Those mothers-to-be who tucked into oily fish like tuna, sardines and salmon produced infants who scored better in various tests of skill and intelligence, it found.

As part of a £5 million European Commission study into diet, Spanish researchers examined 2,000 women at the 20th week of pregnancy and again after birth.

They questioned them on their diets and took blood samples to test for levels of omega-3 and omega-6, the healthy fatty acids found in oily fish in particular.

The infant children were subsequently tested with verbal intelligence quizzes and on their social and fine motor skills.

The offspring of women who had consumed the most oily fish during pregnancy did the best in the tests, said the University of Granada study.

Omega-3, in particular, contributes to the healthy development of the brain and eyes of a foetus, the researchers told the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

It contains the acid DHA which is a major component of brain cell membranes.

The report added: ‘The amount of DHA transmitted to the foetus through the placenta might be crucial for foetal development.’

The study is part of a bigger project into the effects of diet on newborn babies that will continue until 2013.

It follows a study last year that found eating fish during pregnancy could cut a woman’s odds of developing post-natal depression.

Post-natal depression affects up to 13 per cent of new mothers – and lasts more than a year in severe cases, even with counselling and medication.

However, too much oily fish in pregnancy can be bad for the baby’s development, so experts say it is important that mothers-to-be strike a balance when trying to boost their levels of omega-3.

Women who had taken a regular omega-3 pill scored better on a questionnaire designed to spot symptoms of post-natal depression than those given a placebo.

For example, they were less likely to say they suffered from anxiety or a loss of self-worth.

Lead researcher Dr Michelle Price Judge from the University of Connecticut added while some women may prefer the thought of supplements, eating fish is the more nutritious option. By Claire Bates, The Daily Mail

Researchers at the University of Western Australia gave black leaf tea, such as Earl Grey or English Breakfast to volunteers with normal to high blood pressure.

They were given drinks containing 429 milligrams of the plant chemical polyphenols—or the equivalent of eight and a half cups of tea a day.

A second group were given a tea-flavoured placebo.

After six months, the blood pressure of the tea-drinking group had fallen by between two and three mmHg, the measurement of pressure used in medicine.

A blood pressure fluctuating with the heartbeat between 112 and 63 mmHg is considered healthy, while a reading fluctuating between 140 and 90 is deemed high.

If the experiment was emulated by the general population, the number of people with high blood pressure would be cut by 10 percent and the risk of heart disease would fall by between seven and 10 percent.

“Our study has demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge that long-term regular consumption of black tea can result in significantly lower blood pressures in individuals with normal to high-normal range blood pressures,” the team, led by Jonathan Hodgson, wrote in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

Adding milk to tea also does not affect the body’s ability to absorb polyphenols, earlier studies have suggested.

Green tea is believed to have many health benefits as it is high in antioxidants. It is said to help in weight loss, prevent glaucoma and reduce risk of cancer. Khaleej Times

week, the findings reveal no increased risk of heart disease or premature death when food is fried in “healthy” oils.

Researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain studied 40,757 adults regarding their diet in an 11-year study. The participants were surveyed about their diets and food preparation, with findings showing no link between fried foods in the diet and heart disease.

The research was carried on the Mediterranean diet, which has long been established as a heart-healthy diet, as it is chock full of fresh fruits, healthy oils, vegetables, and fish, as well as the occasional glass of red wine.

Health experts already know that fat-laden foods can raise blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as lead to weight gain. Experts warn  that regardless of the cooking methods used, consuming foods with high fat content means a high calorie intake. So, the best solution for a healthy heart is a well-balanced diet, with plenty of fruits and vegetables and only a small amount of high fat foods. Hindustan Times

A team at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry has found that it only takes a picture of tempting food to cause a change in the level of ghrelin hormone which control people’s appetite – and this makes many hungry, the ‘Daily Mail’ said.

