Currently browsing posts about: Activity

Thanks to Matthew Kadey for sending this one.  Matcha is a new one for me.

The study: Matcha green tea beverage moderates fatigue and supports resistance training-induced adaptation.  Shigeta M, et al.  Nutrition Journal volume 22, Article number: 32 (2023)

Methods: Healthy, untrained men were randomized into placebo and matcha groups. Participants consumed either a matcha beverage containing 1.5 g of matcha green tea powder or a placebo beverage twice a day and engaged in resistance training programs for 8 (trial 1) or 12 weeks (trial 2).

Oxygen nanobubbles?  Oxygen in little tiny bubbles?

For this gem I am indebted to an item I read in NutraIngredients-Europe:

Oxygen nanobubble drink found to enhance athletic performance, study suggestsA new study finds the consumption of an oxygen nanobubble beverage significantly improves the time-to-completion of maximal and submaximal exercises performed by male cyclists…. Read more

I went right to the article.

The study: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study examining an Oxygen Nanobubble Beverage for 16.1-km Time Trial and Repeated Sprint Cycling Performance.  Journal of Dietary Supplements. https://doi.org/10.1080/19390211.2023.2203738.

The concept: Athletes need oxygen and water.  Therefore, oxygen-supplemented water should improve performance.

The result: As comparied to placebo, Althletes who consumed the oxygen-nanobubble beverage demonstrated significantly improved performance.

The conclusion:  “An oxygen-nanobubble beverage improves performance during submaximal and repeated sprint cycling, therefore may provide a practical and effective ergogenic aid for competitive cyclists.”

Guess who funded this: “This study was funded by Avrox Technologies Ltd, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG3 3SZ. Avrox Technologies provided the experimental beverages but had no role in study design, data storage, analysis and interpretation.

I wondered what the placebo was and whether study subjects could distinguish the drinks.  The beverages:

were supplied by Avrox Technologies in 500 mL individually sealed bottles and consisted of the same solution containing water, glycerol, glycyrrhizin, lecithin and citric acid. Both beverages have similar organoleptic properties, including taste, aroma, and texture. Previous investigations have indicated that the oxygen nanobubble drink consists of a suspension of lecithin vesicles with a modal diameter of ∼100 nm and concentration 7 × 1012 particles/ml.

The authors deal with my question in their discussion of the study’s limitations:

we did not evaluate the success of our double-blind design, therefore, changes in performance might be somewhat attributed to participants’ expectancy of positive outcomes from their belief that they successfully identified the O₂ beverage…Whilst there were no notable differences in taste, texture or appearance of the O₂ and PLA [not spelled out in the study but must refer to the placebo] beverages, we should have assessed blinding via treatment allocation questionnaires to determine whether participant biases influenced results.

Yes, you should have.

I also wonder whether club soda or Pellegrino might have the same benefit?  Or giving water a good shake?

My thanks to Arun Gupta for sending this one from a newspaper in India.

The clipping refers to this article.

• The study: Ostendorf, D.M., Schmiege, S.J., Conroy, D.E. et al.Motivational profiles and change in physical activity during a weight loss intervention: a secondary data analysis.Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act18, 158 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-021-01225-5.
• First sentence : “High levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) are strongly associated with sustained weight loss [1, 2], and current guidelines recommend high levels of PA for weight management .”
• Methods: Participants were asked to follow a weight-loss diet and to do 300 minutes per week of exercise.  The investigators lstudies participants’ motivation levels.
• Conclusion: once exercise supervision and support was removed, adults in the high autonomous motivational profile were protected against the standard attenuation in MVPA following removal of support/supervision.
• Competing interests: “The results of this study are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. DC reports consulting income from Gelesis, Inc., a company that has developed a weight loss device.  SP has a grant from WW International [formerly, Weight Watchers] unrelated to this work.”

Comment: As far as I can tell, the paper says nothing about exercise being more important than diet.  The study didn’t find any differences in weight among people with different levels of motivation.  We can’t blame the authors for the press account.    But anything that minimizes the need for dietary changes gets pounced on.  Alas.

