Tag Archives: appetite

Why eating a healthy breakfast saves time and money

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British mums do the equivalent of three hours work every day before they’ve even left home for the office, new research by Hovis bread shows. From getting the kids dressed to making the beds there’s a lot of time and energy lost to basic household duties which means something usually have to give way.

Although breakfast is often regarded as the most important meal of the day, many mums are forced to skip it if they want to get everything done and still get to work on time. Fortunately there’s an easy way to get a healthy, nutritious and filling breakfast into your stomach which helps you feel fuller for longer.

Fronted by World Olympic Champion Victoria Pendleton, Hovis Wholemeal Breakfast Week (April 12th-19th) encourages you to try wholemeal bread for breakfast. An equally healthy alternative to cereal, wholemeal bread is high in fibre which helps keep you feel fuller for longer. Would you prefer your breakfast to feature fresh-cooked eggs and mushrooms on toast? Or does the sound of cream cheese, walnuts and honey take your fancy?

Victoria has a clear message to parents, “A substantial breakfast is a vital part of my training so I make sure I never skip it. I can’t perform at my best either physically or mentally without a good start to the day and I would certainly not be able to achieve my long term training goals. It is easy to forget that rushing around after the family can be a workout in itself. The temptation when working to a busy schedule is to neglect yourself, but my advice would be to make the time for a healthy and filling breakfast…”

Watch this video to get nutritionist Lindsey Ormond’s take on wholemeal bread and get five great recipes to help keep you powered through to lunch with less temptation to snack unhealthily!

Video with nutritionist Linsey Ormond on how to make a healthy breakfast

Sex and diet pill on way, say researchers

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Edinburgh: Earlier research by Scottish scientists indicates that it may be possible to create a combo pill that increases a woman’s sex drive at the same time as supressing appetite.

So far the pill has only been tested on animals – shrews and monkeys, but the results so far indicate that the pill could go on sale within ten years.

Professor Robert Millar, director of the Human Reproductive Sciences Unit at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh, said they discovered the double benefit while developing a hormone to treat loss of libido, a problem which affects millions of women.

He noted that the animals in the test demonstrated an increased desire for sex at the same time they were less interested in food.

Female musk shrews and marmosets were injected with the Type 2 Gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which provoked an mating response towards their males.

In the shrews, this was shown by ‘rump presentation and tail wagging’, while the monkeys began ‘tongue flicking and eyebrow raising’ said the scientist. The animals cut their food intake by up to a third.

Type 2 Gonadotropin-releasing hormone is distributed to parts of the brain that scientists believe may affect reproductive behaviour.

Professor Millar believes that the results indicate the hormone could be useful in treating both low libido and obesity at the same time. He is now working on reproducing it in the form of a pill, which could prove extremely profitable given the amount of interest pharmaceutical companies have shown in enhancing libido.

Loss of taste may be indicator of depression

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Bristol: A loss of taste may be a sign of depression, according to scientists at the UK’s Bristol University.

When levels of our good mood chemicals fall in the brain our taste is desensitised. On the other hand when levels of mood enhancing chemicals such as serotonin and noradrenaline increase, sense of taste improves.

The team from Bristol University say their findings, which examined the links between brain mood chemicals and taste, could explain why loss of appetite often goes hand-in-hand with depression.

Their discovery could lead to the development of a taste test allowing doctors to quickly and accurately choose the right drug to treat a patient’s depression. But this will not be available for several years.

In the study volunteers were asked to taste a range of foods and their ability to pick up different tastes was rated.

They were then given antidepressants which raise the levels of serotonin or noradrenaline.

The results showed that raising serotonin levels enhanced their ability to recognise bitter and sweet tastes.

Raising noradrenaline levels made them more sensitive to bitter and sour tastes.

Some anti-depressants such as Prozac raise serotonin levels. Edronax increases the amount of noradrenaline. Other drugs can improve levels of both chemicals.

Doctors currently have no way of knowing which medicine will work for which patient and often initially prescribe the wrong drug.

Being able to pinpoint the right drug early on would enhance recovery from the condition that affects one in five Britons at some point in their lifetime.