Trans fat is commonly found in fast food and packaged snacks. Olive oil, vegetables, and nuts are typical sources of unsaturated fat.

In the study, a group of monkeys were fed a controlled diet for six years. All monkeys received the same caloric intake, including 35 percent fat, intended to be representative of a typical Western diet. One group of monkeys consumed 8 percent of their diet as trans fat, while the other group did not consume trans fats.

Wake Forest University professor Lawrence L. Rudel was surprised to find that the monkeys on a trans fat diet increased their abdominal fat and overall weight, while the monkeys on an unsaturated fat diet gained very little, even though their intake was identical.

“We believed they couldn’t get obese because we did not give them enough calories to get fat,” explained Rudel.

Researchers saw the body weight of the monkeys fed the diet high in trans fats increase by 7.2 percent, while the monkeys fed monounsaturated fats only had a 1.8 percent increase in body fat. The extra fat in all of the monkeys was concentrated in the abdomen, and CT scans showed greater concentrations of abdominal fat deposits in the trans-fat diet monkeys — 30 percent higher than the monounsaturated diet group.

This is yet another reason to limit your intake of french fries, chips, and processed foods.

Links:

• Trans Fats May Speed ‘Spare Tire’, HealthDay, June 14, 2006
• Why fast foods are bad, even in moderation, New Scientist, June 12, 2006
• McDonald’s Fries are even worse for you than previously thought, Nutrition and Health News, February 8, 2006
• Trans Fat Diet Induces Insulin Resistance in Monkeys, Kylie Kavanagh, Kate Jones, Janet Sawyer, Kathryn Kelly, Janice D. Wagner, Lawrence L. Rudel, at 66th American Diabetes Association

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, diet, weight loss, weight management

According to the report, the current rate of child obesity in North and South America is about 1 in 3, and will rise to nearly 1 in 2 by the year 2010. Rates in the EU are predicted to rise from 25% to 38%. Child obesity is rising rapidly in developing countries as well, with China projected to have a rate of 1 in 5 by the year 2010.

The dramatic increase is attributed to a combination of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, junk food, and prevalence of advertising and marketing promoting unhealthy consumption.

If the study projections are accurate, there are substantial public policy implications, due to the high correlation of health problems (heart disease, diabetes, stroke, etc) associated with obesity as individuals age.

Links:

• Study: Child obesity expected to soar worldwide, AP/MSN March 7, 2006
• Warning: Worldwide fat attack, SFGate.com World Views, March 7, 2006
• International Journal of Pediatric Obesity

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, parenting, diet, childhood, weight

McDonald’s and other US fast food restaurant chains have been under pressure to improve disclosure of nutrition content for their products, with some limited results. McDonald’s is updating their packaging and in-store literature. US dietary guidelines call for consumers to keep their intake of trans fats as low as possible. Trans fats have been shown to raise levels of harmful cholesterol, contributing to heart disease. New government rules require packaged foods to include information about trans fat content along with other nutrition information.

McDonald’s french fries in US stores are cooked by deep frying in oil. Trans fats are associated with the use of partially hydrogenated oil instead of vegetable oil. A portion of large fries is now measured at 8 grams of trans fat (up from 6 grams), and total fat is 30 grams (up from 25). Aside from the issue of trans fat, french fries simply contain a lot of fat, and consuming a lot of them corresponds to a large intake of calories which may not be needed.

Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest observes:

“Nutritionally it’s a disastrous product,” Jacobson said of the fries. “McDonald’s could fry in canola oil or other liquid oil” as it does in Australia, Denmark and Israel, he said.

A few french fries in moderation won’t harm you or your diet, but unfortunately it’s easy to consume more than intended.

Links:

• McDonald’s reveals high trans fat levels in fries, MSNBC / Financial Times, February 8, 2006
• McDonald’s Says Fries have More Trans Fats, ABC News, February 8, 2006

Tags: nutrition, health, diet

Patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes often require doses of insulin throughout the day to regulate their blood sugar level. This normally requires the use of injectable insulin or in some cases an insulin pump.

