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During the long seafaring voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries, a period known as the Age of Discovery, sailors reported experiencing visions of sublime foods and verdant fields. The discovery that these were nothing more than hallucinations after months at sea was agonizing. Some sailors wept in longing; others threw themselves overboard.

The cure for these harrowing mirages turned out to be not a concoction of complex chemicals, as once suspected, but rather the simple antidote of lemon juice. These sailors suffered from scurvy, a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, an essential micronutrient that people acquire from eating fruits and vegetables.

Vitamin C is important for the production and release of neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers of the brain. In its absence, brain cells do not communicate effectively with one another, which can lead to hallucinations.

As this famous example of early explorers illustrates, there is an intimate connection between food and the brain, one that researchers like me are working to unravel. As a scientist who studies the neuroscience of nutrition at the University of Michigan, I am primarily interested in how components of food and their breakdown products can alter the genetic instructions that control our physiology.

Beyond that, my research is also focused on understanding how food can influence our thoughts, moods and behaviors. While we cant yet prevent or treat brain conditions with diet, researchers like me are learning a great deal about the role that nutrition plays in the everyday brain processes that make us who we are.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a delicate balance of nutrients is key for brain health: Deficiencies or excesses in vitamins, sugars, fats and amino acids can influence brain and behavior in either negative or positive ways.

Vitamins and mineral deficiencies

As with vitamin C, deficits in other vitamins and minerals can also precipitate nutritional diseases that adversely impact the brain in humans. For example, low dietary levels of vitamin B3/niacin typically found in meat and fish cause pellagra, a disease in which people develop dementia.

Niacin is essential to turn food into energy and building blocks, protect the genetic blueprint from environmental damage and control how much of certain gene products are made. In the absence of these critical processes, brain cells, also known as neurons, malfunction and die prematurely, leading to dementia.

In animal models, decreasing or blocking the production of niacin in the brain promotes neuronal damage and cell death. Conversely, enhancing niacin levels has been shown to mitigate the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers, Huntingtons and Parkinsons. Observational studies in humans suggest that sufficient levels of niacin may protect against these diseases, but the results are still inconclusive.

Interestingly, niacin deficiency caused by consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol can lead to similar effects as those found with pellagra.

Another example of how a nutrient deficiency affects brain function can be found in the element iodine, which, like niacin, must be acquired from ones diet. Iodine, which is present in seafood and seaweed, is an essential building block for thyroid hormones signaling molecules that are important for many aspects of human biology, including development, metabolism, appetite and sleep. Low iodine levels prevent the production of adequate amounts of thyroid hormones, impairing these essential physiological processes.

Iodine is particularly important to the developing human brain; before table salt was supplemented with this mineral in the 1920s, iodine deficiency was a major cause of cognitive disability worldwide. The introduction of iodized salt is thought to have contributed to the gradual rise in IQ scores in the past century.

Ketogenic diet for epilepsy

Not all dietary deficiencies are detrimental to the brain. In fact, studies show that people with drug-resistant epilepsy a condition in which brain cells fire uncontrollably can reduce the number of seizures by adopting an ultralow-carbohydrate regimen, known as a ketogenic diet, in which 80% to 90% of calories are obtained from fat.

Carbohydrates are the preferred energy source for the body. When they are not available either because of fasting or because of a ketogenic diet cells obtain fuel by breaking down fats into compounds called ketones. Utilization of ketones for energy leads to profound shifts in metabolism and physiology, including the levels of hormones circulating in the body, the amount of neurotransmitters produced by the brain and the types of bacteria living in the gut.

Researchers think that these diet-dependent changes, especially the higher production of brain chemicals that can quiet down neurons and decrease levels of inflammatory molecules, may play a role in the ketogenic diets ability to lower the number of seizures. These changes may also explain the benefits of a ketogenic state either through diet or fasting on cognitive function and mood.

Sugar, saturated fats and ultraprocessed foods

Excess levels of some nutrients can also have detrimental effects on the brain. In humans and animal models, elevated consumption of refined sugars and saturated fats a combination commonly found in ultraprocessed foods promotes eating by desensitizing the brain to the hormonal signals known to regulate satiety.

Interestingly, a diet high in these foods also desensitizes the taste system, making animals and humans perceive food as less sweet. These sensory alterations may affect food choice as well as the reward we get from food. For example, research shows that peoples responses to ice cream in brain areas important for taste and reward are dulled when they eat it every day for two weeks. Some researchers think this decrease in food reward signals may enhance cravings for even more fatty and sugary foods, similar to the way smokers crave cigarettes.

