DailyDirt: Diets That Work...?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some people think losing weight is simple: just eat less. But that formula isn't as easy to put into practice as it sounds. There are also various arguments that overeating is triggered by the foods we eat or by hormonal changes that are not under conscious control. Researchers are studying a variety of variables that effect weight loss/gain and associated symptoms, and here are just a few interesting links on the research for fighting fat.

• The Nutritional Science Initiative (NuSI) is an organization dedicated to improving the quality of research for nutrition and obesity. NuSI is currently looking to clarify the root causes of obesity (and related conditions), determining what makes people obese: overeating itself or hormonal/biochemical triggers that cause overeating. [url]
• Consuming seaweed enriched toast seemed to get some people to subsequently eat 179 fewer calories for the rest of the day. The seaweed was ground up and added to the bread without affecting the taste, and it apparently acts as a bulking agent in the stomach to make people feel full. [url]
• Is snacking at night worse than eating the same thing in the morning? Possibly. It might not just be what you eat, but when you eat it. [url]
• Marijuana smokers tend to eat more than 600 extra calories in a day, but for some reason, they have slimmer waists, higher levels of HDL and lower insulin levels and insulin resistance. So if you needed another reason to smoke pot, it's possibly a treatment for obesity and diabetes.... [url]

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Filed Under: calories, diets, food, hdl, hunger, insulin, insulin resistance, marijuana, nusi, nutrition, obesity, seaweed, smokers, snacking

DailyDirt: Creative Ways To Eat Less

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A pretty concerning statistic for Americans is that 17% of kids in the US are obese. The solutions to reduce that figure range from getting kids to eat better school lunches to eliminating various kinds of advertising aimed at getting kids to equate food with fun. There are a few other crazy ideas to keep people from getting fat, without trying to eat less or exercise more. Here are just a sampling of such suggestions.

• There's a chance that the bacteria in our intestines have some influence on obesity. From a preliminary study, morbidly obese people were found to have different bacterial communities in their intestines, but it's not clear if the different flora are a cause (or a result) of obesity. If there is a causal relationship, maybe there will be an effective treatment that involves cultivating different intestinal microbes. [url]
• "The Parasite Diet" isn't a new idea. At the turn of the 20th century, some people used tapeworms to lose weight (before modern medicine convinced people this was a very bad idea). But genetically modified tapeworms that are benign to people could be a reality someday. [url]
• Freakonomics has yet another podcast on obesity called "100 Ways to Fight Obesity" that covers some interesting proposals to prevent overweight adults and children. Some suggestions, such as smelling a vial of vomit to curb an appetite, are not so pleasant -- and not really guaranteed to work that well, either. [url]

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Filed Under: bacteria, diets, eating, flora, food, obesity, tapeworm

DailyDirt: Watching Our Weight...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

One of the most common new year's resolutions is to try to lose weight and stick to a diet in the coming year. It's an especially obvious resolution to make after eating way too much at family gatherings. Here are just a few links on the topic of eating too much and gaining more than a few extra pounds.

• Bags of snacks that contain just 100 calories worth of goodies are kind of annoying, so how about other ways to indicate calories? Imagine stacks of potato chips where every tenth chip was red -- subtly telling you how many servings you're consuming. [url]
• The Weight of The Nation is an HBO documentary that investigates the issues of obesity and the food industry in the US. Nearly 70% of American adults are overweight or obese, and obesity is a public health issue that can not be ignored. [url]
• An obesity-inducing microbe could be living in our intestines, making us fatter. Fight fire with fire... and ingest some tapeworms! [url]

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Filed Under: diet, food, microbe, obesity, overweight, weight
Companies: hbo

Woman Sues TV Station For Featuring Her In A Film About Obesity

from the fat-chance dept

A UK woman is apparently suing a Croatian TV station for filming her walking in public and including the clip in a documentary about obesity. The woman never knew she was being filmed, and claims that this is "an attack on human dignity." The specific legal issues are pretty complex (it's in the UK, so it discusses the twists and turns of UK law on the issue), but it sounds like the right to privacy in such a case is hardly clear cut. Still, it does make you wonder what was really done wrong here. She was out in public, where anyone could see her -- and assuming the video accurately portrayed her and didn't change or distort the image, is it really an attack on her dignity? If so, would someone just looking at her in the street and thinking she's obese be an attack on her dignity? Where does that line fall?

Filed Under: obesity, privacy, uk

Do Parents Really Need An Online Test To Know If Their Kids Are Obese?

from the parenting-by-computer dept

We've seen all sorts of stories about governments trying to do a parent's job for them, but, honestly, do parents really need an online test to tell if their children are obese? The article is actually a little vague about what this "test" is. It sounds like kids in the UK are having their height and weight measured, with that info being sent to parents by mail. Parents are then urged to type the height and weight into an online system that will do a simple body mass index (BMI) calculation to tell you that the kid is obese. However, if you need a computer to tell you when your kid is obese then perhaps the real problem is your own eyesight. Do we have an online test for that?

Filed Under: children, obesity, online, uk