Stories tagged diet

Are you gonna eat all of that?: During the peak of his training, Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps was consuming up to 12,000 calories a day. Do you think you could win eight gold medals if you ate like that?
Courtesy White HouseFor the past week, it's been all Michael Phelps, all the time on the media. So why shouldn't Science Buzz jump on the bandwagon as well. Here's an interesting story from National Public Radio about the food consumption that the all-time Olympic gold medal winner puts down as part of his training regimine. Be sure to listen to the listing of the typical Phelps breakfast. It puts Old Country Buffet to shame, right down to the chocolate chip pancakes.

His daily calorie intake during peak times of training is 12,000 calories. Standard diets for mere mortals suggest a caloric intake of up to 2,000 calories. Ah, now I get it. He's winning all those gold medals by eating a lot. That's great news for me with the approach of football season and all the calories I'll be consuming on my sofa while watching the games. I should be in gold medal shape by November, don't you think?

And if you haven't gotten your fill of Michael Phelps info by now, here's another NPR story about the technology behind the timing systems used at the Olympic pool that can figure out the winners of races who are separated by just a hundreth of a second.

Tags : Olympic games, MIchael Phelps, food consumption, diet, calories

read more... | add a comment | share

Crumbling marketshare: Cookies are no longer the top snack food among youngsters. Cookie Monster is demanding a recount in Florida.
Courtesy brainloc on sxc.huThe cookie is no longer No. 1. Fruit is now the most common snack food consumed by kids ages six and under, according to a new study. NPD Group discovered that youngsters today have much healthier snacking habits than kids did 20-some years ago.

Back in the day, cookies were the most consumed snackible by the younger set with fruit second. But education efforts have flipped those positions, the new study found. It also discovered some other significant diet changes among kids. They are:

• Less likely to have carbonated beverages, ice cream, candy, cake and fruit juice than what kids consumed 20 years ago.

• More likely to be chomping on fruit rolls, gummy snacks, yogurt, cracker, granola bars and bottled water.

Is this a big deal? Nutritionists think so as snack foods make up about one quarter of the calories taken in by youngsters.

And one nutritionist has this new way of thinking of snack foods. Just serve regular food. For instance, a snack might be half a sandwich and a carton of 100% orange juice; bean dip and baby carrots; peanut butter on whole-grain crackers and a small glass of milk; or half a piece of pizza and small glass of milk.

For the record, here are a couple lists showing the biggest movers on the snack food rankings.

The five foods/beverages that have increased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:

1. Fruit rolls/bars/pieces
2. Yogurt
3. Crackers
4. Bars
5. Bottled water

The five foods/beverages that have decreased the most in the snack diet of young children today compared with young children 20 years ago:

1. Carbonated soft drinks
2. Ice cream
3. Candy
4. Cake
5. Fruit juice

Tags : snack foods, nutrition, health, diet, child's nutrition, candy

read more... | add a comment | share

You want fries with that?: A high-fat diet may be helpful for some diseases. But it’s still a bad idea to pig out on fat, grease, starch and sugar.
Courtesy pointnshoot
(With apologies to Woody Allen.)

Researchers in England have found that a high-fat diet is effective in reducing seizures among epileptics.

Meanwhile, doctors in Boston report that having fat around your bottom may help prevent diabetes.

*NOTE: as with all medical news, we here at Science Buzz are not qualified to give medical advice. If you suffer from epilepsy or diabetes, consult with your doctor before changing your diet. And if you do not suffer from these diseases, DO NOT use this news item as an excuse to pig out. Really, the basic fast food meal of a burger, fries and a soft drink is just about the worst thing you can put in your body, short of arsenic.

Tags : health, medicine, fat, diet, epilepsy, diabetes

read more... | add a comment | share

A burger a day?

With a diet soda, please!
Courtesy ebruli
Researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health have found that adults who eat two or more servings of meat a day increase their risk of developing metabolic syndrome by 25% compared with those who eat meat twice a week. The study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association also linked a greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome with eating fried foods and drinking diet soda.

What is metabolic syndrome?

Metabolic syndrome is a group of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including:

• elevated waist circumference (a waist measurement larger than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men);
• high blood pressure:
• elevated triglycerides (the chemical form in which most fat exists in food and in the body);
• low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol;
• and high fasting glucose (blood sugar) levels.

If a person has three or more of these risk factors, their risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease increases.

The study

The U of M findings came from a study of 9,514 participants from four U.S. communities in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study , funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The researchers divided the group based on an assessment of their food intake. One group ate a "Western-pattern diet" with many refined grains, processed meat, fried foods, red meat, eggs and soda, and an overall lack of fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grain products. Another group ate a "prudent-pattern diet" with vegetables, fruit, fish and seafood, poultry and whole grains, and low fat dairy.

After following the the participants for nine years, almost 40% of study participants had three or more risk factors for metabolic syndrome. When researchers analyzed the results based on specific foods, meat, fried foods, and diet soda were red flags for an increased risk for metabolic syndrome. The good news? They found that regular consumption of low-fat dairy products was beneficial in avoiding the same risk factors.

The authors acknowledge that more research is needed to determine how these specific foods, particularly diet soda, raise risk factors.

The lesson? Follow a balanced diet, include low-fat dairy, exercise, and eat your vegetables!

Sources and additional information:
"Dietary Intake and the Development of the Metabolic Syndrome. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study." Pamela L. Lutsey, Lyn M. Steffen and June Stevens. Circulation; published online Jan 22, 2008.

