Leading public health experts in Australia have accused the food and beverage lobby of having too much government influence and delaying action against diet-related diseases.

On ABC1's Lateline, a number of experts have compared the Australian Food and Grocery Council to big tobacco companies and say they have blocked vital public health reforms.

Sydney University Professor Bruce Neal, from the George Institute for Global Health, has taken aim at the lobby.

"We have foods that are causing an enormous burden of premature death and disability because of excess salt, excess saturated fat, huge numbers of calories in small portion sizes," he said.

"What we're not seeing is the Food and Grocery Council taking the leadership to try and make this better.

"Instead what we're seeing is the Food and Grocery Council sort of employing delaying tactics, watering down the key strategies here."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/23/3251036.htm

 

 

Gus: in my days (here the old kook goes on again says the educated youth of today), fizzy drinks did not exist off the shelf. The only way one would have a fizzy was to drop a small amount of special soda powder into a soda or seltzer bottle, close the lid and use a trigger-spout. Nowadays one can do the same by using a compressed carbon dioxide cartridge...

But this diatribe is not about the way to make fizz but about what the fizz and sugar does inside the body. There is a theory that champagne alcohol "goes to the head" much faster than that of ordinary wine. Is is due to the fizz? I consume daily a lot of sugar in the form of jam, cakes and booze. But I do not have a weight problem. I do not have a diabetes type 2 problem. But I often notice young girls and women, boys and men, with obvious fat issues, carrying far too much weight, drinking far too many soda drinks loaded with sugar. Me thinks that sugar alone may not be enough to induce this super-obesity. Sugar of course plays a role but the fizz may have a tendency to accelerate the absorption of sugar in the body that has no choice than to turn it into unburnt excess energy — fat. As well the fizz could induce more water retention in the body mass... Any amount of exercise won't burn this excess. Most "energy drinks" ARE NOT carbonated and not loaded to the rafters with sugars. And on top of this, fast food portions are also FAR TOO LARGE and do not have enough LETTUCE nor natural ROUGHAGE. The bread is often loaded with sugar and saturated fat emulsifiers to make it "spongy" for a much longer time...

I would suggest to the good University research team here is not to do simple analysis of singular elements of diet, but of combinations of elements in diet. Sugar AND fizz. sugar, fizz AND coffee. Sugar, coffee AND alcohol and so on. Fat and sugar diet, etc... Smoking, coffee AND alcohol, by my own observation has been one of the most lethal combination that killed many of my friends in their late thirties and early forties, with cancers — lung and brain tumours.

And of course how to reduce quantity of food for better health results.

Of course, one of the main part of a diet is a successful BM (bowel motion — see Zippy in Two and a Half Men)... Roughage is a very important part of BM. Roughage is part of a MECHANICAL process, thus in my book "liquid" fiber drinks, as sold as an easy way to acquire roughage, are totally useless. One has to consider as I mentioned before on this site, the equation of what we consume as food, what we retain as fat, what we burn as energy and what we expel as waste. In general, the more we consume and the less we expel, the more we store. and the difference does not need to be great. A fraction of a percent extra accumulation per day can lead to grossly overweight problem.

Happiness under positive stress gives a certain body tension that burns energy and controls body weight.

Lazyness and low activity tend to make muscle flabby and to induce obesity.

Picasso was very active, quite muscular, with a taught body even in his later years. He died age 92. He was happy under stress...

People who have had obesity-related type 2 diabetes for years have been cured, at least temporarily, by keeping to an extreme, low-calorie, diet for two months, scientists report today.

The discovery, reported by scientists at Newcastle University, overturns previous assumptions about type 2 diabetes, which was thought to be a lifelong illness.

In the UK about two and a half million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, the large majority with type 2, and numbers are rising across much of the world. The condition has to be controlled with drugs and eventually insulin injections. It can cause blindness and end in foot amputation, as well as shortening life.

The results of the Newcastle investigation, though the study was small, demonstrated that full recovery was possible, not through drugs but through diet.

Eleven people with diabetes took part in the study, which was funded by Diabetes UK. They had to slash their food intake to just 600 calories a day for two months. But three months later seven of the 11 were free of diabetes.

"To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet," said Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University, who led the study. "This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes. It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition. While it has long been believed that someone with type 2 diabetes will always have the disease, and that it will steadily get worse, we have shown that we can reverse the condition."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/24/low-calorie-diet-hope-cure-diabetes

MORE than 2 million Australians seek food aid each year, and now farmers with surplus fruit and veg are coming to the rescue.

The head of Foodbank NSW, Gerry Andersen, said the increasing costs of utilities and groceries were fuelling the soaring number of people needing help to feed families.

''Our information says that there are 2 million Australians [who] need our help at least once during the year: 1 million need our help on a weekly basis, and half of [those] are kids.''

The organisation works with registered charities to distribute food donated by farmers and corporations. It launched its Waste Not Want Not initiative yesterday and took delivery of food from the Riverina where farmers have given tonnes of fresh produce to Sydney families.

Frank Scarfone is an orange grower at Tharbogang, near Griffith. A few weeks ago he threw out a load of oranges not deemed suitable for sale but since then has become involved in Waste Not Want Not. He now sends four tonnes a week to Sydney. The only thing wrong with the fruit is that it does not meet exacting commercial standards.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/waste-not-farmers-develop-taste-for-orangeaid-20110623-1ghmv.html#ixzz1QATZ2UZy

''Type 2 diabetes is a huge problem and dentists are complaining that they are pulling second teeth in children as young as 12,'' he said.

In an indication of the contagion from the West, China has even staged its first competitive hot dog eating contest in Beijing. Chris Lam, 32, from Hong Kong, won the event, eating 16 in 10 minutes.

The figures from the university put Shanghai almost on a par with the US, where about 18 per cent of primary school children are overweight.

China still has a long way to go to match Britain, where almost a third of children leaving primary school are overweight. The rise of obesity may also be a side effect of China's sudden prosperity.

The number of obese people has risen from 18 million in 2005 to 100 million last year, or nearly 8 per cent of the population, while 500 million, or 39 per cent, are overweight.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/chinas-spoilt-generation-takes-obesity-to-new-level-20110624-1gjgl.html#ixzz1QFGorszT

A painting by Pablo Picasso has for the first time been put on public display in the Palestinian territories.

The Buste De Femme - a cubist depiction of a woman - is being exhibited under armed guard in a gallery in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The 1943 canvas is on loan from a Dutch gallery, and is thought to be worth around $7m (£4.4m).

The Palestinian authority said it was another small step towards Palestinian statehood.

'Historical moment'

The painting - on loan from Eindhoven's Van Abbemuseum - is the centrepiece of the Picasso in Palestine exhibition in Ramallah.

It now sits proudly on the wall of the city's tiny International Academy of Art, flanked by two armed security guards, the BBC's West Bank correspondent Jon Donnison says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13913516

Amid the many battles the United States is fighting — in Libya, with Congress, in Afghanistan, to name a few — there's another costly war going on at home: against Americans' expanding waistlines.

As the U.S. population continues to balloon, health and local officials are findng new ways to help us slim down: reimagining the food pyramid, posting calorie-counts on menus, banning chocolate milk from schools, taking toys out of Happy Meals. Now Illinois is proposing an increase on the state's soda tax, which would add a penny an ounce to the cost of most soft drinks with added sugar or sweeteners. If it passes, you'll have to pay a quarter more for a 24-oz. Coke in the Prairie State — and so, presumably, be less likely to buy it, consume less sugar and lose weight.

But new research from Northwestern University suggests that soda taxes don't actually help obese people lose weight, largely because people with weight problems already tend to drink diet soda rather than the sugary kind. So taxing full-calorie sodas may not help many Americans make better dietary choices.

"I was very surprised," says Ketan Patel, the study's lead author, who says he anticipated that his results would be driven by the price sensitivities of obese people. "But price sensitivity is not what's driving the results I'm getting," he said. "After doing the analysis, it really turns out to be the case that obese people like diet soda so much more than regular soda that you can do whatever you want to the price."

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/30/study-can-a-soda-tax-help-curb-obesity/#ixzz1Qwjcssq1
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see above: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/12769#comment-16069
Gus: soda and "sweet taste" is somewhat addictive for many people...
Some research could be done to see if soda (CO2) actually helps the absorption of more food inside the body — first by helping us eat more, second by increasing the metabolising of this extra food, and third by increasing the speed at which food is "metabolised" thus forcing the body to store this "extra energy" somewhere if it isn't used straight away or rejected...
These processes do not need to increase daily food uptake by much to add up and create a "habit" of storing extra energy as fat... The cycle may start thus, but as "more weight is put on" more energy is needed to move about, we thus move less about... More extra stored energy is not used, leading to storing more energy as fat.
And in general, we eat far too much....

An annual report put out by two public health groups shows that America is getting fatter. Adult obesity rates have increased in 16 states in the past year, with 12 states now reporting at least 30% of their populations as obese.

Only one state in the nation, Colorado, long one of the slimmest, has an adult obesity rate below 20% — but at 19.8%, just barely. Mississippi ignominiously leads the fat pack with a 34.4% rate of obesity. No states showed a decrease since the previous year.

MORE:  It's the Ads, Stupid: Why TV Leads to Obesity

The swollen statistics come from the fifth annual "F as in Fat" report, put out by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This year was the first that the researchers also looked at data spanning the previous two decades, in addition to doing their year-to-year update, and the long-term comparisons show much starker jumps in obesity. Twenty years ago, no state had an adult obesity rate above 15%, and 15 years ago Mississippi was the fattest state, with a 19.4% obesity rate — notably lower that than of the least obese state today. When the overweight population is counted with the obese, current rates by state consistently top 60%.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/07/08/america-sees-its-obesity-rates-and-raises-them/#ixzz1Rmvuucl1

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In one of the articles on this site I indicated that the population of the US — 300 million — is actually 400 million per weight while say 20 million in the horn of Africa really is about 10 million...

Fighting obesity may be as easy as ATP, says UH researcher

NIH, NSF funds biosensors that would track metabolic activity, diagnose unhealthy conditions

HOUSTON, Oct. 22, 2007 – Wearing a portable instrument to monitor metabolism in the fight against obesity and its related health consequences may be on the horizon thanks to collaborative research being performed at the University of Houston and The Methodist Hospital.

Physics Professor John Miller, director of the High-Temperature Superconducting Device Applications and Nano-Biophysics Laboratory in the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), recently received a three-year, $623,425 exploratory research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a joint program with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on biosensors for energy balance and obesity.

In particular, Miller is targeting metabolic syndrome, a pernicious complication of obesity that affects about 20 percent of obese individuals and greatly increases the likelihood of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. His long-term goal is to develop innovative technologies that detect metabolic activity for research and clinical applications.

“Although drug treatments for metabolic syndrome exist, the cost of drugs to treat all obese individuals is prohibitive,” Miller said. “Therefore, there is a critical public health need to develop technologies that can provide early diagnosis of metabolic syndrome and enable cost-effective treatment, as well as to measure metabolic activity and other components of energy balance in obese patients.”

The chemical currency of energy and metabolism that is used by the cellular machinery of all living organisms is adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – a molecule involved in more chemical reactions than any other on Earth except water. In animals, plants and fungi, ATP is produced by enzyme complexes in mitochondria that live and reproduce inside the cell. ATP molecules can be thought of as packets of “fuel” that power biological molecular motors. If one were to suddenly run out of ATP, death would be instantaneous. However, ATP that goes unused eventually gets converted into fat – hence the growing obesity epidemic at a time when high-calorie food is plentiful.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/uoh-fom102207.php

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Adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) is a multifunctional nucleotide used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer.[1] ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. It is produced by photophosphorylation and cellular respiration and used by enzymes and structural proteins in many cellular processes, including biosynthetic reactions, motility, and cell division.[2] One molecule of ATP contains three phosphate groups, and it is produced by ATP synthase from inorganic phosphate and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) or adenosine monophosphate (AMP).
Metabolic processes that use ATP as an energy source convert it back into its precursors. ATP is therefore continuously recycled in organisms: the human body, which on average contains only 250 grams (8.8 oz) of ATP,[3] turns over its own body weight in ATP each day.[4]

...

The ATP concentration inside the cell is typically 1–10 mM.[21] ATP can be produced by redox reactions using simple and complex sugars (carbohydrates) or lipids [fats] as an energy source. For ATP to be synthesized from complex fuels, they first need to be broken down into their basic components. Carbohydrates are hydrolysed into simple sugars, such as glucose and fructose. Fats (triglycerides) are metabolised to give fatty acids and glycerol.
The overall process of oxidizing glucose to carbon dioxide is known as cellular respiration and can produce about 30 molecules of ATP from a single molecule of glucose.[22] ATP can be produced by a number of distinct cellular processes; the three main pathways used to generate energy in eukaryotic organisms are glycolysis and the citric acid cycle/oxidative phosphorylation, both components of cellular respiration; and beta-oxidation. The majority of this ATP production by a non-photosynthetic aerobic eukaryote takes place in the mitochondria, which can make up nearly 25% of the total volume of a typical cell.[23]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adenosine_triphosphate

-----------------

There you have it... and as anyone who knows about ppms would tell you, it does not take much to change a system one way or the other... 250 grams of ATP... (3000 ppms approx in an average 75 kgs body). Imagine a dose of headache tablet: 0.5 gram (60 ppm approx, in an average 75 kgs body, of which about 5ppm is used efficiently). A spider bite: ±0.001 part per million (ppm) enough to do some damage including death should the spider venom be highly toxic (necrotic or paralysing).

So "if a tiny gram of ATP is not processed", my guess is this can lead to an increase in fat of 300 grams in an average 75 kgs body per day... I know it's not as clear cut as this, but who knows... The complex relationship of ATP with EXTRA carbon dioxide is not quite clear (carbon dioxide could reduce the amount of ATP being processed since the body already has extra CO2 — blocking the process of energy-producing CO2 since the body would be "saturated" with CO2). Obese people tend to have problem in expelling CO2, leading to sleep apnea and putting on more weight. The extra CO2 could also lead to a tendency towards less activity... Less activity plus food equals more fat.

Which comes first is difficult to know, but my guess is that "fat" people should eat less, abstain from carbonated drinks (with either sugars or sweeteners) should exercise (without consuming more food), shit more and fart more.

Now it's the role of advertisers and product manufacturers to become responsible citizens to make sure their products and promotional push ARE NOT ADDICTIVE. That will be the day.

The labels that Neuberger has been examining with such intent are designed to provide customers with colour-coded guidance on the amounts of salt, sugar and fat within each product. It is hoped that by using the "traffic light" system to highlight the more harmful ingredients, in say, a chocolate Hobnob, members of the public will be persuaded to eat more healthily.

It is an example of "nudge", the belief, promulgated by two American professors in a 2008 book, that human beings can be encouraged to make life-improving choices through incentives and social cues rather than through regulation and government legislation.

The theory – outlined by Richard Thaler, professor of economics and behavioural science at Chicago Graduate School of Business, and by Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein – has been eagerly adopted by David Cameron, who set up a behavioural insight team last October. The unit was charged with introducing nudge to the "big society" or, as the coalition agreement puts it, "finding intelligent ways to encourage people to make better choices for themselves".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/17/julia-neuberger-nudge-big-society

--------------------------

Gus: some people react to being told, some to being flogged and some are proud to look for themselves... Advertising pry on all three groups. Governments are in the same boat... Unless people are strongly made aware of the MEANING behind the nudge, by the time people are influenced by it, a new generation of discontented could muck the whole idea of nudge and a new device would be needed. Thus it is important for governments to know what is going to be harmful in the short term, in the long term or not — and adopt policies that appear to be fair to all three groups (never is).

Statistics about "what people believe" or "want" are often manipulated not so much by the statistician but by the priming of the people with a whatever belief by well tuned manipulative campaigns, either advertising or political hubris such as "door stop" interviews and "bon mot of the day" (political grab) or right stuff...

Most people (about 75 per cent of a population) live with habits that are difficult to change but for a very clever manipulative idea being exposed in a very subtle but repeated manner on the widest medium possible. One might change about 5 per cent of that lot's thinking... The rest of the people are a slosh group of "undecided" people. They often are called the "swinging voters" and in general for a quick and cheaper fix, these are the people targeted by advertisers and governments to increase their market share. (note the swinging voters and the product buyer swingers may not be the same exact group).

The media plays a strong part in the way politics are sensed. Say a Murdoch media is 80 per cent biased against Julia Gillard. The ABC is supposed to be 50/50 either way, but has often a small bias in supporting Tony Abbott. Most of the suburban local news-sheets (many Murdoch run) are about 75 percent against Julia. The Fairfax media reports more on the value and effectiveness of policies and as such will favour Julia more though not necessarily.

On the value of food and other stuff that can affect our "organic life" (our body), food manufacturers and processors won't lie down and would actively use advertising to promote their products more aggressively against the nudge effect, unless they are prepared to create products that are less "addictive" (habit forming to taste, value and image) which would go against their "necessary" capitalisation of an audience out there.

Food manufacturers have a stake in making sure we "want" to eat more than we need to, while dieting company have a stake in selling you a package that will reduce this "want". The advertising industry has a stake that neither industries win the day, but that both industries of "eat" and "diet" thrive — possibly to excess (only when the advertising is turned on - wink wink nudge nudge say no more).

The media relies heavily on the advertising industry to exist. Government has a stake in reducing the "power" of advertising, but cannot do so without being hammered by the media. Everyone is "nudging" in each other's pocket. Julia is the only one at the moment who does not care about what rack she's going to be quartered on, as long as while she is at the helm, she will get the best for us (this country) whether we like it or not.

For years, studies of obesity have found that soon after fat people lost weight, their metabolism slowed and they experienced hormonal changes that increased their appetites. Scientists hypothesized that these biological changes could explain why most obese dieters quickly gained back much of what they had so painfully lost.

But now a group of Australian researchers have taken those investigations a step further to see if the changes persist over a longer time frame. They recruited healthy people who were either overweight or obese and put them on a highly restricted diet that led them to lose at least 10 percent of their body weight. They then kept them on a diet to maintain that weight loss. A year later, the researchers found that the participants’ metabolism and hormone levels had not returned to the levels before the study started.

The study, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, is small and far from perfect, but confirms their convictions about why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off, say obesity researchers who were not involved the study.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/health/biological-changes-thwart-weight-loss-efforts-study-finds.html?hp

See ATP...

For 15 years, Joseph Proietto has been helping people lose weight. When these obese patients arrive at his weight-loss clinic in Australia, they are determined to slim down. And most of the time, he says, they do just that, sticking to the clinic’s program and dropping excess pounds. But then, almost without exception, the weight begins to creep back. In a matter of months or years, the entire effort has come undone, and the patient is fat again. “It has always seemed strange to me,” says Proietto, who is a physician at the University of Melbourne. “These are people who are very motivated to lose weight, who achieve weight loss most of the time without too much trouble and yet, inevitably, gradually, they regain the weight.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=general&src=me&adxnnlx=1325215365-SBtlivEvUQJwEsiTYqbKlA&pagewanted=all

THE Louvre is facing accusations it over-cleaned a masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, leaving it with a brightness the Renaissance master never intended.

Two of France's leading art experts have voiced their protest over the cleaning of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne - a jewel of Western art - by resigning from the Paris museum's advisory committee responsible for its restoration.

Such was their concern for the 500-year-old painting that Segolene Bergeon Langle and Jean-Pierre Cuzin, eminent former specialists in conservation and painting at the Louvre, could no longer associate themselves with its treatment.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/louvre-in-da-vinci-restoration-row-20111229-1pee3.html#ixzz1hz9UM2BR

A diet rich in vitamins and fish may protect the brain from ageing while junk food has the opposite effect, research suggests.

Elderly people with high blood levels of vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids had less brain shrinkage and better mental performance, a Neurology study found.

Trans fats found in fast foods were linked to lower scores in tests and more shrinkage typical of Alzheimer's.

A UK medical charity has called for more work into diet and dementia risk.

The best current advice is to eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, not smoke, take regular exercise and keep blood pressure and cholesterol in check, said Alzheimer's Research UK.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16344228

Patients should be asked about their diet, smoking and drinking habits every time they see a health professional according to radical proposals from the government's NHS advisers to tackle soaring rates of obesity, cancer and alcohol misuse.

The NHS Future Forum wants health staff to routinely talk to patients about their lifestyles, even when they are suffering an unrelated illness, and offer them advice and help to become healthier.

The forum is urging a transformation in the relationship between medical staff and patients in order to reduce the toll of ill-health and the cost to the NHS caused by the sharply rising numbers of people with conditions linked to lifestyle.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/30/patients-nhs-staff-diet-smoking

HEALTH professionals are calling for warning labels on caffeinated energy drinks following a study that found a sharp rise in the number of people who report heart problems, tremors and chest pains after drinking the beverages, particularly teenagers.

Close to 300 calls were made to the state's poisons centre regarding adverse reactions to energy drinks between January 2004 and the end of 2010, with more than a third of people attending hospital.

The authors say the report is a ''warning call'' for health authorities to better educate the public on the risks associated with high-energy drinks, and to require beverages to display health labels similar to those on over-the-counter caffeine tablets.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/rise-in-cases-of-caffeine-toxicity-spurs-calls-for-warning-labels-on-energy-drinks-20120115-1q1fq.html#ixzz1jZioAsWE

Caffeine is a poison. Caffeine is used by plants as an "insecticide"... and caffeine is one of the most addictive substance for humans... Caffeine mostly helps focus and energise — including open up the arteries and stimulise the heart, but beyond 10 "doses" per day it can be fatal for some people... Caffeine is toxic to dogs.

Feeling cranky, fatigued and unable to focus? You might just need a drink of water, according to new research.

The small study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, tested mood, concentration and mental skills in 25 women who either were given enough fluids to remain optimally hydrated or were induced into a mildly dehydrated state. Dehydration was achieved through either exercise alone or by using both exercise and a diuretic drug that increased urination.

The women’s mood and cognitive abilities were tested during exercise and at rest under the different hydration conditions. On most mental tests, the women’s state of hydration didn’t affect performance, but being dehydrated did cause headache symptoms, loss of focus, a sense of fatigue and low mood both at rest and during exercise. The dehydration induced in the study was not severe: it was around 1% lower than optimal.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/19/bad-mood-low-energy-there-might-be-a-simple-explanation/#ixzz1k3mU4A4g

 

[some] SCIENTISTS believe they have found a gene mutation that makes people fat. A defect in the growth gene BDNF has been found to block regulatory hormones insulin and leptin from signaling to the brain that the stomach is full.

The gene mutation stifles a dialogue between the body and the brain, which leaves appetites unchecked, and can lead to chronic overeating, according to a study published in Nature Medicine yesterday.

Researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center carried out experiments on mice that had been modified to carry a mutation of the BDNF gene. They found 80 per cent of the rodents ate more than usual and soon “developed severe hyperphagic obesity”, said the report.

 

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/health-science/45923/what-makes-you-fat-scientists-find-gluttony-gene#ixzz1pbN1Gpbk

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Interesting, but why is there an obvious increase in the proportion of "fat" people versus 'thin" people in our "modern" societies? Who knows... Is this gene mutation only affecting only a small percentage of obese people, while the others are just happy to eat more or too much?... What is the relationship between ATP and a good functioning ACTIVE body? Is sitting on a chair all day, leading to laziness of muscle and overweight problems? Fat mice can't tell much...

 

A study by researchers at the University of Sydney shows children who drink fizzy drinks may be at greater risk of developing heart disease later in life.

About 2,000 12-year-olds took part in the investigation by the University's Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research.

The scientists found that the children who drank one or more soft drinks each day had narrower arteries in the back of their eyes - a factor associated with increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-03/fizzy-drinks-in-childhood-increase-heart-attack-risk/3928716

Please read above: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/12769#comment-16309

 

 

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges demands "bold and tough" measures to put an end to the role of "irresponsible marketing" by major food and drinks firms in fuelling the crisis. It calls on the health secretary,Andrew Lansley, to ditch the government's "inherently flawed" approach, which trusts the industry to voluntarily cut calories, reduce portion sizes and advise the public on healthy eating.

Instead, the academy's vice-president, Professor Terence Stephenson, says the government must take on the major brands, some of which he likens to the tobacco giants of the last century that stalled radical measures designed to save lives in order to protect their profits.

According to the latest research, 48% of men and 43% of women in the UK will be obese by 2030, a trend that will significantly increase the prevalence of strokes, heart disease and cancer, and lead to higher costs for the NHS. The academy, an umbrella organisation for the medical royal colleges and their 200,000 members, demands:

■ A ban on firms such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola from sponsoring major sports events such as the Olympics.

■ A safe area around schools where fast-food outlets are not allowed.

■ A prohibition on the use of celebrities or cartoon figures to sell unhealthy food and drink to children.

■ A legal obligation on all food and drink manufacturers to publish on their products clear guidelines about the amount of calories, sugar, fat and salt.

■ Consideration of "fat taxes" similar to those being implemented in Scandinavia, designed to penalise the buyers of food and drink high in salt, sugar and fat.

...

A spokesman for Coca-Cola said: "Without the support of sponsors such as Coca-Cola as many as 170 of the 200 national Olympic committees would be unable to send athletes to compete."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/14/obesity-crisis-doctors-fastfood-deals-ban

YES! We need you, the fat people, to sacrifice yourseves and buy as many fattening thingsters as possible so that athletes can be sponsored in sporting events.

Some athletes will earn more in five minutes than you ever earned in a whole life-time but that is part of your gift to them — your life, should you croak of a coronary, and your dosh as well...

Please don't move... Stay on the couch, wobbler-cobber, and stuff those potato chips down the gullet while drinking fizzy stuff laced with sugar and preservatives. When finished with the chips, get the tripple burger at your favourite fast-food outlet (delivery is free) and let the fat saturated grissle inflitrate your purposefully lax muscles. Drink nine tinnies of beer to wash the whole lot down the gurgling hole, and keep growing that belly of yours... Please finish (or continue) by gulping a large family pizza-with-the-lot on your own, to make sure a few energetic kiddies can become heroes on the track and field...

