Oatmeal Beats Ready-To-Eat Breakfast Cereal at Improving Appetite Control

Nov. 22, 2013 — While obesity is a complex and multifaceted problem, much of the strategy behind combating it boils down to healthy eating habits. Taking into account the primary role of subjective appetite sensations in said habits, a group of researchers recently compared the satiety impact of two popular breakfast choices: oatmeal and ready-to-eat breakfast cereal (RTEC). Their study, "Acute Effect of Oatmeal on Subjective Measures of Appetite and Satiety Compared to Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal: A Randomized Crossover Study" is now available in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, the Official Publication of the American College of Nutrition and a publication from Routledge.

A sample of 48 healthy subjects 18 years of age and older were tested on 2 days, one including a breakfast of prepared oatmeal and the other an RTEC. Satiety feedback was collected prior to and at several points over the 4 hours following consumption, using visual analogue scale (VAS) ratings of hunger, fullness, stomach fullness, hedonic "satisfaction," and desire to eat. In addition, each breakfast treatment was run through physiochemical testing of β-glucan characterization, in vitro starch digestion kinetics and viscosity.

The findings indicate that "…the oatmeal breakfast resulted in a greater increase in perceptions of fullness and a greater decrease in perceptions of hunger, desire to eat, and prospective intake in the 4-hour period postprandial when compared with the RTEC," while ratings of satisfaction didn't differ significantly. These findings are consistent with physiochemical test results indicating that the β-glucan content of the oatmeal was more viscous due to its higher concentration and molecular weight, signaling a more satiating form of fiber.

While further research into other aspects of oatmeal's nutrient content and glucose/ endocrine satiety markers is called for, the results of this study suggest that choosing oatmeal for breakfast can prolong the period between meals and thus help establish habits conducive to weight loss.

Journal Reference:

Candida J. Rebello, William D. Johnson, Corby K. Martin, Wenting Xie, Marianne O’Shea, Anne Kurilich, Nicolas Bordenave, Stephanie Andler, B. Jan Willem van Klinken, Yi-Fang Chu, Frank L. Greenway. Acute Effect of Oatmeal on Subjective Measures of Appetite and Satiety Compared to a Ready-to-Eat Breakfast Cereal: A Randomized Crossover Trial. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2013; 32 (4): 272 DOI:10.1080/07315724.2013.816614

Link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131122132410.htm

Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Increases Endometrial Cancer Risk

Nov. 22, 2013 — Postmenopausal women who consumed sugar-sweetened beverages were more likely to develop the most common type of endometrial cancer compared with women who did not drink sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Postmenopausal women who reported the highest intake of sugar-sweetened beverages had a 78 percent increased risk for estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer (the most common type of this disease). This association was found in a dose-dependent manner: the more sugar-sweetened beverages a woman drank, the higher her risk.

"Although ours is the first study to show this relationship, it is not surprising to see that women who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages had a higher risk of estrogen-dependent type I endometrial cancer but not estrogen-independent type II endometrial cancer," said Maki Inoue-Choi, Ph.D., M.S., R.D., who led this study as a research associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis. "Other studies have shown increasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages has paralleled the increase in obesity. Obese women tend to have higher levels of estrogens and insulin than women of normal weight. Increased levels of estrogens and insulin are established risk factors for endometrial cancer."

Because this study is the first to show the association between high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and endometrial cancer, such findings need replication in other studies, according to Inoue-Choi.

Inoue-Choi and colleagues used data from 23,039 postmenopausal women who reported dietary intake, demographic information, and medical history in 1986, prior to the cancer diagnosis, as part of the Iowa Women's Health Study.

Dietary intake was assessed using the Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), which asked study participants to report intake frequency of 127 food items in the previous 12 months. A typical portion size for each food item was provided to give study participants a sense of scale.

As reported in the study, the FFQ included four questions asking usual intake frequency of sugar-sweetened beverages, including 1) Coke®, Pepsi®, or other colas with sugar; 2) caffeine-free Coke®, Pepsi®, or other colas with sugar; 3) other carbonated beverages with sugar (e.g., 7-Up®); and 4) Hawaiian Punch®, lemonade, or other noncarbonated fruit drinks.

"Sugar-free soft drinks" included low-calorie caffeinated and caffeine-free cola (e.g., Pepsi-Free®), and other low-calorie carbonated beverages (e.g., Fresca®, Diet 7-Up®, and Diet Ginger Ale®).

The "sweets and baked goods" category comprised 13 items in the FFQ, including chocolate, candy bars, candy without chocolate, cookies (home-baked and ready-made), brownies, doughnuts, cakes (home-baked and ready-made), sweet rolls, coffeecakes or other pastries (home-baked and ready-made), and pies (home-baked and ready-made).

The researchers categorized the sugar-sweetened beverage consumption patterns of these women into quintiles, ranging from no intake (the lowest quintile) to between 1.7 and 60.5 servings a week (the highest quintile).

Between 1986 and 2010, 506 type I and 89 type II endometrial cancers were recorded among the women Inoue-Choi and colleagues studied. They did not find any association between type I or type II endometrial cancers and consumption of sugar-free soft drinks, sweets/baked goods, and starch.

"Research has documented the contribution of sugar-sweetened beverages to the obesity epidemic," said Inoue-Choi. "Too much added sugar can boost a person's overall calorie intake and may increase the risk of health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer."

Journal Reference:

M. Inoue-Choi, K. Robien, A. Mariani, J. R. Cerhan, K. E. Anderson. Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake and the Risk of Type I and Type II Endometrial Cancer among Postmenopausal Women. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 2013; DOI: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-13-0636

Link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131122132354.htm