GI News—April 2009

• Sweeten your life with low GI sugar (GI 50)
• Can cinnamon reduce the blood glucose rise after eating?
• Lupin - dream ingredient or allergy nightmare? Catherine Saxelby investigates
• Mythbuster Nicole Senior looks at vegetarian diet health claims
• Prof Trim checks out how much protein you actually need

Want to feel fuller on fewer calories, cut your appetite, boost your fibre, slash your blood pressure and cholesterol? Then look out for lupin products boasting this line up of health benefits says Catherine Saxelby in Food of the Month. Always on the lookout for the latest food being hyped, she took a closer look at lupin for GI News – the claims, the science-based evidence and the products. There are all our usual features in this issue too, plus two new recipes for you to try.

Good eating, good health and good reading.

GI News Editor: Philippa Sandall
Web Design and Management: Scott Dickinson, PhD

Being thin is what ages us most

A BMI higher by four points was found to result in a younger appearance of between two and four years in women over 40 years old. In some cases, this meant that a difference in weight of as little as 10lb added four years to a woman's appearance, the Plastic and Reconstructive Journal reports.

Mr Grover, a consultant plastic surgeon at King Edward VII Hospital in London, said that while most people will find their cheeks start to lose their plumpness from around the age of 38, extreme dieters have the most to worry about.

He said: 'People who are trying to stay stick thin lose weight from their face sooner than they would otherwise and those is extremely ageing.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Thousands of people are winning thousands of dollars by dropping unwanted pounds

Diet betting is basically making a wager that you will lose a certain amount of weight in a specified amount of time," nutritionist Elisa Zied told CBS station WCBS-TV in New York. Co-workers and friends have made small weight loss wagers for years, but now there are Web sites to keep you on track. Mary Lou Wehrli her brother, Grant, are using www.fatbet.net to try to lose about 20 pounds each. The stakes? "The loser will buy the victor dinner or lunch for six at a sushi house," Mary Lou said.

They post their weight at least once a week on the Web site and can taunt each other on the site's blog. "That motivation has had me get off the couch when I really didn't want to," Grant said. Users say the teasing and tempting is all part of the fun. Both weighing in and paying up are totally dependent on the honor system. "This motivation of this younger brother that's going to lose a bet to me, it's just so cool," Mary Lou said. On another site, stickk.com, when you place a wager, you sign a commitment contract. You hand over your credit card number and each week that you don't meet your goal you're charged. "I'm putting $10 on the line each week. Each week I don't lose that pound, I lose the $10," stickk.com's Jordan Goldberg said.

Read more on: WBZ

Sleep loss leads to increased ghrelin and decreased leptin, a double blow that stimulates appetite

Two hormones that are primarily responsible for regulating the body's energy balance, telling the body when it is hungry and when it is full. The study found that chronic insomnia disrupts one of these two hormones. "The current study shows that insomnia patients have a dysregulation in energy balance that could explain why these patients gain weight over time," said Motivala, who is also a member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA.

"This is an exciting finding because it highlights how diverse behaviors like sleep and eating are connected. We are just beginning to explore the possible consequences of these connections, but it is another example of the importance of a good night's sleep for the body."

To date, no study has evaluated nocturnal levels of the two hormones, ghrelin and leptin, in primary insomnia patients. Ghrelin, a peptide secreted by the stomach, stimulates appetite and increases before meals. Leptin, which affects body weight and is secreted primarily by fat cells, signals the hypothalamus regarding the degree of fat storage in the body; decreased leptin tells the body there is a calorie shortage and promotes hunger, while increased levels promote energy expenditure.

Read more on: Medical News Today

DASH eating plan, lower your intake of salt and sodium

The DASH eating plan includes whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts and has reduced amounts of fats, red meats, sweets, and sugared beverages. Study results indicated that elevated blood pressures were reduced by an eating plan that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, and lowfat dairy foods and is low in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol.