University of Minnesota Academic Health Center

American Heart Association

Posted by Meredith Craven, a communications assistant in the Academic Health Center Office of Clinical Research at the University of Minnesota

Tags : University of Minnesota, nutrition, health, cardiovascular, diabetes, diet, dairy

read more... | add a comment | share

You're getting sleepy: Is it the tryptophan in the turkey that makes you tired on Thanksgiving or other ingredients of your big feast?
Courtesy LonelyBobI’ve got some friends who are already pushing the Thanksgiving envelope and having some early holiday dinners this weekend. Most of us will wait until Nov. 22 to gorge out on a big meal of turkey, and then feel quite tired and bloated from the experience.

And all of us scientific-minded people like to sound very sciency at those moments and talk about the effects that tryptophan in the turkey are having on our bodies. I’ve bought into that thinking for decades and thought I’d Google around the net to learn more about that, and was surprised to see that I’ve probably been duped.

Turkey does in fact contain high levels of tryptophan, but not anything significantly higher than lots of other meats. Tryptophan is an amino acid that our bodies can’t produce. And taken on an empty stomach, it can have a soothing, calming effect. It was even marketing as an anti-insomnia drug in the 1980s until some other significant side effects – muscle pain and death – led the government to ban it as a medication.

After a big feast, out stomachs are dealing with the amino acids from many different food sources, meaning that the tryptophan has a lot of competition in our body chemistry.

Here’s what’s more likely going on in our bodies to make us tired: the impacts of having lots of other carbohydrates in our stomachs. Carbo-heavy items like mashed potatoes, stuffing and pie take our bodies a lot of effort to digest. That internal work is a lot to handle and our bodies tire out.

So that’s the nutritional answer to why Thanksgiving dinners make us tired. I think you might also be able to chalk up your tiredness to the quality of conversation with the relatives you’re sharing the meal with or the fact that the Detroit Lions are always playing football that afternoon.

How do you deal with post-Thanksgiving dinner lethargy? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.

Tags : turkey, tryptophan, health, diet, Thanksgiving dinner

read more... | add a comment | share

Hold the fries: Fewer school lunch programs are offering unhealthy foods, like French fries, a recent government survey as discovered. It's important since child obesity rates have spiked up in recent years. (Flickr photo by limonada)I have to admit that I’ve been out of the school lunch loop for quite some time now. And I seem to recall that it wasn’t too long ago that many schools, faced with school lunch budgets that were feeling the squeeze, were turning toward more fast-food type menus to try to encourage participation and sales.

But a new study out last week says that schools are making a big move toward healthier meals for school kids who are increasingly dealing with overweight issues.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported that last year, about 19 percent of school cafeterias were serving French fries, down from about the 40 percent serving them six years earlier.

Another gauge of healthier school food items: the same survey showed that high-fat baked goods were becoming more rare at school fundraisers, declining to 54 percent of the offerings last year compared to 67 percent six years earlier.

One more sign of healthier times: about half of schools today offer bottled water instead of sugary sodas or sports drinks at vending machines or snack bars. Only about a third of schools had bottled water available six years ago.

Latest statistics show that about one-third of the kids in the U.S. are overweight and 17 percent are considered obese.

Here’s the study stat that I found really hard to believe: about one-third of schools in the country still allow tobacco use on campus and at school events by adults. That’s an improvement from six years ago, when about half of schools in the country had smoking bans. In Minnesota, schools have banned smoking on their grounds for a much longer time than that, I believe. Public health officials still have a goal of having a total smoking ban on school grounds.

Tags : CDC, nutrition, health, school lunch, child obesity, diet

read more... | add a comment | share

Taste tested: Is this the ultimate kids taste treat -- a Quarterpounder laced with McNuggets? A new study has found that little kids have strong impressions about fast food's quality. (Flickr photo by Slice)After seeing the movie “Supersize Me” I’ve made a conscious effort to reduce my visits to McDonald’s and other fast food outlets. Presenting with that overpowering evidence, I was able to make a decision to make fast food a much smaller portion of my diet.

But what about kids who haven’t developed critical thinking skills or the factual data to come to the same conclusion? The results of a new study show that most kids have views that are very skewed toward wanting fast foods.

Conducted at Stanford University, the taste test had kids ages 3 to 5 enrolled in Head Start programs sample various foods. Some were packaged in McDonald’s wrappers some were not. Nearly anything that the kids thought was made by McDonald's – even carrots or apple juice – was deemed tastier by the kids than the non-McDonalds sample.

The study findings come out just about a month after many major food corporations announced that they were backing off on their marketing efforts to kids. Still, researchers comment, the sales pitches of the past have had a huge impact on little consumers.

Here’s how the study worked: A group of 63 kids sampled three McDonald's menu items — hamburgers, chicken nuggets and French fries — and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald's wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked if they tasted the same or if one was better. (Some children didn't taste all the foods.)

McDonald's-labeled samples were the clear favorites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77% said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13% preferred the others.

Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23% who liked the plain-wrapped sample.

The only results not statistically clear-cut involved the hamburgers, with 29 kids choosing McDonald's-wrapped burgers and 22 choosing the unmarked ones.

McDonald’s recently announced that it will begin promoting Happy Meals to kids that contain fruit and have lower calories and fat.

An independent critic of the study pointed out that a different comparison should have been made on kids’ brand-name product identification.

A better comparison might have been to gauge kids’ preferences for McDonald’s items vs. Disney products or some other kid-friendly brand, said Pradeep Chintagunta of the University of Chicago. “I don't think you can necessarily hold this against McDonald's,” he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products, adding that parents play a large role in the food choices kids make at that age.

What do you think? Is this evidence that McDonald’s and other fast-food franchises are exploiting kids? Will a new self-monitored marketing emphasis by fast-food outlets make a difference? Share your thoughts here with other Science Buzz readers.

Tags : nutrition, health, diet, fast food, kid marketing

read more... | add a comment | share