After All, We do Call it “Comfort Food”

Are a lot of teens and pre-teens overweight because they’re stressed? Or are they feeling stress because they’re overweight? We’re not able to nail down causality here yet, but it seems clear that the two conditions often go together. Consider, for example, a newly-released survey of 1,136 kids ages 8-17 conducted by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity. One of the findings was that, compared to normal-weight kids, a significantly greater percentage of overweight kids report such stress indicators as headaches (43 percent versus 28 percent), sleep problems (48 percent versus 33 percent), and anger and fighting (22 percent versus 13 percent).

If we did have to guess cause and effect, we’d note that overweight individuals say they react differently to feeling stressed than normal-weight kids do, with the former more likely to eat (27 percent versus 14 percent) and/or take naps (26 percent versus 15 percent) than to exercise or play sports (13 percent versus 21 percent). If stress is the culprit, of course, that would raise the Big Question: to what extent is our current childhood obesity epidemic the result of an underlying childhood stress epidemic?

Behavioral psychologists, start your engines.

Too Much of a “Good” Thing is Bad

And while we’re on the subject of American youth and weight-control, Yahoo and CookingLight.com recently issued lists of supposedly healthy kid foods that actually aren’t in some cases. If you’re grocery shopping or meal-preparing for offspring with weight concerns, you may want to be wary of the following “trap” foods.

Sources:
Stress – “Obesity strains mind, too,” Your Life, USA Today, 11/9/10, p. 6D.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

Does Stress Make Kids Fat? And “Healthy” Kids’ Foods to Avoid is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

If You’re Big, Stand Tall

It takes a certain amount of effort to maintain good, upright posture. Indeed, just by doing so, you can burn as many as 350 extra calories per day.

Walk the Walk

Is walking really that beneficial an exercise? Well, you use fully 100 bodily muscles every time you take a step, so it’s clearly having a positive effect. The question then becomes, how much walking do you need to do, and are you walking enough? The answer obviously varies somewhat depending on one’s physical condition and age and so forth.

But if you’ve been wondering about that question yourself, the American College of Sports Medicine has come up with four categories of activity-level broken down by the number of steps taken daily. As follows:

• 10,000 steps or more: Active.
• 7,500 – 9,000 steps: Somewhat active.
• 5,000 – 7,490 steps: Low active.
• Under 5,000 steps: Sedentary.

The average American logs in 5,117 steps per day. If you fall below that number, there’s simply no avoiding the wince-inducing play on words: for the sake of your health, you’ll have to take steps.

We’re Pretty Sure there’s Chicken in there Somewhere

(CC) NICOLESUSANNE/FLICKR

There are no less than 35 ingredients in Burger King’s Chicken Fries, 30 ingredients in Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets, and 29 ingredients in McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets (7 in the “chicken meat” part alone).

Calories In, Waistline Out

Why is America experiencing a national wave of overweight and obesity? Here’s a hint: If you take in more calories than you burn up, you add weight in the form of fat. Of course, health and nutrition experts note that it’s not that simple, there are numerous social and environmental factors and work, etc.

But underlying all this is one very simple and compelling statistic, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: In 1971, American men consumed 2,450 calories a day, and women consumed 1,542. In 2000, the numbers were 2,618 for men and 1,877 for women. The dots almost connect themselves.

Sources:
Posture — Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader, 2009 edition, page 414.
Walking — “How many daily steps…,” Snapshots, USA Today, 11/10/10, p. 1A.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

Random Numbers: Standing and Walking, Fast-Food Chicken Unmasked, Our National Calorie Count is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

Carry Cash, Cut Calories

One of the cardinal rules of smart and healthy eating is “Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry,” the premise being that when you’re hungry, all manner of unwise food choices become overwhelmingly tempting, leading to impulse purchases guaranteed to cause dietary regret. Well, there now appears to be a corollary rule to that truism. It’s this: “Never go grocery shopping with your credit cards.”

A team of researchers from Cornell and the State University of New York have dissected the purchasing patterns of 1,000 households and found that those who buy with plastic are much more impulse-prone than those who pay cash. In the realm of food purchases, this means the former buy more fattening junk food and the latter more fitness-friendly fare.

