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Do You Really Need To Exercise To Lose Weight? Women's Health It can be seriously frustrating to hit the gym over and over again, only to see zero weight-loss results. Heaps of research hint that eating habits are the most critical factor in losing weight (and keeping it off), but a new study from Saint Louis ...

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Do You Really Need To Exercise To Lose Weight? - Women's Health

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Forbes

How A High-Fat Diet In Childhood May Wire The Brain For Addiction Later On Forbes A fascinating new study looks into what may happen in childhood to predispose a person's brain to addiction later in lifeit finds that a high-fat diet in adolescence may wire the brain's reward system to be more sensitive to real drugs later on ... and more »

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How A High-Fat Diet In Childhood May Wire The Brain For Addiction Later On - Forbes

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Weight loss is always a result of energy balance, this is just science.

Energy in < Energy out = weight loss.

Energy in > Energy out = weight gain.

Energy in = Energy out = no change in weight.

This is thermodynamics and it applies to everyone. Every diet on the planet works in exactly the same way they change the energy balance equation to cause weight loss, they do this by creating a caloric deficit, as this is the ONLY way to lose body fat.

Take the low carb diet for example, it aims to reduce overall calorie intake by restricting the intake of carbs because removing carbs from your diet will slash your calories.

We also have the Paleo diet that demonises processed food a significant portion of a typical western diet is processed therefore eliminating this food group will result in a large calorie reduction.

Weight Watchers employs portion control in an effort to create the desired calorie deficit. It seems theres a trend here.

The take-home message is dont make dieting any harder for yourself than it already is.

When you look past the marketing and the hype, ALL diets work in exactly the same way. Some diets just place unnecessary restrictions in the hope that it will create that all-important calorie deficit.

But, theres an easier way; a way that doesnt involve restriction.

- 2-4 meals a day

- Use your palm as a portion measure.

- 1 portion of protein (meat/eggs/greek yoghurt/fish etc) each meal.

- 1 portion of carbs (bread/rice/pasta/breakfast cereal/beans/oats etc) each meal.

- 1 portion of veg (any veg at all) each meal.

- 0.5 x portions of fats (cheese/nut butters/oils/nuts) each meal.

- 2 snacks per day fruit and/or protein bars make great snacks.

I recommend most clients do this in conjunction with tracking their food and drink intake using a calorie tracking app such as My Fitness Pal or my own app Harry Smith Fitness.

This way, over time youll see the relationship between your caloric intake and your bodyweight/body fat levels and can make minor adjustments dependent on your goals.

If you fancy some naughty food just have it! Track it in the app and work around it.

Flexibility is key to sustainability and sustainability is key to success. Theres no need to overcomplicate it.

Harry Smith is a personal trainer. Follow him on Facebook.

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How to lose weight without restricting yourself - The Independent

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On day five of my voluntary participation in the Whole30 program, I posted this as my Facebook status.

The diet claims to "eliminate the most common craving-inducing, blood sugar disrupting, gut-damaging, inflammatory food groups for a full 30 days" and says it will change your life by resetting your eating habits.

Those food groups are sugar, grains, dairy, beans and alcohol. Except for the alcohol, I stuck with the diet, not counting a few slip-ups that I could count on one hand. Since I write extensively about wine, there were times I had to drink, but I kept it to a minimum, even cancelling some tastings that weren't mandatory.

You may be wondering what you can eat on the program. The diet consists mainly of meat and seafood, vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and nut butters (except peanut), eggs and healthy oils. You are also allowed ghee on the program, even though you can't have any other dairy.

Nuts, except peanuts, are allowed on the Whole30 diet and they are one of the foods that kept me sane. (Photo: prasit jamkajornkiat/Shutterstock)

I've put on a lot of weight over the past year and a half. The stress of divorce got to me, understandably, and I'd been having trouble getting back to healthy habits. But, that's not the reason I chose such a restrictive diet. I chose this diet because my feet hurt. I had swelling along with planter's fasciitis that made it painful to walk, and at night, the aching in my feet and ankles would keep me awake. A friend had told me she learned that she was allergic to dairy and gluten, and when she eliminated those from her diet, her foot pain went away.

