Obesity and Energetic Offerings, June 7, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013For 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
- Sustained energy intake debate gets more complex.
- Elephant obesity is focus of Lincoln zoo research.
Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas
- No association found between fast food density and overweight or obesity in NYC.
- Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study shows no discernible association of exposure to fast food at the residential neighborhood with children’s weight.
- No association of proximity to fast food locations and weight status among children living in low-income cities in NJ.
- Postpartum diet quality was not associated with weight retention.
- Higher prevalence of obesity in Greek children living in rural areas despite increased levels of physical activity.
- No association between BMI and time spent playing computer games in teens.
- RCT: No adverse effect of a high-protein weight-loss diets in people with type 2 diabetes and renal disease.
- RCT: No effect of a parental intervention involving lifestyle counseling and motivational interviewing on weight in total sample of overweight children.
- RCT: Using a smaller dining plate does not suppress food intake from a buffet lunch meal in overweight, unrestrained women.
- RCT: Intervention produces increases in reported daily breakfast intake and reductions in chip and sweetened beverage intake, but no effects on BMI among children.
Misinformation and Its Correction
- Why we are becoming a country of medical know-nothings.
- Worst. Reported. Study. Ever.
- What Do Scientific Studies Show?
- Anti-obesity campaign Photoshops kids to make them look fat.
Commentary
- Standards and classification: A perspective on the ‘obesity epidemic’.
- The inadequacy of self-reported energy intake.
Aging
- Mitochondrial targeted peptide rapidly improves mitochondrial energetics and skeletal muscle performance in aged mice.
- Life-long caloric restriction reduces oxidative stress and preserves nitric oxide bioavailability and function in arteries of old mice.
- Metabolic phenotype modulation by caloric restriction in a life-long dog study.
Basic Science
- High fat feeding-induced hyperinsulinemia increases cardiac glucose uptake and mitochondrial function despite peripheral insulin resistance.
- Chemerin connects fat to arterial contraction.
- Formula Feeding Monkeys Linked to Metabolic Stress and Risk of Later Disease.
- “Browning” of adipose tissue – regulation and therapeutic perspectives.
- Obesity skips a generation, affects grandchildren (in mice) the most.
- Muscle disease gene identified in fish.
- Mechanism of body weight reducing effect of oral boric acid intake in mice.
Caloric Restriction
- Sex differences in body composition, fat storage and gene expression profile in Caenorhabditis elegans in response to dietary restriction.
- A dietary regimen of caloric restriction or pharmacological activation of sirt1 to delay the onset of neurodegeneration.
- Fasting or caloric restriction for healthy aging.
Clinical
- RCT: Achieving long-term weight maintenance in Mexican-American adolescents with a school-based intervention.
- Size Matters: Obese patients more likely to trust overweight physicians for diet advice.
Drugs
- Synthetic compound developed from sun anemone venom, ShK-186 boosts metabolism.
- Patent: Mast cell stabilizers in the treatment of obesity.
- EU targets childhood obesity with computer-simulated testing of medicines.
- New evidence suggests no dependency/addictive potential of phentermine.
- Phentermine and topiramate extended-release : a new treatment for obesity and its role in a complications-centric approach to obesity medical management.
Surgery
- Tongue Patch Surgery: Risky Weight Loss Procedure Draws Criticism.
- Calorie restriction is a major determinant of the short-term metabolic effects of gastric bypass surgery in obese type 2 diabetic patients.
- UAB bariatric surgery earns highest accreditation level.
- RCT: Roux-en-Y gastric bypass vs intensive medical management for the control of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.
- Bariatric surgery for weight loss and glycemic control in nonmorbidly obese adults with diabetes: A systematic review.
- Gastric Bypass in Mild Obesity and Diabetes?
Exercise
- High- vs low-intensity exercise on postprandial lipemia, vascular function, oxygen consumption and energy consumption after a meal.
