24-09-2010 05:26 Safe Usage of Fat Burners One you have decided that fat burners are going to be a part of your plan to get those pounds off, you need to make sure you are taking this step wisely and safely. Fat burners can be a great way to help you lose weight and keep losing weight, but they can also cause problems if you do not use them properly. Read The Label Before you ever begin taking fat burners make sure you completely read the label and any instructions that come with it. Sometimes there are warnings about certain health conditions or possible interactions that could be related to that fat burner and you need to know of these possible problems before you take them. Medical Conditions If you have medical conditions that you are under a doctor's care for, or are on regular medications, it is smart to talk to your doctor before ever beginning a run of fat burners. You need to make sure that they are safe with the medications you are taking and that your doctor thinks your body is up to handling them. Take The Right Amount A lot of people who start taking fat burners and see results think if the regular dose of pill made them lose three pounds last week, taking extra will help them lose more weight. Don't do this! You should only take the recommended dosage. These supplements have been measured to be safe for the body in the doses that are recommended. Listen To Your Body While fat burners are generally safe to use, you never know what types of things your body is going to have an ...

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Fat Burners To Get You Through A Diet Plateau - Video

Chosen for less calories and great taste, diet soda may cause serious health problems.

A10-year epidemiological study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine has found a connection between diet sodas and cardiovascular disease.

Sodas have been linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome, butthis study founddaily consumption of diet soda to beassociated with a risk of stroke, heart attack and death.

In an interview with The New York Times, Hannah Gardener, an epidemiologist at the University of Miamiand the lead author of the study, said the correlation found may be caused by underlying factors.

The message for diet soft drink drinkers is not to be alarmed, Gardener said. What weve found is an association, and it might be due to chance or other unmeasured variables.

Merrill Christensen, a professor of nutrition, dietetics and food science at BYU, said the study may not be viable because the connection was not strong enough to prove it was statistically significant.

The only significant difference in risk is found when comparing those who drink one or more a day versus those who drink one or less a month, Christensen said. What you want to see in order for a study to be significant is an equal increase in increments.If the soda intake increases from one a week to two a week, then risk of heart disease should increase as well.

Christensen said he does recognize that not drinking sodas may decrease the chances of heart disease.

If you are 70-years-old and go from drinking more than one diet soda a day to drinking no diet soda, it may decrease the risk [of heart disease], Christensen said.It also depends on how healthy you are in the first place.

Susan Fullmer, a BYU professor of nutrition, dietetics and food science, said the study does not provide sufficient evidence because it was an epidemiology study.

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Study finds correlation between diet sodas and cardiovascular disease

Food brings people together. A great deal of bonding can happen over a pot of soup, but when one person wants chicken noodle while the other wants vegetable, it can turn into a food fight - and not of the John Belushi variety.

Couples expect the normal relationship woes - sex, money, respect - but with the growing prevalence of dietary restrictions and interfaith marriages, the kitchen is increasingly turning into an all out turf war.

This shouldn't be a surprise, says psychotherapist Karen Koenig - food is an "anything-but-simple subject."

"How we feed ourselves and each other says a great deal about how we feel about ourselves and our loved ones," says Koenig, who has written four books on eating and weight.

Dean Thompson, 41, of Austin, Texas, and his girlfriend, Amanda Abbott, 39, know the anything-but-simple nature of food all too well. Thompson is a vegan; Abbott is not.

"The first time I brought Dean over to my family's home for a meal and he just put salad on his plate, passing up most of the huge gourmet meal my father had cooked, I remember thinking this might be a problem," says Abbott.

"At first, I knew it was an issue, but did not notice or think of it as such a big issue," says Thompson. "Most people I was around did not eat like me, so it was not so 'weird' for me to be different in that way."

While the couple says there were always moments of contention, Abbott and Thompson said their culinary contingencies reached boiling point when their now 2-year-old daughter was born. They have since started counseling.

At the time, Abbott was struggling to produce enough breast milk for the baby and Thompson suggested they feed their daughter vegan-friendly almond milk.

"Dean did his due diligence in showing me some studies, and after a long discussion with our pediatrician, I surrendered," says Abbott, who admits she is a cheese lover and grew up on cow's milk. "This was extremely hard for me since most of our friends and family were in my ear with their opinions on how crazy it was to only give a growing child almond milk."

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Love is a cattle field: When diets divide relationships

Spring break can bring crazy parties, foreign locations and mountains of homework. Before that sacred week, students take the time to make arrangements and prepare, and when it comes to preparations, N.C. State students are no rookies.

Diana Quetti, sophomore in communications and a University Recreation employee, has noticed a significant increase in gym-goers in the last few weeks.

"You start to see people who have never come in before," Quetti said. "The crowds aren't quite as big as right after the New Year, but there's definitely a difference."

One might expect a greater number of girls increase their workout schedule but Quetti says she sees just as many guys come in this time of year, if not more.

