Having recently subsribed to Dr Sharma's free feed http://www.drsharma.ca/ a story that smacked me in the face was about one of the most debated questions on obesity - the fact that not everyone is susceptible to weight gain.
Sharma identified a very significant point in his blog, which was that to prevent most cases of obesity, "principal contributors to weight gain in an individual" must be indentified as general studies for prevntion do not work.
Then going on to look at the brain being an issue (as mentioned in a previous blog) Sharma identified a very understandable point: "While some people may be quite happy with one piece of chocolate, others may need a whole box to experience the same level of satisfaction. Clearly, in a situation where chocolate supply is unlimited, the latter are more likely to overeat or have a much harder time controlling their intake than the former."
I can actually relate to this!
Ok I'm not obese, but I have friends who can buy a bar of chocolate, have one piece, and save the rest for later on the day. I for one could not do this!
Monday, 20 October 2008
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Is obesity cool?!
After joining www.healthboards.com I am worried.
The obesity board, which I thought would be full of overweight people trying to make an effort to improve their health, sharing weight loss tips, concerns and triumphs, is in my opinion terrifying.
The title to a post that most concerned me was 'A breath of fresh air' by an individual with username 'fatandproud.' 'Fatandproud's outlook on life was: Obesity - 'It's a lifestyle. It's cool. It's the in thing. It's now.'
The disturbing fact here was that fatandproud does not seem to be alone and although he's from as far away as Arizona, US, I started to wonder if this new 'trend' had reached Britain.
Facebook, I thought, could help.
Sure enought it did. There were hundreds of obesity related groups and a large majority of them promoted obesity. Many were US based, but a worrying amount were started in the UK.
On particular group stood out: Couch Potatoing the best sport in the world. It had a catchline: "come join the sport that promotes equality peace and in some rare cases obesity." The group had about 50 UK members
The obesity board, which I thought would be full of overweight people trying to make an effort to improve their health, sharing weight loss tips, concerns and triumphs, is in my opinion terrifying.
The title to a post that most concerned me was 'A breath of fresh air' by an individual with username 'fatandproud.' 'Fatandproud's outlook on life was: Obesity - 'It's a lifestyle. It's cool. It's the in thing. It's now.'
The disturbing fact here was that fatandproud does not seem to be alone and although he's from as far away as Arizona, US, I started to wonder if this new 'trend' had reached Britain.
Facebook, I thought, could help.
Sure enought it did. There were hundreds of obesity related groups and a large majority of them promoted obesity. Many were US based, but a worrying amount were started in the UK.
On particular group stood out: Couch Potatoing the best sport in the world. It had a catchline: "come join the sport that promotes equality peace and in some rare cases obesity." The group had about 50 UK members
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Obesity facts
Ok, I only just posted a couple of hours ago, but I've came across a great site concerning obesity. http://www.obesityfacts.co.uk is a site belonging to Nick Brown, who posts regularly about the UK's obesity problem.
His site has infomation galore on a variety of problems surrounding obesity. Each blog post of his I have read so far has taught me something new and the topicality of his blogs are perfect.
It's free to subscribe to his feed - which I have done so already. For anyone interested in this massive socal problem I recommend you visit his site!
His site has infomation galore on a variety of problems surrounding obesity. Each blog post of his I have read so far has taught me something new and the topicality of his blogs are perfect.
It's free to subscribe to his feed - which I have done so already. For anyone interested in this massive socal problem I recommend you visit his site!
Obesity education...in Preston.....and it's free!
I have finally had some success in my mission to find children who are being eductated about food and diet and guess what - it's happening in our area.
MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it!) is an organisation "dedicated to reducing global childhood overweight and obesity levels" and I have found programmes that are running right here in Preston!
Not only does the organisation look fun, engaging and beneficial, it's also free! I stumbled acroos it in the LEP itself after journalist Aasama Day ran a feature on nine year old Iona Jackson who weighs eight stone nine.
Wanting to know more I visited the MEND website http://www.mendprogramme.org/, which I must say, as an obesity blogger, got me excited!
The programme targets the perfect age group, seven to 13 year olds, at the perfect time, after school, for just the right amount of time, 10 weeks!
The only disappointmenting fcator I have found, is that it's privately funded. I'm not here knocking private funding, in fact I have admiration for companies who pour money into projects like this, it's just that I wish the central and local governments would do more.
