Take to healthy foods that fight cholesterol and keep the heart healthy, urges dietician Ishi Khosla

Oats:

Dietary fibre plays an important role in maintaining our health and protecting us against many diseases like diabetes, heart disease. Oats, oat bran, and oatmeal contain a specific type of fibre known as beta-glucan. It is a soluble fibre that helps in decreasing LDL (bad cholesterol). One of the special things about the way oats work unlike other fibres is that it lowers only bad cholesterol while levels of good cholesterol (HDL) remain unchanged. This means an even better ratio between total cholesterol and HDL, ensuring increased protection against heart disease. Oatmeal is the only wholegrain food recognised by the FDA to lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, thereby allows its claim as a heart protective ingredient in food labels. Studies also show that in individuals with high cholesterol (above 220 mg/dl), consuming just 3 grams of soluble oat fibre per day (an amount found in a bowl of oatmeal) typically lowers total cholesterol. [Read more...]

As per a new study soda, chips, chowmein and other junk foods commonly found in school canteens are not the cause of weight gain among children-at least for middle school students.

The study is based on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, which follows a nationally representative sample of students from the fall of kindergarten through the spring of eighth grade (the 1998-1999 through 2006-2007 schools years). [Read more...]

Protein is once again in the news as an important player in weight management.

When you’re trying to lose weight, reducing the amount of fat on your body is very important. The pounds on the scale certainly tell a story, but its where those excess pounds come from that matters.

There are lots of theories that look at proteins vs fats vs carbohydrates and which are most likely to contribute to weight issues, but a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that it’s extra calories that contribute to an increase in body fat — where those calories come from may not make that much difference. [Read more...]

Our taste buds can recognize fat and some people may even have a preference for it due to variation in genes that can make certain persons more or less receptive to the taste of fat in foods.

These findings were made in a study by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Investigators found that people with a particular variant of the CD36 gene are far more sensitive to the presence of fat than others.

The researchers studied 21 people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, which is considered to be obese. Some participants had a genetic variant that led to the production of more CD36 protein. Others made much less. And some were in between. [Read more...]