According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, people living in walkable, older neighborhoods with businesses and stores within walking distance are less likely to be overweight or obese.  According to the New York Times:

With each extra decade of a neighborhood’s age, the researchers said, the risk of obesity was 13 percent lower for men and 8 percent lower for women.

There are several reasons older neighborhoods are more walkable, said the lead author, Ken R. Smith of the University of Utah: better sidewalks, trees to provide shade and intersections at shorter intervals.

But older neighborhoods have something even more basic when it comes to luring someone into heading out on foot.

“You always want to have something to walk to,” Dr. Smith said. And unlike many modern residential areas, older communities may have stores and other businesses near houses.

We’re sort of lucky in that regard: we don’t live in an old neighborhood, but we’re close to a main drag, so we have a number of stores and services in walking distance.  In addition, our neck of the world is reasonably pedestrian and bike-friendly.  As a result, I see a lot more people out and about on the streets during the day than I used to when we were living in Ohio. 

Even if it didn’t help reduce excess weight/fat, walking is healthier for both walkers and the environment.  The fact that it does, is an added bonus.

“100 Ways to Cut 100 Calories” is a list from America On The Move, a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to improving “…health and quality of life by promoting healthful eating and active living among individuals, families, communities and society. ”  As they put it:

Our research shows that small, specific changes in food and physical activity behaviors can have a positive effect on health and effectively stop weight gain.  AOM provides free web-based programs, tools, and resources to individuals, families, groups and communities of all types and sizes.

As I’ve written before, a lot can be accomplished through small, progressive changes, vs. trying to overhaul an entire lifestyle overnight.  Cutting a little here, and making small changes there can help prevent weight gain, as well as set the stage for future weight loss success.  There are lots of tips and tools on the AOM site, so it’s definitely worth a look.

I have to admit, this New York Times article made me want to bang my head my head against my keyboard.

So it stands to reason that weight-loss shows are now a part of the television landscape, spanning NBC, the Style Network and Discovery Health, as common as crime procedurals, soap operas or talk shows. (All television genres have signature moments. On westerns it’s the cattle stampede; on weight-loss shows it’s the weigh-in, presented in slow motion and in black and white.)

These fat-reduction spectacles are embedded in a mixed message that mirrors a broader cultural clash of appearance and appetite — and our obsession with both. Against a loop of talk shows and made-for-TV dramas about eating disorders, Americans are goaded into ever more drastic and extreme expectations of physical perfection on prime time, while their path is mined with Double Croissan’wich specials at Burger King and Olive Garden “Tour of Italy” triptychs (lasagna, chicken parmigiana and fettuccine Alfredo). On “Today” a homily on sensible dieting from the Joy Fit Club is followed by instructions in a following segment for hibiscus margaritas and churros — deep-fried, sugar-dipped Mexican crullers. On the WE network’s show “The Secret Lives of Women,” a tribute to three women’s hard-won journey to extreme weight loss is interrupted by an ad for Baskin-Robbins Oreo sundae.

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I’m all for encouraging people to get in shape, but - in my humble opinion - this is the wrong way to go about it.

MONTGOMERY - Obese state employees and those who have high readings for blood pressure, cholesterol or glucose will have to pay more for health insurance starting in January 2011, unless they take steps to address those risks, under a plan adopted by a state board Wednesday.

Starting in January 2010, state employees will have to pay an extra $25 a month for health insurance unless they submit baseline readings for their weight, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose.

Starting in 2011, they will have to pay the extra $25 a month unless a work site wellness screening shows their readings fall below certain thresholds or they consult with a doctor, participate in a wellness program or reduce their risk levels, perhaps by losing weight or lowering their blood pressure.

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For some reason I decided to go check out some of UltimateFatBurner.com’s competitors today; you know - the thinly disguised product promotion sites masquerading as unbiased “review” sites. Not really sure why I decided to do this; some perverse desire to raise my blood pressure, I guess.

Anyhow, if you’re subscribed to UltimateFatBurner.com’s newsfeed you’ll be aware that many of the products I have reviewed lately feature 1 or more patented weight loss ingredients in their overall formulas. Retailers are using these patented ingredients as part of their overall marketing strategy, capitalizing on the common misconception that “patented” means proven and effective (one product claims its blend of clinically proven and patented weight loss ingredients outperforms prescription weight loss drugs).

