Body Mass Index Under Scrutiny

Posted on August 30, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
In yesterday’s post "The Obesity-Disease Connection" The New York Times explained how obesity can make ovarian cancer even more dangerous and harder to survive. Nicholas Bakalar reported:
But among patients with Stage III or Stage IV disease, the most advanced stages, those with B.M.I.’s greater than 25 survived disease free for an average of 17 months, compared with 25 months for people with indexes lower than 25.
For each increase of one unit in the index, the researchers found a 4 percent increase in the risk of recurrence and a 5 percent increase in the risk of death.
In Eat to Live you’ll see Dr. Fuhrman agrees; obesity increases a person’s risk of a whole host of medical conditions:
  • Increased overall premature mortality
  • Adult onset diabetes
  • Hypertension
  • Degenerative arthritis
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Cancer
  • Lipid disorders
  • Obstructive sleep apnea
  • Gallstones
  • Fatty infiltration of the liver
  • Restrictive lung disease
  • Gastrointestinal disease
Alright, so we know being obese doesn’t help your chances of living a long healthy life, but what about this whole BMI thing? As reported by The New York Times the whole ovarian cancer study was based on these measurements. But is it really the be-all-end-all for determining if someone is obese, or even if they’re just overweight?


Linda Carroll of MSNBC reports some health experts definitely concerns about the Body Mass Index:
The real question, says Dr. Donald Cutlip, an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, is whether body mass index is a good measure to determine whether someone is overweight.


The conflicting studies, each based on BMI scores, point out flaws with the common measure, basically a comparison of height to weight.

New research shows that there’s a better, more informative way to figure out if you are overweight—the waist-to-hip ratio—and all it requires is a measuring tape.
A lot of the worry stems from the BMI’s inability to give an accurate measurement for elderly people or individuals with a lot of muscle:
Cutlip agrees that BMI can be way off, especially when it comes to assessing a particular individual. The commonly used measure can give a skewed result not only for fit body builders who come out with a high number because of the extra weight associated with muscle, but also for the elderly, who tend to have scores that underestimate obesity because they have so much less muscle.
A more favorable way of determining if someone has dangerous levels of body fat might be the Waist-To-Hip Ratio. Carroll explains:
The best way to predict heart attack risk and other obesity-related diseases is a measurement that divides the circumference of your waist by your hips.


If you’re a woman, the waist-to-hip ratio should come out as no more than 0.8. Men have a little more wiggle room: a healthy waist-to-hip ratio for them is 0.95.

This means, if your belly has bulged out enough to catch up to the size of your hips, you should start worrying about your heart, experts say.
(Be sure to try out the calculator accompanying the article.)


Now considering all this, how does Dr. Fuhrman determine if a person has an unhealthy bodyweight? The answer is right between his fingers:
I just take a pinch near the umbilicus and squeeze it lightly between two fingers and measure the distance between the fingers.
In a previous post he talks about his method: A Life Plan for The New Year
Most people lose weight and then stop losing when they have reached their ideal weight. You are not the judge of your ideal weight; your body is. As almost everyone is overweight, many people think they are too thin when they have reached their best weight. I have many patients who, after following my plan to reverse diabetes or heart disease, report, “Everyone tells me I look too thin now.” I then measure their periumbilical fat and check their percentage of body fat, and usually show them they are still not thin enough.
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America, We're Getting Fatter

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
What bloats up, must slim down? Nope, not in this case, according to a new report 31 states claim obesity rates among adults have actually increased during the past year. This in light of all the supposed obesity “initiatives” set in motion. Amanda Gardner of HealthDay News reports:
The report, titled F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing America, 2006, was released Tuesday and is the third in a series of annual reports by the trust detailing state obesity rates as well as the effectiveness of government policies to fight the problem.

According to official figures, the adult obesity rate rose from 15 percent in 1980 to 32 percent in 2004. Combine that with the number of Americans who are overweight but not obese, and the figure stands at 64 percent. And the childhood obesity rate more than tripled between 1980 and 2004, from 5 percent to 17 percent.

