This is a fascinating interactive tool to see how obesity rates have changed where YOU live!  The figures are pretty depressing, so brace yourself. 

Vital State-istics

Orlistat (Xenical) has been reformulated and made available for over-the counter sales as ALLI.  Loudly trumpeted is the fact that in its new manifestation, it no longer has the same level of unpleasant side effects of the original. 

After all, who wants "oily spotting in your undergarments, oily or fatty stools, orange or brown colored oil in your stool, gas with discharge, an oily discharge, loose stools, or an urgent need to go to the bathroom, inability to control bowel movements, an increased number of bowel movements, or stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rectal pain" - at whatever level.

Perhaps the fact that it also may cause cancer of the colon is immaterial?

Diet drug Xenical renamed Alli, still a cancer worry

Weight Control - eating for health

Help from supplements

This is a very interesting Swedish study, conducted over a more than 30 year period, which persuasively links adolescent obesity in young men with cardiovascular risk later.

The bottom line is that the possibility of early death in men from  heart problems, i.e. before 55 years of age, can be made more remote by controlling weight in the late school/early college years.

Unfortunately, that is precisely the age when they think they are immortal.

Body mass index in late adolescence and its association with coronary heart disease and stroke in middle age among Swedish men

Like most nutritionists, I have been for many years aware of the problems with MSG usage, its status as an excitotoxin, the many ways its presence can be camouflaged.

However, not until reading this post did I realize the full extent of the problem, nor was I aware of the possible connection between this chemical and the obesity epidemic.

Read, and if you are convinced - share the information with your friends and neighbors.

If there is one thing time has proven, it is that the more the State does for you, the less you feel like doing for yourself.  Personal responsibility has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

If someone feels bad about being fat - they don't have to:  it's not their fault.  Not poor dietary choices, not lack of exercise, not life style issues or laziness or ignorance - NO! 
A pesky bacterium  causes these overweight problems.  Please don't bother to make any healthy adjustments - take this pill. Or, if you live in Texas, let the tax payers pay for bariatric surgery - and then let them pay again for your failing health for the REST of your life.

As you can tell, I am in a bit of a ba!humbug! mood.  And I do know that some people do all they can, and still can''t lose weight.

The cynic in me peeps through and wonders whether the fast-food chains may be behind this research!! It would certainly get them off the hook if they could say our food?  make people fat?? Nonsense! It's the bacteria in their gut.

On the subject of personal responsibility and will, I highly recommend Mark Steyn's book  America Alone.  If we don't wake up to some of what he says soon, it may well be too late.

Only rarely does an entirely new food cross my path, and this one is fascinating.  Lupins are the prettiest of wild flowers as well as English Garden familiars; I have seen meadows of them in bloom and greeted them as friends all over the world.

The thought of them as a potential food crop can't help but bring a mental picture of the added benefit to agriculture of incredible beauty.

A recent study suggests that "increasing the protein and fiber content of meals through the use of lupin-kernel flour may increase satiety and reduce energy intake, thereby playing a potential role in helping to achieve weight loss." The authors conclude, "Thus, LKF is a novel food ingredient that could be incorporated into a range of products that might benefit appetite regulation.""  The substance seems to reduce ghrelin**  concentrations.

I can't wait to hand this bouquet to my local bakery!

Lupin-Enriched Bread Increases Satiety

**Ghrelin is a hormone produced by the stomach which seems to increase feelings of hunger.

A new study links obesity and great height to ovarian cancer. I wish I could do something about my height - did you know that centenarians are invariably TINY? - but certainly those affected  may be even more motivated now to do something about their weight.

Obesity increased the risk of dying of ovarian cancer by 25% over women of normal weight.

They also found that very tall women were more likely to die of this cancer. Women who were 5 foot 9 inches and taller were 41% more likely to die of ovarian cancer than shorter women.

Read a report here

Read my guidelines for lowering cancer risk here

Supplementing for Immune Support

It would appear that the reassuring comment "don't worry!  It's only puppy fat" can no longer be given credence.  The British medical Journal reports that children who are overweight at age 11, will probably stay that way into adolescenece, and possibly for life.

Read more details here

Read the Vitamin Lady's suggestion for Children's Health here

With much fanfare, a study has been unveiled showing that consuming sodas on school property has no impact on adolescent obesity.

Reading towards the end of the report, one discovers this is based on consumption of one half to two ounces of soda a day.

Who knew our kids had that kind of restraint?

Here is the report.

P.S.  The research paper was supported by an unrestricted gift from the American Beverage Association.

Strange but true, between 1974 and 2002, the number of obese people in a HIGHER income bracket increased by 276%, versus only (!) 144% in the lowest income group.

Generally, obesity is connected with poverty - so what is going on? 

See the analysis here.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2005, vol. 293, pp. 43--53 ) came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter which diet you follow, if you become health conscious and improve your food choices, you WILL loose weight. 

The study followed participants assigned to 1 of the 4 currently popular diets, Ornish, Atkins, Zone and Weight Watchers. 

Read the whole report
Read my No-Diet Diet

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Losing sleep is a stress factor, stress raises cortisol, cortisol depresses leptin, the appettite control hormone.

These are facts that nutritionists have proposed for quite some time, and a recent study confirms.  For  more detailed information about the effects of stress, and how to counteract them, read my article.

What concerns me about the press reports on this new study, however, is the connection they are making between insomnia and obesity, seeming to suggest that if it were not for the nationwide aepidemic of sleep deprivation, there would be no fat people.

As if a healthy diet had nothing to do with it - First Amendment be damned, this is an extreme disservice to our Nation's health, and an insult to our intelligence!

^{Adding 1 cup of oatmeal, 3/4 of a cup of brown rice, or 2 slices of real whole grain bread a day to one's diet can block weight gain of as much as 3.5 lbs.}

This should mean that as of reading this, people will instantly decide not to eat white bread except on special occasions, when it can be thought of as cake: in my childhood, my Swedish foster mother baked rye and whole grain breads for everyday, and white bread for special feast days and treats. 100 grams of white bread has .2 grams of fiber: whole wheat has 1.6. White rice has .3 grams of fiber, brown has .9 per 100 grams. One half cup of oatmeal has 7.7 grams of fiber - you get the picture!