Breast-Feeding Tied to Intelligence

In a large randomized trial of human lactation, researchers have found evidence that prolonged breast-feeding is associated with improved scores on some intelligence tests in childhood.

The results, published in the May issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, appear to confirm those of previous observational studies.

Researchers in Belarus trained 8,457 mother-infant pairs with an extensive breast-feeding educational program, while a control group of 7,856 received standard care. At three months, 73 percent of the trained mothers, but only 60 percent of the controls, were still exclusively breast-feeding. By six months, exclusive breast-feeding had declined substantially in both groups, to 7.9 percent for the education group and 0.6 percent for the controls.

At 6 ½ years, the breast-fed group scored significantly higher on tests of vocabulary, word matching and verbal I.Q., although the differences in several other tests of intelligence were not significant. Teacher ratings of the children were consistently higher for those who were breast-fed.

It is unclear whether the differences were caused by a constituent of breast milk or by the associated physical and social interactions between mother and child. But the lead author, Dr. Michael S. Kramer, a professor of pediatrics at McGill Universtiyin Montreal, said the results could not be explained by characteristics of the mother or the way she related to her baby. “It’s the breast-feeding that’s doing it,” he said.

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6 Fat-Melting Food Swaps

Not all burgers are created equal. That's important, especially when you consider that the average American will consume 100 of them this year.

Take, for example, America's two most famous burgers: the Whopper with Cheese and the Big Mac. A fair fight, right? Well, if you go for the Arch alternative, you'll save 220 calories over the BK Behemoth. (A Big Mac has 540 calories and 29 grams of fat, compared to the Whopper's 760 calories and 47 grams of fat!)

Use that strategy for every burger you eat in 2008, and you'll save 22,000 calories - the equivalent of almost six pounds of body fat. You don't have to (nor should you) live on Big Macs; pick an even leaner burger and save even more.

See, the way you pick your favorite fixes - from burgers to banana splits - could help you make the transition from chubby to chiseled. In researching our new book Eat This, Not That!, we found that the most effective weight-loss strategy doesn't require you to abandon the foods you love, but simply to make better choices when selecting them.

Supplement that approach with plenty of fresh produce and lean protein throughout the week, and you'll trade failed diets and wild weight fluctuations for healthy eating patterns and a lean, new you. And once you learn how it's done, you can stay that way forever. Who wouldn't make that swap?

Pizza
Eat This:
2 slices Domino's large cheese pizza with crunchy thin crust
360 calories
19 g fat

Not That!
2 slices Pizza Hut large cheese pizza with thin 'n cripsy crust
560 calories
24 g fat

Save 200 calories and 5 grams of fat!

In the world of mass-produced pizza, nothing beats Domino's crunchy thin-crust pie. Eat pizza just once a week, and you'll save more than 10,000 calories this year - which is a nice down payment on a smaller waist size.

Turkey Sandwich
Eat This:
Subway 6-inch Turkey Sub with provolone cheese
330 calories
8.5 g fat

Not That!
Panera Bread Sierra Turkey
840 calories
40 g fat

Save 510 calories and 31.5 grams of fat!

Don't sweat the meat in the sandwich: turkey, roast beef, and ham are all lean cuts. But Panera slathers its turkey with a thick layer of chipotle mayo and slides it into a heavy, oily wedge of focaccia, so that turkey is a porker. A Subway 6-incher not enough to quell your raging lunchtime hunger? Double up on meat for just 50 calories more.

Cinnamon Roll
Eat This:
Au Bon Pain Cinnamon Roll
350 calories
21 g sugars
12 g fat

Not That!
Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll
813 calories
55 g sugars
32 g fat

Save 463 calories, 34 grams of sugars, and 20 grams of fat!

OK, there's absolutely no nutritional value in a cinnamon roll. We said it. But when you just have to have one, take comfort in knowing that Au Bon Pain's restrained rendition more than halves the calories, sugar, and fat found in the Cinnabon catastrophe.

Beer
Drink This:
Guinness Draught
125 calories
10 g carbohydrates

Not That!
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
175 calories
15 g carbohydrates

Save 50 calories a beer!

Surprised? Most people think of Guinness as a beer milkshake: dark, thick, and rich enough to inspire guilt at first sip. But switch out a six-pack a week and you've just saved yourself more than four pounds this year. Extend those savings even further with Beck's Premier Light: At 64 calories a bottle, it doesn't get any lighter than this.

Doughnut
Eat This:
Dunkin' Donuts Glazed Donut
230 calories
10 g fat
12 g sugars

Not That!
Dunkin' Donuts Glazed Cake Donut
330 calories
18 g fat
18 g sugars

Save 100 calories and 8 grams of fat!

Both are cloaked in sugar, but their original doughnuts are light and airy because they're made with yeast, and cake donuts are heavy and dense because they're made with cake batter. Remember: Cake is not a breakfast food.

