Follow up on Ayala's Herbal Water

Long term readers may remember my post from almost a year ago about pediatrician Ayala's Laufer Cahana's herbal water.

I was particularly irritated by Ayala's representation of her water as a potential healing tonic in her products' original press release given her clear understanding of evidence-based practice (as seen in her blog).

Well, I just took a trip around Ayala's Herbal Water website and I've got this to say - other than that original press release she's done a bang up job of not in fact making ridiculous, non-evidence based claims.

Ayala, while what I think clearly doesn't matter, I'm going to give you my thoughts anyways. Why not remove the September 18th, 2007 press releases? You've had plenty of great media and reviews since then and as noted, your subsequent press releases have never strayed into making nonsensical pseudo-medical claims. Clearly you care about your ethics and I think the Sepetember 18th press release besmirches the message you're currently trying to promote (and allows loudmouth bloggers like me to a year ago get all huffy).

Kudos to you Ayala for abandoning the miracle-in-a-bottle path.

Want cheap prescription weight loss drugs? Buy a "natural" product.

Some people swear by their "herbal" remedies.

You know when I opened my offices I scoured the medical literature hoping I could convince myself that there was a herbal supplement that I could sell patients that would help them lose weight and help me pay salaries.

Guess what?

I don't sell any products.

Oh, yours works? Maybe it's because its got prescription weight loss drugs mixed into the "natural" pills. At least that's what a recent FDA sting operation found out when they found prescription weight medications (including some not sold in the US) in 68 different "natural" products.

Why put these into the "natural" products? Because the expensive part of coming up with medications isn't manufacturing them, it's the research and development behind them. Spend pennies a pill on making a herbal weight loss product work by putting in drugs that actually affect weight and now you've got a "herbal" product that people will keep buying.

So what drugs did they use to taint the pills?

Sibutramine (can have fatal interactions with certain types of antidepressants)

Rimonabant (pulled from the weight loss market due to adverse effects of depression and suicidal ideation)

Phenolphthalein (a laxative no longer sold in Canada due to its potential contribution to getting cancer)

Phenytoin (an anti-seizure medication)

Bumetanide (a diuretic)

If weight-loss in a bottle existed the world would be skinny.

From the "What were they thinking?" file

Because there isn't enough temptation in your children's lives to eat cookies and chocolate here are more stupid kid games (like the ones I blogged about back here).

I wonder who awarded the chocolate game the "Best Games Award 2008"?

Hershey's?

Oy.

Overweight? Your dietitian probably doesn't like you.

At least not if the results from a recent study are in fact applicable to the profession as a whole.

Dr. Rebecca Puhl, one of the Rudd Center's researchers (and bloggers I might add) published a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association whereby she polled 200 dietitian students about their attitudes towards the obese.

Her findings were frightening.

Only 2% of those training to be dietitians had positive (and she included "neutral" as positive) attitudes towards the obese with the remaining 98% being moderately biased against prospective heavier patients.

Of course the same could be said of many health professionals (including doctors). Similar to the dietetic students in a comparable study medical students held almost universally negative beliefs while a study with practicing family physicians showed roughly 50 of them cultivating negative stereotypes.

I'm sure real-life dietitians with real-world experience are likely far less judgemental than the wide-eyed students in Rebecca's study (hint - here's a ripe study for the picking for someone with resources).

Clearly all health professionals have a long way to go at eliminating their own weight-related biases.

Altruistic Boy Scouts to Offer Free Breast Exams

Ever wonder who thinks up this stuff for the Onion?

Today's Funny Friday is their Today Now report on some clearly selfless boy scouts.

(For extra giggles make sure to read this captions)

Have a great weekend!

Guess what? You're probably not fated to be fat.

Genes.

People like to blame genes.

Now there's no doubt whatsoever that genes affect weight, but given the fact that genes haven't changed in the past 100 years and obesity rates have, it's tough to suggest that if you've got an unlucky deck you're fated to be fat.

Recently there's been some work done on the FTO gene. Readers of my friend Dr. Arya Sharma's blog may have come across his post that detailed research published in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested kids with a particular version of the FTO gene were more likely to choose higher fat (and hence higher calorie) foods.

So are they fated to be fat? Is there nothing they can do?

Of course not.

In an article published yesterday in the PLoS Laura Johnson and colleagues looking at a sampling of 2,275 children found that those children with the higher calorie version of the FTO gene who consumed lower energy dense diets did not find themselves at an elevated risk of obesity.

Translation?

Regardless of your genes, if you're not eating more calories than you burn you're not likely to gain.

This doesn't mean that life isn't more challenging for folks with genetic contributors to weight gain - it just hammers home the fact that like those towns I blogged about in France, without tremendous education and a focus on changing the actual environment, this problem's probably not going away.

Remember too 100 years ago obesity was an incredible rarity - the world back then was truly a phenomenal behavioural weight loss program as it was a program that worked not on an individual level, but rather a societal one.

As always talks about genetics and weight bring me back to Dr. George Bray's famous quote,

"Genes load the gun, the environment pulls the trigger"

Reality Weight Loss Lies - Biggest Loser Edition

So at the end of last week's show the exiled player was shown completing one of his dreams - running a marathon with his wife. It was an idyllic ending - running hand in hand past the finish line. The somber text following the shot, complete with Biggest Loser music in the background, read that Dane finished the 26 mile marathon with his wife in 3 hours and 53 minutes - a pace that if true would have had Dane placing 14th overall.

Inspirational or impossible?

Dane, though much slimmer than his starting Biggest Loser weight, weighed in on race day at 280lbs. A sub-four hour marathon for someone who's only been training for 6 months who weighs 280lbs to me sounded impossible.

Imagine my lack of surprise when the truth actually hit the net. According to a report out of Runner's World magazine's blog, not only did Dane not complete the marathon in under 4 hours, he didn't actually complete it at all. Apparently when it became clear that he would be unable to complete the marathon in the 6 hour time limit of the Arizona Desert Classic Marathon a Biggest Loser show SUV picked Dane and his wife up and gave them a lift.

Oh, and even with the lift they didn't finish in 3:53, they finished in 5:53:48.

