Weight loss
This story by Anne Milton on the BBC website is an interesting one. Does it make a difference whether you use the term fat or obese? What do you think?
GPs and other health professionals should tell people they are fat rather than obese, England’s public health minister says.
Anne Milton told the BBC the term fat was more likely to motivate them into losing weight.
She said it was important people should take “personal responsibility” for their lifestyles.
But health experts said the word could stigmatise those who are overweight.
Ms Milton, who stressed she was speaking in a personal capacity, said: “If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried [than] if I think I am fat.”
She said too many staff working in the NHS were worried about using the term, but suggested it could help encourage “personal responsibility”.
“At the end of the day, you cannot do it for them. People have to have the information,” she added.
The minister spoke to the BBC after setting out the coalition government’s vision for public health.
A white paper is expected to be published in the autumn, which she said would stress the combined role of the individual, state, business and society.
The comments come after Health Secretary Andrew Lansley last month attacked the “lecturing” of recent public health campaigns, such as the drive on school meals that followed Jamie Oliver’s TV shows.
‘More brutal’
Professor Steve Field, of the Royal College of GPs, said he agreed with Ms Milton and already tried to use the term fat as much as he could.
“I think the term obese medicalises the state. It makes it a third person issue. I think we need to sometimes be more brutal and honest.
“You can be popular by saying the things people want to hear and in the NHS we too often do that when we should be spelling things out clearly.”
The history of the term obesity
Continue reading the main story
* The term obesity comes from the Latin word obesus, which roughly translated means intensive eating
* Societies have long been worried about problems of excess weight with Greek philosopher Hippocrates even writing about the dangers
* But it was not until the mid 1600s that obesity started being used as a medical term and then in time directly linked to other diseases
* Between 1830 and 1850 a Belgian scientist invented the BMI index to measure obesity by dividing weight by height
* The Journal of Chronic Diseases reported in 1972 that BMI was the best way of measuring excess fat
* Over the last three decades the terms BMI and obesity have been getting more and more popular with health professionals as a result
But Professor Lindsey Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, which represents public health professionals, warned against using ‘fat’ when dealing with patients.
“People don’t want to be offensive. There is a lot of stigma to being a fat person.”
She said health professionals started using the term obesity to encourage patients to think about the condition in a different way.
“Obesity is something that happens to people rather than something they are. The language you use all depends on the relationship you have with a patient.
“I would probably be more likely to say something like ‘can we talk about your weight’ rather than obesity, but that is a judgement you make on a patient-by-patient basis.”
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It’s the silly season again so over the next few days I’ll be looking for a triathlon to compete in. One that doesn’t have too many hills would be nice. Thinking about this reminded me about the first time I tried a triathon and the leverage I created to make sure I actually did it. I told people about it, signed up and paid for it and then decided to raise money for orphans in Tanzania.
Then the local paper wrote a story about it and that was enough for me to make sure I had to go through with it. Read the feature below and think what external pressure would you have to put into place to ensure you went through with your most important goals.
When a determined life coach signed up to race in a triathlon he was hoping everything would go swimmingly.
But there was just one problem with his charity fundraising stunt –this time last year he could not swim properly.
Former Warwick School teacher Iain Smith, from Rural Way, Redhill, sets himself a seemingly impossible goal every year, and this Sunday he is aiming to compete in a triathlon to raise money for African orphans.
“I couldn’t do more than 10 metres of front crawl without coughing and spluttering to a halt,” he said.
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“I had to get swimming lessons in Donyngs to learn the technique and how to breathe properly.
“I could manage breaststroke but this was a race and I didn’t want to be the slowest swimmer in the pack, moving like a great big frog.
“So my first goal was to learn front crawl without drowning.
“I swallowed so much water in training that I feel personally responsible for people’s water bills going up.”
The former English teacher at Warwick School, in Noke Drive, Redhill, has been setting himself yearly “life-goals” since 2001.
Mr Smith said: “I started by doing the Great North Run, and since then I’ve written a 100,000- word novel, bought buy-to-let properties, and started an international charity called Raincatcher.”
Inspired by his charity work that helps fund water projects in Africa, Mr Smith’s goal last year was to organise a trip for Year 11 students from his school to Tanzania.
“Students from Warwick School travelled with me for three weeks.
“We had a great time doing lots of charity work, and now we are trying to raise money to pay for the schooling of 20 orphans,” he said.
The father-of-two is hoping to raise sponsorship money through completing the triathlon at the Crawley K2 leisure centre, which includes a 600-metre swim, 25-kilometre bike ride and a six-kilometre run.
“I’ve been training six days a week since last September,” he said.
“I’m not expecting to win. I just want to finish in a time that’s respectable for me and raise a good sum of money.
“Luckily you get the swimming over and done with first when you’re strongest.
“If they did it the other way round then I think there’s a good chance I would drown.”
Anyone wishing to support Mr Smith can donate by posting a cheque made payable to Raincatcher to Woolpits, Bletchingley Road, Nutfield RH1 4HN.
