Most people eat fruit after their main meal as dessert. Without understanding the human body’s digestive cycle people may not take full advantage of the fruit. Having lots of fruit with your main meal or as a dessert will cause lose of the fruit’s nutritional benefits.

In order to get the most nutritional benefit from fruit, people should eat fruit with an empty stomach. If fruit is eaten on an empty stomach, it will help detoxify your system, supplying you with a great deal of energy for weight loss and other life activities.

There is an example shown in Global Health and Fitness. It shows the effects of eating fruit after a meal they used  two slices of bread and a slice of friut. The fruit digested faster than bread.The  fruit was ready go directly to stomach. The problem was that the passge to the stomach was blocked by the bread which takes longer to digest. Under such circumstances, the whole meal changes chemically to acid. 

It is much better to eat the pulp or the whole fruit than drinking the juice .The fiber of fruit is good for the human body. What’s more, you are better of  drinking  the fresh fruit juice rather than juice form the cans.  You can only get the taste from canned juices, not all the nutrients.

Having fruit appropriately and correctly will help you a lot . There are some useful websites for your reference, please click HERE.

Reference: Ezine@rticles, HealthyMuslim.com, Global Health and Fitness

Approximately 6,000 women were studied in Maryland , aged 18 and overfor almost 10 years in this research, which  was led by James McClain, Ph.D., cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute.

The research shows that women who were most active were at a  25 percent reduced risk of cancer compared to women who were less active.

However, when women in the most active group were examined about sleep patterns, the research showed that those with an average of sleep less than 7 hours per night were almost twice more likely to get cancer than those who regularly sleep more.

Although more study is required to know the association between sleep and cancer, there is no doubt that an appropriate sleeping time is generally important for everyone’s health , no matter whether you are a manor a woman .

Reference: Daily News Central

The study shows that overweight and obese children were over 50 percent more likely to be allergic to milk than those of normal weight. On the whole, the obese and overweight children were 25 percent more likely to have more than one food allergy.

Dr. Cindy M. Visness, an epidemiologist with Rho Inc., a company that provides research and statistical services for clinical trials said, “While there’s nothing conclusive about our findings…this is one more motivation to try to prevent obesity in children.”

What’s more, the researchers also found a connection between obesity and levels of C-reactive protein, a symbol of inflammation, which advocates that systematic inflammation may also play a role to develop allergies.

The author admitted that their study published in the May issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, does not prove that being overweight and obese will cause allergies, and there are other possibilities that explain this connection.

Reference: The New York Times 

Antibiotics can help fight bacterial vanginosis; however, they can result in premature birth which raises the infant mortality rate.

209 white and 260 black pregnant women were examined at a Pittsburgh clinic. The analysis of pregnant women was published in the June issue of The Journal of Nutrition and discovered that more than half of those pregnant women’s Vitamin D level was below 37 nanomoles per liter. Any level over 80 is considered to be normal.

Arranged with other factors the study shows that a Vitamin D level of 50 or less is more likely to increase bacterial vaginosis by 26 percent, where less than 20 is associated with a 65 percent increased risk.

Approximately 52 percent of black women and 27 percent of white women had bacterial vanginosis, where black women were three times more likely to lack Vitamin D. The explanation of this result might be due to the fact that darker skin prevents adequate synthesis of the vitamin.

The study does not mean that women should be “running out and taking megadoses of Vitamin D.” said by Lisa M. Bodnar, the lead author, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. “If women have concerns about Vitamin D status,” she continued, “they should talk with their doctor about whether supplements are appropriate.”

Reference:  The New York Times

There are many foods you can eat every day, and different kinds of food have different nutritional value. “If people can combine different food of different nutrition, it will be much easier for the human body to absorb the nutrition,” according to research. ”also it can reduce after effects make the human body gain double nutrition and even healthier.”

Researchers found that “eating pork without garlic will lose half its nutritional value”, Chinanews reported on May 11. Pork is rich in Vitamin B1, which is an instable vitamin that only stays in the human body for a short period of time. If people eat pork and garlic at the same time, garlic enzymes and Vitamin B1 combine together to enable the human body to digest nutrition more efficiently.

In addition, eggs are nutritious, but eating only eggs is more likely to lose protein quickly. Experts say if people eat eggs with noodles, it will raise the efficiency of the protein.

Seafood is high in purine and acid so if people take too much in their body it will result in chaotic metabolism. Moreover, it will increase the concentration of uric acid that could cause gout. People can have seafood with vegetables so that alkaline vegetables will neutralize the concentration of uric acid. As a result, it reduces the risk of gout and is also good for excreting uric acid.

Reference: Yahoo News

After the last employee of Chili’s Grill  has locked up at night, Kessler reaches into the dumpster. He is not hungry for  food, but  he is looking for ingredient labels on empty cardboard boxes.

David A Kessler can not resist certain foods(By Christina Koci Hernandez For The Washington Post)

 Kessler is trying hard to figure out a problem that he has faced since he was a child: why he cannot resist certain foods. He rummages around the garbage can because the owner refuses to offer the related information of these meals.

Kessler eventually understands why he cannot resist these foods, published in his new book released on April 28, “The End of Overeating”. He described that foods high in fat, salt and sugar alter the brain’s chemistry in ways that force people to overeat. “Much of the scientific research around overeating has been physiology — what’s going on in our body,” he said. “The real question is what’s going on in our brain.”