High-fat and processed-food diets are also associated with lower cognitive function and memory in humans and animal models as well as a higher incidence of neurodegenerative diseases. However, researchers still dont know if these effects are due to these foods or to the weight gain and insulin resistance that develop with long-term consumption of these diets.

Time scales

This brings us to a critical aspect of the effect of diet on the brain: time. Some foods can influence brain function and behavior acutely such as over hours or days while others take weeks, months or even years to have an effect. For instance, eating a slice of cake rapidly shifts the fat-burning, ketogenic metabolism of an individual with drug-resistant epilepsy into a carbohydrate-burning metabolism, increasing the risk of seizures. In contrast, it takes weeks of sugar consumption for taste and the brains reward pathways to change, and months of vitamin C deficiency to develop scurvy. Finally, when it comes to diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons, risk is influenced by years of dietary exposures in combination with other genetic or lifestyle factors such as smoking.

In the end, the relationship between food and the brain is a bit like the delicate Goldilocks: We need not too little, not too much but just enough of each nutrient.

Monica Dus is **Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biologyat the **University of Michigan.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

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Diet can influence mood, behavior and more - Japan Today

Walking past a corner bakery, you may find yourself drawn in by the fresh smell of sweets wafting from the front door. Youre not alone: The knowledge that humans make decisions based on their nose has led major brands like Cinnabon and Panera Bread to pump the scents of baked goods into their restaurants, leading to big spikes in sales.

But according to a new study, the food you ate just before your walk past the bakery may impact your likelihood of stopping in for a sweet treat and not just because youre full.

Scientists at Northwestern University found that people became less sensitive to food odors based on the meal they had eaten just before. So, if you were snacking on baked goods from a coworker before your walk, for example, you may be less likely to stop into that sweet-smelling bakery.

The study, Olfactory perceptual decision-making is biased by motivational state, will be published August 26 in the journal PLOS Biology.

The study found that participants who had just eaten a meal of either cinnamon buns or pizza were less likely to perceive meal-matched odors, but not non-matched odors. The findings were then corroborated with brain scans that showed brain activity in parts of the brain that process odors was altered in a similar way.

These findings show that just as smell regulates what we eat, what we eat, in turn, regulates our sense of smell.

Feedback between food intake and the olfactory system may have an evolutionary benefit, said senior and corresponding study author Thorsten Kahnt, an assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

If you think about our ancestors roaming the forest trying to find food, they find and eat berries and then arent as sensitive to the smell of berries anymore, Kahnt said. But maybe theyre still sensitive to the smell of mushrooms, so it could theoretically help facilitate diversity in food and nutrient intake.

Kahnt said while we dont see the hunter-gatherer adaptation come out in day-to-day decision-making, the connection between our nose, what we seek out and what we can detect with our nose may still be very important. If the nose isnt working right, for example, the feedback loop may be disrupted, leading to problems with disordered eating and obesity. There may even be links to disrupted sleep, another tie to the olfactory system the Kahnt lab is researching.

Using brain imaging, behavioral testing and non-invasive brain stimulation, the Kahnt lab studies how the sense of smell guides learning and appetite behavior, particularly as it pertains to psychiatric conditions like obesity, addiction and dementia. In a past study, the team found the brains response to smell is altered in sleep-deprived participants, and next wanted to know whether and how food intake changes our ability to perceive food smells.

According to Laura Shanahan, a postdoctoral fellow in the Kahnt lab and the first and co-corresponding author of the study, theres very little work on how odor perception changes due to different factors. Theres some research on odor pleasantness, Shanahan said, but our work focuses in on how sensitive you are to these odors in different states.

To conduct the study, the team developed a novel task in which participants were presented with a smell that was a mixture between a food and a non-food odor (either pizza and pine or cinnamon bun and cedar odors that pair well and are distinct from each other). The ratio of food and non-food odor varied in each mixture, from pure food to pure non-food. After a mixture was presented, participants were asked whether the food or the non-food odor was dominant.

Participants completed the task twice inside an MRI scanner: First, when they were hungry, then, after theyd eaten a meal that matched one of the two odors.

In parallel with the first part of the experiment running in the MRI scanner, I was preparing the meal in another room, Shanahan said. We wanted everything fresh and ready and warm because we wanted the participant to eat as much as they could until they were very full.

