Skipping Breakfast Decreases Energy Intake, Water Before Meal Trick Works, Food Addiction Self-Diagnosis, Eating Speed & Obesity, Chilled Water as a Nootropic & More

Food addiction is a self-diagnosed disease that befalls preferentially those people who spend hours and days on the Internet seeking for an excuse for their inability to lose weight.

It has been a while since I have published the last installment of the short news. Today, however, the publication of the latest edition of the scientific journal Appetite appears to be a good opportunity to finally put out another of the short news potpourris.

I mean, one of the study shows that it may be essential for your well-being to listen to what scientists say and eat healthy, not unhealthy, which is associated with below average well-being in undergraduate students at the Cardiff University (Richards. 2014). But the study by Richards et al. is by no means the only one with highly health-relevant and surprisingly interesting information you will find in today's short news potpourri.

Learn more about the effects of your diet on your body composition at the SuppVersity

Only Whey, Not Soy Works for Wheytloss

Taste Matters - Role of the Taste Receptors

Dairy Protein Satiety Shoot-Out: Casein vs. Whey

How Much Carbs Before Fat is Unhealthy?

5 Tips to Improve & Maintain Insulin Sensitivity

Carbohydrate Shortage in Paleo Land

I mean, who would have guessed that we have a built-in apathy against being too close to obese individuals? No? Well, me neither, but this is just what L.D. Stafford and K. Banks found in their latest study: "[T]he mere proximity effect", which occurs, when normal-weight individuals stand close to obese ones, "can be influenced positively or negatively depending on the perceived status of the non-target individual and that implicit attitudes act to modulate this effect" (Stafford. 2014).

And there is more than just exotic study results in the latest edition of Appetite - examples? Well, here you go:

• 

  Another recent study indicates: Having a small breakfast (118kcal) before morning can benefit 5h post-exercise mood and appetite control in the time between breakfast and lunch and will avoid the cognitive decline associated with consuming a larger breakfast (Vasey. 2014)

  Another breakfast-omitting study (Plekhanova. 2014) shows that high energy intakes at breakfast increase the total daily energy intake compared to both no breakfast and a regular breakfast. Interestingly, though, the energy intake between 9:00-14:00 and 14:00-bedtime was similar between conditions (P>0.05).
  
  Overall, the most important message of the study is thus, the subjects of the UK study at hand indicates that normal- and overweight 2 to 14 year-old girls do not appear to compensate by consuming more energy over the remainder of the day during three days of breakfast omission compared with habitual or high-energy breakfast consumption.
  
  "The lack of compensation in terms of energy intake indicates that energy expenditure may be more important in explaining the higher obesity risk in girls who do not regularly consume breakfast," the scientists who are still analyzing the effects on physical activity point out.
• Scientists find what makes the British fat (Stewart-Knox. 2014) and it's the spit image of the sedentary, meat eating, oil omitting, non-resilient man with higher mood valance and sick relatives. Of these indirect pathways to dietary habits, physical activity level, higher resilience and mood valance were directly related to negative life events, which are thus another determinant of increased waist circumference in middle-aged British adults.
  
  Sounds crazy? Well, but that's exactly what scientists from the University of Bradford found to be associated with increased weight circumference in a representative samples of middle-aged adults aged >43 years were recruited in Great Britain (GB) (n = 1182). 

Think of energy containing foods as fluids... and bang! they become more satiating! A recent study from the University of Sussex (McCrickerd. 2014) confirms once again that satiety is triggered in the brain. In a small scale study the researchers observed that the satiating effects of one and the same calorie containing beverage increased when it was served as a "filling snack" instead of a fluid that was designed to "quench the thirst".

• The water-trick works (Corney. 2014) you all know that common wisdom is commonly bullsh*t, but in the case of the "water-preload reduces food intake" myth, scientists from the Loughborough University have recently been able to show that "consumption of 568 ml water immediately before a meal reduces energy intake in non-obese young males and might therefore be an effective strategy to suppress energy intake in this population."
  
  When the participants arrived at the laboratory fasted (7–10 am) all consumed an ad-libitum porridge breakfast, with either 568 ml water (PRE) or no water (NO-PRE) consumed immediately before the meal. Subjective feelings questionnaires to assess hunger, fullness and satisfaction were completed before (pre-trial) and after (post-trial) the meal in both trials and after the water preload (post-PRE) during PRE.
  
  

  

  Figure 1: Energy intake w/ and w/out water preload (Corney. 2014)

  As you can see in Figure 1, the subjects who didn't receive the water preload consumed statistically significantly more energy than those who didn't.
  
  Immediately after the water preload the subjects in the PRE group also experienced an increase in fullness and satisfaction and a decrease in  hunger compared to pre-trial.
  
  After the meal, on the other hand, the fullness and satisfaction ratings in both groups were identical.
  
