African Mango Scam

Every year there is a new "magic" diet pill that comes onto the market.  Two years ago it was Zylene, last year it was Acai Berry , and this year it's the African Mango Scam.  I call it the African Mango scam because the FDA and independent peer reviewed studies never get a chance to test these new pills before the hit the market and are portrayed as a great weight loss supplement.   All of these diet pills have their own studies that "assure us" people will lose weight on these pills, and these biased tests can be misleading.  Most diet pills in general are a scam

People buy them with the hopes all they do is pop the pills and the weight just flies off.  Any diet pill period needs to be consumed with a combination of healthy eating and exercise for maximum results, yet most people don't do this.  See a problem here? 

All it takes is a few doctors/health experts to make a diet pill like this famous.  This year it was Doctor Oz who helped get the African Mango Scam rolling by promoting it on his show and website, however there are a few other "health professionals" who backup his claims, and a number of people do validate some solid weight loss results from this product.

Even if these pills don't actually work, but give someone a mental edge and they try harder to eat healthy and exercise then it may not be such a bad thing.   I'm not saying people shouldn't try diet pills as a supplement to healthy eating and weight loss, I'm saying people should be just a little cautious taking things that aren't independently studied, and need to understand you're not just going to lose 10lbs a week by popping a pill while sitting on a couch eating 5000 calories a day.

The economic impact of obesity.

I wrote the following article for a column in the New York Times, where I focused solely on the economic impact of obesity.

The Freakonomics column on the New York Times I wrote for has since been moved to the Freakonomics website here:  Economic Impact of Obesity

Obesity is a multi-faceted disease fueled by Americans’ poor eating habits, complacency and sedentary lifestyles. While the physical and emotional impact of obesity on a growing number of Americans is glaring, what truly makes obesity an epidemic is the economic impact it has on all of us.
People underestimate the economic effect obesity has on our society. The Center for Disease Control has concluded that illnesses associated with obesity cost the United States $93 billion a year in health care costs. Eric Finkelstein, a health economist at the nonprofit RTI Institute, wrote, “about half of the total cost of obesity-related health care is paid by the government through its Medicare program. For every American citizen, the out-of-pocket tax cost is an average $180.” This dwarfs the $13 billion businesses lose each year from obesity-related medical fees, absenteeism, and decreased productivity (as reported by the National Business Group on Health). Many of these obesity-related business costs are passed down to consumers in the form of more expensive goods and services.
Obesity, like many diseases, has no simple cure that alleviates its negative consequences. The government’s increased involvement and spending on health education, research and obesity programs, combined with our desire as a society to lead a healthier lifestyle, are the driving factors towards finding a solution. The question is, do we invest a lot of time and money fighting obesity now, or pay an even higher price down the road?

Childhood Obesity programs in Arkansas going the wrong way.

For those that weren't aware, Arkansas became one of the first states to have a childhood obesity report card program, where school children were weighed once a year, their BMI calculated, and this information, along with any obesity related concerns, were sent to the kids' parents.

Unfortunately, Arkansas just took a BIG step backwards in the fight against childhood obesity. While they did not ditch the obesity report card program, what was once yearly mandatory weigh ins for students is now an OPTIONAL every other year program. So the kids get weighed half as often, and parents who claim that these report cards "are bad for their child's self esteem" can pull them out of the program all together.

Kids that get pulled from the program won't be factored into the state's childhood obesity rates, making those statistics worthless.

But I guess in the end, legislators and parents feel that removing a once a year ding to a child's self esteem is more important than their long-term health.

To me this type of behavior is what's contributing to the out of control spiral of what is known as childhood obesity.

Pet Obesity

Pet obesity is considered one of the most common nutritional problems in cats & dogs, two scientists from the University of California, Davis, reported last year at the Waltham International Nutritional Sciences Symposium in Washington. Studies in Western Europe & the United States show that more than 24% of dogs & about 25% of house cats suffer from pet obesity. Why is fighting pet obesity important? Pet obesity can shave 2 to 5 years off your pet’s life.

Surprise surprise! One study found a strong correlation between extra weight in pet owners & in their pets.

Dogs & cats are considered overweight when their body weight is 15 percent above what is optimal for their breed, & obese when they weigh 30 percent above ideal.

Like mothers are poor at assessing their children’s childhood obesity risks, pet owners are notoriously poor at assessing their animals’ pet obesity risks.

Causes:

Normally pet inactivity & overfeeding are the main causes of pet obesity, including the feeding of human food. Human food is much higher in calories than most animal food.