The team took a scientific approach to baking, using a scale to measure the exact amount of icing to place on each cinnamon roll

The team then computed how much food odor was required in the mixture in each session for the participant to perceive the food odor as dominant. The team found when participants were hungry, they needed a lower percentage of food odor in a mixture to perceive it as dominant for example, a hungry participant may require a 50% cinnamon bun to cedar mixture when hungry, but 80% when full of cinnamon buns.

Through brain imaging, the team provided further evidence for the hypothesis. Brain scans from the MRI demonstrated a parallel change occurring in the part of the brain that processes odors after a meal. The brains response to a meal-matched odor was less food-like than responses to a non-matched meal odor.

Findings from this study will allow the Kahnt lab to take on more complex projects. Kahnt said with a better understanding of the feedback loop between smell and food intake, hes hoping to take the project full circle back to sleep deprivation to see if lack of sleep may impair the loop in some way. He added that with brain imaging, there are more questions about how the adaptation may impact sensory and decision-making circuits in the brain.

After the meal, the olfactory cortex didnt represent meal-matched food odors as much as food anymore, so the adaptation seems to be happening relatively early on in processing, Kahnt said. Were following up on how that information is changed and how the altered information is used by the rest of the brain to make decisions about food intake.

Funding for this research was provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grant T32HL007909), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant R21DK118503) and the National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders (grant R01DC015426).

More here:
Your sense of smell may be the key to a balanced diet - Northwestern University NewsCenter

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A little over a year ago, more than 1,200 registered dietitians predicted that deprivation over decadence would crown the ketogenic diet, also known as keto, as the king of all popular diets in 2020. Going keto generally means eliminating grains, legumes, most fruits, and carb-heavy vegetables like potatoes and parsnips in order to induce ketosis, a state in which your body burns fat instead of carbs for fuel.

Of course, the dietitians forecasting did not account for a global pandemic in which diets would be replaced with banana-bread baking and sourdough experiments. Still, even a novel coronavirus was no match for ketos continued ascent. The hashtag #keto has been used on more than 4 million Instagram posts since March. In late December, several new books about the dietincluding The Anti-Inflammatory Keto Cookbook, New Keto Cooking, and The Case for Ketodebuted just in time for the annual new year, new you media blitz.

And the last book on the list, at least, will meet this moment of health crisis with a timely message, given that individuals with diet-related disorders like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are at increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

In The Case for Keto, health journalist Gary Taubes argues that scientific evidence suggests that the keto diet is not just a trendy, short-term weight-loss fix, but also the most effective solution to the obesity crisis. His past work, including an investigation for Mother Jones into the sugar industrys role in hooking people on sweets, has shown how refined grains and sugarsnot fatscontribute to chronic diseases, a premise thats now largely accepted as conventional wisdom.

In The Case for Keto, he goes further, arguing that the elimination of refined sugars alone is not enough to resolve some peoples chronic issues. A significant portion of the populationthe obese and diabeticwill never be healthy unless they eat something like a ketogenic diet by avoiding all carbohydrate-rich foods, Taubes told me. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity affects 42 percent of American adults, and one in 10 Americans has diabetes.

Prevailing medical wisdom tells us that people gain weight because they eat too much and exercise too little. Based on this thinking, the supposed cure is to tame our appetites, Taubes notes. He instead argues that ramping up physical activity and cutting calories doesnt work for some people for reasons related to hormonal signals, not willpower. For them, carbs trigger a reaction that causes their bodies to store calories as fat. The promise of keto eating is that it disrupts that process, and the body begins to burn fat as fuel instead of storing it. To get to this state of ketosis, dieters eschew grains in favor of meat, butter and cheese, eggs, fish, and less-starchy vegetables like greens, tomatoes, and peppers.

Keto fits under an umbrella of eating regimens referred to as low-carb, high-fat diets, along with Atkins and paleo. For years, many doctors and nutritionists dismissed this type of grain-free eating due to its restrictive nature and unknown, and potentially dangerous, long-term effects, like increased risk of heart disease due to all the extra meat. Many still do. (Vegetarian adaptations of the keto diet also exist but are less popular.) Diets full of unrefined carbohydrates are equally as healthful [as Keto], if not more, and may confer less actual and potential risks, wrote Dr. Shivam Joshi, a New York University assistant professor of medicine, in an October letter published in the Journal of Nutrition.

