Running is a more effective way to lose weight than resistance training, a new study suggests. (John Foxx, Stockbyte photo)
People who want to lose weight are better off running than lifting weights — or even than doing both, researchers at Duke University say.
The researchers compared people who did aerobic exercise — running, swimming, walking, for instance — with those who did resistance training such as weightlifting and with people who did both kinds of exercise. Those who got up and moved burned the most fat, they said in the Dec. 15 Journal of Applied Physiology.
"Given that approximately two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight due to excess body fat, We want to offer clear, evidence-based exercise recommendations that will truly help people lose weight and body fat," Leslie H. Willis, an exercise physiologist at Duke Medicine and the study's lead author, said in a statement.
The study is the largest randomized trial to look at how the three modes of exercise in overweight or obese adults — 119 people by the end of the study — without diabetes changed body composition.
The news might be disheartening to a whole trendy cohort of exercisers who have become enamored with resistance training, often in combination with aerobics. Resistance training does have benefits. Research has shown it improves glucose control, for one thing.
"Balancing time commitments against health benefits, our study suggests that aerobic exercise is the best option for reducing fat mass and body mass," said Cris A. Slentz, a Duke exercise physiologist and study co-author. "It's not that resistance training isn't good for you; it's just not very good at burning fat."
Kids from poorer areas more likely to die in hospitals
Children from poorer neighborhoods who are hospitalized are more likely to die before discharge than kids from wealthier areas, according to a new study.
These differences persisted even though the number of deaths for all kids at the hospitals studied was lower than expected.
"Even despite our highest quality pediatric care in this country, some of those disparities continue to exist," said Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.
Colvin's findings are consistent with other studies outside of the hospital relating low income with a higher chance for sickness and death. He and his colleagues gathered information from 42 free-standing children's hospitals across the U.S.., including more than 1,000,000 admissions during 2009 and 2010.
Among the patients, 8,950 of them died within the hospital. The researchers found a progressively greater number of deaths as income declined.
While 0.7 percent of those kids from the wealthiest neighborhoods died, 0.8 percent of kids from the second-wealthiest neighborhoods died and 0.9 percent of children from the two poorest ZIP code groups died. The number of deaths among kids from the poorest areas was 29 percent greater than among the wealthiest kids.
Poverty, Colvin said, gets under the skin. "There's a lot of different ways that poverty gets under the skin. Part of it is through simple material deprivation: not enough food or poor housing, lack of access to health care. It also has to do with neighborhood factors, such as access to healthy food or violence within the neighborhood."
The study appears in the Dec. 17 journal Pediatrics.
Prediabetes and whole grains
Eating whole grains is associated with a decreased risk of prediabetes, a blood sugar elevation that can precede diabetes in adults, according to new research.
Swedish residents who ate food containing more than 59 grams — roughly two ounces — of whole grains per day were 27 percent less likely to become prediabetic compared with residents who ate 30 grams or less, the data showedaccording to the research.
Previous research has linked whole grain-rich diets with a decreased risk of diabetes, but the new study of 5,477 Stockholm residents in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition makes the connection to the disease precursor.
The study included 5,477 Stockholm residents from 35 to 56 years old without diabetes who kept food diaries of how much whole and refined grains they ate. Researchers measured blood glucose in study participants and followed up 10 years later.
Overall, one in 13 participants became prediabetic, while one in 33 became diabetic, the study found. When researchers took into account the daily amount of whole grains eaten, they found that eating more than 59 grams versus 30 grams of whole grain was associated with a 27 percent decreased risk of becoming prediabeti
Nutrition experts said the study had little relevance to the U.S. because most Swedes get their grains from whole grain sources such as rye crisps. In contrast, Americans get most grains from refined wheat such as flour that contains fewer nutrients and fiber added2 than compared to rye.
"This is of great importance because prediabetes is increasing," lead author Tina Wirström, a postdoctoral fellow at the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, said in an interview. told Reuters Health.
The American Diabetes Association estimates that one in four Americans older than 20 have prediabetes. Nearly a quarter of people with prediabetes eventually develop full-blown diabetes.
Previous research has linked whole grain rich diets with a decreased risk of diabetes, but the new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition makes the connection to the disease precursor. Whole grains range from oatmeal to popcorn, from brown rice to whole wheat - as long as the entire kernel is consumed.
— Tribune Newspapers and wire services