This genetic predisposition (mutated or altered genes), along with external and personal factors such as inadequate dietary habits or physical inactivity, predispose patients to obesity and the complications that arise from it (diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure) which in turn increase cardiovascular risk.

OVERWEIGHT MEN MUST FACE THE TASK OF UNDERGOING A MASSIVE WEIGHT-LOSS PROGRAM…FOUR PACKS HAS REPEATEDLY PROMOTED A MINIMUM 30 DAY RAPID WEIGHT-LOSS, CALORIE-RESTRICTIVE DIET…UNDER 1,000 CALORIES PER DAY FOR 30 DAYS…VISCERAL (BELLY) FAT WILL BE LOST THEREBY ALLOWING FOR A HEALTHY MAINTENANCE DIET…

(From a Science Daily news release)   The presence of increased body fat, and therefore higher levels of inflammatory substances in the blood, hinders the loss and maintenance of body weight; as shown by a research project of the University of Navarra conducted by Estíbaliz Goyenechea Soto, a scientist at the School of Pharmacy.

The project, entitled “A nutrigenetic and nutrigenomic study in relation to the control of body weight and inflammation,” examines how the individual genetics of obese patients can help or hinder weight loss when dieting and even influence the subsequent long term maintenance of their weight loss.

Some overweight or obese people have mutated or altered genes that initially make it difficult to lose weight and later make it easier to regain lost body weight in a period of six months or a year. This problem occurs similarly in patients who have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their blood.

This genetic predisposition, along with external and personal factors such as inadequate dietary habits or physical inactivity, predispose patients to obesity and the complications that arise from it (diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure) which in turn increase cardiovascular risk.

The future: customized diets

The study, conducted by the Department of Food Sciences, Physiology and Toxicology has provided new data on the genetic and plasma biomarkers that predict the response of obese patients to specific diets. The goal is to develop customized therapeutic strategies in the near future based on the genetic characteristics of each person.

A bank of biomarkers (genes and proteins) capable of predicting a person’s response to weight loss would enable doctors to know, with a simple blood test, how each patient would react to different types of nutritional intervention.

The study involved 180 overweight or obese patients, who followed a hypo-caloric (low energy) diet for 8 weeks and were evaluated after six months and again a year after the end of the dietary intervention.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091124093539.htm

“Let the stoics say what they please,” wrote Emerson, “we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.”

THIS BOOK IS WHAT MAKES LIFE INTERESTING…VEGETARIANS ARE VERY DISCIPLINED AND HEALTHY PEOPLE…FOUR PACKS WILL NOT QUESTION THIS…BUT ATTAINING IDEAL SHAPE ALSO INVOLVES FINDING JOY IN THE DIET AND FITNESS LIFESTYLE…AND EXCLUDING “ANIMAL MEAT”, INCLUDING FISH AND FOWL, JUST REMOVES THE JOY FROM EATING…AND THUS FORCES MANY VEGETARIANS INTO A “RESENTMENT” MINDSET….

There aren’t any vegetarian recipes in Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book Eating Animals. It’s intentional. Eating Animals is a book for meat-eaters, or more precisely, meat agnostics like Jonathan Safran Foer. It is, as its title implies, about eating meat, yet also makes a case for living without it. The book includes grotesque factoids about the factory-farm meat industry. Even as an informed vegetarian of 24 years, I finished Eating Animals headachy and a little depressed. I can’t imagine the pain it will cause those hapless agnostics. For all the effort, I really could have used a good recipe, something to get me jazzed up about being vegetarian. Something that might get a meat-eater jazzed up about vegetarian food.

Eating Animals reminds us that vegetarianism is a diet of intellectuals. Which is to say, it is eating intellectualized. Vegetarian thinking thrashes against itself, rattling between intention and action, between “animal nature” and “human nature,” reason and desire. Vegetarians can seldom just eat. They justify, apologize, rail, denounce, weep, cajole, entice. At the end of Eating Animals, in the closest we get to a recipe, Foer describes the menu for the no-turkey Thanksgiving of his dreams: “…sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls, green beans with almonds, cranberry concoctions, yams…” As vegetarians intellectualize, they start to believe that people will find rolls and casserole so inspiring as to turn their backs on Thanksgiving turkey.

