How Can Mothers’ Work Status Be Linked To Childhood Obesity?

Childhood obesity epidemic has long been a headache for most countries around the world. Obese children are likely to be fat as they become adults and they are therefore facing a higher risk of developing Type-2 diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and heart disease.

Many factors can lead to childhood obesity, and one of them is mothers’ work status. Researchers from Melbourne's Murdoch Children’s Research Institute together with the University of New England and the Australian National University carried out a study to find out whether the childhood obesity epidemic was linked to mothers' increased participation in the workforce. They published their findings on March 3, 2010 in the ‘Journal of Social Science and Medicine’.

The researchers examined the weight and lifestyle of some 2,500 children when they were 4 or 5 and again when they were 6 or 7. They revealed in their report that between 18 and 20 percent of children were either obese or overweight.

According to the findings, mothers who work part-time were more likely to have healthier children than those who worked full-time or who were not working at all. These children watched less television, ate fewer snacks and were more physically active. On the other hand, mothers with full-time jobs might not have enough time to encourage physically active play or prepare home-cooked meals.

Nevertheless, the researchers cautioned public that the findings might oversimplify actual situation. For example, stay-at-home mothers might be difficult to juggle family time when there is more than one young child at home.

While the study indicated that work status indirectly contributed to children’s lifestyle, some health experts argued that these things are controllable. Whether the mothers are working, they could still control how much television their child watches and what types of snacks they can eat. Others quoted parental distress, postpartum depression and lack of social support as variable that could account for children having less-healthy lifestyles.

Another Way To Control Weight

Overweight and obesity are big headache for health experts around the world as these 2 conditions will likely raise a person’s risk of getting diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension (high blood pressure), and eventually lead to heart disease or stroke. The medical cost involved can be a heavy burden for the governments.

In order to control body weight, one should watch the amount of food he or she eats. Numerous studies have looked at how the portion size can affect on the amount people eat. A new study, conducted by researchers from University of Utah, Salt Lake City, examined at how the bite size will influence the quantities ingested.

In their paper published in July 2011 in the ‘Journal of Consumer Research’, they argued that bigger bites lead to eating less, but only in restaurant settings.

The study was carried out in a popular Italian restaurant in the South-Western United States. 2 sizes of forks were used to manipulate bite sizes: a larger fork that held 20 percent more food than the fork usually used in the restaurant, and a smaller fork that held 20 percent less than the usual one. It was found that diners who used large forks ate less than those who used small forks.

Tables were furnished with either large fork or small fork over 2 lunches and 2 dinners in the restaurant. Servers, including one of the study's researchers, took customers' orders, and weighed the full plate of food that they had ordered before serving it to them.

Each plate was attached with a small sticky note written with details including weight and other information. At the end of the meal, every plate was brought back to the kitchen and weighed again. The results showed that diners who used the bigger fork ate less food than those who used the smaller fork.

Such theory, however, only worked in a restaurant setting. In another study conducted in the laboratory using also Italian food, researchers found that people who used big forks actually eat more. Hence, the study concluded that there are different motivations when people eat in a restaurant or a laboratory.

If you wish to control the amount you eat, perhaps you should ask for or simply bring along a big fork the next time you visit an Italian restaurant!

How Fast Can Stroke Cause Brain Damage?

A stroke, sometimes also known as brain attack, occurs when there is an interruption of blood supply to any part of the brain because of blockage or burst in one of the blood vessels in the brain. If the brain cannot get blood and oxygen, the brain cells could die and permanent damage would be caused within a relatively short period.

Stroke is one of the top killer s in the developed countries. In Canada, stroke ranks the fourth leading cause of death, affecting as many as 50,000 people and killing 16,000 every year. Risk factors for stroke include alcoholism, diabetes, high cholesterol, overweight or obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and stress.

So how fast can stroke damage the brain?

