The Trick for Healthy Treats

More s**t for brains stupidity from the folks at ABCNews.

The scariest thing about Halloween may not be the little Palins and Obamas who will appear on your doorstep begging for handouts. It's the 2.2 pounds of extra weight the average child gains gorging on trick-or-treat candy.

This is according to a seven-year study by the University of Colorado, which also found the average Halloween haul of sweet stuff in a single evening is 22 pounds, about the candy limit most experts recommend for one year.

First, let me say that this number, 22 pounds, seems insane.

22 pounds is more than twice the weight of an average adult female's bowling ball and about 150% the weight of an adult male's bowling ball. It is about triple the average birth weight of a child.

Even if parents carry the steel-reinforced bag, and not the kid, with an average of more than 2 kids per family (we will assume merely 2), the average parent has to tote 44 pounds or 20 kg.

Not hardly.

A full size Almond Joy weighs 1.76 oz. and a full-size Snickers Bar weighs 2 oz.

Averaging the two yields a weight of 1.88 oz.

If an average child received all full-size candy bars similar to Snickers and Almond Joy, he or she would have 187.23 bars in the bag by the end of T or T-ing.

"Fun size" bars would increase the number hugely.

In any event, one exemplary ABC moron had this to say:

"I can give you a list of healthy trail mixes, raisins and Power Bars but the truth is kids want the real thing," registered dietitian Lauren O'Connor says. "That being said, your best weapon against gluttony is educating them with good health values."

One game O'Connor likes for teaching moderation is numbering small pieces of paper from one to five and placing them into a hat. Every day for two weeks, have your children pick a number and whatever they choose, that's the amount of candy they may have for the day.

When sorting out which goodies, O'Connor says, let your kids keep the dark chocolate because it's packed with healthy antioxidants and magnesium. Also, the candy with the shortest list of ingredients will generally be a healthier choice than one that contains a laundry list. Try to toss anything that contains hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup.

As if all the antioxidants, you know, the stuff that causes more harm than good, in the world would undo the Calories in vs Calories out issue.

They won't.

Not to mention that too many Calories from raisins (filled with sugar as are many dried fruits) will get you as fat as too many Calories from "Power Bars" (similar to candy bars) which will get you as fat as too many Calories from other sources.

Listen to these idiots at your peril.

Refund after 'horror' flight next to obese woman

Do not put up with this s**t.

AN airline has given a woman a full flight refund and promised to overhaul staff training after she was forced to sit next to an overweight passenger who spilled into half of her seat.

Janet Ogilvie said she was faced with the awkward situation on a Porter Airlines flight from Halifax, Canada to Ottawa on September 5 this year.

Ms Ogilvie said she went to her seat to find an obese woman, who was assigned to a window seat, spilling over into half of her aisle seat, the Ottawa Citizen reports.

She claims the woman's spine was where the middle armrest comes down, and the woman also needed a belt extender to buckle up.

Fight back.

New Insight Into Links Between Obesity and Activity in the Brain

Trick headline.

Scientists have revealed that an anti-obesity drug changes the way the brain responds to appetising, high-calorie foods in obese individuals. This insight may aid the development of new anti-obesity drugs which reduce the activity in the regions of the brain stimulated by the sight of tasty foods.

If there were any activity in the brains of fat people, other than to eat and get fat, they would not overeat.

Funny how the only activity they get is from telling themselves to eat and then eating.

Comparing Weight Loss Plans, Dollars Per Pound

I explored this topic in MASSematics (tm).

These people have no idea what they are talking about. That is to be expected from the morons at ABCNews.

For example, their expert Keith Ayoob says:

as long as you cut back on what you normally eat by about 25 percent, you can expect to lose about a pound a week, says Ayoob.

"A pound of fat is 3,500 calories (sic) so to lose a pound of week (sic), you'd need to trim off 500 calories (sic) a day from what you eat. Based on the standard 2,000 calorie (sic) intake per day, that would amount to a 25 percent decrease in caloric intake overall," Ayoob says.

Cutting back 25% in Calories is extremely burdensome and unsustainable, as the starvation literature shows.

An unsustainable cut in Calories makes a diet fail with 100% certainty. Period.

Also, it is biologically, physically, physiologically and mathematically impossible to trim off 500 Calories per day from what you eat and lose one pound per week.

Because the media are morons and they choose our experts, who are, in turn, morons, the public only learns how to be morons about weight loss.

Get smart.

Temporary Heart Damage May Explain Marathon Deaths

Yellow journalism.

The risk of dying while running a marathon is very low. One 2007 study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 30 years of marathon data and put the risk of dying at 0.8 per 100,000 runners. According to the researchers on that study, running a marathon is half as risky as driving the same route on a normal day.

Nonetheless,...

There is no "nonetheless."

BTW:

A new study finds that marathon runners experience temporary heart damage during their 26.2 mile (42.2 kilometer) races. The damage is reversible...

Scare tactics.

Armed with healthier menus, schools waging war on obesity

'Tain't about the menus.

The U.S. has taken the dubious lead in an international obesity study, which predicts that three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020.

Moreover, disease rates and health care spending due to obesity will balloon, unless governments, individuals and industry cooperate on a comprehensive strategy to combat the epidemic, according to the study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

With obesity rates on the rise and fast food a popular meal choice, how will Americans be able to overcome the weight-gaining trend? Healthy eating habits at an early age is one way, officials say.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, results from a 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which measured heights and weights, indicated that an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years are obese and are more likely to become obese as adults.

So what are school cafeterias doing to combat the problem?

“Our meals are planned to provide nutrionally balanced meals that meet the RDA guidelines,” said Cami Lewis, director of Child Nutrtion and Food Services for the Mooresville Graded School District. “In doing that we use portion control and offer a variety of foods.”

'Tain't never gonna work.

'Tis a waste.

Judge: McDonald's must pay obese employee $17.5K

Forget the worldwide obesity epidemic. Concentrate on the worldwide stupidity epidemic.

A Brazilian court ruled this week that McDonald's must pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds (30 kilograms) while working there for a dozen years.

The 32-year-old man said he felt forced to sample the food each day to ensure quality standards remained high, because McDonald's hired "mystery clients" to randomly visit restaurants and report on the food, service and cleanliness.

The man also said the company offered free lunches to employees, adding to his caloric intake while on the job.

Th e operative term is "sample," not "gobble."

Improving mothers' literacy skills may be best way to boost children's achievement

Just as the number one reason kids are fat is bad parenting, the number one reasons kids are stupid is bad parenting.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health concluded that programs to boost the academic achievement of children from low income neighborhoods might be more successful if they also provided adult literacy education to parents.

The researchers based this conclusion on their finding that a mother's reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, such as neighborhood and family income.

(The poor excusinators have lost two of their favorite excuses.)

But only if the mothers give a damn after becoming literate.

An uncertainty, at best.

Army ordered to stop marching on its stomach

It's not just for fat Americans, anymore.

DRINK and the Digger are rarely too far apart but that may be about to change in a bid to combat obesity in the forces.

The latest Australian Defence Force figures show about 62 per cent of troops on active duty are overweight - a level unchanged from two years ago. The services records show 48 per cent of personnel are classified as overweight with another 14 per cent counted as obese, based on body mass index indicators.

The big, fat, soft down-underbellies.

Low Testosterone Levels Linked to Alzheimer's Disease in Older Men

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm)

The serum level of bioavailable testosterone (BT) can predict risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older men, new research suggests.

Although low levels of BT were associated with the onset of AD, higher levels may offer protective value against the disease, report the researchers, led by Leung-Wing Chu, MD, chief of geriatric medicine at Queen Mary Hospital at the University of Hong Kong.

The relationship between testosterone and AD has been known for years.

To learn more, go here and here.

Then go here.

