Harmful Diets!

While obesity is bad for health but the wrong way to diet can also be harmful to your health. Common examples are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorders. These are illnesses where extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surround weight and food issues. These are serious emotional and physical problems with life-threatening consequences. Anorexia Nervosa is an illness by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Symptoms of the illness include:

Refusal to maintain body weight at or above the minimal normal weight for height, body type, age, and activity level
Intense fear of gaining weight or being fat or "obese".
Feeling fat or overweight despite being at a below normal body weight
Overwhelming obsession with body weight and shape

Bulimia Nervosa is a condition of marked over-eating followed by purging through vomiting or diarrhea using laxatives, all done in secrecy. These patients stuff themselves on large amounts of food - within a short period of time, and then get rid of the food and calories through vomiting, laxative abuse, or over-exercising.

Symptoms of this illness include:

Repeated episodes of bingeing and purging
Feeling out of control during a binge and eating beyond the point of being "full"
Purging after a binge (typically by self-induced vomiting, abuse of laxatives, diet pills and/or diuretics, excessive exercise, or fasting)
Frequent dieting
Overwhelming obsession with body weight and shape

Compulsive Overeating is characterized primarily by periods of uncontrolled, impulsive, or continuous eating beyond the point of feeling "full". While there is no purging, there may be fasting or repetitive dieting and often feelings ashame of one self following a binge. People who overeat compulsively usually struggle with anxiety, depression and loneliness, which can contribute to their unhealthy episodes of binge eating. These patients can be normal in their weight, slightly overweight or obese.

Peer pressure that values "thinness" and obtaining the "perfect body" can be a social force for some patients to enter this pattern of self-destruction. Learn to beat Obesity the right way. Through exercise and the right diet, I believe that obesity can be beaten.

The Nutritional Accuracy of Popular Magazines
The ACSH (American Council on Science and Health) have completed a large review of many popular magazines. Their goal was to evaluate the quality of nutritional information presented. Apparently 42% of US consumers make diet-related changes on the basis of information from health and fitness magazines. So - who do you trust?...

The Answer To Childhood Obesity: 15 Minutes Of Football?
ALSPAC The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (also known as Children of the 90s) is a unique ongoing research project based in the University of Bristol. It enrolled 14,000 mothers during pregnancy in 1991-2 and has followed most of the children and parents in minute detail ever since. [click link for full article]

Potential Link Between Obesity And Environmental Chemicals
A team of researchers at the University of New Hampshire is investigating whether the increasing ubiquity of chemical flame retardants found in foam furniture, carpeting, microwaves and computers might be related to the climbing rate of obesity in the United States. [click link for full article]

Splenda Buys Hundreds of Anti-Splenda Domains
The makers of Splenda have been busy. Busy enough to purchase over 211 domain names - such as SplendaKills.com, SplendaPoison.com, SplendaVictims.com. It is an elaborate and insidious ploy to prevent any negative information being written on-line....

In Obesity, Brain Becomes 'Unaware' Of Fat
Critical portions of the brain in those who are obese don't really know they are overweight, researchers have reported in the March issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. These findings in obese mice show that a sensor in the brain that normally detects a critical fat hormone - causing a cascade of events that keeps energy balance in check - fails to engage. Meanwhile, the rest of the metabolic pathway remains ready to respond. [click link for full article]

Do You Pursue an Hourglass Figure?
Forgive the double entendre. When it comes to the hourglass figure - many women pursue it, and it seems that men pursue women with it. Psychologists at the University of Texas (obviously with way too much time on their hands) have reviewed hundreds of years worth of literature and concluded: Men lust after slender-waisted women. Apparently it all comes down...

Even Light Exercise Helps Smokers Quit
Even short bouts of light exercise such as strolling can help smokers quit by reducing cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms, say scientists at the University of Exeter in the UK. The study is published in the April edition of the journal Addiction. The scientists suggest that a short session of moderate exercise, lasting for as little as five minutes, is sufficient to reduce cravings for a cigarette. [click link for full article]

Plagued By Diet Disasters? A Visit To A Registered Dietician Could Help
Studies indicate more than one-third of adults are trying to lose weight, but few have long-term success. Many can't stick to diets and exercise routines and struggle to stay afloat in a sea of popular diets, fitness programs and foods with "healthy" claims.But weight-loss seekers have someone to turn to. [click link for full article]

Modern Imaging Unravels Causes Of Addictive Behaviour - A Possible Basis For New Therapies?
What can radiology contribute to the treatment of obesity (adipositas)? Evidently a great deal, as was made clear at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR 2007) at Austria Center Vienna. [click link for full article]

Food: Can Variety Breed Indulgence?
Every morning I have the same breakfast. With the exception of a few minor variations I have been eating the same breakfast day in and day out for years. Some people believe that too much variation can lead to indulgence. Is this really true?...