Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Muharram or any religious holiday) isn't preventable.
Hunger is.
Life includes Christmas.
Worst thing you could do to help control portions/foods/calories on Christmas? Save them up for the day because you know you have a big night. If you do that you'll hit your festive meal hungry and way over do it.
Best thing you could do? The day of ... eat every 2-3 hours, include protein with every meal and snack, have at least 350 calories per meal and 150 calories per snack and then indulge because it's Christmas and not because you're hungry on Christmas.
Group exercise 'boosts happiness' — Exercising together appears to increase the level of the feel-good endorphin hormones naturally released during physical exertion, a study suggests.
A team from Oxford University carried out tests on 12 rowers after a vigorous workout in a virtual boat. Those who trained alone withstood less pain — a key measure of endorphins — than those who exercised together.
Writing in Biology Letters, the authors speculate these hormones may underpin an array of communal activities. It has long been known that physical exertion releases endorphins and that these are responsible for the sometimes euphoric sensations experienced after exercising. They have a protective effect against pain.
But researchers from Oxford University's Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology found this response was heightened by the synergistic effect of rowing together. After 45 minutes of either rowing separately or in a team of six, the researchers measured their pain threshold by how long they could tolerate an inflated blood pressure cuff on the arm.
Exercise increased both groups' ability to tolerate pain, but the difference was significantly more pronounced among the team rowers. This, they said, was a measure of an increased endorphin release. As well as potentially improving performance in sport, the researchers speculated that this endorphin release may be the mechanism that underpins the sense of communal belonging that emerges from activities such as religious rituals, dancing or laughing.
“The results suggest that endorphin release is significantly greater in group training than in individual training even when power output, or physical exertion, remains constant,” said lead author Emma Cohen.
“The exact features of group activity that generate this effect are unknown, but this study contributes to a growing body of evidence suggesting that synchronised, coordinated physical activity may be responsible.”
Carole Seheult, a sport and exercise psychologist from the British Psychological Society, said the findings were entirely credible.
“Rowing is a sport which requires real team work and endorphins could well foster that process. But more generally we know from experience that exercising in groups is good for people at many levels, it's motivational, it's social. Groups sessions really do work.”
Scientists may have uncovered a natural way to combat stress: eat a melon — The key ingredient is an enzyme called superoxide dismutase, thought to have beneficial antioxidant properties which prevent damage to the body's tissues.
Volunteers given a capsule containing the enzyme reported fewer symptoms of stress and fatigue than those given a dummy capsule. The French study is published in BioMed Central's open access Nutrition Journal.
The researchers found a strong placebo effect in the 35 volunteers who received the dummy capsules, which were filled with inactive starch. However, this effect only lasted for the first seven days of the study.
In contrast, the positive effects on perceived stress and fatigue reported in the group of 35 who took the enzyme capsules were much greater — and much longer lasting. Taking the enzyme appeared to boost concentration, cut feelings of weariness and irritability and improve problems with sleeping.
The researchers said the placebo effect might have been relatively high because the people who took part in the study had everyday levels of fatigue and stress which were not out of the ordinary. They suggest the results might have been more pronounced if people with higher levels of fatigue and stress had taken part.
It is thought that the enzyme may help to minimise the damage caused by a chemical process known as oxidative stress, which releases harmful atoms called free radicals into the body's tissues. Lead researcher Marie-Anne Milesi, from the commercial health products company Seppic, said: “Several studies have shown that there is a link between psychological stress and intracellular oxidative stress. We wanted to test whether augmenting the body's ability to deal with oxidative species might help a person's ability to resist burnout. It will be interesting to confirm these effects and better understand the action of antioxidants on stress in further studies with a larger number of volunteers and a longer duration.”
Dr Laura Wyness, a senior nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, said the study emphasised that fruit and vegetables were packed with compounds which, in combination, have a beneficial effect on health.However, she said a bigger trial would be needed before firm conclusions could be drawn about the benefits of this particular enzyme supplement.
Exercise Makes Cigarettes Less Attractive To Smokers
EXERCISE CAN HELP smokers quit because it makes cigarettes less attractive. A new study from the University of Exeter shows for the first time that exercise can lessen the power of cigarettes and smoking-related images to grab the attention of smokers.
The study is published in the journal Addiction. It involved 20 moderately heavy smokers, who had abstained from cigarettes for 15 hours before the trial. During two visits to our laboratory participants began by being shown smoking-related and neutral images, and then spent either 15 minutes sitting or exercising on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity. Afterwards, they were again shown the images.
While the participants were shown the images, the research team used the latest eye tracking technology to measure and record their precise eye movements. They were able to show not only the length of time people looked at smoking-related images but also how quickly pictures of cigarettes could grab their attention, compared with non-smoking matched images.
