As much as I would love to lose 20 pounds in six weeks, you won’t find me signing up for of one of the latest weight-loss fads called the “HCG diet.” The Human Chorionic Gonadotropin diet is one that requires that you inject yourself daily with a hormone produced by pregnant women (a product that is only licensed for fertility treatment, not weight loss) and that you restrict yourself to eating only 500 calories a day. Neither thing is appealing to me.
Experts have concerns about – and are skeptical of – the potentially dangerous diet, as well. As John Morton, MD, director of bariatric surgery and surgical quality at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, told viewers in a recent KTUV-TV report:
“I would say the mind is a very powerful thing. And I would say there’s a big placebo effect occurring here.”
For more on HCG, FDA has information on its website.
Indulging in mass media could prompt you to make healthier decisions, according to findings (subscription required) recently published in International Journal of Public Health.
Italian researchers examined data from a sample of more than 1,000 people from a large epidemiological study. Participants completed a survey on how often they watched TV or read newspapers, magazines or online news sites, and they provided additional information about their medical history, lifestyle and dietary habits. The Atlanticreports:
The people who were most exposed to information delivered by any mass media source reported higher adherence to a Mediterranean diet, which is considered the healthiest eating model in the world and the most effective for reducing the risk of chronic and neurodegenerative diseases. More precisely, they reportedly ate less animal fats and more fruits and fresh fish.
Researchers say the results suggest that when people consume mass media for information purposes, rather than entertainment, it can positively affect their health. Still, plenty of studies have shown that hours spent watching TV can increase obesity risk in children and adults, so more research is needed to fully understand how media habits influence health habits.
A study in today’s new issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine takes a close look at food for sale in more than 3,800 public and private elementary schools across the U.S. between 2006 and 2010. The findings are discouraging: During a period when school menus have generated lots of attention as contributors to childhood obesity, kids’ access to sugary foods at school remained high, while healthy options remained less available.
Not surprisingly, the authors suggest that schools should take a hard look at the foods kids can buy on campus and provide more healthy options while removing unhealthy choices.
But an accompanying editorial by Packard Children’s Hospital’s Thomas Robinson, MD, a nationally-recognized childhood obesity researcher asks: “How do we know that those changes would make a dent in childhood obesity rates?”
Unless we conduct studies that compare different health policies head-to-head in rigorously designed experiments, we can’t be sure what actually works, Robinson writes. He proposes implementing randomized controlled trials that make use of existing state and national health-surveillance programs (21 states already have laws that mandate measuring children’s body mass index in school, for instance) and that assign schools to different proposed health-policy changes so that the policies’ effects can be evaluated.
If this idea sounds daunting, Robinson has prepared an answer for potential critics:
Too difficult? Too expensive? Not when compared with the unrecoverable costs of getting policies wrong. [...] Federal, state and local governments and nongovernmental organizations are already spending many hundreds of millions of dollars per year to implement policy interventions that may or may not have any impact on childhood obesity. If evaluated at all, it is usually with nonexperimental designs. It would be a terrible lost opportunity if we learned several decades from now that most of these dollars produced no health benefits.
Dieters advised to use a smaller dinner plate may find themselves without much weight loss success, or so says findings recently published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
In the study (subscription required), 10 overweight and 10 normal weight women participated in the study; each was randomly assigned to dine with either an 8.5-inch or a 10.8-inch dinner plate. Told to eat until they felt satisfied, the women were studied over one meal (lunch) on two different days and each used a different-sized plate every time they ate.
The plate size did not affect the amount of calories that participants ate at either meal. However, overweight/obese women in the study reported feeling less hungry prior to the meal and less full afterward.
Reading the results, I’m left wondering whether a longer study would have told a different story or if more direction about what to eat would have made a difference. But you can read more about the study in this HealthDay News story.
The more ongoing stress children are exposed to the greater the odds they will struggle with their weight as adolescents, according to a study recently published in Pediatrics.
The findings (subscription required) support past research showing molecules released when a person is stressed may unlock the body’s fat cells, and additional studies suggesting that stress contributes to childhood obesity.
The researchers measured the height and weight of 244 9-year-olds in rural New York state and calculated their various physical and psycho-social stressors–for example, exposure to violence, living in a substandard house, or having no access to such resources as books.
They also measured the children’s ability to delay gratification by offering them a choice between waiting for a large plate of candy versus having a medium plate immediately. The researchers measured the children’s height and weight again four years later.
The study showed children who were chronically exposed to stressors such as poverty, crowded housing and family turmoil gained more weight and were significantly heavier by age 13 than they would have been otherwise. Researchers say the findings could have implications for weight management interventions and policies aimed at reducing individual stressors.
We wrote yesterday about a UC San Francisco paper calling for the regulation of sugar. So what does Stanford nutrition consultant Jo Ann Hattner, RD, think about villianizing the sweet stuff? Her thoughts were included in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:
…Not all scientists agree that sugar should shoulder the entire burden for the chronic diseases afflicting modern Americans.