The US population of diabetic patients is growing rapidly, mostly due to the increasing occurence of Type 2 diabetes, which is associated with obesity. Nearly 21 million Americans have diabetes of which 95% are Type 2. In some cases, Type 2 diabetes can be effectively managed without requiring insulin doses through diet, exercise, and weight management.

For those diabetic patients who do require insulin doses to manage their blood glucose levels, having an inhalable alternative may offer some welcome flexibility in their daily routine. The inhaler is not a direct replacement for injectable insulin, however, as the inhaled insulin is presently not effective for as long as the injectable doses. Diabetic patients will also continue to need finger pricking for blood glucose monitoring.

Exubera is expected to be available the US this summer, at a cost of around four or five dollars per day.

Links:

• FDA Approves Inhalable Version of Insulin, Washington Post, January 28, 2006
• Pfizer Receives FDA Approval for Exubera, the First Inhalable Form of Insulin for Controlling Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes in Adults, Pfizer press release, January 27, 2006
• American Diabetes Association

Tags: health, diabetes

Type 2 diabetes typically develops during adulthood, and is frequently associated with overweight and a low physical activity lifestyle. Insulin is a hormone which regulates the movement of sugar carried in the bloodstream and cells which use it for energy. In Type 2 diabetes, the body produces insulin, but cells do not respond well to it, resulting in elevated levels of blood sugar which can damage many systems in the body.

Using an estimate of how common the gene variations are in three populations — Icelanders, Danes and white Americans — the researchers calculated that about 21 percent of Type 2 diabetes could be attributed to the presence of the “risky” variations.

As reported by the researchers, having the “risky” form of the gene does not guarantee having Type 2 diabetes. In general, a healthy diet, weight control, and regular exercise program can substantially reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, and can also help manage the symptoms if Type 2 diabetes does occur.

Links:

• Report Explores Cause of Diabetes, Washington Post, January 16, 2006
• Variant of transcription factor 7-like 2 (TCF7L2) gene confers risk of type 2 diabetes, Struan F A Grant, Gudmar Thorleifsson, et al, Nature Genetics, January 15, 2006, doi:10.1038/ng1732
• American Diabetes Association

Tags: nutrition, health, diet, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, science

Participants in this study used a Pritikin diet, which features low fat and high fiber intake, and completed 45 to 60 minutes of aerobic activity at 75% to 85% of maximum heart rate each day using a treadmill. The participants, ranging in age from 46 to 76 years old, did not attempt to restrict their calorie intake, and began and ended the trial overweight or obese.

“The study shows, contrary to common belief, that Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome can be reversed solely through lifestyle changes,” according to lead researcher Christian Roberts of University of California, Los Angeles.

“This regimen reversed a clinical diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome in about half the participants who had either of those conditions. However, the regimen may not have reversed damage such as plaque development in the arteries,” Roberts said. “However, if Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome continue to be controlled, further damage would likely be minimized and it’s plausible that continuing to follow the program long-term may result in reversal of atherosclerosis.”

“The results are all the more interesting because the changes occurred in the absence of major weight loss, challenging the commonly held belief that individuals must normalize their weight before achieving health benefits,” Roberts said. Participants did lose two to three pounds per week, but they were still obese after the 3-week study.

“The diet, combined with moderate exercise, improved many factors that contribute to heart disease and that are indirect measures of plaque progression in the arteries, including insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and markers of developing atherosclerosis,” Roberts said. “The approach used in this experiment of combining exercise with a diet of unlimited calories is unusual.”

It’s worth noting that the study was conducted while all 31 male participants were in a residential treatment program, in which the food intake and exercise activity are supervised. Individuals who are dieting and exercising on their own at home are likely to have difficulty managing their food intake and exercise to a similar degree, although this study underlines the benefits that can be achieved relatively quickly, well before any physical changes in one’s appearance are easily seen.

