Do Overweight People Have Worse Cognitive Flexibility? Cues-Triggered Food Craving May Have a Greater Impact

Background: Overweight people have been revealed to have poor cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility reflects proactive and reactive control abilities. However, the impairment had not been explicitly positioned at the cognitive stage. Therefore, this study provides increased support for impairment of cognitive flexibility due to overweight. Method: The study included 34 overweight and 35 normal-weight participants. They were required to complete the food and flower target AX-continuous performance test (AX–CPT), including the resting-state fMRI and cue-triggered food craving subscales. We compared the performance difference between the two tasks. Furthermore, we investigated whether the cue-triggered food cravings and the corresponding brain regions mediated the effect of overweight on the two control mechanisms. Result: Significant differences were found only in the food target AX-CPT task, where overweight participants performed worse. Cue-triggered food cravings mediated this relationship. Additionally, we found that the brain regions associated with cue-triggered food cravings (bilateral SFG) can completely mediate the relationship between BMI and the z-value of the fat mass index and sensitivity to proactive control. Conclusion: In the food target task, overweight participants performed worse in both control mechanisms. Moreover, we also revealed the potential mechanism by which being overweight might affect the two control mechanisms through cue-triggered food cravings.

How do overweight people dropout of a weight loss diet? A qualitative study

Background The growing trend of overweight and obesity in many developed and developing countries in recent years has made obesity one of the most significant health problems in the world. The treatment of overweight and obese people is challenging, as patients have difficulty adhering to a weight-loss diet. Thus, the present study aimed to identify the reasons for the dropout of weight-loss diets. Methods This qualitative study using content analysis was conducted in a comprehensive health center in Shiraz, southern Iran, between April and October 2020. The study was performed on 27 participants with a history of obesity and diet dropout selected via purposive and theoretical sampling. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and were thematically analyzed. Results The participants included 25 females (92.6%) and two males (7.4%) with a mean age of 33.4 ± 8.4 years. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of three themes and 14 sub-themes. The first theme was personal reasons for diet dropout, which included six sub-themes; i.e., misunderstanding of diet, not having enough motivation, stress and hormonal disorder, having the feel of “being harmful to health”, lack of mental and psychological preparation, and personal taste. The second theme was familial and social reasons for diet dropout, including two sub-themes, i.e., social and familial problems. Finally, the third theme was the reasons related to diet characteristics, including six sub-themes: ineffectiveness of diet, expensiveness of diet food and dietary supplements, family problems, unavailability of food, unscientific and unconventional diets feeling bad about the diet, and unpalatable diet food. All the concepts were related to each other and resulted in a pattern revealing the experiences of overweight people and who had dropped out of weight-loss diets. Conclusion The reasons for diet dropout were divided into three levels: personal reasons, familial and social reasons, and diet characteristics. Overall, clinicians should pay attention to the complexity of diets to increase the success rate of weight management. Based on the current study findings, a guideline is recommended to guide patients who dropout of weight-loss diets.

An EEG study on the effect of being overweight on anticipatory and consummatory reward in response to pleasant taste stimuli

Two-thirds of adults in the United Kingdom currently suffer from overweight or obesity, making it one of the biggest contributors to health problems. Within the framework of the incentive sensitisation theory, it has been hypothesised that overweight people experience heightened reward anticipation when encountering cues that signal food, such as pictures and smells of food, but that they experience less reward from consuming food compared to normal-weight people. There is, however, little evidence for this prediction. Few studies test both anticipation and consumption in the same study, and even fewer with electroencephalography (EEG). This study sought to address this gap in the literature by measuring scalp activity when overweight and normal-weight people encountered cues signalling the imminent arrival of pleasant and neutral taste stimuli, and when they received these stimuli. The behavioural data showed that there was a smaller difference in valence ratings between the pleasant and neutral taste in the overweight than normal-weight group, in accordance with our hypothesis. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the groups did not differ in their electrophysiological response to taste stimuli. Instead, there was a reduction in N1 amplitude to both taste and picture cues in overweight relative to normal-weight participants. This suggests that reduced attention to cues may be a crucial factor in risk of overweight.

