What is Junk Food?
Junk food" generally refers to foods that contribute lots of calories but little nutritional value. Of course, what's considered "junk food" depends on whom you ask. Some might say pizza is junk food, for example. But I personally don't think so, since it contributes real food with nutrients, like
cheese and tomato sauce. Add whole-wheat or part whole-wheat crust, plus veggies as a topping, and I'd say pizza completely exits the junk food category. One problem with junk foods is that they're low in satiation value -- that is, people don't tend to feel as full when they eat them -- which can lead to overeating. Another problem is that junk food tends to replace other, more nutritious foods. When people drink lots of soda, for example, they are usually not getting plenty of low-fat dairy or other healthful beverages like green tea or orange juice. When they're snacking on chips and cookies, they're usually not loading up on fruits and vegetables. Most "junk food" falls into the categories of either "snack food" or "fast food." And then there are things like breakfast cereals. They seem innocent enough, but some of them could definitely be considered "junk food," as they mostly contain sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and white flour or milled corn.
So if you are less tired you will not get craving for junk and unhealthy food…
A new study that used brain scans of people who had not had enough sleep suggests junk food may be more appealing to tired brains. Scientists found that when normal weight volunteers looked at unhealthy food during a period of sleep restriction, the reward centers in their brains were more active than when they looked at the pictures after having slept regularly. The researchers, from St
Luke's - Roosevelt Hospital Center and Columbia University in New York, were using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to better understand the link between sleep restriction and obesity. They compared brain scans of 25 male and female volunteers when they were shown images of healthy and unhealthy foods after five nights of sleep restriction (no more than four hours of sleep a night) and regular sleep (up to 9 hours a night).The unhealthy foods included nutrient poor foods such as candy and pepperoni pizza, and the healthy foods included nutrient rich foods such as oatmeal, fruits and vegetables. The study findings were presented last weekend at SLEEP 12, the 26th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Boston. Principal investigator Dr Marie-Pierre St-Onge, a Research Associate with the New York Obesity Research Center, told the press:
The same brain regions activated when unhealthy foods were presented were not involved when we presented healthy foods. “The unhealthy food response was a neuronal pattern specific to restricted sleep. This may suggest greater propensity to succumb to unhealthy foods when one is sleep restricted," she added.St-Onge said the findings support the idea that insufficient sleep affects appetite regulation and obesity. Previous studies have already shown that restricted sleep makes people tend to eat more, and that people report a greater desire for sweet and salty food when they have been sleep-deprived. The study also showed that participants ate more overall and ate more fat after restricted sleep than they did after regular sleep.
(Source- SLEEP 12)
How Fish Oil Prevents Age-Related Loss Of Vision?
Best fish source for getting omega-3 fatty acid
Loss of vision due to age can potentially be prevented by DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in fish. The study, which was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science demonstrated that lab models fed with DHA did not accumulate the toxic molecule that usually builds up in the retina with age and therefore preventing age-related loss of vision.
Yves Sauve and his team from the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, declared,This discovery could result in a very broad therapeutic use. In normal aging, this toxin increases two-fold as we age. But in lab tests, there was no increase in this toxin whatsoever. This has never been demonstrated before - that supplementing the diet with DHA could make this kind of difference.The researchers are currently conducting another study investigating individuals with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is the main cause for losing central vision, which results in blindness in individuals above the age of 50 years. The team will be examining the participants' blood for DNA markers to determine whether people with certain genetic markers will have a better response to higher amounts of DHA in their diet compared with others and the potential reasons and mechanisms behind it.
(Source- journal Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science)