A growing faction of nutritionists and physicians agree with Taubes and say that ketos potential outweighs its risks. Joshis letter was in response to an article in the same journal written by Harvard Medical School professor David Ludwig, who posited that while more research is needed, the available evidence points to ketogenic diets as a first-line approach for obesity and diabetes.

These keto believers argue that the diet could help people manage their chronic health conditions. But when food companies and diet marketers take that information and sell keto as a lifestyle for the masses, it has the potential to scare everyone away from carbs.

Heres the problem with that: Climate change is increasingly the greatest public health crisis we face. According to new evidence, food is an essential piece of the solution. A study published in Science in November found that even if we stop burning fossil fuels immediately, it will be impossible to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement without drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. And when it comes to the emissions and land-use associated with the production of common foods, beef is far and away the most resource intensive, followed by dairy, poultry, farmed fish, and eggsthe main keto-friendly foods. Wheats emissions barely register in comparison.

Last year, the World Resources Institute (WRI), a renowned global research organization, published a report that looked at how to make food production less climate intensive. WRI researcher Richard Waite, one of the reports authors, said theres no silver bullet when it comes to producing enough food for a global population thats projected to increase by another 2 billion people by 2050. However, were also probably not going to be able to get to where we need without shifting high-meat diets towards plants, he said. Its a critical piece of the puzzle.

Waite and his fellow researchers looked at the effect of limiting beef and lamb consumption to about one and a half hamburgers per person per week. That shift alone would basically make it possible to feed 10 billion people without any further deforestation, said Waite, freeing up an area about 1.6 times the size of India and reducing the emissions needed for agriculture to meet 2050 target levels by half.

What should we be eating instead? Many more vegetables, of course. But vegetables account for a tiny fraction of food grown in the United States, explains Timothy Crews, an ecologist and the director of research at The Land Institute, a Kansas-based agriculture research organization. Because theyre so low in calories, wed have to grow exponentially more to fill plates featuring smaller portions of meat.

Grains and legumes, on the other hand, are ubiquitous and contain more calories and protein than produce. They also contain fiber and important antioxidants that some experts say keto eaters end up missing in their diets. We currently feed much of the grain we grow to animals that later become meat. By eating grains ourselves, Crews said, were really going for the biggest bang for the buck. And we can transform how we grow those grains to save even more resources. Crews and his team believe that replacing annual grains with perennial versions of wheat and rice could shift the entire agricultural system towards a more sustainable future. Perennials reduce tilling, keeping carbon in soil. Their deep roots lead to more soil organic matter and nutrient and moisture retention.

General Mills and Patagonia Provisions have been supporting The Land Institutes research on Kernza, a particularly deep-rooted perennial grain, by using it in limited-edition foods. While it has so far been grown on very few farms, a coalition of growers and advocates received $10 million last year to scale up production. In the meantime, Bob Quinn, co-author of the book Grain by Grain, has built a global network of farmers dedicated to growing organic Kamut (also known as khorasan wheat) in rotation with other grains and legumes to build healthy soil. Kamut is naturally resistant to some pests and drought conditions, characteristics that will become even more important as the climate changes. Buckwheat is an antioxidant-rich and gluten-free seed that can be ground to flour for crepes and noodles or eaten like oatmeal. But North Dakota farmer Fred Kirschenmann told me he had to stop growing it because he couldnt find enough of a market. In other words, for these efforts to grow, humans will have to eat those grains. Demand for keto-friendly foods doesnt help.

Taubes acknowledged the question of how a keto lifestyle affects the planet was vitally important. But just as important, in his eyes, is a chance for the diet to give people with lifelong weight struggles a chance to finally live healthy lives. For those folks, they might not be able to afford, in the non-financial sense, sacrificing their health for the good of the environment, he argued. Thats not my decision to make, or yours, but theirs. I just want them to have the information that will help them make that decision.

They may also want to consider this: The EAT-Lancet Commission brought together 37 leading scientists, led by Harvard public health professor Walter Willett, to figure out the best eating pattern to tackle hunger, obesity, and environmental destruction all at once. The diet the commission came up with cuts back on meat and dairy and is rich in plant-based foods like vegetables and whole grains.

