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New Year’s Diet not kicking in yet? Maybe your gut bacteria needs to get into shape first. Your microbiota's previous dining experiences may be making your New Year's diet less effective As most of us start trying to improve our diet for the start of the year, new research from Washington University in St Louis may shed light on why attempts to get healthy might be slower than we might hope. The study, published in the December 29 edition of Cell Host & Biome, explored why mice that switch from an unrestricted American diet to a healthy, calorie-restricted, plant-based diet don't have an immediate response to their new program - finding that certain human gut bacteria need to be lost before the full range of benefits of a healthier diet plan can occur. The researchers studied how diets can influence gut bacteria by taking fecal samples from people who followed either a calorie-restricted, plant-rich diet and from people who followed a typical, unrestricted American diet. People who followed the healthier, restricted, plant-rich diet were observed to have a more diverse microbiota (a wider range of types of gut bacteria). The researchers then colonised groups of germ-free mice with the different human donors' gut communities and fed the animals the donor's native diet or the other diet type. Although both groups of mice responded to their new diets, mice with the American diet-conditioned microbiota had a weaker response to the plant-rich diet. To work out which microbes were likely to enhance the response of the American diet-conditioned microbiota, the researchers then set up a series of staged encounters between the mice. Animals harbouring American diet-conditioned human gut communities were sequentially co-housed with mice colonised with microbiota from different people who had consumed the plant-rich diet for long periods of time. Microbes from the plant diet-conditioned communities made their way into the American diet-conditioned microbiota, markedly improving its' response to the plant diet. "We need to think of our gut microbial communities not as isolated islands but as parts of an archipelago where bacteria can move from island to island. We call

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@womenshealthaus December 2016 - The Naked Issue - I'm in this issue ..... but luckily for you and me both, my contribution is an article (p.21) about whether the paleo diet is bad for women (bottom line: for most of us, any health benefits of 'Going paleo' have nothing to do with cutting good quality, minimally-processed wholegrains and dairy from your diet, and everything to do with eating more fresh veggies, fruit and high-quality meats and fish. Oh yeah - and cutting out highly-refined and processed sugary foods and carbohydrates. But you don't need to go paleo to do that). Massive admiration for those inspiring women featured in the naked section of this issue #stronghealthyyou and congratulations to the amazing @alicecellis for a job well done as always.

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Stressed-out rats drink more alcohol. A new study from University of Pennsylvania has found that rats exposed to stress had a weakened alcohol-induced dopamine response and voluntarily drank more alcohol compared to chilled out (or rats not deliberately exposed to stress). The researchers pinpointing that changes in the rats' brain reward system (the ventral tegmental area) reduced dopamine signalling to alcohol when stressed. According to the researchers, after exposure to stress, specific brain nerve cells can actually flip their physiology from being normally inhibitory to become excitatory, altering the rats' response to alcohol, making them consume more and more. (Research reference: Ostroumov et al, 2016, Neuron, DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.09.029). Picture: funny cool pictures. #healthresearch #healthscience #medianutritionist #nutritionscience #mentalhealth #alcoholresearch

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Sunshine matters. A lot. According to a new study from Brigham Young University looking at mental and emotional health, the number of daylight hours is the weather variable that matters most. While the link between sunshine and mood certainly isn't a new concept, what makes this research different is that additional weather variables such as wind chill, rainfall, solar irradiance and cloud cover, wind speed and temperature were also studied. However the only significant association observed was between number of daylight hours and ability to manage emotional distress. The researchers concluding "take away sun time and your emotional stress can spike". Happy Sunday.☀️#healthscience #healthresearch #medianutritionist

Brotherly love @joelmitchellbeck @refo.14

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Check out the brand-spanking new edition of Women's Health Magazine @womenshealthaus with the amazing Cate & Bronte Campbell sisters on the cover (best cover ever) plus you get "bonus", "expert" advice from me (how could you lose?).

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Channel 9 Afternoon News this afternoon talking about Choice's study into the sugar content (lots) and fruit content (not lots) of muesli and snack bars claiming to be healthy. Moral of the story? Don't believe the marketing hype, nutritional claims and pretty pictures on the front of the pack. Always check the ingredients list and nutritional info on the back of pack - or better still - just eat a piece of fresh fruit. #media #channel9 #channel9news

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This is how much make-up I need for TV. I'll be on the 4pm Channel 9 News this afternoon discussing why there is so much sugar (and so little fruit) in so-called "heathy" snack and mueslii bars.

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WARNING: NUTRITIONAL RANT. This pic really sums up so much of the overly-zealous hype around nutrition and diets over the past few decades. So many principles of nutrition really are simple (eat more fresh vegetables and fruit, drink water, mostly eat unprocessed foods that at least resemble how the food was found in nature) but it's our seemingly infinite gullibility that by avoiding a single food group or nutrient or following the latest popular diet is going to revolutionise our health that can sometimes wear a poor old nutritionist down. The sign pointing to the right could also read "boring but right". #nutrition #nutritionscience #nutritionresearch #nutritionscience #medianutrition #medianutritionist

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Quick snapshot from my interview on Today Tonight (Brisbane and Adelaide edition) last night talking about Lismore mum Karlye who has lost 60kg the "good old fashioned way" (healthy diet and exercise) in order to set a healthier example for her children. Previously, Karlye was drinking up to 4 litres (eek) of Coca-Cola each day - that's around 102 teaspoons of added sugar (the World Health Organization recommends 6 teaspoons or less) and is the equivalent of around 8-10 standard-sized coffees worth of caffeine each day...... #medianutritionist #nutritionscience #todaytonight #sugarwithdrawals #caffeineaddict #caffeinewithdrawal #nutrition

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Repost from @womenshealthaus yesterday On your way back from a long-weekend road trip? Sob. Cheer up with these 3 petty-station pick-me-ups - the most nutritious options on the road, says WH NutritionExpert @kristenbecknutrition : 1. Bananas - they're like 98-octane fuel for your body. 2. Mixed nuts - perfect combo of omega-3 fats, fibre and protein. 3. Breath mints - they'll help you stop snacking once you've filled up your (own) tank. #roadtrip #food #nutrition

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Selamat Pagi