And when your favourite sports-person wins the gold medal, get someone — who is getting up from the couch on your behalf, to go to the fridge for an ice cream-double — to give you a discreet pat on your flabby back...

A job well done. Congratulation...

 

So how did a country that describes itself as the greatest country in the world become one of the fattest countries on earth? To answer this question I spoke to Tyler Cowen, an economist and the author of an online dining guide in the United States.

He told me that historical accidents are to blame for the decline of food in America. First there was the Prohibition, which sent many restaurants bankrupt because they couldn't make a profit on food alone, then came the Great Depression, and then the baby boom, where children's taste buds took priority.

In his new book An Economist Gets Lunch, Tyler Cowen writes, "When the kids are in charge, food quality is bound to go downhill, and that has been a big part of the problem with American food."

One of the most interesting observations Cowen makes is that the American poor are more likely to be obese than starving. Mr Cowen says there's plenty of cheap food in America, but a lot of it is too sweet and a lot of is not good for us.

But, he argues, taxing junk food won't change people's eating habits. He points out that if people are determined to overeat, then they will do so whether there's a tax on food or not.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-17/kennedy-us-obesity/4015362?WT.svl=theDrum

An exasperated Jamie Oliver has written to every MP demanding a U-turn over nutrition rules in schools after education secretary Michael Gove refused to act on a report that found nine out of 10 academies were selling junk food.

Announcing the move on his website, the TV chef, whose campaign for better food in state schools has lifted standards for millions of pupils, told voters that if their MPs did not act "you can safely assume that they don't care about the wellbeing of our children and the future of our country".

Oliver's move came as public health officials and doctors joined a growing number of education and food organisations in criticising the education secretary. In a move that astonished experts, Gove insisted that he would not apply the nutrition standards that cover all other state schools to academies and free schools – even after a report by the School Food Trust charity found last week that many were selling sub-standard products.

The investigations, initially requested by Gove, showed that 89 out of 100 academies surveyed were selling at least one of the snack foods high in sugar, salt or fat that have been banned in vending machines in other state schools.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/may/20/jamie-oliver-banned-food-academy-mps

 

An extreme dieting trend is catching on in the United States, that is neither pretty nor comfortable.

The K-E diet involves a person being fed through a tube in their nose, receiving a mix of proteins and fats, but no carbohydrates.

Patients are fed continuously through a feeding tube and have to carry a pump 24/7 for the full ten days of the diet. The results are quick, with most people losing just under 1kg a day.

But the diet has also gained critics who say that it induces a form of starvation.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker reports.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2012/05/2012524141117423804.html

 

I had another title for this piece: "on the diet hose"... Read all serious articles on obeisty in this line of blogs...

 

 

 

The notion that Congress could consider pizza a vegetable may be just too much to digest.
The SLICE Act, for School Lunch Improvements for Children's Education, has been introduced in response to congressional action last autumn ensuring that two tablespoons of tomato paste slathered on pizza could continue to be classified as a full vegetable serving in the federal school lunch program.
"Pizza certainly has its place in school meals, but equating it with broccoli, carrots and celery seriously undermines this nation's efforts to support children's health and their ability to learn because of better school nutrition," Representative Jared Polis, the bill's chief sponsor, said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support for the measure. "Its nutritional content should be accurately reflected in school meal standards."
Congress' action last fall drew widespread attention — and ridicule.

 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/congressman-says-pizza-is-not-a-vegetable-20120525-1z8ii.html#ixzz1vqwFat5d

 

Does BDF occur in  all mamals. 

Lichi super fruit

New York Plans to Ban Sale of Big Sizes of Sugary Drinks

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

New York City plans to enact a far-reaching ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, movie theaters and street carts, in the most ambitious effort yet by the Bloomberg administration to combat rising obesity.

The proposed ban would affect virtually the entire menu of popular sugary drinks found in delis, fast-food franchises and even sports arenas, from energy drinks to pre-sweetened iced teas. The sale of any cup or bottle of sweetened drink larger than 16 fluid ounces — about the size of a medium coffee, and smaller than a common soda bottle — would be prohibited under the first-in-the-nation plan, which could take effect as soon as next March.

The measure would not apply to diet sodas, fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; it would not extend to beverages sold in grocery or convenience stores.

“Obesity is a nationwide problem, and all over the United States, public health officials are wringing their hands saying, ‘Oh, this is terrible,’ ” Mr. Bloomberg said in an interview on Wednesday in the Governor’s Room at City Hall.

“New York City is not about wringing your hands; it’s about doing something,” he said. “I think that’s what the public wants the mayor to do.”

A spokesman for the New York City Beverage Association, an arm of the soda industry’s national trade group, criticized the city’s proposal on Wednesday. The industry has clashed repeatedly with the city’s health department, saying it has unfairly singled out soda; industry groups have bought subway advertisements promoting their cause.      

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/nyregion/bloomberg-plans-a-ban-on-large-sugared-drinks.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=print

Read all articles from top down...

US media giant Walt Disney says it will ban junk food advertising on its TV channels and websites from 2015 to help fight obesity among children in the United States.

In a statement, Disney says all food and drinks advertised on its outlets will be required to meet its own nutritional guidelines.

The rules will also apply during Saturday morning cartoons on the ABC America stations owned by Disney, which reach one in four households across the US.

President Barack Obama's wife, Michelle - who attended the launch of the new policy in Washington - called the move a "game changer" in the battle against childhood obesity.

"Make no mistake about it, this is huge," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-06/disney-to-ban-junk-food-ads/4055340?WT.svl=news3

Read all articles from top down...

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) has announced plans to ban super-size sodas from his city’s restaurants, movie theaters, sports arenas and bodegas. Disney will no longer run junk-food ads with its children’s programming. First lady Michelle Obama’s book about the White House vegetable garden, released Tuesday, notes that the only drinks offered during family meals at home are milk and water.

The logic behind these moves has been repeated so often it is practically a mantra: The nation is in the throes of an obesity crisis and sodas account for an outsize share of the sugar pouring into American bellies.

Putman, 51, shares that view. But he is also driven by another motive: From 1997 to mid-2000, he was a top marketing executive at Coca-Cola.

“It took me 10 years to figure out that I have a large karmic debt to pay for the number of Cokes I sold across this country,” he said.

On Thursday, he came to settle it.

He wanted to give an inside account of what he contends has been a drive by Coca-Cola to replace not just its direct competitors but all beverages in the American diet — a campaign for what the company called “share of stomach.” He wanted to warn about the industry’s particular focus on young people and minorities.

But mostly he wanted to level the playing field.

“I’m not against soft drinks per se,” he began carefully. “What I am for is balance of power. And I think the power has shifted in the wrong direction. The resources, the scale, the intelligence, the strategy these companies use is intense.

“We need to take all that thinking . . . all that strategy and convert it — jujitsu it — to healthy products.”

Such a mission would have been inconceivable to the man who joined Coca-Cola back in 1997, Putman said during an interview before the speech

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/former-coke-executive-slams-share-of-stomach-marketing-campaign/2012/06/07/gJQAKwgKMV_print.html

Obesity Ills That Won’t Budge Fuel Soda Battle by Bloomberg

By WINNIE HU

A hospital offers Zumba and cooking classes. Farmers markets dole out $2 coupons for cantaloupe and broccoli. An adopt-a-bodega program nudges store owners to stock low-fat milk. And one apartment building even slowed down its elevator, and lined its stairwells with artwork, to entice occupants into some daily exercise.

In the Bronx, where more than two-thirds of adults are overweight, the message has been unmistakably clear for a long time: Slim down now.

But, if anything, this battery of efforts points to how intractable the obesity problem has become in New York’s poorest borough. The number of the overweight and obese continue to grow faster in the Bronx than anywhere else in the city — nearly one in three Bronx adults is obese — leading the city’s health commissioner to call it “ground zero for the obesity epidemic problem.”

So it was to the weight-burdened Bronx that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg went last week to make the case for his controversial proposal to ban supersized sodas and sugary drinks. Standing in the lobby of Montefiore Medical Center, the borough’s largest hospital, he was flanked by doctors who spoke of treating more patients than ever with diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related diseases.

Critics have described the proposed soda rule as interfering with a matter of personal choice, calling instead for less intrusive means to address the obesity problem, through education and access to healthy foods. But the Bronx experience helps explain why Mr. Bloomberg and city health officials embraced the aggressive new regulatory tact after years of trying, and failing, to curb obesity through those types of measures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/nyregion/persistent-obesity-fuels-soda...      

Researchers say that increasing levels of fatness around the world could have the same impact on global resources as an extra billion people.

The team estimated the total weight of people on the planet and found that North America had the highest average.

Although only 6% of the global population live there, it is responsible for more than a third of the obesity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18462985

Up a rickety staircase at the Newarke Houses Museum in Leicester, England hangs a portrait of Britain's first obese man, painted in 1806.Daniel Lambert weighed 53st (335kg) and was considered a medical oddity. Too heavy to work, Lambert came up with an ingenious idea: he would charge people a shilling to see him. Lambert made a fortune, and his portrait shows him at the end of his life: affluent and respected – a celebrated son of Leicester.

Two hundred years on, I'm in a bariatric ambulance (an alternative term for obese, favoured by the medical world because it's less shaming to patients) investigating why the UK is in the midst of an obesity crisis. The crew pick up a dozen Daniel Lamberts every week. Fifty-three stone is nothing special, it's at the lower end of the weight spectrum, with only the 80st patients worthy of mention when a shift finishes. The specially designed ambulance carries an array of bariatric gizmos including a "spatula" to help with people who have fallen out of bed or, on a recent occasion, an obese man jammed between the two walls in his hallway. As well as the ambulance, there's a convoy of support vehicles including a winch to lift patients onto a reinforced stretcher. In extreme cases, the cost of removing a patient to hospital can be up to £100,000, as seen in the recent case of 63st teenager Georgia Davis.

But these people are not where the heartland of the obesity crisis lies. On average, in the UK, we are all – every man, woman and child – three stone heavier than we were in the mid-60s. We haven't noticed it happening, but this glacial shift has been mapped by bigger car seats, swimming cubicles, XL trousers dropped to L (L dropped to M). An elasticated nation with an ever-expanding sense of normality.

Why are we so fat? 

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat

When it comes to being couch potatoes, Americans aren’t alone. Physical inactivity has become a global pandemic, say researchers in a series of related papers  published in the journal Lancet. According to one of the reports, lack of exercise causes as many as 1 in 10 premature deaths around the world each year — roughly as many as smoking.

About 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths worldwide in 2008 could be attributed to inactivity, the new report estimates, largely due to four major diseases: heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer. The study finds that if physical inactivity could be reduced by just 10%, it could avert some 533,000 deaths a year; if reduced by 25%, 1.3 million deaths could be prevented. Say we got everyone off the couch and eliminated inactivity altogether: the life expectancy of the world’s population would rise by about 0.68 years (more, if you discount those who were already active), comparable to the effect of doing away with smoking or obesity.

For the study, led by I-Min Lee in the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, scientists calculated something called a population attributable fraction (PAF), a measure of the contribution of risk factors like physical inactivity to diseases such as heart disease or diabetes, and even risk of death. The PAF told researchers how many cases of disease could theoretically be prevented if the risk factor were eliminated — that is, if all inactive people in a population were to start exercising sufficiently.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/18/lack-of-exercise-as-deadly-as-smoking-study-finds/#ixzz213a2ECQc

By Terry Durack

How eating in Sydney makes you fat

 

First of all, does it? Hell, yes. And why? Because so much of it is built on fat - marbled steaks, fatty lamb ribs, suckling pig, duckling, pasta, bread, butter, batter, mayonnaise, oil, cream, cheese and chips ... lots of chips. And because it’s bloody delicious. Everyone loves fat, it’s what makes food taste good. And everyone loves eating out in Sydney – it’s what makes living in Sydney so good.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/restaurants-and-bars/blogs/table-talk/how-eating-in-sydney-makes-you-fat-20120817-24cci.html#ixzz23mnnrqfK

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OKAY Terry... Let me tell you NOT EVERYONE loves fat... You write crap... Be a bit more relativist in your old age, get a life... And not everyone gets to eat out... You should try a home cooked meal sometimes... I have a few good recipes that are better than some of the fare dished out in the best of the best restaurants... Do you know there is more fat in most bread than in lean meat?... and not all fats are equal: butter. olive oil, margarine, suet... they all have a way to tell your heart to stop indulging, unless you don't or won't listen...

 

see picture at top and all the articles below it...

 

Making sense of dietary fat

A walk down the grocery aisle will confirm our obsession with low-fat foods. We’re bombarded with supposedly guilt-free options: baked potato chips, fat-free ice cream, low-fat candies, cookies, and cakes. But while our low-fat options have exploded, so have obesity rates. Clearly, low-fat foods and diets haven’t delivered on their trim, healthy promises.

Despite what you may have been told, fat isn’t always the bad guy in the waistline wars. Bad fats, such as saturated fats and trans fats, are guilty of the unhealthy things all fats have been blamed for—weight gain, clogged arteries, and so forth. But good fats such as the monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and omega-3s have the opposite effect.