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This story By Paul Bentley from today’s Daily Mail won’t come as too much of a surprise for many of you already aware of effective weight loss. For calorie counters though, still struggling to make an impact, it might be a real eyeopener!
Sorry Dr Atkins, eating LESS meat is the way to lose weight, results of five-year study show.
Despite what the late Dr Robert Atkins believed, eating less meat is the way to lose weight, a major study has discovered.
Keen meat-eaters were found to gain far more weight than those who had less meat in their diet – even when they consumed the same number of calories.
The findings suggest that people should eat less meat to stay healthy and that overweight people could lose weight by removing meat from their diets.
This contradicts the claims of many celebrity-endorsed diets, such as that of Dr Atkins, that promote eating high levels of protein and low levels of carbohydrate to lose weight.
The results come from a major British research project that tracked the diets of hundreds of thousands of people in ten European countries.
The authors of the study, from Imperial College London, said their results ‘do not support the theory that a high-protein diet prevents obesity or promoted weight-loss, contrary to what has been advocated’.
The research team examined data from the Epic study, which looks at links between diet and cancer.
While many studies have suggested eating a lot of meat can lead to weight gain, it was thought that these people were also prone to other unhealthy activities, such as smoking, drinking and not doing enough exercise.
But the authors of the latest study say they have taken all these factors into account.
The team from Imperial College analysed dietary questionnaires filled out by more than 100,000 men and 270,000 women and weights taken before and after the five-year study.
They found that for every additional 250g of meat a person ate daily – the equivalent of a half-pound, or 450-calorie, steak – they would gain 4.4lb more weight over a five-year period.
The meat most strongly associated with weight gain was found to be poultry, followed by processed meats and red meat.
Those who ate processed meats, such as bacon and sausages, put on almost 5lb more over five years than those whose diets were relatively meat-free.
People from Denmark, Germany, Spain and Sweden were found to be the biggest meat-eaters, with men consuming around 300 calories worth of meat daily and women consuming 200 calories.
Greek people ate the least meat, with men eating about 200 calories a day and women 140 calories, according to the findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The team, led by Dr Anne-Claire Vergnaud, concluded: ‘Our results are in favour of the public health recommendation to decrease meat consumption for health improvement’.
Dr Vergnaud added that gaining an average of 4lb in five years ‘could have an important effect from a population perspective’.
Other dietary experts have, however, questioned the findings and the controversial suggestion that calories in meat could be more fattening than those in other foods.
They suggest some of the study’s participants may have lied about their weights when filling in the questionnaires.
Sian Porter, spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association, said: ‘This is an interesting study and more research is needed. It may be that some of those involved underestimated their intake, which would have skewed the results.
‘The message is to limit your intake of processed meat, check your portion sizes and try to eat pulses, beans, oily fish and a variety of vegetables and wholegrains.’
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Diet pill containing NHS anti-obesity drug is sold out in just THREE days
Now I don’t know about you but articles like this just fill me with horror. Short term fix at the expense of long term gain through sustainable habits. Hey ho! Post your thoughts below.
Capsiplex is the first diet pill to contain ingredients previously only available on the NHS
A diet pill which contains an NHS anti-obesity drug has sold out just three days after going on sale.
More than 50,000 packs of Capsiplex flew off the shelves when the product hit the high street earlier this month.
The drug made by the British pharmaecutical giant of the same name, is the first to contain ingredients previously only available on the NHS.
It includes the clinically-proven Methylcellulose, which doctors prescribe to around 10,000 dieters every year.
Capsiplex claims to increase metabolism to burn calories 12 times faster than normal.
It sold out of 50,000 packs at stores such as Harrods, Selfridges and Lloyds Pharmacy, forcing the company to order more stock to keep up with demand.
A spokesman for Capsiplex said: ‘Demand has been staggering with pre-launch orders and subsequent sales far greater than we could have ever expected.
‘It is a discreet tablet which enables you to effortlessly lose weight without inhibiting your lifestyle. As we all know weight management basically comes down to making sure you don’t consume more calories than you need.
Capsiplex costs £29.99 for a month’s supply
‘It sounds obvious but increased calorie intake, combined with an inactive lifestyle, can lead to significant weight gain but with our hectic life styles and meal times based on convenience food, it is incredibly easy to lose control and consume too many calories.’
Capsiplex launched the product on June 1st in chemists and pharmacies nationwide as well as on the manufacturer’s website. It costs £29.99 for one month’s supply.
The pills contain an increased dosage of blood sugar-regulating Chromium, fat burner L-Carnitine and ‘star’ ingredient Methylcellulose.
The company also produces Capsiplex Appetite Suppressant, which contains Potassium Citrate to control the body’s water balance and improve muscle function, regulating blood pressure and producing more energy.
The company claims the appetite suppressant, which is £24.99 a month, can effectively balance blood sugar level, increase insulin efficiency and cut out sugar cravings and hence a reduced appetite.