DASH is also recommended by:
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (one of the National Institutes of Health, of the US Department of Health and Human Services)
The American Heart Association
The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
US guidelines for treatment of high blood pressure
and, the DASH diet formed the basis for the new USDA MyPyramid

Read more on: DashDiet.org

Extract from the African mango may shed pounds

Lab research has shown that extracts from the plant's seed may inhibit body fat production, through effects on certain genes and enzymes that regulate metabolism. For the current study, researchers at the University of Yaounde in Cameroon randomly assigned 102 overweight adults to take either the plant extract or a placebo twice a day for 10 weeks.

The study participants did not follow any special diet and were told to maintain their normal exercise levels. By the end of the study, the extract group had lost a significant amount of weight an average of roughly 28 pounds, while the placebo group showed almost no change.
At the same time, they showed declines in "bad" LDL cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Dr. Julius E. Oben and his colleagues report the findings in the online journal Lipids in Health and Disease. The Fairfield, California- based Gateway Health Alliances, Inc. supplied the Irvingia gabonensis extract and partially funded the research.



The study is the first well-controlled clinical trial of the extract's effectiveness as a weight-loss aid, the researchers note. But the findings, they write, suggest that Irvingia gabonensis could offer a "useful tool" for battling the growing worldwide problem of obesity and its related ills.
A few patients on the extract reported side effects, including headaches, sleep problems and gas, but the rates were similar in the placebo group.

Source: Fox News

New Weight Loss products on the FDA alert list

Herbal Xenicol, Slimbionic and Xsvelten are now on the FDA alert list.
Also the undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients added to the warning are fenproporex, fluoxetine, furosemide and cetilistat. The FDA warned consumers late last year not to purchase or consume 28 different products marketed for weight loss. The latest warning is the second update to that list, which now includes 72 products, and the agency said it would continue to update the list as needed. "These tainted weight-loss products pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed maximum recommended dosages," Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a news release. "Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain dangerous drugs that could cause serious consequences to their health."

The products included in the alert, some of which are marketed as dietary supplements are promoted and sold on various Web sites and in some retail stores and beauty salons, the FDA said. The products have not been approved by the FDA and are illegal, the agency said.


Source: Honnews

This is why a Low GI diet makes it easier to lose weight

A low GI diet increases gut hormone production which leads to suppression of appetite and the feeling of fullness. This is the finding of new research being presented at the annual Society for Endocrinology BES meeting in Harrogate. Researchers from King's College London studied the effects of a low versus high GI meal on levels of gut hormones.

This is the first study to provide clues as to how a low GI meal produces satiety. GI is a ranking assigned to carbohydrates according to their effect on the body's blood sugar levels. A low GI meal takes longer to digest and releases sugar into the bloodstream more slowly than a high GI meal. High GI foods include white bread, croissants and cornflakes, whereas granary bread, milk and most fruit and vegetables are all classed as low GI foods.

Read more on Medical News Today

Family simply too fat to work

They haven’t worked in 11 years, claiming their weight is due to a hereditary condition. Instead, the family spend their days in front of a television borrowed from a friend.

Mr Chawner said: ‘We love TV. It’s on from the moment we get up. Often I’m so tired from watching TV I have to have a nap.’
Yet of their £22,508 a year in tax-free benefits equivalent to a £30,000 salary, Mr Chawner said: ‘What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.’

The family claim to spend £50 a week on food, including chocolate, chips and pies, and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.

Read more on: Dailymail.co.uk

Disabling the enzyme MGAT2 helps the body to absorb fat

The discovery could pave the way for new drug treatments to protect against obesity, and could also help stop the development of high cholesterol and even a fatty liver. Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco found that the intestinal enzyme MGAT2 plays a crucial role in this energy storage process and the consequent build-up of fat. They found that by making the enzyme inactive in mice, the animals were able to consume a high-fat diet without putting on weight.