Links:

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, parenting, diet, weight loss, weight management, fitness, exercise, diabetes, metabolic+syndrome

This weekend’s Doonesbury comic strip comments on restaurant portion sizes, in which “all of today’s specials are guaranteed bigger than your head!”

Elsewhere, For Better Or Worse takes a look at using a treadmill with headphones.

Links:

• Doonesbury, January 15, 2006
• For Better Or Worse, January 15, 2006
• Portion Distortion - How big is that bagel, anyway?, Nutrition and Health News, November 30, 2005
• Renewed Push for Nutrition Labeling at Restaurants, Nutrition and Health News, November 29, 2005
• Big Portions May Prompt Overeating, Nutrition and Health News, November 28, 2005

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, diet, weight loss, weight+management

If you’re not familiar with working out with other people around in a gym environment, it can be intimidating, distracting, or confusing. Here are some tips for getting started at the gym, from the American Council on Exercise:

1. Don’t be rude. Avoid lingering on machines too long, blaring your music, singing noisily, grunting excessively while working out or talking loudly on your cell phone.
2. Maintain good hygiene. The gym is a public place, be considerate and leave all the machines clean after using them. Wipe your sweat off the equipment once you’re finished.
3. Restack your weights. Don’t leave someone else to do your dirty work, restack your weights for the next user. Making someone remove weights that are too heavy could place them at risk for injury.
4. Stay back when starting a group exercise class. When joining a new group exercise class with detailed choreography, stand near the back of the room and let the experienced group workout near the front. Also, respect the limited space of others in the class and keep your arms and legs at a reasonable distance from others.
5. Hire a personal trainer. There’s no better way to learn the ins and outs of the gym than working with a trainer. He or she can show you how to safely and properly use the equipment in the facility.

At the start of each year, it’s fairly easy to spot many new faces in most gyms, and newcomers can often be seen practicing items #1-4 above. As for item #5, even if you don’t need or want a personal trainer, you should ask the gym staff to explain any equipment you are unfamiliar with before using it, and you may find it helpful to spend a session or two with a trainer to learn your way around.

Tags: health, weight, management, loss, fitness, training

One notable early dieter was William the Conqueror, King of 11th century England. His preferred method of losing weight was to lock himself in a room and consume nothing but alcohol. After becoming too obese to stay seated on his horse, he died of abdominal injuries due to falling off in battle in 1087. His body was too large to fit in his previously constructed sarcophagus, and burst open when bishops attending the funeral attempted push his body down into the coffin.

Other more recent diets and dieting aids include:

• Elvis’ Sleeping Beauty Diet, in which he was sedated for days at a time
• Zander Rooms - Gustav Zander invented the belt driven fat massager
• The Cigarette Diet - “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”
• Slimming Soap - “requires no starvation diets or strenuous exercise”
• The Tapeworm Diet - let a tapeworm eat away your extra weight
• The Inuit Meat-and-Fat Diet - sort of an early version of the Atkins diet
• Vision-Dieter Glasses - to make food look less appealing

Links:

• Belly Laughs at Early Fad Diets - Tasty Morsels From Weight-Loss History, ABC News, January 10, 2006
• William I of England, Wikipedia entry

Tags: nutrition, diet, weight, loss, management, humor

Northwestern University researchers tracked 17,643 patients for three decades and found that being overweight in mid-life substantially increased the risk of dying of heart disease later in life — even in people who began the study with healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

In the study, patients whose body mass index (BMI) placed them in the obese or grossly overweight categories were 43 percent more likely to die of heart disease, and were also four times as likely to be hospitalized for heart disease. BMI of 25 to 29 were considered overweight, and BMI greater than 30 were considered to be obese.

These results are in contrast to a controversial CDC study published last year indicating that obesity, though harmful, was not as lethal as generally believed.

