Low Carb Compatible™

Here's something I've known for a long time: drink a couple of glasses of water before meals. It can help you lose weight:

Drinking water before meals can help people to lose weight, says a US study.

Scientists from Virginia found that slimmers can lose an average of 5lb extra if they drink two glasses of water three times a day before meals.

Source: Drinking water before meals helps dieting, says study

Americans like simple solutions to complicated problems. This is especially true in medicine.

Two fundamental “truths” of health advice are 1) calcium builds strong bones and 2) saturated fat clogs coronary arteries. Both may turn out to be wrong.

The calcium story has been building for decades. Because everyone knows that bones contain calcium, it seemed logical to assume that taking more of this mineral would make bones stronger. As a result, millions of women have been told to swallow a couple of calcium pills daily to ward off osteoporosis.

Source: CDC

Well, the obesity train keeps on a-rollin'.

Obesity continues its rise unabated, and there's no end in sight. According to the CDC, 72.5 million adults are considered 'obese':

Over the past decade, obesity has become recognized as a national health threat and a major public health challenge. In 2007--2008, based on measured weights and heights (1), approximately 72.5 million adults in the United States were obese (CDC, unpublished data, 2010). Obese adults are at increased risk for many serious health conditions, including coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, and premature death (2,3). Adult obesity also is associated with reduced quality of life, social stigmatization, and discrimination (2,3). From 1987 to 2001, diseases associated with obesity accounted for 27% of the increases in U.S. medical costs (4). For 2006, medical costs associated with obesity were estimated at as much as $147 billion (2008 dollars); among all payers, obese persons had estimated medical costs that were $1,429 higher than persons of normal weight (5). In 2001, the Surgeon General called for strong public health action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity (3).

[snip]

In 2009, all states continued to have high prevalences of obesity among adults, although the prevalences varied geographically. No state met the Healthy People 2010 target of 15%, and the number of states with obesity prevalence of ≥30% increased from none in 2000 to nine in 2009. The results of this report also indicate that the prevalence of adult obesity in the United States, as measured by BRFSS, continued to increase. Using 2007 population data for both years, the increase of 1.1 percentage points from 2007 to 2009 corresponds to approximately 2.4 million additional adults whose self-reported heights and weights yielded a BMI of ≥30. Previously documented disparities in obesity prevalence continued by age, education, and race/ethnicity (6,7). Of particular concern are the high prevalences among non-Hispanic black women and persons with less education.
Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults --- United States, 2009

The method used to determine obesity appears to be the flawed Basal Metabolic Index (BMI) (more on the BMI flaws here).

On the flip side, the survey's "BMI was calculated from self-reported weight and height". Do people provide honest weight numbers when the report their weights, even if anonymously?

Interesting article in the New York Times discussing the need for more Vitamin D -- either by diet or through sunlight exposure.

Vitamin D promises to be the most talked-about and written-about supplement of the decade. While studies continue to refine optimal blood levels and recommended dietary amounts, the fact remains that a huge part of the population — from robust newborns to the frail elderly, and many others in between — are deficient in this essential nutrient.

The High-Fructose Corn Syrup ("HFCS") debate continues...

The HFCS wars are heating up. Another study shows problems with HFCS consumption:

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) accounts for as much as 40% of caloric sweeteners used in the United States. Some studies have shown that short-term access to HFCS can cause increased body weight, but the findings are mixed. The current study examined both short- and long-term effects of HFCS on body weight, body fat, and circulating triglycerides. In Experiment 1, male Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained for short term (8weeks) on (1) 12h/day of 8% HFCS, (2) 12h/day 10% sucrose, (3) 24h/day HFCS, all with ad libitum rodent chow, or (4) ad libitum chow alone. Rats with 12-h access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than animals given equal access to 10% sucrose, even though they consumed the same number of total calories, but fewer calories from HFCS than sucrose. In Experiment 2, the long-term effects of HFCS on body weight and obesogenic parameters, as well as gender differences, were explored. Over the course of 6 or 7months, both male and female rats with access to HFCS gained significantly more body weight than control groups. This increase in body weight with HFCS was accompanied by an increase in adipose fat, notably in the abdominal region, and elevated circulating triglyceride levels. Translated to humans, these results suggest that excessive consumption of HFCS may contribute to the incidence of obesity.
Source: High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels. [NIH]

Taken together, it appears that rats (especially males) are able to adjust their caloric intake when given access to small amounts of sucrose, but not so much when given equivalent amounts of HFCS. Earlier work has shown that access to higher levels of sucrose or other sugars, though, will indeed cause rats to gain weight. But not everyone, it seems, even sees these effects. A study from last December looked at a variety of sweetened waters, given to rats 12 hours/day for ten weeks, but only three days out of each week. No differences in weight were seen, although it should be noted that in head-to-head tests, the rats preferred HFCS to agave or Stevia sweeteners. (I wish this group had run sucrose in this experiment, too).
Source: Rats and High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Counterpoints

(CNN) -- Acolytes of "Food Rules" guru Michael Pollan and other well-meaning foodies who've made corn a scapegoat for the nation's health crises have welcomed a new study from Princeton University that suggests high-fructose corn syrup causes more significant weight gain than table sugar.
But the findings have been criticized by food science experts and industry veterans, who say the study unfairly demonizes corn syrup and implicitly absolves cane sugar of responsibility for making Americans fat.
Source: Latest high-fructose corn syrup study generates buzz, debate

Every day, more people are pointing out flaws in last month’s Princeton University study finding that rats fed high fructose corn syrup gained more weight than rats fed sucrose (table sugar). The authors of the research speculated that this could signify that high fructose corn syrup has a unique role in fueling America’s “obesity epidemic.” Earlier in the week, however, nutrition professor Marion Nestle detailed her confusion about how the researchers could have reached that conclusion. Today Washington Post health writer Jennifer LaRue Huget voices her skepticism with the Princeton study, writing that the evidence is “not convincing enough” to support the authors’ speculations.
Source: Skepticism Grows About High Fructose Corn Syrup Hype

Here's an interesting article about why some people seem to age more slowly than others. Apparently, the length of your telemeres – tiny biological clocks at the ends of chromosomes – get shorter over time, until cells die. Here's the punch line: some people have longer telemeres.

Scientists have found a 'Peter Pan gene' that could explain why some people remain baby-faced while others become old before their time.
Millions of Britons are blessed with DNA that makes them look up to eight years younger than their peers.