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.

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.”

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.”

BMI Unreliable

Two recent studies have questioned the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI). A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that the BMI based risk categories overestimate the risks associated with excess weight in people aged over 75. A second study Published in The Lancet found that cardiac patients classified as Overweight (25-29.9) using the BMI had lower risk of death than patients classified as Normal weight (20-24.9) or Underweight (<20).

The BMI, which is calculated as weight (kg) divided by the square of height (m), is an easily measured indicator of obesity and is used by most expert bodies such as the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organisation.

The studies revealed that those with a low BMI were at the highest risk of death. According to the studies’ authors, an explanation for the lack of positive association with BMI and mortality at older ages is that BMI is a poor measure of abdominal fat, the key determinant of metabolic abnormalities that contribute to cardiovascular risk. The BMI does not differentiate between fat and fat-free mass so as older people lose muscle with age their BMI drops making them appear healthier. There can be substantial differences in percentage of fat and lean body mass between individuals whose BMIs are the same.

The better outcomes in overweight and mildly obese people may be because these people have a greater lean ‘muscle’ mass than normal weight and severely obese people. Lean muscle mass is important because it is metabolically active tissue, meaning that it burns energy, so the more muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism and the more fat you burn. Greater muscle mass may also indicate increased physical activity, which independently contributes to reduced coronary artery disease.

Waist circumference, which has been proposed as an alternate measure of obesity, was found to have no association with mortality. “A limitation of waist circumference alone as a measure is that it takes no account of body composition, whereas waist hip ratio is a measure of body shape and to some extent lower trunk adiposity [abdominal fat]“, said the one of the studies’ authors.

The first study found the Waist Hip Ratio (WHR) to be a better indicator of mortality risk in older people. The authors concluded that WHR should be used for people over the age of 75 because of its positive association with risk of death and that particular attention should be paid to the problem of muscle loss in old age.

Parents Influence Obesity

The amount and quality of time parents spend with their children has a direct effect on children’s rates of obesity, according to a new study from Texas A&M University.

The five year study found that the more time a mother spends with her child, the less likely that child is to be obese, however fathers were found to be a bad influence on their child’s obesity. “For a long time we thought that parents ought to influence what their kids eat, but we were not sure how that worked.” Lead researcher Professor Alex McIntosh said.

Because so many families are headed by two working parents, the focus of the research was to look at how the parents’ work-related stress, flexibility and general work conditions influenced the children’s nutrition, McIntosh said.

The study found that the fathers of 9 to 11-year-olds’ spend an average of 80 minutes per day with their children, while mothers’ average time spent with their children is 125 minutes. Children ages 13-15 included in the study saw their fathers an average of 95 minutes per day, while mothers of this age group spent an average 87 minutes per day with their children.

Income levels for the mother and father were also evaluated, examining the effects on a child’s nutritional intake. Professor George Davis from the department of agricultural economics at Texas A&M, said as parents’ income goes up, their children’s body mass index also increases. His advice to parents: “You’re not at work 24 hours a day. For mothers: For the time you do have, spend some with your kids. For fathers: Dads are not toxic, but people who teach nutrition education may be talking to the wrong audience. Men in general tend to have more muscles and less fat than women do, and consequently can eat more food without gaining weight. That means they may not be paying as much attention to nutrition as women do. “We may need to teach fathers about nutrition,” McIntosh said.

 

Rationalizing obesity

A new study has found that more than four out of five Americans characterized their eating habits as healthy. This is despite the fact that 65% of American adults are overweight and over 30% are obese. The study conducted by Thomson Medstat involved a telephone survey of 12,000 American adults as part of the 2006 PULSE survey, America’s largest ongoing, privately sponsored consumer health survey. The findings of the survey suggest that for most people obesity is the result of occasional indulgence in a number of risky behaviors.

In addition to the specific eating and lifestyle habit questions, respondents were asked for their heights and weights. Results were then categorized by respondents’ body mass index (BMI) to determine trends among underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and morbidly obese people.

When respondents were asked how often they consumed fast foods, ‘upsized’ their fast foods and ate unhealthy snacks there were small differences between normal weight and overweight people. However, over half of the respondents said they did not exercise for 20 minutes more than two times per week.

One result that was very clear was the relationship between respondents who reported that they had diabetes and BMI. Five percent of the normal weight respondents reported having diabetes. This rose to 9% for overweight respondents, 19% for obese respondents and a staggering 34% for morbidly obese respondents.

The conclusion is that while very few people from any of the BMI categories consistently ate super sized fast foods, snacked recklessly or even characterized their eating habits as poor, several high risk behaviors have combined to become part of the average American’s weekly routine. Through a combination of occasional fast foods, moderate snacking, not quite enough exercise and the belief that these habits are ’somewhat healthy’, Americans are rationalizing themselves into ever-expanding waistlines and diabetes.

Low GI diet best

The most effective diet for weight loss and cardiovascular health is a high carbohydrate plan based on low glycemic index (GI) foods, according to a study by University of Sydney researchers.

Published in the most recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, the 12 week study compared the relative effects on weight loss and cardiovascular risk of low GI and high-protein diets.

Undertaken by Professor Jennie Brand-Miller and Joanna McMillan-Price from the University of Sydney Human Nutrition Unit, the findings show that there is no ‘one diet fits all’ solution, and both high protein and low GI diets will help you to shed fat. However, it did show that a diet containing low GI carbohydrate significantly reduces your risk of heart disease.

The theory behind low GI diets is that rapidly digested, high GI carbohydrates cause fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels, contributing to hunger and preventing the breakdown of fat.

The trial, which was led by Joanna McMillan-Price, enrolled 129 overweight or obese adults and randomly assigned them to one of four reduced calorie, reduced fat diets over a 12 week period. Two of the diets were high-carbohydrate diets and the other two high in protein – one of each had a high GI and the other had a low GI.

Between the two high-carbohydrate diets, lowering the glycemic index doubled fat loss – this effect was strongest in women. ‘Our findings suggest that dietary glycemic load, and not just overall energy intake influences weight loss’ said McMillan-Price.

While the high-protein, high GI diet was equally effective for fat loss as the high carbohydrate, low GI diet, the two had diverse effects on LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol. The high protein, high-GI group showed increased levels of LDL cholesterol, while there were significant LDL reductions in those on the high carbohydrate, low-GI diet.

However those on the high-protein, low GI diet did not experience the same rise in total LDL cholesterol suggesting the importance of low GI foods alongside a high protein diet. ‘Diets based on low-glycemic index, whole grain products, tend to be better for the heart, maximising cardiovascular risk reduction – particularly if protein intake is high,’ said McMillan-Price.