The Biggest Loser's production company Reveille LLC reportedly put out a press release detailing their "error" (I can't find the press release) suggesting there was a problem with the time readout. Certainly I can read 5:53 in the video below and you think that maybe, just maybe the camera guys knew how long it took and that Dane's run included an SUV ride?

Looking at the Biggest Loser website I couldn't find anything that suggested they lied to their viewers, nor did I see mention of it last night.

Dane, the guy whose incredible weight loss and commitment to changing his life I'm not knocking, isn't planning on giving back his finisher's medal because "in his mind" he finished the race.

Now as you might imagine, I don't espouse the ridiculously non-sustainable approaches the Biggest Loser broadcasts as helpful, but that said I've always felt the show was useful for that last two minutes. That's the two minutes where the incredibly dramatic weight loss is juxtaposed with the incredibly dramatic lifestyle changes that contestant has made. I've often said, "the more weight you want to permanently lose, the more things in your lifestyle you'll have to permanently change". I guess I'll have to take some of those changes with a grain of salt too as clearly lying is something the show espouses.

To watch a video of last week's last two minutes, click on below.

[Hat tip to Twitter's @stepank ]

This is not the best response to childhood obesity

Bigger clothes.

That picture up above is of British school uniform supplier Nadeem Ahmed holding the size 44inch waist trousers he's been selling to kids as young as 13.

In fact a recent report describes how some of Britain's largest retailers of childrens' clothing are joining together to fund a study into just how big Britain's children have gotten. They're going to use high-tech scanners to measure shapes and sizes with the aim to roll out better fitting clothing for ever-larger children.

Yet you'll still find folks vehemently denying increasing rates of childhood obesity.

I guess the clothing industry is in on this giant public health conspiracy.

Shocker - Calorie Burning Tea Doesn't Actually Burn Calories

Long time readers of my blog may remember my post from 2007 where I made fun of the claims being made by the Coca Cola company in the marketing of their "calorie-burning" tea Enviga.

Well guess what? On Friday Coca Cola agreed to pay $650,000 in penalties for their misleading Enviga advertisements and change them to include disclaimers that Illinous attorney general Lisa Madigan states will provide,

"clear and conspicuous disclosure that the product does not produce weight loss without diet and exercise"

I guess the,

"perfect partnership of science and nature"

doesn't actually break the laws of science and nature.

Shocker that.

Have you prepared your kids adequately for the coming apocalypse?

Yup, that uplifting subject is today's Funny Friday (courtesy of the Onion News Network).

Remember Fridays I take big swigs of mirth rather than vitriol.

(And email subscribers if you want to watch, click the link in the email to bring you back to the blog.)

Have a great weekend!

Frankenfood: French-fried Bacon

So far it's only in the experimental phase but playing off the recipe of french-fried hotdogs which I blogged about a ways back some enterprising lad has decided to french-fry bacon.

I must say, it actually looks like it would taste good but then again, I'm a sucker for bacon (don't tell my god).

That said, here is the quote from the inventor regarding taste,

"I feel ill and so very, very dirty"

[Hat tip to Rob our fitness director via The Last Appetite where there are a few more images for you to enjoy]

Read how two little French towns are curing childhood obesity

Fleurbaix and Laventie, France - combined population 57,819. Not exactly the big time, not exactly household names - yet.

Why might that change? Because they are perhaps the only two towns in the world where childhood obesity rates are in fact dramatically declining.

What's their secret? Special mineral springs? Treadmills instead of desks? A fast food ban? 10 hours of phys-ed a day?

Nope.

Their secret?

Education - lots of it, to many different players.

In Fleurbaix and Laventie healthy living education began in 1992 and for 5 years schools were recruited to teach children about characteristics of foods and nutrients, healthy eating habits, food processing and food labelling in lessons that were implemented throughout the teaching syllabus (not just in gym or home economics). Teachers at the school were trained by dietitians. There was no focus placed at this time on physical activity. Impressively classes were augmented with cross-cutting initiatives including cooking classes, visits to farms, visits to supermarkets and dietitian monitored school based family breakfast programs. This first stage was meant to last for 5 years only but given the success of the program, it's still running today.

The second stage began in 1997 and continued through 2002 and while it was meant to simply be an observational period, as the teaching from stage one became more pervasive, community involvement continued to grow. So much so that in 1999 two dietitians were employed to perform school interventions and also to present to town councils and other adult meetings. The town councils in turn started to support actions in favour of physical activity, built new sporting facilities, hired new sport educators, and created walking schoolbus programs while family activities started to focus on fitness and various local stakeholders (GPs, pharmacists, shopkeepers, sporting and cultural associations etc) set up further family activities that focused on healthy living.

From 2002 through 2007 intervention entered the home whereby a free home based healthy living checkup was offered to 3,000 residents (a full 5% of the population). The visit included blood testing, a clinical exam and a questionnaire aimed at screening for unhealthy habits. Individuals thus identified to be at risk were offered family oriented advice delivered by a dietitian on healthy eating and physical activity and if necessary were referred to a GP for specific health issues (including childhood obesity).

Over the 14 years of study the local media became involved and multiple newsletters and press releases supported the project. As a whole 212 articles appeared in local newspapers, 190 in the medical press, 208 in the national press and there were 25 television reports and 75 radio reports.

The results?

In 2005 childhood obesity rates in the control towns (and much of the UK) had reached a staggering 17.8%.

In Fleurbaix and Laventie?

8.8%.

What Fleurbaix and Laventie did was what has been missing from every other public health intervention I've ever come across. They treated this as a disease of the environment, rather than a disease of the individual.

Every public health professional interested in obesity should be encouraged to read this paper and study the interventions put forth in Fleurbaix and Laventie. We need to start pressing for similar changes yesterday.

(Want to know what Canada has done? We've created a food guide that ignores calories and recommends far too much food, spent $5 million on television advertisements that in isolation tell people they ought to exercise more and we have a Public Health Agency that explicitly and purposely refuses to label obesity a disease. Think we're in trouble? International readers if you're wondering about the TV commercials, here's a parody that sums them up pretty quickly:)

How the Food Industry Influences Food Policy

Simple - they're invited to the table and once there they're able to extend their considerable influence and spin on the proceedings (how many public citizens, scientists, doctors or dietitians have teams of PR folks and scientists helping craft their messages?).

