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3 Controversial Changes in the New Dietary Guidelines

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The Dietary Guidelines, a collection of recommendations released from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) every five years, are always a bit controversial. They’re basically the government’s thoughts on how Americans should be eating, and while the premise is that the advice is research-driven and nutrition-focused, the guidelines aren’t free from politics.

Every time a new set is released, many experts question whether they’re on track with current science for one reason or another. For example, the World Health Organization triggered a media frenzy this year with its classification of bacon and other processed red meats as carcinogens, yet the Dietary Guidelines don’t suggest limits for these foods at all. But that’s not the only controversy; here’s the gist of what you should know about three noteworthy changes.

Cut protein

Probably the most surprising thing in the report for many is the idea that Americans need to cut back on protein. But this recommendation is only for men and teen boys, and is based on data that show American men and teen boys really are overdoing it on protein—and perhaps not eating enough produce as a result.

The report states, “Some individuals, especially teen boys and adult men, also need to reduce overall intake of protein foods by decreasing intakes of meats, poultry, and eggs and increasing amounts of vegetables or other underconsumed food groups.” This is based on an analysis of the average intakes by age and sex, compared to the ranges of recommended intake.

If you typically eat eggs or meat at every meal, but veggies and fruit are often missing (e.g. eggs for breakfast, a turkey sandwich or burger for lunch, chicken and rice for dinner), you would likely benefit from reining in the protein and pumping up the produce.

RELATED: 3 Surprising Protein Sources

Cut added sugars

The amount of added sugar (the kind put in food by you, like sugar in your coffee, or a manufacturer, like sugar in cookies, candy, or sweetened yogurt) in the American diet has been linked to rising rates of heart disease and obesity. The report advises limiting added sugar to no more than 10% of total calories. For a woman who needs 1,600 calories a day that’s 160 calories worth, or the equivalent of about 40 grams or 10 teaspoons worth. While the Dietary Guidelines advise slashing sugar consumption significantly compared to the current average intakes, some experts believe 10% is still too much.

This amount is in fact higher than the what the American Heart Association recommends: no more than 100 calories of added sugar per day for women and 150 for men, about 6 and 9 teaspoons worth respectively.

Another issue is that, because the amount of added sugars in a given product is not listed on a nutrition label, it’s hard to know how much you’re getting, and the report doesn’t offer a lot of specific advice about how to meet the target or put foods and meals in perspective. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently considering a rule for food manufacturers to include the amount of added sugar on food labels, but it hasn’t happened yet.)

Finally, the guidelines also do not advise omitting artificial sweeteners. While they do note, “…questions remain about their effectiveness as a long-term weight management strategy” they do not mention anything regarding the potential impact of artificial sweeteners on say gut health or belly fat.

No need to limit cholesterol

For the first time the Dietary Guidelines do not recommend a daily limit on the intake of cholesterol. Previously they suggested capping it at 300 mg per day.

However, the guidelines go on to state, “…but this change does not suggest that dietary cholesterol is no longer important to consider when building healthy eating patterns…individuals should eat as little dietary cholesterol as possible while consuming a healthy eating pattern.”

That’s confusing, but what it means is that you should look at which foods your cholesterol is coming from, and what else you’re eating with them. For example, a veggie omelet with avocado and a side of fruit may provide more than 300 mg of cholesterol, the previous max, but the overall nutritional value of the meal is way healthier than say, a cholesterol laden bacon cheeseburger or pepperoni pizza.

Bottom line: While cholesterol itself no longer has a daily cap, this is not a license to eat high-cholesterol foods without weighing portion, frequency, and nutrients.

My advice

Despite these issues, and others not included, such as sustainability or environmental health, the primary message of the report is pretty good: focus on establishing an overall healthy eating pattern. This means regularly including a variety of colorful vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, and better-for-you fats in your diet.

While I believe the nitty gritty details are important, the big picture of what most of your meals and snacks look like on a daily basis is really the key. So if you’re still pretty far off from those basics, start there.

