Research

Dieting is making us fatter

 
Key Message: Dieting not only increases your weight in the long term, it also messes with your hormones.

Action Point: If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, join me for my next Community Cleanse, kicking off August 23rd – http://www.emmascommunitycleanse.com.au/

It’s common knowledge that being overweight is bad for our heath.

In fact, recent findings from leading health experts point towards a worrying trend.  One in five cancer deaths is caused by obesity, which is on track to overtake smoking as the main cause of cancer, according to international cancer specialists 1.

But with so many new fad diets and so much conflicting information about food out there, how do we know which diet is the best?

While restricting your food intake may seem like a quick way to shed kilos, think again. Experts say that dieting actually makes you fat in the long run.
Ditching the diet altogether might just be the way to go
The fact is that the vast majority of dieters eventually go back to their pre-diet weight or become heavier than they were before.

While many people seem to know that dieting doesn’t work in the long run, most are shocked to hear that the process of dieting itself actually increases your body’s propensity to gain weight.

In a previous blog post I wrote about the dangers of weight cycling and how skipping meals actually increases abdominal fat.

There is plenty of evidence to back up the claim that quick-fix approaches to weight loss will never solve the problem and are in fact more likely to make you fatter.

A 2011 study on more than 2000 sets of twins from Finland found that not only is dieting (independent of genetics) significantly associated with accelerated weight gain, it also increases the risk […]

By |August 15th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Gut bacteria indicated in toddler tantrums

Key Message: Gut microbiome composition is associated with temperament during early childhood.

Action point: Ensure your child’s microbiome is supported with appropriate probiotics. I use probiotic therapy in all my little patients with great success.

Had a gut-full of your two-year-old’s tantrums? Believe it or not, their digestive health might be contributing to the problem.

Microbes in the GI tract may play a surprising role in toddler temperament, according to a new study from the Ohio State University1.

Researchers have become increasingly interested in how the population of bacteria in the gut (known as gut microbiome) affects health. Studies have already linked gut bacteria to conditions including obesity, allergies and bowel disease. Now researchers are interested in finding out if gut bacteria is also linked to mood and behaviour.

The complex ecosystem of microbes living in the gastrointestinal tract is known to change considerably in the first two years of life, especially as solid foods are introduced into a child’s diet. And according to a new study, this unstable “gut microbiome” and a toddler’s temperament are linked.
The importance of the gut in early life
Determining the dynamics of the behaviour–gut associations in early life is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, many physical and mental health conditions such as obesity and anxiety have early life precursors. Also, research suggests that the gut microbiome may be more malleable in early versus later life.

By approximately two years of age, our gut microbiota is established and relatively stable. Although the gut microbiome changes in response to illness, diet and antibiotics, the overall profile tends to revert to normal after the disruption has passed.
The study
For the study, the researchers examined the different genetic types and varying amounts of bacteria found in stool samples from 41 boys and […]

By |August 8th, 2015|Children, Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Research|0 Comments
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    Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 5) – Electromagnetic Fields and Your Health

Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 5) – Electromagnetic Fields and Your Health

In this 6-part series, I look into some recent science in the field of health and wellness. As a clinical naturopath I read so much research and want to share with you some highlights. Happy Reading!
Long-term exposure to electromagnetic fields could be making you sick
Technologies we rely on in today’s world – electricity, the internet, phones, radio, television, any smart technology and even baby monitors – could be making you sick.
They all emit a type of electromagnetic radiation via an electromagnetic field (EMF) – an environmental ‘pollution’ that some researchers are saying could account for many of today’s common health conditions.
What’s more, the levels will continue to increase as technology advances. According to the World Health Organisation, “…even a small health consequence from EMF exposure could have a major public health impact”.
Reference: WHO (2015) Electromagnetic fields: What are Electromagnetic fields – summary of health effects.  http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html
 
We don’t know the impact of long-term exposure to low-level EMF
We know that low-level EMF does affect us biologically: exposure to EMF can heat our bodies. Think about when you hold a mobile phone close to your ear for too long. However, these effects are said to be low, and to date, no adverse health effects from low-level exposure to radiofrequency or power frequency fields have been confirmed.
However, we still don’t know the impact of long-term exposure to low-level EMF.
According to the World Health Organisation, “Human health studies are very good at identifying large effects, such as a connection between smoking and cancer. Unfortunately, they are less able to distinguish a small effect from no effect at all…In fact, even if a large study shows no association we can never be entirely sure that there is no relationship. The […]

By |August 7th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research|0 Comments
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Weight loss tips backed by science

Key message: Take your dieting advice from the experts – not a health guru, sales rep or a popular Instagram account.

Action point: If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, join me for my next Community Cleanse, kicking off August 23rd – http://www.emmascommunitycleanse.com.au/
Want to know the most effective ways to lose weight? Then turn to the experts for advice. Here are six weight-loss tips backed by decades of science:
1. Dieting is more effective than exercise
Decreasing food intake is much more effective than increasing physical activity to achieve weight loss. Studies which have pitted exercise against diet have shown that participants tend to lose more weight by dieting alone than by exercise alone1.

