Sedentary behaviors have been linked to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. In terms of potential mechanisms, research has revealed associations between sedentary time and cardiometabolic risk factors, including higher waist circumference, higher blood pressure, unbalanced glucose and insulin metabolism, and unfavorable blood lipid profile.1 Television watching and its negative impact on health have been well-documented. A recent research study examined whether other types of sedentary behaviors netted a similar, deleterious impact on health. Specifically, the group of public…

America’s metabolic based diseases are on the rise; with over 20 million Americans currently having Type 2 diabetes (T2D), it is expected that 1 in 3 will be diagnosed with this disease in their lifetime.1 Furthermore, every year over 610,000 Americans die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the number of people diagnosed with heart disease continues to climb as well. 1 Taken together, the statistics are staggering. Both of these preventable diseases are exacerbated by obesity which, itself, is rising dramatically in the United States.1 It…

by Lewis Chang, PhD  Many nutrition studies utilizing a low fat diet for weight and health management have not consistently demonstrated reductions in cardiovascular events or mortality. In contrast, higher fat diets have netted improved body composition, diet adherence, and satisfying food preferences. However, it is still unknown whether there is an optimal diet composition of fat content for health benefits. A balanced high fat diet (BHFD) is a diet with 50/30/20 ratio of fat/carbohydrate/protein in which the fat component…

In this webinar, Dr. Osama Hamdy, the medical director of the obesity program at the Joslin Diabetes Center, discusses, “Dietary Fat: Should We Change Recommendations.” He begins with basic information on dietary fats. There are three types of lipids: free fatty acids, compound lipids (phospholipids, sterols/cholesterol). When we discuss fatty acids, we mean a chain of carbon atoms, one end called the alpha end, and one called the omega end. It is from that structure that we get the names of polyunsaturated…

In the United States more than 30 million people, approximately 10 percent of the population, have type-2 diabetes (T2D).1 Additionally, one in three adults in the US have prediabetes- that translates into over 84 million adults with hyperglycemia and an increased risk for frank diabetes. Diabetes is associated with other serious health concerns including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and obesity.1 A recent cross-sectional analysis examined the impacts of glucose metabolism status (i.e. normal, prediabetes and T2D) on cognitive function and…

by Ashley Jordan Ferira, PhD, RDN Nonnutritive sweeteners were designed to limit caloric intake and assist in weight and blood glucose management,1 but recent findings linked nonnutritive sweetener use to higher adiposity and cardiometabolic risk.2 Nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS) including aspartame, sucralose and stevioside are zero- or low-calorie sugar substitutes commonly consumed in the US.3 Approximately 25% of children and 41% of adults consume low-calorie sweeteners, with increased consumption in adults with higher body weight.3 Although beverages are the top source of NNS, many foods contain these ingredients too. The…

by Ashley Jordan Ferira, PhD, RDN An analysis of the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS2) cohort revealed that women with a history of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) who are also overweight or obese have a significantly increased risk of developing chronic hypertension (HTN) later in life.1 HDP includes pre-eclampsia and gestational HTN: obstetric complications increasing risk of maternal mortality.2 In the US, pre-eclampsia and gestational HTN affect 3% and 5-10% of pregnancies, respectively.2 Furthermore, HDP increases risk for chronic HTN. Conservative figures estimate that…

by Bianca Garilli, ND Insulin resistance (IR) develops as a response to long term elevation of insulin levels or hyperinsulinemia (HI) after exposure to chronic increases in blood sugar levels. Additionally, IR in conjunction with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and an increase in ectopic adipose storage including visceral adiposity tissue (VAT), are shown to increase the risk and further the progression of dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes (T2D), obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Recently, studies have indicated that elevations of…

The struggle to find the best diet for weight management and metabolic health improvement has largely failed. This failure may imply that no diet fits all needs, which justifies a search for biomarkers that can predict success in weight loss and physiological response, and can allow the most efficient diet to be selected on an individual basis. Researchers from the Texas A&M University recently conducted a series of metabolic studies to understand how genetic differences in mice influence health responses to…

by Lewis Chang, PhD  Body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with cardiometabolic risk and insulin resistance in children according to a recent population-based study, but cardiorespiratory fitness may mitigate risk.1 Swedish researchers from the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska Institutet (Huddinge, Sweden) and colleagues from Spain and Chile conducted a pooled study including cross-sectional data from three projects (n=1247, aged 8-11 years old) to evaluate the impact of BMI on cardiometabolic risk and homeostatic model assessment of insulin…