When Does the Food You Eat Turn to Fat?

Do you ever wonder how long it takes for the food you eat to turn into fat and extra body weight? In this week’s HER Week in Health, Bailey Mosier tries to answer that question. She also looks at the benefits of a 10-minute daily power nap and celebrates women’s achievements in sports during the beginning of the 2012 London Olympics. Have a look.

Do you ever sit and wonder how long it takes for the food you just ate to turn in to added pounds on your body? In this week’s edition I’ll try to answer that great mystery we all wonder about. We’ll also look at why you should take a 10-minute nap every day and we celebrate how far women have come in sports as we kick off the 2012 London Olympics! Have a look.

While the question – how long after I eat will I gain weight – seems extraordinarily simple, more and more experts are saying there’s no simple answer to it.

A growing number of endocrinologists are beginning to see the hormone response to food as far more complicated than previously thought, as well as far more individualized: there is a wider variance in how people respond to food.

It’s not so simple or black and white, because it’s a very individual phenomenon, based not only on the make-up of someone’s diet, but on their unique hormonal and physiologic response.

Very few of us are afforded the luxury of taking an afternoon siesta in the middle of our workday, but turns out everyone would benefit – our employers, included – if we did.

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that a 10-minute nap boosts focus and productivity. When compared with other time intervals, the 10-minute nap produced immediate improvements in all outcome measures (including sleep latency, subjective sleepiness, fatigue, vigor, and cognitive performance), with some of these benefits maintained for as long as 155 minutes.

Continue reading at EmpowHER

Tagged Bailey Mosier, fats