Think about veggies first when deciding what to make or order, make fruit and nuts your snack instead of something processed, trade white rice for brown rice or quinoa, and use olive oil and balsamic or tahini on salads instead of ranch. Once the framework is in place for you to make healthier choices, the nutritional nuances, like not eating too much sugar, cholesterol, or protein, tend to work themselves out.

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Yankees, previously consulted for three other professional sports teams, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Sass is a three-time New York Times best-selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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Influential Students Effective at Bully Prevention, Study Finds

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — When it comes to bullying prevention, certain students may turn out to be the best teachers, a new study reveals.

Over the 2012-2013 academic year, schools with students promoting the anti-bullying messages had a 30 percent drop in reports of student conflicts, the researchers found.

Schools with the largest numbers of these “social influencers” had the largest declines in student conflict, the findings showed.

The study included students from 56 New Jersey middle schools who had strong social influence within their peer groups. These kids weren’t always the most popular kids in a particular grade, but had influence in their peer group.

The investigators selected the teens using a tool called social network mapping that allowed them to identify the kids who had the most connections, both online and off.

The researchers asked the kids to spread messages about the dangers of bullying and more positive ways about handling conflict. These anti-bullying messages were promoted through methods such as Instagram, print posters and colorful wristbands.

The study was published in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We designed our own curriculum because current programs address problems as defined by adults, and they aren’t necessarily fitted to each individual school environment,” lead author Elizabeth Levy Paluck, an associate professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, said in a university news release.

“We think the best way to change social norms is to have these student influencers speak in their own voices. Encouraging their own messages to bubble up from the bottom using a grassroots approach can be very powerful,” she added.

Paluck said the innovation in this study came from using student social networks to choose kids to spread more positive messaging.

“When adults choose student leaders, they typically pick the ‘good’ kids. But the leaders we find through social network mapping are influential among students and are not all the ones who would be selected by adults. Some of the students we find are right smack in the center of student conflicts. But the point is, these are the students whose behavior gets noticed more,” she explained.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about bullying.

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Americans Still Consume Too Much Salt: CDC

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Most Americans eat too much salt on a daily basis, potentially putting their health at risk, federal health officials reported Thursday.

More than 90 percent of children and 89 percent of adults consume more sodium than is recommended in the new 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines advise no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) of salt a day — about a teaspoon — for most adults.

“Nearly all Americans, regardless of age, race or gender, consume more salt than is recommended for a healthy diet,” said lead study author Sandra Jackson, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s division for heart disease and stroke prevention.

The CDC report was published in the Jan. 8 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, which can increase the risk for heart disease and stroke. “Reducing salt can lower blood pressure and also lower the risk of heart disease,” Jackson said.

Jackson said that about 70 million American adults have high blood pressure and only half have it under control. Heart disease, stroke and other heart-related diseases kill more than 800,000 Americans each year and cost nearly $320 billion a year in health care and lost productivity, she added.

The latest federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans — released Thursday — emphasize cutting back on salt, sugar and saturated fats. The recommendations also advise increasing amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains in the diet.

Despite long-standing advice to cut back on salt, Americans’ consumption of salt has stayed mostly the same during the past decade, Jackson said.

That’s likely because more than three-quarters of the salt (sodium) that people eat comes from processed or packaged foods, and restaurant food. This hidden salt makes it hard for people to reduce the amount of salt they consume, she said.

To see a big impact on salt intake, restaurants and food manufacturers would need to cut the amount of salt they put in food, Jackson said. “That’s the most powerful public health tool for reducing salt for the American population,” she said.

Some companies have started to reduce salt in their products voluntarily and others are being urged to do the same, Jackson pointed out.

Samantha Heller is senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center in New York City. She noted that reducing salt consumption can be confusing for consumers because many foods high in salt don’t necessarily taste salty.

“For example, a commercially baked chocolate crumb-cake donut has 490 mg of salt, and the salt in bagels can run over 1,000 mg per bagel,” Heller said. “Chain-restaurant pasta dishes can contain well over 2,000 mg of salt per dish,” she said.

