Obesity: Are Americans Ready To Solve The Weight Of The Nation?

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Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 03 Aug 2012 - 1:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Obesity: Are Americans Ready To Solve The Weight Of The Nation?

In a Perspective article appearing in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, public health researchers examine how recommendations in a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) - "Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation" - square with American's opinions about the obesity epidemic.

Over the last 30 years, rates of obesity have doubled among adults and tripled among children. The new IOM report summarizes growing evidence that these increases have been driven by a complex interaction of changes in the environments in which we live - our schools, our workplaces, our communities, in the media and in our food and beverage systems.

While praising the IOM report's scope and vision, Colleen L. Barry, PhD, MPP, associate professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and lead author of "Are Americans Ready to Solve the Weight of the Nation?" says that it is critical to understand how the public thinks about the problem of obesity. Barry notes that one recent poll found that 64 percent of Americans believe personal decisions - overeating, lack of exercise, watching too much television - are the biggest contributors to obesity. However, only 18 percent of Americans attribute environmental factors, such as safe places for children to play, access and availability of healthy foods and exposure to junk food, as major contributors.

"If people think obesity is all about individuals and parents making bad choices, they will be much less likely to embrace changes in schools, communities and food marketing practices aimed at creating healthier environments," said Barry.

Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University and a co-author of the article, emphasized the need for "a research-driven communication strategy to encourage a better understanding of the environmental determinants of obesity among the public, and to emphasize the importance of waging a collective response to the epidemic." The IOM report was accompanied by a four-part HBO documentary series, "The Weight of the Nation," which Niederdeppe described as a great example of the kind of communication partnerships that are needed.

However, communications efforts on obesity should include careful attention to "the potential to increase already high levels of stigma toward obese adults and children, which can have lifelong psychological, social and health consequences," according to Sarah E. Gollust, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and a co-author of the Perspective article. Gollust noted that the IOM recognized this concern and explicitly included as a guiding principle the notion that obesity prevention should not be achieved at the expense of overweight or obese individuals' well-being.

The authors concluded that while widespread awareness of obesity's causes and consequences will be necessary, increased awareness alone will not be sufficient to put in place the extensive actions that the IOM report stipulated will be necessary. A favorable political environment as well as leadership in multiple sectors and grassroots advocacy will be needed to support the efforts of the public health community to reduce obesity.

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our obesity / weight loss / fitness section for the latest news on this subject. Public opinion data reported in article was collected by the authors through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research program.
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

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Regaining Weight After Losing It Might Harm Menopausal Women

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Main Category: Menopause
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Article Date: 15 Dec 2011 - 8:00 PST

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According to a study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, older women who lose weight but do not maintain the loss might suffer some negative consequences in their overall health. The National Institute on Aging sponsored the investigation.

Investigators at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, demonstrated that within a year, some older women gain a considerable amount of weight back after losing it.

Barbara Nicklas, Ph.D., a gerontologist at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest Baptist and lead researcher for the investigation, explained:

"The body composition of some of the women was worse than before their weight loss. When older women lose weight, they also lose lean mass. Most women will gain a lot of the weight back, but the majority of the weight regained is fat."

78 postmenopausal women were analyzed in the study, one year after losing 12% of their body weight by dieting in a completely separate studey. Participants averaged 58 years of age. The team recorded their body composition, including change in body weight, fat and muscle, immediately before and after initial weight loss, and then again 6 and 12 months later. During the first year after initial weight loss no weight loss intervention occurred.

Their was to find out if the composition of body weight regained following intentional weight loss is comparable to the composition of body weight lost.

At the six-month follow-up after the study ended, 53 of 78 (68%) of women regained some weight, while 52 of 68 (76%) of women regained some weight at the 12-month follow-up. 16 women (24%) continues to lose weight after the program, while 11 women (16%) weighed more than they did at baseline at the 12-month follow-up.

75% of women who regained weight gained over 4.4 pounds at the 6-month follow-up. At 12-month follow-up this number increased to 84%. The researchers examined whether lost lean mass from intentional weight loss was recovered in women who regained more weight.

The team discovered that the fat mass in these women was rising to a higher level than was lean mass during the post-intervention period.

