The #1 Best Way To Prevent Holiday Weight Gain
It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but it’s the most tempting as well. The holiday season can be an incredible time full of family and friends, your favorite activities, and tons of parties and festivities, but it’s also one of the easiest seasons for your weight loss goals to unravel.
That doesn’t mean you have to pick between enjoying your holiday and losing weight. To learn more about how to have your holiday cake and eat it too, we talked with registered dietitian Laura Burak, MS, RD, author of Slimdown with Smoothies, and founder of Laura Burak Nutrition, about how she helps her clients stay on track during these months.
And according to Burak, the #1 best way to prevent holiday weight gain is by creating balance in your life and indulging when it’s worth it.
Continue reading to learn about incorporating more balance into your diet, and for more healthy eating ideas, make sure to check out 65 Cozy Comfort Foods for Weight Loss.
Diet May Influence The Spread Of A Deadly Type Of Breast Cancer Study Finds
- Date:
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- Summary:
- A single protein building block commonly found in food may hold a key to preventing the spread of an often-deadly type of breast cancer, according to a new multicenter study. Investigators found that by limiting an amino acid called asparagine in laboratory mice with triple-negative breast cancer, they could dramatically reduce the ability of the cancer to travel to distant sites in the body. Among other techniques, the team used dietary restrictions to limit asparagine.
A single protein building block commonly found in food may hold a key to preventing the spread of an often-deadly type of breast cancer, according to a new multicenter study published today in the medical journal Nature.
Investigators found that by limiting an amino acid called asparagine in laboratory mice with triple-negative breast cancer, they could dramatically reduce the ability of the cancer to travel to distant sites in the body. Among other techniques, the team used dietary restrictions to limit asparagine.
Foods rich in asparagine include dairy, whey, beef, poultry, eggs, fish, seafood, asparagus, potatoes, legumes, nuts, seeds, soy and whole grains. Foods low in asparagine include most fruits and vegetables.
If further research confirms the findings in human cells, limiting the amount of asparagine cancer patients ingest could be a potential strategy to augment existing therapies and to prevent the spread of breast cancer, Knott added.
Story Source:
Asparagine Not Asparagus Is Cancer
The study found a chemical compound named asparagine affected the spread of breast cancer. While the study did not show that asparagine caused cancer, it revealed that it made cancer cells that were already present spread more quickly.
Asparagus is a food that contains asparagine, but it turns out that our bodies also produce asparagine. Altering the level of asparagine in your body could affect the spread of already present breast cancer but it is not simply down to cutting out asparagus.
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Worldwide Honey Production And Consumption
Globally, the honey market was worth more than USD 7.5 billion in 2018, and it will reach USD 10.5 billion by 2025 . As regards the geographical production distribution, the Asia Pacific had the biggest market share in 2018. China is the top producer, with a production volume of 490.84 K , followed by Turkey with a production volume of 105.53 K and Iran with a production volume of 80.56 K . This noticeable geographical production growth can be attributed to the regional rise in the supply and demand chain, and also to the growing awareness of consumers regarding the benefits of honey and its advantages over normal sugar. Furthermore, the United States placed the fourth among the top producers of honey, with a production volume of 73.43 K in 2016. The production of honey in the European Union has been increased moderately , which established the EU as the next largest honey supplier after China . The main producers in the EU are Romania, Spain and Germany followed by Hungary, France, Greece, and Poland .
The #1 Best Soup For A Flat Belly
With daylight saving upon us, now we all have to get used to earlier and earlier sunsets and more and more hours without daylight in the evenings. Longer days without sunlight can put a damper on our mood and may even result in more weight gain. On average, research shows that people gain one to two pounds over the winter months.
This can be for a variety of reasons: without as much mood-regulating vitamin D from sun or even bright light exposure, we may feel a bit more down in the dumps, leading to less energy we want to spend on sticking to a healthy diet. If you experience seasonal affective disorder , studies show you may even be prone to eating more calorie-dense carbohydrates, particularly sweets and starch-rich foods, in winter.
But there is a silver lining to living through these chilly winter nightscold weather calls for cozy, comforting soups.
Not only can soups warm you up and satisfy a hungry belly, but they may also help you counteract some weight gain associated with darker days. In fact, one 2020 meta-analysis published in the journal Physiology& Behavior found that the body of existing evidence reveals that soup consumption is significantly related to a lower risk of obesity.
According to Manaker, when eating soup for weight loss, you still need to be cautious of certain types of soup, namely those high in sodium and those with calorically-dense add-ins.
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The More Accurate Story On Asparagine
The more accurate story was that when scientists limited Asparagine in laboratory mice with aggressive breast cancer , they found that the number of secondary tumours in other tissues fell significantly. This is interesting because it is the spread of cancer typically to bones, lungs and brain which is the main cause of death among breast cancer patients.
