El Fat Cat Grill is on the move — literally. Jenny and Felix Sanchez opened their restaurant last March at Fourth Avenue and Vancouver Street in Kennewick.

“We had a lot of loyal customers,” he said. “But the costs and overhead of running a restaurant were just too much. Yet we couldn’t give up on our dreams.”

They closed their brick and mortar site Feb. 29 and bought a 24-foot trailer, already outfitted as a mobile restaurant. On May 1, they took their menu on the road.

“My grandmom knew this was the direction we wanted to go and her next door neighbors had this trailer for sale. They had been using it in Pullman, selling food to the students, but it wasn’t working out for them,” he said.

It’s perfect for Chef Felix’s needs.

“All I needed to do was upgrade a few things and we were ready to go,” he said.

“We had looked into having one built. But that would have taken months,” Jenny Sanchez said.

Weekdays you’ll find them parked at John Dam Plaza in Richland. Look for the big red trailer with El Fat Cat Grill emblazoned across both sides.

The Sanchezes like the flexibility of the food trailer.

“Just being able to move, to go to our customers, to be in Kennewick one day and Richland the next, has a lot of appeal,” Felix Sanchez said.

“Food trailers like ours are popular in places like Seattle and Portland,” he said.

Like concession stands at fairs and other events, customers place their orders at a counter on the side of the trailer and can watch as Felix works his culinary magic inside.

“It’s a full kitchen, just compact,” Jenny Sanchez said.

“What they’ll find is they can get gourmet food out of a food trailer and have it taste like what you can get in a restaurant,” she said.

Once served, customers can enjoy their meal at one of the tables in the park or take it back home or to the office.

Anyone familiar with their Kennewick location will recognize many of the items on El Fat Cat Grill’s current menu.

“We still have the tacos, burritos and tortas, including our popular Triple Threats and Crabby Melts,” she said.

However, Felix’s popular paella and clam chowder are off the menu until the weather cools off in the fall.

“They’re just not warm weather meals,” Jenny Sanchez said.

Instead, Felix Sanchez plans to take advantage of seasonal, locally-produced veggies and fruits in hearty summer salads.

“I don’t like to cook the same things all the time. It gets boring, at least for me,” Felix Sanchez said.

The Sanchezes plan to park their food trailer at John Dam Plaza during the week and take it on the road to different events and locations on the weekends.

Hours are flexible. Generally they’re open and serving by 11 a.m. and close between 5 and 6 p.m. Depending on the event, like the Live at Five concerts Thursdays at John Dam Plaza, they’ll stay open later.

To place a pick up order, call 546-1413.

To check on the menu, go to http://elfatcatgrill.
blogspot.com.

Article source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2012/05/19/1945328/kennewicks-el-fat-cat-grill-becomes.html

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Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss — and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz.

In a February episode of “The Dr. Oz Show,” Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were “the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat.” Once Oz calls something a “miracle,” it doesn’t remain obscure for long.

“An adjective like ‘miracle’ is used as an editorial device to describe anecdotal results, as exemplified by the guests on our show. Our audience are not scientists, and the show needs to be more lively than a dry scientific discussion,” a spokesman for the show, Tim Sullivan, said in a statement, adding that the show does not view supplements as “magic bullets.”

“Absolutely, my patients are asking about it,” says Dr. Peter Lipson, an internist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit. “I tell them that I don’t know if it will help, and neither does anyone else.”

Even the staff at the show found the response to be “unexpectedly zealous,” Sullivan says.

A handful of studies from Asia suggests that raspberry ketones — which are chemically similar to capsaicin, the heat compound from chile peppers — might help burn fat, especially the fat that builds up in the liver. The reported benefits are impressive: lower cholesterol, increased sensitivity to insulin and, yes, weight loss.

But these studies all had a serious shortcoming: They involved rodents or cells in test tubes, not people. And that’s a deal-breaker, says Melinda Manore, professor of nutrition at Oregon State University in Corvallis. She notes that a lot of weight-loss supplements that look promising in laboratory rodents fail to pan out in the real world. “I would not recommend this product until there is some evidence that it works,” she says.

Some of the hype around raspberry ketones might actually be justified, says Stephen Anton, an assistant professor of aging and geriatric research at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘miracle,’” he adds.

