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Fat for breakfast?

Abby — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:55:42 +0000

Re-thinking what I eat for breakfast after reading this: Higher Fat at Breakfast May Be Healthier

Key points:

Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and when you eat it influences body weight, even though we know sleep and altered circadian rhythms influence body weight,” said the study’s lead author Molly Bray, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health.

Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal’s ability to respond to different types of food later in the day. When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food later in the day.

“The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism for the rest of the day,” said study senior author Martin Young, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease. “This study suggests that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich breakfast it would promote carbohydrate utilization throughout the rest of the day, whereas, if you have a fat-rich breakfast, you have metabolic plasticity to transfer your energy utilization between carbohydrate and fat.”

Eat a cookie – turn on your fat gene

Abby — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:12:38 +0000

Some interesting research was released recently in the The FASEB Journal indicating that a diet that is high in fat and in sugar actually switches on genes that ultimately cause our bodies to store too much fat. I often wonder how Americans have become so overweight, this new research could really shed some light on it. Read more here

10 Things You Need To Know About Fat Loss

Abby — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:23:55 +0000

Great article over at ShapeFit.com: 10 Things You Need To Know About Fat Loss. I especially like take responsibility- too many people think their weight problem isn’t their fault. I also really like you can’t out train bad nutrition – this is my biggest challenge. I love working out, so the cardio and resistance training is not an issue for me – but the food intake is! Sometimes its the sweets that get me, other times its the cheese. More often though I just eat too much of the “good foods” – almonds, peanut butter, bananas, etc… And point 10 is the most important: fat loss isn’t easy!

Japanese Mandate – under 33 inch waist line

Abby — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:15:57 +0000

This is really interesting:

The New York Times reports that in Japan, “under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups.

“Those exceeding government limits – 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, and having a weight related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, they will be steered toward further re-education after six more months.”

The government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to achieve targets for reducing the overweight population.

Yet the Japanese are nowhere near as overweight as Americans. The average waste size for American men is 39 inches, 36.5 for women. It is 32.8 for Japanese men and 28 inches for women.

Read More here. While I am not sure that the government should be monitoring the people’s waste lines I do see insurance companies should start doing something similar. Of course there is more to being health than having a slim waist, but it is a good starting point.