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Experts Say All Popular Diets Are Essentially The Same

Experts Say All Popular Diets Are Essentially The Same

Just do a cursory online search for diets and you’ll be inundated with results – 59,500,000 results (0.39 seconds) to be exact. How do you choose the right one, the best one, the most effective one?  Is it the old calories in vs. calories expended? That seems to be the case, according to a new study published in the September 3rd issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). They concluded that which diet you choose almost doesn’t matter.

Healthday reported on the study and discovered that experts “advice to cut calories, rather than specific nutrients, seems key to success — as is burning more calories through exercise.”

“And ultimately, the “best” diet for any individual is the one he or she can live with long-term, according to Linda Van Horn, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. The most relevant issue is to choose one that you can stick to indefinitely, since weight loss is only half the battle,” said Van Horn, who wrote an editorial published with the study. “Maintenance of weight loss is the ultimate victory.”

Of course common sense dictates that any program that tells you you can eat cheeseburgers and fries with impunity is likely leaving something out of the fine print.

Although many healthy weight-loss plans will get you safely to your goal, even more difficult than getting there is staying there. And that’s why the experts also agree that you should pick a plan that allows you the best formula for integrating healthy eating habits into your life. In terms of great recipes, that’s the best one for success.

Photo: Wikipedia

Just Heartbreaking

Just Heartbreaking

The BBC, citing a study in JAMA’s Internal Medicine, speculates on whether one can die of a broken heart.

“The study found that, while it happened rarely, the number of people who had a heart attack or a stroke in the month after a loved-one died was double that of a matched control group who were not grieving (50 out of 30,447 in the bereaved group, or 0.16 percent, compared with 67 out of 83,588 in the non-bereaved group, or 0.08 percent).

One of the authors, Dr Sunil Shah of St George’s at the University of London, told the BBC: “We often use the term a ‘broken heart’ to signify the pain of losing a loved-one and our study shows that bereavement can have a direct effect on the health of the heart.”

Photo: Olivier Kaderli via Flickr

U.S. Study: No Need To Avoid Peanuts While Pregnant

U.S. Study: No Need To Avoid Peanuts While Pregnant

Washington (AFP) – Women who eat peanuts while pregnant are less likely to have children with peanut allergies than women who avoid them, said a U.S. study out Monday.

The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics were based on a study of more than 8,200 U.S. children.

Among those, researchers found 140 cases of children who were allergic to nuts.

When they looked into the mothers’ diets during and soon after pregnancy, as reported in the Nurses Health Survey II, they found that women who ate five or more servings per week of peanuts or tree nuts, such as cashews, almonds and walnuts, were far less likely to have children who were allergic than women who avoided nuts.

“Our study showed increased peanut consumption by pregnant mothers who weren’t nut allergic was associated with lower risk of peanut allergy in their offspring,” said senior author Michael Young of the Boston Children’s Hospital Division of Allergy and Immunology.

“Assuming she isn’t allergic to peanuts, there’s no reason for a woman to avoid peanuts during pregnancy.”

Doctors used to recommend that women steer clear of peanuts while pregnant and nursing, out of concern they might lead to allergies in children.

The United States recently saw a tripling of peanut allergies in children, going from 0.4 percent of young people in 1997 to 1.4 percent in 2010, according to background data in the JAMA article.

Allergies arise when the body treats nuts as a harmful invader. Symptoms can be severe and even fatal, causing hives, rashes, swelling, difficulty breathing and a swift drop in blood pressure.

But recommendations changed in 2008, when the American Academy of Pediatrics decided there was not enough evidence to continue urging women to avoid nuts in pregnancy.

Subsequent studies, like the latest one in JAMA, have shown that exposure is more likely to be helpful than harmful, though some confusion remains among the general public on the issue.

“Our study supports the hypothesis that early allergen exposure increases the likelihood of tolerance and thereby lowers the risk of childhood food allergy,” said the JAMA article.

Young noted that researchers cannot say that eating more peanuts in pregnancy will prevent peanut allergy in children.

“But we can say that peanut consumption during pregnancy doesn’t cause peanut allergy in children,” he said.

Photo: Saul Loeb via AFP