Tag Archive for: obesity

Obesity: A Global Problem

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The overwhelming conclusion by the Global BMI Mortality Collaboration is that the rate of mortality linked with the degree of obesity follows the same pattern in the entire world with one exception: South Asia. If you look at the graphs of the mortality rate per BMI category, they’re virtually identical in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and East Asia. One of the reasons that South Asia might be different was that only three studies were included in the analysis.

We are not alone in our fight to lose weight and get healthier. Actually, that’s a completely different . . .

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Death by Obesity

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The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration examined the mortality of being overweight and obese in most parts of the world. They purposefully did not include people in the meta-analysis who had ever smoked or had a chronic disease when the study began; that makes sense because both can affect mortality within the five-year span they were examining. The range of the subjects was 20 to 89 years old and a BMI greater than 15.0.

They performed a hazard ratio analysis of the combined data, which examines the rate of an event (in this case death) within each weight . . .

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The World’s State of Obesity

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A week ago, I talked to a reader and visitor to my website who continues to check her BMI occasionally to see where she stands; she still hasn’t made it to the normal range but continues to try. I understand—I’m not there yet either. But there’s good reason to keep trying based on a recently published study.

The Global BMI Mortality Collaboration decided to examine the deaths from overweight and obesity in the entire world. Sometimes we think that the U.S. is the only overweight nation in the . . .

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Observations: It Can’t Be Fun

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I need a mental break from the research and scientific analysis, and I’m thinking maybe you do, too. I like to observe life around me, so I’m going to share some observations this week.

The obesity rate is higher than it’s ever been according to a recent study (1). The two groups that are the fattest in the U.S. are Baby Boomer men and black women in any age group. I observe men my age as well as black women who are struggling just to walk. That can’t be fun to carry an extra 100 . . .

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Raising HDL: Weight Loss

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Before I finish up this week’s look at HDL cholesterol, I want to wish every mother a Happy Mother’s Day. I hope it’s a great day with your children.

The number one way to increase HDL cholesterol is to lose weight. Losing fat helps increase HDL levels while simultaneously lowering LDL cholesterol. We still don’t know precisely why, but there’s really nothing debatable about it.

I’ll give you my theory of why weight loss helps raise HDL cholesterol. In order to lose weight, you have to eat less and/or move more; more than . . .

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The Bottom Line on High-Fat Dairy

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If you’re a long-time reader, you know that science by headlines makes me crazy because news reports often distort the findings of the research papers to make them seem more important than they are. It doesn’t help that research institutions send out press releases that contribute to the hype of their research findings. Such is the case with the two papers I reviewed this week.

In the first paper, researchers examined blood values of fatty acids found in high-fat dairy products as potentially . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and Obesity

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The second research paper included in many news articles that talked about the potential benefits of full-fat dairy products was a report from the Women’s Health Study (1). Researchers collected dietary data and self-reported body weight and height from over 39,000 women. The analysis included only about 18,000 middle-aged and older women who had a normal BMI when the study began; they analyzed the change in body weight over 11 years of follow up.

All women gained weight over time. Those who had the highest number of high-fat dairy products gained less weight . . .

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Recent Research: Milk and T2D

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Health news headlines got my attention this past week. They announced that full-fat milk products may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and becoming overweight. I don’t know about you, but it’s been decades since I drank whole milk or ate whole-fat yogurt or ice cream. It’s not just about the calories; it just doesn’t seem to taste as good. Have I been missing something? Headlines tend to exaggerate, especially when they’re based on press releases. Let’s take a look at the first study behind the headlines.

In the first paper . . .

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“In Defense of Food”: The Key Omission

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The movie “In Defense of Food” is a must see, as I’ve said. I think it makes the most reasonable presentation for what we should and should not eat to be healthy. But it also has a glaring omission.

In the movie, a segment focuses on the Hadza, a nomadic tribe in Tanzania and one of the last cultures who are still hunter-gatherers. They eat what they find and occasionally kill. A staple of their diet is very fibrous root vegetables.

The movie also does a segment on a group of elderly 7th Day Adventists. They believe their . . .

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The Cause of Obesity: The Lack of Exercise

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After reading Thursday’s message, I’ll bet you all saw this one coming. Together with taking in too many calories, we just move way too little and it costs us. I specifically made the title of Thursday’s message “Muscle Aging” instead of “Aging Muscle.” The reason is that our sedentary lifestyle causes the muscle to age faster than it should. The solution is exercise. Here’s a partial list of what exercise does for skeletal muscle:


Better Blood Flow

Regular exercise increases blood flow to the exercising muscles. That allows nutrients in and more important, waste . . .

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