Talking about weight

I have had people in my office this week - doing the diet assessment I have mentioned here. Easy for them as they live near my office - but it is doable on the phone!

Why do I keep harping on weight? Because no matter how otherwise healthy you think you are - you are at risk if you are overweight - and if you already have some health issues - being overweight worsens them.

Besides we have become an overweight culture...the kids as well as the grown ups. We no longer eat good food and we eat too much of the food we do have. Our food is less nutritious and the additives are making us fat!

I just read that the newer bigger foods - the bigger tomatoes etc. are less nutritious

A report issued this week examined several recent studies by food scientists, nutritionists, growers and
plant breeders. It found clear evidence that as the produce we eat gets larger, its vitamins, minerals and
beneficial chemical compounds significantly diminish, as do taste and aroma.
Growing bigger tomatoes and ears of corn leads to a bigger yield for the producer, but the trade-off is
the lower nutritional value.

Full article HERE

So in our rush to produce more food per acre - we are worsening the nutritional value of the food produced.

But if you have read some of my earlier posts, the soil is so depleted today that even without the super sized produce - the food is less nutritious than it was when we were kids.

So what do we do?

We need to supplement our diets, eat less but of the right foods for our metabolism and exercise more!

Not an easy path for many - but it leads to a good place////

more info? see on the right hand column

Friends and weight

One reason I like longitudinal studies [long term/same people] is that researchers can mine the data and find much over the years...even when it wasn't the original idea of the study.

The Framingham study is one such a research project. This project followed people in Framingham, Mass for decades beginning in 1948 as the Framingham Heart Study. The health and social data collected is still being analyzed today.

One of the very recent findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine is based on the large social networks of many the persons who have been part of the study for decades.

Social and weight data from 1971 to 2003 was analyzed by Harvard researchers who found that you are more likely to become obese if your friends are obese. As one who heard "birds of a feather flock together" from my mother [when she did not like what my friends were doing] this is not a surprise.

The question was raised as to whether we'd lose weight or be thin if we hung around with skinnier people...the researchers said yes - but they found on the average that most people were gaining as they aged. some think this is inevitable but I do not. I still think it is a myth - we gain if we do not change our eating to stay in balance with our metabolism - and that changes as we age...

You can be lean at any point in your lifespan...but I guess not if you hang around with obese people.

Next question? If you choose to get leaner - will that affect your best friend's weight? I think yes...but you have to do your thing and not get caught up in theirs..and we are social creatures...