FitnessMantra Weekend: Is Obesity Just A Consequence Of Modern Life?
21
October
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.
If you are overweight, and ever felt that the situation was beyond your control then a new study seems to agree with your conclusion. A two-year long study by about 250 experts and scientists that was sponsored by the British Department of Health has results that lead to the startling (and - dare I say - fatalistic) conclusion that obesity is not about overeating or lack of exercise, but simply a consequence of living the modern life!
“Stocking up on food was key to survival in prehistoric times, but now with energy dense, cheap foods, labor-saving devices, motorized transport and sedentary work, obesity is rapidly becoming a consequence of modern life,” said Sir David King, the British government’s chief scientific adviser and head of the Foresight program. [MSNBC]
While at the outset one would tend to scoff at the suggestion that it is anything but the obese individual’s fault, closer inspection of the evidence might lead one to believe otherwise. The study certainly does not take responsibility away from the individual, but recommends a holistic approach to solving the problem because, it says, the problem is more complicated than saying “Eat Less, Exercise More”.
Tackling obesity, like tackling climate change, requires a range of changes in society, from increasing everyday activity through the design of the built environment and transport systems to shifting the drivers of the food chain and consumer purchasing patterns to favor healthier options.
Certainly seems like making fitness a way of life is the real solution here!
Here are the week’s top health and fitness stories:
- Lack of sleep may hike women’s blood pressure: Women who regularly get fewer than seven hours of sleep each night may have a higher risk of developing high blood pressure, a new study suggests.
- FDA to consider limits, labeling for salt: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it would hold a hearing to consider a consumer group’s petition that the agency tighten regulations and labeling for salt in food.
- CDC: Food Getting Healthier at Schools: The study shows that schools across the country are allowing less junk food in vending machines, school stores, and a la carte counters. More schools have also put healthier school lunch practices into place.
- Fast food salt levels ’shocking’: A meal at a fast food restaurant could expose children to “staggeringly” high levels of salt, a survey has suggested.
- Genes Might Help Drive Overeating: Scientists from the University at Buffalo say people with genetically lower levels of dopamine, a brain chemical that helps make eating and other behaviors more rewarding, may be driven to consume more food.
- Fruit compound can fight some cancers: Lupeol, a compound in fruits like mangoes, grapes and strawberries, appears to be effective in killing and curbing the spread of cancer cells in the head and neck.
- Still exercising … still fat: “While exercise burns calories, the amount of exercise it takes to be a substantial contributor to a weight-loss program is quite a bit,”
- The workweek diet leaves room for feasting: Call it Sunday remorse: After a weekend of freestyle dining and drinking, you resolve to get your diet on track.
- Hiding Veggies In Food: Benefit Or Betrayal?: Parents rarely need to coax their kids to have ice cream. But they frequently cajole, plead, bargain, bribe and even threaten to get them to eat more vegetables, fruit and other nutritious fare.
- Half of adults ‘will be obese by 2050′: The extent of the obesity epidemic was laid bare yesterday as it was disclosed that more than half of adults and a quarter of children will be dangerously overweight by 2050.
- Report: Obesity a result of modern life: Tackling obesity, like tackling climate change, requires a range of changes in society, from increasing everyday activity through the design of the built environment and transport systems to shifting the drivers of the food chain and consumer purchasing p
- Stretching does not cut soreness: Stretching before or after exercise has little or no effect on subsequent muscle soreness, research shows.
- What to eat to lower cancer risk: Fill your diet with veggies, fiber, vitamin D and calcium to prevent disease.
- Appetite ‘control centres’ found: UK-based scientists say they have identified the brain circuits that control how much we eat.
- Obesity ‘as bad as climate risk’: The public health threat posed by obesity in the UK is a “potential crisis on the scale of climate change”, the health secretary has warned.
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Have a great weekend!
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But there’s still hope as the study explains. Obese youngsters studied between 1999 and 2004 were first encouraged to lose lose weight and then divided into 3 groups to study the long term effects of different approaches to keeping that weight off. The first group was left by itself and of course this group did the worst (in fact they gained some more when checked after 2 years). The second group was coached on being constantly on the watch for the weight-regain and advised to take corrective action as soon possible. This group did a little better than the first - although they initially kep the weight off, the effect slowly disappeared with time.
