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The G8 needs to discuss “a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda,” he said.
The Camp David summit kicked off four days of intensive diplomacy – including a NATO meeting in Obama’s home town of Chicago – that will test leaders’ ability to quell unease over the threat of another financial meltdown as well as plans to wind down the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
Over dinner Friday at the presidential retreat, the leaders discussed still other intractable global problems. The group, which included Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, agreed ahead of world powers’ talks next week with Iran that Tehran must answer questions about its suspected nuclear weapons program, a U.S. official said.
The Camp David summit comes days before the next round of Iran talks, to be held in Baghdad. The G8 leaders “affirmed the importance of having a uniform effort in approaching those Baghdad talks next week,” a U.S. official said.
“Each of the leaders noted the urgency for Iran to take concrete steps to assure the international community of the peaceful purpose of its (nuclear) program,” the official said.
Syria was also on the agenda and on the crackdown by Damascus, the official described broad agreement on “the need to move rapidly toward a plan for political transition within Syria” and said that while Medvedev did not outright support that call, he did not oppose it either.
However it was the global economy that dominated the day.
After White House talks with French President Francois Hollande, Obama said the two agreed that tackling the euro-zone crisis was “an issue of extraordinary importance, not only to the people of Europe, but also to the world economy.”
“We’re looking forward to a fruitful discussion later this evening and tomorrow with the other G8 leaders about how we can manage a responsible approach to fiscal consolidation that is coupled with a strong growth agenda,” Obama said before flying to Camp David and greeting fellow leaders for an opening dinner.
Merkel, who has insisted on the need for tough fiscal discipline to bring down suffocating debt levels even as angry voters have toppled some euro zone governments, seemed certain to find herself increasingly alone.
In what may have been a telling moment, Obama greeted Merkel at his Laurel Lodge with a cordial: “How’ve you been?” When her response came: a shrug and pursed lips, Obama conceded: “Well, you have a few things on your mind,” in a brief exchange captured by a boom microphone.
Her predicament could be underscored in the summit’s final communiqué that, according to a draft shown to Reuters, will stress “our imperative to create growth and jobs.”
A new series does a fantastic job explaining how America got fat, but doesn’t attempt to galvanize changes to the food system.
I’ve been asked to comment on the HBO series, Weight of the Nation and everything that comes with it: the accompanying book, the auxiliary videos, the distribution plan to schools and other institutions, and the Institute of Medicine’s report, Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention.
Because I wanted to look at all of it before commenting, plenty of others have beaten me to it, among them FoodandTechConnect’s infographic summary, Kerry Trueman on AlterNet and Michele Simon on Grist.
I don’t have HBO but got sent the press kit, the Weight of the Nation book, the disks, and the IOM report. I watched all four hours of the HBO series, plus the “Rethinkers” video of kids working on a school lunch project in New Orleans (air dates), plus the IOM and HBO books, plus the website.
Overall, Weight of the Nation makes the size, scope, causes, and consequences of obesity alarmingly clear.
The talking heads — many of them my friends, colleagues, and former students — all had plenty to say about what obesity means on a day-to-day basis for individuals and its personal and economic cost to society.
The programs ought to convince anyone that obesity is a big problem and that something big needs to be done to prevent it.
But doing something big, the series makes clear, will be very difficult.
This may be realistic, but it is not inspiring.
We need inspiration. That’s why I wish the programs had focused as much on social responsibility as they did on personal responsibility.
I wanted to see the programs take leadership on how government can help citizens reduce the social, economic, and business drivers of obesity.
That kind of leadership exists. To see it in action, watch the video of the New Orleans school “rethinkers.” Those kids wanted to improve their school lunches. They got busy, dealt with setbacks, and learned how to make the system work for them. They “spoke truth to power” and “held feet to the fire.”
Why aren’t adults doing the same? Politics, the IOM report explains. Although one of its principal recommendations is critical — Create food and beverage environments that ensure that healthy food and beverage options are the routine, easy choice — its recommendations speak some truth to power but do little to hold feet to the fire.
The IOM report explains the political realities:
The committee’s vision takes into account the need for strategies to be realistic, as well as consistent with fundamental values and principles. At the same time, however, having a diversity of values and priorities among them is itself a principle of U.S. society.
