LOVING THIS POST…HEART HEALTH AND NOW BRAIN HEALTH STUDIES SHOW THE BENEFITS OF A MEDITERRANEAN DIET…GIVE ME REASONS AND THE CHOICE IS EASY…..

Following a Mediterranean diet may do more than trim pounds — it could help prevent brain damage linked to memory problems and strokes.

In a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting, people who followed a Mediterranean-like diet were less likely to suffer brain tissue damage.

The diets of 712 people were assessed and separated into groups based on how closely participants followed the diet. MRI brain scans show those following the Mediterranean diet the closest were 36 percent less likely to have areas of tissue damage than those following the diet the least closely.

Researchers say these findings support previous research that shows the Mediterranean diet could be associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and lengthen the lives of people with Alzheimer’s.

“From this type of observational study, we cannot give recommendations to the population because we don’t know whether it is a cause and effect type of association between the diet and brain health,” study author Nikolaos Scarmeas, M.D., of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y., told Ivanhoe. “But it makes sense to follow this diet because it has been proven to help with heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks and, now, maybe brain disease, too.”

A Mediterranean diet includes a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, fish and monounsaturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids, dairy, meat and poultry are discouraged.

http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=23526

DISCIPLINE WILL ALWAYS BE THE LAST RESORT IT SEEMS…

Some people in Hong Kong are going to such extremes that they’re risking their lives by swallowing parasitic worms, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported.

The Hong Kong Department of Health said Chinese Web sites have been offering weight-loss products containing potentially fatal parasites as a way of shedding extra pounds.

The products contain the eggs of Ascaris worms, giant intestinal roundworms, which can grow up to 15-inches inside a host’s intestines and lay up to 200,000 eggs a day inside the body, according to the report.

Officials are warning people that swallowing the parasites could cause abdominal pain and distension, vomiting, diarrhea and malnutrition.

“Parasite infestation may also be fatal if serious complications such as intestinal, biliary tract or pancreatic duct obstruction arise,” a health spokesman said. “The worms may even invade such organs as the lungs.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585224,00.html

WHAT A SURPRISE….THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRY WAS ABLE TO KILL ANY POSSIBLE “SODA TAX”…AND THE SUN WILL RISE TOMORROW…DON’T COUNT ON LEGISLATION TO HALT AMERICA’S OBESITY EPIDEMIC…

Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance healthcare reform.

Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenue to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight — including diabetes and heart disease — added urgency to the issue.

But the White House staff reviewing funding options never embraced the idea even after President Obama expressed interest last summer. A key congressional committee, after initially seeming receptive, ended up refusing to consider it. Several minority advocacy groups, including some committed to fighting obesity, lined up against the tax after years of receiving financial support from the industry.

There is no sign that First Lady Michelle Obama will mention taxes Tuesday when she unveils her new healthy-eating initiative, which had input from fast food and soft drink representatives.

Meanwhile, beverage lobbyists attacked some of the country’s most distinguished nutrition scientists, accusing them of bias and distorting available evidence. The beverage industry also financed research that reached conclusions favorable to its position.

No one underestimated the difficulty of getting new taxes approved, but Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-Lakewood), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said, “We thought we had a chance to punch through.”

That was before the industry unlimbered its guns.

Target lawmakers

From the beginning, fast food and beverage company executives were uneasy about President Obama. He and his wife were known advocates of healthy eating. The executives were also concerned that the promised Obama healthcare initiative might include taxes or other incentives to reduce consumption of fast food and high-calorie beverages.

Coupled with similar initiatives in such states as California, the industry faced the possibility of a full-scale national debate on sweetened soft drinks and their effect on health — and the nation’s ever-higher medical bill.

Another alarm sounded last May, when the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from public health advocates who proposed using a soda tax to help finance healthcare legislation.

Analysts at Yale University have calculated that a penny-an-ounce tax would induce a 23% drop in consumption, and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a smaller tax could raise $50 billion over 10 years. Although the extent to which such a tax might drive down obesity rates is scientifically unclear, nutrition experts argue that it would, at the least, improve health by discouraging consumption of sodas, which have no nutritional value but are packed with calories.

