Tag Archive for: obesity

Recent Research: Milk and T2D

/in /by

Health news headlines got my attention this past week. They announced that full-fat milk products may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and becoming overweight. I don’t know about you, but it’s been decades since I drank whole milk or ate whole-fat yogurt or ice cream. It’s not just about the calories; it just doesn’t seem to taste as good. Have I been missing something? Headlines tend to exaggerate, especially when they’re based on press releases. Let’s take a look at the first study behind the headlines.

In the first paper . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

“In Defense of Food”: The Key Omission

/in /by

The movie “In Defense of Food” is a must see, as I’ve said. I think it makes the most reasonable presentation for what we should and should not eat to be healthy. But it also has a glaring omission.

In the movie, a segment focuses on the Hadza, a nomadic tribe in Tanzania and one of the last cultures who are still hunter-gatherers. They eat what they find and occasionally kill. A staple of their diet is very fibrous root vegetables.

The movie also does a segment on a group of elderly 7th Day Adventists. They believe their . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Cause of Obesity: The Lack of Exercise

/in /by

After reading Thursday’s message, I’ll bet you all saw this one coming. Together with taking in too many calories, we just move way too little and it costs us. I specifically made the title of Thursday’s message “Muscle Aging” instead of “Aging Muscle.” The reason is that our sedentary lifestyle causes the muscle to age faster than it should. The solution is exercise. Here’s a partial list of what exercise does for skeletal muscle:


Better Blood Flow

Regular exercise increases blood flow to the exercising muscles. That allows nutrients in and more important, waste . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Cause of Obesity: Muscle Aging

/in /by

In the previous message, I said that there was one factor besides calorie intake that affected the rate of obesity in the United States. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, just take a look at the CT scans at right (1). These are scans of the thighs of a 25-year-old man and an 81-year-old man, matched for body weight and height. There are a couple of things that you can notice. The white area is the muscle and the dark area is mostly fat; the older man’s thigh has visibly less muscle mass . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Cause of Obesity: Vegetarian Diet

/in /by

Last week I talked about the causes of obesity as it related to food choices. It all comes down to calories in versus calories out. There are a couple of more points I want to make so I decided to continue the message arc this week.

Let’s begin with vegetarians. Do they have any advantage in the calories in versus calories out? Yes and no. Based on the available research, mostly done on 7th Day Adventists, vegetarians have lower average BMIs than non-vegetarians. The more vegetarian the diet, the lower the BMI, with complete vegans having the lowest . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Cause of Obesity: The Data

/in /by

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, NHANES for short, is large-scale survey performed by the CDC every few years. I’ve written about studies that have used the data many times. I like the survey because they use a dietary recall from the previous 24 hours instead of a food frequency questionnaire; there’s still potential for errors, but most people can remember what they ate yesterday. It’s also open-access data, meaning that if you have the credentials, you can use the data to answer questions. A couple of Cornell researchers did have a question: did . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Real Agenda: Refined Carbohydrates

/in /by

Let’s finish up our look at the editorial in a sports medicine journal that says exercise will not help you lose weight.

While the headline certainly gets our attention, the authors really want to talk about the increase in refined carbohydrates as the cause of the obesity epidemic. I don’t disagree, but I disagree with how they’re doing it. They began by talking about an exercise myth and weight loss which was completely unnecessary. Then they ramble on about how the refined-food industry is using advertising tactics similar to the tobacco industry. The public is intentionally . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

Physical Activity vs. Exercise

/in /by

The authors of the editorial mentioned in the last memo suggest you’re being sold a bill of goods on the benefits of exercise as it relates to losing weight. In the opening paragraph, they state that a recently published paper claimed that 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week is a miracle cure for reducing the risk of and treating chronic disease. They then say that physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia, and some cancers by at least 30%. Then they say physical activity is not effective to help people . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

The Exercise Myth

/in /by

I often begin the week’s messages by responding to a health headline gone crazy. The headline generally sensationalizes what’s in the article, usually supported with press releases with similar headlines. Not in this case; every headline I read was spot on.

Here’s the actual title of the editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

It Is Time to Bust the Myth of Physical Inactivity and Obesity: You Cannot Outrun a Bad Diet

Before I go further, ask yourself a question: do you believe that if you exercised . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.

Weight Loss Supplement: The Research

/in /by

Purported experts say one thing about the amphetamine-like weight loss supplement that’s in the news. Manufacturers say another. The FDA basically says nothing. “What the heck is going on around here?” is one of my favorite Vince Lombardi quotes. I’ll break things down into three questions.

Is there any evidence that Acacia rigidula contains amphetamine-like chemicals?
Yes. The research was based on analyses of the edible parts of the plants that were eaten by animals in times of drought. Everything from caffeine to nicotine to many forms of amphetamine alkaloids were identified in the . . .

We're sorry, but this content is available to Members and Insiders only.

If you're already a DrChet.com Member or Insider, click on the Membership Login link on the top menu. Members may upgrade to Insider by going to the Store and clicking Membership; your membership fee will be prorated automatically.