If you are a person who regularly eats out then this news item should come as no surprise at all. With portion sizes constantly on the increase and restaurants forever trying to figure out how to increase the taste in their dishes, is it any wonder that the first casualty in this war on portion-sense is the number of calories in your food?

“Sky-high Calories In Some Restaurant Meals“, on WebMD explores this continuing phenomenon of ever-higher portion sizes. The Center For Science In The Public Interest (CSPI) studied the calorie and ingredient information for some of the popular meals from large restaurants and found saturated fat and sodium so high that it would be enough for three days!

Here are just a few of the major offenders:

• Chili’s Big Mouth Bites with French fries (four mini bacon cheeseburgers with fried onion strings): 2,350 calories, 38 grams saturated fat, 3,940 milligrams sodium.
• Olive Garden Tour of Italy, with lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo: 1,450 calories, 33 grams saturated fat, 3,830 milligrams sodium.
• The Cheesecake Factory Fried Macaroni and Cheese: 1,570 calories, 69 grams saturated fat, 1,860 milligrams sodium. [WebMD]

Even an average meal at a restaurant can run close to 3000 calories when you realize that the entree, main course and dessert could each be close to a 1000 calories apiece. And some are just way worse than others:

Hurley believes diners don’t realize just how indulgent some items are. It’s a given that you’re splurging when you order Uno Chicago Grill’s Mega-Sized Deep Dish Sundae, a chocolate-chip cookie baked in a pizza pan and topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce, she says.

“But how many people would guess there are 2,800 calories and 72 grams of saturated fat when that sundae hits the table?” [WebMD]

The CSPI is petitioning for a law requiring more easily available nutrition information on restaurat menus, menu boards etc. In the meantime, however, it’s upto the consumer to be wary of which dishes are high-calorie ad which ones are (relatively) more healthful.

For more examples of dishes-gone-wild and some tips on choosing good meals at restaurants head on to WebMD to read the entire new article.

For the first time since 1990, an Institute of Medicine (IOM)’s group of doctors and other nutrition experts have released guidelines for how much weight a woman should gain during pregnancy. The WebMD article “Pregnancy Weight Gain: New Guidelines” describes the various metrics released by the IOM regarding the right range of values for weight gain by women of different initial weights:

During pregnancy, many women gain “substantially more than we would like,” IOM committee chairwoman Kathleen Rasmussen, ScD, PhD, tells WebMD. “It is important for women to gain within [the new guidelines] and if possible, it’s important for women to begin pregnancy at a good weight,” says Rasmussen, who is also a Cornell University nutrition professor. [WebMD]

The restrictions are strict enough, that the recommendations even include the advise to delay pregnancy until a healthy weight has been achieved. Overweight women have a greater tendency to suffer problems during pregnancy and complications during the actual birthing process (usually because of heavier babies):

“The risk for the baby is being born too large, which can result in birth injury for the baby or may result in a cesarean section for the mother,” Rasmussen says. “The risks for the mother of gaining beyond the guidelines are risk for cesarean section or risk for excessive weight retention postpartum.” [WebMD]

The original article contains a lot of specific numbers and guidelines and is bound to be useful either to you or someone you know. Do check it out.

According to the released weight-ranges, a woman of normal pre-pregnancy weight should gain just about  25-35 pounds for a single-baby and about 37-54 pounds for twins. Literally, the only condition that doctors don’t have is to lose weight during pregnancy which is always a no-no (even for women who were obese before pregnancy).

As for the whole “Eating for two” myth, the doctors in the group are quick to debunk it:

“I think people still feel like pregnancy is fair game,” Goist says. “You only need 300 extra calories per day to actually maintain a pregnancy.”

So if you think eating for two means doubling your calories, forget it.

“If you think about the normal diet of maybe 1,800-2,000 calories, depending on the size of the person, 300 extra calories is a sixth of that. So that’s barely like eating anything,” Goist says.[WebMD]

That’s right. It was actually believed that if parents are over-strict with the eating habits of their kids then those same kids would rebel, overeat and become big fat adults. Uh…. not true! Science Daily reports that a recent study in the journal Obesity shows that such maternal control of a child’s eating habits might merely be a response to the increase in weight of the child.