"The most important news in this report is that the obesity epidemic in America is getting worse," Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, said at a Tuesday morning press conference. "The percentage of obese adults exceeds 25 percent in 13 states. That should sound some serious alarm bells."
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The Obesity-Disease Connection

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
In the opening pages of Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman makes a point that is often overlooked by the average American dieter:
Obesity is not just a cosmetic issue—extra weight leads to an earlier death, as many studies confirm.1 Overweight individuals are more likely to die from all causes, including heart disease and cancer.
Much of Dr. Fuhrman’s work strives to show people the strong correlation between diet and disease. You know the old adage, you are what you eat. Being overweight doesn’t just mean your favorite outfit is a little snug, it means you’re putting yourself at an increased risk of premature death. More from Eat to Live:
Two-thirds of those with weight problems also have hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or another obesity related condition.2 It is a major cause of early mortality in the United States.3
Health Complications of Obesity
  • Increased overall premature mortality
  • Adult onset diabetes
  • Hypertension
  • Degenerative arthritis
  • Coronary artery disease
  • Cancer
  • Lipid disorders
  • Obstructive sleep apnea
  • Gallstones
  • Fatty infiltration of the liver
  • Restrictive lung disease
  • Gastrointestinal disease
Considering all this, this recent report from The New York Times shouldn’t be all that surprising. New research reveals being obese can make ovarian cancer even deadlier and harder to survive. Nicholas Bakalar explains:
It is well known that obesity is associated with various malignancies, including kidney, throat, breast and colon cancers. Findings about obesity and ovarian cancer have been somewhat less clear, the researchers say, but evidence from previous studies suggests that obesity predicts a worse outcome for ovarian cancer patients as well.


The scientists wanted to know whether excess fat, apart from any other health problems it might cause, had direct effects on tumor growth. They reviewed the medical records of 216 patients at Cedars-Sinai who had surgery for epithelial ovarian cancer. The data included information on height, weight, age and any other diseases. The cause of death was presumed to be cancer related if the patient had advanced recurrent disease at the time of death.

Half the patients had ideal weight, with a body mass index from 18.5 to 24.9, and 8 percent had a B.M.I. of less than 18.5, considered underweight. Twenty-six percent were overweight, with indexes exceeding 25, and 16 percent were obese, with indexes higher than 30.

The overweight and obese differed little from normal and underweight people in age or in health status, except that they had more hypertension and diabetes.

But among patients with Stage III or Stage IV disease, the most advanced stages, those with B.M.I.’s greater than 25 survived disease free for an average of 17 months, compared with 25 months for people with indexes lower than 25.

For each increase of one unit in the index, the researchers found a 4 percent increase in the risk of recurrence and a 5 percent increase in the risk of death.

This “dose response” effect strongly suggests that obesity alone is responsible for the decreased survival time, Dr. Li said.
The results of this research are pretty jarring. It seems like being obese is like dragging around an old refrigerator; it slows you down, makes you uncomfortable, creates its own problems along the way, and makes many other problems worse. Time to ditch the fridge!


Or more importantly what’s in it. Dr. Fuhrman will tell you the typical American diet rich in processed foods, saturated fats, refined sugar, and salt is a one way ticket to obesity, disease, and early death. Back to Eat to Live:
As long as you are eating fatty foods and refined carbohydrates, it is impossible to lose weight healthfully. In fact, this vicious combination of a sedentary lifestyle and eating typical “American” food (high-fat, low-fiber) is the primary reason we have such an incredibly overweight population.
On the other hand he believes the secret to healthy bodyweight, disease prevention, and increased longevity is just the opposite; a plant-based diet comprised of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds:
There is no longer any question about the importance of fruits and vegetables in our diet. The greater the quantity and assortment of fruits and vegetables consumed, the lower the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.4
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New England Journal of Medicine: Overweight Contributes to Mortality

Posted on August 23, 2006 by Henry Abbott
Last year some researchers found that being slightly overweight actually lowered the risk of death. Kenneth Chang reports in today's New York Times that two new, larger studies tell a different tale: being even slightly overweight can increase mortality.
The researchers said the more telling analysis arose when they focused on 186,000 healthy men and women who had never smoked. Among men and women, being overweight raised the risk of death 20 percent to 40 percent compared with normal-weight people, the researchers said...