And theres an entire body of research that shows whole grains, grown and processed correctly, can be and are part of a healthy diet for manyif not mostpeople. In her new book, Lets Ask Marion, leading nutrition expert Marion Nestle answers the titular question of one of her chapters, Are Low-Carb Diets Really Better For Us?, by noting that even in the modern era, Mediterranean populations who eat plenty of bread and pasta and Asian populations who regularly eat rice tend to have the greatest longevity. The main sources of complex carbohydrates are starchy grainswheat, rice, corn, she writes. These, lets remember, have fueled entire civilizations.

Some evidence may point to carbs as instigators of the obesity epidemic. But we cant abandon them altogether if were going to survive on this planet.

Read the rest here:
The Problem With Keto - Mother Jones

We all know that when it comes to weight loss, dropping the pounds is the easy part. Its keeping weight off thats hard. In fact a 2001 meta-analysisof 29 long-term weight loss studies concluded that most dieters regain more than half the weight theyve lost within two years and pile 80 percent of it back on after five years.

There are all sorts of reasons staying slimmed down is tough, but in the final analysis they all boil down to one thing to keep the weight off you have to consistently eat fewer calories than you did prior to losing weight. Its been estimatedthat to maintain lost body weight over two years the average person needs to chow down on 170 fewer calories per day than before.

This is because when you lose weight, theres less metabolizable you meaning your resting energy expenditure drops. But the effect is often magnified by metabolic adaptationessentially your body becomes more energy efficientwhich magnifies the drop in metabolic rate.

So reverse-dieting, which claims you can train your body to maintain a new lower body weight at a higher calorie intake, is raising a few eyebrows in the nutrition world.

Social media is awash with before and after lean body pictures, with captions alleging you can increase your food intake by 200, 300 or even 500 calories a day while still maintaining a svelte frame, or even continuing to lose some pounds.

While this would be fantastic theres very little science to go on. But its an area that researchers are beginning to take a look at, and it may not be as crazy as it sounds.

Also referred to as the diet after the diet,reverse dieting has its roots in aesthetic sports where bodybuilders severely restrict calories to look ripped for a competition, then slowly increase food intake again in an attempt to go back to eating more calories without a disproportionate gain of fat mass.

But the practice is gaining traction among average eaters too, with reverse dieters increasing daily energy intake in a very controlled wayusually 30100 calories a weekafter the completion of a weight loss program. The aim, over several weeks, is to reach a higher level of food and calorie intake that (hopefully) becomes the persons new normal for weight maintenance.

Advocates assert that this can reignite a metabolism made sluggish by months or years of calorie restriction and yo-yo dieting, while restoring hormone balance in favor of better appetite regulation.

Among the more overblown claims are some nuggets of truth.

There is something to [reverse dieting] if it is done in a smart way, says Lilian de Jonge, PhD, assistant professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, George Mason University, Virginia, and collaborator on the weight loss trials POUNDS LOSTand CALERIE. Its well known that weight loss decreases metabolic rate beyond what can be explained by the loss of lean mass. There is some evidence that if you trick your body into eating more, metabolic rate can go up and this is especially true if this is done by increasing protein intake.

Dr de Jonge is planning to run a trial on reverse dieting, but for now it is on hold due to COVID-19. However her previous pilot study showed that reintroducing calories slowly over eight weeks prevented weight overshoot and preserved lean body mass in weight training athletes who had lost weight for competition.

A randomized controlled trial study into reverse dieting is already underway at the University of Colorado, with a scheduled study completion date of December 2020. This study has recruited normal subjects (not athletes), which is a crucial and interesting difference. It could be expected that the results hinge quite heavily on how well the participants adhere to the exercise portion of the intervention.

A downside of reverse dieting is the need to track calories so closely, which at best is a faff and at worst could trigger obsessional eating. You can certainly see this played out on Instagram where reverse dieting often barely disguises a dysfunctional relationship with food and fitness.

That said if youre a numbers nerd, reverse dieting might prove to be a weight maintenance approach that works well for you.

And when you strip away the hype, the tenet behind reverse dietingthat after youve successfully lost some weight, you absolutely need a plan to keep it off-is solid.

What we already know about who successfully keeps weight off comes from the U.S. National Weight Control Registry, a database of over 10,000 people who have shed at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year.

This database shows that while there is no one way to slim or keep weight off, there are some common characteristics across successful weight maintainers. These include eating breakfast (78 percent of participants), stepping on the scale at least once a week (75 percent), watching TV less than 10 hours a week (62 percent) and exercising on average one hour per day (90 percent)

Of course managing to avoid weight gain in the first place is the ideal, as youll never then need the diet after the diet. But if that ship has sailed its good to know that putting weight back on doesnthaveto be inevitable.

