Eating Healthy Might Prove Too Expensive for Poor

Real crap alert! (Nothing has changed during our hiatus. Sigh.)

"New research shows, however, that the price of healthy food may be too high for many low-income families to afford, and experts say the government needs to step in.

A new study published in the journal of the American Dietetic Association finds that a low-income family would have to devote 43 to 70 percent of its food budget to fruits and vegetables to meet the 2005 Dietary Guidelines, which recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day."

This is part of the big lie that keeps us all from eating "healthily," i.e., to achieve a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9.

In the weight domain, whatever you eat that gets you to a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is healthy eating.

Period.

The real crooks, IMHO, are the Jorge Cruises, David Katzs, Barry Sears(s), etc., who charge oodles of dollars for their Calorie-poor, starvation-inducing products marketed as healthy foods.

There is an epidemic of poverty associated with food, I call it poveresity, but it is not from the costs of fruit and vegetables. It is from overspending on excess Calories and then paying for rescue.

If you want to learn more about how the experts are screwing us financially, read MASSematics (tm).

More myths:

"'The major concern for low-income groups is not to be hungry at night,' says Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Obesity Research at the University of Washington in Seattle. 'They gravitate to foods that fill them up -- foods that are high in fat and sugar. For them, vitamins and minerals are a luxury.'"

Foods in this country and elsewhere are fortified with vitamins and minerals.

It is almost impossible to find people who suffer from low vitamins or minerals. Sure there are people out there who claim we need vitamins and minerals in mega-doses, but just as sure, they have zero data to back them up.

You can be stupid and fall for the advice of those who have failed us for so long, or you can wise up and eschew all the trash they spout.

What is at stake is your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Get the knowledge you need to prevail.

Judge doubles damages in drug pricing case

Wise up.

"A U.S. judge has ordered pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) to pay double damages in a case over false mark ups of U.S. drug prices through 2003, according to court documents filed on Friday."

Even if the double damages are removed on appeal, the fact remains that major players in the sick care industry, in this case Big Pharma, are out to screw us.

The point is not to enter the domain of the sick care industry unless it is absolutely necessary.

To avoid the need for sick care, one has to practice preventive care.

"The only REAL preventive medicine is fitness." (tm)

There is nothing else.

For your sake and the sake(s) of those you love/care about, learn the truth about diet and training (proper exercise to improve fitness) and take down those who are bent on killing you and your loved ones as they laugh their way to the bank with your money.

Lack of shut-eye leads to fatter kids, study says

It's baaaack...

Here's the subtitle:

"Sleeping less than magic threshold of 9 hours, 45 minutes packed on pounds"

Bull.

Not bull:

“'I’m not so sure we have enough information yet on cause and effect,' said Sheldon, who was not involved in the study."

Also not bull...

You can be certain that they do not have enough information yet on cause and effect.

So what do they recommend?

"Dr. Stephen Sheldon, director of sleep medicine at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital, praised the study and called for more research."

More research.

Which really means more income for the researchers.

(BTW, for an opposite research conclusion, see here.)

You'd have to be in a stupor to fall for this crap.

The only thing that causes fat children, is the same thing that causes fat adults, is the same thing that causes fat dogs, cats, pigs and cows, is the same thing that causes fat Dr. Phil and fat Oprah - more Calories in than out.

Fitness Watch Is On Break

Fitness Watch will be taking a break for the remainder of October.

Come back in early November.

Thanks to all of our loyal readers and supporters.

See you soon.

(BTW, our one ongoing blog-watch re: Consumer Reports and the killers (IMHO) there, is now undated. The date will be filled-in when we resume. They had not responded as of October 12, 2007, the uncaring morons.)

The Thin Stay Thin While The Fat Are Getting Fatter, UK

Same is likely true in the US and elsewhere, too.

And the number of fat people is increasing.

Which are reasons why the fit minority needs protection from the fat majority. (in the US and worldwide)

"The average weight among people who are overweight or obese has increased dramatically in the last 10 years...

Men's waist circumference increased by 3.48 cm and women's increased by 4.35cm...

'...Slimmer adults today are almost as slim as their counterparts 10 years ago but the heaviest people in the population are much heavier than they were 10 years ago.'"

