Calif. lawmaker plans hearings on soda-obesity link

Sen. Alex Padilla, who led a campaign requiring big restaurant chains to disclose calories in meals, said on Thursday he planned to hold hearings in November on the link between soda consumption and obesity.

The announcement from Padilla � who chairs the California Senate's Select Committee on Obesity and Diabetes � coincides with the release of a study that shows nearly two-thirds of children aged 12 to 17 gulp down at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily.

According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, 62 percent of children aged 12 to 17, and 41 percent of children aged 2 to 11, drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage a day.

"I don't think that most parents truly appreciate the role soda pop has in causing weight gain," Padilla said. "It is unfortunate that soda is actually cheaper than milk and even bottled water in many instances."

Padilla said California needs to do more to educate the public about the health effects of drinking too much soda and to consider its options for reducing soda consumption among children.

California was the first state to pass menu labeling rules and has been among the pioneers of public health initiatives such as bans on artery-clogging trans-fats in restaurant cuisine and on soda sales in public schools.

Experts say the U.S. obesity epidemic has turned into a public health crisis and overweight adolescents are starting to suffer problems that used to plague mainly middle-aged adults � early heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

SHARP CUTBACK RECOMMENDED

The American Heart Association in August took on the $115 billion soft drink industry, recommending that Americans cut back dramatically on sugar and singling out soft drinks as the top source of "discretionary" sugar calories.

The group said women should eat no more than 100 calories of added processed sugar per day, or six teaspoons (25 grams), while most men should keep it to just 150 calories or nine teaspoons (37.5 grams).

To put that in perspective, one 12-ounce (355-millilitre) can of soda can contain as much as 13 teaspoons (54.6 grams) of sugar, often in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

That's more than half the total 22 teaspoons (90 grams) or 355 calories of added sugar consumed by the average American each day, according to a 2004 government survey.

Being overweight costs, experts say.

Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of all medical spending in the United States, or an estimated $147 billion annually. Health experts increasingly are calling for taxes on soft drinks and other sweetened beverages to offset medical costs and fund public health efforts.

"If we are serious about curbing the obesity epidemic, we have to start with the biggest culprit," said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.

A strongly worded report on child obesity released earlier this month recommended that state and local governments tax junk food and soft drinks, give tax breaks to grocery stores that open in blighted neighborhoods and build bike trails. Some public health experts would like to see tax proceeds used to make fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable.

The American Beverage Association has opposed efforts to tax soda and other beverages and says it provides a wide variety of beverage choices, including drinks with zero calories.

"If our goal is to address obesity, then educating consumers about the importance of balancing calories consumed from all foods and beverages with the calories expended through physical activity is what matters � not demonizing any one particular food," the group said in a statement on Thursday.

An industry group called Americans Against Food Taxes � whose backers include soft drink maker PepsiCo Inc, the American Beverage Association, the Corn Refiners Association and McDonald's Corp � is running anti-soda tax advertisements on television, radio and on the Internet.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham, Bernard Orr)

Anxious Kids at Risk for Obesity in Adulthood

TUESDAY, Sept. 15 (HealthDay News) � Children with emotional
difficulties have a greater risk of becoming obese in adulthood, new
research has found.

In the study, published online Sept. 11 in the journal BMC
Medicine, researchers from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental
Psychiatry Center at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London,
examined data from about 6,500 members of the 1970 British Birth Cohort
Study.

Participants in the 1970 study had been assessed when they were 10
years old for emotional problems, self-perceptions and their body-mass
index (BMI), a height-to-weight ratio. They reported their BMI again at
age 30.

The researchers found that children with a lower self-esteem, those who
felt less in control of their lives and those who were often worried were
more likely to gain weight over the next two decades.

It was also noted that girls were more affected by these factors than
boys, the study authors pointed out in a news release from the journal's
publisher.

The findings also suggested that childhood emotional problems may be
another factor that can lead to excess weight, according to the
researchers.

"While we cannot say that childhood emotional problems cause obesity in
later life, we can certainly say they play a role, along with factors such
as parental BMI, diet and exercise," study co-author Andrew Ternouth said
in the news release.

Early intervention for children suffering from low self-esteem, anxiety
or other emotional challenges could help improve their chances of being
healthy later in life, the researchers added.

"Given the growing problem with childhood obesity in many western
societies, these findings are particularly important," the authors
concluded. "They may offer hope in the battle to control the current
obesity epidemic."

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more information on
obesity.

Curbing Obesity Epidemic Key to Health Care Reform: Experts

FRIDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) � A diverse alliance of payer,
provider and consumer organizations, girded by two former U.S. Surgeons
General, on Wednesday urged policymakers to address the nation's obesity
epidemic as part of federal health care reform legislation.

"At this critical juncture where we're dealing with health-care
transformation, we want to make sure that the federal government and our
elected leaders recognize the importance of including approaches to
obesity that are evidence-based and proven within their legislative
strategy," former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona told reporters
during a media briefing.

Carmona serves as the health and wellness chairperson of the Strategies
to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, whose steering committee
includes the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of
Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, among other public and private
organizations.

The alliance is funded by drug makers Sanofi-Aventis U.S. L.L.C. and
Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

Former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, whose 2001 report on obesity
recognized the problem as an "epidemic," emphasized the need to invest in
health promotion and disease prevention, particularly for the health of
the nation's youth.

"We are in essence addicting our children to sedentary lifestyles;
we're addicting them to high-salt, high-sweet, high-fat diets," he said,
"and then we pay for it later on when they come to us with cancer, heart
disease, [and] diabetes."

America's weight problem is pervasive. Two-thirds of the population is
now overweight and obese, according to the CDC, and as many as 72 million
adults are considered obese. In fact, obesity rates have doubled for
adults and tripled for children since 1980.

People often see obesity as a personal failure, explained Christine C.
Ferguson, director of the alliance and a research professor at George
Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, in
Washington, D.C. "The result is the problem has gotten worse and worse,
and more and more expensive."

Obesity accounts for 9.1 percent of annual health-care spending in the
United States, or nearly $150 billion annually, according to a study in a
recent issue of Health Affairs.

To help arrest the epidemic, the alliance urges policymakers to include
four specific elements in health reform:

Recognize proven clinical interventions. Studies demonstrate, for
example, that shedding just 5 percent to 10 percent of body weight can
lower the risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions.

Enhance the use of preventive services. The U.S. Preventive Services
Task Force recommends obesity screening for all adults, yet studies show
height and weight data often is not recorded during an office visit.

Foster community programs and polices that encourage and support
healthy lifestyles. A community might design public spaces that
accommodate walkers and bikers, for example, or sponsor a farmer's market
to make fresh produce available to local residents.

Coordinate research efforts to improve the quality of care, show
which interventions work in various settings and translate science into
practice.

Morgan Downey, the alliance's policy adviser, noted one positive aspect
of health reform proposals from the House of Representatives and Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: They eliminate the worry
that overweight Americans might not be able to obtain health insurance
coverage because of preexisting health conditions.

"Just the removal of that language really frees up individuals who are
overweight or obese to have access to health insurance," he said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on overweight and
obesity in the United States.

US to unleash "Wild Things" to fight childhood obesity

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
The US Department of Health and Human Services is poised to unleash characters from Maurice Sendak's classic "Where the Wild Things Are" to help fight childhood overweight and obesity.

New TV, radio, print, outdoor and Internet ads featuring characters and scenes from the film "Where the Wild Things Are", which is due to be released in cinemas next month, will be distributed this week to media around the United States.

The campaign promotes the benefits of physical exercise and encourages children to start their own 'Wild Rumpus' � just as "Where the Wild Things Are" hero Max did in the book � by making time every day for play.

The ads continue a collaborative effort against obesity by the Ad Council and Health Department which was launched in 2005 and has already featured characters from "Shrek" as well as American football players urging children to "be a player" and be physically active for an hour a day.

A study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that nearly 32 percent of US children were overweight and 16 percent were obese.

The obesity rate tripled between 1980-1999, creating an epidemic blamed on a poor diet heavy on fat and sugar with little consumption of fruits and fresh vegetables and lack of exercise, the report in JAMA said.

