2009年2月28日星期六
What's the best diet? Eating less food
Low-fat, low-carb, high-protein - there's a diet plan of every flavor. And if you're one of the millions of Americans who struggle with weight, you've probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn't surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the February 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn't matter where your calories come from, as long as you're eating less. (Read about environmentally friendly food.)
"We have a really simple and practical message for people - it's not so much the type of diet you eat," says Sacks. "It's how much you put in your mouth."
In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week.
On average, the study participants lost about 13 lbs. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lbs. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.
Catherine Loria, one of the study's co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. "People do have to choose heart-healthy foods," she says, but "I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach."
But that's where the trouble begins. It's hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories fewer than they expended each day - an objective that proved impossible. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended - about a third of the goal - according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. "It's very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss," Loria says.
One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. "I think what that teaches us is that maybe it's better to make a more gradual change in intake," says Sacks. "That's what I recommend to my patients, let's try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that's not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day."
But eating less, however simple it sounds, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam's VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem - building more outdoor sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, "suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach."
It's a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown the benefit of community and peer support for helping people take off weight - and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lbs., 13 lbs. over the average of the entire study population. "Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult," Sacks says. "To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus."
But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn't likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lbs. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness, but well-being - and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.
As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. "It's basic physiology," Loria says. "Eat fewer calories than you expend."
"We have a really simple and practical message for people - it's not so much the type of diet you eat," says Sacks. "It's how much you put in your mouth."
In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week.
On average, the study participants lost about 13 lbs. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lbs. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.
Catherine Loria, one of the study's co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. "People do have to choose heart-healthy foods," she says, but "I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach."
But that's where the trouble begins. It's hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories fewer than they expended each day - an objective that proved impossible. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended - about a third of the goal - according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. "It's very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss," Loria says.
One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. "I think what that teaches us is that maybe it's better to make a more gradual change in intake," says Sacks. "That's what I recommend to my patients, let's try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that's not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day."
But eating less, however simple it sounds, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam's VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem - building more outdoor sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, "suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach."
It's a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown the benefit of community and peer support for helping people take off weight - and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lbs., 13 lbs. over the average of the entire study population. "Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult," Sacks says. "To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus."
But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn't likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lbs. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness, but well-being - and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.
As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. "It's basic physiology," Loria says. "Eat fewer calories than you expend."
2009年2月25日星期三
好用的免费空间
相信好多网友都喜欢在网上建立一个自己的网站或空间，我当然也是其中的一员。现在的免费空间啊，博客啊都太多了，常见的有QQ空间，新浪，搜狐，和讯博客等等。
这些空间中的一些名义上都是免费的，可实际上却通过各种方式赚大家的钱，我想这些大家也一定都有所体会，搞装扮，加特权等等，都是要money的。这些无非是想让空间更好一些。然而我们仔细想一下，我们似乎没有对空间的自主权。
所以我推荐大家用免费的可自定义的空间，如asp，php的等。博客程序，网站源码，网上太多了。自己用Dreamweaver更可以想怎么弄就怎么弄，比上面那些好多了。当然做的好的还可以挂GG，就可以赚钱了，呵呵。
免费的空间很多，我在网上找了很多，结果发现并不是所有的都很好，最后还是选了两个，一个国内的，一个国外的，速度还不错！在这里推荐给大家。
国内的http://www.168.sh/
国外的http://www.freehostia.com/
这些空间中的一些名义上都是免费的，可实际上却通过各种方式赚大家的钱，我想这些大家也一定都有所体会，搞装扮，加特权等等，都是要money的。这些无非是想让空间更好一些。然而我们仔细想一下，我们似乎没有对空间的自主权。
所以我推荐大家用免费的可自定义的空间，如asp，php的等。博客程序，网站源码，网上太多了。自己用Dreamweaver更可以想怎么弄就怎么弄，比上面那些好多了。当然做的好的还可以挂GG，就可以赚钱了，呵呵。
免费的空间很多，我在网上找了很多，结果发现并不是所有的都很好，最后还是选了两个，一个国内的，一个国外的，速度还不错！在这里推荐给大家。
国内的http://www.168.sh/
国外的http://www.freehostia.com/
2009年2月23日星期一
Snake charmers protest against ban
Snake charmers in India have staged a protest against a law which bans them from using live serpents.