Fruit Smoothie
Eat This:
Jamba Juice Power Mega Mango Smoothie
420 calories
97 g sugars

Not That!
Dunkin' Donuts Large Tropical Fruit Smoothie
720 calories
142 g sugars

Save 300 calories and 45 grams of sugars!

This sickeningly sweet concoction from Dunkin' has an ingredient list straight out of a chem lab and more sugar than seven Häagen-Dazs vanilla-and-almond ice-cream bars. So this tropical excursion will be bad for your equator. The Jamba version is 100 percent fruit, so there's a huge caloric discount and big antioxidant payload.

For nine more shocking swaps that will help you save big this year, click here.

6 Health Foods That Aren't

Healthy food may be making you fat.

Hold on: I'm not talking about broccoli and bell peppers here. I'm talking about a lot of the foods that are sold to us as "low-fat," "low-carb," or otherwise "healthy" fare. The food industry invests $30 billion a year in advertising, and much of that is used to dupe consumers into believing bogus bites are somehow good for us.

The truth is, behind every low-fat label and celebrated salad is a list of ingredients that would give even the most relentless glutton reason to reconsider.

In researching the best-selling book "Eat This, Not That!," the title for this new blog with my co-author Matt Goulding, we were shocked to find that the foods so many health-conscious eaters in this country consider to be smart choices are actually the most responsible for our ever-expanding waistlines.

Many of the "low-fat" or otherwise "healthy" options we examined packed several hundred extra calories in them! Translation: Get duped into eating one pseudo-healthy food a day, and you'll have an extra 30 pounds (or more) to work off by the end of the year.

We've identified six of the most misunderstood foods in America, so that next time you think you're doing your body a favor, you actually will be - by looking for something else that actually is healthy.

1. Bran Muffin
440 calories
23 grams of fat
35 g sugars

Made primarily with sugar, refined flour and hydrogenated oil, it's like starting your day with a candy bar. Actually, it's like starting your day with two candy bars, since this misunderstood muffin has more fat and calories than two Kit Kat bars.

2. Chicken Caesar Salad
900 calories
60 grams of fat

Caesar salads suffer the consequences of two natural disasters: a flood of fatty dressing and a blizzard of Parmesan cheese and croutons. All told, it's a caloric catastrophe - equal to scarfing down 20 Chicken McNuggets!


3. Tuna Melt
950 calories
55 grams of fat

Plain tuna out of the can is healthy; tuna drenched in mayo, shrouded in melted cheese, and slicked with another layer of dressing is not. You'd be better off eating three six-inch roast beef sandwiches from Subway!

4. Chicken Wrap
700 calories
35 grams of fat

How wraps got such a good rap is beyond us, since they're really just oversized tortillas, packing up to 400 calories on their own - that is, before the onslaught of cheese, meat, and dressing it houses! You'd get the same number of calories from 20 strips of bacon.

5. Turkey Burger
850 calories
50 grams of fat

At home a turkey burger might be a decent choice, but in the restaurant world it means high-fat ground turkey, heavy mayo, melted cheese, and a big, pillowy bun. It's the equivalent of three 8-oz sirloin steaks.

6. Fruit Smoothies
600 calories
120 grams of sugar

Unless it says 100 percent fruit, your "fruit" smoothie is likely made with ice cream, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and a few token chunks of banana. All told, this popular afternoon snack has as much sugar as six Haagen Dazs Vanilla and Almond ice cream bars. Ouch.

For even more 'healthy' foods that actually expand your waistline, check out these other surprising foods.

Calorie Intake May Affect Bone Health of Young Women

When a young woman stops menstruating, doctors often take it as a red flag that she may not be eating enough, which, among other problems, can inhibit bone formation.

But a new study has found that some young women who have regular periods may still be eating so little that they endanger the health of their bones.

There are a number of reasons a teenager may not be consuming enough nutrients. Anorexia is a common one, but young women who work out intensively for a sport like gymnastics without increasing their energy intake are also at risk.

The study, by Anne Loucks and Aiden Shearer of Ohio University, looked at the role of nutrient intake and bone formation in women ages 18 to 32. It was presented last week at a meeting of the Endocrine Society.

For five days, the researchers restricted the women’s caloric intake and had them exercise for more than an hour and a half each day. The women were separated into two groups, one younger and one older.

When the researchers drew volunteers’ blood at the end of the five days, they found decreased levels of two markers for bone formation.

While earlier research found that calorie restriction did not disrupt the reproductive system in the older group of young women, the new study suggests that taking in too few calories still impairs their bone formation.

The implications may be greatest for women who exercise a lot and do not consume enough food.

“Regular menstrual cycles do not reliably indicate that they are eating enough for what they’re expending,” Dr. Loucks said.

By ERIC NAGOURNEY