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It happens every 4 years like clockwork. My blood pressure rises. My teeth grind. I tear at my hair. I toss and turn fitfully at night. And then, as quickly as it began, it’s gone. Slowly, my blood pressure returns to normal. My dentist calls earnestly. My hair grows back. I sleep comfortably.  

Is it the Olympics?

Nope. Close though.

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According to the FAO, the Mediterranean Diet is on the decline…in the Mediterranean.

Hailed by experts as keeping people slim, healthy and long-lived, the Mediterranean diet has followers all over the world – but is increasingly disregarded around the Mediterranean.

According to FAO Senior Economist Josef Schmidhuber, over the past 45 years the famed diet revolving around fresh fruit and vegetables has “decayed into a moribund state” in its home area.

…Schmidhuber attributes the change in eating habits not only to increased income but to factors such as the rise of supermarkets, changes in food distribution systems, working women having less time to cook, and families eating out more, often in fast-food restaurants. At the same time, calorie needs have declined, people exercise less and they have shifted to a much more sedentary lifestyle.

 Sounds just like us, doesn’t it?

Over the last few months, Elissa and I have been blogging about growing obesity crisis as it pertains to children. As detailed here and here, children are increasingly vulnerable to advertising for junk food (on which the major players spend zillions of dollars), and they are also spending more and more time in front of the tube.  

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Are eggs healthy or unhealthy?  For years, doctors and dieticians told us that eggs should be avoided or severely limited, as they were loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol.  That attitude has softened in recent years, after researchers determined that there’s no clear cut association between egg consumption and cardiovascular risk for healthy individuals.  Still, eggs haven’t been given a pass: one recent study, for example, found an association between increased egg consumption and mortality.  Mainstream professionals are still cautious, and conventional medical advice remains fairly discouraging.

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Stevia, the south American herb that’s been used as a sweetener for years, but rejected by the FDA as being unsafe (despite the fact that its been consumed for nearly 30 years in Japan with no adverse effects noted) may be finally coming to the United States.

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A recent study (Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(14):1550-1559) revealed what at first glance appears like very sobering news; an hour of exercise per day is required to maintain a 10% weight loss. Obviously, this emphasizes that losing weight is very much a lifetime venture. Eating healthy, watching your calories and exercising is not something you are ever going to “forget about”, especially if you have a job that requires minimal physical effort or are relatively inactive during the day.

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An interesting, and - I think - smart move by the LA City Council.

Personal responsibility and issues of economic freedom aside, South LA appears to be a “Food Desert.”  A food desert is a term for low-income neighborhoods that are underserved by grocery stores - leaving residents with limited access to fresher (and healthier) food.  The linkage between increased risk of obesity and poverty is well-established, so the Council’s intent to aggressively market the area to increase the range of choices is a good first step.

The FTC report reveals that the major US food companies spent over $1.6 billion on product advertisements directed at children.  Approximately $492 million was devoted to soda advertising alone.

The FTC based their estimate on the reported expenditures of 44 companies, and covered the largest producers of fast foods, soft drinks, cereals and snack foods.

According to the US Dept. of Health and Human Services:

…data from two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) (1976-1980 and 2003-2004) show that prevalence of childhood overweight is increasing.  For children aged 2-5 years, the prevalence increased from 5.0 percent to 13.9 percent; for those aged 6-11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5 percent to 18.8 percent; and for those aged 12-19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0 percent to 17.4 percent.

Can you imagine the impact, if a comparable amount of money was spent on promoting veggies, fruits and other healthier foods?

I love this!

I mean, everyone loves a good burger, but this is ridiculous!

Not when it comes to snack foods, methinks…

I’ve been seeing these more and more…chips, pretzels, cookies and the like, sold in boxes of “100 calorie” packages. Nabisco, for example, has a variety of products packaged this way.  These are allegedly designed for more “sensible snacking” - as they make it easier to monitor your intake, and avoid eating too much.

Right?

Maybe not.  According to two studies pending publication in the October, 2008 Journal of Consumer Research, smaller packages may encourage MORE munching, not less.

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…according to a hot-off-the presses study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques…Average weight loss for those in the low-carb group was 10.3 pounds after two years. Those in the Mediterranean diet lost 10 pounds, and those on the low-fat regimen dropped 6.5.

