On Fitness
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Lager or Ale? Consider the Silicon Content of Beer
Continue reading… 7 CommentsThe evidence on alcohol and health is tricky to interpret. While heavy drinking does no one any favors, there may be benefits in moderate alcohol consumption for those who aren't at heightened risk of breast or colon cancer. Some research suggests, for example, that consuming up to two drinks a day for men, one for women, provides some cardiovascular protection. A study published in 2005 found that men and women who drank some but not a lot (one drink per day, three to seven days per week) were the leanest. And last year, research suggested that moderate alcohol consumption may also help boost bone mineral density, thus protecting against osteoporosis.
The caveat to all this is that there's no direct evidence that drinking causes the benefits that have been observed, just that people who drink moderately also seem to be in better health. But if you do wish to hoist a brew, a new study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture may at least help you decide between a pale ale and a lager. Researchers at the University of California–Davis measured the presence of dietary silicon, the element in beer suspected to benefit bone health. (The estrogenic effect of alcohol consumed in moderation also very likely plays a role.)
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Forget the Chips and Dip; This Is One Weird Super Bowl Diet
Continue reading… 1 CommentA one-size-fits-all approach to diet isn't likely to work since we all have our individual quirks, both biological and behavioral, that make us thrive on one eating pattern rather than another. Dwight Freeney, a defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts, is an extreme example of the quest to pinpoint the exact formula for his body. (His team will face the New Orleans Saints in the Super Bowl on Sunday.) As described by Sports Illustrated this week, his diet for the days prior to the playoff game against the New York Jets consisted of nothing besides beef and pinto beans.
How did he come up with such a bizarre-seeming plan? Through a protocol created by a licensed nutrition counselor, Sari Mellman, and implemented with the help of her son, Leon, a chiropractor who acts as Freeney's "food coach." Through the protocol, called Sari Mellman's Dietary Progression, Freeney's blood is regularly analyzed to see "what foods create an organ and tissue inflammation response," and the diet is tweaked accordingly, says Leon. There's more to it than just blood analysis—clients, who pay up to the $5,995 the website quotes for the most complete version of the program, get a binder full of educational and customized information—but if the details sound vague, that's because for nonclients, they are. The protocol is proprietary.
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Barefoot (or Barefoot-Like) Running May Guard Against Injury
Continue reading… 5 CommentsThose $150 supercushioned running shoes you just bought? They may be predisposing you to lower leg and foot injuries like plantar fasciitis, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed the forces that occur when runners hit the ground heel-first (as is common when wearing modern, cushioned shoes), and mid- and fore-foot first (more common among barefoot runners). The heel-strikers came down harder. "Fore-foot- and mid-foot-strike gaits were probably more common when humans ran barefoot or in minimal shoes and may protect the feet and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries now experienced by a high percentage of runners," the authors wrote in a study published in Nature.
This study is but the latest voice in the heated debate over barefoot running. As I wrote last year, some manufacturers have rushed to capitalize on a grass-roots trend that's been around for years, offering stripped-down, barefoot-like shoes. (The new research was funded in part by one of those manufacturers, Vibram USA.) While there's a devoted cadre of truly or nearly barefoot runners, scientists told me when I wrote that story that even if less-cushioned shoes do turn out to be better for some people, someone used to running in the more familiar shoes shouldn't simply toss them in the trash and head out au naturel. If you want to try out some of the minimalist shoes or even no shoes at all, build up gradually and see if it works for you. It's also a good idea to start out on grass rather than a hard surface. Runner's World has a good article in the current issue that offers two different views of the subject.
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Omegas, Fiber, Gluten-Free, Probiotic: Some Health Claims Sell Big
Continue reading… 2 CommentsDespite the recession, spending on foods featuring health claims was up last year, according to data from Nielsen Wire. Many of these products are so-called functional foods, offering a specific health benefit beyond basic nutrition. That benefit can occur naturally—think of the antioxidants in fruit—or it can be added to otherwise nutritionally vacant foods by processing, as with VitaminWater. [Read more about VitaminWater's health claims.]
But as I wrote last year, you should be cautious when faced with a label making a health or wellness claim. If a food isn't already healthful before extra nutrients are added, there's no reason to buy it. For example, an energy bar may claim to have a lot of fiber, but if it's otherwise a sugar and fat bomb, why bother? [Here's a guide to fiber sources—soluble, insoluble and beyond.] According to Nielsen, sales of foods making a fiber claim rose 13 percent last year.
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Seniors and Exercise: How Much Does It Promote Healthy Aging?
Continue reading… 4 CommentsMore evidence supporting the value of exercise in preventing diseases of aging is out today: A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that a strength-training program reduced the risk of a certain kind of cognitive decline—executive function, associated with decision making and focusing on something without becoming distracted.
As the authors of an editorial accompanying the study write:
It is also now well established that higher quantities of physical activity have beneficial effects on numerous age-related conditions such as osteoarthritis, falls and hip fracture, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, cancer, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis,low fitness and obesity, and decreased functional capacity,all conditions that greatly increase the risk of reduced independence in late life.Regular physical activity has also been associated with greater longevity as well as reduced risk of physical disability and dependence, the most important health outcome, even morethan death, for most older people.
