NYTimes: “Brown Fat, Triggered by Cold or Exercise, May Yield a Key to Weight Control”

…so if brown fat burns calories when it is triggered by cold or exercise…then exercising IN the cold is the solution to the obesity epidemic! boom. you’re welcome.

(might be a tough sell, seeing as we can’t even get people to exercise in the comfort of a gym, or when the weather is WARM)

from the article:

Diet soft drink users, as a group, experienced 70 percent greater increases in waist circumference compared with non-users. Frequent users, who said they consumed two or more diet sodas a day, experienced waist circumference increases that were 500 percent greater than those of non-users.

Abdominal fat is a major risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic conditions. “These results suggest that, amidst the national drive to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, policies that would promote the consumption of diet soft drinks may have unintended deleterious effects,” the authors wrote.

New study hot off the press from Darius Mozaffarian et al at Harvard. This study followed over 120,000 subjects for 12 to 20 years to see who gained weight and what behaviors were associated. We know the average adult gains about 1 pound per year, and this study suggests that long term weight gain may be more related to the TYPES of foods we eat rather than the simplistic “calories in, calories out” answer. Here’s what they found:

Foods associated with the greatest weight GAIN:

• potato chips (for each one increased daily serving, +1.69 lb more weight gain every 4 years)
• potatoes in general (+1.28 lbs)
• sugar sweetened beverages (+1.0 lb)
• unprocessed red meats (+.95 lb)
• processed meats (+.93 lb)

Foods associated with PREVENTING weight gain:

• yogurt (for each one increased daily serving, .82 lb fewer added pounds every 4 years)
• nuts (-.57 lb)
• fruits (-.49 lb)
• whole grains (-.37 lb)
• vegetables (-.22 lb)

Other significant associations:

• those who exercised more gained nearly 2 lbs less every 4 years than those who exercised least
• each increased alchoholic drink per day = +.4 lbs
• each increased hour per day of tv watching = +.32 lbs
• sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 8 hours was associated with weight gain

Hmmm…I’m thinking some yogurt with nuts and fruit is sounding like a pretty good breakfast.

Here’s the Washington Post summary of the study:

Potatoes bad, nuts good for staying slim, Harvard study finds