Binge eating at night can lead to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

That admonition is suggested by a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology by Nashville researchers suggests.

“We studied insulin sensitivity in mice,” said Carl Johnson, professor in the department of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. “And it turns out that mice are insulin resistant during daytime, which is their inactive period.”

The researchers at Vanderbilt University studied the daily biological clock of mice and found out that mice are inactive during the daytime and active during the night, which is exactly opposite to the human cycle.

“The significance of this study is also to point out that many of these metabolic studies of insulin responses in mice have been done at the wrong time,” considering that mice are inactive during the day, Johnson said.

According to the study, the metabolism rates in mice change during their active and passive periods. Also, when there is insulin resistance, the risk of Type 2 diabetes is higher. Insulin is an enzyme that plays a vital role in regulating the carbohydrate and fat metabolism levels in the body. Insulin resistance, or “lower insulin rates” in the body can lead to Type 2 diabetes, where high blood sugar levels can cause a range of symptoms including frequent urination, weakness, rapid heart beat and loss of appetite.

“In terms of humans, having a biological clock that is active and operating well is important in the way in which our food is metabolized, in terms of gaining weight or developing insulin resistance,” Johnson said.

A number of biological studies show the relationship between eating habits, obesity and diabetes. Other studies conducted by the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania study, have shown that mice gain weight at different rates when given the same amount of calories during different times of day. But the Vanderbilt study about insulin sensitivity in mice provides a more concrete floor to understand the daily biological clock.

The researchers disrupted the biological clock of the mice, by underexposing or overexposing them to light, thus breaking their rhythms. And they discovered that in both cases mice gained more fat and developed insulin resistance –both of which are pre-diabetic symptoms.

“It is indeed a very good study,” said Dr. Hossein Ardehali, an associate professor of medicine, pharmacology and biological chemistry at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. “There have been reports in the past that show that people who have been working nights, have higher risks of diabetes.”

This study, according to Ardehali, clearly has some clinical implications. Our hormones are produced according to our internal work shifts and are secreted during the day and disruption in circadian or daily rhythm can really affect the body, he said.

“With this study, people can become more aware,” Johnson said. “With what they eat, when they eat is also important. So having the main meal at midday is a much healthier option.”

Researchers also said that they believe that this study could help those workers who work different shifts to be more aware and careful about their eating habits. But Johnson said researchers still want to be sure about how well this study translates to humans, which would be researched next.

by Srushti Shah

Its vital that the bariatric patient keep an eye on sugar grams in food!

About 97% of all bariatric surgery patients learn to become very familiar with what is known as the dumping syndrome, which is a way the body tells you that you ate something that you really shouldn’t have eaten. Dumping shows up in many forms from sudden fatigue, to nausea, to vomiting, and even diarrhea. When the dumping comes, take note of what you most recently ate, and do your best to avoid it again.

Many things can cause dumping. Foods containing too much grease, fats, carbs, and sugars CAN make you dump. But the biggest culprit in this short list (yet so many foods have these elements in them), is SUGAR and SUGAR ALCOHOLS.

What exactly are Sugar Alcohols?

Basically, Sugar Alcohols are artificial sweeteners or anything that serves as a sweetener in food but cannot be labeled as a sugar since it isn’t pure sugar.

Sugar Alcohols may not add calories (as real sugar does) to your body, BUT they DO ACT like sugar in the sense they will make the bariatric patient DUMP as if they partook of real sugar. On average, the bariatric patient cannot tolerate more than 12 grams of sugar PER MEAL. Beyond 12 grams of sugar will almost always cause some type of dumping, be it mild or severe. This is why it is essential to add up both the sugar AND the sugar alcohols that are being consumed per meal.

Lets say the food label says the product has 2 grams of sugar and 14 grams of sugar alcohols. Does that mean its safe? It is NOT safe because when the sugar alcohols act just like sugars, in essence, you are consuming 16 grams of sugar-action because you have to ADD the two together since they react in the body the same way. Some diet foods claim to be low in sugar TRUE but then they contain 22 grams of sugar alcohols. This is okay for non-bariatric patients, but a sure dumping in the making for us!

