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Foods that lead to weight-gain – and other new evidence about staying slim

June 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hungry for a snack?  Go for fruit and yogurt over a bag of chips.

There is new evidence that eating specific foods – like potato chips (surprise!) – on a regular basis leads to weight gain. Researchers at Harvard University conducted three prospective studies involving more than 120,000 people followed over the course of 20 years to learn more about dietary and lifestyle choices that impact weight gain.

The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offers data about a lot of assumptions many people have about weight gain.

The most striking finding was that people who ate specific foods – among them potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages and red meats and processed meats – were more likely to gain weight.  Increased consumption of other foods – including vegetables, fruits, whole grains, yogurt and nuts – was associated with less weight gain.

The take-home message:  It matters what you eat, not just how much.  Eating healthier carbohydrates in place of sweets and refined grains leads to less weight gain over time, as does avoiding highly-processed foods.

“These findings underscore the importance of making wise food choices in preventing weight gain and obesity,” said Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard and senior author of the paper. “The idea that there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods is a myth that needs to be debunked.”

The study also found that getting too much or too little sleep, consuming alcohol on a daily basis and watching TV lead to weight gain.

You can see the lead author, Professor Dariush Mozaffarian, discussing his findings and learn more about the study in this Atlantic article.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, In The Media Tagged With: , ,

The facts on mosquito-bite prevention

June 28, 2011 By 1 Comment

As we enter full-fledged summer here in Ithaca, my family is spending more and more time outside. While we love the sunshine and fresh air, we do not love the mosquitoes that come along with our outdoor adventures. My two-year-old son and I both have more severe reactions than most people – sizeable, itchy welts that last for several days. 

Since I’m already fed up with the bites (and summer has really just begun), I went searching for an evidence-based solution to our problem.  What is the best way to prevent mosquito bites?

What I found put our own itchiness into perspective.  There is an ever-growing body of research on mosquito-bite prevention that has nothing to do with our summer annoyances. In many parts of the world, preventing mosquito bites is a life-or-death issue because mosquitoes carry infectious diseases – most commonly malaria.

The first piece of evidence I came across is one prevent technique that clearly doesn’t work:  electronic mosquito repellents that supposedly repel mosquitoes by emitting high-pitched sounds.  Other non-chemical repellants such as citronella work moderately well, according to a review of the academic literature on the subject.

The chemical N, N-diethyl-m-toluamide, or DEET, appears to be the best way to ward off mosquitos, according to the evidence.  Developed by the U.S. Army for use after World War II, it became available to civilians in 1957.

In more recent years, there have been concerns about the safety of DEET because it has lead to neurological problems such as seizures in some people. But a complete review of the evidence by the U.S. Center for Disease Control found that using DEET following the proper guidelines is safe and does help prevent mosquito bites. They’ve developed a great fact sheet that summarizes all of the evidence.  And you can find even more evidence about insect repellents here.

So it’s bug spray for our family this summer, in moderation of course.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness Tagged With: , ,

Feeling disgust? The evidence shows it matters

June 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Experiencing something icky – the smell of vomit or the sight of maggots, for example – elicits an emotional response from most people.  It’s a feeling we call disgust, likely an emotion that evolved to discourage us from ingesting noxious or dangerous substances.

But a growing body of evidence on disgust shows that it now plays a much broader role in attitudes and judgments about everything in our lives – our food, our politics, even our relationships. David Pizzaro, assistant professor in psychology at Cornell, is making ground-breaking advances in this area.

Pizzaro’s has found evidence that individuals who are more easily disgusted in everyday life tend to have different moral and political views than those who are less easily disgusted. Subtle manipulations of disgust in the laboratory, such as a foul order, can temporarily alter people’s moral and political judgments.

One of his studies showed that people who feel disgust more readily have more unfavorable responses to homosexuals.  Two others demonstrated that individuals who feel disgust more readily are more likely to be conservative.