During the diet program, 67% of weight loss was fat while 33% was muscle. 81% of the entire weight regained during 12 months of follow up was fat, while 19% was muscle. On average, 26% of fat lost was regained by 12-months after the diet program, while only 6% of muscle lost was gained back.

Nicklas explains:

"Most people will regain their weight after they lose it. Young people tend to regain weight in the proportion that they lost it. But the older women in our study did not appear to be regaining the muscle they lost during initial weight loss in the same way."

Although researchers are unsure what the long term effects of losing muscle mass in middle age and older women are, combined with loss of bone density which is known to occur as individuals age, the loss of muscle may increase their risk of falling, as well as other things.

Nicklas said:

"There are certainly a lot of health benefits to weight loss, if you can keep the weight off. For older women who lose weight, however, it is particularly important that they keep the weight off and continue to eat protein and stay physically active so that, if the weight does come back, it will be regained as muscle instead of fat."

Nicklas warns that study results were restricted to sedentary, abdominally obese, postmenopausal women, and the among younger populations or men the discoveries may differ. "Future studies of weight cycling are needed to determine its effects on muscle strength, quality, and function and body composition in older adults after all weight lost is regained", she said.

The investigators explain:

"Many health complications associated with overweight and obesity are improved with weight loss. However, negative consequences (such as loss of muscle mass and bone density) are also associated with weight loss and are detrimental for older adults, which results in a reluctance to recommend international weight loss in this population. Because lean mass loss in older adults may be associated with the development of adverse health events and disability, it is important to examine whether the benefits of weight loss outweigh the risks in this population."

Written by Grace Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
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Dietary Fibers From Algae Help Weight Loss

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 14 Dec 2011 - 9:00 PST

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Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at the University of Copenhagen have established that dietary fibers from brown algae boosts the body's sensation of satiety, so that people eat less and lose more weight.

Earlier studies have demonstrated that a fiber-rich diet is easier for maintaining weight. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have now discovered in a new PhD project that alginates (dietary fibers) from brown algae, are superb at creating an 'artificial feeling of fullness' in the stomach.

Scientists have categorized the numerous different types of seaweed into three main groups, such as brown algae (Phaephycecae), red algae (Rhodophyta) and green algae (Chlorophyta). The researchers of this study based their study primarily on palm seaweed fibers obtained from the brown algae.

PhD student Morten Georg Jensen says:

"Over a three-year period, we have studied the effect of taking different alginate doses. We are able to demonstrate that the healthy subjects who took alginates and were also allowed to eat as much as they wanted felt less hungry and ate less than the subjects not drinking fiber drinks with alginates."

Jensen and his team conducted a 12-week study involving 96 overweight men and women. They assigned 48 participants to consume a specially designed drink containing alginates three times daily before each main course, whilst the other 48 received drinks containing placebo without alginates. The drinks were administered as a supplement to an energy-reduced diet.

They discovered that of the 80 participants who completed the study, those in the alginate group achieved a significantly greater loss of weight loss on average, i.e. 1.7 kg, compared with participants in the placebo group. This weight loss has been primarily achieved because of a reduction in body fat percentage.

Jensen explained:

"A probable explanation of the weight loss is that the alginates form a gel in the stomach which strengthens the gastrointestinal satiety signals to the brain because the gel takes up space in the stomach. The overweight subjects thus ate less than usual."

Easy 24/7 access to unlimited quantities of energy-rich food is partly responsible for the growing epidemic of obesity. To tackle this problem it is necessary for scientists to conduct more research and develop new dietary measures.

Morten states:

"Eating more than you burn results in a body energy imbalance, which may lead to weight gain in the long term. It is therefore crucial that new dietary measures improve appetite control and limit our food intake."

The researchers anticipate that their findings may open the doors for new treatment options for those who are overweight. Researchers have developed the special fiber drink containing alginates in collaboration with the biotech company S-biotek, but until now such fiber drinks are not yet available on the market.

Morten Georg Jensen will be presenting his PhD thesis, Effect of alginate fiber supplementation in regulation of appetite, body weight and metabolic risk factors, on Wednesday 14 December 2011 at 1 pm at the Faculty of Life Sciences, lecture hall A1-01.01., Bülowsvej 17, 1870 Frederiksberg C.

Written by Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
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