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Archive for March, 2013

Quote of the day

Posted in Ancestral health, Health & wellness, QOTD on March 31, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Looks like the French are drinking less wine and some are concerned:

For many years people have been steadily abandoning what in our French sociology we referred to as the repas, or meal, by which I mean a convivial gathering around a table, and not the individualised, accelerated version we see today.

The traditional family meal is withering away. Instead we have a purely technical form of nourishment, whose aim is to make sure we fuel up as effectively and as quickly as possible.

When the French start showing increased rates of heart disease, I’m sure some will blame it on the decrease in dietary resveratrol. Me, I suspect it will have a lot to do with the decrease of social connection via the meal as “convivial gathering.”

HT Steve Parker for the link (via his blog).

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Studies: Diabetes after gastric bypass

Posted in Research on March 29, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

There’s this one, a small study that compared glucose control in the same patients before surgery (following the post-surgery diet) and after their surgery:

Glucose homeostasis improved in response to a reduced caloric diet, with a greater effect observed in the absence of surgery as compared with after RYGB. These findings suggest that reduced calorie ingestion can explain the marked improvement in diabetes control observed after RYGB.

and then there’s this one, where patients were divided into three arms (two different weight loss surgeries and one conventional medical therapy):

At 2 years, the average baseline glycated hemoglobin level (8.65±1.45%) had decreased in all groups, but patients in the two surgical groups had the greatest degree of improvement.

Interestingly, I’ve heard a theory that if WLS works to reverse diabetes, the mechanism might be cutting the vagus nerve. But the first study, albeit a short one, suggests that it’s the WLS diet that may be a factor.

I’m not a fan of weight loss surgery, so I’m hoping that more studies show the former. It certainly is relatively easy to test compared to doing surgery.

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Paleo is not a panacea 4

Posted in Food addiction, Food industry, Obesity, Public health on March 29, 2013 | 5 Comments »

In an MDA post yesterday, Mark Sisson seems to say that if you’re fat or unhealthy, you’re lacking in integrity (emphasis his):

Sure, the massive health problems in our country are in part fueled by false medical messaging that leads well-intentioned people down the wrong roads in search of health. Much of it, however, can simply be attributed to an unwillingness to buck up, take responsibility choice by choice, and live with health integrity. By health integrity, I mean an honesty to one’s self, a commitment that begins and ends with one’s self, an inner compass that has nothing to do with the outside world.

I’m not sure, but I wonder if part of the genesis of this post is the regular posts by paleo users on various forums. You know, the ones where folks are doing great to a point … until they find themselves inexplicably (?) needing to cheat or even binge.

Anyways, as I said in paleo is not a panacea 2, if you’re overweight from overeating, you’re still on the hook … it’s your hand putting the food into your mouth.

But I don’t believe that the solution is to “buck up … and live with health integrity.” I like Mark and even his products (his chocolate protein powder plus Fage yogurt == yum!), but I refuse to attribute the rise in obesity and so-called lifestyle diseases (like diabetes) as a global failure of personal responsibility.

(more…)

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Quote of the day

Posted in Food addiction, Food industry, QOTD on March 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

And here’s a visual QOTD from one of my faves on Twitter!

You know who is really leaning in? Little Debbie. We have enough crap to eat. Dial it back a little.

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The Putative 82 Causes of Obesity

Posted in Obesity, Research on March 22, 2013 | 4 Comments »

Morgan Downey, former director of the American Obesity Association (among other things) and now writer of the Downey Obesity Report recently published The Putative 82 Causes of Obesity:

I’ve been keeping track of the putative causes of obesity. I am now up to 82. I don’t allege they are all correct. But they do exist in the scientific or popular literature, usually both.

In his post, he links to an article or paper discussing that reported cause’s link to obesity. His 82 causes run the gamut from agricultural policies to endocrine disrupters to marrying later in life to virus. Check out his post for the links.

In the meantime, I think he asks some good questions. I like this one:

If a disease (condition) has 82 possible causes, can anyone say we know what THE CAUSE is?

and this one:

What possible prevention strategy could account for all these variables?

It’s been 18 months, so I figure it’s okay to repost Shift’s fab diagram from this post:

Shift's Obesity System Influence Diagram

I’ve not given up my weight loss efforts, but I do think those folks who think that the answer to obesity is “simply” a change in diet may want to consider that that may not be enough.

HT Dr. Mike Eades (via Twitter).

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Friday cat blogging

Posted in Friday cat blogging, Made me laugh on March 22, 2013 | 3 Comments »

colmeow

Made me laugh … the folks at Cheezburger definitely have the LOLcat meets Facebook meme thing down!

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About Google Reader

Posted in Administrivia on March 14, 2013 | 8 Comments »

My apologies to any of you who follow me on Twitter, but the news about Google Reader going away hit me pretty hard. Yes, I realize that Google is a business, not a charity, but this one hurts. I chose Google Reader after my previous reader (Bloglines) also gave up the ghost and have cultivated my feeds pretty carefully (see my extended blogroll for the lion’s share).

Me, I have more than 600 feeds in my Google Reader feed. But way more important to me are the nearly 300 or so of you who have Weight Maven in your Google Reader feed!

The good news is that there are options for migrating to another service. My suggestion though? Don’t rush to switch to another reader just yet. I’m going to wait a bit and see how the dust settles. I’m not optimistic that Google will give Reader away (apparently much of it is too close to their valuable search intellectual property), but you never know (and major props to Yahoo for saving Delicious this way!)

I also think it makes sense to see who comes out of the woodwork. The news that Digg is getting into the reader space is particularly encouraging to me. I’ll make another post on this subject closer to Google’s July 1 “drop dead” date for those of you who may be in the same boat.

And word to the wise: start thinking about backup plans for any service you use religiously. I am kicking myself that I did not export my feeds from Google Reader more frequently. When I went to do so last night, the nice export I was used to using was gone, replaced by Google Takeout (stupid name) that had data in it for me that was several months out of date.

As I said on Twitter, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice …”

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