Holistic Weight Loss System

Incorporating holistic approach to weight loss solutions can work wonders in providing body the necessary nourishment. Now, plan to include holistic activities with gruesome workout schedules and dieting, to reap out maximum benefits.

According to Henri Roca, medical director of Greenwich Hospital's Centre for Integrative Medicine - Holistic weightloss program can help an individual develop healthy eating habits and stay fit all his life. She said that genetics, metabolism, hormones and physiological attributes can act as potential hitting blocks to a successful long-term weight management.

Stress alone can impact a human body more than what people realize. Chronic stress can lead to enhanced cortisol levels that can stimulate glucose production in the body. Excess of glucose then gets converted into fat and stored in the body - especially around an individual's mid-section. A chemical chain reaction can take place inside the body and weaken the best weight loss efforts.

When you cut back on calories intake and add or increase exercises in your daily routine, you can succeed in achieving weightloss, but usually according to statistics, these do not offer enough motivation to people who've had failed in achieving their weight loss goals before. Failure to reach the weightloss goal adds up to the already existing stress in person's mind and suppresses the weight loss to occur in him going further.

Hence it is really essential that you include proper meditation and other stress management techniques in your routine along with regular diet plans and exercise regime.

Reduce your calorie intake by drinking Skimmed Milk

Skimmed milk can facilitate people to feel fuller because of its high protein content, lactose sugar and its thickness.

Researchers have discovered that drinking fat free milk in the morning has helped people in gaining higher levels of satiety and hence lead to reduced calorie intake at the next meal, when compared to a fruit drink. Those who drank milk ate about 50 fewer calories (or nearly nine percent less food) at lunch.

In the study, 34 overweight but otherwise healthy men and women participated in two testing sessions, one in which they were served about 20 ounces of fat free milk, and one in which they were served the same quantity of a fruit drink (each contributing 250 calories to their breakfast).

During the four hours between breakfast and lunch, the men and women gauged their feelings of fullness and were allowed to eat until they were comfortably full at lunch.

The researchers discovered that the milk-drinking adults reported feeling fuller and more satisfied and therefore ate fewer calories at lunch.

The researchers suspect that milk's protein content (providing 16 percent of the daily value per cup), the lactose (the natural sugar in milk) or simply the thickness of the beverage may play a role in the satiety benefits.

And, research suggests choosing foods that can help enhance satiety is an important success factor in any weight management plan, according to a Eurekalert release.

These results are slated for publication in the July issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Now Reduce your Calorie Intake by Chewing Gum

According to a nutrition professor at the University of Rhode Island - Chewing sugar-free gum can abridge calorie intake and accentuate energy expenditure.

Kathleen Melanson, the URI associate professor of nutrition and food sciences, reached to this conclusion by comparing gum chewing to non-gum chewing in healthy adult volunteers, who came to her lab for two standardized tests in random order.

When the research subjects chewed gum for a total of one hour in the morning (three 20-minute gum-chewing sessions), they consumed 67 fewer calories at lunch and did not compensate by eating more later in the day. Male participants also reported feeling significantly less hungry after chewing gum.

It was also discovered that when her subjects chewed gum before and after eating, they spent around 5 percent more energy than when they did not chew gum. Apart from this, her subjects reported feeling more energetic after chewing gum.
Based on these results,Melanson concluded that gum chewing integrates energy expenditure and energy intake, and that is what energy balance is about. She further elaborated that the nerves in the muscles of the jaw are stimulated by the motion of chewing and then send signals to the appetite section of the brain that is linked to satiety, which may explain why the act of chewing might help to reduce hunger.

Melanson said that she expected that chewing would increase the amount of energy her subjects expended.

"However, what makes the energy expenditure data particularly interesting is that this study simulated real-life gum chewing, with the subjects chewing at their own relaxed, natural pace and for realistic time periods," she said.