Obese children are at a higher risk of developing heart disease, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. They are also more likely to become obese adults.

Obama open to 'sin tax' on fizzy drinks to stem obesity

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
President Barack Obama hinted he could support a "sin tax" on fizzy drinks to help lower high rates of US obesity, but admitted it would be an uphill battle against corporate and economic interests.

"I actually think it's an idea that we should be exploring," Obama said in the forthcoming issue of Men's Health, regarding potential taxes levied on soft drinks such as colas and other sugar-filled products.

"There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else," he said in excerpts released ahead of the magazine's mid-September publication.

The president � reported to be one of the fittest US commanders-in-chief in decades � stressed that "obviously there is resistance on Capitol Hill to those kinds of sin taxes.

"Legislators from certain states that produce sugar or corn syrup are sensitive to anything that might reduce demand for those products," he said.

In addition, "people's attitude is that they don't necessarily want Big Brother telling them what to eat or drink, and I understand that," Obama added.

"It is true, though, that if you wanted to make a big impact on people?s health in this country, reducing things like soda consumption would be helpful."

His comments come just six weeks after US health experts told a national conference on obesity in Washington that a significant portion of increased caloric intake in recent decades can be directly attributed to soft drinks and other sugared foods and drinks.

The president is currently embroiled in the most compelling domestic priority of his presidency, a reform of the US health care system.

Obama, who said he works out nearly every day in order to clear his head and reduce stress, described himself as "a healthy eater" with low blood pressure.

He keeps a bowl of apples in the Oval Office. "It was our first step toward health reform," he said.

Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight and obesity-related illnesses cost the United States nearly 150 billion dollars a year, health officials were told at the July conference.

Doctors' Efforts to Fight Childhood Obesity Not Working

FRIDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) � Researchers are recommending that
officials in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia rethink their
efforts to combat obesity in children because the current strategies �
emphasizing healthy diets and exercise � aren't working.

In a study released online Sept. 4 in BMJ, Australian
researchers followed more than 250 overweight and mildly obese Australian
children who visited their general practitioners between 2005 and 2006. A
total of 139 were given counseling over three months about changing their
eating habits and increasing exercise; the other 119 did not get such
counseling.

Parents said the kids who received counseling drank fewer soft drinks,
but they didn't eat more fruit or vegetables or less fat, and they didn't
lose significant amounts of weight.

The researchers reported that brief, physician-led intervention
produced no long-term improvement in body mass index, physical activity or
nutrition habits.

The counseling isn't harmful, the study authors noted, but it doesn't
seem to work and is expensive.

"Resources may be better divided between primary prevention at the
community and population levels, and enhancement of clinical treatment
options for children with established obesity," the researchers
concluded.

More information

For more on childhood obesity, go to U.S. National Library of Medicine.

The Social Side of Obesity: You Are Who You Eat With

Sending your kids back to lunch-lady land this fall? Careful, your child's dining mates may be upping his chances of packing on the pounds. A study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that how much tweens and teens eat can be influenced by how much their friends weigh.
In the study, 130 kids ages 9 to 15 were allowed to snack as much as they wanted while hanging out with a friend or with a peer they did not know. All the kids ate more when they were with a friend than with a stranger. But the overweight children ate the most when paired with an overweight friend - an average of 300 more calories than when they spent time with leaner friends. The research also found that friendship itself makes the appetite grow stronger: when overweight kids ate with similar-weight kids who were already their pals, they threw back an extra 250 calories than they did with chubby kids they had just met. (See a special report on the science of appetite.)
Lead researcher and clinical psychologist Sarah-Jeanne Salvy says her research demonstrates an eye-opening social theory: obesity can be contagious.
Really, an "obesity bug"? In 2007, Harvard researcher Nicholas Christakis and his colleagues analyzed 32 years' worth of data from an interconnected social network of 12,000 adults, and found that a person's chances of becoming obese increased by 37% if a spouse had become obese, 40% if a sibling had and 57% if a friend had.
Socializing with overweight people can change what we perceive as the norm; it raises our tolerance for obesity both in others and in ourselves. It's also about letting your hair down. Past research has shown that adults tend to eat more around friends and family than they do with strangers. They shed their inhibitions about how it looks when they go back for thirds or order the alfredo sauce instead of the marinara.
Finally, there's the idea that we just like to hang with people that are like ourselves. Cornell food sociologist Jeffrey Sobal explains that "especially among two overweight people, there's a sort of permission-giving going on. We're encouraging each other to eat more."
Salvy, who is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo, refers to this phenomenon as a sort of feedback effect. Conversely, she suggests, overweight diners are more likely to tone down how much they eat in front of skinny people to avoid the stigma of overeating.
When it comes to holding back, though, there's nothing like the opposite sex to curb our appetites, at least when we're single. In a study to be published in the October issue of Appetite, researchers at Montreal's McGill University secretly observed 460 college students eating in the campus cafeterias. They found that when a woman was with a man, she ate about 100 calories less than when she was with a woman. The more men present in larger eating groups, the fewer calories a woman had on her tray. Women ate roughly 100 fewer calories for each man at the table. But there was no such effect on men. And women who only ate with other women tended to slightly increase their calorie quotient.
The study's author Meredith Young, a cognitive psychologist, says the social comfort of a same-sex lunch partner probably makes a difference here - but evolutionary instincts are also at play. The women are using food as a signal of attractiveness. "In past studies, when you compare the exact same woman either eating a meatball sub or a dainty salad, people find the salad eater more alluring and more desirable as a friend." Young thinks that men, on the other hand, are probably focused on spending more money on the food instead of eating it because evolutionary biology says part of male sex appeal lies in the financial wealth they bring to the table.
For parents who are less worried about subconscious dating rituals and more worried about overweight kids influencing their own, the answer isn't to encourage ditching fat friends. Shaming kids about their own bodies might drive them to social isolation, a much worse place to be, according to Salvy. Her previous research found that overweight teens eat an average of 400 calories more when they're alone compared to when they're with friends of any weight group.
Dr. Marc Jacobson, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Task Force on Obesity, says the best thing to do is to model healthy eating and exercise habits yourself; research shows it's more effective than just talking about losing weight. So pack a healthy, satisfying lunch, but "focus more on making your home as healthy as you can," he says.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
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View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com: Laugh and the World Laughs With You: How Happiness Spreads How America's Children Packed On the Pounds Study: Obesity is Contagious Obesity Is Contagious, Study Finds Child Obesity Rate Levels Off

Key Protein May Link Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Woes

TUESDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) � Researchers say they know
why obesity leads to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, a finding that
may help experts target therapies to limit the health impact of being very
overweight.

A Japanese team discovered a protein that causes ongoing, low-grade
inflammation within fat tissues, which contributes to the health
consequences that come with obesity, said Yuichi Oike of Kumamoto
University in Japan.

The report appears in the Sept. 2 issue of Cell Metabolism.

The culprit Oike's team identifies is a fat-derived protein called
angiopoietin-like protein 2, or Angptl2. In mice, Angptl2 levels are
elevated in fat tissue. Those levels increase even more in the
oxygen-deprived conditions typically found within obese fat tissue.

Higher Angptl2 levels are also found in the blood of people with higher
body mass index and insulin levels.

Obese mice lacking Angptl2 show less inflammation in their fat tissue
and are less insulin resistant, the researchers report. Likewise,
otherwise healthy mice made to have higher than normal Angptl2 levels in
their fat tissue develop inflammation and insulin resistance.

Angptl2 starts an inflammatory cascade, causing blood vessels to
remodel and attracting immune cells called macrophages, they note.

The researchers concluded that Angptl2 is a new molecular target that
could be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of obesity and
related metabolic diseases.

More information

Learn more about obesity from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention here.

