Parents don't know when their kids are overweight
According to CBS News, Many Parents Blind To Kids' Obesity:
Among parents with an obese, or extremely overweight, child ages 6 to 11, 43 percent said their child was "about the right weight"
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10 fun ways to live longer
10 fun ways to live longer from sex to chocolate to wine.
A good talk by Gary Taubes
If you didn't read Good Calories, Bad Calories
- It's an undisputed fact that it takes insulin to store fat. No insulin, no fat. That's why undiagnosed diabetics lose weight.
- Another undisputed fat: carbohydrates cause insulin, not fat or protein.
- In many poor societies, the women are obese and the kids are undernourished. (He gave almost 20 examples.) Either the women are starving their kids (unlikely) or it doesn't take a lot of calories to be fat. Those women are fat because they are eating the wrong foods not because they are eating too much.
- Lack of will power, gluttony and sloth are not the causes of obesity.
- Kids eat because they are growing. They don't grow because they eat. Vertical and horizontal growth are not so different. People eat because something is telling them to grow horizontally. They don't grow because they eat.
Gary Taubes' talk is well worth listening to.
Retiree health benefits can be cut
According to the New York Times:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.
I wonder what would happen if we just made everyone eligible for Medicare and cut all government benefits (like tax cuts) for companies that offer other health care plans?
Low fat diet advice is cascaded, not proven
The New York Times' review of Good Calories, Bad Calories
But suppose, instead of the audience members voting silently in unison, they voted out loud one after another. And suppose the first person gets it wrong.
If the second person isn’t sure of the answer, he’s liable to go along with the first person’s guess. By then, even if the third person suspects another answer is right, she’s more liable to go along just because she assumes the first two together know more than she does. Thus begins an “informational cascade” as one person after another assumes that the rest can’t all be wrong.
And then they explain how these cascades are really common in science, especially medicine:
Cascades are especially common in medicine as doctors take their cues from others, leading them to overdiagnose some faddish ailments (called bandwagon diseases) and overprescribe certain treatments (like the tonsillectomies once popular for children). Unable to keep up with the volume of research, doctors look for guidance from an expert — or at least someone who sounds confident.
And that is how we ended up being told to eat a low fat diet! Dr. Keys gave the original, unproven advice to eat low fat and the rest just followed or "cascaded" along.
Sugar is better than cocaine
Sugar is very addictive. One study found:
Researchers have learned that rats overwhelmingly prefer water sweetened with saccharin to cocaine
American Diabetes Association endorses low carb diet!
The American Diabetes Association now supports low carb diets:
For the first time, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has come out in support of low-carbohydrate diets for people with diabetes who want to manage their weight.
I haven't seen the published guidelines myself yet.
New drug may replace sleep
A new drug looks promising for replacing sleep:
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests.
However, it's years away from being tested and approved for humans. In the mean time, be sure to get plenty of sleep. You'll feel better, keep the weight off easier and perform better.
Trans fats depend on where you live
How many trans fats you are eating might depend on where you live. Atkins Low Carb Original 1970 Diet pointed me at this:
The more you drink, the less you hear
It's now been proven (in at least one study,) the more alcohol you drink, the worse your hearing gets. This may help explain why parties get so loud ... or rather why drunk people get so loud.
Being overweight makes you less likely to wear your seatbelt
The more overweight you are, the less likely you are to wear your seatbelt, putting you more at risk if you get in an accident.
Insulin and carbs control how much fat you store
Dr. Feinman explains how carbs, not fat in the diet, controls how much fat we store on our bodies.
Carbohydrate, through its effect on insulin, is the key player. Insulin not only sweeps up glucose from the blood but it also plays air traffic controller, making the call as to whether that glucose is turned into fat or is used for energy. Most importantly, insulin determines what happens to dietary fat — whether it gets stored or oxidized for fuel.
The simple low carb diet: 5 foods to avoid
Dr. Dan Eichenbaum recommends a simple diet for diabetics. It's a low carbohydrate diet:
I explain to my patients that eating carbohydrates is like putting diesel fuel in a vehicle that can only run on gasoline.
Just as a gas engine won't burn diesel, a diabetic's "engine" cannot burn carbohydrates.
He makes it simple by just restricting five foods:
- bread and baked goods
- potatoes and root vegetables
- rice
- pasta
- fruit except for berries
I think this is a good diet for us all, not just diabetics.
Being overweight and having bad breath go hand and hand
A new study found that "the more overweight you are, the more likely your breath will smell unpleasant to those around you."
Don't exercise in front of a mirror
You may feel more energized and better about your workout if you avoid the treadmills in front of the mirror. This study compared women exercising alone, in groups and in groups in front of mirrors. The group that worked out in front of a mirror "felt less revitalised afterwards, more exhausted, and more self-conscious." So avoid the mirrors if you can!
Occasional fasting may be good for you
A new study suggests that fasting for one day every month may be good for your heart:
A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.
They did this study on Mormons because they already fast once a month. Further studies will have to be done to confirm this. This should be an easier study than most to replicate as you can have people come in once a month for the day and make sure they don't eat anything that day! (Most diet studies are very hard to verify!)
Try honey for your kids cough
Recent studies have shown that a teaspoon of honey can work better than cough medicine in helping kids with coughs. We are going to try this out today.
Note, kids under one year of age should not get honey.
Eating well is expensive
Per calorie, healthy food is much more expensive than junk food. According to the New York Times, you can eat junk food for $1.76/1000 kcal but $18.16 per calorie for more healthy food. They assumed healthy food meant fruits and vegetables and junk food was the prepackaged snack like food.
Healthy foods that aren't so healthy
We often equate low fat or low cholesterol with healthy. That's not always true. This article lists seven foods that have gotten a healthy label but aren't so healthy. They explain why too. The foods?
- granola bars
- muffins
- rice cakes
- tea
- pretzels
- frozen yogurts
- fruit flavored snacks
The last one got me. We were on a road trip and I ran into a grocery store looking for some easy, not too messy, healthy snacks for my fifteen month old. I grabbed a box of fruit snacks only to discover that they were pretty much colored sugar! And messy too! He did like them though.
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