Heena Sharma Blog

Green tea may reduce the risk of obesity and a number of inflammatory biomarkers linked with poor health, a study conducted in mice suggests. Mice fed a diet of two per cent green tea extract fared far better than those that ate a diet without it, according to the study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. The finding has prompted an upcoming study of green tea's potential benefits in people at high risk of diabetes and heart disease. The benefits seen in the study appear to stem from improved gut health, including more beneficial microbes in the intestines of the mice and less permeability in the intestinal wall -- a condition typically called "leaky gut" in people. "This study provides evidence that green tea encourages the growth of good gut bacteria, and that leads to a series of benefits that significantly lower the risk of obesity," said Richard Bruno, the study's lead author and a professor at The Ohio State University

Being anxious or depressed can increase risks for heart disease and stroke, the same as smoking and obesity, according to a new study, that underscores the importance of treating mental health conditions. The findings showed that people with high levels of anxiety and depression are at 65 per cent higher risk for a heart condition, 64 per cent for stroke, 50 per cent for high blood pressure and 87 per cent for arthritis. "These increased odds are similar to those of participants who are smokers or are obese," said lead author Andrea Niles, from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). However, the study published in the journal Health Psychology, showed that cancer was found as an exception to conditions impacted by depression and anxiety. "Our findings are in line with a lot of other studies showing that psychological distress is not a strong predictor of many types of cancer," said co-author Aoife O'Donovan from the UCSF. Read

Researchers have found that obesity and food restrictions are associated with less food enjoyment. Led by the University of Granada (UGR), the study has been published in the journal, Food Quality and Preference. For this work, 552 adolescents between 11 and 17 years old from several high schools in Granada, have had their emotional reactions analysed during the visualisation of images of sweet foods. Thus, the researchers observed that those adolescents who reported different types of dietary restrictions (different types of diet, dieting very often, skipping breakfast, eating less frequently, etc.), along with those who were obese and those who had unhealthy behaviours unrelated to food (such as smoking or having insufficient sleep), felt less pleasure, attraction and desire to eat the highly palatable foods they were looking at (images of sweets, doughnuts, ice-creams, chocolate crepes, etc.). How To Lose Weight As explained by Laura Miccoli, main author of