Anton, a paid consultant for Re-Body, a supplement company that is developing a raspberry ketone product of its own, has studied the weight-loss potential of several plant compounds. “This is something that looks promising, but you need clinical trials to validate the promise,” he says.

A 2012 study from China found that raspberry ketones had several health benefits — including improved insulin sensitivity and reduced fat in the liver — in rats fed a high-fat diet. Anton compares such results to early studies of resveratrol, a plant compound that first showed heart-healthy benefits in animals before it became a popular ingredient in supplements. Later studies suggest that it helps human hearts too.

The Dr. Oz television segment featured before-and-after pictures of women who said they lost significant weight while taking raspberry ketone supplements. But Oz noted that the women had also dieted and worked out. The Dr. Oz website says that raspberry ketones work best “when paired with regular exercise and awell-balanced diet.”

Nothing discussed on Oz’s show “should be considered as a substitute for the basic tenets of diet and exercise,” Sullivan says. “Anything strong enough to help you is strong enough to hurt you” is something Oz says frequently, according to Sullivan.

Diet and exercise — the real secret to weight loss — are not much of a secret at all, Lipson says. He adds that the old-fashioned approach doesn’t make for great television, which is why he thinks Oz and other television personalities end up touting new, exciting products that may or may not work.

health@latimes.com

Article source: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-raspberry-ketone-20120519,0,1495840.story?track=rss

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OXFORD, England, May 18 (UPI) — Taxes on unhealthy food might improve health, but the tax would need to be at least 20 percent to have a significant effect, British researchers said.

Oliver Mytton and colleagues at the University of Oxford in England said evidence suggests taxing a wide range of unhealthy foods or nutrients is likely to result in greater health benefits than narrow taxes, although the strongest evidence base is for a tax on sugary drinks.

For example, a U.S. study found a 35 percent tax on sugar-sweetened drinks — $0.45 per drink — led to a 26 percent decline in sales, the researchers said.

Models in other studies showed a 20 percent tax on sugary drinks in the United States would reduce obesity levels by 3.5 percent, while extending the value added tax at 17.5 percent to unhealthy foods in Britain could cut up to 2,700 heart disease deaths a year, the researchers said.

U.S. opinion polls on a tax on sugary drinks range from 37 percent to 72 percent supportive, but the food industry has said the taxes result in fewer products sold and would result in job losses, Mytton said.

The findings were reported in the British Medical Journal.

Article source: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2012/05/18/Food-fat-tax-would-have-to-be-20-percent/UPI-87871337389026/

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Food that’s already known to be bad for your figure is probably also bad for your brain, according to new research.

A new study by Harvard researchers has found that women who eat a lot of saturated fat (a.k.a “bad fat”) may hurt their overall brain function and memory over time. Meanwhile, eating monounsaturated fat, long known as a healthy type of fat, can improve brain function and memory. Overall, the research shows that fats may have the same effect on the brain as they do on the heart, HealthDay reported. 

More from GlobalPost: Promises, pitfalls await investors in Burma’s frontier

“Making changes and substitutions in one’s diet to eat fewer saturated fats and consume more monounsaturated fats might be a way to help prevent cognitive decline in older people,” lead researcher Dr. Olivia Okereke, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, told HealthDay. 

To conduct the study, a team of scientists analyzed dietary data from 6,000 women over age 65, The Atlantic reported. Over the course of a four-year period, the women who ate more saturated fats scored worse on cognitive function tests. 

The news comes just days after a study found a link between high-fructose corn syrup and learning and memory problems. Luckily, that study also found that eating Omega-3 fatty acids may counteract the IQ loss, according to Live Science. 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120518/bad-fat-linked-poor-brain-function-new-study

Article source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120518/bad-fat-linked-poor-brain-function-new-study

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FRIDAY, May 18 (HealthDay News) — Women who eat a lot of “bad” saturated fat may hurt their overall brain function and memory over time, Harvard University researchers report.

In contrast, eating more “good” monounsaturated fat improved brain function and memory, suggesting that fats may have the same effect on the brain as they do on the heart, the researchers added.

“Making changes and substitutions in one’s diet to eat fewer saturated fats and consume more monounsaturated fats might be a way to help prevent cognitive decline in older people,” said lead researcher Dr. Olivia Okereke, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “This is important because cognitive decline affects millions of older people. So, this is a promising area of research.”

