Free Republic

AN EPIDEMIC of obesity could have serious consequences for America's economy and its ability to defend itself, according to a leading politician. Self-confessed "recovering foodaholic" Mike Huckabee, a Republican Party presidential candidate, told a group of governors from the American South that the increasing numbers of people who were either over-weight or obese meant more and more people were having to take time off work for health reasons. And Mr Huckabee, who lost 110lb - nearly 8st - several years ago when he was governor of Arkansas, said he was concerned by reports that nearly two-thirds of American military personnel...

The waistlines of Americans continue to grow and a new study estimates that by 2015, 75 percent of adults will be overweight and 41 percent will be obese. The percentage of adults in the U.S. that were obese increased from 13 percent in the 1960s to 32 percent in 2004... The proportion of overweight and obese Americans has increased at an average rate of 0.3 to 0.8 percentage points a year. Poorer Americans and some minority groups have been affected disproportionately...

Latest research by scientists in Australia suggests that eating sugary breakfast cereals can improve the memory of teenagers. Earlier studies have shown mixed results with some researchers saying that sugary cereals could contribute to obesity while others claiming that it may sharpen the brain. As part of the new study, scientists studied 37 students, aged 14 to 17, who ate a popular corn-based cereal with a high Glycaemic Index or a high fibre bran-based cereal with a low Glycaemic Index. The researchers then tested the students to see how well they could memorise a list of 20 names of tools,...

MICHAEL Moore's new film "Sicko," a critique of the U.S. health-care system and paean to socialized medicine around the world, premiered amid great fanfare at Cannes last month. Time magazine reviewer Richard Corliss rejoiced, "The upside of this populist documentary is that there are no policy wonks crunching numbers." Wouldn't want anyone messing up Moore's fantasy with . . . facts. The American health-care system undeniably has serious problems, and Moore effectively dramatizes the suffering of people caught up in them. Yet he often exaggerates those problems. For example, he frequently refers to the 47 million Americans without health insurance,...

AMSTERDAM — Dutch women are getting bigger breasts and 32 percent of them now have a D-cup or bigger compared with 20 percent five years ago. In Europe, Dutch women are ranked third behind British and Danish women in terms of bra size, research commissioned by Bodyfashion Promotion indicated on Wednesday. Some 42 percent of women aged 30-39 have D-cup breasts and feel in general okay about that. Women with a large bra size are now the largest group in the Netherlands. But the shape and size of breasts start to change once women reach the age of 40 and...

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (UPI) -- A Florida police chief who sent members of his department an e-mail complaining about lack of physical fitness has been forced to resign. The memo from Paul Goward, head of the police department in Winter Haven, had as its subject line "Are you a jelly belly?" the Orlando Sentinel reported. "As I look around the department I see a disconcerting number of us that appear physically challenged with obesity and/or a general lack of physical fitness," Goward told his officers. In the e-mail, he said overweight police officers give a poor public impression and have...

Airbus A380 a bit too superjumbo Passenger plane is 5.5 tons overweight, customer reports By JAMES WALLACE P-I AEROSPACE REPORTER, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 28, 2006 The Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner is not the only jetliner in development that needs to go on a diet. The double-decker A380, the 555-passenger giant from Airbus that has been delayed for up to two years by what Airbus has said are wiring problems, is about 5.5 tons overweight, a senior executive with an airline that has ordered the plane disclosed Friday. Airbus has not previously acknowledged that its flagship new jet is significantly heavier...

Obese men are more likely to be infertile than their slimmer peers, according to the first study to look at whether a man's weight influences a couple's fertility. Every excess 10 kilograms may cut a man's fertility by 10 per cent, Dr Markku Sallmen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki and colleagues at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, write in the September issue of Epidemiology. Sallmen was a post-doc at NIEHS when he conducted the study. The researchers looked at couples

Overweight and obese people should be aware that their unhealthy lifestyle could put their eyesight at risk, scientists say. It is common knowledge that expanding waistlines are linked to conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But research shows that obesity is also linked to eye problems, which could lead to loss of eyesight. Two Israeli ophthalmologists are now warning that the prospect of eye disease should also be a powerful incentive to lose weight. Professor Michael Belkin and Dr Zohar Habot-Wilner, from the Goldschleger Eye Institute at the Sheba Medical Centre, reviewed more than 20 studies involving thousands...

