'Obesity a form of abuse'

Shame on you, humans.

One would have hoped that people woke-up to the facts of nutritional child abuse, but noooo...

"Obesity is the single biggest health issue facing domestic animals and can be regarded as a form of abuse, according to delegates at a conference held last month in London."

So sad. Your species should be ashamed.

Big belly in 40s raises Alzheimer's risk in 70s

An early Happy April Fat Fools' Day.

"Having a big belly in middle age appears to greatly increase one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia decades later, researchers said on Wednesday.

Their study tracked 6,583 people in northern California for an average of 36 years starting when they were ages 40 to 45. Their abdominal size was measured at the outset of the study.

A total of 1,049 of them -- nearly 16 percent -- went on to develop Alzheimer's disease or some other form of dementia by the time they reached their 70s. Those in the upper 20 percent in terms of belly size in middle age were almost three times more likely to develop dementia than those in the bottom 20 percent of belly size, the researchers found."

Oh, you forgot what April is?

Oh, you forgot what April Fools' Day is?

But you sure did not forget to eat, did you?

Obesity may drive some truckers to doze

More public safety hazards from being too fat.

"An effort to curb drowsiness among truck drivers could gain ground next month when the federal agency that regulates truckers acts on medical findings regarding a sleep disorder.

The medical review board of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will finalize recommendations about truckers and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on April 7, says Maggi Gunnels, the agency's director of medical programs.

People who have the condition wake up frequently during sleep because the disorder causes their airways to partially close. The constant awakening, once every minute or two in severe cases, makes them unusually drowsy during their waking periods. That could be especially risky for drivers of big rigs.

A major contributor to the condition is obesity, says Allan Pack, director of the Center for Sleep and Respiratory Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania and adviser to the medical review board. The board is expected to recommend that commercial truckers be required to undergo a sleep study once they reach a certain level of obesity.

If the agency approves, drivers would have to be treated for the condition to get certified. Treatment can include surgery or the use of a mask during sleep that delivers air into the airway...

Clinical studies have shown that commercial truck drivers have a higher incidence of the most severe form of OSA — 20%-30%, compared with 2% of women over age 40 and 4% of men over 40, says David Rapoport, medical director of the New York University School of Medicine Sleep Disorders Center.

Multiple studies have shown that automobile drivers who have sleep apnea have a 2½ times greater risk of being in a crash, Pack says. "And the crashes you get into tend to be fairly severe," he says, adding that no studies have been done on the crash risk of commercial truck drivers who have sleep apnea."

Time for MAFD (Mothers Against Fat Drivers) and FAFD to get involved.

NICE backs rimonabant for obesity

More malpractice.

"NICE have approved the use of rimonabant for the treatment of both overweight and obese adults, as an adjunct to a controlled diet and regular exercise, for people who are either intolerant or contra-indicated for orlistat and sibutramine."

NICE = National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Hey, stupidos, if they can stay on "a controlled diet" and are getting "regular exercise," then they do not need drugs - only time.

Especially drugs with known and significant side effects.

"Rimonabant was first licensed in 2006 but has suffered a series of setback (sic) which have prevented it from becoming the blockbuster drug it was predicted to have been, including a EMEA warning against using the drug in patients with major depression.

But NICE’s decision, in a final appraisal determination published yesterday, means GPs can prescribe it to overweight and obese patients with associated risk factors such as type 2 diabetes or dyslipidaemia.

A recent Pulse investigation found that, with obesity a growing public health problem, GPs are increasingly having referrals for obesity surgery turned down on grounds of cost – and fuelling greated demand for anti-obesity drugs."

Out of the malpractice fire into the malpractice pan.

"Health and Clinical Excellence"? Not.

Another episode of "When Docs Kill."

Fitness test replaces BMI mandate in school obesity bill

Cowards.

"Fearing a backlash from parents, Georgia lawmakers have stripped an anti-obesity bill of a key provision that would have forced students to climb on the scale for twice-yearly "weigh-ins." The data would be used to determine whether a child has a health body mass index, calculated through a combination of height and weight measurements."

Instead...

"Under the revamped bill, Georgia students would have to complete a physical fitness test instead. The details of that test would be determined by the state Department of Education, but the use of BMI would be banned."

Which requires the use of more resources and is of no known greater benefit.

"The bill's sponsor, Sen. Joseph Carter, said data shows that one in three Georgia children is either obese or at risk of obesity.

"This is a serious public health issue," the Tifton Republican said.

Carter's original legislation would have collected the BMI data of students and combined it to come up with a school average. That number would then be posted on school websites so that Georgians could see how their school stacked up, much like they currently do with test scores.

The BMI mandate passed in the state Senate over the objections of some GOP lawmakers who labeled it "nanny state legislation." It faced a rocky road in the House from Republican lawmakers who worried it was too intrusive.

Carter rewrote the measure to include a fitness test instead, which would likely include things like push ups and running.

Health advocates and physicians groups remained supportive, saying the new test was a more well-rounded way to judge a child's overall health."

That is pure crap.

And they are clearly not treating the matter as "a serious public health issue."

No one knows if one or two more push-ups, for example, makes someone healthier.

We do know that being overweight/obese makes one less healthy.

This legislation is obvious bullsh**.

Tax dollars being wasted.

Politicians who are waste.

Many unaware of cancer-obesity link

Many are stupid, too.

"Around half of people are unaware that being overweight or obese can cause cancer, a poll has shown.

It found that 48% of people were unaware of the link between excess body fat and cancer risk. The survey also found that only 38% of people knew that drinking alcohol and not taking exercise increased their risk of the disease...

A total of 43% were unaware that having a poor diet is linked to cancer...

Lucie Galice, general manager of the WCRF, said maintaining a healthy weight was the single most important thing people could do to protect themselves from cancer after stopping smoking.

She added: 'The evidence on this is really clear and in fact scientists estimate that about a third of cancer could be prevented just by doing these things.'"

Must be that too fat causes malignant stupidity.

Skipping Breakfast Counterproductive for Teens Concerned about Weight

Probably not. Too many Calories in is.

"Teenagers who start the day with breakfast may be less likely to gain weight than those who skip the meal, researchers found."

But they all do, anyway.

And the differences are minimal.

"Increasing breakfast frequency was consistently associated with lower body mass index regardless of adjustment for other factors at both baseline and five years later. The BMI findings included:

• 21.9 kg/m² for daily breakfast eaters compared with 22.4 kg/m² for those who ate the meal intermittently (P<0.05)>2 for those who never ate breakfast (P<0.01)>
• 23.7 kg/m² for daily breakfast eaters compared with 24.2 kg/m² for those who ate the meal intermittently (P<0.05)>2 for those who never ate the breakfast (P<0.05)>
• BMI increase was 1.7 kg/m² among those who ate daily breakfast compared with 1.9 kg/m² for intermittent eaters and 2.2 kg/m² for those who never ate breakfast, although neither comparison was significant."

If you do not overconsume Calories from hunger, then when, how much and what you eat are irrelevant.

It is only about the Calories.

Eat less than you burn and you must lose weight.

Nutritional Supplement Maker Fattens As The World Slims Down

The world is NOT slimming down. It is getting gorged with more and more fat morons.

"The number of overweight and obese Americans is growing at an alarming rate and shows no sign of slowing down.

Last year, a nonprofit health organization conducted an obesity survey of all U.S. states comparing data from 2003-05 with statistics from 2004-06. The results were staggering.

The survey found obesity rates continued to rise in 31 of 50 states in 2006, according to Trust for America's Health. Not one state reported a decline.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two out of three Americans are overweight, and almost one in five are obese."

But this supplement maker is getting fatter selling crap, IMHO, to stupid people:

"The Los Angeles-based Herbalife is a global, multilevel marketing company that sells weight-control, nutritional and personal care products. Judging by its most recent quarterly results, there is big upside for its weight-management products.

In the fourth quarter, earnings rose 34% to 79 cents a share ex items. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected 73 cents...

Revenue climbed 19% to $578.1 million, driven by double-digit growth in several of Herbalife's top countries. It was the 16th straight quarter of double-digit growth.

Full-year revenue increased 14% to $2.2 billion, from $1.89 billion in 2006. Weight-control products accounted for more than 60% of sales."

W.C. Fields would have to modify the sucker birth rate to one per second, not minute.

"Herbalife faced a difficult challenge after the untimely death of its charismatic founder Mark Hughes, who died in 2000 from a prescription-drug overdose at age 44."