"At NCSU, people are into being healthy and fit," she said. "They want to make sure they're healthy in the long run but still get in shape for a trip to the beach."

Quetti herself hasn't changed her exercise habits but is gearing up for the incoming fashion season instead.

"I'm not going anywhere for [spring] break, so I've got that extra money to update my wardrobe," Quetti said.

Kendra Stowe, sophomore in communication media, is one such health-conscious student and finds that she makes alterations to her workout routine each spring.

"I try to work out every weekday for at least forty minutes," she said. "I mix cardio and weights to make sure I reach my goal."

Feeling good and being healthy is just as important as looking good. With a plethora of strange diets appearing everyday, it's easy to get sucked into the hype of the grapefruit or air diets. Stowe has had a few run-ins with strange eating habits herself.

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Spring break: ready or not, here it comes

Image: Illustration by Thomas Fuchs

The human body harbors at least 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells. Collectively known as the microbiome, this community may play a role in regulating one's risk of obesity, asthma and allergies. Now some researchers are wondering if the microbiome may have a part in an even more crucial process: mate selection and, ultimately, evolution.

The best evidence that the microbiome may play this critical role comes from studies of insects. A 2010 experiment led by Eugene Rosenberg of Tel Aviv University found that raising Drosophila pseudoobscura fruit flies on different diets altered their mate selection: the flies would mate only with other flies on the same diet. A dose of antibiotics abolished these preferencesthe flies went back to mating without regard to dietsuggesting that it was changes in gut microbes brought about by diet, and not diet alone, that drove the change.

To determine whether gut microbes could affect an organism's longevity and its ability to reproduce, Vanderbilt University geneticist Seth Bordenstein and his colleagues dosed the termites Zootermopsis angusticollis and Reticulitermes flavipes with the antibiotic rifampicin. The study, published in July 2011 in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, found that antibiotic-treated termites showed a reduced diversity in their gut bacteria after treatment and also produced significantly fewer eggs. Bordenstein argues that the reduction of certain beneficial microbes, some of which aid in digestion and in the absorption of nutrients, left the termites malnourished and less able to produce eggs.

These studies are part of a growing consensus among evolutionary biologists that one can no longer separate an organism's genes from those of its symbiotic bacteria. They are all part of a single "hologenome."

"There's been a long history of separating microbiology from botany and zoology, but all animals and plants have millions or billions of microorganisms associated with them," Rosenberg says. "You have to look at the hologenome to understand an animal or plant." In other words, the forces of natural selection place pressure on a plant or animal and its full array of microbes. Lending support to that idea, Bordenstein showed the closer the evolutionary distance among certain species of wasps, the greater the similarities in their microflora.

Researchers believe that the microbiome is essential to human evolution as well. "Given the importance of the microbiome in human adaptations such as digestion, smell and the immune system, it would appear very likely that the human microbiome has had an effect on speciation," Bordenstein says. "Arguably, the microbiota are as important as genes."

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A new study suggests that a gluten-free diet could help improve behavioral issues associated with childhood autism like poor attention span and social responsiveness.

The latest study, published in this month's journal Nutritional Neuroscience, adds to an existing body of conflicting and contradictory research on whether or not diet can play a role in autism in children.

One prevailing school of thought is that children with ASD have a higher rate of gastrointestinal symptoms (GI) than the general pediatric population, leading some to believe that gluten -- a protein found in wheat, barley and rye-based products -- triggers GI symptoms and behavioral problems.

The Autism Research Institute, based in California, for instance, recommends the gluten-free diet, saying there's "convincing empirical evidence" that special diets can help autistic individuals.

For their study, researchers developed their conclusions from the survey responses of 387 parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After analyzing the answers to 90 online survey questions that inquired after the kids' GI symptoms, food allergies, suspected food sensitivities and their children's degree of adherence to a gluten-free diet, researchers concluded that a gluten-free diet is more effective in improving ASD behavioral issues in children with GI symptoms and allergies, compared to children who didn't have similar symptoms.

In particular, not only did gluten-free diets improve their kids' GI symptoms -- in the absence of stomach aggravation, parents noted that the diet also helped improve their children's social behaviors like language, eye contact, engagement, attention span, and social responsiveness.

All of which leads the scientists to conclude that autism may be more than just a neurological disease, but also involve the GI tract and the immune system.

"There are strong connections between the immune system and the brain, which are mediated through multiple physiological symptoms," said study co-author Laura Cousino Klein. "A majority of the pain receptors in the body are located in the gut, so by adhering to a gluten-free, casein-free diet, you're reducing inflammation and discomfort that may alter brain processing, making the body more receptive to ASD therapies."

Parents who eliminated both gluten and casein -- a protein most commonly found in milk, butter, and cheese -- long-term also reported greater improved ASD symptoms.

The Penn State study, however, runs counter to a University of Rochester study which found the exact opposite: that eliminating gluten and casein from the diets of children with autism had no impact on behavior, sleep or bowel patterns.

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Gluten-free diet could improve symptoms of autism in children: study