Vaporized foods coming to a restaurant near you? Do morning workouts beat cravings and read labels for a slimmer waistline.
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The concept of "inhaling food" is catching on, particularly with diners in Europe- what exactly am I talking about? Well it’s a device called the Le Whaf, created by French scientist and Harvard professor David Edwards. Le Whaf is a large glass carafe with an ultrasound device at the bottom. It’s filled with special crystals that vibrate rapidly when Le Whaf is switched on, thereby creating ultrasound waves. These waves create alternate low and high pressures through the liquid, which make it bubble and then vaporize. The cloud can be dispensed from a nozzle on the side of Le Whaf. It then stays suspended inside the glass for a minute before it sinks. Better get a whaf before it sinks! Diners describe the experience as having a taste or flavor sensation without having the actual food itself. What’s the point? Not sure but some say it can curb cravings and help people stay on top of portion control after getting a satisfying whiff of flavor — but we have to remember to eat real food – we need out vitamins, minerals and yes calories! Professor Edwards is adamant that this smoky little bowl will go on sale in France in several months for less than £85 and quickly catch on around the world.
>Label readers eat less
Researchers have recently uncovered a relationship between reading food labels and obesity. According to the study, female consumers who consult food labels weigh nearly 8.5 pounds less. In terms of body mass index (BMI), those consumers who read labels have a BMI of 1.49 points lower than those who never read food labels. The study used data from the annual National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) performed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over 25,000 observations were collected on health and eating, and shopping habits.
Some other interesting findings include that smoking populations pay much less attention to nutrition information. Furthermore, city-dwelling populations (49%) take nutritional information into account the most. This is also the case for those with high school education (40%) and college (17%). As eating establishments across the country contemplate including nutrition information on the foods they offer – this study signals the effect reading labels could have on our country’s obesity problem.
>Morning workout beats cravings
Working out makes you super hungry right? Well it might be all in your head as new research from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah challenges this long held belief. Researchers found that 45 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the morning diminishes one’s motivation for food. Researchers measured the brain activity of 35 women in response to images of food. Images were viewed after a morning workout and days that omitted the morning workout. Participants also kept a food and physical activity log during the two days. The exercise day produced lower brain responses to the food images in both the obese and normal-weight participants. The participants also increased their overall physical activity the day they worked out, but ate relatively the same amount of food as when they didn’t workout, suggesting that increasing caloric expenditure (i.e. being more active) does not necessarily translate to increased caloric consumption. Previous research has found that vigorous exercise reduced levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, while increasing peptide YY—a hormone that reduces appetite. Both studies point to the fact that regular physical activity plays a more significant role in weight loss and obesity than simply increasing the number of calories burned. The study will be published in the October issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
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