“One of the easiest ways to reduce our salt intake is to eat more home-cooked foods using less-processed products,” she added.

The latest dietary information on salt comes from nearly 15,000 people who took part in the 2009-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

Although too much salt is a problem for all men and women and all races, the new report noted some differences in salt consumption:

More men (98 percent) than women (80 percent) consume too much salt.
More whites (90 percent) eat too much salt, compared with blacks (85 percent).
Salt and calorie consumption peaks between ages 19 and 50.
Among those at increased risk for heart disease or stroke — people 51 and older, blacks and people with high blood pressure — more than three out of four eat more than 2,300 mg of salt a day.
Adults with high blood pressure eat slightly less salt than other adults, but 86 percent of them still eat too much salt.

Jackson suggested that consumers can cut the salt in their diet by reading food labels and choosing foods low in salt. “Looking at the label is a powerful tool,” she said.

In addition, people can adopt a healthy eating plan, such as the one recommended in the new guidelines, Jackson advised.

“Also, people can adopt the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH diet), which is an eating plan that is simple and heart healthy,” she said. “It’s high in fruits, vegetables, fiber, potassium and low-fat dairy products.”

More information

For more on salt consumption, visit the American Heart Association.

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All About The Strange Condition That Causes Your Body to Churn Out Alcohol

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After a woman was arrested for driving while intoxicated in upstate New York, her lawyer (of all people) discovered that she might have auto-brewery syndrome. In other words, her gut was making its own alcohol, rendering her legally intoxicated hours after she’d had her last drink. Her defense sounds about as phony as “affluenza” or “my dog ate it.” But it’s actually valid.

Auto-brewery syndrome, also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is not well known or well understood (or common). But a few cases have been reported in scientific journals, and at least two specialists in the United States have diagnosed and treated it in recent years. Here’s what we know about this woman’s strange case, and what seems to have been going on in her body.

Driving while auto-brewing

Back in October 2014, a resident of Hamburg, New York met her husband at a restaurant for lunch. According to her lawyer, Joseph Marusak, who spoke with CNN, she had four drinks between noon and 6 p.m.—less than one drink an hour, and not enough to make a woman her size legally drunk when it was time to drive home, a pharmacologist later testified on her behalf.

But on that drive home, the 35-year-old (who has not been named by the media) got a flat tire, and another driver reported it as an accident. The police arrived to find the woman who “exhibited glassy-bloodshot eyes and slurred speech,” and had trouble with several sobriety tests, police reported, according to The Buffalo News. Her blood-alcohol level was measured at .33% by a Breathalyzer device, which is well over the legal limit and could even be life-threatening.

After the woman was charged with driving while intoxicated—and continued to have a high blood-alcohol level later at the hospital, even when she seemed sober—her lawyer did some research and came across auto-brewery syndrome on the Internet. He contacted Barbara Cordell, PhD, Dean of Nursing and Health Services at Panola College, who first encountered auto-brewery syndrome in 2010 and published a case report about it in a 2013 issue of the International Journal of Clinical Medicine.

Cordell referred the lawyer and his client to Anup Kanodia, MD, a doctor in private practice in Westerville, Ohio, who has treated auto-brewery patients. The woman underwent tests in New York and in Ohio, which confirmed that her body did indeed seem to be making its own alcohol, even when she’d had nothing to drink.

What’s going on in there?

Doctors don’t know a lot about auto-brewery syndrome, but they do know that it’s caused by an excess of yeast in the gut. Humans don’t naturally have yeast in their body, but because of our diets and lifestyle—we eat bread, drink alcohol, take antibiotics—it is often found in very small amounts, says Dr. Kanodia, who’s also a clinical assistant professor at Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University.

For most people, that yeast is metabolized with few effects on the body. But in some people, this yeast proliferates, like an infection, and begins to turn glucose from foods (specifically carbohydrates) into alcohol.

Dr. Kanodia says genetics may play a role in why some people develop auto-brewery syndrome. A high-carbohydrate or high-yeast diet, lack of sleep, stressful situations, or taking antibiotics may also raise a person’s risk. “And part of it is probably just luck,” he says.

