Stool samples for science? Tapping citizen-scientists to check ... (Diet news)

 Stool samples for science? Tapping citizen-scientists to check ...
Washington Post reported

The bacterial zoo inside your gut could look very different if you’re a vegetarian or an Atkins dieter, a couch potato or an athlete, fat or thin.

Now for a fee $69 and up and a stool sample, the curious can find out just what’s living in their intestines and take part in one of the hottest new fields in science.

Wait a minute: How many average Joes really want to pay for the privilege of mailing such, er, intimate samples to scientists? A lot, hope the researchers running two novel citizen-science projects.

One, the American Gut Project, aims to enroll 10,000 people — and a bunch of their dogs and cats too — from around the country. The other, uBiome, separately aims to enroll nearly 2,000 people from anywhere in the world. “We’re finally enabling people to realize the power and value of bacteria in our lives,” said microbiologist Jack Gilbert of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. He’s one of a team of well-known scientists involved with the American Gut Project.

Don’t be squeamish: Yes, we share our bodies with trillions of microbes, living communities called microbiomes. Many of the bugs, especially those in the intestinal tract, play indispensable roles in keeping us healthy, from good digestion to a robust immune system. But which combinations of bacteria seem to keep us healthy? Which ones might encourage problems like obesity, diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome? And do diet and lifestyle affect those microbes in ways that we might control someday?

Answering those questions will require studying vast numbers of people. Getting started with a grassroots movement makes sense, said National Institutes of Health microbiologist Lita Proctor, who isn’t involved with the new projects but is watching closely.

After all, there was much interest in the taxpayer-funded Human Microbiome Project, which last summer provided the first glimpse of what makes up a healthy bacterial community in a few hundred volunteers.

Proctor, who coordinated that project, had worried “there would be a real ick factor. That has not been the case,” she said. Many people “want to engage in improving their health.”

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Initial 3-year-diet dictates childs eating pattern (Diet news)

Initial 3-year-diet dictates childs eating pattern
TopNews United States reported

Child's initial diet for three years dictates food, which he will crave for in rest of his life. Moreover, he will associate his hunger with that food only, said John Funder, chief professor for Obesity Australia.

Funder was present at a national obesity conference in which Funder said preparations for a child to get obese begin from his birth. If he is given a diet, which is rich in saturated fat, carbohydrate and sugar then his brain will continue to crave for the same diet in future as well.

 Professor Funder said it is important that this fact is well understood by mothers, who feed their children with rice cereal. Rather than stuffing their stomachs with such high fat food, mothers should provide them things likes vegetables, soups and mashed vegetables among other healthy things.

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Healthful eating: the Anti-Inflammatory diet of Andrew Weil (Diet news)

Healthful eating: the Anti-Inflammatory diet of Andrew Weil
Dallas Morning News reported

The idea that inflammation is at the root of many serious illnesses has gone mainstream in recent years. So has the idea that what you eat can pump it up or hold it down. No one may be more associated with an anti-inflammatory diet than integrative medicine guru Dr. Andrew Weil, creator of the Anti-Inflammatory Diet.

 “Persistent, low-level, imperceptible inflammation … increases risks of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer,” Weil writes in True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure (Little, Brown, $29.99), the new companion cookbook to True Food Kitchen restaurants.

True Food Kitchen is a small Arizona-based restaurant chain whose chefs follow Weil’s plans. Dallas is getting a True Food Kitchen at the Plaza at Preston Center next year. Weil is a partner.

Inflammation plays an important role in the body, protecting the body from bacteria and viruses, but too much of a good thing turns help to harm. Weil is far from alone in his enthusiasm for anti-inflammatory foods. “If you eat something inflammatory, you turn on genes that have an inflammatory response,” says Dr. Carolyn Matthews, a gynecologic oncologist and director of integrative medicine at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas.

