New Delhi: In an era of living life on a fast pace, weight loss is something that weighs on everybodys mind. Having a lean and toned body helps one keep pace with the swift changes happening around.

According to a new study, Obese patients over 60 years can also lose an equivalent amount of weight as younger people and that can be possible by making some changes in ones lifestyle.

The study led by the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust researchers demonstrate that age is no barrier in losing weight.

The findings are based on analysis of patient records from a hospital-based obesity service and are reported in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

The researchers randomly selected 242 patients who attended the WISDEM-based obesity service between 2005 and 2016, and compared 2 groups (those aged under 60 years and those aged between 60 and 78 years) for the weight loss that they achieved during their time within the service.

Researchers used only lifestyle changes tailored to each patient, focusing on their dietary pattern, psychological support and encouragement of physical activity.

Lead author Dr Thomas Barber of Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick said: Weight loss is important at any age, but as we get older were more likely to develop the weight-related co-morbidities of obesity. Many of these are similar to the effects of aging, so you could argue that the relevance of weight loss becomes heightened as we get older, and this is something that we should embrace.

There are a number of reasons why people may discount weight loss in older people. These include an ageist perspective that weight-loss is not relevant to older people and misconceptions of reduced ability of older people to lose weight through dietary modification and increased exercise.

Age should be no barrier to the lifestyle management of obesity. Rather than putting up barriers to older people accessing weight loss programmes, we should be proactively facilitating that process. To do otherwise would risk further and unnecessary neglect of older people through societal ageist misconceptions, he said.

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If you are old and obese both, dont lose heart; you can still shed kilos: Study - Newsroompost

Bananas have long been a lunchbox and brown bag staple. And that's not just because they're an easily portable food item. They're also nutritious and beneficial for your heart, blood sugar, digestion, and more.

Here are five health benefits of eating bananas.

In fact, just one banana can give you 9% of your recommended daily intake (RDI) of potassium and 8% of magnesium. As for vitamin C, a banana might not be the first food to pop into your mind. But the fruit supplies around 11% of your RDI.

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Indeed, bananas, which contain pectin and resistant starch, might actually help lower blood sugar. Richards says that these soluble fibers act in concert with each other by increasing the sensation of satiety, preventing overeating, and slowing the rate of digestion.

Potassium is a double threat. While most people think of it as a mineral, it also functions as an electrolyte. Electrolytes are instrumental for regulating muscle contraction. "Because the heart is a muscle," Moreno says, "potassium and heart health are very closely linked."

Potassium can also help balance sodium levels. Potassium, which monitors fluid inside the cells, has a push-pull relationship with sodium, which controls the fluid outside the cells. Too little potassium and too much sodium means more fluid and a higher blood volume in the bloodstream. This increases blood pressure with an added risk of heart attack and stroke.

Moreno says that the banana has become "very stigmatized in diet culture" because of its carbohydrate content. "People vilify them. But we don't have weight issues because of bananas."

In fact, the fruit might actually help you feel fuller, faster. The combination of pectin and resistant starch delays stomach emptying, leading you to eat less calories, Richards says.

When it comes to gut health, bananas both give and take away. Green, or greener, bananas can promote constipation, "due to the higher amount of resistant starch and pectin," Richards says, which both slow down your stomach's digestive process.

Bananas also contain insoluble fiber: The insoluble fiber absorbs and processes nutrients, while the soluble fiber creates soft bulk for the body to clear toxins from the digestive system.

Link:
5 scientifically-backed benefits of bananas for weight loss, heart health, and more - Business Insider India

Avoid eating processed food to prevent being overweight

Weight loss: Here's a shocking piece of news. As many as four billion people are likely to be overweight by 2050. 1.5 billion of these people are likely to be obese, if the current global dietary trends towards processed foods continues. Experts from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) warned of health and environmental crisis of "mind-blowing magnitude" and said that the global food demand would increase by 50% by 2050. It was predicted that 16% of the population will be obese, as compared to 9% currently among 29% of the population who are overweight.

"The increasing waste of food and the rising consumption of animal protein mean that the environmental impact of our agricultural system will spiral out of control," said Benjamin Bodirsky, lead author of the study published in Nature Scientific Reports.

Also read:Obesity And Overweight: Yoga Expert Explains Ways To Fight Obesity

Time and again, nutritionists and health experts have advised to follow a healthy lifestyle as an effective way to prevent getting obese or overweight. Here are some tips that can help:

1. Eat homemade food for most, if not all of your meals. Home-cooked food is devoid of additional flavours, trans fat and other adulterants that are usually found in processed, packaged, junk and fast food.

2. Avoid following fad diets or diets that are restrictive in nature. They may help you lose weight in the short-term, but can cause nutritional deficiencies in the long-term.

3. Make sure your diet is well-balanced and diverse, and includes all food groups: carbs, protein, fats and fibre. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, lentils, legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains on a daily basis.

4. Eat according to your locality and culture, and eat seasonal foods. This is an effective way to facilitate diversity in your diet, as recommended by celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar.

Also read:Weight Loss Diet: This Is What A Nutritionist Eats In A Day To Maintain Her Weight

5. Eat small and frequent meals and practice portion control. Delhi-based Nutritionist Nmami Agarwal says that it can help in preventing unnecessary cravings and keep you satiated and energised throughout the day.

6. Avoid refined sugar in all forms. Enjoy festivities, celebrations and holidays but do not overeat. Stick to healthier sugar alternatives like honey, dates, coconut sugar and jaggery on regular days.

