Washington, Sept 28 (ANI): Women who diet prior to becoming pregnant tend to gain more weight during pregnancy, according to a new study from University of North Carolina.

The study involving more than 1,200 women showed that those with a history of dieting are prone to excessive gestational weight gain.

The researchers note that excessive gestational weight gain "is of concern because of its association with postpartum weight retention" and other "adverse pregnancy outcomes such as gestational diabetes mellitus, cesarean sections, large-for-gestational age, and breastfeeding duration."

"With the exception of underweight women, all other women with a history of dieting or restrained eating gained more weight during pregnancy and had higher adequacy of weight gain ratios," the researchers found.

"Restrained eating behaviours were associated with weight gains above the Institute of Medicine's recommendations for normal, overweight, and obese women and weight gains below the recommendations for underweight women," they added.

The study appears in Journal of the American Dietetic Association. (ANI)

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London, Oct 4 (ANI): When it comes to picking up a bed-mate, women prefer intelligent men to dumb jocks, according to a new study of hundreds of university students.

The research led by Mark Prokosch, an evolutionary psychologist at Elon University in North Carolina suggests that women looking for both one-night stands and long-term relationships go for good looking and intelligent men.

"Women want the best of both worlds. Not only a physically attractive man, but somebody in the long term who can provide for them," New Scientist quoted Prokosch, as saying.

For the study, the research team asked 15 college men to perform a series of tasks on camera.

The volunteers read news reports, explained why they would be a good date, and what would be the ramifications of the discovery of life on Mars.

They were also made to play Frisbee show off their physical appeal. Each potential suitor also took a quantitative test of verbal intelligence.

Later, more than 200 women were made to watch the series of these videos before rating each man's intelligence, attractiveness, creativity and appeal for a short-term or long-term relationship.

The study showed that, in potential husbands, women look for signs that a man might be a good provider and father.

However in one-night stands, women are on the prowl for little more than good genes, not to mention a good time.

Women proved to be decent judges of intelligence, with their scores generally matching each man's intelligence test results.

But Martie Haselton, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles had a different view. He revealed that although women were good judges of intelligence, they weren't perfect.

In many cases, women rated good hook-ups as dunces, when their intelligence scores indicated otherwise.

"There could be aspects of intelligence that we pick up on when we interact with a person and that affect our assessment of them, even if we wouldn't label it as intelligence," she said.

Prokosch said that looks were still a much more powerful predictor of sex appeal than brains.

"Women are still going for the hunk," Prokosch said.

"If you had an option to pick from five different people, you would pick the most attractive one," he added.

The study appears in journal Evolution and Human Behavior. (ANI)

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London, October 7 (ANI): Zac Efron, who shot to fame with Disney's 'High School Musical', has revealed that the alleged reports of his death in an international newspaper had disturbed both him and his mother.

The 20 year-old, who starred as Troy Bolton, the popular captain of the basketball team, confessed he was left startled with the news.

"I was really shocked to find out - and my mom was real upset too when I called and told her," the Sun quoted the actor as saying.

The young heartthrob, who became a favourite with the teenage audiences, will soon be seen in the third sequel of the series 'High School Musical 3: Senior Year' that premieres in the UK on October 22.

Meanwhile, the 5ft 9in budding artist confessed that though he could handle acting and singing but dancing was surely not his game.

He said: "I'm definitely not a dancer.

"I grew up being into sports and I wasn't trained to move my body in the right way for dancing. I'm the last one to get any move correct.

"In rehearsals it's always, 'OK, one more take for Zac'. "

The Emmy Award-winning movie was acclaimed as the most successful Disney Channel original ever produced and was followed by its sequel in 2007. (ANI)

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London, Oct 13 (ANI): Fiona MacKeown, the mother of teenager Scarlett Keeling who was killed under mysterious circumstances in Goa in February this year, has reportedly denied the charge of being "guilty by neglecting" her daughter during vacations by leaving her behind in Goa and traveling to other places in India for weeks together.

Fiona has been summoned to Goa for a hearing on Wednesday to answer allegations of neglect.

She said she would not respond to court summons to face such allegations in India, reported The Independent.

Scarlett's death was originally viewed as accidental drowning by police, but Mrs Fiona (43) campaigned for the case to be re-examined and a second post-mortem examination revealed the teenager had been raped and murdered on Anjuna beach on 19 February.

Mrs MacKeown has repeatedly claimed that the authorities attempted to cover up the true cause of death and fears that she would be arrested if she returned to India.

Denying absolutely any suggestion that she was guilty of neglect, her spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "She is not going to court because it is far too short notice and she requires assurance it will be safe for her to return to India without fear of arrest."

Her lawyer Vikram Varma, who is not expected to attend the hearing, said that the allegations have "no substance" and "powerful forces" wanted to cover up the death.

The second batch of tests on Scarlett's body had found evidence of the drugs ecstasy, cocaine and LSD. Two men, Samson D'Souza, 29, and Placido Carvalho, in his 30s, appeared in court on suspicion of drugging Scarlett and assisting in the murder by that act.

The police officer who first investigated the death was dismissed in April. (ANI)

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