I've blogged about this a great deal in the past and commented on how bad an idea it is to bring people with a vested interest in national food policy to the table when trying to develop new national food policies.

Rather than go through all that again I strongly encourage you to spend 6 minutes of your morning watching the following video. It does a great job covering just who it is who attends and gets involved in the consultations surrounding national food policy development.

While this particular video deals with American school lunch programs, rest assured this video could have been filmed at every "public" consultation surrounding Canada's Food Guide and of course the non-public, stakeholder invited consultations as well.


(Thanks to Marion Nestle for featuring the video on her blog)

Do you need a Weight Loss Bookie?

I read a fascinating piece in the New York Times a few weeks ago. It was about a new online service that allows you to place monetary bets regarding your ability to meet your own specified lifestyle goals. Bets may range from quitting smoking, quitting drinking, spending less, studying more etc., but one of the most popular categories are weight loss bets.

Every week you fail to meet your goals the site bills your credit card and then holds your money in escrow until the end of your challenge. Who gets your money then is up to you. You can of course set up bets whereby you've challenged a friend and the winner takes all, or you can allocate it to charity but more interestingly you also set it up so that the money goes an "anti"-charity (someone you'd hate to see your money go to).

The site, StickK.com is the brainchild of Yale professors Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres who had done research on how contractual committments helped with both smoking cessation and weight loss and with the help of a graduate student of theirs, set up the site.

I think it's a brilliant website and certainly for some may help them getting that last little bit of motivation to finally do whatever it is they've now entered into a binding contract to do.

Who'd be your "anti"-charity. Not too tough to figure out who mine might be.

Check out my new digs!

Thanks to Maggie Gosselin from Tufts this place finally got a much needed renovation!

Hope you like it!

Hope for Congenital Happiness Sufferers!

Are you so regularly happy that you annoy all the people around you?

If so, there's hope - it's called Despondex and an Onion News Network report is today's Funny Friday (beware, minor cursing in the video).

Have a great weekend!

(Given that there are a great many new subscribers - Fridays are my day off being irritated. Usually I post a video or story that I find amusing. Videos need to be watched on the blog itself and you can get there by clicking the title in the email)

Why We Need to Regulate the Weight Loss Industry

Wow, the editorial sure made a splash.

Of course editorials are brief and points always need to be limited so I just wanted to take a few moments and flesh this out some more.

Plainly put we need to protect consumers from weight management fraud, but where weight management differs from other areas is that the problems are more real and the people, more vulnerable. No one would care if you bought a shammy from Vince from Sham-Wow and it didn't work - $19.99 (or whatever it is) and no harm done. Here there's harm.

Obesity and overweight contribute dramatically to morbidity, mortality, reduced quality of life, social stigma and bias and both direct and indirect health care expenditures. Media, governments, physicians all hammer home the notion that weight has major risk and it would be healthy to lose it. Of course by not telling people where to go, consumers may find themselves in programs or buying products that they purchased due to overtly fraudulent or misleading claims.

The harm is not only in consumers being swindled into non-evidence based and likely non-sustainable approaches, not just to their pocket books that in many cases will end up much, much lighter, the harm is that those same individuals who are clearly in a state of change involving readiness, likely won't be at that same state once they've failed a program that itself was a failure - they'll blame themselves and be less likely to trust or seek out further help.

The call to action in the Journal is simple and it's a no brainer really - if you're going to make a claim about a product, pill or potion to treat obesity, if you can't back up your claim with evidence you shouldn't be allowed to make it.

With allied health professionals I'll go one step further. While Vince from Sham-Wow might be able to get away with outlandish claims, allied health professionals are not, or at least should not be able to. Physicians, dietitians, chiropractors etc., are all governed by the Heath Care Act and as such we are not allowed to make claims that are fraudulent or misrepresent the evidence base. Consequently I'll throw down my gauntlet to the Colleges of various health care professionals and state that it is their immediate and direct responsibility to protect the public from the myriad of health professionals currently sullying the good names of their respective Colleges and preying on the public that in too many cases trusts them too much.

Unfortunately doctors too can be unscrupulous.

Top ten things to know before joining a weight loss program

Yesterday the Canadian Medical Association Journal published an editorial I co-authored with my friend, colleague and fellow blogger Dr. Arya Sharma (here's his Obesity Notes blog).

The editorial very simply calls on both the medical establishment and governments to put an end to the shady practices that permeate the commercial weight loss industry.

I will likely post more thoughts on this tomorrow but for today I'd like to provide you with a top ten list. Ensure that all ten items are true for any program you're considering and if they're not, you might want to consider another program or at the very least, speak to your physician about it before enrolling.

• The program is not a one-size-fits-all diet, and has individualized nutritional, exercise and behavioural components.
• Nutritional advice is provided by a physician or a registered dietitian
• Exercise is encouraged and physical activity is promoted at a gradual, rather than at an injury-inducing rapid pace
• Reasonable weight loss goals are set encouraging at most a 3lb per week pace and the program does not promise, "guarantee" or imply dramatic, rapid, weight-loss as an outcome
• The program does not require large sums of money at the start or make clients sign contracts for expensive, long-term programs without the option of at least partial refunds (which you should discuss with them before enrolling)
• The program does not promote diets lower than 800 Calories daily and if less than 1200 daily are supervised by a physician.
• The program does not require the use or purchase of any products, supplements, vitamins or injections
• The program does not make outlandish claims such as, “you will only lose fat” or that they are able to, “target” problem areas.
• The program has an established maintenance program optionally available
• The program provides you with statistics that include the percentage of clients who drop out, the average percentage of weight loss and the average weight loss sustained following completion of their maintenance program.

Welcome Back Sally Brown!

(Yes, I know "you're" is spelled wrong in the graphic. Too bad I'm not technical enough to fix it)

Who's Sally Brown?

She's the CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

She was also the head of Ontario's Trans-fat Task Force which back in 2006 called for a regulatory approach to the removal of trans-fats from our food supply.

