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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Drinking diet soda? Here's how it sabotages weight loss
A recent study from USC's Keck School of Medicine reveals that diet sodas, particularly those with sucralose, may increase food cravings and appetite, especially in women and obese individuals. Researchers found that artificial sweeteners can trigger brain activity linked to cravings and reduce hormones that signal fullness. People nowadays are obsessed with diet soda, due to its promise of zero sugar and zero calories. It almost looks like a guilt-free beverage, especially for those trying to lose weight. But diet drinks might not be the sweet spot. Switching to diet soda may leave more than just a synthetic aftertaste. A new study found that drinking diet soda may sabotage your weight loss journey. Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that diet sodas may increase food cravings and appetite, especially in women and people who are obese. The study is published in JAMA Network Open . The culprit in diet soda The researchers found that drinks that contain the artificial sweetener sucralose are linked to increased food cravings. This was one of the largest studies to examine the effects of an artificial sweetener, also called a nonnutritive sweetener (NNS), on brain activity and appetite responses in different segments of the population. Over 40 percent of adults in the US currently use NNSs to satisfy their sweet tooth. Many consider it a calorie-free way to accomplish weight loss goals. 'There is controversy surrounding the use of artificial sweeteners because a lot of people are using them for weight loss. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top Public Speaking Course for Children Planet Spark Book Now Undo While some studies suggest they may be helpful, others show they may be contributing to weight gain, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic disorders. Our study looked at different population groups to tease out some of the reasons behind those conflicting results,' Kathleen Page, MD, corresponding author and an associate professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, said in a statement. The study To understand the effects of artificial sweeteners on health, the researchers studied 74 participants. The participants were divided based on gender and categorized as healthy weight, overweight or obese, over three separate sessions. During each visit, the participants consumed 300 milliliters of either a drink sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), a sucralose-sweetened drink, or water. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure three things: activation of regions of the brain responsible for appetite and food cravings in response to pictures of high-calorie foods such as a burger and donut, and glucose (blood sugar), insulin, and other metabolic hormones in the blood. Artificial sweeteners were linked to more cravings The researchers found increased activity in regions of the brain responsible for food cravings and appetite in both women and obese people after they consumed sucralose-containing drinks, when compared to those who drank real sugar drinks. The levels found that after drinking the zero-calorie artificially sweetened drinks, the participants had lower levels of hormones that signal fullness, compared to when they drank the sugar-sweetened drink. This suggests that diet drinks may not really help curb hunger. They also found that female participants who drank artificial sweetener drinks snacked more, whereas snack food intake did not differ for male participants. Shreyas Iyer and Ibrahim Ali Khan's Nutritionist Nicole Kedia Breaks Down Their Diet SECRETS 'Our study starts to provide context for the mixed results from previous studies when it comes to the neural and behavioral effects of artificial sweeteners. By studying different groups, we were able to show that females and people with obesity may be more sensitive to artificial sweeteners. For these groups, drinking artificially sweetened drinks may trick the brain into feeling hungry, which may in turn result in more calories being consumed,' Page said. So, if you enjoy drinking diet sodas, thinking it may help you with weight loss, think again.