Just like exercising, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking, this may be another modifiable factor in the fight against mental decline, Okereke added.

“Such modifiable factors are important because these are things that people can
actually change and over which they can exert some individual control,” she said.

The report was published in the May 18 online edition of the Annals of Neurology.

For the study, Okereke’s team collected data on 6,000 women who took part in the U.S. Women’s Health Study.

These women took three brain function tests every two years over an average span of four years.

In addition, they filled out detailed food questionnaires at the start of the study and before the brain tests.

The researchers found that over time, women who ate the highest amounts of saturated fat had the worst overall brain function and memory, compared to the women who ate the least.

Moreover, women who ate the most monounsaturated fats had higher scores on brain tests over the four years of testing, they note.

Saturated fat comes from animal fats such as red meat and butter, while monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil and other vegetable products.

In the study, the researchers accounted for many things that could influence the findings, including age, education, exercise, smoking, drinking, medication use and health conditions. This is done to ensure that the findings are not due to better health behaviors among certain women.

“We think it is unlikely that these findings regarding dietary fat would be primarily explained by a healthy lifestyle in those with more education,” Okereke said.

Although this study was among women, “it would make sense that the basic underlying reasons for the findings we saw in women should also apply to men,” she added.

Samantha Heller, a dietitian, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn., commented that “it appears that the effects of eating a lot of saturated fat and the foods associated with it, such as red and processed meats, cheese and butter, over time creates a cascade effect of ill health.”

This study supports others that have found an association between saturated fats, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and an increased decline in brain function, she said.

“Saturated fat has been associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis, cancer and diabetes, and may increase fat storage in your abdomen — commonly referred to as ‘ab flab,’” Heller said.

“Ab flab in and of itself increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.

The evidence is stacking up against consuming saturated fat regularly, Heller said.

“To lower your intake of saturated fat, choose low or nonfat dairy foods such as fat-free milk and yogurt. Stick with skinless poultry and fish. Limit red and processed meats such as beef, pork, lamb, hot dogs or bologna, to a few times a month. Experiment with meatless meals such as veggie burgers, spinach-eggplant lasagna, or black bean, corn and avocado tacos,” she advised.

More information

For more information on a healthful diet, visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

SOURCES: Olivia Okereke, M.D., assistant professor, psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston; Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., dietitian, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and clinical nutrition coordinator, Center for Cancer Care, Griffin Hospital, Derby, Conn.; May 18, 2012, Annals of Neurology, online

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/health/HealthDay664887_20120518__Bad__Fat_May_Hurt_Brain_Function_Over_Time.html

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Article source: http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-22861.html

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Washington, May 18 (IANS) Certain types of fat are linked with deteriorating memory and mental functioning, says a new study.

For instance, a ‘bad’ fat such as saturated fat or trans fat, known to be damaging to cardiac health, was also linked to worse overall cognitive function and memory in women over time.

Conversely, a ‘good’ fat or mono-unsaturated fat was lined with better overall cognitive function and memory, the journal Annals of Neurology reported.

The research team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), analyzed data from the Women’s Health Study-comprising nearly 40,000 women, 45 years and older. They focused on data from a subset of 6,000 women, aged over 65 years.

Women who consumed the highest amounts of saturated fat, which can come from red meat and butter, compared to those who consumed the lowest amounts, had worse overall cognition and memory over the four years of testing.

Women who ate the most of the mono-unsaturated fats, found in olive oil, had better patterns of cognitive scores over time, said a university statement.

“When looking at changes in cognitive function, what we found is that the total amount of fat intake did not really matter, but the type of fat did,” explained Olivia Okereke, psychiatrist from Brigham Hospital.

“Our findings have significant public health implications,” said Okereke.

“Substituting in the good fat in place of the bad fat is a fairly simple dietary modification that could help prevent decline in memory,” added Okereke.

Article source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/bad-fat-could-decline-memory-095857837.html

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Want to go from winter flab to summer fab? That’s what 43-year-old Kim Hampsey and 18 other women did when they tried this revolutionary workout (and followed a healthy eating plan). They lost up to 11 pounds and 8 inches in just 4 weeks. Hampsey kept it up for 8 more weeks and shed a total of 20 pounds. After shunning swimsuits for about 20 years, she’s ready to wear one this summer!