What exactly is Sugar?

Chemically, sugars are carbohydrates. As the body digests food, carbohydrates (except fiber) break down into sugars. We can find sugars in a variety of forms. Sugars just aren’t used to sweeten food: they are also used as natural preservatives and thickeners. Sugars are added to foods during processing and preparation. The body cannot tell the difference between natural sugars and artificial sugars because they are the same in regards to chemical breakdowns.

Incognito Sugars

Watch out for these sugars in disguise! Some are obvious while others are tricky:
Brown sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose (dextrose)
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltose
Molasses
Raw sugar
Table sugar (Sucrose)
Syrup
If you find these things listed on food labels, remember this: the product is likely to be high in sugars if one of the above-mentioned shows first or second in the ingredients list. If several of these are listed, then the product most-definitively will be too high in sugars for the bariatric patient and will cause dumping.

Also, fruits contain natural sugars. And fruits, unlike packaged foods, don’t have convenient wrappers on them revealing any sugar values within them. This is where we have to know how much sugars are in the fruits we eat. Pineapple is one of the highest natural-sugar fruits out there, and grapes are pretty high too. Fruits are good for our system, if taken in moderation. But too much of the natural sugars can also cause an ill effect.

If you haven’t developed the FEAR OF SUGARS by now, then you might be doing yourself an injustice. It is important o know how sugars effect you personally so you can learn how to eat anywhere with confidence. When you begin to understand how sugars affect your system, you can then attend any social event and know what is okay to eat and how much of that party food you can safely eat without causing an embarrassing and inconvenient dumping episode. When you’re dumping, attention is naturally drawn to you because others genuinely care and will inquire about why you’re not feeling well. If you don’t want this kind of attention, then get your Sugar Intake Safety Zone down to a personal science for you so you can always relax and enjoy your food.

Post taken from Balance Diet.biz

It is now known that stress can actually stop you losing weight especially around your middle. Stress can cause your body to secrete high levels of cortisol hormone into your bloodstream, because of your body’s “flight or fight” response to stress. Stress can be either psychological (mental and emotional) or physical.

Cortisol is secreted by the adrenal glands and is actually important for the regulation of blood pressure, the immune system and many other functions. Cortisol can be good in small amounts but high levels can lead to an increase of abdominal fat, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes and can also increase your bad cholesterol levels and decrease your good cholesterol levels.

High levels of cortisol can also decrease your bone density, leading to osteoporosis and loss of muscle tissue, which will also slow down your metabolic rate, and it can also increase your blood pressure along with other problems.

Each of you will react differently to stress; some of you will produce more cortisol to a particular stress while others will produce less. It has been found that those of you that produce more cortisol will actually eat more food as well, in particular carbohydrates.

What you need to do to combat producing too much cortisol is to learn ways to relax and also to maybe change your lifestyle.

Relaxation can be achieved in a number of ways either by exercising, mediation, yoga or breathing to start with.

Maybe one of the easiest and simplest ways is breathing. This is done by gently breathing in through the nose, gently expanding your abdomen and then gently expelling the air through your nose pulling in your abdomen at the same time. Whilst breathing out the air you need to focus on that breath. After several breaths in and out you should start to feel yourself relax. You need to practice doing this exercise a few minutes a day to start with building up to five minutes in the end. You can also practice this when you are feeling stressed or when things are getting on top of you. Just a few minutes can slow your body down and help it to feel relax.

Life style changes can be like changing your eating habits for a healthier diet, getting enough sleep, or even organizing your time more efficiently so that you do not feel so stressed. Also looking after your body will help your body to cope with stresses that you come across during your day.

So if you are exercising frequently and eating properly but still not losing any weight especially from around the middle then maybe you are suffering from high levels of cortisol caused by stress. Look at ways to solve the problem and hopefully then you should see a difference in your weight and around your middle.

Posted by Diet – October 18, 2012 at 6:18 pm