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.

Pioneering Study Will Examine Whether Changes In Microbiome As A Result Of Antibiotic Use Have Fueled The Epidemic Of Obesity

Hooray! Another chance for us to transplant our s**t into fat people!

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that Martin J. Blaser, MD, the Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center has been awarded one of only twenty NIH Director's Transformative Research Projects (T-R01) award for research entitled "Disappearing Gastrointestinal Microbiota in Epidemic Obesity. The project will examine whether changes in the human microbiome as a result of antibiotic use early in life has fueled the epidemic of obesity. The amount of the award is approximately $6.6 million over a five year period...

Currently, over 1/3 of U.S. adults are obese and one of six children are overweight. In fact, rates of obesity have increased so rapidly over the past three decades that scientists believe that there must be an environmental cause. Dr. Blaser and colleagues hypothesize that antibiotic use early in life has resulted in the disappearance, or extinction, of key microbiota in the human gastrointestinal tract.

Give so the fat can live. Everybody (lean).

Pine Bark Extract Does Not Protect From Heart Disease

Say it ain't so.

Taking pine bark at 200 milligrams daily may be safe, but it makes no difference to your heart attack risk, say researchers in a new study reported in Archives of Internal Medicine, September 27.

Go figure how it cannot work since there are no reported epidemics of heart disease in beavers.

Program Gets Families to Live Healthier

More yellow journalism and lies. The program proved no such results.

Short-term benefits were seen from an employer-sponsored online wellness program -- coupled with a cash incentive -- aimed at getting families to practice healthier behaviors, researchers found.

The program resulted in improvements in healthy eating, physical activity, and amount of entertainment screen time -- with the largest gains being in the frequency of physical activity -- among almost 12,000 people who completed the program, Martín-J. Sepúlveda, MD, of the IBM Corporation, and colleagues reported online ahead of the publication of the October issue of Pediatrics.

Although the study did not include a control group, "the results ... show that employers can activate parents and support a role for employers in community-based strategies for obesity prevention in children," Sepúlveda and co-authors commented...

Sepúlveda and his colleagues noted some limitations to their study, including its observational design without a control group, the lack of information on weight and other biometric measures for participants, the use of self-reported behavioral data, and possible selection bias.

Do not fall for the hype.

If you want to establish a workplace wellness program that has a chance of succeeding, go here.

Overweight or Obese Men Without Metabolic Syndrome May Be at Increased Risk for Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is FAT PERSON diabetes, not metabolic syndrome person diabetes.

Overweight or obese men are at increased risk for diabetes even in the absence of the metabolic syndrome, according to the results of a study reported online September 17 in Diabetes Care.

"The existence of an obese sub-group, with a healthy metabolic profile and low diabetes risk, has been proposed," write Johan Ärnlöv, MD, PhD, from Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues. "Yet, long term data is lacking. We aimed to investigate associations between combinations of body mass index (BMI)-categories and metabolic syndrome (MetS), and risk of type 2 diabetes in middle-aged men."

As part of the community-based ULSAM-study, 1675 participants without diabetes were evaluated at age 50 years for cardiovascular risk factors. At baseline, these participants were classified as normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m2) without metabolic syndrome according to National Cholesterol Education Program criteria (n = 853), normal weight with metabolic syndrome (n = 60), overweight (BMI 25 - 30 kg/m2) without metabolic syndrome (n = 557), overweight with metabolic syndrome (n = 117), obese (BMI > 30 kg/m2) without metabolic syndrome (n = 28), and obese with metabolic syndrome (n = 60). Using logistic regression models to adjust for age, smoking, and physical activity, the investigators examined the relationships between these categories and diabetes incidence.

Diabetes was diagnosed in 160 participants at 20 years. Compared with normal-weight men without metabolic syndrome, risks for diabetes were increased in normal-weight men with metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR], 3.28; 95% CI, 1.38 - 7.81; P = .007), overweight men without metabolic syndrome (OR, 3.49; 95% CI, 2.26 - 5.42; P < .001), overweight men with metabolic syndrome (OR, 7.77; 95% CI, 4.44 - 13.62; P < .001), obese men without metabolic syndrome (OR, 11.72; 95% CI, 4.88 - 28.16; P < .001), and obese men with metabolic syndrome (OR, 10.06; 95% CI, 5.19 - 19.51; P < .001).

