The Checkup: Could a Carb-Heavy Dinner Help You Shed Pounds?

Maybe, according to results of a small new study.
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• I’ll say from the outset that more research is needed here, but this study was too interesting to pass up. Setting out to explore the impact of satiety, or fullness, on diet, Israeli researchers wanted to see if having carbs later in the day could help you feel fuller longer, so that when when you wake up the next morning you’re less hungry. The theory here was that it could keep you from over-eating the next day. After a few months of dieting, the obese subjects who followed the diet did see changes in their weight and waist circumference compared to the controls, but experts say it’s too soon to draw actionable conclusions from the research: the test pool was small (only 63 subjects), and the study didn’t go on long enough to judge the long-term results. Still, it might warrant further investigation. Read more about the research here. (Oh and since we just covered it earlier this week, read about how carbs turn to fat here.)

• A new U.S. Census Bureau report shows that as far as longevity goes, we women have got it in the bag. A review of the the 53,364 people aged 100 and older in the United States in 2010 found that 80 percent were women, HealthDay reports. Among centenarians, over 82.5 percent were white and 86 percent lived in urban areas. Which means as a white female living in the city, the odds of reaching my hundredth birthday seem pretty well stacked in my favor. You’d better start planning my party.

• Bikram Choudhury—yes, that Bikram Choudhury, as in namesake of Bikram yoga—took to the courts last year with a lawsuit claiming that a former student was ripping off his signature 26-pose sequence. It asked for $1 million in damages (!) and an injunction to stop the four-studio chain from teaching the class. That lawsuit has officially been settled, the New York Times reports, with studio owner Greg Gumucio promising (somewhat begrudgingly, it seems, according to this letter posted on his studio’s website) to come up with a new sequence of yoga poses performed in a heated room. Splitting hairs, I tell ya.

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