Drew Carey debuted a strikingly slim figure at a party in Los Angeles last night, picture above right. The photo on the left is from a mere five months ago, when Carey celebrated his 500th episode of ‘The Price is Right.’ This new development is arguably the healthiest that Carey, 52, has ever looked in his 15-plus years on TV. Kind of reminds us of John Goodman’s recent transformation!

Congrats on the great look, Drew. We want to hear your secret!

110diggsdigg In May, the National Enquirer wrote that Carey was using appetite-suppressing injections prescribed by a nutritionist. The Enquirer reported Carey as saying, “I now have no desire to eat…I can hardly even get down the tiny portion of fish I’m supposed to have for dinner.”

“Carey claims to have shed all his weight the old fashioned way, through diet and exercise,” the UK’s Daily Mail reports.

The former ‘Drew Carey Show’ star has hosted ‘The Price Is Right’ since 2007, when he took over for five-decade host Bob Barker. The 86-year-old Barker supposedly took a jab at Carey’s hosting style when grilled by a TMZ cameraman earlier this week, but quickly cleared things up the next day, telling Entertainment Weekly, “He’s a charming man, and kind and gracious. To think that I would say anything derogatory about him is idiocy.”

Oral phentermine Hydrochloride (HCL) is sold for weight loss. It is in the Sympathomimetic family of appetite suppressants (used for the short-term management of exogenous obesity.)

When used in conjunction with diet, exercise, and behavior therapy, phentermine may help you to lose weight while you are learning new ways to eat and to exercise.

Three forms of phentermine are available:

Tablets

Capsules

Resin Capsules

How does Phentermine work?

Phentermine works by stimulating the hypothalamus gland and affecting certain neurotransmitters to decrease appetite.

The hypothalamus is the region of the brain that controls the autonomic nervous system, regulating sleep cycles, body temperature, appetite, etc.

Phentermine should NOT be used as a substitute for proper diet or exercise. For maximum effects, it must be used in conjunction with a reduced-calorie diet and/or exercise.

Any modifications in your diet, activity level, and behavior must be developed and continued long-term in order to continue losing weight and prevent the lost weight from returning.

Read more about Phentermine at:

Thankfully the use of tapeworms as a diet aid is illegal in the US and for good reason. Tapeworm infestation can result in the formation of cysts in the liver, eyes, brain, and spinal cord with potentially lethal consequences.

Tapeworm Diet Basics

Although it is not possible to attempt the Tapeworm diet in most countries, it is being offered at some places in Mexico. When you arrive at the treatment location you are given beef tapeworm cysts that have been identified microscopically. This is vitally important because some cows may host pig tapeworms, which are very dangerous.

The tapeworm interferes with your digestion and absorption of nutrients, which means that you can consume more calories and still lose weight. However the parasite also competes for vitamins and other important nutrients, which may result in a nutritional deficiency.

According to some scientists, tapeworm infestation can result in a loss of one to two pounds per week. Once the target weight loss is reached, an antibiotic is given, which kills the tapeworm so it can be expelled.

Recommended Foods

None.

Sample Diet Plan

None.

Exercise Recommendations

None.

Costs and Expenses

It appears that the treatment is only available in Mexico at the time of this review and the approximate cost is $1500.

Pros of the Tapeworm Diet

• Weight loss is very likely.
• Some scientists believe that tapeworms can also help to alleviate allergies such as hay fever.

Cons of the Tapeworm Diet

• Extremely dangerous, can cause unpleasant side effects and in some cases can be lethal.
• Does not appear to be adequate protection for consumers in regard to regulation and safety analysis.
• Rebound weight gain is most likely once the tapeworm is expelled.
• Tapeworms can cause a swollen stomach which is not physically attractive and goes against the desired result.
• Not available in most countries.
• Treatment is expensive and will also need to include travel expenses.

Conclusions

It goes without saying that the Tapeworm Diet is extremely risky and can cause a wide rage of undesirable side effects including death. In addition to this, dieters will probably regain all the weight that is lost if they continue with the same eating habits after the tapeworm is expelled.