The study: Co-Occurrence and Clustering of Sedentary Behaviors, Diet, Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, and Alcohol Intake among Adolescents and Adults: The Latin American Nutrition and Health Study (ELANS)

Abstract: Poor diet, sedentary behaviors, sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and alcohol intake seem to co-exist in complex ways that are not well understood. The aim of this study was to provide an understanding of the extent to which unhealthy behaviors cluster in eight Latin America countries. A secondary aim was to identify socio-demographic characteristics associated with these behaviors by country…. Among 9218 individuals, the most prevalent behaviors were transportation and occupation–sedentary time, SSB and alcohol intake.

Conclusions:  EBRB, particularly excessive time spent on sedentary-activities and SSB intake, commonly co-occurred in a representative sample of LA adolescents and adults. While unhealthy behavior varied across LA countries, nearly half of sampled subjects in Argentina and Colombia presented at least two risk factor behaviors.

Recommendation: Public health policies and behavioral-change strategies should target SB domains (screen-time, occupational, and transportation), diet intake, and SSB and alcoholic intake in combination [my emphasis].

Funding: The ELANS data collection was originally supported by the scientific grant from the Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta, GA, USA) and by grants/supports from the ILSI Latin America branches (Argentina, Brazil, Sur-Andino, Nor-Andino, and Meso-America), Sabará Children’s Hospital, PENSI Institute, University of Costa Rica, Pontifical Catholic University from Chile, Pontifical Catholic University Javeriana, Colombia, Central University of Venezuela/Foundation Bengoa, University of San Francisco, Quito, and Nutritional Institute of Investigation, Peru. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of this manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Comment: This is the first study I have seen funded by Coca-Cola since the scandal over its funding of  the Global Energy Balance Network (see my last post on it) and its announcement that it would no longer pay more than half the cost of a study (see policy statement).  This study is co-funded by ILSI (also industry) and universities (independent).  Coca-Cola is still funding lots of studies.  See here and here.

Why would Coca-Cola want to fund a study like this?  The answer lies in the recommendation.  My translation: Do not target sugar-sweetened beverages with tax or warning label policies alone.  If you want to improve unhealthy behavior, you have to target all of those behaviors—screen time, jobs, transportation, dietary intake, and alcohol—at the same time.

Here is a summary of another funded study with results the funder must love.

Joint associations between weekday and weekend physical activity or sedentary time and childhood obesity.  Li N, and 19 additional authors for the ISCOLE Research Group. International Journal of Obesity (2019) 43:691–700.

Conclusions: Lower levels of MVPA [moderate to vigorous physical activity] or higher levels of sedentary time on either weekdays or weekend were associated with increased odds of obesity in 9–11 year old children in 12 countries.

Funding: The International Study of Childhood Obesity, Lifestyle and the Environment (ISCOLE) was funded by The Coca-Cola Company… With the exception of requiring that the study be global in nature, the funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis and interpretation of the data; and preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.

Comment: This is another paper from the ISCOLE study funded by Coca-Cola, that seems to be aimed at casting doubt on the idea that sugary beverages might promote weight gain.  Instead, these results suggest that physical activity is a more important factor.  Of course physical activity is important for health, but doesn’t expend nearly as many calories as is usually needed to compensate for soft drink intake.

I learned about this study from a Weighty Matters blog post by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, who runs a weight management center in Ottawa.  In his view, the ISCOLE study ignores evidence that childhood obesity is a determinant of physical activity, “not the other way around.”

He also questions the “no influence” statement in the funding disclosure, on the basis of

emails between ISCOLE investigators and Coca-Cola that not surprisingly suggests that these relationships have the very real potential to influence the framing of results even if funders [are] not involved in study design.

As I discuss in Unsavory Truth, the influence of food-industry funders appears to occur at an unconscious level; investigators do not recognize the influence and typically deny it.

As I also discuss in that book, Coca-Cola generously funded the ISCOLE study some years ago.  It has since changed its policy on research funding.

The Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee’s 2018 Scientific Report promotes physical activity as a “best buy” for public health.

• Physically active individuals sleep better, feel better, and function better.
• Some benefits happen immediately.
• Physical activity reduces the risk of a large number of diseases and conditions.
• The benefits of physical activity can be achieved in a variety of ways.

The report recommends 50 to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, but

• Any is better than none
• More is better than less
• Any amount at any level or duration counts.