In her study, 35 male and female subjects made two visits to the URI Energy Metabolism Lab after having fasted over night. During one visit, they chewed gum for 20 minutes before consuming a breakfast shake and twice more during the three hours before lunch. During both visits, participants remained as still as possible as measurements were conducted of their resting metabolism rates and blood glucose levels at regular intervals before and after breakfast and lunch. They also conducted periodic self-assessments of their feelings of hunger, energy and other factors during both visits.

"This was a short term study, so the next step is to do a longer study and to use subjects who need to lose weight.But based on these initial results, one could hypothesize that gum chewing may be a useful adjunct to a weight management program," said Melanson.

Taking Herbal Pills May Help you Loose Appetite

A research has shown that women can reduce their daily calorie intake by almost a fifth if they simply take a herbal diet pill. The supplement has also been shown to help those with a sweet tooth, reducing the temptation to indulge in sugary snacks.

Zotrim, which is based on three South American plants, was tested by scientists at the University of Liverpool.
They found that women who took the pill with their breakfast had a much lower appetite at lunch time, cutting their calorie intake by 17.6 per cent, reported dailymail.co.uk.
Of the 58 volunteers who were given either Zotrim or a dummy pill in the morning, those on the herbal supplement only picked at their afternoon meal.
The subjects, some of whom were overweight, were observed at a test lunch buffet where they were told to eat as much they wanted. Those on Zotrim ate on average 132 fewer calories. If the effects were replicated throughout the day, the pill would cut a dieter's daily count by 400 or 500 calories.

Zotrim is designed to make the user feel fuller for longer. But it also appears to take the edge off a sweet tooth, cutting the women's selection of biscuits and chocolate mousse from the buffet by 27 per cent.

"Zotrim has a robust effect on a dieter's appetite, which could help them lose weight," said Dr Jason Halford, an obesity expert.

The pill contains caffeine and other ingredients from herbs Guarana, Yerba Mate and Damiana. The cocktail delays the rate at which the stomach empties by about 20 minutes. The process is not dangerous because it merely extends the length of time taken to digest the food.

However, it makes it difficult for dieters to overeat because they feel uncomfortably full sooner. Previous research has shown that Zotrim can help overweight women lose an average of two inches from their waists in just four weeks. Some of those taking part shed five inches from their middles.

You need Good Sleep to Fight Fat if You are Dieting

A small research conducted in US states that getting too little sleep might prevent dieters from losing body fat.
The study that got issued in the Annals of Internal Medicine, adds to evidence that sleep habits play a role in weight regulation and suggest people embarking on a weight-loss plan may want to make sure they are catching enough shut-eye each night.

The research included 10 overweight men and women who lived in a sleep lab for two separate two-week periods. During both periods they followed the same calorie-restricted diet but for one period, the participants slept for 8.5 hours per night, while during the other they got 5.5 hours. Researchers from the University of Chicago found the dieters lost the same amount of weight under both conditions - just under 7 pounds, on average.
But during the sleep-restricted period, they mainly lost muscle rather than fat. When participants got 8.5 hours of sleep, more than half of their weight loss came from shedding fat. But when they got 5.5 hours of sleep, only one-quarter of their weight loss came from fat -- translating to a 55 per cent reduction in fat loss. The majority of their weight loss came from lean body tissue, which refers to muscle and any other body tissue that is not fat.
So, they lost the same amount of weight, but the composition was different. Dr. Plamen Penev, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said that successful dieters always shed a certain amount of muscle but wanted to limit that loss in favor of shedding fat.
The study, however, has a number of limitations. Besides its small size, it also looked only at short-term weight loss. More research is needed to see how sleep duration might affect dieters' body composition over time. It was also unclear how well these findings from a tightly controlled sleep-lab setting might fit the "real world." A number of studies have found self-described "short sleepers" - typically defined as those who get less than 6 hours of sleep each night - tend to weigh more or gain more weight over time than people who get more sleep.

