Clinic Wellness Team. A key factor to spine or back pain conditions is staying healthy. Overall wellness involves a balanced diet, appropriate exercise, physical activity, restful sleep, and a healthy lifestyle. The term has been applied in many ways. But overall, the definition is as follows.
It is a conscious, self-directed, and evolving process of achieving full potential. It is multidimensional, bringing together lifestyles both mental/spiritual and the environment in which one lives. It is positive and affirms that what we do is, in fact, correct.
It is an active process where people become aware and make choices towards a more successful lifestyle. This includes how a person contributes to their environment/community. They aim to build healthier living spaces and social networks. It helps in creating a person’s belief systems, values, and a positive world perspective.
Along with this comes the benefits of regular exercise, a healthy diet, personal self-care, and knowing when to seek medical attention. Dr. Jimenez’s message is to work towards being fit, being healthy, and staying aware of our collection of articles, blogs, and videos.
For the majority of individuals, fasting all day and then having a good evening meal is the best strategy for a fast day. A small calorie allowance on fast times is of 500-600 calories. A single 500 calorie meal can be very substantial, but you may be able to possess mini-meals if you try to spread the calories more than dinner, lunch and breakfast.
Most men and women find that eating just a small amount only cures the hunger pangs for a brief time and actually makes them hungrier for the rest of the day, therefore it is generally best to avoid snacking on fast days and spare your calories until you can have a full healthy meal.
In addition to being easier for many people, waiting to eat before is also more effective for weight loss, as you will have fasted for longer. A survey inquired into the factors that influence weight loss on the 5:2 diet has proven this. The analysis of our survey questionnaire discovered that fasting for over 20 hours on a fast day led to a greater weight loss than fasting for less than 16 hours. There are lots of possible scientific explanations for why this could be.
Some snacks you may find hit a bit of a low point at about 4 pm. A drink or a snack that is small may be the answer. In case you have problems with not sleeping well on a fast day, saving some calories may be the solution.
You make the rules here: should fasting daily does not suit you, don’t feel you need to follow this advice. You may discover that you would rather eat a small breakfast, skip lunch and then have dinner. Or maybe you prefer to skip breakfast, have dinner and a lunch. Or possibly a big lunch and a fast day snack suits you best. Together with the fasting way of eating, whatever works best for you is the best response.
Period your eating window: if you’re following an eating window intermittent fasting method, for example 16:8, you already understand when you need to eat: throughout your eating window. But, you do have to choose when that window should start and finish. Theoretically, if you’re currently following the 16:8 plan your window could open at 4 pm and complete your last meal at midnight. However, it may be wise to not leave it. The reason is that our bodies are intended to go at the end of the day into repair and rest mode: eating late in the day interferes with the rhythms of our own bodies’ hormones and might affect our health. It’s not known if fat loss slows or influences our health in different ways but until we understand more, it’s probably better to attempt and avoid eating late at night. This allows your body to digest your meal and start the process of preparing for the night-time repair period. However, as always, it works for you and should you need to eat afterwards or prefer, then you should do.
What to Eat on a Fast Day?
How can you make the most of your calorie allowance on a fast day?
1) Choose higher protein meals, which allow you to feel full for longer. As protein is high in calories you cannot have a huge amount to your 500 calories however make protein your source of carbs.
2) Fill up your plate with low calorie vegetables: they fill your belly, taste good and do you good. Steam them, oven-roast with a tsp of oil, or stir-fry and add some spices or flavourings to make a filling meal that is delicious. Or have them raw into a salad that is big.
3) Maintain carbohydrates to a minimal: they are packed with calories and make you feel hungry again quickly. Examples of carbohydrate-containing foods to avoid are: potatoes, sweet potato, pasrsnips, rice, pasta, bread, some fruits (bananas, grapes, melon, prunes, raisins, dates and other dried fruits), breakfast cereals, fruit juice, corn-on-the-cob/sweetcorn and anything including sugar, honey or other syrups.
4) Don’t be afraid of fat: although fat is high in calories, it allows you to feel complete. Small amounts of fat in your fast day food should be included as well.
Though the suggested calorie allowance of 500 calories for girls; 600 calories for guys is not so stringent that it really matters if you go over or below the allowance by a little, you will have to weigh or measure at least the high-calorie ingredients in your recipes and also workout the calorie content.
How to Eat on Non-Fast Days?