Common public perception believes that all strokes can be medically treated within 3 hours, but scientists from the University of British Columbia in this Western Canadian city reported otherwise. Their study, which was funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, found that stroke could cause brain damage within 3 minutes.

Generally, stroke can be categorized into 2 types: ischemic and hemorrhagic. Ischemic strokes are those caused by interruption of the blood supply, while hemorrhagic strokes are those that result from rupture of a blood vessel or an abnormal vascular structure.

About 80 percent of stroke patients suffer ischemic stroke, which can usually be treated by clot-busting medications, provided if they could be admitted to the hospital within 3 hours. In reality, not every stroke patient is a candidate for clot-busting drugs.

Based on the results obtained from animal experiments performed, the scientists declared that brain could be damaged within 3 minutes. Such 3-minute window does not give people sufficient time to even call for help.

Preventive measures, therefore, are urgently required to tackle structural changes that happen very early on. People just need to manage risk factors and change their lifestyle to prevent getting a stroke, instead of relying on treatment when stroke strikes them.

Which Weight Loss Method Is Most Effective In the Long Run?

More and more people are aware of the negative consequences that overweight and obesity will bring to them. Therefore, people who are overweight and obese will use whatever weight loss methods and tactics to help them getting rid of the extra weight they have. Unfortunately, not many of them would succeed in keeping their weight off in the long run.

Some health experts believe that losing lot of weight quickly at the outset would make the dieters gain most of the weight back. Hence, overweight and obese patients have often been encouraged losing weight in small increments. But others found this more of a myth. In fact, scientists have found that no matter how much weight people initially lose, they seem to gain back a similar percentage of that weight over the next year.

According to a new study published online in ‘Obesity Reviews’ in March 2010, people should lose a high amount of weight initially if they were concerned about the long-term weight. The findings were also presented on July 12, 2010 at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden.

Researchers from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands analyzed data from 12 different weight-loss studies covering almost 1,000 overweight and obese participants, who went through an intensive weight-loss program comprising of exercise and nutrition guidance. Duration of all the weight-loss programs differed; each lasted between 10 weeks and one and a half years.

Each participant was weighed at the start and end of the weight-loss program, and again at least one year after completing the program. On average, participant who began at 209 pounds lost about 20 pounds over the duration of the program. One year later, participants were found to gain back an average of about half of the weight initially lost. This indicated that the participants who had initially lost the most weight also ended up with the best long-term results.

Nevertheless, the researchers cautioned people not to drop their weights at unsafe levels. 1 or 2 pounds a week should still be desirable for people wishing to lose weight. Meanwhile, they also suggested that future studies should follow participants for longer than one year after their initial weight loss to better understand the long-term effect of that initial weight loss.

Can Alcohol Curb Weight Gain?

The French are lovers of high-fat diet yet low rate of coronary heart disease is found among them. Perhaps there is something to do with the wine they consume regularly.

Red wine such as Madiran, (made from the tannat grape) stimulates enzymes so as to increase levels of nitric oxide, lower blood pressure, and inhibit plaque formation in arteries. Some studies have already shown that moderate alcohol drinkers have lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a predictor of heart disease, than non-drinkers. Alcohol is also known to have an anticoagulant effect reducing blood clots.

On March 8, 2010, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported in the “Archives of Internal Medicine”, a publication of the American Medical Association, that women who drink a few glasses of red wine, beer or spirits a day are better at losing weight than women who do not drink at all.

More than 19,000, normal-weight American women aged 39 or older were asked how many alcoholic beverages they typically drank in a day, and then these women were tracked for around 13 years.

Among the participants, 38 percent did not drink a drop, nearly 33 percent drank the equivalent of around a third of a 5-ounce glass of wine or a third of a 12-ounce beer, 20 percent drank the equivalent of up to a glass of wine, a 12-ounce beer or a single-shot drink made with 80-proof spirits, 6 percent had up to 2 drinks a day, and the remaining 3 percent had more than 2 drinks.

