The greater percentage of people in a city that list a healthy, active lifestyle under their Facebook interests, the lower that area’s obesity rates are, a new study suggests.

The study, led by by Rumi Chunara, PhD, and John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Informatics Program (CHIP), and published in PLOS ONE examined geo-tagged Facebook user data and data from national and New York City-focused health surveys.

The findings imply that knowing people’s online interests within different geographical regions can aid public health investigators to predict, monitor and categorize obesity rates down to the neighborhood level, and present an opportunity to make geo-targeted online interventions focused on decreasing obesity rates. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE!

FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) — Few situations can trip up someone who is watching their weight like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

But a new research letter published in the April issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests two strategies that may help dieters survive a smorgasbord: Picking up a smaller plate and circling the buffet before choosing what to eat.

Buffets have two things that raise nutritionists’ eyebrows — unlimited portions and tons of choices. Both can crank up the calorie count of a meal.

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By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People are less likely to trust and follow the advice of an overweight doctor, according to a new online survey that suggests “weight bias” may go both ways in the doctor-patient relationship.
“There’s lots of work which shows there’s a lot of bias from health professionals toward heavy patients,” said Sara Bleich, an obesity and health policy researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
“What’s much newer is the other direction,” she told Reuters Health.
Lead researcher Rebecca Puhl said she was not surprised by the findings but they were still “really concerning” – especially considering how important it is for people to be talking with their doctors about how to maintain a healthy weight.
“Trying to prevent or treat obesity starts with a conversation about weight-related health,” said Puhl, the head of research at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity in New Haven, Connecticut.
“If a doctor’s weight or a patient’s weight is going to interfere with that, it’s going to make it very difficult to have a productive and positive conversation,” she said. “This is an unnecessary and unfortunate barrier.”  READ REST OF STORY BY CLICKING HERE!

Many weight-loss and obesity-prevention beliefs thought to be gospel truth are actually false or yet unproven, according to a study published in the Jan. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Some of these false assumptions might even surprise medical doctors: Breast-feeding protects a child against obesity… Physical education in schools prevents childhood obesity… Gradual weight loss is better than rapid loss… You burn hundreds of calories during sex… These are just some of the obesity myths identified by an international team of doctors led by David Allison at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
These so-called facts are pervasive on websites, in the news media, and even in the scientific literature despite contradicting scientific evidence, the researchers said. The team identified a total of seven myths, six additional presumptions not yet proven true or false, and nine evidence-supported facts that are relevant for sound public health policy.

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Fat cells store excess energy and signal these levels to the brain. In a new study this week in Nature Medicine, Georgios Paschos PhD, a research associate in the lab of Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, shows that deletion of the clock gene Arntl, also known as Bmal1, in fat cells, causes mice to become obese, with a shift in the timing of when this nocturnal species normally eats. These findings shed light on the complex causes of obesity in humans.

The Penn studies are surprising in two respects. “The first is that a relatively modest shift in food consumption into what is normally the rest period for mice can favor energy storage,” says Paschos. “Our mice became obese without consuming more calories.” Indeed, the Penn researchers could also cause obesity in normal mice by replicating the altered pattern of food consumption observed in mice with a broken clock in their fat cells. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Thanksgiving only comes around once a year, so why not go ahead and splurge? Because gaining weight during the holiday season is a national pastime. Year after year, most of us pack on at least a pound (some gain more) during the holidays — and keep the extra weight permanently.

But Thanksgiving does not have to sabotage your weight, experts say. With a little know-how, you can satisfy your desire for traditional favorites and still enjoy a guilt-free Thanksgiving feast. After all, being stuffed is a good idea only if you are a turkey! TEN TIPS FOR A THINNER THANKSGIVING

ORONO, Maine (AP) — A University of Maine study says the medical costs of obesity for children and adolescents in the state could reach $1.2 billion over the next 20 years.

UMaine economics Professor Todd Gabe’s study also suggests that the incidence of obesity is likely to increase from 7.8 percent of Maine’s youths to nearly 26 percent as they grow into adults.

Gabe says his study brings the issue of a nationwide obesity epidemic closer to home.

The study uses statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and data on more than 2,000 school-aged children in Maine compiled by physical education teachers in 18 schools across the state.

Last year, the medical costs of obesity for all age groups in Maine were nearly $453 million.

(Health.com) — Every few years, there’s a new food bad guy in town — and right now, it’s sugar. Some experts have even declared it a “poison” that’s “killing us.”
Yet could the sweet stuff people have been eating forever really be so terrible?
“We actually need sugar; it’s our body’s preferred fuel,” says Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. “But we eat too damn much of it.”
Naturally occurring sugar — which gives fruit, some veggies, and milk their sweet taste — is perfectly healthy. It’s added sugar (sweeteners put in during processing and prep) that we need to not OD on.
No need to cut out dessert: The key is to eat strategically. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE