Want To Burn Belly Fat? Do Aerobics!

Breaking a sweat with weights in an effort for the perfect six pack might be a waste of time. As a new study has found that the best way to burn belly fat is through aerobic exercise. When researchers monitored people who did aerobics for eight months, compared to those who did just weight lifting, the former group lost almost 20 times as much fat around their stomachs. The aerobics group lost around 2.5 square inches of belly fat, and a group that combined both aerobic and weight lifting lost only 1.5 square inches.

Lighter Lunch Make You Lose Weight WITHOUT Hungry

Slimmers desperate to lose weight without major dieting, rumbling stomachs or expensive protein shakes, should simply eat a smaller lunch. Scientists from Cornell University in New York found the easy solution left volunteers no hungrier than usual or in need of snacks as our bodies are not sophisticated enough to notice a small drop in calories. This meant they consumed an average 250 fewer calories a day.

Biscuits Give Women Womb Cancer!

Regularly snacking on biscuits, cakes or buns can significantly increase a woman's chances of developing womb cancer, a new study shows.  Women who treated themselves two to three times a week were 33 per cent more likely to suffer the disease. Among those eating them more than three times a week, the risk of falling ill with a tumour jumped by 42 per cent. The findings come from a ten-year study in Sweden which looked at the eating habits of more than 60,000 women. Scientists wanted to investigate links between sugary diets and the development of tumours in the womb.

Also known as endometrial cancer, it affects around 6,400 women a year in the UK and kills an estimated 1,000 annually. Although the risks are known to increase with weight gain, researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm wanted to see if there was a direct link between the amount of sweet foods eaten and the onset of cancer.  They studied data from thousands of women who, in 1987, completed questionnaires on diet, lifestyle, weight and general health. Ten years later, those still alive were given the same questions again. All the women were asked how often they added sugar to their hot drinks or food and what was well their intake of different types of sugary foods.

Being Fat MAY Be Healthier!

It is the perfect excuse to push aside that salad and pat yourself on the slightly rounded tummy. Scientists have shown it may be better to stay fat than go on diet after diet. A study of thousands of obese men and women found that more than one in three were perfectly healthy or had only slight health problems. 

Contrary to the much-publicised message that you have to be thin to be well, they were no more likely todie at any given time than someone of an ideal weight.  Indeed, they were less likely to be killed by heart disease. They were also in better health than those who had fought a constant battle with their weight by repeatedly dieting, only to pile the pounds back on. 

Snacks Make Us Happy

Comfort foods really do lift our mood, scientists claim.  Reaching for fatty treats such as ice cream or chips has long been a way of cheering ourselves up.  Now scientists have discovered that the comfort we get from eating these foods is not all in the mind.

Their breakthrough findings are the first to unravel physical secrets behind emotional eating and could give doctors insight into the causes of eating disorders and obesity. Researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium carried out brain scans on volunteers who were played sad music and shown pictures of people with downcast expressions. Without knowing which was which, they were given either a fatty or saline solution via a feeding tube.
 

Images of their brain waves showed the volunteers who had the saline became four per cent more depressed by the music and pictures. Those who had the fatty solution stayed cheerful and their mood was hardly affected by the music and images.

The experiment appears to show it is not just the pleasurable taste and texture of comfort foods that boosts mood. The findings suggest signals are sent straight from the gut to the brain, which influence how we feel. The tests were performed on average-size volunteers but experts hope to find out if the overweight are more susceptible to the mood changes.

Specialist Dr Louis Aronne of the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York said: ‘Many things in obesity have been said to be psychological and this adds to the body of evidence that something physical is going on. People who are obese may have to eat more to get the same stimulation as normal-weight individuals.’

The link between happiness and fatty foods may date to the Stone Age because fat was essential for survival – making it trigger reward centres in the brain.  Obesity expert Dr Giovanna Cizza, said of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation: ‘Evolution has provided us with an over-the-counter anti-sadness product. 'Don’t feel too guilty, but try to limit what you eat and cut down on something else.’

Wanna Lose Weight? Use Small Plates

Want to lose 2lb a month? Simply eat from a smaller plate, researchers say. Small changes around the home – such as where we eat our meals and the size of plate we use – make a big difference, a study found. Researcher Brian Wansink said one study looked at moviegoers eating popcorn from either extra large or large containers.

Cut down: Using smaller plates could help you lose as much as 2lb per month says a new study

They ate 45 per cent more popcorn from the larger containers, and even when given stale popcorn ate 34 per cent more. Another study found that children given a 16-ounce cereal bowl were more likely to have a second helping than those given a bowl half the size. Dr Wansink told an American Psychological Association convention that in one study, people lost up to 2lb a month simply by making changes such as using salad plates rather than dinner plates, keeping unhealthy foods out of sight and not eating in front of the television.

Health Benefits of Lemon

Health benefits of lemon include treatment of throat infections, indigestion, constipation, dental problems, fever, hair care, skin care, internal bleeding, rheumatism, burns, overweight, respiratory disorders, cholera and high blood pressure. Known for its therapeutic property since generations, lemon helps to strengthen your immunity system and cleanses your stomach. It is not only a blood purifier but also enables body to fight diseases. Lemon juice, especially, has several health benefits associated with it. Useful for treating kidney stones, curing heart strokes and reducing the body temperature, lemonade helps you to stay calm and cool.

Cure For Snoring

Wearing compression stockings might help people suffering from a common sleep disorder, claim researchers. They found sufferers who wore thigh-high stockings for a week cut their sleep problems by a third. People with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) frequently wake in the night, which in turn leads to problems during the day, such as excess sleepiness.

Restful? A large proportion of people with sleep apnoea also snore. They often struggle with exhaustion as the disorder makes deep sleep difficult

It affects at least half a million Britons – often middle-aged, overweight men – causing snoring and frequent interruptions to breathing during sleep.

In OSA, the muscles in the airway collapse during sleep, which cuts off breathing for at least ten seconds before brain signals cause a contraction of the muscles which reopens the airway.

Not only does it disrupt sleep – for sufferers and those within earshot – and cause exhaustion, the condition appears to increase blood pressure and associated heart problems.

 

It can be treated using continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, but this means wearing a mask all night, which many people find uncomfortable. In the latest study, researchers fromthe University of Brescia, Italy, used full-length compression stockings – the kind used to prevent deep-vein thrombosis in air passengers – to regulate bloodflow through the legs. They recruited 12 patients with vein problems that led to blood pooling in the lower legs during daytime which caused sleeping problems triggered by the excess fluid moving to the neck during the night.

Food Cravings Indicate Your Health

"Lettuce craving saves my life"

Cheese on toast, a square of dark chocolate, or a spicy tikka masala — we all get cravings for particular foods. But while these are often to do with your mood at that moment, a long-term craving could be more significant.  

59-year-old Elsie Campbell, whose breast cancer was detected after she developed an unusual appetite for salad. The mother-of-two was eating four lettuces a day, prompting her husband Jim, a research scientist, to investigate. He worked out that lettuce contains a natural chemical called sulforaphane, which can attack cancer cells and which breast cancer sufferers often lack. He correctly guessed his wife’s addiction meant she was suffering from the disease. Jim has since set up question myhealth.com, providing information about other odd symptoms. So, what could your craving be trying to  tell you?