Wednesday, July
Page 2
science
Wednesday,Julj ?
THE BATTALION
Foods, Fads, and Fun
Diet plans offer weight loss y but may hold danger and disappointment
Stuart Hutson
The Battalion
While some people spend the
summer basking in the sun poolside
in as little clothing as is legally per
missible, others huddle in air-condi
tioned rooms and cover as much of
their bodies as they can.
For these self-conscious souls,
promises of "Jose 30 pounds in 30
days" and "fast and easy weight loss"
may seem like godsends. But it is
hard to say whether those promises
are really true or even safe.
"There is controversy in every
thing," said Dr. Steven E. Nizielski, a
Texas A&M assistant professor of hu
man nutrition. "Many issues regard
ing effective methods for weight loss
have yet to be resolved."
While almost every fad diet has
some way of making people look or
feel slimmer, Rhoda Rahn, a
health/nutrition education specialist
at A.R Beutel Health Center, said it is
important to know as much as possi
ble about a diet before choosing it.
"People need to know what they are
getting into, and that, in the end, it will
be a healthy balance of healthy eating
and exercise that will make the differ
ence for the rest of their lives," she said.
\ \
PHOTOS BY ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion-
Hifih-protein diets
High-protein diets offer the dieter
as many fatty, high-protein foods
(such as steak or hamburgers) as he
or she wants to eat, but restrict intake
of high-carbohydrate foods such as
breads and sugary treats.
Embodied in such forms as "The
Protein Power Plan" and "Dr. Atkin
son's New Diet Revolution," this form
of dieting has recently drawn world
wide attention.
"Your body gets energy from carbo
hydrates, fats and proteins," Rahn said.
"It usually first burns
the carbohydrates [in
the form of glucose in
the blood] and then
moves on to fats and
proteins. These high-
protein diets eliminate
the first step and make
your body skip straight
to the fats and proteins."
Nizielski said the increased protein
intake may be greatly beneficial if done
in moderation.
"The majority of the protein taken in
by the body is usually used to make new
tissue, but any above the amount need
ed is turned into fat, which can be used
for energy," he said. "But reasonably in
creased amounts while dieting can help
a person keep muscle tissue that would
have otherwise been lost. Plus, it has
been shown that protein is mo$t proba
bly the most satiating of the three
sources. Meaning that if you eat more
protein, you will fill more full more
quickly and want to eat fewer calories."
While the diet may cause the di
eter to lose weight, Nizielski said it
may eventually lead to health prob
lems after long periods of time be
cause of the high amounts of fat usu
ally eaten by the dieter.
"Superseding all other effects,
consumption of large amounts of fat
has been strongly linked to heart dis
ease — especially high consumption
of saturated fat," he said. "There also
have been some studies indicating
that high consumption of fat also in
creases the chances of getting certain
types of cancer."
The diet's elimination of carbohy
drates causes decreased response of in
sulin, a hormone that tells fatty tissues
and muscles to grow by absorbing sug- ,
ar (glucose). While this may result in
greater weight loss, Nizielski said it
may also result in "insulin resistance,"
or the body's failure to respond to in
sulin's signal. He said this resistance is
a precursor to Type II diabetes.
Rahn said the diet may also result in
„an undue strain on the kidneys, which
help the body convert fat to energy.
"The best idea here is to eat foods
that are good protein sources but not ex
tremely high in fat such as legumes and
beans or things like fish," Nizielski said.
tains few car
bohydrates
and little fat.
"These are
SCI
F.Y.I
Cabbage-soup and broth diets
The cabbage-soup and other broth
diets work on the principle that the di
eter will fill up on low-calorie broth
and eat just enough supplemental food
to provide energy for the day.
"Basically, you aren't really eating
anything, so you don't get ariy of the
three energy types," Rahn said. "Be
sides robbing you of energy, it is also
robbing you of nutrients that you
need. And really, you aren't losing fat,
you are losing muscle and water."
Nizielski said the body loses water
on these diets because a certain
amount of carbohydrates along with
water is stored for quick use. When the
body consumes these carbohydrates, it
also expends the water.
"Your metabolism also drops be
cause your body gets used to fewer
calories, so it's also more likely that
you will actually put back on more
weight than you took off after you stop
the diet," Rahn said.