After 16 weeks the MGAT2-deficient mice weighed an incredible 60 per cent less than normal mice, while their fat mass was 50 per cent lower. The researchers concluded that by disabling MGAT2, the fat the mice consumed was converted into energy rather than stored in the body.

"Since we eat a lot of fat in our diet, if you transfer the fat absorption in a way that the body can tolerate without many side effects, that would be useful," the Daily Express quoted lead author Professor Bob Farese Jr, professor of medicine and biochemistry at the University of California in San Francisco, said."The enzyme is a gatekeeper in the intestine for absorbing fat. We inactivated that in mice to see how effective it was."The mice that didn't have the enzyme were given more fat and the rate of uptake of fat was slowed," he added.

Source: NewKerala

It is important to consume sufficient calcium to ensure the success of any weight loss program

But only in people whose diets are calcium deficient. During the study, the team conducted a 15-week weight loss program on obese women.The participants consumed on average less than 600 mg of calcium per day, whereas recommended daily intake is 1000 mg.


In addition to following a low calorie diet, the women were instructed to take two tablets a day containing either a total of 1200 mg of calcium or a placebo. The researchers found that those who took the calcium tablets lost nearly 6 kg over the course of the program, compared to 1 kg for women in the control group."Our hypothesis is that the brain can detect the lack of calcium and seeks to compensate by spurring food intake, which obviously works against the goals of any weight loss program," said Tremblay, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Energy Balance. "Sufficient calcium intake seems to stifle the desire to eat more," he added.



Therefore, it is important to consume sufficient calcium to ensure the success of any weight loss program.In previous studies Tremblay has shown that women who consumed diets poor in calcium had more body fat, bigger waistlines, and higher bad cholesterol levels than those who consumed moderate or large amounts of calcium.In another study, researchers showed that the more people reduced their consumption of dairy products over the six-year period examined, the more weight and body fat they gained and the bigger their waistlines grew.



The study is published in the British Journal of Nutrition.



Source: NewKearala

Deep brain stimulation for weight loss

Carol Poe, 60, is only the second person in the United States to undergo deep brain stimulation for weight loss after trying everything from diets to having her stomach stapled. Last month, she took part in a clinical trial at West Virginia University hospital in which neurosurgeons drilled into her brain and used electricity to control her feelings of hunger and satisfaction.


Poe, 5-feet 2-inches and who weighed 230 pounds before the surgery, said that at her heaviest she weighed about 490 pounds.
Dr Julian Bailes, chairman of West Virginia University's department of neurosurgery, said Poe was a good candidate for the radical treatment.
Bailes told Reuters that the West Virginia University hospital was the only one in the United States, and the only center he knew of worldwide, using the deep brain stimulation technique specifically on obese patients.

He said the first patient underwent surgery in November 2008. The second, Poe, took place in February. Both are part of a clinical trial, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, conducted by fellow neurosurgeons Michael Oh and Donald Whiting.

Read more on: Fox News

Gene therapy, a promising new treatment for obesity

The Ohio State University Medical Center are studying a potentially long-term treatment that involves injecting a gene directly into one of the critical feeding and weight control centers of the brain. "Obesity significantly increases the risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and some cancers," says Dr. Matthew During, senior author and professor in Ohio State Medical Center's department of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics.


"Our findings represent a promising new treatment for obesity that could ultimately provide a much safer and more effective approach than some conventional therapies." Scientists have discovered that a particular gene, BDNF, can result in improved insulin sensitivity, reduced fat mass and weight loss when active in the hypothalamus. The findings are published online in the journal Nature Medicine.


Read more on: Medical News Today

Obesity expert Louis Aronne: 'don't start your meal with bread and soda'

Some people start their meals with bread and soda, and that can make them consume more calories at that meal and later in the day. You are more likely to overload your fullness system if you eat big quantities of intensely sweet, starchy, fatty food, such as ice cream, cake and cookies.


