Dieting With A Partner Doesnt Work — One of You Will End Up Lighter The Other Upset

Dieting is a miserable practice that can easily leave anyone irritable, unhappy, and hungry, so it makes sense to think that dieting with a partner will make it easier and more enjoyable. Well, you might want to hold off on the buddy system for now; a new study found that dieting with a partner doesn’t work.

The study, published in Eating Behaviors, surveyed 50 overweight couples that had made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. The survey asked questions about how much confidence the participants had in controlling their food portions when they were alone and when they were eating with company. Participants were asked if they agreed with statements like “When eating out with friends, they influence how much I eat” and “I feel confident that I can leave food on my plate if I think a serving size is too large.”

Overall, the study found that when couples diet together, only one person is successful. The main reason for this is because as one partner is accomplishing their goal, the other loses confidence in their own efforts. It seems counter-intuitive, because partners are supposed to be support systems for one another, but it turns out that being close to someone who is successful in a similar goal undermines the other’s confidence.  It also appears as if women have a disadvantage in couple’s dieting form the get-go; the women who participated in the study reported being less confident then men in their ability to control portions.

It’s easy to scoff at the outcomes of this study, especially for those who view dieting as an exercise in vanity. However, this information is useful for those who are dieting in order have a healthier lifestyle.  And it’s not easy! As author of the study Jennifer Jill Harman points out, portion sizes have increased 700 percent over the last 30 years, so understanding portion control and eating healthier is more important than ever. So for those of you who are serious about losing weight, do yourself a favor and don’t ask the significant other to join in your diet…you’ll be more successful on your own.

By Alanna Greco

Source: http://www.bustle.com/articles/54204-dieting-with-a-partner-doesnt-work-one-of-you-will-end-up-lighter-the-other

Arsenic In Apple And Grape Juice Why We Should Avoid It Anyway!

Apple juice is high in sugar and should be saved for special occasions - like making toasts!
Also water it down with bubbly or filtered water.

Follow Foods For Long Life on FACEBOOK ! 

Latest Food Safety Issue
Consumer reports magazine tested 88 samples of apple and grape juice from grocery store shelves. Ten percent of them had arsenic levels that exceeded 10 parts per billion, the U.S. federal drinking water standards. Most of the arsenic was inorganic which is a known carcinogen that has been linked to bladder, lung and skin cancer. Twenty five percent of the juice samples also exceeded the 5 parts per billion level for lead.


Arsenic - Not the Real Issue
The associated press ran an article yesterday reminding us that its not the arsenic in the apple and grape juice we should be worried about. Im not saying that we shouldnt be concerned that the juice industry is supplying products with dangerous carcinogens. I am just agreeing with the main point of the article which is:
THE SUGAR IN THE JUICE IS THE REAL DANGER!
So instead of giving your children juice, give them a piece of fruit. Pop some apple or orange slices or grapes in their lunch sac instead of a juice box. Not only does the whole fruit provide fewer calories and grams of sugar, it also provides 3 to 6 times the fiber. The fiber in the fruit will stabilize their blood sugar instead of spiking it. If youre at home sipping wine with your spouse and the kids want a "special" drink too, give them bubbly water with just a splash of juice. 


The Numbers
Since most of you will agree that sugar in excess quantities is bad for your kids, I need not dwell on that. I will, however, show you why fruit is so much better than its juice.


* 1 cup of apple slices has only 1/2 the calories, 5 times the fiber and less than 1/2 the sugar as 1 cup of unsweetened apple juice!

1 cup of unsweetened apple juice has:
114 calories, 1/2 g fiber and 24 g sugar.
1 cup apple slices has:
57 calories, 2.6 g fiber and 11 g sugar.

* 1 Navel orange has only 62% of the calories, 6 times the fiber and 57% of the sugar as 1 cup of unsweetened orange juice!

1 cup of unsweetened orange juice has:
112 calories, 1/2 g fiber and 21 g sugar.
1 navel orange has:
69 calories, 3.1 g fiber and 12 g sugar.

* 1 cup of grapes has 1/3 fewer calories, 3 times the fiber and 1/3 less sugar as 1 cup of unsweetened grape juice! Frozen grapes can be a real treat and a great low calorie dessert but be aware that for young children, these could be a choking hazard. 

1 cup of grape juice has:
152 calories, 1/2 g fiber and 36 g sugar.
1 cup grapes has:
104 calories, 1.4 g fiber and 23 g sugar.