"Overweight or obese men without MetS were at increased risk for diabetes," the study authors write. "Our data provide further evidence that overweight and obesity in the absence of the MetS should not be considered a harmless condition."

Duh.

VITAMINS MAY BOOST HIV SHEDDING IN BREAST MILK

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

A study of HIV-infected mothers in Tanzania shows that vitamin A and beta carotene (VA/AB) supplementation increases the HIV load in breast milk, thus increasing the risk of mother-to-child transmission.

"Daily supplementation of HIV-infected lactating women with high doses of vitamin A and beta-carotene cannot be safely recommended," the investigators say.

Oops.

Willenhall woman admits posing as dentist

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A woman who posed as a dentist has admitted carrying out work on hospital patients despite not being qualified...

Sharma admitted one count of using a forged degree and four counts of obtaining a pecuniary advantage.

She was accused of taking the money from the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals, Peterborough and Stamford, Basildon and Thurrock, Southend-on-Sea and Burton-upon-Trent NHS trusts.

Oops.

House Delays Child Nutrition Reauthorization

Good news! The legislation is a piece of crap and The First Lady, who is overweight (see images below) is an idiot.

Last night, the US House of Representatives adjourned without passing Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation. The School Nutrition Association, a non-profit organization representing school foodservice professionals, expressed disappointment, but called on Congress to use the days before the elections to improve on the legislation.

In fact, the legislation will INCREASE the number of Calories kids consume.

"America has reached a tipping point," said Rice. "Many members of Congress, the Administration, the First Lady, parents and advocates nationwide have to all come together in support of expanding children's access to healthy school meals and ensuring that all food sold at school meets nutrition standards. We cannot let our children down. Congress must pass an improved Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill this year."

They took the first step - they killed (hopefully for good) this idiotic piece of legislation.

Here are some images of Michellesie "The Cow" Obama, our role model for achieving a proper weight:

Heightened Suicide Risk After Weight-Loss Surgery

Wouldn't it be better just to lose the weight naturally - which you can?

Severely obese people who undergo weight-loss surgery may have a higher-than-average risk of suicide in the years following the procedure, a new study finds.

The report, published online September 14th in The American Journal of Medicine, adds to earlier evidence of this trend. But whereas most earlier studies came out of single institutions, the current one looked at data for all bariatric surgeries performed in the state of Pennsylvania over a 10-year period.

Among 16,683 patients who had bariatric surgery between 1995 and 2004, 31 had committed suicide by the end of 2006, the researchers found. The data translate into a suicide rate of nearly 14 per 10,000 men per year, and five per 10,000 women each year.

Those numbers are substantially higher than the suicide rates among Pennsylvanians in the same 35-to-64 age range, during the same period. Among all men in the state, the suicide rate in 2005 was 2.5 per 10,000, while the rate among women was 0.6 per 10,000.

Really.

Vulnerable elderly 'forced to pay for medical care'

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country." Donald Berwick, MD, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Vulnerable elderly people are being unfairly forced to pay for health care, the new chairman of the House of Commons health committee says.

Stephen Dorrell said patients with conditions such as dementia used to get free care in NHS geriatric hospitals.

But the number of places has fallen by nearly 80% in the UK over the past 20 years - despite the ageing population...

But Mr Dorrell was speaking about a specific group of patients whom he believes the NHS has turned its back on.

Ignored

As well as dementia patients this includes people such as stroke victims and those with Parkinson's disease who struggle to get the NHS to pay for medical treatment they receive.

Oops.

Kids Have Taste for Fats and Sugars

So do adults.



Stupid to the max.

For kids in the U.S., almost half of their daily energy intake comes from 'empty calories' -- foods such as soda and pizza that have little nutritional value, researchers say.

Of an average 2,200 daily calories, around 800 are attributable to solid fats or added sugars, Jill Reedy, PhD, MPH, RD, and Susan M. Krebs-Smith, PhD, MPH, RD, of the National Cancer Institute, reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association...

