Obesity and Energetic Offerings, June 14, 2013

David Allison, PhD, Distinguished Professor, University of Alabama

For several months now, my colleagues at the University of Alabama have been compiling a weekly list of selected obesity related articles in a list they call Obesity and Energetic Offerings.

The list is compiled by David B. Allison, Michelle Bohan-Brown, Emily Dhurandhar, Kathryn Kaiser, and Andrew Brown.

The following is a selection of articles from this week’s list that caught my attention –  – the link headings are theirs, not mine:

Featured Debate

• Meta-analysis: Will reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption reduce obesity? Evidence supporting conjecture is strong, but evidence when testing effect is weak.
  • Resolved: there is sufficient scientific evidence that decreasing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption will reduce the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases.

In Memoriam

• A great scholar and a kind man, Robert Fogel passes on.
• A Tribute to Frederick L. Brancati – Friend, Scientist, Mentor.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• Results suggest colonic Archaea is not associated with obesity in healthy humans.
• RCT: Telmisartan did not decrease IMCL or liver fat content or other metabolic parameters among individuals with abdominal obesity.
• No Financial Disincentive for Choosing More Healthful Entrées on Children’s Menus in Full-Service Restaurants.
• RCT: No effect of a school environment intervention on adolescent adiposity and physical fitness.
• Systematic review of RCTs of school-based interventions for physical activity in children and adolescents finds inconclusive effects on BMI, body fat and waist.
• RCT: No effect of Tuberil® in treatment of childhood obesity.
• Unintended consequences of Eliminating Flavored Milk in Elementary Schools.
• RCT: Although feasible, not harmful, and highly rated by families and practitioners, the HopSCOTCH program of primary and tertiary care management did not cause better BMI or other outcomes.
• In a naturally randomized experiment, no apparent peer effect on freshman weight.
• Programs designed to prevent childhood obesity in the home don’t affect kids’ weight a year or more down the line, according to a review of the evidence.

Sugar & Sugar Sweetened Beverages

• Effects of fructose and glucose overfeeding on hepatic insulin sensitivity and intrahepatic lipids in healthy humans.
• Sugar Sweetened Drinks and Diabetes: What’s the Risk?.
• The obesogenic effect of high fructose exposure during early development.
• Consumption of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup does not increase liver fat or ectopic fat deposition in muscles.
• Effect of glycemic index and glycemic load on energy intake in children.

Protein

• RCT: An additional 9 g of protein in a high protein Greek yogurt was insufficient to elicit protein-related improvements in markers of energy intake regulation.
• RCT: consuming dietary protein at levels exceeding the RDA may protect fat-free mass during short-term weight loss.
• In mice, whey protein isolate counteracts the effects of a high-fat diet on energy intake and hypothalamic and adipose tissue expression of energy balance-related genes.
• Dietary Protein Source Influence on Body Size and Composition in Growing Zebrafish.

Aging

• Oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activities in the trophocytes and fat cells of queen honeybees (Apis mellifera).
• Rapamycin given late in life reverses age-related heart disease in mice.
• Aging and long-term caloric restriction regulate neuropeptide Y receptor subtype densities in the rat brain.

Behavior

• Effects of providing personalized feedback of child’s obesity risk on mothers’ food choices using a virtual reality buffet.
• Neighborhood built and social environment characteristics: a multilevel analysis of associations with obesity among children and their parents.
• Systematic review on parental involvement in long-term European childhood weight control interventions with a nutritional focus.
• RCT: Combining behavioral weight loss treatment and a commercial program.
• Factors that determine energy compensation: a systematic review of preload studies.
• Timing of the introduction of complementary feeding and risk of childhood obesity: a systematic review.