Another Advantage of Eating the Whole Fruit
Besides having more nutritional value and less sugar, eating the whole fruit should make you feel safer. Safer because you can see what you are eating! You can tell the fruit is fresh and clean. We dont know the condition of the fruit that goes into making juice. Of course, we can assume the best apples and other fruits are sold as fresh produce. The ones that fall off the trees and have dents and worms (what a disgusting thought) are probably the ones that end up in the juice!  Add to that the fact that 83% of the apple juice sold in the U.S. is produced in other countries, (60% of which is from China), where we have little control of their food safety practices. I think Ill stick to eating nice local apples.


How to Get Kids to Eat Fruit
Eating fruit is all about convenience. I would never think of biting into an apple when I was at work. But every morning my husband put a little bag of sliced apples in my Hello Kitty power lunch box and I munched on them all morning. I would bet that your kids are the same way. If you stick an apple or an orange in their lunch box, theres a good chance that it will still be there when they get home. But apple slices, peeled orange slices and grapes plucked and ready to eat might get more attention!


So you and your children should enjoy juice as an occasional treat, not a daily beverage. Dilute it with filtered or bubbly water and use it more as a flavoring. Skip the juice boxes in the lunch sac and put in sliced, peeled or plucked fruit for your child to conveniently enjoy!

What To Do With That Crazy Looking VegetableCreamy Celeriac Potato and Pear SoupVegan And Gluten Free

Celeriac and pears combine beautifully in this fall soup.

Need more vegan recipes and menus for the holidays?
Download my eBook, Health Begins in the Kitchen,
available on Amazon and iTunes.

Whats this Crazy Looking Vegetable in my CSA Box?
Did you receive a weird looking vegetable in your CSA box that looks like someone crossed a large jicama with the head of Medusa? Or did you pass something like that in the produce section of your grocery store and wonder what it was? Well, this knobby jewel is called celeriac, also known as celery root. 

After many years of passing them by, I finally worked up the courage to buy one this weekend. After tasting it, both raw and cooked, I really regret having waited so long.

Beneath the knobby skin, the inside flesh has the consistency and flavor of celery only a bit milder and without the annoying strings. Nutritionally, its a good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B6, manganese and magnesium and very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, phosphorus and potassium. A cup of celeriac is only 66 calories and is virtually fat free. Slice it into salads, mash it, puree it, roast it or throw it into a soup. This vegetable is quite versatile.

Celeriac (celery root) after peeling

Since the temperature is dropping across the country and the holidays are approaching, I thought a fall soup recipe would be welcomed. Enjoy!

        *                      *                        *

Creamy Celeriac, Potato and Pear Soup
Vegan and Gluten Free
[makes 6 servings]

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
4 cups peeled and diced celeriac (about 1 1/2 pounds before peeling)
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
2 medium pears, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
4 cups vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
2 thin lemon slices
1 teaspoon Earth Balance buttery spread
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon Mediterranean pine nuts 
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley 

Heat the oil in a soup pot or 5-quart Dutch oven and cook the onion, on medium-low heat, until it softens, about 5 minutes. 

Stir in the celeriac, potatoes, pears and thyme and cook, stirring constantly, for another 2 minutes. 

Add the broth, salt, pepper, and lemon slices and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. 

Remove the lemon slices and blend the soup, either using a hand blender or a regular blender (you may have to process in batches) until smooth.

I find using an electric hand blender is a lot simpler than using a blender.

Return the blended soup to the pot. Stir in the Earth Balance and, after it melts, the lemon juice. If its too thick, add a bit more broth or hot water. Adjust the salt and pepper and amount of lemon juice if necessary.

I usually like to use raw nuts in all my recipes but I find that pine nuts are much tastier in a recipe like this if they are briefly toasted in a heated frying pan for just a few minutes. 

Pour the soup in individual soup bowls and top with pine nuts and parsley.

Each bowl is only 223 calories!

Per serving: 223 calories, 4 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 31 mg omega-3 and 895 mg omega-6 fatty acids, 5 g protein, 41 g carbohydrate, 8 g dietary fiber, and 311 mg sodium.

8 4 2012 Update Coming Down the Pipe

Greetings all. My Spirits are soaring and my Energy is good.

What next? Is there a next? Does there have to be a next? Do you have to keep repeating the word "next" so many times?  OK, we dont have to be rude! HA!!!

What "next" indeed! If I did not know better I would think "Cyber Mom" is poking fun at me. I know it cant be those "voices" again. Or is it?



