Soaring BMI Rates

I perused the most recent issue of the International Journal of Obesity and found a very interesting article on BMI rates over the past decade or so.  The article is titled, "Morbid obesity rates continue to rise rapidly in the United States."  It is (2013) 37, 889-891.  It is a little hooky because they rely on phone calls to get people's BMI.  However, they carried out a large number and have good statistics.  BMI is simply your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters.  The lower the number the less fat you are.  So over 30 is considered obese and then over 40 and over 50 are two cutoffs that signal extreme obesity.  There are a lot of interesting facts in the paper; I'll list some that I found interesting.  The worldwide BMI has increased by nearly 0.5 every decade over the last 3 decades.  Of the high income nations, the U.S. has the highest mean BMI (no surprise there).  One in three adults have a BMI over 30.  BMIs over 40 are come with much more severe health problems than 30 (although they don't expound on what they are).  From 2000-2010 people with a BMI over 40 increased by 70% while that over 50 was even higher.  BMI numbers are higher among Hispanics and blacks.  I found this odd as these groups generally have less money.  I guess it boils down to cheaper food is generally worse for you, especially things like McDonald's.  In 2010 nearly 7% of the American population had a BMI over 40.  In 2000, the prevalence of BMIs over 30 was 19.8% while in 2010 the same number was reported as 27.2%.  So, in summary, obesity rates as measured in BMI are increasing and increasing fast.  People are getting fatter year after year.  I'm not surprised at the number of fat people, but I am surprised that number of fat people is increasing.  I figured that the rates would have plateaued by now.

On another note, I published my first scientific paper that was directly related to obesity (it even had the word obesity in the title) this past month.  Not a first or last author paper though so not that big of an accomplishment.

My diet has suffered with relatives visiting and my child's birthday.  Now time to get back into it.  Hopefully not too much damage was done.

Bloody Gums

It's been a while since I have posted.  I have had relatives vising from over seas.  The trip was great but I didn't do so well with the diet.  I broke it more than once.  I've noticed that in situations with work and situations with out of town visitors like this I tend to find myself in situations where it is very difficult to stay on a diet.  Situations where it would just look plain weird not to indulge in carbs.  Then inevitably once you get off the wagon, it's a slippery slope.  You think to yourself, "well, I have already cheated, why not just one more time, why not wait until tomorrow."  Then it goes on and on.  Even more frustrating is that I don't have a functional scale yet to measure the damage done.

As an aside, I thought I would explore a problem that has always interested me.  Bloody gums and heart disease.  I have always wondered what is the scientific basis for the connection for bloody gums and heart disease.  There is a correlation between bloody gums and the risk of heart attack.  As with many bodily ailments, correlation does not equal causation.  I have bloody gums and would like to know the risk I am running and exactly why.  I have done some research on the subject and it doesn't seem very well proven, but there seem to be consensus on the causes.  Bleeding gums allow bacteria into the blood stream.  Bloody gums create a passage for bacteria to go from the mouth to the blood stream.  Once in the blood stream, bacteria get bound to platelets.  These complexes and perhaps others clog arteries.  Once the arteries are clogged you get a situation very similar to other heart diseases with plaques causing clogged arteries and heart attack.

Looks like I need to go to the dentist.  It would really suck to die by bleeding gums because I couldn't take care of my dental hygiene.

Insulin and Cancer

I was sitting in a talk today and saw some data that showed that insulin is involved in cancer.  This probably should have been obvious to me previously but it wasn't.  That's just one more example of how an excess of insulin is bad for you.  Cancer cells learn how to hijack multiple systems in order to proliferate, and the insulin signaling pathway is one of them.  In order to produce results and downstream signaling events, insulin has to bind to a receptor on the outside of cells called the insulin receptor.  This insulin receptor then turns on a cascade of all kinds of events including those advantageous to proliferating cells.  In fact, insulin receptor is highly upregulated in a lot of different types of cancer cells (meaning there is more of it to help proliferation).  There are many different types of cancer cells that the insulin receptor is upregulated including lung cancer cells and breast cancer cells.  What I would like to see is if there  is data correlating obesity and cancer. Furthermore, many anticancer drugs induce or maker worse insulin resistance.

No weigh in today since I still haven't gone out to get a new scale. Probably will join the gym this week.  I had to skip breakfast since I woke up too late.  Had 3 sausages for lunch.  Had chicken wings for dinner.  No soda all day, just water.

Sugar Blues showed up today, so I will start reading it tonight and give a review as soon as possible.

Dominos Low Carb Pizza

I think I have found the greatest thing since sliced bread- sliced low carb pizza!  Dominos is selling low carb pizza now.  When you are low carbing, sometimes you get desperate for things like this, and it's nice to have alternatives to the real thing so as not to loose your head.  The idea here, though, is not to take it as something of a staple in your diet.  Based on the ingredients and the carb count it is something you would want to eat sparingly, maybe as a treat.  There is about 8 grams of carbs per slice (I think this boils down to about 20-25% of the normal stuff).The major ingredients are modified wheat starch, water, and wheat flour. So it's not something I can recommend for the hard core low carber but it sure is nice to know it exists.  Now, only of McDonalds had something like this!  I just ordered a low carb cheese pizza, and it tastes great (to me).  You can tell a difference but its not huge.  It still has all the grease and cheese of regular pizzas, and tomato sauce has few carbs.  So if you make an order of wings and then add to it a couple pieces of low carb pizza you will be in good shape carb count wise and will have been able to satisfy a real craving.

