Apparently, it show that when it comes to weight, there is no shrinkage. Some state may be holding steady but the major seem to be growing.

For the report,  400,000 American adults provided information about their height and weight which was used to calculate their body mass index (BMI).

Weighing up all the information, the CDC has determined that ‘the proportion of U.S. adults who are obese increased to 26.1 percent in 2008 compared to 25.6 percent in 2007.’

According to the CDC press release  “In six states – Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia – adult obesity prevalence was 30 percent or more. Thirty-two states, including those six, had obesity prevalence of 25 percent or more. Only one state, Colorado, had a prevalence of obesity less than 20 percent. But no state showed a significant decrease in obesity prevalence from 2007 to 2008.”

As for the ‘fattest state’, this dubious honor goes to Mississippi.

Here are the percentages of obese adults in U.S. states and Washington, D.C., according to the new CDC data:

Mississippi: 32.8%
Alabama: 31.4%
West Virginia: 31.2%
Tennessee: 30.6%
Oklahoma: 30.3%
South Carolina: 30.1%
Kentucky: 29.8%
North Carolina: 29%
Michigan: 28.9%
Arkansas and Ohio: 28

(source: WebMD)

 

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But in the end, it’s not just food (ie calories) that will make you fat.

As this theDailyGreen shows, research done of the subject is also pointing the finger at a number of other variables that can also play havoc on your weight.

1. Stress – it’s a vicious circle. Stress can lead to weight gain. Weight gain can lead to stress.

2. Lack of Sleep – we live in a 24/7 world but being on the go around the clock and not getting enough restful sleep will, for reasons not yet determined, add numbers to the weight.

3. Baby Formula – seems that those who are, or were, breastfeed are less likely to become overweight. Again, for reason unknown, although it’s possibly due to the relationship of hormones in breast milk and the baby’s subsequent metabolic activity.

4. Obesogens – otherwise known as chemicals that mess with the hormones that regulate our metabolism. Also known as ‘endocrine-disrupting chemicals’, obesogens are mistaken for hormones by our bodies and yes, cause weight gain. Ranging from Bisphenol A to Phthalates and Dioxins, it’s list that’s getting longer and longer.

So, what to do.

Well, you can’t change your ‘breastfeed or not’ status, but you can try to avoid the obesogens as much as possible, aim to get into a regular and longer sleep pattern, and implement tactics to reduce stress.

Plus eat less and exercise more.

Sure sounds so simple and easy.

But is it?

(image source)

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Well, the researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences or NIEHS aren’t quite sure. But having recently conducted a study on this, they are convinced that there is a connection.

During this study (now  published in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)  they analysed data that had been collected on 4,000 children and young adults between the ages 2 to 19. In particular, they looked at all allergy and asthma related data on these children.

The result – they discovered that obese children and adolescents appeared to be 26 percent more likely to have some kind of allergy, be it asthma, hay fever, food or skin allergies.

What I’d like to know is what comes first – the obesity or the allergy.

So far, the researchers don’t know. As  Dr. Darryl Zeldin, one of the researchers, says ” while the results from this study are interesting, they do not prove that obesity causes allergies. More research is needed to further investigate this potential link,”

(source and image)

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One of the first things to go, besides the exercise, is healthy eating habits. We overindulge in all our favorite, but not necessarily, healthy foods.

As a result, we have lots of fun and good times. But we can also end up gaining extra weight that tends to stick around, even when the holidays are over.

But not to worry, help is at hand. Kaiser Permanente has put together some tips to help skip the weight gain while celebrating the season…

• Don’t skip meals or eat very little most of the day to save up so that you can eat more at a party or dinner. Eat at your regular times, with perhaps a little lower fat or smaller portions in general. If your meal will be later than usual, have a snack to curb your appetite so that you are not too hungry when you get there.
• Don’t stand near the buffet table. Take what you like and move away from the table.
• Make the season one of sharing. If you are given sweets or other special foods, then share them with family, coworkers, or various groups with which you will be meeting.
• Limit the alcohol. It stimulates the appetite and contributes extra calories.
• Choose the foods you really like and pass on the ones that you don’t like as much.
• Check your place on the hunger scale: on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is very hungry and 10 is very full. If you reach a 7 or so, then stop eating. You don’t need any more.
• Plan ahead. If you are going to a family dinner where you know most of what will be served, think about what you will eat. And plan ahead how to politely but firmly decline seconds from an insistent host or hostess.
• If you overindulge at a holiday gathering, don’t just decide that you have blown it and that you won’t try to adhere to healthy diet guidelines until January 1. An occasional lapse does not cause excessive weight gain or prolonged elevated blood glucose levels, but several weeks of excessive eating may. Instead, use the event as an opportunity to learn and to plan better for the next time.
• Continue regular exercise or start exercising regularly. The exercise will help control your blood glucose and your weight. And, you will probably feel better.
• Focus on the people and the fellowship, not the food.
• Try to eat slowly and possibly on a smaller plate. Focus on weight management versus weight loss for the holiday season. Weight loss is difficult enough to achieve the rest of the year and will be especially hard during the holidays.
• If you are already thinking ahead about making New Year Resolutions about weight loss, an effective tool to use while trying to lose or maintain is keeping a food diary, a Kaiser Permanente study found. “The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost,” said lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. “Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”