Carrot-toting tourists making Arizona burros obese

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - There is an epidemic in an old gold mining town in western Arizona: The wild burros that roam the town's single street are overweight, with rolls of fat on their necks and big, full bellies. But don't blame them. They'll eat anything.
It's the half million tourists who visit tiny Oatman each year. They're the ones who have been feeding these critters carrots, hay or anything else, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says.
The agency, which manages the burros, has launched a campaign it hopes will eventually steer the burros back into the desert to forage for grass and shrubs � and get them back into shape.
"The town has really encouraged burros to be down there; it's part of the draw of Oatman," said Roger Oyler, the program lead for wild horses and burros at the BLM in Phoenix. "We want to try to work with them to have burros around town, but we don't want the people feeding them."
Oatman attracts tourists wanting to see the honeymoon spot of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard and ogle the wild burros. The town of about 120 also boasts staged shootouts, tour bus holdups and shotgun weddings in a throwback to the Wild West.
The dozen burros that roam the street lined with antique, craft and gift shops are descendants of domesticated donkeys that miners released when the federal government shut down the gold mines after World War II.
"If it weren't for the burros, the rest of us wouldn't be here," says Jerry Love, who has worn many hats at the local chamber of commerce.
The BLM acknowledges that its campaign to stop feeding the burros will be a hard sell but likens it to when Yellowstone National Park told visitors there to stop feeding the bears. "As the feed is diminished over time, I think they'll start wandering out and remember what's out there for dinner," Oyler said.
Oatman storekeepers have been asked to stop feeding the burros or providing the treats the animals are so accustomed to. The BLM also has drafted scripts for gunfighters and shop owners that tell tourists quite bluntly that the burros are fat and are being loved to death.
Some slogans that could end up on posters or signs around town include, "No Diet-Busting Cubes or Carrots � Please!" "Keep Oatman Burros Happy and Healthy � No Extra Food," and "Give Burros Care, not Carrots."
The BLM says the burros that don't come into town are a lot healthier and don't have behavioral problems or pain caused by their hooves growing to a thickness that makes it hard for them to walk. "It's a matter of educating the public, but it's not going to happen overnight," Love said. "We don't want to discourage people from coming here because they can't feed the burros."
Love believes that the burros will roam the town regardless of whether they are hand-fed by tourists, but he said he doubts that all tourists will heed the BLM's message.
"BLM is certainly not going to put a carrot cop up here to make sure that nobody feeds the burros," he said. "They don't have the funding nor the manpower."
Jolene Brown, who owns Amargosa Toads, understands the premise of not feeding the animals, but said to cut them off completely from food is wrong.
The animals have been demanding, lately, kicking in the door to her gift shop and chewing at the door panel and on books because they're not getting the food they're used to, she said.
"I'm sure they can learn to forage, but people come from the entire world to feed the burros," said Brown, who refers to herself as the burros' grandma. "I don't agree to feed wild animals at all, but if they have been fed their whole lives, how can you take that away?"
If the burros are unable to fend for themselves and become too skinny, Oyler said the BLM has the option of rounding them up and putting them up for adoption.

In serious debt? You're also more likely obese

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
People who are heavily in debt are more likely to be heavy themselves, too, according to new research from Germany.

"Overindebted" people - defined as those who would find it impossible to pay off debts in a reasonable time frame � were about twice as likely to be overweight as the general population. They were more than 2.5 times as likely to be obese, Eva Muenster of the University of Mainz and her colleagues found.

European countries, as well as the United States, have seen a sharp rise in the percentage of people who are overindebted, Muenster and her team say. Estimates are that 3 million households - 7.6 percent - of German households fit into the "over-indebted" criteria.

Socioeconomic status is clearly linked to health, the researchers add, but techniques now used to measure it don't take debt into account. To investigate how debt might affect health, they surveyed 949 people who were receiving counseling for debt and insolvency at centers in two German states, comparing them to 8,318 people who participated in a 2003 telephone health survey and were considered to represent a slice of the general population that was not indebted.

The indebted individuals were younger, less educated, and less wealthy, and were also more likely to be depressed, overweight, or obese, the researchers found. About 11 percent of the general population was obese, compared to 25 percent of the indebted group. The indebted individuals were also more likely to smoke every day.

After taking these factors into account, Muenster and her colleagues found that being overindebted was associated with a 1.97-fold greater likelihood of being overweight, and a 2.56-fold greater risk of obesity.

Psychological factors could contribute to the greater risk of being overweight or obese among indebted people, Muenster and her team note, who may eat to cope with stress and depression. Healthy foods may be less affordable for them, the researchers add, while "energy-dense food such as sweets or fatty snacks are often less expensive compared to food with lower energy density such as fruit or vegetables."

The findings don't rule out the possibility that overweight or obese people are more likely to get into debt because they have a tougher time finding a job or make less money than slimmer people, the researchers note.

Muenster and her colleagues conclude by calling for investigators looking at socioeconomic status and health to include indebtedness in their analyses, along with standard measures like income and education.

SOURCE: BMC Public Health, online August 7, 2009.

New fat-fighting drug has anti-diabetes action too

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
Researchers searching for a cure for obesity said on Thursday they have developed a drug that not only makes mice lose weight, but reverses diabetes and lowers their cholesterol, too.

The drug, which they have dubbed fatostatin, stops the body from making fat, instead releasing the energy from food. They hope it may lead to a pill that would fight obesity, diabetes and cholesterol, all at once.

Writing in the journal Chemistry and Biology, Salih Wakil of Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Motonari Uesugi of Kyoto University in Japan and colleagues said the drug interferes with a suite of genes turned on by overeating.

"Here, we are tackling the basics," Wakil said in a telephone interview. "I think that is what excited us."

Scientists are painfully aware that drugs that can make mice thin do nothing of the sort in humans. A hormone called leptin can make rats and mice drop weight almost miraculously but does little or nothing for an obese person, for instance.

But Wakil, whose team has patented the drug and is looking for a drug company to partner with, hopes this drug may be different. "I am very, very optimistic," he said.

Fatostatin is a small molecule, meaning it has the potential to be absorbed in pill form.

It works on so-called sterol regulatory element binding proteins or SREBPs, which are transcription factors that activate genes involved in making cholesterol and fatty acids.

"Fatostatin blocked increases in body weight, blood glucose, and hepatic (liver) fat accumulation in (genetically) obese mice, even under uncontrolled food intake," the researchers wrote.

Genetic tests showed the drug affected 63 different genes.

The idea of interfering with SREBP is not new. GlaxSmithKline has been working on a new-generation cholesterol drug that uses this pathway.

After four weeks, mice injected with fatostatin weighed 12 percent less and had 70 percent lower blood sugar levels, the researchers wrote.

Now they plan to test rats and rabbits, Wakil said.

The drug also had effects on prostate cancer cells they said � something that may help explain links between prostate cancer and obesity.

Obese People Have 'Severe Brain Degeneration'

A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than
normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the
brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.

Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years.

The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent "severe brain degeneration," said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology.

"That's a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive
reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other
diseases that attack the brain," said Thompson. "But you can greatly
reduce your risk for Alzheimer's, if you can eat healthily and keep
your weight under control."

The findings are detailed in the online edition of the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Obesity packs many negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and some cancers. It's also been shown to reduce sexual activity.

More than 300 million worldwide are now classified as obese,
according to the World Health Organization. Another billion are
overweight. The main cause, experts say: bad diet, including an increased reliance on highly processed foods.

Obese people had lost brain tissue in the frontal and temporal
lobes, areas of the brain critical for planning and memory, and in the
anterior cingulate gyrus (attention and executive functions),
hippocampus (long-term memory) and basal ganglia (movement), the
researchers said in a statement today. Overweight people showed brain
loss in the basal ganglia, the corona radiata, white matter comprised
of axons, and the parietal lobe (sensory lobe).

"The brains of obese
people looked 16 years older than the brains of those who were lean,
and in overweight people looked 8 years older," Thompson said.

Obesity is measured by body mass index (BMI), defined as the weight
in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters. A BMI over
25 is defined as overweight, and a BMI of over 30 as obese.

The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging, National
Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for
Research Resources, and the American Heart Association.

10 Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp
Never Too Late: 5 Bad Habits You Should Still Quit
More Obesity News & Information

Original Story: Obese People Have 'Severe Brain Degeneration'
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Obesity Tied to Prostate Cancer Recurrence

FRIDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) � Obesity increases the risk of
prostate cancer recurrence in both black and white men, says a U.S. study
that challenges previous research suggesting obesity may be more
significant for black men.