Potentially competing values and principles must be reconciled, for example, in considering protections needed for individuals versus the community at large or for the public versus the private sector.
Vigilance regarding unintended adverse effects of changes undertaken to address the obesity epidemic is also needed.
“Americans,” the report says, are accustomed to the current obesogenic environment, one “driven by powerful economic and social forces that cannot easily be redirected.”
It may not be easy to redirect such forces, but shouldn’t we be trying?
In 1968 the CBS documentary Hunger in America galvanized the nation to take action to reduce poverty and malnutrition.
The HBO series was equally shocking but I wish it had focused more on how we — as a society — could mobilize public distress about the poor quality of food in schools and the relentless and misleading marketing of sodas and junk foods that it so well documented.
But dealing with the need to address the social and economic forces that promote obesity would, I’m told, be considered lobbying, which the private-public sponsors of the series are not permitted to do.
Mobilizing public support for health is considered lobbying. Food industry marketing is not.
FoodNavigator-USA.com columnist Caroline Scott-Thomas wrote about the HBO series:
As an industry journalist, I’ll be among the first to admit that industry is stuck in a very hard position here: On the one hand, it wants to be seen to be doing the right things – but on the other, what people say they want to eat, and what they actually do eat are often very different, and after all, food companies are in the business of making money.
But honestly, could industry do more to make healthy choices routine, easy choices? I think so.
Yes it could, but won’t unless forced to.
Without leadership, we are stuck doing what the food industry needs, not what the public needs.
Weight of the Nation did an impressive and compelling job of defining the problem and its causes and consequences. I wish it — and the IOM — could have risen above the politics and pressed harder for strategies that might help people make healthier choices.
But — if the HBO programs really do help mobilize viewers to become a political force for obesity prevention, they will have been well worth the effort that went into making and watching them.
This post originally appeared on Food Politics, an Atlantic partner site.
Posted: Friday, May 18, 2012 11:00 am
The Missourian
Researchers at Oxford University have discovered the fat in foods can be converted into tissue around the plumpest parts of the body within hours.
For a large meal containing 30g of fat, two to three teaspoons of the substance can be added to waists much quicker than previously thought.
If one continues to overeat, the fat will also be moved into tissue around the hips, rear and thighs for storage.
The study, by Fredrik Karpe and Keith Frayne, found the first fat from any meal enters the blood around an hour after being ingested.
By the time three or four hours has passed, they found, most of it had been incorporated into the adipose tissue, much of which lies in the short-term fat stores in the waist.
The results, which may require the adaptation the clichéd adage “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips”, have resulted in a greater understanding of how weight gain works.
Previously, many have believed the process is much more gradual with food travelling from the gut into the blood, where is was used by muscles, with any excess being stored as fat.
But the Oxford University research suggests the fat is instead moved quickly around the body in the bloodstream before being “caught” and stored.
Karpe, professor of metabolic medicine, said: “The process is very fast. The cells in the adipose tissue around the waist catch the fat droplets as the blood carries them and incorporates them into the cells for storage.
“If you eat too much, you don’t get into this phase of starting to mobilise it. There will just be constant accumulation and you will start to put on weight.”
In a paper published in the Physiological Reviews, the scientists also suggested fit people found it easier to get rid of unwanted fat, as exercise gives a long-term boost to fat-burning mechanisms.
The results of the research come just days after British researchers advised people should use their waist measurements to determine the risk of suffering weight-related problems.
Dr Margaret Ashwell told the European Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France, that keeping waist circumference to half one’s height would help increase life expectancy.
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Vania Isaac, owner of H.E.A.R. Fitness Studio in Monroe, knows that few of her clients come to her because they love exercising. They’re there to lose weight. And if they could find a way to do that without exercising, they’d hop on it in a hot minute.
To that end, she’s spotted some of her clients wearing Skechers Shape-ups, a convex-soled shoe that, according to ads, was supposed to help wearers shed pounds and tone their buttocks and others muscles through the simple act of walking in them. But, Isaac said, the shoes didn’t help her clients lose weight. In fact, some of them complained of back pain, cramps in their calves and other ailments.