On non-fast times you are free to eat whatever you like. Though, of course, when you want to lose weight, perhaps not as much as you fancy. And, strange though it may seem, your appetite will be probably reduced by the fast days rather than increasing it. You will find you are not particularly hungry about the day after a fast. There’s no need to consume a lot if you don’t feel like it! It is fine to wait until you are hungry before consuming on a non-fast day.
Your tastes can change so that you no longer feel cravings for sweet, sugary foods. You may understand hunger better and find you snack less and can wait for supper times without worrying about when it will be time for you to eat.
These kinds of changes won’t happen immediately. Your desire on days may vary greatly. You may find that you have non-fast days when you are hungry and eat a lot. Many people experience this in the early days. Do not worry if this happens, only concentrate on sticking with the fasts. Following 6 weeks of fasting, you aren’t losing any weight, and if you are still having issues with overeating, consider changing your strategy that is fasting or to make changes.
You should plan to eat normally on non-fast days. Intermittent fasting’s pleasure is that you can spend the majority of your time feeling free of anxiety about food, while controlling your weight and residing in a wholesome way. Some people restrict their calories in their non-fast times in an effort to speed up weight reduction. While this may work in the short term, it’s probably not such a fantastic idea in the long run. If you do not have your days of normal eating you will probably feel deprived of your favorite foods and create ‘diet exhaustion’.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Below, you�ll find the five most popular methods and the basics of how they work. Keep in mind, intermittent fasting isn�t for everyone. Those with health conditions of any kind should check with their doctor before changing up their usual routine. Note that personal goals and lifestyle are key factors to consider when choosing a fasting method.
Leangains
Best for: Dedicated gym-goers who want to lose body fat and build muscle.
The Way It Works: Fast�for 14 (girls) and 16 (men) hours every day, and then “feed” for the remaining eight to ten hours. During the period, no calories are consumed by you. But, calorie-free sweeteners black coffee, diet pop and sugar-free gum are allowed. (A dab of milk into your coffee won’t hurt, either.) Practitioners will find it most easy to fast throughout the night and to the morning. After waking up they usually break the fast roughly six hours after waking up. Maintaining a consistent window time is vital, although this schedule is flexible to any individual’s lifestyle. Hormones in the body get thrown out of whack and make sticking into the program harder, otherwise, Berkhan states.
What and when you eat during the feeding window additionally depends on when you workout. On days you exercise, carbohydrates are more significant than fat. On rest days, fat consumption ought to be higher. Protein intake should be fairly high daily, though it will vary based on targets, sex, age, body fat and activity levels. Irrespective of your program, whole foods should constitute the vast majority of your calorie intake. But whenever there is not time for a meal, then a protein shake or meal replacement bar is adequate (in moderation).
Advantages: For many, the highlight of this program is that on many days, meal frequency is irrelevant. You can really eat whenever you need to inside the eight-hour “feeding” period. Nevertheless, the majority of men and women wind breaking it up to three meals simpler to adhere to (because we are usually already programmed to eat this way).
Disadvantages: Although there is flexibility in when you eat, Leangains has pretty specific instructions for what to eat, especially in connection with when you are exercising. The rigorous nutrition plan and scheduling foods can make the program a little harder to adhere to.
Eat Stop Eat
Best for: Healthy eaters searching for an extra boost.
The Way It Works:�Fast for 24 hours a couple of times each week. Throughout the 24 hour fast, which founder Brad Pilon prefers to call a “24 break out of eating,” no food is consumed, but you can drink carbonated drinks. You then return to eating after the fast is over. “Act like you didn’t fast,” Pilon says. “Some people today need to complete the fast at a usual mealtime with a big meal, while others are OK ending the fast with a day snack. Time it however works best for you, and fix your time as your program changes,” he states.
The main rationale? Without restricting what you are able to eat according to Eat Stop Eat, Eating this way may reduce calorie consumption. It’s essential to note that regular workouts and resistance training, are important for succeeding with this strategy if weight loss or improved body composition are the goals.
Advantages: While 24 hours might seem like a long time to go without meals, the great news is that this program is elastic. You do not need to go all-or-nothing at the start. The first day, go without food and gradually increase fasting period over time to assist your body’s adjustment. Pilon suggests beginning the fast when you are busy, and about a day in which you don’t have any eating duties (such as a work lunch or happy hour).
Another perk? There aren’t any “forbidden foods,” and no counting calories, weighing food or restricting your diet, which makes it a bit easier to follow. That said, this isn’t a free-for-all. “You still have to eat just like a grown-up,” Pilon says. It’s all about moderation: You can eat anything you want, but maybe not as much of it. (A piece of birthday cake is OK, he says, however, the entire cake is not.)