As a matter of fact, healthy fats play a huge role in helping you manage your moods, stay on top of your mental game, fight fatigue, and even control your weight.

The answer isn’t cutting out the fat—it’s learning to make healthy choices and to replace bad fats with good ones that promote health and well-being.

http://www.helpguide.org/life/healthy_diet_fats.htm

Being overweight is not just bad for waistlines but for brains too, say researchers who have linked obesity to declining mental performance.

Experts are not sure why this might be, but say metabolic changes such as high blood sugar and raised cholesterol are likely to be involved.

Obesity has already been tipped as a risk factor for dementia.

The work, published in Neurology, tracked the health of more than 6,000 British people over a decade.

The participants, who were aged between 35 and 55, took tests on memory and other cognitive skills three times over a 10-year period.

People who were both obese and who had unhealthy metabolic changes showed a much faster decline on their cognitive test scores compared to others in the study.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19323061

The frequent interruptions in sleep and the reduced oxygen in the brain may reduce the brain's ability to form and protect long-term memories.
Sleep apnoea and weight are not problems limited to the the West - a fact that hasn't been lost on companies like ResMed.
The spread of Western fast-foods like McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut to emerging countries such as China and India may be the greatest growth engine for ResMed. Simply put, more fat in the bodies of the world's population equals a larger number of sleep apnoea cases, creating a larger customer base for ResMed.
''Genetically you're still engineered for a low-calorie, low-fat diet,'' Kieran Gallahue, the CEO of ResMed at the time I visited the company's headquarters in 2010, told me. ''That's what your body has been optimised for over centuries. Boom, you introduce burgers, and your body is not going to handle it. One of the outcomes is going to be a skyrocketing in the prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing.''
This is an edited extract from Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep by David Randall (WW Norton).
The Washington Post

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/a-sleeping-timebomb-20120822-24mwd.html#ixzz24JXQSQBD

 

-------------------------------

Knowing a few people who "wear the mask" at night, I can say their lives has improved beyond belief... Mr Colin Sullivan changed the lives of many people, quietly... Now let's spruik against the sugar-bunned burgers and the saturated-fat fried food... or even against the soft emulsified breads that are adding to our fat intake without us realising it...

 Our findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that energy expenditure is consistent across a broad range of lifestyles and cultures. Of course, if we push our bodies hard enough, we can increase our energy expenditure, at least in the short term. But our bodies are complex, dynamic machines, shaped over millions of years of evolution in environments where resources were usually limited; our bodies adapt to our daily routines and find ways to keep overall energy expenditure in check.

All of this means that if we want to end obesity, we need to focus on our diet and reduce the number of calories we eat, particularly the sugars our primate brains have evolved to love. We’re getting fat because we eat too much, not because we’re sedentary. Physical activity is very important for maintaining physical and mental health, but we aren’t going to Jazzercise our way out of the obesity epidemic.

We have a lot more to learn from groups like the Hadza, among whom obesity and heart disease are unheard of and 80-year-old grandmothers are strong and vital. Finding new approaches to public health problems will require further research into other cultures and our evolutionary past.

Herman Pontzer is an assistant professor of anthropology at Hunter College and a co-founder of the Hadza Fund, a nonprofit organization that supports the Hadza population.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opinion/sunday/debunking-the-hunter-gatherer-workout.html?hp&pagewanted=print

 

Yep... see articles from top down...

Websites and blogs that support anorexia — known as pro-ana sites — have been widely banned online by sites like Pinterest, Yahoo and Tumblr. For anyone who’s ever visited a pro-ana site, the reason is clear: the content exchanged in these online communities is often shocking. They use images of emaciated models and celebrities as “thinspiration” for vulnerable girls, and include frank discussions of the best methods for achieving extreme weight loss.

Anorexia is the most deadly of all psychiatric disorders, and pro-ana websites can be especially distressing to family members and friends of those who are suffering from it. But it is precisely because anorexia is so devastating — and so stigmatized — that such websites may be a boon to some of those who visit them. Like similar groups for addicted people who are not ready to give up drugs, they can provide a rare source of nonjudgmental support for people with eating disorders.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/24/can-pro-anorexia-websites-help-heal-some-eating-disorders/?iid=hl-main-lede#ixzz24o5WhxUE

 

------------------------------

Meanwhile:
Two women - believed to be twin sisters who had waged a long battle against anorexia and substance abuse - have died after a fire tore through a home unit in regional Victoria last night.
Firefighters were called to the unit block in Camira Court, Grovedale, south of Geelong, about 9.40pm after neighbours reported smelling smoke.
Country Fire Authority (CFA) firefighters extinguished the blaze and found the body of a woman in the lounge room.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/unit-fire-ends-lives-of-sisters-who-lived-to-die-20120828-24x4r.html#ixzz24o61sjxu

US teenager Anais Fournier was hanging out with friends at a shopping centre one Friday, sipping on a large Monster energy drink. She followed it with another the next day.
Less than a week later, on December 23, 2011, the 14-year-old was dead, the cause of death listed as heart arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity that complicated a diagnosed heart disorder.
Her family is now suing the Californian maker of Monster Energy, saying it should be held liable for her wrongful death because it allegedly failed to warn of the product's dangers.
On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration revealed it had received five death reports in the past year that said the victims had consumed Monster drinks, which are billed as a “killer energy brew” on the company's website, with the company's share price falling 16 per cent on the revelations.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/anaiss-tragedy-calls-for-restrictions-on-energy-drinks-after-teenagers-death-20121023-282zi.html#ixzz2A6e6vCgv

 

A genetic switch allowed dogs to adapt to a starch-rich diet and evolve from meat-munching wolves into man's leftover-loving best friend, scientists said on Wednesday.

Comparing the genetic code of the domestic dog to that of its wolf cousins, a team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and the United States found several telling differences.

'Our findings show that the digestive system of dogs have adapted to be able to live on a diet similar to ours,' co-author Erik Axelsson from Uppsala University in Sweden told AFP of the study published in the journal Nature.

Previous research had suggested that dog domestication started when ancient wolves started scavenging on waste dumps near human settlements.

The dog is estimated to have split from the wolf anything from 7000 to 30,000 years ago.

'A completely new piece to the puzzle is our finding of a more efficient starch digestion in dogs,' Axelsson said by email.

This could mean that only wolves who learnt to better digest the leftovers survived to become dog ancestors.

'In addition, it suggests that the domestication process took off when agriculture developed.'

http://www.skynews.com.au/health/article.aspx?id=838604

 

It is a known fable: the dog and the wolf.... See story at top...

 

Eating raw food may cost you between 15% and 35% more in energy to digest, yet this is not recognised by the food industry, according to researchers at Harvard. They were tracing how our hominid ancestors were able to grow big brains as a result of inventing cooking and wanted to know how much more energy was made available. It goes some way in explaining why those who eat predominantly processed foods can grow obese.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/substantial-

-------------------

 

One has to agree with this, though this is only one part of the OBESE complex equation... One other part in the OBESE equation is that portions of food are too BIG. The next part in this OBESE equation is the combination of salt and sugars to make the food more appealing and more-ish... Other part in the OBESE equation include the carbonated drinks. The carbonated drinks are pleasurable (champers) and to some extend "help" quicken digestion by pressuring the stomach into being more expedient with its dilution/acidification/saponification of food and push it "sooner" into the intestine... The fast food industry provides "instant" easy to swallow foods followed with carbonated drinks. Even a little too much is far too much.... Soon one becomes hungry again though all the calories HAVE BEEN ABSORBED in the system, with the excess calories being stored as fat by the body... It's a natural process. What's not natural is the larger intake than what we need — a larger intake that has been developed by what we want, this want being spurred by advertising and the ease of consumption...

 

Stop counting calories... Just eat less...

 

Eat less, shit more... should be the general motto to prevent obesity...

 

And don't forget fibres... No, NOT processed or liquid fibres that our body can absorb and modify into excess calories but the fibres in plants that our body cannot absorb... This is very important in digestion. Fibres that are indisgestible are excellent in helping the motto above Eat less (calories) shit more (fibres)...

Sausages, ham, bacon and other processed meats appear to increase the risk of dying young, a study of half a million people across Europe suggests.

It concluded diets high in processed meats were linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer and early deaths.

The researchers, writing in the journal BMC Medicine, said salt and chemicals used to preserve the meat may damage health.

The British Heart Foundation suggested opting for leaner cuts of meat.

The study followed people from 10 European countries for nearly 13 years on average.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21682779

Big sodas fizz out tomorrow

• By KAYLEE OSOWSKI
• 
  
• Last Updated: 3:48 AM, March 11, 2013
• 
  
• Posted: 12:48 AM, March 11, 2013

 

It’s last call for calories.

Today is the final day for restaurants and food vendors to sell supersized sugary beverages, as Mayor Bloomberg’s controversial ban on drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces goes into effect tomorrow.

Some delis and restaurants that sell bottled drinks will have a three-month grace period to sell off their remaining stock. But for all others, the ban on big cups and glasses of sugary drinks kicks in.

Some New Yorkers remain furious at Nanny Bloomberg’s ban.

“I think they have a lot of f--king nerve telling me what I can and can’t drink!” fumed Robin Mandelbaem, 46, a Brooklyn resident who works in sales.

Her niece, Jamie Mandelbaem, disagreed.

“Soda is crap,” said Jamie, 28, a nurse who lives in Jersey City. “They should ban everything bad for you.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/big_sodas_fizz_out_tomorrow_

 

Judge Blocks New York City’s Limits on Big Sugary Drinks

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

A judge invalidated New York City’s limits on large sugary drinks on Monday, one day before they were to go into effect, dealing a significant blow to one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s signature public health initiatives and a marquee project of his third term.

The decision by Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan blocks the city from putting the rules into effect or enforcing them.

Justice Tingling said the rule banning the drinks was “arbitrary and capricious.”

In his opinion, Justice Tingling specifically cited a perceived inequity in the soda rules, which applies to only certain sugared drinks — beverages with a high milk content, for instance, would be exempt — and would apply only to some food establishments, like restaurants, but not others, like convenience stores.

“It applies to some but not all food establishments in the city,” Justice Tingling wrote. “It excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories.”

The judge also wrote that the fact that consumers can receive refills of sodas, as long as the cup size is not larger than 16 ounces, would “defeat and/or serve to gut the purpose the rule.” The judge also appeared to be skeptical of the purview of the city’s Board of Health, which the Bloomberg administration had maintained has broad powers to seek to better the public’s health. That interpretation, the judge wrote, “would leave its authority to define, create, mandate and enforce limited only by its own imagination,” and “create an administrative Leviathan.”

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/nyregion/judge-invalidates-bloombergs-soda-ban.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=print

 

Note that 16 ounces is nearly half a litre of drink...

 

Eat less (calories) shit more (fibres)...

 

 

Some people supported Mr Bloomberg's arguments, emphasising that 30 years ago the average soft drink serving was just six ounces, but that these days, it is not rare to see young Americans with giant drinks of more than a litre (33 ounces).

Opinion polls last year indicated that a majority of New Yorkers opposed the ban, with some suggesting the mayor was impinging on civil liberties and others arguing the rules would not be effective.

Industry lobby groups led by the American Beverage Association and the National Restaurant Association took the city to court over the measures.

According to official statistics, some 6,000 people in New York die each year from obesity-linked problems.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-12/ny-judge-blocks-giant-soft-drink-ban/4566638

 

 

Remember: eat less (calories) shit more (fibres)...

 

Study: Sugar even at moderate levels toxic to mice health, reproduction

By Meeri Kim, Wednesday, August 14, 10:22 AM

Sugar, even at moderate levels, could be toxic to your health — or at least to your sex life, a new study says.

Scientists at the University of Utah looked at how sugar affected mice and found that the mouse equivalent of just three sugary sodas a day had significant negative effects on life span and competition for mates.

“That’s three sodas if the rest of your diet is pristine and sugar-free,” said lead author and biologist James S. Ruff. “And those are 12-ounce sodas, not double Big Gulps.”

Sugar-fed females died twice as quickly as control mice, which were fed the same total number of calories. While the sugar-fed males did not die more quickly, they had trouble competing against the control males for mates and were less likely to hold territory and reproduce.

The study was published online Tuesday by the journal Nature Communications.

For the rodents on the sweetened diet, sugar accounted for 25 percent of their total calorie intake. Up to a quarter of Americans consume that proportion of sugar as part of their diets. Previous studies that found harmful effects of sugar consumption tended to use unusually high amounts.

“[Our findings] set a new standard for caution even at low doses of added sugar,” senior author and biologist Wayne K. Potts said.

About 80 percent of substances that are toxic in mice are toxic for people as well, said Potts, so it is likely that the effects of extra sugar could be similar in humans.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-sugar-even-at-moderate-levels-toxic-to-mice-health-reproduction/2013/08/13/95887bee-0443-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_print.html

 

 

See also: http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/41311

and read articles from top...

Tonight, the box was boring as shit on the commercial channels. It was actually more inspiring to re-watch my own home movies for the 1000th times than be degraded by ballooning advertising getting more and more inane as the years go by...

