Crystal Renn Accused of Not Being Plus-Size

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/11/crystal_renn_accused_of_not_be.html

Because a famous woman cannot gain or lose weight in this world without the
fluctuation being a topic of scrutiny, Crystal Renn is being critiqued yet again
after an editorial of her in Harper's Bazaar's December issue leaked. She looks
thin but in a normal way instead of a freak-of-nature model way. It's too bad
models can't just be models because they're good at what they do, despite their
size, whether or not they fit industry's plus-size or straight-size standards.
Her agent tells Fashionista that if Renn looks thinner, it's just because she's
been working out. Harper's Bazaar surely knows better than to manipulate her
shape with Photoshop — the last time that happened to Renn, she went on the
Today show and completely embarrassed the photographer.

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Ralphie May turns plus-size into pluses

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/more/s_709832.html

Comedian Ralphie May comes pretty close to having his cake and eating it, too.
That's not a snide reference to his prodigious girth, which the country first
got a load of when he was a finalist during the debut season of NBC's "Last
Comic Standing." It's that May, who performs Thursday through Saturday at the
Pittsburgh Improv, can exploit the hot button topics of gays and race without
resorting to cheap shots at those groups.

He may rant uproariously on why gays annoy him, but you'd be hard-pressed to
infer a hint of homophobia.

"If you really listen to the crux of that joke, I'm not mad at gay people for
being gay," May says. "It's the fact that I just want the rainbow back."

In fact, he says, straight guys should be grateful that gay men are not
attracted to women. Otherwise, they'd be in big trouble.

"Have you seen gay men lately?" May says. "They cut their hair beautifully. They
have 10 percent body fat. They have great hair, they're well-manicured, groomed,
they're great dancers, they have tons of disposable income even in this
recession, access to great drugs, fancy cars and they're great dressers."

Meanwhile, another maligned group -- fat people -- continue to be acceptable
targets of ridicule, he says.

"The reason America is the fattest nation is that we're made up of poor
immigrants that had to cross in miserable conditions," he says. "There was no
refrigeration. Genetically speaking, fat people are the survivors. It's so
amazing to me how obtuse people really are. This nation ain't smaller, it's
getting fatter. Outside of Los Angeles and New York, more of America looks like
me than looks like a model or Ashton Kutcher."

May says he was up for the role in the CBS sitcom "Mike & Molly" about a couple
who meet at a support group for compulsive overeaters. The part ended up going
to Pittsburgh native Billy Gardell, another plus-size comic.

"While I'm the more popular stand-up comedian, Billy Gardell is a genius
comedian and he's got tons of experience on television. ... Good for him to get
his first shot."

Meanwhile, May and fellow comic Lavell Crawford are producing a pilot for Comedy
Central called "Brothers from Another Mother." He and Crawford, a fellow
Southerner, play two guys who discover they have the same father. Dad dies and
wills them his barbecue joint in Nashville. May and Crawford, who both worked as
cooks before achieving success as comedians, try to make a go of it.

"We put blackface on a white corpse," May says. "It's not even done good. It's
shoe polish. It looks more like camouflage."

That kind of humor, May says, used to be acceptable in "All and the Family" and
"Sanford and Son." But television has become too tame, he says.

"I keep on trying to find the line that they think is going to be too much

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Post-Feast Weight Gain Isn't As Bad As You Think

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/24/131568463/post-feast-weight-gain-isn-t-as-bad-as-y\
ou-think

If you're like many Americans, you're going to gain some weight over the
holidays. But you may not gain as much as you think.

"People tend to gain maybe three-quarters of a pound to a pound over the holiday
period," says Roger Cone, chairman of the Department of Molecular Physiology and
Biophysics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

He says our brains keep a tight rein on our weight. "It's just like the
thermostat in your house," Cone says. If your weight goes up past the set point
on the thermostat, your brain tries to slow down your food intake and tells you
to start burning calories so you'll lose weight.

It's not a perfect system, and that's why we might put on an extra pound or so
at the holiday. But taking off a sudden smallish increase in weight isn't all
that difficult, especially when your brain is telling you it's the right thing
to do.

Long-Term Vs. Short-Term Weight Gains

Cone says the problem with obesity in this country isn't caused by overeating at
the holidays.

"People have overeaten at Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's Eve prior to
the obesity epidemic," he says.

The problem is the pound or so we put on each year. That kind of slow weight
gain has the effect of turning up the thermostat in the brain. As a consequence,
if you do then lose weight, "that sends an emergency signal to the brain," Cone
says. "The brain thinks you're starving."

So your brain fights to keep you at your new, higher weight.

"A whole bunch of circuits get activated in the brain to increase your hunger,
decrease your satiety, increase food-seeking behavior, even decrease your
metabolic rate to get you back up to your previous fat level," Cone says. It's a
behavior that's almost impossible to control.

"It's like asking someone to quit breathing," he says. "You can ignore the
hunger signals, but the metabolic changes are completely subconscious, and
there's nothing you can do about them."

Bottom line: Taking off weight gained over a period of years is tough, but the
occasional holiday overindulgence just isn't that big of a deal.

"You certainly don't gain appreciable weight after one or two meals," says
Edward Saltzman, a scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research
Center on Aging at Tufts University.

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Next up in the culture wars: Food fights

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/26/AR2010112604716.\
html

If you shelled out $10 a pound for a "heritage turkey" this Thanksgiving,
tea-brined it and stuffed it with rosemary bread (that you made), speck (from
the local charcuterie guy), fennel (from the farmers market) and lemon (okay,
there are limits to this), you might assume that everyone, if given the
opportunity, would support such a makeover of a meal that not long ago was
dominated by frozen Butterballs and jellied cranberry sauce.

In fact, not everyone would. And that is an important thing to understand about
the effort to remake America's food culture. Advocates of fresh, local and
sustainably raised food say it is healthier, better-tasting and morally sound.
If everyone could afford that heritage turkey and had a local charcuterie guy,
the argument goes, then all Thanksgiving meals would be elevated to ethereal
heights.

But many in this country who have access to good food and can afford it simply
don't think it's important. To them, food has become a front in America's
culture wars, and the crusade against fast and processed food is an obsession of
"elites," not "real Americans."

Consider these shots from leading conservative voices in just the past month:
Rush Limbaugh, responding to the report of a Kansas State nutrition professor
who says he lost 27 pounds eating mainly Twinkies, said: "I know liberals lie,
and if Michelle Obama's gonna be out there ripping into 'food deserts' and
saying, 'This is why people are fat,' I know it's not true." Sarah Palin took
cookies to a Pennsylvania school to register her disapproval of policies that
forbid sweets. Glenn Beck suggested that food-safety legislation was a
government plot to raise the prices for beef and chicken and thereby turn us all
into vegetarians.

Both sides in this gustatory dust-up understand just how dangerous it is to tell
people how to eat. The right's cultural warriors see an opportunity to turn the
complicated issue of food into a class-war weapon - and to make nice with the
fast-food industry, which has donated generously to the GOP. They are banking on
the fact that over the past 60 years, the American way of eating has moved from
small farms and home-cooked meals to industrial production and drive-throughs.
The Golden Arches long ago replaced Mom's apple pie as a symbol of the
all-American meal. Thus, "Don't let them take away your Big Mac!" becomes a
rallying cry.

This transformation has been sold to us as progress, though not without
consequences: Obesity-related diseases cost $150 billion annually.

Proponents of a more progressive food system - liberals mostly - have sought to
avoid a paternalistic tone, too. They have focused on systemic failures that
prevent families from making healthier choices. Michelle Obama's "Let's Move"
initiative, which aims to end childhood obesity within a generation, addresses
access (Is fresh food available?) and affordability (Can poor and working-class
families afford to buy it?). When reformers talk about personal decisions, they
are mostly urging people of means to "vote with their forks" by consuming from
places such as farmers markets and Whole Foods.

Access and affordability are indeed problems. But the sense on the right that
this is fundamentally a culture issue is also correct, even if its message is
wrongheaded.

We moved this month to Huntington, W.Va. - the town where celebrity chef Jamie
Oliver set a reality TV show about healthy eating this year - to research a book
about efforts to change the way the city eats. Like most U.S. communities,
Huntington is dominated by fast and processed food. Still, finding affordable,
fresh and even local food there has not been as hard as we expected. We have
found plenty of organic produce at the supermarket. We've bought local eggs,
buffalo meat and un-homogenized milk in glass bottles.

So far, we've prepared nearly all our meals at home and are averaging about $100
a week on groceries. That breaks down to $2.38 per meal, per person, though it
doesn't include the gas and time it took to run down leads on food sources.

In other words, access to and the cost of "elite" food isn't beyond the budgets
of many, perhaps most, Americans. Our meals cost less than the "Shrimpzilla"
deal at the fast-food joint Captain D's - $4.99 for 30 fried shrimp and two
sides - or the $2.59 McDonald's McRib (plus tax).

Those who would reform the U.S. food system need to address the question of
values that Limbaugh, Palin and others criticize as elitist. They need to
consider the role that socioeconomics plays in determining those values and how
to begin to change them. They have to make the case for why eating well matters
at the local level, and that case will vary by community. In the Huntington
area, residents spend $1.25 billion annually on food, but little of it stays in
the region. Local food as economic development is a more persuasive argument in
places where good jobs are scarce than is the do-the-right-thing mantra that
echoes from both coasts. Good food is also at least part of the solution to the
region's health crisis: high rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

For the good-food revolution to have a chance, people have to make finding and
preparing fresh food a priority at a time when everything about our modern food
system urges us not to bother. And that won't happen if people think healthy
food is an elitist plot to take away their McRib.

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Super-sized world: Conference addresses global obesity epidemic, explores
policies, interventions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/nyao-swc112910.php

Public health experts gather next week at the New York Academy of Sciences
A conference at the New York Academy of Sciences on December 9 will convene
leading obesity researchers to explore the latest science and policy initiatives
addressing the global and national health crisis of obesity. The half-day event,
Super-sized World: The Global Obesity Epidemic, is presented by the Academy and
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with support from the new
Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science.

More than one billion adults worldwide are overweight and nearly 300 million are
clinically obese, according to the World Health Organization. Obesity is a major
contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability as a risk
factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke and
certain forms of cancer. Once thought to be a problem affecting only
industrialized, developed countries, obesity and obesity-related diseases are
increasingly prevalent in the developing world.

Speakers Benjamin Caballero, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health, and Jeanne Clark, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, will give the global and domestic perspectives on obesity,
respectively.

Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, of Yale University, will present "The Final Frontier: Is
There the Courage to Change Policy," and Keshia M. Pollack, PhD, MPH, of Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will present "Interventions:
Successes, Opportunities, and Challenges."

Robert S. Lawrence, MD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will
moderate a panel discussion. A reception will follow the event.

Super-sized World: The Global Obesity Epidemic, takes place from 12:00 – 6:00
PM on Thursday, December 9, 2010, at the New York Academy of Sciences, 7 World
Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St., 40th floor, New York, NY.

Registration is $35. Academy members are admitted free. Register online at
www.nyas.org/supersized.

Media may register by contacting Adrienne Burke, Director, Public Outreach, the
New York Academy of Sciences, at aburke@..., 212.298.8655.


###
About the New York Academy of Sciences

The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization
committed to advancing science, technology, and society worldwide since 1817.
With 25,000 members in 140 countries, the Academy is creating a global community
of science for the benefit of humanity. The Academy's core mission is to advance
scientific knowledge, positively impact the major global challenges of society
with science-based solutions, and increase the number of scientifically informed
individuals in society at large. Please visit us online at www.nyas.org.

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Fat Traveler Prepares For 'Plus-Sized Ordeal'

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/24/131569917/fat-traveler-prepares-for-plus-sized-ord\
eal

Airline travel is a pain for just about everyone. But for many overweight
passengers, traveling isn't simply an annoyance — it can be physically
uncomfortable, expensive and humiliating. As Rob Goldstone explains, the
travails of travel for a heavy person extend far beyond the airplane.

NEAL CONAN, host:

Long lines, intimate pat-downs, scanner boycotts, baggage fees - no one needs
reminding, particularly on the day before Thanksgiving of the indignities of air
travel.