Los Angeles Times
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In new indie flick ‘Ponyboi,' River Gallo sheds light on an intersex experience
'How the f— does this baby know if she loves her father?' asked River Gallo one day at Walmart, maybe 10 years ago, when they saw an infant sucking on a pacifier emblazoned with the words 'I love my daddy.' 'That started the ball rolling about my own issues with my father and with this compulsory love that we have with our families, specifically with our parents, specifically in this instance with my father, her father, our fathers, and with masculinity in general,' says a radiant Gallo during a recent video interview. The spontaneous moment of introspection planted the seed for what became a 10-minute performance piece while studying acting at NYU — then their USC thesis-turned-short film 'Ponyboi,' released in 2017, which Gallo wrote, starred in, and co-directed with Sadé Clacken Joseph. That project ultimately evolved into 'Ponyboi' the feature, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024, became the first film produced under Fox Entertainment Studios' indie label, Tideline, and was released June 27 in theaters across the United States. A consummate multihyphenate, Gallo again wrote the screenplay, served as producer and stars as the titular character: an intersex, Latine sex worker in New Jersey who is desperate to escape their pimp (played by Dylan O'Brien) and the world of crime and violence that surrounds them. Flashbacks to Ponyboi's childhood, made difficult due to the medical procedures forced on them and the temperament of their classically macho Latino father, fill in the viewer on the protagonist's past. Meanwhile, dreamy sequences with a handsome, cowboy hat-wearing stranger named Bruce (Murray Bartlett), an idealized embodiment of a positive masculinity, construct a rich world both visually and thematically in Ponyboi's present. '[At] face value, 'Ponyboi' can seem like, 'Oh, it's just a person-on-the-run kind of movie,' but upon a closer look, it's about someone finding freedom in the acceptance of their past and the possibility that, through transcending their own beliefs about themselves, perhaps their future could be a little brighter,' Gallo explains. Gallo is the child of Salvadoran immigrants who escaped their country's civil war in 1980 and lived undocumented in the U.S. Gallo grew up in New Jersey and showed interest in acting from an early age. It was a strict teacher's unexpected encouragement, after Gallo appeared in a musical during their sophomore year of high school, that convinced them to pursue a life in art. 'My biology teacher, Mrs. Lagatol, came to see my musical, and the next day I was waiting for her to say something to me, and she didn't say anything,' Gallo recalls. 'Then she gave me back a test, and on the test was a little Post-it that said: 'If you had been the only one on stage, it would've been worth the price of admission. Bravo.'' Gallo still keeps that Post-it note framed. Though their parents were supportive, Gallo admits feeling frustration in recent years that their family has not fully understood the magnitude of what they've accomplished as a marginalized person in entertainment: an intersex individual and a first-generation Latine. 'Not to toot my own horn, but for a graduate of any film program, getting your first feature to Sundance is the biggest deal in the world,' says Gallo. 'There hasn't been a person like me to do what I'm doing. There's no precedent or pioneer in my specific identities.' This desire for a more informed validation is even stronger in relation to their father. 'I don't think my dad has seen any of my films. My mom has; she was at the premiere at Sundance, which was really beautiful, and so was my sister,' Gallo says. 'But I wouldn't be surprised if my dad never sees my movies. That's hard, but he's supportive in other ways.' Halfway through our conversation, Gallo realizes they are wearing a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt. That's no coincidence, since 'The Boss,' a fellow New Jerseyan, influenced multiple aspects of 'Ponyboi.' As they wrote the screenplay for the short version, Gallo was also reading Springsteen's autobiography, 'Born to Run,' and that seeped into their work. 'I remember taking a trip to the Jersey Shore that summer and then looking up at the Stone Pony, the venue where [Springsteen] had his first big performance, and just being like, 'Stone pony, stone pony, pony, pony, pony boy, ponyboi. That's a good name.' And then that was just what I decided to name the character' For Gallo, the emblematic American singer-songwriter represents 'the idea of being working class,' which Gallo thinks 'transcends political ideology.' As a child of immigrants, Springsteen's work speaks to Gallo profoundly. 'My dad, who is more dark-skinned than me, was an electrician, and he was a union guy who experienced all this racism in New York unions,' Gallo says. 'There's so much of what I see in Bruce Springsteen in my father and also just in how Bruce Springsteen describes his relationship with his dad, who was also a man who couldn't express his emotions.' For the feature, Gallo enlisted Esteban Arango, a Colombian-born, L.A.