They found that the top sources of energy were:

Grain desserts -- cakes, cookies, doughnuts, pies, crisps, cobblers, and granola bars -- totaling 138 calories per day
Pizza, a close second at 136 calories daily
Soda, trailing behind at 118 calories per day

When adding fruit juices to the latter, the amount of energy from the sugar-sweetened beverage category rose to 173 calories.

Nearly 40% of all energy consumed was in the form of empty calories, with 433 calories from solid fats and 365 from added sugars.

That far exceeded federal daily recommendations on empty foods, which are limited to between 8% and 20% of daily energy depending on age.

Half of those empty calories came from six foods -- soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk...

Evolutionarily, she said, humans are wired to prefer sweets and fats because they are quick sources of energy that can enhance survival. In fact, she said, breast milk is fairly sweet.

Just note the following and think about them.

The average Caloric intake was 2200 Calories. The "top sources of energy" added up to 447 Calories (presumably on average), including fruit juices, which are now "junk foods" and sources of "empty Calories," incidentally.

This means that, on average, 20% of the Calories were from the "top sources of energy," and within the "federal daily recommendations on empty foods."

In addition to fruit juices being characterized as "junk food" (according to this article) so is whole milk and unspecified (in the article) "dairy desserts," possibly derived from whole milk, e.g., yogurt, and "grain desserts," which could have been from the much touted whole grains (no breakdown appeared in the article).

If that is the case, it is not that these foods are so-called junk foods, they are simply too high in Calories. The nutritional value of, say, skim milk differs from whole milk primarily in the number of Calories and whole grain "granola bars," for example, can contain too many Calories from the grains themselves and/or from added sweetener or other flavors, e.g., fruits (is fruit another source of empty Calories when found in a "granola bar"?)

Which brings us to the only thing that really matters in the weight debate, Calories in vs. Calories out.

Also note the insanity of their approach, which is to fight what "humans are wired to prefer [-] sweets and fats."

Apparently we are wired to prefer researchers with s**t for brains.

QED

Told to Eat Its Vegetables, America Orders Fries

It is not about the vegetables and vegetables are not the key. Calories in vs. Calories out is.

Still, this is more information reinforcing why the rest of us should not pay for fat people's diseases of choice.

Though at Fitness Watch we remain steadfast that caloric intake control is the main goal, that people simply are unwilling to do what it takes to improve their health and lessen the burden they place on the rest of us is the real point of this article.

It’s been a busy week for vegetables.

The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans.

On the East Side of Manhattan, crates of heirloom vegetables with names like Lady Godiva squash were auctioned for $1,000 each at Sotheby’s, where the wealthy are more accustomed to bidding on Warhols and Picassos than turnips and tomatoes.

Both efforts, high and low, are aimed at the same thing: getting America to eat its vegetables.

Good luck. Despite two decades of public health initiatives, stricter government dietary guidelines, record growth of farmers’ markets and the ease of products like salad in a bag, Americans still aren’t eating enough vegetables.

This month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a comprehensive nationwide behavioral study of fruit and vegetable consumption. Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include French fries.)

These results fell far short of health objectives set by the federal government a decade ago. The amount of vegetables Americans eat is less than half of what public health officials had hoped. Worse, it has barely budged since 2000.

“It is disappointing,” said Dr. Jennifer Foltz, a pediatrician who helped compile the report. She, like other public health officials dedicated to improving the American diet, concedes that perhaps simply telling people to eat more vegetables isn’t working.

“There is nothing you can say that will get people to eat more veggies,” said Harry Balzer, the chief industry analyst for the NPD Group, a market research company.

This week, the company released the 25th edition of its annual report, “Eating Patterns in America.” The news there wasn’t good, either. For example, only 23 percent of meals include a vegetable, Mr. Balzer said. (Again, fries don’t count, but lettuce on a hamburger does.) The number of dinners prepared at home that included a salad was 17 percent; in 1994, it was 22 percent.

At restaurants, salads ordered as a main course at either lunch or dinner dropped by half since 1989, to a mere 5 percent, he said...