But if you're fat, travel can be physically uncomfortable, expensive,
embarrassing, even humiliating - at least as Rob Goldstone described it in The
New York Times. Try squeezing through the metal detector, navigating transit
turnstiles and enduring jibes and cruel stares.

His recent piece in The New York Times is "The Tricks and Trials of Traveling
While Fat." For the heavier listeners in our audience, is this your experience?
Tell us your story: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@.... You can also join the
conversation on our website. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Rob Goldstone is a former travel writer and joins us today from our bureau in
New York. Nice to have you with us.

Mr. ROB GOLDSTONE (Correspondent, The New York Times): Nice to be here.

CONAN: And you describe a routine you've developed with flight attendants every
time you step across the threshold and get aboard an airplane.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: It's true. I've done it for many years now. And I think people
are getting wise, because I'm not the only person. But as soon as I get on the
plane, the most important thing for me is to locate the very, very scarce
seatbelt extender. And there's usually two, maybe three on the plane. And as we
all seem to be getting a bit larger, whereas it used to always be mine, now I
have to make a beeline for the friendly flight attendant. I give them a wink. I
pat my stomach, they nod and they know what I want. And then as soon as they've
done their demo, they give it to me.

CONAN: So they slip you the seatbelt extender quietly and...

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Very discreetly.

CONAN: And the airplane has to be among - you're a travel writer, you've done a
lot of flying.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: I've done a lot of flying. And ironically, as, you know,
technology and we've got cleverer, planes have got smaller. If anything, they're
giving people more leg room. But to be honest, the last time I looked around at
my fellow passengers, it wasn't their legs that were growing; they seem to be
getting a bit wider rather than taller.

CONAN: And there are a couple of airlines, as you note in your piece, that if
you can't fit in the seat with the arms down, they require you go buy two seats.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: They do, and more and more of them are doing this. And I think a
lot of plus-sized travelers - I call myself a fat traveler, but some people hate
that word, so we'll use plus-sized...

CONAN: OK.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: ...rather fat. We'll mix it up a bit. But they already know that.
And where possible that, you know, I try to either buy an extra seat or a middle
seat, or I smile sweetly at a check-in agent and hope that they'll block the
middle seat. But it does give for a lot of extra stress in something which is
already extremely stressful as you know, and the holiday season makes it even
more so.

CONAN: And it begins, I guess for you, on the security line.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Well, security line - people forget that. You know, you have to
go through these scanners. And not only are they looking to see if we're
smuggling things aboard, but if any part of your body actually touches the side
of the scanner, it will beep.

And so someone in the TSA told me, a long time ago now it seems, that the way to
do it is to kind of contort your body and fold your arms in front of you, kind
of like as if you're being laid out, like you've just died. And you put your
arms, you fold them in front of you and you scuttle through, and it never beeps.
Well, it would be if you had something you shouldn't. But as long as you're
clean, it doesn't beep. But you try walking normally and you're a bit big, it
will beep every time.

CONAN: Have you gone through the new scanner?

Mr. GOLDSTONE: I haven't. I can't wait for that one.

CONAN: Oh, because you just kind of stand there and hold your hands over your
head and then not a whole lot happens. I think they're a little bit bigger too.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Yeah. And again, maybe that's going to be a plus for us
plus-sized travelers because, you know, these are quite narrow, the ones we have
now. And most travelers just don't realize - you go through over and over again.
It's beeping, you've taken everything off. Well, chances are it's just your
touching the sides as you go through.

CONAN: It's interesting - and perhaps not a surprise - there have been almost
300 comments on The New York Times website about your article, many of them
asking, why don't you just lose some weight?

Mr. GOLDSTONE: I found those interesting as well because - I think the reason I
wrote the article wasn't just about could I or could I not lose weight. It was
using my example, some of which I hoped were humorous, to show that there are
people that are fat for all kinds of reasons they couldn't lose weight.

I, over the last however many years, have been skinnier and fatter and thinner.
And sure, you could just lose weight. But for a lot of people, it's like saying,
you know, if you had somebody that was disabled next to you and it was causing a
problem, you wouldn't say to him, I wish you were just a little bit less
disabled. It will be so much easier.

You know, for a lot of people, being overweight is a medical issue or it's an
issue that they haven't yet been able to deal with. And it's not simple as just
saying, you know, go to Weight Watchers.

CONAN: And even if you strike out with determination to exercise and eat less,
it's not going to help you today.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: It's not going to help you today. And what I found interesting
was that not only did a lot of people use that reasoning, but so many more said
I'd rather sit next to a fat person than a screaming child. And the thing is,
you can't necessarily turn to that person and say, oh, I wish you didn't have
that child. Could you just get rid of that - it's a bit illogical to me. Yes,
everyone knows that people would, perhaps, feel better and fit better into
airline seats if they were thinner, but they're just not.

CONAN: We're talking with Bob Goldstone, whose piece in The New York Times is
titled "The Tricks and Trials of Traveling While Fat." And we want to hear from
the plus-sized travelers in our audience about their experiences. 800-989-8255.
Email: talk@.... Matthew is on the line from Minneapolis.

MATTHEW (Caller): Hey, yeah. How's it going?

CONAN: Very well. Thanks.

MATTHEW: Good. Yeah. You know, I'm a big guy. I'm 6'6", about 300 pounds. You
know, I'm a big guy. And you know, when I go through security and such, it's a,
you know, everyday is a struggle. And these TSA agents, you know, I have a
feeling that they kind of look down upon the larger traveler, you know?

They kind of - they don't see us as just a normal traveler because they know
that we're gonna be causing, you know, inconveniences for people on the planes.
Other people don't like seeing us on the planes where we get on. I had one time,
when I was trying to get on a plane, I was in a middle seat, man, that was - the
people next to me were very upset, almost to the point where they were, you
know, asking that you switch seats and stuff.

And it's not like, you know, I'm overflowing on - in the left and the right of
me. I fit and there's no, you know, there's no extra room and, you know, it
doesn't help the fact that I'm 6'6" either so...

CONAN: Mm-hmm. And do you have the same problem with the metal detectors or the
scanners that Bob Goldstone was describing?

MATTHEW: Well, yeah, because, you know, as soon as you go through it, you know,
a lot of times - you know, sometimes, you know, they kind of look at you, like,
okay, this guy ain't going to be able to get through. And in other times, you
know - one time, they had me - they segregated me as separate because earlier in
the day, a large person tried to smuggle in like a knife or something in there
and they were checking the larger passengers separately - so...

CONAN: Well, Matthew, thanks very much, and we hope if you're traveling this
holiday weekend, your experiences are better.

MATTHEW: Well, I'm going to be driving. That's for sure.

CONAN: Okay.

MATTHEW: All right.

CONAN: Thanks very much. This email from Barbara in South Bend: My son weighs
about 400 pounds. So the last time we traveled, we bought him two seats. At the
time we bought the tickets, we explained why we needed two seats. The woman
thanked us for thinking ahead and for asking for two seats. When we arrived at
the airport, we discovered they had assigned the seats apart and they gave us a
hard time trying to reassign them. Imagine that. Has that happened to you, Bob?

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Well, it's interesting. I'd like to answer both of those
actually.

CONAN: Sure.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: The gentleman that called, what's interesting is - and he brings
up that subject, I think, and I tried to make it clear, it's not easy for the
fat passenger either. I think that's what other people don't understand. It's
not like that when we try to squeeze ourselves into a middle seat or whatever,
we don't realize that it's going to be awkward. And I think that's the biggest
problem, is that people go, don't you realize you couldn't fit into that seat?

Well, the question may be is that the airlines maybe should look at selling a
premium, not a business class seat because that's a whole different expense and
a different story, but maybe they should look at selling us slightly larger seat
in the way they sell seats with bigger leg room - or more extensive leg room.

CONAN: Yeah. On some airlines, yes.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: In the case of what was just emailed in, you know, I think, it's
absolutely it's all sort of the same thing, it's all happened to me, you know?
People do look down on you and you're treated differently, and I just think so
much of what was said - not just here now, but in those comments that came in,
from people like me and bigger than me, who have said that they really feel like
second class citizens when they're traveling in what is a very stressful time
for a lot of people anyway.

CONAN: Let's go next to Charles. Charles, with us from Kansas City. Charles? All
right. I guess Charles is not there. Let's go next to Aaron. Aaron, with us from
East Lansing.

AARON (Caller): Hi. Yes. I just like to call and talk about, you know - it's not
just the larger or fatter or plus-sized individuals like people like to say it.
I am about 6'7", 6'8" and a healthy 250, 260. And it used to be, when I fly and
ask for bulkhead seats when I arrive at the airport. Last couple of times I
flown to visit family in North Carolina and other places, they don't offer that
anymore. You had to purchase that. And it's an extra premium for the seat. And I
also have issue of - I'm very, very broad in the shoulders. And the last time I
traveled down to Charlotte to visit family in North Carolina, I actually was
asked to pay for extra seat just because my shoulders would impinge on the
people next to me.

CONAN: And is that fair or unfair, do you think, Aaron?

AARON: I think it's kind of, you know, unfair. It's - I have stopped flying
because of it. You know, I'll either rent a car or make sure my vehicle is in
good repair and I'll make the, you know, 11-hour drive from Michigan to North
Carolina just so I don't have to avoid - you know, just so I can avoid the
issues with the airport and the security scanners, because I've had that issue
as well, you know, trying to walk through there. You know, I gotten to the point
where I had to walk through sideways and then they'd question me, well, why are
you walking through sideways? Well, if I walk through, you know, forward, I'm
going to brush the sides.

CONAN: Yeah. Yeah. So you're - are you driving this weekend?

AARON: Yes, I am. I'm actually driving from East Lansing down to St. Joseph's to
spend Thanksgiving with my fiancee and her family. And I had a chance for -one
of my friends has a pilot license. We could have flown from Lansing Airport down
there. You know, just like I told him, I'm sorry, that is just - it's easier for
me to make the drive.

CONAN: Okay. Aaron, thanks very much and drive carefully, okay?

AARON: All right. Thank you.

CONAN: Bye-bye. We're talking with Rob Goldstone about his piece for The New
York Times, "The Tricks and Trials of Traveling While Fat." You're listening to
TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And Tim is on the line, Tim with us from
Davenport, Iowa.

TIM (Caller): Hi. I just am a plus-sized person. I don't fortunately have to use
a seat extender yet, but it's close. And I find that sometimes when you're
sitting in the aisle seat and there's another large person in the window seat,
and then the unfortunate person who's got the middle seat comes to sit down, and
you get up and you're getting - situated, I usually turn to them and my standard
comment is, don't worry, my wife thinks I should lose 50 pounds too. And that'll
sometimes lighten the mood and, you know, I'm not going to get any smaller on
the flight, but at least shows I've got a sense of humor about my weight.

CONAN: Rob, do you find humor sometimes cuts through some of the stress?

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Absolutely. And you may have heard me laugh with what the
gentleman said. I do the exact same thing because, as I said, it's not fun for
us. It's not like we don't realize that we are larger than the average
passenger.

I did want to comment, the person that talked about the split seat when you book
two seats. I've booked two seats a number of times, and I've had it happen a
couple of times. And I've had to ask a person who sat in another seat and say, I
booked two seats, but you actually have one of them next to me. And the reason I
booked two was to be together. And the person on the plane was fine, but trying
to explain it at check-in, surprisingly, was weird. They said these are the
seats you've been assigned. And I was like, well, I obviously booked two because
I don't fit.

And so it seems to me that sometimes airlines follow their rules, like they say,
and you just have to treat every situation different, in the same way as when
you ask them if they would block a seat. I've had so many that have blocked a
seat with no charge because there's been room. But sometimes you have to have
humor because there is nothing else that's going to work.

CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Tim. In fact, Rob, you were - you told a
story in your piece, traveling not in this country, but in Vietnam, where you
were told not to take a rickshaw.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Well, it all started out - I was going to say booking two seats
here is now getting to be the norm. But try it in somewhere like Vietnam where
not only do they have no idea why I would buy two seats and want you to resell
the seat even though I bought it. But on arrival at the airport, the customs
agent, when looking at the form, said to me, how many kilos are you? And I said,
is that on the form? And she said, no, I'm just interested because you would
break our rickshaws.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GOLDSTONE: So - and - but she was doing it in such a sweet, non-threatening,
helpful kind of way. She was also semi-correct - I didn't break the rickshaws,
but it was touch and go - that it was a different attitude, but it still came
from the same place.

CONAN: Let's get another call in. This is David, David with us from Portland.

DAVID (Caller): Hi. How are you?

CONAN: Very well. Thanks.

DAVID: I wanted to just let your listeners know that there - I'm six-foot four,
about 350. And, you know, it's okay in the society to be big and it's okay to be
tall, but it's not okay to be both. And you've had several callers who fit into
that category like I do.

One thing I discovered a couple of years ago is that you can go online and find
your own seatbelt extenders. I carry with me the two most common types of
seatbelts that airlines have. And I no longer have that issue of having to ask
the flight attendant for a seat belt extender. I check the belts right when I
get on the plane, make sure I've got the proper extender and then I don't have
to worry about it.

CONAN: How much are they?

DAVID: They're relatively expensive. I think they were, like, $40 each or
something. But it's - it avoids so much heartache because there's always the
flight attendant who is not quite so subtle about it and comes down with it
flopping in the air like carrying a dead rat.

(Soundbite of laughter)

DAVID: Here's your seatbelt extender, sir. And so I no longer have to put up
with that particular umbrage anyway.

CONAN: David, thanks very much for the advice. And safe travels.

DAVID: Thanks for the topic. Bye-bye.

CONAN: Rob Goldstone, thank you for your time today. And I hope if you're
traveling somewhere for Thanksgiving, it's no hassle.

Mr. GOLDSTONE: Thank you very much.

CONAN: Rob Goldstone, a frequent traveler, many parts of the world, a former
travel writer. You can find a link to his New York Times piece, "The Tricks and
Trials of Traveling While Fat," at our website. It's at npr.org, just click on
TALK OF THE NATION. He joined us today from our bureau in New York.

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New Genomic Technique Reveals Obesity Gene Variants

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101129203332.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2010) — Obesity is highly heritable, but so far genetic
association studies have only explained a small fraction of this heritability.
Now, in a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome
Biology, researchers have identified DNA variants in two nervous system genes
that are associated with an excessively high BMI.

Kelly Frazer and colleagues from UC San Diego, Scripps Translational Science
Institute and Sanofi-Aventis used a new approach that is likely to become
popular in searching for hidden heritability: the resequencing of a candidate
area of the genome in a large number of individuals followed by screening for
genetic markers within this region that are associated with the disease or
condition in question. Frazer said, "We sequenced two intervals encoding the
enzymes FAAH and MGLL which modulate the levels of endocannabinoids present in
the brain and peripheral tissues that are involved in the regulation of energy
balance and appetite. The level of these endocannabinoids is high in obese
patients, and thus these two enzymes provide strong candidates to examine for a
genetic association with BMI."

In these two genes, the researchers were able to identify four regions
associated with BMI: the FAAH promoter, MGLL promoter, MGLL intron 2, and an
enhancer in the MGLL intron 3. Further testing of one of these regions revealed
rare variants that were associated with increased levels of endocannabinoids in
the plasma, which is consistent with previous findings. According to Frazer,
"This is one of the first studies to use the new sequencing technologies to link
rare and low frequency variants to a complex trait such as obesity and will be
of particular interest to understand more comprehensively the role of
inheritance in obesity, a rapidly rising serious health issue across the world."

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Overeating, Like Drug Use, Rewards And Alters Brain

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131698228/overeating-like-drug-use-rewards-and-alt\
ers-brain?sc=fb&cc=fp

If you've ever wondered why it's hard to stay on a diet, consider this
observation from Ralph DiLeone, a brain scientist at Yale University: "The
motivation to take cocaine in the case of a drug addict is probably engaging
similar circuits that the motivation to eat is in a hungry person."

That's what brain scientists have concluded after comparing studies of
overeating with studies of drug addiction, DiLeone says.

They've also found that, at least in animals, sweet or fatty foods can act a lot
like a drug in the brain, he says. And there's growing evidence that eating too
much of these foods can cause long-term changes in the brain circuits that
control eating behavior.

The food-drug link comes from the fact that both animal and human brains include
special pathways that make us feel good when we eat, and really good when we eat
sweet or fatty foods with lots of calories, DiLeone says.

"Drug addiction is really hijacking some of these pathways that evolved to
promote food intake for survival reasons," he says

That doesn't necessarily mean food is addictive the way cocaine is, DiLeone
says, but he says there is growing evidence that eating a lot of certain foods
early in life can alter your brain the way drugs do.

Food That Changes The Brain

Teresa Reyes, a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology
at the University of Pennsylvania, showed that in an experiment with mice.

Reyes was part of a team that gave mice a high-fat diet from the time they were
weaned until they reached 20 weeks, so they gained significant amounts of weight
and became obese. Then the researchers looked at the brain's pleasure centers
— areas known to change in drug addiction.

"What we found is that in animals that were obese, there were really dramatic
changes in these areas of the brain that participate in telling us how rewarding
food is," Reyes says. The changes made these areas less responsive to fatty
foods, so an obese mouse would have to eat more fat than a typical mouse to get
the same amount of pleasure, she says.

And some of the changes didn't go away, even when the mice returned to a normal
diet.

"So it is similar to what happens in cases of chronic drug abuse," Reyes says.
"The reward circuitry changes in a similar way, and that promotes the seeking of
that drug, or in our case, in seeking palatable food."

That could help explain why obese children tend to remain that way as adults,
she says.

Addictive Food?


More evidence of a link between food and drugs comes from a team that has been
trying to understand how hunger can trigger an animal's craving for drugs.

"Hungry animals will take a lot of drugs," says Uri Shalev, a researcher at
Concordia University in Montreal.

Shalev and his colleagues studied rats that had learned to give themselves
heroin by pressing a lever. When the scientists removed the heroin, the rats
mostly stopped pressing the lever. But when the scientists also took away the
rat's food, the lever pressing came back with a vengeance.

The rats would press the lever hundreds of times, "even though they don't get
the drug anymore," Shalev says.

The team thought this behavior might involve a substance in the brain called
neuropeptide Y, which makes animals feel hungry. And, sure enough, when hungry
rats got a substance that blocks neuropeptide Y, they stopped pressing the
lever.

Many other studies also have shown links between food and drugs.

A Swedish team found that a stomach hormone called ghrelin could make rats seek
sugar the way addicts seek drugs. And a team at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, found that male rats chose sugar over small amounts of cocaine,
while female rats did just the opposite.

Even so, DiLeone, the Yale researcher, says it's still not clear how far the
food-drug comparison holds up, especially in people.

"There's an ongoing argument in my field whether food is addictive or not," he
says. "But whether it's addictive or not, there's probably components that are
similar to addiction."

That means it makes sense to focus on eating behavior early in life, when the
brain is adapting to a particular environment. It also probably makes sense to
take approaches used to treat addiction and adapt them to overeating," DiLeone
says.

The new studies on overeating and addiction were presented at the 2010 Society
for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego.

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Study: New Genes Linked to Puberty and Body Weight in Women


Read more:
http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/24/study-new-genes-linked-to-puberty-and-body\
-weight-in-women/#ixzz16tusxy7p


Scientists have found 30 genes that control the timing of puberty in girls. Many
of the newly identified genes also contribute to body weight and metabolism.
Genetic researchers from an international consortium called ReproGen, which
includes Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and King's College London's
Department of Twin Research, studied data on the genomes of 87,000 women
throughout Europe, Australia and the U.S. to determine which genes seemed to
unlock puberty. They also conducting replication studies in an additional 15,000
women.

They found 30 genes that were associated with onset of menarche — the first
menstrual period — and among those, four had been previously associated with
body mass index (BMI). Another three played a role in fat metabolism. (More on
Time.com: Study: Signs of Early Puberty in More Young Girls)

The study suggests that some women may have a genetic predisposition toward
early puberty and body weight. The authors say excess body fat may also trigger
the puberty genes. Past studies have suggested that obesity could be a driver of
early puberty, which is striking more and more American girls.

Early puberty could potentially increase girls' lifetime risk of developing
breast cancer — the body's production of estrogen increases during sexual
development, and longer exposure to estrogen is a risk factor for breast cancer.
Childhood obesity also presents its own health risks, including higher odds of
high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. (More on Time.com: Study:
American Women Aren't Sure What Overweight Looks Like)

"It is important to understand that these 'genetic factors' can be modified by
changes in lifestyle. Efforts to reduce or prevent childhood obesity should in
turn help reduce the early onset of puberty in girls," senior author Dr. Joanne
Murabito, an associate professor of medicine at BUSM and clinic director and
investigator of the Framingham Heart Study, said in a statement.


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Do obese but metabolically normal women differ in intra-abdominal fat and
physical activity levels from those with the expected metabolic abnormalities? A
cross-sectional study

http://7thspace.com/headlines/364757/do_obese_but_metabolically_normal_women_dif\
fer_in_intra_abdominal_fat_and_physical_activity_levels_from_those_with_the_expe\
cted_metabolic_abnormalities_a_cross_sectional_study.html

Obesity remains a major public health problem, associated with a cluster of
metabolic abnormalities. However, individuals exist who are very obese but have
normal metabolic parameters.

The aim of this study was to determine to what extent differences in metabolic
health in very obese women are explained by differences in body fat
distribution, insulin resistance and level of physical activity.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional pilot study of 39 obese women (age: 28-64
yrs, BMI: 31-67 kg/m2) recruited from community settings. Women were defined as
'metabolically normal'on the basis of blood glucose, lipids and blood pressure.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging was used to determine body fat distribution. Detailed
lifestyle and metabolic profiles of participants were obtained.

Results: Women with a healthy metabolic profile had lower intra-abdominal fat
volume (geometric mean 4.78 l [95% CIs 3.99-5.73] vs 6.96 l [5.82-8.32]) and
less insulin resistance (HOMA 3.41 [2.62-4.44] vs 6.67 [5.02-8.86]) than those
with an abnormality.

The groups did not differ in abdominal subcutaneous fat volume (19.6 l
[16.9-22.7] vs 20.6 [17.6-23.9]). A higher proportion of those with a healthy
compared to a less healthy metabolic profile met current physical activity
guidelines (70% [95% CIs 55.8-84.2] vs 25% [11.6-38.4]).

Intra-abdominal fat, insulin resistance and physical activity make independent
contributions to metabolic status in very obese women, but explain only around a
third of the variance.

Conclusion: A sub-group of women exists who are metabolically normal despite
being very obese. Differences in fat distribution, insulin resistance, and
physical activity level are associated with metabolic differences in these
women, but account only partially for these differences.

Future work should focus on strategies to identify those obese individuals most
at risk of the negative metabolic consequences of obesity and on identifying
other factors that contribute to metabolic status in obese individuals.

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Michelle Obama welcomes anti-obesity bill's passage

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101202/hl_afp/healthusfoodpoliticschildren_2010120\
2223740

WASHINGTON (AFP) – First Lady Michelle Obama, a champion of measures to fight
childhood obesity in the United States, welcomed passage in Congress Thursday of
a law aimed at improving the quality of school meals.

The House of Representatives earlier passed The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act,
following passage by the Senate. The bill now awaits President Barack Obama's
signature to become law.

It allows the federal government to encourage schools, through subsidies, to
serve students meals that respect nutritional standards set by the National
Academy of Sciences.

Michelle Obama called the bill a "groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation
that will significantly improve the quality of meals that children receive at
school and will play an integral role in our efforts to combat childhood
obesity.

"I am confident that, together, we can turn the tide on childhood obesity and
give all our children the happy, healthy lives they deserve," the president's
wife added.

Obama, a former vice president of a Chicago hospital, launched her "Let's Move"
initiative in February to combat obesity after spending her first year in the
White House focusing on childhood health.

Her program is designed to encourage US schools to improve the quality of school
meals, offer more kids more physical activity and education on good nutrition
and healthy eating.

She has also planted an organic garden on the grounds of the presidential
residence and participated in physical activities with US students.

Around 32 percent of US children and teenagers are overweight or obese,
according to the latest data. Nearly 20 percent of children aged six to 11 and
18 percent of those aged 12-19 are obese.

A study by leading US health care provider Kaiser Permanente in March showed
that more US children are becoming extremely obese at a younger age, putting
them at risk of dying decades younger than normal-weight children.

Two retired generals have also warned that increasing rates of obesity among
young Americans could undermine the future of the military, with many potential
recruits increasingly too fat to serve.

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Weight Watchers Faults Processed Foods While Profiting From Them

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/12/03/131782587/weightwatchers-faults-proce\
ssed-foods-while-profiting-from-them?sc=fb&cc=fp

When Weight Watchers unveiled a new points plan to help people seeking svelter
silhouettes, the company said it was its "biggest innovation in over a decade."

The new ProPoints system favors healthier, "natural" fare, including fruit,
vegetables and lean protein. Whole grain and high-fiber choices are rewarded.
Foods that are rich in fat and added sugar get dinged a little more than in the
past.

But, we wondered, how the revised points approach squares with the foods it
sells, such as nutritional bars, and those that carry the WeightWatchers name
under license?


WeightWatchers makes good money from licensing and endorsements of  foods
ranging from special items on the menu at Applebee's to frozen treats from Wells
Dairy.

We asked the company several times this week about plans for its packaged food
line now that its PointsPlus system tilts so strongly against processed foods.
But a spokeswoman declined to answer questions or make available an executive to
talk.

So we decided to take a trip to our local Safeway to check out how the food sold
now under the WeightWatchers name matches up with the company's new points plan.

After scanning the freezer case, we grabbed a box of WeightWatchers Smart Ones
Artisan Creations Grilled Flatbread Savory Steak & Ranch. It's a reasonable 300
calories, but then there's the 570 mg of sodium, and an unimpressive 4 grams of
dietary fiber.

But there was nothing very whole or natural to be found among the ingredients.
We counted no fewer than 80 distinct substances on the list from salt and
soybean oil to titanium dioxide and ammonium chloride.

The product didn't seem any worse, of course, than hundreds of other packaged
foods on the frozen food aisle, and it certainly has fewer calories and less fat
than many other frozen dinners.

But if WeightWatchers is telling members the key to weight loss is fiber and
"natural foods," we're not sure how the current Savory Steak & Ranch Flatbread
fits in.

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US panel approves first obesity drug in a decade

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101208/ts_alt_afp/healthusobesitypharmacompanyorex\
igen_20101208000939

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration on
Tuesday gave its approval to an anti-obesity drug, in what could be the first
new approved drug for losing weight in more than a decade.

Contrave, a drug developed by the California-based Orexigen Therapies, was given
the nod by a 13-7 vote by the FDA expert panel, which advises the US regulatory
body.

The FDA usually follows its recommendations, and is expected to make a final
decision in January.

The panel said the drug was only modestly effective and was found to cause
slight boosts in blood pressure and pulse. It also urged a wider trial to assess
potential heart attack risks.

The FDA earlier this year acted on the panel's recommendations and denied two
new obesity drugs, Qnexa and Lorcaserin, over cancer and heart risks.

The same agency in October requested US pharmaceutical company Abbott
Laboratories pull its obesity drug Meridia from the US market after European
tests found the key ingredient increased the risk of serious heart problems.

About one third of Americans are obese, and the only FDA-approved prescription
diet pill on the market is Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG's Xenical, which
was approved by the FDA in 1999.


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Will Bigger Be Better? Plus-Size Women Cast For “Sex And The City”-Type
Reality Show

http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-plus-size-women-reality-tv-vh1/

Gone are the days when the severe weight-loss show “The Biggest Loser” or
the dating competition atrocity “More To Love” are the only shows on
television with plus-size peeps. This past year has brought us “Huge,” a
Nikki Blonsky-starring scripted show about teens at fat camp (which has since
been canceled), and “Mike & Molly,” a sitcom about a plus-size couple in
love (which prompted MarieClaire.com blogger Maura Kelly to pen an embarrassing
post about how “fatties” repulse her). Now plus-size peeps may be making
what I hope will be a more multi-faceted appearance on reality TV. Doron Ofir
Casting is casting a new VH1 show that aims to be the real-life “Sex and the
City” with “full-figured, fabulous big girls” in L.A.


Let’s ignore, for a moment, that MTV’s little-seen “Downtown Girls”
already tried and failed to be a compelling “Sex & The City”-style reality
show. We can’t ignore that a reality show with a cast of plus-size women with
more to their lives than losing weight — you know, those little things like
jobs, relationships and families — could actually be pretty groundbreaking if
it’s done right. You know, insofar as a show that solely focuses on a
woman’s body shape can actually be groundbreaking.

I won’t be getting my hopes too high, however. The premise of the show is
ick-ily reminiscent of “Jersey Shore”: The casting notice trills, “It’s
time to show the world that big girls have more fun! ... Big girls don’t cry,
they freakin’ party!” (Am I the only one who thinks the use of the word
“freakin’” speaks volumes?)

Another reason I’m not getting my hopes up? All reality shows come down to
casting and editing, which determines what narratives the producers choose to
tell. Viewers never know if reality TV’s editors will present a
“docu-series” (like MTV’s “16 & Pregnant,” for instance) or whether
they will edit a narrative that simply reiterates stereotypes: women are catty,
competitive bitches who are desperate to marry, men only want sex, black men are
gangstas, fat people are all miserable and want to lose weight, etc. (Media
critic Jennifer Pozner’s recent book, Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth
About Guilty Pleasure TV, goes into this in much more detail.) It remains to be
seen whether these “full-figured, fabulous big girls” are plus-size in the
real world sense — upwards of size 14 — or in the Hollywood sense — size 8
or 10 — and that is crucial. As commenter LucyInTheRain put it on Jezebel.com,
“If I don’t see some
  motherf***ing stretch marks, dimples, and foopas in this ‘reality’ show,
I’m going to be awfully pissed.”

I’m also suspicious of Doron Ofir Casting’s motivations. While the “Sex &
The City”-style reality show may well depict plus-size women as
self-confident, intelligent, warmhearted and complex individuals, elsewhere on
their website I see Doron Ofir was casting back in October for a couples’
weight loss show which appears to be called “Love Handles.”
LoveHandlesCasting.com is reached by a click-through on Doron Ofir’s main site
and shows male and female feet standing on a scale, a couple of brownies,
measuring tape, and a gingerbread man with a heart on his belly snapped in half.
The network is unspecified, but the notice reads:

“An extraordinary opportunity is extended to couples that are battling their
weight in a groundbreaking new television series dedicated to changing lives one
couple at a time. Are you and your partner overweight and in an unhealthy
relationship? Are you ready to shed the pounds as a team and strengthen not only
your bodies but your relationship, too? ... Did you go from “that happy
couple” to “that heavy couple”? Did you gain weight together and lose the
romance? Battling the bulge is difficult on your own, but with a partner, the
weight on your shoulders doubles and can crush your relationship.”

The casting notice promises 16 couples will receive nutrition, fitness and
medical guidance — which is great — as well as “invaluable relationship
counseling.” While I won’t deny that significant weight gain or weight loss
(which apparently does not make for good TV) can be indicative of an unhealthy
relationship, this casting notice reads to me like weight gain caused or
contributed to relationship problems. To be sure, looking less attractive to
your partner is a relationship problem. But all relationships have many elements
to them and undue focus on the scale seems to be to be further stigmatizing the
overweight. I wouldn’t say the fairly average couple’s experience of gaining
weight and “los[ing] the romance”  — i.e., getting ‘fat and happy in
love’ as The Frisky once put it — quite counts as being in “an unhealthy
relationship” which requires counseling. And this is a “no duh” but it
bears repeating: not all
  plus-size people are necessarily unhealthy. (The plus-size musician Beth Ditto,
for instance, has this great quote about how she’s sick of being diagnosed as
“unhealthy” simply because she’s fat.)

So the question is why casting directors who are stigmatizing the overweight on
one show are also purporting to showcase the fabulous lives of plus-size women
on another show? It seems duplicitous to me.

Only time — and what doesn’t end up on the casting director’s/editing room
floors —  will tell.

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Obesity: Problem, Solution, or Both?

http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/issues/2010/spr/or/132-obesity-problem-solut\
ion-or-both.html

Since 1982, the Southern California Permanente Medical Group’s Positive Choice
Weight Loss Program in San Diego has treated more than 30,000 adults,
predominantly middle-aged, for obesity—some successfully, some not. This has
been an extraordinary experience and provided us with numerous counterintuitive
observations. We now are convinced that obesity is widely misunderstood, and we
realize that the unusual program we have operated safely and effectively for
more than a quarter century is often misunderstood as well. There is growing
interest in our program and in using our approach as a model for other Kaiser
Permanente (KP) Regions. We therefore share an overview here of our experience
with this specific program. Consequently, most referenced works in this report
are publications emanating from our program, sometimes contrasting those
findings with conventional views on the subject.

The Positive Choice Weight Loss Program has two integrated components:

• Prolonged absolute fasting, with the use of a supplement to support health
and to prevent death from such fasting.

• A lengthy and complex group program to explore the basis of each
participant’s unconscious compulsive use of food, as well as to explore the
hidden benefits of obesity for that individual.

Given that the average weight loss of someone completing our 20-week program is
62 lb (28 kg) and that approximately 5000 patients each have lost more than 100
lb (45 kg), we realize we have challenged the belief systems of some who assume
either that such weight loss cannot commonly be achieved or that the process of
supplemented absolute fasting must be dangerous. In fact, the process has been
notably safe, and major improvements in biomedical outcomes have been the norm.
This article addresses four basic issues:

1. The safety of properly supplemented prolonged absolute fasting in obesity

2. The observed origins of obesity, and their implications

3. The components of a relevant treatment program

4. Outcomes of the Program.

Overview of Unsupplemented Starvation
The Irish hunger strikers of the early 1980s illustrated the outcome of
unsupplemented, prolonged, absolute fasting. They only drank water, and it was
clear after six weeks that all involved had sustained significant weight loss
and were mortally ill. By seven weeks, all were dead. They died because of
profound potassium and magnesium deficiency, with consequent lethal cardiac
arrhythmia. Had they received electrolyte supplementation and had the hunger
strikers been obese, they could have lived for several months longer before
dying because of major protein deficiency. Supplementing two essential fatty
acids and the essential amino acids needed for anabolic protein turnover would
have prevented such a death. Had this been done, the hunger strikers would have
died toward the end of a year because of beriberi, pellagra, and scurvy.
Preventing these diseases by vitamin supplementation would be straightforward.
To simplify the example, we have left out the
  problem of calorie deficiency in these nonobese individuals. In obese
individuals, body fat stores of course resolve this problem; the metabolism of
these fat stores is obviously the basis for weight loss. Details of
unsupplemented starvation can be found in the famous work of Ancel Keys,
described in his two-volume Biology of Human Starvation.1

Safety of Supplemented Fasting
The nutritional supplement Optifast 70 was created by Sandoz Pharmaceuticals to
supply electrolytes, amino acids, two essential fatty acids, and vitamins. At
420 cal/d in five feedings, this superbly designed product allows a sufficiently
morbidly obese individual to cease eating all food and caloric beverages for at
least a full year. In our entire experience, no death or biomedical harm has
occurred in any of these individuals.

During a year of supplemented absolute fasting, a weight loss of approximately
300 lb (136 kg) will occur (Figure 1). To the degree that this does not occur,
it means that the patient is consuming food, regardless of denial. Surprisingly,
hunger is not a problem. However, the desire to eat is variable, ranging from
minor to uncontrollable. Interestingly, this desire to eat is an issue separate
from hunger. Indeed, it attests to the profound psychoactive benefits of food,
as illustrated by a commonplace observation that is even built into our
language: “Sit down and have something to eat; you’ll feel better.” There
is truth for many in the phrase “comfort food.”