Factors associated with the whole foods consumption by adults and elderly

Objectives: Evaluate associated factors to the consumption of whole foods by adults and elderly people. Methods: Cross-sectional study carried out in a municipality in the southwest of Paraná, in which an interview was conducted, comprising 41 objective questions, in adults and the elderly. The factors associated with the consumption of whole foods were evaluated using logistic regression models. Results: The sample consisted of 388 people, predominantly of women, white people, resident in the urban area, with more than 11 years of schooling belonging to socioeconomic class B2-C1. More than a half of the participants reported consuming whole foods (54.6%), however, 21.23% consumed them of irregular form. It was noticed that the female people (Odds Ratio: 2.24; CI 95%=1.38-3.65), physically actives (Odds Ratio: 3.33; CI 95%=1.89–5.87), and that had a greater knowledge about whole foods (Odds Ratio: 1.66; CI 95%=1.01–2.74) had greater chances of consuming them. Related to the regular consumption of these foods, overweight people (Odds Ratio: 0.45; CI 95%=0.21–0.96) presented less chances of ingestion, and the mean of communication and the health professional (Odds Ratio: 2.78; CI 95%=1.07–7.18) presented positive influence in regular consumption of whole foods. Conclusions: There is a need to increase the consumption of whole foods in specific audiences, such as men, sedentary, lower economic class, individuals who do not have knowledge about whole foods and those who are overweight.

MetaCliniq: a metabolomics tool for the development of a personalised nutrition service within the Stance4Health project

MetaCliniq: a metabolomics tool for the development of a personalised nutrition service within the Stance4Health project The overall objective of Stance4Health is to develop a complete smart personalised nutrition service based on the use of mobile technologies as well as tailored food production that will optimise the gut microbiota activity and long-term consumer engagement. The project will focus on the adult population (lean and overweight people) and children (lean, obese coeliac disease or food allergy).

A influência da dieta hiperproteica no auxílio da perda de gordura corpórea

Introduction: Hyperprotein dietary interventions, especially in obese and overweight people, favor a great loss of body fat and still preserve lean mass. General Objective: to elucidate the mechanism of action of high-protein diets in reducing body fat. Methodology: To carry out this study, we opted for research in the form of an integrative literature review. The integrative review determines current knowledge on a specific topic, as it is conducted in order to identify, analyze and synthesize results of independent studies on the same subject. Results and Discussion: To carry out this study we opted for a research in the modality of integrative literature review. The integrative review determines current knowledge on a specific topic, as it is conducted in order to identify, analyze and synthesize results of independent studies on the same subject. Conclusion: Through the development of this study, it was possible to demonstrate through the literature, the benefits of a high-protein diet, its help in reducing fat and body weight.

Serum Bilirubin Levels in Overweight and Obese Individuals: The Importance of Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Responses

Obesity is a chronic condition involving low-grade inflammation and increased oxidative stress; thus, obese and overweight people have lower values of serum bilirubin. Essentially, bilirubin is a potent endogenous antioxidant molecule with anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antithrombotic, and endocrine properties. This review paper presents the interplay between obesity-related pathological processes and bilirubin, with a focus on adipose tissue and adipokines. We discuss potential strategies to mildly increase serum bilirubin levels in obese patients as an adjunctive therapeutic approach.

Stereotypes about overweight students and their impact on grading among physical education teachers

A student’s weight is a particularly important characteristic in physical education. Research has shown that physical education teachers and people working in this area are particularly likely to hold strong negative implicit biases toward overweight students and that these students tend to earn lower grades in physical education. Stereotypes of overweight people might color teachers’ judgments of these students. In this study, we experimentally investigated whether overweight students received lower grades from physical education teachers on an exercise than normal weight students. We presented a verbal description of an exercise and asked teachers to grade a student’s performance and to judge the student’s social and working behaviors. Teachers gave lower grades to the overweight student, and regression analyses showed that their stereotypical beliefs predicted their judgments. Teachers’ motivation to control prejudice had no relation to their judgments. Nonetheless, our results showed that the same performance was graded worse only because the student was overweight.