Back to business or should I say fun. OK then, what is next for the future? Yes, I said future. With me you never know. One minute I ready to "Sign Off" for good, the next I am creating a new blog knee deep in an experiment. Go figure.

Right, anyway I am really working hard in my oh so little spare time on a new... new... oh, I dont know what to call it. I guess an idea or ..... again I dont know what to call it. It wont be anything fast, but it wont be forever. It will take a lot of work and at present time is not what I have a lot of unfortunately.

That being said this is sometime that I feel I need. Something that will help me put things in prospective. It will be something that will help me achieve good if not great health. I hope. Most of all I dont mind sharing it with you my Friends and Family. It is just who I am. How much will it cost you?

Hmm...... let me see. How much is it worth? A lot to some, nothing to others I guess. OK, the price: PATIENCE.

Hey the support I get from those who are willing to share are payment enough. Not everyone shares on the blog though. Many share through email. I really wish they would share "anonymously" online so all can benefit from their input. Even if it is just a question. You will be surprised how that helps others. And "others" is one of the big reason I continue this blog or blogs or whatever. Hey I am not trying to pressure anyone to go public. HA! Continue to do what makes you feel comfortable. The choice is always yours.

Again, I am working on something that will put together what I have been working on for the last two years and to a degree things I have been working on my whole adult life. Will it be all diet? No. Diet is oh so important, but life has a balance.

Yes, my Friends and Family a Balance Indeed! What is my version of balance you may wonder? Well I kinda lead on to it in some of my responses in my comments to my dear Friends and Family that took time out to respond to my latest posts.

Riddle me this: Diet, Food, Exercise, and Spirituality.

Did I leave something out? Probably. I do feel that I did, but at the moment I cant think of it.

Have a Healthy Day my Friends and Family. No Surrender, No Retreat and Battle On!!!

I See the Light

Cheers,

Dave

3 Weight Loss Lessons According To Science Infographic

A Review Of Gracias Madre A Vegan Restaurant In San Francisco

Gracias Madre serves organic, vegan, non-GMO Mexican Cuisine in the Mission District of San Francisco

Follow Foods For Long LIfe on FACEBOOK !

Healthy Vegan can also mean Tasty!
The very sound of "healthy vegan" would make most people run the other way, but the same team that brought us yummy raw food at Cafe Gratitude, now offers a selection of very delicious vegan Mexican cuisine at their restaurant, Gracias Madre. 
The two words I would use to describe their food are "Flavorful" and "Hearty". Most of the dishes we tried had a spicy and intensely flavorful sauce that really made the dish. "Hearty" also means filling so be careful not to order too much. Make sure you leave some room for their beautiful desserts!


The Menu
Most vegans have a difficult time going to a traditional Mexican restaurant. Once you take away the meat and the cheese, theres not much left to eat! But this menu is a vegans dream come true! You can check out their entire menu and see that they have quite a nice selection of items. Here are some of the things we tried:
Guacamole con Tortillas
We started the meal by sharing an order of guacamole. It tasted a lot like ours with cilantro, lime and onion, and was served with 4 warm handmade tortillas.  
Quesadillas de Camote
My absolute favorite thing on the menu was undoubtedly the quesadilla! A tortilla was filled with sweet potato and caramelized onions and covered with a wonderful nacho cheese sauce and pumpkin seed salsa. Nice spice to it and just delicious! Unfortunately I ate the entire dish before I decided to review the restaurant so I didnt get a picture of it. But take my word for it, it was amazing!
Empanada
This homemade pastry shell was filled with poblano chiles, onions and mushrooms, served on mole and topped with cashew cream. It had a nice consistency and the mole had just the right heat.

Empanada on a bed of mole

Enchiladas con Mole
Although the ingredients for this dish were wonderful (mushrooms, a spicy and flavorful mole sauce, etc.), the manner in which they served it was not. All the ingredients were pilled up on top of several thick tortillas which made it very difficult to eat. I would have preferred that they rolled them up the way enchiladas are usually served. Actually, by the time I got to this dish, I was a little tired of eating tortillas. Next time I will ask them to put the mushrooms and delicious mole sauce on top of brown rice. I think that would be great! This dish came with greens and black beans.

Enchiladas con Mole

My husband and nephew had nopales, a dish that featured cactus. I believe this is a seasonal dish. They both said "it was very enjoyable but not memorable".

Papas al Horno
My daughter ordered this dish. It was a big, generous pile of roasted potatoes topped with a cashew nacho cheese. Although I thought this dish was quite good (the potatoes were perfectly roasted in garlic and oil and the cashew cheese had a lovely, spicy flavor), it was a better dish to share than to have as a main course. How many potatoes can you eat?

