RESEARCH NEWS

When is a calorie not just a calorie?

Researchers at the Boston Children’s Hospital in the United States have published a new study challenging the ideology that a ‘calorie is a calorie’.

Doctors Cara Ebbeling and David Ludwig, who led the research found that diets that reduce the surge in blood sugar after a meal – either low-glycemic index or very low-carbohydrate – may be preferable to a low-fat diet for

those trying to achieve lasting weight loss.

They also reported a low-glycemic index diet had similar metabolic benefits to a very low-carbohydrate diet without the negative effects of stress and inflammation reported by some participants on the very low-carb diet.

The study suggests that a low-glycemic load diet is more effective than conventional approaches at burning calories (and keeping energy expenditure) at a higher rate after weight loss. http://childrenshospital.org/newsroom

Ditching the car could save lives and millions

According to a new study replacing short journeys on foot rather than taking the car or motorbike would avoid the death of 108 men and 79 women a year in Catalonia, Spain, alone. This would imply annual savings of more than €200 million.

Researchers from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB), estimated the yearly economic benefits from a reduction in death rates by substituting at least one short vehicle journey for a walk.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional study based on the journeys of more than one hundred thousand people. In order to calculate the annual economic benefits, the ‘Health Economic Evaluation Tool’ was used. It was designed by the WHO and estimates the benefits of reduced mortality by increasing physical exercise.

For their economic estimations, the researchers took into account certain parameters: 150 minutes walked each week, a relative risk of 0.78 for all deaths linked to walking half an hour a day, a mortality rate in Spain of 21,349 deaths per 100,000 people between the ages of 20 and 49 years and a statistical value of a person’s life of €1,300,000 according to the “willingness to pay” methodology. http://www.sciencedaily.com

Lose weight to boost testosterone

Weight loss can reduce the prevalence of low testosterone levels in overweight, middle- aged men with pre-diabetes by almost 50 per cent, according to new findings.

The study involved nearly 900 men with pre-diabetes (also called impaired glucose tolerance) who had participated in a diabetes prevention programme.

It showed that people at high risk of Type 2 diabetes could delay or avoid developing the disease through weight loss. Because overweight men are more likely to have low testosterone levels, researchers studied the effect of weight loss on mens testosterone levels.

The results of the study showed 10

that low testosterone levels are common in overweight men with pre-diabetes.

With lifestyle modification, the prevalence of low testosterone levels decreased from about 20 per cent to 11 per cent after one year, a 46 per cent decrease. The prevalence of low testosterone was unchanged in the group that were prescribed metformin (24.8 versus 23.8 per cent) and the placebo group (25.6 versus 24.6 per cent).

Men in the lifestyle modification group lost an average of about 17 pounds (7.8 kilograms) over the one-year study. The increase in testosterone levels in that group correlated with decreasing body weight and waist size.

http://www.sciencedaily.com The REPS Journal 2012;25(September):10-11