Must have had a sudden attack of conscience.

One could wonder, "Why the prescription drug?" if the Herbalife crap worked.

"'We're very optimistic about our future,' Johnson said. 'Last year was our best year yet, and we're just getting started.'"

Maybe there is a sucker born every half-second.

Big waist in middle-age tied to dementia risk

Defat, so you don't dement.

"People who have a large belly in their 40s may face greater odds of dementia later in life, researchers reported Wednesday.

In a study that followed nearly 6,600 adults for an average of 36 years, investigators found that those with the largest midsections in middle-age were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia than those who were trimmest around the middle."

Weigh less, think better.

Obesity cancels health advantage of affluent

Of fat and fortune.

"In the study of about 5,000 adults, the college-educated with household incomes of more than $75,000 a year had much less of a blood protein linked to heart disease than did the poorer or less educated — as long as they weren't overweight.

But as weight crept up, so did C-reactive protein in the blood, a sign of inflamed tissue that can lead to blocked coronary arteries, said Cathy Bykowski, a psychologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa."

You cannot hide behind your designer muumuu.

Is too much corn in our diet making us fat (and sick)?

Ear ye, ear ye!

"The problem is determining what has caused these epidemic increases in obesity and diabetes. There is not only a lot of money involved but our country’s life-style and almost the entire food supply...

Michael Pollan, a New York and L.A. Times investigative journalist and Berkeley journalism professor, suggested that corn might be a big player in his 2006 best-selling book, 'The Omnivore’s Dilemma.'

'The great edifice of variety and choice that is an American supermarket turns out to rest on a remarkably narrow biological foundation comprised of a tiny group of plants that is dominated by a single species: Zea mays, the giant tropical grass most Americans know as corn,' he wrote."

Pollan describes himself:

" I am not an expert so must rely on the conclusions of writers and organizations I trust."

Who does he trust?

"...Rodale Press, the Prevention Magazine folks..."

Pollan is a moron. Pollan does not know enough to determine who is trustworthy.

He is a moron like Oprah.

Rodale is dangerous and publishes dangerous and dishonest stuff, IMHO.

Prevention has more drug company ads per page than any "prevention" periodical ought to.

The takeaway point of the article is that as long as you don't blame the real culprit, you can blame whatever you want for the overweight/obesity epidemic: viruses, bacteria, genes, hormones, even corn.

The epidemic is about none of these.

It is about more Calories in than out because people are calorically irresponsible.

That is all.

Staying in shape 'hard for women'

Being smart is 'hard for experts.'

You have to be an idiot to believe this stuff.

"Older women should eat plenty of protein as their bodies find it much harder than men's to replace the muscle lost as they age, a study suggests.

Differences in the way male and female bodies metabolise food means older women do not use protein as effectively to maintain muscle, the research found. Nottingham and Washington researchers studied 29 men and women aged 65 to 80.

Women over 65 should eat foods like meat and eggs and do resistance exercise, they write in PLOS One."

Adding muscle mass will not occur from eating more protein.

Adding muscle mass results from resistance training, not resistance exercise.

"'We know that women tend to have less muscle bulk than men as they enter old age so the advice to eat more protein is very sensible indeed,' British Dietetic Association spokesman Jackie Lowdon said."

Jackie is stupid and misleading us.

Do not eat more "meat and eggs" to increase muscle mass.

Train.

BTW, aren't "meat and eggs" the stuff we are supposed to avoid to protect our hearts and blood vessels and prevent certain cancers?

Yes.

And this is from a dietetic association.

Pathetic.

"The researchers found that after resistance exercise like lifting weights, women did not build up muscle as their male counterparts did.

The male body, it appeared, was able to store protein in the muscle and use this to make them stronger."

Men almost always add more muscle than women because of testosterone, it is believed.

This happens at just about any age.

This BBC article about the BDA and this research is bull.

This, too, happens at just about any age.

Incidentally, staying in shape appears to be hard for everyone since men and women are porkulent.

It is only hard because of impossible, wrongheaded, misleading and deadly diet and fitness advice.

Courtesy of experts like the ones in the article.

Trimming the fat off porky lawmen

What a concept, police that can do their jobs!

"First South Africa's overweight and unfit police officers were told to tackle the battle of the bulge and get into shape.

Now it's the turn of the Metro cops.

Metro Police, traffic officers and law enforcement officials could find their shifts starting earlier with an hour of compulsory fitness training aimed at improving both body and mind.

Weight, body fat percentage and physical prowess will all be evaluated and those officers who are not up to scratch could find themselves taken off active duty."

Thus, making the citizenry safer.

"Under the existing policy, men shouldn't have a waist bigger than 102cm while a woman's shouldn't be larger than 88cm.

The body fat percentage required of men should not be more than 15 percent while women's shouldn't be more than 25 percent.

Men in their 20s should be able to run 2,4km in about 14 minutes and those in their 50s in about 18 minutes. Women in their 20s should be able to complete the distance in 17 minutes while their older counterparts should do it in 20 minutes.

Other requirements would be the ability to complete between 50 and 80 push-ups in two minutes for young men and around 30 to 50 for young women. Older members would get away with fewer."

And if they cannot make the grade?

"If staff failed repeatedly they could be put on desk duty."

Fire them and/or cut their salaries.

"Smith said a staff member had recently returned from a judo competition in Japan and had visited training facilities for local police which had been very impressive.

'In Tokyo the local police train for an hour before their shift starts. They also focus on martial arts which teach control and confidence, something our staff could benefit from.'

'Most are lean and mean, and wouldn't have trouble apprehending a suspect.'"

More wisdom from the East.

Now, if we could only do it everywhere.

£5m a year on anti-obesity drugs

Money well spent.

"NHS spending on anti-obesity drugs in Scotland is now approaching £5 million a year, figures suggested.

A total of £4.89 million was spent last year compared to £4.12 million the previous year.

And prescribing for obesity drugs is now five times higher than it was in 2001."

Not.

HRT Doubles Recurrence Risk in Breast Cancer Survivors

Still want them to "fix" your hormones because you're fat?

"Breast cancer survivors treated with hormone replacement therapy had a more than two-fold increased risk of recurrence or a contralateral malignancy, according to long-term follow-up data from a randomized clinical trial."

You stupid, or what?

Japanese firms face penalties for overweight staff

A good start.

"Corporate Japan will join the country's battle against bulging waistlines next month with the introduction of compulsory "flab checks" for the over-40s and penalties for firms that fail to bring their employees' weight under control.

Health authorities hope the measures will arrest the rise in obesity among middle-aged men and slow soaring medical costs. All employees over 40 - about 56 million people - will be required to take the test to determine whether they are at risk of metabolic syndrome - symptoms associated with being overweight that, if left unchecked, increase the risk of strokes, heart disease and diabetes. Men with girths of more than 85cm (33.5in) will be given exercise and diet plans and, in urgent cases, told to see a doctor...

According to reports, firms will be required to cut the number of overweight workers and their dependants by 10% by 2012. Those that fail to reach the targets face surcharges of up to 10% on contributions to a welfare fund for the elderly."

The wisdom of Eastern philosophy.

Obese Women Less Likely to Be Tested for Some Cancers

Gee, I wonder if it is part of a pattern of self-neglect.

"A new review of 32 studies suggests that obese women -- particularly white women -- are more likely than others to skip screenings for breast and cervical cancer.

No one knows why extra pounds heighten the likelihood that women will avoid mammograms or Pap smears. And it's not known why obesity seems to have no significant effect on colorectal screening, the researchers said."

There is speculation:

"There are many theories why heavier women might be less likely to undergo health screenings, Cohen said. "It may be related to patients' emotional barriers, things like embarrassment and fear of being weighed. It may be provider-bias, physicians having a bias against obese patients. And [obese women] have other health-care needs, like dealing with high cholesterol."

Another possibility is that medical equipment may not be sized properly to accommodate larger patients, Cohen said."

That's why hospitals are using zoo-level equipment.

It is a refreshing admission that "medical equipment" is not big enough.

Veterinary equipment is:

Vaginal speculum

This is a nickel-plated speculum that comes with 27 and 35 cm long blades for mares and heifers.

It could help with the Paps.

Here is a 34-inch shoulder length glove to use with animals:

It can facilitate colorectal cancer screening or a gynecologic examination.

See there's equipment hope for fat people.

And there is always weight loss, too.