I figured Whole30 could be a way to see if my foot pain was being caused by something I was eating without having to go through allergy testing, plus it could put me back on the road to not eating whatever the hell I wanted, whenever the hell I wanted.

Did it work? Somewhat. Although the underlying planter's fasciitis is still an issue, the swelling in my feet, and my hands, has gone down. I can get out of bed in the morning without searing pain in my feet when they first hit the floor. Aching that I had in the ligaments in my forearms also went away. There were other positive benefits. The skin under my eyes is now skin color and not gray. My rosacea has tamed down a bit. Some digestive problems that I've had for years improved. I sleep much better and there have been several nights where I've slept through the night. (That's incredibly rare.)

The 30 days were very hard at times, but I think they were worth it. There were a few foods that kept me from going insane: sweet potatoes, almond butter, nuts, bananas and ghee (not all together, of course). Now comes the even harder part, though, taking what I have learned, keeping what's good, and figuring out how to keep a lot of these ingredients down to a minimum in my diet. And while the better health I've experienced over the past 30 days have been wonderful, there have been things I've learned that are also important.

The first week on Whole30, I spent a lot of money on food, went to the grocery store almost every day, and got incredibly frustrated. Almost everything has sugar in it. I know that many foods that shouldn't have sugar in them do, but I didn't realize just how many. I spent hours in Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, reading ingredients, trying to find a nitrate-free bacon that also didn't have sugar. I couldn't do it. I asked both of the local meat vendors at the farmers market if their nitrate-free bacons had sugar. They did. I did find a sugar-free, nitrate-free turkey bacon and it was vile.

I had to read every jar of almond butter and every container of nuts two things that should never need sugar to make sure they were sugar-free. After reading the ingredients in all the mayonnaise on the store shelf, I ended up making my own. (That turns out to be time-consuming but really worth it and makes the best deviled eggs I've ever had.)

You know what else has sugar in it? Store-made rotisserie chicken. I bought one my first day to have something to pick on, and when it dawned on me the next day there might be sugar in the solution, I read the ingredients. I cursed.

This what I learned: even packaged or prepared foods that I normally think of as not-so-bad choices have ingredients in them that I'm unaware of. I already cook a lot of my foods from scratch. I need to do even more of that, and I need to keep reading ingredient lists, even when I think I know what's in a food.

If you don't expect these zucchini strips to taste like zucchini, you probably won't be disappointed in them. (Photo: Robin Shreeves)

In the first week, I went crazy with new recipes and new ingredients. I tried to make chicken nuggets with almond flour. I made meatballs without breading or cheese but with way too many spices. The dog really liked both of those dishes. The worst, though, was the beef fried cauliflower rice. I've heard great things about riced cauliflower. I've seen moms rave on social media that their children had no idea their rice had been replaced with cauliflower. I call B.S.

The beef fried cauliflower rice was made entirely with Whole30 compliant ingredients, and at a glance it looked like rice. It was made with fresh vegetables, grass-fed beef, and coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. This is when my 15-year-old rebelled against the plan. Did I forget to mention he decided to do it with me? He did great until day five when I made this dish. Not only does riced cauliflower not soak up any juices, making it incredibly soupy, the coconut aminos make it smell like a pina colada. Coconut is not what you're supposed to smell when you're bringing beef fried rice up to your mouth.

This is what I learned: I was much better off cooking up steak or chicken and having a bunch of vegetables on the side than trying to make Whole30 recipes. If I was going to try something different, I decided to look at for what it was, not what it was supposed to be. For example, I used a spiralizer to make what some people would refer to as zucchini noodles or "zoodles" as a substitute for pasta. There is no way I could be satisfied if I tried to think of zucchini as pasta, even if is in pasta-like strips. So, when I made the dish above sauted tomatoes and garlic in sheet and olive oil with zucchini and cooked chicken I chose to just think of it as zucchini, tomatoes and chicken, nothing more. It was quite yummy, but it was nothing like pasta.

That day five Facebook status was not the only one I made. Here's one from day nine.

This is what I learned: some good comes out of thinking your unpleasant thoughts all the way through, and that may be one of the biggest benefits of the elimination diet. I did a lot of sorting through my feelings during the 30 days not just my feelings about food, but things that were going on in my head about my work, my dating life, and even my kids. It was certainly an unexpected benefit.

