AJCN November, 2009 – SUMMARY – See this, longer synopses, and links to published articles at http://campus.beloit.edu/nutrition/aln/1109ajcn

If you can pick up a copy of Women’s World Nov 2nd issue with Weight Loss Secrets of Dancing with the Stars on the cover, sold at many US store checkout lines, you can read the story on page 20 that tells The Science Behind The Secrets, attributed to Alfred “Roc” Ordman, Ph.D. Though it is based on an interview with me, the author completely changed most of the information that I provided to her. But olive oil is great. See 3 below.

FOOD FOR HEALTH
1. Cocoa helps your heart
2. Eating 4 eggs a day helps eyes, raises good HDL, not bad cholesterol
3. Alcohol consumption stimulates your body to make a powerful antioxidant – Olive oil contains a powerful antioxidant called hydroxytyrosol. That substance has now been discovered in red wine. And drinking alcohol causes your body to produce it spontaneously.
4. Green tea is associated with lower psychological stress

VITAMINS
5. Many people are deficient in vitamin C – [Even average vitamin C was only about 54 µmol/L, that is provided by 90 mg vitamin C per day, compared with 115 µmol/L in the people with the highest group, that can be achieved with 500 mg twice a day.] 6. Vitamin C and E prevent chromosome damage from sunlight
7. Get your B vitamins for strong bones

DIETING EFFECTIVELY
8. Lose 1 pound per week by alternate day fasting and help your heart
9. High protein diet better for blood pressure and to prevent rebound effect
10. A low glycemic index diet also alleviates hypertension
11. Yogurt helps weight loss
12. Fiber intake reduces weight – they found no effect of added sugar on any indicator, Fiber, on the other hand, showed a protective effect against excess adiposity.
13. Dietary fiber keeps kids thinner

AND AVOIDING WEIGHT REGAIN AFTER DIETING
14. Why short term dieting leads to gain weight

EXERCISE
15. For children, vigorous exercise is the one that reduces adiposity
16. Exercise in the cold burns calories, maybe it does not in heated areas.
17. You lose muscle when older even if you exercise

FOR MOTHERS
18. Control your weight in further pregnancies
19. Maternal obesity before pregnancy is strongest predictor of offspring’s childhood obesity
20. Good nutrition helps offspring

DETAILS –
1. Cocoa helps your heart – Background: Epidemiologic studies have suggested that flavonoid intake plays a critical role in the prevention of coronary heart disease. Because atherosclerosis is considered a low-grade inflammatory disease, some feeding trials have analyzed the effects of cocoa (an important source of flavonoids) on inflammatory biomarkers, but the results have been controversial.Conclusions: These results suggest that the intake of cocoa polyphenols may modulate inflammatory mediators in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease. These antiinflammatory effects may contribute to the overall benefits of cocoa consumption against atherosclerosis.

2. Eating 4 eggs a day helps eyes, raises good HDL, not bad cholesterol – Especially if you are taking statins for cholesterol, lutein and zeaxanthin may reduce the risk of dry, age-related macular degeneration because of their photo-oxidative role as macular pigment. Conclusions: Consumption of 4 egg yolks/d, and possibly of 2 egg yolks/d, for 5 wk benefited macular health in older adults. Serum HDL cholesterol increased without an increase in LDL cholesterol in this study population, most of whom were taking cholesterol-lowering statins.

3. Alcohol consumption stimulates your body to make a powerful antioxidant – Olive oil contains a powerful antioxidant called hydroxytyrosol. That substance has now been discovered in red wine. And drinking alcohol causes your body to produce it spontaneously.

4. Green tea is associated with lower psychological stress – Objective: Our aim was to clarify whether green tea consumption is associated with lower psychological distress. Results: We classified 2774 (6.6%) of the respondents as having psychological distress . Conclusion: Green tea consumption up to more than 5 cups per day was inversely associated with psychological distress even after adjustment for possible confounding factors.

