Hot MedFax

As if we needed yet one more reason to hate diets. A new study has found that "hunger neurons" promote negative feelings, according to newswise.com.  Great.  I feel negative enough about cutting out M&Ms, especially those new peanut butter ones. Weight loss )supposedly) occurs when the amount of energy consumed in the form of food is less than the amount of energy burned. This can be accomplished by eating less or exercising more. Though don't kid yourself.  I'm a fanatic exerciser and I still have to watch every bite I put in my mouth. With either approach, the goal is to create a caloric debt that will be resolved by burning stored carbohydrate, protein, or fat. But here's the deal: eating feels good and being hungry is uncomfortable . Behaviors that evolved as survival mechanisms to ensure that an animal feeds itself become inconvenient and potentially detrimental side effects in industrialized human populations where cardiovascular disease...

It's something you learn right away at just about any weight loss control program. If you leave the chips out, you're going to want to eat them. Now a new study confirms it.  According to newswise.com, keeping foods visible throughout the house leads to obesity. The Ohio State University study focused primarily on determining whether the home environment – architectural features and food storage and availability – was associated with obesity, but also measured a number of psychological factors. While architectural features had no relationship to obesity status, several food-related findings did. People in the study who were obese kept more food visible throughout the house and generally ate less-healthy foods, such as sweets, than non-obese research participants. The two groups spent about the same amount of money on food and reported eating similar amounts of total calories, but non-obese participants spent less on fast food than did obese individuals. That...

 Diet.  Inflammation.  Cancer. There's a link.  A connection between inflammation and cancer has been found, and diet and nutrition contribute to not only colitis but colitis-associated colon cancer . Chronic inflammation appears to play a key role in the development of cancer, along with heart disease and diabetes. Now a new study presented today suggests that eating a diet high in sugar, saturated fats and others foods that promote inflammation increases the risk of premature death from any cause, including cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. A connection between inflammation and cancer has been recognized for over a hundred years, according to newswise.com.  This connection is particularly evident in colon carcinogenesis, because patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher incidence of colon cancer than the general population. The Web site reports that a new study has found that there's increasing evidence that infl...

Could it be that easy?  A new study says that if you think of exercise as fun, or a treat, instead of oh-God-it's-time-to-go-running, you'll lose weight. According to newswise.com, "Think of your next workout as a fun activity or as a well-deserved break – not exercise – and you’ll eat less and lose more weight, according to a new study from Cornell University Food and Brand Lab." The study analyzed the eating habits of people after walking 2 km (a little more than a mile) – half the participants were told the walk was exercise, while others were told it was a scenic walk. Researchers found that those who believed they completed an exercise walk ate 35 percent more chocolate pudding for dessert than those who had been on a scenic walk. On a different occasion, those thinking they had taken an exercise walk ate 206 more calories -- 124 percent more calories – than those who had been told they were on a scenic walk.  According to researchers, the study...

I suppose it shouldn't surprise us.  But a new survey has found that we tend to think the food's better when we pay more for it at a restaurant. The study suggests taste perception, as well as feelings of overeating and guilt, can be manipulated by price alone, according to newswise.com. “We were fascinated to find that pricing has little impact on how much one eats, but a huge impact on how you interpret the experience,” the Web site quotes Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a professor at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University who oversaw the research. “Simply cutting the price of food at a restaurant dramatically affects how customers evaluate and appreciate the food.” The study showed that customers who pay more at a restaurant buffet perceive the food as tastier than the same food offered at a lower price. Those in the study who paid $8 for a buffet reported enjoying their food on average 11 percent more than those who paid $4, though the t...

You're not going to believe this.  An apple a day does not keep the doctor away.  Fatty foods don't cause cancer.  But coffee may have some minimal benefit in warding off the disease. All revealed at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting, according to George Johnson of The New York Times. He reports that many of the supposed tried-and-true benefits of diet and illness just don't, well, hold water. He notes that in 1997 studies showed that " green vegetables helped ward off lung and stomach cancer. Colon and thyroid cancer might be avoided with broccoli, cabbage and brussels sprouts. Onions, tomatoes, garlic, carrots and citrus fruits all seemed to play important roles." But that was completely reversed in 2007. "The hypothesis that fatty foods are a direct cause of cancer  has also been crumbling , along with  the case for eating more fiber ," he adds . "The idea that red meat causes colon cancer is shrouded in ...

According to the experts, we're changing how we eat .   Our priorities have shifted, they say. Some of us have jumped on the gluten-free wagon while others now snack over 50% of the time they eat, newswise.com notes.  Here are the facts as the Web site reports them:    1. In a single day, American’s typically eat and drink 14 different kinds of food and beverages from sandwiches, fruit, vegetables, carbonated soft drinks, milk, coffee, potatoes, salty snacks, juices, and ready-to-eat cereal (NPD, 2013). 2. The largest restaurant chains in America from highest grossing are McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, Wendy’s,  Burger King, Taco Bell, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Chik-fil-A (Technomic, 2013).  3. Forty-five percent of Millennials and 24 percent of Boomers have adopted a special diet (e.g., gluten-free or vegan). One-third of all Millennials’ eating involve global cuisine; 56 percent of Millennials want something healthy for their next snack (H...