Dieters are advised to stick with proven weight loss methods such as consuming less calories and increasing physical activity, rather than risking their lives with a technique that is harmful and unlikely to yield positive long term results by trying the tapeworm diet.

taken from:

She promised she would come back with her own program, and here it is.

From what I can gather the program includes:

“online weight loss tools customized to fit YOUR needs. Whether it’s planning meals, counting calories, discovering new recipes, locating places to shop for organic groceries or interacting with the Organic Liaison community through blogging and Kirstie Alley’s Phitter”

Phitter is a micro-blogging community built on top of the Twitter toolset.

Dig deeper though, and she is selling a series of supplements (all USDA organic approved). The main product is Rescue me which “replenishes your body with high-quality organic ingredients, including nutrients, natural herbs, fiber and antioxidants…” One month’s supply sells for $62.50. Membership to the program is $10 per month (+ 10 startup fee) – you also need to by the Startup Kit of supplements ($139).

If you can handle it, here is her own video intro to the program. Alley is also doing a reality TV series shortly on A&E – Kirsty Alley’s Big Life.

So here’s to entrepreneurship, and the gravy train called celebrity yo-yo dieting.

Dr David Heber, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in Los Angeles, and colleagues, presented their findings at the Experimental Biology 2010 meeting that took place from 24 to 28 April in Anaheim, California. An abstract of their study was also published in the The FASEB Journal.

For the study, Heber and colleagues tested the weight-reducing potential of dihydrocapsiate or DCT, a non-burning but structurally similar version of capsaicin, a spicy compound found in hot peppers.

DCT occurs naturally in a non-pungent pepper called CH-19 Sweet and is often used in studies instead of its spicy cousin capsaicin because it has none of the side effects.

Heber and colleagues recruited 51 male and female volunteers and asked them to follow a very low calorie diet based on a liquid meal replacement product for 28 days (800 Cal and 120 g per day).

At the end of the 4 weeks of dieting, the researchers then randomly assigned the volunteers to one of three groups: one took a a high dose pill of DCT (9 mg), another took a low dose pill of DCT (3 mg), and the third group took a placebo pill, three times a day.

The researchers took measures of body weight, body fat and how quickly the participants burned energy, at the start of the study, and at the end, after eating a single high protein test meal (400 Cal/60 g protein) of the same product they had been using in their diet.

Complete data was available for 33 of the subjects at the end of the study.

The results showed that for several hours after consuming the test meal, the group on the high dose of DCT (13 subjects) burned significantly more energy, at almost twice the rate of the placebo group (9 subjects).

They also showed that in both the DCT groups (24 subjects), fat oxidation increased significantly, which results in more fat being used for energy.

The researchers concluded that after following a low calorie diet, people may benefit from using DCT to “provide metabolic enhancement to weight management efforts”.

In other words, although this is a small study, and the results are based on one analysis after a single test meal, which may not be borne out in a larger study with repeated tests, the findings suggest DCT, like its cousin capsaicin, may cause the body to burn energy faster, which could boost metabolism.

Good news, perhaps, for people who like their chili peppers.

“Effects of dihydrocapsiate on diet-induced thermogenesis following 4 weeks of very low calorie dieting.”
T.Y. Amy Lee, Alona Zerlin, Gail Thames, Zhaoping Li, and David Heber.
The FASEB Journal, MeetingAbstracts, 24: 343.7, accessed online 29 April 2010.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

These findings were presented at this week’s Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, Calif. They showed that people who ate organic cookies labeled as “organic” believed that their snack contained 40% fewer calories than the same cookies that had no label, according to Jenny Wan-Chen Lee, a graduate student with the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

“An organic label gives a food a ‘health halo,’ said coauthor, Brian Wansink, Cornell professor and author of the book, Marketing Nutrition. It’s the same basic reason people tend to overeat any snack food that’s labeled as healthy or low fat. They underestimate the calories and over-reward themselves by eating more.”

The study even identified two personality types most likely to make these low estimates – people who claim to “usually buy organic foods,” and those who typically read labels for nutritional information.

