OBJECTIVE Although caloric restriction is a widely used intervention to reduce body weight and insulin resistance, many patients are unable to comply with such dietary therapy for long periods. The clinical effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets was recently described in a position statement of Diabetes UK and a scientific review conducted by the American Diabetes Association. However, randomi...

Easy access to high-energy food has been linked to high rates of obesity in the world. Understanding the way that access to palatable (high fat or high calorie) food can lead to overconsumption is essential for both preventing and treating obesity. Although the body of studies focused on the effects of high energy diets is growing, our understanding of how different factors contribute to food c...

Calorie restriction is a common strategy for weight loss and management. Consumption of food and nutrients stimulates diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT), as well as pancreatic and gastrointestinal hormone secretion that may regulate energy metabolism. Yet, little is known about the impact of hypocaloric diets on energy metabolism-related parameters. In this study, we assessed the effects of hypoc...

In the current study we examined an associative learning mechanism by which food cues (signaling low- versus high-calorie food) can bias instrumental responses directed toward those foods. To investigate the clinical relevance of this mechanism, we used a computerized Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer task and compared performance of 19 severely obese individuals to that of 19 healthy-weight c...

Calorie restriction (CR), the only non-genetic intervention known to slow aging and extend life span in organisms ranging from yeast to mice, has been linked to the down-regulation of Tor, Akt, and Ras signaling. In this study, we demonstrate that the serine/threonine kinase Rim15 is required for yeast chronological life span extension caused by deficiencies in Ras2, Tor1, and Sch9, and by calo...

In a previous study, restrained eaters showed stronger implicit preferences for high-caloric food compared to unrestrained eaters. Caloric density and palatability are however almost always intertwined, and it was never tested whether this high-calorie food preference of restrained eaters follows from the energy density or the palatability of high-calorie foods. Here, it was examined whether re...

Background:Extrauterine growth restriction remains a common and serious problem in newborns especially who are small, immature, and critically ill. Very low birth weight infants (VLBW) had 97% and 40% growth failure at 36 weeks and 18-22 months post-conceptual age respectively. The postnatal development of premature infants is critically dependent on an adequate nutritional intake that mimics a...

Although calorie restriction and alternate-day fasting have potential for slowing the aging process while decreasing risk for vascular disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia, a “carbohydrate-concentrated” diet strategy, entailing long daily periods of carbohydrate abstinence, may prove to be a much more practical strategy for achieving these aims. The life extension and healthy aging benefits o...

The restriction of proteins has recently emerged as the most important factor for the beneficial effects of calorie restriction. Hine et al. now provide strong evidence for the role of the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas in the protective effects of calorie and protein restriction against ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) but also implicate H2S in longevity extension in model organisms.

Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D) are closely linked to obesity. Numerous prospective studies have reported on weight gain, insulin resistance, and insulin signaling in experimental animals, but not in humans. We examined insulin signaling in adipocytes from lean volunteers, before and at the end of a 4-wk period of consuming a fast-food, high-calorie diet that led to weight gain. We...