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Study: Artificial Sweeteners Increase Weight Gain Odds

December 12th, 2009

From ABCNews.Go.com

Calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas may gain more weight than if they drank sugary drinks because of artificial sweeteners contained in the diet sodas, according to a new study.

A Purdue University study released Sunday in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners.

“There’s something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry,” said ABC News’ medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard.

Though Savard said more research needs to be done to uncover more information, the study does hint at the idea that the sweeteners alter a person’s metabolism.

Savard said another recent study, which included more than 18,000 people, found healthy adults who consumed at least one diet drink a day could increase their chance for weight gain.

In the Purdue study, the rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, which drove them to overeat.

“The taste buds taste sweet, but there’s no calorie load that comes with it. There’s a mismatch here. It seems it changes your brain chemistry in some way,” Savard said. “Anything you put in your mouth, your body has a strong reaction to it. It’s much more than counting calories. It seems normally with sweet foods that we rev up our metabolism.”

The information may come as a surprise to the 59 percent of Americans who consume diet soft drinks, making them the the second-most-popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the nation, according to a consumer survey from the Calorie Control Council, a nonprofit association that represents the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry.

Because so many foods today contain artificial sweeteners, the study results may go beyond diet drinks.

“The truth is, we’re putting artificial sweetener in so many different things in water, in yogurt,” Savard said. It’s unclear if the results only adhere to diet sodas, she said.

“We have to rethink what this artificial stuff does to us. If we put this in water it might not be so good,” she added.

The Calorie Control Council issued a statement that disagreed with the findings of the Purdue study and noted that past studies indicated low-calorie sweeteners benefit weight control.

But Savard said people who consume a drink or more a day should think about cutting back their consumption.

“The truth is, if you’re consuming a drink or more a day, you know it. You know that you’re taking it, and you really have to think about eliminating it. You’re probably the very person who needs to change those health behaviors to prevent the diabetes, heart disease and stroke,” Savard said.

“If you’re just taking it once in a while, fine — no big deal. If you’re consuming one or more drinks a day, you should rethink what you’re doing. You might be negating the whole reason in the first place.”

A New Way to Shake Off the Pounds

September 18th, 2009

From Time.com:

In a diet-obsessed world, we all have our own dream of the perfect weight-loss solution: a potato-chip diet, a pill that trims belly fat or, best of all, an exercise that builds lots of muscle with little work. The Power Plate, a new workout machine that looks like a doctor’s office scale on steroids, claims to do just that.

According to Power Plate’s manufacturers, if you stand on the machine’s vibrating plates for 10 minutes a day three times a week, you will lose weight, increase bone density and improve your overall health. But is that really possible?

It might be. Unlike the old-fashioned belt exercisers that just shifted skin around, the Power Plate uses whole-body vibration, or WBV, to contract muscles 30 to 50 times per second. While you stand on the moving plates in the bent-knee position recommended for beginners, the continual vibration causes you to tense and relax your muscles to keep your balance. Even without the vibration, you would involuntarily tense and release just to hold the pose. But the WBV forces you to do so up to 50 times more. That’s quite a workout for so little effort.

But to get the most out of the Power Plate, you can’t just stand. The best approach is to perform the same exercises you would do on the floor—squats, tricep dips, push-ups and the like. Your muscles fatigue quicker, so the exercise routine will be shorter, but you’re still not making the plates do all the work. “This is not a magic bullet that helps people lose weight without doing anything,” says Cedric Bryant, chief exercise physiologist for the American Council on Exercise. “If you are a healthy individual, wbv training should be a supplement to a sensible diet and exercise program.”

And a session of vibration may be not only good exercise but good therapy as well for people with physical ills like arthritis or osteoporosis. George Waylonis, a clinical professor emeritus of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Ohio State University, conducted a study on the effects of wbv on patients with fibromyalgia, a disease that causes constant full-body pain. Waylonis studied the Power Plate and the Galileo, another vibration exerciser, and was impressed by both. “WBV seems to be a way for people in pain to exercise their muscles and ultimately feel better,” he says.