Reverse dieting might prove a way to make it easier.

Angela Dowden is a British award-winning health journalist and Registered Nutritionist with over twenty years of experience writing for consumer sites and publications that have a global reach. These days she hangs out quite a bit in LA, where she likes to sniff out nutri-nonsense and write about it. Find Angela on Twitter @DietWrite

A version of this article was originally posted at the American Council on Science and Health and has been reposted here with permission. The American Council on Science and Health can be found on Twitter @ACSHorg

Read the original here:
'Reverse dieting' fad reality check: Is it possible to maintain a lower body weight while consuming more calories? - Genetic Literacy Project

We all know that when it comes to weight loss, dropping the pounds is the easy part. Its keeping weight off that's hard. In fact a 2001 meta-analysis of 29 long-term weight loss studies concluded that most dieters regain more than half the weight theyve lost within two years and pile 80 percent of it back on after five years.

There are all sorts of reasons staying slimmed down is tough, but in the final analysis they all boil down to one thing to keep the weight off you have to consistently eat fewer calories than you did prior to losing weight. Its been estimated that to maintain lost body weight over two years the average person needs to chow down on 170 fewer calories per day than before.

This is because when you lose weight, there's less metabolizable you meaning your resting energy expenditure drops. But the effect is often magnified by metabolic adaptationessentially your body becomes more energy efficientwhich magnifies the drop in metabolic rate.

So reverse-dieting, which claims you can train your body to maintain a new lower body weight at a higher calorie intake, is raising a few eyebrows in the nutrition world.

Social media is awash with before and after lean body pictures, with captions alleging you can increase your food intake by 200, 300 or even 500 calories a day while still maintaining a svelte frame, or even continuing to lose some pounds.

While this would be fantastic theres very little science to go on. But its an area that researchers are beginning to take a look at, and it may not be as crazy as it sounds.

Also referred to as the diet after the diet,reverse dieting has its roots in aesthetic sports where bodybuilders severely restrict calories to look ripped for a competition, then slowly increase food intake again in an attempt to go back to eating more calories without a disproportionate gain of fat mass.

But the practice is gaining traction among average eaters too, with reverse dieters increasing daily energy intake in a very controlled wayusually 30100 calories a weekafter the completion of a weight loss program. The aim, over several weeks, is to reach a higher level of food and calorie intake that (hopefully) becomes the persons new normal for weight maintenance.

Advocates assert that this can reignite a metabolism made sluggish by months or years of calorie restriction and yo-yo dieting, while restoring hormone balance in favor of better appetite regulation.

Among the more overblown claims are some nuggets of truth.

There is something to [reverse dieting] if it is done in a smart way, says Lilian de Jonge, PhD, assistant professor at the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, George Mason University, Virginia, and collaborator on the weight loss trials POUNDS LOSTand CALERIE. Its well known that weight loss decreases metabolic rate beyond what can be explained by the loss of lean mass. There is some evidence that if you trick your body into eating more, metabolic rate can go up and this is especially true if this is done by increasing protein intake.

Dr de Jonge is planning to run a trial on reverse dieting, but for now it is on hold due to COVID-19. However her previous pilot study showed that reintroducing calories slowly over eight weeks prevented weight overshoot and preserved lean body mass in weight training athletes who had lost weight for competition.

A randomized controlled trial study into reverse dieting is already underway at the University of Colorado, with a scheduled study completion date of December 2020. This study has recruited normal subjects (not athletes), which is a crucial and interesting difference. It could be expected that the results hinge quite heavily on how well the participants adhere to the exercise portion of the intervention.

A downside of reverse dieting is the need to track calories so closely, which at best is a faff and at worst could trigger obsessional eating. You can certainly see this played out on Instagram where reverse dieting often barely disguises a dysfunctional relationship with food and fitness.

That said if youre a numbers nerd, reverse dieting might prove to be a weight maintenance approach that works well for you.

And when you strip away the hype, the tenet behind reverse dietingthat after you've successfully lost some weight, you absolutely need a plan to keep it off-is solid.

What we already know about who successfully keeps weight off comes from the U.S. National Weight Control Registry, a database of over 10,000 people who have shed at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year.

