What’s happening with Mikibo

Oops … we have not posted to this “official Mikibo blog” in 2 years (we have been using the Mikibo groups to keep members updated) so I thought we better put an update on here.  Mikibo has been growing well and we have been making small updates to improve the site.

Over the last year or so we have been working on a major update to Mikibo that will make it easier and more efficient to use as well as looking more modern.

We can’t wait to launch the new and improved Mikibo in the next few months. When we do we will be sure to put a post on here.

Til next time … The Mikibo Team

Mikibo launches Calorifica

The makers of Mikibo have launched a new site called Calorifica (www.calorifica.com). Calorifica is a food nutrient data search engine. Simply type in a food name and you will be presented with all of its nutrient data.

Visit: www.calorifica.com and give it a try.

Too many fat bellied children

A study from the University of Rochester Medical Center has found that abdominal obesity increased more than 65 percent among U.S. children between 1988 and 2004. This finding is significant because abdominal obesity has emerged as a better predictor of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes risk than the more commonly used Body Mass Index (BMI), a weight to height ratio that can sometimes be misleading.

As the first nationally representative study to document the increase in children’s belly fat, the study published in the journal ‘Pediatrics’ paints a bleak picture for these children who have a higher risk of heart disease, adult-onset diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Increases in BMI scores have been raising concerns about the short and long term health of children throughout the developed World, but the increase in the rates of abdominal obesity in children appears to have been even more pronounced. According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2004, the percentage of 6 to 11 year old children with high BMI scores rose about 25 percent. But the increase in abdominal obesity of the same group over the same period was more than 35 percent.

The good news is that, for children and adolescents, the health effects are often reversible through improved lifestyle for weight loss. Study author Stephen Cook, M.D., an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester, said that the study should be a warning for physicians and parents to limit sedentary activities, such as TV and computer time, and to teach and model healthy eating and exercise behaviors.

“Kids, teens and adults who have early stages of atherosclerosis in their arteries can have a healthy cardiovascular system again,” said Assistant Professor Cook. “Older adults who have plaque build up have a much harder battle, especially if the plaque has calcified.”

Measuring waist circumference is not a “vital sign” normally taken in a visit to the doctor. A BMI is commonly calculated, but there are limitations to those measurements. A very muscular person may register a high BMI score, even if s/he is very healthy and has an average waist circumference. Whereas, a sedentary child may not register a very high BMI score even though they are carrying a lot of fat around their abdomen putting them at a higher risk for health problems.

China’s growing waistline

About 20% of the more than 1 billion overweight people in the World are Chinese. China is often overlooked when discussing the obesity crisis that is sweeping the developed World because the prevalence of overweight and obesity in China is relatively low at 15% when compared with countries such as the United States where over half of the population are overweight. An article in the British Medial Journal by Professor Yangfeng Wu from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has suggested two key reasons why we should be taking more notice of this looming crisis in China.
Professor Wu points out that there has been an alarmingly rapid increase in overweight and obesity in China in recent years, especially in school children for whom prevalence of overweight increased 28 times between 1985 and 2000.
Professor Wu also points out that there is increasing evidence that the World Health Organization’s definition of overweight and obesity, which is derived from studies on the correlations between Body Mass Index (BMI) and disease in white populations, may not be applicable to Asian populations. The Working Group on Obesity in China has recommended that lower BMI cut points should be used to determine overweight and obesity in China. If these cut points were used then over a quarter of a billion people in China would be regarded as overweight or obese.
The explanations for China’s recent epidemic of overweight and obesity are the same as for the rest of the World. Poor diet and reduced levels of physical activity due to the continuing modernization of transport and labor activities. China has the added problems of a widespread belief that excess body fat represents health and prosperity and that it has become difficult to find safe places in over crowded residential areas to exercise or even walk.
Professor Wu said that China needs to act now if it is to have any chance of preventing a further increase in obesity rates. He suggested that as a first step, the prevention and control of obesity should be listed in China’s framework and policy on health. He hopes that by acting now China may be able to achieve where the West has so far failed in halting the growing obesity problem.

Weight chart for your website or blog

Now you can put your Mikibo weight tracker chart on your personal web page wherever that may be and it will always show an up-to-date chart of your weight-loss progress. Simply copy the code from the Mikibo site and paste it into your blog or web page. You can set the chart size, colors, period (from 1 month to 1 year) and units (pounds, kilograms). Below is an example weight tracker chart.

Get your free Mikibo account

Alzheimer’s Diet

New research shows restricting calorie intake can help fight disease.

A new study directed by Mount Sinai School of Medicine extends and strengthens the research that experimental dietary regimens might halt or even reverse symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, which will be published in the November 2006 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, demonstrates the potential beneficial role of calorie restriction in Alzheimer’s disease type brain damage in monkeys. Restricting caloric intake may prevent Alzheimer’s disease by triggering activity in the brain associated with longevity.

“The present study strengthens the possibility that calorie restriction may exert beneficial effects on delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease … in humans, similar to that observed in squirrel monkey and rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease,” reported Mount Sinai researcher Dr. Pasinetti and his colleagues, who published their study, showing how restricting caloric intake based on a low-carbohydrate diet may prevent Alzheimer’s disease in an experimental mouse model, in the July 2006 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

“This new breakthrough brings great anticipation for further human study of caloric restriction, for Alzheimer’s disease investigators and for those physicians who treat millions of people suffering with this disease” says Giulio Maria Pasinetti, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Director of the Neuroinflammation Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “The findings offer a glimmer of hope that there may someday be a way to prevent and stop this devastating disease in its tracks.”