Question: 1
would like to
know: HOW
do cats purr?
— Kimberly
Collier, senior
industrial engi
neering major
M;
Vorn
TheDalla
'01 season w
a new coach
losophy whi
Campo" in V
Dave Can
the Cowboys
coordinator;
Coaching
SnARi
Hum
fine for a
sensible diet
plan because
now they con
tain nutrients
and other es
sentials to a
daily diet, but
they tend to
have one fatal
flaw," Rahn said.
"They usually re
quest that a 'healthy
dinner' accompany a shake for
breakfast and lunch, but it is so little
food that the person is usually so
hungry, he or she eats wSy too
much."
Liquid diets
Liquid diets such as Slim Fast
have been around for decades and
offer dieters the opportunity to lose
weight by replacing one or more
meals a day with a shake that con-
Diet pills
Rahn said diet pills, such as
Metabolife, work primarily through
chemicals that speed up metabolism.
See Diets on Page 4.
universe
Patrice Pages
The Battalion
A fundamental particle, the tau neutrino, was
observed on July 20 at the world's most power
ful particle accelerator, the Tevatron, at the Fermi
National Laboratory in Illinois near Chicago.
Among all the particles known to exist, the tau
neutrino is the only one that was never observed
until now, though it was believed to exist.
"Neutrinos are an important building block of
the fundamental particles," said Robert C. Webb,
professor of physics at Texas A&M. "Unfortu
nately they are the hardest ones to make mea
surements of, to actually see in the laboratory."
The taU neutrino plays an important role in a
theory called the Standard
Model, which is the current
description of the elementary
particles of matter and their
interactions.
Matter is made of only three
particles, called up quark,
down quark and electron.
. A fourth particle, an elec
tron neutrino, also exists, mak
ing what physicists call a fami-
>y-
Physicists have discovered
that, for reasons still unknown
today, there are two other fam
ilies of particles, each made of
RUBEN DELUNA/Tm: BattalH
four particles. The tau neutrino is one
of the particles in the third family of
particles. Although physicists knew
that the tau neutrino existed, no one
had ever seen one.
In 1995, an experiment called Di
rect Observation of the Nu Tau or
DONUT, was set up to make the first
direct observation of the tau neutrino.
Fifty-four physicists from institutions
. in the United States, Japan, South
Korea and Greece are involved in
this experiment, which started
collecting data in 1997.
supposedly containing tau neutrinos. This beam
crossed the DONUT experiment, where tau neu
trinos interacted with an iron target, producing
particles called taus, which, if detected, reveal
the presence of the tau neutrino.
Tau neutrinos very rarely interact with mat
ter, so a lot of them had to be produced for
them to be detected. About 100 trillion neutri
nos have been produced by the Tevatron dur
ing the last three years. A careful analysis of
the collected data has finally provided evi
dence of four tau neutrinos.
"It is a very difficult experiment," Webb said.
Answer Cats: the enigma
animal kingdom. How dothe;
on their feet? How do they do
their backs like that? And...k
they purr?
Well Kimberly, I'm suretk
will be glad to know that
question kept six veterinan
dents at the small animal i
busy for a good hour. Theyp,
every student and vett
find, and finally came to a cos
sus on the answer.
Their answer was that, ast
anyone knows, cats purr by
stricting the opening between
lungs and throat, called the git
The constriction (disturbs th
flow, and the resulting turbulf
vibrates the cat's throat
cords. The sound of the vibratit
a purr.
However, the six students®
tain that this is only aneduc;
guess because the only way to«
fy this theory is to stick a
scope down a cat's throat while
purring. And, sincepumhgMra
untary action performed by the fl
that usually indicatesappeasemet
you can probably imagine itisa 1
tie hard to get a cat to purrwli
gagging it with a scope.
By using the Tevatron,
tau neutrino physicists produced a beam.
See Particle on Page 4.
Question: While walkingdoi
a street, it often happens th
halogen lamp (the yellow sirs
lights) goes off justasoney
by it. Why does it go off inthei
place? Is it a coincidence tbii
goes off just as you pass by it?
—Vivek Gulati, graduate
electrical engineering studff
See Fyi on l
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