Discouraging Kids From Drinking Sodas Has No Long Term Effect On Obesity

Clearly reasonable as homes are toxic and big ol', fat ol' parents are child abusers fattening their kids for the kill.

"Teaching children about healthy eating and discouraging the consumption of sodas (fizzy drinks) has a short to medium term effect on childhood obesity, but no long term impact. Researchers found that three years after an education program came to an end the impact was completely gone."

Of course, the experts must plug their useless interventions to steal some money by conning you into needing them. They do this by stating that overweight and obesity are difficult conditions to understand:

"The authors explain that simple interventions are only really effective if there are ongoing and long-term...

The authors explain that obesity is a very complex condition" (typo in the original)

Liars. No conditions could be simpler to understand and deal with.

British Wrong To Think Moderate Exercise Is Better Than Vigorous Exercise

Another spin on the previous entry.

Worth repeating to reinforce just how stupid the experts are.

Contrary to Research, British Believe Moderate Exercise Healthier Than Vigorous

The belief system of the idiots.

"British adults now believe that moderate activity is more beneficial than vigorous exercise, according to new research by the University of Exeter and Brunel University. Although most large studies show that the greatest health benefits are derived from regular participation in vigorous activities..."

Recall that these are the same people who would rather die than "exercise."

Here is a reasonable history of one way that the experts are killing us with bad advice. (Here is another.)

"The first study to investigate attitudes to moderate and vigorous activity since Government physical activity guidelines changed in the mid 1990s, this research is now published in Preventive Medicine.

Traditionally, adults were encouraged to take part in 20 to 60 minutes of vigorous exercise three or more times a week. In 1990, research showed around 90% of British adults believed vigorous exercise was important in maintaining and improving health and fitness. Since 1995 the Department of Health has instead promoted 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week, which can be achieved through everyday activities such as walking, housework or gardening. The research team believes this shift in attitudes is threatening the nation's health and is calling for evidence-based guidelines."

Simply put, the activity recommendations have gone from potentially useful to unquestionably useless.

This is true just about world over.

Only training will work to improve fitness as we have said over and over again for years and years.

"Dr Gary O'Donovan, exercise physiologist from the University of Exeter and lead author on the paper said: 'Time and time again, the largest and most robust studies have shown that vigorously active individuals live longer and enjoy a better quality of life than moderately active individuals and couch potatoes. It's extremely worrying that British adults now believe that a brief stroll and a bit of gardening is enough to make them fit and healthy. The challenge now is to amend Britain's physical activity guidelines so that they emphasise the role vigorous activity plays in fighting obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.'"

Exercise is a clear waste of time for weight loss, terribly inefficient and will never improve fitness (unless one is lucky enough to lose some weight and keep it off - a result almost certainly from caloric intake reduction, not exercise).

Training will improve fitness with certainty.

Proper aerobic (cardiovascular) training will result in weight loss.

Proper anaerobic (resistance) training will result in weight gain.

Proper nutrition will allow control over weight loss and gain.

Proper training and proper nutrition will overcome overweight, obesity and overfatness.

BUT, fitness will, as far as we currently know, only lessen the likelihood of developing those diseases associated with overfatness.

And you must not listen to any of the experts if you want to succeed. (See here,here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for starters.)

There is no other "health" link currently known.

Still, "Health is a function of participation. Participation is a function of fitness." (tm)

Remember, "Fitness is the only REAL preventive medicine." (tm)

Then go here and here to fight back.

Nutrition Improves Learning And Memory In Schoolchildren

Then children should have memories like the little elephants they are.

"A team of European scientists from Unilever together with colleagues from research institutes in Australia and Indonesia have demonstrated that nutrition can improve verbal learning and memory in schoolchildren."

So why do they forget to stop eating before they get so large?

Kids have trouble keeping weight off

See the previous post that documented sick care's attempt to rob you.

"Heavy children who lost weight kept the pounds off better through weight maintenance follow-up, but even that wasn't terribly successful over two years, researchers reported."

One relatively bright light followed recommendations we have been advocating for years:

"The best outcome was for socially adept children who were encouraged to change their playmate networks. Most of those children were able to maintain nearly the same weight they had after the weight-loss program."

