The Perspectives of Science and Common Sense

"Calories don't take into account the energy it takes our cells to metabolize food in order to use it. A calorie of protein makes you feel fuller than a calorie of fat, because protein is more complex to metabolize."

"You could be aiming to eat 2,000 calories a day, but how much energy your body actually absorbs will depend on whether you're eating sugar, celery or steak."

Giles Yeo, professor of molecular neuroendocrinology, University of Cambridge

 

It's all explained in Dr. Yeo's book: 'Why Calories Don't Count', which lays out the explanations of how and why it is biologically that the human body absorbs very differently calories present in various types of foods. Leading dietary experts to question the relevance of the fixation of calories in the human diet since not all calories are equal.

 

Yet people focus on the simplest of formulae, depending on the recommended daily intake of calories popularly acknowledged at 2,000 calories daily for women and 2,500 for men.We fail to consider the realities of our individualized needs that are dependent on some relevant specifics such as age, gender, height, weight and the level of our physical activity. For some there is a need to reduce, or alternately increase caloric intake purposing to maintain a moderate weight. 

And what of the widely held belief that the most important meal of the day is one that breaks the long fast between the dinner of the night before and a good night's sleep, a longer period of time between meals than any that take place during the day. There are those that call into question just how important breakfast is to the human body, but the human brain is also highly dependent on an infusion of energy to function after that long fast.

 

High Fibre Cereals

 

There are those who trace our belief in the importance of a good start to the day dependent on breakfast. In the 1920s marketing campaigns launched by cereal companies placed an emphasis on the importance of breakfast, as a marketing gambit. That, however, does not diminish the importance of breakfast in preparing the body and the mind for the coming day. More important is the observation that it is the quality of the food taken at breakfast that reflects its nutritional importance.

As for the public clasping as gospel that eight glasses of water or two litres daily represents a standard irrigation necessity, that too comes under question. Fluid requirements vary, depending on details such as the weather, climate, age, and energy expended. Those who work in hot weather may require far more water. "A lot of your water comes from the food you eat", notes Dale Schoeller, emeritus professor of nutritional sciences at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He avers that science has never supported the two-litres-a-day rule as an appropriate guideline.

 

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Then there's the standard prescription of having eight hours of sleep nightly. During the Industrial Revolution a daily regimen was established of eight hours of labour, eight hours devoted to recreation and the third eight hour block set aside for rest. How much sleep is required for anyone is  highly individualized, dictated b a complex number of issues; genetics, age, medical condition and lifestyle. While some individuals function well on fewer than six hours, others require over ten hours of sleep.

"I think that the myth of the eight hours has actually caused quite a bit of anxiety", points out Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience, University of Oxford, who compares individual sleep patterns to shoe size; fitted to the individual foot shape and size.

Healthline

Consider the advice from public health on dietary fibre, plant-based carbohydrates found in fruit, vegetables, cereals, nuts and seeds. In the late 1980s, the U.K. government encouraged people to consume more dietary fibre and they put the daily figure at five, daily. Whereas studies indicate that five a day is not likely to be a sufficient amount to render full protection against various chronic illnesses. Imperial College London produced a study finding at least seven or ten whole foods; fruits, vegetables or nuts/seeds would be required to provide the nutrients and fibre needed for optimum health.

 

 

"When the dietary recommendations were originally set, it was designed as the optimal to prevent weight gain in the first place. But now we're in a situation where two thirds of the population are already overweight", noted Charlotte Evans, researcher in nutrition and public health at University of Leeds who recommends that people make fibre the majority of their daily diet intake.

 

Then there is the thorny matter of exercise and the popular health mantra of ten thousand steps a day, adopted by the World Health Organization, the American Heart Association and many other health groups. Ten thousand steps a day is a purely arbitrary figure that originated in a Japanese boardroom in the 1950s when the company Yamasa thought up the figure to promote the world's first step counter prior to theTokyo 1964 Olympics.

 

In fact, research actually recommends between 6,000 and 8,000 steps daily could be more accurate to avoid chronic illness. Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health found if you live a fairly sedentary life, simply adding an extra 500 steps a day would yield significant health benefits.

"People obsess over how many steps are enough, but we should be asking how many steps are too few."

"We should get people to stop taking less than 5,000 steps a day, but there seems to be an obsession with the higher number, while it's more important from a public health point of view to just get people off the couch and out the door." 