Sally was a strong proponent of such an approach as evidenced by these soundbites gleaned from the press of the day,

"The problem is, without regulations, we won't get everyone on board and it's harder to get product changes. Unlike french fries, with something like doughnuts and chocolate bars, you have to take it out of the formulation which is more difficult. We needed regulations uniform across both sectors"

Sally Brown, Vancouver Sun Nov. 1st, 2006

"Trans fats are a "toxic" killer that need to be removed from the food chain as soon as possible"

"We know that the government is taking our recommendations very seriously, but we also know that they're getting some push back from industry who traditionally don't like regulatory approaches"

"Our argument is, if you don't regulate it, it'll be piecemeal"

"We also say that by regulating it, you're sending a signal to the marketplace to ... create healthier oils."

"We think we've given the government a great opportunity to implement what was a consensus report," she said. "[The food industry] supported all the recommendations, they're ready to act. Now we need the government to act."

Sally Brown, National Post Jan. 11th, 2007

"could account for between 3,000 and 5,000 Canadian deaths annually from heart disease"

"The longer we wait, the more illness and in fact death will happen, so we know we have to get it out of our food supply"

"There is no safe amount of trans consumption, but many of these foods are well past recommended limits."

Sally Brown, The Windsor Star, Jun. 5, 2007

Imagine my surprise then when in late 2007 Sally Brown rolled over and congratulated Tony Clement for giving Big Food a 2 year free pass to try to voluntarily remove trans fats from the food supply!

It lead me in multiple postings to chant, "Bring Back the Old Sally Brown"!

Well I'm happy to say, she's back!

Last week the Health Canada's Trans-Fat Monitoring Program proved the old Sally Brown right in that voluntary trans-fat reduction was piecemeal and that Big Food was doing a dismal job of doing it on their own. Excitingly, unlike every other Health Canada Trans-Fat Monitoring press release this one was not accompanied by Sally Brown's apologist stance and wait and see attitude, this one had her stating this,

"Although some companies and sectors have stepped up to the plate and done well, overall the food industry is not sufficiently reducing trans fats voluntarily.

"So our view is this data seems to be suggesting quite strongly that it's not going to happen without regulation"

Welcome back Old Sally Brown!

Shame though that during these past two years of wait and see pandering to Big Food, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation's own estimates, Health Canada's voluntary free pass lead directly to the deaths of between 4,000 and 6,000 Canadians.

[You might notice a new feature in my sidebar - it's a countdown timer to the official 2 year mark set by the then Health Minister as to when regulations will be employed if voluntary efforts fail. Anyone care to wager as to how long AFTER the countdown's finished we see a regulated effort?]

Funny Friday: Literal Video (Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give you Up)

So what if you take an 80s video, cut out all the lyrics and then dub back in a literal description of what's going on in the video?

Well it makes Funny Friday on February 13th, 2009.

Have a great weekend!



(As always, email subscribers you need to visit the blog to view - just click on the link at the top of the email)

Bulging Brides trainer Nadeen Boman claims her show "encourages a guilt free attitude"

Readers of my blog may remember my post detailing the press release where the headline sounded alarm bells about Canadian women battling with body image and then proceeded to call on the Canadian women reading the press release to explore their own, "problem areas" and specifically look for,

"muffin tops to thunder thighs, from junk in the trunk to flabby arms"

I also referred to Nadeen Boman, she's the trainer quoted in the press release and the trainer on the Slice TV shows, "Bulging Brides" and, "The Last 10lbs Bootcamp".

Nadeen read my piece and left a thoughtful comment (scroll down through the linked post (it'll open in a new window) to get to the comment).

Now I've got nothing against Nadeen and she's certainly entitled to her opinion and her approach.

Me, I think Bulging Brides and The Last 10lbs Bootcamp encapsulate everything that's wrong about society and its approach to weight management, nutrition and healthy living.

I also think Nadeen's got a serious case of cognitive dissonance if she can in the same sentence no less, describe the existence of the show's "Aisle of Shame" as part of a process that "encourages a guilt-free attitude".

So now you know what Nadeen and I think - what do you think? Have you watched the show? Do you think it fosters a healthy attitude towards health and life in general? Leave us your comments, I'm sure we'll both be reading.

World's Stupidest Childhood Obesity Intervention Plan

Wow.

Anyone here familiar with the Greek myth of Milo? So the story goes,

"Milo of Croton was born in the sixth century B.C. in southern Italy, won the boys' wrestling Olympic Games in 540 B.C., and went on to victory in five consecutive Olympics.

Some modern athletic coaches consider Milo the father of resistance training, the process of lifting heavier and heavier weights to build strength. This stems from another legend: As a youth, Milo carried a newborn ox on his shoulders. As Milo grew, the ox grew; the load got heavier and Milo's muscles became stronger."

My guess is that the folks who work for Palos Sports a Chicago based sporting good distributor might have taken that myth literally.

Why?

Well last week they issued a press release detailing their,

"Operation Pull Your Own Weight"

Their premise?

I'll let their website do the talking (caplocks are theirs),

"1. Kids who can do pull-ups, ARE NEVER OBESE.

2. Using a Height Adjustable Pull Up Bar and Leg Assisted Pull Ups, (pulling and jumping at the same time) ALMOST ALL KIDS can develop the ability to do conventional pull-ups.

3. Which is to say, ALMOST ALL KIDS can naturally immunize themselves against obesity for a lifetime, without pills, shots, or fancy diets, by simply developing, and maintaining the ability to do pull ups."

Ummm, I think someone needs to help these folks with the principles of cause and effect.

Oh, and logic too.

Here's some comparably brilliant "logic" sure to blow Operation Pull your Own Weight guys' minds:

1. All astronauts are mammals.
2. Monkeys are mammals.
3. All astronauts are monkeys.

Ooooooooo, scary.

I'm guessing they call NASA the instant they read this.

By dumbing down obesity into an argument that includes a truism with misappropriated causality the individuals behind this effort do more harm than good.

Now normally I wouldn't bother posting about something like this. It's just so unbelievably stupid it almost isn't worth mention. Yet somehow this organization has managed to actually make noise with a piece having appeared in the Chicago Tribune...a positive piece no less. (if you want an entertaining read, head over to the piece and read the comments)

Oh, and if you're wondering what might be motivating these folks? They sell sporting goods equipment to schools and schoolyards for doing pull-ups.