Papas al Horno - roasted potatoes with cashew nacho cheese

A Few Sides
We also order a side of greens which were the same as what was served with the enchiladas. They were perfectly cooked and the crunch of the pumpkin seeds added a delightful dimension. But the best side was a baked cauliflower dish that had a crispy topping. Unfortunately the picture I took of that dish came out a bit fuzzy but I think that was one of the best dishes we ordered!

A side of greens topped with toasted pumpkin seeds

Ill Be Back!
All in all, I loved the restaurant and will definitely return to Gracias Madre! Next time Ill come for dinner instead of lunch and try one of their margaritas and definitely leave some room for dessert! If youre in San Francisco, you should definitely give it a try!

Electro Cut Your Body Fat Study Shows 5 6 cm and 4 9 Reduction in Waist Body Fat in Young Women in 6 Weeks

No sweat, just some wires? Study shows: It does not take much effort to lose belly fat.

Liposuction is an invasive procedure that is not without risk. Against that background its no wonder that people are marketing alternative methods like high-frequency current therapy as allegedly safe go-to methods to rid yourself of unwanted body fat. The question is: Do these currents actually help you to lose body fat? That is: Can electrocuting your belly "electro-cut" significant amounts of body fat? Practitioners who use this technology will say "yes". From a scientific standpoint, though, the question is difficult to answer, because the use of high-frequency current therapy has been given little attention in the scientific community.

As Kim et al. point out in a recent paper in the J. Phys. Ther. Sci., some previous studies have failed to provide evidence for the effectiveness of high-frequency current therapy in women with obesity, whereas more recent studies have indicated that a high-frequency current therapy decreases female abdominal obesity (Kang. 2005; Han. 2010). Accordingly, their latest study aimed to determine whether high-frequency current therapy can be effectively used to reduce female abdominal obesity.

Some people claim coffee applied to the skin will also burn fat, but... well, you better drink it

Remember: With Coffee More Wont Help More

Coffee - The Good, Bad & Interesting

Three Cups of Coffee Keep Insulin At Bay

Caffeines Effect on Testosterone, Estrogen & SHBG

The Coffee³ Ad- vantage: Fat loss, Appetite & Mood

Caffeine Resis- tance - Does It Even Exist?

To this ends, the researchers recruited twenty-two female volunteers who were randomly allocated to either the experimental group (EG) (n = 12; age, 21.17 ± 0.72 years; weight, 63.17 ± 7.91 kg; height, 159.63 ± 4.56 cm) or the control group (CG) (n = 10; age, 21.10 ± 0.74 years; weight, 68.79 ± 11.73 kg; height, 161.69 ± 5.25 cm). Inclusion criteria were as follows:

• a body mass index (BMI) of ≥23 kg/m2 and a waist-hip circumference ratio of  ≥ 0.8013
• no past or present neurological, musculoskeletal, or cardiopulmonary disorders that would have affected health condition;
• no smoking and drinking habits; and
• no psychological problems.

Futhermore, pregnant women were excluded as well. The subjects of both groups were asked to keep a regular dietary habit during the experimental process. A nutritionist drew up a diet plan of 2,000 to 2,500 kcal/day across 3 meals (8 a.m., 1 p.m., and 6 p.m.) for the 6-week intervention. In addition, subjects were asked to avoid extra activities and exercises beyond daily routine activities.

Figure 1. Changes in BMI, waist circumference, subcutaneous body fat and total body fat (%) after 18 sessions of high-frequency current therapy in Korean women (Kim. 2015).

Only the subjects in the EG group were subjected to high-frequency current therapy, with a frequency of 0.5 Mhz. The treatments were performed exclusively on the abdominal region while subjects were supine using specific equipment (CWM-9200; Chungwoo Medical, Seoul, South Korea) for 60 minutes, 3 times per week, for 6 weeks (a total of 18 sessions).

