We are more interested in water than we are in Obesity. Yet they are connected.

A year ago the professional journal Obesity published the results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial that compares weight loss among dieters who drink water before meals with those who do not. When the people in the trial drank just two 8-ounces of that simple stuff right before each of their three daily meals, they lost about 5 pounds more than those in the trial who didn’t increase how much water they drank. The trial lasted just 12 weeks.

But almost nobody noticed that study. As much as I am personally and professionally interested in weight loss, I sure didn’t.

The senior author of the study, Brenda Davy, is associate professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She tried again to get the word out last week, and this time she succeeded.

This time she presented her research at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. That’s how I and just about everyone else learned about it.

At first, I decided not to write about this study, figured that it was old news. But when I read about it in the current issue of The Economist yesterday,I knew that this was a hot topic.

Few of the more than 300 articles in the press that covered Professor Davy’s talk mentioned that this was old news. The American Chemical Society’s press release didn’t bother to tell us that.

But when I asked Dr. Davy when a professional journal would publish her research, she told me that Obesity already had published it. This is important, because publication in a peer-reviewed journal like Obesity gets a lot more credit from the scientific community than something that some professor says at a meeting.

My guess is that you too didn’t notice the report in Obesity or even one of the many articles in the press reporting on Dr. Davy’s talk. Even if you did, a gentle reminder here might be enough for some of us to take a little action.

Personally, I’m more than interested in drinking water before meals to lose weight. I took action. While I am no longer obese, my current body mass index crept up a little from all of my travels this year. At 20.1 it is higher than where I feel the best.

So I have been drinking a lot more water ever since reading about this study. And in a week my weight is down to 161 from 163. It works for me.

Professionally, I know that almost everyone else who has diabetes also struggles with his or her weight. That’s why I’m recommending that you add this simple and inexpensive appetite control to your current strategy.

All I’m asking is that you drink two 8-ounces of water before every meal and keep track of your weight. One more thing — please let this community know if it works for you too.

The results of a new scientific study from Oxford Brookes University show that the consumption of caloric beverages has different affects on short-term total energy intake in men and women.

The study, conducted by Viren Ranawana and Professor Jeya Henry of the Functional Food Centre at Oxford Brookes University, is the first of its kind to compare the compensation effect of liquid calories on short-term energy consumption, by gender.

During the research, male and female subjects consumed orange juice from concentrate, semi-skimmed milk, a sugar-sweetened fruit drink, or a calorie-free fruit drink, one hour before their lunchtime meal. Each group was then provided with a self-selection buffet, including a variety of foods in ample quantity, and the amount of energy they then freely consumed was analysed and compared.

The results show that liquid calories are detected by the body and compensated for at the next meal. Both men and women who consumed a drink containing calories in the morning ate less energy for lunch, compared to when they had a calorie-free mid-morning drink. However, while the mean total energy intakes for men following all four beverages were similar, women demonstrated a trend for greater energy intake following the three caloric drinks compared to the control. Thus, using a preload paradigm differing in protocol to previously reported studies, the new research gives evidence of a possible energy compensation dysregulation in women compared to men.

Professor Henry, of Oxford Brookes University, said: “It is important to understand if the growth in caloric beverage consumption is contributing to the increased prevalence of obesity and diabetes. It has been suggested that sugars provided in liquid form encourage ‘passive over-consumption’ of energy from food, but this study shows that the body does compensate in the short term. Further research is now needed to understand the mechanisms involved and whether the body also compensates for liquid calorie consumption in the long term.”

Source:
Mary Harrington
The Sugar Bureau

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/199038.php

Newly published research shows Avandia poses roughly the same heart-attack risk as competing drug Actos, contradicting earlier studies suggesting Avandia was more dangerous.

The new study, published this week in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, may have arrived at a different conclusion in part because its subjects may have been younger and healthier than in previous studies, says study author Debra Wertz in a WebMD interview.

A recent FDA study finding an elevated risk with Avandia focused on diabetics over age 65, with an average age of 74.4, WebMD notes. The Wertz study subject’s average age, by contrast, was 54, and all were privately insured, suggesting that they were likely to be employed and consequently in generally good health.

The findings will likely muddle Avandia’s regulatory status. Last month, an FDA advisory panel recommended adding a second warning to Avandia’s label warning of the cardiac risks while holding off on a similar warning for Actos.

Sales of Avandia have plunged this year, to about $1.1 billion from as high as $3.4 billion in 2006, while Actos sales have soared to $4.6 billion, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Source: http://diabetesnewshound.com/type2/avandia-actos/

Minor kidney damage in people with type 1 diabetes dramatically increases the chances of premature death, a new study finds.

Diabetics presenting early and asymptomatic kidney damage, as manifested by trace amounts of protein in the urine, were six times likelier to die than the general population, according to the study, summarized at ScienceDaily.com. When the diabetics’ kidneys functioned normally over time, they were died at the same rates as non-diabetic counterparts.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health carried out the study. They will present it at the upcoming annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

The study analyzed data from 658 men and women enrolled in a long-term prospective examination of childhood onset type 1 diabetes beginning in 1986. Participants were tested for levels of albumin, a protein flagging early kidney damage when elevated in the urine and that leads to a condition called microalbuminuria.

Over the next 20 years, 152 study participants with microalbuminuria had died — 6.2 times as many as the general population when controlled for age and gender.

The findings should motivate physicians to monitor diabetics’ kidney health even more closely, said lead study author Aaron Secrest.

Source: http://diabetesnewshound.com/type1/kidney-damage/

New research shows an antioxidant found in grapefruit has promise as a treatment for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The study finds naringenin, which is derived from the bitter flavor of grapefruits and other citrus fruits, seems to cause the liver to break down fat and increase insulin sensitivity, dLife.com reports.

The mechanism was similar to that of drugs such as the lipid-lowering Fenofibrate and the diabetes medicine Rosiglitazone, marketed as Avandia. The results were also suggestive of the body’s reaction to long periods of fasting, says senior study author Yaakov Nahmias in the dLife summary.

As a dietary supplement, naringenin could become vital in treatment of type 2 diabetes as well as hyperlipidemia and metabolic syndrome, dLife reports.

Researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Massachusetts General Hospital carried out the study, which appears this week in the online journal PLoS ONE.

Source: http://diabetesnewshound.com/type2/grapefruit-avandia/