[Hat tip to Travis from Obesity Panacea]

World's Greatest Office Chair (Humanscale Freedom Review)

Damn you Humanscale!

Damn you for making such a ridiculously comfortable chair.

Some brief background.

I've got a bad back. MRI shows disc herniations at L4-L5, L5-S1 and when it's "out" I'm a complete mess. I get shooting pain down my right leg and suffer with terrible muscle spasms in my lower back. I don't sleep well, I can't pick up my kids, exercise, etc.

It went "out" last June. By the fall I was desperate. I had another MRI to ensure there wasn't something growing in there and when that came back negative I decided it couldn't hurt to research my options in office ergonomics.

For anyone who's looked into their options for chairs and keyboard trays etc., you'll know that the options are not cheap.

My research online brought me to two chairs - the Humanscale Freedom and the Humanscale Liberty.

Contacting the company brought me to Mr. Joel Howey who kindly brought by one chair a week for test sits.

I opted for the Freedom, much to the chagrin of our Director of Operations who was nonplussed about spending nearly $1,000 on a chair. His measure of whether or not it was a good purchase was whether or not I ever opted to buy one for my home.

Fast forward to now. My back is back "in". I'm exercising again and completely functional. Yet whenever I work at home, and I mean literally every single time, within half an hour of sitting in my chair (an Obus Forme) I start getting shooting pain down my right leg and an hour of work usually translates to 2-4 hours of pain. I've adjusted it every which way I can think of to no avail.

So last week I shelled out my own dough to pick up another Humanscale Freedom. This weekend I worked away, pain free.

Damn you Humanscale for making the greatest chair on earth so darn expensive.

Worth every penny.

[If you're in the Ottawa region and would like to deal with an exemplary company and customer service representative feel free to contact Joel Howey at Jhowey@humanscale.com or call him on his cell at 613.218.3383. For further proof of just how good the service is, Joel was at my home on Saturday morning at 9:00am replacing a bolt that had disappeared during shipping - no charge. If his bosses are reading this, give him a raise!]

Irony thy names are Boston Pizza and Health Check

So a few weeks ago the second annual "Salt Lick Award" was announced.

The Salt Lick Award is the dubious honour conferred by the Canadian Stroke Network, the Canadian Obesity Network and the Advanced Foods and Materials Network to the producer of a food with an obscene amount of salt.

This year's award was given as a whole to the country's commercial pizza producers including Boston Pizza where it was reported in the Salt Lick press release,

"Two slices (284 grams total) of a large Rustic Italian pizza at Boston Pizza contain 2,580 mg of sodium"

(or about 1,000 mg more than an adult's daily recommended daily maximum)

Boston Pizza of course is a restaurant that's part of the ridiculous Heart and Stroke Foundation misinformation Health Check program whereby certain items on the menu are given a Health Check seal of approval including items containing as much as 1,220mg of sodium (the Thai chicken wrap) or almost a full day's worth.

So in essence Boston Pizza capitalizes on the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check program to bring customers through the door, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation capitalizes on the dollars paid for by Boston Pizza for the endorsement along with the increased exposure. While you might want to make an argument that at least they'll have "healthier" choices if patrons order a Health Check'ed item, given how much sodium the Health Check program allows, a comparative analogy would be the Lung Association profiting off their endorsement of "light" cigarettes (if they're going to smoke anyway....).

Having far more experience that I'd care to admit in understanding how the Health Check program operates and the players behind, it I'd be willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that when the Canadian Stroke Network and friends put out their Boston Pizza mentioning press release that someone from the Heart and Stroke Foundation called them to complain, as the bad press might affect the business of a Health Check participant.

And really, it is about business. Exhibit number two is the current promotion being put forth by Boston Pizza themselves whereby you can order heart shaped pizzas with some proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

I guess Boston Pizza's trying to protect its customer base by ensuring the dollars flow to an organization who supposedly is there to help prevent heart disease.

Ironic that the Heart and Stroke Foundation try to "prevent" it by encouraging unhealthy eating in restaurants.

[Want more irony? Here's the Heart and Stroke Foundation's own press release calling for a maximal daily sodium consumption of 1,500mg and here's one where the Foundation recommends that you eat out less frequently.]

The Fountain of Youth?

A rare non video Funny Friday.

A doctor on his morning walk noticed a very pretty older lady sitting on her front step smoking a cigar, so he walked up to her and said, 'I couldn't help noticing how happy you look! What is your secret?'

'I smoke ten cigars a day,' she said. 'Before I go to bed, I smoke a nice big joint. Apart from that, I drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels every week, and eat only junk food. On weekends, I pop pills, get laid, and do no other
exercise at all.'

'That is absolutely amazing! How old are you?'

'Twenty-four,' she replied.

Have a great weekend!

[Hat tip to my friend and fellow Single Malt Book Club member David L.]

Denny's Free Superbowl Breakfast Slams 228,571 lbs onto American Waistlines

Here's how I figure:

2,000,000 people ate an almost 800 calorie breakfast.

For the sake of argument I'm assuming that such a breakfast will cause most who consumed it to have exceeded their daily calorie needs by at least 400 calories.

2,000,000 x 400 calories / 3500 calories per lb = 228,571 lbs.

Oh, and each free breakfast also provided the recipient with more than a day's worth of sodium (almost 10,000lbs of the stuff for the nation!).

Thanks?

How Real are Reality Weight Loss Shows?

Well if Bulging Brides is any indication, not so much.

Bulging Brides is a Canadian "reality" TV show that you guessed it, tries to help brides lose some weight pre-wedding.

According to this piece not only did the show misrepresent itself to a former participant, it also fabricated drama for the sake of the show.

Cathy Snow was originally recruited to be on a show she was told was entitled, "Buff Brides" and apparently was horrified when she learned that she was to be featured on a show that was actually called, "Bulging Brides",

"They portrayed me as an overindulgent pig, like all I do is eat my face out. They send you down the ‘aisle of shame’. They basically doubled what I ate and drank. They planted things in my cupboards. You know the whole time what’s happening. I’m a normal-sized person who eats a normal diet, but they need to make it good TV watching."

So what does the show have to say for itself?