Eating disorder prevention program promising

Promises to make kids even fatter, that is.

"An eating disorder prevention program aimed at elementary school girls has shown promise in early testing. A group of fifth-grade girls appeared to be less dissatisfied with their bodies, less likely to think about and engage in uncontrolled eating, and reported greater social self-confidence after completing the program.

'Any program that decreases body dissatisfaction is valuable,' Dr. Melinda Scime told Reuters Health. "Decreased body dissatisfaction among program participants is especially promising in light of the increased body dissatisfaction we noted among non-participants.'"

"Any program that decreases body dissatisfaction is" harmful.

Dissatisfaction with something leads to change.

We should be dissatisfied with this stupid research and make change.

As in cutting off funding.

Oh yeah, and not to mention the fact that your research only showed that you are a failure:

"Scime and colleagues measured eating disorder risk factors among 75 participants, and a similar number of non-participants, of a 10-week eating disorder prevention program for fifth-grade girls.

The weekly 90-minute sessions addressed risky and protective behaviors associated with eating disorders, how media encourages thinness, and promoted self-esteem, coping, and competence, the investigators explain in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

While Scime's group noted some benefits to program participation, including less body dissatisfaction, they did not find a lessening in the intention to strive for thinness, nor did they see significant improvements in self-competence or coping skills among participants versus non-participants."

900 minutes per kid spent uselessly and wastefully.

Unless you are a researcher. Then you got paid.

"'We need to discredit and fight the extensive prevalence of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders among women in society today, and the social and cultural forces, like popular media that contribute to these issues' (sic) Scime said."

We need to rightfully discredit you and your ilk and move on.

BTW, fifth graders are not "women." They are kids.

Idiot.

Poor Fitness Associated with Fatty Liver Disease

Just as with this fat kid.

"Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease might respond well to regular moderate exercise, researchers here said.

Disease severity was significantly associated with poorer cardiorespiratory fitness in 37 patients with biopsy-confirmed fatty liver disease, reported Joanne Krasnoff, Ph.D., of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues, online in Hepatology."

It will likely not respond simply to "regular moderate exercise" but will respond to weight loss.

Moderate exercise alone will almost never result in weight loss.

Training will.

If you're gonna do it, do it right.

Otherwise, it ain't gonna work.

NIH Launches Center to Study Genomics and Health Disparities

Wasted tax dollars.

"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced the establishment of the NIH Intramural Center for Genomics and Health Disparities (NICGHD), a new venue for research about the way populations are impacted by diseases, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension."

Since there will never be a "genetic cure" of overweight/obesity, it is an undertaking of no value.

Except to the researchers who will live off your wasted tax dollars.

But, of more than passing interest, is that in order to get the public to buy in, literally and figuratively, NIH chose to present it as a means to cure overfatness.

Just shows the desperation.

And stupidity.

Two cholesterol drugs better than one for diabetics

Clearly. If you are in sick care, you can charge twice as much, have twice as many complications and earn twice as much money.

" Combination therapy with simvastatin and fenofibrate is better than treatment with either drug alone for treating mixed dyslipidemia in patients with type 2 diabetes, according to a report in American Journal of Cardiology."

Type 2 diabetes is fat person's diabetes.

Losing weight is better than any drugs at all.

All-you-can-eat seats fill fans up — and out

Coming soon - The Hurled Series and The Super Bowel.

"Dozens of arenas, stadiums and tracks have offered tickets that come with unlimited snacks. The seats have been a hit with fans, a moneymaker for the venues and a worry for obesity-conscious health officials...

The unlimited quantity has turned some sporting events into games of can-you-top-this in the stands, with fans competing to see who can shovel the most hot dogs down their gullets."

Competitive eating for amateur fatheltes.

Big ol', fat ol' sports fans are only a fraction of the problem.

The so-called "obesity-conscious health officials" are a much bigger problem.

Fact is, however, that if the experts were so worried, they would have realized that their diet advice is impossible, their exercise advice is stupid, accepted responsibility for and acknowledged their erroneous ways and implemented doable weight loss programs long ago instead of playing the waiting game - a sport in which no one wins and everybody loses.

Tackling obesity needs comprehensive action

Sounds good until you read the article.

"There is little debate that obesity presents a public health issue in North America -- obesity rates have more than doubled over a generation in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the causes of obesity -- and therefore, the solutions -- are not as obvious, according to research presented this week at a media workshop run by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The problem of obesity cannot be reduced simply to genetics, the researchers said, and it also cannot be blamed solely on our environments or learned behaviors. Media coverage, they advised, should highlight that the obesity epidemic is the result of a variety of factors, and that change requires a comprehensive approach that tackles the problem from all sides."

There is only one side, more Calories in than out.

"'Obesity's not rocket science,' said Dr. Diane Finegood, director of CIHR's Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes. 'It's a lot more complex.'"

Wrong. It is a lot simpler when you look at the cause and not the speculations.

"For someone who discovers that his or her waist is too large, and wants to lose weight to reduce the measurement, the solution would seem to be easy: eat less and move more. 'Obesity is the outcome of a positive energy balance,' said Dr. Angelo Trembley, a professor at Universite Laval. But research done by Trembley and others has shown that it may not be that simple. A variety of biological factors that wouldn't automatically occur to us may also be contributing to the dramatic rise in obesity rates, he said."

Wrong. It is that simple. It is just that diet advice is so very, very wrong.

There is no one and no animal that will not lose weight if it consumes fewer Calories than it burns.

And it will never be possible to lose weight without consuming fewer Calories than are burned.

The rest is all garbage.

As is this:

"There is evidence suggesting that micronutrients -- vitamins and minerals found in food -- may affect fat loss or gain, Trembley said. For example, a study led by Trembley found that female subjects in a placebo group couldn't achieve significant weight loss, despite following a carefully restricted diet, while those who took a calcium supplement showed better weight loss results. It's possible that as with glucose, the brain can recognize low levels of micronutrients like calcium, Trembley said, and regulates appetite control in order to correct them.

'We cannot exclude the possibility at this time that some individuals might gain some weight due to deficiencies in some vitamins and minerals,' he said."

Clearly this possibility can be excluded with a simple multivitamin/multimineral.

And it has been, if you consider all the fat people taking a multivitamin/multimineral.

Or all the fat people who eat low-fat dairy.

Or if you want to protest a multivitamin/multimineral as "not natural" then deal with the unnaturalness of low-fat dairy products.

What did they do? Come from a naturally occurring low-fat dairy producing cow?

And how is it possible for people in cultures where cow-sourced dairy is not prevalent to lose weight?

The whole complexity issue is a smokescreen for the real issue - caloric irresponsibility.

It is also a bonanza for researchers who would rather take money for doing trash than confront the matter truthfully and deal with it directly.

Tackling Obesity By Boosting Calcium And Exercise

Big White is at it again, spreading their bleached cowsh** for you to step in.

"The battle against obesity in this country could be tackled one community at a time, according to a newly published study in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health. Researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver demonstrated the effectiveness of changing behaviors at a community level, suggesting that community-based interventions could be a viable option to address the nation's obesity epidemic. Adults in Calcium, New York, who increased calcium intake by drinking more lowfat milk and other milk products and walked more frequently successfully lost weight after a 16-week overhaul.

In this innovative 'Calcium Weighs In' community intervention, researchers overhauled the health habits of 199 men and women in a small, rural community of Calcium, New York. The free program provided one-on-one nutrition counseling and group classes, urging participants to set reasonable health goals, choose lowfat dairy foods including milk, cheese and yogurt and exceed a 10,000 step per day goal to increase physical activity. "

It appears as if the only "innovative" thing here is the marketing.

Increase your Calories out, decrease your Calories in and Voila!, weight loss.

The role of milk products? Well...

Let's look at who is behind this effort.

The article was released by Weber Shandwick.

It describes its work as:

"At Weber Shandwick, the fundamental power to change behavior and achieve client objectives rests with our professional practitioners — whose individual expertise is arrayed across every significant area of strategic communications management."

It's clients include the "got milk?" campaign.

This is from their "got milk?" case study:

"The campaign was created for the nation's milk processors to stem a 30-year decline in milk consumption. Today, these milk mustached celebrities are the face of an award-winning campaign that is credited with a turnaround for the industry.

Working as part of a seamless integrated team, Weber Shandwick has unveiled more than 250 celebrity milk mustache ads...

