Apparently, brain areas can be activated by titillation of unknown and mysterious receptors in the mouth, according to a study in the latest issue of the Journal of Physiology.

These receptors are independent of ordinary taste buds, says Ed Chambers, PhD, of the University of Birmingham in England and lead author of the study.

Chambers tells WebMD by email that the “study suggests that the human mouth may have receptors sensitive to carbohydrate that are independent of the ‘sweet’ taste receptor. This supports research performed with rodents that suggests these mammals have taste receptors that are responsive to carbohydrate.”

His research team mixed pseudo-sports drinks that contained either carbohydrates (glucose or maltodextrin) or a third concoction of water laced with artificial sweeteners.

Then eight endurance-trained cyclists were asked to complete a challenging workout, during which they swished with one of the three liquids for 10 seconds, spitting the drink out and not swallowing.

Those athletes who used the glucose or maltodextrin drinks to rinse their mouths did 2% to 3% better than exercisers who swished the artificially sweetened water, the “placebo” sports drink, the researchers say.

The researchers also examined the brain activity of athletes by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after giving them one of the three solutions.

And, they found that the glucose and maltodextrin triggered specific areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure or reward, but the artificially sweetened water did not.

“Our results suggest that any carbohydrate in the mouth could improve exercise performance,” he tells WebMD. “However, this has only been demonstrated with glucose and maltodextrin and would need to be proven. We want to make clear that the study does not imply that athletes do not need to swallow energy drinks during exercise. The research has identified that as well as the well-known metabolic benefits of ingesting carbohydrate drinks during exercise there is a direct ‘central’ benefit from simply tasting these substances,” Chambers tells WebMD in an email.

Sports Drinks May Give Brain a Workout

An Italian study shows that dark chocolate can significantly reduce the inflammation that leads to cardiovascular disease. The ideal amount is 6.7 grams per day (0.23 ounces). A typical Hershey chocolate bar weighs about 43 grams. That means eating one dark chocolate bar over the course of 6 1/2 days to get 6.7 grams per day.

The study was conducted by Research Laboratories of the Catholic University in Campobasso and the National Cancer Institute of Milan and has been published in the Journal of Nutrition. The data come from an epidemiological study called the Moli-sani Project, which selected men and women at least 35 years old randomly from city hall registries in southern Italy.

For the chocolate study, researchers identified 4,849 people in good health without risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. These participants were asked about their dark chocolate consumption.

Chronic inflammation can lead to heart disease, so keeping inflammation under control is a major part of preventive treatment. Research has shown that patients who have a low amount of C-reactive protein in their blood have lower levels of inflammation. People who eat dark chocolate regularly, in small servings, have significantly lower levels of C reactive protein, according to the study. This holds true even after accounting for any other potential confounding factors (such as differences in other dietary practices).

Dark Chocolate Prevents Heart Disease

Is it just me, or does it seem like, these days, almost everyone has cancer somewhere in their family tree? Terrifying? Totally. But the good, absolutely fantastic, news is that regardless of your family history, you can very easily lower your cancer risk. The best way to start: Pile some delicious food on your fork, chew, swallow and repeat.

It turns out that a healthy diet can help to override any cancer-prone genes you might have at work in your body. “Nutrition has a bigger influence on cancer than inherited genes, which means you could significantly reduce your odds of the disease through diet alone,” explains Joel Fuhrman, M.D., author of Eat for Health (Gift of Health Press).

OK, OK. I know what you’re thinking right about now: She’s going to tell me I have to eat kale at every meal. Not so! I mean, for the record, you should always eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, because they will dramatically lower your odds of ever hearing the dreaded diagnosis. But there are many other, less rabbity ways to eat away at your cancer risk.

Add whole grains to your diet.

My two faves, aside from a thick piece of freshly baked whole-grain bread? Oatmeal with a pinch of cinnamon for breakfast, or brown rice with a chicken and veggie stir-fry for dinner. Bonus: Because whole grains are high in fiber, you won’t be hungry five minutes after you step away from the table.

Spice things up.

In India, where people cook with many cancer-fighting seasonings such as cumin, ginger, garlic and turmeric, breast cancer rates are about five times lower than in the United States. Plus, adding Indian seasonings to your brown rice or veggies adds loads of flavor without adding loads of calories. Find easy-to-make recipes with these cancer-fighting spices at Self.com.

Nibble on chocolate.

Ah, and now we’ve come to my favorite study ever! Consider this your permission slip to indulge in a dark chocolate bar, guilt-free. Researchers have discovered a compound in dark chocolate that fights fast-growing cancers, such as colorectal cancer. “The compound requires the activity of an enzyme called kinase, which causes cancerous cells to die but leaves normal cells alone,” says Richard Pestell, M.D., director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. The darkest varieties offer the greatest benefit.

The Anti-Cancer Diet on Yahoo! Health

In fact, muscles do everything from help you move and digest your food, to — in the case of your heart muscle — pump nutrients throughout your body. “Our heart, brain, skin and other organs are in a constant state of remodeling with tissue being built and broken down,” says Nancy Rodriguez, a registered dietitian and director of sports nutrition programs at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. “Muscles offer a significant supply of amino acids to ensure these vital parts stay strong.”

Active muscles not only help cut your risk of developing diabetes or osteoporosis, but the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body can burn.

To keep your muscles strong and healthy you need the right kind of diet. Click on the items to see how these five foods can help you maximize your muscle mass.

