How fructose may be fueling the obesity epidemic

                 

Scientists have found out how fructose sweeteners in processed and packaged foods may be fueling America's obesity epidemic, discovered with the help of brain imaging studies.

Research from investigators at Oregon Health & Science University fructose sends different signals to the brain than the sweetener glucose that is important for controlling body weight.
The authors say, “For consumers, our findings support current recommendations that people be conscious of sweeteners added to their drinks and meals and not overindulge on high-fructose, processed foods.”
Jonathan Purnell, M.D., an associate professor of medicine (endocrinology, diabetes and clinical nutrition) in the OHSU School of Medicine explains, "With newer technologies such as functional MRI, we can examine how brain activity in humans reacts when exposed to, say, carbohydrates or fats. What we've found in this case is that the brain's response to fructose is very different to the response to glucose, which is less likely to promote weight gain."
To find out why fructose may be fueling obesity, the researchers conducted functional MRI imaging studies on nine normal weight study participants during intravenous infusion of fructose, glucose or a saline solution,
They focused on two areas of the brain - the hypothalmus and the cortical brain area that control response to the way food tastes, smells and to pictures of food that can influence eating behaviors through food advertisements and brain response.
The findings on brain imaging showed fructose and glucose did not affect the hypothalmus that regulates food intake - but fructose did inhibit activity in the cortical brain area that was not seen with glucose.
Dr, Purnell says, "This study provides evidence in humans that fructose and glucose elicits opposite responses in the brain. It supports the animal research that shows similar findings and links fructose with obesity."

Calorie Chart: How many have you had today?

If you are planning on losing some pounds, remember that a proper diet and regular exercise are the best way to achieve that weight you have been looking for. If this is your case, you should consider how many calories per day you are taking. A calorie chart is a great tool for this, since it shows you the amount of calories each food has. Based on this chart you can decide to eat food with less calories to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The amount of energy on each food is measured by calories. Naturally, all aliments provide different amount of calories. Some of them, like ice cream for instance, have more calories in comparison to others, such as vegetables, which only have a few. That is why the Calorie Chart can be very helpful because by limiting your intake of calories you will find that losing weight is not an impossible task. The benefits of having an ideal weight go far beyond your looks, since it also affects your health and allows you live better each day.
The physical activities that you perform during the day determine how many calories you will need per day. Depending on how much energy you burn during the day, you might need more or less calories. By instance, an office clerk would need less calories than a construction worker. Other aspects such as gender, age and height also need to be considered.
The idea of using a calorie chart, other than knowing how many calories you are taking, is to choose foods which have less calories than others. For example you will find that even some alcoholic beverages have less calories than others, making them a better choice for your health.
A good idea is to keep a calorie journal, which will allow you to have a better perspective of what you are really putting into your body and be more conscious about it. When you go food shopping, take a calorie list to make sure you pick those products that have only the calories you really need and then keep the list in mind every time you are about to eat. With practice, you will become so aware of that you are eating that you will find it easier to remind what is healthier for you to eat. In either way, you can always consult the Calorie Chart if you have any doubts.
Definitely, a calorie chart is a very useful tool to be included on your daily life. Remember that losing weight is never about not eating and shouldn't be a painful process in any way. It is mostly about making conscious choices about what you eat and how you wish to feel about yourself. It is strongly suggested that you visit a physician or a nutritionist if you have weight issues before going into any kind of diet. Keeping your ideal weight is a great way to take care of your health and show yourself how much you really care about your own life.