"Not so. Obesity leads to worse cancer in both groups," study senior
author Dr. Stephen Freedland, an associate professor of urology and
pathology at the Duke University Medical Center Prostate Center, said in a
news release from the school.

Freedland and study author Dr. Jayakrishnan Jayachandran, a urology
oncology fellow, examined the medical records of 1,415 prostate cancer
patients who had undergone a radical prostatectomy. They found that race
had no influence on the relationship between obesity and the
aggressiveness of the cancer.

"We found that higher BMI [body-mass index] was associated with
significantly increased risk of cancer recurrence for both blacks and
whites," Jayachandran said in the news release.

The reason why obesity increases the risk of prostate cancer recurrence
isn't clear, but altered hormone levels might play a role.

"Obesity is associated with more estrogen and less testosterone, and it
may be that lower testosterone promotes more aggressive tumors as recent
studies have suggested," Jayachandran said.

Other obesity-related changes in the production of hormones, such as
insulin, insulin-like growth factor or leptin, may also be involved in the
development of more aggressive prostate cancer.

"This is something we simply do not understand, but we are actively
studying all of these factors," Jayachandran said.

The study appears in the current issue of Cancer.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer.

Adult video gamers often overweight, depressed

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Teens aren't the only ones glued to the video game console. According to a new survey, the average video gamer in the U.S. today is 35 years old � and not all that healthy physically or emotionally.

According to the survey released this week, the typical adult video game player is overweight, introverted and may be a little bit depressed.

The Internet-based survey involved adults aged 19 to 90 years old from the Seattle-Tacoma area, who were asked various questions about their health, as well as their media habits.

Of the 552 respondents (ages 19 to 90 years), 249 - a little more than 45 percent - identified themselves as video-game players � the majority of them men (56 percent).

In a report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Dr. James B. Weaver III, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues say they found "measurable" associations between playing video games and health risks.

"As hypothesized," the researchers report, a higher body weight and a greater number of "poor mental health days" differentiated adult video gamers from non-gamers.

Men who said they played video games weighed more and used the Internet more than men who did not play video games, the survey showed.

Women who reported playing video games reported greater levels of depression and poorer overall health than non-gamers.

Adult video gamers also seemed less outgoing, or extroverted, and less social and assertive than non-gamers, consistent with prior research in adolescent video game enthusiasts that tied video game playing to sedentary habits, weight issues and mental health concerns.

Adult video gamers of both sexes relied more on the Internet for social support than non-gamers, which supports prior research suggesting that adult video game players may "sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games."

Weaver and colleagues suggest that video gaming for adults may be a form of "digital self-medication." Women, in particular, may immerse themselves in brain-engaging digital environments as a means of self-distraction; "in short, they literally 'take their minds off' their worries while playing a video game," the investigators note.

What drives men to the video game console is likely to be different.

In a commentary published with the survey results, Dr. Brian A. Primack of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine applauds Weaver and his team for "reminding us that video games are currently popular not only among young people but also among adults."

The greatest challenge, Primack contends, will be maintaining balance.

He asks: "How do we simultaneously help the public steer away from imitation playlike activities, harness the potentially positive aspects of video games and keep in perspective the overall place of video games in our society?"

Powerful gaming industry giants, warns Primack, "will successfully tout the potential health-related benefits of products they develop. But who will be left to remind us that � for children and adults alike � Hide-And-Seek and Freeze Tag are still probably what we need most?"

SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, October 2009.

Overweight friends eat more when they dine together

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Overweight children and teenagers may eat more when they have a snack with an overweight friend rather than a thinner peer, a new study suggests.

In a study of 9- to 15-year-olds, researchers found that all kids, regardless of their weight, tended to eat more when they had the chance to snack with a friend than when they were with a peer they did not know.

But the biggest calorie intakes were seen when an overweight child snacked with an overweight friend.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, highlight the role of friends' influence in how much kids eat � and, possibly, in their weight control.

It's not surprising that children eat more when they are with friends instead of strangers, according to lead researcher Dr. Sarah-Jean Salvy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The same pattern has been found in adults, Salvy told Reuters Health in an email. This, she explained, may be partly because people are more self-conscious around strangers, and partly because friends act as "permission-givers."

"They set the norm for what is appropriate to do, or in this case eat," Salvy said.

For the study, Salvy and her colleagues had 23 overweight and 42 normal-weight children and teens spend 45 minutes with either a friend or an unfamiliar peer. Each pair was given games, puzzles and books for entertainment, along with bowls of chips, cookies, carrots and grapes.

Overall, the researchers found, pairs of friends downed more calories than did unacquainted pairs. And overweight friends consumed the most � 738 calories, on average, versus 444 calories when an overweight child was paired with normal-weight friend.

Normal-weight kids consumed an average of about 500 calories when paired with a friend, regardless of the friend's weight.

Salvy noted that a recent study of adults found that people were more likely to gain weight over three decades if their same-sex friends were overweight or obese � suggesting a role for "social influence" in body weight.

When it comes to children and teens, it's known that many follow their friends' lead in deciding whether to smoke or drink. The current findings, Salvy said, suggest that kids' eating habits are also "largely determined by their social network."

The good side of that, according to Salvy, is that helping one child make healthy changes may end up influencing his or her friends as well. She said her research interest now is to see whether there is in fact such a "contagion effect" on friends' eating habits.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 2009.

Rate of severe childhood obesity up sharply in U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
The rate of severe obesity among U.S. children and teenagers more than tripled over the past three decades, a new study finds.

Using data from a long-running government health survey, researchers found that as of 2004, nearly 4 percent of 2- to 19-year-olds in the U.S. were severely obese.

That was up more than three-fold from 1976, and more than 70 percent from 1994, the researchers report in the journal Academic Pediatrics.

"Children are not only becoming obese, but becoming severely obese, which impacts their overall health," lead researcher Dr. Joseph A. Skelton, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a news release from the university.

"These findings," he added, "reinforce the fact that medically-based programs to treat obesity are needed throughout the United States and insurance companies should be encouraged to cover this care."

The study also found that minority and lower-income children are at particular risk of severe obesity � which, in children and teenagers, is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) in the 99th percentile for one's age and gender.

In the most recent survey, which included 12,000 2- to 19-year-olds from across the U.S., nearly 6 percent of African-American children and teens were severely obese, as were roughly 5 percent of Mexican- Americans. That compared with 3 percent of their white peers.

In contrast, less than 1 percent of Mexican-American children and less than 2 percent of black children were severely obese in the 1970s survey.

When it came to family income, the latest survey data show that just over 4 percent of relatively lower-income children were severely obese, versus 2.5 percent of those from higher-income families.

The findings underscore a central obstacle in tackling childhood obesity, Skelton and his colleagues note: The children who are most affected also generally have the greatest difficulty getting good healthcare.

"No simple answers exist," the researchers write, pointing out that along with better access to healthcare, there also need to be broader efforts to improve the diets and lifestyle habits of U.S. children.

SOURCE: Academic Pediatrics, September 2009.

Obese Texas man hides gun between rolls of fat

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
An obese prisoner in Harris County, Texas has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm after he was discovered to be hiding a 9mm pistol in between his rolls of fat, local media reported Saturday.

George Vera, who weighs around 500 pounds (225 kilograms) was originally arrested last week for selling counterfeit CDs, according to the Houston Chronicle newspaper.

A police spokesman told the Chronicle that Vera was searched three times over the course of his arrest and booking at the jail but managed to conceal the handgun with his rolls of fat until it was discovered in the shower.

Vera has been charged with possession of an illegal weapon in a correctional facility, which carries a penalty of two to 10 years in prison, but is currently free on bail of 10,000 dollars.

Obese TX inmate hides gun in his flabs of fat

HOUSTON - An obese inmate in Texas has been charged after officials learned he had a gun hidden under flabs of his own flesh.
Twenty-five-year-old George Vera was charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility after he told a guard at the Harris County Jail about the unloaded 9mm pistol. The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that Vera was originally arrested on charges of selling illegal copies of compact discs.
The 500-pound man was searched during his arrest and again at a city jail and the county jail, but officers never found the weapon in his rolls of skin. Vera admitted having the gun during a shower break at the county jail.
___ Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com

More Kids Becoming Severely Obese

FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) � In the hindmost 25 years, rates
of rigorous babyhood corpulence in the United States be obsessed tripled, putting
increasing numbers of children at danger representing diabetes and Colloq ticker sickness,
says a new learn.

Researchers looked at National Health and Nutrition Survey facts on
12,384 youths, ages 2 to 19 years, and establish that the prevalency of harsh
plumpness increased from 0.8 percent in the interval from 1976 to 1980 to 3.8
percent in 1999 to 2004. Severe tubbiness correlates to a body heap guide
that's identical to or greater than the 99th percentile championing lifetime and
gender.

The discovery could intend that 2.7 million children in the United States
are acutely fat, the researchers said.

Black and Mexican-American children had the largest increases in rigorous
chubbiness, along with children in families drop down the desire even. For
case, the portion of seriously overweight Mexican-American children rose
from 0.9 percent to 5.2 percent.

The researchers also create that a third of badly fat children had
metabolic syndrome, a assembly of peril factors for diabetes, blow and send
assail. The jeopardy factors embody high blood force, cholesterol and
insulin levels.

The read appears online in Academic Pediatrics.

"Children are not lone enhancing fleshy but beautifying dangerously gross,
which impacts their sum condition," Dr. Joseph Skelton, an grossness authority
at Brenner Children's Hospital, bit of Wake Forest University Baptist
Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., and conduct originator of the con, said
in a tidings let go from the center.

"These findings reinforce the actuality that medically based programs to
handle embonpoint are needed during the United States, and assurance
companies should be encouraged to defend this anxiety," Skelton said.

More knowing

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers tips to aid children continue a satisfactorily heaviness.

Many Overweight Kids Not Getting a Good Night's Sleep

WEDNESDAY, June 3 (HealthDay News) � Children with chubby
bellies are more likely to have sleep-disordered breathing, a condition
that's associated with behavioral problems, hyperactivity and difficulty
staying awake at school, new research shows.

In the study, researchers examined 700 children between the ages of 5
and 12 randomly chosen from 18 public elementary schools in Pennsylvania.
Each child had a physical exam and was monitored for nine hours at a sleep
laboratory using polysomnography, which measures brain electrical
activity, heart activity, airflow, respiration and oxygen saturation
during sleep.

About 25 percent of children had mild sleep-disordered breathing and
1.2 percent had moderate sleep-disordered breathing, defined as five or
more breathing pauses per hour. More than 15 percent had primary snoring,
the researchers found.

Those with sleep-disordered breathing tended to have a larger body-mass
index and a higher waist circumference relative to their peers. Unlike in
adults, a large neck circumference was not a predictor of sleep-disordered
breathing in children, the study authors note in their report in the June
issue of SLEEP.

Until recently, enlarged tonsils or adenoids were believed to cause
most sleep-disordered breathing in children, but the study found no link
between tonsil size and disordered breathing, according to a news release
from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM).

Instead, obesity may be playing the greater role, said study author
Edward O. Bixler, of Penn State University College of Medicine.

"Risk factors for sleep-disordered breathing in children are complex
and include metabolic, inflammatory and anatomic factors," Bixler said in
the news release. "Because sleep-disordered breathing in children is not
just the outcome of anatomical abnormalities, treatment strategies should
consider alternative options, such as weight loss and correction of nasal
problems."

Sleep-disordered breathing can range from mild to severe, according to
information from the AASM. Mild cases might be marked by persistent
snoring due to nasal anatomic features such as chronic sinusitis, rhinitis
and nasal drain. Severe cases may include obstructive sleep apnea, a
potentially dangerous condition in which breathing repeatedly starts and
stops throughout the night. Each pause typically lasts from 10 to 20
seconds and can occur 20 to 30 times per hour.

While children tend to have milder forms of sleep-disordered breathing
than adults, they can suffer from obstructive sleep apnea.

Older children were more likely to have moderately disordered
breathing. Two percent of children between the ages of 9 and 12 years had
moderate sleep-disordered breathing, compared with only 0.2 percent of
children between 5 and 8, the news release notes.

Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when soft tissue in the back of the
throat collapses and blocks the airway during sleep. In children, loud
snoring, obvious pauses in breathing and gasping for breath are warning
signs. Parents often notice that the child seems to be working hard to
breathe during sleep, according to the AASM.

More information

Find out more about obstructive sleep apnea and sleep breathing
disorders in children at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Weight-Loss Surgery Options Compared in Super-Obese

TUESDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) � A technique called duodenal
switch surgery may be more effective than gastric bypass surgery for
patients with obesity-related medical problems such as high cholesterol,
diabetes and high blood pressure, according to a U.S. study that included
350 super-obese patients who were more than 200 pounds heavier than their
ideal body weight.

The findings were presented Monday at Digestive Disease Week 2009 in
Chicago.

In gastric bypass surgery, surgeons create a small gastric pouch that's
separate from the rest of the stomach, but with duodenal switch surgery,
the stomach is reshaped into a long narrow tube and the small intestine is
reconfigured to reduce calorie absorption, according to a Digestive
Disease Week news release.

In their new study, Dr. Vivek N. Prachand, an assistant professor of
surgery at the University of Chicago, and colleagues looked at the rates
of resolution of obesity-related diseases (whether patients were able to
stop taking medications to treat their conditions) three years after
either duodenal switch or gastric bypass surgery.

The rates of resolution for duodenal switch and gastric bypass were:
diabetes, 100 percent vs. 60 percent; high blood pressure, 68 percent vs.
38.6 percent; high cholesterol, 72 percent vs. 26 percent; acid reflux;
48.5 percent vs. 76.9 percent, the study authors found.

In previous research, Prachand's team showed that super-obese patients
who underwent duodenal switch surgery had better weight loss than those
who had gastric bypass surgery. They believed that the greater weight loss
among duodenal switch patients may explain why they had higher rates of
resolution of obesity-related diseases. But this new study didn't find a
link between amount of weight loss and resolution of obesity-related
conditions, which suggests that other mechanisms besides weight loss may
be at work.

The researchers also noted that reduced absorption of calories in
duodenal switch surgery patients can lead to vitamin/nutrition
deficiencies and, possibly, malnutrition.

"The effort to better manage the potential vitamin and nutritional
deficiencies associated with duodenal switch surgery is worthwhile because
it appears that the duodenal switch surgery is more successful in terms of
weight loss and resolution of significant obesity-related disease for
super-obese patients," Prachand said in the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases has more about weight loss surgery.

Australia mulls public funds for obesity surgery

SYDNEY (AFP) -
An Australian parliamentary committee has recommended boosting public funding for obesity surgery to tackle a growing problem which has left nearly two-thirds of the country overweight.

The committee said operations such as lap band surgery � a reversible procedure to reduce the stomach's capacity � should be made more widely available to help people with extreme cases of weight gain.

"It's hard to access and we know that there is immediate improvement in obesity when surgery is performed," committee chair Labor MP Steve Georganas said, according to ABC News.

"We're not saying that this is for everyone � this is only for people who are morbidly obese."

The recommendation was among 20 made by the House of Representatives Health Committee. Georganas said obesity cost the economy eight billion Australian dollars (6.48 billion US) last year.

Better food labelling and public health campaigns were also suggested as ways to trim the Australian waistline.

Official figures last month showed one-quarter of Australians are obese with another 37 percent classified as overweight.

International studies consistently rank Australia among the fattest countries in the world, with the nation's Baker Heart Institute in 2008 suggesting it faced a "fat bomb" outranking even that of the United States.

With weight-loss surgery, type of insurance counts

CHICAGO (Reuters) -
People with private health insurance lose more weight after having weight-loss surgery than those covered by the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, U.S. researchers said Monday.

Medicare patients tend to weigh more before having gastric bypass surgery, they said, and are more likely to be depressed, have high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol and sleep apnea.

For them to succeed, they may need extra exercise and nutrition support, they said.

"Gastric bypass surgery is very successful so we should work to ensure that everyone has the same chance at success," said Dr. John Morton of Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who presented his findings at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in Chicago.