You are better off if you eat these in smaller quantities at the end of a meal, when you will find it's easier to control the amount.


He also said: 'Research conducted at Penn State University showed that people who eat salad before a meal eat less at that meal, and I find that patients who eat bread beforehand consume more later. You'll have a greater sense of fullness and feel fuller faster if you eat healthier foods first salads, vegetables and lean protein, and then eat starchy foods'.



Source: USAToday

Acai Berry Blast

Acai Berry Blast is a dietary and weight loss supplement that is to help you shed unwanted pounds, boost your energy, detoxify your body and feel better. Containing the wonder fruit, the acai berry which hails from the Amazon Rain Forest, Acai Berry Blast captures the powerful antioxidant properties of this tiny berry and delivers it to you in a capsule form.
Acai berries are known for their comprehensive nutrition profile and have been celebrated as one of nature’s most complete foods by many health and nutrition experts.

When children have little control over what they eat or don't eat, they may react by acting out and overeating

Preschool-age children are at a vulnerable age, and are forming eating habits that will follow them throughout their life" says Wansink, author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Children were able to fill their bowl until they indicated they had received enough and the bowl of cereal was weighed.

Parents who force their kids to clean their plates at meals, may be interfering with the development of self-control that children have around food," said co-author Collin Payne of New Mexico State University."When children have little control over what they eat- or don't eat, they may react by acting out and overeating when away from home," the expert added.

Source: newkerala.com

2,130 individuals in Britain are claiming incapacity benefit as a direct result of obesity

And there are likely to be hundreds or even thousands more whose weight has led to severe health problems, such as diabetes, cancer or heart defects, which have made them unfit to take jobs. It is the latest evidence that the country's obesity epidemic is threatening to spiral out of control. Last week it emerged that the number of patients admitted to hospital for weight-related health issues has leapt seven-fold in a decade.

There are around 2.6million adults on sickness handouts, meaning about one in 1,200 are receiving up to £84.50 a week because they are grossly overweight.
The Government is driving through reform of incapacity benefit, replacing it with an employment and support allowance, and re-testing all claimants to assess their ability to take jobs.

However, there are doubts about how far the shake-up will apply to existing claimants.
Tory work and pensions spokesman James Clappison, who obtained the figures in a Parliamentary question, said: 'Labour has neglected the ticking obesity timebomb we are facing, and now we are seeing the detrimental effects on our economy.
'We urgently need action now, but unfortunately this Government's record has been one of obesity targets missed and scrapped, budgets for information campaigns being raided, and dithering over food labelling.

'They've missed the opportunities they've had to make a real difference, and now hard-working taxpayers are paying the consequences.'
To qualify for incapacity benefit, claimants are given a series of medical tests, known as the Personal Capability Assessment, to determine if they can work.
As at August last year, the most recent date for which figures are available, 2,130 claimants had a primary diagnosis of obesity.
Obesity is normally defined as having a body mass index of 30 or more. BMI is measured by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by your height in metres squared.
A figure of between 18.5 and 25 is considered healthy. Some 5,018 people ended up in hospital in 2007-08 because they were so fat their health was in danger.
In 1996-97, there were only 738 admissions with obesity as the main diagnosis. The annual direct cost to the NHS of obesity is estimated at £49million, while associated problems are estimated to add another £1.2billion.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said last night: 'Being obese does not mean that someone is considered incapable of work.
'To qualify for incapacity benefits, claimants must take part in a medical assessment which will assess an individual's ability to carry out a range of activities which are required for the workplace. 'Obesity on its own will not mean that someone can qualify for IB. The new Personal Capability Assessment now focuses specifically on the work that someone can do, not just their eligibility for benefits. 'We are determined that people who can work are given the help and support they need to help get back into the labour market.'

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

Patients who have undergone weight-loss surgery engaged in poorer eating and exercise habits

Compared with obese people who lost the same amount of weight through diet and exercise, a recent study has found. The study also found that adopting a strict diet and an exercise regimen can produce the same results as bariatric surgery for severely obese people in terms of keeping weight off over the long term.