Disadvantages: Going 24 hours without any calories could be too difficult for some, particularly initially. A lot of people struggle with moving extended amounts of time with no food, citing annoying symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, or feeling cranky or anxious (though these side effects can dimish over time). The fasting period may also make it more tempting to binge after a fast. This is easily fixed… but it requires a lot of self-control, and that many people today lack.
Warrior Diet
Best for: People who enjoy following rules. The devoted.
The Way It Works: Warriors-in-training can anticipate to fast for approximately 20 hours every day and eat one big meal every evening. When you eat that meal and everything else you eat is also key for this method. The doctrine here is based on feeding the body the nutrition it requires in sync with circadian rhythms and that our species are “nocturnal eaters, essentially programmed for nighttime eating.”
The fasting period of the Warrior Diet is really more about “undereating.” If desired throughout the 20-hour fast, you can eat several servings of raw fruit or veggies, fresh juice, and a couple of portions of protein. This is supposed to maximize the Sympathetic Nervous System’s “fight or flight” response, which is intended to boost endurance, boost energy, and stimulate fat burning.
The four-hour eating window, which Hofmekler describes as the “overeating” phase, is at nighttime in order to maximize the Parasympathetic Nervous System’s ability to help the body recuperate, promoting calm, relaxation and nourishment, while also permits the body to utilize the nutrients absorbed for repair and growth. Eating at night might also help hormones be produced by the body and burn fat based on Hofmekler. The order in which you eat food groups things is important as well. Hofmelker claims to begin with veggies, fat and protein. Only if you’re still hungry, you can tack on a few carbs, after completing those groups.
Advantages: Many have gravitated toward this diet because the “fasting” period still allows you to consume a few tiny snacks, which may make it easier to get through. As the methodology explains (and also the “success stories” section of this Warrior Diet website supports), many professionals also report increased energy levels and fat reduction.
Disadvantages: Although it’s great to eat a few snacks rather than go without any food for 20-plus hours, the guidelines to what you need to consume (and when) can be tough to follow long-term. Meal program and the schedule may interfere with social gatherings. Furthermore, eating one meal during the night, while following instructions of what to eat, and in what order, can be rough. It’s particularly hard for people who prefer not to eat big meals late in the day.
Fat Loss Forever
Best for: Gym goers that love cheat days.
The Way It Works: Not completely happy with the IF diets listed previously? This technique takes the best areas of the Warrior Diet, Eat Stop Eat and Leangains, and combines it all into a single strategy. In addition you get one cheat day every week, followed by a 36-hour fast (that might not be so easy for some). After that, the remainder of the seven-day cycle is divided up between the various protocols that were previously discussed.
Romaniello and Go suggest saving the maximum fasts for your busiest days, letting you focus on becoming productive. The plan also includes training programs (with weightlifting and free weights) to assist participants achieve maximum fat loss in the easiest way possible.
Advantages: According to the founders, whilst everybody is technically fasting every day, during the hours when we are not eating, most of us do so haphazardly, making it harder to reap the benefits. Fat Loss Forever provides a seven-day program for fasting where the body can get used to this timetable and reap the maximum benefit in the fasting intervals so that . (Plus, you get a complete cheat day. And who does not love that?)
Disadvantages: On the flip side, in case you have difficulty handling cheat times the healthy way, this method might not be for you. Additionally, also the schedule varies from day to day and since the program is specific, this technique can be somewhat confusing to follow. (However, the program will not come with a calendar, imagining the way to fast and exercise every day, which may make it simpler.)
Alternate-Day Diet or Alternate-Day Fasting
Best for: Disciplined dieters with a specific weight goal.
The Way It Works: This one’s simple: Eat very little one day, and eat like normal the next. On the low carb days, that means one fifth of your usual calorie intake. Using 2,000 or 2,500 calories (for both women and men, respectively) as a direct, “fasting” (or “down”) day ought to be 400 to 500 calories. Followers can use this tool to figure out how many calories to eat on “low-calorie” days.
To make “down” days simpler to stick to, Johnson recommends opting for meal replacement shakes. They’re fortified with nourishment and you can sip them rather than divide into meals. But, meal replacement shakes should just be utilized during the initial two weeks of the diet, then, you ought to begin eating actual food on “down” days. The next day, eat just like normal. Rinse and repeat! (Note: If working out is a part of your routine, you may find it harder to hit the gym on the reduced calorie days. It may be smart to keep any workouts on these times on the tamer side, or conserve sweat sessions to your typical calorie days.)
