Posts by Lilith __
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Speaker: Talking past each other:…, in reply to Moz,
the link between sugar and obesity is tenuous and poorly understood
It’s at least as well understood as the link between environmental estrogens or psuedo-estrogens and obesity, or between soot and global warming. Viz, the question is not whether there’s a causal relationship,
While it’s true that food makes us fat, food also keeps us alive.
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This article about The Biggest Loser contestants is interesting
When he got on the scale for all to see that evening, Dec. 8, 2009, he weighed just 191 pounds, down from 430. Dressed in a T-shirt and knee-length shorts, he was lean, athletic and as handsome as a model.
“I’ve got my life back,” he declared. “I mean, I feel like a million bucks.”
Mr. Cahill left the show’s stage in Hollywood and flew directly to New York to start a triumphal tour of the talk shows, chatting with Jay Leno, Regis Philbin and Joy Behar. As he heard from fans all over the world, his elation knew no bounds.
But in the years since, more than 100 pounds have crept back onto his 5-foot-11 frame despite his best efforts. In fact, most of that season’s 16 contestants have regained much if not all the weight they lost so arduously. Some are even heavier now.
Most people who have tried to lose weight know how hard it is to keep the weight off, but many blame themselves when the pounds come back. But what obesity research has consistently shown is that dieters are at the mercy of their own bodies, which muster hormones and an altered metabolic rate to pull them back to their old weights, whether that is hundreds of pounds more or that extra 10 or 15 that many people are trying to keep off.
There is always a weight a person’s body maintains without any effort. And while it is not known why that weight can change over the years — it may be an effect of aging — at any point, there is a weight that is easy to maintain, and that is the weight the body fights to defend. Finding a way to thwart these mechanisms is the goal scientists are striving for. First, though, they are trying to understand them in greater detail.
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Speaker: Talking past each other:…, in reply to izogi,
If many people who’d often simply buy Coke switched to Coke Zero because, when side-by-side on the shelf, the former went up by $0.50c/litre and the latter didn’t, is the tax then useful for causing a behavioural change away from sugar consumption on a mass scale?
I very much doubt that would happen. And there is evidence that diet beverages actually indirectly cause more weight gain than sugary sodas do.
And, as I and others have said above, sugar is a nutrient. Diet and its relationship with health is so complex.
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Nothing like slapping a tax on something to make us feel something is being done. I very much doubt taxing sodas (because that is the proposal) will achieve anything at all. Unlike tobacco, sugar's in most supermarket foods, including the fancy expensive ones poor people can't afford. And our bodies make glucose from the more complex carbohydrates. We'd die without it.
Could we maybe look at addressing poverty? Obviously that is complex and difficult, so we’ll punish the poor instead.
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Looks really great! And who knew you don't need your city to fall down before the community can reclaim public space?
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Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Really glad a cropping venture is doing well in Canty.
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Up Front: Cui bono?, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Solid Energy had grandiose plans before they went bust to buy up tracts of Canterbury for canola production, all the current production growth appears to be disappointingly meat-related.
I'd be surprised if there's much canola still being grown in Canty. Dairy, dairy, dairy.
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Hard News: The place where things happen…, in reply to Russell Brown,
We have NZ delegation members Tuari Potiki (who speaks on Thursday) and Papa Nahi, as well as Mexican journalist Lisa Marie Sanchez and Sanho Tree. We're hoping for Nick Clegg and Helen Clark. I really hope we get Clark – the UNDP contribution seems hugely influential here – it has given the whole event some important focus.
Wow, exciting show!
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How fascinating. Please tell us more as it happens.
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Urgh.
Ms Greaves made two applications for her daughter, who has acute leukaemia. The first -- a child disability allowance -- is paid as recognition that a child is going to need extra care. A maximum of $46.49 a week is paid out and Ms Greaves had that approved.
She also applied for a disability allowance, which covers specific costs like hospital visits, medicines and the travel involved in that. It can provide a family up to $61.69 each week.
But the Greaves' application for that was turned down and Ms Greaves says she was only told recently that the reason was simply that WINZ lost some of her documents.From Newshub.