  Thus, "[t]his study demonstrates that consumption of 568 ml water immediately before a meal reduces energy intake in non-obese young males and might therefore be an effective strategy to suppress energy intake in this population." (Corney. 2014) Drinking water with the meal, by the way has previously been shown to be not effective to reduce the food intake in lean women (Rollls. 1999); in obese older individuals, on the other hand, it worked (Davy. 2008)

  

  Figure 2: Weight loss (left) and energy intake (right) in a 12-week study investigating the effects of
  pre-meal water intake (500ml) on weight loss (Dennis. 2014)

  Moreover, a study by Dennis et al. shows that consuming 500 ml water prior to each daily meal helped subjects on a hypocaloric diet lose an extra ∼2 kg over the course of a 12-week study (Dennis. 2010).
• We buy & eat the packages we know and like (Gutjar. 2014), study shows. While in a blinded condition liking was the only determinant of food choice in a recent study from the Wageningen University, food choice in the "familiar package session", where the subjects had to pick from a bunch of unhealthy breakfast drinks and dessert products, lay between the blind and naïve package session.

Question: Can advertising make us choose certain foods? At least in preschool children it takes just 30 seconds of ad-exposure to influence their food preferences (Borzekowski. 2001). "Nutritionists and health educators should advise parents to limit their preschooler's exposure to television advertisements," scientists say.

• The scientists interpret their results as being indicative of the guiding effect of extrinsic factors, in this case the packaging, which can have a similar impact on food choices as intrinsic (sensory) properties.

• 

  Figure 3: Previous studies show that chewing your food 40x vs. 15x will significantly reduce the food intake in lean and obese subjects. Sign. effects on hunger and satiety will yet be apparent only in the obese (Li. 2011)

  Fast eaters have higher BMI, waist circumference and body fat! Scientists from the Wageningen University analyzed data from 311 men and 551 women from the Dutch NQplus cohort. What they found was that (a) 17.4% of the women described themselves as being slow, 54.3% as average and 28.3% as fast eaters and that (b) fast eating women had higher weight, BMI, waist circumference and body fat (p<0.05).
  
  Similar results were observed for the male participants of whom 8.7% of reported to be slow, 44.7% average and 46.6% fast eaters. A result that supports previous evidence indicating that a reduction in eating speed / increase in chewing frequency decreases food intake.
• Chilled water as a nootropic! You've read previously that 500ml water can help you lose weight. Interestingly enough the same 500ml chilled water may also help you master your next exams.
  
  According to a study from the University of Reading the consumption of 500ml of chilled water before a set of standardized cognitive tests will improve performance in several of the tests in young and older individuals (Masento. 2014).
• High flavenol cacao drink increases cerebral perfusion in older individuals (Lamport. 2014) One of the latest studies from the University of Reading investigated the effect of a single acute dose of flavanols on cerebral blood flow and fount that the flavenol-rich (494 mg vs. 23mg) drinks  lead to significant increases in regional perfusion across.

• 

  Figure 4: In contrast to whole fruit which increase the risk of diabetes, fruit juices increase T2DM risk sign. (Muraki. 2014)

  If it contains fruits or a lot of water it must be healthy (Bucher. 2014). Parents and children's health perception of beverages are highly susceptible to marketing gabberish. Worst of all, while "water is good", "fruit is even better".
  
  In the eyes of the parents and kids who participated in a recent study at the ETH Zürich fruit content seemed to be a more important criterion specifically for children to rate a certan food as "healthy". Bad news, in view of the fact that fruit juice - in contrast to whole fruit - consumption is associated with an 8% increase in type II diabetes risk according to a 2013 Harvard study (Muraki. 2013).

Food addicts - what do they say about themselves? A recent study (Ruddock. 2014) found that those who identified as a ‘food addict’ reported frequent food cravings, a preoccupation with food, unhealthy eating patterns, a lack of dietary self-control, and the tendency to eat in the absence of hunger. Furthermore, food addicts reported a problem controlling their intake of foods high in fat and/or sugar. Non-addicts reported the opposite to these behaviours, thus indicating that self- perceived addicts and non- addicts share similar beliefs about what characterizes food addiction.

And last but not least, I want to conclude this installment of the short news with a primer on food addiction. An Internet-based disease... well, sort of. The latest data from the University of Liverpool (Hardman. 2014) would at least suggest that having read on the Internet (or elsewhere) about food addiction and the subsequent belief in the existence of this pathology increases the prevalence of being a “food addict” on both the self-diagnosed measure (57% vs. 27%, respectively, p = .018) and the Yale Scale (16% vs. 0%, p = .02).

As Herbert points out, "[t]hese findings suggest that people readily endorse the concept of food addiction as an explanation for their behaviour." (Herbert. 2014) What will have to be determined in future studies, however, is whether one's belief in his / her own food addiction will also affect the actual food intake -- in other words: Is there a "I am a food addict, so I can't but eat until I die" phenomenon | Comment on Facebook.