I weighed in at 129.9 kg this morning but then upon reweighing I bounced around in the low 130's now matter how many times I tried I got a different number.  So, I think my scale is hosed.  I will pick up a new one soon.  I had the usual eggs and cheese this morning and then a seafood salad for lunch (no greens, just shrimp, crab, celery, mayo).  I felt tired after lunch so I think there may have been carbs hiding in the salad.  Then for dinner of course I had Dominos.

Adaptive Thermogenesis

I decided to peruse the International Journal of Obesity to find an interesting article. Most of the articles looked at things from a more macroscopic vantage point than I am used to (not so much on the protein or atomic level) highlighting the necessity for more research later more in depth. Better protein chemistry could later lead to more drugs. However, there was plenty that looked interesting. I choose the article, "Adaptive thermogenesis can make a difference in the ability of obese individuals to lose body weight" by A. Tremblay et al. First we should define thermogenesis. Originally thermogenesis related to the energy expenditure related to when an organism heats its body. This is accomplished largely through stimulation of norepinephrine which stimulates the betaadrenergic receptor and finally lipases to feed fatty acids into energy expenditure. Caffeine, ephedrine, and green tea are all known to stimulate this process. This paper explores one important observation: why do people that were fat and have lost weight show a decrease in the ability to loose weight (in the form of adaptive thermogenesis). One hypothesis is that adaptive thermogeneis (a decrease in thermogenesis) is a means to protect your body from depleting its energy stores (in the form of fat). Seems reasonable from an evolutionary stand point. Obese individuals that have lost weight show a decrease in leptin plasma levels which could contribute to the decrease. Another hypothesis is that pollutants interfere with thyroid function, a hormonal control over energy expenditure. Interestingly, probiotics may have a role. Mice that have lactobacillus (releasing conjugated linoleic acid)showed increased energy expenditure. Dietary calcium was also shown to increase thermogenesis, by means of inhibiting lipogensis and increasing lipolysis. The biochemical pathways associated with increased thermogeneis associated with calcium intake seemed weak to me (not necessarily untrue, just not well explained). One depressing factor described by the paper is that 80% of people that loose weight eventually go back to pre-weight loss levels. Also, people that have lost weight have an increased desire to eat food and have a more difficult time reaching satiety, The most direct conclusion towards weight loss recommended by the authors is the administration of leptin to people that have lost weight. I need to make a future post on leptin as it is extremely important in the obesity epidemic.

 Today I weighed in at 132.2 kg. My weight really seems to be bouncing around a lot. I had the usual eggs .and cheese for breaky. Sausages for lunch. Taco salad for dinner

 

Quick Loss

The purpose of this blog is not only to learn/share science. It is also to share my experiences with low carbing (or whatever diets I chose) so that you can get a human experience of what it is really like to do these diets (instead of just reading the facts in a book). Today I didn't feel light headed any more. I felt great and filled with energy this morning and then felt exhausted in the afternoon. I can feel the ketosis and fat burning starting. I felt a bit thinner, but that could just be the water loss. I weighed in this morning at 129.6 kg(285.7lbs). This seems amazingly too good. I did shed a lot of water through urination yesterday, but this seems too high a loss. There must be something up with my scale. I did weigh myself multiple times and got the same number. We'll see what tomorrow holds. It's been a week, so I should be losing now. My craving for sweets were pretty high today. My next science reading/posting (until Sugar Blues arrives) is to check out the Int. Journal of Obesity, pick an article, and review major findings here in my blog. If it is not too boring it will be something I do regularly.

Taco Mix and the Human Condition

A bit of a disappointing day. Woke up and weighed in at 134.4kg. Seems like my scale is jumping around a bit. I made taco meat yesterday. I used store bought powder mix to put on it. I know that many of the Atkins sites say that powders like this are often hiding places for sugar. So I had a look at the ingredients listed on the taco mix package: maize flour, salt, sugar, spices, dehydrated vegetables, anti-caking agent, food acid, herbs, colour. It is disturbing that flour and sugar are in the top 3 ingredients, given that it is just supposed to be spices for meat. Then if you look at the numbers sugar is 1 g, but then it says there are 12 servings per package! I spread the seasoning over 2kg meat, so it definitely was more than 1 serving but it was not anywhere near 12 (maybe 3-4). I know in the U.S. you can find Atkins packages like this or stuff on the diabetic aisle. Not here though, it's kind of this or make it myself. This is a good example of how commonplace just dumping sugar on things has become in the food industry. Now I am going to be making up batches of taco seasoning. Low carb diets can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes. Most things that are allowed on the diet have to be prepared.