Women who did not drink at all were found to gain the most weight and women who had the equivalent of 2 drinks a day were the least likely to gain weight.

Red wine seems to be the best drink to curb weight gain. However, all the 4 types of tipple included in the study, namely red wine, white wine, beer and spirits, indicated the same inverse association between alcohol intake and the risk of becoming overweight or obese.

Nevertheless, the researchers warned against using alcohol as a tool to prevent overweight or obesity because of the potential medical and psycho-social problems associated with drinking.

Is Mini-Meals A Good Way To Lose Weight?

There is a widespread perception that eating little meals more often could be a good appetite control. Even some health professionals seemed to favor such claim, too.

However, the findings of researchers from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, however, did not seem to agree. In their study, men who were overweight and obese and on low-calorie, high-protein diets felt more satisfied and less hungry when they ate 3 times a day compared to when they ate 6 times a day. Their findings appeared in the journal “Obesity”.

It has been known that studies on whether eating frequency affects appetite control have had conflicting results. To investigate further, 27 men who were overweight or obese were randomly assigned to eat either a high-protein diet or a normal-protein diet for 12 weeks. Their diets contained 750 fewer calories than each man required to maintain his current weight.

From week 7 onwards, the male participants either ate their assigned diet in 3 meals, spaced 5 hour apart or in 6 meals eaten every 2 hours, for 3 consecutive days. Then, these participants switched to the other eating pattern for the next 3 days.

Participants who ate the higher protein diet (25 percent of total calories from protein) felt fuller throughout the day and refused to eat late at night, and were less preoccupied with thoughts of food than those participants who were consuming 14 percent of their energy as protein.

It was reported in the paper that eating frequency did not seem to influence appetite in the participants in the men on the normal-protein diet. Nevertheless, the researchers did find that participants on high protein diet felt fuller in the evening and late at night after eating just 3 meals a day.

Adopting the appropriate diet plays an important part in weight management. People who were overweight or obese are very likely the victims of many chronic diseases including Type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

An Interesting Proposal For Fast Food Restaurants!

Health experts have long regarded fast food as unhealthy because its high salt and high fat contents are responsible for causing regular patrons of fast food restaurants become overweight and obese.

As we are all aware, overweight or obesity is the root of many other complications including high cholesterol, Type-2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. Therefore, many fast food restaurants have already started to alter their recipes making them looked “less unhealthy”. For example, some have lowered the salt contents while others might add in more vegetables.

Lately, health professionals had proposed an interesting idea to the fast food restaurants. Researchers from the National Heart and Lung Institute at the Imperial College London suggested in the April 2010’s issue of the American Journal of Cardiology that fast food restaurants should give away free cholesterol-busting statins drugs together with their burgers and fries to their customers as a way to offset the possible heart disease risks caused by the food.

Statins, a family of cholesterol-lowering medications including Crestor and Lipitor, are currently available only by prescription. They have been famous of its ability to lower the amount of unhealthy LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) in the blood. Numerous studies have also shown that statins are very effective in preventing a heart attack.

According to the researchers, taking a statin tablet could help reduce the increased risk of developing heart disease because of the high fat content in a medium-sized cheeseburger and a small milkshake.

I am sure many of us would not find the new idea convincing. Even some health professionals are skeptical about the proposal and they caution that one should not take the suggestion literally.

In defending their proposal, the researchers used car seat belt as metaphor. They argued that people are advised to fasten their seat belts while traveling in car because of the increased risks to their health when driving or sitting in a car. Likewise, some people do eat unhealthily so they should be given some drugs to offset the possible bad effects.

Nevertheless, they did admit that statins could not eliminate all the unhealthy effects of burgers and fries. Therefore, the best way to stay healthy is still to avoid fatty food.

Why You Should Eat Less Meat?

Most people, especially ladies, do not like to be overweight or obese. The reason is simple.

The extra pound gained would in some way make the person’s appearance look not so nice, at least this is the thought that most people have. But more importantly, the extra pounds gained could possibly lead this person to many medical disorders including hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, stroke, heart disease and even certain type of cancer.