The good news is that huge benefits come with just being somewhat active.

The report recommends 50 to 300 minutes of at least moderate activity a week, and this can be done in increments.

A brisk walk around the office, anyone?

FoodNavigator.com collects its recent articles about sports and fitness into a Special Edition: Sports & fitness: From niche to mainstream:

Devices enabling us to track our diet, sleep, food intake and exercise regime – coupled with a new breed of personalized nutrition apps – are giving regular consumers access to tools and data that have historically remained the preserve of elite athletes and fitness freaks.

But is this creating new opportunities for food and beverage companies? Has the audience for sports nutrition products (bars, powders, beverages, gels, shots and supplements) evolved? And as ordinary mortals and weekend warriors start to engage with the category, are their needs the same as those of the hardcore sports nutrition audience?

• Competition heats up in large and still growing sports drink category: Hoping to cash in on the steady growth of the already sizeable sports and energy drink category, manufacturers at Natural Products Expo West in March will showcase a variety of functional beverages featuring an ever-expanding variety of plant-based proteins, natural sweeteners designed to help cut calories and sugar and other endurance-boosting ingredients… Display

• NOOMA finds white space in the sports drink category: ‘People want something that will rehydrate them without the added sugar and ingredients they can’t pronounce’: Would a professional athlete drink this? The founders of NOOMA – one of a new wave of sports drinks boasting cleaner labels and less sugar – can reliably answer in the affirmative, as both Jarred and Brandon Smith played hockey for a living, and formulated their own drink, because they were not happy with the sugary, lurid-hued electrolyte beverages they were chugging down to stay hydrated… Read

• Athletes and fitness community increasingly embracing personalization: The link between personalization and athletes of all levels will become stronger as scientific advances “cut through the noise and show results that are objective”, says the CEO of InsideTracker… Read

• Protes unveils protein popcorn: ‘We’re the first ones to bring function to the category’: The ready-to-eat popcorn category has been pretty lively in recent years, but all the innovation has all been driven by branding and flavor, rather than functionality, claims Brooklyn-based brand Protes, which is looking to bring incremental growth to the category with the launch of popcorn with 10g protein/serving… Read

• ‘Sarcopenia is the new osteoporosis’: Abbott continues to explore solutions to counter muscle loss: Awareness and concern around age-related muscle loss is rapidly increasing, but many older consumers are in need of better education around what their protein needs are, and how best to get there, says Abbott… Read
• Lenny & Larry’s: We didn’t set out to create a category, but that’s what happened: With its distinctive brand and commitment to high protein, Lenny & Larry’s has carved out a loyal following and success across multiple retail channels, so what’s next for the company?.. Read 
• Adaptogens, CBD and nootropics rise as consumers consider their emotional & mental well-being: More products boasting the energy-managing, cognitive-enhancing and mood-moderating effects of adaptogens, CBD and nootropics will break out in 2018 as consumers continue to seek holistic and preventive ways to manage their mental health, according to trend spotters with SPINS… Read

Louise Fisher, a dietitian and food and nutrition consultant in Australia, writes:

I’ve loved your recent blog posts on Coca Cola’s sponsorship of research that fortuitously concludes that it’s not Coke that’s making us fat, it’s lack of exercise.  It’s no surprise to see that the alcohol industry here in Australia is running the same line. I just received a link to a guide to “get the facts on alcohol” Beer the beautiful truth from Lion, one of our biggest suppliers of beer. And what do you know, beer doesn’t make you fat, you just need to be more active.

Under Myth Busters on page 4:

DOES ALCOHOL CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN? DOES BEER MAKE ME FAT? It’s not the alcohol per se that causes weight gain. Eating or drinking more calories/kilojoules (energy) than you burn, from any food or drink, can contribute to weight gain. It is important to balance the calories we eat and drink with those we burn through physical activity and basic functioning like breathing and sleeping.

If you do drink, it’s important to know the calories in alcohol mainly come from the alcohol content, as well as the carbohydrate and sugars content. For example, a low strength beer will typically have less calories than a full strength beer. So really, it comes down to how much and what type of alcohol you have and what you eat with it – the chips, the kebab. Plus how active you are.

Hey.  If this strategy works for Coca-Cola….