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New York City Gains 10 Million Pounds In 2 Years!

29

March

Linkfitnessmantra02:29 pmAdd comment

Yes, the title is a little sensational - but it’s true. As a city, over the past two years, New York’s 5 million residents gained a total of about 10 million pounds - or about 2 pounds each! If you think that does not warrant attention (it’s just a pound a year, after all), then consider this from the New York Times blogs …

[...] the weight gains were particularly concentrated among the heaviest New Yorkers. The cityâ€™s rates of obesity and new diabetes diagnoses both increased by 17 percent during the two-year study period, compared with a 6 percent increase in obesity prevalence and no increase in diabetes diagnoses nationally.[NY Times]

new york broadway street sign
“Broad”way indeed!

The city’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden is obviously troubled and he does recognize that educating the consumer about cutting down on calorie-consumption is an important first-step toward solving this very real crisis:

“To tackle this problem and help prevent the devastating effects of these conditions, New Yorkers must to take in fewer calories, and to help them do that we must change our environment. Consumers must have calorie information readily available when they are ordering food at chain restaurants …[NY Times]

Too bad his own city is not with him when it comes to providing calorie-information to its citizens. New York’s chain restaurants were supposed to post calorie counts of menu items starting Monday. But the inevitable court-challenge from the New York State Restaurant Association group means that New York cannot enforce this law until April 14th. Why? Apparently some constitutional rights were being infringed!:

[...] the state restaurant association says the rule violates the First Amendment. The group believes it forces businesses to put message on their menus.[AHN]

With things the way they are, is it any wonder that even simple - and potentially life-saving - procedures and regulations take forever to see the light of day?

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FitnessMantra Weekend: Are You Skinny On Diet And Junk Foods?

16

March

Linkfitnessmantra11:02 pmAdd comment

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.

sweet peppermint 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:

Junk food advert code launched: A global campaign aimed at reducing the marketing of unhealthy food to children has been launched.
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,”
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Going green: Tips for eco-friendly exercise: Going green with your workout routine is actually pretty easy to do. Here’s how:
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.
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.
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.
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.