There could be many reasons why people gain weight, but improper diet and sedentary lifestyle are considered to be the 2 most important one that have been confirmed by many studies. Results of a recent European study can be another confirmation that stressed the importance of proper diet.

Researchers from Imperial College London reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that meat lovers gained more weight over 5 years than those who ate less meat but with the same amount of calories.

More than 100,000 men and 270,000 women from 10 European countries were involved in a study that examined cancer and nutrition and other lifestyle factors. Over a period of 5 years, both men and women on average gained about a pound a year, with women gained a little less.

The interesting part is that the more meat a person ate, the more weight this person gained. For every additional 250 grams of meat (equivalent to a half-pound, 450-calorie steak) a person ate daily, this person would gain 4.4 pounds over a period of 5 years. Among different types of meats, researchers found the strongest association with weight gain was poultry, followed by processed meats and red meat.

Therefore, researchers urged people to eat less meat so as to improve weight management. By cutting the consumption of meat by 250 grams a day could reduce a person’s weight by 4 pounds. While this figure is not very large for a particular individual, it could have a profound effect on the population as a whole.

Why Long-Term Weight Loss Is Not Desirable?

The obesity epidemic has been a pressing issue for the world as overweight or obesity would bring about many medical disorders including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. The consequence is huge amount of health expenses would be required to cover these diseases.

Naturally, no one would like being overweight or obese and if someone makes a statement like “weight loss is always beneficial, and weight gain is always harmful”, I am quite certain that not many people would raise their hands to object.

However, a paper published in the International Journal of Obesity on September 7, 2010 by researchers from Kyungpook National University in Daegu in South Korea revealed that long-term weight loss might release into the blood industrial pollutants, which is linked to diseases such as Type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis. These hazardous compounds are normally stored in the fatty tissues, but when fat breaks down during weight loss, they get into the blood stream and can reach vital organs.

After studying concentrations of 7 such compounds in blood of 1,099 participants in the United States, they found that those who lost weight over 10 years had the highest concentrations of the compounds, known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), compared to those who gained or maintained a steady weight.

The findings totally opposed to the overwhelming data showing attaining a healthy weight is good for preventing many diseases. When a study that goes against the common sense, it would naturally arouse doubts or even opposition from other health professionals.

Some of them feared that overweight or obese people might use such findings as an excuse to stop trying to reduce their weights through healthy diet and exercises, while others suggested people should figure out if the study seems sound and applies to the average population.

In fact, even the researchers themselves acknowledged that further studies are required to establish the link between long-term weight loss and health problems.

Is There A Need To Ban Free Toys With Kid Meals?

Fighting obesity epidemic, especially children obesity, has been one of a top priority tasks for many countries. This is because obese or overweight children can develop many medical disorders including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke later on when they grow up. The potential medical expenses to be spent on these people for treatments would be huge.

For years, “Happy Meals” from McDonald as well as meals bundled with free toys and goodies from other fast food restaurants have been the favorite meal options for children. There is no question that such marketing approach does help the fast food companies build demand for their products.

Health experts have repeatedly pointed their fingers to the unhealthy fast foods as the culprits that are partly responsible for causing the childhood obesity epidemic. Some even blame the toys and freebies that come with the meals as a powerful lure for children, encouraging them to consume unhealthy food.

The social pressure has forced most fast food restaurants to introduce healthier meal options for children. However, most people are still not happy and feel that more actions should be taken to fight childhood obesity.

In United States, California was the first to ban on soda in public schools. On April 27, 2010, a bill was approved by Santa Clara County's Board of Supervisors to set basic nutritional standards for children’s meals. Only restaurants providing meals that comply with the national nutritional criteria for children can give away free toys with meals.