Advantages: This method is all about weight reduction, so if that’s your main goal, this can be you to have a better look at. Individuals who cut calories see a reduction of approximately two and a half pounds per week.
Disadvantages: While the method is rather simple to follow, it can be simple to binge on the “normal” day. The very best way to stay on course is planning your meals. Then you’re not caught in the drive-through or all-you-can-eat buffet with a stomach.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Intermittent fasting is one of the most ancient secrets of health and wellness. Because it’s been practiced throughout all history. Intermittent fasting is considered a secret because this habit had been long forgotten.
But now, many people are re-discovering this dietary intervention. It may carry advantages if it is done correctly, including: reversal of type two diabetes, weight reduction, greater energy and many other things. In this beginner’s guide you can learn the function of intermittent fasting on the body.
How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
At its very core, fasting simply allows the body to burn off extra body fat. It is necessary to realize that this is ordinary for humans and people have evolved to avoid negative health consequences from it. Body fat is merely food energy that’s been stored away. If you do not consume food, your body will simply “eat” its own fat for energy.
Life is all about balance. The good and the bad. The yin and the yang. The same is applicable to fasting and ingestion. Fasting, after all, is simply the flip side of eating. If you aren’t eating, you’re fasting. Here is how it works:
Once we eat, more food energy is consumed than can immediately be used. Some of the energy must be stored away for later usage. Insulin is the hormone involved with the storage of food energy.
Insulin rises when we consume food, helping to keep the excess energy in two separate ways. Sugars can be connected into chains, called glycogen and stored in the liver. There is limited storage space; and the liver starts to turn the glucose into fat, after that is achieved. This procedure is called De-Novo Lipogenesis.
A number of the newly created fat is stored in the liver, but most of it is exported into additional fat deposits within the body. Even though this is a complex procedure, there is no limitation to the total amount of fat which can be created. Therefore, two complementary food energy storage systems exist within our own bodies. One is readily accessible but with limited storage area (glycogen), and the other is more challenging to access but has infinite storage area (body fat).
The method goes in reverse when we don’t eat (fasting). Insulin levels fall, signaling the body to start burning stored energy as no more is coming through food. Blood glucose falls, so the body has to pull sugar to burn for energy.
Glycogen is the most readily accessible energy resource. It’s broken down to give energy to the cells. This provides enough energy to power the body for 24-36 hours. After that, your system will begin breaking down fat for energy.
So, the body just really exists in two states, the fed (insulin high) condition and the fasted (insulin reduced) state. Either we are storing food energy, or it is burning food energy. It is one or another. Then there is not any weight gain if fasting and eating become more balanced.
If we start eating the moment we roll out of bed, and do not stop until we go to sleep, we spend almost all our time at the fed state. As time passes, we will gain weight. We have not allowed our body some time.
To restore balance or to lose weight, we simply need to boost the quantity of time we burn food energy (fasting). Essentially, fasting enables the body to use its energy that is stored. After all, that is what it is there for. The important thing to realize is that there isn’t anything wrong with that. That’s how our bodies are designed. That’s what cat, dogs, lions and bears do. That’s what humans do.
If you are constantly eating, as is frequently advocated, then your body will simply utilize the incoming food energy rather than burn the body fat. It’ll be only stored by you. It will be saved by your own body for a while when there’s nothing to consume. You lack equilibrium. You lack fasting.
Fasting is Not Starvation
Fasting differs from starvation in a crucial way. Control. Starvation is the involuntary lack of food. It’s neither deliberate nor controlled. Fasting, on the other hand, is the voluntary withholding of food for health spiritual, or other factors.
Food is readily accessible, but you opt not to eat it. This could be for any time period, from a couple of hours up to days or even weeks. You will begin a fast and it may be ended by you at will. You may start or stop a fast for any reason or no reason at all.
Fasting has no typical length, as it’s merely the lack of ingestion. Anytime that you aren’t eating, you are fasting. As an instance, you may fast a period of approximately 12-14 hours, between breakfast and dinner the next day. In that sense, fasting ought to be thought of as a part of life.
Fasting is but a part of regular, normal life. It is possibly the oldest and most powerful dietary intervention imaginable. Yet somehow we have forgotten its power and discounted its potential.