More such research is certainly needed, but Power Plates can already be found in select gyms, rehabilitation centers and private homes. The machines are expensive: $3,500 for the home unit and $9,250 for the gym model, so some of the private owners are people with names like Madonna. (Soloflex has a simpler version of the Power Plate that sells for just $395.) But if you can’t afford the cost—or the space—for such a bulky bit of hardware, look for the units to show up at a gym near you soon.

Eating at irregular hours might pack on the pounds

September 7th, 2009

From SunTimes.com:

Eating at the ‘wrong’ time of day may be bad for your waistline, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Northwestern University found that mice fed a high-fat diet during their normal sleeping hours gained more weight after six weeks than mice that ate roughly the same type and amount of food during natural waking hours. Both groups of mice had similar activity levels.

The findings, published online today in the journal Obesity, suggest that “how or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it clearly is not just calories in and calories out,” said study co-author Fred Turek, director of Northwestern’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, in a statement.

Eating at irregular times, such as the middle of the night, may cause weight gain because it disrupts the body’s circadian clock, which controls temperature and levels of certain hormones. Further study is needed, though, to identify the exact mechanism at play.

Studies in people have already shown associations between weight gain and irregular eating patterns, such as skipping breakfast, said Deanna Arble, the study’s lead author.

4 healthy choices to change your life

August 11th, 2009

From LATimes.com:

If people would just do four things — engage in regular physical activity, eat a healthy diet, not smoke and avoid becoming obese — they could slash their risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke or cancer by 80%, a new report has found.

But less than 10% of the 23,153 people in the multiyear study — published in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine — actually lived their lives this way.

“The study has such a simple straightforward focus on making the point that prevention works in preventing serious disease,” said Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society.

“What really has been difficult is trying to figure out how to get people to take notice of the message and engage in healthy behaviors.”

Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in Germany examined the habits of German men and women ages 35 to 65 from 1994 and 1998. At the start of the study, the scientists measured participants’ heights and weights and asked them about their diseases, lifestyle habits and diets.

Healthy factors included never smoking; engaging in physical activity for at least 3 1/2 hours each week; eating a diet low in red meat and high in fruits and vegetables; and having a body mass index lower than 30. (A person with a BMI of 30 or above is classed as obese.)

About 9% of participants practiced all four healthy lifestyle choices.

Four percent practiced none.

Roughly 35% followed two of the healthy practices.

Researchers reviewed participants’ medical records about eight years later, on average, looking for diabetes, heart attacks, strokes or cancer. People who followed all four healthy practices were at far lower risk compared with people who followed none: 93% lower risk for diabetes, 81% for a heart attack, 50% for a stroke and 36% for cancer.

For people who had never smoked and who maintained a BMI under 30, the risk of chronic disease was reduced 72% — the most dramatic reduction of any dual combination of healthy factors.

The scientists also found that each healthy factor reduced chronic disease risk.

A BMI under 30 lowered overall disease risk most — particularly for diabetes.

Never smoking reduced heart attack risk the most of all four factors.

“All of them are important, and trying to pick one is like asking someone to pick their favorite child,” said study coauthor Dr. Earl S. Ford, a senior scientist in the CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.

Dr. Vyshali S. Rao, chairwoman of cardiology at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena and an American Heart Assn. spokeswoman, said the study underscores that shifting to a healthier diet helps the heart even if a person remains overweight.

However, she said, people who alter their diets often find they lose weight as a side benefit.

“Cardiologists try to stress to their patients more and more [that] cardiovascular disease is in hands of each individual patient to change,” Rao added.

The study’s findings, which are consistent with investigations that started in the late 1990s, are likely to apply to people living in the United States as well as those in Germany.

“The strongest reductions in risk for diabetes and [heart attack] are not surprising,” said Dr. Rachel Ballard-Barbash, associate director of the National Cancer Institute’s Applied Research program. “Even within a few years’ time, we can see changes in these diseases associated with these health behaviors,” such as lowered levels of LDL cholesterol and blood pressure.

“For stroke and cancer,” she added, “most studies would suggest it would take longer to see changes.”

Heart disease, cancer and strokes are the top three causes of death in the United States, killing an estimated 1,328,643 people every year, according to the CDC. Diabetes is the sixth cause of death, killing 72,449 annually. Many additional people live constrained lives in poor health because of these illnesses.

