966 calorie 'horrendous' burger

Healthy-food campaigners have criticised Burger King's newest snack which packs in an astonishing 966 calories.

The new Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Double Angus burger is the biggest and most fattening on the high street and has twice as many calories as a Big Mac from McDonald's.

The monster sandwich - which costs £5.29 and has a fat content of 58g - has left healthy eating crusaders furious.

Sue Baic, from the British Dietetic Association said: 'Of course foods like burgers can play a role in a balanced diet but this sort of massive portion size in a high fat and energy dense food  is really making it far too easy for us to overeat.

'The values given here don't even include the chips and shake or fizzy drink which many people will order with it. If you add a large fries and large coke to that you get almost 1600 calories in the one meal.'

It comes as the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley hands over £2bn to local cancels to tackle public health issues like obesity. Currently a quarter of adults are considered obese in the UK as are one in six children.

Obesity can cause a number of health problems including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. An obese person aged over 40 can expect to cut their life expectancy by seven years.

A spokesman for Burger King said they provided calorie information on their main menu boards and it was up to customers to make 'informed choices.'

They pointed out that McDonald's also sells a Big Tasty with Bacon, which has 890calories and 55g of fat.

They added: 'We also have lower calorie options on our menu including the sweet chili chicken wrap at 296 calories and our hamburger at 260 calories and 4g of fat.'

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ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177
Twitter: @bandagastrica
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/banda.gastrica

Calories

Information provided by: www.Weightloss.org

ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177 Twitter: @bandagastrica
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/banda.gastrica

Is Georgia's Anti-Obesity Campaign a form of bullying?

The Georgia anti-childhood obesity campaign featuring overweight children has been called shocking and sparked heated debate across the country. Now it has attracted the attention of the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), who has equated the advertisements to bullying.

“Every day we hear about the terrible rise in bullying within our schools, yet this ad campaign could actually promote and give permission to such behaviors among kids,” Lynn Grefe, president and CEO of NEDA, said in a press release. “Sadly, these ads will be successful in shaming children with weight problems and their parents, but will do nothing to promote and educate about wellness and emotional well-being. Shame on Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta … not shame on the local kids.”

Grefe also calls for an end to the campaign: “Responsibility starts with them pulling the ads.”

The Strong4Life campaign, sponsored by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, feature black-and-white images of overweight and obese children along with the tagline, “Stop sugarcoating it, Georgia.” In one of the commercials, an overweight teen asks his mother, “Mom, why am I fat?”

The campaign has inspired debate since its launch in September. Some have said the campaign could increase social stigma about weight, while others have said the campaign only highlights the problem without providing a solution.

“This is the shock-and-awe strategy. Overweight kids don’t think they’re not overweight. You’re not telling them anything they didn’t know,” Kerri Boutelle, an associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who has researched how to curb children’s overeating, told Time, adding that the campaign is “very aggressive.”

Organizers of the campaign, however, are sticking by their plan. “We felt like we needed a very arresting, abrupt campaign that said: ‘Hey, Georgia! Wake up. This is a problem,’” Linda Matzigkeit, a senior vice president at Children’s Healthcare, who leads the system’s wellness projects, told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Martzigeit says there are no plans to pull the ads. In fact, Strong4Life is preparing to launch the next phase of its campaign — and critics of the first phase may not be as enthused about it either. “The whole goal of this is to get the discussion going,” she told the AJC. “I love that it sparks dialogue, and a great dialogue has two sides.”
What Everyday Health Readers Are Saying

Experts aren’t the only ones weighing in on the controversial campaign. Everyday Health readers left passionate comments — some supportive; others critical.

“These ads are fantastic. The people involved, kids and adults, should be thanked, applauded, and given all the support they need to become healthier,” an anonymous reader wrote. “I live in GA and sadly this message is right on target. We must get the childhood (and adult) obesity issue under control. My eight-year-old daughter has several friends who are obese. It breaks my heart.”