“When you get into this argument about sugar in the diet, you also have to look at the type of food that has a high sugar content,” said… Hattner, a San Francisco registered dietitian who teaches nutrition courses at Stanford. “Those foods have few nutrients and little fiber, and that’s not good for you. So is it sugar itself that’s harmful?”
That said, Hattner added, there’s no doubt that people in general consume too much sugar and that everyone could benefit from eating less – and especially looking out for “hidden” sugars in their diets. Those sugars are often found in processed foods like sodas, cereals and breads. Even cookies contain much more sugar than they did a decade or two ago, nutritionists say.
In a new paper in Nature, UC San Francisco researchers argue that sugar, with its “potential for abuse, coupled with its toxicity and pervasiveness in the Western diet,” is helping contribute to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The authors, as you’ll hear in the video above, believe that sugar consumption in America should be considered a public health issue, and that sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco products.
Schmidt further explains the researchers’ position in a release:
We’re not talking prohibition. We’re not advocating a major imposition of the government into people’s lives. We’re talking about gentle ways to make sugar consumption slightly less convenient, thereby moving people away from the concentrated dose. What we want is to actually increase people’s choices by making foods that aren’t loaded with sugar comparatively easier and cheaper to get.
This work follows a study recently published in Health Affairsshowing that adding a penny-per-ounce tax onto sweetened beverages purchases would prevent nearly 100,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 deaths over the next decade.
Findings recently published in the journal Obesity offer new insights into the link between obesity and chronic pain.
In the study (subscription required), researchers analyzed responses from 1,010,762 men and women who answered health survey questions during a telephone interview by the Gallop Organization between 2008 and 2010. Participants’ body mass index (BMI) was calculated based on questions regarding their height and weight. Respondents also answered questions about pain, such as if they “experienced pain yesterday.” Science Daily reports:
Sixty three percent of the 1,010,762 people who responded to the survey were classified as overweight (38 percent) or obese (25 percent). Obese respondents were further classified into one of three obesity levels as defined by the World Health Organization. In comparison to individuals with low to normal weight, the overweight group reported 20 percent higher rates of pain. The percent increase of reported pain in comparison to the normal weight group grew rapidly in the obese groups: 68 percent higher for Obese 1 group, 136 percent higher for Obese 2 group, and 254 percent higher for Obese 3 group.
Researchers suggested several explanations for the close relationship between obesity and pain including: the possibility that having excess body fat triggers complex physiological processes resulting in inflammation and pain; depression, often experienced by obese individuals, influences pain; and medical conditions that cause pain, such as arthritis, might result in reduced levels of exercise leading to weight gain.
Although more study is needed, the findings are notable and add to the evidence showing that overweight patients are at greater risk for chronic pain.
Trying to slim down? It may be time to inspect your dishware. Research published in the Journal of Consumer Research shows the size and color of bowls and plates could influence how much we eat.
In the small study (pdf), researchers treated a group of adults to lunch and examined how participants eating habits were altered by simply changing the color of their plate. Scientific Americanreports:
Half of those attending a buffet lunch were assigned to a line with only white Alfredo sauce-coated pasta and the other half were ushered to the line with only red marinara-sauce pasta. Folks in each line were randomly given a red or white plate.
Those with plates that matched the color of their food helped themselves to much more than those who had plates of another color.
Study results showed that on average changing the color of the plate so it highly contrasted the food reduced how much volunteers served themselves by 21 percent. Additionally, altering the color of the tablecloth reduced how much serving size by 10 percent, according to a journal release.
Gastric bypass surgery appears to provide longer-lasting weight loss than gastric banding, according to findings published earlier this week in Archives of Surgery. As USA Todayreported, the study followed more than 400 patients in Switzerland for six years. Some of the participants underwent gastric bypass surgery while others had a band placed around part of their stomachs to reduce its size. Study results (subscription required) showed that bypass patients lost more weight faster, had consistently lower cholesterol levels and, in the long-term, had fewer complications.
Below John Morton, MD, MPH, associate professor of surgery and director of bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics, discusses the findings and what patients should consider when determining if such procedures are right for them.
From your perspective, what is the significance of these findings?
This study was not a randomized trial so you have to take that into account. The patients are self-selecting and they may choose to have the bypass because they know they won’t do well with the band, or vice-versa. So you have to take these findings with a grain of salt.
The study presents findings that we are already pretty familiar with, which is that bypass results in more effective weight loss and changes in cardiac risk factors such as lowering cholesterol. But, overall, the findings are still important because the study has good size numbers, was completed by an experienced group and supports past data showing bypass patients lose more weight.
My opinion is that we need to do a randomized trial comparing these two procedures to provide a clearer picture. I wish we could do such a study. But, unfortunately, the funding just isn’t available for such randomized surgical trials so we have to rely on comparative studies like these.
