The Fat Problem

When it comes to asthma, overweight girls are three times more prone to it than the girls with normal body weight. Putting forward this equation, Australian researchers believe that female sex hormones might be at fault. This conclusion is based on the study that tracked about 1500 girls, measuring their body mass index (BMI) when they were just 7 years of age and after measuring it 25 years later. Finally, researchers concluded that non-asthmatic girls in the top 25 per cent for BMI were three times more susceptible to respiratory problems when compared to girls with lowest BMI. Commenting on the finding researcher John Burgess, from the School of Population Health said: It adds to a growing body of evidence detailing the harmful long-term effects of excess weight in childhood. This is quite a startling finding; however, previous studies have also associated obesity with an increased risk of asthma. For instance:- � Asthma ‘linked to obesity’ � Obesity and asthma are linked . . . really Interestingly, a study considers obesity-asthma equation applicable just for women and not for men. May be findings of this study true and may also not be. However, one fact remains intact that obesity (overweight or higher BMI) is the mother of several other health problems. Therefore, every effort should be made to prevent its intrusion into our lives. Image credit: Photo Bucket Via: News

Like fatty food and physical inactivity, stress is also one of the key factors behind this much or rise in obesity. This factor was unveiled through a new study that tracked about 6,895 men and 3,413 women for almost 19 years. All these men and women were between the ages 35 to 55 years. During the course of study, participants reported different levels of job strain, consisting of heavy demands, faltering decision-making power and inadequate social support. As per the conclusion of this study, participants who reported strain on at least three occasions were 73 per cent more likely to become obese. Those who reported stress on two occasions were 24 per cent more prone to developing obesity and those who reported stress just on one occasion were at 17 per cent increased risk of obesity. Interestingly, those who reported to have no stress during job were far away from the risk of obesity, which shows that stress plays a key role in obesity development. Here it is worth mentioning that stress participants were more prone to central obesity, following waist circumference greater than 102 cm for men and 88 cm for women. This study is quite commendable, as it has undraped quite a significant equation lying between stress and obesity. Still, it seems that previous studies have also somehow shown that there is definitely some equation lying between stress and obesity. Previous studies have shown that stress ushers several mental as well as physical changes, giving way to many fundamental changes in our body. For instance, it slackens up metabolism, disturbs sleep and sometimes prompts too much eating. Unfortunately, all these factors are known for stirring up obesity. In addition, obesity is not the only problem that comes flocking with stress but several other mental as well as physical ailments also join it, like:- 1. Stress kills brain cells 2. Stress triggers depression 3. Job stress affects your kids’ health 4. Stress affects your family life 5. Stress affects health 6. Stressed Moms May Slower Baby’s Growth In the Womb! 7. Early Puberty Linked To Stress? 8. Stress and Sleeplessness Can Damage Memory 9. Stress: Your Child’s Brain Killer It means that in order to stave off all such mental as well as physical problems we shall have too make hard efforts to stave off stress. And as far as, stress-obesity link is concerned, it could be said that for curbing obesity we shall also have to curb the swelling tide of stress. Image credit: Scots Man Via: Yahoo

People who are severely obese as adolescents or in their early 20s can expect to have significantly shorter lives, according to research published in a Journal. Overweight in children and adolescents is generally caused by lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns or a combination of the two, with genetics and lifestyle both playing important roles in determining a child’s weight. Society has become very sedentary. Television, computer and video games contribute to children’s inactive lifestyles. Forty-three percent of adolescents watch more than two hours of television each day. Children, especially girls, become less active as they move through adolescence. The excess weight puts children at risk of a range of preventable health problems, including Type 2 diabetes, susceptibility to heart attack and stroke, joint problems and mental health issues, hypertension and other obesity-related chronic diseases are nowadays more common in children at younger age. "For the first time in recorded history, today’s younger generation will live shorter lives than their parents. According to a survey by the Canadian Medical Association, nine per cent of parents identified their children as being overweight or obese. The recent research and study suggests the young one’s to control weight through more physical activity and better dietary habits. Latest surveys have found that today’s youth are considered the most inactive generation in history. Rates among aboriginal children are worse, with 55 per cent living on reserves being overweight or obese, compared with 41 per cent for First Nations children living off reserves, said the report. Merrifield said if one meal a day is made of traditional First Nations food, than the obesity level will go down besides children’s habit of snacking. The report asks’ the federal government Start a public awareness program and remove fatty foods from Canadian diet and use its alternative. Conservative MP Steven Fletcher said that it will take generation to change the culture, but it is possible. We have to change the paradigm so that it’s unfashionable to overeat and it’s very fashionable to exercise more," Merrifield said. We need a revolution, a delicious revolution, that will induce children – in a pleasurable way – to think critically about what they eat. Children’s eating habits stay with them for the rest of their lives. The best way to defeat the obesity epidemic is to teach children about food – and thereby prevent them from ever becoming obese. Our children are our future due to the obesity epidemic, our children will not be as healthy as we are. But if we could improve their health, we could improve so many other aspects of their lives. Read