(CC) SSHB/FLICKR

The researchers theorize that paying in cash causes us more emotional angst than using a credit or debit card, and that this anxiety acts as a strong buffer against impulsive urges. In layman’s terms, having to fork over actual folding money seems to trigger the mental question, “Do I really need this. Is it really worth the price?”

As to how this theory applies to our dining habits in general, the authors of the study note that we Americans make around 40 percent of our purchases with credit/debit cards, and that about 34 percent of us are obese. Whether they’re on to something or not, one thing is certain: If you only have cash when making food purchases, at least there is a limit to how much you can buy.

Just Say Nyet

Leave it to a foreigner to nail in short, concise terms the fundamental problem confronting the typical American weight-watcher. In this case, that would be Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who on a recent visit here in the company of Vice President Biden, tucked into a cheeseburger at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Virginia, and observed, “Not quite healthy…but it’s very tasty.”

The American Dilemma, obesity division, in a nutshell.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

The Credit Card Curse, and from Russia with Perceptiveness is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

Why the Residents of Fat City are Lean

We’ve known for a while that people who are wealthy live longer than people who aren’t, and we’ve generally ascribed that to the most obvious factors: the rich can afford a level and quality of medical care and treatment that most of us can’t, and are largely insulated from society’s more health-hazardous occupations and neighborhoods.

But now it seems the rich are different from the rest of us in another unexpected way: their bodies manufacture more life-extending hormones. A fairly massive study conducted by University College London found that wealthier people have higher levels of DHEAS, a natural steroid hormone produced by the body that extends the individual’s life expectancy.

Why do the well-heeled crank out so much of the stuff? Probably because its production is increased by regular exercise and a healthy diet, two lifestyle elements that the upscale among us have both more time and more financial wherewithal to pursue.

Overeating May be All in Your Mind

Consider this to be entry number 2,000 or so on our ever-lengthening List of Things That Might be Making You Fat: You may have an undersized orbitofrontal cortex. What’s that? Just a key part of the brain’s frontal lobe, which plays a vital part in such mental activities as monitoring oneself and modifying one’s behavior.

Previous studies have shown that persons with impaired frontal lobes have more difficulty controlling their impulses than normal. Now a study by the NYU Medical School has found that the orbitofrontal cortex is smaller in obese teenagers than it is in lean ones, implying that the obese teens’ inclination to overeat may not be reflective of weak will or self indulgence, but of a neurological anomaly that causes what shrinks call “disinhibited” eating, and the rest of us know as impulsively pigging out.

These are just early study results; we still don’t know why the obese teens have smaller lobes, or whether the smaller lobe leads to obesity or obesity somehow produces a smaller lobe (possibly due to inflammation). Until we learn more, ignore any new weight-loss product ads that claim, for example, “With The Amazing New Orbitofrontal Cortex Enlarger, I Lost 288 Pounds!”

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

How Your Money and Your Mind Effect Your Midsection is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

My close friend has been gaining weight for a while, and due to my concern for his health, I decided to broach the subject with him. I was very careful to express my views in a caring and tactful manner. It turned out quite well. He wasn’t offended, nor did he tell me it was none of my business. Nevertheless, his brief response did surprise me. He said, “Thank you for your concern, but I don’t think I’m fat!”

As it turns out, my friend is not alone in his misperception. A recent study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, has even given a name to this condition, “Body Size Misperception.” It refers to the difference between one’s self-perceived body size and ideal body sizes.

Body Size Misperception: The Study

The study, done by Dr. Tiffany M. Powell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and her colleagues, investigated Body Size Misperception among 2,056 obese men and women who were participating in the Dallas Heart Study. The researchers evaluated the individuals’ body perceptions by having them look at a series of nine figures in a row, ranging from very thin to very obese, and first asking them to choose their ideal figure, and then to choose the figure that most resembled them. People who chose ideal body sizes that were the same or bigger than their actual obese body size were classified as having Body Size Misperception. This study found that eight percent tested positive for this condition. Prior studies have found the value in overweight individuals who misperceive their weight to be normal to range from 21 percent to as high as 46 percent.