More surprising were the measures of cholesterol. Critics have long acknowledged that an Atkins-style diet could help people lose weight but feared that over the long term, it may drive up cholesterol because it allows more fat.

But the low-carb approach seemed to trigger the most improvement in several cholesterol measures, including the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, the “good” cholesterol. For example, someone with total cholesterol of 200 and an HDL of 50 would have a ratio of 4 to 1. The optimum ratio is 3.5 to 1, according to the American Heart Association.

Doctors see that ratio as a sign of a patient’s risk for hardening of the arteries. “You want that low,” Stampfer said.

The ratio declined by 20 percent in people on the low-carb diet, compared to 16 percent in those on the Mediterranean and 12 percent in low-fat dieters.

The full study can be found at the New England Journal of Medicine site.

I’d be tempted to file this study in the “duuuuuhhhh” category, as keeping a food journal is something I’ve done for every fat loss diet I’ve ever been on since I was 14 years old…and it’s something both Paul and I have discussed before.  But it bears repeating.  And it’s good to see this sort of practical advice confirmed scientifically. 

With all the handy-dandy online tools and software available now, there’s really no excuse now not to do this.  I don’t know of any better way to raise awareness of what you’re eating than this one, simple step.

An anti-obesity device that could - conceivably - replace weight loss surgery will be tested on volunteers at sites across the US.

In its St. Paul lab, EnteroMedics, Inc. has created an implant device that looks very much like a pacemaker. It takes advantage of the way our brain communicates with our stomach and the rest of the digestive system through the vagus nerve.

The device is implanted in the abdomen with wire leads connected to the vagus nerve just above the stomach. Small electrical impulses, spaced five minutes apart during waking hours, have already been proven to reduce hunger signals to the brain.

Preliminary results with this therapy, known as “intermittent vagal blocking” or VBLOC, were recently published in the journal “Surgery.”  According to the abstract, the mean weight loss among the 31 subjects was 14.2% after 6 months, with decreased calorie intake, “earlier satiation” and “reduced hunger.”

Although the surgery has been described as “minimally invasive” - it should be noted that there were 3 adverse events that required hospitalization.

This isn’t the first or only pacemaker system under investigation.  A somewhat different device, which employs “gastric contractility modulation” to increase satiety and feelings of fullness, has been used successfully in Europe and is currently being studied in the US.

Well, it is according to the news reports concerning  a summary issued by the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.  Among the report’s key findings:

• The ‘fat bomb’ is loudly ticking in Australia with around 7 out of 10 middle-aged men and 6 out of 10 middle-aged women being overweight or obese.
• Overall, around 1.5 million middle-aged Australians are currently obese and therefore at high risk of a CV event in the longer-term.
• Based on the best available evidence, our expanded middle-aged waistlines will result in an extra 700,000 CV-related admissions in the next 20 years.
• These highly preventable admissions will conservatively cost (in today’s terms) an extra $6 billion ($2.9 billion in hospital costs alone) in health care.
• An estimated 123,000 men and women will die (many prematurely) from CVD over the next 20 years as a result of their excess weight.
• A simple strategy such as losing 5 kg in 5 months has the potential to result in 27% to 34% fewer CV-related hospital admissions and deaths over the next 20 years.

Unfortunately, even if the Aussies are Number One, the US can’t be too far behind…according to the most recent estimate (the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey), 66.3 adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese.

To add to Paul’s comments about the detrimental effects of TV on children’s food choices,  a recent study found a correlation between the time preschoolers spend in front of the tube, and their weight/degree of adiposity (as measured by skinfold thickness). 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends restricting TV/video viewing for children to < 2 hours/day.  Yet the study found

…that 30.8 percent of the preschoolers studied exceeded the AAP guidelines just by watching television, not including computer time. Most watched one to three hours of TV or video on the assessment day. Those children who surpassed the AAP recommendations on TV/video viewing were more likely to be overweight or at risk for being overweight.

Children’s computer use also correlated to higher body fat but was not related to weight status, possibly because of the relatively small number of preschoolers who used computers during the research period.

Reasons for obesity observed among the children exceeding AAP recommendations include substituting TV/video watching for physical activity; watching television ads that encourage consumption of unhealthy, fatty foods; and snacking while watching TV/videos.

The full study is here.

Good habits are formed early in life.  Turning off the tube isn’t just good for you…it’s good for your kids too.