Splenda doesn’t directly add calories to your diet, but the sweetener still might lead people to pack on pounds, a new study says. The sugar substitute might spur on a person’s appetite and feelings of hunger, potentially leading them to overeat, according to results published March 26 in the journal Nature Metabolism. Splenda’s main ingredient, sucralose, appears to confuse the brain by providing a sweet taste without also delivering the calories one would expect, senior investigator Dr. Kathleen Page, director of the University of Southern California Diabetes and Obesity Research Center, said in a news release. “If your body is expecting a calorie because of the sweetness, but doesn’t get the calorie it’s expecting, that could change the way the brain is primed to crave those substances over time,” she said. About 40% of Americans regularly consume sugar substitutes, usually as a way to reduce their sugar intake, researchers said in background notes. “But are these substances actually helpful for regulating body weight?” Page asked. “What happens in the body and brain when we consume them, and do the effects differ from one person to the next?” To explore this further, researchers tested how 75 people responded after consuming water, a drink sweetened with sucralose or a drink sweetened with regular sugar. The team collected MRI brain scans, blood samples and hunger ratings from participants…  read on >  read on >

Is there a person in your life who just can’t stop scrolling social media, almost as if they’ve formed an emotional dependence on sites like Instagram and TikTok? Such an attachment might be associated with worse mental health symptoms among young people being treated for depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts, a new study says. About 40% of troubled 8- to 20-year-olds reported social media use that could be problematic, saying that they feel discontented, disconnected and upset when they can’t log on to their favorite sites, researchers report in the April issue of Journal of Affective Disorders. These young people also had higher levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, as well as poorer overall well-being, compared to peers in treatment who weren’t overly attached to social media, researchers found. “There has long been speculation that excessive social media use among young people may be a factor in increased rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, but the relationship is not fully understood,” lead researcher Betsy Kennard, a teaching professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said in a news release. “Our findings are instructive because they characterize the prevalence of problematic social media use in children and adolescents who are receiving care for depression, suicidal ideation and/or suicidal behaviors, which gives us insight into how they might intersect,” she added. For the…  read on >  read on >

A mom’s health and lifestyle choices can affect her kids’ risk of obesity as adults, a new study says. Specifically, a child is 3 to 4 times more likely to become an obese adult if their mom was obese, researchers reported March 26 in PLOS One. A mom’s smoking also increased their kid’s risk of adult obesity by 60% to 80%, results show. “In particular, we note that the effect of maternal influences persists through to age 42 and that strikingly, those predictors were just as powerful (and prevalent) in the era before the current obesity pandemic began,” concluded the research team led by Glenna Nightingale, a research fellow with the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. In effect, factors beyond a person’s control can influence whether they become overweight or obese as adults, researchers said. For the new study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 11,500 children who participated in an ongoing British study of kids born on a single week in March 1958 across England, Scotland and Wales. The team observed health trends among these children out to age 42, and compared their health to aspects of their parents’ life that might influence their risk for obesity. Results showed that if a mom was obese or if she smoked, her child was more likely to be obese in adulthood. “The persistent importance of maternal…  read on >  read on >

Tobacco control measures like anti-smoking campaigns and cigarette taxes have prevented nearly 4 million lung cancer deaths during the past five decades, a new American Cancer Society study estimates. More than 3.8 million lung cancer deaths were averted due to substantial reductions in smoking, gaining a little more than 76 million years of extra life among Americans, researchers say in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. “The substantial estimated numbers of averted lung cancer deaths and person-years of life gained highlight the remarkable effect of progress against smoking on reducing premature mortality from lung cancer,” lead investigator Dr. Farhad Islami, the ACS’ senior scientific director for cancer disparity research, said in a news release.  In fact, the number of averted lung cancer deaths accounts for roughly one-half of all cancer deaths that were prevented in recent decades, researchers said. “However,” Islami added, “Despite these findings, lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and smoking-attributable morbidity and mortality from other cancers or diseases remain high.” For the study, researchers analyzed federal health data from 1970 through 2022, estimating the expected number of cancer deaths for each year and comparing them to the deaths that actually occurred. In all, more than 2.2 million expected lung cancer deaths in men and 1.6 million in women were averted during the five-decade period.…  read on >  read on >

People dealing with heart disease, diabetes or obesity are behind the eight ball when it comes to their chances of living longer. But they can improve their odds if they start following a healthy plant-based diet, according to a study scheduled for presentation Saturday in Chicago at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology. Closer adherence to a healthy plant-based diet is linked to a 17% to 24% reduced risk of premature death from any cause, heart disease or cancer, researchers report. “These findings may help individuals with cardiometabolic disorders make heathier lifestyle choices,” lead researcher Dr. Zhangling Chen of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University in Changsha, China, said in a news release. Not all plant-based foods are healthy, however. Refined grains, potatoes and sugary drinks can pack on extra pounds and cause blood sugar to spike, researchers noted. As a result, people who have an unhealthy plant-based diet with more of those foods have a 28% to 36% increased risk of early death from any cause, heart disease or cancer, results show. “More intake of healthy plant-based foods, less intake of unhealthy plant-based foods and less intake of animal-based foods are all important,” Chen said. For the study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 78,000 people with obesity, heart disease or diabetes who participated in large studies in the U.K., U.S.…  read on >  read on >