A growing body of scientific research, including a 2004 Stanford study, shows that sleep duration is an important regulator of body weight and metabolism. Now findings recently published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism offer additional insight into the link between sleep deprivation, cognitive function and weight gain.
In the small study (subscription required), a European research team examined how regions in the brain known to be involved in appetite sensation are influenced by acute sleep loss. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers compared the brain scans of normal-weight males while they viewed images of foods both after a night of normal sleep and a night without sleep. The results showed that the region of the brain that stimulates appetite was noticeably more active in participants after losing a night of sleep.
Uppsala University researcher Christian Benedict, PhD, commented on the connection between the findings and obesity rates in a release:
After a night of total sleep loss, these males showed a high level of activation in an area of the brain that is involved in a desire to eat. Bearing in mind that insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society, our results may explain why poor sleep habits can affect people’s risk to gain weight in the long run. It may therefore be important to sleep about eight hours every night to maintain a stable and healthy body weight.
Many of us, myself included, are focusing our efforts on making more nutritious choices in 2012. One option for eating healthier is to pay closer attention to salt intake. The American Heart Association recommends that adults consume less than 1500 mg of sodium a day, and past research has shown that reducing Americans’ salt intake by a half teaspoon a day could prevent 92,000 deaths, 99,000 heart attacks and 66,000 strokes — which is on par with the benefits of population-wide reductions in smoking.
Many processed and prepared foods are high in sodium, so reducing salt intake can be difficult. But in the above video, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center dietitian Arielle Rosenberg offers help: She walks the grocery store aisles and offers tips on understanding sodium content in foods and how to adopt a low-salt eating approach. It’s worth watching.
‘Tis the season to eat, drink and be merry. But for many of us, myself included, overindulging at seasonal celebrations often leads to our pants fitting a little too tight come New Year’s Day.
This year, I’ve resolved to take a different approach rather than pay the price for my excesses in 2012. I’m planning to spend extra hours at the gym, and I also asked Stanford nutritionist Jo Ann Hattner, RD, for some tips and tactics on eating healthy during the holidays. Hattner shares her thoughts here.
What poses a greater challenge when it comes to maintaining weight while celebrating the season: the prevalence of such goodies or our behavior during the holidays?
While rich holiday foods and seasonal alcoholic drinks are tempting, behavior is most important. Our behavior is responsible for either making it through the holidays without causing havoc to our health or giving ourselves permission to eat and drink excessively with the thought we will address the consequences later.
I advise focusing on behaviors that allow you to enjoy the holidays, particularly the social aspects of the festivities. Think of the food and drink as something you want to enjoy but also be able to control the indulgences. To do this use simple behaviors such as not eating and talking at the same time, being more aware of the taste of the food and chewing slowly and thoroughly. Also, become aware of when you are just starting to feel full and recognize that this is the time to stop eating.
Rather than feeling restricted at holiday gatherings, many people often relax their healthy eating habits until the New Year and then focus on making healthier choices and losing any gained weight. What are your thoughts on this strategy?
This is a poor health strategy primarily because your body has already had to accommodate the excesses of the holiday eating and that may have had detrimental effects, particularly to your cardiovascular system. In addition, depending on how much you gained during the holidays it can be an overwhelming task to lose the weight. If this is the case, unfortunately, you may still have it on board when the next holiday rolls around.
In a post on KevinMD today, a medical student shares his concerns that nutrition education in U.S. medical schools is lacking and that many physicians don’t have the knowledge to effectively counsel patients about obesity and related health conditions. He writes:
We may study biochemistry and what happens to the components of food we eat, but we study very little about dietary choices and how to advise our patients. In the hospital, we consult the dieticians when we need to make decisions about what exactly to feed our patients. When patients ask us questions about diet and nutrition, we often deliver vapid, cookie-cutter answers that (rightfully) go in one ear and out the other.
This is absurd. We are in the middle of an obesity epidemic that’s not only making us sick as individuals, but weakening us as a nation. Nutrition is intimately involved in the pathogenesis, and sometimes (but not often enough) treatment, of chronic disease. I hope this is one aspect of medical education that is reformed in the near future, because I feel it’s hurting us in ways we may not even recognize.
Previous research has showed only a quarter of U.S. medical schools have a course dedicated to the subject and a significant number of young doctors rate their nutritional knowledge as inadequate.
A growing body of research suggests that prolonged sitting throughout the day may be harmful to your health. In this video, Neville Owen, PhD, explains the research linking sitting and negative health outcomes.
Following the talk, Owen took questions from the audience and discussed the effects of prolonged sitting on children and offered recommendations for changing the work environment to reduce sedentary behavior. A video of the discussion is also available on YouTube.
As previously reported on Scope, Stanford geneticist Michael Snyder, PhD, and colleagues conducted an unprecedented analysis of Snyder's genome using a newly ...
