In the News: HALF of Americans Use Supplements

Supplement facts:

• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has found that more of half of U.S. adults use dietary supplements -- including multivitamins, minerals and, herbs.
• The most popular supplements are multivitamins, used by 39% of U.S. adults in 2006.
• While some supplements are helpful, supplements cannot replace proper nutrition.
• Several epidemiological studies showed there was no significant difference between people who take supplements and those who do not
• Some supplements may have side effect like prescription drugs
• Supplements are not regulated in the same way as prescription drugs

Basically, eat well. Most multivitamins won't harm you, but they cannot replace proper nutrition. I just thought it was interesting how many people take vitamins in the USA.

Why Eating Makes Us Feel Good

Everybody eats.  And many of us eat and eat and eat. Having a full stomach makes us feel good and content. But why do many of us overeat...continuing to stuff ourselves even when we are full?

Evolution has given us the instinct to eat a lot every time we can, preparing for hard times. It's the drive to survive, like squirrels storing up for the winter. It's also fueled by competition: beating others to the food.  And as for that warm, content feeling after eating a meal, scientists studying that good feeling call it ingestion analgesia, literally pain relief from eating. Despite the modern environment bombarded by appetizing advertisements and fast food, the wiring in the human brain hasn't changed. The reward circuits in the brain still release chemicals that comfort and satisfy.


The body rewards fatty, salty, and sugary foods by releasing endogenous opioids, chemicals which help control pain. A study published in Nature Neuroscience recently suggests that high-fat, high-calorie foods affect the brain in much the same way as cocaine and heroin. According to this study, when rats consume these foods in great enough quantities, it leads to compulsive eating habits that resemble drug addiction.

It is this addiction to foods that are bad for us that has helped to cause the current obesity crisis in the United States, and many other parts of the world. Our brains tell us that we are full, but we ignore ourselves because evolution tells us to keep eating. We need to learn to listen, and I leave you with a few tips that might help:

• STOP EATING when you are full
• Eat when you feel hungry, because if you wait too long to eat (become 'starving') then you are more likely to overeat.
• Eat slowly - give your brain time to figure out that you have eaten, and are full. The dinner table is not a competition of which family member (or apartment mate) can finish first (if it was, I would consistently lose)

In the News: Sleep Deprivation Increases Hunger

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have observed that sleep deprived individuals consume more calories the day after than if they had a good night's sleep.  According to the study, women consume 329 more calories and men consume 269 extra.
In addition to consuming more calories, the study participants seemed to gravitate to high-fat, high-protein foods when sleep deprived, especially ice cream.


Regularly consuming an additional 300 calories per day would add up to about 30 pounds of weight gain over the course of a year, thus increasing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses associated with being overweight and obesity.


The first thing I thought when I read this study was, "Oh, right.  Freshman fifteen."  College students get waaaaaaaaaaay less sleep than they need.  And we realize it.  Well, most of us do.  But we choose to do nothing about it, or just take lots of naps.  Anyway, we all need to get the right amount of sleep (at least 7-8 hrs per night), or else we will feel it in more ways than one.