Researchers have almost universally found that obese people have considerable health risks. But there has been debate over whether someone who is less severely overweight is at a greater risk of illness. Other factors, especially smoking, can complicate analysis of the data. Smoking greatly increases the chances of deadly lung diseases, but smokers tend to weigh less.

“No single study is able to solve a controversy of this magnitude,” Dr. Leitzmann said, but he recommended that anyone overweight “should be looking to lose weight.”

A second study by researchers at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and Johns Hopkins University looked at 1.2 million Koreans ages 30 to 95 and followed them for 12 years. The researchers looked at 82,372 deaths and correlated them with the body mass index. They found, too, that risk of death and cancer increased in people who were overweight, but not obese.
Both studies have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. You can read both the American and Korean studies online.

As we have blogged about before, Dr. Fuhrman has long been citing the work of Harvard's Dr. I-Min Lee--who studied nearly 20,000 men over nearly thirty years. She found that you practically can not be too thin: the lightest group of men had the lowest mortality. (Of course, he cautions, there is such a thing as being too thin, which is usually anorexia.)
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The Hard Way to Spread the Word About Obesity

Posted on August 22, 2006 by Henry Abbott
Running fifty marathons, in fifty states, in fifty days, is not the easiest way to go about it. But it's one way. And it's starting next month. The Chicago Sun-Times has details of 43-year-old Dean Karnazes' quest:
''Proceeds will benefit the 'Karno Kids.' I started the foundation as an anti-obesity campaign. We're getting kids and youth more active and engaged, eating better and embracing physical well-being.''

Eight of the marathons -- including Chicago's -- will be run on their normal days. The other 42 will be recreations of established marathon routes. The Boston Marathon, for example, is run in April, but race organizers will recreate the exact route for Karnazes and other runners.

''This has been a few years in the making,'' Karnazes said. ''We are going to run certified courses in every state. I want to make sure that's documented.''

Some pedestrians might be inconvenienced by the police escorts accompanying Karnazes and his groups in the recreated races, but considering one-third of children in this country are obese, the Sunday Drive applauds all attempts to promote physical well-being.
Karnazes has completed other extraordinary feats: he once moved 350 miles straight, which took nearly 81 sleepless hours. He has crossed both Death Valley and the South Pole. In other words: he might actually pull this off.
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AHA: Kids Need More Physical Education

Posted on August 17, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
One solution to the obesity epidemic might be to hit it where it starts, childhood. According to HealthDay News the American Heart Association (AHA) is calling for efforts to promote more physical education in schools. Alan Mozes reports:
"Kids spend a lot of time in the schools for a lot of years, and in order for them to be as physically active as they need in order to be healthy, schools are going to have to take the initiative," said Russell Pate, chairman of the group that drafted the recommendations, and a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia.

Fueling the concern, the AHA said, is the dramatically rising obesity rates among American children over the past two decades: About 16 percent of kids aged 6 to 19 are now considered overweight.

And a 2003 survey showed that more than one third of the students spend no more than 20 minutes a day on vigorous activity, while their time in front of the TV is up to three hours daily, the AHA added.
The AHA is putting significant pressure on schools to ensure children get enough exercise. HealthDay relays some of their reforms published in this week’s Circulation:
  • Schools to establish a daily minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity during school hours, and set up health education programs that encourage exercise and discourage sedentary behavior;
  • Schools to establish optional exercise programs outside school hours, provide extracurricular sports clubs, and promote safe walking and biking routes to school;
  • States to ensure that physical education (PE) programs are taught by certified and highly qualified teachers, and to hold schools accountable for the adequacy of such programs and for ensuring they are part of a core curriculum;
  • Child development centers and elementary schools to ensure at least 30 minutes of daily recess for exercise;
  • Higher education groups to establish programs that produce highly qualified PE and health education teachers.
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Health Points: Wednesday

Posted on August 16, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
Yes, even Bobby Flay can provide inspiration for the vegan chef! His Chinese Chicken Salad is one of my favorite salads of all time: shredded Napa cabbage, sugar snap peas, cilantro, carrots, and peanuts with a zippy red chile peanut dressing. I veganize it by substituting agave for the honey and topping it with grilled tempeh instead of chicken. The flavors sing!
Obese individuals are at increased risk for suffering a heart attack or other "acute coronary syndrome" (ACS), but because they are treated more aggressively than their lean counterparts, their outcomes are actually better, new research suggests.
However, being extremely obese or underweight increases the cardiac mortality risk.
All daily menus should contain a healthy balance of green-leafed vegetables (i.e. chard, collards, lettuces, kale, spinach, etc.), sugary fruits (oranges, melons, mangos, papayas, etc.), and fatty foods (i.e. avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, etc.). Chlorophyll foods build the structure of the body. Sweet fruits fuel the system with glucose. Fats lubricate and oil the body.
  • Believe it or not the AIDS epidemic in the United States is twenty-five years old. The Boston Globe has extensive coverage:
It's been a quarter century since the disease first hit American soil. Take a look at the history of AIDS.
In some ways eating foods in season may seem redundant but at the same time it gives you something to look forward to. As the season gradually changes, the produce changes along with it. Besides, with each influx of a particular veggie you have the opportunity to get really good at using it before moving on to the next veggie. Of course the challenge is to remember all your brilliant ideas from one year to the next.
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Food Processing Techniques and Obesity

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
Here’s a concept, processed foods are “toxic” and “addictive.” Sound like something Dr. Fuhrman would say? According to The Scotsman some health experts are becoming more and more leery of manufactured foods. Lyndsay Moss reports:
Professor Robert Lustig, from the University of California, said changes in manufacturing processes were making food "toxic" and "addictive", leading to obesity.

Scotland, along with the rest of the UK, faces a growing health timebomb as more and more youngsters become obese.

Figures show that a third of 12-year-olds in Scotland are overweight and a fifth are obese.

The latest study said food manufacturing processes had created a "toxic environment" that dooms children to being overweight.

Prof Lustig said that the way in which food was now processed, which had changed significantly in the last 30 years, had created an environment in which foods were essentially addictive due to their effect on the hormone insulin.

"In particular, fructose [sugar] - too much - and fibre - not enough - appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin," he said.
Dr. Fuhrman has written about the perils of processed foods numerous times. For instance:
Refined Foods Raise Your Cholesterol
All refined sweets are low in nutrients and fiber and are rapidly absorbed. These refined sweets include sugar, honey, corn syrup, molasses and corn sweeteners. They all contain insignificant amounts of nutrients (per calorie) and no fiber. More and more studies offer evidence that the consumption of these sweets and white-flour products are a significant cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer.1

Beware the High Fructose Corn Syrup
Soft drinks and processed foods are full of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is not only fattening, but this inexpensive and ultra-concentrated sugar has no resemblance to real food made by nature. It is another experiment thrust upon our unsuspecting children with unknown dangerous consequences. Besides sugar, corn syrup, and chemicals, these drinks often contain caffeine, an addictive stimulant. Children crave more and more as they get older. By adolescence most children have become soft-drink addicts. It is no surprise that six out of the seven most popular soft drinks contain caffeine. Contrast this high level of sugary “liquid candy” with the meager intake of fresh produce by children and teenagers, and it is no surprise that we have an obesity epidemic beyond all expectations.
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Land of Plenty

Posted on August 14, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
It may be hard to believe but according to the AFP there are actually more people who are overweight than starving in the world today. Hard to believe? Lawrence Bartlett explains:
The transition from a starving world to an obese one had happened with dramatic speed, US professor Barry Popkin told the annual conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists on Monday.

"The reality is that globally far more obesity than undernutrition exists," Popkin said, adding that while hunger was slowly declining, obesity was rapidly spreading.