References:

• Borzekowski, Dina LG, and Thomas N. Robinson. "The 30-second effect: an experiment revealing the impact of television commercials on food preferences of preschoolers." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 101.1 (2001): 42-46. 
• Bucher, T., M. Siegrist. "If it contains fruits or a lot of water it must be healthy. Parents and children's health perception of beverages." Appetite 83 (2014):347.
• Corney, R.A., C. Sunderland, L.J. James. "Effect of an immediate pre-meal water preload on voluntary energy intake in non-obese young males." Appetite 83 (2014):361.
• Davy, Brenda M., et al. "Water consumption reduces energy intake at a breakfast meal in obese older adults." Journal of the American Dietetic Association 108.7 (2008): 1236-1239.
• Dennis, Elizabeth A., et al. "Water Consumption Increases Weight Loss During a Hypocaloric Diet Intervention in Middle‐aged and Older Adults." Obesity 18.2 (2010): 300-307.
• Gutjar, S., C. de Graaf, G. Jager. "Food choice. The battle between package, taste and consumption situation." Appetite 83 (2014):358 
• Hardman, C.A., H.K. Ruddock, R. Dallas, J. Scott, P.J. Rogers, E. Robinson. "Food addiction, myth or reality? The effects of priming beliefs about food addiction on self-diagnosis and consumption." Appetite 83 (2014): 355.
• Lamport, D., D. Pal, C. Moutsiana, D.T. Field, C.M. Williams, J.P.E. Spencer, L.T. Butler. "The effect of flavanol rich cocoa on cerebral perfusion in older adults during conscious resting state." Appetite 83 (2014):351.
• Li, Jie, et al. "Improvement in chewing activity reduces energy intake in one meal and modulates plasma gut hormone concentrations in obese and lean young Chinese men." The American journal of clinical nutrition 94.3 (2011): 709-716. 
• Masento, N.A., A. John, V. Wilton, V. Benzesin, D.T. Field, L.T. Butler, C.M. van Reekum. "Investigating the effects of acute water supplementation on cognitive performance and mood in young and older adults." Appetite 83 (2014):355.
• McCrickerd, K. L. Chambers, M.R. Yeomans. "Food or fluid? The context of consuming a beverage influences satiety." Appetite 83 (2014):348.
• Muraki, Isao, et al. "Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies." BMJ: British Medical Journal 347 (2013).
• Plekhanova, T., J.K. Zakrzewski, Effect of consuming compared with omitting breakfast on free-living energy intake and eating patterns in overweight and non-overweight adolescent girls, Appetite 83 (2014):361.
• Richards, G., A.P. Smith. "Diet and wellbeing in undergraduate students." Appetite 83 (2014): 362.
• Rolls, Barbara J., Elizabeth A. Bell, and Michelle L. Thorwart. "Water incorporated into a food but not served with a food decreases energy intake in lean women." The American journal of clinical nutrition. 70.1 (1999): 448-455. 
• Ruddock, H.K., C.A. Hardman, M. Field. "'I perceive myself to be a food addict'. A qualitative exploration of the ‘food addiction’ concept." Appetite 83 (2014):355.
• Stafford, L.D., K. Banks. "Don't (do) stand so close to me. Mere proximity effects in overweight and underweight contexts." Appetite 83 (2014): 362.
• Stewart-Knox, B., M. Duffy, B. Bunting, D. Almeida, M. Gibney. "Psychological pathways to central obesity in healthy middle-aged British." Appetite 83 (2014):361.

Lean vs. Overweight: Post-Breakfast-Skipping Binge is Overweight-Specific. Lean Subjects Reduce Both Energy (-26%) & Sugar Intake (14%), When They Skip Breakfast

It always hits the (already) big ones.

A recent study that was conducted by a group of researchers from the Roehampton University, and the Universities of Northampton and Hull in London took an interesting and totally overdue approach to dispel the myths that revolve around the anti-obesity effects of breakfast. In the said study, a team of researchers recruited 37 participants who were assigned to one out of four groups on the basis of their body mass index (BMI) - normal weight BMI <25 kg/m² | or overweight/obese BMI > 25 kg/m² | habitual breakfast eaters | habitual breakfast omitters.

Subsequently, even the latter, i.e. the breakfast eaters were requested  to  eat  breakfast  for  an  entire  week. The BREAKFAST week was followed by a one week wash-out and an entire  week during which the subjects had to omit breakfast.

Learn more about fasting and eating / skipping breakfast at the SuppVersity

Breakfast and Circadian Rhythm

Does Meal Timing Matter?

Breakfast & Glucose Metab.

Breaking the Fast, Cardio & the Brain

Does the Break- Fast-Myth Break?

Breakfast? (Un?) Biased Review

Over the course of the whole study period, all subjects hat do keep detailed 7-day food diaries, reporting what was consumed and the timing of consumption were completed for each breakfast condition.

Figure 1: Lean (left) and overweight (right) subjects react very different to breakfast skipping (Reeves. 2014)

As the data in Figure 1 already reveals, the total energy intake was significantly higher during the breakfast than the no breakfast week. But just as the scientists say, the present study did also reveal a "significant effects of timing on energy intakes": More energy was consumed during the afternoon in the no breakfast week compared to the breakfast week.