Lab studies have suggested sleep loss may alter people's levels of the "hunger hormones" leptin and ghrelin. Leptin is secreted by fat cells; low blood levels of the hormone promote hunger, while increases tell the brain that body is full and encourage calorie burning. Ghrelin is secreted by the stomach to boost appetite.
Penev's study  found that under sleep-restricted condition, participants reported greater hunger during the day compared with the 8-hour sleep condition even though they consumed the same number of calories during both periods. They also had higher blood levels of acylated ghrelin, one form of the appetite-boosting hormone. Penev said there wsa no one-size-fits-all prescription for sleep and more studies are needed in real-world settings.

Why a Difference in Weight, while Having the Same Diet?

Ever wondered why two people could eat the same high fat diet, but one becomes obese and prone to diabetes while the other maintains a slim frame? Well, Yale School of Medicine researchers have answered this question—weight is set before birth in the developing brain. 

Led by Tamas Horvath, the research team analysed the same question in specific groups of rats. These animals have been bred so that their vulnerability to diet-induced obesity is known before they would be put on high-fat, high-calorie diet diets. Horvath said animals that become obese already had a significant difference in the feeding centre of the brain. 

Neurons that are supposed to signal when you’ve eaten enough and when to burn calories, are much more sluggish in these animals because they are inhibited by other cells. In animals resistant to obesity, these satiety signalling neurons are much more active and ready to signal to the rest of the brain and peripheral tissues when enough food has been consumed. Horvath points to other unwanted consequences of these brain mechanisms. 

"It appears that this base wiring of the brain is a determinant of one’s vulnerability to develop obesity. These observations add to the argument that it is less about personal will that makes a difference in becoming obese, and, it is more related to the connections that emerge in our brain during development. Those who are vulnerable to diet-induced obesity also develop a brain inflammation, while those who are resistant, do not. This emerging inflammatory response in the brain may also explain why those who once developed obesity have a harder time losing weight. What genetic, epigenetic and environmental factor determines this base wiring in the brain is a very important issue to address. Specifically, the emerging view is that besides genetics, maternal impact on the developing brain is likely to be critical to imprint these feeding circuits thereby determining one’s vulnerability or resistance to obesity,"  said Horvath. 


The results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A Diet Rich in Coconut can cut down Fat

A diet rich in coconut oil keeps fat away and also protects against insulin resistance, a new study shows. 

The research also facilitates in explaining how people who incorporate medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil into their diets can lose body fat. Obesity and insulin resistance are major factors leading to the development of Type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is an impaired ability of cells to respond to insulin. Nigel Turner and Jiming Ye from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research compared fat metabolism and insulin resistance in mice fed coconut oil and lard based diets.

"The medium chain fatty acids like those found in coconut oil are interesting to us because they behave very differently to the fats normally found in our diets. Unlike the long chain fatty acids contained in animal fats, medium chain fatty acids are small enough to enter mitochondria - the cells' energy burning powerhouses - directly where they can then be converted to energy.Unfortunately the downside to eating medium chain fatty acids is that they can lead to fat build up in the liver, an important fact to be taken into consideration by anyone considering using them as a weight loss therapy. Obese humans usually eat 40-50 percent of their calories as fat. Our mice were fed 45 percent of their calories as fat", said study leader Turner.  

Fat storage is determined by the balance between how much fat is taken in by cells and how much of this fat is burned for energy. When people eat a high fat diet, their bodies attempt to compensate by increasing their capacity to oxidise fat, said a Garvan release. 
Their findings are now published online in Diabetes.

Big Bites May Help You Lose Weight

Looks like the old-school advice to chew your food properly and slowly is not always best for health, as a new research has displayed that chewing food less and taking big bites can help people avoid weight gain.

A team, led by the University of Canterbury, has discovered that taking larger bites and chewing food less can make people feel full longer and thereby assist in regulating the weight, as the food gets broken down more slowly in the stomach.