Others argued that the tactic of the ads may not get the desired effect. “I have been heavy most of my life and the more someone told you that you were fat the less you felt about yourself and the tendency to make yourself feel better you went to find some comfort food and usually it was not veggies,” wrote Lynda. “Telling anyone they are fat just makes it worse."

Many also commented that the message isn’t only limited to Georgia. The anti-obesity campaign is something that all states should take note of. “Hurtful? The rest of ‘middle’ America needs the same message, right in the ‘gut.’ Pun intended,” Ana Angel wrote.

What do you think of the ads? Are they helpful or hurtful? Tell us in the comments section below.

everydayhealth.com

ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177

Calories

 

ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177

Weight Loss: Mission Not Impossible

So it's just a few days into the new year and there's a good chance you've already broken your diet and also a good chance that you've concluded you will always break diets and that, despite all you know about the health risks of excess weight, despite the fact that you don't like the way you look and feel, you will never lose weight. And if you read the New York Times Magazine last Sunday, the cover article may have dashed the last shred of hope you had about this subject: it details research about how our brains and bodies conspire to hold on to every ounce we try to lose. Especially discouraging, Tara Parker-Pope, the author of the article and the Times' health columnist, a woman who knows more about nutrition and exercise than just about anybody, acknowledges that she is 60 lbs overweight and unable to lose it.

My practice certainly echoes the statistics Parker-Pope quotes in her article. Like the average American, many of my patients are slightly overweight in their 20s and 30s, gain weight throughout middle age (women, particularly at menopause), and re-gain any weight they manage to lose.

But, I do have several patients who have achieved lasting weight loss:

N, a man in his 40s, lost 50 lbs four years ago by running and cutting back on junk food.

M, a woman in her 70s, lost 50 lbs decades ago with Weight Watchers and now serves as a group leader in that program.

S, a woman in her 20s, has maintained her 40 lb weight loss by keeping track of her diet through dailyburn.com, learning how to cook healthy meals for herself, and a regular yoga and gym routine.

K, a woman in her 50s, lost 35 lbs seven years ago when she got the flu, stopped eating for a few days, and then, once she recovered, reflected on how much she normally overate. She also took up a new sport, SCUBA diving, that requires her to be fit.

C, a man in his 50s, lost 40 lbs eight years ago by walking miles every week and bringing lunch to work instead of eating take out.

A, a woman in her 50s, lost over 100 lbs with gastric bypass surgery. She now goes to the gym regularly and has drastically altered her diet.

And I could go on.

Doctors who focus on individual cases rather than statistics are sometimes accused of practicing "anecdotal medicine," ignoring the realities that studies of large populations reveal. But, in the matter of weight loss, I think individual cases are instructive. And what do they tell us? Patients like those I've mentioned, and others I've seen who've lost weight successfully, are similar to those enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry, a project involving people who have lost at least 30 lbs and kept it off for a year or more: they've used different methods to lose weight--some have followed structured diets, some not--but they have, I think, three important things in common:

They pay attention. Whether they are keeping food journals, weighing themselves every day, or simply planning meals, their weight loss goals are never far from their minds...ever.

They've found a reason to lose weight that is truly meaningful to them. Whether it's a new sport, a new grandchild, a health scare, or--most powerful--how much better they feel being thinner, they stay mindful of why they wanted to lose weight.

They take the long view. They lose weight slowly, roll with the ups and downs, steer clear of rigid goals and deadlines. They've signed up for a permanent change.

In a postscript Q&A after her Times Magazine article, Tara Parker-Pope said that the research she did into the grim prospects for weight loss success may have, ironically, given her efforts a boost in that she will, knowing more about the science of obesity, be less hard on herself.

I'm all for it. Absolutely, be less hard on yourself. Self-punishment only fuels overeating.

But know that there are exceptions to the statistics, and aim to be one of them.

Dr. Suzanne Koven
http://www.boston.com

ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177

Frustrated purpose

 

ArturoRodriguez, MD

md@thebariatric.com
http://www.thebariatric.com
http://www.bandstersforum.com
Phone: 011-52-81-8378-3177