Crab Bruschetta Eggplant Toast isn't really on toast, but the combination still works well. (Photo: Robin Shreeves)

I'm still figuring out what comes next. As I write this, I'm a few days out of Whole30. I haven't eaten much of what isn't allowed on the diet. Yesterday I had oatmeal and some milk in my mashed potatoes, but ate Whole30 the rest of the time. Today, it's been all fruit and almond butter so far.

There are several foods I learned to appreciate on the plan that I'm going to keep eating. I really enjoyed one of my go-to breakfasts of roasted sweet potato slices, mashed avocado, diced cherry tomatoes and a fried egg. I'll keep eating that. Larabar's Pecan Pie bars were something I could keep in my bag to eat on the run that I'll continue to buy. I made Crab Bruschetta Eggplant Toast that was so good I'll make it again, and spring for better crab next time. But, let's be real. You can't make toast out of eggplant so I'll just call it Crab Bruschetta on Eggplant.

And, here's the most amazing thing. I have no craving at all to add sugar back into my diet. Last night, I was upset and couldn't sleep. No one would have blamed for grabbing a pint of ice cream over this particular upset, but I didn't even open the freezer. Instead, I cut up a banana and strawberries and ate them. I do feel as if my sugar cravings have been reset. I'm also aware that it wouldn't take too many bowls of ice cream to bring them back.

There's one big problem that I always knew would be a problem. By eliminating all those foods at once, it's unclear which one or ones were contributing to some of my health issues that improved. I think I'll be adding foods back in slowly and watching my reaction. I'm also considering doing a Whole30 before 6 p.m. sort of plan, completely knocking off Mark Bittman's Vegan before 6 p.m. idea.

Maybe I'll have to do another post a month from now to talk about the next 30 days.

It should be noted that in a study of 38 diets, U.S. News & World Report ranked Whole30 as number 38. They had this to say about the health and nutrition of the plan:

The panel from U.S. News said that while the diet is not particularly unsafe, it is relatively likely to spur temporary weight loss. One expert noted that it is "the antithesis of a long-term healthy dietary pattern."

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My month on the Whole30 diet - Mother Nature Network (blog)

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By: Dr. Joel Fuhrman - Updated: 1 hour ago

VALLEY Regaining the weight after losing it on a diet is much more common than keeping the weight off. Often dieters gain back more than they lost, and its a common experience to have an even harder time losing weight the next time. Weight cycling is the term for these repeating episodes of intentional weight loss followed by unintentional regain, also often called yo-yo dieting. One of the most important messages about weight loss is this: change your diet, lose the weight and keep your new, healthier way of eating forever.

The human body responds to weight loss the same way it would respond to starvation by conserving energy. The brain uses information about calorie intake and the bodys amount of stored energy to determine whether to release appetite-enhancing or appetite-suppressing hormones. One way the body adapts to weight loss is by altering the production of appetite-regulating hormones such as ghrelin and leptin, favoring weight regain by increasing appetite and promoting fat storage. Another way is by decreasing resting calorie expenditure.

These compensatory systems make going back to ones old unhealthy diet even more weight gain-promoting. The highly palatable low nutrient foods, which stimulate cravings via the brains reward system, are even more dangerous for someone whose calorie expenditure has fallen. Also, when you lose weight, some loss of muscle is unavoidable, and strength exercise helps to limit muscle loss. However, when you gain weight back after dieting, that weight is fat, potentially leaving you with a greater body fat percentage than before.

Studies have linked weight cycling to a greater risk of diabetes, hypertension, gallbladder stones, and shorter telomere length (shorter telomeres indicate more rapid aging). Weight cycling women were also found to have a greater waist circumference, and seem to gain more weight over time than non-cyclers who start off at the same BMI.

The bottom line is that making changes to your diet to improve your health and your weight need to be permanent changes, not temporary changes.