Psychologists at the Forefront of Weight Management: Health Care Providers Can Play a Key Role in the Fight Against Weight Problems in Young People

No way. Well, one way actually.

Over the last few decades, the dramatic rise in pediatric obesity rates has emerged as a public health threat requiring urgent attention. The responsibility of identifying and treating eating and weight-related problems early in children and adolescents falls to health care providers and other professionals who work with the child, according to Professor Denise Wilfley and colleagues from the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in the US. Furthermore, the key to successful treatment is a team effort involving providers and parents...

The authors conclude: "Not only are there more obese children now than in the past, but the severity of overweight among these children is also much greater. The dramatic increase in pediatric obesity rates has created a mounting need for clinicians, psychologists, and other mental health care providers to play a significant role in the assessment and treatment of youth with eating- and weight-related problems."

The one way is for physicians and others to do their legally mandated jobs of reporting the nutritionally abused children to the appropriate authorities.

If they don't, punish them.

Is aid doing Haiti more harm than good?

A lesson on rescuing fat people from their diseases of choice.

The money that has come so far seems to washed over Haiti without leaving much behind, except more dependence on aid.

"And when the money runs out, we are... " Savain said grimly in his empty hospital, drawing his hand across his neck in a chopping motion.

Except when it comes to fat care, when the money runs out, they just take more from the rest of us.

Learn the lesson.

Fight back.

Fat camp helps canine couch potatoes

Let's see, are they fat from an infection, culture, ethnicity, the built environment, lack of access to certain types of food stores, the dog school lunch program...

Before attending day camp, the 2-year-old would lie on the couch all day, leaving his comfy cushion only to eat meals. Rocky also has eaten rocks, three remote controls and a smoke detector, incidents that required a hospital visit and emergency surgery.

The 113-pound yellow Labrador retriever represents the 45 percent of the nation's dogs that are overweight or obese, according to the most recent study by the Association for the Prevention of Pet Obesity. An even larger number of cats - 58 percent - are overweight or obese. According to the study, 6.7 million dogs are estimated to be obese and 34.9 million overweight. Again cats rank higher, with 20 million estimated to be obese and 54.3 million overweight.

"Rocky is a food-motivated dog," said Pat Paretti, Rocky's owner. "If you call him and he doesn't feel like moving, but then you tell him, 'Rocky, I have a cookie,' he comes running."

Uh-huh.

What can it possibly be?

I wonder.

Insulin Sensitivity May Explain Link Between Obesity, Memory Problems

They simply cannot remember to stop eating - that explains it.

Because of impairments in their insulin sensitivity, obese individuals demonstrate different brain responses than their normal-weight peers while completing a challenging cognitive task, according to new research by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin.

The results provide further evidence that a healthy lifestyle at midlife could lead to a higher quality of life later on, especially as new drugs and treatments allow people to live longer.

"The good thing about insulin sensitivity is that it's very modifiable through diet and exercise," says psychology graduate student Mitzi Gonzales, who co-authored the paper published in the journal Obesity with Assistant Professor Andreana Haley and other colleagues.

To better understand why midlife obesity is linked to higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia in old age, the researchers had middle-aged adults between 40 and 60 years of age complete a challenging cognitive task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)...

Obese participants also had lower insulin sensitivity than their normal weight and overweight peers, meaning that their bodies break down glucose less efficiently. Poor insulin sensitivity may ultimately lead to diabetes mellitus if the pancreas is unable to secrete enough insulin to compensate for reduced glucose use.

The study shows that impaired insulin sensitivity, which generally accompanies obesity, may serve as a mediator between midlife obesity and cognitive decline later on. Researchers chose to examine insulin sensitivity because insulin helps regulate people's metabolism and also affects cognitive functions.

Try to remember to stop eating.

Obese Children Show Signs of Heart Disease Typically Seen in Middle-Aged Adults, Researcher Says

Fat parents have fat kids.

More nutritional child abuse.

The blood vessels of obese children have stiffness normally seen in much older adults with cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kevin Harris told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, co-hosted by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The clock is ticking and the shape of the 13 year-old-heart is changing -- for the worse.

Kudos, fatsos and their enablers.

If you do not want to sit idly by as children are nutritionally abused, go here and here.

Cornell Study says 35 percent of American’s (sic) too overweight to serve

Two embarrassments: how fat we are and how the UW writer and editorial staff do not know how to use an apostrophe properly.

Over a third of the United States potential female military recruits are ineligible to enlist because they are overweight or obese, according to a report issued by Cornell University and the Center for Disease Control.

Since 1969, the CDC has annually surveyed age-eligible US civilians and asked their approximate height and weight, according to Cornell graduate Catherine MacLean.

Along with other economists from the university, MacLean took all the available surveys from 1969-2008 and looked at the percentage of civilians meeting current military weight standards. In the 2007-2008 year, 35 percent of women and 12 percent of men were not eligible due to obesity...

University of Wisconsin professor of military history John Hall said he was not surprised by these statistics, but sees the military as an organization that can counter obesity effectively.

“Despite the increased obesity rates, the military has the power to compel people to attend programs and to spend their afternoons and weekends in training to help them combat [obesity],” Hall said. “Lots of resources are available within the military to whip them into shape.”

Which is a reason for universal conscription.

Encouraging Findings Suggest New Avenues For Treating Liver Disease In Overweight Americans

The most encouraging finding would be that the rest of us are not on the hook for this disease that fat people choose to get.

A progressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) can lead to cirrhosis and all its complications.

A better approach is not to get so fat that you make your liver sick.

'Unsafe' drug found in herbal tea

More Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Herbal medicines marketed as weight loss aids have been found to include a drug withdrawn in Europe and US on safety grounds.

Analysis of Payouji tea and Pai You Guo Slim capsules by the UK medicines watchdog revealed they contained diet drug sibutramine.

It was taken off the market in January 2010 over fears it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Anyone taking the drug was urged to stop and consult their doctor...

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority, which oversees medicines in the UK, said that any product containing the drug was considered "harmful to human health".

They said that not only could it have side effects including high blood pressure, seizures, heart attacks or strokes, but could interfere with other prescription medicines.

Oops.

Flexing Their Muscles Helps Kidney Disease Patients Live Longer, Study Finds

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm)

Kidney disease patients are healthier and live longer if they've beefed up their muscles, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that patients may benefit from pumping iron or taking medications to boost their lean body mass.

Kidney disease patients who are on dialysis live longer if they have a high body mass index (BMI); however, BMI measurements do not differentiate lean from fat mass. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh MD, PhD (Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center) and his colleagues examined the effects of lean and fat mass on 792 dialysis patients' health and survival by measuring patients' mid-arm muscle circumference (a measure of lean mass) and triceps skinfold (a measure of fat mass) over a 5-year period.

The researchers found that patients with a high mid-arm muscle circumference scored better on a mental health test and lived longer than patients with a low mid-arm muscle circumference. Patients with the highest mid-arm muscle circumference were 37 percent less likely to die during the study period than patients with the lowest circumference. Triceps skinfold measurements were not as predictive of patients' health and survival.

Learn more.

Get started. Kidney disease or not.

ASBMR: Kids Gain Bone Mass, Size from Exercise

Which can help in the prevention of osteoporosis when they get older.

For children ages 7 and 8, intensive physical exercise in school leads to increases in bone mass and size, a Swedish researcher said here...

On average, compared with the control group, the intervention group had yearly gains of:

0.6 standard deviations in bone mineral content at the lumbar spine in both girls and boys (P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively)
0.5 standard deviations in bone mineral content at the trochanter in girls (P<0.01)
0.5 standard deviations in width at the femoral neck in girls and 0.3 standard deviations in boys (P<0.05 for both)
0.5 standard deviations in width at the third lumbar vertebra in girls (P<0.05)

In the long run, Lofgren told MedPage Today, "it's even more important that they will perhaps have greater peak bone mass when they are 25 or 30."

