The Fat Problem

If you feel guilty about eating too much of junk food, then here is some news that should make you feel better. Brian Wansink, author of "Mindless Eating" and head of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab found that people tend to eat more when food is conveniently available. In an experiment, Wansink placed candy jars of chocolate in office workers’ cubicles for a month. Then, he moved the candy six feet away. Simply having the candy closer meant the office workers ate five more candies a day. This is probably the reason why people who work in plush offices with wonderful canteens tend to put on more weight, than those who do not have such luxuriant canteens. According to Wansink, we can say no about 27 times, before we finally give into the temptation of junk food that might be sitting in front of us. But that’s not all, because Wansink found that we tend to eat more of what food is easily available, so if a fruit is within our reach, but we really crave a nice lasagna, chances are that we will settle for the fruit, because it is ready-to-eat! Other interesting facts that influence our eating are: � "family style" with the serving bowls on the table. � directly from the bag or carton. � on a bigger plate or from a bigger container. � in front of the television, in the car, with friends. So, if you are trying to kick the habit of eating junk food, try keeping some healthy food handy. You could try some roasted crunchy nuts, some juicy fruits, and appetizing vegetables in a prominent and easy to locate place in your kitchen. In other words, store your healthy food like you would store candy – if it works to stimulate your appetite for candy, it will surely help you eat more healthy foods.

Being underweight or overweight is a problem for all age groups, but overweight children are most likely to suffer from cardiac problems in their teens and thereafter if weight is not corrected. Children do not know, which food is good for health so they are likely to consume junk food because it is readily available and tastes better than bland food which is supposed to be healthy. Junk food leads to overweight. This weight disorder ushers children into other hosts of problems as they grow with their weight unchecked. Studies published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition say that overweight children were found to suffer heart problems once they were in their teens and the disease progressed with age. However, the measure of the waist tells of the chances of heart problems that may occur in the adults. In children, the weight proportionate to the height is an indication whether a child will suffer from heart problem in future

Okay, so you have been exercising and eating right and stepping on the scale should have bought a smile on your face; it has instead put you down as it shows a weight gain of 2-3 pounds. What could go wrong? There is no need to panic as this could be a temporary problem. Women’s health gives you five reasons why the scale moves up all of a sudden. 1.You were drinking a lot of fluids: Fluid intake is good for you no doubt, but if you step on the scale after a couple of glasses of water, your scale ups by a pound. 2.Fast food: You had a sodium-rich fast food meal, and you body has water retention because of the sodium and your scale tilts about two pounds on the higher side. 3.Constipation: This can tilt the scale if your bowel movement is held up for a couple of days. 4.You have been flying: Changes in air pressure can make you retain water on flights that are longer than four hours- adds on 2-3 pounds on the scale. 5.Periods: You could retain up to five pounds of water due to hormonal fluctuations a week before your periods. Now, that you know why the scale keeps tilting on the upper side despite doing the right thing, stop worrying about this and continue with your healthy diet and work outs. Image Source

If you are like me who just can’t resist the temptation to grab a piece of the dessert or a cookie the minute you eye it, then you know the trouble you are headed for. Why do we do this? In spite of knowing that you have just had a meal and knowing that the little piece of cake is directly reaching your hips and waist instead of your tummy? Didn’t you wish your brains give you some strong signals to stop you before you grab the junk food? It’s good news for all those who are waging the war with your senses; UK-based scientists claim to have identified the brain circuits that control the amount of food we stuff ourselves. An appetite-regulating hormone peptide PYY targets all your urges from eating to binging. This hormone is releases into the bloodstream from the gut signaling that you are full once you have consumed a meal. This hormone has more activities up to its sleeve. It also seems to control cortico-limbic regions that are associated with pleasure sensations. So, when normal-weight men who took part in the study were given a drip of PYY or a placebo and were offered unlimited meal, the volunteers ate 25 percent less than their normal calorific value. Also, during this time the brains of these men showed different activities on the MRI scans. Now, that you know that PYY is the main reason behind your binging, stop feeling guilty if you go overboard with your food. Now, what’s the good news? Since PYY regulates the appetite, a nasal spray containing this hormone has been developed. So, when you spray this hormone, you get a sensation of being full and resist the urge to head towards the fridge less often. Isn’t that great? Should this trial be a success, we may see slimmer people and a lighter world soon

Health is wealth and a health conscious man is a role model for everybody. But, how many among us are sure that their favorite beverage is less on calories? Even if we prefer scrawny or fluffed up swill, with an added shot of caffeine or a siphon of syrup, the drink is adding fat and sugar more than we imagine. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that non-alcoholic drinks constitute almost one quarter of calorie ingestion and half of all added sugar in the body of every American and Briton. In England, the love for gourmet drinks like lattes and spiced teas is responsible for concentrating fat around our waist. The American nutritional promotion group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest came with more startling revelation. According to it a Starbucks latte helps in adding more fat and sugar than something from McDonald’s. Jayne Hurley, the center’s nutritionist says, Most people wouldn’t consider packing in a quarter-pounder between breakfast and lunch. But it’s perfectly possible to get more than 500 calories in a Starbucks drink. Many people assume that drinks are not calorific, but some contain huge amounts of calories and fat. The following is the detail of fat and sugar in coffee drinks prepared by renowned beverage chains. LATTE Calories: Small, 200; large, 341. Fat: Small, 10.6g (6.6 saturated); large, 17.9g (11.2 saturated). Finding: Surprisingly injurious to health. How to make it healthier: Stick to skim milk. Try to reduce the calories in your large latte drop to 160 to curtail saturated fat to zero and still get a healthy dose (450mg) of calcium. CAPPUCINO Calories: Small, 122; large, 207. Finding: Surprisingly injurious to health. How to make it healthier: Add skimmed milk and cinnamon in place of chocolate to remove the fat and cut the calories to 129. ESPRESSO Calories: Single, 6; double, 11. Finding: Without sugar, this is the lowest-calorie coffee. How to make it healthier: Adding foamed milk and avoiding caramel and other flavors, you can reduce calorie intake. HOT CHOCOLATE Fat: Small, 18.7g (10.7g saturated); large, 27g (15.2g). Finding: A big cup has the calories and fat substance of three hot dogs How to make it healthier: Go for a small, no-whip, undernourished hot chocolate to drop your calories to 209. MOCHACalories: Small, 255; large, 484. Fat: Small, 9.3g (5.4g saturated); large, 25.3g (14.3g saturated). Finding: Very fatty. How to make it healthier: Order a small skimmed milk without cream. CHAI TEA LATTE Calories: Small, 210; large, 362. Fat: Small, 5.3g (3.3g saturated); large, 9.2g (5.7 saturated). Finding: A large gulp is more calorific than a cheese sandwich. How to make it healthier: Choose a milk-free iced tea or sugar-free black tea. To cut down the calories, the doctors prescribed the following five ways to follow while choosing a beverage in a coffee outlet. i) Ask for skimmed, non-fat milk to add. ii) Skip the whipped creams. iii) Ask for sugar-free syrups prepared with artificial sweeteners. iv) Low-fat milky drinks of 200mg of calcium should be preferred. v) Shun adding sugary toppings to your coffee.. Image Via: Daily Mail

Good news for fat people, who love to relish a bowl of soup as a part of their daily meals, as a new study has shown that soup could be the answer to reduce those extra fats. American researchers have found that people who take soup, as a starter just before their meals, reduce their calorie intake by a fifth in comparison to those who simply skip soup and eat the main course instead. However, the study has also emphasized the important fact that the soup should be low in calories because a creamy soup would make you fatter instead of cutting that extra flab. Julie Flood, who led the study, said: Consuming a first course of low-calorie soup in a variety of forms can help with managing weight. During the research four types of soup were given to four volunteers. The soup categories were broth and separate vegetables, chunky soup, chunky pureed soup and pureed soup. But all these soups had similar taste and some common ingredients viz. chicken broth, broccoli, potato, cauliflower, carrots and butter. Later it was found that thickness of the soup had nothing to do with reducing fats but those who took the low-calorie soup showed 20 per cent less calories intake. Dr. Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition at Pennsylvania State University, said: Earlier work suggests that chunky soup may be the most filling type, so the purpose of this study was to determine whether different forms of soup might have different effects on food intake. Nevertheless these findings have come as surprise to scientists who were testing volumetrics theory, which tries to find out the effects of varied soup on obesity. Source: Telegraph

Are your loved ones battling with obesity unsuccessfully? Then, here is a sure fire way of seeing their pounds shed off. Instead of nagging them to get off the couch and exercise, motivate them by bribing with cash incentives for every pound they lose and this should do the trick! Yes, if the latest study is to be believed, people are willing to go to push themselves and work towards weight loss when you offer cash incentives. No, the incentives need not be a high amount; even a small amount of $7 per pound is enough to get them going. A group of over two hundred overweight employees in North Carolina were involved in the study. The employees were divided into three groups, of which, one group was not offered incentives, and the other two groups were offered incentives of $7 or $14 for each percentage of weight lost. What’s more, they were offered no help with diet or fitness tips. At the end of three months, those who were offered $14 lost the highest percentage of weight, followed by those who were offered $7 and the least weight loss occurred in the group who were offered no incentives at all. The study is still an ongoing one with the scientists following them up to check if they maintained the weight loss once the incentives were stopped. The idea is a great one especially for employers who have bear the health care costs of obesity related diseases of the employees. In fact, the over all cost of the incentives could be far less than the health care costs they have to shell out. What’s more, slimmer employees mean less sick leaves and better productivity! So, do we see the employees laughing all the way to the banks? Or is it the employers?