There are many things one can do to shed pounds. Losing weight quickly can be dangerous. Fad diets diet pills, and fasting may indeed induce rapid weight loss, these methods can cause you to lose muscle and may also injure your heart and other organs. Don’t believe in an overnight miracle. Instead, you should follow some steps to lose fat rapidly, healthily, and sustainably. You don’t have to be 100% accurate, but you do want a good estimate of the number of calories you’re taking in. But atleast know your daily calorie intake. Losing weight is simply expending more calories, through exercise and your daily activities, than you take in. Exercise alone won’t make you lose weight if you’re still taking in more calories than you burn. A healthy diet is important for overall health, so you should look at what you eat. Just because you’re getting healthy doesn’t mean you can’t eat snack. In fact, eating small meals and snacks throughout the day (grazing) has been shown to aid weight loss (compared to eating three large meals) by keeping metabolism steadier. Pick snacks that are low in calories and fat and high in fiber (dried apricots, nuts, rice cakes, fruits, baby carrots, baby tomatoes, and so on). Vegetables are generally very low in calories, very high in fiber, and full of flavor and nutrition. Avoid starchy vegetables like potatoes, and try to eat vegetables plain, without fatty dressings or dips. Fruit also makes a good snack. Fruit contains more soluble fiber than vegetables, which slows your body’s absorption of carbohydrates, thus releasing energy slower (preventing sugar highs) and keeping you full longer. Fruit juices are okay, but are not a replacement for the real thing. You need that fiber, and juices often have more calories than the equivalent serving of fruit-as many calories as soda! Be careful with dried fruits, because without the water, you tend to eat more, and fruits-when dried-are calorie-rich per ounce. Your diet should also include 5 portions of carbohydrates. It includes daily cereals, pasta, rice, noodles, oats and other cereals, potatoes, bread and sweet potatoes atleast one of it should be taken in meal. Dairy products are good for healthy body like milk; yoghurt and cottage cheese but don’t take butter and cream. Choose lean meats. Chicken and fish are both very low in fat (and certain fish like salmon, sardines, and fresh tuna are an excellent source of antioxidants which is also beneficial to your health), so aim to replace some or all of the beef or pork in your diet with these foods. Be realistic. Healthy weight loss can be achieved fairly quickly, but you’ll need to be patient don’t expect a miracle. You should set realistic goals. Make sure that the weight you’re trying to attain is a healthy weight for you.

On one hand we are looking forward to keeping our kids off the junk food eating habits and promote a healthy lifestyle, while on the other we are coming across innovations as contrary as this TV and remote control. A product from Hanspree, called the Hannsfry this LCD TV takes its inspiration from a large pack of kids’ fav french-fries, while the remote is designed as ketchup to complement the fries. Isn’t it ironical to give something as enticing as a French fry like TV to your kid and then expecting not to get tempted from him? In fact, this TV is a sure shot means of double harm for kids. One, that it is openly promoting junk food and secondly the cute design is attractive enough to add into the already growing numbers of couch potatoes. I think it is. What do you say? Will this be a next buy on your shopping list? Price $400. Via: PopGadget/ ChipChick

If you are wondering why are growing obese despite eating right and exercising right, its time to check if the culprit is your shampoo. Yes, you read it right….Shampoos could make you fat, cause breast cancer, and affect your pregnancy…Sounds Scary? Read on….. Check the ingredients on the back of your shampoo bottle that are listed. Most shampoos contain one or more of these ingredients – Butylparaben, ethylparaben, methylparaben and propylparaben. These parabens act as preservatives extending a product’s shelf life by inhibiting bacterial growth and are used in hundreds of products from make-up removers to shaving creams. Why are parabens so harmful? The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that the chemical preservatives called parabens-methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl (alkyl-p-hydroxybenzoates)-displayed estrogenic activity in several tests. This means that these chemicals mimic your body’s own hormones and can have endocrine-disrupting action when they are rubbed into your body or washed down the drain into your drinking water. These disruptors interfere with your body’s endocrine system: your hypothalamus, your ovaries, your thyroid-virtually every system in your body. Parabens have been linked to several hormone-related diseases, including breast cancer, abnormal fetal development in pregnant women, and abnormal development of male reproductive systems. Estrogen also helps to regulate the activity of fat cells, meaning that yes, it’s possible your shampoo is making you fat Apart from causing health hazards parabens also pose environmental risks. When parabens are washed off, they accumulate in waterways and get absorbed in soil thereby disrupting the harmones in animals and causing genetic defects in them. What can you do? Get rid of all cosmetics, toiletries that contain parabens and also educate others about them. Read the ingredients on any of the cosmetics before you buy them. There are plenty of paraben-free shampoos and cosmetics available in the market. Image Source