Almost 800 children were studied at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with an equal representation of boys and girls:

Child heights and weights were obtained at ages 4, 7 and 9 and changes in body mass index (BMI) were measured between 4-7 years and 7-9 years. Maternal feeding practices were measured at each age interval by asking mothers the question, “Do you let your child eat what he/she feels like eating?” [ScienceDaily]

Absolutely no relationship could be conclusively derived between maternal control of a child’s eating habits and the child’s actual weight gain although it was determined that mothers probably noticed a girl’s weight gain much more quickly than a similar weight gain by a boy.

While the actual form of control exercised could vary and the best way to enforce good eating habits is still widely debated, the study concluded there was nothing inherently wrong in this approach:

Based on these findings, the researchers say restrictive feeding practices may actually be necessary for some children to help regulate their food intake, promote healthier eating habits and limit excessive weight gain. “There has been some concern about the negative impact of restrictive feeding practices and that we should be more lax and let the child determine how much, when and what to eat. However, some degree of control may not be harmful and may actually help certain children maintain their weight,” [ScienceDaily]

So it looks like as far as the eating habits of children go, paretns still maintain primary responsibility in controlling the type and quantity of the food and such restrictions will not directly lead to obesity later on in the child’s life.

The latest list of  America’s fittest cities has been released by the American College of Sports Medicine and  although it’s not the most obvious city I would have guessed to take the top honor, our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., is listed as the Fittest City in America.

According to WebMD:

The list is based on personal factors — including the percentage of residents who smoke, are obese, get regular physical activity, eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and have conditions such as diabetes and heart disease — and on local resources, such as parks, farmers’ markets, number of primary health care providers, and crime rates. [WebMD]

As a  resident od Connecticut, I was disappointed that no city from my state featured in the the top 10, but Hartford is #11 so with effort the city can hope to get better rankings over time. Here are the top 5 fittest cities:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Denver
4. Boston
5. San Francisco

For the full list, see the WebMD article and find out where your city figures in the nationwide ranking.

As can only be expected, the list of health issues that can be attributed to obesity just keeps on growing. A Swedish study of about 37000 women and 43000 men who were tracked for 6 years, found that increase in BMI led to an increased incidence of heart failure (although for women the incidence was higher among those with greater waist circumference, whereas for men this made no difference).

Obesity is already known to increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. But as it turns out "heart failure" is a different condition altogether:

Coronary disease is blockage of heart arteries that can eventually cause a heart attack. Heart failure is the progressive loss of the heart’s ability to pump blood.

While many patients who have heart failure also have coronary disease, this is not always so […] [Yahoo News]

Particularly troubling is the fact mentioned later in the news item, that although we have been able to stem the incidence of heart disease using newer medical techniques, heart failure is continuing to increase.

Just another reason to watch what we eat and keep active.

Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

While it has been known that obesity and even being overweight were big risk factors for the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease (a degenerative disease of the brain causing dementia), a new study of 6500 people, published in the journal Neurology, reveals that a large waistline during middle-age could triple the risk of Alzheimer’s during that person’s old-age.

It has not been conclusively determined as to why a large waist-size is such a good predictor of Alzheimer’s, but theories abound:

Research linking obesity to dementia does not reveal precisely why being overweight can affect your ageing brain, but many specialists believe that associated problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels may contribute. Thickness of fat around the waist is thought to correspond closely with its presence around the major organs of the body.

It could also very well be that the very lifestyle that led to the large waistline in the first case could be the cause the scientists are looking for.

More health and fitness stories for the week gone by:

1. Large waist ‘an Alzheimer’s risk’: A big waistline in your 40s could almost triple the threat of dementia in old age, according to US research.
2. Fat City? 10 Million Pounds Gained in 2 Years: Obesity and with it diabetes are the only widespread major health conditions that are getting worse in New York City
3. New York City Postpones Plan Mandating Fast Food Menu Calorie List: Health officials in New York City postponed the deadline for national chain restaurants to post calorie counts on city menus.
4. Older Women Have Harder Time Preserving Muscle Than Men: Keeping in good shape is more difficult for older women than men because it’s harder for women to replace muscle that’s lost naturally as they age, say U.S. and British researchers.
5. All-you-can-eat sports seats fill fans up – and out: A growing trend in all-you-can-eat seating at sports venues is making baseball’s summer chorus sound more like “Take Me Out to the Buffet.”
6. Obese Women Less Likely to Be Tested for Some Cancers: A new review of 32 studies suggests that obese women — particularly white women — are more likely than others to skip screenings for breast and cervical cancer.