“Let the stoics say what they please,” wrote Emerson, “we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen.” I agree with Emerson here, as would Foer. People eat meat because they desire it and make their excuses after the fact. We don’t know for sure if it is more or less natural for humans to eat meat, if eating meat or vegetables made us the awesome, complex animals we are, made our brains larger, our thumbs stronger or whatever. We do know that it’s now perfectly possible to live a meaningful and healthy life without meat and without suffering for it. Even an extraordinary life, as demonstrated by da Vinci, Tolstoy, Kafka, Shaw. Foer thus appeals to our nobler sense, reminds us that we need not be ruled by the flavor of meat, that we are animals who recoil from unnecessary cruelty; who can enjoy simplicity; who strive to raise ethical, gentle children that will go on to promote a better world. The old internal mantra of the reformer, “If they only knew, they would change,” beats throughout Eating Animals.

http://thesmartset.com/article/article11210901.aspx

Morris said they noticed an effect similar to anti-depressant drugs on the stressed rats after they ate junk food.

THESE STUDIES ARE GOING TO PROVE OUT WHAT FOUR PACKS HAS BEEN STATING FOR MONTHS…THAT THE PROCESSED FOOD MANUFACTURERS, LIKE THE CIGARETTE COMPANIES, ARE PRODUCING “JUNK FOODS” THAT CREATE ADDICTS…READ BELOW…

A high-fat, high-sugar diet could have the same effect on brain chemistry as mood-altering drugs, giving scientific support to the craving for “comfort food”, Australian researchers said on Tuesday.

A controlled study of rats that were traumatised in early life and went on to exhibit depressed or anxious behaviours found those that were fed lard-laced foods such as cake or pie reversed their stress levels.

“We asked the question, if you’re stressed early in life and then you’re given yummy food to eat does that reduce your behavioural deficit, and basically that’s what we found,” lead researcher Margaret Morris told AFP.

“The animals who’d been exposed to stress who were then given palatable food, junk food if you will, no longer looked anxious.”

Morris and her University of New South Wales team simulated trauma by forcing two control groups of rats to endure lengthy periods of separation from their mothers.

One of the groups was fed an all-you-can-eat “cafeteria diet” of junk food, and the other more healthy foods, and then run through a stress-testing maze.

Morris said they noticed an effect similar to anti-depressant drugs on the stressed rats after they ate junk food.

“The deficit in stress hormone receptors in part of the brain that we saw in the stressed animals was reversed by the diet,” she said.

But Morris warned against hasty conclusions, saying more work needed to be done on the benefit of other factors such as exercise or the social interaction around food.

“We wouldn’t want to say ‘go and eat comfort food’ because that’s not very healthy, but if we can find out whatever it was that started that process in train and find some other way of doing that, that would be really useful.”

“There might be a critical time in the brain of those animals that their mood pathways or their behaviour is being modulated, and (if we) just tickled it for a few weeks maybe we would get the same benefit without having to make them all obese,” she added.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g5grZnNtJwu1WtH4-b3_H94ykbAA

WHOLE FOODS CEO JOHN MACKEY APPEARS TO BE THE ONE FOOD INDUSTRY EXECUTIVE WHO IS PUTTING MONEY WHERE PEOPLE’S MOUTHS ARE…U.S. CURRENCY IS ALMOST PURE FIBER AND CONTAINS ALMOST ZERO CALORIES…FOUR PACKS WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT HIS HEALTHY DIET PROPOSALS…

Whole Foods Market, the largest U.S. natural-goods grocer, plans to sweeten store discounts to employees who lose weight and measurably improve their health.

Workers will receive discounts of 20 percent, rising to 30 percent, based on blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body-mass index and whether they smoke or not, CEO John Mackey said in an interview Monday. The program is voluntary and begins in January, he said.

“We’re making an investment and we expect a return,” Mackey said referring to potential savings in health care costs. Whole Foods spent $150 million on self-insured health coverage last year, he said.

The offer reflects his published opinion that most health problems are “self-inflicted” and can be prevented through proper diet, exercise and similar lifestyle changes. Cost savings are achieved by “less government control and more individual empowerment,” he has said.

