A study of nearly a half-million Americans has found that following cancer prevention guidelines from the American Cancer Society may modestly reduce your overall risk of developing cancer and have a greater impact on reducing your overall risk of dying. Having a healthy body weight and staying active appeared to have the most positive impact.

The observational study–the largest of its kind–by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and its NCI-designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center, found that sticking with the guidelines seems to significantly reduce the risk for developing certain cancers, particularly colorectal cancer in both sexes and endometrial cancer in women. The findings were published online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Those New Year’s resolutions to slim down may be the ironic reason most people don’t shed the extra weight they gain during the holidays, according to a new Cornell University investigation.

The average person packs on just under a pound between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. But those few extra ounces tend to stick to the waistline for years, studies show. Over the course of a lifetime, this slight seasonal weight gain contributes to “creeping obesity” and a host of other health problems. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

‘Tis the season to indulge. However, restraint may be best, according to a new study. The researchers examined the relationship between body weight and life expectancy. Their findings show that overweight and obese individuals have the potential to decrease life expectancy by up to eight years. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s Disease and multiple sclerosis, in which the immune system attacks its own body rather than predatory invaders, affect 5-20% of the global community. A study published recently in Autoimmunity Reviews by Prof. Yehuda Shoenfeld, the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Head of Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, points to the major role obesity plays in triggering and prolonging these autoimmune diseases. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

You might not think of apples as being hard to digest and they’re not. But it turns out that they contain a high percentage of nondigestible compounds that may be helpful in preventing disorders associated with obesity.

Scientists at Washington State University say their study finds that Granny Smith apples are particularly beneficial; they encourage the growth of friendly bacteria in the colon because of their high content of non-digestible compounds, including dietary fiber and polyphenols, and low content of available carbohydrates. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Increasing rates of adolescent obesity and the likelihood that obesity will carry forward into adulthood, have led to various preventive initiatives. It has been suggested that family meals, which tend to include fruits, vegetables, calcium, and whole grains, could be protective against obesity.  In a new study, researchers studied whether frequent family meals during adolescence were protective for overweight and obesity in adulthood. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

It may be possible to train the brain to prefer healthy low-calorie foods over unhealthy higher-calorie foods, according to new research by scientists at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and at Massachusetts General Hospital. Published online today in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes, a brain scan study in adult men and women suggests that it is possible to reverse the addictive power of unhealthy food while also increasing preference for healthy foods. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

It sounds like science fiction, but it seems that bacteria within us — which outnumber our own cells about 100-fold — may very well be affecting both our cravings and moods to get us to eat what they want, and often are driving us toward obesity. Image Credit: Courtesy of UC San Francisco
CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Teenagers who don’t get enough sleep may wake up to worse consequences than nodding off during chemistry class. According to new research, risk of being obese by age 21 was 20 percent higher among 16-year-olds who got less than six hours of sleep a night, compared with their peers who slumbered more than eight hours. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends nine to ten hours of sleep for teenagers.)

Researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Public Health are the first to examine the effect of sleeplessness on obesity in teenagers over time, providing the strongest evidence yet that lack of sleep raises risk for an elevated BMI. Results appear in Journal of Pediatrics. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!