Timing and body weight, both make a difference!

In general, overweight participants consumed greater amounts of  energy than normal weight  participants (surprise ;-) in the early evening - the effect was even more pronounced for those of them who were regular breakfast omitters and thus used to feasting in the afternoon / evening.

Overall, this sounds as if having breakfast regularly was a very good idea, but unlike some people want to make you believe, the total energy intake does count. The same is yet also true for the amount of sugar, which skyrocketed in the overweight subjects in the no breakfast week. Running around on empty and being unable to tap into their affluent energy depots on the hips and around the waist, the insulin resistant (don't tell me about "healthy obesity!") overweight part of the study participants gravitated towards readily available energy intake.

Table 1: Mean sugar and micronutrient intakes in breakfast and no-breakfast conditions (Reeves. 2014)

Bottom line: Paired with the reduced folate and iron intake in the non-breakfast week, the previously outlined results of the study at hand highlight once more the practical value of having breakfast for the average American who is neither willing nor able to track his energy and macronutrient intake on a daily basis. In a controlled diet scenario,  on the other hand, lean individuals have no reason to eat breakfast, if they feel that intermittent fasting (=breakfast skeeping) helps them to stick to their planned energy intake.

If you take another look at the data in Table 1 to the right, you will after all realize that the lean study participants were able to live of their fat stores and did not have to resort to Snickers, Twinkies and *bs* "protein bars" with a sugar content of 85% - the sugar intake of the habitual breakfast eaters decreased significantly by 31% while their fibre intake remained stable in conjunction with the 26% reduction in energy intake this alone should have been enough to she a couple of pounds of body fat... So what? Good bye "healthy" breakfast cereals ;-)

References:

• Reeves, Sue, et al. "Experimental manipulation of breakfast in normal and overweight/obese participants is associated with changes to nutrient and energy intake consumption patterns." Physiology & Behavior | Available online 24 May 2014.

Many Small Meals Suck! Especially For Diabetics. Human Study Shows 6 Small Meals Mess W/ Blood Sugar Control, Make You Hungry and Decrease The Metabolic Rate

No, no and no! Don't be stupid! Eat to satiety and fast or stay fat forever! Frequent meals will hamper not improve dietary T2DM treatment.

If you want my honest opinion, the only thing that's surprising about the following line you are about to read in all major science news outlets, today, is that it has taken scientists years to understand that "two large meals (breakfast and lunch) better than 6 small meals with same calories for controlling weight and blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes." This is a quote from the press release that was published along with a recent paper in the scientific journal Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) which "suggests that two large meals (breakfast and lunch), rather than six small meals with the same total calories, are better for controlling weight and blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes."

You can learn more about meal frequency at the SuppVersity

Grazin' Bad For the Obese!

Breakfast Keeps You Lean?!

Frequent Protein Consumption

Myth: Few Meals More Bodyfat

8 Meals = Stable, But High Insulin

Int. Fasting & Exercise

The corresponding experiment was conducted by Dr Hana Kahleová from the Diabetes Centre at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague. The study assessed 54 patients (29 men, 25 women) treated with oral diabetes drugs, aged 30–70 years, BMI 27–50 kg/m2 and HbA1c of 6–11.8% (42–105 mmol/mol). They were asked to follow one of two regimens of a restricted calorie diet, each containing 500 calories less than the recommended daily amount; in one programme the meals were six small meals (A6) and the other 2 large meals, breakfast and lunch (B2).

The study was designed as a "cross over", this means all 54 participants were tested on the two and the six meal plans for 12 weeks each. Needless to say that the diet in both regimens had the same macronutrient and calorie content - otherwise, a comparison of the measured liver fat content, insulin sensitivity and pancreatic beta cell function (the cells that produce insulin) would obviously have been useless.

Figure 1: Changes in anthropometric and laboratory variables. Data are shown as changes from baseline in response to the regimen of six (A6) and two meals (B2) a day (Kahleova. 2014).

Apropos comparison, even a rocket scientist could easily tell that the data in Figure 1 speaks in favor of the two-, not the still heavily propagated "eat frequent small meals"-six-meal strategy.

If you train in the PM skip breakfast and consume launch and dinner, only! The "breakfast is the most important meal of the day"-myth is about as flawed as the "eat frequently to get / stay lean" myth (learn more). Forget it and eat according to your schedule. If you train in the morning, or at noon, skip dinner. If you train in the afternoon, skip breakfast - or, put simply: Make sure to have a meal after every workout.

In spite of the fact that the researchers found that the body weight decreased in both regimens, there was a highly significant advantage for the two-meal (B2; -3.7kg) regimen over the six-meal (A6; -2.3kg) regimen. Similarly, liver fat content (B2 -0.04% vs. A6 -0.03%), fasting plasma glucose and the pro-insulinogenic C-peptide levels decreased in both regimens - yet obviously more for the two-meal strategy.