Why is gaining back body fat harmful? Adipose (fat) tissue is more than a vessel for storing excess energy. In addition to storing fat, adipose tissue acts as an endocrine organ: it contains macrophages (a type of white blood cell) in addition to adipocytes (fat cells); it produces and secretes compounds that affect the function of other types of cells. Obesity is accompanied by inflammation. Adipose releases compounds that can lead to negative consequences such as insulin resistance, higher triglycerides, and reduced immune function, and even growth promoters that can increase risk of cancer. As fat tissue grows, more of these pro-inflammatory compounds are produced, leading to chronic inflammation, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.

The key to losing weight and keeping it off forever is changing your diet forever. Stay away from extreme fad diets; they are not sustainable long-term. About 80 percent of dieters are unable to keep 10 percent of their original body weight off for more than one year. Feeling deprived and going back to your old diet is almost inevitable. However, if you use high-nutrient foods to resolve toxic hunger and achieve greater meal satisfaction with a smaller number of calories, it will be much easier to stick with your new way of eating and prevent future weight regain.

A study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine analyzed and reported weight loss results provided by 75 obese patients who had switched to the high-nutrient (Nutritiarian) diet I advocate. The average weight loss was 55 pounds, and overall their was no significant weight regain after three years. Compare these results to most weight loss intervention studies, which report average losses of only 6-13 pounds maintained after two years. One reason for the remarkable effects on permanent weight reduction with a Nutritarian diet is that the users are more fully educated regarding the long-term health and longevity benefits and it is adopted not merely for its weight loss benefits. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that this nutrient dense, plant-rich diet can suppress appetite and resolve food cravings and food addictions.14

My book The End of Dieting explains exactly how to break out of the cycle of physical and emotional addiction and overeating how to keep the weight off permanently.

Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and a board certified family physician specializing in lifestyle and nutritional medicine. The Eat To Live Cookbook offers over 200 unique disease-fighting delicious recipes and his newest book, The End of Heart Disease, offers a detailed plan to prevent and reverse heart disease using a nutrient-dense, plant-rich eating style. Visit his informative website at DrFuhrman.com. Submit your questions and comments about this column directly to [emailprotected]

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Why regaining lost weight is dangerous - Valley Courier

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JAMES EXTON from LDN Muscle reveals how you can get in shape in time for your summer holiday.

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With summer well and truly here, people everywhere are trying to get in shape in time for their vacation.

Bur whats the best way to lose weight fast? While crash dieting can work in the short term, its not a viable long-term solution.

James Exton from LDN Muscle revealed to the Daily Star Online that the key really is diet and exercise.

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James said: We all have urges but channelling them is the key, and finding a food that is both nutrient dense and not jam packed full of calories is the way forward.

Food that is both nutrient dense and not jam packed full of calories is the way forward.

Thats why the Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit is a great sweet craving calorie, jam packed with vitamin C and only 79 calories.

He added vegetables and protein shakes are also a great option to keep at work for a quick, healthy snack.

It depends where you cravings truly lay - sweet or savoury. Just because a snack is healthy it can still be packed with calories. Take nuts for examples, devouring a smallish pack can be a 1000 calories in just one sitting," he said.

Vegetables dipped in low fat hummus, or a tasty LDNM Whey Protein Shake, these are also both good choices.

LDN Muscle founder Tom Exton shows off his shredded body

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When it comes to exercises, James a personal trainer and co-creator of the LDM Muscle guides said compound moves work best.

To burn calories quickly we favour compound moves, squats, deadlifts, and overhead press. Alongside HIIT cardio and Tabata Style Circuits," James added.

"Remember these all need to be done alongside a constructive dietary approach to elicit maximum results.

Along with diet and exercise, portion control is one of the key things to learn when losing weight.

James explained you can use your hands and fingers as a rough guide for portion control.

This would typically involve, two palms full of protein (chicken, fish etc one cupped handful of a carb source of choice (rice, pasta, bread), a thumb full of fat source (e.g. nut butter) and two fists of salad or vegetables," he added.

Meanwhile, LDN Muscle co-founder Tom Exton revealedwhy its so important to warm up before you workout it can make all the difference.

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This is the EASIEST way to get in shape fast - Daily Star

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Ramadan can be your perfect chance to lose some weight! It`s the best time to improve your body! How to lose weight while fasting during Ramadan? Follow our 5 steps guide!

How to lose weight during Ramadan in 5 steps?

