Weight loss tips backed up by the latest research. Here is 3 tips to help you achieve better health and weight loss.
Weight loss – Stressful experiences cause weight gain
An analysis of data from 22,000 middle-aged and older women has found that those who experience trauma, and less severe negative experiences, are more likely to become obese.
A team from the University of California looked at significantly traumatic events such as a serious illness or the death of a child at any point in life, and experiences like unemployment within the previous five years. They found that those with at least one such traumatic experience were 11% more likely to become obese than those who had been fortunate enough not to encounter such events.
Those who encountered four negative experiences in the previous five years (as opposed to a major trauma at any point in their lives) were found to have a 36% higher incidence of obesity. In fact, the more negative experiences they reported, the greater the likelihood of obesity. Strangely, the correlation was also strongest among those who reported higher levels of physical activity, though the researchers were at a loss as to why.
Weight Loss – from eating too fast
A Japanese study has found that the speed at which we eat may affect our heart health and waistlines.
Over the five-year study, the eating behaviours of over a thousand people, none of whom had metabolic syndrome at the study outset, were monitored. By the end of the study period, almost 8% of the participants (average age 51) had developed the syndrome (characterised by weight gain, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, higher levels of bad cholesterol and higher triglyceride levels in the blood).
Those classified as ‘fast eaters’ were twice as likely as ‘normal eaters’, and five times as likely as ‘slow eaters’, to have developed these risk factors for serious cardiometabloic conditions (such as stroke, diabetes and heart disease).
As a notoriously slow (though by no means light) eater, this study finding gives me a good riposte with which to defend myself the next time my fellow diners roll their eyes at my leisurely approach to lunchtime.
Heart disease? Nuts to that
Eating a handful of nuts, packed with their healthy fats, has long been associated with a range of benefits, and now a new US study has added heart health to the list.
Analysing data from over 210,000 individuals, researchers from Harvard found that a higher consumption of nuts (preferably raw and unprocessed) was associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular and coronary heart disease. And not all nuts are created equal, with tree nuts and walnuts having the greatest heart health correlations (around 20% reduced risk for walnuts and 23% for tree nuts).
Commenting on the findings, Dr Emilio Ros from the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Spain, said ‘Raw nuts, if possible unpeeled and otherwise unprocessed, may be considered as natural health capsules that can be easily incorporated into any heart-protective diet to further cardiovascular well-being and promote healthy ageing.’
Source – Australian Fitness Network
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