The Skinny Kid

Caffeine: Can it help me lose weight? - MayoClinic.com

A few studies indicate that caffeine may slightly enhance weight loss in people who exercise and maintain a low-fat diet. But there’s no evidence that increased caffeine intake results in significant or permanent weight loss.

Didn’t have to tell me that. If caffeine led to significant permanent weight loss I’d easily be 100 pounds lighter by now.

Ever feel like you’ll go crazy if you don’t have your evening cocktail? Turns out you may be right.

A Drink A Day May Delay Dementia

In people with mild cognitive impairment, up to one drink of alcohol a day may slow their progression to dementia, according to a study published in the May 22, 2007, issue of Neurology®, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Mild cognitive impairment is a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia that is used to classify people with mild memory or cognitive problems and no significant disability.

Yet another piece of evidence that all is good in moderation.

When a recent study showed no special weight loss benefit from low-glycemic diets relative to other diets, I said:

I’ve always been a believer in the “weight gain/loss = calories in - calories out” theory. Still, the concept of glycemic load has some intuitive appeal. For example, given the link between obesity and diabetes, and the need to control sugar absorption in the latter case, perhaps overweight people should pay attention to glycemic index even if they aren’t trying to lose weight.

As it turns out, not only was I on the right track with that question but other researchers were in the process of answering it.

Insidermedicine Video News : Low Glycemic Diet Lowers Cholesterol, Good for Weight Loss

Dieters who select a low-glycemic load diet my have more success at losing weight, than those following a low carbohydrate or low fat diet, say researchers in a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Three popular diets have recently received much attention – low fat, low carbohydrate, and low glycemic load. However, there is still no consensus on which diet yields the best results. Glycemic load refers to the increase in blood sugar that occurs following the consumption of a carbohydrate. Foods low on the glycemic index, such as certain fruits, nuts, and vegetables, release glucose gradually into the blood stream. Foods high on the glycemic index, such as breads and pasta, provoke an immediate response in the blood sugar levels and tend to result in increased hunger and overeating.

For people with tendency for high insulin levels 30 minutes after eating, the low-glycemic diet produced a five times greater decrease in weight than the low-fat diet at 18 months. The low-glycemic diet was also more effective in reducing body fat and improving cholesterol and trigyceride levels, while the low-fat diet improved low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol.

Differences in insulin secretion among individuals may help predict the success of weight loss programs, and reducing glycemic load may be especially important for those who secrete insulin at a higher level.

Makes sense to me.

ScienceDaily: Boiling Broccoli Ruins Its Anti-cancer Properties, According To Study

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found that the standard British cooking habit of boiling vegetables severely damages the anticancer properties of many Brassica vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and green cabbage.
Past studies have shown that consumption of Brassica vegetables decreases the risk of cancer. This is because of the high concentration in Brassicas of substances known as glucosinolates which are metabolized to cancer preventive substances known as isothiocyanates. However before this research it was not known how the glucosinolates and isothiocyanates were influenced by storage and cooking of Brassica vegetables.

The researchers, Prof Paul Thornalley from Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick and Dr Lijiang Song from the University of Warwick’s Department of Chemistry bought Brassica vegetables, (broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower and green cabbage) from a local store and transported them to the laboratory within 30 minutes of purchasing. The effect of cooking on the glucosinolate content of vegetables was then studied by investigating the effects of cooking by boiling, steaming, microwave cooking and stir-fry.

Boiling appeared to have a serious impact on the retention of those important glucosinolate within the vegetables. The loss of total glucosinolate content after boiling for 30 minutes was: broccoli 77%, Brussel sprouts 58%, cauliflower 75% and green cabbage 65%.

The effects of other cooking methods were investigated: steaming for 0–20 min, microwave cooking for 0–3 min and stir-fry cooking for 0–5 min. All three methods gave no significant loss of total glucosinolate analyte contents over these cooking periods.

I prefer the taste of the other methods to boiling as well. Perhaps those glucosinates are what tastes so good.

Who can resist a headline like that one? As it turns out, however, there are some drawbacks.

ScienceDaily: Could Carrots Be The Secret To A Long-life And Sex Appeal?

Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Exeter have found that eating certain plant substances can slow down the rate of ageing - and that females prefer mates that will be long-lived.Carotenoids are naturally-occurring yellow and red pigments found in plants. Animals that eat those plants can then use the pigments to make themselves colourful in order to attract mates. But carotenoids are also antioxidants, which improve an animal’s ability to combat oxidative stress and strengthen its immune system.

This latest research has found for the first time that males eating more carotenoids were better able to protect their cells from damage and so lived longer - and that females found these long-lived males particularly attractive.

The work was carried out on sticklebacks, and compared the fate of fish that all received the same basic diet but had different amounts of carotenoid supplement. Male sticklebacks need carotenoids to produce the red throat patch that they develop in the breeding season and display to females.

