Diet

Normally nutritionists say it's a bad idea to eat a diet high in refined carbohydrates. Now that recommendation may soon change, according to a new study from McGill University. According to researcher Luis Agellon, mice on a refined carbohydrate diet who were given a potato extract gained 9 fewer grams of weight compared to those who skipped the extract--something which researchers credit to its high amounts of polyphenols, types of plant-based antioxidants. The research is published in Molecular Nutrition &…
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Have type 2 diabetes? One North Dakota doctor says there's a simple way to stop it. The solution? Starving yourself--by eating fewer than 1000 calories. According to Dr. Spencer Berry, a medical director of Medical Weight Loss Specialists in Fargo, North Dakota, he's developed a diet that whittles your calories down to a mere 800 calories per day--and apparently, it works. "The KE diet provides only proteins, fats and micronutrients and no carbohydrates or sugars, so your body goes into…
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To live a longer life, health experts recommend avoiding cigarettes, exercising daily, and keeping your weight under control. New research suggests there's now another way to lengthen your lifespan, however--if you're a woman. According to a new study in the British Medical Journal, women who ate a diet modeled after the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes healthy oils, fish, and vegetables, lived at least 1.5 years longer than women who didn't follow a similar diet plan. As for the reasons why,…
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Trying to lose weight? Instead of checking your calories, try checking something else instead--the clock. A new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism reports that mice whose food intake was restricted to 8 to 12 hours per day instead of having food available all day long reversed their risk of obesity--despite no changes in their caloric intake. Better yet, it reversed something else: Type 2 diabetes. "We found that animals fed within a window of 8 to 12 hours…
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Want to lower your risk of heart disease and diabetes? The key may lie in how many carbohydrates you eat, say researchers. According to new findings reported in the journal PLOS ONE, obese adults who switched to a high-carb, low-fat diet increased the amount of palmitoleic acid in their blood--an acid associated with inflammation, heart disease, and even type 2 diabetes. The research was led by Jeff Volek, a professor of human sciences at Ohio State University. "[The new study]…
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For dieters, fasting may be the trendiest--and fastest--way to shed those pesky holiday pounds. Now researchers say there's an even more important reason to fast: It could fight diabetes, cancer, and even Alzheimer's disease. A new meta-analysis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA cites research which shows fasting helps break down fat and repair cells--something which they believe can reverse the aging process. "For many of our ancestors, food was scarce and primarily…
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For most people, eating a vegetarian diet is hardly appealing. But now there's a good reason to match the switch: It could stop diabetes. According to a new analysis published in Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy, vegetarian diets help lower a person's weight naturally, control blood glucose, and improve blood pressure--all effects which can reduce the severity of type 2 diabetes. In theory, this too could even eradicate the disease, though experts emphasize that this isn't clinically proven. The analysis was…
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Heart disease is the leading cause of death among both men and women--and worse yet, it's on the rise. New research from Glasgow University reveals there may be a simple way to prevent this disease, however. According to researcher Dr. Emilie Combet, just consuming 20 ml of olive oil everyday could reduce the risk of developing coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease. That's about as simple as dunking your favorite bread in a plate of olive…
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Heart-clogging trans fats may put you at a higher risk of obesity, but researchers now say it's dangerous for another reason: It could damage your memory. A new study from the University of California San Francisco says that men who ate the highest amounts of trans fats struggled to recall more words, a part of cognition, by 10 percent. Those who kept their trans fat intake to a minimum had near-perfect memory, however. "The oxidizing effects of trans fats may…
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It's never fun getting old--but now there may be a way to slow down the aging process. A new study from New York University's Langone Medical Center reveals that low calorie diets help control certain genes linked to aging in the brain. It was also shown to slow down memory loss in the brain--something connected to Alzheimer's disease. "Our study shows how calorie restriction practically arrests gene expression levels involved in the aging phenotype--how some genes determine the behavior of…
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