Origins of Obesity
In the early years of the Weight Program, we naively were taking morbidly obese
individuals down 300 lb (136 kg) at a time, a rate of loss distinctly exceeding
that of bariatric surgery. The striking results perhaps understandably led us to
believe that we understood what we were doing. Counterintuitively, some of our
most successful patients forced us to realize we were merely in possession of a
powerful technology and had no idea what we were doing in other regards. They
did this by demonstrating that massive weight loss could precipitate divorce,
severe anxiety, and sometimes suicidality. Some patients, sensing these outcomes
early, fled their own success in the Program. Surprisingly, our high dropout
rate was mainly limited to patients who were successfully losing weight. By
contrast, we had other patients who were eating during the Program, routinely
denying it, and losing no weight while paying a fairly significant fee,
seemingly to accomplish
  nothing. With these patients, it took some time for us to realize that we were
supplying an important support system with our group approach. It turned out
that many of our obese patients had no functional support systems at home.

The striking and frankly annoying conflict between our ability quickly and
safely to reduce a person’s weight and what patients appeared capable of
tolerating emotionally led us to detailed exploration of the life histories of
286 of our patients. Here, we unexpectedly discovered that histories of
childhood sexual abuse were common, as were histories of growing up in markedly
dysfunctional households. It became evident that traumatic life experiences
during childhood and adolescence were far more common in an obese population
than was comfortably recognized.2 We slowly discovered that major weight loss is
often sexually or physically threatening and that obesity, whatever its health
risks, is protective emotionally. Ultimately, we saw that certain of our more
intractable public health problems such as obesity are often also unconsciously
attempted solutions to problems dating back to the earliest years but hidden by
time, by shame, by secrecy, and by
  social taboos against exploring certain areas of life experience. The
antecedent life experiences of the obese are quite different from those of the
always-slender.3 Eventually, these Program findings led to the 17,000-member
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, in which we established that the
developmental damage initially discovered in our obese patients was broadly
applicable to many aspects of everyday medical practice.4,5

Ultimately, we learned from our patients that in obesity, we are dealing with
two core problems:

• The unconscious, compulsive use of food for its psychoactive benefits

• The unrecognized and unspoken benefits of obesity.

These two core problems are markedly at variance with conventional thinking
about obesity, starting with the government’s food pyramid. Worse yet, these
two basic problems are uncomfortable to deal with. In reviewing the medical
literature, one quickly notes that most articles purporting to discuss the
causes of obesity quickly switch to describing the unhealthy consequences of
obesity and never pursue their stated goal. One also notes the tendency to
confuse intermediary mechanism with basic cause. For instance, several years
ago, leptin deficiency was proposed as the cause of human obesity. Although that
idea has now been discarded, someday the “real leptin” will be discovered,
but it will no more be causal than increased levels of epinephrine are the cause
of anxiety. Each is a necessary intermediary mechanism, not a basic cause.
Understanding the difference is as essential to progress in treatment as it is
to primary prevention.

Any physician choosing to validate in his patients the points being made here
will be in the position of asking about topics that we have all learned are not
discussed by polite people. Incest, rape, family suicides, and parental
brutality are not readily brought up. That being the case, we physicians
typically have no basis for opinions on the frequency or rarity of such life
experiences. We documented these experiences as surprisingly common among our
patients, but we did not know that before we began routinely inquiring about
them. Counterintuitively, we learned that discussion of these experiences is
usually not uncomfortable to those who have had them, if they are supported by
someone comfortable with their discussion. Patients often find a great sense of
relief in discussing their life experiences. As one patient wrote, “The shame,
guilt, and pain for the abuse and molestations of childhood, and being raped,
was so great that I had to come
  forward or die. If your questionnaire had been put in front of me, it would
have shown me that people existed in the medical profession who knew about the
sad things that happen to some people.” This poignant statement imposes a huge
responsibility on us that we can of course avoid by falling back on lack of time
or lack of training as being the factor that precludes our inquiry.

The now internationally recognized ACE Study was initiated to determine the
prevalence and outcomes of ten categories of such life experiences in more than
17,000 consecutive adults from KP’s San Diego population.6 These experiences
are common, and their consequences are devastating in terms of emotional damage,
biomedical disease, and the costs of health care. Like a child’s footprints in
wet cement, the consequences are lifelong. Putting it plainly in regard to
obesity, we have seen that obesity is not the core problem. Obesity is the
marker for the problem and sometimes is a solution. This is a profoundly
important realization because none of us expects to cure a problem by treating
its symptom.

Treatment
Given the nature of our observations about the causes of obesity, repeatedly
documented in thousands of responses to our preprogram questionnaire (See
http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/files/Obesity/PreprogramQuestionnaire.pdf to
view the questionnaire) and in more than 50 videotaped interviews, it was
inevitable by the early 1990s that we revise our program to fuse two separate
goals: weight loss by supplemented fasting, and helping patients identify and
resolve the life experiences underlying obesity. By far the easier of the two
goals is the medical management of supplemented absolute fasting. Weekly checks
of potassium levels, blood pressure measurements in patients taking
antihypertensive medications, and blood sugar levels in patients with diabetes
are our most common tracking measures other than weight itself. Other details of
biomedical management are equally straightforward but are not the point of this
article. Chronic disease is not a reason
  for exclusion from the Program; most such patients should actually be sought
for Program inclusion if obese. Our only absolute exclusions are pregnancy and
recent myocardial infarction or stroke. Optifast 70, drunk five times daily for
a total daily intake of 420 cal, is a remarkable material that makes
biologically safe the otherwise unthinkable. The remainder of the day’s
caloric needs come from body fat stores as long as those fat stores exist. It is
important to understand that Optifast 70 has one function only: the prevention
of death from prolonged absolute fasting. It does not take weight off people;
not eating does that. And it has nothing to do with whether lost weight is
regained or kept off; that outcome is solely a function of what is accomplished
or not accomplished by the group work of the Program.

By contrast with the simplicity of fasting, the weekly two-hour group meetings
of the Program are a complex endeavor that is difficult for some patients to
engage in and is difficult to train staff to pursue vigorously. By the
mid-1980s, we had learned that our initial goal of teaching people to “eat
right” was totally irrelevant to obesity, although it seemed a reasonable
thing to do when we did not know what to do. In retrospect, we should have known
better because most of us knew that overweight, middle-aged women commonly know
enough about calorie content to give a dietitian a run for his or her money any
day of the week.

Nutrition is an interesting and important subject that has no more relationship
to obesity than it does to anorexia. The role of the Program is to help people
recognize and find an acceptable alternate solution or resolution to the
underlying problems being treated with food. We are at an early stage of
success; the work is difficult because it is resisted by some patients and can
awaken personal ghosts in staff, but we have clearly established a beachhead on
the right beach and slowly are moving inland.

In the course of detailed interviewing of about 2000 obese patients over the
past 20 years, in-depth and often repetitively over time, we have noted several
recurrent findings:

• It is rare for anyone to be born obese. In 2000 adult obese patients, only
one individual was born overweight, at 14 lb (6 kg), to a 550-lb (250-kg)
mother, and she was slender throughout childhood and adolescence until age 20,
when she married an alcoholic and suddenly began massive weight gains,
ultimately matching her mother’s weight. “Born fat” is a defensive
concept.

• A significant minority of our Program participants are born at subnormal
weight because of prematurity.

• Obesity indeed runs in families, as does speaking the same language. It is
the distribution pattern of body fat deposition that is genetically determined,
not its presence.

• Major weight gain is typically abrupt, episodic, and life-event related.

• The forces underlying extreme morbid obesity are relatively easy to discern
for those seeking them. They are qualitatively similar to those underlying mild
overweight, though they are much harder to discern in the latter.

• The age at which weight gain first began is critically important because it
allows one to inquire why it began then. Some patients will know and others will
not want to know, but this is an essential point not to be dropped because of
patient avoidance.

• Obesity commonly is beneficially protective: sexually, physically, and
socially. This is an uncomfortably difficult point for many nonobese individuals
to accept.

• Major weight loss may present a significant threat, usually to the person
involved, but sometimes to others.

• Emotional support from others for major weight loss is uncertain.

With adequate medical monitoring, there is no biologic risk to supplemented
absolute fasting. Supplemented fasting has two treatment advantages:

• When large amounts of weight are to be lost, it reduces weight quickly
enough to provide positive and supportive feedback.

• By removing eating as a major coping device, we expose the underlying issues
that are being treated by the psychoactive properties of food.

The main work of the Program enters personal territory that is comfortably
off-limits to polite people. It is therefore difficult and demanding, though
conceptually simple. Doing the work in groups is essential because of the
implicit support of the group and because participants quickly learn from each
other’s self-observations. To the degree that counselors pose meaningful
questions to their groups, and insist on answers to the questions asked and not
to some enfeebled version of their questions, they are successful. To the degree
that they teach by lecturing, they fail. In actual fact, our task is to help the
participants discover what they already know at some level, and then to use that
discovery for their own benefit. To illustrate the process, some seemingly
simple questions may be offered for our readers to try, understanding that this
works best in small groups and initially will be stressful for the group leader:

1. Why (not how) do you think people get fat?

2. How old were you when you first began putting on weight? Why do you think it
was then and not a few years earlier or later?

3. Sometimes people who lose a lot of weight regain it all, if not more. When
that happens, why do you think it happens?

4. What are the advantages of being overweight?

Patients’ answers to these questions are staggeringly counterintuitive to
conventional thinking about obesity. Moreover, their answers have been
consistent over the many years we have posed these questions in group sessions.
For instance, answers to question 1 routinely are: “stress, depression, people
leave you alone, men won’t bother you.” There are of course occasional
escapist responses like “I just like food.” In that case, the following
response to the answer given for question 2 is helpful: “Really? Can you tell
us why you suddenly liked food more at 22 when you first began putting on
weight?” Responses to question 3 always are versions of “If you don’t deal
with the underlying issues, the weight will come back.” About 60% of the time,
someone in a group will also propose that regain occurs because major weight
loss is threatening. Answers to question 4 repeatedly fall into three
categories: obesity is sexually protective; it
  is physically protective (eg, “throwing your weight around”); and it is
socially protective—people expect less from you.

Ultimately, we were forced to recognize that patients in a supportive setting
speak of things that we ourselves may find it easier not to know. This
embarrassing recognition exposes the tempting opportunity that a physician or
group leader has to become part of the problem by authenticating as biomedical
disease that which is actually the somatic inscription of life experience onto
the human body and brain. The frequent reference to “the disease of obesity”
is grossly in error, diagnostically destitute, and apparently made by those with
little understanding of the antecedent lives of their patients. Obesity, like
tachycardia or jaundice, is a physical sign, not a disease.

What we have learned about obesity has been more widely applicable in everyday
medical practice than we would ever have contemplated. The general principles
underlying the unconscious, compulsive use of food as a psychoactive agent are
common to any of the addictions. We unwittingly recognized this at some level in
the early years of the Program by giving as gifts, coffee mugs bearing the
inscription, “It’s hard to get enough of something that almost works.” The
psychoactive benefits of food are profound though not curative: “Sit down and
have something to eat; you’ll feel better.” Hunger is not at issue in that
saying. Whether we are talking about the next mouthful, the next drink, the next
cigarette, the next sexual partner, or the next dose of whatever psychoactive
chemical we might buy on the street, the concept is equally applicable: It’s
hard to get enough of something that almost works.