Ongoing nutrition communications efforts feature alliances with the country's leading health and nutrition influencers, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Dietetic Association and the School Nutrition Association, and we work with a panel of some of the nation's leading health professionals to leverage breaking research on the health benefits of milk.
In all, the campaign has generated nearly 18 billion earned media impressions for milk. Most importantly, the decline in milk sales has halted and increases in consumption are being seen among our most important consumer groups targeted by the campaign, particularly women and teens."

The "Calcium Weighs-In" campaign was highlighted in D-brief, "a weekly dairy business e-newsletter."

"A part of the Healthy Weight with Dairy campaign, yesterday's promotion kickoff of MilkPEP's "Calcium Weighs In" program touts the success of a 16-week trial in the town of Calcium, N.Y. The program taught residents how to make better food and lifestyle choices overall, including eating at least three servings of milk, cheese and yogurt each day and resulted in participants losing about a pound each week. The promotion includes 13 regional events with sampling of milk, cheese and yogurt products from 43 dairy processors to commuters. Events included: prize giveaways, including a year's supply of milk cheese and yogurt, and pedometers for the first 100 lunchtime location visitors; dairy council dietitians were on-hand to answer questions; and a milk mustache photo booth was available."

MilkPep's self-description is:

"The Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), Washington, D.C., is funded by the nation's milk processors, who are committed to increasing fluid milk consumption. MilkPEP activities are led by a 15-member board, which is monitored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service.

For information about the board and its members, please click here.

MilkPEP's teen consumer site, bodybymilk.com, has all the latest news about milk mustache celebrity ads, contests and events, and games. Click here to find out more about how milk can help teens look and feel good.

MilkPEP's adult consumer site, whymilk.com, focuses on the latest news about milk's role in weight loss. Click here to find tips, tools, recipes, and health and nutrition information for you and your family.

MilkPEP's trade site, milkdelivers.org, is designed to spotlight milk's role in business. Click here to see how milk can play a vital role in schools, vending, grocery, drug stores, c-stores, and food service."

I don't know about you, but my opinion is that this "research" and campaign might be influenced a bit, just a bit, by milk industry MOOlah.

You decide.

How Biological Activities Of Ingredients In Foods And Drinks Might Explain Their Claimed Health Benefits

A day late and a dollar short alert!

"A joint symposium of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences will explore how the biological activities of ingredients in various foods and drinks might explain their claimed health benefits."

Excuse me, but shouldn't "the biological activities of ingredients in various foods and drinks [with] claimed health benefits" be determined BEFORE the claims were made?

Just a behind the scenes look at the industry hype.

Claim first, determine later.

It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Especially when it is YOUR health at risk and THEIR pockets getting filled.

Smelling Food Activates The Brain Differently, Compared To When We Eat Food

Something stinks here.

"When we smell food different brain areas are activated, when compared to what happens when we eat food, say researchers from Yale University. You can read about this in the journal Neuron.

'We believe that these findings add to our understanding of chemosensation and food reward and will have important implications in addressing the obesity epidemic,' said lead author Dana Small, assistant professor of psychiatry and associate fellow of the John B. Pierce Laboratory."

Ah, there's the O word which is like a get more research money for free card.

"Small and her colleagues are interested in understanding how sensory processing interacts with behavioral choices such as decisions to eat or stop eating in healthy individuals and in people with eating disorders. Theorists have postulated that overeating results from a heightened sensitivity to food reward. Others, Small said, have argued that people overeat because they experience less pleasure from eating and eat to boost a sluggish reward system. She said these two seemingly contradictory theories may be reconciled if food reward is considered as multifaceted.
'For example, it could be that some people are more sensitive, and less able to resist, food cues, such as an aroma of freshly baked bread, and that these same people also experience less pleasure when actually eating the food,' Small said."

Now we will spend millions to create millions of designer stenches that will turn-on the resistinator mechanism of the calorically irresponsible.

This whole avenue of research smells like crap.

Medicare spending triggers new funding proposal

Kudos, fatsos.

"Medicare spending is increasing so quickly that the president will be required to propose new benefit cuts or higher taxes, trustees for the U.S. senior citizen health care program said on Tuesday.

Medicare hospital insurance spending is forecast to exceed tax revenues for 2008 and all future years and the fund will be exhausted in 2019, the Medicare trustees said in their annual report.

Last year's report also predicted the fund would run out of money in 2019, but the trustees now expect the depletion to occur somewhat earlier in that year."

Paying for your chronic diseases of choice is hurting all of us.

Fight back, fit people.

Using Wii to Get in Shape: Will It Work?

No. (I blogged this a while ago when plans for it were first announced.)

"Nintendo is at it again. This spring, gamers will no longer be limited to just standing and playing video games at the same time. Now, with the company's newest game Wii Fit, players can work out as well."

Here is the workout you can expect.

"The Wii Fit will go the way of the dusty exercise equipment that no one uses, Rao predicts.

'We'll see Wii Fits on sale on Craigslist by the summer,' he said."

Clearly.

Probably more Calories will be burned setting the thing up than using it.

Growth Hormone Does Not Enhance Performance

Meaningless. And wasteful.

First, I am not an advocate of sports doping for the masses and this is not a pro-doping blog or entry.

It is intended to elucidate a fallacy common to perceptions of what it takes to get better at a physical activity.

People think that if you just do it, it happens.

This is untrue.

To improve one's fitness, one has to train.

Likewise, to improve sports performance, one has to train. This is very different from exercising.

Exercise will almost never lead to improved fitness, sports skills or weight loss.

Training properly will almost always lead to improved fitness, sports skills or weight loss.

The problem with a study like this is that the subjects did not train to determine if HGH made a difference.

"A new study by researchers in the US found that contrary to what many people may assume, scientific evidence does not support claims that human growth hormone (HGH) increases strength or athletic performance...

Liu and colleagues reviewed randomized controlled trials comparing HGH with non-HGH treatment in physically fit, healthy people aged 13 to 45 and found that while growth hormone increased lean body mass it did not increase strength and the capacity to exercise."

Increased "exercise capacity," as it is commonly understood to mean, only results from a properly designed and implemented training program.

"The researchers concluded that the available scientific evidence does not support claims that GH improves physical performance. In fact while lean body mass may increase, strength does not and GH may even diminish exercise capacity and lead to other adverse side effects."

There are few athletic/sport undertakings that will not benefit from increased lean muscle mass and increased strength.

Perhaps HGH has some bad side effects that prevent improvement, but until there is a real study done with a large enough population that is trained, the jury remains out, to my mind.

Your takeaway points are these:

To improve at fitness, you must train. Exercise will almost never get you there. Training is a very specific undertaking. Training naturally is, still and will likely remain best since this is precisely how we were designed to get fitter.

If you want to learn how to train for general fitness, which can be applied to sport, go here.

Susceptibility To Obesity Involves Changes In Entire Gene Networks

Crap and no crap.

No crap:

"Two new studies by scientists in the US, Iceland and France suggest susceptibility to obesity, and by implication other common diseases, involves changes in entire networks of highly connected genes and is not just a case of variations in specific individual genes."

If there is genetics to overweight/obesity, it remains way too complex for us to figure out.

BTW, obesity is not a disease at all, either common or uncommon.

Neither is overweight.

Crap:

"Thus the genetic predisposition to obesity and other common diseases appears to make more sense when scientists examine the emergent properties, the "macro-level" effects, of gene networks rather than the individual "micro-level" effects of disease-susceptibility genes."

It is not a susceptibility issue.

It is an issue of caloric, personal and social irresponsibility.

Nothing more. nothing less.

Making Sports Fun Requires Training For Parents

Making anything related to fitness succeed requires getting the parents on board.

"Parents and coaches can make youth sports a fun, learning experience or a nightmare, according to sport psychologists at the University of Washington. But to achieve the former, sports officials and organizations must provide more training programs, especially for parents, according to Frank Smoll and Ron Smith, who have been studying the youth sport experience and designing programs to improve it for a quarter of a century."

It is parents who are the number one nutritional child abusers and the cause of their children's unfitness.

Whether the principles of this program are correct or not is debatable.

What is certain is that parents need to learn how to stop harming their children, assume responsibility for their behaviors and take action to benefit their kids.

If they don't, there must be consequences that they can feel.

No other approach has a prayer of succeeding.

Working Out Regularly Lowers Chemical Stress In The Body Related To Disease And Aging

It could happen.

