by Charles Stuart Platkin,

I was in the supermarket the other day with my 4-year-old daughter. As we were walking down the dairy isle, she saw a yogurt with a cartoon character on the container, and she wanted it bad. No big deal, right? Yogurt is healthy. Well, this particular yogurt was filled with added sugar and loaded with calories. Raising nutritionally intelligent children is no easy task, but you have to start them young. How young? I reached out to a few experts to find out.

When do you start teaching your children about healthy foods?

"Nutrition begins with the parents. Some studies indicate that a child's taste starts to be established based on what a pregnant women eats," says Shari Barkin, professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University.

What else can parents do?

"You can teach your children about good nutrition by what you decide to prepare and serve. They learn to eat the same foods that you eat," says Joanne Sorte, director of the Oregon State University Child Development Center.

You can also stock up on books and DVDs to reinforce the message. For instance, Sesame Workshop has created some great DVDs and a book series called "Healthy Habits for Life," including "Get Moving with Grover," "My Healthy Body," "Healthy Foods" and "Happy Healthy Monsters Head to Toe!" They're all part of the Healthy Monsters series -- and they're great. (visit: www.sesameworkshop.org/healthyhabits )

How do you encourage preschoolers to try new, healthy foods?

Lead by example, and try and try again. Research has demonstrated that a child may have to try a food up to 15 times before liking it. "It helps to offer new food items relatively frequently. This makes the concept of new food seem routine. It also helps if the new item is introduced alongside familiar and comfortable foods," suggests Sorte. Also, try preparing the food using different flavors and cooking methods. And sample new foods together as a family in planned taste tests.

Should you forbid certain "sin" foods (cookies, cakes, ice cream, candy, etc.)?

"To tell a child a food is forbidden when we all know it tastes good sends a confusing message," says Sorte. In fact, she believes that forbidding foods is often an invitation for undue desire. "A better approach is to seek a reasonable balance. Any food can have a place in a healthy diet – when, how much, how often are the decisions of the adult," she adds.

Instead of saying that something is "bad," tell children about what good foods can do for their bodies. All children want to be strong and healthy. Candy tastes good but doesn't do anything good for them. You can tell them that sugary treats can cause cavities, and too many treats can cause a tummy ache, says Patti Scott, RN, MSN, a pediatric nurse practitioner from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing.

What can you do when children go to day care or preschool?

Parents need to voice their opinions and concerns to administrators and offer ideas for healthy alternatives. Building good relationships with care providers and discussing the foods children eat will help support your food-family values.

What about using candy and sweet foods for rewards?

"By using sweet rewards as motivators, adults are pretty much acknowledging that they are out of control of the situation," says Sorte. Parents need to come up with other options and not fall into the food-reward trap.

Scott offers some alternatives: Playing at the park, fishing (real or imagined, with a bucket, stick and paper fish), story time at the library, making Play-Doh animals, making melon ball "people" (or snowmen or animals), then eating the melon. Stickers or even a nice big hug work, too.

Should I limit my child's television viewing?

Research shows that the more your kids watch, the more likely they'll be overweight. "Commercials add to the hard sell of high-sugar and high-fat foods that put the big ouch into the diet. At the same time, watching lots of television means children are not being active, so it's a double whammy," says Sorte. Even if they watch educational programs and/or TV without commercials, they're still more likely to over-consume food and be less active.

When I take my child to the supermarket and he/she wants unhealthy foods, what should I do?

Learn the art of saying no -- no matter what the consequences. Offer alternatives, and make sure not to take your children to the supermarket hungry.

Also, get your child involved. They can make the shopping list, help put things in the cart and learn to identify the healthy foods in the store, says Sorte.

If my preschooler is overweight, should I put him/her on a diet?

According to Sorte, "The jury is still out." However, if your preschooler is overweight you should probably consider make some adjustments.

"Think about the balance of food vs. activity in your child's life. If food is predominant, make alterations in the family lifestyle: Serve food in smaller amounts overall (keep from cooking more than the family needs for a meal so the idea of second helpings is reduced); offer treats like ice cream in tiny dishes; choreograph slow-paced mealtimes so children have time to feel food working; create a plan for after-dinner time that does not include TV and use these fun events to distract children from food and inactivity."