This is because people tend to naturally compensate for the calories they expend. Firstly, exercise affects hunger and appetite hormones, making you feel noticeably hungrier after exercise. The other problem with exercise without dieting is that it’s simply tiring. If you are wiped out after exercise, you are more likely to rest afterwards.
2. There is no ‘miracle’ diet
There isn’t any evidence5 that one particular diet will work better with an individual’s specific metabolism. The truth is that all diets will work if you follow them for long enough.
3. All calories are created equal
A calorie is a calorie. For energy balance, it’s the number of calories that matters.

You can gain weight eating too much healthy food as well as unhealthy food6 – although it is a lot easier to overeat calories from junk food than healthy food.

But the source of calories matters for other reasons, including how they influence satiety. A Harvard study 7 has shown that ‘more nutritious’ means, among other things, the opportunity to fill up on fewer calories.
4. Exercise kickstarts an ‘inflexible’ metabolism
While […]

By |August 1st, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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    Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 4) – Weight loss: part B

Emma’s Empirical Evidence (part 4) – Weight loss: part B

In this 6-part series, I look into some recent science in the field of health and wellness. As a clinical naturopath I read so much research and want to share with you some highlights. Happy Reading!

 
Nutrition is more important than exercise for weight loss
Yes, they are both important. But what you eat plays more of a role in your weight than how much you exercise. Studies that have pitted exercise against diet have shown that participants tend to lose more weight by dieting alone than by exercise alone.
Reference: Foster-Schubert KE, Alfano CM, Duggan CR et al. (2011) Effect of diet and exercise, alone or combined, on weight and body composition in overweight-to-obese post-menopausal women. Obesity (Silver Spring). August; 20(8): 1628–1638.

Exercise is still vital for a healthy metabolism
While exercise may not be as important for weight loss as calorie restriction, it’s important in another way: it begins to repair a broken metabolism.
Bed-rest studies conducted by NASA indicate that within a couple of days of non-activity, the metabolism becomes ‘inflexible’. Metabolic flexibility is the ability of the human body to switch from one fuel source to the next: from fats to carbs and carbs to fat.  When you have a flexible (healthy) metabolism, your body efficiently burns whatever kind of food you eat.
Reference: Jost PD. (2008). Simulating human space physiology with bed rest. Hippokratia, 12(Suppl 1), 37–40.

Your brain controls your weight loss or gain
When it comes down to it, it’s not the body or the metabolism that are actually creating overweight or obesity – it’s the brain. Over time, poor decisions lead to significant changes in how the brain governs – and responds to – the hunger and satiation processes.
The good news? By developing new habits, […]

By |July 31st, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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    Did you know WHEN you eat is more important than WHAT you eat?

Did you know WHEN you eat is more important than WHAT you eat?

Key message: Confining kilojoule consumption to an eight-to-12 hour period – as past generations did – might stave off high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.

Action point: If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, join me for my next Community Cleanse, kicking off August 23rd.. Time-restricted feeding is included in Level 2 of Cleanse and I will give you not only menu plans but also an eBook with easy step-by-step instructions. http://www.emmascommunitycleanse.com.au/
 

Do you believe that the only reliable way to lose weight is to make sure calories ‘out’ are greater than calories ‘in’?

Well, think again. Recent research by The Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggests that how many calories you eat is not as important as when you eat them.
Time-restricted feeding
Back in 2012, researchers found that most of the health problems mice get from eating a high-fat diet could be eliminated if they only ate during an eight-hour period. Mice given all-day access to the same food consumed the same number of calories but were much fatter and in poorer health 1.

Now researchers from the same lab have found that restricting the time of day when you eat has the potential to offer additional and substantial health benefits. When you eat can even reverse obesity and diabetes, at least in mice.

To further explore the possible therapeutic potential of time-restricted feeding (TRF), recent Salk research applied a number of time-restricted feeding/fasting regimes, including a totally free feeding regime, to a number of different situations. This included where the subject mice suffered pre-existing obesity, where the diets were varied – eg high fat, high fructose and high fat plus high fructose – and where the duration of feeding time was varied 2.

The researchers confirmed the […]

By |July 25th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Probiotics Can Put A Smile on Your Dial

A study epublished in April 2015 reports that probiotic supplementation improves negative thoughts accompanying sad mood. The National Institute of Mental Health states that an estimated 16 million American adults (6.9%) had at least one major depressive episode in the past year with an additional 1.5% experiencing a milder form of depression known as dysthymic disorder.
In this triple-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial, 40 subjects without mood disorders received supplementation for four weeks with a placebo or a multi-species probiotic, which included Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus salivarius, and Lactococcus lactis. The investigators evaluated cognitive reactivity to sad mood using the Leiden index of depression sensitivity scale at the beginning of the study and again after the supplementation period. Increased cognitive reactivity to normal, temporary alterations in sad mood is considered to be an indicator of how susceptible a person is to depression.
The subjects in the probiotic group experienced a significantly reduced overall cognitive reactivity to sad mood compared to the placebo group. The reduced overall cognitive reactivity was accompanied by less rumination and fewer aggressive thoughts.
The study authors stated, “These results provide the first evidence that the intake of probiotics may help reduce negative thoughts associated with sad mood. Probiotics supplementation warrants further research as a potential preventive strategy for depression.”
Reference:
Steenbergen L, et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2015 Apr 7

By |July 22nd, 2015|Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Naturopathy, Preconception & Pregnancy, Research|0 Comments
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The hidden way that junk food is making you fat

Key message: Junk food can destroy the good gut microbes in your body that help you keep thin.