She participated in a fellowship with Weil in 2007-08, and not just out of professional interest; she also survived a bout with thyroid cancer. “If you follow this diet, you actually might reduce your overall body burden of inflammation and protect yourself from disease,” says Dr. Deborah Clegg, associate professor in the department of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

She notes that inflammation contributes to insulin resistance, and inflammatory breast cancer is among the most insidious of malignancies. Weil hesitates to call his Anti-Inflammatory Diet and Pyramid eating plan a diet because people think of diets as ways to lose weight. “It’s delicious food that happens to be good for you,” he said in a recent phone interview.

Weil started by tweaking and expanding the well-known Mediterranean diet. His broad foundation is fresh and frozen fruits and raw and cooked vegetables. Next come whole and cracked grains, pasta, and beans and legumes. Healthy fats, such as extra-virgin olive oil, nuts and seeds, occupy the next level. Then come fish and seafood, then whole soy foods, then cooked Asian mushrooms.

The final six levels, going up, start with other sources of protein, including high-quality natural cheeses and yogurt and lean meats; next are healthy herbs and spices; then white, green and oolong tea; select daily supplements; then red wine. It’s topped with healthy sweets, such as dark chocolate.

 “I added a lot of Asian influences to make it more powerful,” Weil says. These include unlimited amounts of cooked Asian mushrooms, such as shiitake, maitake and enoki, and soy foods, such as edamame and tofu. Herbs and spices merit their own niche.

 “Spices affect in a gentle way numerous pathways in the cell,” Matthews says. “One of the main things they do is slow down inflammation and up-regulate your body’s own production of antioxidants.” She offers garlic, rosemary, turmeric, mint, oregano and ginger as examples.

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The athletes plan for the Paleo diet (Diet news)

The athletes plan for the Paleo diet
STACK News reported

It's been dubbed "the perfect new diet," but the Paleo diet has been around for centuries. It's called the caveman diet, because it mimics what our prehistoric ancestors ate: fish, meat, vegetables, fruits and nuts—long before humans began to cultivate grains and legumes, and before we started eating dairy products, refined salt, refined sugar and processed oils.

Last week, a standout swimmer whom I train asked me about "going Paleo." Her swim coach was strongly recommending it "to improve her energy level." This sent up a red flag, because first of all, I would never encourage an athlete to make a dramatic change in her diet during her sport season—unless she had a significant deficiency and a definite link could be demonstrated between diet and performance.

Generally, in-season is not the time to experiment. However, the Paleo diet comes with guidelines that include making allowances for athletes, especially regarding carb sources like bread, rice and pasta. Rather than adopting an extreme version of the Paleo diet, you might want to try a more reasonable, modified approach.

The Athlete's Paleo Diet Plan

Carbohydrates

Carbs are the dietary focus for most athletes, so instead of eliminating them entirely, eat them in moderation—and make sure they are "clean carbs," like high-fiber whole grains and fruit. Get rid of the processed, refined stuff, and minimize or avoid fried foods. In the off-season, carbs should make up about 50% of your total calories, but in-season at least 60%.

Protein

All year, your consumption of protein should be 20 to 25% of all calories. Although the Paleo diet excludes dairy, I am not in favor of it, because low-fat dairy products provide easily absorbed, quality protein (essential for muscle recovery and repair), along with other beneficial nutrients, like calcium. Overall, keep your non-dairy protein lean and healthy.

Fats

How much fat you consume should be based on your training schedule. During the off-season, about 30% of your total calories should come from fat, reduced to 20% in-season. Stick with mono- and polyunsaturated fats, like those found in olive oil, peanut butter, and salmon.

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Worst celebrity diets of 2012; This year brought new, dumb ideas for losing weight (Diet news)

 Worst celebrity diets of 2012; This year brought new, dumb ideas for losing weight
New York Daily News reported

It was a new low: This year, we saw diets that prescribe sitting in a cold bath until 10 am, binge drinking, and passing a feeding tube through the nostril in order to pump a liquid formula into the stomach. Diets that prescribe sitting in a cold bath until 10 am, binge drinking, and passing a feeding tube through the nostril in order to pump a liquid formula into the stomach have been singled out as some of the worst celebrity diets to avoid in the new year.