If you are obese then you will have to get rid of it as soon as possible, as a new study by the scientists from the National Jewish Medical Research Center, unveils that obese people are at 50 per cent higher risk of developing asthma or other respiratory diseases. Scientists came up with this conclusion after going through a review of seven studies, which studied weight and asthma link in more than 333,000 people. How far findings of this study are reliable, still it is difficult to answer. However, looking from the eyes of these findings it could be asserted that if people manage to check this rise in obesity then, definitely they could stave off the risk of developing asthma and other respiratory diseases. On the other end, if we look at the whole situation with by keeping in view the harsh fact that obesity is on the rise world-wide, then we can’t get away from the fact that the world is inching its way to a point where it would be quite susceptible to respiratory diseases like asthma. Or we could say that after obesity and HIV/AIDS, it is turn of asthma to emerge as a new pandemic. Image Via: Ivanhoe

Fight against childhood obesity is privileged to have another boost as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation plans to spend more than $500 million over the next five years. Through this massive investment, the foundation intends to help children and their families by introducing them to healthier foods, making such foods easily accessible. Moreover, the foundation aims at encouraging people, especially kids for participating in physical activities. This move by the foundation has highly been applauded by health experts. Interestingly, this is not for the first time when this particular foundation has come forward with such health enhancing campaign, but during the period, from 1991 to 2003 also the same foundation played a major role in bringing down tobacco use rate by spending about $446 million. As a result, the number of teenage and adult smokers has drooped down amazingly. Foundation’s new campaign against childhood obesity seems to have landed at the perfect time, since obesity in kids is growing by leaps and bounds, increasing their susceptibility to several life threatening health problems like diabetes, depression, heart disease, etc. As per the estimates, carved out by the foundation itself, nearly 25 million children 17 and under are obese or overweight, nearly a third of the 74 million in that age group. This shows that how grim the situation is becoming. Here it is worth mentioning that obesity among kids is causing threat not only to countries like America or UK but to the whole world, which becomes clear from the following studies: � Childhood obesity rises dramatically in the UK � Obesity rates rise among children � Obesity on the Rise in Delhi Students! � Kids in the Throes of Obesity After looking at the grim situation (childhood obesity), prevailing all round the world, it could be asserted that other industrial giants should also come forward to fuel this ongoing fight against childhood obesity because obesity is causing threat not only to kids’ health but to the world economy as well. Via: NY Times

Okay, it’s here. People have been waiting for years for some sort of a magic pill that could help them lose weight without any effort. The FDA has approved the first over the counter(OTC) weight loss pill Alli which means you don’t need any prescription to buy them. The makers of the pill, Glaxo Smithkline claim that the drug apparently cuts weight by 5 per cent in only four months and also improves the overall health by reducing blood pressure and cholesterol levels. How does it work? According to the website- The Alli capsule works by preventing your body from absorbing some of the fat you eat. When you take the capsule with meals, Alli prevents the enzymes in your intestines from digesting about one-fourth of the fat in your foods. Undigested fat can’t be absorbed and passes through your body naturally. Which means your body can’t store it as fat. If you could lose 10 pounds through dieting alone, you could lose 15 with alli. All weight loss pills come with side effects; according to the makers, you may have gas with oily spotting,loose stools and more frequent stools that may be hard to control. Dr Beckie Lang, of the Association for the Study of Obesity, says: For motivated people, who want to manage their weight themselves, great, it could work. ‘But I am cautious that people will think it is going to be some kind of magic bullet. This isn’t a substitute for a healthy lifestyle. The scary thought here is that it could be misused by thousands of people who are looking for quick-fix solutions especially obese kids who are taunted by their peers and anorexic models and actors from the glamour world where there is a pressure to stay thin all the time. Image1 Image2 Source

Kids, willing to stay away from obesity must eat frequently but by including exercise in their schedule. This is the conclusion that researchers have come up with after studying the relationship between eating patterns and body composition in 66 boys and 65 girls between 9 and 11 years of age. During the course of study, experts found that kids who were frequent eaters had lower total fat and abdominal fat, despite the fact that these frequent eaters were consuming more calories. On the other end, kids with less food intake and less calorie consumption were carrying comparatively more body fat. Giving out the reason behind this, experts unveil that physical activity may be making all the difference, as researchers found that kids who were frequent eaters were physically more active. If we look from the eyes of this study then we can say that findings of this study may prove a potent weapon against childhood obesity, which is fast clutching the whole world. This study is no doubt, quite significant but one question remains to be answered that are the findings of this study applicable only for kids and not for adults. Personally, I believe that answer to this question should be churned out, since it would make findings of this study more significant. However, somewhere it seems that this is not the habit of eating less frequently that fights obesity but the level of physical activity that makes the difference. Image Via: Reuters