There are more than a billion overweight people in the world and 800 million who are undernourished, he said at the Gold Coast convention centre near Brisbane. The world population is estimated at about 6.5 billion.
What can be done? Popkin offers some further explanation:
Food prices could be used to manipulate people's diets and tilt them towards healthier options, he suggested.

"For instance, if we charge money for every calorie of soft drink and fruit drink that was consumed, people would consume less of it.

"If we subsidise fruit and vegetable production, people would consume more of it and we would have a healthier diet."
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Chubby Cheeks

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
Don’t be surprised if infant gyms starting popping up across the country because according to a new study children under the age of six are more likely to be overweight than they were two decades ago. Melissa Trujillo of the Associated Press reports:
"This just adds more weight to the growing body of evidence that there's an epidemic of obesity in the United States," said Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Obesity Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who was not involved with the study. "Good habits need to begin at the very beginning of life."

The study's authors looked at medical records of more than 120,000 children who visited doctors from 1980 through 2001. All were enrolled in a health maintenance organization that used an electronic medical record system and most came from middle-class families.

The study found that over the 22-year period, the prevalence of overweight children increased from 6.3 percent to 10 percent, while the rate of risk for being overweight increased from 11.1 percent to 14.4 percent.

In infants under 6 months — a group Gillman said has seldom been included in weight studies — the prevalence of being overweight increased from 3.4 percent to 5.9 percent during the same period, a jump of more than 73 percent.
Trujillo explains for some having an overweight child can be quite a wake up call:
Sara Keng, 29, a mother of three from Woonsocket, R.I., said she wasn't surprised by the study's results. She blamed the increase of overweight children on "super-sized" foods and on harried parents who rely on fast foods to feed their families.

Keng said she got a wake-up call when her oldest son, now 4, became overweight when he was a toddler, forcing her and her husband to change the family's eating habits.
And there you have an important part of improving children’s eating habits. According to Dr. Fuhrman eating healthier is a commitment the whole family has to make. Consider this excerpt from Disease-Proof Your Child:
The major cause of this recent phenomenon of obesity is the availability and consumption of high-caloric, low-nutrient foods and the decreased consumption of high-nutrient foods. When families finally realize that the consumption of vegetables, beans, and fruits is the essential foundation of an adequate diet, we will rarely see an obese child. It is literally impossible to become obese when consuming a diet that predominates in healthful, natural food.
For more pointers on getting children to eat better, check out this podcast: Dr. Fuhrman on Getting Children to Eat Well
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Health Points: Wednesday

Posted on August 9, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
An extra can of soda a day can pile on 15 pounds in a single year, and the "weight of evidence" strongly suggests that this sort of increased consumption is a key reason that more people have gained weight, the researchers say.

"We tried to look at the big picture rather than individual studies," and it clearly justifies public health efforts to limit sugar-sweetened beverages, said Dr. Frank Hu, who led the report published Tuesday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Patients must be able to trust their surgeon. Lest you trust your surgeon completely, you should not allow her/him to approach you with a scalpel. That has been my personal policy, though I concede that I have never required any surgery yet. Patients meet me, talk to me, discuss medical issues with me, and I formulate a plan that sometimes involves surgery. And when the patients agree, there are brief moments when I am amazed that they will trust me to operate on them. Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt my abilities (I even admit to being secretly quite proud of my skills), but I find this trust almost overwhelming.
Exercise regularly, eat fruits and vegetables, control your blood pressure and lower your cholesterol. It may sound like a prescription for avoiding heart disease, but this checklist also serves as a guide for preventing Alzheimer's. According to a new study out of Sweden, people can gauge their risk for the brain-wasting condition by their lifestyle habits in middle age.
  • If you’ve ever been interested in a pet parasite read this Jewish fishworm story. Larry Zaroff of The New York Times explains:
Enter Dr. Earl Lipman, a close friend of Bob’s and an outstanding internist and diagnostician, who identified the culprit over the phone.

Earl asked, “Does Rita make her own gefilte fish?”

“Yes.”

“Does she ever taste the raw fish before adding salt?” Earl continued.

