Nut Intake Equals Reduced Weight Gain

By Sage Ross - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30392736

Nut intake is associated with “reduced weight gain and a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese.”  So, in moderation, eating a healthy “energy-dense food” like nuts can be beneficial for weight control.  Don’t over-indulge of course, but it would seem like a handful of nuts is better than a handful of doughnuts.  Abstract:

PURPOSE:There is inconsistent evidence regarding the relationship between higher intake of nuts, being an energy-dense food, and weight gain. We investigated the relationship between nut intake and changes in weight over 5 years.METHODS:This study includes 373,293 men and women, 25-70 years old, recruited between 1992 and 2000 from 10 European countries in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Habitual intake of nuts including peanuts, together defined as nut intake, was estimated from country-specific validated dietary questionnaires. Body weight was measured at recruitment and self-reported 5 years later. The association between nut intake and body weight change was estimated using multilevel mixed linear regression models with center/country as random effect and nut intake and relevant confounders as fixed effects. The relative risk (RR) of becoming overweight or obese after 5 years was investigated using multivariate Poisson regressions stratified according to baseline body mass index (BMI).RESULTS:On average, study participants gained 2.1 kg (SD 5.0 kg) over 5 years. Compared to non-consumers, subjects in the highest quartile of nut intake had less weight gain over 5 years (-0.07 kg; 95% CI -0.12 to -0.02) (P trend = 0.025) and had 5% lower risk of becoming overweight (RR 0.95; 95% CI 0.92-0.98) or obese (RR 0.95; 95% CI 0.90-0.99) (both P trend <0.008).CONCLUSIONS:Higher intake of nuts is associated with reduced weight gain and a lower risk of becoming overweight or obese.

Do you like saxophone? Listen to this old song again:
Men At Work - Who Can It Be Now?

Miscellaneous

Here are a few random, or not so random, thoughts from the past few weeks:

A jolt into thinking
Have you been jolted into thinking recently? Listen to Joshua Sheats in his podcast # 473 – What’s Wrong With Radical Personal Finance? This podcast is a heart-wrenching and honest confession; it is also an exploration of our reasoning to exist. In this podcast, Joshua also refers to a book called “Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture” by Anthony Esolen. At least the introduction of the book sounds provocative, thought-inducing and nostalgic, when read by Joshua. I found a few highly negative comments about the book on Amazon, but as any provocative work, there would be a wide range of emotions evoked. I have no opinion yet, I have not read the book!

Let bygones be bygones
Recently I watched a documentary on poverty in India. The days of the poorest were revolving around the trash – the mountains of garbage that were piled daily. The condemned people were going through the remnants and the discarded of other people’s lives. Digging into the dirt of yesterday … trying to find a single thing worth anything. As I watched, this picture of people sifting through the past turned into a symbol – the symbol of us sometimes looking back at the past, at the darkest, lowest moments of life, trying to find anything of value, anything redeeming. But sometimes all of the search is in vain. I do not claim that we should forget where we came from and what we went through, but a daily dive into the past keeps us poor. A daily dive into the past leads to poverty of the spirit and morale, it limits initiative. What do you think?

Freedom

Here is a great though that I shared with my daughter recently: "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." -Bob Dylan
My girl will be soon deciding on what to do with herself after high school. I hope that she takes the right decision. I try not to meddle. Sometimes I think that by being passive, I am insuring myself against giving the wrong advice, but then I know my child – she would not change her mind no matter what I say. So, I am just sitting on the sidelines and waiting for her decision.

What happens to our children after high school
I recently found these stats on education:

"But for too many graduates, no matter the level of education they’re just completing, the transition to their next destination will be fraught with potential hurdles. Nearly 70 percent of this year’s high school graduates will go right on to college this fall, but if history is any guide only about half of them will graduate in four years. For those who do graduate, more than 40 percent of them might be underemployed, working in jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."
This is frightening, and discouraging. The education system needs to change. We need apprenticeships similar to these in Switzerland . After the apprentices learn about the real work world, then they can access more education, if they are inclined to do so. Watch what the future student may look like.

Quo vadis, Domine
Where are we going? Where is America headed?
These questions come to mind when watching the interview with Linh Dinh: America Is The Poorest First World Country. It is a scary, but honest view on America.