"High-frequency current therapy was performed in 2 phases: 2 sets of 15-minute applications of capacitive electric transfer (CET) and resistive electric transfer (RET) with the pulsed current option (current conduction time, 0.7 seconds; rest interval, 0.3 seconds) for the fist 3 weeks, followed by a 30-minute application of the CET and RET modes with continuous current conduction in the final 3 weeks. The intensity was individualized within a range of 6–7 mA to comfortably adjust the heating sensation during the intervention. An insulated electrode and a stainless steel electrode (8 cm in diameter) were used for the CET and RET modes, respectively. Conductive gel (Body Rubbing Cream; SA’COS, Incheon, South Korea) was used to facilitate skin moisture and current conduction, and high frequency current therapy was delivered by making circular motions of the electrode over the abdominal region at a moving speed of 5 cm/s, avoiding focused pressure on therapeutic areas" (Kim. 2015)

The comparison of the pre- vs. post-data showed here significant main effects of time with respect to waist circumference, abdominal obesity, subcutaneous fat mass, and body fat percentage, which differed significantly between the groups (see Figure 1), "suggesting the effects of high-frequency current therapy in decreasing obesity" (Kim. 2015).

Bottom line: I must say that I am impressed. I havent been there to control whether the scientists cheated, but considering the fact that the control group received the same controlled diet as the women in the experimental group, the loss of body fat and the reduction in waist circumference that was achieved within only 6 weeks in young women is impressive.

High frequency currents are also been used for cellulite treatment, but there are other options, as well | learn more

In the end, the mechanism of action is simple and is believed to rely mostly on the heat induced dilatation of subcutaneous vessels and the subsequent facilitation of the lipolytic process (Song. 2006). Which would also explain why the effect was highly localized and there were no significant inter-group difference with respect to the BMI of the women in the study at hand. A study that is yet limited by the low number of participants, a lack of safety data (no blood analyses, for example), the absence of measurements of the reductions in visceral fat and the lack of a rigid dietary and activity control as it would be possible in a metabolic chamber | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Han, J. S., Y. O. Park, and C. K. Zhoh. "The effect of high frequency treatment and meridian massage on the abdominal fat pattern of obesity women." J Korean Soc Esthet Cosmeceutics 6.1 (2010): 1-8.
• Kang SO, Won YK. "The effect of high-frequency therapy on women’s obesity." Kor J Aesthet Cosmetol 3 (2005): 121–131.
• Kim, Jin-seop, and Duck-won Oh. "Effects of high-frequency current therapy on abdominal obesity in young women: a randomized controlled trial." Journal of Physical Therapy Science 27.1 (2015): 31-33.
• Song MY, Kim HJ, Lee MJ. "The review on the evidence: effects of nonsurgical localized fat treatments." J Korean Med Obes Res 6 (2006): 1–10.

Blackberry Spinach Salad

.

Blackberries—when they’re good, they’re very, very good.

In season now in the Northeast, these beautiful berries are packed with antioxidants, including vitamins E and C, and storied for their healing abilities (Civil War soldiers used blackberry tea to cure dysentery and ancient Greeks believed they cured diseases of the throat and mouth). Blackberries are also rich in salicylate, a natural pain reliever that can help reduce the risk of heart disease.

Be sure to choose ones that are ripe (firm, plump and fully black), as they don’t continue to ripen once they are picked, and toss ‘em on this unique summer salad for a healthy dish that tastes as good as it looks.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups baby spinach, rinsed and dried
• 1 pint fresh blackberries
• 6-oz reduced fat crumbled feta cheese
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a large bowl, toss together all the ingredients. Top with a light lemon and olive oil drizzle. 

Source: http://www.popweightloss.com/blackberry-spinach-salad/

Hunger Games Does Hunger Make You Fat Every Other Day Fasting Doubles Visceral Fat in 3 Weeks Despite 60 Reduced Energy Intakes At Least in Young Mice

Can hunger make you fat even if youre in a caloric deficit?

Ok, lets start with the good news. Even though the provision of food every other day lead to an initial increase in total fat, visceral fat (VAT), retroperitoneal fat (RAT) and epididymal fat / adipose tissue (EAT) in a recent rodent study from the Daejeon University in Korea, this effect was only observed in the young, yet not the old mice, the scientists used in their recent study.

Before we are even trying to make sense of either of these observations, though, I would suggest we take a closer look at the study design.

Learn more about fasting and eating / skipping breakfast at the SuppVersity

Breakfast and Circadian Rhythm

Does Meal Timing Matter?

Breakfast & Glucose Metab.

Breaking the Fast, Cardio & the Brain

Does the Break- Fast-Myth Break?

Breakfast? (Un?) Biased Review

The scientists were and still are convinced that the 2.8 million deaths that occur due to obesity-related worldwide would be avoidable, if we were all eating regularly and kept an eye on our total energy intake. Their rationale is that the latter is not the case for people living in affluence, while the former, i.e. a regular eating schedule is absent in "many people in developed countries" who do not follow a regular eating schedule due to a busy lifestyle.

