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WASHINGTON – Students should be physically active for 60 minutes every day at school, fast-food restaurants need to offer healthier foods to kids, and communities need to have trails and other safe areas for residents to encourage physical activity, says a report out today.

It’s going to take many strategies like these and a full-scale effort across all segments of society to reduce the obesity epidemic in this country, says a report from an expert committee convened by the Institute of Medicine, which provides independent advice on health issues to policy makers, foundations and others.

The goals and some of the strategies were presented here at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s meeting, “Weight of the Nation,” where experts are discussing ideas for the prevention and control of obesity.

MORE: Obesity could affect 42% of Americans by 2030

STORY: ‘Weight of the Nation’ documentary explores costs of obesity

Currently, two-thirds of adults and a third of children in the USA are overweight or obese, government statistics show. Another study out Monday predicted that as many as 42% of adults may be obese, roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight, by 2030 if actions aren’t taken to reverse the trend.

Extra weight takes a huge toll on health increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, many types of cancer, sleep apnea and other debilitating and chronic illnesses, and it costs billions of dollars in extra medical expenditures.

The Institute of Medicine committee reviewed more than 800 obesity prevention recommendations to pinpoint the most effective ones.

The report says there is no one answer to this problem, but it’s going to require bringing all the pieces together — the schools, the workplace, health care providers, says Dan Glickman, chairman of the institute committee and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The illnesses and costs associated with obesity are spiraling out of control, he says. “If we don’t address this comprehensively, it will basically take us down as a society.”

M. R. C. Greenwood, vice chairwoman of the committee and president of the University of Hawaii system, says, “Many people will probably say ‘what’s new’ and what’s new is the clear statement that we must begin to attack this problem collectively on all fronts. It’s a massive problem unlike anything we have ever tackled before.”

Here are the five goals and a some strategies suggested for achieving them:

•Make it easier for people to work physical activity into their daily lives.

Communities could convert unused railroad beds into walking/running/biking trails.

•Create an environment where healthy food and beverage options are the routine, easy choice.

Fast-food and chain restaurants could revise their recipes and menus to make sure at least half of their kids’ meals comply with government’s dietary guidelines for moderately active 4- to 8-year-olds, and that those meals are moderately priced. Shopping centers, convention centers, sports arenas, and other public venues that have meals and snacks also should offer a variety of healthy foods.

Businesses, governments and others should adopt policies to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages including making clean water available in public places, work sites and recreation areas.

•Improve messages about physical activity and nutrition.

The food, beverage, restaurant and media industries should take voluntary action to develop and adopt nutritionally based standards for marketing aimed at children and adolescents, ages 2- 17. If those standards aren’t adopted within two years by the majority of companies, then local, state and federal policymakers should consider setting mandatory nutritional standards for marketing to this age group.

•Expand the role of health care providers, insurers and employers in obesity prevention.

Employers should provide access to healthy foods at work and offer opportunities for physical activity as part of their wellness/health promotion programs.

•Make schools a national focal point for obesity prevention.

Students should have nutrition education throughout their school years, and kids in kindergarten through 12th grade should have the chance to engage in a total of 60 minutes of physical activity each school day. This should include participation in quality physical education.

“There’s so much to do, and the country is still doing so little,” says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer group. “It seems heartless that we’re abandoning two-thirds of the American population to obesity-related diseases.”

There are lots of ways for students to get an hour of physical activity during the school day including recess, PE, walking and biking to school, classroom activities and after-school sports, Wootan says. “Kids need a chance to run around in order to sit still in the classroom.”

When it comes to food marketing to kids, “companies claim to be taking meaningful action, but still the overwhelming majority of food ads aimed at kids are for unhealthy foods,” she says.

“What industry says is healthy to market to kids is not what most parents and health professionals think is healthy.”

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY

Full Story Here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/wellness/story/2012-05-09/obesity-epidemic-strategies/54813912/1?csp=34news

Junk food and its ingredients are such major health hazards that products with excessive amounts of sugar, salt and saturated fats should be labelled as “pathogens” — a word normally applied to viruses and other disease-causing bugs, suggest three Alberta experts in a provocative new commentary.

Official terminology that exposes the pathogenic nature of some foods might help change both personal behavior and government policy that effectively condones harmful diets, the cardiologist and two public-health professors argue in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Authorities and the media grab public attention now when they report the spread of traditional pathogens — like Listeria or E. coli — in contaminated food or water, and should similarly highlight food ingredients that are responsible for killing vastly more Canadians, says the article.