Mass. town takes steps to trim fat (really), health care costs

April 27th, 2009

From USAToday.com:
Kelle Shugrue’s 7-year-old son eats fresh fruit and vegetables at his public school, rides his bike along neighborhood paths and walked to school last week as part of a community effort to get kids moving.
The Shugrue family lives in Somerville, Mass., a Boston suburb hailed by health advocates for its seven-year investment in programs fighting childhood obesity and encouraging healthful living.

The model program is beginning to be replicated around the country, a small start on a huge task: preventing the onset of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease that now account for 75% of the nation’s health care spending.

As the Obama administration and Congress tackle an overhaul of the health care system, chronic disease looms as a major impediment to controlling costs.

According to the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, 45% of Americans — 133 million people — suffer from at least one chronic disease such as asthma or hypertension. Because many of the conditions are brought on or exacerbated by obesity, which has doubled nationwide since 1987, experts say they can be prevented or at least better managed.

“Improving the management of chronic disease is a critical component of our plan to drive down the skyrocketing cost of health care,” says Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office for Health Reform. “Two-thirds of Medicare spending is for beneficiaries with five or more chronic conditions.”

A down payment is coming.

In February, as part of the $800 billion economic stimulus package, Congress approved $1 billion for disease prevention and wellness programs. A third of that money is slated for immunizations; two-thirds for new programs to prevent chronic diseases.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to announce early this summer how it will use that new money. “We want to help prevent disease and illness before Americans end up at the doctor’s office or the emergency room,” says Nick Papas, a department spokesman.

Experts at the disease partnership and in Congress say controlling chronic disease requires a two-pronged approach: preventing diseases before they begin and doing a better job helping patients manage their chronic conditions once they develop.

The issue will be up for discussion in the Senate on Tuesday when Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., holds the first of three roundtable discussions on health care reform. The subject of the session, which will include insurance company CEOs, doctors and nurses, and policy analysts, is how to make the health care delivery system more effective, including by better managing chronic care.

Building blocks of fitness

Somerville’s experiment began in 2002, when researchers from Tufts University decided to find out whether efforts to promote exercise and healthful eating could help prevent obesity among schoolchildren.

The program, Shape Up Somerville, was first aimed at elementary school kids, 44% of whom were either overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

With grants from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and philanthropic groups, the researchers had schools replace French fries, candy, soda and other unhealthful foods with fresh fruit, skim milk and other nutritious choices. The city added bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks to encourage people to exercise. Restaurants offered more healthful items on menus; residents planted community gardens.

After just one year, the schoolchildren first targeted showed results: They gained 15% less weight than other average kids their age. Twice as many people were riding bikes along the community’s bike paths.

“It’s powerful to see those numbers change like that,” says Nicole Rioles, who runs the ongoing Shape Up program.

Shugrue, 37, says she and her husband always have promoted healthful choices at home and she’s happy that the schools and the community reinforce that message for their second-grader, Henry, rather than undermine it.

Dozens more cities from Oakland to Louisville are following Somerville’s lead to develop similar programs. “We would love to give our two cents to the White House and anyone else planning for really healthy communities,” Rioles says.

Without such efforts, the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease and other groups say, the government will never get a handle on health care costs.

According to the chronic disease partnership, the federal government spent $586 billion in 2008 on patients with at least one chronic condition, such as diabetes or heart disease.

Kenneth Thorpe, director of the Partnership, says those people who already have developed chronic conditions must be better managed so that their conditions don’t deteriorate and they don’t end up with costly hospital stays.

He favors community health teams made up of nurse practitioners and coordinators to monitor patients’ progress and make sure they take their medication.

Preventative steps

DeParle says the Obama administration is taking steps to improve care, even before the health care debate heats up.

“The administration has already begun reforming Medicare’s payment by rewarding doctors for better quality, efficiency and coordination of care,” she says.

Jeffrey Levi, director of the non-profit Trust for America’s Health, is more focused on solving the problem before it begins.

Levi says he’s sure changes to the health-care system will include funding and programs to prevent chronic disease. That wasn’t the case in 1993-94, during the last overhaul effort, when he said public health advocates were “banging at the door” to get heard.

“I am very confident (legislation) will include a serious commitment to public health and prevention,” Levi says.