What if you don’t want to overeat an organic food?

“Take your best guess at its calorie count. Then double it. You’ll end up being more accurate, and you’ll probably eat a lot less,” explained Wansink.

Source:
Tom Rushmer
Cornell Food & Brand Lab

Writing in the Washington Post on Friday, retired US army generals John M. Shalikashvili and Hugh Shelton, referred to several sources, including the US Army’s own analysis of national data that shows as of 2005, and the figures have changed little since, 27 per cent of Americans aged 17 to 24, some 9 million young adults, were too overweight to serve in the military.

The leading medical reason recruits are rejected for military service in the US today is being overweight or obese, wrote Shalikashvili and Shelton, both members of the executive advisory council of Mission: Readiness, a nonprofit organization of retired senior military leaders, who referred also to a recent report from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research that showed over the last 15 years the proportion of potential recruits who have not passed their physical exam because of their weight has gone up nearly 70 per cent.

This is backed up by data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who report that the number of states where 40 per cent or more of young adults are overweight or obese has risen dramatically from only one in 1998 to 39 in 2008.

This not the first time the military has spoken out about how the health of America’s children poses a threat to national security: the last time was in 1945 when they expressed concern about the poor health and nutrition of potential recruits, and Congress responded by creating a national school lunch program.

But it appears that the school lunch program has now gone too far in fuelling children with calorie-laden french fries, pizza and other unhealthy foods.

About 40 per cent of American children’s calories are consumed during school hours, and Mission: Readiness proposes that if properly managed, the school environment could be the key to getting children to eat more healthily, as suggested in a recent paper published in Health Affairs in March, where researchers from Rice University and the University of Houston concluded that the most effective way to combat obesity in poor children is to increase their participation in federal nutrition programs.

Shalikashvili and Shelton note that saving some of the $75 billion dollars the US spends every year on obesity-related medical expenses could pay for school districts to provide children with more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and cut down on foods with too much sugar, salt, fat and calories.

Mission: Readiness wants Congress to pass new child nutrition legislation that:

• Takes the junk food and high-calorie drinks out of schools.
• Brings in new standards for school meals based on the latest Institute of Medicine recommendation: the current ones are 15 years out of date.
• Supports the Obama administration’s proposed increase of $1 billion per year for 10 years for improved child nutrition programs.
• Develops researched and proven ways for schools to help parents and children adopt healthy eating and exercise habits for life.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. James Barnett Jr, a member of the officers group, said at a recent press conference held by Mission: Readiness , that national security in the year 2030 is “absolutely dependent” on reversing child obesity rates.

“When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice,” said Barnett, according to a report by Associated Press.

The obesity problem doesn’t just affect recruitment, Mission: Readiness reports that the government spends tens of millions of dollars every year replacing military personnel that have to be discharged because of weight issues.

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) recently commended the call to increase funds for school nutrition programs, and pointed out that while a lot is already happening, there are problems where more money would make a huge impact.

For instance, in their 2009 report, the SNA said that across the country, nearly every school district was now offering students fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains, with low-fat dairy products, salad bars and pre-packaged salads, but because of extremely limited budgets, they struggle to pay for the extra refrigeration, steamers, labor and other expenses involved.

Sources: Associated Press, Washington Post, Mission Readiness, MNT archives.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

“Japanese people need more dietary intake of folate and vitamin B-6, which may lead to the prevention of heart disease,” said Hiroyasu Iso, M.D., professor of public health at Osaka University.

The findings on the value of B vitamins were consistent with studies in Europe and North America, although the dietary consumption of vitamin B-6 is generally lower in Japan than in the United States.

Researchers analyzed data from 23,119 men and 35,611 women (ages 40-79) who completed food frequency questionnaires as part of the large Japan Collaborative Cohort (JACC) Study. During a median 14 years of follow-up, 986 died from stroke, 424 from heart disease and 2,087 from all diseases related to the cardiovascular system.

