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Mediterranean Diet Improves Heart Risk Factors

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Eating a “Mediterranean diet” could prevent or even reverse metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Scientists believe that a Mediterranean-style diet has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on your body.

A review of 35 clinical trials found that faithfully eating a Mediterranean diet can improve traits such as belly fat, high blood pressure, low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, elevated blood fat levels, and high blood sugar.

Reuters reports:
“For instance, those who stuck with the Mediterranean diet as compared to eating their regular foods or a low-fat diet trimmed their waistlines by about 0.43 cm (0.16 inches) on average.  They also showed slashed their blood pressure by 2.35 points on the top reading, and their fasting blood sugar by 3.89 milligrams per deciliter.”

Resources:
Reuters March 7, 2011
Journal of the American College of Cardiology March 15, 2011;57(11):1299-313

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Healthy Tips

Proper Vitamin D Intake May Lead To Healthy Weight Loss

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Following a diet enriched with vitamin D may be associated with achieving better weight loss results, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Over the course of two years, more than 300 individuals aged 40 to 60 who were considered overweight followed three different diets, which all featured foods that contain high levels of vitamin D. The regimens included a low-fat diet, a low-carbohydrate diet and a Mediterranean-inspired diet.

The results of the study showed that each diet led to healthy weight loss, but the participants who consumed the most nutrient-enriched foods lost more weight.

It was known that overweight people had lower levels of serum vitamin D, but this is the first study that actually shows that serum vitamin D increased among people who lost weight,” said Danit Shahar, lead author of the trial. She added that these findings “lasted throughout the two years that the study was conducted, regardless of whether they were on a low-carbohydrate, low-fat or Mediterranean diet.”

In addition to promoting healthy weight loss, vitamin D intake may also improve bone health, prevent low bone mass, reduce bone density loss and lessen the chance of osteoporosis.
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Put vitamin “d” in your diet!


Source
: Better Health Research

 
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Low Carb More Effective than Low Fat Diet for Insulin Resistant Women

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Obese women with insulin resistance lose more weight after three months on a lower-carbohydrate diet than on a traditional low-fat diet with the same number of calories, according to a new study.
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“The typical diet that physicians recommend for weight loss is a low-fat diet,” said the study’s lead author Raymond Plodkowski. “However, as this study shows, not all people have the same response to diets.”

People with insulin resistance, a common precursor for Type 2 diabetes, metabolize carbohydrates, or “carbs,” abnormally, which may affect their rate of weight loss. For them, Plodkowski said, “the lower-carb diet is more effective, at least in the short term.”

At 12-weeks, the study funded by Jenny Craig and using prepared calorie-controlled meals as part of a behavioral weight loss program, found that the insulin resistant women on a lower-carb diet lost 3.4 pounds more than those on a low-fat diet.

Forty-five obese women between the ages of 18 and 65 years participated in the study, and all had insulin resistance, as found by fasting blood levels of insulin. The researchers randomly assigned the women to either a low-fat or lower-carb diet. The groups did not differ significantly in average body weight, the authors reported. On average, women in the low-fat diet group weighed 213 pounds, while women in the other group weighed 223 pounds.

The composition of the low-fat diet was 60 percent of calories from carbs, 20 percent from fat and 20 percent from protein. Although the lower-carb diet also had 20 percent of calories from protein, it had 45 percent from carbs and 35 percent from primarily unsaturated fats, such as nuts. Menus included a minimum of 2 fruits and 3 vegetable servings a day.

Use of prepared meals helped make the structured diets easier and more palatable for the dieters, according to Plodkowski. “We wanted to make this study real-world—anyone could follow this plan by making moderate changes as part of a healthy menu,” he said.

Both groups lost weight at each monthly weigh-in, but by 12 weeks, the insulin resistant group receiving the lower-carb diet lost significantly more weight, 19.6 pounds versus 16.2 pounds in the low-fat diet group – approximately 21 percent more on average.

“These data have potential widespread applications for clinicians when counseling people with insulin resistance to help improve weight loss as part of a calorie-restricted diet,” Plodkowski said. “They should at least initially lower their carbohydrate intake.”

Source:Elements4Health

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DNA Test ‘May Predict Suitable Diet’

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A simple DNA test may predict whether someone is more likely to lose weight on a low fat or a low carbohydrate diet, say US researchers.

The results from the small preliminary study of 101 women showed those on the best diet for their genes lost two to three times more weight than the rest.

The results are being presented at an American Heart Association conference.

Experts said the findings tied in with previous studies, but further work should be carried out.

Cheek swab:-

The emerging field of “nutrigenomics” looks at how food interacts with genes.

It has long been known that people react to certain nutrients differently according to their genetic makeup.

Lactose intolerance, for example, is more common among Asians and Africans than of people of North European descent.

This study looked at how well people with different genes fared on different weight-loss diets.

The researchers, from Stanford University, analysed data from 101 white Caucasian women who provided DNA from a swab of their cheek cells.

The women had different diets for a year. The diets were very low carbohydrate, low carbohydrate/high protein, and low or very low fat.

The researchers divided the group into three genotypes which they described as low carbohydrate diet responsive, low fat diet responsive and a balanced diet responsive genotype.

They found that those on a diet which matched their genotype lost 2-3 times more weight over 12 months compared with those on the “wrong” diet.

The researchers said their findings were preliminary, and need much more confirmation before they could be used commercially.

‘Intriguing’

British experts pointed out that the study had looked at a very small number of people and did not make clear what genes were involved.

Prof Christine Williams, from the University of Reading, said: “This is a very intriguing study – though very small.”

She said it would be useful to get a better understanding of what genes were involved.

“It fits pretty well with some of our own studies which show that certain genotypes are more responsive than others to certain types of fats, eg diets high in omega-3 fatty acids,” she added.

You may click to see :->
Why do some people never seem to get fat?
Obesity ‘may be largely genetic’
Experts investigate ‘DNA diets’

The DNA Diet

Source : BBC News :March 5. 2010

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Low-Carb Diet Beats Low-Fat Diet

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A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style diet both helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the various weight-loss techniques.

The low-carb diet also improved cholesterol more than the other two, even though some critics had predicted the opposite result.

The two-year study was done in a controlled environment — an isolated nuclear research facility in Israel, where participants received their lunch at a cafeteria (and did not have easy access to fast-food outlets). Each of the 322 participants was assigned to one of three meal plans:

1. The low-fat diet, which restricted calories and cholesterol and focused on low-fat grains, vegetables and fruits as options.
2. The Mediterranean diet, which emphasized poultry, fish, olive oil and nuts.
3. The low-carb diet, which set limits for carbohydrates and urged dieters to choose vegetarian sources of fat and protein.
Although all three approaches achieved weight loss and improved cholesterol, the Mediterranean diet, and especially the low-carb diet, had the most beneficial effects.

Sources:
Washington Post July 17, 2008
The New England Journal of Medicine July 17, 2008, Volume 359:229-241 (Free Full-Text Article)

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