The food industry has tried to make eating vegetables easier. Sales of convenience vegetables, like packages of cut broccoli designed to go right into the microwave, are growing. Washed, ready-to-eat bagged salads are a $3-billion-a-year business.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean people are eating more vegetables. It just means they are shifting their vegetable budget from one place to another, Mr. Balzer said. An organic cucumber might replace a conventionally grown one. A bag of lettuce replaces a head.

But as in past attempts to revive the vegetable, none of this will necessarily be enough to change a clear aversion to eating vegetables.

“Eating vegetables is a lot less fun than eating flavor-blasted Doritos,” said Marcia Mogelonsly, a senior analyst for Mintel, a global marketing firm. “You will always have to fight that.”

The solutions are clear - we must stop paying to rescue people from their diseases of choice and we must provide accurate, realistic, human behavior-based weight loss information if people are to have a chance at success.

Not the kind of crap that spouts from AdipOprah and her experts.

There are no other choices.

Teasing About Weight Can Affect Pre-Teens Profoundly, Study Suggests

So don't nutritionally abuse your kids if you really care.

Schoolyard taunts of any type can potentially damage a child's sense of self-confidence. But a new study suggests that a particular kind of teasing -- about weight -- can have distinctive and significant effects on how pre-teens perceive their own bodies.

The research, among the first to specifically examine the impact of weight-based criticism on pre-adolescents, also hints that the practice can cause other health and emotional issues for its victims.

The "victims" are not from the alleged taunts.

The victims are from their abusive parents.

Put the responsibility where it really lies.

Flow of Empty Calories Into Children's Food Supply Must Be Reduced, Experts Urge

STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

With over 23 million children and adolescents in the US overweight or obese, the risks for many chronic diseases continue to increase. An article in the October issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association examines the diets of American youth and finds some disturbing results.

"The epidemic of obesity among children and adolescents is now widely regarded as one of the most important public health problems in the US," commented Jill Reedy, PhD, MPH, RD, and Susan M. Krebs-Smith, PhD, MPH, RD, both of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD. "Most experts agree that the solution will involve changes in both diet and physical activity, in order to affect energy balance. For diet, this means a reduction in energy from current consumption levels…This paper identifies the major sources of overall energy and empty calories, providing context for dietary guidance that could specifically focus on limiting calories from these sources and for changes in the food environment. Product reformulation alone is not sufficient -- the flow of empty calories into the food supply must be reduced."

For 2-18 year olds, the top sources of energy were grain desserts, pizza, and soda. Sugar-sweetened beverages (soda and fruit drinks combined) provided almost 10% of total calories consumed. Nearly 40% of total calories consumed by 2-18 year olds were in the form of empty calories from solid fat and from added sugars. Half of empty calories came from six foods: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza, and whole milk.

There is no such thing as an "empty Calorie."

All Calories are created equal and contain 4186.8 joules of energy.

An "empty Calorie" is like an inch without length. It cannot exist.



There are no "empty Calories" and it is absolutely impossible for a food or beverage to be without nutritional value. There are 7 nutrients - fat, carbohydrate, protein, minerals, vitamins, water and alcohol.

You might have a gripe with how the Calories are distributed, e.g., you want more protein and less fat, but there is and can never be an empty Calorie or a food that is not nutritious since all food is composed nearly 100% of nutrients (with the exceptions of preservatives and the like).

The fact is, that if you fed the piglets and their parental pigs the same number of Calories but from different foods, the results would likely not be substantially different over the long haul.

There is one way to ameliorate the issue with a change in foods. That is to overeat Calories, if you are going to overeat Calories, in the forms of protein and carbohydrate instead of fat.

The reason is that the body uses more energy to convert protein and carbohydrate into body fat than it does to convert fat from food into body fat. The result is that you add less fat to your body per overeaten Calorie.

So what is meant by an "empty Calorie" to these researchers?

According to one source reporting on their study.

An empty calorie has the same number of calories - energy content - as any other calorie, but does not have the accompanying nutrients, such as dietary minerals, antioxidants, amino acids, fiber or vitamins.

Think about it.