-based filmmaker whose debut feature, 'Blast Beat,' premiered at Sundance in 2020. But while Gallo believes Arango understood the nuances of the narrative, it admittedly pained them to relinquish the director's chair. But it was a necessary sacrifice in order to focus on the performance and move the project along. 'It was difficult because I went to school for directing,' Gallo explains. 'But I just don't think the movie would've happened on this timeline if I had wanted to direct it. It would've taken much longer, and we needed the film at this moment in time.' Arango brought his own 'abrasive' edge to the narrative. 'I felt the story needed more darkness,' the director explains via Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. 'The hypermasculine world of New Jersey is constantly trying to oppress and reject Ponyboi, because they have a much softer, feminine energy they want to project.' The contrast between the tenderness of Ponyboi's interiority and the harshness of their reality is what Arango focused on. Though Arango hesitated to take on the film, given that he is not queer, his personal history as an immigrant functioned as an entry point into this tale of shifting, complex identities. Still, throughout the entire process, Arango was clear that, first and foremost, 'Ponyboi' was a story centering intersex people — and all those who don't fit into the rigid gender binary. 'Their plight should be our plight, because they are at the forefront of what it means to be free,' he says. 'When somebody attacks them or doesn't understand why they present themselves as they are, it's really an attack on all of us, and it's a reflection of our misunderstanding of ourselves.' Back in 2023, Gallo was one of three subjects in Julie Cohen's incisive documentary 'Every Body,' about the intersex experience, including the ways the medical industry performs unnecessary procedures in order to 'normalize' intersex people. Gallo confesses that for a long time they thought being intersex was something they would never feel comfortable talking about — something they even would take 'to the grave,' as they put it. 'There's no other way that I can explain the fact that now I've made so much work reflecting on my identity other than it being an act of God,' Gallo says. 'Because I just had the feeling that the world needed it now, and also that I needed it now. I'm glad that 'Ponyboi' taught me about the agency that I have over my art and myself and my life.' Anti-trans legislation, Gallo explains, includes loopholes enabling doctors to 'normalize' intersex bodies and continue the medically unnecessary, and at times nonconsensual surgeries on intersex youth. 'The intersex narrative in [trans legislation] is invisible and not spoken about enough,' they say. 'These are also anti-intersex bills.' To fully understand Gallo as a person and an artist, one should watch both 'Every Body' and 'Ponyboi.' The doc shows the bones of what made Gallo who they are without symbols, just the raw facts of how their intersex identity shaped them. 'Ponyboi,' on the other hand, exposes their interior life with the poetry that the cinematic medium allows for. However, what happens with 'Ponyboi' now isn't as important to Gallo as the fact that the movie exists as a testament of their totality as a creative force. 'Love my movie, hate my movie, I don't care, because my movie healed something deep inside of me that I was waiting a lifetime to be healed from,' Gallo states fervently. 'Intersex people are still invisible in this culture, but I can at least say that I don't feel invisible to myself anymore. And it was all worth it for that.'
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Three years after USC and UCLA led mass defections, Pac-12 adds Texas State as 8th member
Three years after USC and UCLA triggered a mass exodus by bolting for the Big Ten, the Pac-12 has extended an invitation to Texas State to give the conference eight football-playing members. Texas State, currently part of the Sun Belt Conference, is expected to accept the offer Monday, according to several media outlets. The school would join the Pac-12 in July 2026. Advertisement USC and UCLA transformed the college sports landscape by leaving the Pac-12 on June 30, 2022, citing the Big Ten's $8-billion media-rights deal as the primary motivation. Ten Pac-12 teams eventually departed, leaving only Washington State and Oregon State as members. The Pac-12 contemplated folding, but instead added five state schools from the Mountain West Conference and Gonzaga, a private, non-football playing school from the West Coast Conference. When it accepts the invitation, Texas State will be the next addition. The school made its first bowl appearance in the program's 121-year history in 2023, defeating Rice in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. The Bobcats won the same bowl in 2024, this time against North Texas. Read more: Full coverage: USC, UCLA leaving Pac-12 to join Big Ten Advertisement Texas State will give the Pac-12 eight football-playing teams, the minimum number of members to continue as an