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Much has been said about the obesity epidemic: It’s caused by people eating more than they expend. It’s McDonald’s fault. It’s just a consequence of modern life. Probably, it’s worse than terrorism. Heck, maybe obesity is just hype and not an “epidemic” at all!

Well, turns out that if there is one thing scientists can agree on, it’s that they cannot agree on any fixed factors for obesity! Calling for a “comprehensive action” to fight global obesity, researchers at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research basically said that a slew of factors are to be considered to determine the causes and potential cures for obesity.

Genetics, micro-nutrients (or, rather, the lack of them), poor sleep and even the neighborhood environment (availability of walking paths and parks) were all mentioned as possible factors for the increased waist-lines across the globe:

For changes to make a difference in people’s behavior, and then in their health, they must be comprehensive, addressing the physical, economic, sociocultural and political environment people live in, [...] — comparable to the public health campaign against tobacco use. [Yahoo News - Reuters]

Keep all that that in mind as you read through the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. Eggs Are Back On a Roll: After years of being marginalized, eggs are staging a slight comeback, which is either a good thing or a worrisome trend, depending on who weighs in on the topic.
2. Comprehensive action needed to fight obesity: The problem of obesity cannot be reduced simply to genetics, [...] and it also cannot be blamed solely on our environments or learned behaviors.
3. Folate ‘may keep sperm healthy’: A diet rich in the vitamin folate may protect men against producing abnormal sperm and children with genetic abnormalities, a study suggests.
4. Is Washing Veggies Enough?: What do the food safety experts do? They wash their produce in running tap water—and eat up.
5. Gender differences hit the kitchen: Men were much more likely to eat asparagus, Brussels sprouts, peas and peanuts. [...] Women are more likely than men to eat eggs, yogurt and fresh hamburgers.
6. Vegan diet ‘help’ for arthritis: Rheumatoid arthritis patients may be able to reduce their high risk of heart attacks and strokes with a gluten-free, vegan diet, a study suggests.

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Finally, an article I have been waiting to read! The prevalence of low-fat, low-calorie, diet and 100-calorie foods had really gotten me thinking: do these things work? Can you become skinny on Diet Coke and Lean Cuisine? “Junk-food dieters fake their way to skinny” attempts to answer just such a question and makes for great reading.

It’s amazing to see the lengths people will go to in order to avoid overeating. Chewing gum, sucking on lollipops, smoking, chugging a Diet Soda all day – each of this is used by different people as an alternative to eating real food. The kicker, of course, is that if the same people ate real (unprocessed) food instead, the proteins, fiber and natural fat would probably have kept them full longer and obviated the need to depend on artificial solutions to hunger-cravings.

Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. Junk food advert code launched: A global campaign aimed at reducing the marketing of unhealthy food to children has been launched.
2. New method finds networks of genes behind obesity: “Obesity is not a disease that is the result of a single change to a single gene. It changes entire networks,”
3. Diabetes: Of Mice and Men: Destroying killer-T cells is supposed to stop the immune system from chomping up beta cells. In mice, it did. The real shock, however, was that with the killer T-cells eliminated, beta cells apparently regenerated enough to pump out sufficient insulin to
4. 10 diet flubs – and how to fix them: We’ve uncovered 10 sneaky ways your workout, your work habits and even your clothing can undermine your diet, and we devised easy fixes for each.
5. Junk-food dieters fake their way to skinny: According to their credo, low-calorie is good; no-calorie is better – even if the food contains more chemicals than a can of hair spray.
6. Overweight women have worse breast cancer: study: A dangerous type of breast cancer, known as inflammatory breast cancer, was seen in 45 percent of obese patients, compared with 30 percent of overweight patients and 15 percent of patients of healthy weight.
7. Personal Contact Helps Maintain Weight Loss: [...] a new study finds that when people have monthly personal contact with a weight-loss professional, they’re able to keep off more weight.
8. Going green: Tips for eco-friendly exercise: Going green with your workout routine is actually pretty easy to do. Here’s how:
9. Obesity tied to higher pancreatic cancer risk: New research suggests that obesity may raise older adults’ risk of developing pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease.
10. Vitamin D ‘cuts risk of diabetes’: Giving young children vitamin D supplements may reduce their risk of developing type 1 diabetes later in life, research suggests.
11. Boston bans use of trans fat in restaurants: The city’s health board gave final, unanimous approval yesterday to a ban on the artificial substance in french fries, doughnuts, and other dishes made in restaurants and grocery stores.
12. Minimal Exercise Benefits Overweight Postmenopausal Women: Just 10 minutes to 30 minutes of exercise a day can improve the quality of life for sedentary, overweight or obese women, American researchers suggest.