People with auto-brewery syndrome can build up a tolerance for alcohol, which is why they can register such high BAC levels—sometimes without showing signs of intoxication. “You and I may feel drunk at .15%, but these people live and function every day at .15%,” he says. “But then when they get too much stress or not enough sleep or eat the wrong foods, they’ll go up to a .3 or .4, which is when they may start to feel or act a little different.”

RELATED: Alcohol Myths Busted

Driving while intoxicated isn’t the only danger people with auto-brewery syndrome face. The condition comes with all the risks of alcohol abuse, says Dr. Kanodia, both long-term and short-term. “We’ve seen patients who pass out and hit their heads, who have neurologic issues, who have elevated liver enzymes,” he says. “It can have an effect on your heart disease risk, cancer risk, sleep, depression, anxiety, you name it.”

Fortunately, Dr. Kanodia has had success in treating this condition with a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, along with strategies to reduce stress and improve sleep. Some patients are also treated with an anti-fungal medication. He says it’s too soon to tell if auto-brewery is a chronic condition that will keep coming back, but says that most of his patients have remained symptom-free after treatment.

So, is this for real?

Dr. Kanodia estimates that he’s diagnosed about 10 patients with auto-brewery syndrome since he first learned about it in 2012. He also says that, to his knowledge, he and Cordell are two of the only medical professionals in the United States with experience treating the condition.

Elena Barengolts, MD, an endocrinologist at the University of Illinois who studies bacteria in the gut, says that the condition does seem legit. “Only a few cases have been reported, but they are very well documented,” she says. “So while it is extremely, extremely rare, yes, it does seem plausible.”

To make alcohol, Dr. Barengolts says, you need an anaerobic (or oxygen-free) environment. “This exists in the gut, so it makes sense that fermentation could happen there,” she says. In fact, the most common type of yeast associated with this condition—Saccharomyces cerevisiae—is the same type that’s used to make wine and beer. “It was found in jugs in China from 7,000 years ago,” she says, “and it’s been used by people in all sorts of food and alcohol production since those times.”

Auto-brewery syndrome was first described in 1912. Several cases have been reported in Japanese people with severe yeast infections, as well as in children who have had gastrointestinal surgery and have shortened bowels. (The latter makes sense, says Barengolts, since their ability to properly digest sugars could be compromised.)

Last year, the BBC reported on a man who “gets drunk on chips,” and went undiagnosed for years until he learned about auto-brewery syndrome. As of May 2015, he was also trying to appeal a drunk driving charge. While the condition isn’t frequently cited in legal cases, it was discussed (and largely dismissed) as a potential defense in a 2000 article in the journal Medicine, Science and the Law.

While he admits the condition is rare, Dr. Kanodia estimates that 95% of people who have it go undiagnosed. “Most health-care practitioners don’t know about it or don’t know how to test for it or treat it, since this is such a new diagnosis,” he says. “We need to continue researching it and educating doctors about it, so we can develop consensus in the medical community.”

As for the New York woman, Dr. Kanodia says she’s doing well. “At her last appointment, she did not have any auto-brewery symptoms,” he says. In light of her diagnosis, the charges against her were dropped in December, but the Erie County District Attorney’s Office said it plans to appeal the ruling.

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Add This to Your Shower for a More Positive Body Image

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The body-positive movement built up some serious momentum in 2015. With a fresh year ahead of us, it’s time to take that seed and run with it. Interestingly, psychologists say there’s one really easy thing you can do to up the ante on your own self-esteem.

Brace yourself, here it is: Look at yourself naked when you get out of the shower.

Think about it—it’s probably something you never do. How often do we parade around in our birthday suit once we step out of the shower stall? For most of us, hardly ever. Sure, you can blame that on your attempt to stop shivering by wrapping yourself in a towel, but subconsciously it could be because we just don’t want to look.