This database shows that while there is no one way to slim or keep weight off, there are some common characteristics across successful weight maintainers. These include eating breakfast (78 percent of participants), stepping on the scale at least once a week (75 percent), watching TV less than 10 hours a week (62 percent) and exercising on average one hour per day (90 percent)

Of course managing to avoid weight gain in the first place is the ideal, as youll never then need the diet after the diet. But if that ship has sailed its good to know that putting weight back on doesn't have to be inevitable.

Reverse dieting might prove a way to make it easier.

Original post:
Back Up a Bit: Is 'Reverse Dieting' the Key to Keeping Weight Off? - American Council on Science and Health

There's nothing more satisfying than downing a glass of cool water when your throat is seemingly on fire. But if you find yourself unable to quench that urgent sense of thirst whether you've worked your way through eight or eighteen cups of water in a given day there may be a larger issue at hand. Feeling super thirsty is totally normal if you've just powered your way through a long workout, have spent the day outside under a hot sun, or are working on upkeep around the house (dehydration can manifest itself in cramps or fatigue as well). But endless thirst isn't something that anyone should be living with in the long run.

Many people sip on water throughout the day, thinking they're sufficiently hydrated; but for the majority, the simplest explanation for feeling thirsty is just that they're not drinking enough. "You want to aim for half of your body weight in ounces of water each day," says Stefani Sassos, MS, RD, CDN, the Good Housekeeping Institute's registered dietitian, highlighting a rule of thumb that most can stick to. "If you weigh 160 pounds, as an example, you'll want to aim for about 80oz based on that math just about 10 cups of water a day. Get from ounces to cups by simply dividing by eight, since 8oz is one cup."

If you find that your water intake is close or even above that recommended benchmark, it's time to consider other factors that have you reaching for your water bottle. Believe it or not, it's a condition all its own: polydipsia. "It's an excessive amount of not only thirst but drinking, and it indicates a pathology, which is much different than dehydration," says Ron Weiss, M.D., a board-certified internist and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Rutgers' New Jersey Medical School. Your diet may play a role in potentially developing polydipsia or related symptoms, certainly, as can other lifestyle factors; sometimes, thirst may be an indicator of a larger issue that requires a doctor's help. Below, we review nine more common reasons for constantly feeling thirsty, plus expert tips to finally help you quench that thirst.

Reminder: Consult your physician right away if you're experiencing excessive thirst as it could be a signal for an underlying condition.

Let us explain: If you normally have had plenty to drink throughout your routine, but that routine has adapted in some way recently, it may require you to increase the amount of water you consume in a given day. Most often, people don't account for weather changes, new exercise routines, or a change in career and new daily physicality into upping their water intake. In hotter climates where you may sweat more, or if you've recently started playing a new sport or joined a new club, it's crucial to drink more throughout the day, Sassos explains especially for seniors and the elderly.

You may want to reevaluate your water intake if you are experiencing these symptoms regularly:

Especially one that's angled for dramatic weight loss. "In general, low-carb or keto diets put you at greater risk for dehydration. Carbohydrates retain fluids and electrolytes, so when you drastically decrease the amount of carbs in your diet, that results in extra water being removed through your urine or more trips to the bathroom," says Sassos, who has previously declared keto diets as one of the worst diets for many more reasons.

If you're new to a diet where you're drastically reducing or eliminating a food group entirely, it's important to remain focused on how much water you drink every day, because of that risk of low-carb diets leading to dehydration (and if left unchecked, kidney stones or constipation). "The most important thing, regardless of your diet, is to drink according to your thirst and listen to your body," Sassos adds. "You can also look at your urine to gauge your hydration; you want to see a light lemonade or pale straw-type color, which indicates you are properly hydrated."

It's also important to take a closer look at the food you're already eating. Just like your body processes excess glucose, your kidney processes excess salt and redirects it into your urine, which in turns pulls liquids away from your blood. "And then you would pee an excessive amount," Dr. Weiss says, adding that this process can happen in as little as a few hours if you've eaten a high-sodium meal. "Then, your brain would make you feel thirsty, to take back free water."

While it's natural (and good!) to drink lots of water after enjoying a salty meal, if you're frequently eating meals that are overly high in sodium, chronic dehydration may not be the only condition you could battle later on. Overdoing it on sodium can lead to high-blood pressure over time, and may also lead to kidney or heart damage in the long run. The American Heart Association recommends that Americans eat less than 1,500mg of sodium each day, so if you already know you may be doubling or tripling that limit, talking to your primary care provider about a low-sodium diet is a good idea.