But at the top of the British Dietetic Association’s list? The famous protein-heavy Dukan Diet popularized by celebrities such as Carol Middleton (mom to Kate Middleton), Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bundchen.

With the approach of January, when weight loss tops many people’s New Year’s resolutions list, the BDA released a word of warning for people looking for a quick fix via drastic and dangerous diets.

Here are the top five worst celebrity diets of the year, according to the British Dietetic Association.

 The 6 Weeks to OMG Diet

The diet calls for skipping breakfast, exercising first thing in the morning after drinking black coffee, then sitting in a cold bath to encourage the burning of stored fat until 10 am. Snacks and fruits are off limits, foods are protein-heavy and carbs can come from cola or broccoli.

Alcorexia or Drunkorexia Diet

Basically, a diet based on alcohol and little else. Followers save their caloric intake from food and instead get their calories from beer, wine, spirits. Not hard to find the madness in this.

‘Party Girl’ IV Drip

Diet Followers of this diet get hooked up to an IV drip rich in vitamins like B, C, magnesium and calcium, a misguided principle given that the best sources of nutrients are in fiber-rich foods. Side effects can include dizziness, infection, inflammation and anaphylactic shock.

The Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition Diet or KEN

For 10 days, followers are banned from eating and are hooked up with a feeding tube through the nose that pumps a liquid formula into the stomach. Dieters must carry the pump and liquid wherever they go, most likely in a bag or backpack, and can only unhook themselves for an hour a day to drink water, tea, coffee or sugar-free herb teas.

Dukan Diet

But the diet that trumps IV drips, feeding tubes, cold baths and alcoholic regimes is perhaps one of the most popular diets around the world, the Dukan Diet by French physician Pierre Dukan, which bears striking similarities to the Atkins diet for being protein-heavy. According to the BDA, the diet is confusing, time consuming, rigid, and hard to sustain. Side effects are likewise unappealing, with everything from lack of energy, constipation and bad breath.

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Celebrity diets: Jessica Simpson Weight Watchers diet plan failing? (Diet news)

Celebrity diets: Jessica Simpson Weight Watchers diet plan failing?
Examiner.com reported

Even thought Hollywood Life proudly proclaims Jessica Simpson has met her weight loss goals, the star is still a bit thick around her mid-section. As the new celebrity spokesperson for Weight Watchers, the adorable but chunky new mom is still struggling to get good press for her new diet plan as paparazzi photos still make her look like she is over-eating like she did when she was pregnant with her new baby.

TMZ was one celebrity gossip website that pointed out the commercials for the famous diet plan that concern is making really do not make her look very thin pretty. The famous pop music singer, the star recently gave birth to a baby girl.

Known for being the celebrity gained the most weight ever seen during pregnancy, her goal was to lose 60 pounds very quickly after delivering a child. While she still has a beautiful face and lovely legs, Jessica Simpson is still carry weight hacked around her midsection. Her chest is still enormous (which is to be expected if she is nursing the baby), but the normally petite celeb still incredibly thick around the middle.

Camouflaging her post baby bulge with a mix of long blouses and cropped jacket, she still looks fashionable and attractive – – but not overwhelmingly thin. To that end, bragging about being a dieting guru seems like a marketing flaw far more than moral failure.

 After all, the girl was essentially be like bird's past few months and weeks. If the celebrity diet plan she is allegedly on was truly a magic ticket to being skinny, she would have dropped the weight. Almost overnight, she would have been a size 0, size 2, or size 4 at record speed.

The good thing about her take time losing weight is by dieting properly she is likely to keep the weight off long-term as well as to improve her health over the short-term duration. If she just stopped eating, she would have no energy left to tend to the new baby and would risk making herself sick for the sake of being trendy.

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