Avoid eating sugary foods and desserts to maintain a healthy weightPhoto Credit: iStock

7. Exercise regularly and be physically active. Avoid long hours of sitting. For every 30 minutes of sitting, stand straight on both your feet for 3 minutes. Do moderate-intensity exercise for 30 minutes every day or minimum five days a week.

8. Make sure you sleep well at night. Not sleeping well at night or being sleep deprived can be problematic for you in several ways. It can interfere with your weight loss goals, increase your cravings and make you feel tired and fatigued all day.

Also read:Tips To Sleep Well: 5 Diet And Lifestyle Tips That Can Promote Deep Sleep

9. Stay hydrated and drink lots of water and other hydrating drinks like lemon water or coconut water. Being hydrated is important to maintain electrolyte balance in the body. It also helps in preventing constipation and other digestion-related issues, and can also prevent headache and fatigue.

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10. Take less stress. Stress can lead to hormonal imbalance which can wreak havoc on your health. Lifestyle coach Luke Coutinho recommends practicing yoga and meditation. He also says that you must avoid giving a reaction to every stressful situation that you come across.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.

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Over 4 Billion People May Be Overweight By 2050: Study; Follow These 10 Tips For Weight Loss That Won't Fail - NDTV Doctor

One of the latest buzzy slim-down methods is the Warrior Diet, a form of intermittent fasting that is kind of, well, intense. Intermittent fasting is a way of eating in which you restrict what you eat (often fasting completely) during a set amount of time during the day, and chow down during only a certain number of hours. It's gotten a lot of attention over the past few years and the Warrior Diet takes it to an extreme. Keep reading for a look into this diet, with advice from the Good Housekeeping Institute's Registered Dietician on whether or not it's a healthy plan to try.

First of all, though the Warrior Diet is trendy(ish) right now, its not new: Its based on a book by Ori Hofmekler, first published in 2001 and its worth noting that hes neither a doctor nor a dietician. A former member of the Israeli Special Forces, he had an interest in nutrition and came up with this plan, which he claimed was based on the habits of ancient warriors. Also important to note: The Warrior Diet isnt based on any sort of scientific research. Hofmekler's contention was that the diet would give you "high energy, explosive strength, and a leaner, harder body."

Basically, on the Warrior Diet you eat very little (and specific foods) for 20 hours out of the day, and for the other 4 hours you eat as much as you want, with no calorie limits. But there are limits on the types of things you can eat: Throughout the diet, processed foods are discouragedso no candy, chips, fast or fried food, or sugar-packed drinks. "Although the diet does encourage more nutrient-dense foods, youre technically allowed to eat whatever you want in the 4-hour feeding window as the emphasis is more on timing, says Stefani Sassos, RDN, the Good Housekeeping Institutes Registered Dietician. But a tight feeding window, coupled with a laundry list of restricted foods, can make this diet difficult to start and sustain.

In the book, Hofmekler outlined a 3-week phase in period:

Phase one is the detox week. During the 20-hour period, you can have small amounts of certain foods (like raw fruits and veggies, hard boiled eggs, dairy in small quantities), plus water, coffee, and tea. Then during the 4-hour eating period, its suggested that you have a salad with oil and vinegar, along with plant-based, preferably unprocessed, foods (like beans and cooked vegetables), and wheat-free grains.

During phase two (which also lasts one week), the foods in the 20-hour period stay the same, but some fats and protein (such as lean meats and nuts) are added during the 4-hour period. Grains are off the list this week.

During phase three, the third week, the 20-hour foods remain the same; for the 4-hour window, people alternate between higher and lower carb days over the course of the week.

After those three phases, Hofmekler suggested that people repeat the pattern of phase one/two/three. But those on the Warrior Diet often just follow a 20:4 pattern (eating very little or nothing, except during the 4-hour window) after completing the three phases, focusing on high protein and low carb foods and sticking with a low-processed diet.

In this version, the 20:4 breakdown stays the same but during the 20-hours, people fast completely, and then eat whatever they want during the 4-hour window. As should be obvious, this is super-unhealthy: It encourages calorie restriction as well as binging on foods that may well have no nutritional value. In other words, people could end up eating too many calories and still not get the nutrients they optimally need. Cramming a days worth of nutrition into four hours can be very difficult, says Sassos, and theres also the issue of how much nutrition your body can absorb in one sitting. The biggest caveat with this approach, in my opinion, is that it can lead to a binge-restrict cycle and a negative relationship with food. And life happens: A social event or a work lunch may force you to break the fast, leaving you feeling defeated and prompting poor dietary choices since you already fell of the wagon.

When it comes to intermittent fasting specifically, there have been a lot of reported upsides, including weight loss and improved blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol, as well as reduced inflammation and improved brain healthbut most of the research has been done on rats. Experts agree that more research on these benefits is needed on humans. Some studies on humans have found that as a weight-loss method, certain types of intermittent fasting are safe and effective, but not any more effective than other diets. None of these studies, however, focused on the extreme form of intermittent fasting thats used in the Warrior Diet. (Other studies that are often cited to boost the supposed benefits of intermittent fasting were tiny with too few participants, were conducted on specific groups like trained athletes, or were conducted over a decade ago. Again, experts cite the need for additional research.) Although there is quite a bit of research on the benefits of intermittent fasting specifically the 16:8 method there is nothing that supports the Warrior Diet specifically, says Sassos.

