The Skinny On Fat on August 6, 2009
Throughout my experience I have found that it is unreasonable to expect anyone to stick to a meal plan if they are constantly feeling hungry or deprived. Ultimately, even the most well intentioned dieter will fail if the meal plan is too hard to follow. The problem is that most of the popular weight-loss diets are too restrictive, either in the amount of food (you must weigh only a quarter cup of xxx and only 7 2/3 pieces of yyy) or variety of food (no bread, cookies, ice cream…) they allow. More broadly, in terms of diet plans, many high-protein diets require that you go for weeks or months without ever eating a real piece of bread (a “carb?) or a fruit. Most high-carbohydrate, low-fat, low-calorie diets are too low in protein, which means that dieters on those plans will be constantly hungry.
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Run for your life; it can only help extend it on August 6, 2009
It's no secret that we are fast becoming a nation of larger sizes. We read a lot about the obesity epidemic, but we don't always seek out ways and activities to combat this problem. If we could all do some form of exercise 3-4 times a week, for instance, our risk of heart attack would decline sharply.
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Is Weight Loss Surgery Safe? on August 6, 2009
Q: I'm so frustrated with my weight. I'm heavier than ever. I've tried many different diets, programs and a couple of weight loss medications. My doctor has suggested that I consider weight loss surgery. I'm scared. How dangerous is it?
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Food as a Reward - not a good idea on August 4, 2009
If you're good while we're out, we'll go for an ice cream after......Just finish your homework and then you can have some cookies....If you don't have any meltdowns today, we'll go to McDonalds......
Can drilling electrodes into your brain help you lose weight? on August 4, 2009
Just how desperate are you to lose weight - desperate enough to have electrodes implanted in your brain? That's the latest approach to tackling obesity now being tested.
With experts warning of an obesity epidemic, drugs companies and medics have been working on newer and better ways to tackle weight gain.
Most recently, the focus has been on prescription medicines, with the development of pills such as Alli, which work by reducing the amount of fat your body absorbs.
Nibbles: Study raises concerns about kids and vitamin D on August 4, 2009
Are kids getting enough vitamin D?
The majority of American children may not be getting enough vitamin D, say researchers at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In a just-released study, the researchers say that about 70 percent of 6,000 kids involved in a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey had less than optimal levels of vitamin D in their systems, putting them at risk of rickets and weak bones.
Life-changing surgery: The decision to undergo gastric bypass or banding doesn't come easily on August 4, 2009
Note: This article begins an in-depth look at
obesity, or bariatric, surgeries. In upcoming issues of the Herald & Review, we'll talk to local patients who are at different stages in the process of attempting to save themselves and get their lives back through these serious procedures.
Billions to fight obesity at issue on August 3, 2009
As one house of Congress moves toward a September vote on offering insurance to millions of Americans, the other is wading into a controversy over whether such coverage should include billions of dollars aimed at keeping people well.
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Our opinion: We're too fat on August 3, 2009
Too many of us are too fat.
Those are harsh words, yes.
But so are "diabetes," "obesity," "infarction" and "death."
Where adults are concerned, there are limited things that government can do, or, in a free country, should do. People ought to be free to be themselves as far as is possible.
But in the United States today, government is the de facto payer of more than half of the medical bills incurred by Americans, either through Medicare, the CHIP insurance programs, other insurance operations or welfare.
So government ought to have something to say about how healthy or unhealthy we have become, since it is paying the bills.
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War of the Sugars on August 3, 2009
The bright red label on a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail boasts that it contains no high-fructose corn syrup. Its sweet replacement: sugar.
Other juice producers also have replaced the sweetener with cane or beet sugar. Big-name products including Log Cabin syrup, some Kraft Foods dressings and certain Pepsi products have gone the same route. Starbucks has undertaken a switch from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar in its bakery goods.The turnabout is another step in the ongoing demonization of high-fructose corn syrup, a potent symbol of processed food's many evils.
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