5. Many people are deficient in vitamin C – Before 2000, Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for vitamin C (ascorbic acid) had a simple premise: prevention of frank vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) with an additional margin of safety. For many iterations, the central criterion for all RDAs was “the amount of nutrient required to prevent the appearance of signs and symptoms caused by a lack of the nutrient” (italics in original citation) on the basis of nutrient intakes from foods (1). This approach was faulted by chemist and 2-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling. Pauling contended that optimum concentrations of some nutrients could be larger than amounts provided by diet alone (2). More recently, Ames (4) has expanded and amplified enzyme kinetics models for vitamins. How are we doing nationally for vitamin C? The overall prevalence of deficiency decreased to 7%, and mean concentrations for all subjects were close to those expected from intake of the RDA. However, concentrations for women in nearly all age groups were higher than those for men, and smokers had substantially lower concentrations than those in nonsmokers. [But average vitamin C was only about 54 µmol/L, that is provided by 90 mg vitamin C per day, compared with 115 µmol/L in the people with the highest group, that can be achieved with 500 mg twice a day.]

6. Vitamin C and E prevent chromosome damage from sunlight – Background: Dietary antioxidants may protect against DNA damage induced by endogenous and exogenous sources, including ionizing radiation (IR), but data from IR-exposed human populations are limited. Conclusion: High combined intakes of vitamins C and E, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, and lutein-zeaxanthin from food, or a diet high in their food sources, may protect against cumulative DNA damage in IR-exposed persons.

7. Get your B vitamins for strong bones – Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that low serum folate and vitamin B-6 concentrations, but not low serum vitamin B-12 concentrations, are associated with an altered morphology of human bone.

8. Lose 1 pound per week by alternate day fasting and help your heart – Objective: This study examined the effects of modified alternate-day fasting (ADF; ie, consuming 25% of energy needs on the fast day and ad libitum food intake on the following day) that is administered under controlled compared with self-implemented conditions on body weight and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk indicators in obese adults. Results: Dietary adherence remained high throughout the controlled food intake phase (days adherent: 86%) and the self-selected food intake phase (days adherent: 89%). The rate of weight loss remained constant during controlled food intake (0.67 ± 0.1 kg/wk) and self-selected food intake phases (0.68 ± 0.1 kg/wk). Body weight decreased (P < 0.001) by 5.6 ± 1.0 kg (5.8 ± 1.1%) after 8 wk of diet. Conclusion: These findings suggest that ADF is a viable diet option to help obese individuals lose weight and decrease CAD risk.

9. High protein diet better for blood pressure and to prevent rebound effect – Design: The study comprised 2 phases. Phase 1 featured a very-low-energy diet for 3 mo. In phase 2, the subjects were randomly assigned to an HP or an HC diet for 12 mo. The diets were isocaloric, tightly controlled, and individually prescribed for weight maintenance. The subjects were overweight or obese but otherwise healthy men and women. Results: The subjects lost an average of 16.5 kg during phase 1 and maintained a mean (±SEM) weight loss of 14.5 ± 1.2 kg (P < 0.001) during phase 2; no significant differences between groups were observed. Conclusions: The results indicate that the protein or carbohydrate content of the diet has no effect on successful weight-loss maintenance. A general linear model analysis indicated that dietary treatment (HP or HC) was a significant factor in systolic blood pressure change and in favor of the HP diet.

10. A low glycemic index diet alleviates hypertension – Conclusions: These findings suggest that the metabolic improvements after short-term exercise training in older obese individuals are dependent on increased physical activity and are not influenced by a low-GI diet. However, a low-GI diet has added benefit in alleviating hypertension.

11. Yogurt helps weight loss – Background: We have previously shown that gut microbial fermentation of prebiotics promotes satiety and lowers hunger and energy intake in humans. Conclusion: Prebiotic supplementation was associated with an increase in plasma gut peptide concentrations, which may contribute in part to changes in appetite sensation and glucose excursion responses after a meal in healthy subjects.