Pets have begun to follow their owners nowadays, at least in the physical sense. They are beginning to compete with their owners for the ballooning waistlines. If owners eat rich fatty foods and lead a sedentary lifestyle, how can the pets be left behind? After all, pets are their extended families! Pets these days have begun to enjoy watching the tube with their owners and are happily chowing up their favorite pet snacks their owners feed them and are growing obese. Wagging their tails is the maximum exercise they get! A study conducted shows that over one third of the pets in America are obese and as with humans, it is an area of concern as obesity takes a toll on the pet’s health and they suffer from diabetes and joint diseases. Pet food that is available in the market is another reason for this epidemic. The food that is manufactured for pets is cheap and has little nutritional value. Restricting a dog’s diet can extend its lifetime by almost 2 years. Dogs eating 25 percent less than their canine cohorts were less likely to have diabetes and osteoarthritis according to a study. What can you do? Clinical veterinary nutritionist Tony Buffington has some tips on keeping your pets fit and healthy. 1. Control portions. Feed your pets according to their body conditions score, which can be found online. 2. Go for a walk. Increase the animal’s activity, but do so gradually. If you and your pet have been spending most of your free time on the couch, start out slowly and make sure you’re both having fun. One study found that owners who exercised with their pets had more effective workouts than people exercising alone. 3. Let animals be animals. Hide treats for your cat around the house so it can put its hunting skills to work. Take your dog off its leash in a safe place outdoors and watch Fido’s spirited sprint. Image Source

The internal fat contiguous to vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas even though invisible to the naked eye as compared to a fatty figure, yet is as perilous as the more noticeable external fat that bulges beneath our skin. This makes a lot of thin people to ponder twice before they feel secure. Being thin doesn’t automatically mean you’re not fat. The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined. Says Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular science at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, he and his team have inspected about 800 people with MRI machines to generate "fat maps" viewing where people amass fat. According to their survey figures, people who uphold their weight through diet rather than workouts are likely to have main deposits of internal fat, even they look slim. Thin people are lulled into false assumptions that as they’re not overweight, they’re hale and hearty. Even people with standard Body Mass Index scores have shocking levels of fat deposits inside. Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and pioneer in this field says, Just because someone is lean doesn’t make him or her immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease. Bell’s team concludes that as many as 45% of women and 60% of men surveyed by them suffer from "TOFIs" —"thin outside, fat inside" including movie stars and models. People who have fat inside are basically on the verge of being obese. We obviously amass fat around the belly first, but after some point, the body starts storing it elsewhere. Internal fat contributes to the menace of heart disease and diabetes and is supposed to interrupt the body’s communication system. External fat on the other hand, stored under the skin, seldom splash throughout our vital organs and muscles. However, internal fat can be without difficulty burned off through exercise or even by developing strict dietary habits. When it comes to remaining fit, specialists say there is no short cut. A combination of diet and exercise must be made an important component of our lifestyle. Still, we can depend on height-weight proportion as an indicator of good health. Image Via:USA Today

While trying to fish out reasons behind your plumpy look, don’t wink at your job, as may be reason lies there! Actually, a new study comes up with concrete evidences proving higher psychological stress accompanied by lack of social support at work, paves the way for obesity. In other words, higher the stress levels, higher were the chances of turning obese. This conclusion is the result of an intensive study that lasted up to 19 years, while studying around 3,413 women and 6,895 men. All the participants were between the ages 35 to 55. According to an estimate, more than half of workers say they work under a great deal of stress and 77 percent say they feel burnout on the job. Primary causes for stress at work include: • Difficult co-workers (16%) • Unrealistic workload (15%) • Tight deadlines (11%) • Last minute projects (10%) • Overbearing or interfering boss (9%) The way stress stirs up obesity, could be understood to some extent from the facts mentioned below: • During stress, we tend to consume more calories in particular and more food in general • Stress is often followed by fatigue, generally leading to decreased level of physical activity. • Higher level of stress is often followed by imbalance in hormone system. All these factors either directly or indirectly stir up obesity. Therefore, in order to curb obesity level, it is too important to bridle the stress level, first. Here it must be mentioned that stress in workplace poses risk of not only obesity and other health problems, but comes as a threat to the world economy too, by prompting depression among workers, which is confirmed by a survey, according to which 45% of the office workers are depressed. Therefore, this will have to be ensured that stress doesn’t tide over the employees in working place, as it would hit not only employees’ health but health of global economy too