'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.

Scientists: Appendix protects good germs

For 159 years, docs have been removing appendices.

"In 1885, Dr. William West Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed (sources disagree) to be the first successful appendectomy in the U.S. His patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside, on whom he performed surgery by opening her abdomen and removing a perforated appendix. She recovered and lived until 1919, when she died from an unrelated illness. The first appendectomy in Britain took in 1848 by Dr Hancock. In Canada, Dr Abraham Groves in his book, All In The Day's Work (1934), that he performed his first appendectomy to successfully remove an inflamed appendix on 10 May 1883 on a boy in the log cabin in which he lived. Although the boy recovered, at the time, medical opinion had a negative reaction." (source)

Now, they claim they found its purpose.

"...It produces and protects good germs for your gut...

The appendix 'acts as a good safe house for bacteria,' said Duke surgery professor Bill Parker, a study co-author...

The theory led Gary Huffnagle, a University of Michigan internal medicine and microbiology professor, to wonder about the value of another body part that is often yanked: 'I'll bet eventually we'll find the same sort of thing with the tonsils.'"

You can bet with certainty that they will "find the same sort of thing," i.e., a purpose, for every hormone, gene, organ, etc. messed with needlessly to fight overweight and obesity.

The Law of Unintended Consequences will operate to its fullest.

You've been warned.

Belly fat, weight cycling ups kidney cancer risk

You can't pee on yourself after you lose your kidneys.

Certainly one way for fat older women to stop that recognizably fragrant urine dribble.

"Postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese appear to have a greater risk of developing, renal cell carcinoma, a common form of kidney cancer, and study findings suggest that a larger waist girth and a history of weight loss and regain further increase this risk.

'Our study suggests that the risk of renal cell carcinoma can be lowered if overweight individuals lose excess central body fat and then maintain stable weight at a more desirable level,'..."

It may be time to sell your stock in adult diaper companies.

Children Should Drink More Milk, Study

Really, this study says kids need more calcium.

"American children are drinking too little milk and what they are consuming is too high in fat, according to a Penn State study.

'There is a strong correlation between dairy consumption and calcium,' says Sibylle Kranz, assistant professor of nutritional sciences."

I am not a fan of Big White.

The milk industry is a bit shady, IMHO.

Still, if you are going to do milk and/or milk products, for weight control do the non-fat stuff.

Remember, it is all about Calories in, Calories out.

The Safety And Viability Of Menstrual Suppression

I am putting this out here for the simple reason of inspiring thought about the mindset of the medical establishment, i.e., the same people who are killing us and mutilating our children with their bad diet advice.

I submit that one reasonable interpretation of the piece supports the notion that medicine's job is to re-engineer the human, an interpretation that is bolstered when one considers the malpractice known as bariatric surgery.

There is a real disconnect between what is "medically necessary" and what might be "humanly necessary."

It likely does not help that this expert is on the payroll of a pharmaceutical company that stands to benefit from the sales of menstruation suppressing drugs.

And the new drugs they will develop to fix the not yet discovered problems caused by menstrual suppression.

Think about it.

"More than the two thirds of the women in a national survey say that they are interested in suppressing their menstrual periods but many of them aren't sure if it's safe. Yet when physicians are polled, 97 percent say that continuous oral contraceptive therapy to suppress menstruation is, in fact, medically safe and acceptable...

'The gap between physician and patient understanding concerning the necessity of monthly periods is obvious,' said Dr. Barnhart, Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 'It is our hope that based on these findings physicians will begin to more readily initiate dialogue with their female patients about continuous therapy -- helping to eliminate the misconception that periods are a medical necessity and to emphasize the safety and viability of menstrual suppression.'...

'Menstruation is not medically necessary. Now that we have products that have proven to be safe and effective at suppressing menstruation, we can offer increasing options for women.'...

Study findings are based on research conducted by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Barnhart has served as a consultant to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals."

And while you are thinking about it, every now and then remind yourself that these are the same people who cannot cure toenail fungus.

Mothers again urged to eat fish

Examples don't get much better than this.

Great reason not to buy into the distracting "healthy foods" debate.

For weight loss, it makes no difference.

It is all about Calories in, Calories out.

For anything else, the experts simply do not know.

Learn this lesson well to avoid being a victim who spends way too much effort, time and money on "healthy foods."

"Pregnant and breast-feeding women should eat at least 12 ounces of fish and seafood per week to ensure their babies' optimal brain development, a coalition of top scientists from private groups and federal agencies plans to declare today in a public advisory that marks a major break with current U.S. health advice.

The scientists' conclusion is at odds with the standard government advice issued in 2001 that new mothers and mothers-to-be should eat no more than 12 ounces of seafood per week because of concerns about mercury contamination.