Slowly, we have come to recognize that overeating is not the basic problem. It
is an attempted solution, and people are not eager to give up their solutions,
particularly at the behest of those who have no idea of what is going on. Nor is
obesity the problem. Obesity is the consequence, the marker for the problem,
much in the way that smoke is the marker for a house fire. Often enough, obesity
is even the solution—to problems that are buried in time and further protected
by shame, by secrecy, and by social taboos against exploring certain areas of
human experience. A memorable response comes to mind from 1985 when a patient,
going with us through a timeline of her life in which weight, age, and events
were matched, told us that at age 23 she was raped and that in the subsequent
year she gained 105 lb (48 kg). Looking down at the carpet, she then muttered to
herself, “Overweight is overlooked, and that’s the way I need to be.” Not
knowing how to
  respond at the time, we said nothing. A few weeks later when she had lost 35 lb
(16 kg), enough to be noticeable, she abruptly disappeared for 2.5 years,
quickly regaining the weight. When she attempted to rejoin the Program after
that hiatus, we discovered that she had no recollection of this conversation.
Prompted by this to look into the issue of amnesia, we found in a sample of 300
consecutive obesity program patients that 12% acknowledged a history of focal
amnesia, typically for the few years antecedent to the onset of weight gain.
Amnesia is a high-grade marker for dissociation, which is a high-grade marker
for abuse.7

Just as no one becomes amnesic because of good experiences, no one becomes fat
out of joy. Depression is common in the Program and is a major stumbling block
to weight loss. Not surprisingly, until the recent advent of pharmacologic
blockers of fat absorption, every single “diet pill” save one has had potent
antidepressant activity. The exception was fenfluramine, whose potent
antianxiety activity was linked with the antidepressant phentermine as the first
component of fen-phen. These medications can play a useful supportive role, but
it should be understood that what is being treated is depression or anxiety, the
consequences of antecedent life experiences, and not obesity per se. Overall, we
have found and documented that the antecedent life experiences of the obese are
quite different from those of the always-slender.3

Subsequent to the 20-week weight-loss phase of the Program, we have a 12-month
Maintenance Phase. Initially thinking that this was necessary to teach people
how to eat right, we slowly came to see that Maintenance indeed is essential,
but for other reasons: to provide group support when major weight loss is
threatening, usually to the person involved but sometimes to those who are
close. Some of our patients regain all their weight, and others do not. The
question we posed was: What are the differences between those who regain and
those who do not? We have identified two major predictors of regain: a history
of childhood sexual abuse and currently being married to an alcoholic.8 The
latter can probably be generalized into having a significantly dysfunctional
marriage, but that concept was too nebulous to study as an outcome.

Today the prevalence of obesity is rapidly increasing in children. Although our
experience with obese children is quite limited, we are impressed by the number
of adults who date the onset of their initial weight gain to coincide with
parental loss in childhood, usually by divorce. Our most obese female patient,
weighing 840 lb (381 kg) at age 29, was born weighing slightly less than 2 lb
(0.9 kg) and was thin until her parents divorced when she was 11 years old and
she never again saw her father. By age 17, she weighed 500 lb (227 kg). This
correlation with parental divorce has escaped general attention, although a
search in Google Scholar using the phrase childhood obesity divorce quickly
indicates its presence in the literature. Given the high prevalence of divorce
in the US, we suspect that “McDonald’s” may be a more comfortable
explanation for childhood obesity, although it obviously misrepresents mechanism
as cause.

Bariatric surgery has been increasing in popularity since its initiation in 1967
by Edward Mason, the remarkable Iowa surgeon who introduced gastric bypass
surgery to the US.9 Our own experience in the Program with bariatric surgery is
biased because we see a disproportionate number of cases where “the surgery
failed” and patients consequently enter the Weight Loss Program. We have found
alternate explanations that are not usually considered. An unexpectedly clear
insight was provided by a recent patient comment: “The antidote [sic] to
bariatric surgery is Karo Syrup.” The psychological implication is blatant;
the physiologic insight is ingenious. One may not be able to chew one’s way
through a lot after bariatric surgery, but the ability to ingest highly caloric
liquids is unlimited. The question, of course, is: Why would a patient do that?
A different take on bariatric surgery is depicted in a brief video clip of an
interview with a patient
  available at:
http://www.thepermanentejournal.org/files/Obesity/EllaHNoBariatricSurgery.avi.
These comments from patients are, once again, counterintuitive to conventional
views about obesity. We have slowly learned that our average patient on the one
hand wants very much to lose weight but on the other hand often has significant
unconscious fear of the changes that major weight loss will bring about. In
keeping with this unexpressed conflict, it is worth remembering that opposing
forces are routinely present in biologic systems.

Outcomes
We have measured our Program outcomes in three categories:

• Weight loss

• Maintenance of weight lost

• Benefits of weight loss.

The average weight loss in one 20-week cycle of our program has been 62 lb (28
kg). The most anyone has ever lost in our former 26-week cycle was 157 lb (71
kg). This was a highly motivated man with a large underlying muscle mass.

Eighteen months after completion of the Program, half of our patients are
keeping off 60% or more of the weight lost. These are old data and have probably
improved with the revised Program, but we have not restudied the point. Instead,
we have studied the differences between those who regain and those who do not.8
Our ability to predict regain offers the possibility for preventive treatment in
advance.

The biomedical benefits of such major weight loss have been dramatic. Of 400
consecutive patients taking medication for hypertension who completed the
Program, 62% were able to discontinue all medication and no longer had
hypertension. Of 400 consecutive patients with hypercholesterolemia, the average
starting cholesterol level was 285 mg/dL; the average cholesterol level for
those completing the Program was 204 mg/dL. Most impressively, of 320 patients
with Type 2 diabetes who completed the Program, 71% were able to discontinue
medication and had normal fasting blood sugars. In terms of health care
economics, there is a 25% reduction in physician office visits while patients
are in the Program and a 40% reduction in such visits in the subsequent year.
Certainly, some of this is due to a reduced disease burden, but we suspect that
a significant portion is due to reduced emotional distress in patients who have
been helped in supportive settings to speak
  of the worst secrets of their lives and have been enabled to emerge feeling
still accepted as human beings.

Summary
We have had an unusual opportunity to become deeply involved in the treatment of
major obesity since 1985. What we have counterintuitively learned from that
experience is that obesity, though an obvious physical sign and easily measured,
is not the core problem to be treated, any more than smoke is the core problem
to be treated in house fires. Supplemented absolute fasting is a highly
effective treatment for obesity, but only if it is combined with a meaningful
program that is designed to help patients explore the psychodynamic issues that
underlie overeating as a coping device, as well as exploring the possible
protective benefits of obesity itself. The work is difficult because it
threatens social conventions and beliefs and often awakens personal ghosts in
staff. This can lead to nonalignment of purpose and reminds us of Michael
Balint’s famous comment, “Patients see doctors because of anxiety, while
doctors see patients because of disease.
  Therein lies the problem between the two.”10 Although our work with obesity
is difficult to carry out, we have nevertheless found that the work we have
described can be done and that the benefits are major. v

Disclosure Statement
The author(s) have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgment
Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, ELS, of KOK Edit provided editorial assistance.

References
1. Keys A. Biology of human starvation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press; 1950.

2. Felitti VJ. Long-term medical consequences of incest, rape, and molestation.
South Med J 1991 Mar;84(3):328–31.

3. Felitti VJ. Childhood sexual abuse, depression, and family dysfunction in
adult obese patients: a case control study. South Med J 1993 Jul;86(7):732–6.

4. Felitti VJ, Anda R, Nordenberg D, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and
household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Am J Prev Med 1998
May;14(4):245–58.

5. Felitti VJ. The relation between adverse childhood experiences and adult
health: turning gold into lead. Perm J 2002 Winter;6(1):44–7.

6. Felitti VJ, Anda RF. The relationship of adverse childhood experiences to
adult health, well-being, social function, and healthcare. In: Lanius R,
Vermetten E, Pain C, editors. The impact of early life trauma on health and
disease: the hidden epidemic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; in
press 2010. Chapter 8.

7. Edwards V, Fivush R, Anda RF, Felitti VJ, Nordenberg DF. Autobiographical
memory disturbances in childhood abuse survivors. In: Freyd JJ, DePrince AP,
editors. Trauma and cognitive science: a meeting of minds, science, and human
experience. New York: Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press; 2001. p 247–64.

8. Felitti VJ, Williams SA. Long-term follow-up and analysis of more than 100
patients who each lost more than 100 pounds. Perm J 1998;2(3):17–21.

9. Mason EE, Ito C. Gastric bypass in obesity. Surg Clin North Am 1967
Dec;47(6):1345–51.

10. Balint M. The doctor, his patient, and the illness. Rev ed. New York:
International Universities Press; 1972.

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No Fat Talk Week sparks controversy
By Catherine Duazo

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/12/10/27176/

No Fat Talk Week, organized by the Eating Concerns Advisors, has been the
subject of dialogue and controversy around campus.
Modeled after a similar initiative by a national sorority that does not have a
chapter on campus, the goal of the campaign is to raise public awareness about
body image problems. Fat Talk Free Week, organized by Delta Delta Delta sorority
on 35 campuses, took place Oct. 18–22.

“The idea of the week is basically to ask people for one week to give up
saying negative things about their bodies or other people’s bodies,”
explained ECA co-president Julia Kearney ’11.

Peer advisers from ECA provided information, wristbands, pins and an opportunity
to sign the No Fat Talk Week pledge at a table in Frist Campus Center. The peer
advisers also went to various residential college dining halls during dinner.

Some students have expressed criticism toward the event, citing the obesity
epidemic as a reason not to criticize any discussions of weight.

One such student, Brian Borden ’11, said that it is important for people to
know the difference between an average weight and an unhealthy one.

Borden added that some people who “suffer from weight-related issues”, such
as many members of his own family, would benefit from discussions about weight
control and that refusing to talk about weight is counterproductive to the
prevention of obesity-related diseases.

“I think that should be something that people are aware of even more so than
this idea of body image,” Borden said. “When you look at the United States,
the things that are killing people the most are issues related to ... being
overweight, not being underweight.”

While the ECA recognize this concern, Kearney said body image is still an issue
because “over 50 percent of Princeton students think they are overweight,
[and] if you look around campus, [it] kind of makes you wonder what’s going
on.”

In addition to those voicing substantive concerns, other opponents responded to
campaign advertisements sent to campus group listservs by sending fat jokes and
links to “inappropriate” YouTube videos and pictures, Kearney said. She
explained that she was concerned about these negative e-mails “filling inboxes
of people who might be at risk for an eating disorder.”

“The things that have been most bothersome to me and to the rest of the group
is the criticism that has come from some responses that were purely negative and
not really intellectually based,” Kearney said.

These responses, regardless of their level of appropriateness, brought added
attention to the campaign.

“A lot of people thought that it was funny and it seems to have been a good
way to start off the discussion about the whole issue and it really did,” Shim
Reza ’11 said.

Reza responded to a Tower Club listserv message about the week with a joke
comparing fat women to mopeds.

After other members berated him on the listserv, Reza sent a follow-up e-mail to
club members: “No Fat Talk Week, in my impression, is more about political
correctness and less about women. As someone who is definitely imprisonable, and
probably punishable by death, for a politically incorrect opinion ... in my own
country, I am sorry, but I actually do not support No Fat Talk Week, or any
other initiative that promotes political correctness over open discourse. Tower
should be a safe place for dissent too.”

Reza did not provide any Tower listerv e-mails to The Daily Princetonian.

Similar conversations took place on other eating club listservs.

And while some students did not agree with the goals of this event, they agreed
that it contributed to campus dialogue.

“I think that it ended up being productive,” Reza noted. “No Fat Talk Week
itself managed to spark a lot of discussion ... It had a really good unintended
consequence.”
.
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Fat flight attendants welcomed back to Air India, but only if thinner

http://www.gadling.com/2010/12/07/fat-flight-attendants-welcomed-back-to-air-ind\
ia-but-only-if-th/

The cringe-worthy debate over larger fliers has generally been limited to
passengers, and it looks like that's where it will remain. Over the summer, it
looked as though flight attendants were being brought into the cross-hairs, when
Air India fired several for being too fat. Well, the carrier is willing to
forgive and forget ... as long as the ladies have slimmed down a bit.

According to The Globe and Mail, Air India is "inviting them back," it says of
the plus-sized flight attendants, "because of a shortage of cabin crew." There's
only one catch: they have to have shed some pounds. The airline doesn't want
those who haven't taken steps to remedy the causes of their termination.

So, the airline's message seems to be, "We really need your help, but only if
you aren't too fat. The shortage isn't that bad."

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How Will the Nutrition Bill Change School Lunches?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/12/how-will-the-nutrition-bill-change-s\
chool-lunches.html

By: Veronica Devore
President Obama has signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 into law, a
major victory in First Lady Michelle Obama's crusade against child obesity and
hunger. The bill increases federal funding for school lunches - by about six
cents per meal - for the first time in more than three decades.