The study showed an 11% difference between the time the participants spent looking at the smoking-related images after exercise, compared with the after sitting. Also, after exercise, participants took longer to look at smoking-related images. Exercise, therefore, appears to reduce the power of the smoking-related images to grab visual attention.
Numerous studies have shown that a single session of light to moderate intensity exercise, for example five-15 minutes of brisk walking, can reduce cravings and responses to smoking cues. This is the first time eye-tracking technology has been used to show that exercise can reduce interest in and salience of smoking cues that, outside the laboratory, may cause lapses and relapse among smokers trying to quit.
Lead author, University of Exeter PhD student Kate Janse Van Rensburg said, “We know that smoking-related images can be powerful triggers for smokers who are abstaining. While we are no longer faced with advertisements for cigarettes, smokers are still faced with seeing people smoking on television, in photographs or in person. We know that this makes it more difficult for them to quit.
“Because of this, it's very exciting to find that just a short burst of exercise can somewhat reduce the power of such images. It is not clear if longer or more vigorous bouts of exercise have a bigger effect. This study adds to the growing evidence that exercise can be a great help for people trying to give up smoking.”
Obesity In Mid-life Reduces The Chance Of Healthy Survival In Women —
A new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) researchers has found that, among a large study population of women who lived until at least age 70, being overweight in mid-life was associated with having more health problems later in life, including multiple chronic diseases, and impaired cognitive function, physical function and mental health. Women who were lean at age 18 and maintained a healthy weight through mid-life had the best odds of achieving optimal health later in life. It is the first study to show the role adiposity may play in the overall health of women who survive to older ages.
The study appears online on September 30, 2009, and will appear in a later print edition of the British Medical Journal.
The research addresses two of the major trends in the U.S. that will have a major impact on public health. First, Americans are getting older: From 1900 to 2000, the U.S. population aged 75 and older increased 26.4% and by 2040, for the first time in human history, there will be more people aged 65 and older than children less than age 5 in the world. The second challenge is that Americans are getting bigger: Almost two thirds of the U.S. population are overweight and one third are obese. The trends in the U.S. mirror those in other industrialized countries.
“Since body weight is a modifiable factor, the good news is that healthy aging is not purely the consequence of good genes or other factors that one cannot change. If women maintain a healthy weight as adults, they may increase their odds of enjoying a healthy life in their later years,” said Qi Sun, a researcher in the HSPH Department of Nutrition.
Children are exercising less — Only one in eight youngsters is getting the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity a day, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).
It surveyed more than 1,000 children aged eight to 15 in July and August. The survey found that a third of the children did less than an hour of exercise a week and 20% thought you only needed to do it if you were fat.
Researchers say the lack of activity is starting at a younger age and energy-dense snacks compound the problem.
The BHF has launched a campaign aimed at obese 11-13-year-olds.
New campaign
The Food4Thought campaign is designed to encourage children to consider their levels of physical activity and the long term consequences of their current food choices.
Recent research has predicted that, if current trends continue, two thirds of all children will be overweight or obese by 2050.
Dr Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care at the BHF said: “We have a generation of kids growing up who have a shockingly blase attitude towards exercise and being active.
“Young people need to switch off their square eyes and get in the habit of exercising now.”
Parents ignore trampoline safety — Trampoline accidents are increasing and parents are ignoring safety advice, according to doctors.
Doctors at Kingston Hospital in Surrey say they have seen a surge in the number of children they treat for accidents on a trampoline. Most accident victims were playing with others on the trampoline.
Between May and September of last year they treated more than 130 children for fractures and cuts.
More than half of the 131 children treated at the hospital's emergency department last summer had no nets on their trampoline and no adult supervision.
THE NEW STUDY CONFIRMS: most breakfast cereals advertised to kids are chock-full of sugar and low in fiber. Whether they rely on a lop-eared rabbit or a smiling leprechaun, ads for some of the most sugary cereals for children get the biggest push on television, according to Yale.
Cereals marketed to kids have 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber and 60 percent more sodium than those aimed at adults, according to the report from Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. Researchers there analyzed the content of popular cereals using a nutrient-profiling system and reviewed marketing data. Findings released over the weekend:
The least nutritious cereals are often the most heavily marketed to children. Among them: Reese's Puffs, Corn Pops, Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cap'n Crunch.
Companies have dropped the average sugar content of kids' cereals from 3-1/2 to 3 teaspoons a serving.
The average preschooler sees 642 cereal ads a year on TV. Most are for types with the worst nutrition ratings.
Some cereals with the poorest ratings have health claims on the box.
“The worst cereals are being marketed very heavily to children,” said Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center. He presented the analysis in Washington at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.