Losing Weight With 12-Second Sequence

Revewing 12-Second Sequence weight loss book, TODAY says that Wellness expert Jorge Cruise promises to reduce your waistline in just two weeks with his %26quot;12-Second Sequence%26quot; weight-loss program.
As the year is just out and many people’s New Year’s Resolution lists include weight loss after holiday and Christmas parties they will be made aware of many new diet and weight loss books and programs that make promises to address various parts of healthy eating and diet. One of them now is 12-Second Sequence book by Jorge Cruise telling you how can one shrink waistline in just two weeks.
One mother in Amazon.com reviewing 12-Second Sequence writes that "This workout is fantastic! I am a super busy mom and just tried the DVD last week. I felt it the next day and it only took me about 20 minutes 2x per week. He also wants you to add 20 mins of cardio on the other days. Very doable program and he is not too bad to look at either!!! Looked like he has had a lot of success with clients on program too. Will try joining his online club. Great diet plan you can get easy access too there as well as the book. Thanks again Jorge for another great, doable program.
Amazon.com – 10 Questions with Jorge Cruise about The 12-Second Sequence,,
1. What is the 12-Second Sequence,, and how does it work?
The 12-Second Sequence,, is a breakthrough new method to lose belly fat with resistance training. It uniquely combines two proven resistance techniques–slow cadence lifting and static contraction–to create my trademark method: Controlled Tension,, . My team and I spent years developing this method that dramatically reduces the average workout time. In just twenty minutes, you will get the equivalent of a two-hour workout. How is this possible? Well, Controlled Tension,, fatigues your muscle tissue faster than any other program available; when you create muscle fatigue, you are on your way to building new fat-burning lean muscle tissue, which is critical to sculpting and toning your body–and getting rid of that dreaded belly fat! With the 12-Second Sequence,, , you will see your waist shrink in two weeks. Plus, if you commit to the entire 8 weeks of the program, you will see your best body ever.
The plan consists of two 20-minute workouts per week. Those 20-minute workouts are made up of three circuits of four exercise moves, for a total of 12 moves per workout day. You’ll do 4 reps per move. Each move should take you 90 seconds and each circuit should take you 6 minutes, for a total of 18 minutes. I’ve thrown in 2 minutes of transition time for you.
2. Why is lean muscle tissue so crucial for weight loss?
Lean muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue on your body. Because it needs energy just to operate, it burns calories constantly–even when you’re doing nothing at all. This means that the more lean muscle tissue you have on your body, the more fat you burn every day. Plus, lean muscle is much more compact than fat so it actually makes you appear slimmer, and it’s what gives you great tone and definition.
3. Can you really burn up to 20 percent more calories every day? How does that work?
Yes. Using the average woman as an example, I will show you how it works. A woman who’s 5’4", 160 pounds, naturally burns about 1,800 calories a day. When you strength train twice a week with the 12-Second Sequence,, , you burn 200 calories during each workout, already burning an extra 400 calories. Plus, when you strength train you create after-burn, which is the energy your body uses to return itself to a "resting state." This energy burns an additional 400 calories each week.
Now, for the most powerful calorie-burning element–lean muscle tissue. When you add five pounds of lean muscle tissue to your body with the incredibly effective 12-Second Sequence,, workouts , you increase your calories burned each day by 250–that’s 1,750 more calories burned each week! Here’s a quick overview of how it all breaks down:
400 calories (from the workout)
400 calories (from the after-burn)
+ 1,750 calories (from lean muscle tissue)
____________________________
2,550 additional calories burned each week! = 20%

Energy Equation Proposes Patterns Of Weight Gain, Loss

Controlling body weight is a simple matter of balancing how much you eat against how much you burn, right? For some, maybe, but HMS researchers have devised a mathematical model of energy balance and body weight that suggests a more complicated equation.
The model predicts that mice susceptible to developing resistance to the metabolic regulator leptin have multiple stable body weights. Simulated mice based on the model grow obese after overeating, eventually hitting a high stable weight. But losing this weight and returning to a lower stable weight can be extraordinarily difficult. Though the model blends two competing theories of body weight, it departs from their predictions that body weight gravitates to one stable weight or weight range. If the model proves correct, it may point to new interventions to help ease weight loss even in the most intractable cases.
It may seem odd that this model of metabolism comes from the lab of a tumor biologist, Rakesh Jain, the A. Werk Cook professor of radiation oncology (tumor biology) at Massachusetts General Hospital. But to Jain, a chemical engineer trained to think in terms of systems and controls, it is perfectly natural. In fact, his career in tumor biology began with a mathematical model of pressure differentials in tumors. Jain got into obesity research when he learned that leptin, in addition to regulating body weight, may also regulate blood vessel formation.
Joshua Tam, a doctoral student in the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and also a chemical engineer, picked up on Jain’s interest. He saw parallels between engineering control systems and the body’s system to regulate weight, so he wanted to see if the engineering tools fit. Tam is first author of the January Cell Metabolism paper that describes the resulting model.
Weight Regulation
Drawing on decades of experiments in mice, Tam defined a set of equations that simulates their collective results. He began by creating two models, each aligned with one of the two prevailing theories of body weight regulation. One, the set point model, works much like the cruise control system in a car. The leptin system in the body aims to maintain a constant body weight by adjusting the desire for food and the burn rate. The other, the settling point model, is a more open-ended system. Tam likened it to a water faucet; adjusting the hot and cold taps results in a water temperature that settles in a given range.
Though Tam built both models on experimental evidence, neither fit perfectly with all the evidence. Simulated mice representing the set point model never remained obese; their weights always returned to the set point. This contradicted evidence of diet-induced obesity in live mice. The settling point model contradicted evidence in the case of starvation.
So Tam decided to combine the two models. The unified model uses the set point theory to simulate the case of starvation, but when leptin levels in the brain cross a certain threshold, the settling point dynamics take over. This kind of combination, said Jain, is very common in thermodynamics. “You develop it based on one phase, then another phase, then you mix it together.”
It is not, however, common in biology. Co-author Dai Fukumura, HMS associate professor of radiation oncology at MGH, played a large role in this work by acting as a translator. He helped Tam and Jain ground their model in biology and also helped them change their engineering-centric (and, to them, “common sense”) explanations into more accessible terms.
Another element Tam added to the models was a way to simulate leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone produced by fat tissue. It crosses the blood–brain barrier and signals the body to stop eating. In its absence, the body craves food. A decreased sensitivity to leptin results in unnecessarily high food intake, so it is thought to be a cause of diet-induced obesity. It is also thought to be a consequence of obesity because, as fat stores increase, leptin concentrations also increase, eventually triggering the development of resistance.