Mea culpa according to one of the show's producers,

"The food diary, the ones [days] we choose to illustrate could be a worst-case scenario.…To be honest, we always pick the day where she’s like, ‘Oh my God! Did I eat that?’ If the audience thinks that’s what she eats for every meal, well...."

Snow reports that once everything was said and done she didn't regret her experience on Bulging Brides. She also reports gaining back the weight she'd lost. No shocker there given that the show's hosts and "experts" (note the sarcastic quotes), Tommy Europe and Nadeen Boman rely on the classically useless exercise-like-stink and eat-far-too-little short term diet.

Posted "portion sizes" don't influence actual portion sizes

In this month's Journal of the American Dietetic Association there's an elegant little paper that generates a none too surprising conclusion.

The paper details a randomized study whereby subjects were given a lunch meal which began with their being provided 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5 "portions" of pasta. They were then allowed to continue to eat as much pasta as they wanted following the preload consumption.

Guess what?

Being told you just ate 1.5 "portions" of pasta doesn't influence how much pasta you'll continue to eat afterwards or how full you'll feel.

According to the study subjects felt that the term "portion size" referred to the,

"standardised index of the nutritional content of a food/meal, rather than as an index by which to estimate personal food intake"

So you mean people don't eat a third of a cookie if that's what the bag's "serving size" states?

Improve your Body Image with Insults and Meal Replacement Bars?

Writing this blog has led to my inclusion in the press release launches of diet, weight and for some reason beauty related products.

Mostly they're ridiculous and honestly I question the wisdom of the folks who include me in their diet-centric mailings - did they ever bother to actually read my blog?

Anyhow, last week I received this press release. The headline read,

"Yikes! 1 of 3 Canadian Women Battling Body Image"

and I admit it did what a good headline ought to - it had me reading the next line.

I assumed of course it would be somehow related to a means to cultivate a healthier body image, or perhaps pointing me to a commentary on fat-ism.

Nope.

Instead I got this line,

"The mirror doesn’t lie. From muffin tops to thunder thighs, from junk in the trunk to flabby arms, Canadian women say they don’t like what they see."

So Canadian women - to improve your body image look for "problem areas" in the mirror, eat meal replacement bars and take nutritional and workout advice from Nadeen Boman - someone whose career has been built on berating womens' bodies and providing them with ridiculous, non-sustainable, workouts and diets.

Gee, I wonder why Canadian women battle body image issues? Could it be that press releases like this one and grotesque TV shows such as Nadeen Boman's Slice Networked Bulging Brides and The Last Ten Pounds Bootcamp contribute to the development of unhealthy body images in Canadian women?

Funny Friday: The Broken Escalator

Oh the horror!

Today's Funny Friday is a reenactment of the drama associated with a broken escalator.

Have a great weekend!



[Very belated posting and hat tip to loyal blog reader Jerry]

Have you eaten off a Weight Watchers menu over the past 4 years?

If it was at an Applebee's you might want to give Tara Kelly a call.

If you remember a few months back I blogged about the calorie labeling lawsuit that alleges misrepresented calorie counts at Applebee's restaurants from items off the Weight Watcher's menu whereby independent tests revealed some items to contain double the fat and calories posted.

Apparently now 4 separate law firms have launched class action lawsuits and a recent news story reported Gilbert Oshinsky lawyer Tara Kelly hopes to represent, "every person who has eaten from the Weight Watchers Menu in the last four years".

Given there are over 2,000 Applebee's in 49 states, 17 international countries and one U.S. territory, and lots of folks on Weight Watchers, I imagine Tara will be pretty busy.

The trial is scheduled for 2010.

Small Victory in Quebec in the Battle for your Children's Plates

Two days ago Saputo Inc., makers of the obscenely Heart and Stroke Foundation Health Check endorsed chocolate chip muffin and peddled by adorable Igor the Gorilla, pled guilty to 22 charges of targeting children with advertisements.

For my non-Quebec readers, Quebec is unique in Canada in that there's this rarely used set of laws established in 1980 that in fact bans advertising aimed at kids younger than 13.

Saputo Inc agreed to pay $44,000 in fines.

A pittance likely compared to the sales their campaign generated but at least a start.

Karine Vachon, a Saputo spokesperson had this to say about their Igor muffins, they're,

"healthier than other Vachon cakes"

which is kind of like bragging that eating your company's bacon is healthier than consuming pure lard.

Similar lawsuits are now moving forward versus McDonald's, Burger King and Lucky Charms maker General Mills.

What a shame these laws aren't shared by the rest of our country.

World's Stupidest School Food Policy?

Wow.

And here I thought that St. Andrew Elementary in Barrhaven's weekly ice-cream sandwiches for 6 year olds was a stupid plan.

This one takes the cake (almost literally).

Welcome to Mitchell High in the UK where if you show up for extra-classes you get rewarded with pizza and fish and chips!

But maybe they're crazy like foxes because guess what? Their pilot project's participants' grades were twice as good as the year before's controls.

Change4Life?

Spicoli would be proud.

[Congratulations to the two winners from yesterday's giveaway - Ashley and Natalie. To claim your prize pop me an email and I will then send you further instructions! Thanks to everyone who entered.]

Going Out of Business Sale

Git'mo of everything!

Today for Funny Friday is SNL's take on the closing of Guantanmo Bay.

(remember email subscribers need to head over to the blog itself to view).

Have a great weekend!



[Hat tip to Peter from the blog Obesity Panacea]

Are you eating North America's Least Healthy Breakfast Cereal?

Can't say I've ever heard of it.

Quaker Instant Grits Butter Flavor received a score of just 6/100 from NuVal (formerly known as ONQI), my favourite food rating scale.

Coming in a close second last was a more familiar name - Cap'n Crunch Sweetened Corn & Oat Cereal with a 10/100.

So what's the healthiest cereal according to NuVal? Another unknown for me - Hodgson Mill Unprocessed Wheat Bran (Millers Bran) which received a perfect score of 100 with Red River cereal a close second at 93.

This is why I love NuVal - it's incredibly easy to use. It takes 30 nutrients and 5 nutritional concepts and gives them to 11 of the world's leading nutritional scientists who then crunch them down in a weighted algorithm that spits out a rating between 1 and 100.

