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N.Zealand eyes labels to fight obesity
Fri Aug 31, 5:45 AM ET
The government should impose "traffic light" labeling to warn consumers about obesity-causing food and drink products if New Zealand companies won't do it voluntarily, a parliamentary committee said Friday.
After a 10-month inquiry, a majority of lawmakers on Parliament's health select committee recommended a system of red, yellow and green labels to indicate the levels of fat, salt and sugar in products. The committee also recommended guidelines for food-related advertising.
More than half of New Zealand's 4 million people are either overweight or obese, including more than 30 percent of children, according to Health Ministry figures.
The red label — to be used for food such as cakes, pies and chocolates — would warn that the products should only be consumed occasionally. Yellow-labeled foods such as pizza should be eaten "sometimes," while green-labeled products such as low-fat yogurt could be eaten daily.
The committee warned that obesity threatened to overwhelm the health system.
"Tackling the obesity epidemic in New Zealand is imperative," the committee said. "Comprehensive, coordinated action by the government is needed."
The committee also wants targets set for advertising, marketing and promotion of food and drink, saying there needs to be the threat of regulation if voluntary measures don't work.
It recommended a ban on television advertising of "energy dense" food before 8:30 p.m. each night — when younger people are supposed to stop watching.
The Obesity Action Coalition said simply appealing to the food, drink and advertising industries to help fight obesity would not work.
"The time for asking the industry nicely is over," coalition director Leigh Sturgiss said. "We need a ban on the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070831/ap_on_he_me/new_zealand_obesity;_ylt=AnPePmjXAP64fiF1ppTIIzbVJRIF
German army faces new battle of the bulge
The German army, once known for its lightning attacks, is now being loaded down by overweight conscripts, half of whom are unfit for service, a survey shows.
It reveals that of 223,000 youths tested for Germany's national service in the first half of this year, 103,000 were not fit for duty.
The figures are part of an apparently alarming trend which has seen the number of unfit rejects rise from 19 per cent in 2002 to 40 per cent last year, to almost half in 2007.
But experts say that while a fast-food diet has undoubtedly affected the fitness of young German men, the figures are in fact part of a stealthy campaign to reform German national service.
According to a spokesman at Germany's Central Office of Conscientious Objectors (KDV), the dramatic rise in unfit conscripts is politically motivated, rather than a reflection of the girth of modern youth.
Military service is a sensitive issue for Germany's grand coalition. The Social Democrats want it scrapped, while their conservative partners are committed to maintaining it.
Ending the compulsory nine-month military service would free much needed cash for career soldiers, but while the army waits for the coalition to make a decision, it has found another way to cut costly conscript numbers.
It has raised fitness thresholds for conscripts to the point where increasing numbers fail to make the grade, effectively halving the volume of recruits.
But at the KDV, critics say that the "recruitment of the fittest" plan should be revised, as it fails to take into account whether those conscripted actually want to be soldiers.
Many young men in Germany revile military service and seek to avoid it by declaring themselves conscientious objectors. They are then made to perform civilian service.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...wgermany130.xml
Jane Brody's cholesterol
quote:
I just read Jane Brody’s article in today’s New York Times.
Yeesh.
It reminds me of a joke I once heard about a redneck who went to see Hamlet for the first time. When he emerged from the theater a friend asked him what he thought of the play. The redneck replied: It wasn’t nothin’ but a whole bunch of quotes strung together. That’s the way I feel about Ms. Brody’s article. It ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of false, undocumented, never proven, non-verified statements all strung together.
Here’s what happened to Jane that set her off on writing this twaddle.
She has been bopping along for most of her 65 years slowly following her own idiotic nutritional advice. And, I’m sure, feeling very full of herself for being so very, very good. She goes in for a routine check up and discovers - GASP! - that her cholesterol is slightly elevated. It was 222 mg/dL with a high normal being 200 mg/dL. Never mind that her HDL is nicely positioned at 69 mg/dL or that her triglycerides are pretty low at 99 mg/dL, she freaks out over her total cholesterol (a meaningless reading) and her minimally elevated LDL levels (134 mg/dL). Now if she were a reader of this blog - or even of the pertinent medical literature - she would know that a low triglyceride level and a high HDL level means that her LDL is of the large particle variety that is not only not dangerous, but actually beneficial.
Her doctor tells her not to worry about it because it isn’t all that high. But poor Jane has been swimming for far too long in the fear-of-cholesterol sea to fall for that. Her cholesterol is high, by God, and she’s going to do something about it.
What do you reckon she’s gonna do?
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=898
_____________________________
Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone
~~ Stone Temple Pilots
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