Postmenopausal women are urged to increase dietary calcium to prevent bone loss and Vitamin D has been shown to be protective against some cancers. But together they may have one additional health benefit. New research has shown that taking calcium in conjunction with Vitamin D supplements may slow or prevent weight gain in postmenopausal women.

During and after menopause, women face a number of new health concerns, not the least of which is bone loss. But the tendency towards weight gain is equally distressing.

The greatest benefit was to women whose calcium was low initially. By increasing their calcium and Vitamin D intakes, they were 11 percent less likely to gain weight than their counterparts who did not consume the recommended amounts of calcium.

More information on the study can be found at Medical News Today.

Eggs are getting a second look from nutritionists. Due to concerns about dietary cholesterol, eggs have been on the restricted list for many patients. But new studies have singled out eggs as weight-loss enhancers and state that there is no increased risk of heart disease from the consumption of eggs.

Researchers found that women who ate eggs for breakfast, five days a week or more, lost significantly more weight, up to 65% more, on a 1000 calorie a day diet than those who ate a bagel containing the same number of calories as the eggs. Other studies that recommend increasing choline consumption are cited because eggs are an excellent source of choline. Choline is essential for normal cell and brain function.

Eggs promote weight loss and help close nutrient consumption gap

And then there are the stories that just lead you to the conclusion that there are people with too much time on their hands.

Researchers at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin have concluded that obesity rates increase in cities where the newspapers publish high-calorie dessert recipes.

Assuming that some percentage of the readers of any particular newspaper like to bake and that of those, a percentage may try the recipe for that luscious fat and calorie-ridden dessert, we must then calculate how many people that baker is likely to serve this treat to. Six? Seven? Eight at most, I should think. Assume then that this dessert is a big hit and friends and family insist that the baker must prepare this treat again, thus it begins to show up at company parties and family functions and holidays. That would be how often, three or four times a year? Does something you eat four times a year make you obese?

The report notes that the news media play an important role in providing nutrition information, but with respect to recipes, “this information is seldom studied.”

Maybe there’s a good reason for that.

2007 may be the year of vindication for fat people.

First a study at UCLA declares that diets don’t work and what is worse, are actually harmful to your health.

Now scientists announce they have discovered a “fat” gene which explains why two people leading similar lifestyles could have disparate amounts of weight. Talk to any overweight person and they will tell you they know of thin people who eat as much or more than they do and yet stay thin. Society has always chalked this up to overweight meaning lazy, but now the evidence says that is not the case.

The scientists discovered the gene, known as FTO and say the influence on the gene in weight depends on whether a person has one or two copies of the FTO gene variant. FTO is known to play a role in the hypothalamus which regulates appetite.

16% of the population have two copies of the high-risk gene, and weigh nearly 7 pounds more than those without it. Those with only one copy were found to weigh about 2.6 pounds more than those who did not have the gene variant at all.

Research into the gene variant and its effects may lead scientists one day to discover better treatments and methods for dealing with obesity.

For overweight people everywhere, it may relieve some of the guilt to know that what is in their jeans, may be in their genes.

A Common Variant in the FTO Gene Is Associated with Body Mass Index and Predisposes to Childhood and Adult Obesity