Obesity & Energetic Offerings, July 26, 2013

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. Obesity & Energetic Offerings are brought to you by the UAB NORC and Office of Energetics and compiled by David B. Allison, Michelle Bohan-Brown, Emily Dhurandhar, John Dawson, and Andrew Brown. The following is a selection of articles from this week’s list  – the link headings are theirs, not mine: Featured Is Sugar Really Toxic? Sifting through the Evidence. Headline vs Study Headline: Cambridge University study says obesity is down to genes, not a bad diet or lack of exercise. Study:  MRAP2 study: Studied one type of knock-out mice, very few humans found to have the mutation in question, headline ignores decades of research showing genes and environment both matter and genes often work through behavior. Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas RCT: No effect of a governmentally-led physical activity program on BMI in young children attending child care centers. No change in obesity rate after subsidised fruit and vegetable program for Aboriginal children in New South Wales. RCT: No effect on obesity of an early feeding practices intervention to prevent childhood obesity. No association of changes in test scores with the availability of universal free school breakfasts. RCT: Supplementing Menu Labeling With Calorie Recommendations leads to (if anything) increased caloric intake Temperature Brown fat activation mediates cold-induced thermogenesis in adult humans in response to a mild decrease in ambient temperature. Correlation between Abdominal Fat Distribution and Abdominal Temperature in Korean Premenopausal Obese Women. Cold acclimation recruits human brown fat and increases nonshivering thermogenesis Recruited brown adipose tissue as an antiobesity agent in humans. Psychology Counter-regulation triggered by emotions: Positive/negative affective states elicit opposite valence biases in affective processing. I Know Not To, but I Can’t Help It: Weight Gain and Changes in Impulsivity-Related Personality Traits. Verbal descriptors influence hypothalamic response to low-calorie drinks. Methods Functionalities and input methods for recording food intake: A systematic review. Development and evaluation of a brief questionnaire to assess dietary fat quality in low-income overweight women in the southern United States. Ratio of trunk to leg volume as a new body shape metric for diabetes and mortality. Establishing the optimal body mass index – body esteem relationship in young adolescents. Food RCT: Changes in daily leptin, ghrelin and adiponectin profiles following a diet with carbohydrates eaten at dinner in obese subjects. RCT: Extent… Read More »

Obesity & Energetic Offerings, July 19, 2013

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. Obesity & Energetic Offerings are brought to you by the UAB NORC and Office of Energetics and compiled by David B. Allison, Michelle Bohan-Brown, Emily Dhurandhar, John Dawson, and Andrew Brown. The following is a selection of articles from this week’s list  – the link headings are theirs, not mine: Featured RCT: Posting calorie benchmarks had no direct impact on food purchases – and may have promoted a slight (i.e., marginally significant) increase in calorie intake. Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs: Comparative Effectiveness Review and Meta-Analysis. Findings Contrary Hypotheses or Popular Ideas The inclusion of toys in food packages was not shown per se to lead to an increase in the caloric intake of children. Self-report physical activity levels have increased since 2001. RCT: High protein diets do not lead to renal dysfunction in type 2 diabetics. Transgenerational Effects Paternal obesity initiates metabolic disturbances in two generations of mice with incomplete penetrance to the F2 generation and alters the transcriptional profile of testis and sperm microRNA content. DNA hypomethylation of inflammation-associated genes in adipose tissue of female mice after multigenerational high fat diet feeding. Stigma Obese Boy Scouts Aren’t Welcome at Camp. Why Shame And Blame Tactics For Obesity Will Backfire. Is obesity disgusting? An investigation of weight-based discrimination in the workplace. The Love Song of the Headless Fatty and Other Observations. The Obesity Stigma. Weighing Women Down: Messages on Weight Loss and Body Shaping in Editorial Content in Popular Women’s Health and Fitness Magazines. Nutrition Education Nutrition Education in the K-12 Curriculum: The Role of National Standards – Workshop Summary. A District Wellness Policy: The Gap between Policy and Practice. Europe considers calorie labeling on alcoholic beverages. Obesity and Mortality Re: “Obesity and US Mortality Risk Over the Adult Life Course”. The Authors Reply. How the war on obesity went pear-shaped. Methods Brown adipose tissue mapping in rats with combined intermolecular double-quantum coherence and Dixon water-fat MRI. Measuring food intake with digital photography. Validation of a digital photographic method for assessment of dietary quality of school lunch sandwiches brought from home. Monitoring metabolic responses of single mitochondria within poly(dimethylsiloxane) wells: study of their endogenous reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide evolution. Real-time monitoring of adipocyte differentiation using a capacitance sensor array. MR Fat Fraction Mapping: A Simple Biomarker for Liver Steatosis Quantification… Read More »