Research suggests that high Asparagine levels might impact on the ability of cancer cells to spread. So in this study, the scientists tested the effects of changing Asparagine levels in the lab in a number of ways. They “turned off” the gene encoding the enzyme that helps make Asparagine in the body, gave the mice a compound that breaks down Asparagine , or fed the mice a diet that was low in Asparagine . In all three cases, the breast cancer was less likely to spread. When the mice were given food rich in Asparagine , the cancer cells spread more rapidly.
Should I Change My Diet
No, at least not yet.
“At the moment, there is no evidence that restricting certain foods can help fight cancer, so it’s important for patients to speak to their doctor before making any changes to their diet while having treatment,” Cancer Research UK’s head nurse Martin Ledwick said in a statement.
So for now, don’t change your diet purely based on the results of this study.
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How Can I Lower My Chances Of Getting Breast Cancer
Research is being done on ways to prevent breast cancer. Although there is no known way to completely prevent breast cancer, there are ways to lower your risk. These include:
- Drinking less alcohol
- Getting regular exercise
- Staying at a healthy weight
- Breastfeeding
- Talking to your health care provider about hormone replacement therapy, if you take it
Regular check-ups and screening tests can find breast cancer at an earlier stage, when treatment works best. The most important action women can take is to have routine breast cancer screenings.
What Habits Can Help Lower Cholesterol
While contacting a healthcare professional for tips on managing your condition is the best way to start safely lowering your cholesterol levels, research suggests some simple lifestyle interventions can help.
For starters, you’re definitely going to want to reduce your intake of red meat. According to the American Heart Association, if you have high cholesterol, you should reduce saturated fat to less than 6% of total daily calories, which is about 11 to 13 grams of saturated fat.
In addition to cutting back on red meat and saturated fats, you can also make moderate exercise a regular part of your daily habits to lower cholesterol. A 2013 study published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology found that both walking and running were effective at lowering cholesterol levels in individuals with high cholesterol.
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Can You Stop Using Feliway
It is recommended to use Feliway ® Spray with Feliway ® Diffuser for best results. After the rubbing of the cats head on the site has been observed for the first time , you may stop using Feliway ®. You should observe this for at least one month if it is not observed. In case of need, replace the refill.
Can Asparagus Cure Cancer
There arent any clinical trials and observational studies carried out in humans to evaluate the effects of Asparagus intake in Cancer treatment. The studies highlighting the anti-cancer potential of asparagus are either based on the studies done on some of its active ingredients separately or based on the experimental/preclinical studies of asparagus extracts in different cancer models or cell lines. Results from these studies may suggest a possible potential of asparagus in supporting a specific treatment, reducing the cancer biomarkers/conditions or reducing the risk of a specific cancer, encouraging studies in humans, but cannot be considered as evidence for its use for cancer treatment in humans.
Following are some examples of experimental/preclinical studies associated with the use of Asparagus extracts or its key active ingredients in different cancer cell lines/ animal models.
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Do You Need To Take A Zinc Supplement
For those who eat animal-based sources of zinc on a daily basis, supplementing zinc via a multivitamin will likely provide adequate amounts of this nutrient.
However, those who rely on plant-based sources of zinc may benefit from a designated zinc supplement to achieve appropriate zinc levels.
Additionally, using a non-pill form of zinc supplementation when you start to feel symptoms of a cold may be especially beneficial in aiding in reducing symptoms and shortening the duration.
The Claim: Consumption Of Asparagus Can Cure Different Types Of Cancers
An often-shared social media post claims that asparagus has the ability of detoxifying your body of harmful chemicals and can serve as an antidote to cancer. The posting cited an article titled “Asparagus For Cancer” that it said was printed in the Cancer News Journal in December 1979. The article purportedly cited cases of individuals with Hodgkin’s disease, bladder cancer, lung cancer and skin cancer who had been cured via “asparagus therapy.”
However, the way the posting was written made it unclear whether the four cases were attributed to the journal article or whether they were cases cited independently by the person who wrote the post.
In either situation, though, the claim made in the post was straightforward: Consumption of asparagus helped combat various forms of the deadly disease.
Asparagus contains a good supply of protein called histones, which are believed to be active in controlling cell growth, the post stated. For that reason, I believe asparagus can be said to contain a substance that I call cell growth normalizer. That accounts for its action on cancer and in acting as a general body tonic.
Those cancer patients consuming asparagus in various forms could be expected to show some improvement in 2-4 weeks, the posting claimed.
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How Can I Get A Breast Cancer Screening
1) Free breast cancer screening is available for eligible, uninsured New York residents through New York State Cancer Services Program. You may be eligible if you:
- Live in New York State
- Do not have health insurance
- Have health insurance with a cost share that may a barrier to care
- Meet income eligibility requirements
- Meet age requirements
To get more information or to be connected to a Cancer Services Program near you, call 1-866-442-CANCER or visit the Cancer Services Program website to find a program in your area. The call is free, and the service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hablamos español. There are also translation services available for other languages.
