Breast-fed babies are much more likely to put on excess body fat if their mother's diet is high in trans fats, found a new study.U. S. The researchers analysed more than 90 women and their babies, and found children whose mothers ate more than 4.5 grams of trans fats a day while you are breast-feeding were twice as likely to have a high percentage of body fat than babies whose mothers consumed lower amounts of fat,
According to HealthDay News.
A study carried out by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States has suggested that people with high level of thigh fat are less likely to be at risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke, as opposed to men and women with high levels of fat around the waist and upper body. The study highlights the benefits of a pear shaped body.
Similar conclusions were drawn by a Danish study conducted last year. The study included 3000 men and women and it indicated that those who have thigh circumference of 23.6 inches or more have less chance of getting heart disease or diabetes.
In the trial by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Michael Jensen and colleagues overfed a group comprising both men and women for two months and studied the fat growth in their bodies. The body fat before the trial and after the trial was measured and it was found that an average subject gained 3.3 pounds of lower body fat and 5.5 pounds of upper-body fat.
According to Jensen the findings challenge the belief that the number of fat cells remains static in adults, as the striking finding was that the thigh fat cells grew in number and not in size whereas abdominal fat cells and the heart grew in size and not in number by producing more fat synthesising proteins.
These studies provide support to the idea that increased capacity to produce lower-body fat cells creates a form of buffer or protection to the upper body which houses the vital organs like heart, effectively preventing diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Drugs that change the way fat is stored around the body could be used to fight cardiovascular and related diseases in the future.
Researchers believe that pomegranate juice has the power to reduce fat around the stomach - the tyre in men or muffin top in women. After only a month, a volunteer who consumed a bottle of pomegranate juice daily was found to be less likely to develop fatty cells around his/her abdomen.
They had also much lower blood pressure, therefore reduced risk of infarction, stroke and kidney disease. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh think pomegranate juice can reduce the amount of fatty acids in the blood called nonesterified fatty acids or NEFA. Previous studies on humans and animals have shown that high levels of NEFA is associated with a greater storage of fat around the stomach, and an increased risk of heart disease and type II diabetes.
In the experiment, a group of men and women are given a 500ml bottle of pomegranate juice to drink each day for four weeks. The researchers found that nearly half of all volunteers had much lower levels of NEFA at the end of the trial. They believe that this will make them less likely to store fat around the abdomen. Moreover, more than 90 percent of men and women, lower blood pressure at month end.
Emad Aldujaili and Catherine Tsang, Researchers at Edinburgh University's School of Health Sciences, said: There is no doubt that pomegranate juice is beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease, because the results showed a significant and consistent lowering of blood pressure.