The bottom line of the study is that "there is no downside to physical activity" for young children, said Clifford Rosen, MD, of Maine Medical Center in Portland, who moderated a session at which the study was presented.

"The concern was that if you over-exercise young prepubertal individuals, you might actually increase the risk of fracture" because of falls and other accidents, Rosen told MedPage Today, adding that several studies have shown exercise increases bone strength in youngsters.

But few, he said, have looked at the risk-benefit ratio in children, and it's reassuring that the Swedish study showed no increase in fracture risk.

Yep.

BTW, note "intensive physical exercise."

Gotta train to gain.

US & European Research Raises Global Awareness For New Obesity Measurement

Another way for the sick care system to disempower the public by making people more reliant on them.

On Tuesday October 12 in Birmingham, UK, the 3-year clinical trials for the Body Volume Index (BVI) - a new measurement of obesity and its associated health risks -was launched as a potential long-term replacement for the Body Mass Index (BMI), it attracted widespread news reporting around the globe on BBC National News, UK national newspapers with national media reporting in China, Germany and India amongst others...

The Body Volume Index (BVI) is a risk indicator based on the distribution of a patient's weight and fat, body composition and shape, rather than body mass alone. BVI is quick and completely automated, using a 3D body scanner it focuses in particular on the volume of the abdomen, allowing for people who are incorrectly classified as being obese or overweight under BMI to be correctly assigned a risk indicator.

Dangerous crap.

If your BMI is higher than 24.9, the overwhelming likelihood is that you are too fat.

BMI is available to all and cheaper. Plus there is no need for an encounter with the sick care system.

Diabetes Hospitalizations Rise Dramatically For Young Women

Kudos, fatsettes.

A study published in Journal of Women's Health shows a rapid increase in the number of hospitalizations due to diabetes for young adults - particularly young women.

Diabetes hospitalizations were up by 66 percent for all ages and sexes, but the number of diabetes hospitalizations among younger adults, ages 30-39, more than doubled from 1993 to 2006.

This pattern of hospitalizations echoes the dramatic increase in rates of obesity across the United States in the last 30 years, according to the study by the University of Michigan Health System.

Young women were 1.3 times more likely to be hospitalized than young men, and the authors believe this may be due to higher rates of obesity for women vs. men in this age group.

Oink.

Light At Night Linked To Weight Gain Perhaps Due To Shift In Eating Times

This has got to be the key.

In an article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they found that mice exposed to dim light during their sleeping hours for a period of eight weeks had a 50% higher weight gain compared to mice that slept in the dark. Even reducing their food intake and making them do more exercise did not bring their weight down to that of the other mice that slept in the dark, unless they made sure the availability of food matched a mouse's natural eating times.

Shut your eyes.

And you mouth.

Tasmanians more obese, dying younger

Those devils.

Adult Tasmanians continue to have a shorter life expectancy than other Australians.

The annual report for Tasmania's Department of Health and Human Services shows life expectancy figures have not improved over the past few years...

The report also shows adult Tasmanians are eating a somewhat healthier diet but overweight and obesity rates have increased.

The report says the proportion of the adult population who eat at least five serves of vegetables a day has increased above the national average.

And what does this say about "healthy foods"?

Disturbing Diabetes Forecast Linked to Obesity - CDC Projects That 1 in 3 People Will Have Diabetes by 2050

Kudos, fatsos.

Up to one in three American adults will have diabetes by 2050 unless something is done to curb unhealthy lifestyle trends in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday.

The rise in number of obese American is also one of the largest contributors to the CDC's projection, according to ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser.

"Obesity is the biggest risk factor that's changeable and we haven't been able to tackle the obesity epidemic in this country," Besser said on "Good Morning America."

Make 'em pay for their diseases of choice, including diabetes.

That will stop them.

And if Big - Gov, Sick Care, Pharma, etc., started spreading the truth about weight loss, fat people who seriously want to participate more in life would have a chance.

IOM Report: Food Nutrition Labels Should Be Simple, On Front

Won't make a difference. People already "get it." See here and here.

The food industry should provide simple, clearly-worded nutrition information on the front of food packages, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

The information "should focus on the nutrients most responsible for obesity and chronic diseases: calories, saturated fat, trans fat and sodium," The New York Times reports. The report, written by a team of health specialists, "is meant to help Congress and the Food and Drug Administration decide what to do about the proliferation of certain labeling practices that food companies and retailers use to promote the nutritional aspects of food products. Many of the methods, often accompanied by checkmarks or snappy logos, have been criticized for trumpeting the beneficial aspects of packaged foods, like vitamins or fiber content, while ignoring less appealing ones, like high sodium or sugar levels. That has led to labels for sugary cereals or salt-laden frozen dinners that indicate they are healthy food choices. The report suggests a package-front label that would essentially do the opposite. It called for the label to emphasize the potentially harmful nutrients in the food product - for example, those that promote obesity, diabetes or heart disease - and exclude information about beneficial nutrients, like fiber or vitamins" (Neuman, 10/13).

What will make a difference is having fat people pay for their diseases of choice.

Global Research Effort Leads To New Findings On Genes And Obesity

More bad news for a genetic "cure" for fatsoness.

Two major international studies looking at data from a quarter of a million people around the globe have found a new set of genes associated with body fat distribution and obesity. Researchers at 280 institutions worldwide, including Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, conducted the studies. The research, published in the October 10 online edition of Nature Genetics, sheds light on the biological processes involved in body fat distribution, possibly leading to new ways of treating obesity.

"These studies open the door to better understanding the mechanisms that lead to the most harmful forms of obesity, which can result in heart attack, stroke and diabetes," said Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology & population health at Einstein and a co-author of the studies. "The findings provide important leads for researchers who are working to develop new medications to treat or prevent obesity."

In one study, researchers identified 13 new gene regions where variations in DNA sequence can be linked to a person's fat distribution whether they store fat around the mid-section or below the waist. In the second study, researchers found 18 new genetic variations associated with increased susceptibility to obesity. The first study included data from almost 200,000 people, while the second study included data from nearly 250,000 people. Both studies were led by researchers at Oxford University and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, England.

Make that over 6031, for those keeping count.

For a better shot at a genetic cure for fatosity, go here.

Taxing Soda to Trim Waistlines? US Legislation Increases, But Proof Remains Elusive

The proof is clear - it does not work, unless the amount is huge.

The article has a picture of fat anti-"junk food" crusader Kelly Brownell, a proponent of having the rest of us pay for his lack of caloric intake control. Picture at end of post.

Obesity researchers trying to model the potential impact of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages believe that if sodas and sugary energy drinks were adequately taxed, the payoff in terms of populationwide weight loss would be, well, hefty.

In two presentations here at Obesity 2010, economist Dr Linda Powell (University of Illinois, Chicago) and Dr Kelly Brownell (Yale University, New Haven, CT) described the efforts made in individual states and cities to levy taxes on sugary drinks and what the potential impact of this might be in combating obesity.

F**k him and the tax.

Nutrition Labels On Food And Drinks In The UK Available, Understood But Not Used

The USA proof is in the post above, the fat f**k Kelly Brownell.

When asked to identify the most healthful product among three comparable ready meals in a UK study, most respondents were able to do so, with 88% of respondents correctly doing so using Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) labels, 84% through Traffic Lights (TL) and 83% when shown hybrid labels of GDAs and Traffic Lights. On a scale of 1 to 10 (highest), respondents' subjective understanding of health information on labels was 7.0 for GDAs and 6.9 for Traffic Lights. Percentages of correct answers about nutrient levels in three different ready meals varied between 72% and 92%. All of these figures indicate a high level of understanding of label information "independent of the format" in which the information appears, conclude the authors of a just published study in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Appetite...

