🪀 Explained: the health problem with weight cycling

Yo-yo dieting can be detrimental to our health and breaking the cycle is a difficult thing to do.

Interviewing 36 adults with history of yo-yo dieting, this study found that most people where stuck in a vicious weight cycling pattern:

1. Weight-loss strategies often resulted in initial weight loss, but eventual weight regain

2. Regaining the weight led to feeling of shame, leaving people feeling worse than they did before the diet

3. Extreme behaviors (e.g. overexercising, emotional eating) often kick in to try to lose weight again

4. Obsession with weight starts

5. Feeling of shame, body dissatisfaction and unhappiness start to become more common

The combination of societal expectations, toxic diet culture, and weight stigma make it difficult for people to break the cycle.

🥊 Punchline

Yo-yo dieting is a negative practice because weight cycling becomes unsustainable. Strategies to break away from the cycle include focusing on health benefits of dietary changes rather than the number on the scale.

🧃 Exercise is not enough to offset the damage from sugary drinks

Sugary drinks (e.g. soft drinks, fizzy drinks, lemonade) are the largest source of added sugars.

Studying 100,000 adults for about 30 years, a new study revealed that:

Those who had sugary drinks more than twice a week had a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, regardless of physical activity levels.

Even if those individuals exercised the recommended 150 minutes a week, it's not enough to offset the risks from sugary drinks.

🥊 Punchline

This study calls for public health recommendations to limit people's intake of sugary drinks. Diet drinks can help reduce sugar intake, however the the best drink option remains water.

🐮 Gut bacteria important for overcoming milk allergy

Cow's milk allergy is the most common allergy among children.

For some, the solution is oral immuno therapy - the process of giving small but progressive amounts of milk to build up tolerance.

For others, however, cow's milk allergy can be lifelong.

In a new study, researchers found that the abundance of Bifidobacterium in the children’s gut that was associated with better tolerance against cow's milk allergy via oral immunotherapy.

Building up Bifidobacterium richness in the children’s gut starts from pregnancy and lactation. So the mother’s diet becomes a key determinant in children tolerance to allergens.

🥊 Punchline

Health starts in the gut and well before birth. To give children the best chance against cow's milk allergy, the mother’s diet has to support the delivery and growth of Bifidobacterium through a nutrient-rich but varied diet.