Obesity & Energetic Offerings, April 26, 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 link headings are theirs, not mine.

The following is a selection of articles from this week’s list that caught my attention:

Featured

• Leptin resistance is a secondary consequence of the obesity in ciliopathy mutant mice.
• RCT: No Effect of Replacing Sugar Sweetened Beverages with Water on Weight Loss in Women.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas         

• RCT: Supermarket discounts of low-energy density foods affected purchases, but not body weight.
• RCT: Brief cookery skills intervention no more effective than written information alone in reducing BMI.
• RCT: Whole egg consumption improves lipoprotein profiles and insulin sensitivity to a greater extent than yolk-free egg substitute in individuals with metabolic syndrome.
• RCT: No difference in subsequent food intake after liquid versus solid preloads.
• RCT: Little benefit of school-based lifestyle program on overweight or obese children.
• RCT: No effect of body electroacupuncture on body fat in obese and overweight people.
• Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: High-protein diets exerted neither specific beneficial nor detrimental effects on outcome markers of obesity, cardiovascular disease or glycemic control.
• No substantial evidence that longer Breastfeeding duration was associated with CVD risk factors among adolescents.
• Postpartum diet quality was not associated with weight retention.
• School-based obesity policies associated with both healthy and unhealthy weight control behaviors among boys, but not associated with healthy weight control behaviors among girls.
• Neighborhood green space availability not related to overweight.
• Extracts of blueberry, cinnamon, green and black tea, pomegranate, sesame, curcumin, morin, pycnogenol, quercetin, and taxifolin fail to extend longevity in mice.

Surgery    

• A Surgical Model in Male Obese Rats Uncovers Protective Effects of Bile Acids Post-Bariatric Surgery.
• Exploring Media Representations of Weight-Loss Surgery.
• No link between diabetes remission, weight regain after gastric bypass.

Drugs

• RCT: Recombinant Human Growth Hormone and Rosiglitazone for Abdominal Fat Accumulation in HIV-Infected Patients with Insulin Resistance.
• RCT: The effect of zonisamide on antipsychotic-associated weight gain in patients with schizophrenia.
• RCT: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist therapy in adolescents with severe obesity.
• RCT: Changes in fat mitochondrial DNA and function in subjects randomized to abacavir-lamivudine or tenofovir DF-emtricitabine with atazanavir-ritonavir or efavirenz: AIDS Clinical Trials Group study A5224s, substudy of A5202.

Food

• RCT: Higher Protein Diets Consumed Ad Libitum Improve Cardiovascular Risk Markers in Children of Overweight Parents from Eight European Countries.
• RCT: Intermittent energy and carbohydrate restriction is superior to daily energy restriction with respect to insulin sensitivity and body fat reduction.
• RCT: Effects of a Brown Beans Evening Meal on Metabolic Risk Markers and Appetite Regulating Hormones at a Subsequent Standardized Breakfast.
• A maternal high-protein diet predisposes female offspring to increased fat mass in adulthood whereas a prebiotic fibre diet decreases fat mass in rats.
• RCT: Normal vs. high-protein weight loss diets in men: Effects on body composition and indices of metabolic syndrome.
• RCT: Soy Milk Consumption and Blood Pressure Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients With Nephropathy.
• RCT: Positive effect of white button mushrooms when substituted for meat on body weight and composition changes during weight loss and weight maintenance.
• Celebrity chefs ‘fuelling obesity crisis’.

Basic

• Long-Term Statin Administration to Dams on High-Fat Diet Protects Not Only Them but Also Their Offspring from Cardiovascular Risk.
• Resveratrol Suppresses T0901317-Induced Hepatic Fat Accumulation in Mice.
• Thermogenesis is involved in the body-fat lowering effects of resveratrol in rats.
• Adipocytes as immune regulatory cells.
• An Increase in the Accumulation of Adipose Tissue in Growing Male Mice Caused by Disturbances in the Sleep-Wake Cycle Following Night-Shifts.
• Binge eating curbed by deep brain stimulation in animal model.Growth Response and Expression of Muscle Growth–Related Candidate Genes in Adult Zebrafish Fed Plant and Fishmeal Protein–Based Diets.
• Parasitic nematode-induced modulation of body weight and associated metabolic dysfunction in mouse models of obesity.

Commentary

• The Making of the Obesity Epidemic: How Food Activism Led Public Health Astray.
• Cash for cutting calories: are financial incentives the way forward for weight loss?
• How Public Health Experts Turned Corporations into Public Enemy #1.
• Your grandmother’s obesity epidemic.
• Are our actions aligned With our evidence? The skinny on changing the landscape of obesity.

Epidemiology

• Thermal stress associated mortality risk and effect modification by sex and obesity in an elderly cohort of Chinese in Hong Kong.
• After a plateau in 2002-06, BMI and prevalence of obesity are again increasing in Sweden.
• Obesity Rates: Are We There Yet?

Genetics

• Multivariate heredity of melanin-based coloration, body mass and immunity.
• The nutrigenomic investigation of C57BL/6N mice fed a short-term high-fat diet highlights early changes in clock genes expression.
• Maternal diet during pregnancy induces gene expression and DNA methylation changes in fetal tissues in sheep.

Correcting Misinformation  

• The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
• Another example of associations being described as causal and the use of alarmist language.
• The Excel Depression: Demonstrated value of public data and code.
• Just a spoonful of sugary drink confusion.
• NYT article on how reporting of science is presented in the lay press.

Obesegens

• An integrated approach to assess the role of chemical exposure in obesity.
• Evidence for obesogens: Interpretations and next steps.

Policy-Related

• Comparison of nutrient profiling schemes for restricting the marketing of food and drink to children.
• Walk-to-burn-calorie menu ‘diet aid’.
• New developments in the law for obesity discrimination protection.
• Awkward Meeting: Policy, Evidence, and Public Values.

Psychosocial

• Big and beautiful? Evidence of racial differences in the perceived attractiveness of obese females.
• Psychosocial factors at work, long work hours, and obesity: a systematic review.
• Acute psychological stress results in the rapid development of insulin resistance.

Sugar       

• Sensing Calories Without Taste.
• Adverse metabolic effects of dietary fructose: results from the recent epidemiological, clinical, and mechanistic studies.
• Mondo/ChREBP-Mlx-Regulated Transcriptional Network Is Essential for Dietary Sugar Tolerance in Drosophila.
• A meta-analysis on the effects of dietary sugars on blood lipids.
• Results restated: A diet higher in glucose is most protective against weight gain among  female rats consuming a ‘Westernized’ diet and already prone to excess weight gain.

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

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta