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SLOW BURNERS

High fat, high stress, slow-burning calories

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

High stress and high fat food might be a bad combination. Researchers at Ohio State University say it could slow metabolism – the body’s fat-burning processes.

The researchers looked at data on 58 women with an average age of 53 who spent two separate days at the lab, where their meals included the caloric equivalent of a fast food meal. The researchers asked about stress, and measured metabolic rate.

Researcher Martha Belury:

“When the women reported having at least one stressor in their life before we were doing the test, that actually reduced their ability to burn calories.”

The researchers say that, over time, the unburned calories could push up weight.

The study in the journal Biological Psychiatry was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

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