Restaurants that offer foods with excessive calories, more than 120 calories for a beverage, 200 calories for a single food item or 485 calories for a meal, would not be allowed to use toys as rewards for the children who purchase the foods. Meanwhile, there will also be limits on sodium, excess fat and excess sugar.

In Santa Clara County, one in four youths are either overweight or obese. A doctor revealed that parents coming into his clinic admitted that they often buy Happy Meals and other fast food for their children because of the free toys included. He further added that the obese children entering his clinic include a 5-year-old with Type-2 diabetes. It is hoped that the new bill would help parents decide what meal option they want for their children.

There is no surprise that people in favor of the new bill were public health administrators, parents and doctors, and those who opposed were fast-food franchisees, other parents, and fans of fast-food toys.

Why You Should Skip Your Snack During Nighttime?

Many people may have the habit of eating snacks during nighttime but it seems that this is probably not a good choice. It seems that such behavior might have even worse consequences than just indigestion.

In a study in mice conducted by researchers from Northwestern University in Illinois, mice fed during daytime (when they normally would be sleeping) gained more weight than those fed at night. The weight gain of these day-fed mice was 7.8 percent more than that of the night-fed mice. All these mice were fed identical amounts of food and exercised the same amount. Their findings appeared on September 4, 2009 in the International Journal of Obesity.

The researchers pointed out that the body weight could greatly be affected by simply changing the time of feeding. For example, mice fed a high-fat diet only during the dark would weigh very much less than those mice normally fed less during the light.

Overweight and obesity have been the concern of many health experts because these conditions might bring about other health hazards like diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), and even heart disease. The findings might help educate people modify their eating habits so as to avoid gaining weight without even knowing why.

For instance, it is possible to change the timing of meals and snacks, which could mean eating more in the daytime and cutting back on the late-night ice cream or other desserts.

Babies of Obese Mother At Risk of Heart Disease!

Obese or overweight women during their pregnancy are more likely to give birth to children with congenital heart defects, which include obstructive defects on the right side of the heart and defects in the tissue separating the heart’s 2 upper chambers.

As reported by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), babies of those obese or overweight women were 18 percent more likely to develop congenital heart disease, and this could rise to as high as 30 percent if the mothers were severely obese. The findings of the study were published on October 1, 2009 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Being a kind of defect in one or more structures of the heart or blood vessels, congenital heart disease, occurs before birth. It is not only the most common types of birth defect but also the leading causes of illness, death and medical expenditures. It might produce symptoms at birth or during childhood. Sometimes, the symptoms might not appear until adulthood.

The researchers from CDC looked at the health of 6,440 infants with and 5,673 infants without congenital heart defects. The mothers of these infants were interviewed as part of the CDC’s National Birth Defects Prevention Study.

BMI (body mass index) was used to define overweight and obesity. Value between 25 and 29.9 is overweight, between 30 and 34.9 is moderately obese, and value of 35 and above is severe obesity. It was found that 10 out of 25 kinds of heart defects were linked to obesity while 5 out of 10 were associated with women who were overweight before pregnancy.

Important factors like maternal age and race-ethnicity were accounted for in the study. The researchers also excluded mothers who had diabetes before pregnancy, which is a strong risk factor for heart defects.

Meanwhile, the CDC strongly recommends that overweight women should consult and work with their doctors so as to have a healthy weight before pregnancy.

What Would You Be If You Eat Fast and Eat Until Full?

The pace of eating and the amount of food consumed vary among people. Some people eat slowly and modestly while some eat fast and eat until they are full.

Japanese researchers from Osaka University pointed out in their study, published online on October 22, 2008 in The British Medical Journal (BMJ), that the latter are 3 times more likely to grow fat compared with the former.

As we all know, once a person gets fatter, many unwanted medical ailments like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, etc. might just be developed.

1,122 men and 2,165 women aged between 30 and 69 were recruited for the study. These participants were asked to closely track their own eating habits and BMI (body mass index), which has been used as a benchmark of obesity.

