Weight Watchers program “Lose For Good” ended a month a ago with very good results. The campaign that encourages people to donate a pound of food for every pound they lose, resulted in a 4 million pounds lost and two million pounds of food and 1 million dollars donated. As a symbol for losing a pound, the members brought a pound of food to the meetings for every pound lost, that was donated to charities. Weightwatchers contributed as well by donating money for every pound. This was the second annual lose for good campaign, with the first one being in august 2008. (see video)

Today 67% of the US adults are overweight- and 34% of them are obese.
”The Future Costs of Obesity”- study shows that over 43% of the US adults will be obese by 2018, 103 million American adults. The 10% increase in obesity numbers will increase health care costs four times, to a staggering $344 billion by 2018. This cost will account for 21% of the direct health care spending. How are they going to pay?
In Sweden the obesity rates are 11% among adults with 39% of women and 54% of men being overweight. Latest news is that the trend has stopped, the Swedish people are not gaining more weight.
In Japan, with some of the worlds lowest obesity rates 3-5%, implemented a law that would fine people for being overweight, a scare tactic or a way of gathering funds to finance the cost of obesity?
Meantime we are all wondering, what is wrong with USA?

BBC news reports that the UK survey, YouGov survey, where 2,421 people participated, shows that many believe exercising can make up for a night of heavy drinking. But the fact is that exercise cant undo the damage of drinking, and it is worrying that people still haven’t understood the extent of alcohol damage. In UK 73% of men and 58% of women drink at least an alcohol drink a week, with 34 and 20% drinking more.
24% of men and 13% of women consume more than 21 and 14 units a week.

In 2008 the industrial chemical melamine was added to milk to increase protein reading, to cover up the poor quality milk. The results were devastating, att least six children died and more than 300,000 fell ill. Melamine was long know to be hazardous, but surplus melamine production and fears of loosing money led to an unforgiveable act. It was added to infant milk formula and milk. 21 Sanlu executives and middlemen where charged. Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping was executed yesterday as a result of the 2008 Chinese milk scandal after being sentenced to death earlier this January.
Video from 2008

McDonalds in Germany has confirmed the rumor that they will be changing the trademark red sign accompanying the yellow arches to green. The senior executive chef Holger Beeck explained that this was out of respect to the environment. No doubt this is a sort of greenwashing to get more customers, but with any luck people will expect more than just a color change to consider McDonalds environmental.

This is one of the many questions nine research teams wants to answers with the help of a $1.85 million grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ( Health Game Reasearch national program.
Here are a few of the future studies:
Can dance dance revolution reduce the risk of falling in the elderly with Parkinson?
Can a driving game improve cognitive ability in the elderly?
Can Wii active be used in school setting to help kids battle obesity?
Can a breath analyzer in your phone help you reduce/quit smoking?
Will one work harder if buddied up with a virtual partner?

In Peru last week the police claimed to have arrested a gang that has killed people, and then extracted fat from the corpses in their laboratory. The fat was then sold on the black market for 15000 dollars a liter, making the travel all the way from the remote Peruvian jungle to European cosmetic clinics.
While professionals in the field of plastic surgery doubt the alleged use (and the demand for human fat on the black marked), three of the suspects have confessed to killing five victims for their fat.

I read this article 40 minutes ago, latest news from US presented oddly enough in the Australian newspapers. I was instantly stunned by his weight and thought that ‘surely he must be the heaviest person in the world’. At the same time I remembered a documentary I saw not long ago, about a man named Jon Brower Minnoch. He weighed 635 kilos at the most. He died 42 years old in 1983 after repeated attempts to reduce his bodymass. At most he managed to get down to 219 kilos, before gaining the double back. His doctor estimated at one point that more than half his weight was retained fluid. In the end that is what killed him.
While the weight of both these men seem the most striking, the story behind their deaths should be of more interest. Daniel Webb had no insurance, and after a knee injury was left to literary rot in his chair at home. His wife tried to help him, but no insurance company would help. For nine months he was stuck in the chair, unable to use the bathroom he was found covered in sores and human excrement.
With insurance Daniel Webb would most probably be alive today, and without his edema Jon B Minnoch life would have had a different outcome.

As sugar contains no vitamins or minerals, or anything other than just energy, the common opinion among health experts is that we can do without it. Because of that there is no recommended daily intake (RDA).
Most governments have something called dietary guidelines, which is expert advice on what we need to eat- and what we need to limit. Sugar is one of those things we need to limit according to health experts.
As an upper limit the USA government recommends 40 grams of sugar pr 2000 calories. In UK they recommend a 10% max, which equals to 100grams of sugar pr 2000 calories. The Scandinavian recommendations are the same.
A few months ago one of the worlds largest heart associations published their new guidelines on sugar, which where a record low. The American heart association now recommends that a woman only has 25 grams of sugar in her diet and men 35 grams.
Here is a summary:
UK and Scandinavia: 10%
USA current recommendations: 8%
American heart association : 5%
The current trend in USA is 105 g, or 22 tsp, compared to the 6 teaspoons the American Heart association wants people to limit themselves too.
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The recommendations are based on a large scale research that I will comment on later. If you want to have a read, you can find the article ‘Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association’ here.

Sometimes considered a modern day effect, heart disease has now been found In a 3500 year old mummy. I am not so surprised, as clogged arteries must have existed for just as long as mankind has. If the mummy had open heart surgery I would indeed be very surprised.
Hardening of the arteries was found in 9 out of 16 mummies, and one of the doctors involved in the study speculated that hypertension due to salted meats and high meat intake might have contributed. The full article can be found at the current issue of The journal of American Medical Association.