Stevia has been used in sodas marketed as dietary supplements and in other countries for sweetening treats and other foods but before now was not officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Experts had predicted the FDA would approve before the end of the year and the market for natural-based sweeteners would rise exponentially. December is as close to the New Year as can be and seems like the perfect time for introducing new products.

Officially recognized by the FDA this week, Cargill received the notification in the form of a letter stating that they have no objection to the previously submitted research that rebaudioside A (rebiana)—Truvia’s scientific name—has been generally recognized as safe (GRAS). The letter continues to support Truvia’s safety and the research behind a panel of experts from an independent company that provided the data.

PepsiCo has also teamed up with Merisant to produce PureVia another stevia-based sweetener, which also received the same FDA safety letter this week.

Cargill has complete confidence in this product and is elated at the recent findings that stevia-based sweeteners are now safe for use by all consumers. Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill, stated, “The FDA brought the appropriate rigor to the process and we are extremely pleased with the news.” Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

It is said that hosting the Olympic games is an opportunity to showcase your country and this will lead to increased tourism over the coming years. Well China seems to have had another side effect to hosting the Olympics and that is getting more people interested in exercise and fitness.

The end of the Olympic Games has not been the end of exercise for Beijing, for people’s enthusiasm for keeping fit has been encouraged.

In a country where going to gyms was not as common, even in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, as in developed countries the immediate aftermath of the Games has seen greater interest in exercise.

“I liked watching the basketball games most. I myself wanted to play when I saw the players fight hard on the field, so I came here with my friends,” the 19-year-old Liu Bing said at an outside basketball field in downtown Beijing. Read the rest of this entry »

So Britney is trying to make the news again but this time it is for her diet.

Apparently Britney is on a diet with no sugar and is eating about 1200 calories a day. Let’s lookk at what that simple bit of info means.

First of all the “new” Britney Spears is training and getting ready for the annual VMA (Video Music Awards) show, that is the one that gave her such a bad rap last year. In getting this exercise alone Britney is going to get in better shape.

Spears also says she hits the gym on a regular basis, doing “lots of cardio and weights” five days a week.

Now lets look at the diet. The simple fact that she has a low caloric intake of 1200 calories with no sugar means that she is doing a diet more similar to the GI diet, more complex carbs anyway which should help her long term energy although giving up all of those coffee drinks that Britney Spears is famous for is sure going to be a tough habit to break.

“I eat chicken and salmon and rice. I eat avocados. I’ll have egg whites for breakfast and sometimes turkey burgers for lunch ” says Britney.

I for one am cheering for a Britney Spears Comeback, hope it goes well for her.

In a recent report from the New England Journal of Medicine it was reported that in Scotland where smoking in public places has been banned that at the same time, apparently as a result of this legislation, Coronary heart disease went down by 17%

I have yet to see many studies that show the result of banning smoking in public places. Back when I was a smoker and when I was quitting smoking I am not sure that this really made much of a difference. I wanted to quit smoking because it is so unhealthy, smoking was expensive even then and the banning of smoking in certain public places made it inconvenient.

The real problem with quitting smoking I believe is the fact that governments still love the money that they get from tobacco sales even though they have outlawed most of the places that people can smoke. Smokers are stuck being able to buy smokes but have less and less places to smoke them in. It is really time for governments to decide if banning places is enough or make smoking illegal. Come on one way or the other but as we all know most governments are spineless when it comes to pissing off anyone.

Anyway. I think that years ago I had so much trouble quitting because smoking is very difficult and there is not nearly as good a support system as is needed. Every non-smoker (that never smoked) just says that it is dirty and that you should just go ahead and quit. I know how difficult quitting smoking really is so I started a quit smoking email course to help people out. Check it out now, it is free and helpful.

Fifty-five is the magic number when it comes to working out and losing weight, researchers say.

A new study has found that for overweight and obese women seeking to lose weight, fifty-five minutes of exercise a day, five days a week is needed to lose 10 per cent of overall body weight over two years.