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Inspired by 'The Mayo Clinic Diet,' I'm Making Changes
Continue reading… 1 CommentI wrote last week about The Mayo Clinic Diet (which appeared yesterday in the top spot of the New York Times' hardcover advice bestseller list) and how it includes a two-week introductory period that promises 6 to 10 pounds of weight loss. Obviously, that comes from taking in fewer calories (and dropping some water weight). But instead of counting those calories, the book asks people to add five habits (including eating a healthful but not-too-large breakfast and consuming "good" fats such as olive oil), subtract five habits (such as watching TV while eating and snacking on anything other than fruit and veggies), and, if you can, add five bonus habits (including keeping a food diary and eating only whole or lightly processed foods).
When I asked Donald Hensrud, the book's medical editor-in-chief (and chair of the division of preventive, occupational, and aerospace medicine at Mayo Clinic) why people should adopt habits they probably couldn't make a permanent part of their lifestyle, he said they were intended as a stretch—to show people what they could do and motivate them to go forward. As he said:
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Weight Watchers v. Jenny Craig: Don’t Rely on the Marketing
Continue reading… 0 CommentsWeight Watchers and Jenny Craig, two of the most popular commercial diet programs, are wrestling over advertising claims. Weight Watchers yesterday sued its rival, saying ads featuring a lab-coat-clad Valerie Bertinelli falsely implied the two programs had been subject to head-to-head competition—and that Jenny Craig came out on top. The claim, filed in federal court, says the ads are actually based on separate studies that compared each diet plan with a control group and that the Weight Watchers study is a decade old.
But as SmartMoney writer (and my former U.S. News colleague) Angie Marek reported earlier this month, any scientific studies supporting one commercial program over another should be taken with a massive grain of low-sodium salt substitute. In "The Skinny on Big, Fat Diet Programs," she writes, "The science on most of these plans is hardly conclusive, since most of the research has been paid for by the diet companies themselves." Marek's great article details the budget crunch dieters can run into when following one of the big commercial diet programs:
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Exercise and Weight Loss: What’s the Connection?
Continue reading… 31 CommentsThe role of exercise in weight loss is always a hot topic. Research on successful losers often cites exercise as a top maintenance strategy (one study found those who kept the pounds off averaged a whopping 275 minutes of working out a week), but without some attention to diet, you're not likely to lose significant weight. Exercise alone, while it has many benefits independent of weight control, doesn't always do the trick. But even for those who believe that exercise is key to weight loss, there's a big debate over what kind of workouts—steady aerobic sessions? interval training? strength training?—is ideal.
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Screening for Childhood Obesity, Without an Easy Solution
Continue reading… 4 CommentsThere's been mixed news recently on childhood and adolescent obesity, the tricky issue that will be the subject of an initiative led by first lady Michelle Obama. According to statistics released last week, obesity rates for both kids and adults seem to be leveling off. The prevalence of high body mass index among kids and teens seemed to plateau between 1999 and 2006, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. But that leaves almost 32 percent of kids weighing more than they should, with a full 17 percent classified as obese. And the heaviest boys between the ages of 6 and 19 actually seem to be getting heavier.
Childhood and adolescent obesity is a particularly tricky problem because, as my colleague Deborah Kotz reported in 2007, the emphasis on losing weight—even in kids who really need to do so—may do more harm than good. A solution has remained elusive, and, until the last few years, there hasn't been a lot of quality research published on what actually works. On Monday, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—the same folks who brought you the controversial new breast cancer screening recommendations—said children 6 and up should now be screened for obesity.
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A Long-Ago Bad P.E. Experience? You Can Get Over It
Continue reading… 4 CommentsIf the obesity epidemic is going to be reversed, a focus on physical activity will likely play at least some role. True, exercise alone isn't going to fix the problem—which is still a big one, despite all our efforts. (Statistics published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association show that 68 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, while about 32 percent of children have body mass indexes that qualify them as overweight or obese.) But most experts do agree that physical activity can be helpful for weight control. And it certainly brings a host of other health benefits.
[Read 10-Week Workout Routine: What About Diet?]
A new report by an associate professor at the University of Alberta in Canada, though, says the earliest exposure to organized physical activity—school physical education classes—can be the kind of experience that either gets kids on the road to a lifetime exercise habit or turns them off to sports. This will come as no surprise to anyone who still harbors horrific memories of gym class, whether of being bruised in dodge ball (check), humiliated in an attempt to do a pull-up (check), or picked last for pretty much every team (check—no wonder I now prefer individual sports). When psychologist Billy Strean talked to people about their physical education and sports experiences, he heard about an awful lot of bad experiences caused by bad teachers. What struck him, he says, "was the degree to which someone could be talking about something that happened 50 or 60 years ago but right on the spot could be having a clearly visceral, emotional reaction."