Action point: Restrict your intake of fast foods and include foods in your diet that encourage the growth of good gut bacteria. These include yogurts, root vegetables, nuts, olives and high-fibre foods.
 
Want another reason to not eat junk food? New research shows fast food kills off the bugs that make you thin.
Leading academic and author of the new book The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat, Professor Tim Spector believes he has uncovered a vital piece of the puzzle that could help explain our rising obesity epidemic.

Spector, who is professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, researches the link between microbes, food and health.

During his research, he experimented with several unusual diets and recorded their effects on gut microbes. In one experiment, he enlisted the help of his son, Tom who agreed to a diet of fast food, including sweetened carbonated beverages, for 10 consecutive days. The researchers then tracked the microbes by collecting stool samples before, during and after Tom’s diet, and sent them to three different labs to check consistency.

Apart from the intensive diet making him feel temporarily ill, the results all told the same story: Tom’s community of gut microbes had been devastated.

The clearest marker of an unhealthy gut is losing species diversity and after just a few days Tom had lost an estimated 1,400 species – nearly 40 per cent of his total. The changes persisted and even two weeks after the diet his microbes had not recovered.

This is bad news, according to Spector, who said this loss of good microbes could affect the body’s metabolism and immune system. […]

By |July 18th, 2015|Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Skipping meals increases abdominal fat

Key message: Skipping meals is counterproductive and results in more fat gain.

Action point: Weight loss, if attempted, should be achieved by a diet involving small, regular meals spread evenly throughout an entire day.
In today’s busy world, when our ‘plates are too full’, many of us respond by skipping meals. While this may seem like a way to lose weight, think again.

According to a new study, this may backfire and actually increase belly fat.

A research team from the Ohio State University in collaboration with Yale researchers attempted to understand the impact different eating schedules had on mice.

Some of the mice were allowed to nibble throughout the day, while others were put on a restricted diet where they were fed just once every 24 hours.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, found that the dieting mice tended to gorge their daily allotment of food all at once – the equivalent of fasting most of the day and then binging on a big meal.

The results showed that the mice included in the group that only received their food once every 24 hours, in a single meal, put on more fat in their abdomens. They also developed insulin resistance – an indicator of prediabetes.

What’s more, the gorging behaviour developed by the mice on the restrictive diets did not end once they began receiving proper amounts of calories.

 
The yo-yo effect
While those on the restricted eating plan initially lost weight, they gained it back when more calories were restored to their diets. This is a pattern that many human dieters will find all too familiar.

Weight cycling – or the yo-yo effect – is the repeated loss and regain of body weight. It has been shown to have harmful effects on […]

By |July 11th, 2015|Health & Wellbeing, Research, Weight Loss|0 Comments
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Nurture your baby: Nurture your microbiome

Key message: Gut health is an important factor in the wellbeing of mothers and their babies. Researchers have discovered that gut health starts as early as in the womb, and can be influenced by factors including diet during pregnancy, medicines given in the first few years of life, and birth and feeding choices.

Action point: Watch the documentary Microbirth, a fascinating documentary on how the events at birth shape our future.

Nurturing the health of our little ones also means taking care of another tiny creature – our microbiome
We all want our babies to have the best possible start in life. Most of us know the choices we make during pregnancy and the first few years of our babies’ lives affect their long-term health. Now science is discovering that baby’s health may well start in an often-overlooked area of the body – the gut.

In the past decade there has been growing awareness of the important role of the human microbiome – all the bacteria, viruses and fungi that live on and in our bodies. Imbalances in this population, which lives in many of our tissues but is particularly concentrated in the gut, have been linked to diseases from diabetes to dementia.

Researchers are now finding that gut health starts as early as in the womb, and can be influenced by factors including diet during pregnancy, medicines given in the first few years of life, and birth and feeding choices.

 

Check out these three research facts about infant and mother gut health:

 
Research fact one:  A mother’s diet may have a significant role to play in their unborn baby’s immunity.
Until recently it was generally thought that babies are born with a sterile gut and they pick up microbes on their journey through their mother’s vagina […]

By |July 4th, 2015|Gut health, Health & Wellbeing, Nutrition, Preconception & Pregnancy, Research|0 Comments
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How to Heal Your Adrenals Naturally

How to Heal Your Adrenals Naturally

Adrenal fatigue is one of the most under diagnosed illnesses in western society. Download a copy of my free ebook to learn about the symptoms and how to heal your Adrenals naturally.

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