"Aerobic exercise significantly decreased the chemical imbalances that can lead to heart disease and stroke in postmenopausal women according to a study in the spring issue of the Journal of Women and Aging. "

But what is important is another revelation.

"The chemical imbalance or stress - called oxidative stress - occurs when oxidants, harmful chemicals that damage tissue and cells, outnumber antioxidants in the body. Antioxidants protect cells and tissues against oxidants. Postmenopausal women have higher levels of oxidative stress.

Regular exercise of moderate intensity appears to reduce oxidative stress through an adaptive process that increases antioxidant activity."

Two things:

1. Training, not the impotent physical activity known as exercise, normally and naturally creates stress in the body and free radicals.
2. The body itself normally and naturally creates antioxidants to deal with them.

In other words, the system self-regulates and free radicals are a normal and natural part of the body's functioning.

Further, stress causes improvement. Stress is not the enemy. In fact, to improve at fitness (or just about any other undertaking) you have to stress yourself.

That stress is bad is a fantasy of the "stress-reducing" products industry.

It is likely that regular (i.e., progressive) training does not reduce the stress. It reduces the strain (the body's response to stress) through adaptation to training.

For the above reasons, the article has some value.

So does training.

Latest teen hangout: the nearest gym

More crap from the establishment.

This article shows once again how the sick care industry and its leaders would rather ignore reality than offer true advice on fitness.

"'The gym is like the mall,' he said. 'It's where everyone likes to hang out.'"

Ah. And what do they do?

"'Sometimes we have to break them up,' said Joe Algana, a manager at Pavilion Fitness, where the number of high school-age members has jumped to 360 from 210 in the past two years, most of them from Elk Grove and Conant High Schools. 'They're using it more like a social gathering than a gym.'"

They don't do squat.

And they don't do squats, either.

The sick care leaders don't care about whether it is effective. If they did, they would not spout the party line bullsh** about diet and "exercise" which has obviously failed decade after decade.

"''Even if it takes a health club being a social entity to get them there, it's great news,' said Joel Press, associate professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and a medical director at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. 'A lot of the health-care costs are because of problems associated with obesity. If you can get kids exercising as part of their lifestyle, it will be beneficial to society as a whole.'"

It is not "great news."

They are not "exercising," moron.

And even if they did, they would not do it successfully, since your fitness advice is wrong, anyway.

It is another waste of time, as the problem progresses.

Like being a member at Nero's Gym.

"In the 1980s, most people who belonged to a gym were bodybuilders, said Rosemary Lavery, spokeswoman for the International Health Racquet and Sportsclub Association. It was rare to see an average person, let alone an average teen, using a weight machine, she said.

That began to change in the 1990s. In an effort to increase membership, gyms began marketing themselves as wellness centers that could serve everyone, not just the pumping-iron set. Studies showing the health benefits of exercise and the risks of obesity helped draw in a variety of people."

And what did this change yield?

"Meanwhile, as childhood obesity grew, health and fitness became a hot topic in schools."

The obesity issue grew.

"There's a ripple effect. When teens sign up, their friends follow. Before long, the gym is known as a place to mingle and be seen. At school, students discuss what time they are going."

But, from the "ripple effect," they won't get ripped.

It is fashionable to be seen in the clothes of certain designers. So what?

It is fashionable to be seen at the gym. So what?

"'I want to lead a healthy lifestyle and look good,' she said. 'And there are also really hot guys here who are fun to flirt with.'

The boys tend to congregate in the free-weight areas and basketball courts, while the girls stick to treadmills and other cardiovascular machines, but there are plenty of opportunities to cross paths, Levin said. It's not unusual for her to make eye contact with boys as they pass by a machine.

'They'll smile and say, 'What's up?' ' she said. 'And I'll be like, 'Hey, what's up?'"

"What's up?"

A male teenager fitness club member's member and possibly the teenage pregnancy rate among female teenager fitness club members.

That's "what's up."

Idiots, child abusers and killers. (see here, here, here, here, here and here.)

From rice to miso, world food prices are rising

Good news for modern man and woman.

"If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone...

'...consumers have no choice but to cut consumption.'"

This is an opportunity to control Calories in.

"In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize. Farmers will grow more grain for both fuel and food and eventually bring prices down. Already this is happening with wheat, with more crops to be planted in the U.S., Canada and Europe in the coming year.

However, consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food, according to preliminary FAO projections."

A long-term opportunity at that!

And, if the cards are played properly, sick care costs can go down with fewer fat people abusing the system.

Do you think I'm sexy? Apnea aid raises doubts

A solution to nutritional child abuse.

"Babbett Peterson thought there was nothing less sexy than her husband’s snoring — until he brought home the cure.

The 47-year-old Trabuco Canyon, Calif., woman took one look at the plastic face mask, the long tubing and the whirring motor that ran all night and decided there were worse things than a few snuffles and snorts.

As far as she was concerned, the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine — known as a CPAP — was a threat to her 22-year marriage.

'Things were great in the bedroom,' Peterson said. 'Then there was this thing strapped to his head.'

Peterson and her husband, Chris, a 47-year-old engineer, are among growing numbers of couples whose romantic lives have been derailed by sleep problems — or their solutions."

Since the fat get OSA, obstructive sleep apnea, more than human-sized people, this may, in effect, be a form of contraception.

If you do not reproduce, you cannot harm your kids.

Think Shakers.

Just don't let them adopt.

The approach of having "this thing strapped to his head" as opposed to having a latex thing strapped to his nether-head may likely succeed.

Finding one's sex organ to cover with a condom is way more difficult for the fat, as can be seen here:

And convenience is paramount if you want to do something.

Plus, fat people need special tools even to clean themselves.

Imagine the tool they would need to use when they need to cover their tool for use.

Instead of spending money on stupid research to "cure" fat, maybe spending more on CPAP will extinct the problem.

New ambulance fleet for the overweight

Kudos, fatsos. (to see the ambulances, click here.)

"NEW ambulances capable of carrying patients weighing up to 50 stone will be introduced in Wales. [A stone = 14 pounds. 50 stone = 700 pounds]

The £45,000 vehicles have been commissioned to cope with the nation’s growing obesity epidemic – the Welsh Ambulance Service says it has seen a 25% increase in obese patients.

The ambulances, which can carry up to four tonnes, will be equipped with extra-wide strengthened stretchers, which can each accommodate a 50-stone patient...

Six out of 10 men and 50% of women in Wales are already either overweight or obese, but the recent Foresight report has predicted that if current trends continue 60% of men and 50% of women will be obese by 2050 at a cost to the UK of £45bn a year.

Almost one in five 13-year-olds in Wales is classed as overweight or obese – higher than in England, Scotland and Ireland. And some 30 children in Wales have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a condition which used to be associated only with the over-40s."

Oink the 'orn if you are fat.

States' Budget Crises Will Hurt Millions

Good idea.

"Financially strapped states are looking to take away government health insurance and benefits from millions of Americans already struggling with a souring economy."

Bad implementation.

"An Associated Press review of the budgets in all 50 states reveals coverage would be eliminated for hundreds of thousands of poor children, disabled and the elderly."

Better to help people who do not burden society with diseases of choice and take the money from the socially irresponsible fat people and the sick care professionals/industries that get paid for committing malpractice.

Also, it is past time to tax the fat.

If you are ready to have your voice heard and stop being abused by the calorically irresponsible, go here.

Social And Economic Characteristics Of A Community Determine How Much People Exercise

No. People determine how much they exercise. All this silly research does is show association, not cause and effect.

"The neighborhoods people live in can help inspire - or discourage - their residents to exercise and keep physically active, new research suggests.

Residents of neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty, lower education, and more female-headed families are less likely than others to exercise, according to the study.

It's not simply that poorer people are less likely to exercise, researchers say. In fact, the study, which was done in Chicago, found that a person's individual income wasn't as important as the neighborhood he or she lived in for determining exercise levels."

To "prove" their point, they resort to this:

"'Some people may have the personal resources and desire to exercise, but don't live in a neighborhood in which they feel comfortable to go outside for activities.'"

This is the research equivalent of saying that students "desire" to get good grades, but don't study or that people "desire" to go on a date, but don't "feel comfortable" asking someone out.

This study is just more crap on the heap of fitness research.

'Your children are too fat. Either they lose weight or we'll take them away'

Finally, someone with the stones to do the right thing for the kids.