“Yes.”

“She most likely has a fish tapeworm.”

The fish tapeworm — a beast, stubborn as a dog with a beef bone — is reluctant to move, tightly gripping the wall of the small intestine with its two suction cups. The worm requires a powerful purging medicine to persuade it to leave its cozy cave and exit the gut into the light.
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Calories: More Than Meets The Eye

Posted on August 7, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
Charles Stuart Platkin of The Seattle Times examines the claim many distressed dieters make, “I hardly eat anything, but I can’t lose weight!” Is there any truth in this? Dr. Fuhrman would likely contend if you’ve reached this impasse you’re probably eating the wrong foods and following a poorly constructed diet plan, but let’s see what Platkin turned up:
It's been reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that people attempting to lose weight tend to underestimate the amount they eat by as much as 47 percent and to overestimate their physical activity by as much as 51 percent. When scientists at the USDA's Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Maryland asked 98 men and women how much they ate in a 24-hour period, they found that 6 out of 7 women underreported by an average of 621 calories, and 6 out of 10 men underreported by an average of 581 calories.

When the American Cancer Institute did a study asking Americans to determine the portion sizes of eight specific foods, only 1 percent got them all right. Sixty-one percent couldn't get more than four correct.
So, clearly many dieters have good intentions, but limited or poor knowledge of nutrition (specifically that of certain foods) sabotages their weight-loss goals. Imagine if people knew better! Consider this excerpt from Dr. Fuhrman’s book Eat to Live:
Green vegetables are so incredibly low in calories and rich in nutrients and fiber that the more you eat of them, the more weight you will lose. One of my secrets of nutritional excellence and superior healing is the one pound-one pound rule. That is, try to eat at least one pound of raw green vegetables a day and one pound of cooked/steamed or frozen green vegetables a day as well. One pound raw and one pound cooked—keep this goal in mind as you design and eat every meal. This may be too ambitious a goal for some of us to reach, but by working toward it, you will ensure the dietary balance and results you want. The more greens you eat, the more weight you will lose. The high volume of greens not only will be your secret to a thin waistline but will simultaneously protect you against life threatening illnesses.
This previous post has more: Foods That Make You Thin

In order to test caloric misconception Platkin pits a number of popular snack foods against each other. For example, did you know a Pringles potato chip actually has more calories than a McDonalds French fry? It’s true! Check it out:
One Pringles potato chip vs. one McDonald's french fry

Believe it or not, one french fry has only five calories, while a single Pringle is double at 10 calories.

One bite-size cube of cheddar cheese vs. one Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie

Clearly the cheese is the better choice nutritionally, but cheese is not a health food you can consume without guilt — one bite-size (1/2") cube has 55 calories, whereas the cookie has only 37.5. Whenever possible, go with low-fat cheese. A great one is Cabot's Vermont 50% Light Cheddar — 35 calories per 1/2" cube.

One Fritos Original Corn Chip vs. one cashew nut

Here again, the cashew has health benefits that far outweigh those of the nutritionally bland corn chip; however, cashews have 8.5 calories per nut, whereas Fritos have five per chip. So just because nuts are healthful doesn't give you carte blanche to overindulge — you're supposed to eat nuts in place of something else in your diet that's high in calories and nutritionally inferior, not simply add them.
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Health Points: Friday

Posted on August 4, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
More than three-quarters of obese Americans say they have healthy eating habits, according to a survey of more than 11,000 people.

About 40 percent of obese people also said they do "vigorous" exercise at least three times a week, the telephone survey found.