To succeed, for you and your kids, see here, here, here, here and here.

And go on the offensive. It is your kids' lives at stake. Get serious about it.

Obese Kids May Need Long-Term Plan

Bull.

Another way for sick care to rob us. And harm our children.

"New research shows that when overweight kids lose weight, they're more likely to stay in shape if they take part in a weight-maintenance program."

New research, same old lies.

The big, fat bottom line is that only one plan, fewer Calories in than out, over an adequate period of time to lose the desired amount of weight is all that is needed.

In fact, it is the only plan that will ever work.

It is when you follow expert approaches to weight loss, that you or your kids need long-term support.

Without "support," you or your kids wouldn't have the resolve to commit the self-harm that results from following their advice.

You'd quit as any reasonable person would.

Since all these diets are starvation diets, they are impossible to pursue long enough without oodles of others policing you.

The system is designed to fail from the get-go, which is why it does.

Stop the madness.

Shut your ears to the noise.

See here, here, here, here and here.

Widespread weight loss may reap health benefits

Duh.

You have to be an über-moron not to have realized this until now.

Welcome to the world of the mega-stupid.

Welcome to the world of the experts.

Welcome to the world of your leaders.

Insufficient Nutritional Information Supplied To Consumers

Exactly the wrong conclusion.

The problem is too much of the wrong information.

"Current food labeling leads to under-consumption of calcium, according to this study. Those who were taught how to translate the information consumed more. Researchers believe the same is true for other beneficial nutrients.

A woman at risk for osteoporosis is told by her doctor to get 1,200-1,500 milligrams of calcium every day. But when she looks at the Nutrition Facts panel on a carton of yogurt or a jug of milk, she finds that calcium is only listed by "Percent Daily Value" (%DV).

How does she convert that to milligrams?

If she's like most of us…she can't. And neither can her doctor."

That last sentence is scarier. But believable, as the entire sick care industry, diet gurus, Big Pharma, media cannot figure out the simple math of Calories.

The researchers' answer?

"The answer is found in Study 3, which involved 41 women who were pregnant or breast-feeding. All had been told by their doctors or had read independently that they needed 1,200-1,500 milligrams of calcium a day.

Half of the women were given a one-page calcium fact sheet including the formula for converting %DV to milligrams. The formula is simple -- %DV is based on the average recommended calcium intake of 1,000 milligrams daily. To convert %DV to milligrams, just add "0" to the percentage on the label. For example, a carton of milk delivering 30% DV contains 300 milligrams of calcium."

Did you get that?

Now imagine sorting out minerals, vitamins, cholesterol, Calories, serving size, percentages, fiber, etc. and relating them among each other and to your particular "needs."

It ain't gonna happen.

The better answer is to drop the current food label altogether.

And stop listening to the experts.

'Healthy' Restaurants Not Necessarily Good For Health

Of course not.

"If you're like most, you eat worst at healthy restaurants.

The 'health halos' of healthy restaurants often prompt consumers to treat themselves to higher-calorie side dishes, drinks or desserts than when they eat at fast-food restaurants that make no health claims, according to a series of new Cornell studies.

The research, published in the October online version of the Journal of Consumer Research, found that many people also tend to underestimate by 35 percent just how many calories those so-called healthy restaurant foods contain."

These folks are late out of the gate as we have been alerting people to this for years, including deaf and dumb politicians.

NAAAFP, the National Association for the Acceptance and Advancement of Fit People, has called for an end to the misleading and inappropriate use of the term "healthy" as it is currently applied to food.

"'We found that when people go to restaurants claiming to be healthy, such as Subway, they choose additional side items containing up to 131 percent more calories than when they go to restaurants like McDonald's, that don't make this claim,'...

'In estimating a 1,000 calorie meal, I've found that people on average underestimate by 159 calories if the meal was bought at Subway than at McDonald's,'...Since it takes an energy imbalance of 3,500 calories to put on one pound, that extra 159 calories could lead to almost a 5-pound weight gain over a year for people eating at Subway twice a week compared with choosing a comparable meal at McDonald's with the same frequency..

These studies, he says, help explain why lower-calorie menus at fast-food restaurants have not led to the expected reduction in total calorie intake and in obesity rates."

