More than half of EU adults overweight

Obesity loves company. Morons on the other side of the pond.

"In the 27-nation bloc, the EU says that over 21 million children are overweight. 'Even more worrying is that the rate of increase of that number is more than 400,000 children a year.'

...a situation 'in which the majority of the member states, more than 50 percent of the adult population, is overweight or obese,' Kyprianou said. 'The numbers are frightening.'"

The answer?

"To counter the trend, the EU has asked food manufacturers to promote healthier foods and says it has obtained commitments from many popular producers."

Which of course will not work since the intake advice of European governments and experts remains based on the 3,500 Calories myth.

You would think that the same people who developed concentration camps to such an impressive degree would recognize their handiwork.

Nope.

On Wednesday, the Commission proposed to tighten advertising standards on unhealthy processed food. It called on the food industry to cut down on sugar, fat and salt and urged sports organizations to do more to get youngsters to engage in physical exercise.

More doomed-to-fail strategies.

I'm taking bets. Are you in?

BTW, if you really want to save the children, read here and here.

If you are concerned about the sanctioned abuse, mutilation and killing of kids, see here and here.

Fitness vibrations trendy, perhaps risky

Carpe, carpe. Seize the seizing! Harness the awesome power of the Epileptomatic! Yeah!

Forget the "possible injuries ranging from back pain to cartilage damage. One even warns that the high-powered jiggling might harm the brain..."

Let's move on to the really cool stuff - proving once again that the experts are really the misunderstanders of fitness.

The Power Plate vibrates 20 to 50 times a second in three directions, increasing g-forces on the body, and according to the Northbrook, Ill.-based company of the same name. The company says that raises the effectiveness of lunges, squats and other exercises done while standing on it.

Here is a device intentionally designed to have you lift weights on an unstable surface moving 20 to 50 times per second in three axes.

"Possible injuries..."?

Can anyone spell "significant injuries"?

Oh, to be a plaintiff's attorney.

You would think that if unstable strength training techniques were so superior, then the world's Navies would have a demonstrable monopoly on the strongest fighting forces this planet has seen and the best strength pros would have trained on oil rigs in the middle of the ocean.

Clinton Rubin, a biomedical engineering professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook, said he has asked Power Plate to stop citing his research in its promotional materials. His work has led to a vibration device before the Food and Drug Administration approval for prevention and reversal of bone loss from osteoporosis, but that device uses much gentler vibrations than Power Plate, Rubin said.

He believes the Power Plate's vibration levels could cause low back pain, cartilage damage, blurred vision, hearing loss and even brain damage.

"I think they are cavalier in dismissing the dangers of chronic exposure," he said. "I'm a scientist. I worry that people are going to use this device based on a misrepresentation of science."

One of the better things I've heard a Clinton say.

Nerve damage may occur after weight-loss surgery

Oops! Alert!

More complications from a surgery that is almost never indicated.

Some patients begin hallucinating and lose the ability to walk a couple of months after the surgery, Juhasz-Pocsine explained in an interview with Reuters Health. "After resolution of the acute symptoms they are quite weak, and it takes around a year to recover.

Some are permanently disabled," she said. Among patients who develop symptoms years down the road, the spinal cord typically is affected, resulting in falling, extreme coordination and gait problems, and severe spasticity, and some individuals need to use wheelchairs...

Gastric bypass patients and their doctors should be aware of the early signs and symptoms of neurological problems, and should know that these symptoms can strike many years after a person has had the surgery, Juhasz-Pocsine advises.

You can't have your cake, you can't eat it and even if you just wanted to look at it, you'd have to wheel yourself to it.

Or hallucinate it.

Your Diet's at the Door

It's killer hos all the way down alert!

Like a carefully crafted pousse cafe, the layered marketing scheme of diet foods involves the media, its darlings and other thieves they honor to deflect their own culpability.

ABC, in complicity with its expert, David Katz, whose 3-Hour Diet (with Jorge Cruise) has a home delivery scheme costing a whopping $88/day, has portrayed favorably the latest ruse doomed-to-fail diet schemes use to quickly separate you from your money.