Clinical

• Whole-body cryostimulation as an effective method of reducing low-grade inflammation in obese men.
• RCT: Impact of participant and interventionist race concordance on weight loss outcomes.
• Bariatric surgery for weight loss and glycemic control in nonmorbidly obese adults with diabetes: a systematic review.
• Economic Analyses of the Be Fit Be Well Program: A Weight Loss Program for Community Health Centers.
• Challenges and opportunities for faecal microbiota transplantation therapy.
• Genetic predisposition to an adverse lipid profile limits the improvement in total cholesterol in response to weight loss.

Drugs

• Phentermine and topiramate extended-release: a new treatment for obesity and its role in a complications-centric approach to obesity medical management.
• RCT: Orlistat improves endothelial function in obese adolescents.
• Effects of risperidone on energy balance in female C57BL/6J mice.
• No evidence of phentermine abuse or psychological dependence (addiction) in patients treated with phentermine for obesity.

Evolution, Ecology, and Energetics

• Limits to sustained energy intake XIX: A test of the heat dissipation limitation hypothesis in Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus).
• The Effects of Colony Size and Social Density on Individual and Group Level Behavior and Energetics in Ants.
• Long-day photoperiod interacts with vasopressin and food restriction to modulate reproductive status, and vasopressin receptor expression of male Golden spiny mice.
• Comparative energetics of the 5 Fish classes on the basis of Dynamic Energy Budgets.
• Effect of temperature on energetic balance and fatty acid composition of early juveniles of Octopus maya.

Epidemiology

• Association between weight gain during pregnancy and postpartum weight retention and obesity: a bias-adjusted meta-analysis.
• No evidence that there are time trends in the accuracy of self-report by BMI categories, sex, age, or racial/ethnic groups.
• BMI underestimation is increasing across time.
• Absolute wealth and world region strongly predict overweight among women (ages 18–49) in 360 populations across 36 developing countries.
• The contributions of risk factor trends to cardiometabolic mortality decline in 26 industrialized countries.
• Secular changes in BMI and the associations between risk factors and BMI in children born 29 years apart.

Exercise

• Effect of Resistance Training on the Strength, Body Composition and Psychosocial Status of Overweight and Obese Children and Adolescents? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
• Non-randomized trial of Treadmill desks.
• Ready, set, go for physical activity.
• Leptin predicts a decline in moderate to vigorous physical activity in minority female children at risk for obesity.

Policy Related

• Effectiveness of subsidies in promoting healthy food purchases and consumption: A review of field experiments.
• Supreme Court Rules Human Genes May Not Be Patented.
• Smart School Cafeterias: Nudging Kids for Better Choices.
• NYU Investigates Professor Who Tweeted on Obese Ph.D. Students for Human Subjects Violation.

Psychology

• Perceived weight, not obesity, increases risk for major depression among adolescents.
• Lay Theories of Obesity Predict Actual Body Mass.
• Sex and dieting modify the association between emotional eating and weight status.
• Weight discrimination and bullying.

Basic Science

• Maternal high-fat diet programs rat offspring hypertension and activates the adipose renin-angiotensin system.
• Myocardial energetics in heart failure.
• White to brite adipocyte transition and back again.
• Operator Independent Focused High Frequency ISM Band for Fat Reduction: Porcine Model.
• Regulation of adipose branched-chain amino acid catabolism enzyme expression and cross-adipose amino acid flux in human obesity.
• Balancing the fat: lipid droplets and human disease.
• Effects of caloric restriction on oxidative stress parameters.
• Major urinary protein 5, a scent communication protein, is regulated by dietary restriction and subsequent re-feeding in mice.

Sensational Media

• As addictive as cocaine: Study suggests common bread, junk food ingredient obesity driver.
• Obesity problems may skip a generation, Edinburgh University study finds.
• BPA Responsible for Obesity in Girls, Study Reports.

Commentary

• Bias in randomised factorial trials.
• The Genius of Getting It Wrong.
• Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science.
• Obesity Surgery: Basic Calculating Errors in Systematic Reviews.
• Letters to NEJM ‘Myths paper’ and Response.

For a complete list and to directly join this list, please click here.

@DrSharma
Edmonton, AB