Step 1. Hydrate

It may sound impossible during the holy month, but hydration is a key element to losing weight during Ramadan! If you don`t want to become dehydrated you must drink enough water! Enough water during Ramadan can also help you to control your sugar level! How much should you drink during a day? Scientists inform that people should drink two liters (or eight glasses) of water per day! When can you drink it?

- Drink two glasses (half a liter) at Iftar;

- Drink four glasses (one liter) in between Iftar and Suhur (Do not drink in between Suhur and Iftar!);

- Two glasses (half a liter) at Suhur.

Do not drink coffee or black tea! Try herbal teas! They can be a great alternative to water. If you drink at least two liters of water per day it will help your digestion!

Step 2. Balanced Iftar

How to lose weight during Ramadan fasting? Do not eat too much during Iftar. In the holy month, your metabolism slows down. It needs the energy decrease! The Iftar meal shouldn`t be the period when you overeat! Just try to eat according to your daily regime.

Date fruit can be your perfect meal and a quick source of sugar. Sugar provides energy to your body. Ramadan 2017 is not the time when you need to lose energy! A vegetable soup is also a nice addition to your Ramadan! Do not forget to skip cream based soups! Another good option for you is a mixed vegetable salad! Vegetables can fill you with energy for the whole day!

Do not forget that Ramadan is not a time to overeat! Do not overwhelm your digestive system with food!

Step 3. Balanced Suhur

Your eating hours during Ramadan fasting are pretty limited. Still, there is no excuse to miss your Suhur meal. If you skip Suhur, you will only become hungry. What does it mean for your body? It means that you are losing energy! Also, it may lead to overeating during Iftar! You don`t want to do that, right?

READ ALSO: When does Ramadan start 2017?

Avoid salty food during Suhur! It will only make you thirsty the next day! When you choose your meal do not forget about carbs! A whole grain bread can be your choice for Suhur. You may also try to mix a salad with vegetables and eggs. This combination will help you to keep a stable level of proteins and carbs in your body.

Step 4. Stay Active

According to the rules of Ramadan, it`s time when we need to improve ourselves. Do not be lazy during Ramadan! Still, do not overheat and avoid the sun during its peak hours! Do not forget that you will burn more fat on an empty stomach! In the early morning hours, you can try some jogging! Cardio exercises will make your life healthier.

You can also ask help from a professional trainer. This specialist will help you to maintain your body in shape during Ramadan 2017!

Step 5. Sugar Is Your Enemy!

How to lose weight when fasting in Ramadan? Avoid eating too much sugar. It`s a good time to skip sugary products. They can only cause you to gain weight during Ramadan!

Ramadan Challenge!

You can lose some weight during Ramadan! It`s only the matter of your willpower! Do not forget to follow the saintly rules of this holy month! Eat healthy and in time! Stay active during Ramadan! Avoid Sugar and drink more water!

READ ALSO: Ramadan Fasting Rules 2017

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Experts have worried about recommending weight loss to older, obese people because it speeds up bone and muscle loss, increasing the danger of falls and broken bones. Losing weight plus aerobic activity and strength training improved their health more than dieting plus either type of exercise alone.

The results suggest a combination of exercises is the safest approach, and may have big implications for helping people continue to live independently as they age. Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for people 65 and older, now covers behavioral therapy for weight loss and some plans offer gym memberships.

It is the worst of both worlds, being fat and frail, said Dr. Dennis T. Villareal of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who led the study under a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

More than a third of Americans ages 65 and older are obese. Obesity can make the elderly vulnerable to medical problems, but losing weight can worsen frailty by hastening muscle and bone loss.

The study, published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 141 older obese people who were randomly assigned to a diet-and-exercise program. They scored in the frail range on a standard test used with seniors.

Gym members use a treadmill to warm up for a morning exercise class in Addison, Texas, in 2013. A new study suggests that heavy seniors who want to lose pounds safely shouldnt skip the weight machines or the treadmill. (Paul Sancya/Associated Press)

One group did aerobics such as treadmill walking. Another did strength training with weight machines. A third group did aerobics and strength training. All exercised three times a week.

A control group didnt diet or exercise and only attended monthly nutrition classes.

After six months, all the groups except the do-nothing group had lost weight, about 19 pounds on average.