In an apparent attempt to seem impartial, notice that neither ABC nor Katz mentions the 3-Hour Diet at Home product.

Of interest, ABC is Oprah's network, broadcasting other insane and dangerous approaches to weight loss from which they all profit.

Tanya Steel, editor in chief of Epicurious.com, said about the sales of delivery diet plans..."for people on the go, the cost may not add up to much more than a daily diet of take-out and Starbucks."

..."If you take into account that you're buying breakfast on the go and coffee and then you're probably buying lunch at work, and then you're probably buying something at a fast food store or going to the supermarket, it probably evens out," she said.

Tanya Steel is a moron, liar, imbecile and/or in cahoots with these entities. Take your pick.

According to the Food Marketing Institute, the average household spends $92.50 weekly on food as household grocery expenses.

This is WEEKLY and for a HOUSEHOLD (over 2.5 people, a 2006 number).

"...ingredients can drive up the cost of plans to as much as $50 a day."

Actually, much, much more.

This will never "even out."

"A lot of people these days don't know how to cook, frankly. And they don't know how to cook the right stuff. So this takes all the thought and preparation out," said Dr. David Katz, a nutritionist and Yale University professor. "Portion control is the second best thing about the pre-packaged meals. They provide a little bit of built in discipline here."

Notice the first best thing is not specifically mentioned. Apparently, the "It makes lots of money for us," got edited out.

Incidentally, the idiots at Epicurious.com were too neglectful to consider price per Calorie when determining "value." (These products have no value to consumers.)

Calories for this stuff can cost up to 10 times more than "real" Calories.

And this is for starvation rations, less than concentration camp internees and people under siege ate.

NutriSystem, which they rated as "least expensive" is actually among the most expensive since "they are meant to be supplemented" with food you have to supply.

If you feel a compulsion to do something grossly stupid, do something less harmful and expensive than buying this trash.

Company touts over-the-counter diet pill

Money and slimy stools down the toilet alert!

Here is a new approach to medications:

"We've done everything to go out of our way to be honest," said Steve Burton, vice president of the weight control division at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "We're taking a very different approach than the fad diets people are constantly exposed to."

...In clinical trials, the FDA says that people using alli lost an additional 2 to 3 pounds for every 5 pounds lost through diet and exercise.

Of course, virtually no one loses weight through diet and exercise, since the diet and exercise recommendations are wrong.

Educational materials even recommend people start the program when they have a few days off work, or to bring an extra pair of pants to the office.

Perhaps GSK, the pill's manufacturer, will offer a "frequent dry-cleaning" discount.

When taken with meals, the drug blocks the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed. That fat — about 150 to 200 calories worth — is passed out of the body, potentially resulting in loose stools...

GlaxoSmithKline is frank about those unpleasant effects, which it says can be controlled if the drug is used properly. The campaign stresses the importance of keeping meals under 15 grams of fat to avoid effects.

More impossible numbers. You must eat fat for alli to work. There are 135 Calories in 15 grams of fat. If you block the absorption of one-quarter of the fat, you block the absorption of less than 34 Calories.

Didn't GSK say something about honesty?

This drug rollout:

...comes a day after the company's shares dropped almost 8 percent when a report this week found the company's widely prescribed diabetes pill raised the risk of heart attacks and possibly death...

Alli only affects the digestive system, Glaxo says, and is the only safe over-the-counter diet drug that's been shown to work.

Do you think they claimed that the diabetes pill was "safe," too?

Just how many people find alli's benefits worth the cost of the drug is the "million dollar question," said Kelly Brownell, a food policy researcher at Yale University.

Diet drugs don't deliver the big results most people expect, and are only effective when used along with diet and exercise, Brownell said.

First, if you need to exercise and diet anyway, why do the pill?

Second, here is Kelly. Would you take any diet, weight loss or exercise advice from this guy?

Third, Yale has problems, too. Like Oprah's darlings David Katz and Jorge Cruise.

Don't fall for this (loose, oily) crap.

Save the money on alli, cleaners and Pampers.

Don't buy this stuff.

Don't believe the "experts."

Diets, done right, MUST work. No drugs needed.