With little difference recorded as to how the format of the label affects consumer understanding, the authors suggest there has been too much focus on labelling and too little on "motivation for healthy eating". The authors conclude that "only when labelling policy is embedded in a broader nutrition policy that uses multiple instruments to increase interest in healthy eating can both understandability and use of nutrition information on food labels be expected to increase."

More reasons not to pay for fatsos' diseases of choice.

Report calls obesity a threat to US national security

An army of one (ton) = an army of none.

From 2007 to 2008, 5.7 million American men and 16.5 million women of military age were ineligible for duty because they were overweight or obese, according to a team of Cornell researchers. (Military branches must recruit about 184,000 new personnel to replace those who leave every year, according to 2009 numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

In the past half-century, the number of women of military age who exceed the U.S. Army's enlistment standards for weight-to-height ratio and body fat percentage has more than tripled. For military-age men, the figure has more than doubled, the researchers report in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research entitled, "Unfit for Service: The Implications of Rising Obesity for U.S. Military Recruitment."

"Almost one in four applicants to the military are rejected for being overweight or obese – it's the most common reason for medical disqualification," study researcher John Cawley, an associate professor of policy analysis and management, said in a statement. "It is well-known that the military is struggling to recruit and retain soldiers. Having a smaller pool of men and women who are fit enough to serve adds to the strain and creates even more problems for national defense."

Being too heavy or fat meant 23 percent of applicants were rejected from the military, according to a 2006 National Research Council (NRC) report. (The second most common reason is smoking marijuana, which leads to rejection of nearly 13 percent of applicants, according to the 2006 NRC report.)

The findings support several previous studies, including a report put out by a collection of retired generals and admirals, "Too Fat to Fight," who explained their concern that the increase in youth obesity might compromise military readiness and national security, the researchers say.

Kudos, fatsos.

Maybe you can outsource self-defense.

I'll bet you can find some who are willing and happy to oblige.

Like these smiling folks:

An Op-Ed The LA Times Refused to Print

Here is an op-ed I submitted to the LA Times (LAT) re: an opinion piece it published about Jillian Michaels.

They declined to publish it.

That is their right and I have no point of contention with that.

I am posting it here because I believe it demonstrates how the MSM continues to misinform the public about matters of fitness, in this case weight loss, and how they fall flat in vetting their "experts."

I have changed the piece to include links to sources.

LAT Triple Threat – Innumeracy, Illiteracy and Irresponsibility

On October 11, LAT published a piece by James Fell re: Jillian Michaels’ kettle bell DVD. I have not seen the DVD, do not know if it suggests a nutrition plan and cannot argue with Fell’s contentions that Michaels is shameless and a danger.

My issues are with LAT.

Fell and, by implication from his website, his MD spouse, are anything but correct in the matter of weight loss. LAT should have figured this out before exposing its readers to their misinformation.

First. It is absolutely wrong to state that to lose 5 pounds per week, a “weekly deficit of 17,500 [C]alories” is necessary. (An uppercase “C” is correct since food energy is measured in kcal.)

This is proven by the physiologic parlor trick used in ketogenic diets where weight loss claims in excess of this amount are routine and met. (This is not an endorsement of ketogenic dieting for weight loss – an approach I generally consider improper.)

Second. It is a biologic, physiologic, physical and mathematical impossibility to lose one pound in one week by being in a daily caloric deficit of 500 Calories. The mistaken assumption underlying the Fells’ (and others) assertion is that a person can lose all the weight as fat. This is not possible as almost any basic physiology text will confirm.

Third. Had LAT simply checked the Fells’ website, it would have seen that they have a problem with numbers.

As an example, Fell and the Ms., MD, claim that “One pound of body muscle contains 2,500 Calories.” This is another impossibility.

There are 454 grams in a pound. Muscle is approximately 75% water. That leaves 25%, or 113.5 grams to contain calories. Even if muscle were all fat, at 9 kcal per gram, that would be only 1021.5 Calories.

I believe there are other problems with the LAT piece and the Fells’ website.

However, a greater issue is involved here – the repeated publicizing of weight loss misinformation by an uncritical media which, in the case of LAT, claims its “job is to tell readers what is true.”

For example, on May 02, 2005, LAT did a piece on “The 3-Hour Diet” by Jorge Cruise and David Katz, weight loss experts anointed by Oprah, a fat person and weight loss failure. LAT apparently did not consider it worthy to determine whether the authors’ claim that their diet was “Yale University endorsed” was true. Yale’s response to my inquiry indicated that it was not.

Fell’s piece was reported as a LAT op-ed. Even if the op-ed “mandate, as [LAT] see[s] it, is straightforward: to provide provocative, thoughtful commentary that is reasoned,” it does not necessarily follow that the job of telling the “readers what is true” has been eliminated. (Especially since this “might cast a shadow on the paper’s reputation.”)

It is clear to me that overweight/obesity are real problems that cause real suffering and incur real costs to real people. It is also clear to me that the misinformation dispersed by Big Media parroting the party lines of Big Sick Care, Big Government, Big Pharma, etc., serve more to injure the public than help.

IMHO, this LAT piece is yet another drop in an ocean of dross.

Readers interested in vetting my data are referred to:

1. Exercise Physiology, McArdle, Katch and Katch (editors)
2. www.JailForOprah.com
3. “Why diets fail – expert diet advice as a cause of diet failure.” American Psychologist, April 2007

Walking Correlates With Brain Volume, Cognitive Ability

Clearly.

Seniors committed to walking had larger gray-matter volume and less cognitive impairment years later than those with more sedentary habits, researchers said.

Among 299 cognitively normal participants in the large Cardiovascular Health Study, those in the top quartile of distance walked each week at baseline had markedly higher gray-matter volumes when measured by MRI nine years later compared with participants in the lower three quartiles, according to Kirk Erickson, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues.

That's gotta be it.

In Common Childhood Obesity, Gene Variants Raise Risk

No they don't.

A new study by pediatric researchers has added to the evidence that genes have a strong influence on childhood obesity.

The study team searched across the whole genomes of thousands of obese children for copy number variations (CNVs)--deletions or duplications of DNA sequences. Although the CNVs they found are rare within the population, their data suggest that those individuals harboring such variants are at a very high risk of becoming obese.

"Our study is the first large-scale, unbiased genome-wide scan of CNVs in common pediatric obesity," said study leader Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D., associate director of the Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "We found CNVs that were exclusive to obese children across two ethnicities-European Americans and African Americans."

Only Calories matter.

Besides, even if genes made a difference, what are they gonna do about it?

By the time they figure out how to re-engineer your genes, you will be dead. And you will no longer be a child.

However, if you are a fat idiot committed to a genetic "cure," better to go here and do what is more possible genetically.

Or eat fewer Calories than you burn.

I would choose the last option.

Insulin Resistance Linked to Strokes

Fat people get insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance appears to be associated with an increased risk of ischemic strokes among people without diabetes, according to a large prospective study.

The prospective cohort study of more than 1,500 non-diabetics found that people whose estimated insulin resistance was in the top quartile had nearly three times the risk of stroke as those with lower levels, Tatjana Rundek, MD, PhD, of the University of Miami, and colleagues reported.

Kudos, fatsos.

FDA warns 8 companies marketing miracle cures

But no government action against AdipOprah and her experts.

The Food and Drug Administration warned eight companies on Thursday to stop marketing miracle cures that claim to treat everything from autism to Parkinson's disease by flushing toxic metals from the body.

Regulators said the products, sold over the Internet, can cause dehydration, kidney failure and death. Known as chelation therapies, the products have been used for decades, although medical societies and government experts say there is no evidence they cure diseases.

Shameful.

Health Warning: Over-The-Counter Weight-Reducing Products Can Cause Harm And May Even Kill

More about natural products. Hey, not to worry. Death is natural.

