Tax Could Make Junk A Weighty Choice

January 23, 2012 By

THE statistics tell a story of a divided city – where geography can determine your waistline.

The NSW Ministry of Health’s new Health Statistics website reveals residents of Sydney’s west and south-west are far more likely to be overweight than their wealthier counterparts in the city centre or the north.

The proportion of women from northern Sydney who are overweight or obese is 38.8 per cent, compared with 50.4 per cent in the Nepean Blue Mountains area, for example.

Local government areas that have ”significantly higher” hospital admissions than the state average – owing to obesity – include Bankstown, Wollongong, Campbelltown, Wyong, Liverpool Plains and Queanbeyan, according to the website. [Read more...]

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Type 2 Diabetes And Coffee; Heavy Java Drinkers May Have A Lower Risk Of

January 22, 2012 By

Research shows that heavy coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, and now scientists in China may have discovered why.

Prior studies have shown that people who drink four or more cups of coffee a day have a 50 percent lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, and that every extra cup of coffee brings another decrease in risk of almost seven percent.

Researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology in China have cited the protective benefits of compounds in coffee that inhibit a substance called human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP), which has been linked to diabetes, stated science and health news website Science Daily last week in a report on the new study. The study appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemisty. [Read more...]

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Tuna-Eating Teenagers Less Likely To Suffer Depression

January 21, 2012 By

Oily fish such as sardines are a rich source of Vitamin D. New research from the Children of the 90s study at the University of Bristol, which has been charting the health of 14,500 children since their birth in the early 1990s, shows that the link between low levels of vitamin D and depression is established in childhood and that ensuring children have a good intake of vitamin D could help reduce depression in adolescence and adulthood.

The link between depression and vitamin D (which we get from exposure to sunlight and from certain foods, like oily fish and fortified breakfast cereals) has already been established in adults but this is the first study to look at the vitamin’s effect in children. [Read more...]

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Foods That Fight Cholesterol

January 20, 2012 By

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...]

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Junk Food In School: Not A Reason For Weight Gain Among Kids

January 19, 2012 By

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...]

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Eat Your Greens; They’re Packed With Health Benefits

January 18, 2012 By

Nutritionists preach the benefits of dark, leafy greens.

They are powerful sources of vitamins A and C, and they provide calcium, iron, fiber and disease-fighting nutrients. Greens also are low in calories. For example, one cup of chopped raw spinach has 14 calories, and a half-cup of cooked collards has 38 calories. All greens are free of fat and cholesterol.

When buying greens, remember that they cook down considerably, to one-quarter or so in volume. For instance, 1 pound of raw kale yields about 21/2 cups cooked greens.

Most of us easily recognize spinach in produce bins. But what are all those other unfamiliar green bunches? [Read more...]

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Magnesium-Rich Diet May Lower Stroke Risk: Study

January 17, 2012 By

People who eat lots of magnesium-rich foods such as leafy green vegetables, nuts and beans have fewer strokes, according to an international analysis covering some 250,000 people.

But the authors of the study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, stopped short of recommending people take a daily magnesium supplement because their analysis focused on magnesium in food — and it may be another aspect of the food that is responsible for their finding. [Read more...]

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