Jo’s Cafe

Teenagers who regularly eat breakfast tend to weigh less, exercise more and eat a more healthful diet than their breakfast-skipping peers, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Magically Delicious: Breakfast Keeps Teens Lean

The study involved 2,216 adolescents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota whose eating patterns, weight and other lifestyle issues were tracked for five years. They were just under 15 years old when they entered the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics.

The more regularly the teens ate breakfast, the lower their body mass index was, according to the study. BMI is a measure of body weight relative to height. Those who always skipped breakfast on average weighed about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) more than their peers who ate the meal every day.

“What we found in the study was that kids who eat breakfast frequently, and especially every day, they’re more healthy overall in terms of their lifestyle,” Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Breath Test for Diabetes?

It’s painful, invasive, and time-consuming, yet every day — many times a day — millions of diabetics draw blood to check their blood sugar levels. But there may soon be a way to monitor those levels without ever touching the skin.

Fourteen-year-old Robbie Mansfield pricks his finger seven times a day. That means this young baseball fan tests his blood sugar 2,555 times a year. But now, there may be a painless way to collect those numbers.

Doctor Pietro Galassetti thinks he’s found it. Dr. Galassetti collected breath samples from diabetic children while blood sugar levels were high and as levels fell in response to insulin. Using a technique developed to test air pollution, chemists detected high concentrations of methyl nitrate — a byproduct of the damage to body tissue — when blood sugar levels are too high.

While still five to ten years off, Dr. Galasetti sees a hand-held breath analyzer replacing the standard blood test.

“Not having to stop and test his blood — just be able to blow into a canister or whatever. It’ll be amazing,” Robby’s mom, Julie, says.

I don’t have to test as often as Type 1 diabetics do, but doesn’t matter. I’d take this option over finger sticks any day!

Workouts boost function of insulin-making cells

Sedentary older people at risk of developing diabetes showed significant improvement in the function of their insulin-making beta cells after just one week of exercise, University of Michigan researchers found.

Just means I need to get off my butt and start working out. I have been so lazy in not doing so. Don’t want to do it in the morning so as not to “wake-up” the snoring SGM(R), too tired at night when I get home. Excuses excuses. Gotta get rid of the excuses!

Additional Reads:

• Constant High Blood Sugar Disables Insulin ‘Off’ Switch
• Bangladesh scientists invent herbal tea to reduce insulin intake for diabetics   Jo says: I wonder about these claims, but you decide.
• Paradoxical Frog’s Leap Forward For Diabetes

Have a great day!