Mackey angered some Whole Foods customers in August when he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed column that people “have no intrinsic right to health care.” It is a service, just like food, clothing and shelter, “best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges.” The resulting outcry included calls for a boycott and his ouster.

Whole Food shares fell 61 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $26.36 Friday. The shares have jumped almost threefold this year.

Mobile laboratories will travel to Whole Foods stores to perform the health tests, Mackey said. Contests within stores and regions will keep employees motivated, he said.

“We make getting the 20 percent discount easy to encourage participation,” he said. “The discounts are on a sliding scale based on results.”

For employees considered high-risk because of obesity, type 2 diabetes or other health issues, Whole Foods already offers a retreat-style immersion program. Mackey said the company pays “several thousand dollars” for each individual to work five to 10 days with one of four U.S. doctors. He declined to specify the amount.

More than 100 people have participated. “Several of those employees have told me the program saved their lives,” Mackey said.

Whole Foods pays health care premiums for its 40,000 full- time employees, or more than 75 percent of its work force, said Kate Lowery, a spokeswoman. Part-time employees pay their own premiums, she said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_13836092

For those drinking little - less than a shot of vodka a day for instance - the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less. The type of alcohol drunk did not seem to make a difference, but protection was greater for those drinking moderate to high amounts of varied drinks.

ALCOHOL IS, AND SHOULD BE, A PART OF EVERY HEALTHY DIET…AS LONG AS IT IS CONSUMED IN “MODERATION”…1-2 GLASSES OF RED WINE OR 1-2 OUNCES OF UP TO 80 PROOF LIQUOR MAXIMUM PER DAY…

(From a BBC News article)  The Spanish research involving more than 15,500 men and 26,000 women found large quantities of alcohol could be even more beneficial for men.

Experts are critical, warning heavy drinking can increase the risk of other diseases, with alcohol responsible for 1.8 million deaths globally per year.

The study was conducted in Spain, a country with relatively high rates of alcohol consumption and low rates of coronary heart disease. The research involved men and women aged between 29 and 69, who were asked to document their lifetime drinking habits and followed for 10 years.

Crucially the research team claim to have eliminated the “sick abstainers” risk by differentiating between those who had never drunk and those whom ill-health had forced to quit. This has been used in the past to explain fewer heart-related deaths among drinkers on the basis that those who are unhealthy to start with are less likely to drink.

For those drinking little – less than a shot of vodka a day for instance – the risk was reduced by 35%. And for those who drank anything from three shots to more than 11 shots each day, the risk worked out an average of 50% less. The type of alcohol drunk did not seem to make a difference, but protection was greater for those drinking moderate to high amounts of varied drinks.

The exact mechanisms are as yet unclear, but it is known that alcohol helps to raise high-density lipoproteins, sometimes known as good cholesterol, which helps stop so-called bad cholesterol from building up in the arteries.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8367141.stm

THIS POST PRETTY MUCH SAYS IT ALL…THESE EXCERPTS ARE FROM “THE FUTURE COSTS OF OBESITY”….  http://www.fightchronicdisease.org/pdfs/CostofObesityReport-FINAL.pdf

JUST BECAUSE “SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING” DOES NOT MEAN IT’S FLAWS SHOULDN’T BE EXPOSED…NINTENDO IS GOING TO MARKET THE “Wii FIT” AS AN EXERCISE PROGRAM…AND IT JUST DOESN’T MEASURE UP…RUN OUTSIDE, DO “REAL” PUSHUPS AND SITUPS…AVOID EXERCISE PROGRAMS THAT PROMISE TO MAKE EXERCISE FUN…

(From a USAToday.com article)   The intensity of an exercise program on Nintendo’s highly popular fitness title Wii Fit amounts to a “very, very mild workout,” says a study from the American Council on Exercise.

"I guess anything is better than nothing, but we were a little bit underwhelmed with the exercise intensity of some of the exercises," says John Porcari, lead researcher at the University of Wisconsin Lacrosse Exercise and Health Program, in a statement.

The study recruited 16 male and female volunteers between the ages of 20 to 24 to test how effective Wii Fit is at delivering a vigorous workout.

After each volunteer’s fitness baseline was set, the group participated in six of the game’s most challenging aerobic activities: Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Advanced Step, Super Hula Hoop and Rhythm Boxing.