Fat tissue “is not like an inert storage depot — it’s a very dynamic organ that is actually producing hormones and chemical messengers,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. These substances can damage blood vessels, increase the risk of blood clots and cause insulin resistance that makes people prone to diabetes — all without elevating blood pressure or cholesterol, said Manson, who was not involved in the Northwestern study.

The active organ-like behavior of accumulated fat tissue is still being studied, but there is an increasing body of research demonstrating the importance and generally negative effects of large deposits of fat tissue on overall health.

Links:

• New Study Links Obesity, Heart Problems, Yahoo/AP, January 11, 2006
• Midlife Body Mass Index and Hospitalization and Mortality in Older Age, Lijing L. Yan, PhD, MPH; Martha L. Daviglus, MD, PhD; Kiang Liu, PhD; Jeremiah Stamler, MD; Renwei Wang, MD, MS; Amber Pirzada, MD; Daniel B. Garside, BS; Alan R. Dyer, PhD; Linda Van Horn, PhD, RD; Youlian Liao, MD; James F. Fries, MD; Philip Greenland, MD, Journal of the American Medical Association, January 11, 2006
• Study confirms you can’t be fat - and healthy, MSNBC, April 19, 2005

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, diet, weight loss, weight management

The chance of having any cardiovascular disease decreased by 42 percent, and the chance of a heart attack or stroke was reduced by 57 percent, when compared with type 1 diabetes patients following a conventional diabetes management routine. This study is the first to clearly show that controlling blood sugar reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Researchers knew that diabetes was linked to heart disease - at least two-thirds of diabetics die of heart disease. But although studies showed that controlling blood sugar protected against damage to the eyes, kidneys and nerves, there was no conclusive evidence that it would have the same effect on heart disease and stroke.

Patients with type 1 diabetes are unable to produce insulin, which regulates the metabolism of blood sugar. The cells in the pancreas which normally produce insulin are destroyed by an autoimmune process among type 1 diabetics. In the absence of insulin, blood sugar levels fluctuate, rising and falling to dangerous levels.

“This is a rare instance of a happy ending,” said Dr. Saul M. Genuth, chairman of a research project initiated in 1983. Genuth and a nationwide team of researchers studied more than 1,000 patients with Type 1 diabetes and found they gained a health-enhancing advantage when they rigorously controlled their blood-sugar levels.

The equivalent of five or six injections of insulin a day, compared with the conventional one or two injections, reduced the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%. Genuth said it did not matter whether the insulin was delivered by injection or pump: “When you bring your blood glucose as close to normal as possible, that is what counts most.”

Five or six injections per day may be impractical for many diabetics, but the clear linkage between regulating the blood sugar level and reduced heart attack and stroke risk will provide strong motivation for patients and health care providers to find methods to improve.

This study focused on type 1 diabetics, but the guidance on the importance of managing blood sugar levels is likely to also apply to type 2 diabetics. Type 2 diabetes typically begins in middle age, and is often associated with overweight and obesity. In type 2 diabetes, the body still produces insulin, but is unable to regulate blood sugar levels due to reduced sensitivity to insulin. A separate study examining a type 2 diabetics is presently underway.

Links:

• Strict Control Key to Taming Diabetes, Washington Post, December 21, 2005
• Diabetes Study Verifies Lifesaving Tactic, New York Times, December 22, 2005
• Type 1 Diabetics Can Halve Deadly Risk, Los Angeles Times / Newsday, December 22, 2005
• Intensive Diabetes Treatment and Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes, David M. Nathan, Patricia A. Cleary, Jye-Yu C. Backlund, Saul M. Genuth, John M. Lachin, Trevor J. Orchard, Philip Raskin, and Bernard Zinman, New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 353:2643-2653, December 22, 2005

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, diet, diabetes

Average cholesterol levels were about 10 points higher for youngsters in the low fitness category than for those considered highly fit. Blood pressure differences between categories was not as dramatic.