The logical extension of their position is that if people overconsumed Calories from what they term "junk food," but took a multivitamin/multimineral pill (which has no Calories) to augment what is allegedly missing from the foods with "empty Calories," then they would not get fat. (Amino acids compose proteins - a macronutrient we are told Americans already eat to excess - and contain Calories.)

These experts remain STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

Lifestyle Intervention for Overweight Patients With Diabetes Provides Long-Term Benefits

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

An intensive lifestyle intervention appears to help individuals with type 2 diabetes lose weight and keep it off, along with improving fitness, control of blood glucose levels and risk factors for cardiovascular disease, according to a report in the September 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Improving blood glucose control and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes is critical in preventing long-term complications of the disease, according to background information in the article. Emphasis has been placed on screening and pharmacologic management of these parameters. "Lifestyle-based weight loss interventions are also recommended to improve glycemic control and risk factors, but the evidence supporting the efficacy of lifestyle approaches is limited to short-term studies of typically less than one year," the authors write.

The Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) Research Group conducted a multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of an intensive lifestyle intervention to diabetes support and education among 5,145 overweight or obese individuals (average age 58.7) with type 2 diabetes. Of these, 2,570 were assigned to the lifestyle intervention, a combination of diet modification and physical activity designed to induce a 7 percent weight loss in the first year and maintain it in subsequent years. Participants were seen and contacted by phone at least monthly for all four years. The 2,575 individuals assigned to the diabetes support and education group were invited to three group sessions each year focusing on diet, physical activity and social support.

On average, across the four-year period, individuals in the lifestyle intervention group lost a significantly larger percentage of their weight than did those in the diabetes support group (6.2 percent vs. 0.9 percent). They also experienced greater improvements in fitness, hemoglobin A1c level (a measure of blood glucose), blood pressure and levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or "good" cholesterol). Individuals in the diabetes support group, on the other hand, experienced greater reductions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol, owing to greater use of cholesterol-lowering medications in this group.

At the end of four years, the lifestyle intervention group maintained greater improvements in weight, fitness, hemoglobin A1c levels, systolic (top number) blood pressure and HDL levels. "Although the differences between the two groups were greatest initially and decreased over time for several measures, the differences between the groups averaged across the four years were substantial and indicate that the intensive lifestyle intervention group spent a considerable time at lower cardiovascular disease risk," the authors write.

"The critical question is whether the differences between groups in risk factors will translate into differences in the development of cardiovascular disease," they continue. "These results will not be available for several additional years.

As long as the fat pay for it themselves, go for it.

And if it is important enough to them, they will.

Otherwise, deathstyle intervention works, too.

Rise in number of Scots hospitals buying 'obesity beds'

Wonder why.

Hospitals in Scotland have invested thousands of pounds into purchasing specialist beds which can take patients weighing up to 78 stone.

A Freedom of Information request by the Press Association revealed that seven NHS boards had spent more than £154,000 since 2008 on the "bariatric beds".

At least five health boards have also spent thousands hiring beds for patients weighing more than 50 stone.

It is understood the beds are more commonly needed as obesity rates rise.

Oh,

That's why.

Kudos, fatsos.

Alert issued on danger supplement

It's a miracle! Really.

Food watchdogs have issued an alert after finding that a chemical marketed online as a health supplement was similar to industrial-strength bleach.

'Miracle Mineral Supplement' is 28% sodium chlorite - which becomes bleach when mixed with citric acid.

Even taken as instructed, experts say it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea - and mixing it wrongly could lead to respiratory failure.

The Food Standards Agency is seeking to track down any UK-based sellers.

The supplement, which claims to have beneficial effects against a wide range of illnesses, ranging from HIV and hepatitis to H1N1 flu, has already been the subject of warnings from the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) in the US.

Now UK consumers are being urged to dispose of the supplement as soon as possible, and help the Food Standards Agency and local authorities find suppliers in this country.

It is still apparently on sale here through a number of sites, one offering a 100ml bottle for £33.

A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said: "People should not take Miracle Mineral Supplement or Miracle Mineral Solution.

"This product is equivalent to industrial-strength bleach.