The desire for a quick-fix for obesity fuels a lucrative market in so-called natural remedies. But a study of medical records in Hong Kong revealed 66 cases where people were suspected to have been poisoned by a "natural" slimming therapy. In eight cases the people became severely ill, and in one case the person died. The study is published today in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

The researchers looked at the ingredients in the 81 slimming products that these people had taken. They found 12 different agents that fell into five categories: undeclared weight-loss drugs; drug analogues (unlicensed chemical derivatives of licensed drugs); banned drugs; drugs used for an inappropriate indication; and thyroid hormones.

"People like the idea of using a natural remedy because they think that if it is natural, it will be safe. There are two problems here. Firstly not all natural agents are harmless, and secondly the remedies also contain potentially harmful manufactured drugs," says Dr Magdalene Tang, who works at the Toxicology Reference Laboratory at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong.

She believes that fewer people would use these products if they were more aware of the potential risks involved.

Maybe.

Oops.

Many obese people see no need to lose weight

And I see no need for the rest of us to pay for their diseases of choice.

A substantial proportion of obese people don't think they're too fat, new research shows.

Among more than 2,000 obese Dallas County residents surveyed in 2000-2002, 14 percent of African Americans and 11 percent of Hispanics -- but just 2 percent of whites -- believed that they needed to lose weight, Dr. Tiffany M. Powell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and her colleagues found.

And if you see no need either, go here and advocate on your own behalf.

US FDA warns of thigh fractures with bone drugs

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

Drugs widely used for the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis may raise the risk of an unusual type of thigh fracture, U.S. health officials warned on Wednesday.

All medicines in the class known as bisphosphonates will carry a new warning about the fractures, the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

The drugs, used by millions over the past decade, include Fosamax, Boniva, Reclast and Actonel. Fosamax also is sold generically under the name alendronate.

Patients, who are mostly women, take bisphosphonates to reduce the rate of fractures from osteoporosis.

Oops.

To understand how anabolic steroids can help, go here.

FDA admits mistake in approving knee device

The same folks who approved diet drugs. Go figger.

Almost two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration ignored the advice of its scientists and approved a knee implant after being lobbied by members of Congress. On Thursday, the agency issued an unprecedented "mea culpa," saying the device should not have been approved.

Better to be fit than at the mercy of FDA.

Light At Night Linked To Weight Gain Perhaps Due To Shift In Eating Times

This has got to be the key. Really. (It is ironic that light is accused of making someone heavy.)

In an article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they found that mice exposed to dim light during their sleeping hours for a period of eight weeks had a 50% higher weight gain compared to mice that slept in the dark. Even reducing their food intake and making them do more exercise did not bring their weight down to that of the other mice that slept in the dark, unless they made sure the availability of food matched a mouse's natural eating times.

Shut your eyes.

And you mouth.

Free Food, Some Oversight, and a Plan: Popular Commercial Diet Works in Randomized Trial

Wrong. It failed. Read on.

Obese women willing to enroll in a clinical trial, who receive prepackaged food items, counseling, and activity plans free of charge, and who are paid to come to follow-up appointments, can achieve substantial weight loss in one year and keep most of it off at year two, a new randomized clinical trial suggests [1]. Those with dyslipidemia at baseline also appear to be able to knock down their cholesterol and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.

Maybe they lost initially under ideal circumstances that cost huge resources.

But they started to gain it back.

At 24 months, 92% of the original study participants were reached for follow-up. Weight loss was greatest in the in-person counseling group, at 7.4 kg (down from 10.1 kg at 12 months), followed by 6.2 kg in the telephone counseling group (8.5 kg at 12 months), and 2.0 kg in the usual-care group (2.4 kg at 12 months).

Oh, and the study was done by someone who at one time worked for the commercial program.

Rock had previously served on the advisory board for...during 2003 and 2004.

Would this staged event work in real life?

...in an accompanying editorial [2], Dr Rena R Wing (Brown University, Providence, RI) writes that the time has come to compare commercial diets head to head. She also explores just why this particular diet worked, highlighting the intensive nature of both the in-person and telephone-based interventions and the willingness of the subjects to participate in the trial, and she points out that all aspects of the programs, including much of the food, were provided free of charge and subjects received reimbursement for attending follow-up visits. "An important question is whether an obese individual enrolling in this or a similar structured commercial weight-loss program will achieve similar results," Wing asks. "Most likely, the answer is no."

Indeed.

Public 'misled' by drug trial claims

Welcome to the world of diet drugs (and other drugs and supplements).

Doctors and patients are being misled about the effectiveness of some drugs because negative trial results are not published, experts have warned.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, they say that pharmaceutical companies should be forced to publish all data, not just positive findings.

Don't buy the crap.

If you did, sue.

Fitness is the best "drug" of all.

And when you are a bit older, anabolic steroids are the next best thing.

Can Vigorous Exercise Curb Drug Abuse? Researchers Want To Find Out

Good question.

Can exercise reduce cravings for drugs? UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators are conducting a research study to find out.

You decide.

13 Body Fat Distribution Genes Discovered, Some Stronger In Women Than Men

More bad news for a genetic "cure" for fatsoness.

A new study published at the weekend reports the findings of a large scale genetic study that identifies 13 new genes associated with body fat distribution, seven of which appear to have stronger effects in women than in men.

Make that over 6013, for those keeping count.

For a better shot at a genetic cure for fatosity, go here.

US Salt Intake Little Changed in 50 Years and Still Far Too High

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

A new review of 24-hour urinary sodium excretion as measured in a variety of US studies carried out in the past half century has found little change in salt consumption. The review was published online September 8, 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Lead author Dr Adam M Bernstein (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA) told heartwire that, if anything, he had expected to see an increase in sodium consumption between 1957 and 2003, given that data from food surveys had indicated this. "In fact, we saw a small increase over time, but it was nonsignificant. Essentially, it remained flat," he said.

Survey says, "Oops."

Study: Obesity care costs twice previous estimates

Kudos x 2, fatsos.

New research suggests that almost 17 percent of medical costs in the U.S. can be blamed on obesity.

It suggests that the nation's weight problem may be having close to twice the impact as previously estimated. The new study pegs annual obesity-related costs around $168 billion.

The new research was done by John Cawley of Cornell University and Chad Meyerhoefer of Lehigh University. It was released this week by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

If you are tired of paying for fat folks and their diseases of choice, go here.

The real number is probably higher, is my guess.

Pepper supplement may not work for weight loss

"May not"?

A chemical found in chili peppers that is being touted as a weight loss aid may not be as useful as its manufacturer would like people to think, a new study suggests.

Japanese food maker Ajinomoto claims that this chemical-called dihydrocapsiate-is "a great tool for weight management" that helps people burn calories, the company's Jun Tashiro told Reuters Health.

However, researchers found no change in body weight and only a small increase of around 50 more calories burned per day after people took a pill containing the compound.

They also did not find a significantly larger effect in high doses of dihydrocapsiate, for which they had chosen a goal of 75 calories burned per day. The researchers concluded that the compound had a relatively weak effect.

Does not.

Health Halos That Make Us Fat

Why menu labeling will not work.

If you think you eat healthier at the Sunburst Fresh Café than at Big Jims Beefy BBQ, you might be wrong. You could be a victim of the "Health Halo."

This study, presented at the Association for Consumer Research conference in Jacksonville, FL, showed that people eating at restaurants claiming to be "healthy" estimated they ate only 56% as many calories as they actually did. The problem was these people tended to reward themselves by eating more chips, fries, and cookies, according to authors Pierre Chandon of INSEAD and Brian Wansink of Cornell University.

In one experiment, people were given the same food but told it was from McDonalds or they were told it was from Subway. Even when eating the exact same food, people estimated the sandwich in the Subway wrapper contained 21% fewer calories than the one in the McDonald's wrapper. The problem, said Chandon, was "People can eat more at these "healthy" restaurants, but they think they ate less, so they then opt for a dessert."