Charles Stuart Platkin, a nutrition and public health advocate, is author of "The Diet Detective's Count Down" (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and founder of DietDetective.com, the health and fitness network. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at www.DietDetective.com.

via North Jersey Herald

The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee has decided to stop it advertising directly to the consumer.

Roche Products said it would not appeal against the decision to revoke its licence to advertise. The regulator found Xenical's marketing generated increased demand among consumers who might not need the drug.

Xenical leads the market in weight loss products sold in pharmacies with a quarter of the $95 million in annual sales, according to ACNielsen.

It was set to extend its lead over rivals Reductil and Duromine when it won permission last year to advertise directly to consumers.

"There are probably other options [open to us] but we aren't going to pursue them," Mr Nadjarian said. "We are out of energy on this … If there was another body to whom we can appeal to then we might, but as it's the same body of people it's unlikely."

Xenical will still be available in pharmacies but Roche argues that the void in consumer awareness will be filled by complementary medicines that are allowed to advertise freely but are prevented from carrying claims as bold as those of pharmaceutical products.

"We won't be able to advertise yet products with dubious ingredients largely based on green tea extract, eye of newt, wing of bat and guinea pig tails can," Mr Nadjarian said in a veiled attack on leading complementary weight loss brand, Fatblaster, which has under 3 per cent of the total market.

A Fatblaster spokesman responded: "Natural products are efficacious and low risk, appealing to a totally different consumer. For Xenical to compare their sales to the low-risk natural products category is like claiming car companies are scared of bicycle sales."

Xenical, which is known to have side effects such as diarrhoea and incontinence, became one of the few able to advertise directly to the public following its re-listing as an over-the-counter medication in 2004.

Two months into its campaign the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Council ordered the ad off air after complaints by consumer advocate Choice that it was targeting teenage girls by advertising around Australian Idol.

The TGAC's complaints committee dismissed that claim but found that Roche had breached a code which prohibits "inappropriate or excessive usage".

source - Sydney Morning Herald

One of the national health objectives in the US is to reduce the incidence of obesity to less than 15% of the adult population by 2010; however, current statistics indicate that the problem is still on the rise. In addition, the percentage of young people in America who are overweight has more than tripled since 1980.

Over 9 million children and teens between the ages of 6 and 19 are considered overweight. This equates to 16 % of the population.

• Busy Schedules – The average family has a much more demanding schedule than in years past. Because of this, mealtimes often go by the wayside, and we choose lots of fast food. Our stress levels may also lead to emotional eating, where we have no concept of how many calories we’ve consumed. These factors combined have made our diets poor and our concept of a normal meal skewed.

• Sedentary Lifestyles – Today many people spend lots of time sitting down between our desk jobs and our love of watching television and playing computer and video games. For many of us, regular exercise is simply no longer a part of our daily life.

• Large food portions – Most restaurant portions are 2-3 times the size that makes up a reasonable meal. From this we’ve gained a distorted image of the size portions we should be eating, and we’re consuming far too many calories in a day.

• Poor nutrition – Processed foods are a staple in the American diet. In addition, we eat lots of red meat and products made with white flour. These overly processed and high fat foods make it easy to gain weight. They also lead to heart disease and high cholesterol.

So, what do we do to overcome our weight problems? Well, as with many things, there are no magic bullets. To lose weight, we have to expend more calories than we consume. It’s just that simple.

Losing weight is simple, but it’s not easy, particularly since much of the food we’re presented with every day is not conducive to weight loss. So, if you want to lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to make a commitment to making long term changes in your life.

Starving yourself is not the answer; making changes you can live with is the way to go.

First, take a look at what you eat. If you’re guilty of eating lots of processed foods, red meat, sugar and white flour, make changes in what you eat.

Substitute chicken and fish for red meat most days of the week.
Cook your own meals using fresh ingredients; don’t rely on processed foods that are loaded with preservatives.

Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables

Choose whole grain products over those made with white flour
Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet.

