Sugar Substitutes Can Lead to Weight Loss

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Non-Sugar Sweeteners May Help Control Weight and Blood Sugar -- if You Don't Compensate

By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

July 9, 2012 -- Substituting other sweeteners for sugars may help people lose weight and help people with diabetes control blood sugar, according to a new joint statement issued by the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.

"When you use these non-nutritive sweeteners smartly, they will help you cut back on sugar and calories," says Christopher Gardner, PhD, who chaired the writing group for the joint statement.

The key word here is "smartly," says Gardner, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

The benefits of the sweeteners only hold if people don't undo them. That happens when they slake their sugar craving with other sugary drinks or foods later in the day -- an all-too-common tendency among people who use artificial sweeteners.

The new scientific statement is published in the journal Circulation.

Americans eat too much sugar, the American Heart Association warned in 2009.

The AHA recommends that most women eat no more than 100 calories of added sugars a day and men no more than 150 calories a day. That is about 6 teaspoons for most women, 9 for most men. "Added" sugars means sugar not naturally present in raw vegetables, fruits, and grains. Any sweetened beverage or food adds sugar to the diet.

But the average American's daily intake of added sugars is about 22 teaspoons or about 355 calories, according to 2004 AHA data.

This finding led the AHA to recommend reducing added sugars in the diet. And that raised the question of whether alternative sweeteners might help.

So the association asked a panel of experts to evaluate the role of the non-nutritive sweeteners in controlling weight and diabetes. The catch-all term "non-nutritive sweeteners" includes very low-calorie, no calorie, artificial, and intense sweeteners.

The experts evaluated scientific studies on six of these sweeteners, Gardner says.

"Five of the six are artificial, while stevia is plant-based," he says.

The other five are:

Acesulfame-KAspartameNeotameSaccharinSucralose

Products with these sweeteners have become much more plentiful. Between 1999 and 2004, according to Gardner, more than 6,000 new products with these sweeteners hit the market.

The experts looked only at whether the alternative sweeteners could help with weight control and blood sugar control. They did not consider whether these products themselves might carry health risks.

"We didn't address safety," Gardner says.

However, the five artificial sweeteners are all regulated by the FDA as food additives. Each had to be approved as safe before being marketed.

Those who market stevia in products do so under a provision of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. It allows food additives generally recognized as safe (GRAS) to be marketed without specific FDA approval.

After reviewing the evidence, the experts found data insufficient to say for sure that the sweeteners help for weight control and blood sugar control, but they conclude that there is some data that suggests the products appear to help.

The caveat about not overdoing sugary foods later in the day is key, says Kris Voight, RD, a certified diabetes educator and dietitian at Kaiser Permanente Ohio Region, Cleveland.

She reviewed the statement for WebMD.

How common is that?

"I think it depends on the person's motivation [for using the products]," Voight says. "If they are coming in and their diabetes is having an impact on their health, they are on board."

However, some think having a diet soda gives them permission to have a treat later, she says.

To quell sugar cravings, Voight suggests eating a bit more protein to help maintain a feeling of fullness.

Not surprisingly, the industry group Calorie Control Council likes the AHA and ADA's new stance.

In a statement, Haley Curtis Stevens, PhD, the council president, says: "The Calorie Control Council is pleased that the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have confirmed that substituting non-nutritive sweeteners for sugars may help people reach and maintain a healthy body weight and that for people with diabetes, non-nutritive sweeteners can aid with glucose control."

She, too, cautions that the products are not magic bullets and must be used wisely.

SOURCES: Haley Curtis Stevens, PhD, president, Calorie Control Council, Atlanta. Christopher Gardner, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.; chair, writing group for the American Heart Association nutrition committee. Kris Voight, RD, certified diabetes educator, Kaiser Permanente, Ohio Region, Cleveland.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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The experimental drug suppresses appetite bachbrim: study

Thursday, July 26, HealthDay News)-experimental drug tested in mice could one day help people lose weight and keep it long term, according to the researchers.

The drug, called JD5037, increases the sensitivity to the hormone leptin, an appetite suppressant is natural body, according to the research on July 26 in the journal cell metabolism.

"By sensitizing the body naturally occurring leptin, the new drug was not only to promote weight loss, but also helps to keep him," senior research editor, George Kunos of the National Institute of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, USA said in the news journal. "This finding bodes for the development of a new class of compounds for treatment of obesity and its metabolic disorder."

Leptin supplements alone are not effective at helping people lose excess weight, according to the publication. It is because of this that, meaning that systematic to leptin more body to respond to leptin.

In this study, researchers found that JD5037 to suppress appetite of obese mice has led to a decrease in weight, partly by resensitizing mice to leptin.

Scientists, however, research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.

"Obesity is a growing problem of public health, there is a strong need for new types of medications for the treatment of severe metabolic complications of obesity, including diabetes, fatty liver disease," said Kunos.

--Robert Preidt copyright © HealthDay 2012. All rights reserved. Source: cell metabolism, press release, July 26, 2012

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Diet Secret: Small Pieces of Food More Filling

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College Students, Rats Eat Less When Food Is in Small Pieces

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

July 10, 2012 -- Call it the cut-up-food-diet: We feel full faster, and eat less later, when our food is served in small pieces.