With their latest experiment in the course of which the used a mouse model with both 3-week and 6-week-old mice (10 mice in each group), the Korean researchers wanted to demonstrate that "hunger" is obesogenic, even if it is temporary and occurs in the context of a 60% food restriction.

Figure 1: Relative distribution of body fat and serum ghrelin levels at the end of the study (Han. 2014)

Well, you shouldnt be surprised to see the results in Figure 1, I did, after all, give away most of the findings in the introductory paragraph of this article, already: In spite of the fact that the total food consumption in the FR (eat-every-other-day) group was lower than in the AL group, only the FR group showed a metabolic syndrome-like condition with significant fat accumulation in adipose tissues.

The scientists interpret this results as good evidence that it was the "sense of hunger", which "induced the typical characteristics of metabolic syndrome in an animal model, a distinct visceral obesity, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and hepatic steatosis."

Figure 2: Leptin, liver cholesterol and triglyceride levels at the end of the study period

The researchers also believe that it was the sudden increase in leptin, they observed in the alternate-day fasted group that "played a major role in the development of these pathological disorders," but eventually the increased leptin levels could simply be a result of the increased amount of body fat the 10x by then 11-week old mice were carrying around on their body.

Alternate, better than intermittent fasting? Learn more in a previous article and understand that this single rodent study does not falsify the results of dozens of human studies with highly beneficial results | more

Bottom line: All in all, the results of the study at hand are intriguing - intriguing and confusing and there is little doubt that the idea that it was "hunger" thats responsible for the metabolic mess is as unwarranted / unsustainable as the notion that similar effects would occur in adults who are following my previous advice to fast intermittently in order to lose, not gain body fat (" Alternate Day Fasting: Well-Researched, Proven to Be Effective. So Why Dont You Use It? Plus: Simple Alternate Day Fasting Blueprints to Get You Beach Ready in 2014 " | learn more).

If anything, the study can to tell you that you better dont feed 1-2 year old toddlers on a random every-other-day feeding schedule while cutting their calorie intake by 60% - Why? Well 1-2 human years thats approximately the equivalent age of the young mice and an insufficient energy intake that comes in 2-days intervals can obviously program mice to store more body fat as they grow.

Reference:

• Han, Jong-Min, et al. "Repeated Sense of Hunger Leads to the Development of Visceral Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome in a Mouse Model." PloS one 9.5 (2014): e98276.

Combination Therapy With Calcium and Vitamin D A Way Lose Fat Cells Once and For All HED of 10 000 IU Vitamin D3 200mg Calcium Increase Adipose Tissue Apoptosis

Two reasons this may work for Batman, even if it does not work for you: (1) Hes probably D-ficient, (2) Bats are closer related to rodents than men ;-)

If someone speaks of "apoptosis" thats a funky way of telling you that the cell he is talking about has bitten the dust. If I am telling you that the HED, i.e. the human equivalent dosage of ~10.000 IU vitamin D3 (10x more than officially suggested) and a diet containing 120% of the rodent equivalent of the recommended 800-1,000mg of calcium per day led to an increase in adipocyte apoptosis, this is thus only a funky way to tell you that vitamin D and calcium in conjunction can do what diets usually dont to: They can kill, not just empty, fat cells.

Usually, when youre losing weight, the fat cells shrink, but they remain in place. If adding some extra "D" and "Ca" on top of your energy reduced diet could make sure that the fat cells actually vanish, this would thus be extremely good news!

You can learn more about vitamin D at the SuppVersity

How Much To Take?

Leucine, Insulin & Vitamin D

Vit. D Speeds Up Recovery

Overlooked D-Sources

Vitamin D For Athletes!

Vitamin D Helps Store Fat

The increased propensity to assimilate triglycerides of previously emptied fat cells that is after thought to be one of the reasons a dieters weight jojos back up in not time.

Aside from the fact that not all things that work beautifully in rodents are going to work in humans, as well, there are certain additional caveats that make me doubt that its just their own stupidity that the ten-thousands of people who are already taking vitamin D and calcium at 10,000IU and 800-1,000mg per day, respectively, are not yet ripped to the shreds.

• Firstly, we cannot be sure whether the simple human equivalent dose (HED) calculations apply in this context (learn how to calculate HEDs).
• Secondly, the whole "fat cell apoptosis" thing would be useless if it would occur only in concert with an overall increase in obesity, which is what the scientists in the study at hand have necessarily been observing in their diet-induced obese mice on high fat diets.

