How late-night snacks sabotage weight loss and brain power

The comic-strip character Garfield loved his midnight snack. That obsession was memorialized in a song from his 1982 TV special, &qu...

How late-night snacks sabotage weight loss and brain power

The comic-strip character Garfield loved his midnight snack. That obsession was memorialized in a song from his 1982 TV special, "Here Comes Garfield": "Around midnight, when everybody else is sacking, he'll be snacking/Now does he regret it? Yes, he feels so very blue/And when he gets too round, he tries to cut down/But only for an hour or two."

If you're trying to lose weight, you might regret late-night snacking for more than an hour or two, according to a recent study in Cell Metabolism. Researchers divided mice into five groups, controlling the time and amount each group ate. The only group to lose weight was the one that ate a lower-calorie diet during the time they were normally active and awake. Those who ate during their usual resting time didn't lose weight.

And your brainpower could suffer from eating at the wrong time, too. Another mouse study found that those who ate only when they'd normally be sleeping performed worse on memory tests and showed changes in the area of their brain associated with learning and memory.

Those same effects from eating at the wrong time definitely apply to people: Disruptions in your circadian rhythm (your internal clock) damage your cognitive health and your metabolic processes. Late-night eating is one way of throwing off that clock.

Your best bet? Have your last meal at least three hours before bedtime, wait 12 hours before eating again, and have your largest meal of the day at lunchtime.

© 2017 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Tomatoes' powerful SPF

European aristocrats in the 1700s believed that they got sick from eating "poison apples" - their name for tomatoes! But, according to sources at the Smithson...

Tomatoes' powerful SPF

European aristocrats in the 1700s believed that they got sick from eating "poison apples" - their name for tomatoes! But, according to sources at the Smithsonian Institution, the fruit wasn't the culprit; it was the pewter dishes loaded with lead, on which they were served. The acidity in tomatoes leached the lead from the metal plates and caused illness and death from lead poisoning.

These days, thankfully, we can focus on tomatoes' remarkable healing powers, inside and out. A study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that women who consumed 25 milligrams of the powerful polyphenol lycopene daily boosted levels of the health-protecting hormone adiponectin by 9 percent, and that reduced their breast cancer risk. (You can get that dose of lycopene from just 1/2 cup of your favorite tomato sauce!) Higher levels of adiponectin also are linked to lower risk for diabetes, heart disease and prostate, lung and stomach cancers.

And a recent study in Scientific Reports reveals that lycopene can help prevent skin damage from the sun. Mice fed a daily diet of 10 percent tomato powder for 35 weeks averaged 50 percent fewer skin cancer tumors when exposed to ultraviolet light, compared with mice that ate no dehydrated tomatoes. One surprise: Tangerine-colored tomatoes delivered a higher dose of lycopene than red ones!

So make a nice pasta sauce using extra-virgin olive oil or cook up a velvety pot of tomato soup, adding onions (not sugar) for sweetness. And remember, cooking tomatoes can unleash lycopene's health-benefitting powers by over 150 percent.

© 2017 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

The sound of infertility

In New York, a man's average hearing age is more than 12 years older than his actual age; in Houston it's almost 13 years older, and in Los Angeles it's over 14 years...

The sound of infertility

In New York, a man's average hearing age is more than 12 years older than his actual age; in Houston it's almost 13 years older, and in Los Angeles it's over 14 years. That's the measurable impact of sound pollution on hearing.

But noise damages more than men's hearing. According to a recent study, even relatively low levels of sound can make men infertile - yes, you heard that right - especially when noise repeatedly disturbs sleep. Looking at eight years of health insurance data on more than 200,000 men ages 20 to 59, the researchers identified 3,293 men who were diagnosed with infertility. They then calculated an individual's level of noise exposure by cross-referencing ZIP codes with info from the National Noise Information System. What did the guys have in common? They all were exposed to noise levels above 55 decibels (dBs) night after night. (Air conditioners come in around 60 dBs; a passing diesel truck emits 85 dBs and an emergency vehicle's siren hits 115 dBs.)

So, guys, how can you keep noise from messing with your sleep cycle and your fertility?

1. Download a smartphone decibel checker; test nighttime sound levels in your bedroom.

2. Check if digital devices or appliances in your home exceed 55 dBs. If they do, turn them down (or off), or trade them in for quieter models.

3. Install double- or triple-pane windows; seal window frames with stripping. Use double-hung, extra-heavy curtain fabric.

4. Sleep with earplugs. (Discard foam plugs daily, and clean reusable plugs regularly.)

© 2017 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.