Shifting data and advice on how women's consumption of fish and seafood affects brain development of fetuses and infants, the most vulnerable groups, have produced one of the more vexing nutritional dilemmas of recent years."

The "healthy foods" debate is one way the experts get richer by making you poorer.

Almost the entire conversation functions to place obstacles in the way of successful weight loss for adults and children.

All the while sickening us and our kids.

And making you think you need the experts even more.

Hogwash.

Many Overweight Teens Have Same Eating Disorders As Thin Peers

The "same disorders." Then why are some fat and some not? No matter. They are the "same."

"A new study of teenagers has found that the same risk factors are associated with both being overweight and with disordered eating behaviors like binge eating and using diet pills. Moreover, food related problems are extraordinarily common among urban teens affecting 44 percent of adolescent girls and 29 percent of boys."

Now if they can only find a way to use the thin Force for good and not evil.

"More than one third of the overweight girls in the study engaged in what the researchers called "extreme weight control behaviors," like vomiting or taking diet pills or laxatives in an attempt to lose weight. "We usually look for these behaviors in very thin girls, but here we see a very high prevalence in overweight girls," said lead author Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., professor of public health at the University of Minnesota."

Clearly fat people either do not vomit enough or soon enough after eating to prevent absorption of Calories.

Adding two cents and nonsense is Kelly Brownell, a fat expert advising fat people on how not to be fat.

"'This study shows that some common factors may create vulnerability to or protection against both problems,' said Brownell..."

As if he can "create protection" against just one of these problems. Let him do that for himself, then talk.

Of course, if he talks, he risks opening his mouth which will likely lead to inserting food.

Kelly needs to take the right way to vomit for weight loss class.

Now for the obligatory it is someone else's fault that fat people stay fat because the someone elses are not nice.

"She added, 'We have seen over the years that it does not work to make people feel worse about their bodies. The data are striking talking about weight, worrying too much about diet, focusing on it increases risk not only of eating disorders, but also of being overweight.'"

But no word of blaming too many Calories in.

Top doc urges restraint in adopting new technology

Better later than never.

"The top heart doctor at the Cleveland Clinic, known for its innovation in cardiac medicine, has urged restraint in adopting new technology before the risks are uncovered by longer-term studies."

No offense, but shouldn't this have always been the case?

If he is such a top doc, why are we hearing about this now?

Did he just get voted "Top" and this is part of the acceptance speech?

The point, for Fitness Watch readers is a reiteration of the fact that the system cannot be trusted.

It should be used only when needed, not as a convenience or substitute for caring for yourself.

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

Remember that, you live well.

Forget that, and sick care will bury you.

As only experts can.

Obesity a Problem in HIV Population

Out of the fire and into the pan.

"Early in the AIDS epidemic, people infected with the virus often lost a dangerous amount of weight, at times looking gaunt and ghostly. Today, they are facing the opposite problem. Many who have HIV, but not full-blown AIDS, are struggling with obesity, which has overtaken "wasting syndrome" as the top concern.

AIDS researchers and advocacy groups say the waistlines of HIV patients are growing right along with the girths of uninfected Americans as the disease shifts from a death sentence to a chronic condition.

Exact numbers are hard to pin down. But new research suggests that nearly two-thirds of the HIV population may be overweight or obese, mirroring the U.S. population."

Preventable Illness at Core of U.S. Health Costs

ABC News just can't seem to get it right.

This is the network owned by the mouse (Disney) that gives voice to some of the worst sick care offenders there are, IMHO.

Similar to Orwell's "Animal Farm," the pig is in charge.

Trickling down from Oprah are, inter alia: Dr. Phil, Mehmet Oz, David Katz and Jorge Cruise.

Dangerous persons all, IMHO.

Now ABC/Mouse has found a fraction of a testicle and offers this piece which cannot get around to saying what is and has clearly been true for years:

The high cost of sick care is our own fault. We have seen the enemy and it is us.

What else could possibly happen when we overeat ourselves into sizes larger than zoo animals and require heavy machinery to help us when we've fallen down and can't get up?

Results, in no small part, the fault of ABC/Mouse and other media companies, IMHO.

Look at this equivocation:

"...it may be Americans' own habits that are driving health care costs in the United States."

and:

"...the study in this week's issue of the journal Health Affairs suggests that Americans' obesity and smoking habits may be partly to blame, and may be costing Americans $100 billion to $150 billion per year."

"May"? "Suggests"?

Nothing could be clearer.

And following the weight loss advice of a pig and her anointed experts foreseeably resulted in a nation of pigs.

Costly pigs.

But the biggest boondoggle is yet to come.

It is sick care reform.

