Dr. Chet’s Health Memos
If it’s in the health news today, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I read the research, both old and new. With my email Health Memos, you’ll know more about making lifestyle choices that will help you get and keep good health. These free, concise updates on health are emailed to subscribers twice a week. Subscribe today and get a free MP3, in English or Spanish, of Dr. Chet’s Top Ten Tips—Small Changes for a Healthier Life.
Physical Activity vs. Exercise
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 . . .
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The Exercise Myth
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 . . .
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Weight Loss Supplement: The Bottom Line
Based on Thursday’s memo regarding the lack of any research on the effectiveness of Acacia rigidula and the chemical ingredient β-methylphenylethylamine (BMPEA), why did this get so much press? After all, there’s no evidence people are dropping in the streets because they’ve used this chemical. I think it’s directly due to the passion of a single science writer and the lack of follow-up by the FDA. I can’t be sure, of course, but let me lay it out for you.
Let’s start with the FDA. When they found supplements tainted with BMPEA a . . .
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Weight Loss Supplement: The Research
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 . . .
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Weight Loss Supplement: The Acacia Rigidula Headline
Science by headline is becoming more and more common; case in point, the headlines said things such as “New Study Reports Untested Amphetamine-like Substance in Weight Loss Supplement!” I just can’t let that one go, so that’s the subject of this week’s messages.
Let’s begin with the study. Researchers tested 21 weight loss supplements that contained an ingredient called Acacia rigidula. Never heard of it? Neither did I. It’s a type of bush commonly known as blackbrush acacia that grows in Texas and Mexico and purportedly has similar properties to the banned herb ephedra . . .
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Weight Loss: A Better Solution
Wrapping up our look at the research paper that examined the effectiveness of commercial weight loss programs, I think the authors dropped the ball. Yes, they did what they intended to do: review the research on weight loss programs with the purpose of being able to point physicians to effective programs based on the evidence. But that ends up being lame. All they did was provide an outside source the physicians could recommend; they completely ignored the idea of physicians providing weight loss programs within the medical practice.
Although the authors were all physicians or physicians in training, they think . . .
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Weight Loss: The Problem with the Study
Continuing our look at the recently published study “Efficacy of Commercial Weight-Loss Programs: An Updated Systematic Review,” there was a significant problem with the study and most likely, not in the way you might think. I saw no problem with the statistics or measurement variables as sometimes happens. It wasn’t a meta-analysis, so there were no issues in study selection. In my opinion, it goes back to the intent of the study.
In an editorial in the same edition of the journal, the author reported that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the American Heart Association . . .
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Weight Loss: The Headlines
From the relatively benign “Commercial weight-loss programs offer little evidence of success” to the more provocative “It’s all hype: Few commercial weight-loss programs are effective,” it appeared the researchers at Johns Hopkins threw a gigantic wrench into the $2.5 billion commercial weight loss industry (1). After all, if the programs don’t work, why would anyone want to fork out the money? Or maybe, just maybe, this was more hype than anything else; let’s take a look.
A group of physicians and students from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine performed a search using traditional scientific . . .
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School Lunch Study Results
Today we finish our look at a recent study designed to see if kids will eat more vegetables and fruits in school lunches (1). Over the seven-month study, there were four scenarios:
- Schools with chef-assisted meals
- Smart café approaches
- Chef-assisted meals with smart café
- Control schools that did not change their approach to school lunches
If you want to guess the results just based on logic, you would have been correct that the chef-assisted meals, with and without the smart café approach worked best. The schools . . .
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The School Lunch Study
If you’re going to get children to eat healthier foods, you have to employ the same tactics that food manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants use: make it look visually appealing and display it in such a way as to help them make the healthy choice first. Of course, it must taste good but if they never put it on the plate, they’ll never know if they like the taste. With that in mind, researchers selected 14 elementary and middle schools in low-income, inner-city locations with over 2,600 children to participate in a school lunch study . . .
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