According to a new study, only low-fat diets will help with long-term mood improvement.

“This study looked at one factor, and prior studies haven’t focused on psychological factors,” says Dr. Ewald Horvath, interim chairman of psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “This is a great study focusing on something very important.”

The key difference between low-fat diets and low-carb diets is the long-term effect on mood. Studies have previously found short-term improvements in the mood of people who chose a wide variety of different diets. This new study reaffirmed the evidence of improvements over the first eight weeks of dieting on various plans. But it’s after the initial two months that low-carb dieters tended to return to their depressed moods.

“The exact mechanism for the observed effects on mood still remains largely unknown,” says study author Grant D. Brinkworth, a research scientist with the food and nutritional sciences division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Adelaide, Australia.

But, it is known that carbs can increase serotonin concentrations in the brain, whereas added fat and protein can reduce it. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that is involved with controlling mood, anger, and aggression.

(via: Yahoo News)

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Low-Fat Diets Improve Your Mood

The study was conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. They examined the effects of sodium and artificial sweeteners on kidney function among 3,256 women with a median age of 67. The women filled out a questionnaire about their soda drinking habits.

When the researchers compared the women’s kidney function, they found that 372 had a decline of 30 percent or more in kidney function. Further analysis revealed that the decline was associated with drinking two or more artificially sweetened soft drinks a day.

The researchers also took into consideration the person’s age, physical activity, high blood pressure, or if they had diabetes.

Diet drinks are “generally low in important health-promoting nutrients, so keeping them as a small part of your eating plan would be a smart step,” says Dr. Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition for Washington University, St. Louis.

In 2006, a panel of experts was assembled by Dr. Barry Popkin, director of the University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Obesity Program. The group published a “Beverage Guidance System,” that recommended people drink more water and limit or even eliminate high-calorie beverages with little or no nutritional value. The panel emphasized that kids need to drink more milk. “Fortified soy milk is a good alternative for individuals who prefer not to consume cow milk,” the panel stated.

(via: HealthNews.com)

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Diet Soda May Cause Kidney Problems

A quarter of those surveyed who were unemployed said they didn’t get enough rest any night in the last 30 days.

The study seems to confirm the anecdotal belief that west coasters are more laid back than the east coast. Twelve of the 14 best-sleeping states were west of the Mississippi.

The report wasn’t very in depth, as they just asked people about their perception of how much sleep they got, not the actual hours.

The Health Consequences

Sleep problems can lead to other health problems, surprisingly maybe even diabetes. Researchers aren’t quite sure if lack of sleep directly causes diabetes or if it’s associated in some other way. But, even a remote piece of evidence should be enough to think twice about watching your favorite late night talk show.

Sleep Aids

Exercise is a great way to help your sleep problems… assuming you aren’t just staying up late by choice. The National Sleep Foundation reports that afternoon exercise can help with deeper sleep, and even cut down the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep. Evening exercise may have the opposite effect, while morning workouts seem to get the best results.

Keep in mind that there may be occasions when prescribed sleep aids are appropriate, but they shouldn’t be seen as the long-term answer.

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Americans Aren’t Getting Enough Sleep

The link between what we eat and mental health: The participants in the “processed food” group were 58 percent more likely to develop depression, while those with a “whole foods” diet were 26 percent less likely to develop depression. Interestingly, the researchers were cautious to draw any specific conclusions based on these correlations.

Researchers proposed several explanations for their results. It was suggested that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables could have a protective effective against depression for those with a “whole foods” diet. It was also suggested that the polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish could have a protective effect from depression. Researchers also proposed that the combined effect of different nutrients from a variety of foods was important in preventing depression. Although the researchers recognized that a healthier diet can help create a healthier mood, the possibility that a diet heavy in “processed food” may actually harm mental health was not mentioned. I think there are many reasons why this should also be considered.

The average age of participants was 55; the title of the orignal research article “Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age” (published in the British Journal of Psychiatry); however, this does not mean this research is not applicable to those who are not yet “middle age.” The habits you create now, and the habits you are creating for your children, will create your dietary patterns for the rest of your life, and may have a major impact on mental health as well.

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Eat Whole Foods to Avoid Depression

According to a new study at Harvard School of Public Health, there were about 12 suicides per 100,000 adults in 2004 and 2005. However, with every three percent increase in obesity in any given state, there were three fewer suicides per 100,000 adults. This even took into account the fact that states with higher rates of obesity also had higher rates of gun ownership, adults who smoke, and lower rates of household income.

The study did not prove a cause and effect, but the author did emphasize an obvious point:

“The risks of obesity far outweigh any potential benefit on suicide prevention,” says study author Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal.

The key word is “successfully.” It doesn’t mean heavy people are happier.

The study’s authors think that poisonings may be less likely to be lethal in an obese person, since they would need a higher dose. They went on to morbidly speculate that in the case of an attempted hanging, suffocation may be less common because “the steps involved in hanging may be burdensome (and) uncomfortable” in an obese person.

One last downer of a statistic and I’ll let you get on with your day: More people in the United States die from suicide than homicide.