12. Fiber intake reduces weight – In the past decade, type 2 diabetes mellitus has become an increasingly more common occurrence in children, a trend that parallels the increase in childhood obesity (1). Currently >20% of all children and adolescents in the United States are overweight (3). However, the distribution of adiposity rather than body mass index (BMI) alone is a better predictor of insulin resistance. Waist circumference is more associated with visceral fat (5), whereas BMI is more associated with subcutaneous fat, and in most reports it is visceral fat rather than BMI that is associated with fasting insulin and triglycerides, rather than BMI alone. It therefore becomes important to understand the effect of diet not just on overall BMI but on the distribution of adiposity.Davis et al (7) hypothesized that a decrease in fiber over time and/or an increase in added sugar would negatively affect indicators of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Interestingly, they found no effect of added sugar on any indicator, but they did find an effect of decreased fiber intake on VAT. The effect of added sugar intake on BMI and T2DM is actually quite controversial. Fiber, on the other hand, showed a protective effect against excess adiposity, and there is a developing literature to support this. The group that increased fiber intake did so in part by increasing consumption of nonfried vegetables, fruit and vegetables combined, and more legumes than the group that decreased its fiber intake.

13. Dietary fiber keeps kids thinner – Conclusion: Small reductions in dietary fiber intake over 1–2 y can have profound effects on increasing visceral adiposity in a high-risk Latino youth population.

14. Why short term dieting leads to gain weight – Fasting for 24 hr contributes to weight gain. Background: Intermittent fasting (IF) was shown to increase whole-body insulin sensitivity, but it is uncertain whether IF selectively influences intermediary metabolism. Such selectivity might be advantageous when adapting to periods of food abundance and food shortage. Conclusions: The decrease in resting energy expenditure after IF indicates the possibility of an increase in weight during IF when caloric intake is not adjusted.

15. For children, vigorous exercise is the one that reduces adiposity – Conclusions: Time spent in vigorous-intensity physical activity (PA) [vs light or moderate-intensity PA(MPA)] appears to be more strongly associated with adiposity than sedentary time. Interventions may therefore need to incorporate higher intensity–based activities to curb the growing obesity epidemic. MPA is walking at least 2 mph.

16. Exercise in the cold burns calories – The exercise trials consisted of treadmill running for 40 min at 70% O2peak. Conclusion: Exercise in a neutral environmental temperature is associated with higher energy intake in the subsequent meal compared with a control, whereas exercise in the heat is not.

17. You lose muscle when older even if you exercise – Conclusions: These data suggest that accumulated energy expenditure from all physical activities is associated with greater fat-free mass (FFM), but the effect does not alter the trajectory of FFM change in late life (70–82 y).

18. Control your weight in further pregnancies – Conclusions: The tradeoff in risk between mother and infant is reached at lower gestational weight gain (GWG) in multiparae (more than one pregnancy) than in primiparae (first pregnancy); therefore, a lower GWG may be needed among multiparae. Differential guidelines seem unnecessary for short or young women or smokers.

19. Maternal obesity before pregnancy is strongest predictor of offspring’s childhood obesity – Conclusion: Maternal pregravid (before pregnancy) BMI, independent of maternal glucose status or birth weight, was the strongest predictor of childhood obesity.

20. Good nutrition helps offspring – Background: Better early childhood nutrition improves schooling, adult health, skills, and wages, but there is little evidence regarding its effect on the next generation. Conclusion: Nutritional supplementation in girls is associated with substantial increases in their offsprings’ (more for sons) birth weight, height, head circumference, height-for-age z score, and weight-for-age z score.

“We must wholeheartedly believe in free will. If free will is a reality, we shall have made the correct choice. If it is not, we shall still not have made an incorrect choice, because we shall not have made any choice at all…” E. Lorenz, father of chaos theory