Several problems seem to occur with people that have this perspective. Many of these individuals had previously undiagnosed medical problems. 44 percent had not seen a doctor at all in the past year, compared to 25 percent of those who accurately gauged their size. When the person with Body Size Misperception did see a health care provider, they were much less likely to discuss their diet, physical activity level, or whether they needed to lose weight.

In addition, those who felt this way were more likely to mistakenly say they felt more healthy than their peers of the same age, and they were less aware that they were at a high risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure. Also, two-thirds of the already obese respondents felt their lifetime risk of eventually becoming obese was low. The conclusion was that these individuals failed to recognize the need for weight loss or physical activity in regards to their health and wellness.

Unhealthy Body Image and Obesity

“Based on these findings,” Dr. Powell said, “physicians may want to take a step back before discussing lifestyle habits with their obese patients, and asking them first about how they perceive their weight and whether or not they think they need to lose weight. The fact that many of these people may not see a doctor at all also makes it important to reach out to them in the community.

“The study points to really a lack of understanding about the effects of obesity. You walk a fine line, because you don’t want people to necessarily have an unhealthy body image, but you also want people to understand that they need to lose weight.”

I remember watching a rerun of an old Mary Tyler Moore show where Mary confronted the overweight Mr. Grant about his weight. Interestingly, his response, “I appreciate your concern Mary, and if I ever think I am fat I will do something about it,” evoked laughter from the audience.

Unfortunately, because of the health and wellness repercussions of this viewpoint, it is no longer a laughing matter!

Body Size Misperception is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

The “Childhood Obesity Epidemic” May, at Least in Part, be Literally Just That

Along with the usual leading culprits in the soaring rate of overweight kids in America — diet, exercise and genes — we may have to add what the media will probably wind up calling the Fat Bug. Its clinical name is AD-36, and it is a very common and highly infectious virus, and the evidence is growing that one of its side effects is making children who catch it more inclined to put on fat.

We’ve known for a few years that mice and chickens infected with AD-36 gained weight faster than those who weren’t, and that it caused monkeys to swell up like Jenny Craig “Before” photos. Animal studies are notoriously iffy when extrapolated to humans, however, and AD-36 didn’t really take on “suspect” status until January 2009 when British researchers found that one-third of all obese adults had contracted the Fat Bug at some point previously, compared to just 11 percent of normal-weight adults. They also determined that along with the classic flu-like side-effects — coughs, sore throats, diarrhea — AD-36 caused fat cells to multiply, and thus the body to put on weight in the form of new fat.

Don’t Be Surprised if “I’m Infected” Becomes the New “I’m Big-Boned”

And now comes a confirming research report from the U.C. San Diego med school, which studied 124 kids in their early or pre-teens and found that of the 19 kids who’d previously contracted the Fat Bug, 15, or 78 percent, were obese, and that AD-36 antibodies were present in obese children at four times the rate as in normal-weight kids. Moreover, the kids who had caught the bug averaged 50 pounds heavier than those who hadn’t.

Facts about AD-36:

It is an “adenovirus” germ which is transmitted like the common cold, by air and by touch, and is highly infectious. It can continue to promote weight gain after all other symptoms have abated and the sufferer has apparently recovered, lingering and cranking out fat cells and remaining contagious to others for as long as three months.

Caveats about AD-36:

The findings still don’t prove cause-and-effect; for example, kids who are more susceptible to becoming overweight could be similarly more susceptible to the Fat Bug for some common underlying reason. And this in no way diminishes the importance of diet and exercise in the matter of weight gain and control. Indeed, those factors become even more important for kids who’ve been infected.

Nevertheless, for scientists trying to explain the tripling of the childhood obesity rate in just three decades, viral contagion has tremendous appeal as a possible answer. Unfortunately, it has even more appeal as a handy excuse and cop-out for those with weight problems. In any case, given that an “anti-fat vaccine” would be the hottest thing to hit Big Pharma since Viagra, expect both more research and more media coverage.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

1 in 3 Obese Kids May Have Caught the “Fat Flu” is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News