Study questions heart protection from flavonoids

More proof that "truth" has a shelf life.

Or is at the very least, extremely uncertain.

Don't forget.

Fitness: The REAL Preventive Medicine (tm)

"The new study, which followed more than 66,000 U.S. women, is much larger than most of those earlier studies. The results, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, show no link between a woman's overall intake of flavonoids and her risk of suffering a heart attack or dying of heart disease over the next 12 years."

Mehmet, Michael and Mengele - Oprah and More "Killer" Diet Advice

Well, she is at it again.

Fat, unfit Oprah is choosing experts and providing fitness and weight loss advice.

Oprah and her "experts" Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen are continuing the work of Jorge Cruise and David Katz to end our lives as we know them.

Ending things like breathing, waking up in the morning, etc., in my humble opinion.

Report: Diabetes drug costs to soar by 2009

Two beautifully related stories.

This is the second.

Here is the first.

Get fat, get diabetes, get treated, get dead AND pay more.

What a deal.

Diabetes drug linked to heart attacks, death

Two beautifully related stories.

This is the first.

Get fat, get diabetes, get treated get dead.

Here is the second.

Obesity crisis will cripple NHS

Relevant outside the UK, too.

It will not cripple anything if we refuse to pay for it.

At some point, societies have to expect their citizens to demonstrate some personal responsibilities which, if not assumed, will not be paid for by the rest of the population.

What one sticks in one's mouth is a good place to start.

Doctors 'putting health at risk' prescribing 1 million anti-obesity drugs

A mixed quality article from the UK with relevance elsewhere.

There is literally no indication for these drugs. (Almost ditto for bariatric surgery.)

Of all the certainties in life, weight loss is one of them so long as Calories In, are less than Calories Out. Any other outcome is impossible.

The gross foolishness of the following comments, is that if one makes the (unnecessary) "lifestyle changes" then one should never need the drugs, which are only good for a handful of lost pounds (if any, at all).

"Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, warned that anti-obesity drugs should only be given to patients who are taking steps to live more healthily.

He said: 'These pills are not magic bullets. You have to make lifestyle changes, such as eating more healthily and exercising more, for them to work. But they do help you to sustain these changes.

'Anti-obesity drugs are a legitimate treatment for a serious chronic disease but they should not be used to get rid of minor excesses of body fat. They are not designed to get you from a size 14 to a size 12.'"

These terrible drugs are of remarkably limited benefit and greater potential harm.

Thin people can be fat on the inside

Another "so what?" story.

"If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble."

If, might, if might, if might, if might, if might, if might, if might, if might...

Now there is useful reporting.

“'Just because someone is lean doesn’t make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease,' said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell’s research."

Just because someone is (supposedly) smart, doesn't make them immune to doing and saying stupid things, Louis.

"Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat..."

Then shut-up until you know.

Do not rely on these ifs, mights and unsures.

Get your BMI between 18.5 and 24.9.

FTC says milk ads under fire are ending

Not exactly. They missed one. Here it is.

The two they got:

"The two marketing campaigns at issue involve the 'Milk your diet. Lose Weight!"'ads on television, Internet and in magazines, and the '3-A-Day. Burn More Fat, Lose Weight' ads, which are now mostly Web-based."

The one they did not get is this terrible ad directed at children via their parents and in concert with the American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic Association and the School Nutrition Association.

"The National Dairy Promotion and Research Board said it has already changed its "3-A-Day" campaign."

Now it is apparently the 2424milk campaign.

The professional organizations and Milk, Inc. are definitely displaying their ignorance and possible cupidity, as I suspect that some money changed hands.

Sleep-weight link depends on how sleep is defined

"It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is" alert!

More proof of the terrible research done in weight loss.

Remember the study that "proved" "...Children and teens who said they typically slept for more than 9 hours were less likely to be overweight than their peers who slept for 7 to 9 hours"?

Well, here is some new research that "proves":

"...when the study participants were asked to keep detailed diaries on their activities over two 24-hour periods, there turned out to be no link between sleep and weight."

I personally tend to believe the latter.

But whatever I believe is not as important as what I / we know.