The results showed that about half of the men and just over half of the women were reported that they ate until they were full, while just under half of the men and a little more than a third were found to eat quickly.

Participants who ate until they felt full were twice as likely to be overweight comparing to those who did not eat until full. For those who ate both quickly and to satiety were 3 times likelier to be overweight.

In the study, distinction was made between people who ate until full and those who reported binge eating. One interesting finding of the study was that those who ate until full had a higher calorie intake than those who gorged.

The act of eating quickly is a survival mechanism, according to health experts. Human beings are such creatures that tend to over consume energy when it is available. Such characteristic would frequently cause humans to consume more calories than they require, especially when the food is cheap and instantly available, and they also eat swiftly.

Nowadays, family members seldom have meals together either because of the long working hours or other reasons. When eating alone, people are more likely to enter into fast-eating mode. In the meantime, more and more people like to eat while watching television or doing other things. When people are distracted, there is a tendency to eat faster. Last but not least, people on the go mostly turn to fast food when it comes to mealtime. The increased availability of relatively cheap food that is served in larger portions also promotes eating beyond satiety.

How Many of The Americans Are At Risk of Heart Disease?

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and many other countries. A recent study showed that 90 percent of American adults have at least one risk factor for heart disease.

According to the researchers from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost all the Americans who have hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol or high blood sugar are overweight, smoking or exercising too little. Their report was presented on September 14, 2009 in the journal Circulation.

4 national studies that covered tens of thousands of Americans aged between 25 and 74 were examined, and it was found that only 10 percent of them had low risk scores in all 5 categories.

The 5 categories used refer to tobacco use, cholesterol level, blood pressure, BMI and diabetes. BMI is the short form for body mass index, which is a measure of overweight and obesity.

While tobacco use and cholesterol are still headed in the right direction, blood pressure, BMI and diabetes are all moving in the wrong direction, as indicated in the report.

Despite the effort being made during the 1970s and 1980s, situation deteriorated as a result of the increases in excess weight, diabetes and hypertension since the early 1990s.

Looking at the lifestyle adopted by people for the past decades, it will be very difficult for the situation to turn around unless people are willing to change their lifestyle and engage with regular exercise. This can never be an easy task, as it requires a great deal of effort from the people themselves as well as the authorities concerned.

How Much Do You Know About Stroke?

Strokes are also known as "brain attacks" because it is an emergency condition involving the brain. It can be caused by a lack of blood to the brain or arteries that are blocked or have burst.

Loss of function of certain limbs and severe weakness in the body are the common disabilities resulting from a stroke. In some patients, speech difficulties might be resulted. Some stroke patients may also forget things easily or become impulsive. Meanwhile, some patients may experience pain while others may not.

Other symptoms of stroke include weakness on one side of the body, loss of vision and balance, numbness, loss of sensation and become confused in thought.

Stroke can be caused by stress, overexertion or an unhealthy diet. The risk of suffering a stroke increases with age, stressful and sedentary lifestyle. Stroke risk doubles after the age of 65. Nevertheless, it does not mean that the young ones can be spared from getting stroke. In fact, patients in their late teens and early twenties are common. It is known that men are more prone to getting a stroke than women.

Other risk factors of stroke include family history of stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, inactivity, obesity and smoking.

It is important to go for a regular health screenings to make sure one's blood pressure is within the safety range, regardless of age. To reduce one's risk of getting stroke, one should deal with underlying risk factors such as controlling hypertension or stopping smoking.

Why You Should Not Be Too Skinny?

While being overweight or obese is definitely not healthy, people who are skinny are neither preferable. Why?

Because of modern lifestyle, number of people who are overweight or obese is increasing at a fairly fast rate. As we know, overweight or obesity can easily lead to many other diseases including diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol and heart disease. However, it seems that being very skinny is even more dangerous than being overweight or obese.

Japanese researchers from Tohoku University's Graduate School of Medicine recently (June 2009) found that slightly overweight people at the age of 40 could live 6 to 7 years longer than those very skinny people, who have an average life expectancy that is shorter by some 5 years than that of obese people.