The key to this unique plan, developed with Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, is its one-two punch. Part 1 trains your body to burn more fat–even when you’re sleeping–while Part 2 revs up your calorie burn for faster weight loss.

So pull out your shorts and swimsuit for inspiration and get started–you could be shopping for smaller sizes by the end of the month!

Metabolism-Revving Strength Circuits
Do these 2 days a week

This nonstop strength routine burns about 25% more calories than traditional weight lifting, which usually includes longer breaks. The higher intensity can boost your metabolism for up to 38 hours postworkout.

How It Works:

Warm up by marching in place for 3 minutes and doing 5 reps of that day’s exercises without dumbbells. Then pick up your weights and do 10 to 12 reps (unless otherwise noted) of each exercise in the order given, taking a 15-second rest between moves. That’s 1 circuit. Do 2 or 3 circuits, resting for a minute after each. For best results, always engage your core muscles to stabilize your torso before beginning each exercise.

Fit Tip!

You should use dumbbells that are very challenging to lift as you do the final reps of each exercise. If you feel as if you could do more than the recommended number of reps, you need a heavier weight. The amount of weight you lift may vary, depending on the exercise.

Start strength-training:

Download the complete Turn Up Your Fat Burn plan and get a free, printable workout emailed straight to your inbox.

Week 1: Base Moves

Lunge
Tones butt, thighs

Hold weights at sides and stand with right foot 2 to 3 feet in front of left. Bend both knees 90 degrees, lowering left knee toward ground. Don’t lean forward or back, and keep front knee directly above ankle. Straighten legs to stand back up. Switch legs.

Bent-Over Row
Tones upper back

Hinge forward from hips and extend arms directly under shoulders. Keeping arms close to body, bend elbows toward sky and pull weights toward ribs. Slowly straighten arms.

Overhead Press
Tones shoulders

Hold weights at shoulder height with palms facing forward. Keeping shoulders down, straighten arms and press weights up. Slowly lower.

Deadlift
Tones butt, back of thighs

Stand with knees slightly bent. Keeping abs tight, hinge forward from hips, push butt backward, and slowly lower weights. Squeeze glutes to stand back up.

Biceps Curl
Tones front of arms

Hold weights at sides, palms facing forward. Bend elbows and curl weights toward shoulders. Slowly lower. Keep elbows close to body throughout.

Kneeling Push-Up
Tones chest, arms, abs

With hands under shoulders, bend elbows out to sides and slowly lower. Don’t let hips sag toward floor. Press back up.

Squat
Tones thighs, butt

Bend hips and push butt backward, then bend knees as if sitting back into a chair. Keep body weight on heels, and knees behind toes. Stand back up.

Triceps Kickback
Tones back of arms

Hinge forward at hips. Hold weights, arms bent 90 degrees, elbows at sides. Straighten arms, pressing weights back. Keep upper arms still. Bend elbows back to start.

I Did It!

“I used to feel stiff bending over to put my pants on. Now I feel younger when I wake up in the morning.”
–Pam Garin, 49, lost nearly 9 pounds, plus 1 inch off her hips

VIDEO: Get the bonus abs routine from the Turn Up Your Fat Burn DVD

Eat to lose weight! See a 3-day sample menu from Turn Up Your Fat Burn

Adapted from Turn Up Your Fat Burn! by Alyssa Shaffer and the editors of Prevention, © 2011 by Rodale Inc

Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/05/17/turn-up-your-fat-burn-4-weeks-to-fit-and-fabulous/

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FA=high-fat, ab libitum (eat-at-will) diet, FT=high-fat, time-restricted diet, NA=normal ab libitum (eat-at-will) diet, NT=normal diet, time-restricted

Diets tell you what you eat, but a new study suggests when you eat matters too. Of two groups of mice who were fed the same high-fat diet, the mice who could eat around the clock were much heavier than those who had food restricted to eight hours per day, in a new study published in Cell Metabolism. 

Researchers in the study gave the mice a special high-fat chow, 61% of whose calories come from fat (compared to just 13% in normal feed). The mice who chowed down all day and night became, unsurprisingly, obese, but the ones who ate the same amount of hi-fat food in only eight hours per day did not. Their body weight was comparable to mice fed an equivalent amount of calories on normal feed.