Healthiest sugary cereal? Kashi Golean Crunch Protein & Fiber Cereal Honey Almond Flax with a score of 40.

Most surprisingly unhealthy cereal? Cheerios with a score of 34.

Brain-dead simple to use.

Thanks NuVal!

The Lancet Hates the new UK Obesity Initiative

Can't say I blame them.

Change4Life, the new massive UK initiative to help with their obesity epidemic is being paid for by the very companies that helped bring them their problem.

Big Food's money is supposed to be spent on television advertisements, billboards, and posters with an aim of reducing childhood obesity rates by 2020.

Want to see how the money is being spent? Check out this television spot. Want to guess where my head's at as to whether spots like this will make one whit of difference?



Hopefully as this project grows messages will be more useful than the classically useless, "Eat less, exercise more" message this spot provides and while I'm sure there is some useful information on their website, I did also note their explicit recommendation to swap soft drinks for "unsweetened" fruit juices as part of a, "sugar swap".

Pssst, Change4Life people, there's just as much, if not more sugar in juice than in sodas!

[BTW - check out the neat new feature up above. It's the article from the Lancet as an embedded PDF, use the magnifying glass slider to read]

Quackery: The Amazing "Diet Guard"

Wow.

"Snack Proof your Mouth"

How will you do that?

You'll shove two plastic mouth guards into your mouth so that you can't chew.

So what if you end up talking with a slight lisp, after all boxers wear mouth guards and they're in great shape.

Super-stylish too.

What's not to love?

Only $99.99.

Frankenfood - Hot Beef Sundae Edition

Yup. Hot. Beef. Sundae.

Thanks to Matthew Stoller who snapped pics of one of the viler Frankenfoods I've ever seen.

The description reads,

"Golden mashed potatoes covered with a generous portion of our roasted and seasoned to perfection top round beef, then aged cheddar cheese, more golden mashed potatoes, smothered with our special beef gravy, more aged cheddar cheese, a slice of buttered toast and a cherry tomato on top."

You can get yours in Nebraska.

Men vs. Women vs. The Walk-in Closet

Sure it stereotypes men and women, but that doesn't mean it isn't funny.

Today's Funny Friday covers the differing priorities of the sexes.

Have a great weekend!

Badvertising: Anti-aging Yogurt puts the "sigh" in Acai

Yup, it's anti-aging.

Why?

Because of the miraculous Brazilian acai berry that contains "antioxidants".

According to Dairyland's Alive page, antioxidants,

"may help people sustain vitality as they become older and decrease the risk of age related health issues such as cancer, decreased immunity, and heart disease"

I can't imagine why doctors everywhere aren't prescribing this stuff.

Must be because we're afraid we'd go out of business.

Yup, that's got to be it.

This really puts the "sigh" in a-sigh-ee (the correct pronunciation of acai)

(Thank goodness all of my dietary health needs are covered by yogurts, juices and chips)

Badvertising: Chips are Vegetables, Right?

So after I eat my heart chips, I'm going to have a hearty serving of vegetables.

No stupid broccoli for me. Kiss my artichokes goodbye.

From now on I'm going to have Flat Earth Impossibly Good vegetable crisps.

I don't care that they're not whole grain because I'll get my whole grain from those Sun Chips.

I don't care that they've got piles of sodium and calories because there's a half a serving of real vegetables in every ounce.

Let's see....if I have 8 ounces a day that's like 4 "vegetables".

Of course it's also over 1000 calories and a day's worth of sodium.

Huzzah!

Badvertising: Heart Chips

Yup, I get all my whole grains from salty snack foods.

No stupid whole grain breads, pastas or cereals for me.

Those are for suckers.

I eat a bag of Sun Chips daily.

"Less salt than you think" has got to be good right?

Yup, one bag a day. I'm going to do my heart the favour of 21lbs of extra salty snack calories a year.

I bet they're really filling too!

Badvertising: Cholesterol Lowering Orange Juice

"What's not to love", the ad asks.

How about the 22lbs worth of OJ calories you'll have to drink per year to get the 12% reduction in LDL found in the Minute Maid funded study looking at this fortified OJ? No? Then how about the 76 cups of sugar you'd consume that year from the OJ. That's 38.5lbs of sugar by the way.

You think maybe, just maybe, drinking 22lbs of OJ calories and 76 cup fulls of sugar per year might have some negative health outcomes?

What's that? You're asking about those folks who already drink two glasses of OJ per day and that a straight swap's a good thing.

I suppose it would be.

Do you think maybe cutting out the 22lbs a year of juice and 76 cups of sugar altogether would be a better thing?

What's that? You're asking about the person with the healthy weight who's drinking two glasses of juice per day? It'd be good for them right?

Sure, 76 cups of sugar a year never hurt anybody, right?

[Calculation wise: 48grams of sugar per 2 cups of OJ x 365 days a year / 229grams of sugar per cup]

Are Taxis Cheaper than Hearses?

Dad, I know you've always wanted a hat tip so here you go.

Hat tip to my Dad for today's Funny Friday which proves cabbies are far more understanding than you might think.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom!

(new email subscribers, usually to see the videos you have to actually visit the blog which you can do by clicking here)

Renowned Dietitian Leslie Beck Calorically Confused?

What is it about calories that makes health professionals not want to talk about them?

Some say that teaching people about calories will lead to increased incidences of eating disorders - yet there's never been any evidence published to suggest that would be true.

And really it's more about how you talk and teach about calories.

At my offices we teach people to be non-judgmental about calories. They're not by definition, "bad", it's just that we have to pick and choose when they're worth it.

It's a money type analogy - before you buy anything it's probably a good idea not only to look at the price tag, but also to know how much you've got in your bank account and how much you make a month. We all buy things we don't need, but we of course don't buy every last thing we want - some things just aren't worth their price tags and frankly some foods just aren't worth their calories.

The other thing we teach about calories is that rather than worrying about maximums, worry about minimums - eating too few of them at any given meal or snack and you're asking to get hungry and as anyone who's ever gone to the supermarket hungry knows, hunger influences our choices.

Of course there's much more to successfully losing weight than simply keeping track of calories. Elements such as the timing of meals and snacks, macronutrient distributions, protein consumption, learning how to cook, finding time, planning and meal preparation, shopping skills, media awareness and so on.