The researchers did expect thin people to have shorter life expectancy but were surprised to discover such a large difference.

Working on middle-aged and elderly people, the long-term study involved 50,000 people between the age of 40 and 79 over a period of 12 years in the modern Japanese prefecture of Miyagi. The participants were divided into 4 groups at the age of 40 according to their BMI (body mass index).

BMI is the ratio of a person’s weight in kilos over the square of height in meters. BMI lower than 18.5 is classified as underweight. When BMI is between 18.5 and 25, the person is considered normal. Once the BMI exceeds 25 but lower than 30, the person is slightly overweight and once BMI exceeds 30, the person is considered as obese.

It was thought that thin people having shorter lives because many of them are either sick or smoke. However, the difference remained almost the same, even eliminating these 2 factors.

The researchers argued that skinny people were of shorter lifespan because they are vulnerable to disease such as pneumonia and the fragility of their blood vessels.

Nevertheless, people were not advised to eat as much as they want. Instead, the researchers recommended that thin people should try to gain normal weight but people with normal weight should never be putting on their weight.

How Is Coffee Linked to Weight Gain?

Coffee is one of the most favorable beverages for people, especially for those staying in the United States. People not only drink coffee in the morning but also consume it in the afternoon, and even in the night. One good reason quoted by coffee lovers is that coffee can keep them awake for longer hours to help them accomplish their tasks or works.

In recent years, blended coffee beverages have gained popularity. Blended coffee beverage is one that contains milk, sugar, pre-sweetened milk, chocolate powder, etc, in addition to coffee. Latte, cappuccino, flat white, mocha and frappuccino are just a few popular examples, and there are of course many more varieties. These so-called blended coffees can be either served in hot or cold.

However, are people paying attention to the calories of the coffee they drink? A survey conducted on coffee chains by a New York City Health Department found that a black coffee or one served with milk, sugar, or both had an average calorie of 63.

Meanwhile, they also discovered that other varieties of blended coffee, with pre-sweetened milk, ice or pre-mixed, had about 239 calories, which is 12 percent of a 2000-calorie diet. In a particular coffee chain, a large blended coffee could contain as high as about 860 calories.

The findings, which were published in the online journal Preventing Chronic Disease during September 2009, included 3,000 purchases from 115 coffee and restaurant chains in the city. Nevertheless, not all drinks are filled with calories. For instance, a simple black brewed coffee or tea can have as little as 10 calories.

The calorie-loaded coffee beverages could easily cause the coffee drinkers to put on weight! As overweight is a risk factor for many other medical disorders, for example, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), etc, the Health Department in the United States suggests that consumers should order a small size beverage with low fat or skim milk, and without flavorings. This would cut down the calories and reduce the risk of weight gain.

Is The Number of Young Diabetics Rising in Asia?

Diabetes mellitus, more often referred to as diabetes, is a condition in which the body does not produce enough or properly respond to insulin. Being a hormone produced in the pancreas, insulin has the function of enabling cells to absorb glucose and turning it into energy. When a person has diabetes, the glucose will accumulate in the blood and this will eventually lead to various complications. For instance, diabetes has been identified as a risk factor for heart disease.

There is no doubt that diabetes has turned into a global problem. It is expected that the number of victims will grow from 240 million in 2007 to 380 million in 2025.

In Europe and North America, overweight and obesity have long been thought to lead to Type-2 diabetes. However, a study, published on May 27, 2009 in the Journal of American Medical Association, reported that the number of diabetics is rising in Asia affecting those who are relatively young and less likely to be struggling with obesity, unlike in the West.

Based on the figures from the International Diabetes Federation, more than 60 percent of diabetics will reside in Asia, the fastest growing region in the world. Countries with low- and middle-income will face the hardest hit. The number of diabetics will grow from 40 million to nearly 70 million in India; 39 million to 59 million in China; and 3.8 million to 7.4 million in Bangladesh.