This showcased that people can feel fuller for longer and the slow release of energy could be burned off over time.

"The way people chew the food depends more on the food's properties, not the individual, so you can design food which people won't chew much and (food they) will chew a lot," team leader Marco Morgenstern said.

In their research, the scientists discovered that their results included the advantages of chewing whole-oat muesli and wholegrain bread, which made people feel satisfied for longer. Pasta was also found to have a slow-release energy.

The research team has also formulated an online diet program called Aspire for Life which has been clinically tested at Otago University.

Eucalyptus Smell Can Help Reduce Food Craving

Don’t know how to curb that craving for hazelnut chocolate? Well, just imagine the smell of eucalyptus and your problem will be solved. 

Psychology researcher Dr Eva Kemps and colleague Dr Marika Tiggeman examine the psychology of food cravings and found that desperate cravings for food can be sated as easily asking the person affected to imagine the smell of eucalyptus.  The findings could have implications for drug and alcohol addiction and help in treating eating disorders such as bulimia. Kemps said that while most people will experience a food craving on occasion, these are not necessarily pathological. Kemps says a craving is notable for the specificity of the desire. 

"However, like cravings for cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine or drugs they can pose significant health risks for some individuals. Food cravings have been shown to trigger binge-eating episodes, which in turn contribute to both obesity and disordered eating, especially bulimia nervosa. It's more than just a desire for chocolate. It is very, very specific ... it might be one particular type of chocolate. People who have problematic cravings, find these cravings very debilitating in their day to day functioning,” ABC Science quoted her as saying. 

In a series of experiments, Kemps and Tiggeman induced chocolate cravings in participants and then asked them to perform a series of tasks. She said people with the induced craving demonstrated slower reaction times, recalled fewer words and took longer to complete a mathematical task. 

"When you are having a craving you are experiencing very vivid and clear mental imagery. People's mental capacity is limited in size, so if you are using it up to conjure up images of food, it can't be used for something else," said Kemps.  But, Kemp said that this effect could also be used to reduce craving sensations. 

"On the flip side when we got them to do another task, such as imagining the smell of eucalyptus they could not maintain the craving. Engaging in a simple visual task seems to hold real promise as a method for curbing food cravings," said Kemps.  Kemps says like people with food cravings, people craving alcohol and cigarettes also report strong visual and sensory imagery during the carving process.  She said that the next step is to use the results to see if the findings can help people that have debilitating cravings. 

The study was published in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science. 

Do Fruit Juices Come with Low Calories?

Breakfast is usually considered to be the most important meal of the day. At breakfast time, most of us put some calories in our bodies, and then we prepare to begin with the most active part of our day.
But, the always-famous combination of breakfast cereals with fruit juice and toast has now become a taboo with the nutritional inventions. With the 'low-carb, low-glycemic index' food choices, cereals as wheat flakes are preferred more over cornflakes, white bread is replaced by the whole wheat bread with low-cal butter, and fruit juices by whole fruits.


So what happens to our all-time favorite breakfast?


Well, it may just have to get little healthy. The logical answer for the consumption of a couple of glasses of fruit juice is that fruits are healthy, therefore fruit juices are healthy. But, the logic doesn't apply to nutrition. 


Even with no sugar added, zero preservatives, unstrained fruit juice would have the same amount of sugar as a cola beverage, because fruit is full of sugar!


The sugar is from fructose, which is naturally present in fruits; if it is '10 per cent juice', most of the sugar is in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. When a fruit juice is 'without added sugar', it means sucrose or table sugar is not added. But, the sugar of the fruit obviously remains. Sugar in 340 ml of fruit juice (no added sugar) is equivalent to calories in 340 ml (one can) of Coca-Cola.


All the above essentially, tells us that no matter which juice you choose, they all have more calories than the same amount of Coke. It tells us that juice - 100 per cent juice, no sugar added - contains about the same amount of sugar (or even more - 50 per cent more for grape juice) as the same volume of Coke. It tells us that, freshly-squeezed fruit juice without straining, is no different in calories (would be slightly higher in fibre).


