Eats « Weekly Gravy

Little ones who stay up late may have a higher risk of becoming overweight by the time they are school-age, a new study suggests. Researchers found that young children who routinely got to sleep after 9 p.m. tended to gain more body fat between the ages of 2 and 6. Compared with kids who had earlier bedtimes, they had bigger increases in both waist size and body mass index (BMI) — an estimate of body fat based on height and weight. The findings do not prove that later bedtimes cause excess weight gain, said Dr. Nicole Glaser, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study, which was published online Feb. 18 in Pediatrics. But the report adds to evidence linking sleep habits to kids’ weight, according to Glaser, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, Davis. Specifically, studies have found higher rates of obesity among kids who either get too little sleep or have trouble falling or staying asleep. “At this point, I think it’s clear that there is a relationship between [sleep quality and obesity risk],” Glaser said. “The big question is whether the relationship is a causal one.” Dr. Claude Marcus, senior researcher on the study, agreed. “The causality is difficult to establish,” he said. Kids’ sleep habits do not exist in a vacuum, and it’s possible that other factors cause both late… read on >

Could hot chocolate deliver relief to those suffering from the painful condition known as peripheral artery disease (PAD)? A small, new study says it’s entirely possible. Though you may be picturing a steaming cup of hot milk chocolate with tiny marshmallows bobbing on the top, the concoction the study volunteers drank was made from dark chocolate, and had a less sweet taste. “A food-derived, nutritional therapy that is accessible, inexpensive and safe may meaningfully improve walking ability in people with peripheral artery disease,” said study author Dr. Mary McDermott. She’s a professor in the departments of medicine and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago. “Peripheral artery disease is common and underdiagnosed,” she said, adding that it’s a major cause of disability in people over 55. PAD causes narrowing in the blood vessels that supply blood to the legs from the heart. Common symptoms include pain, particularly when walking, cramping and weakness in the leg muscles. McDermott noted that “these findings are particularly important because currently few therapies have been identified to help patients with PAD.” However, the study was a preliminary effort and only 44 people were enrolled, so further research is needed to confirm these findings, she said. The study was published Feb. 14 in the journal Circulation Research. Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. National… read on >

A clinical trial of the weight-loss drug Belviq (lorcaserin) shows an association with an increased risk of cancer, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requesting that its maker withdraw the drug from the U.S. market. Eisai Inc. has already “submitted a request to voluntarily withdraw the drug,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, who directs the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, noted in a statement issued Thursday. Now, “we’re taking steps to notify the public,” she said, adding that “our review of the full clinical trial results shows that the potential risk of cancer associated with the drug outweighs the benefit of treatment.” Woodcock said the FDA is advising that “patients should stop using the medication Belviq and Belviq XR [lorcaserin] and talk to their health care professionals about other treatment options for weight loss. Health care professionals should stop prescribing and dispensing Belviq and Belviq XR.” The agency first announced that Belviq might have links to cancer in a communication issued Jan 15. At the time, the FDA said “we cannot conclude that lorcaserin contributes to the cancer risk,” but “wanted to make the public aware of this potential risk. We are continuing to evaluate the clinical trial results and will communicate our final conclusions and recommendations when we have completed our review.” That review appears to have led to calls for the… read on >

For better or worse, your social media friends might be influencing your eating habits, British researchers report. They asked nearly 400 college students to estimate how much fruit, veggies, snacks and sugary drinks their Facebook friends ate each day. Those participants who believed their social media buddies ate the recommended five daily portions of fruits and vegetables in turn ate one extra serving. But they also helped themselves to an extra portion of unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks for every three portions they believed their online friends had. “This study suggests we may be influenced by our social peers more than we realize when choosing certain foods,” said study co-leader Lily Hawkins, a doctoral student in health psychology at Aston University in Birmingham, England. “We seem to be subconsciously accounting for how others behave when making our own food choices.” The findings offer evidence that online social circles influence people’s eating habits, and they suggest it might be possible to use social media to encourage healthy eating, according to the researchers. “The implication is that we can use social media as a tool to ‘nudge’ each other’s eating behavior within friendship groups, and potentially use this knowledge as a tool for public health interventions,” Hawkins said in a university news release. Researchers found no significant link between participants’ eating habits and their body mass index… read on >

