Health : Useful products to quit smoking

Marinette Gambarian, head of the Center for Prevention and Monitoring of Tobacco Consumption of the National Center for Medical Research for Treatment and Preventive Medicine, revealed products that can help reduce the desire to smoke.

According to her, after eating foods such as meat, smoking becomes more enjoyable, while the taste of cigarettes becomes unbearable after eating cheese, fruits and vegetables. Therefore, you must think and pay attention to the appropriate diet to quit smoking.

The expert advises, to avoid the desire to smoke, to change your post-lunch habits by eating carrots, celery, cucumbers, or seeds, because this keeps the hands and mouth busy.

According to her, you should drink plenty of fluids during the period of quitting smoking - water, herbal and fruit teas, which also help remove toxins from the body, clean the airways and moisturize the mouth.

The expert warns against consuming soft drinks, cola, alcoholic beverages, coffee and tea because they stimulate the desire to smoke. So it is better to drink tomato juice.

Tuberous sunflower is beneficial for diabetics

The tuberous sunflower or Jerusalem scale (earth pear) is a type of plant belonging to the sunflower genus of the Asteraceae family. It is a perennial plant that produces tubers that grow underground and resemble potatoes.

In an interview with RT, Dmitry Bystrov, associate professor at the Russian University of Biotechnology, points out that “diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs in two cases: either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot use the insulin it produces effectively. The person who suffers from diabetes "This disease requires always monitoring blood sugar levels and following a fairly strict diet."

According to him, few people know the benefits of tuberous sunflower (earth pear) for those suffering from diabetes.

He says: “Some people call it earth pears or sweet potatoes. Of course, the tubers of the plant actually resemble potatoes, but they are sweet in taste because they contain fructose, which stimulates insulin production. These tubers are low in calories, but they contain a large number of vitamins, mineral elements, organic acids, and essential amino acids. "It contains prebiotics that improve the digestive microbiome, especially in the intestine. It also contains inulin, which is a natural polysaccharide that reduces blood glucose levels, improves fat metabolism, and thus reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease."

He points out that the tuberous sunflower plant grows in all conditions, so it can be planted in a large pot and tolerates climatic conditions well. It can be eaten as tubers, flakes, or even a powder or a sweet-tasting drink that does not require adding sugar.

Hunger hormones affect the decision-making area of ​​the brain

A new study suggests that a hunger hormone produced in the gut can influence the decision-making area of ​​the brain, in order to stimulate an animal's behavior.

This study is the first to show how hunger hormones can directly affect the activity of the hippocampus in the brain, which is the part of the brain that makes decisions and helps form and use memories, when an animal thinks about eating.

To ensure that you do not overeat, the hippocampus suppresses the animal instinct to eat. But if the animal is hungry, hormones will tell the brain to turn off the braking, suggest researchers at the University of California.

The researchers hope that their findings will contribute to research into the mechanisms of eating disorders, as well as into other links between diet and other health outcomes such as the risk of mental illness.

Lead author Dr Andrew MacAskill, a professor of neuroscience, physiology and pharmacology at University College London, said: “We all know that our decisions can be strongly influenced by our hunger, because food has a different meaning depending on whether we are hungry or full. Just think about how much that might be. "You buy it when you're grocery shopping on an empty stomach. But what may seem like a simple concept is actually quite complex. It requires the ability to use what's called contextual learning."

He added: "We found that the part of the brain that plays a crucial role in decision-making is surprisingly sensitive to the levels of hunger hormones produced in our gut, which we believe helps our brains determine the context of our food choices."

During the study, the mice were placed in an arena with some food, and the researchers looked at how the mice behaved when they were hungry or full while imaging their brains in real time.

The study found that all the mice spent time examining the food, but only the hungry animals would start eating.

The researchers were focusing on brain activity in the underside of the hippocampus. When the mice approached food, activity increased in a subset of brain cells in the underside of the hippocampus, and this activity stopped the animal from eating.

But if the mouse was hungry, there was less activity in this area, so the hippocampus no longer prevented the animal from eating.

The researchers found that this corresponds to high levels of the hormone ghrelin circulating in the blood.

The team was also able to experimentally make mice behave as if they were full, which prompted the animals to stop eating even if they were hungry.

Previous studies have shown that the hippocampus of animals, including non-human primates, has receptors for ghrelin, but there has been little evidence about how these receptors work.

This finding demonstrated that the hunger hormone can cross the blood-brain barrier (which strictly prevents many substances in the blood from reaching the brain) and directly influence the brain to drive activity, controlling a circuit in the brain that is likely the main source of the activity itself or Similar in humans.

The study's first author, Dr Ryan Wei, from Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology at University College London, noted: "Being able to make decisions based on how hungry we are is very important. If things go wrong, it can lead to serious health problems." “We hope that by improving our understanding of how this works in the brain, we may be able to help prevent and treat eating disorders.”

 The study was published in the journal Neuron.