Gastric bypass surgery is becoming an increasingly popular treatment for obesity. It works by altering the digestive tract to reduce the volume of food that can be eaten and digested.

Large insurance companies and Medicare, the federal health plan for 44 million elderly and disabled Americans, help pay for the surgery � which costs from $15,000 to $35,000 � in severely obese people.

For the study, Morton and colleagues collected data on 750 gastric bypass patients with private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, a state-federal insurance program for the poor.

A year after surgery, all patients had significant weight loss, but the private insurance patients lost more, Morton said in a telephone briefing.

"The Medicare group lost 57 percent of its excess weight, but in comparison with the private insurance group, this was much less, with the private insurance group losing about 82 percent of their extra weight," he said.

The Medicare group had slightly higher complication rates, but there were no deaths from any of the operations.

Morton said patients in the Medicare group had the biggest reductions in levels of low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol that causes heart disease.

They also had bigger improvements in fasting insulin, a measure of diabetes severity.

Morton said patients in the Medicare group started out much heavier than other patients, with average body mass index scores of nearly 50, putting them in the so-called super-obese category.

Body mass index, or BMI, is a formula that takes into account a person's height and weight. A BMI of 30 is considered obese. People with a BMI of 40 to 49 are considered morbidly obese, while those with a BMI of 50 or higher are considered super obese.

Morton said the study shows that some Medicare patients are starting with more profound disadvantages, and may need more support.

He said morbid obesity is the leading public health crisis in the United States, and bariatric surgery is the only effective treatment for many patients.

(Editing by Maggie Fox)

Weight Guidelines Toughened for Obese Mothers-to-Be

The Institute of Medicine (IOM), the nation's most influential medical advisory group, has updated its guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy for the first time since 1990.
The revised recommendations, released May 28, which also include the first advice regarding exercise during pregnancy, reflect new data on prenatal health as well as several recent shifts in the obstetric landscape - pregnant women in the U.S. are now older, more likely to deliver multiple births and ethnically more diverse than they were 20 or 30 years ago. But far and away, the IOM's greatest new concern is the increased population of overweight and obese mothers-to-be. (Watch TIME's video "How to Lose Hundreds of Pounds.")
For centuries, one of the greatest dangers pregnant women faced was not gaining enough weight to adequately nourish a healthy baby. To protect against malnutrition and, in some cases, a strong societal pressure to stay thin, doctors - and grandmothers - everywhere routinely urged expecting mothers to eat, eat, eat.
Times have changed. Today, nearly two-thirds of American women of childbearing age are overweight, and one-third qualify as obese. An abundance of research suggests that weight gain before and during pregnancy increases the risk of several serious health complications for both mother and child, including diabetes, hypertension and birth defects.
"Increasingly, we saw the weight women were gaining was going outside the established guidelines, either below or above them," says Kathleen Rasmussen, a professor of nutrition at Cornell University and the chair of the committee that wrote the IOM report. "That suggested a need to re-examine them." (Watch a video on fitness gadgets.)
For most women - including those who are underweight, normal weight or even overweight at conception - the guidelines remain unchanged from the original 1990 standards: women with a healthy body mass index, or BMI (a ratio of height and weight used to define obesity), of 18 to 25 are advised to gain 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy. Overweight women with a BMI of 25 to 29.5 should gain less, up to 25 pounds; underweight women, with BMIs below 18.5, should gain more, up to 40 pounds.
The recommendations include new, specific guidelines for obese women, including those who have a BMI of 30 or higher at conception. These mothers-to-be are advised to limit their weight gain to 11 to 20 pounds. The standards also suggest for the first time that pregnant women may safely exercise up to 30 minutes a day throughout their entire pregnancy, barring any complications.
Failing to adhere to the IOM's recommendations could increase health risks for both mother and child, Rasmussen says. Women who do not gain enough weight during pregnancy face an increased risk of stunted fetal growth and preterm delivery. But more commonly, women put on too many extra pounds: approximately 40% of normal-weight and 60% of overweight women gained excessive weight during pregnancy, according to a study published in March by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; one-fourth of obese women gained more than 35 pounds, the recommended limit for women of healthy weight. (Watch TIME's video "Uninsured Again.")
Studies have linked obesity and rapid weight gain during pregnancy to a higher risk of gestational diabetes and hypertension in the mother. And because most women fail to shed all their pregnancy fat, the additional weight can lead to an increased risk of postpartum obesity, along with elevated risks of heart disease and stroke. Babies delivered by obese women tend to be born bigger, earlier and by Cesarean section. And many studies suggest that a mother's gestational obesity predicts later weight problems in her offspring. One recent study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School found that among nearly 12,000 children and teenagers, those whose mothers gained more than the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy were 42% more likely to be obese by the time they were 9 to 14 years old.
Rasmussen emphasizes that physicians must do more to counsel individual patients about diet and exercise both before and after conception. "Traditionally, these guidelines concentrated on what was healthiest for the baby," Rasmussen says. "Here, we've spent much more time looking at both the mother's and the baby's well-being."
But the new recommendations should be applied only to American patients, the IOM says. Although the guidelines use globally accepted BMI cutoffs determined by the World Health Organization to define pre-pregnancy obesity, the weight-gain recommendations may not be appropriate for women in other countries, who are shorter or thinner or have inadequate prenatal care.
Some American doctors think the IOM, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, could have gone even further in its recommendations for overweight women. Dr. Raul Artal, a professor of obstetrics at St. Louis University's School of Medicine, believes that more attention needs to be paid to the long-term health risks of maternal obesity for both mother and child, and that these concerns are far more important than any gestational weight-gain chart. Artal runs a clinic specializing in obese and overweight pregnancies and has found that, under the close guidance of dietitians and physicians, about half of his oversize patients put on little to no weight and deliver healthy, normal-weight babies. "Obesity leads to lifelong problems that this committee still fails to recognize the full importance of," he says. "They remain much more concerned about not-sufficient weight gain."
Still, Artal applauds the updated guidelines, which he calls an "excellent review of all the relevant research" and which are more accommodating of individual patients. "The reality is that no two pregnancies are alike, so flexibility is important," Artal says. These days, it seems, the age-old advice for mothers-to-be to "eat for two" no longer applies.
See pictures of what makes you eat more food.
See nine kid foods to avoid.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com: Weight Guidelines Toughened for Obese Mothers-to-Be

Experts Urge Less Weight Gain for Obese Women in Pregnancy

THURSDAY, May 28 (HealthDay News) � Obese moms-to-be should
limit their weight gain during pregnancy to between 11 and 20 pounds to
safeguard their health and that of their baby, according to newly updated
expert guidelines.

That level of gestational weight gain is about half whats recommended
for normal-weight pregnant women and reflects the concern over the rising
number of obese expectant mothers in the United States.

The new guidelines � the first since 1990 � were issued jointly May
28 by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council.

"We looked at a balance of maternal outcomes related to weight gain in
pregnancy and issues related to the outcome for the fetus and neonate,"
explained Dr. Patrick M. Catalano, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology
at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the committee that
wrote the new guidelines.

"There is good evidence that the amount of gestational weight gain for
an obese woman can be related to the risk of needing a cesarean delivery
and retention of weight gain after pregnancy, which puts the woman at
further risk in future pregnancies," Catalano said.

Doctors typically define overweight as a body mass index (BMI) of
between 25 and 30 and obesity as a BMI of 30 and above. BMI is based on
weight and height; for example, a 5-foot-6-inch tall woman weighing
between 115 and 154 pounds would have a BMI in the normal range.

But children born to overweight or obese moms face a rise in risk for
preterm birth or being larger than normal at delivery, with extra fat,
Catalano noted. Babies born large can suffer stuck shoulders and broken
collar bones, experts say, and are prone to overweight or obesity and type
2 diabetes later in life. And an overly large newborn poses risks for the
mother at delivery, including vaginal tearing, bleeding and often the need
for a cesarean section.

Infants born overweight also face higher odds for health problems such
as heart disease and diabetes. Children born prematurely can suffer from
impaired mental and physical development.

On the other end of the spectrum, the report's authors noted, women who
are underweight during their pregnancy raise their babies' odds for
stunted fetal growth and preterm delivery.