Not being a stickleback, but being a fairly regular carrot eater, I have not noticed swarms of female humans rushing to mate with me. The well-known article outlining the longevity/beta carotene impacts on human sexuality was decidedly less encouraging.

Okay, but what about women who don’t share April’s natural attraction to underweight men? Women like my girlfriend, for instance, who was happy enough to see the first ten pounds drop off my calorie-restricted frame but likes the shape I’m in less and less as my weight keeps dropping?

“You might have to change girlfriends,” Paul quips, though it’s not exactly clear to me he’s kidding. He seems quite serious, for instance, as he barrels on into a brief oration on the beauty of the calorie-restricted male physique and the need to rethink our cultural standards of male beauty. “Men are stereotyped and still associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger and that kind of thing,” he complains. “But to be honest, when I see a man like Michael, I think that’s how a man should be. I think he looks absolutely handsome—intelligent, dapper, sexy. It’s a mark of intelligence, of how a great role model should be: slim, bright, calorie-restricted!”

All eyes now fall on Michael, naturally, and for the first time, I get a good look at his hands. And though I’m sure the light must be playing tricks on me, I can’t help thinking that those hands are actually a vivid shade of …

“I know, isn’t it pretty?” asks April. “I love the orange. I call him the Orange One.”

Michael smiles, just a little. “I consume an enormous amount of carotenoids—beta-carotene and lycopene—which are found in foods like carrots, kale, tomatoes,” he explains. “If I had skin like yours, the effect probably would be barely noticeable, but because my skin is an extremely pasty white to begin with … ”

“So wait,” Adam interjects, “you eat so much kale, tomatoes, and carrots that your hands actually turn orange?”

“Yes, isn’t it pretty?” April asks again.

And sure, I’m thinking, maybe it is. And maybe if I look a little harder, I’ll eventually see with my own eyes just how pretty Michael’s orange hands really are. But first, I’m going to need a moment to deal with the slight attack of existential vertigo that’s hitting me just now. All evening, I have let the bubbling enthusiasm and essential reasonableness of my guests carry me past the little weirdnesses that go with being calorie-restricted. But the weirdnesses are starting to pile up, and my guests are looking weirder and weirder themselves, like emissaries from a future I’m not sure could ever feel like home: a world where the food grows in vats, where the porn industry just barely survives on government subsidies, where the physically ideal male has the BMI of Mary-Kate Olsen and the skin tones of an Oompa-Loompa.

I take a deep breath then and think, A world where 80 is the new 40. And suddenly, all those little weirdnesses seem quite manageable again.”

You’ll have to make up your own mind on this one.

Eating Pistachios May Reduce The Impact Of Carbohydrates On Blood Sugar Levels

“Heart disease remains the leading cause of death among both men and women and another 20 million people are living with diabetes each year so these findings are very exciting and relevant,” said Dr. Cyril Kendall, lead researcher of the study and a professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Nutritional Sciences. “We know that controlling blood glucose levels is important for preventing and controlling diabetes and recent data indicate that it is also important in preventing heart disease. Controlling postmeal fluctuations in glucose appears to be particularly important. Pistachios have been shown to decrease risk factors for heart disease, however little has been known about the specific effects of pistachios on blood glucose until now. Our preliminary findings demonstrate that suppressing the glycemic (blood sugar) response of high carbohydrate foods may be part of the mechanism by which pistachios contribute to cardiovascular health and to the prevention and control of diabetes. More research is definitely warranted.”

The California Pistachio Commission is out in force spreading the good news about Pistachios this month.

ScienceDaily: Pistachios May Calm Acute Stress Reaction

Eating pistachios may reduce your body’s response to the stresses of everyday life, according to a Penn State study.
“A ten-year follow-up study of young men showed that those who had larger cardiovascular responses to stress in the lab, were more likely to contract hypertension later in life,” says Dr. Sheila G. West, associate professor of biobehavioral health. “Elevated reactions to stressors are partly genetic, but can be changed by diet and exercise. Lifestyle changes can make the biological reactions to stress smaller.”

West and her colleagues investigated the effects of pistachios on standardized stressors on subjects who had high cholesterol, but normal blood pressure.
The researchers found that both pistachio containing diets reduced the stress effects on blood pressure, but that the 1.5 ounce pistachio diet reduced systolic blood pressure by 4.8 millimeters of mercury while the 3-ounce pistachio diet only reduced systolic blood pressure by 2.4 millimeters of mercury. The diets had no effect on normal, resting blood pressure.”When we only look at blood pressure, these results are confusing,” says West. “If it is the pistachios, why is it not dose related?”

When the researchers looked at total peripheral vascular resistance, it was clear that the 3-ounce diet caused greater relaxation of arteries.

Those Penn State researchers sure do like pistachios. Then again, so do I.