Good Health Tips:11 Simple Ways To Cut Calories

Article Summary:

Article Content:

HEALTH TIP:  11 Simple Ways to Cut Calories

1. Order two appetizers
Instead of an entrée, that is. It’s no big secret that
serving sizes at restaurants have grown exponentially over
the last couple of decades. According to a study at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the average
hamburger is 23 percent larger today than it was in 1977,
and soft drinks are a whopping 50 percent bigger. So rather
than ordering a main course that might leave a long-haul truck
driver requesting a doggie bag, choose a pasta dish and salad
or soup from the appetizer column. The smaller sizes here
won’t wreak havoc on your dietary goals.

2. Visit the vending machine
Nibbling on single servings is better than digging your way
to the bottom of a megabag of chips. Just don’t bring a whole
roll of quarters along during your next snack attack.

3. Start with salad…
and eat less during the rest of the meal, says a recent study
from Pennsylvania State University. Researchers there had 33
women eat a variation on the same garden salad 20 minutes
before a main pasta course. When the salads were topped with
low-fat mozzarella and low-calorie Italian dressing instead
of high-fat alternatives, the women ate 10 percent fewer
calories over the course of the day.

4. Stick a fork in it
If you prefer your salad dressing on the side, dip your fork
into it before stabbing your greens. That little maneuver could
cut 500 calories, say Lyssie Lakatos and Tammy Lakatos Shames,
authors of the book Fire Up Your Metabolism: 9 Proven Principles
for Burning Fat and Losing Weight Forever (Fireside). Plunging
an already-loaded fork into the buttermilk ranch will pick up
more of the creamy condiment—and the calories that come with it.

5. Watch coffee calories
The fancy concoctions that are now the javas of choice for many
people can contain as many calories as an entire lunch. A 16-
ounce Starbucks Caffè Mocha with whole milk, for instance, packs
400 calories—the same number as in a grilled-chicken sandwich—
along with 22 grams of fat and 33 grams of sugar. If a regular
cup of joe bores you, slim down your latte by going with skim
or 2 percent milk.

6. Walk and talk
The next time a call on your cell phone keeps you yakking for
a while, slip on your walking shoes, and stroll the halls at
work or hoof it outside. If you did this for 10 minutes every
workday at a moderate 3 mph pace, you’d burn about 1,000
calories a month and lose 3 pounds a year.

7. Crack a nut
Dieters in a Harvard University study who ate a handful of
peanuts or mixed nuts daily were more likely to keep weight
off than a group whose regimen didn’t include the high-fat
snacks. Remember, though, that nuts are not only rich in heart-
healthy fats but also calorie-dense: Count out 15 almonds or
cashews or 30 pistachios to keep your consumption in check.

8. Don’t just sit there
The average person burns 100 calories per hour sitting and
140 per hour standing. Get on your feet two hours a day while
you work, and you could drop an extra 6 pounds over the year.
To this end, Frances Wilkins, publisher of MemoryMinder diet
journals, put a counter-height worktable in her office. “As a
result, I move around much more, and it gives me a break from
that office-chair posture,” she says.

9. Sleep well, lose more
According to a recent study in The Lancet, sleep loss may
hinder your efforts to lose extra pounds. Insufficient shut-
eye appears to increase production of the stress hormone
cortisol, which regulates appetite. High levels seem to
worsen bingeing and hunger; moreover, too little sleep could
keep your body from burning carbohydrates, which translates
to more stored body fat.

10. Double your protein
The high-protein, low-carb approach may help keep you from
losing muscle along with fat, according to a new study
published in The Journal of Nutrition. Twenty-four overweight
women ate 9 to 10 ounces of lean meat, three servings of low-
fat dairy, and at least five servings of vegetables a day—
roughly double the protein and half the carbs of the average
American. Over 10 weeks, the women lost 16 pounds, about the
same number as a control group who ate according to the USDA
Food Guide Pyramid. But the women who pumped up the protein
lost 2 more pounds of fat while maintaining a pound more of
calorie-burning muscle than the other subjects. The secret:
the amino acid leucine, found in beef, dairy, poultry, fish,
and eggs. According to study author Donald K. Layman, PhD, of
the University of Illinois, it may help preserve muscle tissue.