Psychologists like Sari Shepphird, who also counts herself as a body image expert, feel that the more we avoid looking at ourselves in the flesh, the harder it is to accept and love ourselves for who and what we are.

“We’re kind of trained in our society to think about the ways we can improve upon ourselves,” Shepphird said in an interview with Yahoo Health. “But the more we focus on our flaws, the more they’re magnified, and then we’re going to want to avoid looking at our bodies in general.”

So, go ahead, drop the towel, take a good long look, and start loving yourself for who you are right now, instead of who you think you ought to be.

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

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Three Moves Could Cut New HIV Cases Dramatically: Study

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — As many as two-thirds of new HIV infections could be prevented in gay and bisexual men if more men were tested for the virus, more were treated, and more who don’t have HIV took medication to prevent infection, a new Dutch study estimates.

“More testing is essential, but it will be insufficient to make a meaningful change in the rate of new infections if all we do is focus on treating people who test positive,” said Dr. Ryan Westergaard, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who reviewed the findings but was not involved in the research.

Specifically, the study said new infections could fall dramatically if:

Half of men at risk of HIV get tested each year.
All men diagnosed with HIV get treatment.
Half of the at-risk men without HIV take medication (Truvada) to prevent infection.

The study is published in the Jan. 6 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Despite advances in treatment and the introduction of HIV prevention through pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with Truvada, the number of new infections in gay and bisexual men has remained steady in such countries as Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, the researchers noted.

To better understand why new infection rates aren’t dropping, researchers looked at medical records and blood tests from more than 600 gay or bisexual men from the Netherlands. The men had recently been infected with HIV.

The researchers used this information to try to figure out details about the men who had transmitted infections to those in the study.

“Like humans, each HIV strain is characterized by its own genetic code and like family pedigree,” said study lead author Oliver Ratmann, a research fellow at Imperial College London in England. By understanding the histories of the strains in each person, he said, researchers can better understand where they came from.

The researchers estimated that 71 percent of the men were infected by HIV-positive men who hadn’t yet been diagnosed. Forty-three percent of men who transmitted an infection were in their first year with HIV, the study authors said.

If testing levels stayed the same but men immediately began taking medication to treat the virus, about 19 percent of new cases could have been prevented, the researchers estimated.

“What makes it even more challenging is that people are most highly contagious in the very early stages of infection,” Westergaard said.

“Men at the highest risk for HIV with multiple and frequent partners are likely to transmit infection between the time they contract HIV and the next time they get tested. For this very high-risk subset, we essentially can’t test people frequently enough to get people on treatment before they infect others,” he noted.

The study authors also looked at another scenario: What if half of those at risk get tested each year, half of those who test negative take preventive drugs, and all of those diagnosed with HIV get treatment? In that case, the researchers estimated that 66 percent of the cases would’ve been prevented.

Westergaard said the study is impressive even though it has limitations. Among other things, the researchers couldn’t conclusively determine details about the men who gave the infection to the study subjects. Instead, they’re offering a “best guess,” he said.

So, how might those in the HIV prevention and treatment field use this information?

While it’s a good idea, Westergaard said, pushing for more preventive treatment through medication would represent a “paradigm shift” in some places where HIV testing is offered.

But, he added, “Every time someone who is at risk for HIV gets tested and receives a negative result, it is an opportunity to discuss and encourage adoption of effective HIV prevention strategies, which increasingly must involve PrEP.”

More information

For more about the stages of HIV infection, visit AIDS.gov.

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Same-Sex Intimacy Nearly Three Times More Common for Women: CDC

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Shedding new light on sexuality in U.S. adults under age 45, new research reveals women are almost three times as likely to report same-sex intimacy as men. And almost 7 percent say they’re gay or bisexual compared to 4 percent of men.

Although these numbers have inched up in recent years, researchers have long noted that women exhibit more flexibility in their sexual preferences than men.

The findings, based on surveys completed from 2011 to 2013, provide an up-to-date look at how this is playing out in younger people.

Stephanie Sanders, an associate director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University, said the findings point to another trend: more women describing themselves as bisexual.