“These were people who never had back pain before,” Isaac said. “I told them `Take off those shoes, stretch and come back when you feel better.’ “
So Isaac wasn’t surprised when she heard that Skechers USA Inc., which makes the shoes, recently agreed to pay $40 million to settle charges that the company made unfounded claims about the weight-loss benefits of Shape-ups and other products. Dissatisfied Skechers customers may be eligible for a partial refund.
The settlement is the result of an investigation that involved attorney generals from more than 40 states, including Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. Connecticut’s share of the settlement is $88,208. In addition to the financial consequences, the ruling also bars Skechers from making any claims about the health or fitness benefits of its shoes without scientific evidence.
Skechers debuted the Shape-up in 2009, and the footwear cost about $100 a pair. The FTC ruling also mentions the Skechers products Toners, Tone-ups and Resistance Runners. These shoes became available in 2010 and cost $60 to $100.
Locally, medical and fitness experts weren’t shocked by the resolution, nor were they surprised by the fact that so many people bought into the idea that a shoe could make them thinner. “Most of the people in our society don’t like to exercise,” Isaac said. “Even the people who come to my studio don’t like to exercise. But if you want to lose weight, you can not get around having to eat healthier and exercise more.”
Dr. Stuart Zarich, chief of cardiology and vascular medicine at Bridgeport Hospital agreed, but added that Skechers isn’t the first company to promise customers a quick and easy way to get healthy. “There’s been a myriad of health claims for a variety of medicines and lifestyle aides,” he said. For instance, Zarich said he once saw an ad for a pill that could cure diabetes. Since diabetes is an illness he specializes in, he was well aware that no pill has been invented with such miraculous benefits.
Likewise, as a cardiologist, he’s fairly certain that a shoe can’t bring about weight loss. “I have no data that’s proven that any type of running gear helps you lose weight better or faster than anything else,” Zarich said. “It’s the exercise that makes you lose weight, not the shoe design.”
Linda Gottlieb, a fitness trainer based in Milford, echoed Isaac’s and Zarich’s sentiments about the appeal of these toning shoes. “People are always looking for a quick way to get fit, and they’ll pay money for it,” she said.
Like Isaac, Gottlieb discourages clients from using toning shoes. But not only do they not help you lose weight, some experts have worried that the shoes might be harmful, since they change the user’s gait. Isaac said she’s definitely seen evidence to support that among her toning shoe-loving clients. Gottlieb said her fear is that the shoes could cause calf injuries. And, given that the shoe can put new wearers off balance “they might be a trip hazard,” Gottlieb said.
However, at least one professional said Shape-ups do have some health benefits, though those benefits have nothing to do with weight loss. Howard Harinstein, chief of podiatry at Bridgeport Hospital, said the rocking motion caused by walking in the shoes can actually help people with certain kinds of foot pain. “It does eliminate some of the discomfort,” Harinstein said. “It’s really not a bad shoe at all. It just can’t live up to the claims it’s making.”
Not shockingly, Skechers is standing by its shoe. In a statement issued Wednesday, Skechers Chief Financial Officer David Weinberg said company officials don’t believe the ads were misleading, but Skechers was settling to avoid expensive legal proceedings.
“Our company’s goal has always been and will continue to be designing and selling quality, affordable shoes for our loyal customers,” the statement read. “In short, we settled to avoid the cost and distraction of protracted legal battle so we could get back to doing what we do best.”
acuda@ctpost.com; 203-330-6290; twitter.com/AmandaCuda; http://blog.ctnews.com/whatthehealth/
At a time when women are “eating for two,” dieting can safely lower the health risks of obesity during pregnancy, according to a new study.
British researchers reviewed data from 44 trials involving 7,278 women to determine the safety and effectiveness of weight management programs during pregnancy. Not only did the moms-to-be gain less weight, they also lowered their risk of dangerous complications.
“Dietary interventions were most effective in reducing complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, and preterm delivery,” the researchers wrote in their report, published Thursday in BMJ.
Babies benefitted, too, as they were less likely to get stuck in the birth canal despite no difference in birth weight.