11. Keep an exercise journal
Writing down your fitness achievements is a great way to
track your progress, give yourself positive feedback, and
maintain focus on your goals. Molly Kimball, RD, a sports
nutritionist at New Orleans’ Ochsner Clinic, goes one better,
encouraging her clients to share their exercise diaries with
friends. This fosters accountability by making your
accomplishments and aspirations a matter of public record.

__________________________________________________

FDA issues contaminated cheese warning

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning
consumers not to eat certain Queso-brand Mexican style cheese
because of possible contamination. The FDA said Quesco Fresco
Fresh Mexican Style Soft Cheese and Queso Cotija Molido
Mexican Style Grated Cheese manufactured and distributed by
the Peregrina Cheese Corp. of New York might be contaminated
with Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause
serious and sometimes fatal infections. The Queso Fresco Fresh
cheese is sold in 14-ounce foil wrapped packages marked with
lot number 4469 or 4477 affixed to each package on a white
sticker. The Queso Cotija Molido cheese is packaged in 15-
ounce clear plastic bags that are marked with UPC number 8
17424 00027 7 and “Plant # 36-1388,” but do not contain a lot
number or production date. Both products were distributed to
retail stores in the New York City area and in Scranton and
Hazelton, Pa., in early February. Consumers with questions
can contact the company at 718-456-2391.

__________________________________________________

Salmonella outbreak spreads to five states

MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Center for Infectious Disease Research
& Policy says a Nebraska salmonella outbreak with sprouts as
the possible source has spread to five states. Approximately
50 cases in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and South Dakota
have been linked to the outbreak as federal and state
officials await the results of laboratory tests that could
confirm whether the cause was sprouts. CIDRAP officials at
the University of Minnesota said the rare Salmonella SaintPaul
subtype is the same as in last year’s outbreak that involved
jalapeno and Serrano peppers, but the genetic fingerprint is
different. SunSprout Enterprises Inc. of Omaha voluntarily
recalled its alfalfa, onion and gourmet sprouts with “best
if sold by” dates from of March 2-14 after the initial out-
break was unofficially linked to sprouts.

__________________________________________________

Gene therapy might help treat obesity

COLUMBUS, Ohio — U.S. medical researchers say they are
studying using a gene injected directly into the brain as a
possible long-term treatment for obesity. The study by scien-
tists at the Ohio State University Medical Center involves
modifying one of the critical feeding and weight control
centers of the brain. “Obesity significantly increases the
risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke and some
cancers,” said Dr. Matthew During, the study’s senior author.
“Our findings represent a promising new treatment for obesity
that could ultimately provide a much safer and more effective
approach than some conventional therapies.” During said scien-
tists have discovered a particular gene, BDNF, can improve
insulin sensitivity, reduce fat mass and result in weight
loss when active in the hypothalamus. Assistant Professor Lei
Cao, the study’s first author, said the research involved
injecting the BDNF gene into normal mice, diabetic mice and
mice fed with a high fat diet to determine how the gene trans-
fer would affect their weight. “The gene was active in the
overweight mice, but as they lost weight the gene expression
was essentially ‘dialed down’ using a novel RNA interference
approach, thus stopping the weight from continuing to decrease
and allowing a stable target weight to be reached,” said Cao.
During said the next step is to obtain FDA approval to begin
studying the therapy in humans. The research is reported
online in the journal Nature Medicine.
__________________________________________________

FDA to speed nanomedical product creation

WASHINGTON, — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says
it will collaborate with the Alliance for NanoHealth to speed
creation of safe nanotechnology medical products. The FDA
said it and the alliance’s member institutions will cooperate
in a nanotechnology initiative to “expand knowledge of how
nanoparticles behave and affect biologic systems, and to fac-
ilitate the development of tests and processes that might
mitigate the risks associated with nanoengineered products.”
“FDA’s nanotechnology initiative with the Alliance for
NanoHealth is an effort to engage resources and technical
expertise in this rapidly advancing field and is a clear
example of leveraging science and scientists to advance the
public good,” said the FDA’s Acting Commissioner, Dr. Frank
Torti. “Nanotechnology holds great promise for the advancement
of novel medical products.” The alliance’s eight academic
institutions are the Baylor College of Medicine, the Univer-
sity of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University,
the University of Houston, the University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston, Texas A & M Health Science Center,
the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the
Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston.