About 1,000 performers marched through Calcutta playing their flutes in opposition to the 1991 ban, reports the BBC.
The protestors claim that the law threatens their livelihoods and have called for it to be overturned. Despite the ban, hundreds of thousands of snake charmers still perform the traditional show.
The head of India's snake charmers federation Raktim Das said: "We are being consistently harassed by the police for keeping snakes, which are snatched away without paying us compensation." He suggested that serum farms could be established where charmers could sell venom for medical use.
Meanwhile, animal rights groups have argued that the ban should be kept to curb the abuse of snakes.
About 1,000 performers marched through Calcutta playing their flutes in opposition to the 1991 ban, reports the BBC.
The protestors claim that the law threatens their livelihoods and have called for it to be overturned. Despite the ban, hundreds of thousands of snake charmers still perform the traditional show.
The head of India's snake charmers federation Raktim Das said: "We are being consistently harassed by the police for keeping snakes, which are snatched away without paying us compensation." He suggested that serum farms could be established where charmers could sell venom for medical use.
Meanwhile, animal rights groups have argued that the ban should be kept to curb the abuse of snakes.
Man drinks nothing but Coke for 40 years
A Croatian man has drunk nothing but Coca-Cola for the past 40 years after making a promise to his mother that he would not touch alcohol.
Pero Ajtman, 71, of Karanac, started drinking Coke in 1968 and has vowed to carry on until the day he dies.
He explained to 24 Sata: "My mum didn't like me drinking when I was a young man as she was very religious. She made me promise never to drink again and Coca-Cola was the only thing that tasted as good as wine so I started drinking that.
"Now I have a glass in the morning, before and after lunch, with my dinner and then before I go to bed. I never drink anything else."
The pensioner added that he has no desire to give up his liquid habit, vowing: "Coke is my drug now, and I'll drink it till I die."
Pero Ajtman, 71, of Karanac, started drinking Coke in 1968 and has vowed to carry on until the day he dies.
He explained to 24 Sata: "My mum didn't like me drinking when I was a young man as she was very religious. She made me promise never to drink again and Coca-Cola was the only thing that tasted as good as wine so I started drinking that.
"Now I have a glass in the morning, before and after lunch, with my dinner and then before I go to bed. I never drink anything else."
The pensioner added that he has no desire to give up his liquid habit, vowing: "Coke is my drug now, and I'll drink it till I die."
2009年2月22日星期日
Eat Yogurt, Avoid Bladder Cancer
If you love yogurt, you’re in luck. You probably already know it’s good for you, but I found a recent Swedish study that gives us more evidence. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied the diets of 80,000 patients in a nine-year span and published their findings in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
They concluded that women who consumed two servings of yogurt every day were 45% less likely to develop bladder cancer than those who only eat it occasionally or not at all (36% for men). What’s interesting is that the researchers found no protective benefit in other dairy products. It was only the yogurt or cultured milk products with lactic acid bacteria.
Lead study author Alicja Wolk, Ph.D., says the probiotic called lactobacillus in cultured dairy products could be responsible for providing these protective benefits. (Ref: Women’s Health, March 2009, p. 28)
Of course, it’s safe to say that most people who eat yogurt probably lead healthier lifestyles, but the findings are still significant. Yeah!
2009 Spring festival
YEAR of OX
Dragon dance performed in Argentine China Street
Locals watch the dragon dance during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009. A Chinese temple fair was held in the China Street on Sunday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.(Xinhua/Alberto Raggio)
Performers play the dragon dance during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Alberto Raggio)
Locals buy Chinese traditional craftworks during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009.
Dragon dance performed in Argentine China Street
Locals watch the dragon dance during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009. A Chinese temple fair was held in the China Street on Sunday to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.(Xinhua/Alberto Raggio)
Performers play the dragon dance during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Alberto Raggio)
Locals buy Chinese traditional craftworks during a temple fair held in the China Street in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, Jan. 25, 2009.
2009年2月18日星期三
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