It works in both college students and lab rats, according to a study by Devina Wadhera and colleagues at Arizona State University.

"Cutting up energy-dense foods into smaller pieces may be beneficial to dieters who wish to make their meal more satiating while also maintaining portion control," Wadhera says in a news release.

The researchers first tried this on lab rats. The animals were trained to run through a maze. Then the animals were offered a reward for running quickly through the maze. For 20 rats, the reward was a single chunk of food. For another 20 rats, the reward was 30 small pieces of food weighing the same as the large piece offered to the other rats.

After 12 trips through the maze, the result was clear. Rats preferred -- and worked harder for -- the same amount of food served in smaller pieces.

Okay, it's easy to fool a rat. But what about college students?

Wadhera's team split 301 male and female students into two groups. One was offered a whole bagel covered with cream cheese. The other group was offered the same kind of bagel, cut into four pieces and covered with the same amount of cream cheese.

The group that got the whole bagel ate a little more of it than those who got the cut-up bagel. But the real difference came 20 minutes later, when all of the students were offered a free meal.

Those who'd eaten the cut-up bagel -- even though they'd eaten a little less -- ate less of the free meal.

"Perhaps cutting up foods into multiple, bite-sized pieces may perceptually look like more and therefore elicit greater satiation than a single-piece food portion," Wadhera and colleagues suggest.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, held this week in Zurich, Switzerland.

These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.

SOURCES: Annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, Zurich, July 10-14, 2012. News release, Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior.

©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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'Atkins'-Type Diets May Raise Risk of Heart Problems: Study

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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- Women who regularly eat a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet may be raising their risk of heart disease and stroke by as much as 28 percent, a new study suggests.

Although the absolute increase in risk is small -- four or five extra cases per 10,000 women -- many young women try the Atkins diet or similar regimens and could be setting themselves up for cardiovascular problems later in life, the researchers noted.

"Low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets are frequently used for body-weight control," said lead researcher Dr. Pagona Lagiou, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School in Greece. "Although [the diets] may be nutritionally acceptable if the protein is mainly of plant origin, such as nuts, and the reduction of carbohydrates applies mainly to simple and refined [carbohydrates] like unhealthy sweeteners, drinks and snacks, the general public does not always recognize and act on this guidance."

The study, published online June 26 in the BMJ, does not answer questions about the possible short-term benefits of these diets in the control of body weight or insulin resistance, Lagiou said.

For the study, Lagiou's team collected data on the diets of more than 43,000 Swedish women who were between the ages of 30 and 49 at the start of the study.

Over an average of 15 years of follow-up, there were more than 1,200 cardiovascular events, including heart disease and stroke. There were more of these events among the women who followed a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet than among women who didn't, the researchers found.

Compared with women who veered furthest from the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet, women who followed the diet most closely increased their risk by 28 percent, even after other risk factors, such as smoking, drinking, hypertension, exercise and fat intake, were taken into account, the researchers noted.

"Reduction of body weight should rely on increasing physical activity and reducing caloric intake," Lagiou said.

The long-term health effects of special diets that are followed for long periods of time have not been adequately studied to allow determination of their safety, she added.

Dr. Gregg Fonarow, chairman of cardiovascular medicine and science at the University of California, Los Angeles, said low-carb diets such as the Atkins regimen have been touted widely and have become increasingly popular.

"This study raises concerns about the long-term effects on cardiovascular health of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets -- particularly if there is not careful consideration given to whether plant versus animal proteins are consumed," said Fonarow, who is also director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center.

Another expert, Samantha Heller, an exercise physiologist and clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., said "the results of this study are not surprising."

Popular high-protein diets inevitably include an abundance of cheese and red and processed meats, and a dearth of healthy carbohydrates such as whole grains, vegetables, legumes and fruits, she said.

"What this study did not address is that research is finding that diets high in red meat and/or processed meats may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes; colorectal cancer; coronary heart disease; breast cancer; esophageal, liver and lung cancers; and chronic obstructive lung disease," Heller said. "[They also] increase levels of bad cholesterol."

More research is needed to pinpoint how and for whom these risks are elevated, she added.

"In the meantime, cut back on your intake of meat and other animal-protein sources. Start experimenting with beans, edamame, tofu, nuts and nut butters (such as peanut, almond and cashew butter), low- or nonfat yogurt, cottage cheese and milk," Heller advised. "Pick up the carb intake with 100 percent whole-grain breads, brown rice, quinoa and hefty doses of vegetables, legumes and fruits."

Although the study found an association between high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets and increased risk of cardiovascular problems, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Pagona Lagiou, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, epidemiology, University of Athens Medical School, Greece; Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., exercise physiologist, clinical nutrition coordinator, Center for Cancer Care, Griffin Hospital, Derby, Conn.; Gregg Fonarow, M.D., Eliot Corday Chair, Cardiovascular Medicine and Science, University of California-Los Angeles, and director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, Los Angleles; June 26, 2012, BMJ, online

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Nothing natural about DMAA Research Supplement:

Wednesday, July 25, some manufacturers HealthDay News)-sports supplements are falsely claiming that a compound known as DMAA is a natural material extracted from geraniums, the researchers say.