__________________________________________________

Protein key to eye development identified

BALTIMORE, — U.S. medical scientists say they’ve identified
a protein that regulates how light-sensing nerve cells form
in the retina during the eye’s development. Researchers at
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Washington
University School of Medicine said their findings could help
scientists better understand how the body’s nerve cells
develop. “We’ve found a protein that seems to serve as a
general switch for photoreceptor cell development,” said
Johns Hopkins Assistant Professor Seth Blackshaw, who led
the study. “This protein coordinates the activity of multiple
proteins, acting like a conductor of an orchestra, instructing
some factors to be more active and silencing others and thus
contributing to the development of light-sensitive cells of
the eye.” The research appeared in the Jan. 29 issue of the
journal Neuron.
__________________________________________________

Tests Predict Who Will Develop Alzheimer’s Disease

The study of Alzheimer’s disease has been a rocky road for
all concerned, the patients, caregivers and health care
providers. For researchers the problem of determining what
was normal cognitive reduction associated with aging and
what was a precursor of Alzheimer’s has been a major
challenge. Two new techniques greatly raise the possibility
that Alzheimer’s can be diagnosed more easily and much
earlier, which would allow prescription treatment to slow
down the progression of the disease.

The study of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s has long
suggested that changes in the brain are indicators of the
disease.  A research group led by Dr. Wouter J. P. Henneman,
at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam investigated
how brain changes could be tied to neurological conditions.
The group used MRI brain scans for 64 patients already
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, 44 patients with mild
cognitive impairment and 34 unaffected individuals as the
“control group.” After an average interval of 1.8 years,
a second brain scan was taken. By this time three of the
controls and 23 individuals with mild cognitive impairment
had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

The hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in forming
and storing memories, has been studied as an indication of
Alzheimer’s and the study confirmed the risk of having a
small hippocampus. Shrinkage of the hippocampus conferred
a similar risk among the control group. Having a small
hippocampus and a high shrinkage rate was rated as a 65-
fold greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

A previous study by researchers at the University Of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine had reached the same
conclusions. This group had used MRI images to study the
brains of people with Alzheimer’s and to look at the images
of normal elderly patients to identify any significant
structural changes. By comparison of the images the
researchers were able to identify even subtle changes in
brain tissues of healthy individuals with no noticeable
Alzheimer’s symptoms. Additionally the researchers
uncovered Alzheimer’s like structural changes in the brain
accompanied by diseases of the small blood vessels in the
brain, two previously uncovered risk factors.

In a second study, a different group of researchers led
by Dr. Leslie Shaw, found that predictions could be made
as to which patients with mild cognitive impairment would
progress to Alzheimer’s. The researchers found benchmark
concentration levels of biological indicators in three
groups, elderly who were cognitively normal, those with
mild cognitive impairment and those with Alzheimer’s disease.
Examination of concentrations of certain biological indicators
in cerebral spinal fluid indicated  baseline levels of three
proteins associated with Alzheimer’s. They found significant
differences in the levels of concentrations of the biomarkers
between groups.

“Analyzing changes in these CSF biomarker levels in people
with mild cognitive impairment can detect the conversion to
Alzheimer’s disease, especially when used in conjunction
with neuroimaging and psychological tests.” according to
Dr. Shaw. Defining of the biomarkers would accelerate drug
development efforts to look for compounds that could modify
those discrepancies and prevent or provide treatments for
Alzheimer’s disease.

__________________________________________________

———————