Researchers found the energy expended from Wii Fit exercises fell below physical activity guidelines set by the American College of Sports Medicine. The exercises also resulted in fewer calories burned compared to performing the actual activity.

“Step aerobics is a very good workout, but you typically step up onto a 6-inch high bench,” says Porcari. “In Wii Fit, you step up onto the 1- or 1.5-inch balance pad so you’re burning far fewer calories than you would in an actual step aerobics class.”

While researchers admit Wii Fit is better than sitting on the couch, the fitness game should be used along with other physical activity. Porcari also suggests Wii Sports might be the better exercise title for Wii owners.

“In Wii Sports, there’s more jumping around, and you’re not constrained by having to stand on the balance pad,” Porcari says. “I just think there’s much more freedom of movement and you get a better workout.”

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/11/exercise-study-questions-fitness-benefits-of-wii-fit/1

The 55-year-old leader said he himself has lost nearly 20 pounds (9 kilograms) by exercising and eating well. But Chavez, who still appears heavier than when he first took office in 1999, acknowledged that he could lose a few more pounds (kilograms).

FOUR PACKS WAS GETTING A LITTLE IMPATIENT FOR OTHER “WORLD LEADERS” TO “WEIGH-IN” ON OBESITY…ALTHOUGH VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT CHAVEZ HAS ZERO CREDIBILITY, SINGLING OUT VENEZUELEN MEN AS BEING FAT IS A GOOD START AT ESTABLISHING SOME “STREET CRED”…

Call it the Bolivarian battle of the bulge.

President Hugo Chavez said in a televised speech Friday that “there are lots of fat people” in Venezuela and advised his supporters to exercise and eat healthy to trim their waistlines.

“I’m not saying fat women, because they never get fat,” he added. “Women sometimes fill out.”

The 55-year-old leader said he himself has lost nearly 20 pounds (9 kilograms) by exercising and eating well. But Chavez, who still appears heavier than when he first took office in 1999, acknowledged that he could lose a few more pounds (kilograms).

“Doing sit ups,” he said. “Eating well. One has to learn how to eat.”

Chavez suggested rice pasta instead of spaghetti made from wheat, and recommended drinking soy milk, saying soy products help fight aging.

Chavez said his diet and exercise have made him feel stronger and “ready to continue commanding the Bolivarian Revolution” — the name he has given his socialist-inspired political movement.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jqut8PZYp5pKvFtIweSXvvi1WhXgD9BV1GUO1

THE BRITISH WILL NO DOUBT WATCH WITH GLEE AS AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN OBESITY BUT THEY JUST “BLINKED” WHEN IT CAME TO MAINTAINING CALORIE CONSUMPTION GUIDELINES…AN EXTRA 400 CALORIES IS OK????ARE YOUR KIDDING???? BRITISH MEN ARE NO MORE ACTIVE THAN AMERICAN MEN…IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DIET…2500 CALORIES PER DAY FOR MEN IS 500 TOO MANY…NOW YOU ALMOST DOUBLE THE OVERAGE TO 900???…BRITAIN IS NOW “FULLY” COMMITTED TO BEING A “HEAVYWEIGHT” IN WORLD IN OBESITY…. 

Over-eating and lack of exercise mean more and more Britons are seriously overweight, with 32 percent of men and 33 percent of women expected to be clinically obese in four years' time.

(From a Daily Mail article)   Official guidance on how much we can eat each day has been underestimated for the last two decades, scientists have revealed.

The daily intake of calories – currently 2,000 for woman and 2,500 for men – could be increased by up to 16 per cent, the equivalent of cheeseburger or two packets of crisps.

An average adult could happily squeeze in an extra 400 calories a day and not pile on the pounds, Britain’s leading nutritionists have admitted.

The adjustment, which will give hope to millions of dieters, came after researchers found a more accurate assessment of how fat can be burned off through exercise.

But it sparked alarm from health campaigners and consumer experts who fear it will send out mixed messages to those battling the bulge.

A third of all British adults – some 13 million people – will be obese by 2012 if current trends continue.

Over-eating and lack of exercise mean more and more Britons are seriously overweight, with 32 percent of men and 33 percent of women expected to be clinically obese in four years’ time.