Now that is a cleanse, eh, Michellesie?

Sugary Sports Drinks Mistakenly Associated With Being Healthy, Say Researchers

More stupidity on both sides.

Children who practice healthy lifestyle habits such as eating fruits and vegetables and engaging in physical activity may be negatively impacting their health because they tend to consume large amounts of flavored and sports beverages containing sugar, according to research at The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

"Children and parents associate these drinks with a healthy lifestyle despite their increased amount of sugar and lack of nutritional value," said Nalini Ranjit, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor of behavioral sciences at the UTHealth School of Public Health. The study will be published in the October issue of Pediatrics.

First stupid - it is all about Calories. If you consume more than you burn and you are engaging in physical activity to keep weight down, you are a fool for imbibing high Calorie beverages.

Second stupid - it is absolutely impossible for a beverage to be without "nutritional value." There are 7 nutrients - fat, carbohydrate, protein, minerals, vitamins, water and alcohol.

So-called sports drinks contain one or more of these, so they must, by definition, have "nutritional value."

Third stupid - depending on the activity, simple carbohydrates afterwards are the preferred source for Calories.

It is this ignorance of the experts that continues to hurt all efforts at reducing overweight/obesity and improving fitness.

Female Sexual Dysfunction -- Medical Fiction?

More MSM lack of attention/knowledge.

ABC, the same crappy network that brings you AdipOprah, her experts and some terrifically bad medical/fitness reporting, provides another example of shoddy work.

What does the image above say?

Female Sexual Dysfunction -- Medical Fiction?
Experts Debate Existence, Prevalence and Treatment of FSD

6 comments By COURTNEY HUTCHISON
ABC News Medical Unit
Sept. 31, 2010

I get that anyone can make a mistake.

The fact is, that news organizations are supposed to have editors, proof readers and reporters who ought to be smart enough to know that September has only 30 days.

Imagine how well they do with the more difficult stuff.

Doctor's Health Habits Affect Patient Counseling

Go figure.

"Living a healthy lifestyle themselves translates into a more believable message to their patients," says lead author Michael Howe, M.D., chief medical resident at U-M Health System.

You mean this doc's weight loss advice might not be believable?

And since docs are pretty much like the rest of the public...

Maybe the party line advice is all wrong and a person really interested in losing weight should look elsewhere.

Just a thought.

Doctors sound alarm on childhood obesity

Those Canadians are right on top of things, eh.

In a first-of-its-kind survey doctors are speaking up and saying they don’t have the resources to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity, and warn that if nothing’s done soon the problem will overwhelm the health-care system in the long-run.

National numbers speak for themselves: one in three kids is either overweight or obese.

And if the trend continues, by the time they’re adults, 70 per cent could be carrying unhealthy weight.

To assist them help children reach a healthy weight, physicians want more access to dietitians, therapists, educational materials and trainers.

“Doctors are the first ones to see children so they play a big role, but they’re not the only piece of the puzzle,” says nutrition researcher Dr. Meizi He.

And herein lie two problems.

1. No amount of "dietitians, therapists, educational materials and trainers" will make the right difference unless people are willing to consume fewer Calories than they burn and the "dietitians, therapists, educational materials and trainers" are the problem since their efforts cause people to fail at weight loss.

2. In Canada, nutritional child abuse is reportable by docs, teachers, nurses, principals and other adults. They are not doing their jobs.

World's pensioners headed for global care crunch

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

"Young-at-heart" pensioners around the world are living life to the full without considering how they might be cared for when they become ill or infirm in the future, according to a new study.

Across the globe, 72 percent of those aged 65 and above do not consider themselves to be "old" and only 22 percent have put money aside for old age, according to new research that has been released by private health insurance company Bupa.

Although they are living longer and healthier lives with a positive outlook on ageing, 66 percent of the over 65s are assuming their families will shoulder the burden of care if they become ill or infirm, according to the research, which included a survey of more than 12,000 people across 12 countries this year.

"We are seeing the start of a global care crunch with people across the world failing to plan for their old age," Bupa International Medical Director Dr Sneh Khemka said.

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