While both surgical and non-surgical treatments led to considerable loss of weight, those who dieted and exercised had to work harder and over a longer period of time than the stomach-stapling group, according to researchers at the Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine, who published their work in the International Journal of Obesity."Our findings suggest that it's possible to maintain large weight losses through intensive behavioral efforts, such as changing your approach to eating and exercise, regardless of whether you lost weight with bariatric surgery or through non-surgical methods," said lead author Dale Bond.

Read more on: Empowered Doctor

Celsius, a soft drink that may help those who drink it burn 100 calories per can, true?

It's an image that a drink, sold under the brand name Celsius, hopes to shatter. And if the television ad campaign launched this past weekend is to be believed, these drinks go a step beyond zero calories they can actually make your body burn calories after you drink them. Steve Haley, CEO of Celsius Holdings, Inc., said the claims are backed by several clinical studies funded by his company showing that the beverage ramps up the body's metabolism allowing those who consume it to stoke their calorie-burning furnaces.



"Consumers can replace what they normally enjoy with this," he said. "We're a great replacement for soft drinks, to a point."
The method behind this boost is not magic; rather it's caffeine and quite a bit of it. At 200 milligrams of caffeine, a can of Celsius packs nearly twice the amount of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of coffee.


But Haley pointed out that the calorie-burning power of the drink comes not only from caffeine, but also from other metabolism-boosting ingredients, like the green tea chemical Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), chromium and ginger. In addition, he said, the drink contains vitamins, as well as calcium to counteract the bone-robbing effects of caffeine.
In short, Celsius may be the health food industry's answer to the soft drink in something of the same way that a PowerBar stacks up to a Snickers bar.
"It was our intent all along to create a new category," Haley said. "This is a functional beverage a net-negative-calorie drink."



Source: ABC News

Adults need at least 250 minutes per week equal to 50 minutes of exercise five days a week to lose significant weight

According to the latest recommendations from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

If you are trying to maintain your weight rather than lose, you may still be OK with the 30-minute workouts.

The ACSM recommends that adults participate in at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity to prevent significant weight gain.

Overweight and obese adults, however, are more likely to reach their goals with at least 250 minutes. The report also recommends strength training as part of the exercise regimen, in order to increase fat-free mass and further reduce health risks.

Source: WebMD

Obese children with weight-related diabetes should be given gastric band surgery as young as 15

Experts say it can knock up to 20 years off a child's life expectancy. In addition, 60,000 children under 16 are thought to have weight-related metabolic syndrome - a combination of conditions including high blood pressure and raised cholesterol- which is said to be a precursor to type 2 diabetes.



Losing weight can help control the illness but many children cannot stick to the necessary healthy diet and exercise regimes.
Professor Shield believes gastric banding - in which an inflatable silicone ring is fitted around the top part of the stomach to make it smaller - could be the answer.
'The children we see with type 2 diabetes who really struggle to lose weight with other methods have all the health issues that adult diabetics have,' he said yesterday.

Read more on Daily Mail

Bariatric surgery to reduce obesity can completely eliminate all manifestations of diabetes

In a study published in the March 2009 issue of The American Journal of Medicine, investigators analyzed 621 studies from 1990 to April of 2006, which showed that 78.1% of diabetic patients had complete resolution and diabetes was improved or resolved in 86.6% of patients as the result of bariatric surgery.




The primary risk factor for type 2 diabetes is obesity, and 90% of all patients with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. The dataset included 135,246 patients where 3188 patients reported resolution of the clinical and laboratory manifestations of type 2 diabetes. Nineteen studies with 11,175 patients reported both weight loss and diabetes resolution outcomes separately for the 4070 diabetic patients in those studies. Clinical findings were substantiated by the laboratory parameters of serum insulin, HbA1c, and glucose.

Read more on Medical News Today