"A COUPLE have been told their children must lose weight – or they could be taken into care.
Social workers warned the parents they have only three months to help three of their six children shed the pounds.

They want to see an improvement by June in the 12-year-old boy, who weighs 16 stone, and two of his sisters, aged 11 and three, who weigh 12st and 4st respectively."

A stone = 14 pounds.

The 12 year old weighs 224 pounds, the 11 year old weighs 168 pounds and the 3 year old weighs 48 pounds.

"The development highlights Scotland's childhood obesity crisis, which has already forced some as young as 13 to seek NHS weight-loss surgery. Only the United States has more overweight children, underlining fears that our current generation of youngsters may not outlive their parents."

We're Number One!

"But politicians and health experts have described the intervention of social workers as 'deeply worrying' and questioned their powers to break up families."

These would be the same health experts and politicians who failed to help the kids in the first place.

Besides, families are not being broken up. Children are being saved. There is a difference.

"The 39-year-old mother, who weighs 23 stone, said: "This is every family's worst nightmare. We have been told they are going to take them from us unless three of them lose weight.

'I just can't stop crying at the thought I could lose my beautiful children for ever.'"

23 stone = 322 pounds.

You weren't crying while you were killing them by nutritional child abuse.

"She went on: 'They keep making an issue about the kids' weight. Social workers have even tried to tell us our baby is fat.

'I don't even own a deep-fat fryer. All my food is home-cooked and the kids are not fed junk food at all. I feel we are being victimised. Children can carry a bit of puppy fat, but they tend to lose it as they get older. Ours are not being given that chance.'"

You apparently don't own a brain, either.

It has nothing to do with frying. It is Calories in, Calories out and you have been shoving way too many Calories into your kids' mouths.

BTW, you are being given a chance - 3 months worth.

Shut up and stop wasting time. Hopefully the clock is really running for the sake of the kids.

"SCOTLAND is the second fattest nation on Earth, with only the US weighing in heavier.
Figures published last year found that one in six boys and one in seven girls in Scotland are obese. For adults the rate is worse, at one man in four and one woman in five...

Almost 500,000 cases of high blood pressure can be attributed to obesity, as well as more than 5,000 strokes a year and almost 30 per cent of all colon cancer cases.

The cost of treating these obesity-related diseases was last estimated six years ago, at £171 million."

Reduced-Calorie haggis, anyone?

Overweight Travelers Paying Extra

Yippee!

"One airline ticket for one person makes perfect sense, but some overweight customers say it's a matter of prejudice."

Clearly not prejudice.

Prejudice is, by definition, a pre-judgment.

This is not a pre-judgment. It is a real-time decision based on personal inspection and criteria.

"Imagine waiting in a busy line at the airport and you are pulled aside because of your weight.

'Humiliating and mortified, like really upset. She is till (sic) upset,' said Judith Harvey of Berlin, N.J."

And you and she are still fat.

If you are humiliated by your immense size AND want special treatment, like a free seat, fly in steerage like any other oversized animal. Or buy another seat. Take the money from your elephant kibble budget.

"'I am certainly not going to have my rights violated,' said Judith."

It is not your right to have a free seat.

"Judith has no plans to pay for an extra seat when she travels to see her sister for the holiday.

'I will not take no for an answer.'"

Apparently "No" is not the answer you offer to food, either.

"Southwest Airlines requires for passengers to pay for additional tickets if the airline believes the passenger cannot comfortably put the arm rest down next to another passenger's seat.

The airline issues refunds if passengers pay for additional tickets and the plane is not full."

Fat passengers are also a safety hazard in the skies.

Kudos to Southwest Airlines. Support them.

Learn to shake the salt habit

Probably they will first attempt to determine the genetics of wanting salt.

Then the search will begin for the salt hormone.

Then research into finding the salt virus.

Then labs set-up to isolate the salt bacterium.

"Our diets have become so loaded with salt that, in response to a consumer group's urging, the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to set limits on the amount that would be permitted in different types of foods, such as breads.

The American Heart Association and other medical experts want stronger labels on foods with high-salt content and are calling for a 50 percent reduction in the amount of salt in packaged and processed foods."

Personally, I want to know how they will control the shaker.

We'll sea (salt).

Tiredness 'raises sleepwalk risk'

Fat things that go BOOM! in the night. Or maybe it is Crash! Squish!

"Sleep deprivation raises the likelihood of sleepwalking, research suggests...

It is estimated sleepwalking, which has been linked to aggressive and injurious behaviour, affects up to 4% people."

Fat people get OSA, obstructive sleep apnea, which results in poor or little sleep.

Must cause the aggressive, defensive, indignant behavior they exhibit when confronted about their caloric irresponsibility.

Why Can Grapefruit Interfere With Some Medications?

Because it can. So is grapefruit healthy or unhealthy?

"Certain foods and drinks don't mix well with certain medications. For example, grapefruits or grapefruit juice may interact badly with a number of medications, because natural grapefruit contains a substance that affects the activity of an enzyme in the intestines and liver that processes these medications. This could result in a dangerous increase in the level of the drug in your blood.

So are multivitamins and supplements healthy or unhealthy?

"Another potentially dangerous interaction is between the blood thinner warfarin (Coumadin and generic brands) and vitamin K. The vitamin, present in many multivitamins and supplements, neutralizes or reduces the effect of the medication warfarin. This raises the risk of a blood clot, which the warfarin is intended to prevent."

What about oranges?

"One further note: In reference to the control group in the study, regular orange juice was found to be safe to drink with Plendil. However, you may want to avoid Seville oranges in juice or marmalade, as they are the only type of oranges to contain furanocoumarins."

Good luck sorting this stuff out.

Or just acknowledge the fact that there are no "healthy" foods of which we know, only eating healthily.

University Of Kent Study Aims To Encourage Physical Exercise For 11 - 15 Year Old Girls

And not a moment too soon.

"A new study at the University of Kent aims to reduce obesity and promote wellbeing by encouraging increased physical exercise for 11 - 15-year-old girls."

Thank God they are doing a new study.

Lord knows we have not had one of these before.

Hey, morons! The study has been done.

Result: Calories in vs. Calories out.

Result: Calories out is the pound of cure for too many Calories in.

Result: It is more efficient to control Calories in.

Result: More Calories out is an almost impossible way for most people to lose weight.

Result: Even if you burn more Calories to lose weight, you still have to have exquisite control over Calories in.

Result: Calories in will trump Calories out any and every time.

Stop wasting the resources.

Junk Food TV Ads Should Be Banned, Says Australian Medical Association

More blame anything and anyone except the parents.

"AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said today that Australia should join an international movement to ban junk food advertising in children's television viewing times.

Dr Capolingua said the ban would be an important step in a broader national strategy to combat obesity in Australian children and adolescents. "

Why? The AMA does not explain how this will work.

"'The primary focus of our obesity strategy has to be on helping our young people get a healthy and active start in life,' Dr Capolingua said.

'As parents and a community we have to protect them from messages and images that tempt them to an unhealthy diet and lifestyle..."

Then get off your lazy parental asses, turn off the TV and do something else.

"The AMA urges the Government to:

seek a commitment from the food and retail industry to develop new ways to present and market healthy, low processed, nutritious foods, help parents make informed choices in what they buy for their children by mandating a simple and uniform 'front of pack' system of nutritional labelling for packaged food, such as the 'traffic-light' system, which indicates the level of fat, sugar and salt in food by using red, amber and green colour codes, and implement an ongoing public education campaign to support the labelling system."

Other problems are the facts that there are no "junk foods," foods get reformulated, research keeps changing the misperceptions of whether a food is "healthy" or not and more.

The idea is useless, onerous to implement and will clearly fail.

Perfectly consistent with the sick care philosophy.

Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Mild Cognitive Impairment

Chicken or egg? Is your thinking impaired because you are fat or are you fat because your thinking is impaired? Type 2 diabetes is fat person's diabetes.

"A study shows individuals with type 2 diabetes have a significantly increased risk of developing amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition widely acknowledged as a transitional state between normal cognitive functioning and Alzheimer's disease (AD)."

You decide.

That is if you are not too impaired.

Metabolic Syndrome Linked to Silent Ischemic Brain Lesions

Chicken or egg? Are parts of your brain dead because you are fat or are you fat because parts of your brain are dead? Metabolic syndrome is what fat people get.

"Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is associated with the prevalence of silent brain lesions independent of other risk factors for ischemic stroke, according to the results of a study published in the March 6 Online First issue of Stroke."

