Real, fake or natural? Why sweetener type may not matter for diet

Sweetening your beverage with real sugar, “fake” sugar or a “natural” no-calorie sweetener makes little difference in the overall calories you consume in a day, a small new study suggests. In the study, 30 healthy men ages 21 to 50 each visited a clinic four times. Each time, they ate the same breakfast, followed by a beverage that contained one of four sweeteners: regular table sugar (sucrose), an artificial sweetener ( aspartame ), or a natural no-calorie sweetener made from either the stevia plant (rebaudioside A) or monk fruit (mogroside…

Read More

Message on dangers of smoking not getting through: Cardiologist

The message about the dangers of smoking and its correlation with heart attacks is not getting through to the public strongly enough, a leading cardiologist has warned and added that younger smokers are at the greatest risk. While the government can resort to punitive methods or declare substances as illicit, the best strategy is to improve our health education, recommends Dr (Col) Anil Dhall, Director of Cardiovascular Sciences at Venkateshwar Hospital here. Awareness of the risks of smoking is undoubtedly an important public health message, because it potentially allows targeted…

Read More

Message on Dangers of Smoking Not Getting Through: Cardiologist

The message about the dangers of smoking and its correlation with heart attacks is not getting through to the public strongly enough, a leading cardiologist has warned and added that younger smokers are at the greatest risk.While the government can resort to punitive methods or declare substances as illicit, the best strategy is to improve our health education, recommends Dr (Col) Anil Dhall, Director of Cardiovascular Sciences at Venkateshwar Hospital here. Awareness of the risks of smoking is undoubtedly an important public health message, because it potentially allows targeted intervention…

Read More

This flexible heart patch does not need stitches

Researchers have developed a new polymer patch that can be stuck onto the heart without the need for stitches to improve the conduction of electrical impulses across heart tissue damaged during a heart attack. Heart attacks create a scar, which slows and disrupts the conduction of electrical impulses across the heart. “This leads to potentially fatal disturbances of the heart rhythm. Our electrically conducting polymer patch is designed to address this serious problem,” said Sian Harding, Professor at Imperial College London. The new stitch-less patch is stable and retains conductivity…

Read More

It’s not Really the Holidays Until You Read about Avoiding Weight Gain

The twinkling lights. The Starbucks cups. The fa-la-la-la-laing. All of those things are fine for getting into the seasonal spirit. But it’s not really the holidays until you read an article about avoiding weight gain. In the December issue of Women’s Health, Paige Fowler offers this new twist on the usual advice: Eat like an animal. Her theory is that “birds and beasts spend three-quarters of their waking lives acquiring and consuming food – but never get fat. Sooo, who better to go to for diet advice?” No actual animals…

Read More

Low-fat diets ‘not the best way to lose weight’

“Low-fat diets are not the best way to lose weight,” the Daily Mail reports. The findings come from a new review that analysed data from more than 50 previous studies on low-fat dietary interventions involving almost 70,000 adults. The study aimed to see how low-fat diets measured up to comparison diets for achieving long-term weight loss, defined as a year or more. The findings were mixed. There was evidence from a large number of trials that low-carb diets were better for weight loss than low fat – helping to achieve 1.15kg more weight…

Read More