(via: Yahoo)

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Obese Less Likely to Commit Suicide

The study examined more than 12,500 five-year-olds and found that those who had working mothers were less active and more likely to eat unhealthy food.

An estimated 60 percent of UK mothers with children up to five-years old work. Those children whose mothers were employed, even part-time, were more likely to consume sweetened drinks between meals.

The children of working mothers were also more likely to be driven to school, as opposed to the children of stay-at-home mothers who usually walked or biked to school.

“Time constraints may limit parents’ capacity to provide their children with healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity,” says Catherine Law, who led the study. “Our results do not imply that mothers should not work. Rather, they highlight the need for policies and programs to help support parents.”

As is usually the case, some experts say that more studies are needed to reassure the findings by the The Institute of Child Health.

(via: BBC)

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Working Moms in the UK Have Unfit Kids

According to the researchers, there hasn’t been much research done on these kinds of programs for severely obese children.

“Modest weight loss is associated with real health benefits. That’s the take-home message, it’s worth doing,” says Dr. Marsha D. Marcus of the University of Pittsburgh, one of the authors of the study.

The study examined children in the upper one percentile of obese children. Most weight loss was modes – just five to 20 percent of the excess weight that they carried. But what they got out of it was a significant reductions in their waist size, and systolic blood pressure.

The downside was that once the children left the intervention program, they returned to their previous weight pretty quickly – less than a year.

Dr. Marcus asserts that the only way the childhood obesity crisis can be reversed is through a synergistic approach on all levels of society – families, schools, health policy makers, and the rest of the community.

(via: Yahoo)

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Obese Kids See Big Benefits from Small Weight Loss

Most of us know them: people who can eat and eat and not gain an ounce. That fraternity gets a little smaller after 30 when everyone’s metabolism begins to slow. But, while they still maintain this seemingly impossible dietary feat, they do so at the expense of the rest of us.

That’s because according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, thin friends who eat a lot may unwittingly make you eat more in the process. Call it subliminal peer pressure.

The researchers recruited 210 college students to participate in the study, and were told that they would be paired up with another student. The other student was actually a part of the research team and intentionally recruited for their thin frames (size 0, 105 pounds). Sometimes those thin research participants wore an “obesity prosthesis” to compare the reactions of their partners.

All of the students were offered snacks while viewing clips of movies. The undercover researcher was served first, and either got a large or small serving before the student participant was offered the same bowl of food. In every case, the amount of food that the students accepted was influenced by the amount that the undercover researcher chose.

Participants tended to mimic the thin companion’s portion sizes, but adjusted their portions down when they were paired with the obese-looking researcher.

The study was authored by researchers from the University of British Columbia, Duke University, and Arizona State University.

(via: Medical News Today)

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Thin Friends Can Have Bad Diet Influence

A recently released study proves that moderate female drinkers, those who imbibe more than 45 drinks a month (which seems like a lot of drinking, although it really only averages out to just shy of 1.5 glasses of wine a night) exercised 14 more minutes per week on average than those light drinkers who drank one to 14 drinks in the month. These women also reported exercising on average 20 minutes more than those who abstained from alcohol altogether. Also, drinkers of both sexes were 10 percent more likely than their sober peers to exercise vigorously in any given week.

Even more interesting, those who don’t drink alcohol and don’t exercise have a 30-49% increased risk of heart disease than those who either drink, exercise or both. I wonder what the correlation might be? After all, I’d assume that people with heavy exercise habits would also have a clean record of healthy living. It seems counter intuitive to spend hours at the gym and then kill the effort with alcohol intake. It could be that those who drink feel a need to burn off the extra calories, or maybe a person might chose to exercise just so they can drink a bit more.

It could be that those with an aggressive exercise habit are thrill seekers and the alcohol helps to fill that need. It could be the “runner’s high” that many report feeling with exercise, and the feelings you get when you drink are similar. Or it could just be coincidence – but it surely does make for an interesting topic, doesn’t it?

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Moderate Alcohol Consumption Yields Increased Exercise

Dr. Carolyn A. McCarty of Seattle Children’s Research Institute and her colleagues conducted the first study to look at how theses three problems relate to each other over years in the life of young adults.

They also found that almost half of the women and the men suffered from at least one of the problems between the ages of 21 and 30. The study was very extensive, as it has been following its subjects since 1985 (they were in the fifth grade at the time).

Looking at men compared to women, at 21-years old, eight percent of women and 12 percent of men had at least two of the three problems. As they got older, having multiple problems became more common, but less so for the men.

Here’s a look at how the unhealthy descent worked for the women in the study:

• Women who were depressed at 27-years old were more than three times as likely to abuse alcohol at age 30
• Women who had alcohol abuse problems at 24-years old were nearly four times as likely to be obese at age 27
• Being obese at 27-years old more than doubled the risk of depression at age 30
• Being in a lower-income bracket was an equal opportunity criteria, as both men and women were at greater risk of depression and obesity

Yale psychologist Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksma referred to the three problems as a “toxic triangle” of “eating, drinking and over thinking.”

(via: Yahoo)

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Obesity, Alcohol, Depression: Toxic Combo for Women