A few weeks later, soda tax advocates in the House Ways and Means Committee reported initially favorable responses from colleagues during closed-door meetings. And in July, President Obama told a Men’s Health magazine reporter that such a tax was an “idea that we should be exploring.”

Sanchez, who was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes, was one of the committee members who pushed for consideration of the idea. She told a closed-door meeting of committee Democrats that it would be a political winner: “We are on the moral high ground here,” she said. “We can improve health outcomes and get more revenue.”

At the beginning, several other Democrats expressed support, including six-term Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey and freshman Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz of Pennsylvania, the daughter of a dentist.

Beverage lobbyists immediately went to work, enlisting other industries to help pressure members of Ways and Means.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-soda-tax7-2010feb07,0,282916.story?track=rss

“This book has a kind of subliminal politics to it,” he told the crowd of more than 300. “It really is an invitation to a different group of people...to buy food from farmers."

THIS BOOK RESTATES THE OBVIOUS BUT NOT YET ACCEPTED HEALTHY PREMISE THAT YOU SHOULD EAT WHOLE FOODS IN MODERATION….

“Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Fresh from his appearance on an Oprah Winfrey show, food writer Michael Pollan drew a sold-out crowd Wednesday night in Petaluma to hear him talk about his latest book, “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.”

The best-selling author and journalist wrote the slim, soft-cover book as a simple, concise guide to eating food that is not only healthy for the body but for the planet as well.

“I’ve read all his books, since ‘The Botany of Desire,’” said Bonnie MacLaird of Tomales, who attended the talk. “He’s such a great spokesman to introduce the world to the eat-healthy, organic movement.”

The book talk and signing, sponsored by Copperfield’s Books, was held at the Baker Creek Seed Bank, a garden store housed in a former Bank of America building.

Pollan was introduced by Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt, who summarized his new book by reciting its three main chapters: “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Pollan spoke for 40 minutes about “Food Rules,” which is a No. 1 New York Times best-seller. The book distills some basic cultural wisdom about food that can help people make better choices when they shop for groceries at the supermarket.

“It’s really confusing out there,” Pollan said. “Reading labels has really disconnected us from food….I went looking for another source of authority than nutritional science. Culture has guided people in what to eat for many, many years.”

For the book, which can be read in about a half hour, Pollan said he solicited rules from anthropologists, folklorists, doctors and grandmothers. He then compiled 64 “rules” that range from common sense adages like, “get out of the supermarket whenever you can,” to the comical, such as, “eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.”

“This book has a kind of subliminal politics to it,” he told the crowd of more than 300. “It really is an invitation to a different group of people…to buy food from farmers.”

By appearing on such popular shows at “Oprah” and John Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” Pollan has begun to enter mainstream American, bringing his radical call-to-arms for food reform to the conservative heartland.

He also was was prominently featured in Robert Kenner’s documentary film, “Food Inc.”

Pollan, who lives in Oakland and teaches at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, writes regularly for major newspapers such as the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. For the past 20 years, he has written books about the intersection of the human and the natural worlds, encompassing topics as diverse as food, cooking and agriculture, gardens, drugs and architecture.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100203/ARTICLES/100209821/1033/NEWS?Title=Pollan-shares-his-Food-Rules–

GOT TO LOVE THIS…WE NOW HAVE A “FAT ZAPPER”…AND THE EVENTUAL HOME UNITS APPEAR TO HAVE “DISCO FLOOR” APPLICATIONS…BUBBAS COULD OPT TO HAVE THE PROCEDURE ON A COUCH DRINKING BEER AND EATING JUNK FOOD….