If you do not live in New York State, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find a low and/or no cost screening program in your state.
2) Breast cancer screening is an essential health benefit under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so health plans participating in the New York State of Health must cover breast cancer screening tests at no cost to the patient. For more information, go to the New York State of Health: The Official Health Plan Marketplace, or call the help line at 1.855.355.5777 or TTY: 1.800.662.1220
3) Breast cancer screening is fully covered through New York’s Medicaid program.
Compound Found In Asparagus Linked To Spread Of Breast Cancer
Asparagine, an amino acid found in asparagus and many other foods, was shown to aid in the spread of breast cancer to other organs of the body in mice, a new study published in the journal Nature found.
But when a diet light in asparagine was introduced to the animals, the researchers said that the number of malignant tumors outside of the breast tissue, like those found in the bones, lungs and brain, the number one cause of death in people with breast cancer decreased dramatically.
“This is a very promising lead and one of the very few instances where there is a scientific rationale for a dietary modification influencing cancer,” the study’s lead author, Greg Hannon, told The Guardian.
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Adverse Health Impact Of Honey Adulteration
The adverse health impacts of consuming adulterated honey on human health are not completely established yet due to an absence of systematic and scientific studies and lack of public awareness. Pure honey showed significantly lower toxicity due to containing simple sugar and other essential nutrients such as proteins, antioxidants, and minerals . While honey has an antibacterial effect, helping to fight common cold and some digestive problems, the mixture of inverted sugar or jaggery can sometimes restrict the antibacterial properties of honey and lead to stomach disorders . Adulteration harms consumersâ health, which may cause increased blood sugar followed by the release of the insulin hormone and type II diabetes, abdominal weight gain, and obesity, a raise in the level of blood lipid, and high blood pressure .
The kidney serology and toxicology study of rats that consumed adulterated honey for 16 weeks showed kidney damage due to losing their capability to expel creatinine and urea from the serum . In another in vivo study , it was proved that a long-term high sucrose diet may lead to the increment of both urea and creatinine. Meanwhile, Li et al. stated that prolonged consumption of HFCS would lead to ratâs glomerular filtration failure.
Dont Believe All You Read Asparagus Has Not Been Shown To Cause Cancer
Quite strangely, Asparagine, a building block of protein, has hit the news. This followed publication of a study in mice that showed this compound, first identified in asparagus but present in many other foods, may promote the metastases of breast cancer to other parts of the body. This caused a flurry of headlines suggesting asparagus may promote breast cancer, but this is not what the study showed.
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No Asparagus Won’t Give You Cancer
One of the top trending Google searches at the time of this writing was “asparagine,” one of the roughly 20 amino acids that make up the proteins in our bodies and in our food.
Why was this rather boring molecule that biology majors are forced to memorize grabbing international headlines? Because, according to the media, it causes cancer. And where can you find asparagine? It can be found in any food that contains protein — which is a lot of foods — including asparagus, the vegetable after which it was named.
Thus, asparagus causes cancer.
Think I’m joking? I’m not. This headline is from The Times of London:
This article from The Guardian is fairly well explained, but it has an abominable headline:
And this is from Evening Standard:
How Does the Media Get Something So Wrong?
What went wrong on, literally, a global scale? Sloppiness combined with a greater desire for eyeballs and ad revenue rather than telling people the truth.
Here is an abridged version of the abstract from the research paper, along with some added emphasis:
In English, the abstract says that whether a cancer patient’s tumor spreads to other parts of the body is dependent on an enzyme called asparagine synthetase. Our bodies make asparagine, as well as many of the other amino acids that form proteins, and this is one of the enzymes that helps make it. Apparently, the more active this enzyme, the better breast cancer is able to spread. That’s interesting.
Vernacular Names And Etymology
A. officinalis is widely known simply as “asparagus”, and may be confused with unrelated plant species also known as “asparagus”, such as Ornithogalum pyrenaicum known as “Prussian asparagus” for its edible shoots.
The English word “asparagus” derives from classical Latin but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latinsparagus. This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, but the Greek terms are of uncertain provenance: the latter form admits the possibility of a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to jerk, scatter,” directly or via a Persian descendant meaning “twig, branch” but the Ancient Greek word itself, meaning “gully, chasm,” seems to be of Pre-Greek origin instead.
Asparagus was corrupted in some places to “sparrow grass” indeed, John Walker wrote in 1791 that “Sparrowgrass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry”.The name ‘sparrow grass’ was still in common use in rural East Anglia, England well into the twentieth century.
In Turkish, asparagus is known as kukonmaz, literally ” bird won’t land “, in reference to the shape of the plant.
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Mature native asparagus with seed pods in Saskatchewan, Canada
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