These changes alone should help you lose weight. However, for many people it will also be necessary to look at how much you eat. Portion control is very important, because very large portions of even healthy food can mean that you’re consuming too many calories.

The second half of the weight loss equation has to do with exercise. Not only will exercise help you burn more calories each day, but it will also help you build muscle. Muscle is important because even when resting, muscle mass burns more calories than fat. So, if you have a lot of lean muscle, you’ll burn more calories in a day, without even trying.

Aim for 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise five times a week. Walking is a great way to get your cardiovascular exercise, and it will help build muscle in the lower body, too. Just be sure that you’re walking at a pace that will make you sweat. Raising your heart rate during your cardiovascular workout is important for keeping your heart healthy.

In addition to your cardiovascular workout, get in some strength training three times a week for about 20 minutes each session. You don’t need to become a body builder, but adding some lean muscle will speed up your metabolism and make your body look thinner and leaner.

Finally, take a look at adding some “functional foods” to your diet. Functional foods are those that have benefits to the body above and beyond their basic nutritional qualities. Foods that would be considered functional foods for weight loss would be those that make us feel full and satisfied for longer, and those that have the potential to increase our metabolism.

For example, you may have heard of negative calorie foods. These are foods that contain fewer calories than your body uses to digest them. Some examples of negative calorie food include raw carrots, celery, asparagus, apple, beet, berries, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chili, cucumber, garlic, lettuce, grapefruit, lemon, mango, onion, orange, papaya, pineapple, spinach, turnip, and zucchini.

There are likely other functional foods for weight loss. Foods that are believed to be functional for weight loss include low fat milk, nuts and tea. A study reported by the UK Tea Council discusses certain foods and their potential to be functional weight loss foods.

Studies have shown that people who drink 24 ounces or more of milk each day tend to weigh less than people who don’t drink milk. So, it appears that adding 24 ounces of milk to your diet each day might be a good way to lose some weight, and help keep it off.

Nuts have gained a lot of attention because of two important properties. The first is that nuts are very satisfying. Nuts can help you feel full for longer, helping to ensure that you eat fewer calories in a day.

Secondly, nuts are a good source of healthy fats. These are the fats that help raise your HDL cholesterol level. HDL cholesterol is what is known as “good cholesterol” because it has the power to carry molecules of LDL cholesterol “bad cholesterol” to the liver, where it can be removed from the body.

A final food that is likely functional to weight loss is green tea. Green tea has been shown to help regulate blood sugar naturally, which may help us store fewer calories as fat. Secondly, green tea has been shown to promote thermogenesis; heat that burns body fat.

Green tea is extremely low in calories, and very healthy overall. So, if it can also help us lose weight, it may just qualify as a “super food”. There have been numerous studies linking green tea with preventing disease and protecting health.

So, if you’re battling the bulge, get some exercise and make some changes in your diet. And, make sure that one of those changes is adding some “functional foods”, so that losing weight can be easier than ever!

By: Marcus Stout
Marcus Stout is President of the Golden Moon Tea Company. For more information about tea, green tea and wu long tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com

via Best Syndication 

A study suggests problems with cholesterol regulation in the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas may be responsible for the development of Type 2 (formerly known as late onset) diabetes.

The work, by scientists at Vancouver's Child and Family Research Institute, was done in mice. And the researchers would have to show that the same mechanism is seen in people.

"This is an important observation because it demonstrates a new potential mechanism by which in Type 2 diabetes the beta cells could be dysfunctional," said Dr. Bernard Zinman, a diabetes expert who was not involved in the study.

The article was published online Sunday by the journal Nature Medicine.

The Vancouver research started in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Hayden, director of the institute's centre for molecular medicine and therapeutics.

Hayden is an expert in the genes involved in cholesterol metabolism. That work led to the cloning of a gene called ABCA1 that was shown to play a key role in regulating the amount of cholesterol in the blood.

Hayden's lab has focused on cholesterol and its role in heart disease. But the thesis of one of his graduate students, Dr. Liam Brunham, raised the issue that cholesterol is found in the beta cells - the cells responsible for insulin production - of the pancreas.

"We were perplexed by that, because why is it even in the pancreas and why is it so highly expressed (produced)?" Hayden recalled in an interview.