The child nutrition legislation, which was approved unanimously in the Senate in
August and recently passed the House by a vote of 264 to 157, gives the
Secretary of Agriculture the power to set standards for foods sold in schools,
including items in "a la carte" lines and vending machines. The legislation also
combats child hunger by making more than 100,000 children on Medicaid eligible
for free lunches.

A controversial provision in the law regulates the price of lunches served to
children from families that earn more than 185 percent of the poverty level. The
Congressional Budget Office has said this provision will require some schools to
raise their meal prices.

Margo Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy at the Center for Science in the
Public Interest, says that while definitive nutrition standards are yet to be
determined by the Department of Agriculture, the bill represents a major change
for the quality of food in the nation's schools.

"This child nutrition bill gets a lot of junk food out of schools and a lot of
healthier food into schools," said Wootan. "It is a historic step toward
reducing childhood obesity and helping parents feed their children better."

Students from schools across the country, including some participants in the
NewsHour's Student Reporting Labs program, submitted photos of their school
lunches. Wootan analyzed many of them based on what she believes the new
nutrition standards will mandate; her thoughts appear in the photo captions
below.

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Flattery Will Get an Ad NowhereBy PAMELA PAUL
Published: December 10, 2010
THE GIST Beauty product ads make women feel ugly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/fashion/12Studied.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=Flattery+\
will+get+an+ad+nowhere&st=cse

THE SOURCE “The Self-Activation Effect of Advertisements: Ads Can Affect
Whether and How Consumers Think About the Self,” by Debra Trampe, Diederik A.
Stapel and Frans W. Siero, The Journal of Consumer Research.

APPARENTLY it doesn’t take much to make a girl feel plain. Just looking at an
object intended to enhance beauty makes women feel worse about themselves,
according to a study from the April 2011 issue of The Journal of Consumer
Research.

The study looked at how women responded to an image of something (say, a
high-heeled shoe) depicted in an advertisement and as a simple photograph with
no advertising context. According to the authors — led by Debra Trampe, an
assistant professor of marketing at the University of Groningen in the
Netherlands — advertised products, unlike unadvertised products, affect both
whether and how the viewer thinks of herself afterward. In other words, an image
of the high-heeled shoe in a stylish advertisement is likely to trigger a sense
of inadequacy.

Of course, you’d anticipate ads featuring Lara Stone and Chanel Iman would
make most women feel less than lovely. But here’s an interesting catch: the
ads in the study did not feature human beings, or the model approximation
thereof. While social-comparison theory holds that people gain information about
themselves by looking at other people, according to this study at least, they
also gain information about themselves by comparing themselves to objects.

In four different experiments with female undergraduates, beauty products were
divided into two categories: beauty enhancing, such as mascara and perfume, and
problem solving, such as acne cream and deodorant. One group of students was
shown ads for both types of products; another group was shown simple images of
both, without advertising.

Those who were shown advertised beauty-enhancing products were likely to think
about themselves more afterward than other women would. Perhaps not such a big
deal. But the thoughts they had about themselves (when asked questions such as
“How attractive do you find yourself?” and “How satisfied are you with
your body?”) were decidedly gloomier.

In advertising, implicature refers to the implicit message carried out by an
image in an ad. The presence of a cashmere scarf next to a lipstick, for
example, can imply luxury and softness. This is established Madison Avenue
thinking.

But, the authors suggest, the very fact of the ad itself also conveys meaning to
consumers. According to the study, “advertisements displaying beauty-enhancing
(rather than problem-solving) products are likely to remind consumers of their
own shortcomings.” This, in turn, makes them view themselves more negatively.
The authors quote Christopher Lasch, who back in the 1970s said “modern”
advertising “seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them; it generates new
anxieties instead of allaying old ones.”

What does this mean, other than a plummeting sense of self-esteem after putting
down a fashion magazine? “You might expect that a deflated sense of self could
lead to lower buying intentions,” said Dr. Trampe, a question she plans to
explore further. Or, perhaps, the true basis for “shopping therapy.”

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Poverty equals obesity? Study bucks common wisdom

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101214/lf_nm_life/us_obesity_usa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Women who are poor are much more likely to be obese but
men are not, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday in a report that
contradicts some common perceptions.

They found income does not greatly affect whether a man is obese but that
education seems to affect both sexes.

"Among men, obesity prevalence is generally similar at all income levels, with a
tendency to be slightly higher at higher income levels," the team at the
National Center for Health Statistics wrote.

Obesity is a growing problem for U.S. policymakers. Two thirds of Americans are
overweight or obese, with 72 million U.S. adults, or 26.7 percent, being obese,
with a body mass index or BMI, of 30 or more.

Several studies have linked obesity with both income and education.

The NCHS researchers used data from a national study of 5,000 people that is
done every year.

Of the obese adults, 41 percent live in prosperous homes, bringing in at least
$77,000 a year for a family of four, or 350 percent of poverty-level income.

They found 39 percent live in homes making between 130 percent and 350 percent
of the poverty level, and 20 percent lived in poorer homes with incomes below
130 percent of the poverty level or $29,000 for a family of four.

They found that 33 percent of men living in well-to-do households with income at
350 percent of the poverty level were obese, compared to 29 percent of men who
lived below 130 percent of the poverty level.

But income seems to affect a woman's weight. The researchers found 29 percent of
women in well-to-do homes were obese, but 42 percent of women living below
poverty level were.

Education plays an important role. Just over 27 percent of men with a college
degree were obese compared with 32 percent of those with less than a high school
education, while 23 percent of women with a college degree were obese, compared
to 42 percent of women with less than a high school education.

A second study found children and teens living in homes with college-educated
adults were less likely to be obese, and found stronger associations between
obesity and income.

Just under 12 percent of boys and girls living in prosperous homes were obese,
compared to 21 percent of boys and 19 percent of girls in the poorest homes.

Body-mass index is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height
in meters. A BMI of between 25 and 30 is overweight and a BMI of 30 or over is
obese.

A person 5 feet 5 inches tall is classified as overweight at 150 pounds (68 kg)
and obese at 180 pounds (82 kg). A 5-foot-10 inch (1.8 meter) tall person who
weighs 209 pounds (95 kg) has a BMI of 30 and is obese.

Being overweight or obese raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some
cancers and arthritis and a study published this month in the New England
Journal of Medicine confirmed that adults with a BMI of 25 or more are likely to
die than someone the same age who is slimmer.

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.Too fat? Study fingers one "thrifty gene" suspect
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101215/hl_nm/us_obesity_genes;_ylt=AtEl_2Uebl5.fY0n\
7sx3PS29j7AB;_ylu=X3oDMTM5cDFscG9pBGFzc2V0Ay9zL25tLzIwMTAxMjE1L2hsX25tL3VzX29iZX\
NpdHlfZ2VuZXMEY2NvZGUDcmFuZG9tBGNwb3MDNARwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3\
Rvb2ZhdHN0dWR5Zg--

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Looking beyond obvious causes of obesity like overeating,
scientists said on Wednesday they may have found a gene that also plays a role,
one that helped our ancestors survive famines.

Targeting this thrifty gene and others with diagnostic tests and drugs offers
another way to fight the global epidemic of obesity, the researchers said.

Mice bred to lack this gene, known as CRTC3, can eat a high-fat diet without
gaining weight, while normal mice on the same diet grow plump, the researchers
found.

And Mexican Americans who have an especially potent version of this gene are
more likely to be obese than others, Dr. Marc Montminy of the Salk Institute for
Biological Studies in California and colleagues reported in the journal Nature.

The gene did not appear to have the same effect in whites, which supports what
scientists know -- that obesity is very complex. But CRTC3 is clearly important.

"It slows down the rate at which the fat cells burn fat," Montminy said of the
gene in a telephone interview.

The findings lend more evidence to the theory of obesity made popular in the
1960s, which held that certain people have genes that slow metabolism, making it
harder to lose weight.

These "thrifty genes would slow the rate of fat burning and increase your
chances of surviving famine," Montminy said.

Researchers are looking for ways to prevent and treat obesity, which affects 72
million U.S. adults, or 27 percent of the population. Being obese raises the
risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and arthritis.

Finding and countering the effects of a thrifty gene would be an obvious target,

Montminy's team had a look at CRTC3 because it is very active in fat cells and
is known to respond to signals that regulate fat burning.

"When we make animals that don't have the CRTC3 gene, these animals become
lean," he said.

"If you feed them a diet that has up to 60 percent of calories from fat, their
normal brothers and sisters that have the CRTC3 gene gain weight and become
obese, insulin resistant and some go on to develop diabetes, but those who don't
have the CRTC3 gene remain lean and insulin sensitive."

One effect of obesity is the body loses its ability to use insulin effectively,
eventually leading to diabetes.

The researchers looked for evidence of this same effect in people, and found it
in a group of Mexican Americans being studied by a team at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles who had a genetic mutation of the CRTC3 gene that makes it
more potent than the normal form of the gene.

"Individuals with this variant had higher rates of obesity by several different
measures," Montminy said.

Interestingly, non-Hispanic whites who have this same genetic variant do not
have higher rates of obesity.

"It means the therapies we come up with for diabetes or obesity will need to be
a little bit more tailor-made, depending on the individual's genetic makeup,"
Montminy said.

He said it may be possible to test people for the gene to predict who is likely
to become obese, and it may even help predict who is at risk for obesity-related
diseases like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Drug companies looking for treatments for obesity might search for ways to turn
down the effects of CRTC3, Montminy said.

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Apple or pear? Which shape are you and why does it matter?

http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/pharmacy/fatbodyslim/index.html

Explore the link between obesity and chronic health problems like heart disease,
cancer and diabetes. Join us to discover your body shape and step inside the
BodPod to find out much more....

Fat Body Slim: Shape Matters! is a science exhibit that delves behind the
headlines to investigate the science behind obesity, body shape and health.

The exhibit delves behind the headlines to investigate the science behind
obesity, body shape and health, demonstrating Robert Gordon University's
cutting-edge obesity research through a series of accessible and interactive
displays. Members of the public attending the exhibition are be able to take
part in various body size and composition measurements, including the Bod Pod.
Click here to read about our last event, or read more to learn about how the Bod
Pod contributes to calculating your body fat

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--- On Mon, 12/20/10, Jacki <webmaster@...> wrote:


From: Jacki <webmaster@...>
Subject: Good News and a Request
To: elegantplusboutique@...
Date: Monday, December 20, 2010, 3:07 PM


Dear All--

We have some good news.� After a short hiatus, OVERCOMING OVEREATING is back
in print and also available in a Kindle edition.� To purchase, just go to
our website, http://www.overcomingovereating.com/ and press the "ORDER NOW"
link.���Did you know that, whatever you purchase, if you get to the Amazon
site by using the AMAZON button on our website, we receive a small
"referral" fee?� We use those fees to keep the website going.� A request:
Whenever you are on your way to Amazon to purchase something, please keep us
in mind.� Many thanks.

Our warmest wishes for your holidays and for a wonderful, diet-free new
year.

Best,
Carol and Jane

------- end Elegant Plus forward --------


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Researchers Turn White Fat to Energy-Burning Brown Fat in Mice

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diet/articles/2010/12/21/resea\
rchers-turn-white-fat-to-energy-burning-brown-fat-in-mice.html

TUESDAY, Dec. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Certain cells in white fat can be changed
into energy-burning brown fat, according to an animal study that might one day
lead to new treatments for obesity, researchers report.


In tests on mice, a team at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston found that
exposure to a protein called BMP-7 caused progenitor cells in subcutaneous (just
beneath the skin) white fat tissue and skeletal muscle
  to turn into brown fat cells.

Previous research by the same team found that BMP-7 plays a key role in brown
fat development.

In this new study, the conversion of the progenitor cells in the subcutaneous
white fat tissue was increased when they were exposed to both BMP-7 and the
diabetes drug rosiglitazone.

"This finding opens up a whole new avenue for researchers interested in
designing molecules that induce endogenous progenitor cells to differentiate
into mature brown fat cells," senior author Yu-Hua Tseng, an assistant professor
of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release from the Joslin
Diabetes Center.