Alzheimer’s disease is a rapidly growing public health concern with potentially devastating effects. An estimated 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Presently, there are no known cures or effective preventive strategies. While genetic factors are responsible in early-onset cases, they appear to play less of a role in late-onset-sporadic Alzheimer’s disease cases, the most common form of the disease.

In this new study, Dr. Pasinetti at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with Dr. Donald Ingram at the Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, maintained the Squirrel Monkeys on calorie restrictive or normal diets throughout their entire lifespan until they died of natural causes. The researchers found that approximately 30 percent calorie restriction resulted in reduced Alzheimer’s disease type amyloid neuropathology in the temporal cortex relative to control fed monkeys. The decreased Alzheimer’s disease type damage correlated with increased longevity of related protein SIRT1, located in the same brain region that influences a variety of functions including aging related diseases.

Obesity killing Asia

Bird Flu is expected to be one of the top items discussed for the third straight year at the World Health Organization’s annual Asia-Pacific regional meeting. However, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark stresses on Monday that Asia-Pacific nations must not overlook obesity and tobacco as major killers when focusing on infectious diseases such as SARS and Bird Flu that affect the region.

“Obesity is a time bomb for New Zealand and the Pacific,” Clark, a former health Minister, said at the opening of the WHO meeting in Auckland. “It is posing huge challenges to our health systems, as we grapple with increasing rates of the associated diabetes, renal and eye disease and joint problems,” Clark added.

Over the next decade, deaths from chronic diseases are expected to jump 20 percent, with diabetes-related deaths alone increasing 51 percent, said Anders Nordstrom, the World Health Organization’s acting director general. “Most of this can be prevented through healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoidance of tobacco products,” he said.

Tobacco is responsible for more than 3,000 deaths a day in the Asia-Pacific. China alone has more than 300 million adult smokers and the Asia-Pacific region has the fastest growing number of children who smoke, Nordstrom said. “Smoking causes utterly preventable death, disease and disability,” said Clark. “It cheats our people of the good health to which we all have a right. It is a scourge the World could do without.”

New water log added to Mikibo food diary

We have added two new features to the food diary. The first is a water logging feature and indicator so that you can ensure you are being adequately hydrated.
The second feature is called Quickfoods and allows you to add foods that you consume regularly in one step. This should save you time when entering your foods each day.

To join Mikibo for free please visit: www.mikibo.com

European Union Plans for Obesity

The European Commission has presented the results of a public consultation on promoting healthy diets and physical activity, with a focus on the prevention of overweight, obesity and chronic diseases. With around 14 million children in Europe currently overweight, of which more than 3 million are obese, this is now seen as an urgent public health issue requiring co-ordinated action by the European Union (EU) and its member states. Given the complexity of the issue, contributors called for a multi-sector approach. Contributors also called for special attention to be paid to children and youth where fast increases in obesity are being observed. There were also calls for better consumer information on nutrition.

Overweight and obesity levels are increasing at an alarming rate, with up to 27% of European men and 38% of women now considered obese depending on the EU member state concerned. The number of overweight children is also growing rapidly, rising by 400,000 a year. Obesity is a risk factor for many serious conditions including heart disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Obesity related illnesses are estimated to account for as much as 7% of total healthcare costs in the EU.

Most respondents agreed that the EU should foster a multi-sector approach, which involves other EU policies such as agriculture, education, transport and urban planning and a range of different stakeholders across national, regional and local levels.

Respondents believe that consumer information, including labelling, should be clear, consistent and based on evidence, and broadly disseminated. While respondents from industry favour self-regulation, healthcare professionals, consumer organisations and NGOs are sceptical about the impact of self-regulation on advertising of foods high in calories but poor in nutrients.

To help consumers make healthy dietary choices, respondents suggest to: encourage fruit and vegetable consumption; limit total fat and/or saturated fat intake; promote a balanced diet; increase consumption of whole grain, starchy or fibre-rich products; reduce consumption of sugar and soft drinks; reduce salt intake; and reduce portion sizes.

Respondents believed that best practice for improving the nutritional value of school meals are: education programmes for healthy diet for children, offering free or subsidized fruit, vegetables and drinking water; training of kitchen staff and general guidelines and/or standards for school meals including regular control enforcement.

European Union Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: “The prevalence of obesity has been rising fast in Europe and there is already evidence that this is leading to increasing rates of conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The results of the consultation provide us with valuable feedback from all interested parties and will inform our strategy to promote healthy lifestyles. The European Commission’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Network, as well as the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health will be key forums to discuss these issues further with government, industry and civil society and to identify ways to engage stakeholders and make progress on these issues. The Commission will now further consider which policy options to adopt, and fine-tune its action with the right balance between voluntary agreements and legislative action.”

Mikibo Launches Health Professional System

Mikibo has launched a new system to allow health professionals (doctors, dietitians, trainers etc) to monitor their clients nutritions and exercise, leave messages and set training programs via Mikibo. To visit the Mikibo Professional page click ‘Your health professionals’ under Personal Settings on the left of the homepage.
This service is currently in a free beta trial so if you are a health professional please contact Mikibo.
If you would like your health professional to monitor you through Mikibo please ask them to Mikibo.
To join Mikibo please visit www.mikibo.com