Eating more frequent makes you hungry and will shut down your metabolism

No, that's not a typo. In total contrast to what common stupidity... ah, I mean wisdom still says, eating more frequently will not decrease your hunger, and avoid the metabolic shut-down you'll experience on every energy restricted diet, sooner or later - on the contrary!

Figure 2: The difference may not reach statistical significance, but it should be pronounced enough to lie all myths about the "metabolically activating effects of frequent meals" at rest - wtf, look at the data: Never eating to satiety is the starvation signal - and not fasting for a couple of hours per day (Kahleova. 2014).

What eating frequent small meals really does do the average lifestyle diabetic is:

• leave him hungry even right after meals
• elevate plasma glucagon ("hunger"-hormone) and thus increase the conversion of glycogen back to glucose
• have his thoughts revolve around food 24/7

Similar effects with less detrimental health effects have been reported for healthy individuals as well. So that I would suggest to extend the authors' conclusion that "[t]hese results suggest that, for type 2 diabetic patients on a calorie-restricted diet, eating larger breakfasts and lunches may be more beneficial than six smaller meals during the day," (from the press release) from the average lifestyle diabetic to everyone w/ a couple of extra pounds who is trying to shed weight... The very lean athlete, on the other hand, has so little body fat to draw on and may in fact be better off with more frequent meals.

Bottom Line: This is not the first study that's questioning the general suggestion to eat more frequently to ward off and battle diabesity and I can guarantee it's neither going to be the last one.

Needless to say, snacking is a no-go as well, right? Read for yourself!

What I can guarantee, as well, though, is that it's not going to change the textbook- instead of evidence-based approach most doctors and dietitians are following. For these findings to finally make it into the day-to-day business of those people who are "dealing" with, but obviously not healing type II diabetics, it will take at least one generation of doctors and dietitians and two generations of their patients who may be paying for the delays with their lives. Lives that could have been saved if doctors and dietitians gave better advise and the patients had the guts to follow it.

Addendum: In view of warranted questions about contradictions to previous articles, I would like to point out that we are talking about a weight loss scenario with restricted energy intake, here. Not! An ad libitum diet, where eating "as often as you like", even if that may be eight times per day will help those of you who have not already ruined their "hunger gauge" (I am talking about "HUNGER" as in "NOT APPETITE") to stay lean / make lean gains. For someone whose primary goal is weight loss, I have always pointed to "intermittent fasting" (=low meal frequency) as a very feasible way to cut calories and lose weight - it does not work for everyone, though.

References:

• Kahleova, et al. "Eating two larger meals a day (breakfast and lunch) is more effective than six smaller meals in a reduced-energy regimen for patients with type 2 diabetes: a randomised crossover study." Diabetologia (2014). Ahead of print.

Review of Intervention Studies Shows: Weight Loss Success Independent of Meal Frequency

"Eat 3 large meals à day!", "Eat smaller meals every 2 hours!", "Eat a single meal and fast the rest of the day!" If you have been trying to find information on how to lose weight effectively, you probably heard all these "expert" advises. What if I told you that a recent review of 25 weight loss interventions shows that it simply does not matter!

In an extensive review of the literature, Palmer et al. (Palmer. 2011) conclude:

Manipulating the EF [eating frequency] of a client seeking weight management is unlikely to provide any additional benefits to weight, body composition or health. The theoretical benefits of manipulating EF may not be sustained in the real life clinical setting as a change to EF may be difficult to maintain over the longer term. Current evidence does not support many of the theories that encourage manipulating EF for weight management. Focus needs to be placed on dietary weight management strategies that are achievable and sustainable over the longer term.

Better body composition? Only inconclusive evidence. Better glucose tolerance in non-diabetics? Definitely not. Decreased risk of heart disease? Unlikely. Less hunger? At least not with three vs. six meals. Bottom line: Another myth debunked!

Fat From Serotonin. MS Despite Vitamin D. DHA & DPA Feel at Home in Your Cellwalls. Weightloss Obstacle Late Lunch? Wrist Predicts Diabetes Risk. Viagra Detoxes the Brain. Acetyl Cysteine Battles Acne. Propolis Increases GLUT-4

Yet another reason why calorie counting is not good for your sanity: The "average" sexual intercourse burns only 14 kcal more than watching TV.  and significantly less than a fast paced walk on the inclined treadmill. Luckily weight loss & maintenance is more complex than calories in vs. out, anyway ;-)

"14" that's the SuppVersity figure of the number of extra calories you will expend when you and your significant other decide to have sex instead of sitting on the couch watching TV tonight. I got that figure from a paper my buddy Sean Casey from CasePerformance has brought to my attention. Published in the latest issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (Casazza. 2013), it discusses the 7 most commonly held "false and scientifically unsupported beliefs about obesity" the scientists identified in a thorough analysis of popular media and scientific literature.