Which brings me to Leslie Beck. She's a very prominent Toronto based dietitian and I often quite like what she's got to say. Yesterday though wasn't one of those times.

Yesterday she wrote an article for the Globe and Mail that told readers that the key to weight loss was simply portion control and explicitly discouraged them from looking at calories.

Why is her assertion ridiculous and upsetting?

Well it's upsetting because she knows better. It's upsetting because there's this non-complicated factor of which she's well aware called energy density. What energy density refers to is the fact that gram per gram some foods have more calories than others. What that means is that even eating small portions of highly energy dense foods can lead to the consumption of large numbers of calories. By not including this concept in her article and by simply telling people to eat less, she's doing a disservice both to the public and to the privilege she enjoys of being able to reach huge numbers of people.

It's a ridiculous assertion because basically Leslie is telling her readers that in order to lose weight you simply have to eat less. While ultimately that's true it's about as useful a piece of advice as someone telling you that to get rich all you need to do is, "buy low and sell high" in the stock market. In Leslie's case the analogy would be to an actual stockbroker giving you that sage advice.

If it were that easy Leslie, everybody'd be skinny.

New York State Health Commissioner Calorically Confused?

I figure most of my blog readers already know about New York State's fat-tax proposal whereby an 18% premium will be attached to sugary drinks. The hope of course is that if soda costs more, people will therefore buy and drink less, and by drinking less sugary beverages those folks will lose weight (or stop gaining).

It's a very simple premise really - drink fewer calories, gain less (or even lose some) weight and in NYC where calories are posted on menus, people really ought to "get it".

You know who absolutely ought to "get it"? New York State's Health Commissioner - the board certified in internal medicine physician Dr. Richard Daines who you'd guess ought to be fairly well versed in all things caloric.

Well if the video below really represents his views, I'm not so sure.

You see in the video below Dr. Daines boils down the point of the tax to be shifting the consumption of cola "back" to the consumption of milk as in the 70s when obesity was less of a concern the average New Yorker was drinking more milk and less soda.

The problem with that notion is that the past 30 years of weight gain cannot be skimmed down to a single variable. It's not soda that's caused the gain, it's the calories in it as well as the various other foods and portions that have grown in size, quantity and calories since the 70s.

Watch the video and you'll hear how in fact since the 70s the average New Yorker is drinking at least 2 more glasses of liquid calories a week just between milk and soda. Of course we also know that since 1970 juice consumption has gone up as well so likely the average New Yorker is consuming anywhere from 200-500 more calories weekly purely from liquid sources. Splitting the difference and extrapolating for a year that's 5.2lbs more calories per year just from non-satiating liquids.

Given that 2% and higher fat milks have drop per drop more calories than soda, and juice the same, if all a New Yorker did following the introduction of the fat-tax was swap some sodas for milks or juice liquid calories won't change (and neither will weight).

Now I can't imagine Dr. Daines doesn't "get it", I think he probably figured it'd be best to try to dumb things down.

Problem is dumbing things down when it comes to calories is just plain dumb. If New Yorkers who watch Dr. Daines think that soda has magically bad calories and milk and juice magically good ones they're missing the really important take home point - liquid calories aren't satiating and we drink too many of them.

The message really has to be, don't drink your calories. Too bad Dr. Daines blew the opportunity to hammer that home.



[Hat tip to one of my favourite nutritional economists Parke Wilde]

I hope you gained weight over the holidays

That's what I'm telling my patients.

Frankly I think for many (certainly not all), significant losses over Christmas and New Years carry a worse prognosis than small gains.

Why?

Simple.

To lose weight over Christmas and New Year for many would require an overly strict approach, a slap-your-wrist, wish you could have seconds, damn that stupid pie, type approach. An approach otherwise known as a "diet".

"Diets" by definition are temporary.

Lifestyles are forever.

Life includes Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed yours.

(And if you did lose, don't feel guilty, just ask yourself if you were reasonably indulgent and if not, perhaps loosen your reins just a touch)

French-Fried Hot Dogs?

I need a softball post to get back to blogging and thanks to my favourite blogging anaesthetist Joe, I've got one.

Introducing this year's first Frankenfood, straight from South Korea - the french-fried hot dog.

I imagine that whatever evil technology was used to fuse the fries to the dogs will soon be used to make french-fried lots of other stuff.

Hope you all had great holidays - look for some more figuratively meaty posts later this week.

[Hat tip to Joe via The Last Appetite blog]

Weighty Matters Cracks Wikio's Top 50 Health Blogs!

Received a nice email today from Nicolas over at Wikio advising me that Weighty Matters cracked their top 50 list for Health Blogs.

Below is Wikio's top 50 with Weighty Matters flying up to number 33!

Happy New Year everyone,
Yoni

1 Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog 2 Pharmalot 3 Shapely Prose 4 The Carlat Psychiatry Blog 5 GoozNews 6 DB's Medical Rants 7 The Doctor Is In 8 In the Pipeline 9 Healthcare Economist 10 The Covert Rationing Blog 11 Health Care Renewal 12 Highlight HEALTH 13 Brain Blogger 14 Autism Vox 15 InsureBlog 16 Doctor Anonymous 17 Disease Management Care Blog 18 StevePavlina.com 19 Six Until Me. 20 Her Bad Mother 21 Musings of a Dinosaur 22 Junkfood Science 23 Dr. Deb 24 Fight Aging! 25 Schwitzer health news blog 26 ScienceRoll 27 AlexShalman.com

28 HD BizBlog 29 Diabetes Mine 30 John McManamy's SharePosts 31 The Independent Urologist 32 Aging Fabulous 33 Weighty Matters 34 The-F-Word.org 35 Pallimed 36 retired doc's thoughts 37 Cranky Fitness 38 PixelRN 39 The Trouble With Spikol 40 The Rotund 41 The Change Blog 42 Eye on DNA 43 Alzheimer's Notes 44 Autism News Beat 45 All 4 My Gals 46 Slow Down Fast 47 Global Health Policy 48 The Last Psychiatrist 49 Bump on the Road 50 John Goodman's Health Policy Blog Rankings by Wikio.