Is Nutrition the missing link to your health?

Posts Tagged ‘fat stores’

Finding it hard to give up chocolate? Try walking. Research has shown that walking just fifteen minutes at a time can reduce chocolate cravings.

Following three days without chocolate, 25 regular chocolate eaters were asked to either complete a 15-minute brisk walk or rest. They then engaged in tasks that would normally induce chocolate cravings, including a mental challenge and opening a chocolate bar.

After exercise, participants reported lower cravings than after rest. Cravings were not only reduced during the walk, but for at least ten minutes afterwards. The exercise also limited increases in cravings in response to the two tasks.

The benefits of exercise in helping people manage dependencies, such as for nicotine and other drugs, have long been recognized.

Some recent medical research is showing that weight may not be such an important indicator of health as has been previously thought. Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. Half of the overweight people and one-third of obese people in the study were “metabolically healthy.” That means that many overweight and obese adults may have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose.

At the same time, about one out of four slim people in the study actually had at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity.

Being overweight or obese is definitely linked with numerous health problems. Nonetheless, researchers found the proportion of overweight and obese people who are metabolically healthy surprising.

Several studies have shown that fitness, as determined by how a person performs on a treadmill, is a far better indicator of health than body mass index. Some research has indicated that people who are fat but can still keep up on treadmill tests have much lower heart risk than people who are slim and unfit.

Sources:
New York Times August 18, 2008