 

But the ABC had a couple of interesting offerings. After the blancmange of the 7:30 report presented by Annabel Crabb, Catalyst told us about the myth of CHOLESTEROL... In a very incisive program one could discover what I knew all along... When my new doctor whom I visit accidentally about once every two years — the previous one died — tells me that my cholesterol is above what it should be, I usually say yeah-yeah and do nothing about it... He often wonders why I am so healthy "at my age" when most of his younger patients have one foot in the grave already... The answer to this is somewhat longish but mostly, I am ACTIVE (and I have good genes). I use my body other than sitting on my butt doing silly cartoons. I eat a "measured" lot of sugar including fruit sugars (in the morning), but I BURN EVERY OUNCE OF IT during the same day. I don't eat more sugar than I could use in my daily activity which can involve heavy duty work — like moving a tonne of rubbish, digging trenches in the hard soil of the garden and/or walking 8 kms. As well I have a "Mediterranean" diet... apart from the sugar intake (only in the morning), so I have plenty of time to burn it off. I will reduce the intake if I know I won't need it... This does not mean I won't have a heart attack or die of something nasty, but so far so good...

So the Catalyst program explained how we've been conned by the "low cholesterol" diet for about 50 years. Second part next week... 

 

The on-following program with Todd Simpson improving his brain reminded me of my snorkelling days... His challenge to do a very dangerous Houdini under water was quite fascinating including the way he "improved" himself beforehand with various brain techniques. I use some of those daily with small challenges such as throwing little stones in a small flower pot from about 5 metres... so far, about 95 per cent success... I also used to be able to dive without apparatus to about 15 metres down (maximum) and stay up to two minutes using what I believe was the same technique he was learning on the show... Using the diaphragm instead of the thoracic cage was one of my empirical discovery to stay longer under water. It allowed some "re-breathing" illusion that allayed the need to take a next breath... Thus I could go dive to clean the prop of a boat without panic except trying to keep a keen eye for sharks... I could not do this now. The body ages. I might still do about 30 seconds though...

 

Mind you, Like Todd was learning to switch emotional states, I have been practising this technique for yonks... I can go from anger to calm in seconds. I rarely feel fear... I have problem imaging it.  Though as one get older the mind is less plastic, not so much because we're getting old, but we are getting lazy and complacent... In some of the articles on this site I speak of happiness and all that — as well as using aggressiveness and anger into positive creative mode. It's elating and it works for me. One of the interesting facts, speaking for myself, is that a different time of the day, my brain reactivity and activity is either very slow or very fast... There are moments I am more or less in a torpor-like state and this is when it's not recommended to do some death-defying acts, though I could try to do a switcheroo... It's time to relax and let the torpor take over in a safe environment for a few minutes until time such it's safe to re-engage vigourous activity... During such torpor, the IQ seems to fall way below 70, while in general I operate at 140, though there are moment it feels I could wipe the floor at 200... This is when solutions to complex problem become simple — and efficient.

Then the finale of the fucking night was the program by Stephen Fry about fucking rude words... Fucking entertaining!

Good night... 

Gus Leonisky

I had forgotten to place the lead-in in the comment above: The purpose of my comment was to expose the result of a new survey about more fat people — I mean more obesity... Then I got side tracked by the CHOLESTEROL CON...

Sugar of course is the culprit... And like the cholesterol, there's cash in them mountain of sugar, son... But eating too much is the main key...

 

More than six out of ten Australian adults are too fat to be healthy, according to data that shows 10.8 million are overweight or obese.

Obesity has risen from 11% in 1989 to 28 per cent in 2011-12, when the data for a new National Health Performance Authority document was recorded.

On a local level even the slimmest area has a problem, with almost half the population obese or overweight, according to the document released on Thursday.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/24/data-shows-australians-overweight-obese

 

From a former diet consultant

 

Dear Former Weight Loss Clients,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry because I put you on a 1200-calorie diet and told you that was healthy. I'm sorry because when you were running five times a week, I encouraged you to switch from a 1200-calorie diet to a 1500-calorie diet, instead of telling you that you should be eating a hell of a lot more than that.

I'm sorry because you were breastfeeding and there's no way eating those 1700 calories a day could have been enough for both you and your baby. I'm sorry because you were gluten-intolerant and so desperate to lose weight that you didn't put that on your intake form. But you mentioned it to me later, and I had no idea the damage you were doing to your body.

I'm sorry because I made you feel like a failure and so you deliberately left a message after the center had closed, telling me you were quitting. I thought you were awesome and gorgeous, and I'm sorry because I never told you that. I'm sorry because many of you had thyroid issues and the last thing you should have been doing was eating a gluten-filled, chemically-laden starvation diet. I'm sorry because by the time I stopped working there, I wouldn't touch that food, yet I still sold it to you.

I'm sorry because it's only years later that I realise just how unhealthy a 1200-calorie diet was. I stayed on a 1200-1500 calorie diet for years, so I have the proof in myself. Thyroid issues, mood swings, depression, headaches...oh and gluten-intolerance that seemed to "kick in" after about a month of eating the pre-packaged food. Was it a coincidence? Maybe.

I'm sorry because you had body dysmorphic disorder, and it was so painful to hear the things you said about yourself. You looked like a model, and all of my other clients were intimidated by you, asked me why you were there because clearly you didn't need to lose weight. And yet you would sit in my office and cry, appalled that a man might see you naked and be disturbed by the fat that didn't actually exist. I'm sorry because you should have been seeing a therapist, not a weight loss consultant.

read more: http://www.dailylife.com.au/health-and-fitness/an-open-apology-to-all-my-weight-loss-clients-20131025-2w6e4.html

 

 

The diet industry can be savage... The average intake for an average adult is around 2,000 calories... Physical hard working men can go to 2,600 while sedentary people survive on 1,500... but down to 1,200 calories is a bit savage... I have also the feeling that some large people mix their calories and Joules... I have seen figures of 8,000 calories count when people meant Joules... 8,700 kilojoules = 2,080 calories

 

 

Note: a couple of article above (on the box tonight) I mentioned Tod Simpson when of course it's Tod Sampson...

 

The human need for protein is so powerful we are driven to overeat in our search to consume more of it, Sydney researchers say.

Their research has found calorie intake increases as people eat less protein in proportion to other nutrients such as fat and carbohydrates.

But don't be fooled into thinking you should start eating protein at the expense of all else, University of Sydney postdoctoral research fellow Alison Gosby said.

“We are definitely usually getting the right amount of protein, it's just that we are eating it in the wrong balance with other foods,” she said.

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When the protein becomes "diluted" by the rest of our diet, we may keep eating more and more calories in search of some kind of hard-wired intake target.

This could be prevented by ensuring protein intake is adequate.

 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/human-need-for-protein-causes-us-to-overeat-study-20131106-2x0n8.html#ixzz2jpOWY9EB

 

 

As old Gus mentioned on this site for a long time: "the purpose of life is to steal proteins from other forms of life"... Sure some animals and plants can manufacture proteins without eating other animals, but the fact is that proteins need to be acquired (even herbivores acquire proteins from eating tons of plant material) to survive for most of life forms. Proteins start in their most basic forms as enzymes and develop memory in genetic material. Viruses are "pure proteins" with aggressive traits to survive and multiply... They also steal other cells' materials...

 

A Government MP who describes himself as fat says the Coalition should discontinue any plans to restore a food star ratings website it withdrew in controversial circumstances.

Liberal National Queensland MP Ewen Jones has told the ABC that as a fat man, he knows the star ratings system will not prevent overweight and obese people reaching for calorie-laden comfort food.

The Member for Herbert said the Government had to get out of people's lives.

"I carry weight, I am actually fat. It's not the Government that makes me fat, I make me fat," Mr Jones told the ABC.

"I don't need a government to come and tell me that what I'm eating is wrong."

South Australian MP Andrew Southcott told the party room he supports the Government rolling out a ratings scheme as one of many ways to combat obesity.

 

But his Queensland colleague disagreed, and said he told his colleagues a star rating system would not stop him devouring chocolate ice-cream.

"When I'm opening up a tub of ice-cream, I'm not looking at the rating, I'm not opening it because it's low-calorie, low-fat or because it's good for me," Mr Jones said.

"I'm opening it up because it's chock-a-block full of chocolate."

He listed a repertoire of "fat jokes" he said he regularly told people to poke fun at himself.

Sources confirmed he shared those with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the rest of his Government colleagues when he spoke against star ratings in the party room yesterday.

"I've lost so much weight I can fit into things I haven't been able to in ages, like elevators and taxis," Mr Jones said.

"I started my own church – the Church of the Fatter Day Saints. We have communion but it's buffet style."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/ewen-jones-says-food-star-ratings-wont-work/5283940

 

And these idiots are supposed to be the leaders of people... IDIOTS! FAT IDIOTS!!

 

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/12946

 

 

 

Federal health authorities on Tuesday reported a 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke.

The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh. The trend came as a welcome surprise to researchers. New evidence has shown that obesity takes hold young: Children who are overweight or obese at 3 to 5 years old are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults.

A smattering of states have reported modest progress in reducing childhood obesity in recent years, and last year the federal authorities noted a slight decline in the obesity rate among low-income children. But the figures on Tuesday showed a sharp fall in obesity rates among all 2- to 5-year-olds, offering the first clear evidence that America’s youngest children have turned a corner in the obesity epidemic. About 8 percent of 2- to 5-year-olds were obese in 2012, down from 14 percent in 2004.

“This is the first time we’ve seen any indication of any significant decrease in any group,” said Cynthia L. Ogden, a researcher for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the lead author of the report, which will be published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, on Wednesday. “It was exciting.”

She cautioned that these very young children make up a tiny fraction of the American population and that the figures for the broader society had remained flat, and had even increased for women over 60. A third of adults and 17 percent of youths are obese, the federal survey found. Still, the lower obesity rates in the very young bode well for the future, researchers said.

There was little consensus on why the decline might be happening, but many theories.

Children now consume fewer calories from sugary beverages than they did in 1999. More women are breast-feeding, which can lead to a healthier range of weight gain for young children. Federal researchers have also chronicled a drop in overall calories for children in the past decade, down by 7 percent for boys and 4 percent for girls, but health experts said those declines were too small to make much difference.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?hp&_r=0

 

 

Despite the popular belief that eating smaller portions more often is a good way to lose weight, a new study from the University of Warwick in the UK says that keeping an eye on calories is the most effective way of shrinking your waistline

by Taboola

Don’t believe the hype, dieters. Eating five meals a day won’t make you any skinnier, a new study shows.

Researchers from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found that despite the popular belief that eating multiple small meals a day will help you lose weight, counting calories is the most effective way to drop pounds. “The size of frequency of the meal doesn’t affect the calories we burn a day,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr. Milan Kumar, according to Medical News Today. “But what matters most for losing weight is counting calories.”

The study, which analyzed 24 women of varying weights, analyzed the number of calories burned by those who ate two meals a day when compared to those who ate five meals, and found no measurable difference in metabolism. Both groups burned the same amount of calories per day. The study also found that eating multiple times a day can increase health risk for the obese. The obese women in the study who ate five meals a day actually increased the likelihood of inflammation linked to diabetes and heart disease.

http://time.com/39210/study-frequent-small-meals-will-not-help-you-lose-weight/

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Hello? Anyone there?... What hype?... One can eat whatever whenever as long as one does not over-eat. SIMPLE. Whether it's five meals or three meals a day, the intake and the out-take (shit and energy expenditure) should balance out, unless one is a growing kid. The point that has been made here is to count the calories, sure. Obvious like sun rises in the morning...

Gus has long said it's easier to stay "thin" by eating less and shitting more. For example roughage is essential for bowel motion and also it help us "feel filled up" without filling up — or piling up as one see some oversized trucks eat double portions of muffins.

Piece of cake. 

Sir Gus

Your local health expert

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In regard to ATP (essentially the "carbon-dioxide extractor" from cells), is it possible that as we're drinking carbonated drinks, the molecule of ATP (being in finite quantities in the body) get slightly saturated and leave tiny portion of CO2 within cells, thus would slightly reduce the efficiency of cells? Especially when we add sugar to the mix?... Just a thought. I could be wrong of course... 

 

The number of people in the world who are obese or overweight has topped 2.1 billion, up from 875 million in 1980, the latest figures published in the Lancet show.

And not one country is succeeding in treating it, said the research.

US, China and Russia had the highest rates and the UK was third in Western Europe, the 188-country study said.

Experts said the rise was due to the "modernisation of our world", causing "physical inactivity on all levels".

Continue reading the main story“

Researchers across the world were led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Washington, in a study they said is the most comprehensive to date.

Scientists analysed data from surveys, such as from the World Health Organization, government websites, and reviewed "all articles" about the numbers of obese or overweight people in the world.

The study said rates of obesity were rising across the world, although the rates in developed countries remain the highest.

More than half of the world's 671 million obese people live in 10 countries, ranked in order:

US

China

India

Russia

Brazil

Mexico

Egypt

Germany

Pakistan

Indonesia

Source: The Lancet

The UK has the third highest rates in Western Europe, with 67% of men and 57% of women overweight or obese, it said.

The study called for "urgent global leadership" to combat risk factors such as excessive calorie intake, inactivity, and "active promotion of food consumption by industry".

