Things get just a bit sourer for the sugar family
The sugar industry seems to be taking a hit from some negative bit of PR almost every day lately, so why should this day be any different? The hit: Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have found that reducing the amount of glucose in the diet might extend the human life span and even reduce the threat of cancer.
Specifically, they found that when given less glucose, normal healthy human cells lived longer, and precancerous cells often died off. Whether this may lead to “a pharmaceutical fountain of youth,” as one medical journalist suggested, is debatable, but in the meantime, the less high fructose corn syrup and other forms of sugar you consume, the better for your cellular longevity.
Which diet is best? Let’s get to the heart of the matter
Also on the “this just in” research front, if you’re trying to decide between a low-carb, high-fat diet on the one hand or a low-fat, high-carb diet on the other, the folks at the Royal Victoria Hospital suggest you lean toward the latter.
Their studies, released in December, find that both diets led to equal weight loss and produced similar physical responses in the dieters, but that the low-carb group wound up with more stiffness in their arteries, which is a bad sign for the health of the dieter’s heart.
High-fat, low-carb diets have legions of devotees, who claim they produce faster weight loss and taste better. However they taste, the Royal Victoria’s Dr. Steven Hunter cautions that, “we now have proof that they do not help people lose weight any faster than more conventional diets, and . . . By advocating low-carbohydrate, high-fat diets as a weapon against obesity and diabetes, health professionals could be contributing to a dangerous rise in cardiovascular disease.”
A chip off the old couch potato
Your humble correspondent was taken aback not long ago upon reading the results of a Nielsen survey which found that American kids in the 2-to-5 age range now watch TV 32 hours a week on average, and those aged 6 to 11 spend 28 hours on average gaping at the tube (the slight reduction due to being in school).
Your h.c. could only shake his head and wonder, how could America’s parents allow this to happen? Then I came across another statistic from the Nielsen survey: the average American adult watches television for four hours and 49 minutes per day, which works out to 33 hours and 43 minutes per week, easily outpacing the kids in sedentary viewing. Question answered.
(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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Glucose and aging; carbs and hardened arteries; and why kids watch so much TV