Having a hearty portion of instant oatmeal for breakfast enhances satiety and feelings of fullness, thereby helping you eat less at lunch, new research has found.

A bowl of instant oatmeal helps curb food intake at lunch better than a leading oat-based, cold cereal -- even when each bowl provided the same number of calories, the findings showed.

The researchers found that a 250-calorie instant oatmeal serving (with an additional 113 calories of skim milk) enhanced satiety and feelings of fullness, reduced the desire to eat and led to lower caloric intake at lunch, compared to a 250-calorie serving of cold, oat-based cereal, also served with an additional 113 calories of skim milk.

"The satiety benefits of instant oatmeal alone were important findings," said lead author Candida Rebello from Louisiana State University in the US.

"When we took it a step further and evaluated the intake four hours post-breakfast, we found that after consuming instant oatmeal, the participants chose to eat significantly less at lunch compared to those who ate the oat-based, cold cereal," Rebello noted.

After an analysis of the types of fibre in each cereal, the researchers suspected that the higher level of the polysaccharides beta-glucan in the instant oatmeal contributed to its satiating effect over the oat-based, cold cereal.

The processing of the cold cereal might lead to changes in the oat fibre that reduced its ability to enhance satiety, the researchers noted.

Researchers presented the participants with a lunch meal of their choice - turkey, ham, roast beef or vegetable patty sandwiches and a calorie-free or calorie-containing beverage, alongside potato crisps and cookies.

The lunches offered ranged from 2,600 to 2,800 calories and participants were told to "eat to satisfaction".

The researchers found that total calorie intake was significantly lower following consumption of instant oatmeal compared to the cold cereal, as were fat and protein intake.

The findings were reported in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

A regular dose of aspirin reduces the long-term risk of cancer in overweight people with a family history of the disease, new research has found.

The study found that being overweight more than doubles the risk of bowel cancer in people with Lynch Syndrome, an inherited genetic disorder which affects genes responsible for detecting and repairing damage in the DNA.

Around half of these people develop cancer, mainly in the bowel and womb.

However, over the course of a ten year study the researchers found this risk could be counteracted by taking a regular dose of aspirin.

"This is important for people with Lynch Syndrome but affects the rest of us too. Lots of people struggle with their weight and this suggests the extra cancer risk can be cancelled by taking an aspirin," said one of the researchers John Burn, professor of clinical genetics at Newcastle University in England.

"This research adds to the growing body of evidence which links an increased inflammatory process to an increased risk of cancer," Burn noted.

"Obesity increases the inflammatory response. One explanation for our findings is that the aspirin may be suppressing that inflammation which opens up new avenues of research into the cause of cancer," he explained.

The international study involving scientists and clinicians from 16 countries followed nearly 1,000 patients with Lynch Syndrome, in some cases for over 10 years.

The patients began either taking two aspirins (600 mg) every day for two years or a placebo.

When they were followed up ten years later, 55 had developed bowel cancers and those who were obese were more than twice as likely to develop this cancer - in fact 2.75 times as likely.

"Our study suggests that the daily aspirin dose of 600 mg per day removed the majority of the increased risk associated with higher BMI (body mass index)," professor Tim Bishop from the University of Leeds who led on the statistics for the study noted.

However, the researchers noted that before anyone begins to take aspirin on a regular basis they should consult their doctor as aspirin is known to bring with it a risk of stomach complaints including ulcers.

The study was published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Contrary to popular claims, restricting dietary fat can lead to greater body fat loss than carbohydrate restriction, even though a low-carb diet reduces insulin and increases fat burning, new researcher has found.

"A lot of people have very strong opinions about what matters for weight loss, and the physiological data upon which those beliefs are based are sometimes lacking," said one of the researchers Kevin Hall from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"I wanted to rigorously test the theory that carbohydrate restriction is particularly effective for losing body fat since this idea has been influencing many people's decisions about their diets," Hall noted.

For the study, the researchers confined 19 consenting adults with obesity to a metabolic ward for two dieting periods of two weeks each.

At the end of the two dieting periods, the researchers found that body fat lost with dietary fat restriction was greater compared with carbohydrate restriction, even though more fat was burned with the low-carb diet.

The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Trans fats, and not saturated fats found in animal products, are associated with greater risk of death, coronary heart disease and stroke or Type 2 diabetes, researchers from McMaster University have found.

"For years, everyone has been advised to cut out fats. Trans fats have no health benefits and pose a significant risk for heart disease, but the case for saturated fat is less clear," said lead author and assistant professor Russell de Souza.

Saturated fats come mainly from animal products, such as butter, cows' milk, meat, salmon and egg yolks, and some plant products such as chocolate and palm oils.

Trans fats are mainly produced industrially from plant oils (a process known as hydrogenation) for use in margarine, snack foods and packaged baked goods.

Current US guidelines recommend that saturated fats are limited to less than 10 percent and trans fats to less than one per cent of energy a day to reduce risk of heart disease and stroke.

The team analysed the results of 50 observational studies assessing the association between saturated and/or trans fats and health outcomes in adults.

The team found no clear association between higher intake of saturated fats and death for any reason, coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease (CVD), ischemic stroke or Type 2 diabetes.

If we tell people to eat less saturated or trans fats, we need to offer a better choice.

"Replace foods high in these fats, such as high-fat or processed meats and donuts, with vegetable oils, nuts, and whole grains," the authors suggested in a paper published in British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Scientists have discovered a gene that plays an important role in causing obesity.

The gene encodes a protein responsible for production and growth of fat cells, showed the findings that point the way to a possible drug therapy for obesity.

"People gain fat in two ways - through the multiplication of their fat cells, and through the expansion of individual fat cells," explained one of the researchers Gareth Lim from University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

"This protein affects both the number of cells and how big they are, by playing a role in the growth cycle of these cells," Lim noted.

The gene, which encodes the protein 14-3-3zeta, is found in every cell of the body.

But when scientists silenced the gene in mice, it resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the amount of a specific kind of unhealthy "white fat" - the kind associated with obesity, heart disease and diabetes.



"Until now, we did not know how this gene affected obesity," James Johnson, professor of cellular and physiological sciences at University of British Columbia.

The fat reduction occurred despite the mice consuming the same amount of food.

Mice that were bred to have higher levels of the 14-3-3zeta protein were noticeably bigger and rounder, having an average of 22 percent more white fat when fed a high calorie diet.

Scientists believe that by suppressing the gene or blocking the protein, they could prevent fat accumulation in people who are overweight, or are on their way to becoming so.

Obesity is linked to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer.

The findings appeared in the journal Nature Communications.