So, according to the new guidelines, maintaining a normal body weight
and gaining only the recommended amount of weight during pregnancy is the
best way to lower risks to both mother and child.

Specifically, the guidelines urge that:

Normal-weight women � those with a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 � should gain
25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy.

Underweight women �those with a BMI less than 18.5 � should gain 28
to 40 pounds during pregnancy.

Overweight women should gain 15 to 25 pounds.

Obese women should gain only 11 to 20 pounds.

The last recommendation marks a change from the 1990 guidelines, which
recommended that obese mothers-to-be gain at least 15 pounds during
pregnancy.

The report's authors were also concerned with the mother's weight at
conception. Almost two-thirds of American women of childbearing age are
overweight and almost one-third are obese, the report notes. The committee
recommended, therefore, that women try to reach a normal BMI before
conception and then gain the appropriate amount of weight during their
pregnancy.

The committee also recommends that doctors provide diet and exercise
counseling to women before conception so that women can achieve a normal
BMI before becoming pregnant. In addition, prenatal care should focus on
keeping weight gain within recommended guidelines.

Putting on excess pounds during pregnancy is becoming common: According
to a study published in November in Obstetrics & Gynecology,
nearly one in five pregnant American women now surpass recommended levels
of weight gain during their pregnancies.

So, following the new guidelines "can be beneficial to both you and the
baby," Catalano said. "The closer to a normal weight that you can be
before you get pregnant is to your advantage and also to your baby's
advantage because we know that your pre-pregnancy weight is a very
important variable for these outcomes as well as the weight gain in
pregnancy."

Dr. Michael Katz, senior vice president for research and global
programs at the March of Dimes, a sponsor of the report, was dubious about
the impact of the new guidelines long term.

"Pregnant women are very concerned about the outcome so they respond to
recommendations, but they don't last very long," Katz said. "Obesity and
overweight is a chronic situation. If a woman is overweight, she should
adjust her weight first, then become pregnant. And one hopes, they would
keep their weight in check subsequently, but that's unlikely."

Losing weight and keeping it off is a lifetime commitment, Katz noted.
Being underweight is also a problem, "but obesity is by far the most
prevalent and most serious problem," he said.

More information

The March of Dimes has more on weight
gain during pregnancy.

Hardened Arteries Threaten Obese, Diabetic Youth

TUESDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) � An examination of the neck
arteries of today's obese or diabetic young people bodes ill for their
future health, researchers report.

The walls of these carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain,
showed a thickening and stiffness known to increase the risk of future
strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems, according to a
report to be published in the June 9 issue of Circulation.

"Since the 1980s, there has been a major increase in obesity in our
youth," said Dr. Elaine Urbina, director of preventive cardiology at
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, associate professor of
pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and lead author of the report.
"This could be the first generation of Americans that has a shorter life
expectancy than its parents," she said.

In the study, Urbina and her team used ultrasound to assess the carotid
arteries of a few hundred young people (average age 18) � 182 who were
lean, 128 diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (often tied to obesity), and 136
classified as obese because their weight-for-height was above the 95th
percentile. "It was one of the larger studies of carotid thickness in
adolescents," Urbina said.

The researchers looked at the thickness of the intima, one of the
layers of tissue that line the arteries.

"If you have diabetes, the intima is thicker than if you don't have
diabetes," Urbina said. "If you are obese, the artery is also thicker.
Stiff carotids are linked to heart attacks as well as strokes, because if
you are having a buildup of plaque in the arteries that lead to the brain,
you probably are having a buildup in the coronary arteries as well."

Plaque is the term for the fatty deposits that can increase in size and
thickness until they limit or totally block normal blood flow.

The young people who were obese or had diabetes were more likely to
have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as higher blood
pressure and high levels of blood fats such as cholesterol, the study
found. But those factors did not account for the significant changes in
artery structure and function, the researchers said.

According to Urbina, the detection of unhealthy artery changes in
young, obese or diabetic people "demonstrates the need for research in
this area."

One expert said the findings reinforce prior research.

"This is more evidence that obesity is not good for young people," said
Dr. Robert H. Eckel, professor of physiology and biophysics at the
University of Colorado, a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
However, it's not clear from the study how damaging obesity might be in
these young people, Eckel said.

"How important [the findings are] in terms of what is to follow is not
clear," he said, noting that the consequences for adult health of obesity
in childhood are not set in stone.

"There can be intervention to modify risk, not necessarily to reduce
obesity but to control blood pressure and blood lipids more aggressively.
I would like to see further studies that follow these young people with
and without intervention for 10 years," Eckel said.

In the meantime, rising childhood obesity is now a troubling fact of
life for doctors who see young patients, Urbina added. A kilogram equals
2.2 pounds, and "at least once a month, I see a child who weighs more in
kilograms than I weigh in pounds," she said. "Yesterday, I saw that in an
11-year-old."

The child and youth obesity problem is an issue for schools as well as
parents, Urbina said. Schools must play a role, because "80 percent of the
calories children consume are outside the control of parents," she said,
and also because schools often do not emphasize physical activities that
can help prevent excess weight gain.

"We need better nutrition and better after-school programs," she
said.

More information

There's more on obesity in the United States at the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among Obese Diabetics, Sleep Apnea May Be Common

FRIDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) � People who are obese and have
type 2 diabetes often have undiagnosed sleep apnea as well, a new study
has found.

In fact, of the 306 participants in the study, about 87 percent were
found to have sleep apnea but had never been diagnosed with the disorder.
The findings appear in the June issue of Diabetes Care.

People in the study, all obese and all with type 2 diabetes, had
participated in a sleep study and answered questions about sleep apnea
symptoms such as snoring and daytime sleepiness.

More than 30 percent of the study participants had 16 to 20 episodes
per hour in which their breathing would stop during sleep, and 22 percent
had more than 30 episodes an hour, which is considered severe sleep apnea,
according to the researchers.

Most of those who were undiagnosed also had a larger waist
circumference, which the researchers found to be significantly associated
with sleep apnea, as is higher body-mass index (BMI).

"The high prevalence of undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated sleep
apnea among obese patients with diabetes constitutes a serious public
health problem," study author Gary D. Foster, director of the Center for
Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, said in a school news
release.

Sleep apnea increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, according
to the release.

"Doctors who have obese patients with type 2 diabetes need to be aware
of the possibility of sleep apnea, even if no symptoms are present,
especially in cases where the patient has a high BMI or waist
circumference," Foster said.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about sleep apnea.

Overweight Moms More Likely to Have Asthmatic Kids

TUESDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) � A mother's weight may have
lasting effects not just on her own health but on the respiratory health
of her children as well.

"Children with asthmatic parents are at an increased risk of asthma if
the mother is overweight before pregnancy," said H.A. Smit, head of the
department of prevention and health services research at the National
Institute of Public Health and Environment in the Netherlands.

In fact, Smith and his fellow researchers found that the risk of asthma
is 65 percent higher among the offspring of overweight mothers if one or
both of the child's parents have a history of the disease.

Smit was to present the findings Tuesday at the American Thoracic
Society's annual meeting in San Diego.

As many as 20 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma, about
9 million of them children, according to the American Academy of Allergy,
Asthma & Immunology. Despite advances in treatment, asthma is still
responsible for about 5,000 deaths each year in the United States, it
says.

Not all children born to parents with asthma go on to develop the
airway disease. That happens about 40 percent of the time, the academy
reports.

Because the exact causes of asthma are not clear, researchers have
looked at a number of factors that might contribute to its development,
including maternal smoking, the child's environment and more.

Smit's study sought to assess whether a mother's weight before
pregnancy could affect a child's risk for asthma. The study included
nearly 4,000 children, who were followed from birth to 8 years of age.

The mothers in the study averaged 30 years old, and almost 21 percent
were overweight � which the researchers defined as have a body mass index
higher than 25 � before becoming pregnant.

Children were considered to have asthma if their parents reported that
they'd had at least one attack of wheezing or shortness of breath or had
needed inhaled corticosteroids in the previous year. About 14 percent of
the children had asthma by age 8.