While the trends of diabetes could be influenced from genetic makeup and cultural differences to smoking and degrees of urbanization, the most startling result was still related to body mass and age.

Despite lower obesity rate, the waistlines of Asian population keep expanding as a result of rapid economic development, changing diets and more sedentary lifestyle. Expanding waistline is considered to be harmful to diabetes. This is because fat around the abdomen stores excess energy and releases chemicals that control metabolism and use of insulin.

Although people across Asia generally have lower body mass index (BMI), which is the ratio of weight (kg) divided by the square of height (cm), they can have a similar or even higher chance of developing diabetes, according to the study.

How Can Recession Obesity Affect The American Children?

In 2008, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reported that nearly 32 percent of American children were overweight and 16 percent were obese.

Meanwhile, between 1980 and 1999, the obesity rate had tripled and this no doubt had created an epidemic. Poor diet that is heavy on fat and sugar with little consumption of fruits and fresh vegetables, and lack of exercise were blamed to be responsible for such phenomenon.

Obese children not only have a higher chance of becoming obese adults but are also at a higher risk of developing heart disease, high cholesterol and Type-2 diabetes.

Now, there is another possible force, which in the opinion of researchers, will help increase the obesity rate. Researchers from Duke University argued that the prevailing economic downturn would probably put American children at risk of ‘recession obesity’.

‘Recession obesity’ is a term for unhealthy side effects of people who lose their jobs and health insurance, then drop their gym memberships, delay medical treatment, and eat cheaper but less healthy meals. As fast food is cheap and filling, its consumption is on the rise during the economic downturn. The researchers fear that parents would substitute for their children fast food, high carbohydrate and high sugar-content food for healthy food. This would surely cause an uptick in the rate of overweight children and adolescents.

After analyzing dozens of indicators, the researchers compiled the 2009 Child Well-Being Index. The index tracks how American children are faring socially, emotionally, in terms of education and health. It aims to assess how American children are faring today, comparing their current situation with the past. They also project what these children might face in the future. This year’s index includes a special report on the impact of the current recession on the American children.

Is Calorie-burning Fat Just a Myth?

Have you ever heard about “calorie-burning fat”? If not, you may wonder does it really exist or just a science fiction.

In reality, adults do have small blobs of metabolism-regulating “brown fat”, which scientists believe it exist only in babies and children. Such finding was announced in a study conducted by researchers from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

The paper, published on in April 9, 2009’s issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, revealed that the brown fat or so-called good fat differs from white fat that makes up most body fat in such a way that the brown fat is active in burning calories and using energy. They also showed that the brown fat subsisted in adult humans and demonstrated, for the first time, that it is metabolically active.

According to the study, brown fat may have a role in regulating body weight metabolism. Therefore, by stimulating brown fat growth to control weight and improve glucose metabolism, the researchers believe that obesity, Type-2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders could be treated. Meanwhile, higher levels of brown fat might also help protect against obesity linked with aging.

By analyzing a database of 1,972 patients who had nuclear (PET) or X-ray (CT) imaging scans during a 3-year period for a variety of reasons, the researchers discovered that significant brown fat deposits in 7.5 percent of female patients and in over 3 percent of male patients. Most of the brown fat deposits were found in the patients' necks.

In the study, the tissue of 2 patients showing brown fat concentrations in their necks were tested and it was found that the cells had the protein UCP-1, which is unique to brown fat.

The study also found that the amount of brown fat presence depends on a variety of factors like age, glucose levels and, most importantly, level of obesity. For example, younger and thinner patients who had normal blood glucose levels had more brown fat, while brown fat was more active in cold weather as it helps in burning energy to produce heat.

It has been known that obesity, Type-2 diabetes and other disorders associated with obesity or overweight could eventually lead to heart disease. Such new discovery not only helps treat people with obesity but also helps them prevent heart disease.