Sounds like pretty good advice. Of course, advice is one thing. Sticking to it is another.

(source)

Post from: Healthbolt

Want to try?

Then maybe you should sign up for the 30 Days Without Sugar Challenge that Scott Olson is putting together to celebrate next month’s inaugural National Sugar Free Month.

As Scott says “The New Year is a time for looking ahead, a time for renewal and reflection, a time to set new goals, and (typically) a time for weight loss. Why not make this year’s commitment to lose weight a more permanent healthy step by making a pledge to do without sugar for 30 days.”

The author of the book Sugarettes, Scott is making it his mission to increase awareness of the addictive qualities of sugar and the health hazards of that addiction.

Here’s what he has to say about ‘What Makes Sugar Harmful?’

Sugar is both addictive and harmful; this makes for a powerful combination that works against you and your health. Sugar seems perfectly designed to destroy our health: 

Sugar is addictive: We all joke about being addicted to sugar, but the truth is that animal studies have shown that sugar is an addiction every bit as powerful as other addictions like drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Recognizing sugar as an addiction explains a lot of our behavior around sugar including hoarding, binging and using sugar to change our mood – all of these are very similar to other addictions. It also explains why we go on diets, lose weight and then gain it back again. If you have ever questioned whether sugar is a real addiction, try the 30 Sugar Free Days Challenge and see for yourself just how addicting sugar can be.

Weight: Despite what medical and nutritional professionals have to say, sugar leads to weight gain. Part of the problem is that sugar contains calories, but sugar is also special in its ability to add to our waistlines. Sugar acts as fuel for the body and whenever we eat a lot of sugar, there is a lot of sugar-energy in our blood stream. The body only needs a certain amount of energy at any given time. Once the body’s basic energy needs are met, the body has to deal with all the extra sugar and, for most people, that extra sugar gets stored as fat. Keeping sugar out of the diet means this fat storage never takes place. Being overweight or obese increases a number of diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even certain cancers. It is estimated that obesity cuts life expectancy by as many as five years.

Insulin Insensitivity: Sugar in our blood stream over a long period of time leads to insulin insensitivity. This means that the cells of your body are insensitive to insulin (the hormone that controls high blood sugar). Insulin insensitivity is responsible for the disease called metabolic syndrome and is a step away from diabetes. Diabetes is an awful disease that reduces life expectancy by 10 to 15 years.

Toxic: While it is not very well known, sugar is toxic to our blood vessels. In much the same way that cigarette smoke damages the lungs of the smoker, sugar damages the blood vessels of the sugar-consumer. Diabetics, who have a much higher amount of sugar in their blood, have an equally high amount of this blood vessel damage. Diabetic kidney disease, heart disease, eye disease (retinopathy), nerve disease (neuropathy), and strokes, all have a common cause:  sugar destruction to blood vessels.

It really is enough to want to make you give up sugar. But, while it sounds simple, taking away all sugar and foods that act like sugar is no small feat

And that’s where Scott comes in. He’s created the 30 Sugar Free Days Challenge to help you, providing an e-book that will explain the program and show you all the foods you can eat and can’t eat, meal plans and recipes, and online support.

Sounds like something worth looking into.

And don’t forget you have until 8th December to enter to Win One of Three Copies of Sugarettes. 

Post from: Healthbolt

It’s everywhere.

In fact, it’s almost impossible to avoid and according to Dr Scott Olson, in his book Sugarettes, it’s as addictive as cigarettes.

I’ve just finished reading Sugarettes and I got to say, it was a real eye opener. Who knew that sugar was so prevalent in society today? Seems that everything we eat and drink has sugar in it and the more processed the food, the more the sugar content. 