In fact, the effect of the hormones are so powerful that a photograph can make you want to eat a slice of cake just two hours after breakfast , says the study. The researchers suggest that people trying to shed the flab should avoid looking at pictures of tempting food.

They have based their findings after conducting an experiment where they monitored the reaction of healthy men to images of food. The subjects were shown pictures of appetizing food while having their hormone levels measured.

The findings revealed that levels of ghrelin increased when the men were shown food pictures. Lead researcher Petra Schussler said: “The findings of our study demonstrate that the release of ghrelin into the blood for the regulation of food consumption is also controlled by external factors. Our brain thereby processes these visual stimuli, and the physical processes that control our perception of appetite are triggered involuntarily .” By Petra Schussler, The Times of India

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.

Soyabean:

Soy protein protects against various heart diseases and hypercholesterolemia as it decreases LDL (bad cholesterol) significantly, increases HDL (good cholesterol) and prevents oxidation of bad cholesterol to prevent oxidation in blood vessels.

Green tea:

Several studies have suggested that drinking either green or black tea may lower blood cholesterol concentration, blood pressure and inhibit clotting of blood, providing some protection against cardiovascular disease. While green tea benefits arise from catechins, black tea benefits arise from theaflavins, both of which inhibit oxidation of bad cholesterol LDL. Tea contains significant amounts of folic acid. Folic acid helps reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. A person could obtain up to 25 per cent of RDA for folic acid by drinking five cups a day.

Barley (‘jau’):

Several scientific researches have found that barley has some unique health-promoting effects, particularly for the heart. Its cholesterol fighting effects seem to be even more promising than oats. Studies suggest that barley can lower cholesterol levels as much as 15 per cent in individuals with elevated cholesterol levels.

Like oats, barley too is a good source of “beta glucan”, a water soluble form of fibre, which seems to retard fat and cholesterol absorption by the intestine. The fibre tends to bind bile salts, thus increasing cholesterol removal from the body, and fat soluble substances, tocotrienols (vitamin E) appear to suppress cholesterol synthesis by the liver.

Psyllium husk:

The good old ‘Isabgol’ is high in insoluble fiber (hemi-cellulose) and soluble fibre. Psyllium has also been known to exhibit cardio-protective role as it helps in lowering blood cholesterol, especially the undesirable fraction of serum cholesterol, lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides, apo-lipoprotein B and reducing inflammation. Cholesterol lowering properties of psyllium can be attributed to its high fibre content and presence of beta-sitosterol (a phyto-chemical). The Times of India

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).

Jennifer Van Hook, a Professor of Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University and lead author of the study said “We were really surprised by that result and, in fact, we held back from publishing our study for roughly two years because we kept looking for a connection that just wasn’t there.”

Van Hook along with her co-author Claire E. Altman, a sociology and demography doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, studied the sub-sample of 19,450 children who attended school in the same county in both fifth and eighth grades (the 2003-2004 and the 2006-2007 school years).

These researchers predicted that 59.2 percent of fifth graders and 86.3 percent of eighth graders in their study attended schools that sold junk food.

The researchers also observed that there was a significant increase in the percentage of students who attended schools that sold junk food between fifth and eighth grades, but number of obese students was not commensurate with the figures.

The study also suggests that even after increased availability of junk food, the percentage of obese students decreased from fifth grade to eighth grade, from 39.1 percent to 35.4 percent that is contrary to the supposed link up between junk food and obesity.

“There has been a great deal of focus in the media on how schools make a lot of money from the sale of junk food to students, and on how schools have the ability to help reduce childhood obesity,” Van Hook was quoted as saying.

“In that light, we expected to find a definitive connection between the sale of junk food in middle schools and weight gain among children between fifth and eighth grades. But, our study suggests that-when it comes to weight issues-we need to be looking far beyond schools and, more specifically, junk food sales in schools, to make a difference.” Van Hook said.