It's no surprise that fast food makers target their ads to kids.  We all know that.  But did you also know that  less than 1 percent of all fast food kids' meal combinations meet the recommended national nutrition standards?  And that only 3 percent of kids' meal combinations met standards set by the fast food industry itself for childhood nutrition? So reports dailyrx.com on a new study just out from Yale that found that kids see two to three fast food ads every day, and that's because in 2012 fast food advertising increased 8 percent from 2009. All in all, $4.6 billion was spent in advertising for fast food restaurants in 2012, according to the Web site. "For context, the biggest advertiser, McDonald’s, spent 2.7 times as much to advertise its products ($972 million) as all fruit, vegetable, bottled water, and milk advertisers combined ($367 million)," the report explained. dailyrx.com notes that, according to the study, the average US preschooler sa...

We get an "F." That's what the government sgives our dietary habits , according to Jane Brody.  The Center for Public Science periodically compiles a report card on how we're doing and we, well, flunked. Brody writes, "The analysis of changes in food consumption from 1970 to 2010 reveals that we still have a long way to go before we come close to meeting dietary guidelines for warding off obesity and chronic health problems like diabetes   and heart disease." Though there is some good news, she notes. "Our consumption of added sweeteners, though still significantly higher than it was in 1970, has come down from the 'sugar high' of 1999 when the average was 89 pounds per person." But an average of 78 pounds per person in 2010, mostly as sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, is still too much, the report points out. Brody says we get a B-plus for cutting back on fats and oils, the highest grade awarded,. But...."Yes, we’ve dramati...

Don't know how I feel about this (or you will, when hearing about it).  But nutritionists have found a super new way to get people to eat healthy(ier) in the supermarket.   Put mirrors in their shopping carts. The point is to steer more people towards the produce aisle, and away from the processed foods, according to The New York Times' Michael Moss.  "The mirror is part of an effort to get Americans to change their eating habits, by two social scientists outmaneuvering the processed-food giants on their own turf, using their own tricks: the distracting little nudges and cues that confront a supermarket shopper at every turn," he writes. Researchers are trying to find ways to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. But instead of preaching about diabetes or slapping taxes on junk food, they are doing things like adding mirrors to shopping carts so you can see yourself when you reach for the Ben and Jerry's, and "glossy placards that hang inside t...

So they've pooped out already.  The AP reports today that many school districts that opted to replace pizza and chicken fingers with spinach salads and fresh fruit are now going right back to fattening, greasy food because the kids just weren't interested. Apparently, they lost a lot of money and threw away a lot of food.  And had a lot of kids who didn't eat and were too hungry to concentrate as the day wore on. Writes Carolyn Thompson, "Districts that rejected the program say the reimbursement was not enough to offset losses from students who began avoiding the lunch line and bringing food from home or, in some cases, going hungry." Many schools are cutting ties with the $11 billion National School Lunch Program, which reimburses schools for meals served and gives them access to lower-priced food, she reports. "Some of the stuff we had to offer, they wouldn't eat," Thompson quotes Catlin, Ill., Superintendent Gary Lewis, whose district saw ...

Would you believe it's as simple as an increase in breast-feeding and in the nutritional value of foods, and duh, exercise. But a story today by Cathy Payne and Michelle Healy at usatoday.com points out one more thing.  We've been listening.  The two write that, in a recent survey of more than 8,000 parents and caretakers of small children, "The percentage of infants still breast-feeding at 6 months increased to 49% in 2010 from 35% in 2000. The percent still breast-feeding at 12 months rose to 27% from 16% in 2000." That's important because the benefits to breast-fed children have long been known -- a smaller chance of becoming overweight, a better ability to fight disease, even, some say, more smarts. "One of the things that breast-feeding does, besides the possible chemistry that may affect obesity, is that it teaches babies how to eat right and how to stop eating when they're full, instead of when their mother thinks they're full. So I...

Have a hospital trip planned?  Forget about the Big Macs .  A national watchdog group is pressuring hospitals in the Broward County area to kick out all the McDonald's franchises that sit in their lobbies, according to a story at The Enquirer-Herald. The group wants the hospitals to do it "to help curb the epidemic of diet-related disease and to stop fostering a food environment that promotes harm, not health," as John Dorschner at the Miami Herald reports.  Of the 14,000 McDonald's in the country, only 26 are in hospitals, though. You know, physician, heal thyself? McDonald's points out that it offers more than greasy burgers and french fries, including some salads, but the salads sometimes have more calories and fat than the burgers, if you include the croutons, bacon bits, and dressing that douses them. Corporate Accountability International is asking fast food outlets to lead the way in helping America -- where one out of three people is overweight or ...