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From a nutritional stand point, the Warrior Diet isnt an optimal choice. For one thing, a healthy diet includes a variety of nutrients, and it can be hard to achieve that during the limited time frame when one is allowed to eat. And when you dont get enough nutrients in your diet, your immune system and your energy levels, among other things, take a hit. Many people lose weight on intermittent fasting diets because they are simply eating less calories overall in their feeding window, says Sassos. And with a super restrictive time frame like 4 hours, it can be difficult to get 100% of your macronutrient and micronutrient needs in. If youre going to try the Warrior Diet, for certain you should be taking a multivitamin to make sure youre at least meeting basic vitamin and mineral quotas for the day. And try your best to get a wide variety of nutritious foods from all food groups during feeding time.

While the Warrior Diet itself hasnt been studied, research on various types of intermittent fasting has shown that it can bring on disordered eating in some people, as well as menstrual irregularities and mental-health issues such as depression. While I do believe that sticking to a time to fast overnight can be beneficial, the Warrior Diet takes restricted timing to a whole new level and can have some pretty scary side effects, like low blood sugar, fatigue, and digestive issues, says Sassos. You may end up constipated; and if your blood sugar is knocked askew, it can bring on brain fog and irritability, among other things.

Another downside: This type of restricted eating can be very hard to work into ones everyday life, which may include family and social occasions, and just being a person in the world. And of course, it can be hard to stick to a strict diet when ones hunger pangs are sending them a signal to eat!

In the original book, Ori Hofmekler included workout recommendations specifically, both strength and speed training. If youre fasting or restricting calories, however, neither of those are wise recommendations. As a personal fitness trainer, Im very weary of active people especially those who work out regularly skipping meals so frequently, says Sassos. If youre fasting or restricting calories, you may not have enough fuel in the engine to power through your workout, which can lead to you feeling faint or even passing out. And more importantly, its important to eat a balance of protein and carbohydrates post-workout to help repair muscle tissue. If you work out in the morning and dont start your feeding window until later in the day, this can have a severely negative impact on your exercise recovery and wont optimize your athletic performance.

The original Warrior Diets emphasis on whole, unprocessed foods is good advice, but all in all, the best healthy eating plan is one that works with your lifestyle and that you can sustain in the long-term says Sassos. Its also one that is easy to stick with, and simple to incorporate into your life.

If you find yourself falling into a binge/restrict cycle and a negative relationship with food and your body, its time to consciously unsubscribe from this type of diet mentality, says Sassos. Healthy eating should be about abundance and all of the amazing nutritious foods youre adding into your diet, as opposed to taking away and restricting yourself. And your body needs time to digest food and absorb nutrients, so cramming everything into a short feeding window may take a toll. Remember: There is no one size fits all approach to nutrition everyones body is different and unique. The Warrior Diet is certainly not for women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, people with a history of disordered eating, children, or people with a history of diabetes or hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

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What Is the Warrior Diet? - Warrior Diet Benefits, Risks, and Meal Plan - GoodHousekeeping.com

The concept of a perfect body, although fictitiously set by societal standards, is one that many aspire to understand, achieve, and maintain. Whenever we think of a perfect body to flaunt at the upcoming cousins wedding or a summer beach vacation, we often tend to focus on our body weight and muscle mass.

Watch this video by Sipping Thoughts to hear renowned dietician and nutritionist, Dr. Tina Sapra, talk about why losing weight can be a task, what is water weight, how to choose the right diet, and how to eat the right food, at the right time and in the right quantity.

Dr. Sapra picks up questions that many of you might have thought of but never got your answers.

You might have wondered how your friend could lose weight with half an hour of walking. Whereas, you might take longer durations of walks in addition to some cardio exercises. You may have even tried power yoga yet you lose the same amount of weight as her even after all the extra efforts that you put in.

This is because every individual possesses a different metabolism. The Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the rate of energy expenditure per unit of time. It depends entirely on factors like your age, gender, height, and the kind of activities you do.

While your friend may have a fast metabolic rate, you might need to increase yours to burn as many calories as her in the same amount of time.

The diet plays a role of equal importance, if not more, to improve your metabolic rate. You may have heard your friends going on crash diets or keto diets. Although these diet plans are effective in weight loss, they are not the best. You would be surprised to know that you may not need to change what you eat at all! In fact, it is advisable to stay as close to your lifestyle as you can. All your favorite aloo parantha breakfasts and spicy red sauce pasta can still be a part of your life. All you need to do is one simple trick- ration your intake by controlling your portion sizes.

Find out what you need to do or maybe doing wrong. You will reach your destination soon!

Published: November 20, 2020 7:52 pm

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Reasons you are not losing weight and how to fix them - TheHealthSite

For many people, the coronavirus pandemic has changed their nutrition and exercise habits. One app helping people track their food and lose weight is called Lifesum. The company has scaled rapidly to 45 million users and boasts partnerships with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Nike (NYSE:NKE).

Fool.com's Healthcare and Cannabis Bureau Chief Corinne Cardina chatted with Lifesum's CEO Henrik Torstensson about the digital health and wellness space.

Corinne Cardina: Hello, Henrik, how are you?

Henrik Torstensson: Hi, I'm good. How are you?

Cardina: I'm so good. I am Corinne Cardina. I'm the Bureau Chief of Healthcare and Cannabis on fool.com. Fools, I've got with me today Henrik Torstensson, CEO of Lifesum, a digital health service. Henrik, did I say your name right?

Torstensson: It's Henrik, it's good.

Cardina: Great. We are going to talk about Lifesum today, but we're also going to talk about investing in the digital health space and what investors should know about the intersection of technology and wellness. I do want to let our viewers know that we're testing out a Q&A service called Slido. We use it at The Fool internally, we think you'll really like it. You can open up Slido in your browser or the app and the code is MFlive. You can submit questions, upvote other people's questions that you want to see us answer. Let's start out with learning about Lifesum. Henrik, could you give us a brief history of how you co-founded this company, what it is, what inspired you to start Lifesum and what stage of growth your company is in today?