Almost 6 percent of women surveyed voiced bisexual tendencies, compared to slightly more than 1 percent who said they were lesbian.

“As bisexuality is becoming more visible, it appears more women with bisexual behavior and attractions are embracing that label over a lesbian one,” said Sanders, who was not involved in the research.

The new report, released Jan. 7, was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Researchers analyzed survey responses of nearly 9,200 women and men ages 18 to 44. This included people from Generation X, and Generation Y, or millennials.

By tracking sexual behavior, researchers say they can better comprehend risks for sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.

Some key findings in the report:

Among women, 17 percent reported having intimate same-sex contact in their lives, compared to 6 percent of men.
Slightly more men than women described themselves as gay — almost 2 percent versus 1.3 percent.
Six percent of women and 2 percent of men said they were bisexual. In a 2006-2010 survey, less than 4 percent of women and just over 1 percent of men identified as bisexual.

“The visibility and recognition of bisexuality as a sexual orientation has been growing recently, particularly among younger people,” Sanders said. “Research suggests that the women may have been more likely to label themselves as lesbians in the past and are more likely to use the bisexual label now.”

She praised the study but cautioned that the statistics may be somewhat misleading. For women, for example, the report defines same-sex intimacy as “any sexual experience of any kind with another female,” but same-sex intimacy for men was only defined as oral or anal sex.

“My research and that of others shows that people vary in what behaviors they count as sex,” she said.

Sanders also hinted that the report may hide the truth about male sexuality. “Male same-sex behavior has been more taboo, regulated and stigmatized than has that of women,” she said. “Men may be more reluctant than women to report same-sex behavior.”

Biology, of course, plays a role in sexuality. Studies of sexual arousal suggest that women tend to be turned on by more varied stimuli than men, said Brian Mustanski, an associate professor with the department of medical social sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“Surveys show that women tend to be more accepting of being gay and bisexual, and we certainly live in a culture that tends to eroticize the idea of sex between women,” said Mustanski, who had no role in the new study. “When you couple these factors with biological tendencies, it’s not surprising we see more bisexuality in women.”

More information

Womenshealth.gov offers tips on safe sex.

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Gradual Decline in Soda’s Sugar Content Might Help Curb Obesity

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Gradually reducing the amount of sugar in sweetened beverages could lead to major declines in obesity and diabetes, a new study suggests.

Researchers calculated what would happen in the United Kingdom with a 40 percent reduction in sugar content in sugar-sweetened drinks — including fruit juices — over five years, without replacement with artificial sweeteners.

Such a move could prevent 1 million cases of obesity, 500,000 cases of overweight, and about 300,000 cases of type 2 diabetes over two decades, the team at Queen Mary University of London concluded.

“The appreciation of sweetness can adapt to gradual changes in sugar intake, and it is unlikely that the proposed strategy will influence the consumers’ choice provided the gradual reduction is done over five years,” Graham MacGregor and colleagues wrote.

“These findings provide strong support for the implementation of the proposed strategy,” they added.

The impact would be greatest among teens, young adults and poorer families, according to the study published Jan. 7 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Type 2 diabetes is most common among middle-aged and older people who are overweight or obese, but heavy children and teens are also susceptible, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The study provides important information for policy makers, Tim Lobstein, director of policy at the World Obesity Federation in London, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

“Policies can be developed that have the potential to quickly change behavior and begin to reduce the prevalence of obesity and related diseases,” Lobstein said. Other measures also need to be taken, he added, suggesting restrictions on kid-targeted ads for unhealthy foods and implementation of a soda tax.

In combination, such measures could have a much greater effect on sugar consumption than any individual measure, Lobstein noted.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about sugary drinks.

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Tweak in Gene Function Allowed Humans to Walk Upright: Researchers

THURSDAY, Jan. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Researchers have identified a change in gene function that may explain why humans walk upright while other primates don’t.

Stanford University researchers were studying a tiny fish called the threespine stickleback and noted that the fish had evolved different skeletal structures to adapt to environments around the world. The scientists also found that skeletal modifications occurred during human evolution, which resulted in a more sturdy foot well-suited for walking.