They consulted Dr. Bruce Verchere, a beta cell expert who heads the institute's diabetes research program. The group decided to see what would happen if they genetically engineered mice to knock out the ABCA1 gene.

The answer was clear.

"The animals developed diabetes. And furthermore, the animals showed a ... very significant accumulation of cholesterol in the beta cells," Hayden said.

Verchere said all cells, including the beta cells, need some cholesterol, but levels need to be "tightly regulated."

"It has to be there in the right amounts," he said from Vancouver.

"If you can't regulate it and there's too much of it, it's almost like too much of a good thing. That's when the beta cell goes awry."

To the group's knowledge, this is the first paper questioning whether cholesterol dysfunction is responsible for the inability of the beta cells to properly secrete the insulin the body needs to metabolize foods. For Zinman too, it was a novel idea.

"Now whether it has any relationship to people is unclear of course. No one has described this kind of abnormality in people that I'm aware of," said Zinman, director of the Leadership Sinai Centre for Diabetes at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital.

He noted, though, that there are competing theories. One is that amylin, a hormone produced by the beta cells, builds up to excess amounts and knocks out the beta cells' ability to function properly.

Zinman suggested it is also possible that the over-production amylin and cholesterol may be the products of some yet unidentified problem that is behind the development of Type 2 diabetes.

Hayden said the group is pursuing other studies that should indicate by year's end whether the cholesterol regulation problems are seen in humans with Type 2 diabetes.

The Food and Drug Administration’s draft guidelines — more than 10 years in the making — aim to help companies develop and test new drugs and devices for treating obesity.

About a third of U.S. adults, or more than 60 million people, are obese and another third are overweight, government statistics show. Nearly a fifth of U.S. children weigh too much.

BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters. People with a score of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, and those at 30 or higher are considered obese.

“In general, patients should have or be at significant risk for weight-related morbidity and mortality,” the FDA said.

More room for diet products
The proposed guidelines come as more drugmakers look to enter the U.S. weight-loss sector, which some analysts have said remains untapped.

Overweight individuals are at risk for other, potentially life-threatening problems. In addition to diabetes, high-blood pressure and certain cancers are also possible.

Drugs usually aim to help people lose weight by curbing their appetite or preventing fat absorption. Some devices, such as Allergan Inc.’s Lab-Band, are used in surgical procedures to limit stomach size.

Last week, GlaxoSmithKline Plc won U.S. approval to sell an over-the-counter version of Roche AG’s prescription obesity drug Xenical, called Alli.

Sanofi-Aventis is also awaiting the FDA’s ruling on its Acomplia drug, which the agency earlier this week postponed until July.

Drugmakers often rely on guidelines
Although the guidelines are non-binding, drugmakers often rely on them when developing products. Companies may take other approaches as long as they meet legal standards, the FDA said.

They could also help prompt more manufacturers to develop weight-loss solutions.

“Given the large market opportunity, the health consequences of no therapy, we were shocked that we could only find 17 companies” with products on the market or in advanced development, Susquehanna Financial Group analysts wrote in a recent research note.

FDA officials first proposed the guidelines in 1996, but they lingered until 2004, when the FDA sought public comments.

The revised version, now on the FDA’s Web site, includes advice on products for children as well as those combining two or more drugs. It also offers guidance for products aimed at patients whose extra pounds result from other medications.

“The use of weight-management products in pediatric patients, as in adults, should be contemplated only after a sufficient trial of lifestyle modification has failed,” the FDA said.

The proposal calls for studies to include a wide variety of patients from different regions and racial backgrounds.

The FDA invited public comment on the proposal but gave no deadline. An agency spokeswoman could not be immediately reached to comment on the guidelines.

The Minister, Elena Salgado, announced the move last week in the company of the president of the Spanish Agency for Food and Nutrition Safety (AESAN), Félix Lobo, who added that the new European guidelines on the issue would come into force on July 1st 2007.

Salgado explained that the EU regulations stated that descriptions such as “rich in vitamins”, “low calorie”, “no added sugar” or “fat free”, which are becoming more and more common in the promotion of products, must be based on “proved scientific evidence”. She added that the measures would prevent the use of confusing messages to attract consumer attention and at the same time protect consumer health.