Obesity & Energetic Offerings, July 5, 2013

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. Obesity & Energetic Offerings are brought to you by the UAB NORC and Office of Energetics and compiled by David B. Allison, Michelle Bohan-Brown, Emily Dhurandhar, John Dawson, and Andrew Brown. The following is a selection of articles from this week’s list  – the link headings are theirs, not mine: Featured Metabolic mystery: aging, obesity, diabetes, and the ventromedial hypothalamus. Historic variations in winter indoor domestic temperatures and potential implications for body weight gain. Want To Create An Innovative Environment In Life Sciences? RCT: Sleep Restriction Causes Weight Gain Headline vs. Study Headline: Raisins may lower food intake, help prevent diabetes. Study: 26 children studied over 4 day period, no measures of diabetes of glucose metabolism. Contrary RCT: Among depressed adolescents, exercise did not reduce weight. Obesity not associated with adverse treatment in emergency room. We find no evidence of a quick return on investment in weight loss treatment from reduced medical expenditures, although this may occur over longer periods. Girls in schools with more positive perceptions of the neighborhood environment surrounding the school were less physically active and number of food stores near school was positively related to physical activity. Screening negative for diabetes did not lead to overt long-term changes in lifestyle, despite a high perception of risk of developing diabetes. Anthropology Attractiveness of women’s body: Body mass index, waist-hip ratio, and their relative importance. Local Interpretations of Global Trends: Body Concerns and Self-Projects Enacted by Young Emirati Women. Basic Antenatal corticosteroid exposure at term increases adult adiposity: An experimental study in sheep. Roles of fat body trophocytes, mycetocytes and urocytes in the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana under starvation conditions: An ultrastructural study. Systemic ghrelin administration alters serum biomarkers of angiogenesis in diet-induced obese mice. Identification of a novel interorgan mechanism favoring energy storage in overnutrition. Temperature-Sensing Fat Cells. Inactivation of Taste Genes Causes Male Sterility. A novel link between circadian clocks and adipose tissue energy metabolism. Behavior Paper & Video: Hunger can be taught: Hunger Recognition regulates eating and improves energy balance. Dietary variety is associated with larger meals in female rhesus monkeys. Systematic review suggests grocery shopping to a predetermined list is a cost-effective means for reducing obesity. RCT: The Effects of Caloric Preload and Dietary Restraint on Smoking and Eating Behavior. Examining social influence… Read More »

Running Down the Up-Escalator (Part 3)

In the last couple of posts, I used the analogy of running down the up-escalator to describe the challenge of weight management. I also noted that trying to run down that escalator without first addressing the reasons you ended at the top in the first place, may make the descent even harder. But why use the escalator analogy at all? Why is the escalator moving up? Why does it get faster as you get further down? And why is there no bottom, where you can simply get off? Let’s start with the upward moving escalator – most of us are on it to start with as most of us tend to gain weight with age – unfortunately, some people faster than others. Very few of us manage to keep our teenage weights into late adulthood. There are many reasons for this – for one, our metabolism “slows down” as we get older, so do our levels of physical activity. Then there are other drivers of weight gain that tend to accumulate as we get older – stress, lack of sleep, arthritis, medications, to name a few. This means that for most of us, to not be carried higher on that escalator, we already have to take the occasional step down – the faster our personal escalator is moving up, the more effort we will have to put into simply “marking time”. But that’s the easy part (preventing weight gain is always easier than treating obesity). To lose weight, you have to actually start moving down the escalator faster than it is moving up. Depending on how fast your personal escalator is moving up, the more effort this will take. The tricky part comes when the escalator starts speeding up as you make your way down – this is what is often referred to as the “starvation response” – a complex series of metabolic and behavioural responses aimed at preventing further weight loss and promoting weight regain. In previous posts I have discussed some of these factors – leptin, ghrelin, sympathetic nerve activity, body temperature – the net result is that as you get lower down on the escalator, the fewer calories you need and the greater your hunger and appetite gets. This is why, keeping weight off gets harder and harder rather than easier and easier the more weight you lose. (Many people think that if I can only lose… Read More »

Obesity Weekend Roundup, June 27, 2013

As not everyone may have a chance during the week to read every post, here’s a roundup of last week’s posts: Are Coke and McDonald’s More Likely to Help Reduce Obesity Than Farmers’ Markets and Whole Foods? Do Changes in Leptin, Ghrelin or Insulin Predict Weight Regain? Diabetes? Weight Loss Can Help You Live Better If Not Longer Do School Interventions for Obesity Work? Binge Eating Behaviour in Veterans Have a great Sunday! (or what is left of it) @DrSharma Edmonton, AB