Obesity & Energetic Offerings, March 22, 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:

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• A National Discount Program for Healthy Food Purchases associated with more consumption of fruits/vegetables and wholegrain foods, and less consumption of high sugar/salt foods, fried foods, processed meats, and fast-food, yet no compelling evidence of obesity reduction.
• RCT: No Significant Effects of Probiotics on Lipid Profile, Glycemic Control, Insulin Action, Oxidative Stress, and Inflammatory Markers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.
• No compelling evidence of association between Neighborhood Food Outlets, Diet, and Obesity Among California Adults.
• Modeling was not an effective strategy for increasing physical activity during recess.
• Skim Milk Associated with More Obesity.

Basic Science

• Impaired glucose tolerance with low-carb/high fat diets occurs independent of increased fat mass in rats.
•  Effects of early postnatal growth restriction and subsequent catch-up growth on body composition, insulin sensitivity, and behavior in neonatal rats.
• From conditioned hypoglycemia to obesity: Following the data.
• Defective regulation of adipose tissue autophagy in obesity.
• Transgenerational inheritance of increased fat depot size, stem cell reprogramming, and hepatic steatosis elicited by prenatal exposure to the obesogen tributyltin in mice.
• Sleep fragmentation affects LDL-cholesterol and adipocytokines independent of food intake in rats.
• Mechanisms of disease: inflammasome activation and the development of type 2 diabetes.
• CD40 Deficiency in Mice Exacerbates Obesity-induced Adipose Tissue Inflammation, Hepatic Steatosis and Insulin Resistance.
• Adipose Subtype-Selective Recruitment of TLE3 or Prdm16 by PPAR Specifies Lipid Storage versus Thermogenic Gene Programs.
•  Intermittent access to sweet high-fat liquid induces increased palatability and motivation to consume in a rat model of binge consumption.
• Locally applied leptin induces regional aortic wall degeneration preceding aneurysm formation in ApoE deficient mice.
• An inhibitor of the protein kinases TBK1 and IKK-ε improves obesity-related metabolic dysfunctions in mice.
• Association between LRP-1 variants and chylomicron uptake after a high fat meal.

Body Composition

• Greater Abdominal Fat Accumulation Is Associated with Higher Metabolic Risk in Chinese than in White People.
• Is Bone Adequately Adapted to Extra Weight in Obese Children?
• Inflammatory “adiposopathy” in major amputation patients.
• Attenuated adiposopathy in perivascular adipose tissue compared with subcutaneous human adipose tissue.

Brown Adipose Tissue

• Brown-fat paucity due to impaired BMP signalling induces compensatory browning of white fat.
• Brown adipose tissue: A new human organ?
• How Brown Fat Cells Develop in Mice.

Chocolate

• Acute versus Repeated Chocolate Exposure: Effects on Intake and Cravings in Restrained and Unrestrained Eaters.
• Dietary cocoa ameliorates obesity-related inflammation in high fat-fed mice.
• Chocolate, gut microbiota, and human health.
• Chocolate consumption modulates cytokine production in healthy individuals.
• The effects of cocoa supplementation, caloric restriction, and regular exercise, on oxidative stress markers of brain and memory in the rat model.

Drugs

• FDA investigating reports of possible increased risk of pancreatitis and pre-cancerous findings of the pancreas from incretin mimetic drugs for type 2 diabetes.
• RCT: Combination therapy with naltrexone and bupropion for obesity reduces total and visceral adiposity.
• Novo Nordisk’s liraglutide leads to 6 percent weight loss in study.
• Hormone Combination Shows Promise in the Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes.

Exercise

• RCT: Both resistance training and aerobic training reduce hepatic fat content in type 2 diabetes.
•  ’10 000 Steps Flanders’: evaluation of the state-wide dissemination of a physical activity intervention in Flanders.

Food & Dietary Supplements

• The Effect of Green Tea Extract on Fat Oxidation at Rest and during Exercise – overall, the literature is inconclusive.
• RCT: Effects of synbiotic supplementation on lactating mothers’ energy intake and BMI, and infants’ growth.
• RCT: Effects of synbiotic supplementation on some cardio-metabolic risk factors in overweight and obese children.
• RCT: Endocrine and metabolic effects of dietary intake of probiotics in glucose tolerant humans.
• Olive Oil and Satiety.

Methods

• An evaluation of energy expenditure estimation by three activity monitors.
• “Tiny Lab” Implanted Under Skin Transmits Blood Marker Levels.
• Estimating energy expenditure in mice using an energy balance technique.

Mortality

• Mortality and excess risk in US adults with pre-diabetes and diabetes: a comparison of two nationally representative cohorts, 1988-2006.
• Obesity and early mortality in the US.

Policy Related

• Laws and Social Norms: Unintended Consequences of Obesity Laws.
• CVS Draws Fire for Demanding Employee Weight.
• Forced Choice Restriction in Promoting Sustainable Food Consumption: Intended and Unintended Effects of the Mandatory Vegetarian Day in Helsinki Schools.
• Tread Lightly: Labels That Translate Calories into Walking Distance Could Induce People to Eat Less.
•  To Win the War on Obesity, Bloomberg Needs to Stop the Battle Against Big Soda.
• Desperate to Foment New Regulations & Lawsuits, Activists Ratchet Up “Food Addiction” Campaign.

Psychological

• “Social Status & Health: The critical processes determining the strength and direction of any status effect on longevity are changes in life circumstances that result from winning or losing”.
• You taste what you see: Do organic labels bias taste perceptions?
• Food intake norms increase and decrease snack food intake in a remote confederate study.
• Does Green Mean Healthy? Nutrition Label Color Affects Perceptions of Healthfulness.

Stigma

• Challenging stereotypes and legitimating fat: An analysis of obese people’s views on news media reporting guidelines and promoting body diversity.
• Patients find obese doctors less credible.

Sugar & Sugar Sweetened Beverages

• Challenging the Fructose Hypothesis: New Perspectives on Fructose Consumption and Metabolism.
• What Do Government Agencies Consider in the Debate Over Added Sugars?
• Energy and Fructose From Beverages Sweetened With Sugar or High-Fructose Corn Syrup Pose a Health Risk for Some People.
• Calculation error identified in BMJ Sugar study.
• Dr Ian MacDonald Chides the Times for its Uncritical Coverage of Dr Lustig’s views on Sugar.
• Dr Lustig’s view on Fructose.
• Sucrose, High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and Fructose, Their Metabolism and Potential Health Effects: What Do We Really Know?
• Presenters at AHA state that 180,000 deaths worldwide may be associated with sugary soft drinks.
• Fructose as a key player in the development of fatty liver disease.

Video

• Video: Timothy Griffin on “Obesity and Osteoarthritis: Too much joint loading or not enough?”.
• Video: Cynthia Kenyon on Caloric Restriction and Aging.

Miscellaneous

• Modeling the obesity epidemic: social contagion and its implications for control.
• Diabetes estimated to cost nation $245 billion annually.
• RCT: NIH study shows people with serious mental illnesses can lose weight.
• Association between Guillain-Barré syndrome and influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent inactivated vaccines in the USA: a meta-analysis.

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AMS
Geneva, Switzerland