The researchers adjusted the data to account for confounding factors,
such as maternal education, mode of delivery, maternal smoking during
pregnancy, duration of breast-feeding, birth weight and the child's
current weight, according to Smit.

Although they found no association between maternal weight in children
born to parents without asthma, children born to parents with asthma who
also had an overweight mother had a 65 percent increased risk of
developing asthma.

Though the study was not designed to determine why being overweight
might affect a child's risk for asthma, Smit theorized that inflammation
could be the connection between the conditions. That's because obesity can
encourage inflammation, and inflammation is at the root of asthma.

Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. John
Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, said that "we don't know exactly
what causes or contributes to asthma, but it does look like there are some
things that occur in utero that could affect the child later."

But, she said, it may not be the fact that mothers are overweight. It
could be something that they're eating that's affecting their children.
It's just not clear from this study, she said, adding that that more
research needs to be done.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more on the
causes of asthma.

Productivity Takes a Hit From Obesity, Diabetes

WEDNESDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) � Obese workers with diabetes
are less productive than their normal-weight co-workers, says a U.S.
study.

Researchers surveyed 7,338 working adults about missed work time,
reduced work effectiveness and impairment of daily activities. The results
showed that people who were obese and had type 2 diabetes lost 11 percent
to 15 percent of work time (about 5.9 hours a week) because of health
problems, compared with 9 percent of work time (about 3.6 hours a week)
lost by normal-weight people.

The survey also found that obese people with type 2 diabetes reported
impairment during 20 percent to 34 percent of their daily activities, such
as taking care of children, shopping and exercising.

The findings are in the May/June issue of the American Journal of
Health Promotion.

"From an employer's perspective, this study provides evidence that
workplace wellness programs that include weight loss and weight management
would be beneficial for obese employees with or at risk for diabetes,"
Kathleen Fox, president of Strategic Healthcare Solutions and a co-author
of the study, said in a news release from the Center for the Advancement
of Health.

The study supports previously published research that found "the
heavier people are, the most lost productivity at work," Anne Wolf, an
instructor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who
specializes in researching the economic effects of obesity, said in the
news release. This study was different, she said, in that it found an
independent effect of diabetes on worker productivity.

"Employers who spend money in a lifestyle intervention will find their
investment returned to them in the form of increased productivity and
reduced absenteeism," Wolf said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases outlines the health risks of being overweight.

Obesity May Raise Kids' Allergy Risk

FRIDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) � Obese children and teens are at
increased risk for allergies, especially food allergies, say U.S.
researchers.

The study authors analyzed data from 4,111 participants, aged 2 to 19,
who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and
found that obese children and teens were 26 percent more likely to have
any kind of allergy, and 59 percent more likely to have a food allergy,
than their normal-weight peers.

"We found a positive association between obesity and allergies," senior
author Dr. Darryl Zeldin, acting clinical director at the U.S. National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), said in an institute
news release. "While the results from this study are interesting, they do
not prove that obesity causes allergies. More research is needed to
further investigate this potential link."

The study is in the May issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical
Immunology.

"Given that the prevalence of both obesity and allergic disease has
increased among children over the last several decades, it is important to
understand and, if possible, prevent these epidemics," lead author Cynthia
M. Visness, a scientist at Rho Federal Systems Division Inc., in Chapel
Hill, N.C., said in the news release.

"Seeing a possible link between obesity and allergies provides
additional motivation for undertaking the challenge of reducing childhood
obesity," added Linda Birnbaum, NIEHS director.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about children and allergies.

Study blames over-eating, not poor exercise for US obesity

AMSTERDAM (AFP) -
Over-eating, not a lack of exercise, is to blame for the American obesity epidemic, a new study claimed Friday, warning that physical activity could not fully compensate for excess calories.

"There is no evidence that a marked reduction in physical activity has been a contributor to this epidemic in the United States," study leader Boyd Swinburn told AFP on the sidelines of an international obesity conference in Amsterdam, where the research was unveiled.

"The increase in energy intake... virtually explained all of the weight gain."

Swinburn, a professor at the health faculty of Australia's Deakin University, said American children had grown on average four kilogrammes (nine pounds) heavier over the past three decades with adults putting on an extra eight kgs (17 pounds).

The study calculated what Americans should weigh today based on their current, higher food intake, and comparing this to their actual weight.

If they weighed more than projected, this would suggest a drop in physical activity.

In fact, researchers found that American adults weighed less than could be expected from their diet, "which means that if anything over that period of time, the adults had been increasing their physical activity, not decreasing," said Swinburn.

Among children, the tests yielded a 100 percent match, leading researchers to conclude that changes in physical activity had had no impact whatsoever on America's children growing fatter.

The findings would "probably be similar" for other developed countries, Swinburn said.

For the US population to return to its leaner, 1970s self, children would have to cut their intake by about 350 calories a day � equal to one can of fizzy drink and a small portion of French fries, and adults by about 500 calories � the equivalent of a Big Mac burger.

Alternatively, children would have to walk for an extra two-and-a-half hours a day, and adults for nearly two hours, said Swinburn.

"Getting everybody to walk an extra two hours a day is not really a feasible option for countering the epidemic," he said.

"We need to limit our expectations of what an increase in physical activity can achieve."

Swinburn stressed that the findings did not seek to negate the value of physical activity for weight control and overall health.

"But if we want to influence the underlying drivers (behind obesity), we have to have our eye much more on the energy intake side than on the physical activity side."

In short, Americans must eat less, he said.

The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2005, about 1.6 billion adults were overweight, of which at least 400 million were obese.

The conference was organised by the European Association for the Study of Obesity.

Obesity, arthritis affects women in later years

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Disabilities related to obesity and arthritis decrease women's quality of life during their senior years, according to research presented Saturday at the American Geriatrics Society's annual meeting in Chicago.

"While women tend to live longer than men, this study shows that they are at greater risk of living with disability and much of the excess disability is attributable to higher rates of obesity and arthritis," Dr. Heather Whitson from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina who presented the study, noted in a statement.

Among 5,888 men and women older than 65 years enrolled in the Cardiovascular Health Study, Whitson and her colleagues found that women suffered up to two and a half times more disabilities than men of the same age. Higher rates of obesity and arthritis among these women explained up to 48 percent of the gender gap in disability.

"This is important because it suggests that women's tendency to pack on extra pounds in their child-bearing and peri-menopausal years translates into loss of independence in their old age," Whitson added. "Preventing weight gain in young to middle-aged women may decrease disability burden in later years."

Dr. Harvey Jay Cohen, the study's lead investigator and director of Duke's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, said: "The findings of our study are more troubling when you consider the increasing rates of obesity among women. We need to help women make better decisions earlier in life."

In addition to obesity and arthritis, the study team found the women were much more likely than men to fracture a bone and suffer from vision problems and bronchitis. Men, on the other hand, were more likely to have emphysema, heart disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, diabetes and hearing problems. They were also more likely to have trouble walking due to narrowed leg arteries.

Researchers say that the next step is to see whether older women with disabilities related to obesity or arthritis regain function if they lose weight and get their arthritis pain under control.

Australia may pay for obesity surgery: report

MELBOURNE (AFP) -
Australia is considering government-funded lap-band surgery to curb rising rates of obesity, it was reported.

The plan would see taxpayers pick up the bill for the surgery, which involves attaching a band around the entrance to the stomach so patients feel full after eating only a little food, the Herald Sun newspaper reported.

It said a parliamentary inquiry was set to back the move next week after hearing evidence that the surgery could help obese patients lose up to 60 percent of their body weight.

The plan would reduce the burden placed on the public health system through weight-related conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, the newspaper reported.

It said the plan was to make the surgery available to those who could not lose weight through any other method.

More than a third of Australia's 21 million strong population are estimated to be overweight or obese, according to recent figures.

International studies consistently rank Australia among the fattest countries in the world, with the nation's Baker Heart Institute in 2008 suggesting it faced a "fat bomb" outranking even that in the United States.

Emergency services have introduced special "mega-lift" ambulances in New South Wales state capable of handling patients weighing more than 180 kilograms (400 pounds).

Undertakers also say they are stocking massive coffins, while consumer authorities are considering upgrading standards on everything from toilets to child car booster seats so they can handle heavier loads.