Prevent Obesity

Good Taste Food for Diet Menu

2008-03-21T07:47:00.000-07:00

To prevent the obesity we should keep our diet menu. At V.G. Burgers we continuously strive to maintain our high standard of quality, organic food ingredients and diet menu. At times, due to supply constraints, 100% organic is just not possible. Our working standard, therefore, is to ensure that 95%-98% of the ingredients for V.G’s prepared foods (burgers, fries, and shakes) come from organic sources and that 85%-90% of our fresh foods (salads and toppings) are organic. At a minimum, our organic suppliers meet the federal guidelines for definitions of organic.

All of our ingredients are plant-based. No animal-derived products of any kind, including dairy or eggs, are used in V.G. Burgers’.

There are several menu choices that are wheat-free, soy-free, and peanut-free for customers with these and other food sensitivities. Please inquire if you have such concerns.

V.G. Burgers’ flagship store and commissary are 100% wind-powered, doing our part to reduce carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels in our community. A member of the Clean and Green program, V.G. Burgers supports wind energy that is grassroots, local, and community farmed.

-www.vgburgers.com-

In Britain, a Campaign Against Obesity Is Snarled in Controversy

2008-02-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

LONDON — The campaign against AIDS has its red ribbons. The movement against poverty has its white wristbands. And if the advertising industry has its way, the effort to curb obesity may soon get its own instantly recognizable symbol.

But then again, maybe not. The British government has made a big commitment to promoting the benefits of weight loss, the centerpiece of which is a three-year advertising campaign announced last month with a budget of £75 million ($146 million). But disagreements over the scope of the campaign — particularly over whether it is proper to let companies that make high-calorie and high-fat foods participate — have been clouding the effort before a single commercial (or logo) is made.

Everyone agrees on the problem: Nearly two-thirds of adults and about one-third of children in Britain are overweight or obese, health officials say. And advertising executives say they agree that in order to be effective, the antiobesity campaign needs to be broad-based and pervasive, perhaps along the lines of the recent antipoverty initiative that went under the name “ONE” in the United States and “Make Poverty History” in other countries. Millions of people bought white wristbands to signal their commitment to the movement.

But so far, the fat-fighting campaign is short on specifics and long on controversy. Like most public-sector advertising in Britain, the effort will be run by the Central Office of Information, a government agency that coordinates advertising assignments and the buying of media space and time. The office has yet to choose agencies for the account, but some definition for the campaign is expected by this summer.

Whether the campaign will use a logo as its signature is still up in the air. Several years ago, amid rising concern about obesity and about a possible backlash over the marketing of unhealthy food, London-based advertising agencies presented ideas to the government for an antiobesity logo, a sort of counterpart to the triangular symbol that is used internationally on recyclable materials.

Rather than referring directly to food or exercise, the three symbols that were proposed by different agencies aimed to convey a message of personal investment in a healthy lifestyle. The executives promoting the idea suggested that the logo could be applied to food packaging, Web sites or even soccer shirts in order to make the message resonate with children.

But the idea stalled, advertising executives say, because of disagreements over how the program should be run.

The government, for instance, wanted to be able to keep junk food brands from using the logo, but the food industry wanted to leave that decision to marketers. The logo would have appeared alongside a separate set of nutritional labels that are being phased in on British food packaging.

The lack of consensus about the logo started to look like a microcosm of the fight between the government, health groups and marketers over who should bear responsibility for the obesity problem, and what the proposed solution should be.

“If you just run some advertising and then forget about it, it’s going to have zero effect,” said Hamish Pringle, director general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, a trade group that represents British advertising agencies. “If we’re seeing obesity as a societal problem, it could be a decade before it shows results.”

Last month, the government published a 56-page report on its proposed antiobesity strategy, which included plans to promote bicycle riding and require cooking lessons in schools. But the document provided few details on what kind of advertising it envisioned. Instead it somewhat nebulously called for an “evidence-based marketing program which will inform, support and empower parents in making changes to their children’s diet and levels of physical activity.”

One of the bigger points of contention is how the public service campaign can get its message across alongside ads for foods that help make people fat. Among the steps the government had been considering was a proposal by some doctors’ groups and other health organizations to ban all television advertising of foods high in fat, sugar or salt before 9 p.m.

British regulators last year had already barred ads for unhealthy foods from appearing during television programs aimed at children, and the move was seen as one of the strictest measures anywhere to restrict such advertising. But the ban created alarm in the television industry, where executives have said it was restricting financing for production of children’s television programs.

To the dismay of some food companies, European governments have been studying the British measures. The French health minister, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, warned the food industry last week to take steps to limit junk-food advertising to children or face the threat of legislation.

Some companies have seen the writing on the wall and voluntarily pulled back from campaigns that might provoke controversy. Eleven big food marketers, among them Coca-Cola, Danone, Kellogg, Kraft, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever, in December agreed on a European plan to stop advertising of unhealthy food to children under 12 on television, in print and on the Internet.

Meanwhile, some antiobesity groups in Britain say not enough is being done.

Richard Watts, coordinator of the Children’s Food Campaign, said that the money the British government plans to spend on antiobesity ads will be a drop in the bucket compared with the amount the food industry will spend to advertise its products.

“It’s illogical to spend taxpayer money on anti-junk-food advertising while allowing significantly higher spending on contradicting that message,” he said.

As the dialogue continues over what the campaign should look like and what message it should impart, advertising executives say they are simply pleased to be considered part of the solution by the government.

“It’s using the positive power of advertising, which seems to be a bit of a sea change in how the government sees advertising,” said Jonathan Collett, a spokesman for the Advertising Association in London, a trade group for the advertising and marketing industries.