Error-Prone DNA Repair Targeted To Active Genes By Carcinogens

By Augustus Binu, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41205743

Here is a paper that claims that carcinogens like tobacco, UV exposure, and alcohol consumption promote error-prone DNA repair targeted to active genes, therefore having a greater impact in promoting cancer by affecting those important genes.

Another reason to avoid those carcinogens.

Train To Failure?

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33634102

If Mike Mentzer (pictured at left), the champion of "heavy duty" training to failure, was still around, he’d probably not be pleased about this study. Abstract:

This study investigated the effects of a 10-week resistance training to failure on neuromuscular adaptations in young women. Eighty-nine active young women were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) repetitions to failure (RF; three sets of repetitions to failure); 2) repetitions not to failure with equalized volume (RNFV; four sets of 7 repetitions); and 3) repetitions not to failure (RNF; three sets of 7 repetitions). All groups performed the elbow flexor exercise (bilateral biceps curl) and trained 2 days per week using 70% of 1RM. There were significant increases (p<0.05) in muscle strength after 5 (15.9% for RF, 18.4% for RNF, and 19.9% for RNFV) and 10 (28.3% for RF, 26.8% for RNF, and 28.3% for RNFV) weeks of training, with no significant differences between groups. Additionally, muscular endurance increased after 5 and 10 weeks, with no differences between groups. However, peak torque (PT) increased significantly at 180°.s-1 in the RNFV (13.7%) and RNF (4.1%) groups (p<0.05), whereas no changes were observed in the RF group (-0.5%). Muscle thickness increased significantly (p<0.05) in the RF and RNFV groups after 5 (RF: 8.4% and RNFV: 2.3%) and 10 weeks of training (RF: 17.5%, and RNFV: 8.5%), whereas no significant changes were observed in the RNF group (3.9 and 2.1% after 5 and 10 weeks, respectively). These data suggest that short-term training of repetitions to failure do not yield additional overall neuromuscular improvements in young women.

Of course, there are caveats.  Does this apply only to young women?  The women were labeled as “active” – but one can argue that more advanced bodybuilders, as opposed to beginners, would require “training to failure” for optimum muscle growth.  Of course, many people, including top bodybuilders, grow muscle without training to failure, but some are these are genetically gifted people and some may be utilizing anabolic drugs. And who knows if they would have made more progress training differently.  Or, maybe not. Essentially, the “jury is still out” on this question.  I give no recommendations here.  Do what works best for you, and we will await further studies.

Controversy: Requiem For BMI?

By BruceBlaus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44922550

Look at this paper; abstract reproduced below.  Now, I agree that BMI is a flawed measure.  It always struck me as odd that the BMI cutoffs for normal vs. overweight vs. obese were the same for men and women, considering that the typical man is larger framed and more muscular than the typical woman of the same height, and would therefore weigh more even if of completely healthy body composition. BMI also does not distinguish between the 200 pound athlete with high muscularity and low bodyfat and the 200 pound coach potato who is extremely obese and unhealthy. So, in that sense, I agree with this paper. However, for the typical person at home trying to figure out how their weight fits on the healthy vs. unhealthy spectrum, BMI can be a useful, albeit flawed, measurement, especially if combined with the common sense considerations mentioned above, and also combined with a look in the mirror to ascertain how the weight is distributed.  The typical person is not going to have access to the tools to accurately measure specific body fat percentage; hence the utility of BMI + common sense + visual observation to make judgments about healthy vs. unhealthy weight.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW:Quetelet reported in the nineteenth century that body weight varies across adults with the square of height. Quetelet's index, now known as BMI, is accepted by most health organizations as a first-level measure of body fat and as a screening tool for diagnosing excess adiposity. Modern imaging methods now, however, indicate that BMI has limited predictive value for estimating body fat and lean mass at the individual level. The use of BMI as a measure of body composition in the clinical setting should therefore be challenged.RECENT FINDINGS:Recent studies enrolling cancer and surgical patients reported discrepant outcomes when BMI was used as a body composition surrogate. Sarcopenia, loss of muscle mass and function, which affects the elderly and those with chronic and acute diseases, is not accurately diagnosed with BMI. The distribution of adipose tissue is not characterized by BMI, specific measures of which have greater predictive value for metabolic impairments and clinical outcomes.SUMMARY:BMI, as the traditional tool for assessing malnutrition and obesity, is not appropriate to accurately differentiate between important body weight components and therefore should not be used for making clinically important decisions at the individual patient level.