However, their proposed solution: "...that public policy efforts help people to better estimate the number of calories in foods," will meet with real resistance as innumeracy will always trump efforts at "estimat(ing) the number of calories in foods."

The better approach is to cut-off the fat from the ever strengthening safety nets the rest of us pay for.

Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus

Where very right and very wrong co-exist.

Right:

"...doctors take their cues from others, leading them to overdiagnose some faddish ailments (called bandwagon diseases) and overprescribe certain treatments (like the tonsillectomies once popular for children). Unable to keep up with the volume of research, doctors look for guidance from an expert — or at least someone who sounds confident."

Hence the deadly diet advice, useless drugs and the malpractice known as bariatric surgery, including child mutilation.

Wrong:

"Mr. Taubes argues that the low-fat recommendations, besides being unjustified, may well have harmed Americans by encouraging them to switch to carbohydrates, which he believes cause obesity and disease."

Hence the grossly mistaken "understanding" of the issue and just plain deadly stupid approaches to weight loss.

One thing and one thing only causes overweight, obesity and their disease sequelae, more Calories in than out.

Nothing else.

Can a Videogame Help Fight Child Obesity?

No. Certainly not this one, at least.

Wrote about this brain dead idea a while ago.

ABCNews just got around to it.

Apparently, so did Kaiser.

"With childhood obesity rates tripling in the last 15 years, Kaiser Permanente has decided to do something about this growing epidemic..."

After 15 years, seems about time to wake up. Unfortunately, they awoke in a stupor.

Now that KP has "decided to do something," you can bet that fat is shaking in its boots.

"As Junior Food Detectives, players snoop into the lifestyles of the unhealthy kids to uncover the causes of their health problems. They will find that all the problems are linked to bad nutrition and activity choices."

"...by their pediacidal parents," is how the sentence above should have been completed.

Here is another will-not-succeed feature. The game,

"has an automatic turnoff 20 minutes into the playing experience. The Amazing Food Detective dramatically interrupts the game to explain that it is time to take a break and get active. She tells children not to return for 60 minutes and while they are gone, she suggests that they do push-ups."

Any bets on whether this long half-time will be spent sweating, eating, elsewhere online or camping out by the fridge?

"Kaiser Permanente developed the game for 9- and 10-year-olds 'because research shows us that if you can positively influence the behavior of children at their age, you can affect their lifelong eating habits,' he said."

Hey, KP! See the blog entry below this one.

Morons.

Diet Education Had No Long Term Impact On Childhood Obesity

What did they expect? Of course it didn't.

"An education programme which successfully cut the level of obesity in children by teaching them about healthy eating and discouraging fizzy drinks was no longer effective three years after the intervention came to an end, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website."

Here are four problems with all expert approaches to weight loss. There are more:

1. the advice is wrong
2. wrong advice teaches dieters absolutely none of the skills needed to manage weight for life
3. when it comes to kids, the parents need real education so they stop killing their children
4. all approaches are politically correct, so there are no consequences to remaining fat or killing children

Conventional approaches can never and will never work.

They are based on false assumptions, bad science, complete misunderstanding of the matter and a perversely sick elevation of political correctness for the fat over concern for society and the fit.

Besides that, they sparkle.

If you are fat and want to get fit, see here, here, here, here and here.

If you are fit and want to help the fat get fit, see here, here, here, here, here and here.

If you are fit and have had enough of this crap, go here and spread the word.

If you are or were fat and had an intervention provided by the sick care establishment, go here.

If you failed on an expert's diet or fitness plan, go here.

Fight for your life and the live of your kids, assuming it/they have some value to you.

Study Finds Almost One Third Of Children Take Vitamins

Wasted efforts. Harmful behavior.

"Almost one-third of U.S. children take some form of dietary supplement, most often multivitamins and multiminerals, according to a study conducted in part by researchers at RTI International and the Office of Dietary Supplements at the National Institutes of Health."

There are exactly seven nutrients on the planet: fat, carbohydrate, protein, minerals, vitamins, water and alcohol.

Virtually none need to be supplemented for most people.

The first three contain Calories.

The last thing we need to supplement, for most people, are Calories.

The next three contain no Calories.