“It’s really just a nomenclature to attract attention to the fact we have a problem here and something needs to be done about it,” said Dr. Norm Campbell, a University of Calgary cardiologist and co-author of the paper. “It will hopefully … result in an evolution of our food so it’s again a source of health, not a source of disease.”

A combination of two Greek words, pathogen literally means producer of illness, though most often refers specifically to a bacteria, virus or other infectious agent.

Dr. Campbell, a specialist in hypertension and the effects of sodium on it, denied that his idea amounts to nanny-state interference in the marketplace, arguing there is as much or more reason to regulate food as to control highway speed limits or air traffic, government interventions that Canadians tolerate. Some evidence suggests that salt in food alone contributes to 14,000 deaths and 40,000 hospitalizations yearly, he said.

“Why regulate crime? ‘Oh, it’s a murder, they shouldn’t be allowed a second chance.’ Well, the food industry kills many thousands more than that murderer ever had a hope of doing.”

His is the latest in a string of medical-journal commentaries recently to issue a dramatic — if contentious — call for action against the epidemic of obesity, poor eating and inactivity behind a large proportion of chronic disease. An article in Nature earlier this month suggested an age limit for buying sugared soft drinks, while a piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year said some obese children ought to be taken from parents temporarily by child-welfare officials.

The biggest trade group for Canada’s food manufacturers noted, however, that producers are required now to set out the quantity of various nutrients on packaging, giving consumers plenty of information about what they are eating.

“Canadians already enjoy a world-class labelling tool,” said Phyllis Tanaka, a vice-president at Food and Consumer Products of Canada in an emailed response to questions. “It’s mandatory that the nutrition facts table be printed on every package. It is relied on extensively by consumers to help them decide which product is the right choice for their needs.”

The article by Dr. Campbell, and professors Kim Raine and Lindsay McLaren of the universities of Alberta and Calgary respectively, cite estimates in the journal Lancet last year that 40% of premature deaths are related to diet. While candy, potato chips and other snack foods were seen a couple of generations ago as “treats” to be meted out to children chiefly on special occasions, they are now ubiquitous, and marketed directly to young people, they say.

The term junk food evokes the products’ lack of nutritional benefit, but does not make clear their role in diseases ranging from heart disease to high blood pressure and diabetes, the paper says.

It recommends labelling ingredients like saturated and trans fats, sodium and simple sugars as pathogens when their volume exceeds what the body needs.

Dr. Stanley Nattel, a University of Montreal cardioloist and the journal’s editor, suggested the commentary makes a “very persuasive” argument that junk foods are pathogens, a useful counterpoint to the forces that have hooked much of society on unhealthy diets.

“The actors that encourage consumption of these foods in the population are somewhat insidious and very powerful,” said Dr. Nattel.

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Proposed age limit to purchase pop would lower rates of cancer, diabetes and obesity, authors say.

Sugar is so toxic it should be controlled like alcohol, says a report that even suggests set-ting an age limit of 17 years to buy soda pop.

It points to sugar as a culprit behind many of the world’s major killers – heart disease, cancer and diabetes – that are now a greater health burden than infectious disease.

A little sugar “is not a problem, but a lot kills – slowly,” says the report to be published today in Nature, a top research journal.

Over the eons, sugar was available to our ancestors as fruit for only a few months a year at harvest time, or as honey “which was guarded by bees,” says the report by Dr. Robert Lustig, a noted child-hood obesity expert at the University of California, and two U.S. colleagues.

Now it is added to “nearly all processed foods.” In developing countries, sugary soft drinks are often cheaper than potable water or milk, they say, noting that over the past 50 years, consumption of sugar has tri-pled worldwide.

The sweetener is made from sucrose, found in sugar cane and sugar beets or from high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that the fructose “can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases,” Lustig and his colleagues say.

“If international bodies are truly concerned about public health, they must consider limiting fructose – and its main delivery vehicles, the added sugars HFCS and sucrose – which pose dangers to individuals and to society as a whole,” they say.

“We recognize that societal intervention to reduce the sup-ply and demand for sugar faces an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby,” the researchers say, “and will require active engagement from all stakeholders.”

Such “tectonic shifts” in policy are possible, they say, pointing to bans on public smoking, and limits on alcohol sales. “It’s time to turn our attention to sugar.”

Many schools have removed pop and candy from vending machines, but “often replaced them with juice and sports drinks, which also contain added sugar,” the report says.

Canada and some other countries have also imposed small taxes on some sweetened food, but the researchers say it would take a big price hike to effect consumption.

“Statistical modelling suggests that the price would have to double to significantly reduce soda consumption – so a $1 can should cost $2,” they say.