Catrine Tudor-Locke, professor and physical activity researcher University of North Carolina, Charlotte

All-Nighters' Consequences

Alcohol can cause dehydration  (Getty Images)

"Alcohol is the most commonly used drug in the world, but we still don't really understand all the effects it has. Relative to other drugs, the dose we tend to consume is simply enormous."

"The brain is much like the skin. A baby's skin is soft ... but as it ages it becomes tougher, then, as you get older, it becomes wrinkly and less elastic and slower to heal. It's the same with the brain, which becomes less efficient with age, with less reliable connections and slower performance. Not surprisingly alcohol will only serve to make that performance even worse."

"Sleep issues are commonplace among the middle-aged. We tend to drink socially at the end of the day and ... alcohol disrupts it still further. Inevitably, it's going to have an impact the following day."

"In middle age, there are often other issues in play, such as stress at work, with all the pressures and responsibilities that brings, and they can lead to irregular eating and poor sleep. Add alcohol to that mix, and it's easy to see how people in midline can begin to really suffer the day after drinking."

"It's thought that the headache component of a hangover is actually migrainous, and it's often the case that those that do suffer with severe headaches or migraines can also be incredibly sensitive to alcohol, to the point where even a sniff of it can induce one." 

Dr.John Janssen, neurologist, Netherlands

"If we expect to feel terrible, we may spend the day on the sofa, feeling sorry for ourselves."

"During hangover, we produce a toxic substance -- acetaldehyde -- created when our body is metabolizing alcohol. Not only is this responsible for the vomiting, nausea and heart-racing during your hangover, it can also interact with neurotransmitters in the brain pathway involved in mood and cognition."

"So if age influences metabolism of alcohol, then we might expect poorer cognition in older drinkers during hangovers."

Sally Adams, assistant professor, health psychology, University of Bath

That splitting headache after a heavy night may ease with age, research suggests. (Posed by a model, Getty Images)

The severity of hangovers along with their frequency, a new study from the Netherlands finds, declines with age. Research shows that people between ages 18 to 25 experience on average, 2.2 hangovers monthly, whereas those in the 56-to-65 age bracket have only 0.3 hangovers in comparison, and by the time they reach age 66 that frequency falls to 0.1 per month. How to avoid a hangover with its nausea, irritability, dehydration, headaches and vomiting? Well, the obvious solution is to abstain from alcohol, but for most people that's not an option in a world where socializing and alcohol go together.

But then, there's this to consider; it just isn't the same experience for everyone. The effects of alcohol consumption and consequent hangovers can vary widely, with some drinkers able to sleep it off, even as the less fortunate will suffer the full round of symptoms. Dr.Adams, a specialist in the psycho-pharmacology of alcohol, is a strong believer in expectations ushering people toward an experience. As far as she is concerned, the single most important factor in determining how a person will feel following a night of drinking in terms of mood and cognition is attributable to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In middle age, people are far different physically and metabolically than they were in their younger years when it was the thing to drink-till-dawn at age twenty. The middle-aged are likelier to have gained a higher percentage of body fat and since fat cannot absorb alcohol, tolerance to it decreases accordingly. The middle aged also have less body liquid, increasing the opportunity of dehydration to develop, meaning the alcohol will remain longer in the body's system.

 

Extra.ie

 

Memory, attention levels and co-ordination can be affected when heavy drinking has led to hangovers. "Hangxiety" is an unshakable sense of gloominess that overwhelms the individual in worries over everything happening in one's life assuming a much larger dimension. Some people may also be more predisposed to developing hangovers after a night of alcohol imbibing than others. Preferential drink choice can also impact the outcome. The advice is to avoid brown spirits, wine and anything mixed with energy drinks; to select vodka or gin with a low-sugar mixer like soda water and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

A workable remedy is to drink at least two litres of water over the course of the day, and to ingest slow-release carbohydrates like eggs on whole-grain toast, pasta, rice or sweet potatoes for the required glucose release.

"A balanced meal containing all key food groups prior to drinking is essential to slow the release of alcohol into the bloodstream. It also helps to protect your stomach lining."

"Clear spirits also contain lower levels of congeners, which can increase the intensity of any hangover."

Lily Souter, nutritionist

A new study has found that hangovers get less – yes, less – severe as we get older.