"The scientific community needs some more honesty"

While the sex-myth, which originally states that you would burn at least 100kcal, with a little more action"" even 300kcal per intercourse, is obviously my favorite, there are also a couple of  less sexy "presumptions about obesity" (e.g. simply eat more veggies and fruit and you lose weight) and "facts about obesity" (e.g.  the scientists dug up and debunked in a paper that ends with the wise words:

"While we work to generate additional useful knowledge, we may in some cases justifiably move forward with hypothesized, but not proved, strategies. However, as a scientific community we must always be open and honest with the public about the state of our knowledge and should rigorously evaluate unproved strategies." (Casazza. 2013)

Actually the term "the state of our knowledge" is an ideal segue to what follows - the "short" news! Originally the On Short Notice column was actually intended as a very brief overview over what has been going on in the "community" as of late. And since we are talking about honesty, I must admit that I have failed miserably in the past installments as far as the tiny word "short" in the column's title is concerned. 

The new short news are short again ;-)

So, as of now, I will be doing my very best to bring the On Short Notice column back on the short track, so to say. I guess, we will see in a couple of paragraphs, how successful my efforts will be ;-)

• Does serotonin make you fat? It's pro-fat storage effects would suggest so
  
  

  

  If 5-HT can make you fat and creatine blunts its increase PWO (learn more), what does that tell us about creatine? Nothing, but it leaves room for speculations.

  (Gres. 2013) -- If you trust in TV wisdom the reason women eat chocolate, whenever they feel sad or alone is it's ability to boost serotonin (5-HT). The latter is yet not the reason Sandra Grès et al. say that serotonin could make you fat. Rather than that, it's the ability of 5-HT to stimulate the obesogenic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ, learn more), on adipose cells, which will increase fat storage and the recruitment of new fat cells from the stem cell reservoir.
  
  These effects happen in the periphery (vs. the brain) and are totally unrelated to the centrally mediated effects of serotonin.

• MS patients benefit from the sun, not vitamin D
  
  (Zivadinov. 2013) -- Where is your vitamin D supposed to come from? From your skin, right. And where does your skin get it from? From tablets? No. It manufactures it from the "bad" cholesterol, when it's  exposed to the "bad" sunlight.
  
  

  

  In the upper left of this image you see, where the magic is - the rest is just a nice bonus.

  With all those supposedly bad, but in fact vital things being important for much more than vitamin D synthesis it is therefore not surprising that a recently published paper on the asociations of sun-exposure and/or vitamin D with MRI measures in multiple-sclerosis patterns revealed that
  

  "[...] sun exposure was associated with increased grey matter volume (GMV, r_p=0.16, p=0.019) and whole brain volume (WBV, r_p=0.20, p=0.004)" (Zivadinov. 2013).

  ...and that totally irrespective of whether the subjects had high or low vitamin D levels. If you wanted to say it fancily, you'd say the beneficial effects of sun exposure on the brain volume in MS patients was found to be disassociated from the effect the sun has on vitamin D levels (suggested read: Vitamin D, Epstein Bar & MS)

• If you want to up the omega-3 levels in your tissue, pick DHA and / or its precursor DPA over EPA
  
  

  

  Figure 1: Incorporation various lipid fractions in different tissues (Kaur. 2013)

  (Kaur. 2013) -- According to a very recent rodent study docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) are much more readily incorporated into two of your most vital organs, namely your brain and liver and likewise the preferred phospholipid in the cell walls of your kidneys and muscle tissue. Only your fat cells don't really like these long(est) chain omega-3s the incorporation of which was ~50% lower than that of oleic acid (OA; that's the mono-unsuaturated fatty acid in olive oil), which was used as a "neutral" control.
  
  The one question I would still like to have an answer to is how beneficial it actually is, if the phospholipids (PL, figure 1) in your cell membranes are full of easily oxidizable fatty acids.
  
  Also, what do we make of the other lipid fractions? Cholesterol (CHOL), diacylglycerol (DGL) and NEFAs + triglycerides (NE+TG)? Where do we actually want those good omega-3 fatty acids to accumulate? ... just some food for thought  for your DPA and DHA lovin' brains ;-)

• 
  On a side note: If you like GMO, you won't have to eat fish any longer to get your omega-3 PUFAs
  
  (Petrie. 2012) -- Researchers from the CSIRO Food Futures National Research Flagship have already engineered the first GMO brassica species with a higher DHA yield >11% than fish. The invention is hailed as "a breakthrough in the development of sustainable alternative sources of DHA as this technology should be applicable in oilseed crops" (Petrie. 2012)

• When late eating (spec. lunch) and certain genes come together weight loss can become pretty difficult - reasons still not fully understood, though
  
  (Garaulet. 2013) -- Late lunch and certain genotypes appear to make weight loss difficult for some. And the relation holds even after possible confounding factors like energy intake and even appetite hormones, were measured.
  