Torstensson: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. We got started back in 2013. For us, digital health has been a couple of years and always exploding this year. What we do is that our mission is to improve lives through better eating. We help people eat better and manage their weight, and we have 45 million members. The U.S. is our biggest market, and we help people manage their weight and eat better by providing a digital service in apps for iPhone, Android phones, Amazon Halo, and other mass-market digital services.

Cardina: Great. We'll talk a little bit more about Amazon Halo later, a very exciting development there. But for our investors who are familiar with the digital health industry, I'd love to put Lifesum in context with some of the names that we are familiar with. There's traditional weight loss companies like Weight Watchers, and we like to give the takers when we're talking about public companies. I'm just going to put that in the chat. There's Weight Watchers, it used to be people would show up to the clinic. There was definitely an in-person social component. They've certainly pivoted more digitally in recent times, now it's called WW International (NASDAQ:WW). Then there are digital-first psychology based weight loss apps, and I think Lifesum falls more on this side of things. The one I'm familiar with was Noom. I'd love to hear what is unique about Lifesum and where does it fit in the digital health, and specifically the weight loss side of things?

Torstensson: What we've built is something that's popular both in Europe and the U.S., which is quite unique, 45 million members, and what we built is a service that allows our users to take a personalized approach to how they eat, so that might be that you want to eat a balanced diet, you want to have a high protein diet, you want to do intermittent fasting. We think that's really key to attract the millennial and Generation Z audiences where we do care No. 1, and so what we've done, we've built a service with great design, a brand that has built a lot of trust and destigmatized actually changing how you literally eat better and healthier. That's one of the things with millennials and Generation Z, it's not the weight watchers of 20 years ago, it's really about eating better, and the drivers of that are many.

Cardina: Yeah, that's so true. How has the health and wellness industry evolved over the last couple of decades, and more recently, how has the coronavirus pandemic impacted how people view their health and the role of technology?

Torstensson: Healthcare and wellness is obviously an enormous part of the economy. It's $2 trillion in the U.S. alone. It's probably maybe the biggest market we have. In digital, it's been ramping up, but it's been a fairly slow start because it's a complex system. You have individuals, you have insurance companies, you have state governments, federal governments that all have interests. It was picking up speed. This year with COVID and Corona, that really the same way we all ended up on Zoom for most of the year, and that really made having virtual meetings really a default way of operating. Healthcare is coming in the same way that it's really taking a step from, OK, this is happening a little bit at the edges, to becoming this central thrust of healthcare and the overall market.

Cardina: Yeah, great point. We've seen digital health disrupting a lot of historical industries like pharmaceuticals and health insurers. What do you think investors should know about traditional healthcare companies as they invest for the future?

Torstensson: I think investors should think that this is an enormous market, digital is really happening now, it's picking up speed, and it's growing quite fast, especially for such an important -- and for good reasons -- regulated industry. You have telemedicine, you have online pharmacies, you have across-the-board, really, digitalization coming both on the traditional aspects and doing things that couldn't be done before technology, that if you were a doctor 10-15 years ago, you would probably pinch yourself that do I actually have access to this type of data that consumer products like Apple Watch or Amazon Halo has today? If you look at other industries, media, commerce, they were far further along, obviously they also got a bump this year from COVID with the lockdowns, but it's the same thing happening to healthcare and wellness, and it's just an enormous industry. I think that's the big thing to think about.

Cardina: Absolutely. Do you think we're just starting to see how technology can disrupt the healthcare industry? Are we in the early stages?

Torstensson: I think we are in the early stages. Obviously, how technology is used within healthcare is probably still going to be regulated even if it feels disruptive, maybe for many participants. But it's also that the technology that was only available for hospitals 10-15 years ago in a reasonable user-friendly way is moving out to our phones and to our watches and blood oxygen levels, etc., that you're actually getting for very standard home electronics or smartphone devices.

Cardina: Yeah, absolutely. Your company has scaled incredibly fast; you said 45 million users. I think in the recent months, you guys saw 700,000 downloads. What is your guiding philosophy about leading a rapidly growing start-up?

Torstensson: It's really to start building a great product for users, because the thing that really drives any start-up in any companies is that you're serving customers; but with that as a focus, hire great people, trust them to do great work, and then find out great partners to really give an extra boost to the growth and reaching out to consumers.

Cardina: Yeah, definitely. Partnership has been a big strategy for Lifesum. The company has developed some really impressive partnerships with big tech companies, notably Amazon recently. Can you tell us more about Amazon Halo?

Torstensson: I'm very happy to be one of the nine launch partners for Amazon Halo, which is Amazon's new health device and program that is coming this fall. They're really interested in taking a very holistic approach to health and we are their nutrition partner on the lab side.

Cardina: Great. What does that mean? How does that work in practice?

Torstensson: With Amazon Halo, when you want to change your approach to nutrition and food, they have a part of the service called labs where we've made the content and the program that the subscribers and users of Amazon Halo are using to actually go on and change how they eat.

Cardina: Okay. It's an education component?

Torstensson: It's an interactive education component. You pick something you want to do and then there's this daily guidance to actually help you do that.

Cardina: Awesome. That's super exciting for you all. The Amazon Halo, it harnesses artificial intelligence to inform what we know about our bodies. What excites you about artificial intelligence in the healthcare space?