Sadly, our food inspection rules, though somewhat tightened recently, will not prevent you from getting sick if you consume a contaminated food that has somehow slipped through the ropes. Food-borne illnesses cause about one in six Americans to get very sick every year, with 128,000 hospitalizations, and an estimated 3,000 deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as Deborah Kotz reports at The Boston Globe. My sister, who's never met a vegetable she didn't like, became seriously ill with food poisoning (doctors thought it might have been the arugula) about a week before her first son was due.  Happily, the baby was born healthy, though there was some concern initially that the contamination might have contributed to a neurological problem. Kotz writes that the introduction of federal laws to regulate food safety, including rules on how produce is grown, harvested, and distributed throughout the country has officials hoping "they w...

It's probably not such a surprise but a new study has found that teens who don't get enough sleep also don't get enough of the right things to eat. "Well-rested teenagers tend to make more healthful food choices than their sleep-deprived peers," according to a study led by Lauren Hale, PhD, Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, as reported by newswise.com. The real value of this insight?  Doctors may now be able to figure out why sleep deprivation can lead to obesity. To me, it's pretty obvious.  When at the end of the day, I'm tired and stressed, and starving, I don't reach for an apple, I go straight for the M&Ms. Not only do sleepy teens on average eat more food that’s bad for them, they also eat less food that is good for them,” said Dr. Hale, speaking about the study results, according to the story at newswise.com . In the study those teens who said they slept fewer than seven h...

OK, so too much definitely causes heart disease, and may even result in cancer, especially of the colon and rectum. webmd.com reports that a survey of more than a half-million Americans found that those who ate the most red meat and processed meat for 10 years died sooner than those who didn't. "The association between consumption of red and processed meats and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer, is very consistent,” Marji McCullough, PhD, a nutritional epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society, told webmd.com. But now they're finding that red mea t is implicated in diabetes, too.   The more red meat you eat, the higher your chances of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study has found. Even upping your consumption of red meat by as little as a half a serving a day (about 1.5 ounces) increased  people's risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a four-year period by 48%, "compared with people who did not change their red-meat intake," according ...

Now we've seen it all? Nutrition labels on alcohol?  It's coming. We already have warnings on pregnancy but now the Treasury Department, which regulates alcohol, "said this past week that beer, wine and spirits companies can use labels that include serving size, servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat per serving. Such package labels have never before been approved," according to Mary Clare Jalonik of the AP. The labels, however, are voluntary so you probably won't be seeing too many of them. I don't know about you but when I'm drinking my Cosmopolitan , I don't really want to know it has the same number of calories as a brownie, or two (212). That's what was behind the famous Skinny Girl cocktail brand, putting fewer calories in liquor. But I'm not in the mood to count calories when I'm out drinking.  It's just not the most important thing on my mind. Some weight loss experts say to treat it as a piece...

Could it possibly be?  Our kids are eating less sugar today than 15 years ago?  A new study says just that. According to a story by Bruce Horovitz at USA Today, "Kids drank fruit juices 16 fewer times than in 1998."  And the decline is accelerating. You know all those commercials where they tell you the drinks are mostly fruit?  What they don't say is that the rest of it is all sugar. (Read the back of a container some time.)  I love how they're now trying to promote these juices as healthier than soda! "The typical child ate or drank the 20 most common sugary sweets an average 126 times fewer last year than in 1998, reports NPD," including 62 fewer times imbibing carbonated soft drinks and 22 fewer times eating pre-sweetened cereals, Horovitz writes. Are our kids actually turning away from Cocoa Puffs?  (And am I dating myself?!) But apparently, at least in some segments of the food market, our kids are eating less sugary items.  I don't k...

OK.  So do you really know how many calories are in that pomegranate soda?  Mary Clare Jalonick writes that up until now, it's been hard for the government to keep up with all the new foods -- and their nutritional content -- that are constantly streaming into the marketplace. But the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill is hoping to put a stop to that by creating a ginormous map of what Americans are buying and eating, according to Jalonick. Chocolate milk has long interested researchers because, though the government lists chocolate milk with 2% milk as one unit, the UNC group, using scanners from grocery stores and other commercial data "founds thousands of different brands and variations of 2% chocolate milk and averaged them out, Jalonick reports. What they found was that this wasn't just happening with chocolate milk, it was pretty much occurring with every food product.  Can you imagine making sense of all that, enough to truly have accurate cal...

I may never eat corn again.  According to a story in today's New York Times Sunday Review, the supersweet corn  I wait anxiously for every summer was born in a cloud of radiation. Jo Robinson writes that we are "breeding the nutrition out of our food." As farmers and scientists try to make our food more tasty, they're often breeding out the very nutrients that make it good for us, she reports. Corn originally started out more bitter, with kernels you had to crack open with a hammer, and farmers and others started mucking around with it to come up with a more tasty version.  More on that later. Robinson says it didn't just happen with corn.  She notes that while we're all being told to eat more fruit and vegetables, a lot of the very good stuff we're supposed to get just isn't there anymore.  She gives corn as an example.  "Unwittingly, we have been stripping phytonutrients from our diet since we stopped foraging for wild plants some 10,000...