The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic and spinal injuries and conditions. To discuss options on the subject matter, please feel free to ask Dr. Jimenez or contact us at 915-850-0900 .�
By Dr. Alex Jimenez
Additional Topics: Wellness
Overall health and wellness are essential towards maintaining the proper mental and physical balance in the body. From eating a balanced nutrition as well as exercising and participating in physical activities, to sleeping a healthy amount of time on a regular basis, following the best health and wellness tips can ultimately help maintain overall well-being. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables can go a long way towards helping people become healthy.
Healthy, well-nourished women who breastfeed while pregnant don’t seem to increase their risk of delivering prematurely, miscarrying, or having a low-birth-weight baby, the authors of a new research review conclude.
But Gemma Lopez-Fernandez of Corporacio Sanitaria Parc Tauli in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues write in the journal Women and Birth that more research is needed on the implications of nursing during pregnancy for mothers and children’s health.
While many women will decide to wean after getting pregnant, it is not uncommon for women to continue to nurse, Melissa Kotlen, an international board-certified lactation consultant based in New York, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.
“If you’re healthy, you’re low risk, you’re not on bedrest, there’s really no problem with continuing to nurse while you’re pregnant,” Kotlen said. “Most of these moms end up tandem nursing once the baby’s born anyway.”
But even pediatricians and obstetricians can fall prey to unproven but common beliefs about nursing during pregnancy, Kotlen added, for example that nipple stimulation will trigger the release of oxytocin and bring on labor prematurely, or that nursing during pregnancy will deplete a mother’s nutritional stores.
To investigate these and other potential risks of breastfeeding in pregnancy, Lopez-Fernandez and her team reviewed 19 studies published between 1990 and 2015 and including a total of about 6,300 women.
They found some evidence that women who nursed during pregnancy gained less weight, had fewer fat reserves and lower levels of hemoglobin – the molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen. But the reviewers note that most research on the issue was done in the developing world.
The investigators found no support for the idea that breastfeeding women were more likely to deliver prematurely or to miscarry. Evidence on the effects of nursing during pregnancy on fetal and infant growth, as well as on the growth of the nursing child, was mixed.
Mothers who become pregnant while nursing should not be overly concerned about their nutritional status, as long as they are eating and drinking well, Kotlen said. “Your body knows exactly what it needs to take in. If you’re pregnant and you’re nursing, your body is going to know very quickly you need to eat a little bit more and you need to drink a little more.”
Lopez-Fernandez was not available for an interview by press time.
Menopause can be a smooth transition for some women, but others are plagued with flushes, night sweats, fatigue, depression, headaches, and other troublesome symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which used to be routinely prescribed to replace lost estrogen and mitigate symptoms, has come under fire in recent decades for a possible link to breast cancer.
Red clover has long been a major weapon in herbalists’ defense against the symptoms of menopause. Red clover contains isoflavones, which are plant-based chemicals that have effects similar to estrogen. Now, a Danish study finds that fermented red clover extract effectively prevents the hot flushes, hormonal swings, and bone loss that often accompany menopause.
Researchers at Aarhus University found that red clover extract significantly decreases both the number and severity of daily hot flushes, one of the most annoying symptoms.
It is the fermentation of red clover that makes the herb so effective, says researcher Max Norman Tandrup Lambert. “The lactic acid fermentation increases the bioavailability of the bioactive estrogen-like compounds, known as isoflavones or phytoestrogens, that red clover has in abundance.”
“The challenge with isoflavones is that they can be difficult to digest as they naturally occur in the plant bound to sugar molecules which prevent absorption,” he said. “Hence, a large proportion of the isoflavones that are consumed as a pill or capsule can pass through the intestine without entering circulation.
“This problem is bypassed when the red clover extract undergoes a fermentation process,” he continued. “To be technical, the process separates the sugar molecules from the isoflavones, thereby increasing bioavailability.”
For the study, 130 women with menopause symptoms were recruited. Of those, 60 were selected because they reported at least five severe hot flushes a day.
The women were divided into two groups of 30. One group drank 150 ml (about 5 ounces) of red clover extract each day for 12 weeks while the other 30 drank a placebo product. The researchers were “speechless,” said Lambert. “There was a much greater effect than we had hoped for.”
Other studies have found that red clover increases HDL — the “good” cholesterol — in women, and another found that menopausal women taking red clover supplements had stronger and more flexible arteries. Some studies have found that red clover extract slows bone loss in women.
In addition, a study appearing in Phytomedicine found that red clover could prevent potential brain damage triggered by the food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate).