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27586365

 

Gus: The fast food industry and the soda manufacturers are ecstatic. The fatter the people the more they consume their products.

 

The Bloomberg big-soda ban is officially dead.

The state’s highest court on Thursday refused to reinstate New York City’s controversial limits on sales of jumbo sugary drinks, exhausting the city’s final appeal and dashing the hopes of health advocates who have urged state and local governments to curb the consumption of drinks and foods linked to obesity.

In a 20-page opinion, Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. of the New York State Court of Appeals wrote that the city’s Board of Health “exceeded the scope of its regulatory authority” in enacting the proposal, which was championed by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Judge Pigott wrote that the complexity of the proposal and its reach into the everyday lives of millions meant that the City Council ought to address it instead.

The ruling was a major victory for the American soft-drink industry, which had fought the plan. Two lower courts had already ruled against the city, saying it overreached in trying to prohibit the sale of sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

The court’s 4-to-2 decision could also have larger implications for city agencies like the Board of Health in their ability to generate high-profile initiatives that can withstand legal challenges.

In a blistering dissent of the opinion, Judge Susan P. Read wrote that the ruling ignored decades of precedent in which the board was given broad purview to address public health matters, such as regulating the city’s water supply and banning the use of lead paint in homes.

The opinion, Judge Read wrote, “misapprehends, mischaracterizes and thereby curtails the powers of the New York City Board of Health to address the public health threats of the early 21st century.”

But in the majority opinion, Judge Pigott drew a sharp distinction between the soda proposal and past initiatives of the board, such as banning trans fats in restaurants. He wrote that those earlier policies had a more direct link to the health of the public and represented “minimal interference with the personal autonomy” of New Yorkers.

That did not quell the concerns of some legal experts.

“It casts a cloud over the ability of administrative agencies to engage in innovative forms of regulation,” said Richard Briffault, a law professor at Columbia who filed a brief supporting the city.

read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/nyregion/city-loses-final-appeal-on-limiting-sales-of-large-sodas.html

 

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Public Health Association praises reinstating Health Star Rating system

The Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) has congratulated the ministers on reaching the agreement.

Chief executive Michael Moore, who was also co-chair of the technical design working group developing the rating system, says it is now up to industry to move the system forward.

"Consumers will appreciate the opportunity to have clear information on the nutritional content of the food that they purchase and consume," he said.

"It is so straightforward – the more stars, the healthier the food.

"It has been a difficult negotiation from the beginning with compromises on both sides.

"There were many private hiccups and a very public one when the [Health Star Rating] website was pulled down.

"However, the key element to success has been bureaucratic and political leadership.

"The Health Star Rating system would not have happened without the wisdom, understanding and engagement of Jane Halton, the Secretary of the Department of Health."

The Australian Food and Grocery Council has joined the PHAA in welcoming today's development, adding that there has been "significant improvements" to the controversial scheme.

"The improved design of the Health Star Rating System, flexibility around its introduction and acknowledgement that it can coexist with existing front of pack scheme .. are significant improvements," the group said in a statement.

"In addition, there is acceptance that it can be expensive for cash strapped companies to adopt major labelling changes and therefore a voluntary approach with an extended five year implementation period has been adopted."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-27/sanitarium-woolworths-supports-health-star-ratings-system/5555060

 

Dutch food advisory board Voedingscentrum has withdrawn advice issued decades ago about not eating beetroot, spinach and lettuce more than twice a week.

The centre issued the recommendations because of fears about the health risks associated with eating too many nitrate-rich foods. However, research shows the risk is negligible and it is more important to promote the consumption of vegetables, spokesman Stephan Peters told the Volkskrant.

The centre has also withdrawn its advice not to combine nitrate-rich vegetables with fish.

However, the recommendation not to drink beetroot juice or concentrate every day remains, the centre said. Beet juice is used by some athletes as a sports supplement because they consider the nitrate content to be performance enhancing.

Nitrates can provide a variety of health benefits, but some nitrate is converted to nitrite when eaten. This in turn can then form nitrosamines which are thought be carcenogenic [sic].

 

- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/10/food_advisory_group_

 

And here I was, lauding the virtue of lettuce... while Popeye was using spinach for his left-hook... Read from top. 

Research suggests that morbidly obese drivers are 56 per cent more likely to die in a car crash

LAST UPDATED AT 11:21 ON Fri 31 Oct 2014

Crash-test dummies are piling on the pounds to reflect the growing number of obese Americans.

Dummies used to test seat belts, airbags and other safety features in cars are typically modelled on a person who weighs 11st 13lbs with a healthy body mass index (BMI).

But US dummy producer Humanetics is designing new dummies based on a 19st 4lbs person, with a BMI of 35, considered morbidly obese.
Chris O' Connor, CEO of Humanetics, says that safety features do not fit heavier people in the same way as thinner people.
Researchers from the University at Buffalo and Erie County Medical Centre studied 150,000 road accidents in 2010 and found that moderately obese drivers were 21 per cent more likely to die in a car crash. This increased to 56 per cent for morbidly obese drivers.
"Typically you want someone in a very tight position with their rear against the back of the seat and the seat belt tight to the pelvis," O'Connor told ABC News. "An obese person has more mass around [their] midsection and a larger rear which pushes them out of position. They sit further forward and the belt does not grasp the pelvis as easily."

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/us/61125/crash-dummies-fatten-up-to-reflect-obese-americans#ixzz3HleEhJlL

 

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Maybe supplemental antioxidants are the 21st century version of snake oil (the oft-expensive purported cure-all medicine that is 100 per cent pure rip-off)?

First, a little chemistry.

Oxidants, are also called free radicals, and are entirely natural chemicals produced when our cells turn food into energy. But oxidants are also produced by sunlight in our skin and eyes, cigarette smoke, alcohol, air pollution and even exercise — yes, exercise. Oxidants are very reactive chemicals, and they are the reason why iron will rust, or a cut apple will turn brown.

Oxidation is a twin-edged sword — it is essential for life, but it can also cause damage.

Antioxidants are molecules that tend to slow or block this oxidation. Antioxidants fall into two main classes — they either dissolve in water, or in fat.

Fat-soluble antioxidants include vitamin A and beta-carotene (which you get from the yellow, orange and reddish fruit and vegetables) as well as co-enzyme Q. These fat-soluble antioxidants often protect cell membranes.

The water-soluble antioxidants include vitamin C and glutathione. They react mainly with oxidants that exist in the water inside your cells, and in your blood.

It seems that plants make antioxidants as part of their self-preservation. Plants have to survive attacks by tiny pathogens and large grazing animals, as well as heat and cold, and drought and flood.

That's the chemistry, so now back to the story.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/11/12/4124033.htm

 

See also low carb, more fat diet  for more energy and staying slim: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4126228.htm

 The page you are looking for, "http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4126228.htm" cannot be found. It might have been removed, had its name changed, or be temporarily unavailable.

Is it possible the ABC has killed the link to this story because of "controversy"? Who knows...

 

UPDATE: The link above works...:

This week in a special investigation, Catalyst explores the science behind the low carb diet. What are the health benefits and are there any risks? Is it suitable for everyone? Australian cricketer Shane Watson talks about how cutting carbs has helped him overcome his long-term struggle with weight. Recent research suggests it could improve the lives of people suffering from obesity and diabetes. Dr Maryanne Demasi asks international advocates, sports scientists and Australia’s leading nutritionists is it just another fad or is there more to cutting the carbs?

 

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest producer of sugary beverages, is backing a new “science-based” solution to the obesity crisis: To maintain a healthy weight, get more exercise and worry less about cutting calories.

The beverage giant has teamed up with influential scientists who are advancing this message in medical journals, at conferences and through social media. To help the scientists get the word out, Coke has provided financial and logistical support to a new nonprofit organization called the Global Energy Balance Network, which promotes the argument that weight-conscious Americans are overly fixated on how much they eat and drink while not paying enough attention to exercise.

“Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’ — blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks and so on,” the group’s vice president, Steven N. Blair, an exercise scientist, says in a recent video announcing the new organization. “And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that that, in fact, is the cause.”

Health experts say this message is misleading and part of an effort by Coke to deflect criticism about the role sugary drinks have played in the spread of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. They contend that the company is using the new group to convince the public that physical activity can offset a bad diet despite evidence that exercise has only minimal impact on weight compared with what people consume.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/coca-cola-funds-scientists-who-shift-blame-for-obesity-away-from-bad-diets/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

 

The one thing that one should realise is one of simple chemistry which may not have been realised by most people: when one is "drinking" sugar, there is little saliva included in the mix. I could be wrong here, but I once learnt that sugar NEEDS saliva for "proper" break down and absorption by the digestive process. Is is likely that by not "chewing" the drink, this can affect the amount of straight sugar going into the guts and feeding the gut flora to produce chemicals that encourage OBESITY? A good question...

Messages about eating well and staying fit are all around us — but are they working?

A new survey suggests the answer is no, and indicates that our diets are in fact getting worse, not better.

The CSIRO's Healthy Diet survey has assessed the nutritional habits of more than 40,000 Australians.

It found we are consuming three times more junk food than is healthy, and vegetables are still too often absent from our daily meals.

The CSIRO's Research Director for Nutrition and Health, Professor Manny Noakes, joins Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast.

listen to: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/csiro-survey-suggests-australias-nutritional-habits/6684456

 

Bold by Gus.... Read from top and see ATP...

for those who have been following my blogs, articles and nonsense for years, you would have notice this line here repeated ad infinitum in this line of raves: eat less shit more...

This of course is the success to the equation intake/output plus energy differential... You know what I mean.

Now a new pill is about to be tested in the USA...

 

Scientists are straying from the mouth and looking to the other end of the digestive system for a weight loss solution.

Freeze-dried "poo pills" are the latest weight loss strategy under the microscope in the United States.

In a controlled clinical trial starting later this year, researchers will test the fecal formula as a possible treatment of obesity, by looking at how gut bacteria can impact weight loss.

The trial will also investigate how the human microbiome can play a role in health and metabolism and insulin sensitivity, by replacing an obese person's intestinal microbes with those from the skinny donor via their faeces.

In the trial — led by Elaine Yu, an assistant professor and clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital — 20 obese patients will be given capsules filled with freeze-dried faeces from healthy, lean donors. Some capsules will be a placebo.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-12/poo-packed-freeze-dried-pills-could-lead-to-weight-loss/7084136

I personally would recommend to eat prunes...

 

Last August, Coca-Cola's global boss promised to publish all financing of health groups and research globally after revelations of its activities by the The New York Times.

Within six weeks it disclosed that the soft drink giant had given $US21.8 million ($30.5 million) to fund research and $US96.8 million to fund what it calls "health and wellbeing partnerships" in the United States.

More than six months later, no such disclosures have been made in Australia.

But the company's US disclosure has exposed a glimpse of how it has supported health groups and research in Australia.

It shows Coca-Cola made an "unrestricted gift" of $US100,000 ($140,000 at current exchange rates) to Jeff Coombes, professor at the University of Queensland's school of human movement and nutrition sciences, in 2014 to support research on using exercise to treat metabolic syndrome – a collection of disorders that include obesity and high blood pressure.

The $140,000 gift does not appear on Dr Coombes' university grants page but he said it was disclosed on relevant research papers and at the start of all academic presentations. He insisted Coca-Cola had no input or control over his research.

"A quick look at my recent publications would provide several examples where the outcomes did not support the funding industry's products," he said.

Dr Coombes, who approached Coca-Cola to ask for financial support, said there had been a clear message from government that researchers needed to obtain more funding from industry.

"Corporate philanthropy has become more important as less and less taxpayer money has been allocated in this area," he said.

The gift has since been removed from Coca-Cola's transparency page, along with all other researchers and groups outside the US, but can still be seen on an archived version.

 

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/what-cocacola-isnt-telling-you-about-its-health-funding-in-australia-20160217-gmx3l3.html

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The moderated relationship between food, drink, exercise and shit is paramount should we wish to stay reasonably thin. Fizzy drinks can be problematic. Non fizzy drinks like fruit juices can also be problematic when there is no chewing involved. The problem lies in the "quantities" and in the "swilling". "Beer Guts" is not an invention of vegan doctors with zucchini juice shares on the stock market.

Eat less and drink far less sugary drinks. Be active without having to spend time on a treadmill at the gym. If you feel like being on a treadmill, use one that PRODUCES electricity instead of one that consumes it... Walk instead of running, to protect your knee-joints for life...

Or drink red ned in moderation...

 

Public health experts in the UK have spoken out against a new book that claims many of us should be eating more salt, not less – claiming the advice could endanger people’s health.

New York scientist James DiNicolantonio says in his book The Salt Fix that the World Health Organisation and the US and UK advisory bodies on diet have got it wrong with their advice to cut down on salt.

Salt is necessary and good for us, he says. Eating more salt will reduce the amount of sugar in our diet and help us lose weight, he says. Indeed low-salt diets may be causing brittle bones and memory loss and more salt could fix diabetes, he claims.

 

“Instead of ignoring your salt cravings, you should give in to them – they are guiding you to better health,” he argues in his book, which has won attention for his ideas in the UK media. “Most of us don’t need to eat low-salt diets. In fact, for most of us, more salt would be better for our health rather than less.