The proposals, revealed yesterday, have been drafted by a committee of Britain’s leading nutritional experts on  the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN).

They are due to go out for a 14-week consultation before final recommendations are made.

The findings are based on a more accurate interpretation of physical activity levels in the UK by the SACN.

Concerns have been raised that the Department of Health and the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) could seek to sweep the report under the carpet as it could send out mixed messages in the middle of an obesity epidemic.

The FSA has been evaluating for two years new methods of labelling, including a traffic light’ scheme to colour-code unhealthy food.

Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer, said the implications were huge for the food industry in terms of relabelling.

He said: ‘I think it is massively confusing if you are offering advice and it turns out the advice was wrong.

‘It gives the Food Standards Agency a big problem because the temptation must be to sweep this under the carpet and continue to give people the advice they have given because 2,000 and 2,500 are nice round numbers’.

Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said it was a ‘dangerous assumption’ to say that adults could safely consume an extra 400 calories a day.

‘This is not a green light to eat yourself silly,’ he said. ‘I can be absolutely sure that SACN would not be recommending this lightly because it knows better than anybody else that we have a huge obesity problem.

‘People have got to be sensible about what they eat and if they feel they should take on these extra calories.’

Existing guidelines on energy intake required for good health have formed the basis of food labelling and dietary advice from doctors and nutritionists since 1991.

If the committee’s proposals are accepted some foods would be upgraded to a healthier rating.

The report comes two weeks after the Government’s chief drugs advisor was sacked by the Home Secretary for ‘crossing a line’ by publicly criticising existing policy.

Overweight and obese people cost the NHS an estimated £4,2 billion a year and the Department of Health has pledge to cut levels of childhood obesity.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227743/Its-official–eat-stay-healthy.html#ixzz0X2NqqXNZ

With a minimum price of $1.90 per bushel of corn guaranteed by the 2007 Farm Bill, activists say that the crop is a guaranteed winner for the farmers of the Midwest — and one of the results is something called super-abundant high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

IT JUST MAKES ”FOUR PACKS” DAY TO RECEIVE THE GIFT OF A BRITISH ARTICLE ON “AMERICAN OBESITY”…THE FRENCH AND BRITISH REVEL IN DETAILING THE CONTINUED AMERICAN “CORUPTION OF CULTURE”…THE “HEAVY-WEIGHT” BRITISH MEDIA RIGHTLY EXPOSES HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP’S ROLE IN THE  OBESITY EPIDEMIC…READ BELOW:

(From TimesOnline article)   The link has not been proven, but the theory is compelling. It suggests that America is doomed to lead the world’s obesity rankings as long as the process by which it elects its presidents starts in Iowa — a state known for its cornfields and corn subsidies.

With a minimum price of $1.90 per bushel of corn guaranteed by the 2007 Farm Bill, activists say that the crop is a guaranteed winner for the farmers of the Midwest — and one of the results is something called super-abundant high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Known to its detractors as “liquid Satan”, HFCS is the sweetener of choice in the vast bulk of fizzy drinks and packaged cakes and biscuits consumed in the US. Its producers have long enjoyed the solid support of the US Senate and most presidential candidates, who gravitate every four years to Iowa to pledge their allegiance to its voters. “Farm subsidies are a third rail of Iowa politics,” a former staffer on Senator John Edwards’s presidential campaign said yesterday. “You don’t touch them.”

President Obama certainly didn’t. As an Illinois Senator and presidential candidate, he consistently backed corn subsidies, on the grounds that they promoted the production of corn-based ethanol and thereby enhanced US energy security.

The 2007 Farm Bill conferred more than $2 billion on Iowa in corn subsidies for 2007 to 2012 — nearly 80 per cent of the state’s subsidies for all crops for the period. Americans’ consumption of corn on the cob has not risen markedly as a result, but their intake of HFCS has been climbing for decades, from 0.6lb per person per year in 1970 to 73.5lb in 2007.

It is sugars that make people put on weight, the paediatrician James Bailes insists. “I used to tell people to eat less fat and exercise more — and none of them lost weight,” he said. “It’s the carbohydrates, the sugary drinks, that do the damage.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6916612.ece