About 4 percent of the girls and almost 2 percent of the boys already had high blood pressure. Also, 2 percent of girls and 7 percent of boys had metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that includes big waists and higher levels for blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, which increase the risk for heart disease.

“While adolescents aren’t at risk for heart disease in the short term,” Carnethon said, “this has important implications for the long term health of youth in the United States.”

See also: 3 out of 4 California school kids fail basic fitness (Nutrition and Health News)

Links:

• Many US Teens Out of Shape (CBS / AP, December 20, 2005)
• Millions of Adults, Teens Fail Fitness Test (Washington Post, December 21, 2005)
• Prevalence and Cardiovascular Disease Correlates of Low Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Adolescents and Adults, Mercedes R. Carnethon, Martha Gulati, Phillip Greenland, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2005;294:2981-2988), December 21, 2005
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (US Center for Disease Control)

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, parenting

A report published by psychology professors Peter Herman and Jane Polivy of the University of Toronto suggests a strong social component of overeating behaviors.

Rather than focusing on hunger and fullness in regulating food intake, in their model, eating is largely governed by the motive to avoid eating “excessively”, based on personal and situational norms.

Dieters impose a restrictive intake norm on themselves, but often violate the norm. Personal norms are individualized rules that people develop to help themselves decide how much is appropriate to eat in a given situation. Situational norms are derived from the eating situation itself; examples include portion size and social influence, which exert powerful effects on intake.

In other words, if an individual goes to a formal dinner party where no one else requests a second helping, they are more likely to skip one themselves, while if the same person goes to an all-you-can-eat buffet reception, they’re more likely to load up their plate a few times.

“It’s an insidious effect,” Herman says. “People are often rudderless in eating situations and they look to the activity of others, their own previous behaviour or other social cues to guide them and thereby consume more than they need. Frequently, eating occurs within what we have termed a zone of biological indifference, in which the individual is neither genuinely hungry nor genuinely sated. Without any particular biological reason to start, continue or stop eating, we are particularly vulnerable to socially based influences.”

“Socially based influences” would also include media and advertising, in which portion sizes have continued to increase and overconsumption is often encouraged.

Links:

• Anxious About Holiday Weight Gain? Don’t Look to Others for Social Clues, Study Shows (Medical News Today, December 17, 2005)
• Normative influences on food intake, C. Peter Herman and Jane Polivy, Physiology & Behavior, Volume 86, Issue 5, 15 December 2005
• Portion Distortion (Nutrition and Health News, November 30, 2005)

Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, diet, weight loss, weight management, holiday

The US National Cancer Institute recently published the results of the first Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), which polled 6,369 adults about how they get information about health care and cancer treatment.

The results showed that 63.0 percent of respondents had ever used the Internet. Of these, 63.7 percent had looked there for some type of health or medical information. Other health-related Internet activities, such as purchasing medication, communicating with physicians, or participating in an online support group, were taken advantage of by less than 10 percent of users.

The authors report that 62.4 percent of respondents said that they trusted physicians “a lot” for cancer information, compared with 23.9 percent for the Internet.

The investigators plan to repeat the survey every two years to track the changes in patient behavior over time.

Links:

• Patients trust docs, but often use the internet (Yahoo / Reuters, December 12, 2005)
• Trust and Sources of Medical Information,
  Bradford W. Hesse, PhD, David E. Nelson, MD, MPH, Gary L. Kreps, PhD, Robert T Croyle, PhD, Neeraj K. Arora, PhD, Barbara K. Rimer, PhD, Kasisomayajula Viswanath, PhD, Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 165, No. 22, December 12/26, 2005.

Technorati Tags: health, cancer

What to do: Pay attention, eat sensibly, and maintain your healthy eating and exercise habits.

Read the whole article (insook.com).