You decide.

That is if you have enough brain remaining.

Cognitive impairment may precede type 2 diabetes

Possibly no longer a chicken or egg matter.

"'Type 2 diabetes is associated with decreased cognitive function in adults, particularly among elderly people,' Dr. Gunilla M. Olsson, of Uppsala University, Sweden, and colleagues write in the medical journal Diabetes Care. 'Less is known about cognitive function in children who will subsequently receive a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in adulthood.'

The researchers analyzed the general ability and reading comprehension at age 11 years of some 9000 members of a 1958 UK birth cohort in relation to a subsequent diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

The subjects with type 2 diabetes by 42 years of age had significantly lower assessment scores at age 11 years, the investigators found.

There are several possible explanations for this association. 'It is possible that cognitive deficits present in childhood influence lifestyle factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,' Olsson and colleagues suggest."

Stupid from an early age explains why they get fat and develop Type 2 diabetes.

And staying stupid and fat?

Well, that is just a way of life for them.

Toxin Found In Leading Organic Brands

Oops.

"A new study commissioned by a US consumer watchdog found that leading brands of personal care products such as shampoos, lotions and body washes that are labelled organic or 100 per cent natural contain an unidisclosed carcinogenic toxin 1,4-Dioxane. The tests were carried out by a well known, reputable third party laboratory said the consumer group.

The announcement was made by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), a consumer group with over half a million members, in a press statement posted on their website on Friday March 14th."

No wonder organic products are more expensive.

It is the cost of covering-up the not organic stuff.

Caveat emptor.

Innovative Research Method Applied To Identify Changes In Gene Networks Linked To Obesity

Innovative? Maybe. But certainly more evidence that the "genetic cure" for being too fat is only around the corner if you have a geologic age perspective of time.

"Merck & Co., Inc. today announced the publication of two studies providing evidence that genetic susceptibility to obesity involves changes in entire networks of genes and is not limited to mutations in several specific genes."

If you are waiting for the "genetic cure," you will die waiting.

Especially since it is not a genetics issue.

You will also die fat.

And stupider for having waited.

You're already stupid for being fat.

Weight Loss More Effective Than Intensive Insulin Therapy For Type 2 Diabetics

Duh.

"Weight-loss and major lifestyle changes may be more effective than intensive insulin therapy for overweight patients with poorly controlled, insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes, according to a diabetes researcher at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health recently halted part of an ongoing clinical trial on diabetes and heart disease after more than 250 people died while receiving intense treatment to drive their blood glucose levels below current clinical guidelines."

Another lose weight or die from overweight/obesity situation.

Your choice.

Faster Fat Burning In Mice With Protein Deficiency

In the future, mousetraps will be smaller.

"Researchers have developed a new, lean mouse with characteristics suggesting that someday, using medication to manipulate a specific protein in humans could emerge as a strategy to treat obesity and disorders associated with excess weight, such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome...

'These animals can eat more than normal. And they have less fat than normal. That's a dream come true if it can be extended to human beings,' said Kamal Mehta, senior author of the study and a professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry at Ohio State University."

Is it just around the corner?

"He noted, however, that an appropriate therapy for humans would take years to develop."

Nope.

So, in the meantime, keep dying and getting sick and abusing your children and wasting sick care resources, or...

Eat fewer Calories than you burn because there is no mouse, no drug, no surgery, no researcher, no nothin' that will ever allow you to eat more Calories than you burn and still lose weight.

Nothing.

Physical Activity Of Adolescent Girls Could Be Increased By After-School Programs

Showing just how pathetic a way exercise is to lose weight.

"Afterschool programs can modestly increase the amount of physical activity among girls in middle school, according to new results from the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG), a multiple site, community based study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health."

How pathetic?

"The study found that programs which linked schools in 6 geographic regions of the U.S. with community partners (such as the YMCA or YWCA, local health clubs, and community recreation centers) increased time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity among the middle-school female students by about 2 minutes per day, or 80 calories a week. This finding occurred after three years of the intervention but not after two years. Physical activity was measured using accelerometers (a device for measuring the acceleration of motion), rather than self-reported."

And this was "moderate-to-vigorous physical activity" which is a higher level than recommended by the experts for the general population. Plus it was in younger persons, clearly more capable of physical activity than fat, overweight/obese older persons.

"The authors write that results suggest this improved level of activity could prevent excess weight gain of about 2 pounds per year (or 0.82 kg per year), which, if sustained, could prevent a girl from becoming overweight as a teenager or adult."

The authors are lying.

Look above. They used high-powered measuring devices and recorded data instead of using self-reported information. This means that the subjects were present.

If this "intervention" had any value at all, they would not have to "suggest this improved level of activity could prevent excess weight gain."

They would know, because they could have measured it.

"In addition, TAAG showed a reduction of 8.2 minutes of sedentary behavior in girls in the intervention schools. Furthermore, the best results were seen in programs offered between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays, which suggest that afterschool programs are more effective than programs offered at other times, such as morning weekdays and weekends. The study results support the need for schools and community programs to work together to provide opportunities for physical activity programs in afterschool settings."

Bullsh**.

The study results obviously support the need to look elsewhere, shut these liars up and stop funding this crap.

Resveratrol In Grape Skins Could Stop Diabetic Complications Such As Heart Disease, Retinopathy And Nephropathy

It is tough to kill a test tube.

"'Resveratrol's antioxidant effects in the test tube are well documented but our research shows the link between high levels of glucose, its damaging effect on cell structure, and the ability of resveratrol of protect against and mend that damage.'"

It is easier to injure or kill a person with antioxidants.

Scientists Identify New Leads for Treating Parasitic Worm Disease

NIH approved = National Institutes of Helminths.

Testing a Worm Egg Cocktail to Treat MS

FFDA approved = Fear Factor Drug Administration.

Obesity takes toll

A pyramid-scheme's worth of mess. Here are some pieces of the pyramid.

1. Nutritional child abuse:

"Paz Soto didn't even consider her son overweight, so the doctor's next piece of news shocked her. Andy had developed fatty liver disease, a potentially life-threatening, chronic condition usually found in middle-age adults.

'I was really scared when I heard that something was wrong with his liver,' she said through a Spanish interpreter. 'The doctor said Andy's liver got fatty like someone who drinks a lot.'

Andy was just 8 at the time...

Soto said she didn't even realize her son was overweight until his pediatrician showed her his growth charts during an annual physical. She was stunned to learn Andy—about 33 pounds over his ideal body weight—was heavier than more than 97 percent of the children his age.

At 8, he weighed as much as boys six years older who were of average weight."

What was this unfit parent thinking? Doing?

2. More nutritional child abuse:

"Shortly after her children moved back to the U.S. from Mexico in 2005, Saskia Rios noticed they were packing on the pounds.

Her son Fernando Valladolid, who at 12 weighs almost 300 pounds, has struggled most. Rios also is mother to Fernando's fraternal twin, Victor; Andrea Valladolid, 8, and Edgar Tellez, 9 months.

Fernando has been diagnosed with acanthosis nigricans, a darkening of the skin that appears most prominently around the neck, armpits and elbows. The skin changes are a sign of metabolic syndrome, a constellation of conditions that puts a person at risk for diabetes, heart disease and stroke."

"Shortly after...at 12 weighs almost 300 pounds." Not so "shortly" is my guess or the kid was a porker in Mexico.

What was this unfit parent thinking? Doing?

3. Lawbreakers:

"'The earlier you develop diabetes, the more likely you are to develop complications,' said Dr. Paula Butler, chief of endocrinology at Mt. Sinai Hospital. 'People will be having eye problems early, heart problems early, strokes early and go on dialysis. They will suffer knee and back pain, have sleep problems. They may not be able to work. It affects quality of life.'

Of 14 pediatric patients Butler saw on a recent morning, two had borderline diabetes and changes in liver function because of their weight. 'Over the last 10 years, people have started to recognize this increasing obesity and all the things that go along with it,' Butler said.

As a result, many pediatricians are learning how to take care of health problems they didn't have to treat before, said Dr. Surendra Varma, chairman of the endocrinology section of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

'There is an epidemic of type-2 diabetes,' he said. 'We are encountering lipid disorders, sleep apnea and hypertension with good frequency in our practices.'"

Physicians are mandatory reporters under CAPTA - the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

These physicians are clearly in violation of the law by failing to report cases of nutritional child abuse to the authorities.