But the industry says it already addresses this issue. Two cerealmakers, Kellogg's and General Mills, defended their advertising practices.
“Kellogg has a global standard that determines how and what products are marketed to children under twelve,” said company spokeswoman Kris Charles. Products that didn't meet the criteria either have been reformulated or are no longer marketed to kids under 12, she said.
And General Mills spokeswoman Heidi Geller said kids who eat cereal more frequently, including presweetened cereals, “tend to weigh less than kids who eat cereal less frequently — and they are better nourished.”
In a related study, Yale researchers tracked 89 children ages 5 to 12 who made their own breakfasts at summer camps. Kids were given either sweetened cereal or a low-sugar cereal. They could take as much as they wanted of cereal, milk, sugar, orange juice, bananas and strawberries. Results:
Kids given the low-sugar cereal ate about one serving, or 1 cup.
Those eating the high-sugar type ate two servings, or about 2 cups.
Children rated the taste of both types equally high.
Kids eating the low-sugar brands added sugar but still ate about half as much sugar and far fewer calories. They were more likely to put fruit on top.
“Part of getting kids to eat more fruit at breakfast is not having it compete with Froot Loops or another high-sugar cereal,” said Marlene Schwartz of the Rudd Center.
Key findings of the study:
The average pre-schooler sees 642 cereal ads per year on television alone, almost all for cereals with the worst nutrition rankings.
Companies make heavy use of online marketing in the form of websites and "advergames." The General Mills website, Millsberry.com, averages 767,000 unique young visitors a month who stay an average of nearly 24 minutes per visit while Post Foods averages nearly 265,000 young visitors monthly on its site, Postopia.com.
Kellogg — the most frequent in-store advertiser — averaged 33.3 promotions per store and 9.5 special displays for its child and family brands over the four-week period examined.
General Mills markets to children more than any other cereal company. Six of the 10 least-healthy cereals advertised to children are made by General Mills, including the advertised cereal with the worst nutrition score: Reese's Puffs, which is 41 per cent sugar.
To sleep, perchance to dream (of weight loss). New research on why sleep's crucial. — Sleep deprivation and obesity are unquestionably linked yet the exact mechanism by which lack of sleep leads to weight gain is unknown.
A recent study presented at the Obesity Society's annual scientific assembly may help shed some light.
Any Darukhanavala and colleagues from the University of Chicago designed a small but elegant study. They took 10 overweight volunteers whose pre-study average sleep was 7.7 hours nightly and enrolled them in a two week crossover study whereby for each 2 week period they received 8.5 or 5.5 hours of nightly sleep while all were consuming low calorie diets. Physical activity levels in the groups were identical regardless of hours slept.
While there was no difference in absolute weight loss in this short time period what was striking was the difference in where weight was lost in the two groups. During the weeks with greater sleep 50% of weight loss (as evaluated by DXA absorptiometry) came from fat and 50% from lean tissue (muscle) whereas during periods of less sleep only 25% was lost from fat with 75% coming from lean tissue.
Certainly if these results were applicable to the population as a whole, especially during weight loss efforts, those folks trying to lose weight and sleeping poorly may be losing disproportionate amounts of lean tissue which in turn will disproportionately lower their resting energy expenditure (metabolism) and simultaneously increase their hunger which ultimately may lead them to abandon the effort but not without first losing enough lean tissue to allow them to not only regain the weight they've lost but potentially more.
Get your Zzzzs! [Reprint from Yoni Freedhoff's Weighty Matters blog.]
Doctors say, “Turn that TV off, baby!” — Canadian pediatricians will be reversing their long-standing position on babies and television — recommending no screen time for youngsters under two.
The director of medical affairs for the Canadian Pediatric Society gave notice that the new policy will be rolled out shortly.
“In the first years, think of how many things you have to learn. You have to learn to sit, you have to learn to walk, you have to learn to climb, you have to learn to talk — all of these things in your normal development,” said Dr. Danielle Grenier. “All of these things are better when you have a live person smiling at the child and interacting with the child. That's why the recommendations are changing.”
A review of 78 published international studies earlier this year pointed out that infant TV-viewing is associated with delayed language, a shortened attention span and delayed cognitive development.
The ‘skinny’ on Chocolate milk! — Is chocolate milk nutrient rich, and more importantly does that matter? Well certainly chocolate milk has more nutrients than Gatorade or Coca-Cola but at double the calories and double the sugar of Coke and Gatorade I certainly wouldn't be rushing out to recommend children drink it.
If you're not sure where your opinion lies ask yourself this question, if there existed Coca-Cola with twice the sugar and calories of regular Coke and it was fortified to share the identical nutrient profile of chocolate milk, do you think it'd be a healthy beverage to serve your children?