Currently, the recommended amount is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week, totaling 150 minutes per week.

The study, conducted by University of Pittsburgh researchers, has been published in the July 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Read the rest of this entry »

MSNBC is reporting a study today done by Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research that seems to show that bar patrons drink more beer and drink faster when there is loud music. I hate to say it but I love to see these kinds of stories as they tell us a bit more about the human phyche as we get to think more about how people react to different situations.

Well that and maybe because I am drinking a Corona as I read the latest health news on the internet.

So what does the study really tell us? Well I believe that if we are to think about what people are doing in a bar, and I have been there in the past, they are talking, chacking out what is happening and fidgeting. When you are fidgeting a bit you are more apt to drink or eat whatever is in front of you.

So learn from the studies that you see, in this case I think that you are going to notice in yourself that if you are distracted and people put food in front of you then you will eat it…and lots of it.

weight loss study

A new diet study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine has had some interesting results. I am always a little shocked by the poor results of these studies but lets dig into it.

The study was done in Israel with a group of 332 moderately obese people, that is people that knew that they had to lose some weight. The group dieted for two years and most of them, 84% were still on the diet at the end.

There were three diets, a low fat diet, (standard diet) a Mediterranean Diet (like the book), and a low carb diet (Atkins). The people stayed on the diet that was chosen for them for the entire two years.

The shocking part? That the did not lose very much weight at all over the two years. Read the rest of this entry »

I just found a study that seems to show that when compared in rats, I know I am not a rat either, There is a significant difference in lifespan between eating less on a calorie reduced diet and losing belly fat by simply having it removed.

As compared to the first group, the calorically restricted rats lived 40 percent longer, and the rats that had some of their abdominal fat removed lived 20 percent longer.

“So this suggests that the fat tissue itself is an important component of what happens in caloric restriction,” says Barzilai. Additionally, the rats whose abdominal fat was removed experienced a significant reduction in the occurrence of severe renal disease.

Barzilai’s previous studies in rats showed that surgical removal of abdominal fat improved their health, but removing the fat under their skin by liposuction did not.

Read the rest of this entry »

I can eat a couple of hot dogs. Sure some people like them but not as much as Joey Chesnut how set a record today by eating more hot dogs in 10 minutes than I thought was humanly possible.

July 4th is apparently a great day to eat hot dogs and hamburgers and Joey ate 69 and then 5 more to win an eat off to stay world champion. Read the rest of this entry »

I know most people outside of Canada will not really care about how fat or not different areas of Canada are but there is a new overweightness article that I found on MSN. In the morning I boot up the laptop and sign into MSN Messenger and it pops up a little box with some news stories. One of the stories today was about what area and cities of Canada have the most overweight and obese people. Here is a quote:

Ten years ago, smoking was the national epidemic that had the country talking. Across Canada, anti-smoking campaigns were being implemented. The bar and restaurant industry began to prohibit smoking indoors, and cigarette companies were dropped from sporting events as lead sponsors.

Fast forward to 2008, there is a new national concern, – a more silent, yet equally as deadly epidemic – obesity. Although smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death among Canadians, obesity is a close second. By now, the majority of us are aware of the hazards which extra fat can cause, so why are more than half of Canadians either overweight or obese? According to Statistics Canada, a shocking 59 per cent of Canadians are currently overweight or obese – that’s almost 6 in 10 adults who carry around extra weight every day.

Although the number of Canucks who are overweight or obese is high, some communities are on the right path to a healthier lifestyle – and smaller pant size. We’ve got the lowdown on Canada’s fittest and fattest cities – how do you measure up?

The article is interesting although it does not list my chosen home of Calgary. There is also the BMI info that we are so use to seeing in one of these articles. Have I mentioned enough times how much I hate the inaccuracy of BMI calculations?

There is probably the same kind of info for US cities but I have not seen it myself. The shocking thing about this article is that the number of people in Canada looks to be well over 60% of the entire population.