5 foods to maximize your muscle power – Chew On This- msnbc.com

My niece’s preschool is adjusting its procedures to keep up with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases report that 6 to 8 percent of children from infancy up to 4 years old suffer from food allergies.  With over 12 million Americans diagnosed with food allergies and over 30,000 food reactions taken to the emergency room each year, it’s a wonder we don’t have a better food labeling system that caters to our fellow allergy sufferers like our eager-to-accommodate school systems.

Everyone has seen a cereal or candy bar or pre-packaged meal that says, “Packaged in a place that handles peanuts,” or “May contain traces of peanuts.” Although I don’t have a severe food allergy that requires me to read the labels, I still find these vague statements to be confusing. These ambiguous labels will hopefully undergo a face lift soon because the FDA held a public hearing Tuesday to discuss the future of food labels. The founder of the Virginia-based Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, Anne Munoz Furlong says, “We would like to see all of the food industry adopt one set of criteria for using these descriptions and a limited number of those descriptions,” Furlong goes on to say, “There are about 30 different ways to say ‘may contain’ on the marketplace. That’s way too many.” Without a cure for food allergies and 150 deaths in America each year due to severe reactions, the FDA is right to seek a long-term strategy for updating label information.

One of the major problems is complexity of the label descriptions which, in the past, have yielded the confusing labels stated above and leads consumers to ask what “trace amounts” really mean. New York University/Bellevue Medical Center’s pediatric allergy and asthma clinic emeritus director Dr. Jonathan Field agrees, “I think [the FDA] may be trying to find a medium in how much do they have to explain and in how much detail….There’s a problem on both sides in terms of over-labeling or under-labeling foods. I think they have to be specific.” Regardless of how specific the labels end up being, the FDA will never be able to be 100 percent accurate. Each allergy has a specific reaction to every individual, and because some are naturally worse than others, unless total avoidance is possible, no one will be completely safe no matter how the labels read.

Even with the hopeful revamp of food labels across the United States, the FDA still urges consumers to be careful when buying and dining out in restaurants. I think they should adopt a color-coded system on the front with better explanations on the back of each product. There could be varying degrees of a certain color on packages that correspond to one of the eight major food allergies. For example, light to dark yellow for minimal to harmful amounts of eggs, different shades of purple for soy percentages, blue for shellfish, green for tree nuts or peanuts, and so on. Hopefully by the time I have kids, the FDA will have labeled everything correctly so I know how to appropriately pack lunches, even if I have to leave the peanut butter at home.

Family Health – Life-Saving Break for Food Allergy Sufferers | Health News

The Cleveland Clinic offers these suggestions to help prevent overeating:

• Use a smaller dish, so that it looks like your plate is more full.
• Serve up an appropriate portion, and don’t tempt yourself with seconds.
• Put away leftovers quickly after dinner, and store them in portion-controlled containers. Freeze whatever you don’t want right away.
• Never eat right out of the bag, box or takeout container.
• Put bowls or platters of food away or out of sight during dinner.

Far from being dead, within the boom of the green movement, reduce, reuse and recycle is trendy again. The New Millennium has had its share of recycled fads over the years. The sixties came back in long hair with braids, the seventies re-emerged with flared jeans, patchwork bags, and fondue restaurants, and the eighties is now skipping back with plastic sandals called jellies, and a new hype surrounding an old favorite: frozen yogurt—affectionately called “fro-yo”—and its chain shops.

Frozen yogurt has always been the dieting, skinny friend to ice cream’s full figure but with a new emphasis on some products containing probiotics—the active cultures such as the bacterias Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus which help to maintain a healthy digestive track—fro-yo popularity is continuing to blossom. According to MayoClinic.com, probiotics are defined as, “supplements or foods that contain beneficial, or “good,” bacteria that are similar to those normally found in your body….[probiotics] may provide some of the same health benefits that the bacteria already existing in your body do, such as assisting with digestion”.

Every other week, a celebrity is photographed walking around Los Angeles with a Pinkberry cup glued to their hand. I was recently in San Diego and tempted by the popularity of this particular chain, I found myself wide-eyed and staring at the modern décor, the bright colors, and most importantly through the glass divider at the assortment of fresh fruits and mix-ins commonly used with their yogurt base. I must have been staring too long because I was met with a hearty smile and a, “Is this your first time here?” I sheepishly nodded and asked to try the original vanilla yogurt base over the other green tea variety. Contrary to other fro-yos I have had, Pinkberry was tangier than most. It tastes like my normal, smooth store-bought Yoplait but colder and with a thicker consistency and it boasts only 20 calories per ounce, which must be why I’ve been seeing Hollywood starlets clutching their Pinkberry fruit-and-cereal topped cups over calorie-chocked smoothies lately. Its competitors are also probiotic-enhanced and claim to have between 20-25 calories per ounce, not including toppings. TCBY markets its 96% fat free and no sugar added varieties of frozen yogurt along with their standard flavors and toppings. Red Mango, Pinkberry’s biggest competitor, was the first shop in the U.S. to be approved by the National Yogurt Association (NYA) for its probiotic content.

Not all fro-yo shops have NYA’s stamp of approval for levels of live and active cultures which ensures that the frozen yogurt, “contains at least 10 million cultures per gram at the time of manufacture,” which helps the customer choose products that may yield good health results. With frozen yogurt among other foods, it should be said that not all products that are said to contain “live cultures” are good for you and should always be used with caution. Because frozen yogurt is a concoction of live cultures, milk, and sugar or other artificial sweeteners, they are best consumed in moderation. If I still had my neon-speckled bike helmet or my local fro-yo shop, I might just be tempted to pedal down there and enjoy the benefits of a probiotic lifestyle, perhaps I just have to hope for a Red Mango or a paparazzi-laden Pinkberry to open near me.