Ok there's arguments for and against this, and I can imagine many tax payers will argue that they don't want to have to pay for other people's poor diets, but all in all, as I've previously mentioned, it should be on the curriculum.
At present 30% of children are overweight, which is a higher figure than the STI percentage in teenagers. Consequently if sex education is compulsory, then so should 'health and diet education.'
MEND (Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it!) is an organisation "dedicated to reducing global childhood overweight and obesity levels" and I have found programmes that are running right here in Preston!
Not only does the organisation look fun, engaging and beneficial, it's also free! I stumbled acroos it in the LEP itself after journalist Aasama Day ran a feature on nine year old Iona Jackson who weighs eight stone nine.
Wanting to know more I visited the MEND website http://www.mendprogramme.org/, which I must say, as an obesity blogger, got me excited!
The programme targets the perfect age group, seven to 13 year olds, at the perfect time, after school, for just the right amount of time, 10 weeks!
The only disappointmenting fcator I have found, is that it's privately funded. I'm not here knocking private funding, in fact I have admiration for companies who pour money into projects like this, it's just that I wish the central and local governments would do more.
Ok there's arguments for and against this, and I can imagine many tax payers will argue that they don't want to have to pay for other people's poor diets, but all in all, as I've previously mentioned, it should be on the curriculum.
At present 30% of children are overweight, which is a higher figure than the STI percentage in teenagers. Consequently if sex education is compulsory, then so should 'health and diet education.'
Monday, 6 October 2008
Lancashire Obesity
Visit http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Weighing-up-the-obesity-problem.4538813.jp#comments to view the last obesity article reported in lep.
My comment raises the question....Why can't part of the school curriculum be 'health
eductation'? Why can't our NHS run alongside the education service and provide education that could help prevent the increase in obesity?
My comment raises the question....Why can't part of the school curriculum be 'health
eductation'? Why can't our NHS run alongside the education service and provide education that could help prevent the increase in obesity?
Friday, 3 October 2008
"Another path that leads to obesity"
The BBC this morning published online an article based on US researchers finding yet another way in which obesity can be accomplished.
Apparently "having a poor diet can trigger a signalling system which prompts the body to consume even more." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7649261.stm) So basically eating unheathy makes you fat. Did society not establish that quite a few centuries ago? It seems to be that 'new findings' and 'new research,' with regards to obesity, always melt down to this same conclusion, and it's one I think I was taught in primary school.
This time however its all about the hypothalamus; a structure in the brain responsible for maintaining a constant and steady bodily state. According to Dongsheng Cai, assistant professor of physiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the cell-signalling pathway, known to be associsted with inflammation, has now been found to also influence the regulation of food intake.
Stimulating this pathway in mice led to an increase in their energy consumption, while suppressing the pathway encouraged them to maintain normal food intake, consequently regulating body weight.
Metabolic inflammation it seems is the big picture behind this particular research and a picture I can actually understand. Metabolic inflammation is caused by too much energy consumption and although less severe than other forms of inflammatory response - "it causes cellular dysfunction, which can decrease the regulation of several physiological processes, including metabolism.” (Breakthrough Digest Medical News Association.com)
The question is however, what does obesity look like in the North West of England?
Apparently "having a poor diet can trigger a signalling system which prompts the body to consume even more." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7649261.stm) So basically eating unheathy makes you fat. Did society not establish that quite a few centuries ago? It seems to be that 'new findings' and 'new research,' with regards to obesity, always melt down to this same conclusion, and it's one I think I was taught in primary school.
This time however its all about the hypothalamus; a structure in the brain responsible for maintaining a constant and steady bodily state. According to Dongsheng Cai, assistant professor of physiology at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the cell-signalling pathway, known to be associsted with inflammation, has now been found to also influence the regulation of food intake.
Stimulating this pathway in mice led to an increase in their energy consumption, while suppressing the pathway encouraged them to maintain normal food intake, consequently regulating body weight.
Metabolic inflammation it seems is the big picture behind this particular research and a picture I can actually understand. Metabolic inflammation is caused by too much energy consumption and although less severe than other forms of inflammatory response - "it causes cellular dysfunction, which can decrease the regulation of several physiological processes, including metabolism.” (Breakthrough Digest Medical News Association.com)
The question is however, what does obesity look like in the North West of England?
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