Hypothyroidism (under activity of the thyroid gl&) & hyperadrenocorticism (disorder of the adrenal gl&s, a.k.a. Cushing's disease) are also known causes of pet obesity. You can have lab tests done to see if these are issues.

Genetics may have a role in a pet's chances of suffering from pet obesity. Dog breeds at higher risk: labrador retriever, cairn terrier, cavalier king charles spaniel, scottish terrier, cocker spaniel.

Cat breeds at higher risk: the domestic shorthair. Being neutered is a big risk factor for obesity in dogs & cats. In a French study, neutered dogs were more than twice as likely to be overweight as dogs that were not neutered.
Female dogs are more likely to be overweight than male dogs.
Pet obesity risk rises with age. 2 & 3 year old dogs were nearly three times as likely to be overweight as 1 year-olds. Dogs over 12 years old are 12 times as likely as 1 year-olds to be overweight.

Solutions:

Ridding your pet’s diet of people food & feeding light versions of adult dog food, coupled with increased exercise, are usually all that is necessary to fight pet obesity. Take your dog on more walks or to the dog park. Exercising your dog can be good for you too!

If light food & exercise are not enough, prescription special diet food may be necessary (see your vet for the type of food & instructions for feeding) to fight pet obesity.

Keep tabs on your pet’s progress with weekly weigh-ins at the vet; it’s usually free at most clinics.

Burger King Trans Fat ban, finally!

Burger King FINALLY jumps on the trans fat ban bandwagon, albeit a year and a half too late.

Burger King's own testing of a new non-trans fat oil blend passed with flying colors and consumers reported equal or better taste with the non-trans fat food compared to the trans fat foods they were given to sample.

While other fast food restaurants such as McDonalds stopped using trans fat oils in mid 2006, Burger King announced that they won't make the switch until the end of 2008. I have no idea what is taking them so long but this is unacceptable to me, especially considering how long they have known of the health risks of trans fats. Their excuse is a lack of supply but you'd think this was something they could have figured out years ago.

I just hope Burger King doesn't go on a marketing spree at the end of 2008 bragging that their food no longer contains trans fats, giving the large mass of uneducated people (when it comes to nutrition) the impression that their fries are now healthy.

Alli Diet Pills

Well another diet pill is hitting the market. For those of you who haven't followed the buzz, the next big play maker is called Alli, made by GlaxoSmithKline. The FDA claims that people taking Alli lost 2-3lbs extra per 5lbs of normal weight loss. To me that's huge! Well, a huge mess that is. What's this mess I speak of? Well, Alli blocks 25% of all the fat that people consume. Well where does that fat go you may ask? Needless to say I've already seen a warning by Alli that recommends users of Alli to bring an extra change of clothes just in case there's an "accident." Continuous diarrhea sounds like a blast, literally! This is definitely a user beware. Half of patients in experiments and trials experienced gastrointestinal side effects, listed as "leakages and oily discharges." So taking Alli is a 50/50 crap shoot.

Cost for the full 2 pill dose is about $2 a day. So what is Alli exactly? Just a lower dose version of Xenical (Orlistat). Books are already flooding the market for Alli which include exercise plans, eating plans etc, although the pill is not expected to be released until February 2008.

This pill will be a wonderful tool for those who use it in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise, but I have a gut feeling there will be too many who view this as a magic pill that doesn't require any exercise or healthy eating to go along with it.

Estimated sales for year one are projected at $1.5 Billion. I bet they make a heck of a lot more than that. My money says GlaxoSmithKline runs right to the top of the diet pill market, using some movie star who has lost 10lbs to give his/her stamp of approval.

Big Medicine Obesity Surgery Show on TLC

While I am only a proponent of obesity surgery after exercise and healthy eating options have been exhausted (or in serious life threatening situations), I think this new TV show on TLC will offer a wonderful view into the world of weight loss surgery. I have a feeling though it will be slightly biased (not showing all the side effects and other negatives of obesity surgery). The other problem is that the weight loss results will be skewed because people will only see the immediate results and not the long term results. Obesity surgery has an impact right away on weight loss, but if one isn't careful, they can stretch their stomach all the way out through overeating and you'll gain all the weight back. Take Carnie Wilson of the music group Wilson Phillips. She had weight loss surgery, lost a ton of weight, and was constantly in the spotlight for losing all that weight. Then she gained it all back and guess what? She's disappeared off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, that's the dark side of obesity surgery if one doesn't make a permanent lifestyle change. I just hope that this show doesn't dupe people into thinking obesity surgery is an end all way to lose weight.