No Gimmicks: Eat Less and Exercise More

2008-02-11T06:03:00.000-08:00

A desire to turn over a new, more healthful leaf typically a ccompanies the start of a new year. My mail, for example, has been inundated with diet books, most of which offer yet another gimmick aimed ultimately at getting the gullible reader to eat less and exercise more.

Publishers assume, correctly, that the shock of the scale after nearly six weeks of overindulging on food and drink will prompt the purchase of one or more books on dieting by people who are desperate to return to their pre-Thanksgiving shape.

And really, it doesn’t matter whether you choose a diet based on your genotype or the phases of the moon, or whether you cut down on sugars and starches or fats. If you consume fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight, you will lose.

My advice here is to save your money, toss out (or donate to a soup kitchen) the leftover high-calorie holiday fare, gradually reduce your portion sizes and return to your exercise routine (or adopt one if you spent too much of ’07 on your sofa).

Slowly but surely the pounds will come off. And as Aesop said, slow and steady does indeed win the race. Gradual weight loss, achieved on an eating-and-exercise regimen that you can sustain indefinitely, is most likely to be permanent weight loss.

If you’ve been reading this column for years, no doubt you already know that. But I believe it bears repeating at least once a year, not because I want to further depress the booksellers’ market, but because I’d rather you spend your hard-earned money on foods that can really help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight and good health.

The basics of good nutrition have not changed.

Meals replete with vegetables, fruits and whole grains and a small serving of a protein-rich food remain the gold standard of a wholesome diet. Still, at both ends of the age spectrum as well as in between, recent months have held some new findings — and some surprises — that are worth noting.

Perhaps most distressing to a chocoholic like me was a report in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Circulation that while dark chocolate can indeed improve coronary circulation and decrease the risk of heart-damaging clots, most dark chocolate on the market is all but stripped of the bitter-tasting flavanols that convey this health benefit.

The color, in other words, tells you nothing. Now it’s up to manufacturers to label the flavanol content — not just the percentage of cocoa, which may have no flavanol at all.

www.nytimes.com

Recommendations for Healthy Beverage Choices

2008-02-09T04:11:00.001-08:00

"We believe it is time to help children and adolescents break the high calorie fruit drink and soft drink habit," the report states and offers several key suggestions that can make healthier beverages more tasteful, available and enjoyable.

Make Healthy Beverage Alternatives More Flavorful
Mix sparkling mineral water and fruit juice. Diluting high-calorie fruit juices with water provides a refreshing beverage alternative.

Make Healthy Beverage Alternatives Easily Accessible
Keep refrigerated water and water-abundant fruits (watermelon, grapes, cantaloupe) easily accessible at home. Place children's cups and drinking glasses near the home water cooler.

Incorporate Substitutes Gradually
Substitute 100% juice for sugared drinks and place water in children's lunch boxes a few times during the week.

Make Healthy Beverage Alternatives Appealing
Beverage consumption is as much a social activity as a means to remain hydrated and quench thirst. The very fact that bottled water can be purchased in single-serve bottles in a variety of flavors puts it in the same league with soft drinks.

The new report appears in the November issue of Current Concepts and Perspectives in Nutrition, the Center's journal. Reprints of the report are available free of charge by contacting New York-Cornell Nutrition Information Center at 515 East 71 Street, New York, N.Y. 10021; 212-746-1617.

New York-Cornell's Nutrition Information Center serves as a resource for gathering and disseminating accurate and current information in nutrition research, clinical nutrition and basic nutrition principles to health professionals, and ultimately to the general public. The primary mission and highest priority of New York-Cornell's Nutrition Information Center is to serve as a resource for health professionals, keeping them up-to-date on important developments in the field of nutrition.

What Obesity Treatments Are Available ?

2008-02-09T04:09:00.001-08:00

Our feelings of hunger are controlled by a part of the brain called the 'hypothalamus'. This takes its cue from a number of different chemical messengers, or hormones, circulating in our blood.

New drugs
Current weight-loss drugs are mainly amphetamine based. They increase the amount of noradrenaline and dopamine hormones in the blood, lowering hunger levels. However, they are not suitable for long-term use and side effects can include high blood pressure, anxiety and restlessness.

New drugs are being developed that may give greater weight loss with fewer side effects. Recently, scientists have focused their attention on the interaction between fat and hunger. Fat produces a hormone called 'leptin', which turns off the feeling of hunger in the brain.
So if we have high fat levels inside us, our appetite is suppressed. But when they drop we become hungry. Although the link between leptin levels and hunger is not simple, scientists may be able to develop drugs that interfere with this cycle.

One research project involves genetically engineered mice with a faster metabolic rate. So however much they eat they still stay lean, burning up the energy as heat rather than laying it down as excess fat. This research could help make new drugs for humans.

Lifestyle changes
New drugs may help people to lose weight, but the problem is keeping it off. Most people who lose weight on a calorie controlled diet put it on again. Only 5% of obese people manage to keep their weight down.

What is required is a complete change in lifestyle. More exercise, a healthier balanced diet and realistic expectations can help make the change permanent. To become more healthy doesn't require huge weight loss.

For more information about diet and exercise visit BBC Health.

Obesity and Health Concerns

2008-02-09T04:06:00.000-08:00

Obesity is a chronic (long-term) disease that is increasing in frequency. More than half of American adults are overweight. Nearly one third are obese. Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States (tobacco is the first). People who are obese have much higher risks of many serious health problems than nonobese people. Obesity affects every system of the body. Obesity increases the risk of illness from about 30 serious medical conditions.

The most devastating of these health problems include the following:
* Diabetes
* Hypertension
* Obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension
* Heart disease
* Stroke
* Blood clots, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary emboli
* Fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
* Gastroesophageal reflux disease
* Urinary incontinence
* Osteoarthritis
* Gallstones
* Colon cancer
* Endometrial cancer
* Depression