Tags: diet, nutrition, obesity, weight management, weight loss

The Biggest Loser is a reality TV show featuring a competition to see which of the 14 overweight participants can lose the most weight. Matt Hoover, winner of this season’s show lost as much as 26 pounds in a single week, and at the end lost a total of 157 pounds, ending up at 182 pounds, through a combination of diet and exercise. Another contestant lost even more weight (185 pounds), but from a much higher starting weight.

MSNBC features a couple of articles profiling the contestants and answering some questions about their diet and exercise routines. Although the changes are spectacular, the approach used was basic: to adjust their food intake to a healthy, balanced level, to increase their exercise activity, and develop healthier daily routines. However, this is easier said than done.

Dr. Michael Dansinger, a consultant on “The Biggest Loser 2″ and a physician at Tufts New England Medical Center, observes that the show participants are in an environment where everything is optimized for weight loss. Most people do not have the luxury of dedicated personal trainers and full time management of their food and exercise programs.

Dansinger says that “50 to 60 percent of [contestants’] weight-loss success comes from dietary change.” They’re used to consuming around 3000 calories a day, but on the show consume about 1500 calories a day. As he says, “few people are really in a position to cut their calories by 1500 a day, but that’s what these people are able to do.” He says there’s “nothing controversial” about the diet, nor are the contestants given pills or other shortcuts.

The other 40 to 50 percent of weight loss comes from the three hours of exercise the contestants do every day: an hour of strength training and two hours of cardio. That helps them burn an additional 1200 to 1500 calories, Dansinger says. “It’s hard to do by yourself, but on the show it’s easy to do,” he said. “When people allow themselves to be put in that kind of environment … when you pull out all the barriers to weight loss, that’s when the weight loss can come very quickly.”

Too bad it’s not as easy as writing about it.

Links:

• Lovable ‘Losers’ (MSNBC 12/7/2005)
• How does ‘Loser’ cast drop so much weight? (MSNBC Ask The Reality TV Experts 11/29/2005)

Technorati Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, media, weight loss, diet, fitness

According to the government’s calculations, a child born in 2003 can expect to live 77.6 years on average, up from 77.3 the year before. In 1990, life expectancy was 75.4 years. Deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke continue to drop, but the report also shows that half of Americans ages 55 to 64 — including the oldest of the baby boomers — have high blood pressure, and 40 percent are obese, up from 31 percent in the 2003 report.

Links:

• U.S. Life Expectancy Hits All-Time High (Yahoo / AP, December 8, 2005)
• Obesity, Blood Pressure Woes Haunt Aging Boomers (Yahoo / HealthDay, December 8, 2005)
• Health, United States, 2005 (National Center for Health Statistics)

Technorati Tags: obesity, nutrition, health

Bodybuilding, cheerleading, dancing, distance running, cross-country skiing, diving, figure skating, gymnastics, martial arts, rowing, swimming, weight-class football, and wrestling all emphasize thinness, leanness, and/or competing at the lowest possible weight. Other sports, such as football, rugby, basketball, and power lifting emphasize gaining weight by increasing lean muscle mass.

New recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) call for coaches, school administrators, parents, and doctors to discourage unhealthy dieting practices, such as food restriction, vomiting, diet-pill use, and voluntary dehydration in children participating in sports that encourage weight loss or weight gain.

Some of the recommendations include:

• Doctors caring for young athletes should have knowledge of healthy weight-gain and weight-loss methods. They should understand minimal recommended weight, normal growth curves, and body composition measurements and be willing to educate athletes, families, coaches, athletic trainers, school administrators, and state and national organizations when appropriate. Physicians should understand that all athletes are unique and each athlete must be evaluated individually.
• All physical examinations of young athletes should include a weight history and a history of eating patterns, hydration practices, eating disorders, heat illness, and other factors that may influence heat illness or weight control.
• Physicians should be able to recognize early signs and symptoms of an eating disorder and obtain appropriate medical, psychological, and nutritional consultation for young athletes with these symptoms
• Daily calorie intake for most athletes should consist of at least 2,000 calories from a variety of foods from all food groups, including plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration.
• In sports in which weigh-ins are required, athletes’ weight and body composition should be measured once or twice per year.
• Male high school athletes should not have less than 7% body fat. Female athletes should get enough calories to meet daily energy needs and experience normal menstruation.
• Weight-loss or weight-gain programs should be started early to permit gradual weight gain or loss over a realistic period and allow a change of 1.5% of one’s body weight per week accompanied by appropriate changes in body fat and muscle. Such a weight loss plan should not be initiated before ninth grade.
• Any athlete who loses a significant amount of fluid during sports should weigh in before and after practices or competitions; each pound of weight loss should be replaced with 1 pint of fluid containing carbohydrates and electrolytes, such as a sports drink, before the next practice or competition.
• Weight loss through unhealthy practices — including overexercising; using rubber suits, steam baths, or saunas; prolonged fasting; fluid reduction; vomiting; diet pills; laxatives; diuretics; stimulants; insulin; nutritional supplements; or other legal or illegal drugs and/or nicotine — should be prohibited at all ages.
• Athletes who need to gain weight should consult their physician for resources on healthy weight gain and referral to a registered dietitian. They should be discouraged from gaining excessive weight, which may impair performance, increase the likelihood of heat illness, and increase the risk of developing complications from obesity.
• Ergogenic aids (performance and recovery enhancing substances such as creatine or steroids) and nontherapeutic use of supplements for weight management should be prohibited for youth athletes.
• Young athletes should be involved in a total athletic program that includes acquisition of athletic skills and improvement in speed, flexibility, strength, and physical conditioning while maintaining good nutrition and normal hydration. This should be done under the supervision of a coach who stresses a positive attitude, character building, teamwork, and safety.

Links:

• ‘Making Weight’ Risky for Young Athletes, WebMD, December 7, 2005
• Promotion of Healthy Weight-Control Practices in Young Athletes, Pediatrics Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1557-1564

Technorati Tags: nutrition, health, parenting, youth, sports, training, weight loss, weight gain, diet, dieting

“There is strong evidence that television advertising influences the diets of children” said Dr. Michael McGinnis, a senior scholar at the Institute of Medicine, which conducted the review, which was requested by the US Congress and sponsored by the Center for Disease Control.

Promotions led children ages 2 to 11 to ask for certain products, and kids aged 4 and younger could not tell the difference between television advertisements and programing, the report said. Those 8 and younger did not understand that commercials are meant to persuade.

The underlying issue is the growing rate of childhood obesity. About 9 million U.S. children and teen-agers, or about 16 percent, are obese compared with 5 percent in the 1960s. The number of young people with type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, also is on the rise.

The food-industry-funded Center for Consumer Freedom rejected the study’s findings, saying a lack of exercise, not food, was to blame for rising obesity.

Links:

• TV ads push junk food, harm kids’ diets Yahoo / Reuters, December 7, 2005
• Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? report from Institute of Medicine, December 6, 2005

Technorati Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, parenting, media

In the study, children were considered overweight if their body mass index (BMI) fell at or above the 95th percentile on children’s growth charts for their age and gender.

The researchers found that many factors were associated with early childhood weight gain, including race, ethnicity, maternal smoking and maternal pre-pregnancy weight. The two factors with the strongest association, however, were maternal weight and smoking.

Children born to mothers who were overweight or obese had between double and triple the risk of becoming overweight by age 7 than children born to mothers at normal weight for the start of her pregnancy.

Children born to mothers who smoked had a 74 percent increased risk of being overweight by age 7 compared to children born to women who didn’t smoke during pregnancy.

Links:

• Overweight Moms More Likely to Have Overweight Kids (MSN / HealthDay, December 5, 2005)
• Dynamics of Early Childhood Overweight, Pamela J. Salsberry, Patricia B. Reagan, Pediatrics Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1329-1338

Technorati Tags: obesity, nutrition, health, parenting