The combination and aerobics-only groups built their ability to use oxygen most efficiently, which can increase endurance. The combination and strength-only groups preserved the most lean mass and bone.

The health differences showed up in follow-up testing where participants did a series of nine tasks including picking up a penny, standing up from a chair and climbing stairs.

Most improved was the combination group with a 21 percent average increase in scores compared to 14 percent improvement in the aerobics-only and strength-only groups.

Its never too late to change lifelong unhealthy habits, Villareal said.

Minor injuries such as knee pain and shoulder pain among the exercisers were not enough to outweigh the benefits, he said.

The study excluded people with severe heart disease and other serious health problems, so the results apply only to people well enough to start an exercise program.

You get more bang for your buck with doing both types of training, especially when it comes to improving frailty scores, said Dr. Lawrence Appel of Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved in the study.

Follow AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson on Twitter: @CarlaKJohnson

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Lean and mean seniors - Albuquerque Journal

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File 20170530 16298 10q0h7o

The rocket that blasted into space from New Zealand on May 25 was special. Not only was it the first to launch from a private site, it was also the first to be powered by an engine made almost entirely using 3D printing.

This might not make it the first 3D-printed rocket in space that some headlines described it as, but it does highlight how seriously this manufacturing technique is being taken by the space industry.

The team behind the Electron rocket at US company RocketLab say the engine was printed in 24 hours and provides efficiency and performance benefits over other systems. Theres not yet much information out there regarding the exact details of the 3D-printed components. But its likely many of them have been designed to minimise weight while maintaining their structural performance, while other components may have been optimised to provide efficient fluid flow. These advantages reducing weight and the potential for complex new designs are a large part of why 3D printing is set to find some of its most significant applications in space exploration, with dramatic effect.

One thing the set of technologies known as additive manufacturing or 3D printing does really well is to produce highly complicated shapes. For example, lattice structures produced in exactly the right way so that they weigh less but are just as strong as similar solid components. This creates the opportunity to produce optimised, lightweight parts that were previously impossible to manufacture economically or efficiently with more traditional techniques.

Boeings microlattice is an example of taking this to the extreme, supposedly producing mechanically sound structures that are 99.9% air. Not all 3D printing processes can achieve this, but even weight savings of a few percent in aircraft and spacecraft can lead to major benefits through the use of less fuel.

3D printing tends to work best for the production of relatively small, intricate parts rather than large, simple structures, where the higher material and processing costs would outweigh any advantage. For example, a redesigned nozzle can enhance fuel mixing within an engine, leading to better efficiency. Increasing the surface area of a heat shield by using a patterned rather than a flat surface can mean heat is transferred away more efficiently, reducing the chances of overheating.

The techniques can also reduce the amount of material wasted in manufacturing, important because space components tend to be made from highly expensive and often rare materials. 3D printing can also produce whole systems in one go rather than from lots of assembled parts. For example, NASA used it to reduce the components in one of its rocket injectors from 115 to just two. Plus, 3D printers can easily make small numbers of a part as the space industry often needs without first creating expensive manufacturing tools.

3D printers are also likely to find a use in space itself, where its difficult to keep large numbers of spare parts and hard to send out for replacements when youre thousands of kilometres from Earth. Theres now a 3D printer on the International Space Station so, if something breaks, engineers can send up a design for a replacement and the astronauts can print it out.

The current printer only deals with plastic so its more likely to be used for making tools or one-off replacements for low-performance parts such as door handles. But once 3D printers can more easily use other materials, were likely to see an increase in their uses. One day, people in space could produce their own food items and even biological materials. Recycling facilities could also enable broken parts to be reused to make the replacements.

Looking even further ahead, 3D printers could prove useful in building colonies. Places like the moon dont have much in the way of traditional building materials, but the European Space Agency has proven solar energy can power the production of bricks of lunar dust, which would be a good start. Researchers are now looking at how to use 3D printing to take this idea further and develop complete printed buildings on the moon.

To make many of these applications a reality, well need to research more advanced materials and processes that can manufacture components to withstand the extremely harsh conditions of space. Engineers also need to work on developing optimised designs and find ways of testing 3D printed parts to prove theyre safe. And then theres the irritating issue of gravity, or rather the lack of it. Many current processes use powders or liquids as their raw materials so were likely to need some clever tricks in order to make these function safely in a low or microgravity environment.