This being a study in Cell Metabolism, the researchers didn’t stop with just weighing the mice; they did a lot of molecular experiments to work out the link between timing and weight gain. Mice on high-fat, eat-whenever diets had the insulin problems associated with obesity-induced diabetes and lower expression of genes linked to breaking down fats in the liver, leading to fat accumulating in the liver. The high-fat, time-restricted diets did not have those problems.

This might make sense in light of our circadian rhythms, which are the approximately 24-hour cycles that govern sleep as well as metabolic functions such when the liver secretes bile and the pancreas insulin. Previous research has found that sleep-deprived and jetlagged people, whose circadian rhythms are out of whack, are at risk for weight gain. The current study adds to the link between circadian rhythms and weight, suggesting that eating fat at odd hours disrupts daily metabolic cycles.

Image courtesy of M. Hatori et al / Cell Metabolism

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May 18th, 2012 8:21 AM Tags: circadian rhythm, obesity, sleep, weight

by Sarah Zhang in Health Medicine, Top Posts | 0 comments | RSS feed | Trackback

Article source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/05/18/no-more-midnight-snacks-mice-that-eat-at-odd-hours-get-fat/

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FRIDAY, May 18 (HealthDay News) — Women who eat a lot of “bad”
saturated fat may hurt their overall brain function and memory over time,
Harvard University researchers report.

In contrast, eating more “good” monounsaturated fat improved brain
function and memory, suggesting that fats may have the same effect on the
brain as they do on the heart, the researchers added.

“Making changes and substitutions in one’s diet to eat fewer saturated
fats and consume more monounsaturated fats might be a way to help prevent
cognitive decline in older people,” said lead researcher Dr. Olivia
Okereke, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“This is important because cognitive decline affects millions of older
people. So, this is a promising area of research.”

Just like exercising, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking,
this may be another modifiable factor in the fight against mental decline,
Okereke added.

“Such modifiable factors are important because these are things that
people can
actually change and over which they can exert some individual control,”
she said.

The report was published in the May 18 online edition of the Annals
of Neurology.

For the study, Okereke’s team collected data on 6,000 women who took
part in the U.S. Women’s Health Study.

These women took three brain function tests every two years over an
average span of four years.

In addition, they filled out detailed food questionnaires at the start
of the study and before the brain tests.

The researchers found that over time, women who ate the highest amounts
of saturated fat had the worst overall brain function and memory, compared
to the women who ate the least.

Moreover, women who ate the most monounsaturated fats had higher scores
on brain tests over the four years of testing, they note.

Saturated fat comes from animal fats such as red meat and butter, while
monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil and other vegetable
products.

In the study, the researchers accounted for many things that could
influence the findings, including age, education, exercise, smoking,
drinking, medication use and health conditions. This is done to ensure
that the findings are not due to better health behaviors among certain
women.

“We think it is unlikely that these findings regarding dietary fat
would be primarily explained by a healthy lifestyle in those with more
education,” Okereke said.

Although this study was among women, “it would make sense that the
basic underlying reasons for the findings we saw in women should also
apply to men,” she added.

Samantha Heller, a dietitian, nutritionist, exercise physiologist and
clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin
Hospital in Derby, Conn., commented that “it appears that the effects of
eating a lot of saturated fat and the foods associated with it, such as
red and processed meats, cheese and butter, over time creates a cascade
effect of ill health.”

This study supports others that have found an association between
saturated fats, the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and an increased
decline in brain function, she said.

“Saturated fat has been associated with an increased risk of
atherosclerosis, cancer and diabetes, and may increase fat storage in your
abdomen — commonly referred to as ‘ab flab,’” Heller said.

“Ab flab in and of itself increases the risk for heart disease,
diabetes, certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.

The evidence is stacking up against consuming saturated fat regularly,
Heller said.

“To lower your intake of saturated fat, choose low or nonfat dairy
foods such as fat-free milk and yogurt. Stick with skinless poultry and
fish. Limit red and processed meats such as beef, pork, lamb, hot dogs or
bologna, to a few times a month. Experiment with meatless meals such as
veggie burgers, spinach-eggplant lasagna, or black bean, corn and avocado
tacos,” she advised.

More information

For more information on a healthful diet, visit the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/bad-fat-may-hurt-brain-function-over-time-130608092.html

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