How much should I weigh if I don't want to die early?
Originally added on Wed, 08/06/2011 - 05:16Last updated on Sat, 11/06/2011 - 06:11
Recent research: six lifestyle & health studies - two on sleep, two on smoking, one on diet & one on weight
Originally added on Thu, 13/01/2011 - 06:40Last updated on Fri, 28/01/2011 - 06:45
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
Originally added on Sun, 17/10/2010 - 05:30Last updated on Thu, 21/10/2010 - 16:09
"No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." John Donne
Recent research: articles from January journals
Originally added on Thu, 04/02/2010 - 19:19Last updated on Tue, 16/02/2010 - 19:34
I read a lot of research. When I find an article of particular interest I download it to my bibliographic database - EndNote - which currently contains nearly 14,000 abstracts.
Handouts and internet resources for healthy eating
Originally added on Mon, 07/12/2009 - 07:07Last updated on Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:17
Recent research: diet associated depression, weight & violence, vitamin D fall prevention, IBS & anxiety, yoga & mindfulness
Originally added on Thu, 26/11/2009 - 07:11Last updated on Mon, 30/11/2009 - 07:24
Here are a mixed bag of six recent research papers on diet, vitamin D, IBS and yoga (all details & abstracts to these studies are listed further down this blog post). The first three papers highlight the toxic effects on psychological health, physical health, and society of our processed, high sugar diets. Sanchez-Villegas et al map a bit more clearly the potential link between diet and depression. They conclude "Our results suggest a potential protective role of the MDP (Mediterranean dietary pattern) with regard to the prevention of depressive disorders; additional longitudinal studies and trials are needed to confirm these findings." Fiorito et al show that intake of sweetened drinks in 5 year old girls predicts overweight over subsequent childhood and adolescence, and - rather scarily - Moore & colleagues show a link between confectionary consumption at age 10 and subsequent violence in adulthood. They concluded "Children who ate confectio
NHS LifeCheck: online health checks for three age groups - babies, teens & mid-life
Originally added on Sun, 11/10/2009 - 05:40Last updated on Thu, 22/10/2009 - 06:51
Recent research: six studies on eating habits, obesity, vitamin D, lifestyle & dementia
Originally added on Thu, 17/09/2009 - 20:37Last updated on Sun, 04/10/2009 - 20:47
Here are half a dozen studies on weight, bite size, vitamin D, dietary supplements, and ways of avoiding dementia. Andrew et al report on the "Incident cancer burden attributable to excess body mass index in 30 European countries" estimating that about 6% of cancers could be avoided if we could maintain healthier weights (abstracts & links for all six articles mentioned appear further down this page). Zijlstra and colleagues suggest a possible response! They randomized subjects to eating with different bite (mouthful) sizes and different chewing times. They found that " ... greater oral sensory exposure to a product, by eating with small bite sizes rather than with large bite sizes and increasing OPT (oral processing time), significantly decreases food intake." As Mum might put it "Don't wolf your food!"
Recent research: 3 studies on diet & (cardiovascular) health, 2 on fish oil, dementia & postpartum depression, and 1 on walnuts!
Originally added on Thu, 06/08/2009 - 12:16Last updated on Thu, 06/08/2009 - 12:23
Here are half a dozen studies on diet (see below for all abstracts and links). The first three are about the benefits of healthy lifestyle. Trichopoulou & colleagues evaluated the contribution of nine widely accepted components of the Mediterranean diet (high intake of vegetables, fruits and nuts, legumes, fish, and cereals; low intake of meat and dairy; high ratio of monounsaturated to saturated lipids; and moderate intake of ethanol) in the inverse association of this diet with all cause mortality. They concluded that "The dominant components of the Mediterranean diet score as a predictor of lower mortality are moderate consumption of ethanol, low consumption of meat and meat products, and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil, and legumes.
Recent research: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on weight, sugared drinks, vitamin D, vegetarianism & climate change
Originally added on Thu, 04/06/2009 - 11:41Last updated on Wed, 02/12/2009 - 06:37
I like the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN). It comes out monthly and nearly always has an article or two that I find interesting and helpful. The AJCN May edition produced a bumper crop. Interesting articles included a report by Chen and colleagues (see below for all abstracts) on the effects of encouraging people to reduce their consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). In the 810 US adults they studied, 19% of total daily energy intake came from drinks. They found "A reduction in liquid calorie intake had a stronger effect than did a reduction in solid calorie intake on weight loss. Of the individual beverages, only intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) was significantly associated with weight change. A reduction in SSB intake of 1 serving/d was associated with a weight loss of 0.49 kg ... at 6 mo and of 0.65 kg ...