Some of these barriers may even require entirely new materials and techniques. But as research goes on, 3D printing is likely to be used more and more in space, even if a fully printed space vehicle isnt going to launch any time soon. The sky is no longer the limit.

Candice Majewski, Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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A 3D-printed rocket engine just launched a new era of space exploration - Professional Engineering (subscription)

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Whats the best library lunch to give your brain the fuel it needs? Photograph: Alamy

Its heads-down revision time for exams and dissertations. The pressures on, so youll want all the help you can get to aid your memory and raise your grades (without smart drugs or cheating). Nutrition experts say that eating well can make a real difference to your revision regime so what brain-boosting food and drink do they recommend?

Coffee, green tea and energy drinks are staples of the all-night library stint. But how much caffeine is too much?

Caffeine particularly coffee can have numerous benefits extending to cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, prevention of type 2 diabetes and acting as a potent antioxidant, says nutritional therapist Daniel OShaughnessy. However, while caffeine may make you more alert, individuals can build up a tolerance meaning this is short-lived. Caffeine can also increase blood sugar and eventually lead to dips causing lack of focus and energy.

Its also worth bearing in mind that people react differently to caffeine, says nutritional therapist Joanne Crovini. It has the potential to increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Some people can drink it at midnight and go straight to sleep, whereas other people get teeth clenching and feelings of anxiety after a small amount.

Most adults can tolerate single doses of caffeine up to 200mg and a daily intake of up to 400mg without any concerns, nutrition scientist Sarah Coe says; a mug of instant coffee is around 100mg and a cup of tea is 75mg of caffeine. Remember that energy drinks and some soft drinks contain caffeine too, and coffee from a coffee shop may be stronger than coffee made at home. As broad advice Id say stop drinking caffeine by 2pm and have a maximum of two cups of coffee or equivalent a day, but be aware of your own reaction to it.

Wholegrain foods will stave off hunger (advice on cooking some of them can be found here). Examples include porridge and wholemeal bread. Crovini explains that combining wholegrain with protein will help keep blood sugar levels balanced, which is essential for mood and concentration.

OShaughnessy agrees. Buying grains in bulk with your housemates is a great way to save money, as is avoiding the more overpriced fad grains, he says. Brown rice, oats and buckwheat are good, cheap alternatives, he says, adding that the high levels of magnesium in buckwheat also helps to calm nerves.

Berries and nuts are a convenient snack that pack a nutritional punch. Blueberries, like many dark coloured fruits and vegetables, have a high antioxidant content, which is thought to protect the brain from oxidative damage and slow age-related decline, explains Crovini. Frozen berries are usually cheap, last longer and dont lose their nutrients when frozen. Less healthy are flavoured and coated nuts, which contain added oil, salt and sugars.

Doctors often recommend taking vitamin supplements to top up on the nutrients you need but these can be expensive. Fortunately, theyre not the only option. Food should always come before supplements and the key to getting as many nutrients as possible is to eat as varied a diet as possible, with lots of different colours, says Crovini. Use frozen berries and dark green vegetables like savoy cabbage, which are reasonably priced.

Coe agrees: its better to get everything you need from food and drink: For example, oranges not only contain vitamin C [which boosts the immune system] but also fibre and other components that you cant get packaged together in a tablet.

Dark chocolate has a mild effect on increasing blood flow and reducing blood pressure, due to the polyphenol content, says Crovini. Its also a good source of magnesium, which is an essential mineral for relaxation.

OShaughnessy recommends choosing chocolate thats 80% or more in cacao to avoid any negative effects to teeth, skin and weight. The darker the chocolate, the less sugar in it.

A recent study by the University of East London and University of Westminster found that keeping hydrated can boost attention by almost 25%. We found that drinking even a really small amount of water (25 ml) resulted in improved performance on a test of attention, says Dr Caroline Edmonds, who co-authored the research. Drinking 300 ml improves memory performance and can improve your mood as well.

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The revision diet: what's the best food and drink to help students focus? - The Guardian

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