The report suggests governments introduce zoning rules to control the number of fast-food outlets and convenience stores in low-income communities and around schools.

“Another option would be to limit sales during school operation, or to designate an age limit [such as 17] for the purchase of drinks with added sugar, particularly soda.”

Parents in South Philadelphia, Pa., recently lined up out-side convenience stores and blocked children from entering them after school.

“Why couldn’t a public-health directive do the same?” says the report.

Ultimately, it says, food producers must reduce the amount of sugar added to foods. “Sugar is cheap, sugar tastes good and sugar sells, so companies have little incentive to change.”

“No one single food or beverage can be linked to obesity,” said Stephanie Baxter. “And there is no scientific evidence to support the allegations that sugar, in any of its various forms, is a unique cause of health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or metabolic syndrome.”

Click here to read full story and to watch the video report.

Residential mortgages remain the largest component of Canadian household debt, but personal lines of credit are growing at double-digit rates and stood at more than 25% of household debt held by chartered banks in 2010, according to a report from the CMHC.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. cautioned that Canadians need to be “vigilant” about growing levels of household debt, noting ramped-up use of personal lines of credit and increasing debt-to-disposable income ratios.

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Levels of vitamins C, E, B and D higher in group of healthy aging adults with larger brains: study

Researchers have found that there’s a part of your body that might shrink when you eat too much fast food.

Unfortunately, it’s your brain.

People with diets high in trans fats are more likely to experience the kind of brain shrink-age associated with Alzheimer’s disease than people who consume less of the artery-damaging fats, the new study suggests.

Those with diets high in vitamins C and E, the B vitamins and vitamin D, meanwhile, appear to have larger brains than people with diets low in these nutrients.

And diets high in omega three fatty acids seemed to benefit the small blood vessels of the brain – “and the thinking abilities related to those vessels,” said lead investigator Dr. Gene Bowman.

The work – published in the journal Neurology – involved 104 people, ages 65 and older, enrolled in the Oregon Brain Aging Study. All were generally healthy elders, with few smokers or people with diabetes or high blood cholesterol.

When the study was launched in 1989, “the aim was to study the effects of age on dementia risk in people that don’t have factors known to increase their risk at the time,” Bowman said.

In the new study, researchers checked blood samples for markers of 30 different nutrients. Participants also did a raft of neuropsychological tests, and 42 had MRI scans of their brains as well. The team was interested in three things: cognitive function, total brain volume and white matter changes thought to be a sign of small vessel disease of the brain.

Small vessel disease, also known as cerebral small vessel disease, is an accumulation of plaque deposits in the small blood vessels throughout the brain. It can lead to stroke.

“We know in Alzheimer’s disease that total brain atrophy [shrinkage] is accelerated com-pared to people of the same age and same gender that don’t have Alzheimer’s disease,” said Bowman, a naturopathic doctor in the department of neurology at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

Among the key findings:

• The B vitamins, the antioxidants C and E and vitamin D all seemed to be working in con-cert in some way the researchers can’t yet fully explain. But the B-C-E-D pattern was associated with greater total brain volume and better global cognitive function. People who scored low on this vitamin combination turned out to have less total brain tissue;

• People who had high levels of circulating trans fats had less brain volume. They also had poorer memory, attention, language and processing speed skills;

• People with higher levels of omega three fatty acids had better executive function – the ability to plan, problem solve, multi-task and perform other functions – as well as fewer white matter lesions on their brain scans.

The findings held after researchers took age, sex, education, hypertension and genetic and other factors into account.

Some trans fats are found naturally, in small amounts, in dairy products, beef and lamb, but the trans fats in the study are hidden in cakes, flaky pas-tries, potato chips and other fried, frozen and processed food. Trans fatty acids increase inflammation, make arteries harder and decrease heart rhythm, increasing the risk of cardiac arrest.

Only a handful of studies have looked at the relationship between trans fats and brain function, Bowman said. “I think our study is one of the first to look at blood levels of trans fats related to brain health.”

Evidence suggests that trans fats can replace good fats in cell membranes, “and when that occurs it changes the structure and chemical properties of the cell in an unfavourable way,” Bowman said.

“Trans fats are known to be bad for cardiovascular health,” he said. “It makes sense that they’re probably bad for the brain, too.”

He recommended avoiding processed foods that list “partially hydrogenated oils” on the ingredient list. “That’s trans fat,” Bowman said.

Read Full Story Here: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Trans+fats+linked+brain+shrinkage/5922636/story.html#ixzz1i2jVy3x7

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