My stance is certainly more black and white. Chocolate milk is a liquid chocolate bar.
To put the sugar in perspective, if kids drank one 500mL carton of chocolate milk a day for a year they'd be drinking 76 cups of added sugar! That's just over 7 five pound bags of sugar and that doesn't include the sugar naturally found in milk. Add that in and they'd be drinking 118 cups or almost 60lbs of sugar a year. And with 200mg of sodium per 250mL they'd also be drinking a third of their daily recommended maximal sodium allowance and enough non-satiating, liquid calories to support a 37.5lb gain.
[Exerpted from this longer piece on Yoni Freedhoff's Weighty Matters blog.]
Someone who's not raising his hand for chocolate milk is Dr. Barry Popkin.
Dr. Popkin is the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition, has a Ph.D. in economics and is Professor of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill where he directs their Interdisciplinary Center for Obesity. Dr. Popkin has published hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, and books and much of his work has focused specifically on the impact beverages have had on the prevalence of obesity. That focus is certainly one of the subjects he covers in his most recent book, The World is Fat: The Fads, Trends, Policies, and Products that are Fattening the Human Race.
Dr. Popkin was kind enough to spend a few moments chatting with me last week about chocolate milk and the Raise your Hand for Chocolate Milk campaign. Click below to download the file, or you can listen on the embedded player (won't work with email subscribers) and hear Dr. Popkin discuss how among other things the bone health concerns we've got for our children are better treated through increased activity rather than increased dairy.
Me? While I'm certainly not about to raise my hand for chocolate milk, I'd be happy to raise for it one particular finger.
The calorie counts used as the foundation for diet plans and healthy-eating guidance for the past 18 years may be wrong — The recommended daily intake of calories could be increased by up to 16%, a draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition said. Intake levels are currently 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men. But the panel stresses that people should only eat more if they exercise more, given rising levels of obesity.
The committee says its report provides a much more accurate assessment of how energy can be burnt off through physical activity. A 16% increase would mean that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day, equivalent to an average sized cheeseburger. The proposals, seen by The Times and The Grocer magazine, are due to go out for a 14-week consultation period. Final recommendations will then be made after that time.
Health campaigners say the Department of Health and the Food Standards Agency could seek to “sweep this report under the carpet” in a bid to avoid sending out mixed messages in the middle of an obesity epidemic. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was a "dangerous assumption" to say that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day. “This is not a green light to eat yourself silly,” he said.
Speakwell has obtained permission from the following writers to reproduce some of their material in our WELL Newsletter. Please visit their sites:
Dr. Yoni Freedhoff: Obesity expert and medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa, Dr. Freedhoff is one of Canada's most outspoken nutrition watchdogs and appears regularly in national media to advocate for healthier living. bmimedical.blogspot.com.
Dr. Arya M. Sharma: Widely recognized as one of Canada's leading obesity experts, Dr. Sharma was recently appointed Professor of Medicine & Chair in Obesity Research and Management at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Sharma passionately believes in educating the public on this chronic disease. drsharma.ca
Peter Janiszewski: A PhD candidate in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University. For more health and fitness news, visit his website at www.obesitypanacea.com .
“The results suggest that endorphin release is significantly greater in group training than in individual training even when power output, or physical exertion, remains constant,” said lead author Emma Cohen.
Volunteers given a capsule containing the enzyme reported fewer symptoms of stress and fatigue than those given a dummy capsule. The French study is published in BioMed Central's open access 
We wanted to test whether augmenting the body's ability to deal with oxidative species might help a person's ability to resist burnout. It will be interesting to confirm these effects and better understand the action of antioxidants on stress in further studies with a larger number of volunteers and a longer duration.”
The 
Key findings of the study:
Certainly if these results were applicable to the population as a whole, especially during weight loss efforts, those folks trying to lose weight and sleeping poorly may be losing disproportionate amounts of lean tissue which in turn will disproportionately lower their resting energy expenditure (metabolism) and simultaneously increase their hunger which ultimately may lead them to abandon the effort but not without first losing enough lean tissue to allow them to not only regain the weight they've lost but potentially more.
My stance is certainly more black and white. Chocolate milk is a liquid chocolate bar.
To put the sugar in perspective, if kids drank one 500mL carton of chocolate milk a day for a year they'd be drinking 76 cups of added sugar! That's just over 7 five pound bags of sugar and that doesn't include the sugar naturally found in milk. Add that in and they'd be drinking 118 cups or almost 60lbs of sugar a year. And with 200mg of sodium per 250mL they'd also be drinking a third of their daily recommended maximal sodium allowance and enough non-satiating, liquid calories to support a 37.5lb gain.