This research shed lights on how basic differences in emotion leads to variations in social and political ideals that make up the fabric of our society. And provides concrete evidence that emotions play an important role in all of our lives.

You can listen to Pizzaro talk about his work on disgust by clicking on this link.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living Tagged With: , , ,

MyPlate: A healthy diet in a glance

June 14, 2011 By 7 Comments

MyPlateYou may have noticed that the federal government launched a new food icon called MyPlate last week. The diagram is as part of a new, evidence-based initiative to improve the diets of Americans that we’ve written about before here on EBL.

The plate is a graphic representation of new dietary guidelines based on an extensive review by 13 nationally-recognized experts in nutrition and health.  While that sounds good, we wondered what the nutrition experts at Cornell think about the new icon.

Senior extension associate, Jennifer Wilkins, Ph.D., R.D., is the community coordinator for Cornell’s Dietetic Internship Program and director of Cornell’s Farm to School Research and Outreach program. On the whole, she’s a fan of the MyPlate graphic.

For one, the plate does a better job of conveying proportionality, she says.  “Advice to ‘make half of your plate fruits and vegetables’ couldn’t be clearer,” Wilkins said. And there’s clear evidence that taking this step alone will lead to a healthier diet.

The guidelines issued along with the plate – such as avoid oversized portions and sugary drinks – are simply worded and convey important steps to take to improving Americans diets.

But there is one aspect missing from the new icon, Wilkins said.

“The important reality is that food quality varies dramatically within each group,” she said. “ It really does matter how much of the grains are whole grains. It matters how, and to what extent fruits and vegetables, and grains are processed. And it matters if chicken is a breast or McNuggetized.”

The bottom line: MyPlate is a step in the right direction, but Americans should make sure they gather even more evidence about a healthy diet.

You can read more of Wilkins’ ideas about MyPlate and healthy eating in her column published in the Albany Times-Union.

Filed Under: Evidence-Based Living, Health and Wellness, In The Media, policy

Evidence-based house hunting

June 2, 2011 By 1 Comment

Since my daughter was born this spring, our family has felt a bit crowded in our three-bedroom ranch home.  So we decided to put our house on the market this spring and look for a new place that will provide more space.

Like most things in life, we’ve found house hunting is a fairly subjective activity.  There is a range of features we’re looking for: a nice yard for the kids to play in, a modern kitchen, storage space, a two-car garage, and a friendly neighborhood.  Of course, we haven’t found one house with everything we want, so we’re weighing the pros and cons to make the best choice for us.

But there are some elements of house hunting where the evidence comes into play. It’s these items you don’t necessarily think about when you walk into a house for the first time, but seem to be those important basics that can cost a lot of money, or can make living in a new home a miserable experience. 

To find out what I needed to know, I turned to Cornell Cooperative Extension.  They have a whole topic area dedicated to home, including some useful information about buying a home.  Their research-based fact sheets on mold, lead, and radon have helped us to keep an eye out for potentially hazardous conditions.  Thanks to the information they provided, here are a few specific actions we’re taking in our house hunt:

  • If we find a house that was built before 1978, we plan to test for lead-based paint.
  • No matter what house we find, we will have a radon test to make sure that it doesn’t have high levels of this dangerous gas, especially since Tompkins County is considered a high radon-risk zone.
  • Moisture in closets and basements will be a sign for us to check for mold in potential new homes.

In addition to these safety aspects, the Internet now provides financial histories of houses with only a few mouse clicks. Most county assessor’s offices offer background such as previous sale prices, tax bills and a list of renovations made. While this has always been public information, it’s now much easier to access. In addition, web sites like http://zillow.com and http://trulia.com  compile assessor’s data to provide neighborhood averages and comparisons.  

When making a large purchase like a home, it’s wonderful to have all of this data – literally at your fingertips.

Filed Under: Cornell Cooperative Extension, Evidence-Based Living Tagged With: , ,
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