- RCT: Diet and diet combined with chronic aerobic exercise decreases body fat mass and alters plasma and adipose tissue inflammatory markers in obese women.
- RCT: Social support from teachers mediates physical activity behavior change in children participating in the Fit-4-Fun intervention.
- RCT: High-intensity resistance training reduces visceral fat more than compaartor exercise.
- Is there an upper limit to exercise?
Food
- Offering chocolate milk increases milk and calcium intake in short-term study.
- RCT: Benefit of a low-fat over high-fat diet on vascular health during alternate day fasting.
- Review of RCTs finds inconclusive effects of vegetable consumption on weight.
- ‘Cheese is from plants’ – study reveals child confusion.
Potatoes
- Vegetable cost metrics show that potatoes and beans provide most nutrients per penny.
- White potatoes, human health, and dietary guidance.
- Sweet potato and cassava can modify cholesterol profile in humans with moderately raised serum cholesterol levels.
Evolution, Ecology & Energetics
- Individual energetic state can prevail over social regulation of foraging in honeybees.
- Surviving the cold, dry period in Africa: Behavioral adjustments as an alternative to heterothermy in the African Lesser Bushbaby (Galago moholi).
- The evolution of mammal body sizes: responses to Cenozoic climate change in North American mammals.
- Energetics and metabolite profiles during early flight in American robins (Turdus Migratorius).
- A grassy trend in human ancestors’ diets.
- Resource unpredictability promotes species diversity and coexistence in an avian scavenger guild: a field experiment.
- Seasonal mass variation as a life history trait in West African savannah birds.
Epidemiology
- Childhood obesity is associated with increased risk of most lower extremity fractures.
- The influence of BMI on injury pattern in polytrauma: thorax as the main source of complications.
- Population-adjusted street connectivity, urbanicity and risk of obesity in the U.S.
- Reducing racial/ethnic disparities in childhood obesity.
Genetics
- Phospholipid biosynthesis genes and susceptibility to obesity: Analysis of expression and polymorphisms.
- An overview of STRUCTURE: applications, parameter settings, and supporting software.
- The Power of Meta-Analysis in Genome-Wide Association Studies.
- Detection and impact of rare regulatory variants in human disease.
- Central precocious puberty caused by mutations in the imprinted gene MKRN3.
Methods
- On the accuracy of instantaneous gas exchange rates, energy expenditure and respiratory quotient calculations obtained from indirect whole room calorimetry.
- Assessment of dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry for use in evaluating the effects of dietary and environmental management on Hermann’s tortoises (Testudo hermanni).
- Establishing disability weights from pairwise comparisons for a US burden of disease study.
Microbiota
- A mucus colonizer manages host metabolism.
- Gut microbiota composition in male rat models under different nutritional status and physical activity and its association with serum leptin and ghrelin levels.
- Gut microbiota after gastric bypass in human obesity: Increased richness and associations of bacterial genera with adipose tissue genes.
Policy
- Scientific decision making, policy decisions, and the obesity pandemic.
- New York expands fight against soda to juice drinks.
- New BAI code bans promotion of certain products during children’s programming in Ireland.
- Overweight and obesity: Can we reconcile evidence about supermarkets and fast food retailers for public health policy?
Psychology
- In times of stress, people lean on established routines — even healthy ones.
- Intertemporal discounting as a risk factor for high BMI.
Stigma
- Inequities in healthcare: A review of bias and discrimination in obesity treatment.
- Media representations of obesity: First amendment friendly approach to addressing hate speech in the media.
- NYU visiting professor accused of insulting obese Ph.D. applicants with ‘impulsive’ tweet.
General Science
- Trust in science would be improved by study pre-registration.
- Accord aims to create global trove of genetic data.
- Epigenetics play cupid for prairie voles.
- Career exploration resources for grad students and postdocs.
- Temporal cloak erases data from history.
For a complete list and to directly join this list, please click here.
AMS
Toronto, ON