News You Can Use: Exercise Helps You to Eat Healthier and More!
Exercise Helps Us to Eat a Healthy Diet
According to researchers at Harvard University reporting in the journal Obesity Reviews, "Physical exercise seems to encourage a healthy diet. In fact, when exercise is added to a weight-loss diet, treatment of obesity is more successful and the diet is adhered to in the long run."
Exercise helps to control hedonic responses to food stimuli. "Therefore, benefits can be classified as those that occur in the short term (of metabolic predominance) and those that are seen in the long term (of behavioral predominance)," say the researchers.
And they go on to state that "regular exercise improves output in tests that measure the state of the brain's executive functions and increases the amount of gray matter and prefrontal connections. Inhibitory control is one of the executive functions of the brain and is basically the ability to suppress inadequate and non-conforming answers to an aim (the opposite of this would be impulsiveness), which makes modification or self-regulations of a behavior possible."
Bottom line: You need to combine diet with physical activity to lose weight and keep it off.
Short Walks Cut Chocolate Consumption in Half
Do you need more reasons to get out there and take a walk? How about cutting down on your chocolate consumption — especially in high-stress situations. Researchers at the University of Exeter in the U.K. reported in the journal Appetite that a 15-minute walk can cut snacking on chocolate at work by 50 percent. The study demonstrated that "even in stressful situations, workers eat only half as much chocolate as they normally would after this short burst of physical activity."
So taking short physical activity breaks helps keep your mind off snacking.
Gum Chewing Helps You Perform Better!
Have an exam or important work project due? Research appearing in the journal Appetite reported that chewing gum might help performance. In the study, university students who chewed gum while taking a series of tests performed significantly better during the first half hour of testing than a control group who didn't chew gum.
Trying to Stop Chocolate Cravings? A Photograph May Help
If you’re trying to avoid eating unhealthy foods, picking up a fashion magazine may help. Researchers studied the effect of viewing thin and overweight images of models in chocolate advertisements. They divided 84 women, ages 17 to 63, and assigned a third of the group to view a "thin model," another third to view "an overweight model" and the last third as a control group to view no photos at all. The results showed that those who viewed the photos of "thin women" were less likely to eat chocolate than either the group who viewed the overweight women or the control group.
Tea Can Help You Relax and Perform Better at Work
Researchers wanted to examine the relationship of tea, coffee and other beverages to work performance and mood among individuals in a relatively stressful work environment. According to the study, "Tea consumption was associated with increased perceived work performance and reduced tiredness, especially when consumed without milk or sugar. Consumption of non-caffeinated beverages was associated with increased relaxation and recovery from work." However, keep in mind that drinking tea and other caffeinated beverages may be counterproductive if you're trying to kick back and relax.
Trying to Motivate? Beginners and Experts Need Different Feedback
According to research conducted by Stacey Finkelstein and Ayelet Fishbach of the University of Chicago that was reported in the Journal of Consumer Research, novices are more motivated by positive feedback than experts, who prefer harsh criticism.
"Consumers commonly receive positive and negative feedback on their actions or habits. For example, doctors advise patients on how to improve their health or praise them for healthy habits; the beauty industry provides feedback to consumers on what products and services they could use to improve their appearances; and fitness trainers give tips and praise to their clients," say study researchers. So, for best results, if you're just starting a diet or exercise program, look for high-quality instructors who also give a lot of positive feedback. It could make the difference between success and failure.
Diet Patterns May Keep Brain from Shrinking
According to the author Gene Bowman, N.D., M.P.H., of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland reporting in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, "People with diets high in omega-3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins are less likely to have the brain shrinkage associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets are not high in those nutrients." Additionally, those who consumed these nutrients "had higher scores on mental thinking tests than people with diets low in those nutrients. These omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D are primarily found in fish. The B vitamins and antioxidants C and E are primarily found in fruits and vegetables."
The study also found that those whose diets were high in trans fats were more likely to have brain shrinkage and lower scores on the thinking and memory tests than people whose diets were low in trans fats.
Mid-Morning Snacking May Sabotage Weight-Loss Efforts
Skipping that mid-morning snack might be a good idea, especially if it's of the unhealthy variety. "Women dieters who grab a snack between breakfast and lunch lose less weight compared to those who abstain from a mid-morning snack,” according to a study led by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division and director of its Prevention Center, reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association that study participants who snacked mid-morning lost an average of 7 percent of their total body weight while those who ate a healthy breakfast but did not snack before lunch lost more than 11 percent of their body weight. For the study, a snack was defined as any food or drink that was consumed between main meals.
While snacking too close to a main meal may be detrimental to weight loss, waiting too long between meals also may sabotage dieting efforts, she said.
“Our study suggests that snacking may actually help with weight loss if not done too close to another meal, particularly if the snacks are healthy foods that can help you feel full without adding too many calories.”
The problem is that most commonly preferred snacks are salty and crunchy items such as potato chips, pretzels and nuts; baked goods such as cookies and cakes; and ice cream. According to the researchers, “The best snacks for a weight-loss program are proteins such as low-fat yogurt, string cheese or a small handful of nuts; non-starchy vegetables; fresh fruits; whole-grain crackers; and non-calorie beverages such as water, coffee and tea.”
CHARLES STUART PLATKIN, Ph.D., is a nutrition and public health advocate and founder of DietDetective.com. Copyright 2012 by Charles Stuart Platkin. All rights reserved. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at DietDetective.com.
