Despite failures, search for anti-obesity drugs still looks golden

news.yahoo.com — PARIS (AFP) – Designers of anti-obesity drugs have suffered three major setbacks, but the potential reward from treating the world's fat epidemic is so great that their quest is unlikely to be deterred. After investing a sum rumoured to be in the hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), Sanofi-Aventis of France announced last Wednesday it was abandoning its drug rimonabant, which had stoked huge expectations at its launch in 2006. Rimonabant -- brand name Acomplia -- ran into a flurry of ever-tougher warnings from European watchdogs about potential psychiatric side effects, including depression. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Scientists try to stop hunger with retooled foods

news.yahoo.com — LONDON – Want to lose weight? Try eating. That's one of the strategies being developed by scientists experimenting with foods that trick the body into feeling full. At the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, England, food expert Peter Wilde and colleagues are developing foods that slow down the digestive system, which then triggers a signal to the brain that suppresses appetite. "That fools you into thinking you've eaten far too much when you really haven't," said Wilde. From his studies on fat digestion, he said it should be possible to make foods, from bread to yogurts, that make it easier to diet. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Obese People's Brains Show Less Pleasure From Eating

medicalnewstoday.com — New research from the US suggests that certain people may have a genetic predisposition to obesity because the reward centres in their brains respond sluggishly after eating, so to get more pleasure from eating they opt for foods denser in calories which makes them gain weight. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Food Allergy Action Plan Can Keep Kids From Harm (HealthDay)

us.rd.yahoo.com — HealthDay - MONDAY, Aug. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Parents, teachers and school staff need to take measures to ensure the safety of the more than 2.2 million American students with food allergies, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Whole Foods recalls possible E. coli-tainted beef (AFP)

us.rd.yahoo.com — AFP - Whole Foods Market, the top US organic foods supermarket chain, announced this weekend a voluntary recall of fresh ground beef it sold since June 2 due to potential contamination with E. coli bacteria. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Curbing Obesity

healthnews.com — Obesity is the number one health threat facing America. An estimated 67 million American adults are obese, and an additional 75 million are overweight. Approximately 4.2 million children aged 6 to 11 and 5.7 million adolescents 12 to 19 are also overweight. Experts predict that if nothing changes by 2015, two in every five adults and one in every four children in the U.S. will be obese. "We need to be very concerned," said Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Obesity is a gateway to many of our chronic health problems." Obesity can lead to a long list of complications, such as heart disease, diabetes and several forms of cancer. It can also lead to lower self-esteem, cause depression and discomfort in social situations, and can significantly impact a person's quality of life. Opinions differ on the cause of obesity, with some arguing that "super-sized" restaurant portions and aggressive food industry advertising are to blame; others fault heredity and lifestyle. While genetics does play a part in deciding who is fat and who is thin, the sedentary lifestyle led by most Americans is making it increasingly difficult for them to suppress the hunger gene. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Low-Fat Diet May Not Belly Up to Low-Carb and Mediterranean Diets

healthnews.com — While many Americans believe that the lower the fat in your diet, the better the results that will be achieved, a new study has found that a low-carbohydrate or Mediterranean-type diet may actually be more effective and just as safe. Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston conducted a study of 322 moderately obese employees of a research center in Israel, 86 percent of whom were men, and found that the low-carb and Mediterranean diets were more effective that the low-fat diet in both weight loss and health benefits. The new study can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0

Germany to Oust Obesity

healthnews.com — Not to be out done, Germany has eaten, drank, and lazed its masses into matching the American people as the heavyweights of the world—both countries weighing in with the highest numbers of overweight and obese people. According to government statistics, two-thirds of all German men between the ages of 18 and 80 are overweight; almost half of all women have a weight problem, and more than 1 million of their youth show symptoms of eating disorders. The World Health Organization reports that obesity in European (EU) countries has more than tripled since 1980, with particular risk pointing to the children, now classifying over 21 million of them as obese. The International Association for the Study of Obesity found that among EU countries, Germany out weighted them all, with 58.9 percent of women and 75.4 percent of men tipping the scales at unhealthy levels. These numbers add up to about 37 million adults and 2 million children and teenagers suffering from some kind of weight related disorders. read more...

add a comment | category: Diet and Weight Loss | Views: 0