There are very few people who suffer from too little vitamins, minerals or water.

If you need to supplement your alcohol intake, this is the wrong place for you.

Go to DrunkWatch.

For just about everybody, supplements are useless and, in fact, harmful.

First are the Calories. Fat people do not need more Calories.

Second is the waste. Even if all a person does is take a non-caloric multi-vitamin/mineral, it is not useful, i.e., they did not require supplementation.

Third and most important, is the false sense of doing something to improve "health" taking supplements gives. Taking supplements does not improve health. It likely worsens it, especially the Calorie-containing supplements.

Because fat people, in particular, are unwilling to exert self-control and cut back on consumption, they do what they do best and stick more crap down their throats rationalizing this by thinking it will undo all the harm they caused from swallowing too many Calories.

They also do the same to harm their nutritionally abused children.

"'Dietary supplements are an important source of nutrition for American children, but national estimates of nutrition intake rarely account for them,' said Samara Joy Nielsen, Ph.D., a nutrition epidemiologist at RTI and the paper's co-author."

Wrong.

They are a "significant" source perhaps, but not an "important" source.

They are a bad source, too.

Stop supporting the supplement industry.

Some try extreme calorie restriction for long life

Another expert who is a moron. The epidemic continues to spread.

"Unlike typical diets that focus primarily on weight loss, CR (calorie restriction) is about reducing long-term calorie intake and consuming adequate nutrients at the same time in the pursuit of a more energetic old age."

As if these are not among the goals of many, if not all dieters.

As if these are not the proper characteristics of a proper diet.

Clearly this expert does not know that to properly and successfully diet, one must "reduce long-term calorie intake and consume adequate nutrients at the same time."

"But the calorie-cutting quest for the fountain of youth can also lead to some real health problems. Some people admit to feeling constantly hungry and become obsessed with food."

Since when are feeling hungry and a thinking about food "real health problems"?

Since never.

To characterize "obsession" which is defined as "the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc." as a "real health problem," which it need not be, is a stretch. (source)

Of course, one person's obsession is another person's focus/commitment.

"People who try restricting calories can experience rapid weight loss, although it seems to plateau after six months as their bodies adjust, according to studies."

Their bodies do not "adjust."

They just reach the balance of Calories in with Calories out, the same exact way any living organism would maintain a stable weight.

This is as simple a concept as there is in the weight debate and this expert cannot even get it right.

"If you're looking to lose weight, it's best to take it slowly. Most experts recommend 1 to 2 pounds a week as a safe, realistic weight-loss goal."

There it is.

The same wrong, doomed to fail and deadly advice as always. (see here and here)

So who is this moron?

"Elisa Zied, RD, is a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association."

Figures.

New prototype phone gives fitness check

What they should really say is, "New prototype phone give false sense of security and impression of doing something meaningful for your fitness but you really aren't."

"It can take your pulse, check your body fat, time your jogs and tell you if you have bad breath. It even assesses stress levels and inspires you with a pep talk. Meet your new personal trainer: your cell phone.

The prototype Wellness mobile phone from Japan's NTT DoCoMo Inc. targets users with busy lives who want a hassle-free way of keeping track of their health, according to company spokesman Noriaki Tobita."

Health and fitness are not one and the same, Nori. (see here, here, here, here and here)

"DoCoMo has not set a release date or price for the Wellness phone. The Tokyo-based company's phones are not sold overseas."

"Not sold overseas," yet.

Where will the FTC be hiding when this false health claim together with the product comes out in the USA?

"The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also asks questions to assesses stress levels and offers advice.

When the busy spokesman answered 'Yes' to a series of questions — including 'Do you feel lethargic?' and 'Do you go to bed after midnight?' — a message appeared on the screen warning he was under a lot of stress.

'Don't worry, tomorrow's a fresh new day,' the phone then flashed. 'Keep your chin up!'"

Chins up, that is.

DoCoMo must stand for "Do Con Mobile phone users."

How good are these people?

"NTT DoCoMo is still testing some of the phone's other technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a networking capacity to let users share data, Tobita said."

Good enough to calculate your "calorific intake."

Worse than useless technology.

Fitness morons. Marketing mavens.

Save your money if given the chance to spend it on this trash.