People are innumerate.

The only hope is to make them pay for the consequences of their overeating Calories.

Link Between Fish Oil And Increased Risk Of Colon Cancer In Mice

Still think they have any idea what a "healthy" supplement is?

Fish oil - long encouraged by doctors as a supplement to support heart and joint health, among other benefits - induced severe colitis and colon cancer in mice in research led by Michigan State University and published this month in the journal Cancer Research.

Jenifer Fenton, a food science and human nutrition researcher at MSU, led the research that supports establishing a dose limit for docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the omega-3 fatty acids present in fish oil, particularly in people suffering from chronic conditions such as inflammatory bowel diseases.

"We found that mice developed deadly, late-stage colon cancer when given high doses of fish oil," she said. "More importantly, with the increased inflammation, it only took four weeks for the tumors to develop."

Oops.

Obese Workers Cost Workplace More Than Insurance, Absenteeism

Your only hope for a workplace wellness program that can succeed.

The cost of obesity among U.S. full-time employees is estimated to be $73.1 billion, according to a new study by a Duke University obesity researcher, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

This is the first study to quantify the total value of lost job productivity as a result of health problems, which it finds is more costly than medical expenditures.

Led by Eric Finkelstein, deputy director for health services and systems research at Duke-National University of Singapore, the study quantified the per capita cost of obesity among full-time workers by considering three factors: employee medical expenditures, lost productivity on the job due to health problems (presenteeism), and absence from work (absenteeism).

Collectively, the per capita costs of obesity are as high as $16,900 for obese women with a body mass index (BMI) over 40 (roughly 100 pounds overweight) and $15,500 for obese men in the same BMI class. Presenteeism makes up the largest share of those costs. Finkelstein found that presenteeism accounted for as much as 56 percent of the total cost of obesity for women, and 68 percent for men. Even among those in the normal weight range, the value of lost productivity due to health problems far exceeded the medical costs.

As part of this secondary analysis of the 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 2008 US National Health and Wellness Survey, presenteeism was measured and monetized as the lost time between arriving at work and starting work on days when the employee is not feeling well, and the average frequency of losing concentration, repeating a job, working more slowly than usual, feeling fatigued at work, and doing nothing at work. The study included data on individuals who are normal weight, overweight and obese, with sub-groupings based on BMI.

"Much work has already shown the high costs of obesity in medical expenditures and absenteeism, but our findings are the first to measure the incremental costs of presenteeism for obese individuals separately by BMI class and gender among full time employees," said Finkelstein, also associate research professor of global health at the Duke Global Health Institute. "Given that employers shoulder much of the costs of obesity among employees, these findings point to the need to identify cost-effective strategies that employers can offer to reduce obesity rates and costs for employees and families."

When all costs of obesity are combined, individuals with a body mass index greater than 35 (grades II and III obese) disproportionately account for 61 percent of the costs, yet they only represent 37 percent of the obese population. "The disproportionately high per capita and total cost of grade II and grade III obesity is particularly concerning given that these BMI ranges are the fastest-growing subset of the obese population," said Marco daCosta DiBonaventura of Kantar Health, a co-author of the study.

With a burgeoning obese population in the U.S., the study has important implications for employers, as they are faced with increasing costs to insure full-time workers.

"Our study provides evidence of yet another cost of obesity," said Finkelstein. "Employers should consider both the medical and productivity costs of obesity when thinking about investments in weight management or other wellness programs."

Good reasons not to hire the fat.

But if you do and you want to implement a workplace wellness program, this is your only chance of success.

Nothing else out there has a prayer of succeeding.

Folic acid supplements no help for the heart

Still think they have any idea what an effective supplement is?

Supplements containing folic acid are known to cut levels of a protein in the blood implicated in heart disease, but a large new analysis suggests that does not translate into a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer or death.

One in every three U.S. adults reports taking multivitamins containing folic acid. The B-vitamin has long been known to help prevent anemia and to reduce the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida.

More recently, folic acid was found to have a bonus benefit: lowering levels of a protein the body makes after eating meat - homocysteine -- which has been linked to cardiovascular and other health problems.

The connection seemed to suggest that the vitamin could also be a powerful ally in the fight against heart disease, as well as stroke and cancer.

"The homocysteine hypothesis of cardiovascular disease attracted considerable interest as homocysteine is easily lowered by dietary supplementation with folic acid and other B-vitamins," lead researcher Dr. Robert Clarke of the University of Oxford, in England, told Reuters Health in an e-mail...

However, no meaningful differences between the two groups were seen in the rates at which outcomes occurred, the researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Of the more than 9,000 first-time vascular events in the study group, for instance, 24.9 percent were in individuals taking folic acid and 24.8 percent in those on placebo. Major coronary events were also split evenly between the vitamin group (11.4 percent) and the placebo group (11.1 percent).

Well, they don't.

Fewer than 1 in 20 in U.S. eat enough whole grains

Enough for what? Certainly not for health (read on).

People who eat plenty of whole grains have higher quality diets overall, new research shows; the problem is that, in the U.S. at least, these people are few and far between.

Less than 5 percent of the 19- to 50-year-old Americans surveyed in 1999-2004 said they ate at least three servings of whole grain daily, according to the report in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association...

Because the study looked at only one point in time, it cannot assess the health effects of the subjects' eating habits.

Well, one thing is for sure, they do not know how it relates to health which seems like a pretty important thing to know if you are going to suggest that people should eat more or less of anything.

Another example of why these folks are not to be trusted.

Remember the five-a-day scam?

In long quest for diet drug, another setback for obese

Wrong. The stuff did not work, anyway. So there can be no "setback."

The withdrawal of the diet drug Meridia on Friday marks the latest setback in the long, frustrating quest for a pharmaceutical solution to the nation's obesity epidemic.

Despite millions of dollars in research by scientists and drug companies, only a handful of government-approved weight-loss drugs remain on the market. Only one can be used long term, and none is considered very effective.

"It's been very frustrating," said Jennifer Lovejoy, incoming president of the Obesity Society, a research and advocacy group. "We desperately need safe new drugs so we can begin to have something effective against this public health epidemic."

The search for a weight loss cure, once dismissed as a cosmetic luxury, has intensified as more than two-thirds of Americans have become overweight, including one-third who are obese, boosting their risk for a host of health problems.

The cure is and always will be fewer Calories in than out.

We do not "desperately need safe new drugs so we can begin to have something effective against this public health epidemic."

That is known as bulls**t.

Study Links Large Waist Size To Higher Diabetes Rates Among Americans

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Researchers say the findings offer more evidence that accumulating fat around the mid-section poses a health risk and suggests that studies of diabetes risk should emphasize waist size along with traditional risk factors.

Kudos, fatsos.

New! – Draft updated Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research - 2010

The open comment period extends until October 14.

I will leave this up daily until then.

The Draft Strategic Plan is a fatally flawed document.

If you care about your tax dollars being wasted in pursuit of frank foolishness, you should read it.

And comment.

Here is the link to the document.

Abbott withdraws diet pill in US, Canada

Good. Sue.

Abbott Laboratories said Friday it will withdraw its diet pill Meridia in the U.S. and Canada, almost a year after studies showed the drug increases the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with a history of heart disease.

Food and Drug Administration scientists said they requested the withdrawal because the drug's risks were not justified compared with "the very modest weight loss that people achieve on this drug."

Bye.

Heart Healthy Diet: Low Fat Or Low Carbs?

Today, low fat wins. Yesterday, it was low carb.

Losing weight, especially among adults who are very heavy to obese, is a good way to prevent the onset of atherosclerosis, the artery-thickening condition that leads to potentially deadly heart disease. A diet that is low in either fats or carbohydrates can help reduce weight. But which one is the more heart-healthy?