It’s no yolk: Americans for decades have gotten dietary whiplash from the back-and-forth science on whether eggs are good for them. But a major new study will have many egg-lovers relieved: You can enjoy an egg a day without having to worry about your heart. “Moderate egg intake, which is about one egg per day in most people, does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality even if people have a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes,” said study lead author Mahshid Dehghan. She’s an investigator at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. The study, which analyzed data on more than 177,000 people, was funded by various provincial government health agencies in Ontario, and nonprofit groups focused on heart health. It received no funding from the egg industry. Dehghan’s group pored over data from three large, long-term international studies, all conducted at the PHRI. The three studies involved people with various income levels living in 50 countries on six continents, so the results are widely applicable, the researchers said. Most of the people in the studies had one or fewer eggs a day, suggesting that this level of consumption is safe, Dehghan said. “Also, no association was found between egg intake and blood cholesterol, its components or other risk factors,” she said in a McMaster news release.… read on >

Before you throw any leftovers away, heed new research that suggests the choice could hit you right in your pocketbook. It turns out that almost one-third of food in American households goes to waste, costing each household thousands of dollars a year, researchers report. “Our findings are consistent with previous studies, which have shown that 30% to 40% of the total food supply in the United States goes uneaten — and that means that resources used to produce the uneaten food, including land, energy, water and labor, are wasted as well,” said study author Edward Jaenicke. He’s a professor of agricultural economics in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. Jaenicke and his team analyzed data from 4,000 households that participated in a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey and found that, on average, about one-third of the food they obtained was wasted. Nationwide, the cost of wasted food could total $240 billion a year. Divided by the nearly 128.6 million households in the United States, that works out to about $1,866 for the average household. “Based on our estimation, the average American household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires,” Jaenicke said in a university news release. “More than two-thirds of households in our study have food-waste estimates of between 20% and 50%. However, even the least wasteful household wastes 8.7% of the food it acquires.”… read on >

Whether you’re stopping at a casual fast-food place or sitting down to eat in a full-service restaurant, eating out is an easy way to fill up when you’re hungry. But those meals may not deliver much nutritional value, a new study suggests. The researchers found that 70% of fast-food meals consumed in the United States were of poor nutritional value. For full-service restaurants, around half of the meals were of poor nutritional value. Less than 0.1% of the restaurant meals analyzed during the entire study period — 2003 to 2016 — were considered to be of ideal nutritional quality. “On any given day, nearly one-third of American adults eat at a full-service restaurant, and nearly half at a fast-food restaurant. The nutritional quality of most of these meals is poor and almost none are ideal, and this is true for both quick-serve and full-service restaurants,” said senior study author Dariush Mozaffarian. He’s dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston. “Today, more American adults are sick than are healthy, and much of this is due to diet-related illness. Looking for healthier restaurant options should be a priority for all Americans,” he added. Over the past 30 years, American meals have largely shifted away from meals prepared at home to restaurant meals, the study authors said. Today, the typical… read on >

If you want to slow down the aging process, it might not hurt to replace whole milk with skim, new research suggests. The study of over 5,800 U.S. adults found that those who regularly indulged in higher-fat milk had shorter telomeres in their cells — a sign of accelerated “biological aging.” The findings do not prove that milk fat, per se, hastens aging, stressed researcher Larry Tucker, a professor of exercise sciences at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. But the study does lend support to what U.S. dietary guidelines suggest for adults: If you’re going to drink cow’s milk, opt for low-fat or skim, Tucker said. Telomeres are bits of DNA that sit at the tips of your chromosomes — like the plastic caps at the ends of a shoelace. In essence, they help keep the chromosomes from fraying and sticking together. As people age, their telomeres gradually get shorter, and research has linked shorter telomere length to a higher risk of developing and dying from infections, cancer and heart disease. “A variety of lifestyle factors are also related to telomere length,” Tucker said. Obese people, for example, tend to have shorter telomeres than lean people, as do smokers versus nonsmokers. And people who eat lots of fiber, vegetables and fruit typically have longer telomeres than those who shun those foods. So for the… read on >

Want to know how to avoid blood clots and varicose veins? One physician offers some tips on how to keep your blood vessels healthy. Arteries and veins are collectively known as the vascular system. Arteries transport oxygen and nutrient-rich blood throughout the body, while veins carry de-oxygenated, waste-filled blood back to the heart to be renewed, explained Dr. Chelsea Dorsey, a vascular surgeon from University of Chicago Medicine. Problems can occur in both arteries and veins. It’s estimated that 12%-20% of people older than 60 have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and more than 40% of women have venous insufficiency, the underlying condition that leads to varicose and spider veins. Blood clots in veins can occur at any age, and people at risk include those who are sick, injured or unable to walk for a period of time, and women who take birth control pills. Varicose veins are more common among younger people, and women are twice as likely as men to be affected, Dorsey noted. Problems in arteries — such as atherosclerosis (narrowing or hardening of the arteries) — tend to increase with age. The health of your arteries and veins is influenced by both genetics and lifestyle. For example, the most common risk factors for varicose veins and venous insufficiency include a family history of these conditions, spending long periods of time on your… read on >