Being a little overweight can kill you, according to new research that leaves little room for denial that a few extra pounds is harmful. Baby boomers who were even just a tad pudgy were more likely to die prematurely than those who were at a healthy weight, U.S. researchers reported Tuesday. While obesity has been known to contribute to early death, the link between being overweight and dying prematurely has been controversial. Some experts have argued that a few extra pounds does no harm. However, this is one of the first major studies to account for the factors of smoking...

A new advertisement being distributed throughout Sweden is raising fat people's hopes that they can lose weight through their feet. Not, however, by running with them. According to the Swedish Consumer Agency, the miracle comes in bandage form, is to be placed on the skin on the bottom of the foot and is to be worn at night. It is supposed to "suck out fat like a vacuum sucks up dirt - up to 44 kilograms of fat straight from the body," according to Doctor Charles Kingston in the advertisement for the company Lipo-Slim Laboratories. The multi-page ad recommends consumers...

WASHINGTON - Oh, the irony. A nation full of overweight people is also full of label readers. Nearly 80 percent of Americans insist they check the labels on food at the grocery store. They scan the little charts like careful dieters, looking for no-nos such as fat and calories and sugars. Yet even when the label practically screams, "Don't do it!" people drop the package into the cart anyway. At least that is what 44 percent of people admitted in a recent AP-Ipsos poll. So attentive, yet so overweight. Two-thirds of people in the United States weigh too much. Why,...

See for example this thread first. Diabetes is now on the rise It should come as no great surprise that our food and drink helps cause it. Ya think? "Just say NO!" when asked to SuperSize...

'Fat Man Walking' nears end of cross-country trek Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Posted: 7:10 a.m. EDT (11:10 GMT) Steve Vaught walks along Route 201 in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 9. FAIRFIELD, New Jersey (AP) -- Steve Vaught may have lost more than 100 pounds on his walk across the country, but he says he's gained something else: peace of mind.

The keynote speaker at Queensland's first obesity summit says the notion of "puppy fat" in children is a myth. Dozens of health and associated professionals have gathered at Brisbane's Parliament House for the two-day forum. Professor Louise Baur say research shows at least one in five children entering school is already overweight or obese. She says puppy fat leads to a minefield of social and medical problems later in life. "The child will not necessarily grow out of it, in fact they're highly likely not to," she said. "Overweight and obesity in children and young people is associated with very...

Fitness guru Richard Simmons, who has been offering guidance to the out-of-shape masses on his Sirius Satellite radio program of late, reveals, "Now we're going to turn it into a television show. Right now everyone is offering me certain things, but I know the show I want to do." As in his radio gig, he'll respond to people who write to him about their weight -- and life -- problems. Simmons' ebullience is on hold when he soberly discusses the epidemic of obesity in America. "Bottom line, I think, is the fact that people have low self-worth right now. People...

Kids in a kids health club. Craig Horowitz, 14, with a trainer, Taylor Kevin Isaacs, is among a growing number children using health clubs. AT 13, Jena Jerve has managed to stretch her days to do it all: keep a 4.0 grade-point average, play center on her school's basketball team and nourish her love for dancing with six hours a week of tap, ballet and jazz. But over the last year and a half Jena has also been cramming a less typical extra-curricular activity into her busy schedule, the health club. There, for about an hour twice a week, she...

In the United States, roughly 10 per cent of all cancers, more than 100,000 cases a year, could be avoided if overweight and obesity did not exist, updated statistics on the proportion of cancer due to obesity say. The new projections stem from a review of published studies, updates to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report from 2002, and data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which includes 116,686 women, Dr Graham Colditz said at a press briefing at the American Association for Cancer Research's international conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. By applying the current...

Black Colleges Aiming to Fight ObesityBy DIONNE WALKER, AP NORFOLK, Va. (Oct. 23) - As students talk over the thump of rapper Chingy's "Right Thurr," Tina Carroll stands in a corner of the university dining hall deliberating. At 187 pounds, 22-year-old graduate student Tina Carroll is well above what's recommended for her 5-foot-2 frame. Piled in front of her are sliced carrots, peas and steaming squash chunks. Nearby, breaded chicken patties fan out like meaty playing cards, and french fries glisten in fat-laden glory. Carroll nibbles her manicured fingernails, her eyes darting between each selection. At 187 pounds - well...

An expanding waistline may have less to with what a person eats than what’s already inside, say microbiologists Jeffrey Gordon and Fredrik Backhed at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. Variations in the population of bacteria living in the gut may explain why some people pack on extra pounds while others stay slim. Gordon and Backhed base their claim on a study of two groups of mice, one exposed to normal intestinal microbes and another raised in a germ-free bubble. The germ-free mice had 42 percent less body fat, even though they were fed one-third more calories....