With the promotion of fruit juices as a health drink, one has to figure out that...


- All that is healthy is not low-calorie.
- Fruit juices are caloric dense; also they are restricted for medical conditions like diabetes.
- A glass of juice a day is not complete nutrition. Also, its introduction in your diet should be well understood. If an individual is aiming at fat loss, fruit juice is definitely not the answer.
- Substitution of fruit juice with a whole fruit has lot more benefits.
- It's good to be health-conscious, but with the right advice. Half knowledge is worst than no knowledge.


(Inputs from Kinita S Kadakia, Mumbai-based diet consultant)

Food Habits to Good Health

Everyday, without our knowledge, a faint little feeling in the stomach prompts us to involuntarily look at the clock.
Then the revelation hits us – it is evening and we have not had the time to eat our lunch. In today’s times, where a sedentary lifestyle is the rule, it’s observed that the health of people is deteriorating day by day. They have started taking themselves and their body for granted. They don’t even remember when they last had a proper meal. Eating healthy just requires a little planning. Here are some shortcuts to achieve a healthy body:

1) Breakfast is a ‘must’
Start your morning with some breakfast, be it a piece of fruit or a whole wheat bread. Put oatmeal into a thermos of hot water, and you could even let it sit overnight. In the morning, you shall have hot cooked oatmeal ready to eat. Similarly, a hard boiled egg can be eaten. This will prevent your body from going into starvation mode. Eating breakfast everyday will also help increase your metabolic rate. (Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

2) Five meals a day
Have at least five meals a day in which three can be the main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner, while other two meals can consist of foods which are handy and nutritious at the same time. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs, provides consistent energy, and maintains metabolism efficiency. Grab healthy foods such as fruits that are high in fibre like apple, watermelon, muskmelon, orange, sweet lime, papaya and peaches.

3) Ask for healthy food
Some people’s work demands frequenting restaurants for dinner. Always watch out for hidden fats. Creamy soups, white breads, flaky pastries and mayonnaise-based salad dressings add unnecessary fats to the food. Try consuming broths instead of creamy soups. Instead of mayonnaise dressing, use variety of condiments and flavouring agents such as lemon, vinegar, herbs, onion and garlic to improve the palatability of your salad. Remember, a gram of fat contains more than twice as many calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate. Ask for grilled, baked, boiled or broiled food rather than fried foods.(Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

4) Hydrate when you’re travelling
Your work might involve a lot of travelling in which air travel is one of the most dehydrating experiences. Because of this, people often complain of sore throats and other respiratory illnesses. To avoid these, one should not drink caffeine, cola or alcohol before or after the flights as these are diuretics and can increase the water loss. Avoid salted snacks like salted peanuts or fried foods in order to minimise dehydration. Try consuming lots of fluids in the form of water, fruit juice, coconut water, lime water, etc. In any case, one should drink at least 12 to 15 gasses of water everyday. The stress associated with travel may slightly increase the protein requirement, so one should make an effort to consume a little more protein each day. (Image: Andy Newson / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)


5) Good quality of food
Always remember that the quality of food you eat determines your efficiency at work. Avoid refined foods like white rice and those used to make white bread and sugary breakfast cereals as most of their vitamins and minerals are stripped away. They turn into blood sugar (glucose) so fast just like sugar; they can cause a spike in our insulin level. Alternate refined flour with wholegrain flour. Substitute white sugar with honey and jaggery. 
Remember, all this will help us in remaining healthy and happy for a long time to come.

Your breakfast can decide your Weightloss

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Wondering, why your diet can't get you rid of those extra inches accumulated on the waistline? Well, your breakfast can help you a lot. Researchers have found that a breakfast of muesli with milk, tinned peaches and yoghurt can help weight loss. Experts at the University of Nottingham recommend that the low GI breakfast with apple juice helps the body break down fat better than a high Glycaemic Index start to the day of sugary cereal and white toast, reports The Daily Express .

