Want to lose weight? Plan your next vacation in a mountain resort!

Conventional wisdom holds that your chance of becoming obese depends mainly two obvious factors: your diet and how much exercise you get.
But recently, some scientists have been testing the notion that an entirely unrelated factor can play a role.

That's the conclusion of a new study by Air Force public health researcher Jameson Voss and others, published in the journal PLOS ONE. Rather than pointing to diet or exercise-related factors that have to do with high altitude (like, say, going hiking in the mountains), they point to the impact that low levels of oxygen can have on the body.
 

The evidence for it
Previous work has found that at higher altitudes — when less oxygen is present in the air — the human body produces higher levels of leptin, a hormone that reduces hunger.
Experiments have also shown that production of the hormones cholecystokinin (which also suppresses appetite) and norepinephrine (which reduces blood flow to the stomach, indirectly reducing hunger) also go up at high altitudes.
There's also the possibility that your body has to do more overall work just to sustain its normal activities with less oxygen present, causing it to burn more fat over time.

In the most recent study, a team of American researchers sought to investigate whether long-term residence at high altitude actually confers benefits in humans when it comes to losing weight. The study analyzed about 100,000 U.S. Army and Air Force servicemen and women, all with at least two years of service, from January 2006 to December 2012. During that time period, they moved between assignments at high altitude (1.2 miles above sea level or higher) and low altitude (0.6 miles or lower). All the participants had an overweight but not obese body mass index (BMI) equal to or less than 25, but no greater than 30.

The findings revealed overweight people serving at high altitudes had a 41% lower risk of progressing to obesity than those serving at low altitudes. This led the researchers to suggest high altitude residence predicts lower rates of new obesity diagnoses among overweight service members in the U.S. Army and Air Force.

“These results suggest that moving to high altitude would protect an overweight person from moving to obesity,” said, Dr. Jameson D. Voss, lead author of the study and a consultant with the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine. The researchers speculate leptin and other hormones that are involved in appetite control rise at high altitudes, which may help explain the finding.

Naturally, there's still a lot more study to be done, but it does give researchers some...well, you know. Food for thought.

What do you think of this research? And do you live in a high altitude or a lower one?  

Sources: http://www.medicaldaily.com/, http://www.glamour.com/, http://www.vox.com/

Sweet News: Dark Chocolate May Prevent Obesity And Diabetes

If you’re going to munch on chocolate, choose dark chocolate. It’s something that has gained popularity as growing research points out the various health benefits of eating dark chocolate in moderation.

Antioxidants and flavonoids make it so good
Studies have shown that dark chocolate, which is rich in flavanols — a type of healthy antioxidant — can improve your cardiovascular system. Chocolate is also filled with other types of antioxidants and flavonoids, the latter of which are found in various fruits and vegetables. Flavanols are the main type of flavonoid in cocoa, and have been shown to improve vascular health by lowering blood pressure, improving blood flow to the brain and heart, as well as boosting the clotting properties of blood platelets.

Not all chocolate is created equal
In fact, that strong bitter taste in really dark chocolate comes from flavanols. That’s why processed chocolate — which goes through plenty of steps to reduce that bitter taste — is sweeter and contains far less flavanols than pure cocoa.

How dark chocolate can help in weight loss?
Andrew P Neilson of the Department of Food Science and Technology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University led a mouse study where the researchers placed lab mice on a high fat diet rich in flavanols.
Lab mice were divided into various groups and given specific diets over a limited period of time. According to a result published in American Chemical Society’s “Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry”, it was demonstrated that flavanols known as Oligomeric Procyanidins (PCs) seemed to have a protective effect on health. Mice consuming a diet rich in PCs were able to maintain their weight and blood sugar low, even when the overall substance of their diet was high in fat.  

Oligomeric PCs appear to own the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa. It promotes heart health, lowers blood sugar, and decreases body fat.

Oligomeric PCs helped in regulating blood glucose levels and hence, prove useful in treating diabetes. In the study, the mice eating a OPCs rich diet had the lowest fat mass and lower body weight at the conclusion of the study. Besides, they were least likely to develop impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, all of this despite eating a high fatty diet.

Bottom line
“Oligomeric PCs appear to possess the greatest antiobesity and antidiabetic bioactivities of the flavanols in cocoa, particularly at the low doses employed for the present study,” the researchers state. So before reaching for that bag of processed candy chocolate on the shelf, choose dark chocolate — the higher percentage of dark chocolate, the better.