NCAA conference. Although long in the shadow of Texas, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech, Texas State is a growing university located in San Marcos, a booming suburb located on Interstate 35 about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. The Bobcats also bring a reasonably strong portfolio of non-revenue sports, having won an award as the top-performing school in the Sun Belt across all sports in three of the last four years. The Pac-12 had courted Memphis as the eighth football-playing school, but Memphis athletic director Ed Scott told the Memphis Commercial Appeal a week ago that the school was working to join a Power 4 conference — a nonofficial term for the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, four conferences that operate with relative autonomy. 'I know [Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould is] worried about finding her eighth full member," Scott said. "I'm worried about trying to get us into a Power 4 conference. That is our first goal, unequivocally. That's always been our goal.' Advertisement The Pac-12 has long lagged in media exposure, especially on television, but on Monday announced a multimedia deal with CBS as the anchor partner from 2026 to 2031. Texas State was encouraged by the TV deal, and the Pac-12 was under pressure to add the Bobcats before July 1, when their exit fee from the Sun Belt would double from $5 million to $10 million. Read more: 'It was a real blessing': Ben Howland remains grateful long after leaving UCLA Under the deal, CBS will broadcast a minimum of four football and men's basketball games per season on its main network and provide a cable and streaming presence. All Washington State and Oregon State games will be broadcast on The CW, CBS or ESPN this fall. The new deal with CBS and other media partners would begin in 2026 when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Gonzaga join the Pac-12 along with Texas State. Texas State's move would trigger a domino effect, with the Sun Belt looking toward Conference USA for a replacement. Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee have been mentioned as possibilities. Advertisement The new Pac-12 is expected to be strongest in men's basketball because of the inclusion of Gonzaga and San Diego State, but the conference could be solid in football as well. Boise State made the College Football Playoff last season, one of five schools joining the Pac-12 that played in a bowl. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
USA Today
18 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Ohio State finishes high in the Learfield Directors' Cup standings
It's only for bragging rights, but it does matter for the chest thumpers. The Learfield Directors' Cup honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program and achieving success in their NCAA sports programs. In other words, be the best across all sports based on score-driven metrics. Ohio State has historically finished high in the Directors' Cup standings, but never in first place. This year, that honor goes to the Texas athletic department for the 2924-2025 athletic calendar. The Longhorns won in a tight race with new Big Ten member USC, surpassing the Trojans by less than two points. Texas finished with 1,255.25 points to USC's 1,253.75. The Buckeyes again had a strong showing, finishing in eighth place with a total score of 1,032.25. The rest of the top ten consisted of perennial athletic power Stanford in third place (1,251.00 points), followed by North Carolina (4), UCLA (5), Tennessee (6), Florida (7), Oklahoma (9), and Duke (9). It's not all sports that count. In fact, there are five scoreable sports that include women's soccer, volleyball, and basketball, and men's basketball and baseball – and 14 additional NCAA sports for a total of 19 sports counted toward the final point totals. Ohio State had 19 sports programs score points this year. According to a release from Ohio State, OSU's 10 women's teams to make an NCAA field and contribute points include the fall sports of soccer (9th place, overall) and cross country (32nd), the winter sports of hockey (2nd), swimming and diving (14th), basketball (17th) and gymnastics (17th), and the spring sports of tennis (9th), softball (17th), track and field (22nd) and golf (24th). The eight Ohio State men's NCAA (and CFP) teams were football (1st) and soccer (3rd) in the fall, the winter sports of wrestling (5th), gymnastics (7th), hockey (9th) and swimming and diving (16th), and the spring sports of lacrosse (9th) and tennis (9th). Ohio State has never won the Cup but has finished 2nd three times, 3rd twice, 4th three times, and in the top ten seven more times).
Los Angeles Times
20 hours ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
LA Times Today: Frech family prepares for 11th Angel City Games
Los Angeles native Ezra Frech was one of the breakout stars of the 2024 Paris Paralympics, capturing two gold medals. Ezra recently wrapped up his first year at USC where he competed in track and field for the he's now gearing up for the Angel City Games founded by his father, Clayton. Ezra and Clayton are here to share details.
