Nutrition & Wellness News

Small price differences at the point of purchase can be highly effective in shifting consumer demand from high calorie to healthier low calorie alternatives, according to a study in the Articles in Advance section of Marketing Science, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Low income consumers, who disproportionately suffer … [Read more...]

You're trying to eat right. You're exercising. Soon the pounds will melt off. But then your wallet starts weighing you down, literally. The problem? "Supersizing." Consumers often can't pass up a 'supersize' deal, even if it makes them fat. "We know the health implications of a giant latte or supersized fries, so a little justification through feeling financially savvy and … [Read more...]

When meals at Disney World restaurants came with a fruit or vegetables instead of fries, about half of diners opted to keep the healthier option! A new study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research shows that nutritionally improved kid's meals at the 145 restaurants located at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida were embraced by diners. Starting in … [Read more...]

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have developed a transgenic mouse that synthesizes both the omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids within its tissues on a diet of carbohydrates or saturated fats. Called "essential" because they are necessary to maintain important bodily functions, omega fatty acids cannot naturally be synthesized by mammals and therefore … [Read more...]

A diet that combines unsaturated fats with nitrite-rich vegetables, such as olive oil and lettuce, can protect you from hypertension, suggests a new study led by King's College London. The findings, published in the journal PNAS, help to explain why some previous studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet can reduce blood pressure. The Mediterranean diet typically includes … [Read more...]

By comparing how gut microbes from human vegetarians and grass-grazing baboons digest different diets, researchers have shown that ancestral human diets, so called "paleo" diets, did not necessarily result in better appetite suppression. The study, published in mBio® the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, reveals surprising relationships … [Read more...]

Roughly 25 million Africans live with HIV, many of whom now have access to antiretroviral treatment (ART). ART has reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths greatly, but several African countries still report very high mortality rates within the first few months of treatment. One of the main reasons is malnutrition which is common among patients starting medical treatment. A … [Read more...]

Research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) suggests that two large meals (breakfast and lunch), rather than six small meals with the same total calories, are better for controlling weight and blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. The research is by Dr Hana Kahleová, Diabetes Centre, Institute for Clinical and … [Read more...]

Excessive alcohol consumption is a global public health issue. In the United States, binge drinking is the most common form -- so common, in fact, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports approximately one in six adults binge drinks about four times each month. Now, a study by University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers shows that chronic alcohol … [Read more...]

Research by James Cook University scientists has found a diet favoured by body-builders may be effective in treating schizophrenia. Associate Professor Zoltan Sarnyai and his research group from JCU's Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) have discovered that feeding mice a ketogenic diet, which is high on fat but very low on carbohydrates (sugars), … [Read more...]

Rats with restricted feeding schedules learn to eat more, helped by the "hunger hormone" ghrelin, according to new research from the University of Southern California. The insights, to be published in the journal eLife, could be valuable for helping the researchers develop new effective weight-loss therapies. "We are looking deep into the higher order functions of the … [Read more...]

    Adding calcium, Vitamin D and prebiotic dietary fibre to a beverage made of whey can have huge health benefits for those who drink it, team of Lithuanian scientists has discovered. Writing in CyTA -- Journal of Food, Algirdas Liutkevicius and colleagues describe how they created -- and tested -- two different versions of a whey-based beverage. While … [Read more...]

  Michigan State University has not only defined the term "food fraud," but the university also is helping the United States and other countries establish the strategies to fight it. In the current issue of Food Chemistry Journal, the MSU research team introduces the topic of food fraud and provides a definition with translations in Russian, Korean and Chinese. The … [Read more...]

A study of Italians who consume a diet rich in resveratrol -- the compound found in red wine, dark chocolate and berries -- finds they live no longer than and are just as likely to develop cardiovascular disease or cancer as those who eat or drink smaller amounts of the antioxidant. "The story of resveratrol turns out to be another case where you get a lot of hype about … [Read more...]

The home is an important microenvironment in models of obesity and can trigger behaviors both positively and negatively associated with weight status. With this in mind, a group of researchers from Emory's Rollins School of Public Health, and the Cancer Coalition of South Georgia sought to examine the home food environment and determine which aspects are associated with healthy … [Read more...]

Researchers from The Netherlands found that snacking on high-fat and high-sugar foods was independently associated with abdominal fat and fatty liver (hepatic steatosis). According to the study published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, hypercaloric diet with frequent meals increases intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) … [Read more...]

The average U.S. child snacks three times a day. Concerned about the role of snacking in obesity, a team of researchers set out to explore how eating frequency relates to energy intake and diet quality in a sample of low-income, urban schoolchildren in the Boston area. They expected that snacking would substantially contribute to kids' overall energy intake, and the new data … [Read more...]

Have you ever said to yourself that you would only have a handful of potato chips from the bag then, minutes later, realized you ate the whole thing? A recent study shows that this type of impulsive behavior might not be easily controlled -- and could be a risk factor in the development of food addiction and eating disorders as a result of cellular activities in the part of the … [Read more...]

Initiatives to eliminate food deserts, low-income geographic areas that lack access to a supermarket or large grocery store, may not have an effect on improving dietary quality or reducing disparities in diet quality according to Jason Block and S V Subramanian from Harvard University, United States, in a Policy Forum article published this week in PLOS Medicine. Reducing … [Read more...]

A new study exposes the risk of nutritional deficiencies in severely obese teens -- both those who had weight loss surgery and those who did not. At least five years after undergoing gastric bypass surgery, teens and young adults maintained significant weight loss but were at risk of nutritional deficiencies, particularly low iron, mild anemia and low vitamin D. The study also … [Read more...]

As far as healthy foods go, berries make the top of the list. They contain potent antioxidants, which decrease or reverse the effects of free radicals -- natural byproducts of energy production that can play havoc on the body and that are closely linked with heart disease, cancer, arthritis, stroke or respiratory diseases. Unsurprisingly, the benefits of berries are extoled … [Read more...]

Oily fish are currently recommended as part of a heart healthy diet. This guideline is partially based on the landmark 1970s study from Bang and Dyerberg that connected the low incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) among the the Inuit of Greenland to their diet, rich in whale and seal blubber. Now, researchers have found that the Inuit actually suffered from CAD at the … [Read more...]

Each year, approximately 2 million traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur in the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number includes troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, for whom TBI is considered an invisible wound of war, one that has few successful treatments. "We have nothing beyond ibuprofen for most TBIs," said Dr. Angus Scrimgeour, … [Read more...]

A Personal View, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal, highlights that the global diet is getting sweeter, particularly when it comes to beverages. This Personal View paper is written by Professor Barry M Popkin, School of Public Health, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA, and Dr Corinna Hawkes, City University … [Read more...]

Tens of millions of Americans vow each year to lose weight in the New Year, and while their intentions are good, most of the time their results are not. It's estimated that only 8 percent of those who make New Year's resolutions actually keep them. Even if weight is lost initially, it usually returns. Studies show nearly 2 out of 3 people who lose 5 percent of their total … [Read more...]

A treatment for managing blood sugar levels might be as close as the local health food store, suggests a new research report published in the December 2015 issue of The FASEB Journal. Specifically scientists from Italy have found that when the plant and mammal hormone, abscisic acid, is taken in low doses, glycemia in both rats and humans is reduced. This suggests that by … [Read more...]