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From Discover Magazine: No More Midnight Snacks? Mice That Eat at Odd Hours Get Fat | 80beats

obese mouse
FA=high-fat, ab libitum (eat-at-will) diet, FT=high-fat, time-restricted diet, NA=normal ab libitum (eat-at-will) diet, NT=normal diet, time-restricted

Diets tell you what you eat, but a new study suggests when you eat matters too. Of two groups of mice who were fed the same high-fat diet, the mice who could eat around the clock were much heavier than those who had food restricted to eight hours per day, in a new study published in Cell Metabolism. 

Researchers in the study gave the mice a special high-fat chow, 61% of whose calories come from fat (compared to just 13% in normal feed). The mice who chowed down all day and night became, unsurprisingly, obese, but the ones who ate the same amount of hi-fat food in only eight hours per day did not. Their body weight was comparable to mice fed an equivalent amount of calories on normal feed.

This being a study in Cell Metabolism, the researchers didn’t stop with just weighing the mice; they did a lot of molecular experiments to work out the link between timing and weight gain. Mice on high-fat, eat-whenever diets had the insulin problems associated with obesity-induced diabetes and lower expression of genes linked to breaking down fats in the …


from Discover Magazine

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From Ars Technica: Coffee may be ok, but coffee drinkers not living longer

Is coffee good or bad for you? If you follow the medical literature, you might think that the answer changes a few times a year. Different studies have found associations with various ailments, while others suggested that people who hit the java actually outlived their peers.

Now, a new study is out that not only finds that coffee has a positive effect, but may help explain why the earlier studies were so confused. As it turns out, coffee drinking is associated with a broad range of bad habits (most notably smoking), so if one adjusts the numbers to compensate for those, coffee drinking starts to look pretty good. Before you rush off for your latest hit, however, you should note the biggest limitation of this study: its population was recruited exclusively from the AARP. If you’re not considering retirement, you might want to hold off until we see more from a study with a younger demographic.

AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) membership is open to anyone over 50, so the population at the start of the study was between 50 and 71. On the plus side, it was huge: over 400,000 individuals. And that was after the authors got rid of people who already had cancer, heart disease, and/or strokes. The initial survey included questions about coffee consumption along with a lot of other health and dietary habits. Once enrolled, the authors followed the participants for 12 years, or until Social Security records indicated they had died.

from Ars Technica

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From Engadget: NYC’s Made in New York Digital Map lets you see who’s hiring in the tech field

NYC's 'Made in New York Digital Map' lets you see who's hiring in the tech field

You can’t deny Mike Bloomberg’s often coming up with different ways to involve New Yorkers in tech-related bits. On this occasion, Mayor Bloomberg & Co. have introduced a novel way for citizens of The Big Apple — and others who plan on making the move — to find jobs in the technology sector. Dubbed “Made in New York Digital Map,” the service aims to make it easier for folks to see which tech companies are seeking engineers, designers, developers, etc. At the moment there’s more than 325 looking for new hires, with over “thousands of jobs” being up for grabs. Mayor Bloomberg says this is only the beginning and he’s encouraging startups to set up shop here in the City, as he believes this “is the place to be if you’re a growing tech startup.” You can take a tour of the Digital Map now via one of the source links below.

 

from Engadget