“It’s somewhat unusual to have a research project that spans from fish all the way to humans, but it’s clear that tweaking the expression levels of molecules called bone morphogenetic proteins can result in significant changes not just in the skeletal armor of the stickleback, but also in the hind-limb development of humans and primates,” said study senior author David Kingsley. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of developmental biology at Stanford.

“This change is likely part of the reason why we’ve evolved from having a grasping hind foot like a chimp to a weight-bearing structure that allows us to walk on two legs,” he said in a university news release.

The threespine stickleback has evolved to adapt in different regions of the world. In marine environments, the plates are large and thick. But in freshwater environments, the threespine sticklebacks have smaller, lighter-weight plates. Scientists suggested this adaptation improves their buoyancy and body flexibility, allowing them to better evade predators.

The researchers looked at the regions of the fish’s genome that control armor plate size. They also focused on differences among 11 pairs of marine and freshwater fish with varying armor-plate sizes, examining a region that includes the gene for a specific protein coding gene called GDF6.

Due to DNA changes near this gene, freshwater sticklebacks produce higher levels of GDF6 and developed smaller armor plates than those living in saltwater.

Based on these findings, the study’s authors theorized that changes in GDF6 production levels could also have contributed to skeletal modifications that occurred during human evolution.

The research team compared differences in the genomes of chimps and humans. Previous studies found two places near the GDF6 gene in which humans have lost regulatory regions that are conserved in chimps. The researchers continued their investigation by examining one of these regions.

“This regulatory information was shared through about 100 million years of evolution,” Kingsley said. “And yet, surprisingly, this region is missing in humans.”

By controlling the production of a protein that is easy to see in mice, the researchers found GDF6 could play a critical role in limb development and evolution. Mice genetically engineered so they didn’t produce GDF6 had skull bones that were smaller than normal and their toes were shorter than other mice, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, lab mice who had the chimp regulatory DNA produced the protein in their hind limbs. But GDF6 wasn’t expressed in their forelimbs or in their big toes.

The researchers suggested that missing the GDF6 production in the hind-limb region helps explain why humans developed a more sturdy foot, enabling them to walk upright.

“You can evolve new skeletal structures by changing where and when the signals are expressed, and it’s very satisfying to see similar regulatory principles in action whether you are changing the armor of a stickleback, or changing specific hind-limb structures during human evolution,” Kingsley said.

The study was published online Jan. 7 in Cell.

More information

The University of California, Berkeley, provides more information on human evolution.

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This Chore Can Make or Break Your Weight Loss Goals

Photo: Getty Images

The beginning of a new year can offer a fresh start after the gluttony of the holidays. If you’re committing to some healthy new habits, set yourself up for success by clearing out the clutter in your kitchen. Research shows that how you set up your kitchen can go a long way toward supporting a healthy weight.

The goal for the following kitchen purge is twofold: toss anything that’s past its prime (to reduce your risk of foodborne illness), and restock with all the healthy ingredients you’ll need for a cleaner, leaner 2016. Ready? Here’s what to do.

Freezer

First toss the following: anything with a bad case of freezer burn or items that are basically encrusted with frost; anything not labeled that you don’t recognize, and foods you bought on a whim that you really don’t need in your life. (Looking at you “diet-friendly” ice cream bars.)

Next, start checking dates on things that are marked. Leftovers are only good for about three months, uncooked chicken about nine months, and ground turkey three to four months. Also be sure to check out the dates on any pre-packaged foods, like frozen dinners–they do expire.

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Load up on frozen produce where the only ingredient is the veggie or fruit, like frozen broccoli and berries. You can steam veggies to toss with a little pesto or tapenade, and whip both veggies and fruits into smoothies. Add frozen whole grains to your grocery list, too. These days you can find bags of pre-cooked brown rice and quinoa, which you can thaw and add to a salad or heat and eat. For a quick and easy protein look for frozen pre-cooked shrimp. All you need to do is rinse them under cold water to eat chilled, or to thaw for an add-in to a stir fry.

