Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

This week the best story has to be from the MSNBC article Take a good look before you gobble. The crux of the article is pretty straightforward: “If we could really see all that we’re putting in our mouths, we’d probably eat a lot less.”

The article works off the old axiom that it takes our stomachs at least 20 minutes to send the “Full” signal to our brains by which time it’s likely we have already chowed down more food than we really need.

The article goes on to describe this startling experiment:

In a study published this month in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, my colleague Dr. Collin Payne and I promised a free chicken wing buffet to 52 graduate students (17 men and 35 women) while they watched the Super Bowl at a sports bar in Urbana, Ill. As part of the study, the waitresses were instructed to clear the dishes at only half of the tables.

If people had their tables continually cleared, they continually ate. Clean plate, clean table, get more, eat more. Their stomachs didn’t keep track of how much they’d eaten, so the students kept on eating until they thought they were full. Each of these people ate an average of seven chicken wings apiece.

The students who did not have their table bused were less of a threat to the chicken population. After the game was over, they had eaten an average of two fewer chicken wings per person — that’s 28 percent less than those whose tables had been bused.

- Take a good look before you gobble

So, the best advice for people who are trying heard to control portions? Put everything you are going to eat in a given session onto your plate an then begin eating - studies mentioned in the article show you are likely to eat 14% less per sitting and believe me - that can make a big difference in your weight over long periods of time!
Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. Why eating soup could be the key to losing weight: Eating soup with a meal could be the answer to the obesity crisis, according to scientists in the US.
2. Nutrition, On the Cheap: Eating healthfully is easy to do when you have the money to dine on wild Alaskan salmon, arugula and fresh raspberries. But is it is possible to eat well on a tight budget?
3. Take a good look before you gobble: If we could really see all that we’re putting in our mouths, we’d probably eat a lot less.
4. Study links calorie restriction to longer life: Scientists have known for seven decades that mice, dogs, fruit flies and other animals given diets bordering on starvation tended to live up to 40 percent longer than their better-fed cousins.
5. Take the ‘Magic Road’ to a healthy Latino diet: A new food pyramid, designed to encourage Latinos to eat healthier, touts the staples of traditional Latin-American cooking as the path to better nutrition.
6. Environment, routine behind rise in obesity: study: The speed at which Canadians are becoming obese and overweight suggests that everyday environments and routine modern behaviours may be to blame
7. Kids chowing down on faux junk food in W.Va.: Dominated by doughnuts, pizza and foods-on-a-stick, the average school menu in West Virginia can read like the offerings at a glutton’s dream buffet.
8. Yoga helps breast cancer survivors: In breast cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of yoga not only promotes psychological well-being, but seems to offer immune system benefits as well, according to research reported Monday.
9. How pistachios help the heart: A handful or two of pistachio nuts a day could keep heart disease at bay, research suggests.
10. KFC, Taco Bell finish switch to trans-fat-free oil: KFC’s fried chicken buckets soon will be stamped with a health message along with the famous likeness of its founder, Colonel Harland Sanders. The banner proclaims that its chicken has zero grams of trans fat per serving.
11. Fatsecret: For Fat People Who Want To Be Less So: There’s a new Australia-based social network called FatSecret - it’s designed to help overweight people leverage a network of friends and online resources to lose weight.
12. Kids ‘eat more after watching ads’: Obese and overweight children who watch food adverts on TV more than double their food intake afterwards, new research suggests.

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Have a great weekend!

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A couple of days late this week, but nevertheless, welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

In February of this year, I asked if Shrek could really come across genuinely as an anti-obesity mascot given that he is an obese monster who likes nothing better than stuff stuff down his throat! Add to the fact that Shrek is already being used to promote a variety of junk and sugar-laden foods such as M&Ms and McDonalds’ foods and this was just a disaster waiting to happen and happen it did: Is Shrek bad for anti-obesity campaign? questions the decision of the Department of Health and Human Services to use Shrek as an anti-obesity mascot and pretty soon we’ll know if he’s still got the job!

“Surely Health and Human Services can find a better spokesperson for healthy living than a character who is a walking advertisement for McDonald’s, sugary cereals, cookies and candy,” said Linn, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

What do you feel? Would using Shrek to promote healthy eating confuse rather than educate young minds? Pen your thoughts off in the comments while I rush out to reserve tickets to Shrek The Third (hey, at least acting is one thing he can do, can’t he?!)

Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. ‘Gym pill’ trips fat-burning gene: US scientists have devised a drug that can switch on a gene to burn body fat, offering hope of an exercise pill.
2. Veggies may ward off pancreatic cancer: A look at the eating patterns of 183,518 California and Hawaii residents has found evidence that a diet high in flavonols might help ward off pancreatic cancer.
3. Is Shrek bad for anti-obesity campaign?: A children’s advocacy group wants the Department of Health and Human Services to oust Shrek, the animated ogre, from his role as spokesman for an anti-obesity drive.
4. The new school food — fewer chips, more carrots?: Whole-grain crackers, low-fat yogurt and fruit could become the school snacks of the future, driving out fattening fancies such as cola and fried chips.
5. Meat can be murder on long-term health - Forbes.com - MSNBC.com: “Would we all be better off if we dramatically reduced meat to the point of one meal a week? I would say yes,”
6. Got heartburn? Check your waistline: Are you suffering with serious heartburn? If so, your weight might have something to do with how you’ve been feeling — and how you can feel better.
7. Breast-fed babies don’t grow up to be skinnier: While breast-feeding has many benefits, it won’t prevent a child from becoming fat as an adult, says a new study that challenges dogma from U.S. health officials.
8. Obesity rising in Europe: The number of overweight people in Europe is rising and there is an especially worrying trend of increasing childhood obesity
9. Cardio vs. Weights: The Battle Is Over: Which is better for scorching up calories: cardio workouts or weight training?
10. Sally Squires - Give Kids a Chance to Eat Wisely - washingtonpost.com: Our tendency to accept what we’re offered may have value when it comes to encouraging children to choose — and eat — healthier food at school.
11. Mother’s puberty ‘obesity clue’: The age at which a woman had her first period can help predict her children’s risk of obesity, say UK researchers.
12. Success for child obesity scheme: A community programme which aims to encourage obese children to be more healthy has proved highly successful, a study has found.
13. Exercise May Help Prevent Parkinson’s: People who exercise regularly may be less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease — but leisurely strolls may not be enough.
14. Obese File Twice as Many Workers’ Comp Claims: “Given the strong link between obesity and worker’s compensations costs, maintaining healthy weight is not only important to workers but should also be a high priority for employers,”
15. Single high-fat meal drives up blood pressure: Eating a single high-fat meal can cause a spike in blood pressure, researchers in Calgary say, a finding that suggests another way fat consumption may lead to heart damage.
16. Fat-fighting baby milk criticised: Plans to add a hormone which suppresses hunger to baby formula food are unlikely to work say experts.
17. Dieting most always fails in the long run: “As much as I would like to have a magic bullet, I knew the only way to lose weight was eat less and exercise more,”
18. Winning the Nutrition Game, With Help From a Coach - New York Times: MARIAM NOORZAI of Camarillo, Calif. tried weight programs from Atkins to Weight Watchers, but it wasn’t until she hired a personal nutrition coach last fall that she finally lost the excess weight, dropping to 128 pounds.
19. Lose weight by vegging out: Maybe you can’t learn to like vegetables, but you can trick yourself by sneaking them into your diet.

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Have a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, health news, fitness news, health links, fitness links, del.icio.us

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