The study supports a potential need for further research in understanding unhealthful dietary behavior and physical activity which may be related to loneliness, an emotion that impacts many college students…reports Asian Lite News
Transitioning to a new environment, as many college freshmen do, can increase feelings of loneliness, and according to the National College Health Assessment, feelings of loneliness in college students have increased dramatically in the last decade.
According to a 2021 survey, 44 per cent of US college students described their weight as higher than normal, i.e. overweight or obese. Despite the fact that loneliness has been linked to unhealthy weight and physical inactivity, there is a lack of research on dietary behaviours in college students and the role it can play in college student obesity. With data from the Mason: Health Starts Here cohort study, Master of Nutrition alum Li Jiang found that loneliness was related to altered diet quality and physical inactivity. The research was done as part of Jiang’s master’s thesis, and Mason Nutrition and Food Studies Department Chair Lawrence J. Cheskin, Associate Professor Lilian de Jonge, former faculty member Cara Frankenfeld, and former postdoctoral fellow Ziaul H. Rana also contributed to the project.
“Our study supports a potential need for further research in understanding unhealthful dietary behavior and physical activity which may be related to loneliness, an emotion that impacts many college students,” said Jiang.
Sedentary (19.2 per cent) and low active (53.8 per cent) behaviors were more frequent in students reporting high loneliness (score ranges of 4-6 and 7-9) than those reporting low loneliness (score of 10-12). Students reporting more loneliness had higher fat diets than students reporting less loneliness.
“Interventions to reduce loneliness may have a positive effect on health promotion in this population. This data go along with other initial findings from the Health Starts Here study that college students are not meeting healthy dietary guidelines or getting enough physical activity,” said Cheskin, who has an MD. (ANI)
Coffee may cut severity of fatty liver disease
Caffeine, polyphenols, and other natural products found in coffee may help reduce the severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among overweight people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), a new study has shown.
NAFLD is a collective term for liver disorders caused by a build-up of fat in the liver. These can lead to liver fibrosis, which can progress to cirrhosis (scarring of the liver) and liver cancer, according to a study by the Portugal-based University of Coimbra.
The main cause of NAFLD is not excessive alcohol consumption, but rather an unhealthy lifestyle with little physical activity and a high-calorie diet.
“Due to changes in modern diet and lifestyle, there is an increase in obesity rates and incidence of both T2D and NAFLD, which can ultimately develop into more severe and irreversible conditions, burdening healthcare systems,” said the corresponding author of the study, John Griffith Jones, PhD, Senior Researcher at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
“Our research is the first to observe that higher cumulative amounts of both caffeine and non-caffeine metabolites in urine are associated with a reduced severity of NAFLD in overweight people with T2D,” he added.
In the study, participants who consumed more coffee had healthier livers, but subjects who consumed more caffeine were less likely to develop liver fibrosis, whereas patients who consumed more non-caffeine coffee components had a lower fatty liver index score.
The study suggests that for overweight type 2 diabetes patients, a higher intake of coffee is associated with less severe NAFLD.
Additionally, the study cited that other coffee components, including polyphenols, reduce oxidative stress in the liver, in turn reducing the risk of fibrosis as well as improving glucose homeostasis in both healthy and overweight subjects.
All these factors may also alleviate the severity of T2D, the study mentioned