Torstensson: What I think is so fascinating and really promising is that there's this great amounts of data, and we collect hundreds of millions of data points every month from our 45 million users, and with artificial intelligence we are able to personalize the experience for individuals and actually dig out what we will learn from others to actually make it easier for everyone to live healthier lives.

Cardina: Great.

Torstensson: Get sick or get really on the preventive side, which is probably the best thing if you get it right.

Cardina: Yeah, absolutely. What might you say to folks who are skeptical that tech companies will protect their most private data, their biometrics, their health information?

Torstensson: I can only speak for Lifesum and we always start with users' rights and privacy. We collect the data that the user gives us to actually provide a service, and if they want us to share that with other services to make their lives better, we think that's fine, but it's not for us to go and share that data without user consent.

Cardina: Great, very important. I enjoyed looking around that Lifesum social media. It looks like social media is an important component of your strategy, really educating folks on some timely wellness trends, education. I saw an explainer on intermittent fasting, which is something I've been really interested in recently as well. What do you think about social media and the role it's playing in Lifesum's success?

Torstensson: To us, it's a digital service, and as eight years old, as a digital-native company with the millennial generation, it's obviously a core part of what we do and how we interact with our membership. It's important, but there are our partnerships as we discussed before. So it's really the mix of finding a great product, great social media, great partnerships, to make the magic source.

Cardina: Absolutely. How do you envision the future of digital health? What trends do you think will continue to gain momentum once the coronavirus pandemic subsides?

Torstensson: I think one thing that I'm really excited about, what we're doing is actually one of the AI-driven products, it's predictive tracking. By looking at everyone else that's used Lifesum and what you have done before as an individual user, we can actually predict what you're going to eat and that really creates this magical fluent experience. That level of being a daily part of a user's life is really exciting. I think that one segment of digital health that really got this pushed, which I think will stay with us and continue to grow is really telemedicine. I think that's going to stay with us because it's just more convenient for a lot of interactions with our doctors.

Cardina: Yeah, absolutely. Lifesum is all about eating, right? Eating is a big part of our lives. When you're ready to make a big change in your life for your health, food has a really big part of that. How does Lifesum help users change their way of living for the better as it pertains to food, nutrition, and eating?

Torstensson: We're all about food and nutrition and what we're saying is we want to improve lives through better eating; nutrition is the numbers aspect, but it's really about emotions and actually how we were brought up, our culture that impacts what and how we eat. What we do is we help users and we say it's really about the user. It's about being personalized, which way actually works for each individual. It might be intermittent fasting that you're interested in, that is something that you want to go down that road. Then we bring in the best knowledge, build a great experience, actually make that really, really easy.

Cardina: Excellent. What does the interface of Lifesum look like? Is it planned menus? Is it for people to track what they're eating and look at calories and the macro breakdown? I'd love to just hear about it from a user perspective.

Torstensson: It's a mix of that. We have a food tracker and you can search, you can use our barcode scanners or our image recognition to actually take a photo of what you're eating to pick that up, and then we'll give you individual feedback on that. That feedback differs depending on what your goal is, if you're trying to lose some weight or if you're trying to eat healthier or if you're trying to build muscle or gain weight, depending on if you're on intermittent fasting or high-protein or a balanced diet, actually what you want is very different feedback and that's what we built with our food rating algorithms. Then we also have recipes. We have plans that tell someone gets going. What we know is that if we look at 30 days of using Lifesum, you really moved. Even if you start out with very little understanding of nutrition and food and how what you eat impacts your health, after 30 days, you have taken an enormous step in understanding that.

Cardina: Yeah. I love looking at the data on all of my different wellness apps. When I go for a run, I love to see, did I go a little bit longer, a little bit faster than the last time? I think that touch point probably makes the product really sticky so your users continue to use the app for a long period of time. They don't just forget about it and move on. Is that right?

Torstensson: Yeah, absolutely. We have very loyal users. Sometimes people use it for a while. They use it to understand. We're nutrition partners of Nike, and as an example, really, if you're going to run a marathon or longer race, understanding what you eat and how you eat and how that impacts your performance is really critical.

Cardina: Yeah, absolutely. Are there any other partnerships beyond Amazon Halo that Lifesum has created that you'd like to talk about?

Torstensson: We're very proud and happy of being the nutrition partner of Nike, which we've been now for a little bit more than a year and obviously, an iconic company, then we are very happy with more of maybe relationships and partnerships with Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL), Google(NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), and where we were part of the presentation on the WWDC Developers Conference this summer with our new widget which is part of the latest iOS.

Cardina: Awesome. We did get a question in from Andy pertaining to how the app works. What is the technology used to build menus for participants and the database of foods? It sounds really cool. You take a picture of food and the app recognizes what it is. How does that work technologically?

Torstensson: When you take a picture, then you're using actually artificial intelligence to do image recognition, and there are a few different ones depending on the platform, what you use; then, on menus, etc. that you find in the app, we have our in-house staff of nutritionists and a chef that helps us build that out so it's both healthy and delicious.

Cardina: Awesome. We have a user named Jayful who said, "I haven't heard of Lifesum. How do people first find you?" You said it's available on iOS.

Torstensson: iPhone and Android, you just go to the App Store and search for Lifesum and download us. Most people hear about us through word-of-mouth. For the U.S. market, we just got started four years ago and we've been operating for eight, but it's already our biggest market, so we're still in a growth phase in the U.S.

