Nutrition and Health News

A recent study examines the effect of trans fat versus unsaturated fat and finds that trans fat is significantly worse for you than unsaturated fat. Calories consumed as trans fat are likely to increase your waistline and weight far more than unsaturated fats.

Trans fat is commonly found in fast food and packaged snacks. Olive oil, vegetables, and nuts are typical sources of unsaturated fat.

In the study, a group of monkeys were fed a controlled diet for six years. All monkeys received the same caloric intake, including 35 percent fat, intended to be representative of a typical Western diet. One group of monkeys consumed 8 percent of their diet as trans fat, while the other group did not consume trans fats.

A recent study published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity examines the rise of childhood obesity in both the industrialized and developing countries of the world.

According to the report, the current rate of child obesity in North and South America is about 1 in 3, and will rise to nearly 1 in 2 by the year 2010. Rates in the EU are predicted to rise from 25% to 38%. Child obesity is rising rapidly in developing countries as well, with China projected to have a rate of 1 in 5 by the year 2010.

The dramatic increase is attributed to a combination of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, junk food, and prevalence of advertising and marketing promoting unhealthy consumption.

Not that you should be eating a lot of them to start with, but today McDonald’s announced that a new, more accurate method of testing shows that their world famous french fries contain one third more trans fats than previously believed.

McDonald’s and other US fast food restaurant chains have been under pressure to improve disclosure of nutrition content for their products, with some limited results. McDonald’s is updating their packaging and in-store literature. US dietary guidelines call for consumers to keep their intake of trans fats as low as possible. Trans fats have been shown to raise levels of harmful cholesterol, contributing to heart disease. New government rules require packaged foods to include information about trans fat content along with other nutrition information.

Exubera, a rapid-acting inhalable form of insulin, has been approved for use this week by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes often require doses of insulin throughout the day to regulate their blood sugar level. This normally requires the use of injectable insulin or in some cases an insulin pump.

The US population of diabetic patients is growing rapidly, mostly due to the increasing occurence of Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity. Nearly 21 million Americans have diabetes of which 95% are Type 2. In some cases, Type 2 diabetes can be effectively managed without requiring insulin doses through diet, exercise, and weight management.

An article published recently in the journal Nature Genetics reports that a team from deCODE genetics in Iceland has identified a specific marker (TCF7L2) which corresponds to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. In Iceland, where the study was conducted, 33 percent of diabetics had a “risky” form of the gene, while it occured in only 26 percent of non-diabetics. A sample of mostly white Americans turned up 39 percent of diabetics with the “risky” form of the gene, and 25 percent of non-diabetics.