  

  Skipping breakfast. Yay or Nay? (read more)

  "Late lunch eaters lost less weight and displayed a slower weight-loss rate during the 20 weeks of treatment than early eaters (P=0.002). Surprisingly, energy intake, dietary composition, estimated energy expenditure, appetite hormones and sleep duration was similar between both groups." (Garaulet. 2013)

  While this is not a general argument against intermittent fasting, skipping breakfast and thelike, it does still go to show you that we are not all created exactly equal and any cookie cutter approach to weight loss therefore counter-indicated. 

• Show me your wrist and I'll tell you something about your glucose metabolism.
  
  (Nudeh. 2013) -- A study that was published in the latest issue of the The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reveals: Wrist circumference is a significant predictor of diabetes in both genders of adult population.

  

  Figure 2: Incidence of diabetes during 8.8 years of follow-up in different tertiles of baseline
  wrist circumference among male and female populations (significant trend in both genders; Noudeh. 2013)

  What's particularly interesting is that this association which was observed in cohort of 6393 subjects (2716 males and 3677 females), who had been subjected to a standard 2-hour postchallenge plasma glucose, test holds independent of BMI and waist circumference - allegedly in women, only. 

• Sildenafil Citrate Attenuates the Deleterious Effects of Elevated Ammonia
  
  (Arafa. 2013) -- You will probably remember the problems with ammonia accumulation due to huge BCAA and protein intakes (learn more). If you trust the latest results of two Egyptian researchers from the Zagazi University it would look as if a solution to that problem (which shouldn't be one, if your liver is healthy and you don't go overboard on pro-ammonia foods, anyway) would already exist: Sildenafil citrate aka Viagra can help.
  
  In their study the researcher administered 10mg/kg sildenafil to rats that were treated with daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of ammonium chloride (100 mg/kg body weight) for eight weeks. This treatment resulted in a significant reduction in serum liver enzymes, lipid profile and - maybe most importantly - brain lipid peroxidation and caspase-3 mRNA. It also increased the nitric oxide (NO) levels in the blood and lead to a significant increase in cGMP, antioxidants and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene expression in the brains of hyperammonemic rats.
  

  

  List of various foods and their ammonia content (Rudnan. 1973)

  "Our results showed that sildenafil exerts a protective effect on the brain by reversing oxidative stress during hyperammonemia and this could be due to (i) cytoprotective, antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects ii) increasing cGMP and enhancing the proper metabolism of fats which could suppress oxygen radical generation and thus preventing oxidative damage in the brain."

  Until now, the scientists cannot tell how exactly the human equivalent of 1.62mg/kg sildenafil citrate work, but its modulatory effect on the NO/cGMP pathway is the most likely candidate. That these effects are of real world significance has incidentally been shown, already. In 2003, for example, the learning abilities of rats with hyperammonia was restored by a similar regimen (Erceg. 2003) 

• Acetyl cysteine - don't swallow, but rub it... onto your skin, if you have acne
  
  (

  

  The comedo count is a measure of the number of comedones, i.e. the open black "pores" like those on the forehead of the person shown on this photo

  Montes. 2012) -- According to a study published in the latest issue of Skinmed, the application of a 5% acetylcysteine topical gel proved to be "significantly superior to placebo (P = .04)" in reducing the comedo counts. The results were comparable in  male and female participants and would suggest that "acetylcysteine is an effective therapeutic option for the treatment of mild to moderate acne". Whether it is an alternative to the retinoid based standard drugs, is yet still questionable.
  
  By the way, the latter, or rather the most prescribed of these retinol-like drugs, namely tretinoin has only recently been found to synergize with Aloe vera for even better results (Saeedi. 2013).

• Brazilian propolis ethanol extract promotes glucose uptake and translocation of insulin-sensitive glucose transporter (GLUT) 4 in skeletal muscle
   
  

  

  In the unfortunate case you missed the news: The commonly ignored BCAA Isoleucine also boosts GLUT4 (read more)

  (Ueda. 2013) I guess you will have heard about the miracles "royal jelly" is supposed to work on your health, right? Well, the cheap "packaging" material bees use to seal the smaller gaps in their hives (the larger ones are usually filled with beeswax) seems to have similarly outstanding - and in this case scientifically backed effects.
  
  When propolis was administered at a human equivalent dose of 20mg/kg to mice, those rodents saw increases in both PI3 and AMPK modulated increase in the glucose transporter 4 activity and skeletal glucose uptake.
  
  The main active polyphenols were artepillin C, coumaric acid, and kaempferide. All of them promoted GLUT4 translocation in a subsequent ex-vivo analysis using L6 myotubes, but kaempferide, which can also be found in acovado seeds (Pahua-Ramos. 2012) and cordia sinensis aka  grey-leaved saucer berry extracts (Martinetti. 2010), was the most potent one.