Cardina: Awesome. I'd like to talk a little bit more about the U.S. market in digital health. On Fool.com, we're investors, so we love to look at some of the public companies and the digital health companies, particularly in telehealth, that's been a big buzzword this year, we have been on a pretty wild ride since the pandemic began. The telehealth pioneer, Teladoc (NYSE:TDOC), is at more than 200% since the start of March, reflecting its record setting number of telehealth visits. There's Veeva Systems (NYSE:VEEV), which sells cloud software for life sciences companies, that's up 300% since March. Primary care chain One Medical, their parent company, 1Life Health (NASDAQ:ONEM), IPO'd earlier this year, it's up 30%. So, I'm loving all of your insight on the digital health industry and I would love to know, what do you think about these types of stocks? Are they overhyped? Are they fairly valued? Or do you think we're just seeing the beginning and so they're really trading at a bargain still?

Torstensson: I think that's obviously the million-dollar question. I can look at it as an operator. The healthcare market is enormous in itself. Digital is really happening. As with any market, when you have those two combinations and through demand from users and consumers, payers, there's going to be winners and losers. So then, you need to go in and look at individual companies. I have spent 110% of my time on operating Lifesum so I can't go in and say, this is going to be the winner, this is not going to be the winner. But I'd be extremely surprised if there aren't multiple winners in this sector.

Cardina: Absolutely.One question is, this is from Mike Migliore, "How does your technology compare to the tech used by Fitbit?" This viewer says that they seem similar on the face.

Torstensson: What are you saying, developed for Android or iOS? I can't really speak on exactly how Fitbit's technology is built.

Cardina: Yeah, I hear you. Fitbit seems like it's more in the exercise side of things, and Lifesum is more about the nutrition. It sounds like together they could be excellent tools for someone who is trying to really take charge of their health and have better outcomes.

Torstensson: We support Fitbit integration within Lifesum. So, I think that's correct that they are more on the exercise movement side and we're 100% focused on delivering a really great experience, some food and nutrition.

Cardina: Awesome. So, I'm curious to hear about your personal nutrition journey. Is there any type of food that you love to eat that keeps you healthy? I'm a big foodie and home chef myself, so I love to hear ideas.

Torstensson: So my problem, and that's part of why I got involved with Lifesum, is I really love food, great food. So I probably eat a little bit too much. But I think it really goes back to finding a daily rhythm for at least most of the week for me to stay healthy, and it's about being a little bit smarter through breakfast, lunch, dinner, especially during the week. I have a sweet tooth as well, bread is my weakness, so for me, it's a lot about moderating that side to become a little bit healthier.

Cardina: Yes, absolutely. No one says you can't have bread, but maybe not bread with every meal every day.

Torstensson: No, but I think, and that's a lot around health and food, that it's actually not these enormous changes or crash diet approach, which is actually very hard to sustain. It's about finding a balance that's healthier than the one you have now if you're unhappy with your current health status.

Cardina: Right. A lot of the progress really happens on the margins if you can just get 10% better in a lot of ways, it can have an outsized impact. That's what I've found in my own health journey as well.

Torstensson: It will be a little bit like investing, that you have these compounding returns. You find the right balance and then it just builds.

Cardina:I love that connection, that's so true. So, to get back to investing a little bit, what is one thing our viewers should know about their own wellness in light of the pandemic? Do you have any favorite takeaways to share, whether it's about work-life balance, self love and acceptance, education, or even just that it's OK to have cake every once in a while? What do you think?

Torstensson: I think one of the takeaways from the pandemic specifically is actually that being overweight or obese actually seems to be one of the clear risk factors of getting a worse COVID experience. It's actually a good thing to think about, what am I eating, how is that impacting my health? Because that's one of the things we actually can impact seemingly when it comes to the pandemic.

Cardina: Yeah, that's so true. I think for a lot of us, the pandemic has made us feel very out of control. What I love about digital health apps as it pertains to exercise or nutrition is it can really make you feel in control and really give you your power back in a very stressful situation.

Torstensson: I fully agree.

Cardina: Awesome. So, are there any exciting developments coming up for Lifesum that you would like to talk about, maybe new partnerships, anything along those lines?

Torstensson: So for us, it's two months to the New Year, so we're heads down building the new version of Lifesum and working on new things. But I spent 20 years in digital, learnt that you should not pre-announce before you're actually done. I think that's a hard-learned lesson from before. So we're looking very much forward to continue to serve our users and add way more than 700,000 users per month over the next couple of months.

Cardina: Awesome. What is your marketing strategy behind that? Do you do most of the marketing on social media? Any thoughts there?

Torstensson: We always start with the product. I think for any digital product, that's where you really need to start because word-of-mouth, especially online, is so powerful. But we use social media, we use paid advertising, we use partnerships and we think that actually doing all of them well is one of the things that have driven us to, soon, 50 million users.

Cardina: Yeah, absolutely. When something works, you want to tell everybody about it. You said you spent a lot of time in digital. What were you doing before Lifesum?

Torstensson: So, just before Lifesum I headed the consumer subscription business at Spotify. So, almost 10 years ago now, just when Spotify was starting out. So I ran that for three years, and before that, I was with the company called Stardoll that was the biggest gaming in community website for teen and tween girls globally.

Cardina: Cool. I feel like, with a lot of apps like Lifesum, there is a gaming component. Do you think you learned a lot there that you've brought to Lifesum?

Torstensson: Absolutely. I think there are a few key learnings that we brought from entertainment into digital health. One is that it's about what the thumb wants to do, it needs to be fun. Also, it's really about giving good feedback, which gaming is about; you do something and you get the feedback, that is fun and you want to do more, and that's really part of great digital product design, health, wellness, gaming, whatever you're trying to build.

Cardina: Right, it really activates that reward pathway. I eat a salad, Lifesum tells me great job, I feel better than if I had a cheeseburger, and you repeat the process. Does that sound right?