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Ah the French! How we envy their rich foods, fine cheeses, aromatic wines, delectable chocolates and … slim waists? Wait, how is that possible? There must be some mistake! Aren’t rich foods and cheeses and chocolates the very antithesis of a slim waist? Well, not really, as this article points out!

The crucial component of eating – knowing when to stop – is a complex system of several cues a person gets. Some are internal (feeling of fullness, a nausea from overeating, tastelessness after awhile and so on. Others are external: The game is still on! Others are still eating! … etc. And as is by now pretty obvious to the discerning reader, it’s the internal cues that we must train ourselves to react to. It’s also one of the most difficult things to do and something that the French are, apparently, pretty adept at: they simply know when to stop eating!

In a Cornell Food Lab Study, both Parisians and Chicagoans were asked the simple question “How do you know when you are through eating dinner?” The different answers speak for themselves:

The Parisians said they knew they were through when they no longer felt hungry or when the food no longer tasted good to them. Their answers suggested that they’re influenced by internal cues — whether they liked the taste of the food or whether they wanted to leave room for a later dessert — to tell them dinner’s over.
In Chicago, it was a different ball game. The 145 Americans relied on external cues of satiety. They said they knew they were through eating when they cleaned their plate, when everyone else at the table was finished or when the TV show they were watching was over. [MSNBC]

Some of this difference has to do genetics and body weight composition (the heavier folks tended to rely on external cues). But a lot of it has to do with culture and the relationship a group of people have with their food. While we tend to rush around and keep food as an “on the go” commodity and tend to combine the eating of our “fast” foods with other activities, it might benefit us all to take a moment and admire how the French take time out of their day to sit, relax, enjoy and really eat their food.

Therein, in all probability, lies the secret to rich food that still results in healthy bodies.

Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. Stop when full? You must be French: In deciding when it’s time to push away from the table, it seems that the French may be responding to different eating signals than Americans.
2. Alcohol ‘quickly’ cuts heart risk: New moderate drinkers were 38% less likely to develop heart disease than those who stayed tee-total, a four-year study involving 7,500 people found.
3. Working out? Don’t sweat how much you perspire: “You don’t have to sweat to get a good workout, and exercising in higher temperatures and humidity can be dangerous,”
4. Are fears of a fat planet overblown?: “The obesity epidemic has absolutely been exaggerated,” said Dr. Vincent Marks, emeritus professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Surrey.
5. Inside Info About Eating Out: Letting a restaurant do the cooking for you may be quick, easy and tasty, but it can also mean relinquishing control over what you eat — and even how much.
6. Device helps fat kids cut TV time: A monitoring device that cut TV and computer time in half helped young, overweight children eat less and lose weight
7. Breakfast keeps teens lean: Teenagers who regularly eat breakfast tend to weigh less, exercise more and eat a more healthful diet than their breakfast-skipping peers

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Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Well, here’s a little switcheroo: If you believe a lot of activity has got you feeling tired and fatigues, then the solution is … a little more activity! Researchers have found that a bit of low-intensity workouts like quick walks can actually increase energy levels by 20% while reducing fatigue by upto 65%! The findings are indeed counter-intuitive:

“Too often we believe that a quick workout will leave us worn out, especially when we are already feeling fatigued,” Tim Puetz, who helped conduct the study, said in a statement.
“However, we have shown that regular exercise can actually go a long way in increasing feelings of energy, particularly in sedentary individuals.” [Reuters]

At the University of Georgia, where the study was conducted, 36 people were divided into three groups, one doing moderately intense exercise for 6 weeks, the second doing a more leisurely paced regimen and the last doing none at all. Unlike the “obvious” expectations of tired from the exercising group, the researchers actually found increased energy levels in the exercising groups and the bigger surprise? – the low intensity exercisers reported better energy levels!

While I have always advocated high-intensity (and shorter bouts) of cardiovascular exercise for weight loss, it seems that energy levels can be increased by even less-intense exercises. Who knew!

Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:

1. ‘Involved’ patients not always healthier: People who take a proactive role in their healthcare may be better-informed, but that may not necessarily translate into better health, results of a study hint.
2. Carb Intake, Obesity Tied to Rise in Esophageal Cancers: There may be a link between rising rates of carbohydrate intake and obesity and the increasing number of esophageal cancer cases in the United States
3. Feeling tired? Exercise a little: Couch potatoes who complain they are tired all the time have an easy solution — a little light exercise.
4. Glamorous mature celebrities spark over-50s anorexia: It’s a disease generally associated with teens and young women, but glamorous mature celebrities are being blamed for a rise in anorexia in the over-50s.
5. Chronic ills seen as focal point to reform health care: In an issue as divisive as health care reform, one of the few areas of agreement is the need to do a better job preventing and managing diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases.
6. Vitamin E linked to lung cancer: Vitamin E is known to be an antioxidant – protecting cells from molecules called free radicals. But the US researchers speculate that, in high doses, it may also act as a pro-oxidant – causing oxidation and therefore damage to cells.
7. Low-fat dairy may aid blood pressure: Women who regularly consume low-fat milk or yogurt may have a lower risk of developing high blood pressure, new research suggests.
8. New York using “green carts” in latest obesity fight: New York City will issue 1,000 new permits for mobile fruit and vegetable stands in its latest drive against obesity and unhealthiness among its residents.
9. 9 Ways Women Can Prevent Heart Disease: Every minute that goes by, another female dies from cardiovascular disease, which encompasses coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease and cardiac arrhythmias.
10. Obese kids at higher respiratory risk post-surgery: Obese children who undergo elective surgery typically have more additional medical conditions than their normal-weight peers do and are also at greater risk of developing adverse respiratory events after the procedure
11. Rise in midlife stroke in women linked to obesity: The rapidly rising incidence of stroke among Americans is primarily due to the increasing number of middle-aged women who are having strokes.
12. Overweight Hispanic Kids Show Early Markers for Diabetes: A small U.S. study found that obese Hispanic children and adolescents with normal blood sugar levels had elevated markers for blood vessel inflammation that may put them at risk for both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
13. Obesity more dangerous than terrorism: experts: World governments focus too much on fighting terrorism while obesity and other “lifestyle diseases” are killing millions more people, an international conference heard Monday.
14. Flavoured foods ‘lacking fruit’: One strawberry fruit bar had 0.5% strawberry, and was actually made almost entirely from apples. Another own-brand strawberry fruit tea contained 0.2% strawberry
15. U.S. Health Care Spending to Double by 2017, Report Predicts: Spending on health care in the United States could double by 2017, reaching $4.3 trillion and accounting for 19.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product
16. ‘Eat This, Not That’ for moms-to-be: Pregnancy will be a time of many challenges, but your diet shouldn’t be one of them.
17. Brits ‘under-estimate waist size’: Experts fear that by failing to recognise their increasing girth some people may be missing a key warning sign of developing type 2 diabetes.
18. Grocers Aim to Tell You How Your Food Measures Up: Eating smart seems to get more complicated by the day. Not only are there calories to count and healthy types of fat to choose, but there’s added sugar, fiber and salt to consider.
19. Too little sleep a health nightmare for many: [...] all this sleeplessness can be a nightmare for your mental and physical health, CDC experts cautioned, calling sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem.

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