Scientists discovered that the kind of food you eat, before exercise can directly affect your health. A research led by Dr Emma Stevenson surveyed young women after an overnight fast.

In one study period they were given a breakfast of food known to cause large rises in blood glucose - those with a high GI, including cornflakes and milk, white bread and jam and a fizzy, sugary drink. In another period, they breakfasted on food with a low GI, although both breakfasts had the same amount of calories, carbohydrate, fat and protein. The low GI breakfast was muesli, milk, yoghurt, tinned peaches and apple juice. Three hours after eating, the women walked for an hour on a treadmill. A lunch - the same in both study periods, was then provided. Throughout the day, blood samples and samples of expired air were taken.

After the analyses, researchers discovered that blood glucose levels were higher after the high GI breakfast than the low one, and had returned to normal by the time the women began to exercise. However, plasma free fatty acids (FFA), which show the amount of fat used up for energy, began to rise two hours after the low GI breakfast, the researchers discovered further. Exercises then led to a rapid increase in FFAs in both groups, but concentrations were higher in the low GI group. After lunch the concentration of FFAs was the same in both groups, but overall fat oxidation was higher in the low GI group than the high GI group.

Dr Stevenson said: "We concluded that consuming a low GI breakfast increases fat oxidation both at rest and during subsequent exercise. A low GI breakfast also had an impact on appetite, with test subjects feeling fuller for longer after they’d eaten these types of foods."

Staying Away from food can help you Eat Less

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Researchers led by Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, shared findings of their "Serve Here; Eat There" study of 78 adults.


"We looked at whether serving foods from the kitchen counter, instead of at the table, would reduce the number of times a person refilled his or her plate," Wansink said.


"Quite simply, it is a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'," he continued. "When we kept the serving dishes off the table, people ate 20 percent fewer calories. Men ate close to 29 percent less."


The same strategy can be used to help increase the consumption of healthier foods, Wansink explained, according to a Cornell release.


"If fruits and vegetables are kept in plain sight, we'll be much more likely to choose them, rather than a piece of cake hidden in the refrigerator."


Dining environment, plate and portion size, and other hidden cues that determine what, when and how much we eat are familiar topics in Wansink's work. He is the author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think".


These findings were presented at the Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, California.


Experimental Biology is an annual meeting of nearly 13,000 scientists and exhibitors from the fields of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, pathology, nutrition, pharmacology and immunology.

Tips to have a Weekend Proof Diet

A weekend feast can easily ruin all the progress, you might have made watching your diet throughout the week. But the May issue of Fitness Magazine may assist you in staying back on track and avoid your weekend food cravings. The CBS lists these tips as under:


Friday
At happy hour: Alcohol can make you hungry, since it lowers your blood sugar, as well as lowers your inhibitions about what you'll eat. Consider ordering a different drink than you normally would - you're more likely to order a second round when it's your favorite drink. Also, avoid getting a pitcher of sangria or margaritas, when you can lose sight of how much you're drinking if someone is constantly topping off your glass.
Dinner out: Studies have shown that women eat similarly when they are together - so you'll consume less if you try to sit next to light eaters. To avoid being swayed by someone's order, try to order first and make a healthy choice up front.


Saturday
Doing chores: When you're at home and close to the kitchen, eating is a way to fend off boredom and procrastinate. Instead of grazing, make yourself a mini meal - and then take it to another room. Having to walk back to the kitchen will help prevent mindlessly eating.
At a dinner party: Dinner parties can be challenging for dieters because you don't have control of the menu and can offend your hosts if you don't eat. Try to fill up your plate with leafy greens, and if your host is insistent about seconds, suggest taking some home with you instead.