Weight loss is all about Calories In, Calories Out.

Nothing else, nothing more.

For all the billions spent on stupid research and equivocal findings, there will never be anything found that will defeat Calories In, Calories Out.

If you want to lose weight, shut out the noise and do not listen to any of the experts. They have been proven wrong again and again.

Do yourself, your family and your children a favor. Ignore Oprah, Jorge Cruise, Jim Karas, Bob Greene, Mehmet C. Oz, Michael R. Roizen, David Katz, Eric Berg, Ian Smith, Phil McGraw, Andrew Weil, Bob Atkins, Art Agatston, the government, the pharmaceutical companies, Rodale Press, Discovery Health Channel, Katie Couric, Good Morning America, The View, Consumer Reports, Jennie Craig, Weight Watchers and the rest of the experts.

If you want to save your life, health and money, that is.

If not, then listen to them.

Weight Grade on Report Cards Angers Parents

Attack of the killer parents alert!

More uncaring, abusive and insecure parents projecting the embarrassment of their parenting failure on the school system.

"'It just doesn't have any place in the school,' said Barbour. 'It's fine if you want to teach them how to eat healthy, and make better choices during health class, but I don't think giving them BMI on their report card' is the answer."

What you think is unimportant. What is best for the child and society is.

Time to fire the phys ed teacher:

"Jim Coca, the physical education teacher at Wagon Wheel Elementary, said the health of his students is being measured by a the wrong yardstick.

'I disagree with body mass index,' said Coca. 'We're using it as a body fat index and that's not what it is. I've seen inconsistencies when I'm doing it with my kids. It's quick and easy, but I think it's inaccurate.'

Coca said the research he has done on BMI has shown some inconsistencies. 'A student with a high body mass index could be obese, but he could also be muscular. Over the research I've done, I've also found out that … a student in the normal range, could have a high percent of body fat and not be carrying muscle, and still be considered normal. So, I see inconsistencies in both directions.'"

Coca apparently offered no better "yardstick."

The BMI is not perfect. But it is pretty darn good. Coca is not perfect. Coca is likely "inconsistent" in his performance.

Per his logic, fire the idiot.

As to the abusive parent, the real anger is over her failure. Arguing against an offer of help to those who need it by suggesting it should be offered to those who do not is ludicrous.

"'I think my anger is over pinpointing. I think if it would have been offered to everybody, schoolwide, and first come, first serve, the kids that wanted to participate, I wouldn't have had a problem with that. But by pinpointing the kids, and the issues we've been through in the past, I just didn't want to go back there.'"

Pediatricians Not Tracking Kids' BMI

No surprise here.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended since 2003 that pediatricians track BMI; federal growth charts have included BMI since 2000.

Why isn't there more consideration of BMI?

'One reason may be a lack of knowledge about the recommendations, about what the BMI means in children and how to use it,' Hillman said. 'We also wonder if there's some resistance in terms of how it takes a lot of extra time to explain this to families, and there's resistance from the family's perspective about a diagnosis of obesity and overweight.'

This is a fancy way of saying they want more money to do a simple calculation.

Here is another fancy way of saying it:

..."'the barriers to being able to do this are both time and the doctor's expertise,' in addition to health insurance companies that probably don't pay for weight and nutrition management, said study author Dr. Jonathan Klein, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester."

To give you an idea of how greedy the kiddie docs are and the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) is, click here and read the rant entitled "Skim Milk or Milk Scam."

More know-nothing experts causing people to get sicker.

Consumer Reports weighs in on popular diets

CR is a lightweight.

Their analysis flawed. Their suggestions dumb.

"The new report rated eight diet plans based on the results of clinical trials and critiqued seven popular diet books based on the quality of the meal plans, ease of use, whether they incorporated exercise and the validity of the nutritional science."

The importance of exercise is overrated, the science of nutrition is more like voodoo and who is CR to determine the "quality of...meal plans"?

How much exercise do CR's successful people "need"?

"For the past four years, Fike-Carlson has hit the gym three times a week for three hours a day. One hour is spent on the weight machines, one hour doing aerobic exercise and another hour doing crunches and other body-toning exercises."

