Short course

Researchers mailed a survey to about 1,600 New Zealand women aged 40 to 50 years,asking them to rate themselves on how quickly they ate and also to provide their height,weight and other lifestyle and health factors. About half of the women described themselves as middle-of-the-road in terms of their speed of eating. Thirty-two per cent fell in the fast or very fast categories,and about 15 per cent considered themselves slow or very slow eaters. The women at the slowest end of the scale had the lowest body mass index BMI,which is a measurement of a persons weight relative to their height. For each step up the speed scale,the BMI rose by 2.8 per cent. The size of the relationship suggests that reduction in eating speed may be a very promising way to prevent weight gain,and may also lead to meaningful reductions in BMI in weight management programmes, Caroline Horwath,the senior author of the study and a professor at the University of Otago,said.

Lack of deep sleep tied to hypertension

A new study,published in the journal Hypertension,is one of the first to find that its not just how much you sleep,but the the quality of your nightly slumber that can affect your risk for high blood pressure.

The goal of the study,carried out by researchers at Harvard Medical School and elsewhere,was to look specifically at the slow-wave stages of sleep,which make up about 90 minutes to two hours of a normal nights rest and represent the deepest hours of sleep. To study the effect of deep sleep on health,the scientists followed 784 healthy men who were part of an ongoing sleep study and did not have signs of high blood pressure at the start of the research. During the three-and-a-half year study,the men had their blood pressure checked at various times,and their levels of slow-wave sleep were monitored at home by a machine.

After controlling for a number of variables,the researchers found that the men who spent the least time in slow-wave or deep sleep were the most likely to develop high blood pressure.

Although a night of normal sleep should consist of about 25 per cent slow-wave sleep,the men in the study who were at highest risk for hypertension managed to enjoy deep sleep for no more than 4 percent of their total sleep each night.

The researchers found that the men with the least deep sleep were more likely to have sleep apnea and tended to sleep less over all.

More beans,less white rice check diabetes

Beans and rice are a classic combination throughout the western hemisphere,but a study in Costa Rica finds that the bean half of the equation may be better for health.

Among nearly 2,000 men and women,researchers found that people who regularly swapped a serving of white rice for one of beans had a 35 per cent lower chance of showing symptoms that are usually precursors to diabetes.

Rice is very easily converted into sugar by the body. Its very highly processed,its pure starch and starch is a long chain of glucose, said Frank Hu,a professor of

nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston,who was part of the study team.

Beans compared with rice contain much more fiber,certainly more protein and they typically have a lower glycemic index meaning they induce much lower insulin responses, he said.