SHR

Let there be no ambiguity, I do not agree with every aspect of the paleo diet. But this does not mean that I am against it. I believe that the paleo diet lays out very simple guidelines that virtually any person can follow with ease, and this in turn serves as an excellent starting point – “blank slate” or “template” if you will – from which a person can experiment and find what works best for their individuality. There is certainly no shortage of anecdotal testimonials to support the notion that “switching to” a paleo diet benefits health and wellbeing, but many of the claims are incredibly hyperbolic and there is literally no way for anyone to know if this was owed to the paleo diet, per se. This is why research exists – to build and organize knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions. So what can we...

Breakfast has long been hailed the most important meal of the day, and a temendous amount of research has been conducted to compare breakfasts of varied quantity or composition. However, recent evidence does indeed suggest that this meal is overrated. As David Levitsky from Cornell University puts it, “Myths abound in nutrition. Many, like the consumption of breakfast, are driven by powerful commercial interests. In the current environment in which the major nutritional problem we face is the increasing prevalence of obesity, we, as nutrition scientists, must consider the possible harm we are doing by perpetuating myths such as the value of consuming breakfast. Surely, eating breakfast adds to the quality of nutrients consumed, but breakfast foods can be eaten at lunch or dinner as well.” This isn’t to say that breakfast is bad, although that argument could be made if you look at what most Americans are eating for breakfast, but...

Eating more veggies doesn’t help those at risk for heart attacks. It is probably one of the most ubiquitous nutrition recommendations in existence – eat more vegetables. Only recently have researchers from Ireland actually put this to the test in overweight-obese men and women. All 89 of the participants were habitual low-veggie consumers with no outstanding medical history other than a blood lipid panel that put them at a high risk for heart disease. Over a 4-week run-in period, all participants consumed <2 servings of vegetables per day (1 serving = 80g), after which they were randomly allocated to consume 2, 4, or 7 portions per day for the following 12 weeks. There were literally no changes in any outcome, including body composition, blood lipids, blood pressure, or C-reactive protein. Reducing saturated fat consumption may reduce the risk of having a heart attack, but it won’t protect you from dying from...

The International Diabetes Federation estimated that over 8.3% of the adult population had type-2 diabetes (T2D) in 2013, with nearly half of them being undiagnosed. Moreover, they estimated that T2D was responsible for 5.1 million deaths, or 8.4% of the global all-cause mortality. In Europe the percentage of all deaths that were attributable to T2D was even higher at 10.2%, and in North America it rose further still to 13.5%. Clearly T2D is taking its toll on our Western population. One potential reason for the increased mortality is poor lifestyle management of the condition. Of the many complications related to T2D, excessive visceral fat (VAT) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are two of the worst. Given the etiology of T2D is commonly related to excessive caloric intake coupled with inactivity, it should come as no surprise that the most effective treatment for T2D is weight loss through diet and exercise....

Should weight loss and maintenance programs be designed differently for men?

In the recently published systematic review from the journal Obesity Research & Clinical practice, Clare Robertson and colleagues sought to answer this very question. They included 22 randomized controlled trials of obese men and women where outcome data was presented separately by sex in each trial and had a duration and/or follow-up of at least one year. The majority of trials considered interventions for weight loss, rather than weight loss maintenance, but none were designed to directly address the research question: do men and women respond differently to weight loss interventions?