It said clinical trials roved over 90 per cent of participants felt satisfied with half their usual food intake.
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The (supersized) Last Supper: How food portions have increased by 69% in paintings of Christ’s final meal
Not sure how seriously you will want to take this article from the Daily Mail but the ideas behind are well worth considering.
Despite being the most famous meal in history, it’s not exactly clear what was on the table – apart from bread and wine.
But it seems artists have increasingly filled the gaps in the Bible by ‘super-sizing’ The Last Supper over the last 1,000 years.
An analysis of more than 50 paintings of the scene has revealed the quantity of food shown being served during Jesus’s final meal with his disciples has grown steadily.
Upgrade: In Leonardo Da Vinci’s work, left, the food on the table appears much more sparse than in Dennys Calvert’s painting from more than 100 years later, which features a main dish
Scrutiny of the plates and their contents showed portions have ballooned by two-thirds.
This, say the researchers, is art imitating life.
Professor Brian Wansink, who carried out the study with his brother Craig, an academic and Presbyterian minister, said: ‘The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food.
We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history’s most famous dinner.’
Supper size: Duccio di Buoninsegna’s The Last Supper, from the Passion Altarpiece (c.1278-1318), shows the meal as a more frugal affair than in da Vinci’s painting some 200 years later
The analysis, reported in the International Journal of Obesity, suggests the modern-day taste for bigger portions or ‘super-sizing’ actually has its origins much further back.
Professor Wansink, of Cornell University in the U.S., said: ‘A lot of people want to blame this on events of the last 20 years when, really, it’s part of a much bigger trend.’
The brothers used computer technology-to ‘twist and turn’ the foods and crockery shown in the paintings, allowing them the gauge their size no matter how they were angled.
To account for differences in the dimensions of the paintings, they used a rule of thumb that a loaf of bread would have been roughly twice as wide as a man’s head.
The Last Supper by El Greco which was painted in 1568. The biggest increases in food sizes occurred in paintings completed in the second half of the millennium, the journal reports
The Last Supper by Rubens painted in 1632. Craig Wansink, a professor of religious studies, said: ‘There is no religious reason why the meals got bigger. It may be that meals really did grow, or that people just got more interested in food’
Fifty-two of the most famous paintings of the Biblical scene were put through the process, including Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous late 15th century version and works by El Greco from 1568 and Rubens from 1632.
Main meals, such as fish or lamb, grew by 69 per cent, plate size by 66 per cent and bread size by 23 per cent, between the oldest and most recent paintings.
The lack of wine in the paintings left the researchers unable to assess whether thirst for alcohol has evolved in the same way as appetite for food.
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Plate UpMonday, July 5th, 2010
Secret of dieting? Tidy the cupboards and watch what plates you use
This article in the Daily Mail might make you dive into the kitchen and declutter with a vengeance!
Dieters cannot rely on willpower alone, according to psychologist Brian Wansink
If you want to lose weight, don’t just watch what you eat. Watch the way you eat it.
Dieters who rearrange their cupboards to hide tempting treats, dish up food in the kitchen rather than at the table, and avoid mealtime distractions such as mobile phones and TV are better at sticking to their resolutions than those who rely solely on willpower.
Food psychologist Brian Wansink asked 200 slimmers to either change what they ate or what they did at meal times and tracked their progress for three months.
He said: ‘We found that dieters who were given stylised environmental tips – such as use a 10-inch plate, move the sweet dish or rearrange their cupboards – stuck to their diets an average of two more days per month.
‘If a person was able to follow a tip for at least 20 days each month, changes really started to happen.’
A second study showed that dividing food on to dinner plates in the kitchen, rather than placing serving dishes on the table, also helps the pounds melt away.
Professor Wansink, of Cornell University in the U.S., said: ‘Quite simply, it is a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. When we kept the serving dishes off the table, people ate 20 per cent fewer calories. Men ate close to 29 per cent less.’
Previous research by the professor has shown that crockery size is also important, with those using smaller plates, bowls or utensils fooling themselves into eating less food.
And we tend to drink less out of tall, thin glasses than short, wide ones.
Professor Wansink told a conference in California: ‘These types of changes are much easier to follow than saying you will eat smaller meals, substitute fruit for sweets or give up chocolate and French fries.’
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Michael Pollan coined the phrase ‘The banquet is in the first bite’ and taking this idea to heart will allow you to enjoy food and eat at a more civil pace. It dovetails perfectly with my method of Sensational Eating that has my clients claiming that food has been reinvented!
The first bite of any meal becomes sensational and can’t be beaten by any mouthful to come. Economists have a phrase for what happens calling it the law of diminishing marginal satisfaction. That simply means pleasure in food comes in the first couple bites, and then diminishes.
Automatic Better EAting (ABE) and Sensational Eating teach you how to focus on the experience, and enjoy those first bites. If you just carry on munching then as you get into the 20th bite, you’re talking calories and not pleasure.
This article captures one way to put the concept into action . . . Enjoy!
Tags: ABE, Weight loss
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