Discover the Science of Health
Around the world, obesity levels are rising. For the first time in history, more people are overweight than undernourished. Premiering Friday, April 4th through Sunday, April 20th on BBC World News, a 3-part documentary series entitled “The Men Who Made Us Fat” explores the political, economic and social events that led to our increasingly overweight world.
U.S. News & World Report recently evaluated 32 of the most popular diets and, with input from a panel of health experts, identified the best.
If there is one thing that the sugar free, low carb, low fat, and gluten free dieting trends of the past few decades have taught us, it’s this: a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. Right? Wrong! Whereas the source of the calories you consume might not have much bearing on the amount of weight you gain, when you consume them very well might. Research in both mice and humans demonstrates that eating whenever one pleases (mice) or later in the day (humans) causes significantly more weight gain than consuming the same diet in a time restricted manner, in keeping with the cyclical nature of the body’s energy metabolism.
With Americans becoming increasingly overweight each year, weight loss is big business. This paves the way for any number of diet books and fads. Some of these are based upon sound scientific principles, while others may not work at all, or may result in a modest weight loss followed by rebound weight gain.
A preliminary scientific study — one neither large enough nor strong enough to be considered conclusive at this point — suggests that low-fat diets may be less effective than other weight-loss strategies from a metabolic perspective [1].
In addition to the well-known impact on risk for disorders such as diabetes and reduced life-expectancy, the effects of obesity may extend to psychological function. The so-called obesity epidemic may be causing decline in cognitive function through direct and indirect impacts on brain functioning. An expanding waistline thus appears to link to decreasing ability to learn and remember.