Now you are surprised, right? Me too. Nine individual items and all of them still qualify as "short news". I guess in view of the sheer abundance of news you won't need anything else till tomorrow, but in case you do, I have a couple of suggestions to check out on the SuppVersity Facebook Wall:

• Lycopene works as an anti-cancer agent, because some of it's metabolites "look" like retinol (vitamin A) and dock to the retinol receptor (read more)
  
• Curcumin is a hormetic agent (learn more about hormesis), but not all curcuminoids are created equally effective (read more)
• White poison!? Low sugar diet does not improve insulin sensitivity but decreases glucose levels in obese subjects (read more)
• Myostatin knockout mice have increased brown fat - Does this mean that myostatin suppression will increase browning of fat in man, as well? The recent SuppVersity article on PGC-1A4 already confirmed that (read more) 
• Fish oil for alcohol withdrawal - Only three weeks on low dose EPA (60 mg/day) and high dose DHA (252 mg/day) supplement yielded significant decreases in distress symptoms and basal cortisol secretion in abstinent alcoholics (read more)
• SuppVersity Suggested Read: The Hunter-Gatherer Within: Health and the Natural Human Diet - "Don't get your food from the same place your car does" (read more)

There are going to be a couple of more news before the official next SuppVersity post will be posted in ~24h - so "like" the SuppVersity on Facebook and make sure you don't miss any of them. Have a nice weekend!

References:

• Arafa MH, Atteia HH. Sildenafil Citrate Attenuates the Deleterious Effects of Elevated Ammonia. Toxicol Mech Methods. 2013 Jan 23. 
• Casazza K, Fontaine KR, Astrup A, Birch LL, Brown AW, Bohan Brown MM, Durant N, Dutton G, Foster EM, Heymsfield SB, McIver K, Mehta T, Menachemi N, Newby PK, Pate R, Rolls BJ, Sen B, Smith DL Jr, Thomas DM, Allison DB. Myths, presumptions, and facts about obesity. N Engl J Med. 2013 Jan 31;368(5):446-54.
• Erceg S, Monfort P, Hernández-Viadel M, Rodrigo R, Montoliu C, Felipo V. Oral administration of sildenafil restores learning ability in rats with hyperammonemia and with portacaval shunts. Hepatology. 2005 Feb;41(2):299-306.
• Garaulet M, Gómez-Abellán P, Alburquerque-Béjar JJ, Lee YC, Ordovás JM, Scheer FA. Timing of food intake predicts weight loss effectiveness. Int J Obes (Lond). 2013 Jan 29.
• Grès S, Canteiro S, Mercader J, Carpéné C. Oxidation of high doses of serotonin favors lipid accumulation in mouse and human fat cells. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2013 Feb 6.
• Jahangiri Noudeh Y, Hadaegh F, Vatankhah N, Momenan AA, Saadat N, Khalili D, Azizi F. Wrist Circumference as a Novel Predictor of Diabetes and Prediabetes: Results of Cross-Sectional and 8.8-Year Follow-up Studies. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Feb;98(2):777-84.
• Kaur G, Molero JC, Weisinger HS, Sinclair AJ. Orally administered [14C]DPA and [14C]DHA are metabolised differently to [14C]EPA in rats. British Journal of Nutrition. 2013; 109, pp 441-448. 
• Martineti V, Tognarini I, Azzari C, Carbonell Sala S, Clematis F, Dolci M, Lanzotti V, Tonelli F, Brandi ML, Curir P. Inhibition of in vitro growth and arrest in the G0/G1 phase of HCT8 line human colon cancer cells by kaempferide triglycoside from Dianthus caryophyllus. Phytother Res. 2010 Sep;24(9):1302-8.
• Montes LF, Wilborn WH, Montes CM. Topical acne treatment with acetylcysteine: clinical and experimental effects. Skinmed. 2012 Nov-Dec;10(6):348-51.
• Pahua-Ramos ME, Ortiz-Moreno A, Chamorro-Cevallos G, Hernández-Navarro MD, Garduño-Siciliano L, Necoechea-Mondragón H, Hernández-Ortega M. Hypolipidemic effect of avocado (Persea americana Mill) seed in a hypercholesterolemic mouse model. Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2012 Mar;67(1):10-6.
• Petrie JR, Shrestha P, Zhou XR, Mansour MP, Liu Q, Belide S, Nichols PD, Singh SP. Metabolic engineering plant seeds with fish oil-like levels of DHA. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e49165. 
• Rudnan D, Smith RB 3rd, Salam AA, Warren WD, Galambos JT, Wenger J. Ammonia content of food. Am J Clin Nutr. 1973 May;26(5):487-90.
• Ueda M, Hayashibara K, Ashida H. Propolis extract promotes translocation of glucose transporter 4 and glucose uptake through both PI3K- and AMPK-dependent pathways in skeletal muscle. Biofactors. 2013 Jan 28.
• Zivadinov R, Treu CN, Weinstock-Guttman B, Turner C, Bergsland N, O'Connor K, Dwyer MG, Carl E, Ramasamy DP, Qu J, Ramanathan M. Interdependence and contributions of sun exposure and vitamin D to MRI measures in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2013 Feb 5.