Obesity Facts and Statistics

                       

Although it's almost two years since this video was published, the

facts and statistics are alarming and they are getting worse!!

 Let's Lose Weight Together

"go against the trend by losing weight"

How much worse has it gotten? Are there any improvements?

Comment with your updates below.

Yo-Yo Dieting Dangerous Even If You're Not Overweight

Repeatedly losing and regaining weight, known as weight cycling or yo-yo dieting, may increase the risk of death from heart disease among postmenopausal women who were of normal weight at the start of the study, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016.

"Weight cycling is an emerging global health concern associated with attempts of weight loss, but there have been inconsistent results about the health hazards for those who experience weight cycling behavior," said Somwail Rasla, M.D., study lead author and internal medicine resident at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, Alpert Medical School, Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Researchers classified self-reported weight history from 158,063 post-menopausal women into four categories: stable weight, steady gain, maintained weight loss, and weight cycling. During a follow-up of 11.4 years, they found:

Women considered "normal-weight" at the start of the study who lost and regained weight had about three and a half times higher risk for sudden cardiac death than women whose weight remained stable.

Weight cycling in the normal-weight women was also associated with a 66 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease deaths.

No increase in either type of death occurred among overweight or obese women reporting weight cycling.

Similarly, no increase in death occurred among women who reported that they gained weight but did not lose it or, in the opposite scenario, that they lost weight without gaining it back.

Evidence indicates that being overweight in midlife increases the risk of dying from two types of heart disease. In the first type, coronary heart disease, the blood vessels to the heart become blocked by fat and other substances, decreasing blood flow to the heart. In the second type, sudden cardiac death, the heart's electrical system abruptly stops working, causing death. It is unclear whether losing and regaining weight in adulthood also increases the risk of death from these heart diseases, so the investigators looked at this relationship among postmenopausal women.

The study has several limitations. First, the study was observational, therefore it could only show association and not a cause and effect relationship. In addition, the study relied on self-reports, which could be inaccurate. Since sudden cardiac death occurred relatively infrequently, the cases that did occur could have resulted from chance. Finally, the study included only older women.

"More research is needed before any recommendations can be made for clinical care regarding the risks of weight cycling, since these results apply only to postmenopausal women and not to younger-aged women or men," Rasla said.

In the United States and worldwide, heart disease is the leading cause of death. Obesity is a major risk factor, along with high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, physical inactivity, poor diet, and smoking.

One way to lower your risk factors is by following the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 program, which recommends:

(1) manage blood pressure;
(2) control cholesterol;
(3) reduce blood sugar;
(4) get active;
(5) eat better;
(6) maintain normal weight;
(7) stop smoking

Source
American Heart Association
This study is funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

Co-authors are Marina Garas, D.O.; Mary B. Roberts, M.S.; Molly E. Waring, Ph.D.; Christine M. Albert, M.D., M.P.H.; Deepika Laddu, Ph.D.; Marcia L Stefanick, Ph.D.; David K. Garas, M.B.A.; and Charles B. Eaton, M.D., M.S. Author disclosures are on the abstract.

Cut Out Sugar and Eat Saturated Fats to Fight Obesity - Part 1

Quit sugar, eat MORE fat, and become slimmer and healthier.

It has been reckoned that in the UK (2016) almost six out of ten women and two-thirds of men are overweight. Dietary guidelines are to eat lots of carbohydrates, consume little so-called 'heart disease-causing' saturated fats like butter and whole milk, to eat 'low-fat' foods, and to make sure five fruits and vegetables are eaten every day.

It is clear that most of this dietary advice is not working. The part about fruit and vegetables is fine because those foods are sources of healthy dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.

The obesity epidemic is out of control. Yet many people do their best to 'eat less' and to 'exercise more'. But we continue to get fatter and heavier. The only thing that the dietary guidelines seem to be doing is to fuel a 'billion-pound diet industry'. The population is turning into one of "sugar-craving, disappointed yo-yo dieters".

Thankfully, this health disaster may now be at a turning point. South African and U.S. scientists have shown that the ignorantly promoted 'low-fat, more carbohydrate' diet recommended by food experts has been extremely ineffective. It even looks like these recommendations could be directly to blame for the obesity crisis.

The new thinking is that, regardless of weight, we should be eating MORE fat, not less, and severely restricting if not cutting out altogether sugars. Typical among these sugars are common sucrose (table sugar) and the very unhealthy fructose.

Leading UK cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, has set out the case for a radical change of thinking to bring in a low-carbohydrate diet that is high in natural saturated fats. This could actually be the key to ending the obesity epidemic and reducing the escalation of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

A 'low-carbohydrate, healthy fat' diet could be the way out of sugar addiction and the key to losing weight and staying slim forever. 

   

This new approach is about re-thinking what we eat, starting with stopping eating sugar-rich foods. Unfortunately, most people eat the equivalent of 22 teaspoons of sugar every day. The trouble is that sweet things are very addictive - they are like opiates.

The sugary, carbohydrate-rich diets we have depended on for years, together with all the fancy snacks available, have left many of us 'hooked' on sugar. But it is not only sweet treats that get us hooked. It is also the 'complex carbohydrates' such as starch - which break down into simple sugars - that maintain our cravings.

All processed foods contain sugar. If you 'read the labels' you may be startled to discover just how much sugar is added to packaged, canned and bottled products.

With sugars playing such a big part in our lives, it seems impossible to quit them. That is the opiate link.

Continued in Part 2...

Source