Now is the ideal time to commit to preparing more meals yourself rather than heating up a frozen pizza, and keeping healthy frozen ingredients on hand can serve as major time-saving shortcuts.

Fridge

Sometimes it’s obvious when items in your fridge need to go. But you can’t always rely on your senses to know what’s good, because you can’t see, smell, or even taste some of bacteria in food that can make you sick.

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To be safe, you should toss leftovers, uncooked poultry, meat, or seafood, and deli meat after a few days, and check dates on foods like yogurt. Eggs in the shell are good for three to five weeks, but cartons of eggs or egg yolks are only safe to keep for three days after they’re opened.

The keep time for condiments after opening various by product: one month for salsa; two months for pickles, olives, mayo, and salad dressing; three months for barbeque sauce and horseradish; six months for ketchup and jam; and eight for mustard. If you honestly aren’t sure how long something’s been in your fridge opened I say better safe than sorry – get rid of it.

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In addition to the obvious items, like fresh whole foods, condiments can be a great way to whip up healthy foods quickly and easily. I already mentioned the pesto or tapenade trick, which also works well for jazzing up lean proteins, like chicken breast or scrambled eggs.

Mustard, especially spicy brown and Dijon, combined with balsamic vinegar (which can keep opened for a year) are my go-tos for a quick and healthy salad dressing. Just add dried Italian herb seasoning to the mix and you’re good to go.

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Tahini is another staple. Typically the only ingredients are ground sesame seeds and a little salt, but you can add more flavor by stirring in a little lemon juice, garlic, and cayenne pepper. It’s awesome as a salad dressing or to drizzle over anything, from cooked veggies to chicken, fish, lentils, and chickpeas, or (if you’re adventurous) stir it into oatmeal.

Two more great condiments: salsa and fermented veggies (think sauerkraut, kimchi and the like). They can also be used to flavor just about anything, from omelets and hard boiled eggs to beans, potatoes, whole grains, lean proteins and raw or cooked greens.

Finally, a must-have for your fridge is a filtering pitcher. Keep it front and center and if you want, toss in flavor infusers, like fresh mint, sliced cucumber, fresh ginger, or any type of in-season fruit.

Cupboards

Some of my clients are shocked to discover that some of the items stashed in their pantry are long past their ‘best if used by dates,’ like almond milk, and whole grains. Even worse is when they don’t know how long something has been stashed after it’s opened, because once a food is exposed to air, light, and humidity, it can degrade fairly quickly. For example, whole grains and olive oil should generally be tossed after six months, nut butters and flours or meals after two to three, and cereals after two to three. If you regularly keep opened goods in your cupboards tack on a sticker or piece of masking tape as soon as you open an item, and grab a sharpie to record the date.

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Despite the often-heard advice to shop the perimeter of the grocery store there are some shelf stable items that make healthy additions to your pantry.

One of my favorites is low sodium organic vegetable broth. I use it to sauté or stir fry veggies, and as a base for homemade soups and stews. Other items to keep on hand include: pulses (beans, lentils, and peas), which can be found bagged or canned and in aseptic cartons; canned wild salmon; whole grains (quinoa, wild rice, popcorn, oats, buckwheat soba noodles, etc.); canned pumpkin; nuts and seeds; herbs and spices; good-for-you oils, like olive and sesame; and un-opened condiments.

For less than nutritionally stellar items you keep on hand, either for your family, or as occasional treats for yourself, choose a designated low traffic area and stash them together, away from your “everyday foods.” If you see cookies or chips every time you reach for nuts or spices you’ll wind up getting into them more often. And finally, keep your kitchen surfaces clear, or stock them with only healthy fare, like a bowl or fresh fruit. One recent study found that what you store on your counter tops can have a big impact on your weight: women who had a visible fruit bowl weighed about 13 pounds less than those who stored sugary things like cereals on their counters.

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1OdvGIK

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Freezer

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Fridge

Stock up on

Cupboards

Stock up on