Investigators divided participants into five groups based on their intake of folate, vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12. Comparing those with the diets lowest and highest for each nutrient, they found that higher consumption of folate and vitamin B-6 was associated with significantly fewer deaths from heart failure in men, and significantly fewer deaths from stroke, heart disease and total cardiovascular diseases in women. Vitamin B-12 intake was not associated with reduced mortality risk.

The protective effects of folate and vitamin B-6 didn’t change when researchers adjusted for the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, nor when they eliminated supplement users from the analysis. Folate and vitamin B-6 may help guard against cardiovascular disease by lowering homocysteine levels, the investigators said. Homocysteine is an amino acid in the blood that’s affected by diet and heredity. Folic acid and other B vitamins help break down homocysteine in the body.

A direct causal link hasn’t been established, but evidence has shown that too much homocysteine may damage the inner lining of arteries and promote the formation of blood clots.

Sources of folate include vegetables and fruits, whole or enriched grains, fortified cereals, beans and legumes. Sources of vitamin B-6 include vegetables, fish, liver, meats, whole grains and fortified cereals.

Co-authors include: Renzhe Cui, M.D.; Chigusa Date, M.D.; Shogo Kikuchi, M.D.; Akiko Tamakoshi, M.D.; and the JACC study group. Author disclosures and funding sources are on the manuscript.

Source
American Heart Association

Liver fibrosis or scaring of the liver is the second stage of liver disease and characterized by a degradation of liver function due to accumulated connective tissue. Past studies have looked at modifiable behaviors, such as coffee consumption, that mitigate the progression of liver disease. A number of studies have looked at the benefits of higher coffee intake with results that include: lower prevalence of chronic liver disease, reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), and lower risk of death from cirrhosis complications. “From data collected to date it remains unclear whether coffee itself, or caffeine provides the beneficial effect,” said Apurva Modi, M.D. and lead author of the current study that focuses on caffeine intake and its impact on liver fibrosis.

From January 2006 to November 2008 all patients evaluated in the Liver Disease Branch of the National Institutes of Health were asked to complete a questionnaire to determine caffeine consumption. Questions were asked pertaining to all sources of caffeine including regular and diet soft drinks; regular and decaffeinated coffee; black, green, Chinese and herbal teas; cocoa and hot chocolate; caffeine-fortified drinks; chocolate candy; caffeine pills; and medications with caffeine. Participants were asked about their frequency of caffeine consumption, which was quantified as never; 1-3 times per month; 1, 2-4, or 5-6 times per week; 1, 2-3, 4-5, and 6 or more times per day.

The analysis included 177 participants who were undergoing liver biopsy with a mean age of 51 years and mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.5. Of those in the cohort 56% were male, 59% Caucasian, 19% Black, 19% Asian, 3% Hispanic, and 68% had chronic HCV. Daily consumption of caffeine from food and beverages raged from none to 1028 mg/day with an average of 195 mg/day, which is equivalent to 1.4 cups of coffee daily. Most caffeine consumed came from regular coffee (71%) followed by caffeinated soda (13%), and black tea (4%). Repeated administration of the questionnaire within a 6-month period displayed consistent responses suggesting caffeine intake does not significantly change over time.

Patients with an Ishak fibrosis score of less than 3 had a mean caffeine intake of 212 mg/day compared with 154 mg/day for those with more advanced fibrosis. The Ishak fibrosis score is the preferred system that measures degree of liver scarring with 0 representing no fibrosis through 6 indicating cirrhosis. For each 67 mg increase in caffeine consumption (about one half cup of coffee) there was a 14% decrease in the odds of advanced fibrosis for patients with HCV. “Our data suggest that a beneficial effect requires caffeine consumption above a threshold of approximately 2 coffee-cup equivalents daily,” noted Dr. Modi. The protective effects of consuming more than 308 mg of caffeine daily persisted after controlling for age, sex, race, liver disease, BMI and alcohol intake for all study participants.

Researchers further evaluated caffeine and coffee separately to determine the individual effect of each on fibrosis. Results showed that consumption of caffeinated soda, green or black tea was not associated with reduced liver fibrosis. However, a significant protective effect could have been missed due to small numbers, as 71% of total caffeine consumed came from coffee. Caffeinated coffee had the most pronounced effect on reduced liver fibrosis. The authors suggest that further research is needed to determine if the protective benefits of coffee/caffeine intake plateau at amounts beyond the daily consumption threshold.