“Meanwhile, the white crystal we’ve demonized all these years has been taking the fall for another, one so sweet that we refused to believe it wasn’t benign. A white crystal that, consumed in excess, can lead to high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease: not salt, but sugar.”

But Public Health England (PHE), speaking out as promotion of DiNicolantonio’s book gathered pace in the UK, said his advice was not only wrong but dangerous. Prof Louis Levy, head of nutrition science at PHE, said: “Diet is now the leading cause of ill health. By advocating a high-salt diet this book is putting the health of many at risk and it undermines internationally recognised evidence that shows a diet high in salt is linked to high blood pressure, a known risk for heart disease.

“Our work with the food industry to cut the salt in food has already seen consumption in the UK reduce by 11% and is seen as the model to aspire to globally.”

The row follows other diet controversies, such as the renewed debate over saturated fat and cholesterol. But the evidence on salt is incontrovertible, according to Graham MacGregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine, who led the campaign for action on salt and health (CASH). That succeeded in persuading the government to take action by putting pressure on fast food companies to reduce the salt levels in their ready-meals, the biggest source of salt in our diets.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/08/a-danger-to-public-healt...

 

 

Salt-of-the-earth Gus eats plenty of the stuff. But we're all different. Some people need more added salt, some less. If you have a problem with balancing your diet and your weight, you might need to eat less but more salty. Who knows. I balance my intake of salt with red ned. Works for me. A young man's blood pressure in an old decrepit body. The only time my blood pressure goes up is when Turnbull uses Julia as an example of bad leadership when he himself is the pits of fake clenched fists after he replaced a far worse idiot than he is, while becoming more loony than the idiot he replaced. I shiver just thinking about it. Or is it due to this other idiot who mentioned the "record" snow blizzard in the Snowy Mountains as an indicator of global warming being a hoax. No idea! Go away. RECORDS of heat and cold are part and parcel of a changing climate thingy. And it's changing towards WARMER, despite Maurice telling us to the contrary. But don't despair, my dear goats, Turnbull will solve global warming by giving one billion dolores to Adani coal mine so he can build a railway to ferry the dirty stuff through the Great barrier Reef. Fucking idiot. Eat more salt and tell Turnbull he is an idiot. 

"Eat less, shit more"... is granny Leonidavitch Leonisky diet advice. Read from top.

 

Research has documented that food marketing is an important contributor to young peoples' health behaviors.7 Based on an analysis of hundreds of studies, the Institute of Medicine's comprehensive report, Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity?, found that most food and beverage marketing targeted at young people promotes products that are high in sugars, fats, and salt and low in nutrients, and that marketing influences children's preferences, purchase requests, and ultimately what they consume.8

The industry has acknowledged its responsibility to children's healthy eating by developing self-regulatory guidelines for food marketing to children. For example, in 2006, major food and beverage companies, working with the Better Business Bureau, launched the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). A self-regulatory effort focused on food marketing to children younger than 12, CFBAI oversees a number of different pledges made by the 17 companies currently participating.9

This report is designed to help policymakers, scholars, health professionals, industry leaders, and consumer advocates develop and refine safeguards for protecting young people from inappropriate marketing in today's contemporary marketplace. Its purpose is to identify, analyze, and document a set of digital marketing practices that pose particular threats to children and youth, especially when used to promote foods that are known to contribute to childhood and adolescent obesity. Some of these practices are inherently unfair, others raise serious privacy concerns, and still others are deceptive. Several of the techniques are purposely designed to tap into unconscious processes, thus bypassing the rational decision making that is at the heart of our system of fair marketing. As a consequence, such advertising may undermine other efforts to teach young people about good eating habits.

The impact of food marketing warrants particular attention where adolescents are concerned. Over the past four decades, the level of obesity among U.S. adolescents has grown at an alarming rate, quadrupling from 4.5 percent in the mid-1960s to 17.6 percent by 2006. Today, one of three teens is either overweight or obese.10 The teen years are a critical developmental period, during which consumer and eating behaviors are established that may well last throughout an individual's life.12

Read more:

http://digitalads.org/how-youre-targeted/publications/report-digital-foo...

 

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Just weeks after researchers showed a cause-and-effect relationship between ultra-processed food and weight gain, two more studies have linked these foods with disease and death. 

Key points: 

• Two European studies link ultra-processed food consumption with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death from any cause
• Evidence is mounting that it's the processing, not just the nutrient content, that makes these foods bad for our health
• Australia may need to look at how it labels foods to warn consumers, experts say

The pair of studies, published in the BMJ today, both looked at consumption of ultra-processed food and health outcomes and — perhaps unsurprisingly — it's not good news. 

The first, which was based in France, found increasing the proportion of ultra-processed food in the diet by 10 per cent was associated with significantly higher rates of cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease (such as stroke).

The second, based in Spain, found people who consumed more than four servings of ultra-processed food per day were 62 per cent more likely to die of any cause compared to those who had less than two servings per day.

In both studies, large groups of adults completed food intake questionnaires, then their rates of disease were tracked for up to 10 years.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2019-05-30/highly-processed-food-and-...

 

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WASHINGTON, February 6, 2020 — Long believed to be a problem exclusive to high-income countries, evidence shows that over 70 percent of the world's 2 billion overweight and obese individuals live in low- or middle-income countries. Faced with increasing disability, mortality, health care costs, and lower productivity, obesity is a growing concern for all countries regardless of income level, says a new World Bank report launched here today.

Obesity has a major impact on national economies and on human capital by reducing productivity and life expectancy and increasing disability and health care costs. It is projected that in the next 15 years, the costs of obesity will total more than US$7 trillion in developing countries.

The report Obesity: Health and Economic Consequences of an impending global challenge states that obesity-related diseases are now among the top three killers across the globe, except in Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent data show that since 1975 obesity has nearly tripled and now accounts for 4 million deaths worldwide every year.

Factors escalating the obesity epidemic include ultra-processed and sugary foods, reduced physical activity, and higher incomes, which often go hand-in-hand with a higher consumption of unhealthy foods.

“As countries grow economically and per capita income rise, the devastating impacts and burden of obesity will continue to shift toward the poor,” says Dr. Meera Shekar, Global Lead for Nutrition at the World Bank and co-author of the report along with Dr. Barry Popkin from the University of North Carolina.

In China between 2000 and 2009, health care costs associated with obesity grew from half a percent to more than 3 percent of China’s annual health care expenditure. In Brazil, obesity-related health care costs are expected to double, from less than US$6 billion in 2010 to more than US$10 billion in 2050.

In addition to directly increased health care costs, there are also indirect costs associated with, for example, reduced work productivity, absenteeism, and early retirement, which affect individuals and societies.

Many countries across the globe are also suffering from what is referred to as the “double burden of malnutrition”—high stunting and increasing obesity rates, further compromising their human capital.

“One of the most effective ways to address obesity and other non-communicable diseases is by ramping up investments in affordable, quality primary health care”,says Dr. Muhammad Pate, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank. “This makes sense both from a health and an economic perspective. Putting more resources on the frontlines to detect and treat conditions early, before they become more serious, saves lives, improves health outcomes, reduces health care costs and strengthens preparedness.”

The report stresses that in order to avoid the rise of obesity in future generations, governments and development partners must adopt a comprehensive approach. Effective primary health systems will be crucial together with a strong focus on preventative measures such as mandating the labeling of processed foods; increasing consumer education; reducing salt and sugar-sweetened beverages; and investing in early childhood nutrition programs.

The report also highlights the importance of strong fiscal policies, such as taxation of unhealthy foods; and enhancing urban design, such as playgrounds in schools and walking and bicycle paths. 

Financial support for the preparation of the report was provided by the Government of Japan through the Japan Trust Fund for Scaling Up Nutrition.

PRESS RELEASE NO: 2020/111/HNP
Read more:https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/02/05/obesity-related-diseases-among-top-three-killers-in-most-countries-world-bank-says


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Telling students at the gym to put effort into burning calories may soon be a banned approach at Bristol University. Its students’ union thinks this language promotes a ‘thin privilege’ and causes eating disorders.

The university will work with the union to conduct a “full review of sports, exercise and health messaging to ensure that it is not triggering,” according to the Daily Mail. Staff members will undergo mandatory training on what to say during pep talks. Apparently, uttering something along the lines of “burn those calories” or “work off last night’s pizza” will be a no-no.

The review comes in response to a motion passed by the University of Bristol Students' Union in mid-June, which blamed “diet culture and fatphobia in Western culture” for causing eating disorders. Almost one in every 5 students at the university “thought they might have an eating disorder since starting their course,” it said, citing a survey.

The common perception of slim bodies as healthier, and more attractive compared to plump ones, generates a “thin privilege,”believes Tori Freedman, the leading sponsor of the motion. The policy change will make students “more welcome in classes and teams” and make sports accessible “without the penetration of the diet industry”, she hopes.

The notion that universities have to insulate students from discomforting situations has been increasingly prevalent at Western campuses and the list of questionable things administrators do with that goal in mind seems to be growing by the year. Critics say policies like black-only ‘safe-space’ dormitories, declaring proper English grammar ‘racist’ and paying students to report acts of ‘migroagression’ only stifles free academic expression and leaves graduates unprepared for a harsh, real-world environment.

The review at Bristol University comes as the British government tries to tackle widespread obesity, "one of the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces." Boris Johnson’s strategy was met with a negative reaction by co-sponsor of the anti-fat-shaming motion, Abbie Jessop, who called it "harmful and discriminatory" and predicted that it would have the opposite effect to that intended.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/uk/499997-bristol-university-fatshaming-language/

 

University is (should be) geared to teach a diversity of views and promote "self-intelligence" and sensibility. Don't change the vernacular which is basically doing the same thing with different level of insanity... Change "burning calories" to "burning Joules" if you wish, but don't think life (in the West) is a thin privilege... Obesity can lead to various ailments. Being too thin can lead to different ailments...

 

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An XXL coffin, 28 centimetres wider than regular ones, replete with a more solid bottom and more handles, is also much heavier and demands extra bearing force.

As obesity is on the rise in Norway, it has left its mark on the undertakers' business. Today, XL and even XXL coffins, which were unheard of barely two decades ago, have become commonplace in Norway, national broadcaster NRK reported.

At Svanholm & Vigdal funeral home in Trondheim alone, XL coffins are taken out many times a week, whereas XXL coffins are unpacked about once per month.

“Death reflects our society. But it often lingers a bit – we do not see it right away,” general manager Lars Erik Svanholm, at Svanholm & Vigdal funeral home in Trondheim, told NRK.

Larger size coffins were previously available only on special order. This is no longer the case. A standard coffin today is 55 centimetres wide. The XL coffin is 10 centimetres wider. An XXL one is wholly 28 centimetres wider, has a more solid bottom and extra handles.

“When we put someone in a coffin, it is important to maintain dignity. Before, we could keep the dignity with two people lifting the dead. Now we are more often left with three or four,” Svanholm said.

Svanholm remembered well when he first saw special lifting arrangements a trade fair in Florida some 12 years ago.

“We were happy to avoid them altogether here in Norway. Now we have actually come to the point where we have them ourselves. I could never imagine that,” he said. “The concern is that we become so big that we can not handle it with people anymore. That we have to switch to machines.”

Stretchers used to pick up the dead have also become wider and stronger and can bear up to 250 kilograms.

Approximately 1 in 4 middle-aged Norwegian men and 1 in 5 women are obese, as are 1 in 6 children. A high body mass index is said to annually contribute to approximately 2,400 deaths in Norway and spur numerous cases of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health reported.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/society/202106231083215644-us-style-xxl-size-coffins-become-commonplace-in-norway-amid-rising-obesity/

 

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By James Fox, a British journalist and writer at RT. He has written a doctoral thesis on local content in resource economies and has contributed to academic work on global supply chains.

 

Many Britons are overweight, that’s obvious, but alarmingly people in Britain are getting fatter younger and obesity levels have increased decade on decade – so why are we still burying our heads in the sand about how fat we are?

In 2019, the UK’s Tory government described childhood obesity as “one of the biggest health challenges this country faces.” Months later the jumbo-sized problem faded into insignificance as Britons were forced to isolate themselves in their own homes as an invisible enemy, Covid-19, pushed the UK’s healthcare infrastructure to the limit.  

Briefly, it looked like the pandemic may become the trigger for a nationwide fat-busting effort. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent three days in intensive care with Covid-19, was the first to admit that his weight made him more susceptible to the virus. But Johnson’s very public plea for Britain to embark on a weight-loss journey didn’t last long or appear to make much of an impact. A Public Health England survey of 5,000 people found that 40% of people gained weight during the pandemic with the average gain being half a stone.  

Johnson failed to instil any urgency about weight loss into the British population, even at the height of the first wave, and that’s particularly concerning because pre-pandemic hospitalisation figures concerning obesity are truly shocking. NHS data show that more than a million people in the UK were hospitalised due to obesity-related illnesses in the 12 months leading up to the pandemic, a 17% increase on the previous year. 