“There is no evidence that the interventions evaluated in our review or recommended in current clinical practice are associated with adverse maternal or fetal outcomes,” the authors wrote.
Nearly half of U.S. women who are of child-bearing age are obese, according to a 2009 study in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.
The growing problem prompted “Obese Expecting,” a TLC documentary that followed four obese women through complicated pregnancies and painful deliveries. A scene from the special shows doctors struggling to give one woman an epidural through the fat in her back.
“We spent 45 minutes attempting to put the spinal in,” said Dr. Charles Hux, a New Jersey OB/GYN featured in the documentary. “With so many layers of fat, it’s difficult to be certain that the needle went into the exact space it should go in.”
After several tries, the team gave up, deciding instead to give the woman a general anesthetic and a C-section.
“Going to sleep carries significant risks, even for a slim pregnant woman,” said Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, division chief of general obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. “And the risk goes up significantly in a woman who’s overweight.”
Obesity also compromises prenatal care, according to Greenfield.
“It’s harder to provide excellent care to someone who’s obese because a lot of things we do are not as accurate,” said Greenfield, explaining how ultrasounds and other tests to gauge the baby’s growth can be skewed by the mother’s fat. “It’s also harder to feel the position of the baby.”
The extra fat, and the fact that obesity can cause irregular periods, also means women might not immediately realize they’re pregnant.
“If you don’t know you’re pregnant, you might not avoid things that are toxic, like alcohol, smoking and certain medications,” said Greenfield, adding that prenatal vitamins are also important. “And a lot of what we do in prenatal care depends on knowing exactly how far along a woman is. If you don’t have a sense of gestational age, it’s harder to provide the right care.”
Weight gain during pregnancy is normal. But obese women should gain no more than 15 pounds, according to guidelines. That’s roughly half the amount recommended for women of normal weight.
“For someone with bad eating habits, that’s going to be really hard,” said Greenfield, describing how pregnancy cravings and the “eating for two” mentality can conspire to pack on the pounds.
Women who dieted during pregnancy gained roughly three pounds less than women who did not, according to the BMJ study. And that’s good, said Greenfield, because it’s less weight to lose later.
“Women who put on a lot of weight during pregnancy often can’t get it off again,” she said. “It’s definitely contributing to the obesity epidemic.”
Rising rates of obesity among moms-to-be has forced hospitals to adapt, adding delivery tables that can be made wider and hold up to 600 pounds.
“The old tables only went up to 450 pounds,” Greenfield said. “That’s just not realistic anymore.”
Karen will share a variety of information, including training tips, behavior, breed and health information, as well as heart-warming and comedic stories about her own dog and others.
WASHINGTON — In an age of long commutes, late sports practices, endless workdays and 24/7 television programming, the image of Mom hanging up her dish towel at 7 p.m. and declaring “the kitchen is closed” seems a quaint relic of an earlier era.
It also harks back to a thinner America. And that may be no coincidence.
A new study, conducted on mice, hints at an unexpected contributor to the nation’s epidemic of obesity — and, if later human studies bear it out, a possible way to have our cake and eat it too, with less risk of weight gain and the diseases that come with it.
Just eat your cake — or better yet, an apple — earlier. Then wait 16 hours, until the next morning, to eat again.
“We have to come up with something that is a simple alternative to calorie counting,” said Satchidananda Panda, a regulatory biologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., who led the study published online Thursday by the journal Cell Metabolism.
Panda and his team put groups of mice on different eating regimens for 100 days. Animals in two of the groups dined on high-fat, high-calorie chow. Half of them were allowed to eat whenever they wanted, and nibbled on and off throughout the night and day. The other mice had access to food only for eight hours at night, when they were most active.
The difference was astonishing. Even though they ate a high-fat diet, the mice who wrapped up their eating day early and were forced to fast for 16 hours were lean — almost as lean as mice in a control group who ate regular chow. But the mice who noshed on high-fat chow around the clock became obese, even though they consumed the same amount of fat and calories as their counterparts on the time-restricted diet.
“It is suggestive that scholars in the diabetes, obesity and other areas related to heart disease need to test this issue further in animals and humans,” said Barry Popkin, nutrition expert at the University of North Carolina.
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