"There is, perhaps, some denial going on. Or there is a lack of understanding of what does it mean to be eating healthy, and what is vigorous exercise," said Dr. David Schutt of Thomson Medstat, the Michigan-based health-care research firm that conducted the survey.
Heat exhaustion symptoms:
* Often pale with cool, moist skin
* Sweating profusely
* Feels faint or has collapsed
* May be complaining of headache, weakness, thirst, and nausea
* Core (rectal) temperature elevated—usually more than 100°F—and the pulse rate increased

Heat stroke:
* Unconscious or has a markedly abnormal mental status
* Flushed, hot, and dry skin (although it may be moist initially from previous sweating or from attempts to cool the person with water)
* May experience dizziness, confusion, or delirium
* May have slightly elevated blood pressure at first that falls later
* May be hyperventilating
* Rectal (core) temperature of 105°F or more
In the test, the researchers used three different types, or cultivars, of watermelon, storing them separately at 41 degrees (refrigerator temperature), 55 degrees and 70 degrees for 14 days. The findings appear in the Aug. 9 issue of The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Watermelons contain significant amounts of lycopene, which is also found in tomatoes and a few other fruits and vegetables. Lycopene, an efficient scavenger of free radicals, has been associated with various beneficial health effects, including a reduced risk of prostate cancer.

At 41 and 55 degrees, the lycopene content changed little compared with fruit fresh off the vine. But the content when stored at room temperature increased as much as 40 percent in some types.
The researchers believe this is due to a 'survival preference': in times of food shortage - a heavier woman becomes ideal. They also point to physiological factors (blood sugar, hormones) that may affect drives and interests.

To be honest, this sounds like a bunch of male university students (going to and from the dining hall no less) playing a 'hot-or-not' game... However the researchers do plan to see how hunger impacts female attraction to men.
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NY Times: Serving Sizes Making Us Fat?

Posted on August 1, 2006 by Gerald Pugliese
Nicholas Bakalar of The New York Times follows up on yesterday’s Associated Press coverage of a new research linking serving sizes to how much we actually consume. Bakalar provides more details on this study:
At a social gathering of 85 faculty members, graduate students and staff workers in the department of food science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the partygoers served themselves ice cream. They did not realize that they were also the subjects of an experiment. Half the participants were given 17-ounce bowls, and half 34-ounce bowls. In addition, half were given 2-ounce spoons to scoop out their ice cream, and half were given 3-ounce serving spoons.

With larger spoons, people served themselves 14.5 percent more, and with a larger bowl, they heaped on 31 percent more. With both a large spoon and a large bowl, the nutrition experts helped themselves to 56.8 percent more ice cream than those who used the smaller utensils. And all but three of them ate every bit of the ice cream they took.

People who used small spoons took more spoonfuls, but not nearly enough to compensate for the total amount taken by those with larger equipment.
In Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman talks about our stretch receptors that naturally send signals to our brain when our stomachs are full. But junk foods like ice cream which lack sufficient fiber and nutrients blunt these signals and allow us to over consume large servings. Dr. Fuhrman explains:
The brain controls our dietary drive. A complicated system of chemoreceptors in the nerves lining the digestive tract carefully monitor the calorie and nutrient density of every mouthful and send such information to the hypothalamus in the bran, which controls dietary drive.

There are also stretch receptors in the stomach to signal satiety by detecting the volume of food eaten, not the weight of the food. If you are not filled up with nutrients and fiber, the brain will send out signals telling you to eat more food, or overeat.

In fact, if you consume sufficient nutrients and fiber, you will become biochemically filled (nutrients) and mechanically filled (fiber), and your desire to consume calories will be blunted or turned down. One key factor that determines whether you will be over weight is your failure to consume sufficient fiber and nutrients. This has been illustrated in scientific studies.1

How does this work in practice? Let’s say we conduct a scientific experiment and observe a group of people by measuring the average number of calories they consumed at each dinner. Next, we give them a whole orange and a whole apple prior to dinner. The result would be that the participants would reduce their caloric intake, on the average, by amount of calories in the fruit. Now, instead of giving them two fruits, give them the same amount of calories from fruit juice.

What will happen? They will eat the same amount of food they did when they had nothing at the beginning of their meal. In other words, the juice did not reduce the calories consumed in the meal—instead, the juice became additional calories. This has been shown to occur with beer, soft drinks, and other sources of liquid calories.2

Liquid calories, without the fiber present in the whole food, have little effect at blunting our caloric drive. Studies show that fruit juice and other sweet beverages lead to obesity in children as well.3

Continue Reading...
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