Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Profound' Study Challenges Traditional Diet Tenet That All Calories Are Created Equal
The New York Times: How A Low-Carb Diet Might Help You Maintain A Healthy Weight
It has been a fundamental tenet of nutrition: When it comes to weight loss, all calories are created equal. Regardless of what you eat, the key is to track your calories and burn more than you consume. But a large new study published on Wednesday in the journal BMJ challenges the conventional wisdom. It found that overweight adults who cut carbohydrates from their diets and replaced them with fat sharply increased their metabolisms. After five months on the diet, their bodies burned roughly 250 calories more per day than people who ate a high-carb, low-fat diet, suggesting that restricting carb intake could help people maintain their weight loss more easily. (O'Connor, 11/14)
Stateline: ‘On The Geaux’: How A Playground On A Truck Brings Joy
In a state with the fourth-highest rate of youth obesity in the nation, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, parks and recreation agency wanted to lure kids away from their screens and into the parks to get moving. But the low-income youths who needed exercise the most weren’t showing up at the parks, because, officials learned, they didn’t have transportation, and their parents were too busy working to take them. So they decided to take the parks to the kids. With money donated in 2012 by corporate sponsors and a portion of their parish budget, the local parks and recreation agency, known as the Baton Rouge Recreation, or BREC, bought a box delivery truck, painted it with bright colors and filled it with scooters, hula-hoops, balls, slack lines, trampolines, sidewalk chalk and jump ropes. (Vestal, 11/14)
And in more news —
The New York Times: Diet, Not Age, May Account For Rising Blood Pressure
Cardiologists are generally convinced that blood pressure inevitably increases with age. Now a new study calls this belief into question. Researchers studied two communities in a remote area of the Venezuelan rain forest that can only be reached by air. The Yanomami are among the most isolated and least assimilated people in the world. Nearby live the Yekwana people, also quite isolated, but with an airstrip that allows for the regular delivery of Western food and medicine. (Bakalar, 11/14)
