The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Eat the Nordic diet for a healthy heart, says study Posted: 31 May 2013 06:55 AM PDT
While the Mediterranean diet, with its olive oil, fish, and fresh vegetables, has long been touted as the ideal eating plan for reducing heart disease, scientists in Finland have found an alternative closer to home. "Acceptance of the Mediterranean diet has not been easy in other parts of the Western world, probably due to difficulties in changing dietary patterns, cultural differences in taste and limited accessibility to various foods," said head researcher Matti Uusitupa, from the institute of public health and clinical nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland. "A health enhancing regional Nordic diet has therefore been proposed as an alternative to the Mediterranean diet." The study involved 166 obese patients from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland who either ate their regular diet or a Nordic diet. While both groups consumed the same number of calories, the Nordic diet followers ate plenty of local produce, such as berries, root vegetables, legumes, and cabbage. They also ate three fish meals per week, as well as nuts, game, whole grain products and rapeseed oil. Those who ate their regular diet consumed butter and fewer berries and vegetables, and had no restrictions on red meat and white bread intake. After 24 weeks those in the control group showed little change in the level of so called "bad" cholesterol, or LDL-C, in their blood stream while those on the Nordic diet showed a four percent drop. Results also showed an increase in the "good" cholesterol, HDL-C. For comparison, studies on the Mediterranean diet have shown that it can reduce cholesterol by between six and nine percent. Subjects on the Nordic diet also reduced the levels of chemicals that cause inflammation in the blood, which has been linked to heart disease and type II diabetes. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| Artificial sweeteners may do more than sweeten Posted: 31 May 2013 02:44 AM PDT
"Our results indicate that this artificial sweetener is not inert - it does have an effect," said study lead Dr. M. Yanina Pepino, of Washington University's Center for Human Nutrition. "And we need to do more studies to determine whether this observation means long-term use could be harmful." The research team analysed sucralose's effect on 17 severely obese people who do not have diabetes and don't use artificial sweeteners regularly. Subjects consumed either water or a sucralose-sweetened drink before performing a glucose challenge test to see what impact the sweetener had on insulin and blood sugar levels. "We wanted to study this population because these sweeteners frequently are recommended to them as a way to make their diets healthier by limiting calorie intake," Pepino said. Every participant was tested twice. Those who drank water followed by glucose in one visit consumed the sucralose drink followed by glucose in the next. In this way, each subject served as his or her own control group, the researchers said. "When study participants drank sucralose, their blood sugar peaked at a higher level than when they drank only water before consuming glucose," Pepino explained. "Insulin levels also rose about 20 per cent higher. So the artificial sweetener was related to an enhanced blood insulin and glucose response." The elevated insulin response could be a good thing, she pointed out, because it shows the person is able to make enough insulin to deal with spiking glucose levels. But it also might be bad because when people routinely secrete more insulin, they can become resistant to its effects, a path that leads to type 2 diabetes. The findings, announced Wednesday, are available online in the journal Diabetes Care. Access: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2013/04/30/dc12-2221 — AFP-Relaxnews |
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