Foods high in fat, salt and sugar will stimulate dopamine, a kind of neurotransmitter, which is related to pleasure centers. “Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination will stimulate that diner’s brain to crave more, “Kessler said.

Also, he found out those comestible industries understand this theory very well. Cheap, convenient, fast-food and advertising campaigns make people absorb high fat, salt and sugar food as routine. A small amount of fat, salt and sugar is essential and Kessler suggests that it is better not to eat French fried potatoes.

Reference:Washington Post, China times

Brown fat is rare in the human body, where it is activated when the temperature is cold to keep people warm. Brown fat decomposes bad white fat into water, CO₂ and calories so some researchers call it “natural method of losing weight”.

“By activating the brown fat in your body, you could lose 9 pounds or more of bad white fat every year — without having to eat less or exercise more.” Written in WebMD Health News on April 8.

 However, when people get older, there is less brown fat in the human body. Also, men have less brown fat than women do, obese people less than lean people, and people with high blood sugar less than people with normal blood sugar.

 Three studies in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine showed that researchers found brown fat in most adults can be detected by bringing people to cold situations. Under some circumstances, adults who have more active areas of brown fat are more likely to be thinner.

 It might be good news if researchers can find the way to activate brown fat and make it more active in the human body. As a result, even though people are too busy to exercise, they still can maintain a slim and healthy body.

Reference: WebMD Health News, The China Post

 An analysis of children’s diets in the United States discovered that children were on average drinking 235 “empty” calories in sugar-sweetened beverages each day.

 Even when cutting out those sugar-sweetened drinks, the average child does not take more calories to replace them elsewhere. In a second study, Dutch researchers figured out childen are likely to cut out sugary beverages before they would exercise or quit snacks.

 ”The evidence is now clear that replacing these “loquid calories” with calorie-free beverage alternatives both at home and in schools represents a key strategy to elimilate excess calories and prevent childhood obesity,” Dr. Claire Wang of Columbia University in New York said in a statement.

Published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medcine, Wang and his colleague said they looked at data from 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that inclueds detailed questions about diet.

They discovered that for absorbing every one percent drop in soft drink, people get more than six fewer calories.

Two studies showed it made a difference for children.

Drinking water stop children from obesity

Emily Ventura and colleagues of the University of Southern Califoria studied 54 overweight Latino teens and divided them into three groups to find out the influence and consequences in different diets over a four month study. One-third did nothing , another third took one nutrition class a week and one-third did the class plus strength training twice a week.

55 percent of kids cut their sugar comsumption by 47 grams a day, or the same quantity of soda. 59 percent ate more fiber, up to five grams a day. This included the “control” teens who did nothing extra, Ventura’s team reported in the journal.

Eating less sugar shows the children’s blood-sugar is healthier and absorbs more fiber that helps them lose on average 10 percent of visceral body fat which is the most dangerous type found around the internal organs.

“Our results suggest that intensive interventions may not be necessary to achieve modifications and fiber intake,” Ventura’s team wrote.   

Reference: The China Post

This research figured out that 15 years old young men who ate fish at least once a week had “higher cognitive skills at the age of 18 than those who ate it less frequently.”

Eating a fish diet was shown to ” increase combined, verbal and visuospatial intelligence scores by an average of 6 percent.” People who ate fish more than once a week almost doubled the score, according to the study published in the March issue of Acta Paediatrica said.

3,972 males were used in this survey with cognitive scores registered in their Swedish military conscription records three years later. ” We found a clear link between frequent fish comsuption and higher scores when the teenagers ate fish at least once a week.” Said Professor Kjell Toren of the Sahlgren ska Academy at the University of Gothemburg, western Sweden. 

Toren said the results were “significant” because the research was managed between 15 and 18 years of age “when educational achivements can help to shape the rest of a young man’s life.” 

The head author of this research, Dr Maria Aberg from the Centre for Brain Repair and Rehabilitation at the University of Gothenburg, said the research team had considered other specific factors might cause different results such as ethnicity, where the teenagers live, what level of education their parents had achieved, how often the teenagers exercised, their well-being and weight.

“Having looked very carefully at the wide range of variable s explored by this study it was very clear that there was a significant association between regular fish consumption at 15 and improved cognitive performance at 18,” Aberg said.

This research team now is trying to find out whether the results were influenced by eating different kinds of fish.  

Reference: The China Post

People who eat 4 ounces of red meat every day (about a small burger’s quantity) will increase by 3%  possibility of dying within ten years. In addition, most of these people would die of heart disease and cancer. 

“Red and processed meat intakes were associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality, and cardiovascular disease mortality,” Sinha and her colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 

They divided the volunteers into five groups, called quintiles. Between 1995 and 2005, there were 47,976 men and 23,276 women who died. The research showed that people who eat large amount of red meat are at higher risk of overall death than those who eat less red meat.

“For overall mortality, 11 percent of deaths in men and 16 percent of deaths in women could be prevented if people decreased their red meat consumption to the level of intake in the first quintile,” Sinha’s team wrote.

There is some research about the links between red meat, cancer and heart diseases. However, this is the first and largest scale one to focus on the direct influence between eating meat and overall deaths. People who eat white meat such as pork, fish and chicken  decrease the overall risk of death.

References: The China Post, Yahoo News