 Here you find some low-calorie, deliciuos recipes that will make your diet more... sweet!

Chocolate & berry mousse pots

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 5 mins Serves 4

Ingredients

• 75g dark chocolate 70% grated
• 4 tbsp low-fat yogurt
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 350g berries (try blueberries, raspberries, cherries or a mix)

Directions
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t directly touch the water. Once melted, allow it to cool for 5-10 mins, then stir in the yogurt.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then whisk in the sugar and beat until stiff again. Fold the whites into the chocolate mix – loosen the mixture first with a spoonful of egg white, then carefully fold in the rest, keeping as much air as possible. Put berries into small glasses or ramekins, then divide mousse on top. Chill in the fridge until set.

Nutrition facts per serving
Kcalories: 159; protein 5g; carbs 19g; fat 8g; saturates 4g; fibre 3g; sugar 15g; salt 0.13g

Double chocolate cardamom pots

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 5 mins Makes 4

Ingredients

• 25g white chocolate
• 50g dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• generous pinch ground cardamom

Directions
Make chocolate curls with the white chocolate by running a swivel peeler over the surface. When you have enough to sprinkle over 4 chocolate pots, set these aside, then chop the remainder.

Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over simmering water or in the microwave on Medium for 1½-2 mins. Leave to cool slightly. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then whisk in the sugar and cardamom. Fold in the melted chocolate, then gently fold in the chopped white chocolate.
Divide between 4 small dishes or cups, about 100ml in size. Sprinkle over the white chocolate curls and chill until ready to serve, at least 1 hr.

Nutrition facts per serving
Kcalories: 119; protein 3g; carbs 16g; fat 5g; saturates 3g; fibre 0g; sugar 15g; salt 0.11g

Sources: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/, http://www.healthfreaks.org/, http://www.medicaldaily.com/, http://www.foodfacts.com/, http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/, http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/

Junk food makes you lazy, not just fat, study shows

Regularly chowing down into the succulent, high saturated fat foods — often main culprits of heart disease — can affect our physical and mental health more than previously thought. According to a recent study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior, eating junk food, not being overweight, makes people lethargic and fat.

“Overweight people often get stigmatized as lazy and lacking discipline,” said Aaron Blaisdell, leader of the study, and professor of psychology in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) College of Letters and Science, and a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, in a news release. Blaisdell and life scientists believe that the commonly portrayed idea in the media that people become fat because they are lazy, is false. High-fat diets have been known to cause metabolic and cognitive effects, often attributed to the diet’s high content of fat when compared to unrefined low-fat diets. However, little is known about the impact of refined versus unrefined food on cognition.

The study
Two groups of female rats were fed different diets by researchers at the University of Los Angeles for a six-month period. One group ate unprocessed foods such as corn and fish meal while the other ate a diet aimed to mimic junk food; high in sugar, and lower in nutrients.
While understandably the group eating the ‘junk food’ diet gained more weight than the other, they also suffered from fatigue and became more sedentary and less motivated- ie: more lazy. In fact, those rats fed junk food took twice as many, and longer breaks during tasks than the rats eating a healthy diet, even tasks which generated rewards.

What is even more concerning is that switching these rats back onto a nutritious diet at the end of six months for nine days didn’t seem to reverse their weight gain or their ‘learnt’ laziness.

Bottom line
This could suggest that while an occasional binge of bad food – say on holiday, will not have too much of a negative effect if you generally eat a good diet and lead a healthy lifestyle,
But those who eat a poor diet over the long term may actually become lazy and fatigued, as well as gaining weight and suffering the health consequences associated with being overweight.
The research shows that switching to a healthy diet in the short term, for example a fad or pre-holiday diet, is unlikely to be sufficient to reverse any of the side effects of a diet high in junk food.
Blaisdell said “We interpret our results as suggesting that the idea commonly portrayed in the media that people become fat because they are lazy is wrong. Our data suggest that diet-induced obesity is a cause, rather than an effect, of laziness. Either the highly processed diet causes fatigue or the diet causes obesity, which causes fatigue.”

With over 25% of Americans consuming fast food every day, according to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and close to 50,000 fast food chains across the U.S., doctors must warn their patients about the serious complications of a high-fat diet. The efficient service, low prices, and casual atmosphere can become more than you bargained for when it comes to your health.

Sources: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/, http://www.medicaldaily.com/, http://www.sciencedaily.com/, http://www.cbsnews.com/, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/