The Zeltiq device is affixed to the offending jiggle and then cools a patch of midsection during an hourlong session at the doctor’s office. Zerona — a four-armed laser — zaps your belly, flanks and hips with red beams during six 40-minute treatments. Doctors and patients alike are excited by the prospect of having new technologies that can attack fat without surgery. It is too early, however, for consumers to know how effectively either device works. That hasn’t stopped men and women unhappy with back fat and muffin tops from paying thousands for treatment in recent months. “It’s so freaky, this can’t work,” Kate Killgore, 37, of Los Angeles, recalled thinking about the Zerona laser. But after 12 treatments in a month last summer, costing $3,400, she lost 11 inches from her waist, thighs and hips. She has maintained her new figure since then, she said. Another Zerona patient, Annie Bonvouloir, 53, of Nederland, Colo., who heard about the procedure on “The Doctors,” was less successful. Hoping to reduce her thighs and midsection without the risks and inconvenience of liposuction, she paid $2,300 for six treatments from a chiropractor in the Denver area. Even though she continued to diet and work out, she had no change in her thighs, belly and hips. Her doctor offered her three more sessions at no cost. Still, no change. Since most aesthetic medicine is elective, and not covered by insurance, marketing plays a major role in capturing the minds and wallets of consumers. The concern is that promoting innovations for indications that the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved will fuel patient expectations that clinical data may not substantiate. Zeltiq Aesthetics, based in Pleasanton, Calif., is a cautious wallflower that aims to get the data behind its device approved by the F.D.A. before it makes too rowdy an entrance to the party. Its slogan is “More Science. Less Fat.” Meanwhile, Erchonia Medical, based in McKinney, Tex., has aggressively marketed its Zerona laser as “the first non-invasive body contouring procedure to effectively remove excess fat” even though it has yet to receive F.D.A. clearance to promote this use. (In general, the F.D.A. must sanction a medical device for a specific use before a company can market that use. But doctors are free to use devices off label. ) Nonetheless, a brochure for Zerona states patients can collectively “lose up to 9 inches without the pain or down time of surgery.” Nationwide, medical spas, chiropractors, cosmetic surgeons, plastic surgeons and dermatologists now offer Zerona for $1,700 to $3,800 for six sessions. Part of the reason the device has made inroads during these strapped times is that doctors don’t buy it outright, but pay per use. So how is Zerona supposed to work? The low-level laser causes “fat to seep out of a cell, almost like a balloon being struck by a needle,” said Ryan Maloney, medical director for Erchonia Medical. The fat enters the lymphatic system, and is eventually used as energy, Dr. Maloney said. Zeltiq uses controlled cooling to target and eliminate fat cells, a process called selective cryolipolysis. Skin isn’t damaged, but subcutaneous fat, which is more sensitive to targeted cold, begins a two-month death march soon after exposure to Zeltiq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/fashion/04SKIN.html

IT JUST TASTES BETTER…THAT SAYS IT ALL…BUT SALES ARE DECLINING…HMMMMMMMM…COULD IT BE THAT THE MESSAGE IS GETTING THROUGH…JUNK FOOD SALES ARE DECLINING….WHAT A SHAME…

As Burger King prepares to report earnings this week after two straight quarters of same-store sales declines, the question is whether the chain has relied too heavily on customers that may be permanently changing habits.

Former super fan Noah Rubin says he has. The 28-year-old Seattle man used to wolf down bacon cheeseburgers three or four nights a week at Burger King, Jack in the Box and local bars. But he and his fiancee started cutting back last year after both were laid off, then found jobs at lower pay.

Now they cook at home using organic vegetables and dine out only on weekends. Mr. Rubin figures he is saving more than $100 a week by eating fewer burgers. “I don’t think we’ll go back to eating out as often as we used to,” he says. “We always used to talk about eating at home more, and now that it’s happened, we’ve found that we really enjoy it.”

Burger King’s same-store sales in the U.S. and Canada declined 4.6% in the three months ended Sept. 30, while McDonald’s posted U.S. same-store sales growth of 2.5%. North American same-store sales at Wendy’s, a unit of Wendy’s/Arby’s Group Inc., fell 0.1% in the quarter ended Sept. 27. At CKE Restaurants Inc., parent of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. burger chains, company-run restaurants saw sales decline 3.7% in the quarter ended Nov. 2.

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/108728/burger-king-draws-critics

The normal body fat percentage of men is somewhere between 18-26% and the normal body fat percentage of women is between 25-32%. The body fat of male athletes range from 6-13% and female athletes range from 14-20%. Those individuals with normal BMI who also have a higher than normal body fat percentage would fall into the category of normal weight obesity.