As an example, Salgado said that “a manufacturer will not be able to claim that a plate of pasta has the same nutritional content as a plate of vegetables” without internationally accepted scientific evidence, which in Spain will be controlled by the AESAN.

The regulation will “in no case” allow therapeutic or curative claims and establishes “very rigorous restrictions” when it comes to the description of foods aimed directly or indirectly at children, such as claims that a product “will help your children grow”.

Finally the Minister pointed out that when a product has both beneficial and harmful qualities these must be stated. The positive qualities can be highlighted but the “less healthy effects must be clearly explained”.

Therefore alcoholic drinks with more than 1.2 per cent volume cannot claim they are healthy in order to attract consumption. In this way the European legislation means that statements such as “wine is good for your heart” cannot be used, concluded the Minister.

© Copyright Diario SUR Digital, S. L.

DIETS and exercise may not be the future for weight loss.

A pacemaker-like device, which blocks hunger nerves, has been successfully trialled at Adelaide's Flinders Medical Centre, with stunning results.

The first person to be implanted with the device lost 20 kilograms in a year without changing her dietary habits or exercise regime.

The Adelaide medical centre was one of three in the world to trial the new device, developed by EnteroMedics Inc.

Flinders' Professor of Digestive Surgery James Toouli (Toouli) said the instrument was placed under the abdominal skin and powered by parts worn outside the body.

"The vagus are the most important nerve that go to the digestive system," Prof Toouli said today.

"These nerves control the movement of the stomach and they control some of the secretions used for digestion, and by blocking these intermittently, what it does is it slows downs the aching of the stomach so consequently people don't feel as hungry."

The theory of blocking the hunger nerves came from clinical observations from past surgery where patients had the nerves divided.

"It was noted in those people if they were overweight, they actually would lose weight," Prof Toouli said.

"Instead of dividing the nerves we now block them with this pacemaker-type device.

"And the reason why this is better than dividing them ... is the body always recuperates if we do something permanent and those nerves do regenerate in time.

"So if you can just block them intermittently but not destroy them, then the effects are most likely to last for a long time."

Flinders trialled the device on 10 people including 32-year-old Sarah Polkinghorne, who lost 20kg in a year after having her vagus nerves blocked for a total of 12 hours a day.

The group was told not to alter their exercise or dietary habits.

A smaller improved version of the device is now being trialled.

"The idea is that this will be implantable, the whole thing," Prof Toouli said.

"At the moment what we call the neuroregulator is implantable but the person has to actually apply an external device in order to send messages to the nerves.

"Ultimately what we are working towards is a fully implantable thing just like a pacemaker so it would be put in and left there for a number of years with a rechargeable battery.

"These early trials are geared towards trying to work out the dosage and how often this thing needs to be turned on so that it will optimise the fully implantable device, which is still very much in a prototype stage."

Prof Toouli hoped the device would be widely available in the future.

"That is certainly our view," he said.

"As always with these things, cost comes into it and these things have not been worked out yet, but it's really very promising."

source The Australian News 

Acute exercise is a bout of activity in which people actively participate, as opposed to activity resulting from everyday activities, according to study leader John Thyfault.

Many people can fight type 2 diabetes through diet and exercise alone, said Thyfault. It is important to ward off diabetes early. Exercise has proven to be effective at all levels. At any stage of type 2 diabetes, from an obese child to a person dependent for 20 years on insulin injections, exercise could have a dramatic effect on improving insulin sensitivity.Thyfault's study found that relatively short periods of acute muscle exercise in diabetic Zucker rats significantly increased insulin sensitivity in the previously insulin-resistant skeletal muscles.

Copyright 2007 by UPI

Angry Janet Luna claims she used Trimspa X32 and expected the "rapid and substantial weight loss" the product promises - but it didn't work for her.

And yesterday, Luna filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging the advertising is "false or misleading."

Website TMZ.com, which obtained the lawsuit against Smith and Trimspa, points out that the plaintiff is possibly a minor, as the suit was filed by her mother, Myra Luna.

source Starpulse