Should you care

This will be a short post. 

I have been dealing with lots of unnecessary drama in the past two weeks. All caused by colleagues who either do not know how to communicate or put too much weight on someone’s opinion. 

My job has turned into this of putting fires out. Yep, this is my new job description, PFO.
 
The most recent crisis I dealt with was fueled by people who got offended by remarks/opinions of their colleagues. This happens frequently, everywhere.

I used to care about everyone’s opinion. I am trying not to be influenced anymore (the emphasis is on "trying", a work in progress ☺). 

If I truly cared about what was said about me (and I knew about it), I would have sunk in the deepest depression. There are tons of people evaluating my activities. Most of these individuals are bitter, unhappy with their lives and their accomplishments, in constant doubt and battles with their own bugaboos. In such psychological state, there is no generosity of spirit and mind. There is no constructive criticism.

Let me ask you a question. When you point out at something unsavory about someone's behavior and work (face to face or behind their back), what is your purpose? Is it to correct the situation or to propagate it? If you do not do your feedback face to face, and if you do not offer any advice on how to improve this person’s state of mind, work, qualities, then YOU ARE PROPAGATING THE ALREADY BAD SITUATION. You are increasing the inflammation of an open wound. 

Being always on the receiving end of criticism/evaluations, I have decided that I would pay attention only when the feedback comes from a person I respect and trust. There are not too many of these people around me.

Resonating with all of the recent events at work is this great animation on YouTube:

STOICISM - MEDITATIONS BY MARCUS AURELIUS ANIMATED BOOK REVIEW

The author of the video has other great works; I am almost addicted to his videos. Check them out.

Physical Activity And Exercise As Therapies For Chronic Pain

Here is a review of studies of the effect of physical activity/exercise on chronic pain. The conclusion of the abstract:
 

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The quality of the evidence examining physical activity and exercise for chronic pain is low. This is largely due to small sample sizes and potentially underpowered studies. A number of studies had adequately long interventions, but planned follow-up was limited to less than one year in all but six reviews. There were some favourable effects in reduction in pain severity and improved physical function, though these were mostly of small-to-moderate effect, and were not consistent across the reviews. There were variable effects for psychological function and quality of life. The available evidence suggests physical activity and exercise is an intervention with few adverse events that may improve pain severity and physical function, and consequent quality of life. However, further research is required and should focus on increasing participant numbers, including participants with a broader spectrum of pain severity, and lengthening both the intervention itself, and the follow-up period.

The bottom line is that there is some evidence for improvement of pain severity and quality of life, but the studies had some flaws (e.g., small sample sizes) and so some of the effects were small and/or inconsistent. Further better and larger studies are required to ascertain the extent to which physical activity can alleviate chronic pain.

Daily Self-Weighing And Weight Control

At left, a different kind of weighing.  By National Geographic, Ancient Egyptians - Book of the Dead, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6851635

Daily self-weighing has been shown to be effective in weight loss control and maintenance - and prevention. The abstract summarizes the findings, including the all-important take-home message: "Daily self-weighing was associated with significant declines in BMI and body fat percent over time."  Abstract:

Daily self-weighing has been suggested as an important factor for weight loss maintenance among samples with obesity. This study is a secondary analysis that examined daily self-weighing in association with weight and body composition outcomes over 2 years among young women with vulnerability for weight gain. Women (N = 294) of varying weight status completed self-weighing frequency questionnaires and weight was measured in the clinic at baseline, 6 months, 1, and 2 years; DXA scans were completed at baseline, 6 months and 2 years. Multilevel models examined the relationship between daily self-weighing (at any point in the study) and trajectories of BMI and body fat percentage. Daily self-weighing was associated with significant declines in BMI and body fat percent over time. Future research is needed to examine causal relations between daily self-weighing and weight gain prevention. Nonetheless, these data extend the possibility that daily self-weighing may be important for prevention of unwanted weight gain.