Who has time for a life? Not this character. You have to be certifiably nuts to live 3 hours per day in the gym instead of eating a few fewer Calories.

"The ratings are intended to help dieters figure out a place to start, says Nancy Metcalf, Consumer Reports’ senior project editor. 'There’s no such thing as the perfect diet for everyone,' Metcalf adds. 'You’ve got a better chance of doing better on one of the higher-rated diets.'”

Your best chance is by following NONE of the diets. Or any of CR's advice.

"Another hint from Consumer Reports: Choose a more monotonous diet since variety stimulates appetite."

Maybe CR wants us to take away all joy from life and use depression as an appetite suppressant.

Here is a hint to CR - shut up.

Strategic Snacking After Age 65

So you believe the hoax that eating several times per day is the key to weight loss, as touted by diet gurus (e.g., Jorge Cruise) and misguided MDs (e.g., David Katz)?

Think again.

No, think for the first time. You probably "believed" that eating several times per day was the key.

From the article:

"Snackers averaged 1,718 daily calories, compared with 1,466 daily calories
for people who didn't snack...

Snacking apparently didn't ruin the participants' appetites. Snackers didn't cut back on calories at meal times, the study shows. "

Read it all.

American pets getting as fat as their owners

The universal excuse:

"Similar to humans, the weight gain can be blamed partly on genes and the environment."

The excuse is garbage for humans, it is garbage for animals.

Too fat is all about Calories In, Calories Out. There is no other cause. There never will be another cause.

"Animals eat too much of too-rich food and they are not active enough," said Philip Johnson, professor of veterinary medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

No, they do not "eat too much...," they are FED too much. It's not as if the pet prepares its own meals.

This is similar to adults and the children they abuse by overfeeding them.

All of the excuses in the world, no matter how creative, will not solve the problem.

If we cannot recognize the reality of fattening pets for what it is, how can we deal with the reality of human obesity/overweight?

We cannot.

Get real.

Experts skeptical of 'Master Cleanse' detox diet

As they should be.

Unfortunately, they are not skeptical of their own, doomed-to-fail diets.

Though there is no good data to suggest that organs (like the liver) go "toxic," this article does raise the possibility that some people's minds go toxic.

Too bad this diet appears incapable of cleansing the stool out from the brains of these dieters.

Interestingly, Oprah, who is arguably one of the greatest threats to national/planetary health is mentioned in this piece. As a fitness failure, who presumably follows the advice of the experts she elevates to celebrity status, her body speaks volumes about the experts' approach to fitness, especially weight loss.

The lessons? Avoid Master Cleanse, avoid diet and fitness experts, avoid Oprah and her advice and avoid all of Oprah's advice-givers, if you want to succeed at fitness.

Diabetes may cut male fertility

A possible and natural cure for childhood obesity.

Perhaps this is nature's way of telling us something is wrong.

The parents of overweight/obese children are usually overweight themselves.

Since abusive parenting is mostly responsible for the epidemic of overweight/obese children, limiting the fertility of these people may result in a reduction of this unfortunate, victimized population.

We will have to see.

Obesity screening for schoolchildren questioned

When will they learn?

"Indeed, even experts aren't sure which strategies are widely effective for childhood obesity -- and without proven treatments, mass screening makes little sense, according to the report, which is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood."

And they still have the audacity to provide advice!

At least expert diet advice is egalitarian: it fails everyone, it is wrong for everyone and it kills everyone.

Maximize Your Exercise Regimen -- in 30 Minutes Flat

The guy's an idiot. Don't listen. ABC supports this tripe. Don't listen to them, either.

"Consider this: if you run for one hour, you burn a certain amount of calories. But if you sprint for 30 minutes or do intervals, you still burn the same amount of calories."

YOU try "sprint(ing) for 30 minutes."

" Accomplish the same thing with exercises that involve your own body weight."

If this is strength training (somewhat unclear in an article characterized by lack of clarity), you CANNOT "Accomplish the same thing with exercises that involve your own body weight."

It is simply not possible.

More examples of why following expert advice will only lead to failure.