I guess now that you are all aware of my the fact that you cannot expect to get ripped overnight by taking a couple vitamin and mineral pills, we can take a closer look at the study outcomes - without the risk that someone starts to poison him-/herself with tons of vitamin D and calcium by tomorrow.

Figure 1: Effects of supplementation regimen on diet-induced blood glucose excursions & body fat levels (Sergeev. 2014)

Even if it worked, as you can see in Figure 1, the mice were still fat - not as fat as the mice on the high fat diet without either calcium or vitamin D, but still significantly fatter than those on the control diet. Against that background, the significant improvements in glucose control may eventually be the more important result of the study at hand. If those, at least, could be observed in human studies that would be awesome!

Vitamin D does not help w/ glucose control in non-deficient individuals

Improved glucose metabolism in vitamin D sufficient individuals? Awesome, but unrealistic! As a diligent SuppVersity Reader you will know it. Unless youre deficient, the provision of extra vitamin D in the diet is not going to affect your glucose metabolism at all (see "Non-Carbohydrate Nutrients And Their Effects On Blood Glucose Management ➲ Vitamin D - The Sunshine Vitamin" | read article) and for calcium things dont look much different (read more).

As Ive explained in the red box above, we can be almost sure this is not going to happen, though. So lets be honest: How realistic is it to assume that the Ca 2+ -mediated apoptosis in adipose tissue the scientists from the South Dakota State University observed in their rodent study will not just occur in normal human beings, but also be significant enough to acitvate the Ca 2+ /calpain/caspase-dependent pathway of cellular apoptosis in fat cells to a degree that would produce similarly pronounced decreases in weight gain... ah, and yeah - who on earth wants to "gain less weight"?

The goal should obviously be to stay or get down to a normal weight, not to ameliorate the damage youre doing to yourselves on a daily basis by eating what some people call a "diet", in the "standard American" fashion (dont get me wrong, the SGD, i.e. Standard German Diet, does not only look pretty much like the US one, its also about as sickening unhealthy).

Will calcium help stabilize your blood sugar levels? Learn more in a previous SuppVersity article!

Bottom line: For the above reasons I am highly skeptical of the scientists conclusion that targeting Ca 2+ /calpain/caspase-dependent pathway of cellular apoptosis vitamin D and calcium supplementation "can represent an effective and affordable approach to the prevention and treatment of obesity". How many post-menopausal women got obese on (albeit usually lower-dosed) vitamin D + calcium regimen? How many people do you know who have been taking 10,000IU/day of D3, when the vitamin D hype climaxed while getting plenty of calcium from their diet who lost body fat? None?

Well, me neither and thats why I think the most important think to remember about this study is that youd better be skeptical when someone else cites it to convince you that vitamin D3 and calcium were "slimming aids", "fat burners" or whatnot.

References:

• Sergeev, Igor N., and Qingming Song. "High vitamin D and calcium intakes reduce diet‐induced obesity in mice by increasing adipose tissue apoptosis." Molecular nutrition & food research (2014).

Super Bowl A Question of Life or Cardiovascular Death! ✰ Are Super BOWLs to Blame For the US Obesity Epidemic ✰ By BMI Standards the Average NFL Player is Obese

Conundrum of the day: Is it really any wonder, that the average American has weight problems if their football stars are obese?

After reading the "Cultural Guide to the Super Bowl for People Who Dont Watch Football" (read it yourself) on Wire.com, I realized that I cannot simply ignore Super Bowl XLVIII and since I have absolutely no idea of how American Football works and how it came about that you, my dear US friends, are going crazy about people carrying a ball thats called FOOT-ball (I mean, its not "carry-ball") around in your arms, I decided to do what I usually do, when I dont understand things: Look for answers on the science databases on the Internet.

I have to admit, I did not really find the answer to my initial question and I still dont know the rules of the game, but I found a couple of "related" stories, you may be interested in:

• Super-BOWLs to blame for the obesity epidemic (van Kleef. 2012) -- I guess this would be an appropriate headline for a press release based on a study that was published in 2012 in the peer-reviewed scientific Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
  
  According to the data Ellen van Kleef and Mitsuru Shimizu and Brian Wansink present in this paper, "super bowls" with a capacity of 6.9-l betray people into overeating (in this case on pasta).

  

  Figure 1: Super BOWL Wargning - When pasta is served in large vs. medium sized bowls people have difficulties controlling their pasta intakes (van Kleef. 2012)

  If you take a closer look at the data in Figure 1 you will realize that ladies are much more prone to the "bowl trick" than guys. If you think about the different eating habits between men (eat until youre satieted) and women (eat until you feel guilty / think you had enough), it is yet not really surprising that the women stopped eating earlier, when they got their pasta in the medium-sized 3.8L bowls.
  