Shane Phillips, a University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor of physical therapy, says preliminary evidence favors the low-fat approach, and he cautions against recently popular low-carbohydrate diets, which usually allow generous portions of meats and other foods that can contain a lot of fat.

They have no idea what they are doing.

Just lose the weight and shut out the noise of the experts.

Worker obesity costs more than healthcare

More support for paying fat people lees than intended-size humans.

The per capita costs of obesity for full-time U.S. employees are $16,900 for women 100 pounds overweight and $15,500 for obese men, researchers say.

Study leader Eric Finkelstein of Duke University and Duke-National University of Singapore says the study quantified the per capita cost of obesity among full-time workers by considering employee medical expenditures, lost productivity on the job due to health problems, known as presenteeism and absence from work or absenteeism.

Don't hire 'em.

Public health advocates worry that dietary advice will get lost in translation

And whose fault is that? Solution at the end of the post. For those too excited to wait, go here. (I wrote this piece prior to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It still makes sense.)

Every five years the federal government updates its dietary guidelines for Americans. This year, with most Americans overweight or obese and at risk of high blood pressure, policymakers are working to reinvent the familiar food pyramid and develop advice that is simple and blunt enough to help turn the tide.

Although most people do not read them, the guidelines have broad impact on Americans' lives.

How can something that is not read get "lost in translation?"

In any event, here is more of the bulls**t excusing the problem:

Even if the political will is there, developing useful advice remains a challenge. It has to be broad enough to apply to myriad ethnic and other taste preferences.

Crap.

It is all about Calories in vs. Calories out and the ethnicity and culture and taste preferences of the consumer matter not a whit.

According to a study conducted by the International Food Information Council, an industry trade group, 46 percent of consumers agree that food and health information is often confusing and conflicting. And no wonder: Eggs, once shunned because of cholesterol, are now praised for their protein content. Carbohydrates, once exiled from fashionable plates, are back in vogue, provided they come from whole grains. This year, 88 percent of Americans were unable to accurately estimate the number of calories they should consume, up from 85 percent in 2009.

"We can't load people down with different messages," said the USDA's Post. "We have to focus on practical, simple, easily applied messages that show action that consumers can take."

There is no easier message than it is all about the Calories.

Of course, a problem is that most people are innumerate, or at least 88% cannot "accurately estimate the number of calories they should consume."

This, too, is easy. (If you need help, it is all in here.) And another reason why BMI is so useful.

Of all the indicators of overfatness, it is the only one that allows a person to calculate the number of Calories to consume.

The current version, called MyPyramid, was unveiled in 2005 and has been widely judged a failure. Where the original pyramid placed staples in the broad bottom of the triangle and special-occasion foods at the narrow top, MyPyramid is abstract. Six swaths of color, representing grains, vegetables, fruits, oils, milk, and meat and beans, sweep from the apex of the triangle to base. The width of the color bands, which is often difficult to distinguish, is meant to represent the amount of each food group people should eat. For details about serving sizes and other information, consumers must access the Web site, MyPyramid.gov.

"We've heard a lot of views about the pyramid," said Post. "The questions we're asking are: Does it convey everything we want? Does it convey anything meaningful?"

Post gave no details about what new concepts the agency is considering. But sources say the CDC, an adviser to the process, has requested information on a proposal that would replace the pyramid with a plate of food that visually demonstrates a healthful meal - an approach developed by the National Cancer Institute.

Whatever policymakers decide, the guidelines must take a new approach, said Linda Van Horn, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University and chairman of the 2010 dietary guidelines advisory committee: "What has been done till now isn't working. To do nothing more effective than we have means that five years from now we'll be in an even worse situation. And that would be unconscionable."

There is only one approach to take - the Calories approach because that is all that matters.

Any other approach is "unconscionable."

Here is a better approach, IMHO. (Same link as the one at the top of the post.)

Is Your Job Making You Fat?

Unless your job is overconsuming Calories, the answer is "No."

Working nine-to-five may be the way to make a living, but it may be padding more than the wallet. According to a new study from the Université de Montréal, office-workers have become less active over the last three decades and this decreased activity may partly explain the rise in obesity. Their findings, published in the early online edition of Preventive Medicine, may have health implications for the millions of people toiling behind their desks.

"People eat better and exercise more today than they did in the 1970's, yet obesity rates continue to rise," says lead author Carl-Étienne Juneau a researcher at the Université de Montréal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine. "My hypothesis is that our professional life is linked to this seemingly contradictory phenomenon."

Your hypothesis is wrong.

Idiot.

Double Whammy: Eating Disorders, Self-Injury Linked, According to Study

This is not a "double whammy." It is more ABCNews s**t for brains reporting.

Now, a study published in the latest edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health has found a link in adolescents between eating disorders and non-lethal, self-injurious behaviors like cutting and burning. It also found that in most cases, clinicians didn't screen for such behaviors.

"Self-injurious behaviors have been shown to be common in adults with eating disorders and in adolescents with bulimia in small studies," said study author Dr. Rebecka Peebles, formerly an instructor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and now an assistant professor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Making yourself fat (or Auschwitz thin) is already a form of self-injury.

Bone Study Finds No Benefit from Extra Vitamin D

Still think they have any idea what an effective supplement is?

Vitamin D supplements may not always make a difference in a child's bone density, a new review finds.

Children with normal vitamin D levels didn't show improvements in their bone density after taking vitamin D supplements, according to a review of six studies. The studies involved nearly 900 participants, ages 1 month to 19 years, who took a vitamin D supplement or a placebo for three months.

Oops.

Fattening Pollutants? Study Suggests Chemicals In Mother's Blood Contribute To Child's Obesity

"Fattening Pollutants? Study Confirms Researchers Have S**t For Brains."

Babies whose mothers had relatively high levels of the chemical DDE in their blood were more likely to both grow rapidly during their first 6 months and to have a high body mass index (BMI) by 14 months, according to a team of scientists based in Barcelona, Spain. DDE, an endocrine disrupter, is a by-product of the pesticide DDT.

And what would happen if these kids were fed fewer Calories?

Poof!

Obesity gone!

Proposed Dietary Guidelines For Americans Sharply Debated

Clearly the Dietary Guidelines and the Food Pyramid are flops.

A special article published in the journal Nutrition sharply criticizes the recent Report of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). Authors Hite et al. argue the Report fails to conform to the standards of evidence-based medicine, despite its claimed reliance on a newly created USDA Nutrition Evidence Library. The authors call the DGAC to task for failing to consider recent scientific results while at the same time further confusing the American public.

However, clearly there is no good evidence that the next group of experts will do anything different from making other silly recommendations.

Plainly and simply what needs to be done is stop all the ridiculous research into a problem whose cause is known with 100% certainty and whose solution is known with 100% certainty and begin to have fatsos pay for their illnesses of choice.

When that day arrives, wisdom will prevail.

Until then, this prevails...

Employer wellness programs could benefit families

But they don't, as this study demonstrates.

Researchers from IBM and the University of Michigan found that a relatively inexpensive short-term intervention program can pay off particularly big for children's health, and even for a company's bottom line.

Whether or not participants would stick to their new healthy behaviors after the program ends remains unclear.

In 2008, IBM launched an Internet-based "children's rebate program" that let employees and their families choose from a selection of goals revolving around healthy eating, group physical activity, reduced "screen time" and positive parental role-modeling. A $150 check was offered as incentive to complete the 12-week program.

More than 22,000 employees signed on to participate, representing about half of all employees with children covered by IBM's health plan. Approximately 12,000 finished the program and received the rebate.

Note how half of the parents do not care enough about their children to even complete the program - though the program would not have helped, anyway. (You could argue that this group was smart enough to bail on a losing proposition that paid only $150 for 12 weeks "work.")