Think salt might be the culprit, but aren't sure? Sassos advises doubling down on fruits and vegetables for a couple weeks to see if your frequent thirst disappears. "Fruits and vegetables naturally have a ton of water content and can help you reach your hydration goal without having to down an extra bottle," she says. "Watermelon, celery, and cucumbers are some of my favorites, and all are over 90% water."

We're sure that you've heard that hunger can sometimes be mistaken for thirst, but did you know that the opposite is also true? "Many symptoms of dehydration, like fatigue and dizziness, can feel similar to feelings of hunger," Sassos says. "It's very important to listen to your body and get in touch with your hunger and thirst cues."

If you've downed a few glasses of water and can't get rid of the feeling that you should be drinking more, it might be time to reach for a snack or think about lunch or dinner. "But if you just had a balanced meal or snack reach for a glass of water [first] to see if hydration is what you really need."

It may be due to new medication or because of high-blood pressure (or a myriad of other health reasons), but dry mouth can also be mistaken for thirst. Dr. Weiss points out that caffeine intake, smoking, and over-the-counter antihistamines or cold medicine can aggravate a case of dry mouth. But medical experts at the Mayo Clinic say that those suffering from dry mouth can get some relief by chewing sugar-free gum to stimulate saliva, in addition to sipping water as frequently as possible. There are medications that can help relieve dry mouth if neither of these solutions work.

When it comes to Dr. Weiss's patients, he says that those who have complained of excessive, constant thirst often end up having complications related to diabetes. Mostly, type 2 diabetes, otherwise known as diabetes mellitus in the medical community, as the kidneys are under more stress to absorb excess glucose, Dr. Weiss explains. When the kidney can't keep up, the glucose ends up in your urine, dragging water along with it, making you feel awfully dehydrated. It can happen quite regularly if your diabetes is undiagnosed or undetected.

Diuretic foods (like celery or asparagus) or drinks can work to make you thirsty over time because they encourage more urination than usual. "Diuretics force sodium to be eliminated by your kidneys it's the laws of osmosis, so you lose water in the process, and then your brain signals that you need more water," Dr. Weiss explains. When it comes to diuretic supplements, he says, "It's the physician's job to make sure the patient isn't getting too much diuretic It'd be drying them out, making them thirsty, if they were being overmedicated with diuretics."

Sassos explains that caffeinated beverages are known to be mildly diuretic, and if you are drinking too much coffee or soda over the course of the day, it may trigger innate thirst. "I recommend no more than 400mg of caffeine daily for healthy adults, or less, if you're sensitive to caffeine like I am," she says. Alcohol is also a diuretic and can be equally harmful for your body, especially if you already aren't getting enough water during the day.

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Sometimes, you can be drinking TOO much water yes, really! "Overhydration is a real issue, though less common because normal healthy kidneys easily excrete excess water," Sassos says. "It's more common a problem for people who have kidney issues and can't excrete urine normally." If you have any chronic condition that affects your kidney, your doctor may have already spoken to you about adapting your hydration and beverages you should avoid (and if you haven't had that discussion yet, it's time!).

Kidneys aren't the only organ that can influence your thirst and water regulation in your body. Dr. Weiss points out that your thyroid (which also can influence your appetite, temperature, and even your hair) can greatly impact how thirsty you feel if the gland's hormone production is impacted. Hyperthyroidism and other thyroid issues can contribute to period irregularity and anxiety, among other things, all of which influences thirst. The National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases also report that those with thyroid issues may also be more likely to suffer from type-1 diabetes, anemia, and other conditions, which may be the root cause of raging thirst.

It's much more rare than having issues related to type 2 diabetes, but some individuals may develop a disorder that doctors know as diabetes insipidus, which triggers a sustained imbalance of fluids in your body. "It has to do with an inappropriately high production rate of a hormone called ADH, which stands for antidiuretic hormone, and how it affects your brain overall," Dr. Weiss explains. "What this does is, it forces your kidney to dump water out of your body, beyond what's appropriate; then, this hormone abnormality would force the person to seek water, like with a raging thirst. I've only confirmed it twice in my life, as it's relatively rare."

Those with diabetes insipidus would also be frequently urinating. But you wouldn't be able to confirm the condition unless you discussed the issue and had a full set of blood work done by your provider which hopefully would be in your plans long before you ever were worried about diabetes insipidus.

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Why Am I Always Thirsty? - 9 Health Explanations for Excessive Thirst - GoodHousekeeping.com