Obesity

Mexico pushes for national weight loss

(1) 29.September 2008, 14:20

In Mexico, which is on track to catch up with the United States within a decade as one of the world's fattests countries, nearly half of its 110 million people are overweight and the number of fat children has climbed 8 percent a year in the last decade.

Abraham Leon was getting a checkup when he found out he had high blood pressure and was at risk of developing diabetes.

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• Obesity
• Mexico
• wight loss
• campaign
• overweight
• fitness
• health
• gym

On the spot, the 5-foot-6-inch (1.68-meter), 240-pound (108.9-kilogram) lab researcher joined „Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos,“ (Let's Lose a Million Kilos), a national campaign to get Mexicans to collectively trim about 2 million pounds (910,000 kilograms).

„The longer we carry this excess weight, the more serious the problem becomes,“ said Dr. Samuel Flores Huerta, director of the Department of Community Health at Mexico's Children's Hospital. „Obesity is costing this country a lot of money.“

"We only recommend that people lose a half to a full kilo (1 or 2 pounds) a week. More than that is not healthy."

Mexico is working to mandate more physical education in public schools and encourage employers and unions to give workers time for exercise. The administration of President Felipe Calderon says it has built or renovated more than 800 public sports facilities around the country. And the National Institute of Public Health is promoting food education and healthier choices in schools, such as fruits and vegetables instead of chips and soda.

Mexican cuisine has always been high in fat and carbohydrates. But for decades, people living in small villages could not grow enough crops to eat a lot, and had to travel long distances to gather more food.

Now, as the middle class grows and more people move to cities seeking work, diets have become laden with processed and fast foods. At the same time, doctors say, Mexicans spend more time in their cars or watching TV.

"It's not that healthy food is much more expensive. What happens is that calories have become cheaper."

The country has the disease rates to prove it. According to government statistics, new cases of high blood pressure increased 24 percent in Mexico in just six years, from 2000 to 2006. New cases of Type 2 diabetes, believed to be linked in part to obesity, jumped 31 percent during that time.

Companies spend a lot to market unhealthy foods in Mexico, said Margarita Safdie, an investigator at the public health institute. In one so-called health-conscious promotion, a company offered a free bottle of water to anyone buying two soft drinks.

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http://www.welt.de/english-news/article2508476/Mexico-pushes-for-national-weight-loss.html

By John Lauerman

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Keeping pigs skinny may be as likely as making them fly, yet researchers say they have found a way to lower their levels of a powerful hunger hormone so they stopped gaining weight.

The scientists blocked production of a hormone called ghrelin, which creates the sensation of hunger. If a similar procedure could be done safely in humans, it may help people fight obesity, the researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said in today's issue of the journal Radiology.

The procedure used chemicals to block blood supply to a stomach region, called the fundus, that makes 90 percent of the body's ghrelin. Pigs that underwent the surgery stopped gaining weight, while comparison animals continued to fatten, the study found. Human studies could examine whether the operation could be an alternative to bariatric surgery now done to reduce stomach size, researchers said.

``Obesity is a huge problem, and there are very limited options for people who have exhausted diets and other methods to reduce weight,'' said Aravind Arepally, clinical director of Hopkins's Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design in Baltimore, in a Sept. 12 in a telephone interview. ``This procedure leaves the stomach's anatomy intact, and just targets the part that produces the hormone.''

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=ab7vVwnX.Xa4&refer=home#

NY Begins Tracking Obesity Levels In Schools

NEW YORK (AP) ―

As New York students return to public schools this year, some will find themselves asked to step up to the scale.

Legislation passed in 2007 goes into effect this month, requiring public schools outside of New York City to collect and report a summary of students' weights and body mass indexes as part of an effort to combat childhood obesity.

"Whatever you can measure, you can improve," said Dr. Richard Daines, the state health commissioner. "By requiring the measurement of body mass index, I think we'll see some improvement."

Doctors will now be required to test students when they come in for a student health certificate -- which is mandatory for attendance at New York schools. The information will be reported to schools, creating a set of data that will allow health officials to evaluate obesity levels based on geography.

"We'll have a much better sense of the distribution of the problem (and) if there are areas that have more of a problem," Daines said.

The information will be confidential and collected at school entry and in second, fourth, seventh and 10th grades.

The data will be passed on to the state Department of Health unless parents ask to have the information excluded.

A 2004 health survey of New York third-graders found that 21 percent were obese.

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http://wcbstv.com/local/obesity.ny.school.2.809152.html