In the IBM study, the families' activities and progress were self-reported. Sepulveda and his colleagues intentionally avoided requiring participants to weigh-in or provide other body measurements to the company, to minimize privacy concerns that might put off anyone from joining.

The team found that employees were more likely to complete the program, as well as make substantial progress toward their goals, if they were female and had young children.

The largest improvements seen at the end of the study were in physical activity, with an average increase of 17 percent for families and 16 percent for children, the researchers report in the journal Pediatrics.

Physical activity is the absolute worst way to shed pounds.

The benefits of such an intervention also extend to the employer. For example, children who are obese and have type 2 diabetes incur five times the health care costs of a child that is neither obese nor diabetic, noted Sepulveda. He added that unhealthy kids also substantially slow a parent's productivity.

Further, the researchers note that a Web-based program, such as the one implemented at IBM, could be cost-efficient for employers, as well as convenient for employees.

"On a per capita basis, this is really cheap. The most expensive part was the rebate," Sepulveda said. The program itself was only one third the cost of the rebate, he pointed out, and such incentives may not even be necessary for companies that have already succeeded in engaging their employees in workplace health programs.

Sepulveda and his team do recognize some limitations to their study. Employees who volunteered for the program may have been more motivated to make healthy changes than those who did not participate. And without a comparison group, the researchers were unable to determine if the intervention was the true source of the health improvements.

Note, there WERE NO IMPROVEMENTS.

There were only self-reported data that they engaged in more physical activity.

But, no results documented.

If it worked, the results would have been published. You can bet on that.

For a workplace wellness program that has a chance of succeeding, go here.

One fifth of Americans have arthritis, survey shows

G'wan, guess who gets arthritis more than intended-size people.

More than 22 percent of Americans have arthritis, with a million new cases being diagnosed every year, according to a new government estimate released on Thursday.

As the population ages, the problem will get worse and more expensive, too, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said.

The CDC team used a large federal survey called the National Health Interview Survey, in which thousands of Americans are asked a battery of questions about their health.

Survey data from 2007 to 2009 showed 22 percent of Americans, or just under 50 million people, had arthritis diagnosed by a doctor, the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

"After adjustment for age, arthritis prevalence was significantly higher among women (24.3 percent) than among men (18.2 percent)," the report reads.

Nearly 30 percent of the obese had arthritis, and those who exercised less, smoked more and who had lower levels of education were also more likely to have arthritis.

Kudos, fatsos.

EASD: Fracture Risk Demands Attention in Diabetes Patients

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Because type 2 diabetes weakens the bone in often undetectable ways, both directly and indirectly via treatment side effects, experts here urged increased awareness.

Fracture has gained attention as a complication of the thiazolidinediones, but bone complications remain under-recognized in diabetes overall, Per-Henrik Groop, MD, DMSc, of the University of Helsinki, told reporters at a press conference at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting.

One big part of the problem is the "invisible" damage, explained Peter Vestergaard, MD, PhD, of Aarhus University Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark.

"Before you are able to do something about a problem you need to be aware that it's there," he told reporters.

Typically, osteoporosis can be monitored through progressively declining bone mineral density. But Vestergaard's research has revealed greater structural frailty of bone in diabetes than expected for a given level of bone mineralization.

"When you measure in diabetics, their bone may look like normal bone at least under the scanners we use nowadays," he said at the press conference. "However, it fractures."

The biomechanical problems with bones in diabetes patients aren't fully understood yet, but the collagen that give bone its flexibility appears to be implicated, Vestergaard noted.

Kudos, fatsos.

Another disease of choice.

And you expect us to pay for that, too.

NY seeks to ban sugary drinks from food stamp buys

Good...

Using food stamps to buy sodas, teas, sports drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages would not be allowed in New York City under a new government effort to battle obesity.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson announced Thursday that they are seeking permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the nation's food stamp program, to add sugary drinks to the list of prohibited goods for city residents receiving assistance.

...or bad?

I know the answer.

Do you?

Vigorous Exercise Reduces Breast Cancer Risk In African-American Women

Let's play the researcher game!

Vigorous exercise of more than two hours per week reduces the risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal African-American women by 64 percent, compared to women of the same race who do not exercise, according to researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center...

"We suggest that our findings, while promising, should be interpreted with caution. This is a pilot study and a larger, more rigorous study is needed to precisely quantify the effect of exercise on development of breast cancer. I think it is fair to conclude that if African American women exercise they can help take charge of their health," said Sheppard.

Combine this with the post below.

Conclusion: Low Vitamin D causes black women not to exercise so they get breast cancer. Give them Vitamin D and they will exercise vigorously.

Congratulations! Now you are a researcher.

Vitamin D Levels Lower In African-Americans

Let's play the researcher game!

African-American women had lower vitamin D levels than white women, and vitamin D deficiency was associated with a greater likelihood for aggressive breast cancer, according to data presented at the Third AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities...

Steck said the findings of this study provide a foundation for a possible prevention strategy, but further research would be required.

Combine this with the post above.

Conclusion: Black women with breast cancer do not exercise enough because their Vitamin D is low. Give them more Vitamin D and they will exercise.

Congratulations! Now you are a researcher.

Moving Closer To Outdoor Recreation Not A Recipe For Being More Physically Active

This is news?

You'd think that people choosing to live near to outdoor recreation amenities would have a lower body mass index or BMI thanks to an increase in all that healthy outdoor activity right on one's doorstep. Yet a new University of Alberta study looking at the relationship between reasons for choosing a neighbourhood to live in, physical activity and BMI, shows that's simply not the case.

In fact researchers found that those who said they'd moved to be closer to outdoor recreation opportunities actually showed a marked increase in BMI over the six years of a longitudinal study conducted from 2002 to 2008, and led by Tanya Berry of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation.

Another excuse for being fat debunked, putting the lie to the politically motivated, scientifically challenged morons who want to "cure" overweight/obesity by changing the built environment.

No, fools, if you build it it does not mean that they will come. Only in the movies, not in real life.

The condition of being a fat, lazy slob is transportable into any environment.

Shut up, you idiots.

Lifestyle Changes Work over Long Term in Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes. It is a choice if lifestyle changes can "fix" it. Another reason not to pay for the caloric irresponsibility of fatsos.

An intensive lifestyle intervention resulted in sustained improvements in several cardiovascular risk factors among patients with type 2 diabetes, a randomized trial showed.

Over four years, the intervention improved weight, fitness, glycemic control, blood pressure, and levels of HDL cholesterol and triglycerides compared with diabetes support and education (P<0.05 for all), according to Rena Wing, PhD, of the Miriam Hospital in Providence, R.I., and colleagues.

You wanna live, fatsos?

Pay for your own rescue or change your habits.

Leave the rest of us alone.

Child Protective Services Found Ineffective

Why nutritional child abuse continues without relief for the kids.

Investigations by Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies following suspected episodes of child abuse were seldom followed by improvements in household risk factors for future abuse -- casting doubt on the agencies' effectiveness, researchers said.

Among 595 households followed in a longitudinal study of risk factors for child abuse, those subjected to CPS investigations showed few major differences afterward in abuse risks that existed before the inspection, compared with households that had not been assessed, according to Kristine A. Campbell, MD, MSc, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues.

Even in those households where child abuse was substantiated, interviews afterward indicated that "modifiable risk factors" -- such as social support, family functioning, and child behavioral problems -- remained largely unchanged, the researchers reported in the October issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

"Our finding that CPS investigation is not associated with improvements in common, modifiable risk factors suggests that we may be missing an opportunity for secondary prevention," Campbell and colleagues concluded. They noted that CPS investigations provide "unique access into high-risk households" and an opportunity for interventions that "reduce repeat maltreatment and improve outcomes."

More ineffectiveness in protecting our children from parental abuse.

Terrible.