A group of retired military leaders have expressed their concerns about the state of USA children, as 27% of the young adults from 2005 were to overweight so serve in the military, and is the main cause for being rejected. The excess weight makes it harder to pass the physical exam, an leaves people wondering if USA is just to fat to fight.
In adults over 70 years of age a higher BMI might have a protective effect. The mortality was lower by 13% than in the ‘normal’ weight BMI category, or the ‘obese’ category. The study that’s started in 1996 looked at almost 10 000 patients aged 70 to 75 years of age. The results of the study suggests that maybe a different BMI range should be considered as the desired weight range for adults over 70 years of age, and that maybe what is considered overweight might be the desired range.
More than half of all pets today are overweight or obese. As pets can not choose their own food, the owners have to decide what is considered appropriate food for slimming their pets down to avoid diseases such as diabetes,pancreatitis, osteoarthritis and respiratory tract diseases that might shorten their life . The problem is that a recent study has shown wide variations in the calorie content of pet foods with some containing more energy than their non-diet equivalent. Interestingly enough a study earlier this year concluded that there are also wide varieties in fast food calorie content for humans, proving that the the nutrition guidelines one the back of the package is not a reliable source of calorie content information.
A study published in the journal pediatrics suggests that parents choose lighter products for their children when presented with the caloric content of the food. The calorie reduction seen among the 99 parents was 20%, with no correlation with the frequency of consuming fast-food. The 102 calorie reduction might be one step towards improving the health of overweight and obese children. This study has been very encouraging for the states that now consider making nutrition imformation on menus mandatory in the US.
Dec 152009
Today the New York City health department just released a commercial to accompany the poster ‘are you pouring on the pounds?’ shown to the left. The video has had a stomach turning effect. Whilst it still remains too early to state for sure whether these measures have had the desired effect (making people cut back on sugary drinks), it sure has gotten some attention. A can of soda a day can add up to a whopping 10 pounds a year, of fat that is, according to the commercial and the New York City health department. More than 2 million New Yorkers drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage each day according to a survey from 2007, and more than half of the New York population is overweight. An estimated USA health care cost of $344 billion by 2018 seems like is enough to scare any government into airing nauseating commercials.