Content about Overweight

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Parents searching for a healthy breakfast for their children should take another look at the cereal aisle.

According to new research published in peer-reviewed healthcare journal Infant, Child, & Adolescent Nutrition (ICAN), children who start their day with a cereal breakfast - even if that cereal is presweetened - tend to have lower body mass indexes (BMIs) and less chance of being overweight or obese than children who eat other breakfasts or skip the meal entirely.

NEW YORK — A growing number of truckers are paying closer attention to their health, according to published reports.

USA Today reported that some trucking companies are adopting wellness program for drivers, while some truck stops are offering healthy food items and exercise rooms. Meanwhile, some truckers take bicycles with them or make their own food and take it along.

SAN DIEGO — Green Forest Nutrition recently introduced a line of what it is touting as weight-loss gummies.

Gummy Owls are made with konjac mannan, a yam fiber that is designed to promote weight loss. The gummies are available in cherry, lemon, and strawberry flavors and are sugar free. Additional information can be found on the company's website.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for obesity in adults, the agency said Wednesday.

The FDA announced the approval of Arena Pharmaceuticals' Belviq (lorcaserin hydrochloride), designed for use alongside reduced-calorie diets and exercise, for chronic weight management. Eisai will distribute the drug.

WASHINGTON — Researchers from the Duke University Medical Center on Monday released a public health study finding that even maintaining the current prevalence of obesity in the United States would realize savings of almost $550 billion over the next two decades.

PHILADELPHIA — Overweight people with lower back pain is more intense than people of normal weight with back pain, according to a recent study published in the Sept. 15 issue of Spine.

The study sets up another comorbidity associated with being overweight.

NEW YORK — A new study that is slated to appear in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that postmenopausal women may improve their insulin sensitivity through such interventions as diet, exercise, or a combination of the two.

WASHINGTON — It seems that the Obama administration is looking to replace the food pyramid, which has provided Americans with dietary guidelines for nearly two decades.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham found that controlling fat intake could help cut one's risk of developing diabetes.

To examine this, researchers divided 69 overweight nondiabetics, who were at risk for the disease, into two groups, placing the subjects on a diet with modest reductions in either fat or carbohydrate for eight weeks. The lower fat group received a diet comprised of 27% fat and 55% carbohydrate; the lower carbohydrate group's diet was 39% fat and 43% carbohydrate.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — With more than two-thirds of Americans either overweight or obese, weight management undoubtedly is a critical health issue facing the nation. And the news that RediClinic now is offering a weight-management program speaks to a larger trend with the convenient care industry: expanding service offerings beyond acute care, which includes, for some operators, tools to tackle obesity.

According to the Calorie Control Council, an international association representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry, a focus on weight-gain prevention will help shape dieting attitudes in 2011. And newly released dietary guidelines from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services urge people to eat more fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, foods with omega-3 fatty acids and low-calorie dairy products.




Sales of diet-aid and weight-loss solutions for the past year have been relatively flat, but a confluence of factors — childhood obesity approaching “epidemic” status combined with the real need to reduce escalating healthcare costs connected to obesity — could become a real driver behind weight-loss products in the coming year.