PVan Hook opined that policies that aim to reduce childhood obesity and prevent unhealthy weight gain should be more focused upon the home and family environments and surroundings outside of school. Newstrack India

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.

But, when it comes to lean body mass or muscle, protein is likely to play a more important role.

Researchers studied a small group of healthy people by giving them a prescribed diet for a two to three month period. In the beginning, they were studied to see how many calories they needed to maintain their weight and then they were given about 1000 extra calories per day for the remainder of the study period. Their assigned diets were either low protein, high protein or normal protein. All participants gained weight but not equally. The people on the lower protein diet gained less overall weight, but were more inclined to store the extra calories as fat while at the same time, they were losing muscle or lean body mass which is not healthy. The high and regular protein groups gained both fat and healthier lean muscle.

There’s also a large body of research suggesting that protein is more satisfying than other nutrients, can help curb your appetite and that having adequate amount of protein in your diet helps with both weight loss and weight loss maintenance. I usually advise my clients to include protein at each meal and/or snack.

So, lets take a look at protein and the role it can play in both health and weight management.

Protein is part of muscles and connective tissues in the body and is vital for growth and the repair of all body cells. The antibodies that protect us from disease, the enzymes needed for digestion and metabolism, and insulin and many other hormones are all made of protein.

Protein is found in meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, legumes, lentils, tofu and soy products and also in nuts, seeds and some grains.

It’s best to make those protein-rich foods lean. So, choose lean, well-trimmed meats and keep the portions moderate, remove the skin from poultry, choose some lower fat dairy products. While you don’t need to eat a high protein diet, its important to include a healthy amount in your daily diet. Here are 5 ways to make that happen:

At breakfast have a scrambled egg or an egg-white omelette. Top your whole wheat toast with low fat cheese or peanut butter or make a smoothie with yogurt and fresh fruit.

At lunch and dinner have 3 to 5 ounces of lean protein such as a chicken breast, lean meat, fish or soy.

Eat more fish. A tuna sandwich at lunch, a fish taco at dinner, grilled salmon, trout or mackerel as a main course or topping a salad.

Make a vegetarian chili or stew full of lentils, beans and lots of vegetables. Enjoy a mixed bean or lentil salad at lunch.

Pack portable sources of protein such as a hardboiled egg, low-fat cheese, yogurt, edamame (steamed green soybeans). By Fran Berkoff,

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.

Participants were asked to taste solutions from three different cups. One contained small amounts of a fatty oil. The other two contained solutions that were similar in texture to the oil but were fat-free. Subjects were asked to choose the cup that was different.

“We did the same three-cup test several times with each subject to learn the thresholds at which individuals could identify fat in the solution,” said first author M. Yanina Pepino, PhD, research assistant professor of medicine.

“If we had asked, ‘does it taste like fat to you?’ that could be very subjective. So we tried to objectively measure the lowest concentration of fat at which someone could detect a difference,” she said.

Her team masked input that might help participants identify fat by sight or smell. To eliminate visual cues, they lit the testing area with a red lamp. Study subjects also wore nose clips so that they could not smell the solutions.

It was found that subjects who made the most CD36 were eight times more sensitive to the presence of fat than those who made about 50 percent less of the protein.

“The ultimate goal is to understand how our perception of fat in food might influence what foods we eat and the quantities of fat that we consume,” senior investigator Nada A. Abumrad, PhD, of the Dr. Robert A. Atkins Professor of Medicine and Obesity Research said.

“In this study, we’ve found one potential reason for individual variability in how people sense fat. It may be, as was shown recently, that as people consume more fat, they become less sensitive to it, requiring more intake for the same satisfaction.

“What we will need to determine in the future is whether our ability to detect fat in foods influences our fat intake, which clearly would have an impact on obesity,” Abumrad said.

Dr Abumrad was the first to identify CD36 as the protein that facilitates the uptake of fatty acids. She says better understanding of how the protein works in people could be important in the fight against obesity. DNA India