Sunday
Sunday brunch: A leisurely brunch is filled with rich menu options. Consider sharing a treat with the table to satisfy cravings and order a nutritious entrée. If the group lingers at the table, have your plate removed - ordering more coffee increasing your chances of grazing.
Sunday night: If you've slipped on your diet this weekend, you may feel like throwing in the towel. To increase the chances you'll keep things under control, try a portioned snack like a piece of dark chocolate or a low-fat ice cream sandwich. Also consider going to bed early - sometimes people eat in response to exhaustion.

Orange juice a must have with high fat meal

Flavonoids in orange juice neutralize the oxidative and inflammatory stress generated by high-fat, high-carb meals and help prevent blood vessel damage, claims a new study.
Free radicals, or reactive oxygen species, are known to induce inflammation in blood vessel linings and contribute to the risk of heart attack and stroke. In the new study, University at Buffalo endocrinologists say the potent preventative effect of orange juice likely is linked to its heavy load of the flavonoids naringenin and hesperidin, which are major antioxidants.


"Our data show, for the first time to our knowledge, that drinking orange juice with a meal high in fat and carbohydrates prevented the marked increases in reactive oxygen species and other inflammatory agents," says UB's Husam Ghanim, PhD, first author on the study.


"This did not happen when participants drank water or a sugary drink with the meal," he says. "These issues of inflammation following a meal are important because the resultant high glucose and high triglycerides are known to be related to the development of cardiovascular events."


The study involved three groups of 10 normal-weight healthy men and women between the ages of 20 and 40. After an overnight fast, participants ate a 900-calorie breakfast composed of an egg "muffin" sandwich, a sausage "muffin" sandwich and a serving of hash browns. The meal contained 81 grams of carbohydrates, 51 grams of fat and 32 grams protein.
Along with the breakfast, one group drank 300 calories of "not-from-concentrate" orange juice, a second group drank a 300-calorie glucose drink and the third group drank an equal amount of water. All participants were given 15 minutes to finish their food and drink. Blood samples were collected before the meal and at 1, 3 and 5 hours afterwards. There was no significant difference in inflammatory mediators among the groups before the meal.


Analysis of the samples after the meal showed that oxygen free radicals increased an average of 62 percent with water, 63 percent with the glucose and 47 percent with orange juice. There also was an increase in blood components known as toll-like receptors, which play an important role in the development of inflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, and injury to cardiac cells than can occur after a blocked vessel is reopened.


Orange juice also prevented a significant increase in SOCS-3, an important mediator of insulin resistance, which contributes to development of type 2 diabetes.
"These data emphasize that a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal is profoundly and rapidly proinflammatory, and that this process occurs at the cellular and molecular level," says Paresh Dandona, MD, UB distinguished professor of medicine, director of the Diabetes-Endocrinology Center of Western New York at Kaleida Health and senior author on the study.


"In addition, specific proinflammatory genes are activated after the intake of glucose and a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal, and these changes are observed in mononuclear cells that participate in vascular inflammation and insulin resistance," he says.


Learn about Chocolate Health Benefits

Tangy Fruits Can Help You Stay Slim

You can now include deep colored tangy fruits in your idiot proof diet, if you work more on being on diet for weightloss instead of (or accompanied with) doing weight loss exercise. Munching on tangy fruits can assist you in staying slim, says a new study. A research work conducted on mice displayed that the juice of the blood orange prohibited them from piling on weight when fed a high-fat diet.

Nevertheless, those fed with sweeter oranges attained substantial quantities of fat.

The research team from University of Milan conceives that the fat-busting qualities of the fruit, grown in Italy and the US, may be to some degree, due to its high levels of Anthocyanin.

This characteristic red pigment that contributes the orange its deep color is a kind of antioxidant, a natural chemical, which assists in warding off the diseases, reports dailymail.co.uk.

The juice impairs the capability of the cells called Adipocytes to amass fat. Adipocytes are found mostly around the waistline and can absorb fat from food to store as energy.

The research and other related details have been appeared in the International Journal of Obesity.