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NEWS
A Makeover for Food Labels
Nearly two decades ago, Congress passed the Nutrition
Labeling and Education Act, requiring packaged foods to
carry a detailed nutrition facts label. The Center for
Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group,
wants to give the food facts label a makeover.
read more…
Check out NYC “Pouring on the Pounds” Video
To
help raise awareness about the contribution of sugar
sweetened beverages to epidemic obesity and diabetes, the
New York City Department of Health released the second
phase of their Pouring on the Pounds campaign. For the
last 3 months they have been asking NYC subway riders “Are
you pouring on the pounds”? In mid December they went
viral and brought their message worldwide! Check out their
Youtube video and email your thoughts at
www.youtube.com/drinkingfat.
The New Science Of Obesity
What research tells us about why we gain weight and how we
can best lose it
Americans are fatter than ever and it's seriously harming
our health. More than 72 million adults are obese, and
that figure is expected to soar to 103 million by 2018.
The problem is so bad that it could even cause life
expectancy to start to decline, according to some
demographers.
read more…
The Obesity Now Poses As Great A Threat To Quality Of
Life As Smoking
As
the US population becomes increasingly obese while smoking
rates continue to decline, obesity has become an equal, if
not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and
shortening of healthy life in comparison to smoking. In an
article published in the February 2010 issue of the
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from
Columbia University and The City College of New York
calculate that the Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)
lost due to obesity is now equal to, if not greater than,
those lost due to smoking, both modifiable risk factors.
read more…
RESEARCH:
The Trends in Quality-Adjusted Life-Years Lost
Contributed by Smoking and Obesity
Quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) use preference-based
measurements of health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) to
provide an assessment of the overall burden of disease
using a single number. This study estimated QALYs lost
contributed by smoking and obesity for U.S. adults from
1993 to 2008. Methods: Population HRQOL data were from the
1993-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The
QALYs lost contributed by a risk factor is the sum of
QALYs lost due to morbidity in the current year and future
QALYs lost in expected life-years due to premature deaths
(mortality). Premature deaths were estimated from the
National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files
and mortality statistics.
read more on PubMed…
The Effect of Increased Exercise in School Children on
Physical Fitness and Endothelial Progenitor Cells: A
Prospective Randomized Trial
The
aim of this prospective, randomized study was to examine
whether additional school exercise lessons would result in
improved peak oxygen uptake (primary end point) and body
mass index-standard deviation score, motor and
coordinative abilities, circulating progenitor cells, and
high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (major secondary end
points). Seven sixth-grade classes (182 children, aged
11.1+/-0.7 years) were randomized to an intervention group
(4 classes with 109 students) with daily school exercise
lessons for 1 year and a control group (3 classes with 73
students) with regular school sports twice weekly.
read more on PubMed…
The Forecasting the Effects of Obesity and Smoking on
U.S. Life Expectancy
Although increases in obesity over the past 30 years have
adversely affected the health of the U.S. population,
there have been concomitant improvements in health because
of reductions in smoking. Having a better understanding of
the joint effects of these trends on longevity and quality
of life will facilitate more efficient targeting of health
care resources.
read more on PubMed…
The Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference Predict
Both 10-year Nonfatal and Fatal Cardiovascular Disease
Risk: Study Conducted In 20,000 Dutch Men and Women Aged
20-65 Years
Body
mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are both
predictors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). We compared
absolute risk, hazard ratio (HR), and population
attributable risk of nonfatal and fatal CVD for BMI and WC
in a large prospective cohort study with an average
follow-up of 10 years.
read more on PubMed…
Why the Poor Get Fat: Weight Gain and Economic
Insecurity
Something about being poor makes people fat. Though there
are many possible explanations for the income-body weight
gradient, the authors investigated a promising but
little-studied hypothesis: that changes in body weight
can-at least in part-be explained as an optimal response
to economic insecurity. They used data on working-age men
from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
(NLSY79) to identify the effects of various measures of
economic insecurity on weight gain. They found in
particular that over the 12-year period between 1988 and
2000, the average man gained about 21 pounds. A one
percentage point (0.01) increase in the probability of
becoming unemployed causes weight gain over this period to
increase by about 0.6 pounds, and each realized 50% drop
in annual income results in an increase of about 5 pounds.
The mechanism also appears to work in reverse, with health
insurance and intrafamily transfers protecting against
weight gain.
read more on bepress...
Current and Future Prevalence of Obesity and Severe
Obesity in the United States
This study conducted in 2007 by Christopher J. Ruhm
examines past patterns and projects future prevalence
rates of obesity and severe obesity among US adults.
Trends in body mass index (BMI), overweight (BMI 25),
obesity (BMI 30), class 2 obesity (BMI 35), class 3
obesity (BMI 40) and class 4 obesity (BMI 45) of 20-74
year olds are obtained using data from the first National
Health Examination Survey and the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Surveys. Quantile regression methods
are then used to forecast future prevalence rates through
2020. By that year, 77.6% of men are predicted to be
overweight and 40.2% obese, with class 2, 3 and 4 obesity
prevalence rates projected at 16.4%, 6.3% and 3.1%. The
corresponding forecasts for women are 71.1%, 43.3%, 25.3%,
12.8% and 5.6%. The large growth predicted for severe
obesity represents a major public health challenge, given
the accompanying high medical expenditures and elevated
risk of mortality and morbidity. Combating severe obesity
is likely to require strategies targeting the particularly
large weight gains of the heaviest individuals.
read more on bepress...
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