THE RESEARCH IS WILL PROVE OUT THE MAIN PREMISE OF FOUR PACKS…THE SUREST SIGN OF A MAN’S “IDEAL HEALTH” WILL BE VISIBLE ABDOMINIS RECTUS MUSCLES AS IT MEANS THAT BELLY FAT IS AT A MINIMUM…READ BELOW…

However, more than half of adult Americans who are considered to be of normal weight, actually have a high percentage of body fat.  According to the Mayo Clinic, as many as 30 million Americans who are of normal weight, may have the body fat of an obese person.  This high body fat puts adults in jeopardy of getting the same life threatening health risks of a clinically obese individual.  Those health risks include: diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and metabolic syndrome.

The researchers of the Mayo Clinic determined normal body weight by the use of Body Mass Index or BMI.  The normal body fat percentage of men is somewhere between 18-26% and the normal body fat percentage of women is between 25-32%.   The body fat of male athletes range from 6-13% and female athletes range from 14-20%.  Those individuals with normal BMI who also have a higher than normal body fat percentage would fall into the category of normal weight obesity.

How do you measure body fat?  The methods for measuring body fat range from the primitive and inexpensive to the highly technological and pricey.  Skinfold calipers have been the standard in measuring body fat for many years.  Although the method is not a perfect estimation, it is a good tool for the evaluation of body fat composition.  Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry or DXA is a newer and much more accurate method for determining body fat composition.  However, this method could be quite expensive.

  ABC.com reports today that doctors are not recommending body fat percentage testing for persons concerned about being normal weight obese.  The waistline may be the key to determining if you are at a normal or healthy weight.  Extra pounds around the mid-section is the most dangerous aspect of being overweight.  The extra fat puts stress and strain on the heart and lungs.  Having extra fat around the waist and love handles puts your health at the greatest risk. 

If you are concerned about being obese or normal weight obese, there are ways to jump into action.  In Metro Detroit, the weight loss business is in full swing and there are plenty of options for you to choose from.  Centers such as Medical Weight Loss Clinic focus on a medical approach to weight loss and normalizing body fat.  While facilities such as Curves concentrates on increasing physical activity with both cardio and strength training exercise.  Both offer locations throughout the Metro Detroit area.  Oakland County’s Adventure Boot Camp for Women takes a jump start approach to improving your health with a 4 week outdoor bootcamp that provides nutritional counseling, fitness instruction, and motivational training.  The Boot Camp boasts an expected result of 3-5% body fat loss upon completion.

http://www.examiner.com/x-14846-Detroit-Womens-Health-Examiner~y2010m1d27-What-is-normal-weight-obesity

 THIS LIST OF HEALTHIEST SEAFOOD FOR 2010 IS OUTSTANDING AND SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BY ALL MEN WHO ARE SERIOUS ABOUT HEALTH AND MAINTAINING “IDEAL SHAPE”…IT WILL ALSO GET EVERYONE TO CONSIDER CERTAIN FOODS THAT THEY WOULDN’T OTHERWISE EAT…

*The Best of the Best: January 2010

• Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)
• Freshwater Coho Salmon (farmed in tank systems, from the U.S.)
• Mussels (farmed)
• Oysters (farmed)
• Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
• Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)
• Rainbow Trout (farmed)
• Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)
• Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)

 **Other Healthy “Best Choices”

• Arctic Char (farmed)
• Bay Scallops (farmed)
• Crayfish (farmed, from the U.S.)
• Dungeness Crab (wild-caught, from California, Oregon or Washington)
• Longfin Squid (wild-caught, from the U.S. Atlantic)
• Pacific Cod (longline-caught, from Alaska)

*The “Super Green” list is based on dietary requirements for an average woman of childbearing age (18- 45, 154 pounds) eating 8 ounces of fish per week. The list also applies to men and children; children should eat age-appropriate portions to maximize their health benefits while minimizing risk. The recommendation of 250 mg of omega-3s refers to the combined level of two omega-3s of primary importance to human health: eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA).

**Other Healthy “Best Choices” are low in contaminants and provide a smaller amount of omega-3s (between 100 and 250 mg/d, assuming 8 ounces of fish per week)

Contaminant data are from EDF, drawn from more than 250 government databases and peer-reviewed scientific studies on seafood contaminants.