Instead, they discuss it in public. So with certainty they are aware of the abuse.

This gross disregard for the law and children's well-being is endemic in the physician culture from the individual practitioner up to the trade organization level, e.g., the AMA.

In fact, it is widespread in the cultures of all mandatory reporters.

4. Malpractice:

"The trend can be seen in the rising number of prescriptions for medications that treat the conditions. Two national pharmacy benefits companies recently reported staggering increases in prescriptions of type-2 diabetes drugs for children and teens.

One of them, Medco Health Solutions Inc., found use of diabetes drugs rose 167 percent for girls ages 10 to 19 between 2001 and 2006. For boys the same ages, it rose 91 percent.

The companies' research also showed smaller increases in the use of medications for other chronic illnesses, including drugs to fight high blood pressure and to lower lipids...

For that reason, some health professionals are taking more drastic measures to help children lose weight. Dr. Brian Edelstein, co-director of the Nutritional Wellness Center at Sinai Children's Hospital, prescribes appetite suppressants for children who fail to lose sufficient weight on their own."

I am clear in my belief that diet drugs are malpractice and these other medications may be as well if they are "needed" due to bad diet advice from the sick care professionals. I suspect that this is likely.

BTW, bariatric surgery is malpractice, too.

5. More malpractice:

"'They've tried conservative management and interventions with calorie counting and exercise, and it doesn't seem to be working,' Edelstein said."

Of course not, since the diets of the sick care professionals, diet gurus, Big Pharma, goverment, etc., will never work.

6. Stupid:

"Varma said poor diet and lack of exercise are largely to blame for the problem.

'The inheritance of these adult diseases in childhood is a result of our consuming too much fast food and not requiring significant physical activity on a daily basis,' Varma said."

Clearly a moron.

The diseases are not "inherited," fast food is not the problem and physical activity is a terribly inefficient way to control weight.

The "blame" for overweight/obesity is too many Calories in.

Nothing else.

And Calories out is the pound of cure for too many Calories in. It is not a reasonable, primary approach to weight control.

Calories out for weight control is a fool's game for just about everybody.

"'I feel like I've been a bad mother,' Rios said."

You have.

"'I've said, 'I'm not going to McDonald's anymore.' But when you're out and you're running late and the kids are hungry, you find yourself rolling through McDonald's. It's the way of life here.'"

You still are. (Since you have apparently proven that you cannot feed your kid "fast food" responsibly.)

And, BTW, it is YOUR "way of life here."

Stop making excuses, assume some responsibility and stop killing your kids.

Gender differences hit the kitchen

Fodder for new research.

"If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then Mars is a land where the refrigerators are stocked with meat and frozen pizza and Venus has a bounty of yogurt, fruits and vegetables, a new study suggests.

The study of eating habits of adults — called the most extensive of its kind — was a telephone survey of 14,000 Americans. It confirmed conventional wisdom that most men eat more meat than women, and women eat more fruits and vegetables."

So riddle me this, Batman:

Why are there more obese women than men if women eat more yogurt, fruits and vegetables ("healthy" foods) and men eat more "junk" foods (meat and pizza)?

Here is the HHS/NIH stat:

Q: How many adults age 20 and older are obese (BMI > 30)?

A: Nearly one-third of U.S. adults are obese.

All adults: 63.6 million (31.4 percent)
Women: 35 million (33.2 percent)
Men: 28.6 million (29.5 percent)

Clearly, "a bounty of yogurt, fruits and vegetables" are more fattening than "meat and frozen pizza."

Must do study. Must do study. Must do study.

ABCNews Health

Well, which is it? Look at bullets 3 and 4.



'Nuff said on the quality of reportage.

Same as for fitness and diet reporting.

Could foods help prevent ovarian cancer?

No.

Just another sensational headline from the crooked media.

Remember that this is the same network/outlet/firm that uses material from the IMHO nutritionally homicidal Prevention magazine and Rodale.

Here is the conclusion:

"Although the research is promising, for now women are best advised not to focus on a single potential link highlighted in one or two studies, but to follow current guidelines to lower overall cancer risk. General recommendations include following a diet that provides a wide variety of vegetables and other plant-based foods, exercising regularly and controlling weight."

More MSNBCrap.

A man's eye-opening surgery

Just an independent review of the crap MSNBC spouts from another source.

Remember, this is the same toxic network that brings you the healthy food suggestions of the hos at Rodale and Prevention Magazine plus news about the same people who cannot cure toenail fungus, the common cold or baldness.

Read it all. It is short.

Then don't believe the network's hooey when it talks about fitness.

Candy Cure: Lollipop Claims to Fight Cavities

Just an independent review of the crap ABCNews spouts from another source.

Remember, this is the same toxic network that brings you Oprah, Mehmet Oz, David Katz, Jorge Cruise and more plus news about the same people who cannot cure toenail fungus, the common cold or baldness.

Read it all. It is short.

Then don't believe the network's hooey when it talks about fitness.

Alternative medicine fans more likely to get shots

Hypocrites or just hedging their bets?

"Adults who use alternative or complementary medicines are more likely to receive recommended vaccinations than their peers who don't use these products, according to a study by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among 30,617 adults participating in the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, the 36 percent who said they had used complementary or alternative medicines (CAM) recently were more likely to have received shots for preventing the flu, pneumococcal infections and hepatitis B."

You make the call.

Vitamin E and C do not reduce dementia risk

Still another they have no idea what a "healthy" food or supplement is.

"Taking vitamin C or E supplements, either individually or in combination, does not appear to lower the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease in older adults, study findings suggest.

'Our study confirms findings from other studies,' lead investigator Dr. Shelly L. Gray of the University of Washington, Seattle said. Vitamin E does not prevent memory problems or dementia."

Antioxidants apparently raise the risk of cancer, however.

And they might increase mortality risk.

Though there may be no "healthy" foods, you can still eat healthily.

Accept the difference and improve your life.

Zoo beasts must battle the bulge, too

And whose fault is that?

"Gorillas on Weight Watchers? Polar bears slurping sugar-free Jell-O shots? Giraffes nibbling alfalfa biscuits?

The days of letting visitors throw marshmallows to the animals are mostly history at zoos around the country, replaced by a growing focus on diet and nutrition that parallels the fitness craze in humans.

And thanks to mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their lions and tigers and bears healthy and happy.

Avoiding obesity is part of the program."

Likely so they can tell the residents from the visitors.

"'We're trying to keep calorie intake within a limit ... 'We are very vigilant about monitoring the animals' weight, because, like humans, it can lead to other health problems,' Watts said."

What were the zookeepers doing all along?

They must have been as negligent as the School Nutrition Association.

The Ups and Downs of Universal MRSA Screening

Why you should not trust reported "scientific" results.

"No sooner had Swiss researchers given an unshakable thumbs down to universal screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus when a study here came to the opposite conclusion."

How "science" really operates.

How To Keep Lost Weight Off? Try Regular, Short Phone Calls

More bullsh**.

But before we get to it, let's talk. Not on the phone.

Diets fail because they are 100% impossible diets. Just about all of them.

It is absolutely clear that people regain weight because they never really learned how to properly control Calories in while they were "dieting." No amount of intervention will be able to overcome the terrible feelings of hunger associated with nutritional homicide disguised as dieting. It is because fat people are in such pain that they need intervention. Someone has to keep prodding them to continue the hurt. But it comes to an end and people do what they need to make themselves feel better - eat and eat and eat. Then when they try again, all they know is the wrong way to lose weight, so the cycle repeats.

"We've all heard it's easy to lose weight, but nearly impossible to keep those lost pounds off. One thing that might work is a regular, short phone call to a professional counselor. Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) conducted a weight-loss maintenance trial in which participants that had a brief, monthly personal contact intervention most often a 10-15 minute personal phone conversation regained less weight than participants who were in a Web-based intervention or self-directed program."

Note: that all participants regained weight only some regained less.

How much less?

"At the start of the study, participants, on average, weighed 213 lbs. The average weight loss in the first phase for all participants was 18.7 lbs. After the weight loss phase, all groups regained weight, but researchers saw a clear difference. The self-directed group gained an average of 12.1 lbs.; the interactive technology based group an average of 11.5 lbs.; and in the personal-contact group, an average of 8.8 lbs. The average weight at 30 months remained lower in each group than average weight at entry into the study."

A negligible amount.

At a great cost of time, effort, energy and money.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.