Macaroni and cheese mixes made with powdered cheese contain high levels of potentially harmful chemicals called phthalates, according to a new study.
Phthalates, which can get into food from packaging and equipment used in manufacturing, have been linked to genital birth defects in infant boys and learning and behavior problems in older children, The New York Times reported.
Researchers tested different cheese products and found that all 10 varieties of macaroni and cheese included in the study had high levels of phthalates, even those labeled as organic.
“The phthalate concentrations in powder from mac and cheese mixes were more than four times higher than in block cheese and other natural cheeses like shredded cheese, string cheese and cottage cheese,” said Mike Belliveau, executive director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, one of four advocacy groups that funded the report, according to The Times.
The other groups were the Ecology Center, Healthy Babies Bright Futures and Safer States.
“Our belief is that (phthalates are) in every mac ‘n’ cheese product – you can’t shop your way out of the problem,” Belliveau said.
He encouraged consumers to contact manufacturers and ask them to determine how phthalates are getting into their products and take action to prevent it. Nine of the cheese products tested were made by Kraft. Company officials did not respond to requests for comment on the study findings, The Times reported.
The U.S. government phthalates from children’s teething rings and rubber duck toys a decade ago.
Pregnant women who drink non-diet sodas during pregnancy are more likely to have kids who carry extra body fat by age 7, researchers say.
In the study of more than 1,000 mother-child pairs, each additional serving of sugary soda per day consumed in pregnancy was associated with higher increments of waist size and body mass in kids years later.
“Sugary beverages have been linked to obesity in children and adults,” said study author Sheryl Rifas-Shiman of Harvard Medical School in Boston.
Although past research has tied sodas and some fruit drinks to excess weight gain, obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, few have looked at beverage intake during pregnancy, she and her colleagues write in Pediatrics.
“Childhood obesity is widespread and hard to treat,” Rifas-Shiman told Reuters Health by email. “So it’s important to identify modifiable factors that occur prenatally and during infancy so prevention can start early.”
The researchers recruited 1,078 women from among patients at eight obstetric offices affiliated with Atrius Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in eastern Massachusetts.
The study team had in-person meetings with each woman at the end of her first and second trimesters, as well as during the first few months after her baby was born. In addition, kids were assessed in early childhood, around age 3, and in mid-childhood, around age 8. Mothers also completed mailed questionnaires every year for the child’s first six birthdays.
At all visits, researchers collected information about both parents and details of the household. During pregnancy, women answered questionnaires about what they typically ate and drank, including how much regular and sugar-free soda, fruit juice, fruit drinks and water they consumed each day.
At the mid-childhood visit, when kids were between ages 6 and 11 years, the research team measured each child’s height, weight, waist circumference and skinfold thickness. With these measurements, they calculated body fat percentage and body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height.
When researchers looked at data gathered during pregnancy, they found that more than half of mothers had consumed more than half a serving a day of non-diet soda during pregnancy, and nearly 10 percent had consumed two or more servings a day.
Mothers who drank more sugary drinks during pregnancy tended to be younger, had higher prepregnancy BMI, lower education, lower income, shorter breastfeeding times and were more likely to have smoked during pregnancy.
About one quarter of the children were overweight or obese by mid-childhood, and BMI, waist circumference and skinfold thickness were highest among kids whose mothers drank at least two servings of sugary drinks per day.
Only regular sodas were associated with this difference. Juice, diet soda and water consumed during pregnancy weren’t linked to a higher BMI score in kids. The research team also didn’t see differences based on the mother’s weight, race or ethnicity, the child’s gender or the amount of soda children themselves drank.
“I was surprised that maternal intake seemed to be more important than child intake,” Rifas-Shiman noted.
In the future, she and colleagues plan to study the long-term effects of efforts to reduce sugary beverage intake during pregnancy. They’re now using new methods to analyze when children’s intake of sugary beverages matters the most for their weight and health.
“I was struck that the differences in children’s body composition were seen in relation to intake levels that appear unremarkable, even less than one serving per day,” said Sian Robinson of the University of Southampton in the UK, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“We need to know more about the long-term effects of maternal nutrition on offspring health,” she told Reuters Health by email. “Few intervention studies in pregnancy have longer-term follow-up data to describe the effects on children’s body composition.”
Several of these intervention studies have been completed recently, Robinson added, and that follow-up data will be available soon.
“The links between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity are well-established,” she said. “But this new data suggests mothers’ consumption is important and has public health relevance.”
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