In Sugarettes, Scott Olson looks at how sugar affects the body and why we should look at it as an addiction and a leading cause of not only obesity but also other medical illnesses of our times.

This is a must read for anyone interested in improving their diet and their health.

Healthbolt has three copies of this fascinating book to giveaway to anyone anywhere in the world.

Here’s all you have to do….

- leave a comment with your email address about why you want a copy of this book by 8th December.

-  No email address left in the comment = no entry.

- winners will be announced on 9th December and sent an email with the subject heading ‘Healthbolt Giveaway Winner’ with instructions on how to claim their prize.

Post from: Healthbolt

Pay patients to go to the doctor? – in England, Health Service Managers are looking at ways to get people in unhealthy people in the lower social economic rankings to visit the doctor. The thinking is that if you can get people to the doctor earlier, before chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease set in, the government health system would save money. It makes sort of makes sense. But the idea is getting flack from politicans and medical experts alike who say that the government shouldn’t be bribing people to stay healthy.

‘World’s Fattest Man’ to Marry After Massive Diet – after two years of dieting, Manuel Uribe, the world’s heaviest man and his girlfriend are set to wed this month. Originally weighing in a couple of years ago at 1,235 pounds, the 43 year old Manual has shed around 700 pounds.

Something of a celebrity, Manual has been giving telephone advice to Jose Luis Garza, another determined dieter who weighs in at around 990 pounds.

Discover the surgical tools of Ancient Rome at the Historical Collections & Services of the Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia. Excavated from the House of the Surgeon at Pompeii, looking at this collection of instruments makes you realize how far medical science has come (and how lucky we are that it has advanced so far).

As for the bizarre, how about this cookbook by a Russian chef called ‘Cooking with Balls’. Featuring testicle pizza, battered testicles and barbecued testicles with giblets recipes made from the sex organs of ostriches, bulls, pigs, turkeys and stallions, this e-book is definitely ‘one of a kind’ and not for the faint hearted.

And that’s it for this week’s Monday Sidebar…

Post from: Healthbolt

Allow me to piggyback on Liz’s post from earlier today and explore another possible reason for the obesity epidemic (one that’s probably a very likely part of the equation) – The Great American Buffet Table.

According to my local newspaper, there is a new study out which suggests that sitting too close to the buffet table at a restaurant can lead to overeating. They learned some other nifty things when they divided study subjects into an “overweight” group and a “normal” group, too. Take a look:

• Heavy customers sat an average of 14 feet closer to the fixins than the normal group.
• The overweight group was twice as likely to sit facing the buffet, with all its worldly and tantalizing textures and smells.
• The heavy group started filling their plates more quickly, while the normal group sized up the buffet and considered their choices before diving in.
• The heavy group chewed their food faster, thus indicating they ate faster.
• The normal-weight subjects were more likely to choose a smaller plate.

So, what does this mean to you? If calorie counting (or just mindful eating) is on your To-Do list, sit farther from the buffet area, do not face it, choose a smaller plate to fill, and chew your food more slowly. Come to think of it, these same rules can apply to nearly any dining situation. I’m going to give it a try. How about you?

Post from: Healthbolt

After performing one of the three different tasks for 45 minutes – relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text, or completing a series of memory, attention, and vigilance tests on the computer – the women were provided with an all-you-can-eat buffet to dig into.

The researchers measured the sponstaneous food intake of the students following each activity and discovered that the women ate 203 more calories after the reading-writing task and 253 more calories after the memory and attention task than they did when they were just sitting around and relaxing. The researchers also discovered, from blood samples taken before, during, and after each activity, that the greater the intellectual work, the bigger the fluctuation in glucose and insulin levels.

So what does this mean? Well, according to Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study’s main author, “Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries,”

In other words, it’s possible that all this increased thinking while sitting is helping make us fatter.

So maybe that treadmill workdesk isn’t such a bad idea after all!!!

(source)

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That’s right, in an unprecedented move to encourage state workers to slim down, Alabama will be the first state in the nation to charge overweight workers who don’t make the effort to lighten up.

This $25 insurance fee will join the already-in-place $24/month fee that ‘Bama employees are charged for smoking. The state says it’s seen some success in getting their workers to quit lighting up, so they reason this new fee will encourage thicker employees to skinny up. Alabama is, after all, ranked second in the nation for obesity.

So how do you feel about this bold move? Would you welcome a change like this in your state, or should one’s employer butt out? Let us know…

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