The system is in large part responsible for its own failures, with a weight loss industry that fails and then kills its followers.

Fueling it with more money will only accelerate it.

Plus it will never work.

Here’s why.

Suppose we all drove Yugos (or, more accurately, Airstreams with Yugo engines in them).

Suppose we were overwhelmed by the number of cars needing repair.

We have a choice.

We can increase the number of repair shops.

Or we can improve the quality of the cars entering the repair system and decrease the number of vehicles needing repair.

I submit the latter is the better approach.

If we do the former, we will always be playing catch-up as more and more vehicles are sold, operated and repaired.

If we do the latter, we will be ahead of the curve as fewer and fewer vehicles break down and are in need of repair.

Take control of your body, take control of sick care expenditures and sever your ties with the experts.

They are your killers and thieves, to boot, IMHO.

"Healthy Buddies" teach lifestyle lessons to kids

The blind leading the blind children who lead the blind children.

"In the intervention school, teachers taught healthy-living lessons -- the value of being physically active, eating healthy foods, and having a positive body image -- to students in grades 4 to 7. These older students then paired with students in kindergarten to grade 3 to teach them similar healthy-living lessons."

But you have to claim victory, even if it is Pyrrhic:

"Although weight and body mass index (a measure of weight in relation to height) increased in 4th through 7th graders in both the control and intervention groups, the increase was significantly lower in the students in the intervention group."

Statistically significant, which can be very different from practically significant.

Plus, there is no long-term follow-up.

Way too early to crow.

They may end up eating it.

Hope crow is low in Calories.

PDA Stresses Importance Of Good Nutrition

News flash!

Brilliant advice ahead of the curve!

Where have these folks been?

"The Pennsylvania Dental Association (PDA) stresses the importance of watching what you eat and maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet."

Genius.

Sheer genius.

No wonder they are experts.

Aren't experts great?

Food For Thought In Cancer Prevention, UK

Food for thought?

Yes.

"While changes in lifestyle - particularly in smoking and diet - could dramatically reduce the risk of cancer and the financial burden to the NHS, people often find it difficult to make these changes...

Cancer incidence is increasing and the cost of caring for patients with established malignancy is causing major strains for all healthcare systems...

The increasing understanding of the biological changes associated with carcinogenesis have led to the development of cancer prevention strategies based on the use of targeted agents. The aim of these agents is to delay or prevent the development of malignancy - 'chemoprevention' approaches.

To date the greatest success in this field has come from the use of drugs with shown effect in advanced malignancy. But increasingly research is focused on diet-derived agents that have the potential for efficacy with minimal risk of toxicity."

Here is the food for thought.

We keep hearing that this food or that food is "healthy."

Besides the fact that this is garbage, remember that today's "healthy" food is tomorrow's "unhealthy" food as "cutting edge" research reveals new findings.

Really, new garbage.

Here is a clear admission that researchers simply do not know what it is in some foods that allegedly works, i.e., they are in the dark.

And will be for the foreseeable future.

Then, once they think they are on to something, you can bet that it will be shown to be even more ineffective for one group than another as "researchers have observed striking differences in incidence of many cancers in different societies."

As to toxicity, remember you only find what you look for.

There can be toxicity all over the place, but if you are not looking there, you will miss it.

This is a lesson, most recently, of the heart toxic effects of some drugs that went unnoticed until it was too late for some unfortunate, dead and/or injured people.

The need is for an approach to disease prevention that works for most to all and tends not to make you dead.

If only there were such an approach.

Hmmm...

Try controlling your weight.

Lower Metabolism, Changes In Eating Behavior Possible Explanations For The Cause Of Being Overweight With Narcolepsy

Are researchers asleep at the wheel?

Clearly.

"A lower metabolism, as well as slight changes in eating behavior, could explain the positive energy balance leading to being overweight with narcolepsy."

What is narcolepsy?

"Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes people to fall asleep uncontrollably during the day."

Narcoleptics sleep too much.

"There are more than 70 different sleep disorders that are generally classified into one of three categories:

• lack of sleep (e.g., insomnia),
  
• disturbed sleep (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea), and
  
• excessive sleep (e.g., narcolepsy)."

And what happens?

"According to the results, more narcoleptics than controls tended to be overweight."

How does this sync with other recent research?

Well, if you read the popular morons, it does not.

Here is a Newsweek article.

It is entitled "Not getting enough sleep can make you fat"

Here is a quote from the Newsweek article by expert Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., CNS:

"Recent scientific studies show a strong relationship between sleep deprivation and weight gain, even though we don’t know exactly why this occurs."

So what is it?

Too much sleep, too little sleep or crap?

Crap.

It's all Calories in vs Calories out.

Nothing more, nothing less.