said.

Then he got home and had a Tootsie Roll. Then, he ate a Klondike ice cream bar.

The breakdown came late February after months of following a lean diet. It also came with consequences.

“When I woke up the next day, I had a horrible stomach ache,” Dinant said. “My trainer said once you’re on the diet, you can try to go back and have a day where you binge on bad food and it’s going to give you a stomach ache.”

Since January, CNNhealth has been following the progress of three iReport contributors as they strive to meet their New Year’s diet and fitness goals.

One of them is Dinant, a Las Vegas, Nevada resident, who wanted to get a six-pack by summer in time for his 10-year high school reunion. He also wants to show off a chiseled stomach on his blog called “Naked Boy News,” where he stands shirtless to give “the naked truth about today’s news.”

The junk food breakdown came after almost two months of staying on a lean diet. The self-described “candyaholic” often craved his favorite treats like York Peppermint patties, macaroons, Mounds bars and Coca Cola.