Article: “Increased caffeine consumption is associated with reduced hepatic fibrosis.” Apurva A Modi, Jordan J Feld, Yoon Park, David E Kleiner, James E. Everhart, T. Jake Liang, and Jay H. Hoofnagle. Hepatology; Published Online: September 9, 2009 (DOI:10.1002/hep.23279); Print Issue Date: January 2010. Abstract.

Source:
Dawn Peters
Wiley-Blackwell

A survey of eating habits among first year self-catering students showed that university lifestyle tends to lead to an increased consumption of fast foods.

This was more noticeable amongst male students, who confessed to thinking of cooking as ‘women’s work’ and were more likely to eat fast food than their female counterparts, while female students were more likely to be influenced by worries about weight gain and appearance.

The study, carried out by student Hannah Cooper under the supervision of Dr Ellen Annandale at the University of Leicester Department of Sociology, also indicated that students’ fast food consumption increased when they left home and began to cater for themselves, in spite of the known link between fast food consumption and obesity.

Convenience, peer pressure and budget appear to be the main reasons for their eating habits, while the gender difference is widened by a male culture of greater alcohol consumption though males also played more sport.

Another factor in students’ choice of fast foods was quite simply that they liked it. Pizza proved to be favourite, followed by pasta, curry and French fries.

While the students studied felt that living among new people had not influenced their eating habits, nevertheless peer pressure played a major role in decisions about when and what to eat and whether or not to cook for themselves.

Hannah Cooper commented: “Students might be tired and not feel like cooking. Fast food marketing makes it very accessible, and if several students combine to order fast food together then it becomes an even cheaper option.

“At home their parents probably provided their meals. They come to university and have to start managing and budgeting for themselves. They didn’t seem to have the knowledge of how to manage money in relation to food, and fast food was sometimes seen as cheaper than cooking.

“They knew that fast food was less healthy than home cooked food, but that knowledge wasn’t strong enough to override their lifestyle. Peer pressure can be very strong. One male student reported that when he ordered a salad at a pub his friends jeered at him.”

The Department of Health has linked fast food consumption to the growing rise in the nation’s obesity, yet one problem may be that eating unhealthily when young may not lead to obesity and health problems until later in life.

Of the sample consulted by Hannah Cooper, while 59% admitted their eating habits had changed for the worse, only 29% felt their weight had increased since becoming students, and these tended to be those who did less exercise and drank more alcohol.

The University of Leicester is developing strategies to combat students’ reliance on fast foods. Frances Stone from the Residential and Catering Services commented: “I found Hannah’s report very informative, giving support to our assumption based on anecdotal evidence. We encourage students to eat healthily and do hold regular Healthy Living weeks in residences. We support the studentcooking.tv, which is a lively, informative and stylish Internet-based video service that shows students how to cook great tasting meals on a budget.

“We have also arranged for a Student Survival Guide to be distributed to all students communal areas. This extensive guide gives students advice on healthy eating, shopping starter kits and techniques and equipment. It covers areas such as brain boosting breakfasts, energising lunches and simple budget beating meals. The guide concentrates on what students should be including in their diet.

“We look forward to continuing our work to help students find their way around the healthy living agenda”

Hannah Cooper is now taking her research further with a MSc in Social Research at the University of Leicester. “I would like to make a difference,” she said. “I think policies designed to improve the dietary behaviour of students should be tailored by gender and specific attention paid to the body dissatisfaction reported by females.

“My findings showed males as more likely to view work surrounding food as a female task. This may be due to the lack of socialisation they receive at home. Maybe intervention into the prevention of obesity in later life should start earlier for males and be undertaken in the home to produce the most beneficial results.”

Dr Annandale commented: “It isn’t just a question of knowledge, as many students are aware of what constitutes a healthy diet. It is the social context in which students live that pushes them towards a lifestyle that might be unhealthy.”

Source: Leicester University