Obesity News
tsaunders | June 17, 2010
Image by pugetsoundphotowalks.
Apologies in advance for a very Warning - a proudly Canada-centric post today. First, a bit of background - we Canadians pay two kinds of sales tax. The goods and services tax (5%) which is consistent across Canada, in addition to provincial sales taxes that varies from location to location (with the exception of Alberta, which has no provincial sales tax at all). If I understand it correctly, neither the PST nor GST applies to all purchases (for example basic groceries are exempt from both, while in Ontario gym fees are exempt only from the PST). Ontario…
tsaunders | June 5, 2010
Most weekends on Obesity Panacea we post our favourite obesity and fitness related news, stories and videos. This week I am only linking to one thing, because it is incredibly important and I'd really like everyone to check it out. The final version of Toronto Charter for Physical Activity is now online. I discussed the Charter in detail a few weeks ago, and it has also been discussed by Speaking of Medicine.
Essentially, the Charter aims to convince world leaders of the important role that physical activity plays in physical, mental, social, environmental, and economic well-being, and…
tsaunders | May 10, 2010
The Toronto Charter for Physical Activity
As many of you know, I spent last week attending the 3rd International Congress on Physical Activity and Public. It. Was. Awesome! I've been to 5-6 conferences since I started grad school in 2006, and they've all been good experiences, but this one was by far the best. And of the more seasoned researchers that I've spoken to, they all seem to rank it among the best they've attended as well. Unfortunately I wasn't able to liveblog the conference as I'd hoped (the wifi was pricier than I'd expected) so I thought I'd recap my experiences here…
tsaunders | April 21, 2010
Image by thelastminute.
You read that correctly - last week the RCMP was called in to break up a game of road hockey in Enfield, a suburb of Halifax, Nova Scotia. From the Halifax Chronicle Herald [emphasis mine]:
Ryan Jefferies and his buddies enjoyed playing road hockey almost every free minute in front of Ryan's house here. But anonymous complaints recently put an end to that.
Ryan's mom, Debbie Jefferies, said Monday she has no idea who complained or why, but the games came to an end last Thursday when an RCMP officer showed up at their door.
"He just said they had received two…
pjaniszewski | April 19, 2010
I'm sure everyone remembers the recent headlines of the 42-year old woman in New Jersey, Donna Simpson, who is attempting to become the fattest women on earth. While she currently weighs ~600lbs she is hoping to crack 1000lbs eventually. Apparently her boyfriend is supporting the initiative, although her little child is too young to voice an opinion. In order to feed her habit, she raises money through her website which allows random men to watch her eat excessively. While this certainly sounds a bit nutty, and goes against grain of the prevailing dieting culture of Western society, gainers…
pjaniszewski | March 26, 2010
Well, in fairness, Jesus' twelve Apostles should also share in the blame.
An incredibly quirky and yet fascinating study was just published in the International Journal of Obesity which investigated the size of the food and plates that have been depicted in paintings of Jesus' Last Supper over the last 1000 years.
The trend of gradually increasing portion sizes is well documented; just go to your local McDonalds and order a large drink and fries and drive yourself directly to the nearby hospital for a bypass.
Thus, Wansink & Wansink (maybe a married couple) decided to directly compare…
pjaniszewski | March 19, 2010
That's right - contrary to what many religiously believe, it is the inability to grow more fat during times of energy surpluss, rather than the excess of fat which appears to directly contribute to the metabolic consequence often associated with obesity.
A recent article in the New Scientist shines some light on this issue;
Obesity kills, everyone knows that. But is it possible that we've been looking at the problem in the wrong way? It seems getting fatter may be part of your body's defense against the worst effects of unhealthy eating, rather than their direct cause.
While the article…
tsaunders | March 8, 2010
Image by atomicjeep
I came across a very interesting article in the Ottawa Citizen this weekend, unpleasantly titled "For Canada's obese, exercise alone isn't going to cut it". The crux of the article is this - exercise will not help you lose weight. Every few months it seems that this issue pops up, including a cover article in TIME magazine last year, which Peter has previously dissected. This is a complicated issue, and given the sensational title, I wasn't expecting much from the Citizen article. But the article is actually very well written, and includes interviews with a number…