Torstensson: That sounds about right.

Cardina: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Henrik. Is there any last thing you want to say?

Torstensson: Thank you for having me. If anyone that's listening hasn't downloaded Lifesum, please do so.

Cardina: Absolutely. I know I'm going to enjoy using it. Thank you so much. Well, have a great afternoon.

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Ask A Digital Health CEO: How Has Coronavirus Changed The Wellness Industry? - Motley Fool

Bananas contain lots of potassium, which functions as an electrolyte and nutrient. fitri iskandar zakariah/Getty Images

Bananas have long been a lunchbox and brown bag staple. And that's not just because they're an easily portable food item. They're also nutritious and beneficial for your heart, blood sugar, digestion, and more.

Here are five health benefits of eating bananas.

A single medium banana offers 110 calories with zero fat. It also provides the following:

"Bananas are well known for their potassium content, but there are other vitamins and minerals that deserve some attention as well. The banana provides a significant source of B6 and fiber, which play vital roles in important functions of the body like reducing cholesterol and balancing mood," says Lisa Richards, a certified nutrition consultant.

In fact, just one banana can give you 9% of your recommended daily intake (RDI) of potassium and 8% of magnesium. As for vitamin C, a banana might not be the first food to pop into your mind. But the fruit supplies around 11% of your RDI.

The idea that people with prediabetes or diabetes should avoid eating sweet fruit is a myth, as long as you're staying within your carbohydrate needs. This is about one-half of a Cavendish, which is the most ubiquitous banana type.

Indeed, bananas, which contain pectin and resistant starch, might actually help lower blood sugar. Richards says that these soluble fibers act in concert with each other by increasing the sensation of satiety, preventing overeating, and slowing the rate of digestion.

In addition, the glycemic index (GI) of a banana is 30 to 60, depending on ripeness. The glycemic index measures how carbohydrates in foods will alter blood sugar, from a scale of 0 to 100. "The lower the GI, the less likely the food will cause a rapid spike," Richards says. For a lower GI, eat greener fruit.

"The key is to pair the carb source with protein and fat. Otherwise the blood sugar will spike and then go down," says Monica Auslander Moreno, MS, RDN, the lead dietitian at Miami's Essence Nutrition. She suggests combining high-carb bananas with eggs, yogurt, or peanut butter.

Potassium is a double threat. While most people think of it as a mineral, it also functions as an electrolyte. Electrolytes are instrumental for regulating muscle contraction. "Because the heart is a muscle," Moreno says, "potassium and heart health are very closely linked."

Potassium can also help balance sodium levels. Potassium, which monitors fluid inside the cells, has a push-pull relationship with sodium, which controls the fluid outside the cells. Too little potassium and too much sodium means more fluid and a higher blood volume in the bloodstream. This increases blood pressure with an added risk of heart attack and stroke.

A 2017 review found that potassium supplements reduced blood pressure for people with hypertension, or high blood pressure. Because of the research on potassium and high blood pressure, FDA has approved the following health claim:, "Diets containing foods that are a good source of potassium and that are low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure and stroke." The analysis noted that bananas are especially high in potassium.

Moreno says that the banana has become "very stigmatized in diet culture" because of its carbohydrate content. "People vilify them. But we don't have weight issues because of bananas."

In fact, the fruit might actually help you feel fuller, faster. The combination of pectin and resistant starch delays stomach emptying, leading you to eat less calories, Richards says.

Green bananas are better for this because as a banana ripens, or ages, it loses pectin. Also, the greener the banana, the more resistant starch it contains. When you eat them with a balanced diet, Moreno says, the carbs help you produce more serotonin, which helps regulate your metabolism and energy levels. Keep in mind, however, that green bananas have higher fiber and can cause gas, bloating, and constipation.

These satiety and weight stabilizing findings were confirmed in a 2019 review. It concluded that green bananas, whether consumed as fresh fruit pulp, cooked, or dried and pounded into flour to be used as a product for baking, make you feel fuller. Because of their high fiber content, the researchers also theorized that green bananas could assist in prevention of or healing intestinal diseases, reduce blood cholesterol, and help prevent intestinal cancer.

When it comes to gut health, bananas both give and take away. Green, or greener, bananas can promote constipation, "due to the higher amount of resistant starch and pectin," Richards says, which both slow down your stomach's digestive process.

Yet ripe bananas can help you in the bathroom if you have difficulties in that arena. "Less resistant starch and more fiber can move the stool," Moreno says. The fiber is soluble, drawing in water which makes stool easier to pass.

Bananas also contain insoluble fiber: The insoluble fiber absorbs and processes nutrients, while the soluble fiber creates soft bulk for the body to clear toxins from the digestive system.

However, too many ripe bananas can then cause diarrhea, a common complaint with babies who often begin eating with very ripe mashed bananas.

While eating too many bananas can cause constipation or diarrhea, depending on their degree of ripeness, you can safely eat bananas. Not only do bananas help with gut health, they also may support your efforts with weight loss, promote heart health, and reduce your blood sugar.

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5 scientifically-backed benefits of bananas for weight loss, heart health, and more - Insider - INSIDER

The three-year multi-centre randomised controlled trial was conducted in eight countries (Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia and New Zealand), starting with an eight-week weight reduction phase, followed by a three-year weight maintenance phase.

In the first phase, participants had to achieve a weight loss of eight percent or more using total meal replacements. In total 2,326 overweight or obese adults aged 25-70 years with pre-diabetes were enrolled.

Ninety seven percent of trial graduates who had achieved the required fast weight loss had not developed diabetes by the end of the three-year trial.