The problem is that Brits have been getting bigger for decades and hundreds of government initiatives, as well as celebrity-led endorsements, haven’t been able to reverse the trend. 

Since records began, Britons have been getting bigger and bigger. The 1980 National Heights and Weights Survey suggested that only 6% of men and 9% of women aged 16 and over suffered with obesity in England, with only 0.1% of men and 0.4% of women ranking as severely obese.  

Fast forward to 2019, 27% of men and 29% women were classified as obese meaning their BMI (Body Mass Index) was over ‘30’. A further 36% were considered overweight, meaning their BMI was between 25 and 29.9. The data also highlighted that a rather concerning three-quarters of people aged 45-74 were considered overweight or obese. 

But there’s another concerning trend; Britons are getting fatter at a younger age and experts are worried they’ll only get bigger as they grow older. In 2019, the most recent reporting period, 35% of children aged 10-11 were considered either overweight or obese; in fact, 21% were considered obese. In the 1980s, childhood obesity was understood to affect less than 2% of kids. 

While the government may frequently reiterate their desire to tackle childhood obesity as well as weight issues within the wider population, you’d be hard pushed to identify one initiative that has actually made a difference to buying, drinking or eating habits. 

One exception might be 2018’s Soft Drinks Industry Levy. Research suggests that the small levy on sugar-filled soft drinks has been effective, with Britons on average consuming 6,500 calories less from soft drinks each year. The authors of said research contend this is because of manufacturers' efforts to ensure the amount of sugar in their drinks fall beneath the thresholds for the levy, rather than consumers being compelled to make cost-related decisions.  

But as a recent paper from the University of Cambridge stated, there isn’t much cause to believe the government has the capacity to make a difference. The study’s authors note that none of the government’s obesity strategies or policies, published since 1992, have successfully reduced the prevalence of obesity. Having analysed 689 obesity policies, the experts argued that the government’s approach to fighting obesity in England has been “largely unfit for purpose.” 

The apparent success of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy makes it all the more surprising that this administration remains opposed to a tax on junk food, with the Daily Mail reporting last week that Chancellor Rishi Sunak had vetoed any talk on the matter. The absence of a junk food tax comes despite experts linking the emergence of high-calorie and fast foods in the latter half of the 20th century with the onset of Britain’s obesity problems. 

The lack of impetus is also apparent in a recently announced plan to ban the advertising of junk food before the 9pm watershed with the aim of reducing the exposure of youngsters to products high in sugars, salts and fats. Despite the desperately concerning obesity trends, the advertising ban won’t be enforced until the end of 2022. 

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/536178-britain-obesity-pandemic-childhood/

 

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assangez

As we sift through Covid-19 data, one fact is clear: being overweight or obese, as 74 percent of Americans are, triples the odds of Covid hospitalization, making unhealthy weight one of the most widespread risk factors for severe Covid symptoms.

It’s regrettable, then, that while our governments leapt at the opportunity to take actions to potentially limit the spread of Covid, they paid far less attention to the underlying chronic illnesses that make Americans vulnerable to the disease in the first place—many of which are driven by obesity.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/waging-war-on-obesity/

 

 

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By Hal Swerissen

 

About 65% of Australian adults and a quarter of children are overweight or obese and about 60% of Australians are trying to lose weight at any one time. Overwhelmingly, the evidence indicates that being obese increases your risk of premature death. And yet policies to reduce obesity have been startlingly unsuccessful. Instead obesity is increasingly accepted, normalised and celebrated.

Why is this happening?

The main cause of the obesity epidemic is our changed food environment. Industrialised food production, distribution and marketing are making us fat. Australia now has an ‘obesogenic‘ environment characterised by high levels of processed food, heavy on added fat and sugar, animal products and refined carbohydrates, preprepared and delivered to your door or car window, or packaged for your super market trolley.

Why haven’t we fixed the problem?

None of this will come as much of a surprise. But why has public policy to address obesity been such a monumental failure?

The biggest problem is that there has been too much emphasis on individuals managing their own weight and not enough focus on the environment that led to weight gain in the first place. Obesity is more and more seen as a disease. While making obesity a disease avoids blaming individuals, it also takes pressure off the social, cultural and economic factors that have produced the obesogenic environment.

Not surprisingly, being overweight and obese is becoming normalised. The body weight explosion has led to social and political movements objecting to body shaming, denigration and discrimination and there is a growing fat pride movement promoting obesity.

Paradoxically, as food industrialisation has dominated the landscape, we have seen cooking and eating become performance art and fodder for ideology. Television chefs, celebrity recipe books and arty cuisine restaurants abound.

Public health advocates have understood that social, economic and environmental influences are the main causes of population obesity, but they have had little success in doing much about it. Much of the effort has gone into information campaigns (including food labelling), and localised community strategies focused on individuals, school, family and community behaviour, with little impact on the obesity epidemic.

Rethinking the problem

Doing more of the same is tantamount to accepting that we have given up on obesity. Instead, we need to think about obesity as a symptom of an unsustainable model of food production and distribution.

Today the global food industry is vast, concentrated and powerful. Huge conglomerates like Bayer shape agriculture. A limited set of large companies like Cargill, Archer Daniels and Nestle dominate food production. Major retail chains control food distribution. The food industry shapes and creates consumer demand for convenient, energy dense food high in salt, sugar and fat.

The food industry accounts for about 10 percent of global GDP there is a significant global food surplus with an estimated capability of feeding 10 billion people. But the surplus is unbalanced leading to regionalised food insecurity, hunger and mal nutrition.

The underlying economic model for the food industry is now unsustainable. Production techniques, storage, processing, distribution and consumption patterns result in about a third of food being wasted. Additionally, the food industry is responsible for significant environmental degradation and over 25 percent of carbon emissions. Increasing industrialisation and expansion in less developed countries also disrupts local communities and exploits and displaces workers thereby increasing poverty and inequity.

The industry depends on ever increasing consumer demand to maintain growth and profitability. Super markets, drive through pick ups, online ordering, home delivery, convenient packaging, taste and product reformulation are all innovations to drive greater demand, particularly for high preference easy to eat high fat, high salt and high sugar food.

But there are now broader concerns, largely driven by the existential threat of climate change. Unrestrained, profit driven, economic growth in consumption is unsustainable. A broad social and environmental coalition focused on environmental and social sustainability has emerged. Industry is increasingly being pressured to take account of ethical, social and governance concerns. Institutions like the United Nations and the World Bank are turning their attention to the need for sustainable development, including agriculture, food production and distribution.

Whether the dominant underlying economic model will be forced to shift far enough and fast enough to avoid widespread environmental and social catastrophe remains to be seen. But reigning in over production, waste, mal distribution and over consumption of food is part of the overall campaign for sustainable development.

Where to from here?

If we want to address obesity, we need to reduce over consumption and our unhealthy dietary mix by better managing our food supply. A sustainable food policy will need to have a much greater focus on the improving the production and supply of food for populations, particularly in relation to energy dense, processed food with high levels of sugar, fat and salt.

The food industry will be highly resistant to reducing overall consumption and the dietary mix of the population because of the impact on growth and profitability. In part this will see the valorisation of individual choice, competition and markets and scare mongering about the terrible dangers of regulation by the ‘nanny state’. Industry will argue that individual choice leading to obesity should not be restricted by industry incentives and regulations.

In reality, choice is shaped by our social, cultural and economic environment and communities always regulate those to help individuals make better choices to reduce harm. When two thirds of the Australian population, including a quarter of children are overweight, there is clearly a case for better managing the food industry.

 

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/have-we-given-up-on-obesity/

 

 

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Several years ago, the UN adopted its Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is the eradication of hunger globally by 2030.

Humanity is making giant steps towards the creation of artificial intelligence, which, in theory, should make life easier for people all over the world. But at the same time, we still have a situation in which more than 800 million people in different parts of the world suffer from chronic undernourishment. What is more, in the last few years the number of people suffering from hunger has increased.

Many articles have been written and much research has been done concerning the main causes of this problem: climate change, conflicts, and increasingly harsh weather conditions. In addition to these worrying tendencies, land is becoming less affordable, soil is being degraded and we are losing biodiversity. All these factors are obstructing our transition to a more sustainable form of agriculture that can feed the world adequately.

Currently, with a global population of eight billion, almost one in eight people suffer from chronic hunger. It is now clear that the Sustainable Development Goal will not be achieved by the specified deadline, which is 2030. Even António Guterres, Secretary-General of the UN, admitted this when he spoke at the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021.

The data shows that currently the world produces enough food to feed everyone.

But there remains the fact that more than three billion people do not have access to a proper diet. This problem is particularly serious in the tropical countries of Africa and South Asia and in some countries in Latin America. The main issue is not merely that people in underdeveloped countries are subsisting on low-calorie diets – it is primarily a matter of malnutrition – a lack of the required amounts of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins necessary to lead a healthy life and develop properly, and this results in increased levels of sickness and mortality.

Up until the Second World War, many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa were net exporters of grain. In fact, grain, alongside cotton, sugar and coffee, was one of their most important exports.

After the Second World War, the situation changed and the majority of developing countries started importing food, especially wheat.

The dependence of developing nations for food imports is primarily due to the policies followed by the West. The colonial powers had a policy of importing cheap grain and other produce from the territories they controlled, even when those areas were suffering from serious shortages of food. Significantly, despite the fact that colonial-era India frequently suffered from outbreaks of famine, at the beginning of the 20th century approximately a million tons of wheat a year, or 20-35% of the entire harvest, were shipped out of Karachi alone. The colonial authorities failed to take any effective measures to prevent famine, even when the situation was critical. Newly-independent states, on the other hand, were able to import food from abroad in such circumstances.

Britain’s vast empire represented a literally inexhaustible source of wealth for Britain’s ruling classes, and Britain’s economic and social development was largely financed by the ruthless exploitation of its subject territories. London has never officially apologized for many of its crimes, let alone paid any compensation.

Today the problem of food supply in developing countries has taken on a more dramatic, and even catastrophic character. Food shortages have frequently been exacerbated by the general lack of development and poverty of countries in the South, many of which have been exploited by the Western powers. As a result, agricultural production has fallen far behind demand.

Whatever the technical explanations given by “experts” for the food shortages in developing countries, it is clear that the root cause of the problem is howling inequality: the per capita income in many developing countries is several times lower than that in more developed countries.

The West is still robbing developing nations, but now it is using more sophisticated machinations to do so.

The so-called “grain deal” concluded between the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine to allow the transportation of grain from the Black Sea provided a clear example of this. Despite the deal, the West mounted a loud campaign accusing Russia of preventing the delivery of food to the poorest countries in the world, and EU politicians were particularly vocal about the urgent need to provide food to those countries most in need, as a matter of priority.

In reality, although the grain export corridors set up under the agreement were primarily intended as a mechanism to meet the needs of the global South, in reality it turned out that only 3% of the wheat supplies went to developing countries, and the rest to EU countries. (It is no secret that the EU is dependent on imported animal feed crops. According to studies conducted by European Parliament researchers, the EU typically accounts for more than 50% of Ukraine’s exports of maize, a major feed crop).

Russia has conscientiously and consistently fulfilled its obligations, and as part of its initiative to donate Russian-made mineral fertilizers to countries in need its second consignment of 34,000 tons arrived in the Kenyan port of Mombasa on May 29 this year. Back in September 2022 Moscow announced that it was ready to transfer, free of charge, about 300,000 tons of Russian-made products that were “stuck” in ports of Latvia, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands to countries facing the threat of famine. In that case “stuck” actually means that they had been blocked by the local authorities and governments on various pretexts such as the enforcement of sanctions etc.

The next shipment, also of 34,000 tons, will be to Nigeria. In view of the facts outlined above, the self-serving and dishonest claims by Western politicians about global food security and the threat of famine seem absurd, especially since these claims are only heard in relation to the export of Ukrainian forage and feed maize.

No only does very little of the Ukrainian cargo (about 772,000 thousand tons out of a total of 31 million tons, or less than 2.5%) actually go to the countries that are really in need, but what is more the Americans, Europeans and Ukrainians keep blocking the supplies of grain fertilizers, openly speculating on prices and benefitting from the shortages of these key products on world markets.

In other words, the European Union is continuing to profit from the situation, lining its pockets at the expense of the most vulnerable states, while at the same time exacerbating the risks to global food security through its actions. This whole story clearly shows that it is the West that is threatening international food security by setting artificial goals and objectives, and then attempting to shift the responsibility for its dishonest schemes onto others.

The Western powers, with their colonial policies, have created the problem of hunger on our planet. Yet they continue to blame Russia for threatening food security, even though the Russian president has repeatedly insisted that Russia is ready to send food to the countries most in need for free. Vladimir Putin has also promised to provide full support to the supply of countries in the southern hemisphere with mineral fertilizer.

These days, the problem of the gap between the rich and the poor, between the developing countries and the West is fast becoming the key question of the progressive economic development.

 

Veniamin Popov, Director of the Center for the Partnership of Civilizations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Candidate of Historical Sciences, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

 

READ MORE:

https://journal-neo.org/2023/06/24/the-west-is-responsible-for-the-fact-that-one-out-of-ten-people-in-the-world-suffer-from-hunger/ 

 

 

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