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A U.S. study in mice suggests that obesity itself, not diet, makes the colon receptive to cancer and increases the risk. Two groups of mice were fed a high-fat diet. The group that carried a human gene that protects against colorectal cancer did not gain weight. Mice without the gene became obese. But, more importantly, the obese mice exhibited molecular signals in their intestines that led to the progression of cancer. The normal weight mice did not have those same indicators. Preexisting colon lesions in the animals tended to evolve rapidly into malignant tumors. "The same thing may happen in humans," one researcher said.
"Obesity, Rather Than Diet, Drives Epigenomic Alterations in Colonic Epithelium Resembling Cancer Progression. ", Cell Metabolism, April 09, 2014
Earlier studies on the impact of taxes on sugary drinks claimed that taxation would reduce obesity by 20 percent. But they were flawed because they relied on household data rather than individual consumption patterns: they assumed people didn’t replace soda calories with calories from another source. But new U.S. research that analyzed national survey data collected between 1989 and 2006 found that hiking soft drink taxes may cut soda drinking, but not total caloric intake because people replace the soda calories. "The impact of soft drink taxes on the body mass index is small in magnitude and not statistically significant," researchers concluded, noting that there should be “fundamental changes to policies” based on soda taxes as a strategy for reducing obesity rates.
"Non-Linear Effects Of Soda Taxes On Consumption And Weight Outcomes", Health Economics, April 04, 2014
A 2012 National Institute on Aging report on monkeys and diet found no differences in survival or better overall health among animals that were calorie restricted. But University of Wisconsin researchers conducting a 25-year study on the impact of calorie restrictions on monkeys report just the opposite: a significant lengthening of lifespan and reduction in age-related diseases. The discrepancy may be due to differences in the way the animals were fed in the two studies. The Wisconsin study started with two groups of adults, one of which ate 30 percent fewer calories. The NIA control monkeys, however, were fed according to a standardized food intake chart and may also have been calorie restricted.
"Caloric restriction reduces age-related and all-cause mortality in rhesus monkeys.", Nature Communications, April 01, 2014
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