"It's particularly exciting because we found that some of these cells are
located in subcutaneous white fat, which could be a very accessible source for
them," Tseng added.

The study is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

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Obesity caused by what you breathe?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=79968


At least one study found that air pollution — known to contribute to asthma
— also spurs both obesity and diabetes in young mice, suggesting that it may
also contribute to the ubiquitous problems in humans.

Ohio State researchers found that young mice exposed to air pollution had larger
and more fat cells in their abdominal area and higher blood sugar levels than
mice eating the same diet but breathing clean air.

According to Dr. Quinhua Sun, associate professor of environmental health
sciences at Ohio State University and lead author of the study, his is "one of
the first, if not the first, study to show that these fine particulates directly
cause inflammation and changes in fat cells, both of which increase the risk for
Type 2 diabetes."

Another recent study even suggests that air pollution may be behind that other
epidemic: autism. Researchers from Saban Research Institute of Children's
Hospital Los Angeles calculated that children living within 1,000 feet of a
freeway had twice the risk of autism as those who didn't.

The body of evidence is still small, but so many studies link air pollution with
so many diseases that it's clear it's time to get serious about it. Fortunately,
most predict that California's new cap-and-trade program will reduce particulate
pollution in addition to greenhouse gas pollution.

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SEX AND LOVE ADDICTION RECOVERY GROUP
8 week group meets every Wednesday evening.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 until Wednesday, March 9, 2011
2011 Dates: 1/19, 1/26, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/2, 3/9
7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Held at: The Professional Offices of Dr. Lisa Breisch
7120 Windsor Lake Parkway, Suite 201 & 202, Loves Park, IL 61111
  CALL: 815-639-0312

      Are you dealing with a sexual compulsion or a compulsion to be in a love
relationship?  Do you engage in excessive use of pornography, have multiple
sexual partners, frequent prostitution, engage in excessive masturbation or sex,
or find yourself falling in love with the “idea” of falling in love with
someone?

      Are you finding that your sexual thoughts and behaviors are taking over
your life in the amount of time you spend in them?  Have you experienced a loss
of friends/family or work productivity as a result of sexual behavior?  Have you
had legal trouble for sexually-related offenses? Or, have you developed
STDs/health problems because of impulsive risky sexual behavior?

If you answered "yes" to any of the questions, then you may need help to find a
normal healthy relationship and sex life. Join our group that approaches sex and
love addiction with an emphasis on mind-body-spirit health.  This is a
professional therapy group led by specialists in the field of psychology and
addiction.  We incorporate a variety of techniques that teach you coping
skills.  It is highly recommended that you also participate in individual
therapy to obtain the optimum level of care and healing.

Below Are Some of the Topics We Will Be Covering:
  - Dr. Patrick Carnes Treatment Approach to Sex and Love Addiction

  -12 Step and Sexual and Love Addicts Anonymous Concepts
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Approach - 21 Coping Skills
- What is a Healthy Sexual and/or Love Relationship?
- Significant Others, Dating, and the Recovering Addict.
- Coping with Co-existing Addictions.
- Physiological Addiction vs. Psychological Dependence
- Evaluating Your Past for Early Trauma and Symptom Evolutions
- Coping with Triggers
- Abstinence vs. Behavior Reduction
- After Care Support and Resources

PRE-REGISTER: Must call to pre-register for the group at 815-639-0300 by January
18, 2011.
COST: Cost is covered by most insurance companies.  Self-pay fee of $15.00 per
group session.  Call for details.
    Lisa A. Breisch, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychotherapist
7120 Windsor Lake Parkway
Suite 201 and 202
Loves Park, IL 61111
815-639-0300 Main Office
815-639-0312 Spectrum of Rockford GLBTQ
815-639-0303 FAX
WEBSITE: www.lisabreischpsyd.org
EMAIL: lisabreischpsyd@...


DISCLAIMER:
This electronic message contains information from The Professional Offices of
Dr. Lisa Breisch that may be confidential and/or privileged. This information is
intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or entity(ies) named above. If
you are not the intended recipient, be aware that copying, disclosure or
distribution is strictly prohibited. If you have received this electronic
transmission in error, please notify us by telephone at 1-815-639-0300 or by
electronic mail to the sender immediately.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Study suggests economic insecurity boosts obesity

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70632320110107

(Reuters Life!) - The stress of being exposed to economic insecurity may mean
people living in countries with so-called "free market" economies are more
likely to become obese, British researchers said on Friday.

In a study in the journal Economics and Human Biology, Oxford University
researchers found that Americans and Britons are much more likely to be obese
than Norwegians and Swedes, and suggested that the stress of life in a
competitive social system without a strong welfare state may cause people to
overeat.

"Policies to reduce levels of  obesity tend to focus on encouraging people to
look after themselves, but this study suggests that obesity has larger social
causes," said Avner Offer, a professor of economic history who led the study.

"It may be that the economic benefits of flexible and open markets come at a
price to personal and public health which is rarely taken into account."

Offer's team looked at 11 wealthy countries and found that those with a liberal
market regime -- with strong market incentives and relatively weak welfare
states -- experienced one-third more obesity on average.

Comparing four "market-liberal" English-speaking countries -- the United States,
Britain, Canada and Australia -- with seven relatively wealthy European
countries that traditionally offer stronger social protection -- Finland,
France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden -- the team found that economic
insecurity is strongly linked to levels of obesity.

Countries with higher levels of job and income security were associated with
lower levels of obesity, the researchers said.

"Basically, our hypothesis is that market-liberal reforms have stimulated
competition in both the work environment and in what we consume, and this has
undermined personal stability and security," Offer said in a statement about the
findings.

He also argued that the onset and increase of large-scale obesity began during
the 1980s, coinciding with the rise of market-liberalism in the English-speaking
countries.

The rise of obesity in wealthy societies has often been attributed to an
increasingly ready supply of cheap, accessible, high-energy, pre-processed food
in fast food outlets and supermarkets -- a phenomenon known as the "fast food
shock" -- but Offer's team found that economic influences were greater.

The team measured fast food's impact by using a price index created by The
Economist magazine which shows international variations in the cost of a
McDonald's Big Mac hamburger.

They calculated that the availability of fast food had only about half as much
of an effect on the prevalence of obesity as the effects of economic insecurity.

"The most powerful influence we have uncovered on levels of obesity is
insecurity," they wrote in their study.

The researchers said they had only examined data at a national level and were
now looking at data at an individual level to try to establish what drives
people to overeat.

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Obesity Categorized as Substance Abuse Problem

http://www.empowher.com/healthy-eating/content/obesity-categorized-substance-abu\
se-problem

There are a plethora of things in life we cannot control. Getting a flat tire,
missing a connecting flight because our initial plane was delayed or even the
unfortunate fate of coming down with an illness. Each day we encounter things
outside the realm of our control.

It turns out, one thing society has told us for many years that we can control
– our ability to eat healthy, reasonable portion-sized meals — may be a
matter of latent neurological responses and not a conscious choice.

Researchers say that the same addictive responses that control the behavior of
people with substance abuse problems can similarly trigger addictions to
overeating.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published
a study in early January, 2011 in The Archives of General Psychiatry. In the
study, two separate surveys of 40,000 adults were conducted—the first in 1991
and 1992, the second a decade later in 2001-2002. The study set out to find a
correlation between family history of alcoholism and obesity.

The first survey in the early 90's found no such thing. The second survey found
something different.

According to the story written by Roni Caryn Rabin with the New York Times,
“In 2001 and 2002, adults with a family history of alcoholism were 30 to 40
percent more likely to be obese than those with no alcoholism in the family.
Women were at particularly high risk: they were almost 50 percent more likely to
be obese if there was family alcoholism than if there wasn’t. (Men were 26
percent more likely to be obese.)”

So what changed over 10 years? Why now are we seeing family members with a
history of alcoholism also struggling with obesity?

Richard A. Grucza, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University
and lead author of the new paper said, “Our so-called obesigenic, or
obesity-inducing, food environment has changed in the decade between the two
surveys. The most likely culprit, he said, ‘is the nature of the food we eat,
and its tendency to appeal to the sorts of reward systems, which are the parts
of the brain implicated in addiction.’”

Americans eating unhealthy is not difficult to fathom; in the United States
alone, consumers spent about $110 billion on fast food in 2000 (which increased
from $6 billion in 1970), according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

The doctors stressed that no single gene is responsible for making someone obese
or alcoholic, and the study does not prove causation. Rather, it shows a
correlation between two types of addictive behavior because “people who eat or
drink excessively may share critical characteristics like lack of impulse
control and the inability to stop once they get started, a sort of “missing
stop signal,” Grucza said.

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FULL-FAT MILK AND BUTTER MAY NOT BE BAD FOR US AFTER ALL, SAY SCIENTISTS

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/221613/Full-fat-milk-and-butter-may-not-be-b\
ad-for-us-after-all-say-scientists


BUTTER, cheese and full-fat milk might not be as bad for our health as had been
thought.


Current health advice dictates that saturated fat from dairy products can clog
arteries, leading to heart disease and strokes.

But new research claims that such fats may have got a bad reputation and
evidence linking them to disease is far from clear-cut.

Recent advances in the study of saturated fats have shown that the link between
an intake of the “bad” fat and health had been over-simplified in dietary
advice.

Several studies appear to imply that genetics, lifestyle and age could all play
a significant part in how badly your body is affected by saturated fat.

Some scientists believe that such fats are “lumped in” with others, which
distorts health advice.

A series of research articles published in the journal Lipids provides a
snapshot of recent advances in saturated fat and health research. This is based
on science presented at the 100th American Oil Chemists’ Society annual
meeting.

Dr Bruce German, professor and chemist in the Department of Food Science and
Technology, University of California at Davis said: “Assuming that saturated
fat at any intake level is harmful is an over-simplification and not supported
by scientific evidence.

“The relationship between dietary intake of fats and health is intricate and
variations in factors such as human genetics, age and lifestyles can lead to
different responses.”

One scientist, Professor Philippe Legrand, studied how saturated fatty acids
play various roles in the body.

He concluded that saturated fats can no longer be considered a single group in
terms of structure, metabolism and cellular function and recommended that health
advice grouping them together needed to be updated.


And results from a research review conducted by Dr Dariush Mozaffarian at the
Department of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard University School of Public
Health, found that the effects of saturated fat intake on cardiovascular disease
risk depend upon simultaneous changes in other nutrients.

The review found that replacing saturated fat with mono-unsaturated fat had an
unclear effect on heart disease.

And replacing saturated fat with carbohydrates was found to be ineffective and
even harmful, especially when refined carbohydrates such as starches or sugars
were used in place of fat.

Dr Cindy Schweitzer, technical director of the worldwide Global Dairy Platform,
called for more research to clarify the effects of saturated fat.

She said: “All recent research advances add to the growing body of science
re-assessing the role of saturated fat in the diet. Whether it’s nutrient
replacement or better understanding the role certain foods can play in
cardiovascular disease risk, saturated fat is definitely not as bad as once
thought.”

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Study Refutes Myth That Eating Disorders Affect Whites Only

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/648579.html

FRIDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Among Native Americans, women are more likely
than men to develop eating disorders, a new study finds.

The researchers also found similarities between Native American and white women
in terms of binge eating, purging and ever having been diagnosed with an eating
disorder, according to the report published Jan. 6 in the International Journal
of Eating Disorders.

"This commonality between Native American and white women refutes the myth that
eating disorders are problems that only affect white girls and women," study
leader Ruth Striegel-Moore, a professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown,
Conn., said in a news release from the journal's publisher.

The study authors also found no significant differences between Native American
and white men, which they say provides further evidence that eating disorders
are not restricted to a certain race.

For this study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 men and
women in the United States, average age 22, who took part in the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. There were 236 women and 253 men who
were either Native American or Inuit.

"This research provides us with a first glimpse into the extent to which young
adult Native American populations experience behavioral symptoms of eating
disorders," concluded Striegel-Moore. "In the eating disorder field this type of
epidemiological study has lagged behind other research, but now we have a
foundation to study the distribution of eating disorders and identify
psychological risk factors in Native American populations."

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