Omega-3 data are primarily from the USDA Nutrient Database.

http://montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_health.aspx

 THIS STUDY IS IMPORTANT…LOW CARB DIETS INVOLVE EATING NATURAL WHOLE FOODS, WHICH ALSO HAPPEN TO CONTAIN “FAT”…BUT UNDER A LOWER CALORIE REGIME, LESS THAN 2,000 CALORIES PER DAY HERE AT FOUR PACKS, FAT REMAINS MODERATE…NOW THIS STUDY SHOWS THAT BLOOD PRESSURE WILL BENEFIT FROM LIMITING CARBS….MORE TO FOLLOW…

In the study, overweight or obese individuals who went on a low-carb diet lost about the same amount of weight as those who cut down on their fat intake and took the weight-loss aid orlistat (sold as Xenical or Alli). However, the low-carb diet produced more favorable effects on blood pressure.

Most studies of weight loss methods have enrolled overweight or obese volunteers who were healthy, aside from weighing too much. The current study, in contrast, enrolled “real patients” with common conditions like diabetes and heart disease, William S. Yancy Jr. of the VA Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health. People with these health issues are often excluded from weight loss studies, Yancy said.

He and his colleagues assigned 146 patients to either receive instruction on eating a low-carbohydrate diet, and to start out by eating fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrate daily, or to take 120 mg of orlistat three times a day and receive instructions on eating a lower calorie, lower-fat diet. All of the study participants received diet instructions at group meetings, which were every two weeks for the first six months of the study, and monthly thereafter.

After 48 weeks, the low-carb group had lost about 9.5 percent of their body weight, compared to 8.5 percent for the orlistat group, which wasn’t a significant difference. There also were similar improvements in cholesterol levels between the two groups. But the low carb diet did offer an advantage in terms of blood pressure reduction.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60P6HG20100126

 FOUR PACKS HAS MADE MULTIPLE POSTS ABOUT THE NEED TO SUPPLEMENT ONLY A FEW THINGS…CALCIUM, OMEGA-3 RICH FISH OIL, AND VITAMIN D…ALMOST ALL OTHER VITAMINS AND MINERALS COME IN SUFFICIENT AMOUNTS FROM A BALANCED DIET…SUPPLEMENTING ADDITIONAL WHEY PROTEIN IS ALSO VERY RECOMMENED FOR MEN OVER 40 (OGGIES)….

Higher blood levels of vitamin D are associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, according to a large, 1248-case study published today in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Participants with the highest levels of blood vitamin D concentration had a nearly 40% decrease in colorectal cancer risk compared to those with the lowest levels of vitamin D.

The study, led collaboratively by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon, France) and Imperial College of London (London, UK) and funded by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), is the largest ever on the topic, and one of the first on European populations. The results confirm previous findings from smaller studies based mostly on North American populations.

Recent publications have suggested maintenance of blood vitamin D levels at 50 nmol/l or higher for colorectal cancer prevention. Therefore this study also compared low and high levels of blood vitamin D concentration to a mid-level of 50��”75 nmol/l. While levels below the mid-level were associated with increased risk, those above 75 nmol/l were not associated with any additional reduction in colon cancer risk compared to the mid-level.

Dr. Mazda Jenab (IARC), Dr. Elio Riboli (Imperial) and colleagues used data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition ( EPIC ), a prospective cohort of over 500 000 Western Europeans, to examine the associations between blood vitamin D concentration and colorectal cancer risk. “Our results support a role for vitamin D in the etiology of colorectal cancer, but this must be balanced with caution regarding the potential toxic effects of too much vitamin D and the fact that very little is known about the association of vitamin D with either increased or reduced risk of other cancers,” said Dr. Jenab.

“There is consistent scientific evidence that low circulating vitamin D concentration is a marker of increased risk for developing colon cancer. However, any public health advocacy for inducing higher circulating vitamin D concentrations by supplementation-as opposed to the average levels that can be achieved with a balanced diet combined with regular, moderate exposure to sunlight-should await clear-cut results from double-blind randomised trials testing whether increases in circulating vitamin D concentration via supplementation can effectively reduce colorectal cancer risk without inducing serious adverse events,” added Dr. Riboli, the coordinator of the EPIC study.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/176910.php