Professor Brand-Miller highlights: The most important finding in PREVIEW was the low incidence of diabetes in all groups at the end of the study.

Just 62 participants developed type 2 diabetes, giving a cumulative incidence of only one per 100 person-years. This compared with about five per 100 person-years in the diet arm of a 2002 Diabetes Prevention Study in the United States. In that study, participants had slower weight loss over a longer timeframe.

In the PREVIEW study, no differences were found between the two diets or the two physical activity programs, although fewer participants in the high protein groups achieved normal glucose status. With such a low incidence of diabetes, the researchers did not have the ability to detect any difference between the diet or physical activity arms. It is also important to note they did not have an untreated control group.

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Fast weight loss and healthy lifestyle provides diabetes hope - News - The University of Sydney

Running and walking both offer their own unique benefits and risks. Here is everything you need to know about the pros and cons of each type of exercise and which is best for your health goals.

Both running and walking can help you burn calories, but running generally burns more.

For example, if you compare a 20-minute walk and a 20-minute run, you'll burn more calories running, because you expend more energy the faster you go. Here's the number of calories per hour a 185-pound person can burn walking and running at different speeds:

But if you compare by distance rather than time, the calories burned may not differ as much. For example, if you walk two miles at a pace of 17 min/mile, you will burn 202 calories. If you cover that same distance running at a pace of 9 min/mile, you will burn 293 calories.

Both walking and running can help you lose weight, but running may be the better choice. A 2008 analysis found that people only lost modest amounts of weight about 0.1 pounds per week by walking.

On the other hand, a large 2013 study found that people lost significantly more weight running than walking. It looked at more than 45,000 walkers' and runners' exercise over 6.2 years and found that men and heavier women especially lost more weight running than walking.

"The result really depends on how much energy [you] burn between walking and running," says Duck-Chul Lee, an associate professor of kinesiology at Iowa State University. "And it's not black and white there is fast walking and slow running, and fast walking could be faster than slow running."

Both walking and running can improve heart health. A 2010 review found that walking improves cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure and reducing your risk of coronary heart disease.

A large 2017 study found that small increases in the number of steps people took per day and in the intensity of their activity lowered their cardiometabolic risk, such as diabetes and heart disease. People who took more steps a day also had a smaller waist circumference, lower weight, and improved insulin levels.

Additionally, a large 2013 study found that both walking and running reduced the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. The study also found that a faster pace lowered these risks even further.

Although running is generally known to improve heart health, some research suggests that too much long-distance running can be harmful. It's a controversial topic, Lee says.

"[Excessive running] may put more stress on your heart, and that could be a potential explanation for why running may not provide unlimited benefits. 'The more, the better' may not be true in terms of running, specifically with heart disease ," Lee says.

However, this is only for people far exceeding recommended exercise guidelines, like marathoners.

Because running is a higher-impact activity than walking, running poses a greater risk of injury. In fact, walking has less than a third of the injury risk of running.

"There's more risk of injury the faster you go," says Catrine Tudor-Locke, a professor and dean of the College of Health and Human Services at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. While running, "you could trip, you could fall, you could twist an ankle. You could also do that with walking, but it's less likely because you're going at a slower relative pace than running."

About 60% of runners will experience an injury that prevents them from doing the activity. Some common injuries in runners are:

Additionally, if you're obese, "walking is more recommended than running because it has less loading and less stress in the knees and ankles," Lee says.

Overall, both walking and running can help you achieve the recommended weekly amount of exercise. You should exercise between 150 to 300 minutes per week if doing a moderate-intensity activity or 75 to 150 minutes if exercising vigorously.

There is no right choice for which is better for your health. Rather, deciding between walking and running depends on your unique goals and risk factors. For example, if you are older or have joint problems walking may be the better option for you. Conversely, if you're pressed for time, running might be the more practical choice.

"The number-one reason why people don't meet the physical activity guideline goals is they don't have time," Lee says.

For people who are sedentary, walking can also be a great starting point. From there, you can gradually increase speed and distance until you are able to start jogging and running, Lee says. Another option for new runners could be the run-walk-run method.

The run-walk-run method involves alternating between running for a certain amount of time and walking for a set number of minutes.

For example, you can run for two minutes and walk for one minute, or run for four minutes and walk for one minute, and then repeat the cycle.

Coaches and runners say the method helps reduce fatigue, avoid injury, and speed recovery. It can also help you ease into running if the idea of running for a certain time or distance seems daunting.

Whether you decide to walk, run, or both, what matters is that you make the time to exercise. It's also important to always challenge yourself to be healthier. "I basically tell people to do more than they did the day before," Tudor-Locke says.

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Should you walk or run? Which is best for weight loss, joint health, and burning calories - Insider - INSIDER

Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that break down the food we eat into energy and muscle.

Though many people think that they will lose weight if they speed up their metabolism, this isn't necessarily true. Here's what you need to know about the complicated relationship between metabolism and weight-loss.

There is evidence that cardiovascular exercise can help boost your metabolism for a short period after you work out, but this effect only lasts for an hour or so and is not usually enough to cause significant weight loss.

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The sad truth is that it's hard to change your BMR in any significant way. The fact that some people naturally have a faster BMR than others is largely due to genetics.

As you age, your metabolism becomes less efficient, or what we think of as "slowing down," says Heather Seid, a registered dietician and Bionutrition Program Manager at Columbia University.

There are many reasons your metabolism slows down, including losing muscle mass and changes in your cells. But the main reason for metabolism change is that people become less active as they get older.

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The hard truth about losing weight why speeding up your metabolism for weight loss is a myth - Business Insider India