Laparoscopic gastric bypass provides better results (Reuters)

Reuters - Performing gastric bypass surgery to reduce the weight of morbidly obese patients using a laparoscopic method, rather than the conventional more invasive "open" abdominal method, reduces postoperative complications, the need for a second operation, and shortens hospital stays, new research shows. Nevertheless, laparoscopic gastric bypass is more expensive.

Educate yourself about nutrition fact labels and use them regularly when shopping. They provide valuable information hyaluronic acid na hyaluronate therapy will help you make wise food buy bulk coq10 Remember, knowing is always better than not knowing! You can bury your head in the sand but it will show up on your scale!

Serving Size and Servings Per Container:

Together, these two make up the most important information provided by your nutrition fact label! Note them carefully. This information can be very misleading. Everything else on the food label is based on this information! Many times, you will think you're eating one serving when you're actually eating two or more. Looks can be deceiving! BE CAREFUL! Always ask yourself, "How much am I consuming?"

Number of Total Calories and Number of Calories from Fat:

Remember that all information is PER SERVING. If you have two servings per package, you must double these numbers.

A calorie is a unit of measure that tells you how much energy is provided per serving of that food. A general guide to calories is that 40=low, 100=moderate, and 400=high. In order to reach and buy pure thiamine mononitrate b1 powder an optimal weight, you must expend more calories than you consume. (Sounds so easy, right?) It's that "expenditure part" that does most of us in.

To roughly estimate how many calories you need each day, follow this guideline:

Are you sedentary? Multiply your weight by 14

Are you moderately active? Multiply your weight by 17

Are you active? Multiply your weight by 20

Nutrition Numbers:

Nutrition numbers consist of total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, protein, and milligrams of cholesterol and sodium. Some nutrition labels also list monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and milligrams of potassium. Some important vitamins and minerals are not required to appear on the Nutrition Fact Label, but many manufacturers add them anyway.

Notice that the first several nutrients are the ones you want to LIMIT in your diet. Eating too much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, or sodium may increase your risk of heart disease, cancers, and high blood pressure.

The nutrients listed next are the ones that you need to make sure you get enough of. Most people don't get enough fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. Getting enough of these nutrients can improve your general health and reduce your risk of some diseases and conditions.

Some Nutrition Fact Labels list a footnote at the bottom of each label. Some footnotes are complete and some are not, depending on the size of the label. The footnote simply lists, based on the 2,000-calorie diet, the recommended dietary amounts for all Americans. This information is standard and does not change from label to label.

Percent Daily Values (%DV)

The Percent Daily Value (%DV) is a valuable tool that shows you how much of each nutrient one serving provides based on a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet. You do not have to consume 2,000 calories a day to use these numbers. This is just the standard. You don't have to calculate anything in order to benefit from this information! The %DV does the math for you!

As a rule of thumb, 5% DV or less is low, while 20% DV or more is high. Remember that everything is dependent upon portion size. If you double the amount you consume, you must double the numbers!

Example: One serving of a product has 18%DV of fat, which is less than 20%, and therefore not "high." If you eat two servings, which is the entire package, you have consumed 36%, well above "high." That would only leave you 64% of your fat allowance for everything else you eat that day.

For nutrients that you tend to get too much of (fat, cholesterol, sodium), you want to try to total 100% or less of the Recommended Daily Value (RDV) each day.

When reading labels, look to see that the nutrients you want to get more of (carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals) have higher percentages and the nutrients you want to get less of (fat, cholesterol, sodium) have lower percentages.

You can also use %DV to compare similar products and you can check products labeled "reduced fat", "light", and "nonfat" to see which has the highest percentage of a nutrient.

If used correctly, %DV can help you make wise, daily food choices. If you eat something particularly high at one meal, you can use this information to balance your intake at another meal.

Note that trans fat, protein, and sugars do not have %DV.

Trans Fat: Research links trans fat to high LDL (L=Lousy!) cholesterol levels and should be avoided!

Protein: %DV only has to be listed for protein if the product claims to be "high in protein" or if the product is for children under the age of four.

Sugar: There is no daily recommended amount for sugar. Watch ingredient lists for sugar and its synonyms, such as:

• Sugar
• Sucrose
• Fructose
• Maltose
• Lactose
• Honey
• Syrup
• Corn syrup
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Molasses, and
• Fruit juice

If used correctly, nutrition fact labels are a valuable resource to assist us with our dietary selections. Learn to read them, understand them, and use them!

Gail M. Davis is the author of the weight loss advice site http://www.easy-weightloss-tips.com. For more tips on weight loss visit our site today!

Experimental Alzheimer's drug shows early promise (AP)

AP - For the first time, an experimental drug shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer's disease by taking a new approach: breaking up the protein tangles that clog victims' brains.

Every day, it seems, a new study pertaining to weight loss or nutrition is released to the public. These studies tout the latest and greatest trends, products or discoveries and then a willing public jumps on the bandwagon expecting mighty results.

Have you ever wondered about the reliability or efficacy of those studies? Do they stand the test of time or slip into obscurity only to be replaced or supplanted by another study?

Well, Greek researcher Dr. John Ioannidis decided to study the studies and he came to some very interesting conclusions. Dr. Ioannidis reviewed 45 studies published in one of three prominent medical journals (New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Lancet) between 1990 and 2003. Of the 45 studies, seven of them (16%) were contradicted by later research and another seven (16%) were found in subsequent studies to have effects that were lesser than initially thought.

At this rate, over three in ten studies released will report results that are either not as solid as originally reported, or are completely incorrect. Going six or seven for ten in baseball is a Hall of Fame-paced trend, but what does this mean for those of us who are relying on these studies to help us win the "Battle of the Bulge?"

Like choosing a new shirt or blouse, a buy bulk resveratrol 98 nutritional powder or hairstyle, or a paint color for a house or a room, there is inherently more risk in selecting an option that has not been time-tested than one that has. We've all come across a garment in our own closets that caused us to wonder just what we were thinking when we bought that horrible thing. Similarly, jumping on a scientific bandwagon that "promises" to be the road to success can leave you broken down on the side of the road.

When new studies are released, remember that there are members of the media and business people who stand to gain from over-promoting results that are too new to trust. Of the contradicted results, half were completely incorrect (or so it seems) and half were shown to be much less effective than originally reported.

From a practical standpoint, ask yourself if you are willing to set yourself back by gaining weight rather than losing it, or by spending time pursuing an option that simply doesn't produce the results you expected. Fighting the Battle of the Bulge successfully means that you need to have a positive attitude at all times. It is too easy to become discouraged and make destructive decisions and following advice from reliable sources that turns out to be bad can be just the kind of discouragement you don't need.

As with fashion and paint colors, if you are making decisions for the long haul, it is better to be conservative than to go with the latest trends. When you read or hear of new scientific studies whose advice you might be tempted to follow, the best decision would be to buy pure l-arginine aketoglutarate aakg out if the study is confirming earlier or previous work. If so, odds are that the advice is going to stand the test of time. In the meanwhile, buy betaine anhydrous fewer calories than you burn and drink lots of water and you'll continue to move in the right direction!

Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (weeklyweightlosstips.com) and the Chief Technology Officer for http://www.WellnessPartners.com, an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), r+ alpha lipoic acid (R+ ALA), and Green Tea Extract.