Instead, research shows that artificial, consisting of the DMAA is four compounds called stereoisomers.

DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine) is an invigorating sports nutrition supplements number found. The investigators analyzed eight different from plants growing in a variety of essential geranium areas, none of the traces of the DMAA. In addition, the chemical make-up of the so-called natural plant derived DMAA was identical to that of synthetic DMAA responsibility.

The researchers concluded DMAA found in supplements may not have a plant geranium.

"The FDA should regulate or forbid other products of significant amounts of synthetic compounds for pharmacological research," said author Daniel Armstrong, University of Texas at Arlington, the journal news release. "In addition, this information should be clearly labeled, including potential side effects, and their effects so that consumers can make an informed choice decision."

Recently published research, analysis, drug tests.

DMAA is the question of safety in recent years. In 2011, following the deaths of two soldiers who were United States heart attacks during training exercises and removed was the Department of Defense, DMAA United States supplements that contain DMAA its stores on military bases.

-Mary Elizabeth Dallas copyright © HealthDay 2012. All rights reserved. Source: Wiley-Blackwell, press release, July 2012

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Heavier Friends Might Widen Your Waistline: Study

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THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Worried about the battle of the bulge? Your circle of friends might be key to your weight gain, a new study suggests.

The research, conducted among high school students, found that teens were more likely to pile on the pounds if they hung out with people who were already heavier than they were. The opposite was true for students whose friends were thinner, however.

The researchers say the findings might help experts combat obesity, at least among teenagers.

"These results can help us develop better interventions to prevent obesity. We should not be treating adolescents in isolation," study author David Shoham, an assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine and epidemiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said in a Loyola news release.

In conducting the observational study, the researchers were trying to figure out if obesity clusters in groups of friends due to social influences (when friends influence one another) or if people simply seek out the friendship of people who are most similar to themselves, including weight status.

To answer this question, the researchers examined information previously collected from students at two large high schools over the course of two school years. One school, known as Jefferson High, was located in a rural area and had a mostly white student population. The second school, called Sunshine High, was located in a city and had a more racial and ethnically diverse student body.

The researchers applied a statistical technique to analyze survey responses from more than 600 students from Jefferson High and 1,151 students from Sunshine High. The teens were asked about their weight, friends, sports and the amount of time they spent in front of the TV or computer or playing video games. The researchers also calculated the students' body mass index (a measure of height and weight).

The way that students initially chose their friends did play a role in how obesity clustered within social groupings. The researchers pointed out, however, that even after taking this finding into account there was still a significant link between obesity and a student's circle of friends, suggesting that friend-to-friend influences might also be key.

For example, a Jefferson High student with thin friends had a 40 percent chance of losing weight and a 27 percent chance of gaining weight. On the other hand, the researchers found a student who was close to being overweight and had obese friends had only a 15 percent chance of losing weight but a 56 percent chance of gaining more weight.

The bottom line: A person's social networks must be taken into consideration when developing strategies to prevent or treat obesity among teenagers, the researchers said.

Shoham's team said the study was limited by its reliance on self-reported data and the inability to directly test how friendships are formed and maintained. They added that the study's data were also collected more than a decade ago -- before the advent of Facebook and the sharp rise in rates of childhood obesity.

Since it is observational in nature, the study can only show an association between friends and weight gain; it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship. And, "of course, no one study should ever be taken as conclusive and our future work will attempt to address many of these limitations," Shoham said.

The study was published recently in the journal PLoS ONE.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Loyola University, news release, July 9, 2012

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'Beige' Fat Joins Brown Fat as Potential Weight-Loss Target

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THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- First there was research into calorie-burning "brown" fat, and now scientists say they've spotted a new type of "beige" fat in adults that might also prove useful in the fight against obesity.

The study is published in the July 12 issue of the journal Cell.

"We've identified a third type of fat cell," Bruce Spiegelman, of Harvard Medical School, said in a journal new release. "There's white [and] brown, and now there is this third type that is present in most or all human beings."

It was once believed that only babies have brown fat, which helps keep them warm. Previous research suggested, however, that adults also have some brown fat. This study found that the brown fat found in adults isn't the same as brown fat in babies.

Brown fat in babies arises from muscle, but brown fat in adults is actually "beige" fat that occurs from the "browning" of white fat, the Harvard researchers explained.

In the study, Spiegelman's team cloned beige fat cells from mice and found that they lie genetically somewhere between white and brown fat. Normally, these beige fat cells are like white fat cells in that they have low levels of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), an important ingredient for burning energy and generating heat.

The beige fat cells, however, also have a "remarkable" ability to boost their UCP1 expression to the point that they can burn energy to the same degree as brown fat, the researchers said.

Spiegelman and his team also found that the energy-burning ability of beige fat cells is turned on by a hormone called irisin, which is released from muscle while exercising. It might be possible to treat overweight and obese people with irisin in order to boost the calorie-burning ability of their beige fat cells, Spiegelman speculated.

-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Cell, news release, July 12, 2012

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