  Whats particularly amusing is that Wansing et al. showed in a very similar experiment with ice-cream that even "experts", i.e. nutritionists, are not immune against the "big bowl, big appetite" phenomenon and served themselves ~30% of extra ice-cream when the latter was served in bigger bowls (Wansink. 2006).
• Super Bowl outcomes association with cardiovascular death (Schwartz. 2013) -- If you take a look at the messages on Twitter, Facebook and Co. its quite clear that the Super Bowl is a matter of life or death for many Americans. That this is true in both the figurative and literal sense, is not immediately obvious, though - and still, according to a group of scientists from the Good Samaritan Hospital in LA, this is yet actually the case.

German soccer fans at greater risk than US football fanatics: If the scientists assumption that the increased risk in cardiovascular death is proportional to the "strength of the support" for the home team, us Germans are must be really supportive of our soccer team. According to a 2008 study by Ute Wilbert-Lampen et al. the risk of dying from any sort of cardiovascular complication more than doubled during our home-worldcup in 2006 (Wilbert-Lampen. 2008).

• The scientists analyzed the number of cardiovascular incidences during two "high drama and intense Super Bowls" (NYC beat New England (Massachusetts) in 2008 and Pittsburgh defeated Arizona in 2009) and found
  
  • a +20% increase in circulatory and a +24% increase in ischemic heart disease deaths after Massachusetts defeat, and
  • a -25% decrease in circulartory, -31% decrease in ischemic heart disease, and a -46% reduction in myocardial infarction deaths in Pittsburg
  Whats somewhat astonishing, though is that the cardiovascular death rates did not change in Arizona (all p > 0.19)... well, Schwartz et al. obviously have an answer: "Massachusetts and Pittsburgh show stronger support for their home teams compared with Arizona." (Schwartz. 2013 ;-)
• Fat or fit? By BMI standards he is obese, but what about the actual anthropometric data of the "average NFL player"? (Luke. 2014) -- Very timely, I should say... what? Ah, yes. I meant the ahead-of-print publication of a study by Pryor, Huggins, Casa, et al. in the online version of the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: "A Profile of a National Football League Team", that sounds promising, right?
  
  Well, if you look at the data the scientists from the Human Performance Laboratory of the University of Connecticut gathered, you will realize that this "profile" is a simple analysis of the anthropometric data of all players of the 2011 New York Giants team.

  

  Figure 2: NFL player comparison of pooled and weighted body fat (%), - mass (kg), and - height (cm); data based on anthropometric measurement of the 2011 New York Giants team (Pryor. 2014)

  So! Now you tell me, who do you wanna be, the ripped, wide receiver or the massive offensive lineman? What? You wanna be the quarter back? How did I know that!?
  
  "Interesting, but are there any practical implications to this?" In case thats what you are just thinking a brief quote from the paragraph on "practical applications" of this study may give you a leg up:
  

  "[Our] study adds new players data to prototypical position-specific databases that may be used as templates for comparison of players for draft selection or physical training." (Pryor. 2014)

  In view of the fact that the anthropometric profiles did not dramatically differ over the past 13 years, we may also assume that aside from a trend toward improved body composition in some positions the "prototypical" and maybe even ideal football player is already out there, so that physical characteristics have little impact on the successful outcomes in the NFL.

I know you still have to fill the bowls with popcorn, so I am not going to keep you from fulfilling this important duty... just remember: you may turn from "wide receiver ripped" to "offensive lineman"... well, lets say "massive" in no time, if you keep choosing the SUPER (large) BOWL too often ;-)

References:

• Pryor, J. Luke, et al. "A Profile of a National Football League Team." The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research 28.1 (2014): 7-13.
• Schwartz, Bryan G., Scott Andrew McDonald, and Robert A. Kloner. "Super Bowl outcome’s association with cardiovascular death." Clinical Research in Cardiology 102.11 (2013): 807-811.
• van Kleef, Ellen, Mitsuru Shimizu, and Brian Wansink. "Serving bowl selection biases the amount of food served." Journal of nutrition education and behavior 44.1 (2012): 66-70.
• Wansink, Brian, Koert Van Ittersum, and James E. Painter. "Ice cream illusions: bowls, spoons, and self-served portion sizes." American journal of preventive medicine 31.3 (2006): 240-243.