Low-Fat Diets Reduce Risk Of Ovarian Cancer In Postmenopausal Women

Low-Fat Diets
Adherence to a low-fat diet for at least eightyears reduces the risk of developing ovarian cancer amongpostmenopausal women by 40%, according to results from the NIH-sponsored Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trail published online Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the AP/Google.com reports. According to the American Cancer Society, about 22,400 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year and about 15,200 will die from the disease.
For the study, Ross Prentice of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centerand colleagues tracked nearly 40,000 women ages 50 to 79, some of whomwere assigned to reduce the amount of fat in their diets from anaverage of 35% to 20%, while others maintained their normal diets(Neergaard, AP/Google.com, 10/9). The study found that after the firstfour years of the study, the two groups had similar cancer rates;however, after the next four years of the study, the intervention grouphad a rate of 0.38 cases of ovarian cancer per 1,000 women annually,compared with a rate of 0.64 cases per 1,000 women in the control group(Brown, Reuters Health, 10/9).
Thestudy also found that women in the intervention group had a 9% lowerrisk of developing breast cancer, but the finding was not large enoughto be statistically significant. According to the AP/Google.com, someresearchers have theorized that high fat intake increases the amount ofestrogen in the blood, which could play a role in the development ofovarian and breast cancer. The study found that women in theintervention group had an average 15% reduction in estradiol, a form ofestrogen, while the control group had no change. Women in the study whocut their fat intake the most experienced the greatest reduction inbreast and ovarian cancer risk, according to the study (AP/Google.com,10/9).
"The take-home message for the practicing clinician isthat encouraging postmenopausal female patients to undertake a changeto a low-fat diet likely will reduce ovarian cancer risk and may alsoreduce the risk of breast cancer and total invasive cancer," Prenticesaid (Reuters Health, 10/9).
Most Women Unaware of WHI Results, Survey Says
Most women are unaware of the results from WHI studies that have foundsignificant health risks associated with long-term hormone replacementtherapy, according to a recently released survey, HealthDay/Washington Post reports (Doheny, HealthDay/Washington Post, 10/10).
NIHresearchers in July 2002 ended the WHI study on combination HRT threeyears early because they determined that the treatment might increasethe risk for heart disease, invasive breast cancer and other healthproblems. A later WHI analysis, published in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that HRT use among women in their 50s does not increase their risk for heart attack (Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 9/17).
For the survey, Randall Stafford, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center,and colleagues interviewed 781 women ages 40 to 60 to determine if theyknew about the study, including 252 premenopausal women, 88perimenopausal women and 227 women who were menopausal orpostmenopausal. The researchers asked: "Have you heard or read anythingabout the results of the Women’s Health Initiative, a major researchstudy in the U.S. suggesting the health risks of taking hormone therapyoutweigh the benefits for most women?"
The survey found thatonly 29% knew of the study. In addition, 40% answered more questionsabout the risks of HRT use correctly than incorrectly, and 64% knewthat hormones were thought to increase the risk of breast cancer. About36% of women who were aware of the WHI findings had talked with theirdoctors about HRT, and 15% of women who did not know about the studyresults discussed HRT with their physicians, the survey found.

Yale Targets Weight Loss Pill

Researchers from Yale University may be close to finding a weight loss pill that boosts energy, and reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes. The scientist found that lowering a key enzyme in the brain, prolylcarboxypeptidase (PRCP), can decrease appetite and improve energy, resulting in weight loss.
The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation was performed on mice. The researchers found that PRCP controls another essential hormone that regulates energy expenditure and inhibits food intake. The result of targeting PRCP was weight loss and decreased risk of type 2 diabetes.
Senior author Sabrina Diano, associate professor in the Departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Neurobiology says, "Our research provides the first evidence that breaking down molecules in the brain that regulate metabolism is an important component of weight control.”
The molecule, alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) remained higher when PRCP was blocked, providing a new target for weight loss pills.
The study was conducted on mice that were naturally lean and then on mice that had PRCP removed. They ate less and lost weight. The mice had lower alpha-MSH, a hormone produced in the hypothalamus.
The mice were even able to lose weight when given a “fast food” type diet, containing forty five percent fat. Blocking PRCP in the brain resulted in less weight gain compared to mice given a regular diet. The findings could result in new and improved weight loss pills to treat escalating rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. The study is considered a major advance in weight loss and obesity research.