High-fructose corn syrup is just one food ingredient, among many others, that virtually every health advocate will tell you to avoid. The Corn Refiners Association (CRA), a large organization that represents the corn refining industry, continues to assert that high-fructose corn syrup is completely safe and perfectly ‘natural’,  but many health experts and research results couldn’t disagree more. One contribution high-fructose corn syrup is making to our society is a startling increase in obesity rates. Scientists have repeatedly proven that heavily altered (and often genetically modified) form of fructose, used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can negatively impact human metabolism and is contributing to the growing obesity epidemic.

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Alters Human Metabolism

For quite some time, high-fructose corn syrup was thought to be perfectly healthy by some individuals, and the ingredient rampantly consumed in high amounts internationally. But research shows that high-fructose corn syrup changes human metabolism, and is actually metabolized much differently than other sugars. HFCS is a highly processed product that contains nearly the same amount of fructose and glucose. Sucrose, however, is a larger sugar molecule that is metabolized into glucose and fructose in your intestine. High-fructose corn syrup metabolizes to fat in your body much faster than other sugars, resulting in increased fat gain. Since the fructose is consumed in liquid form, the negative effects on human metabolism are even greater.

“…Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems”, reported scientists from UC Davis.

In addition, 100% of fructose that’s consumed is taken up by the liver, while only some of glucose passes through the liver, and is then excreted. This results in increased fat deposition in the abdominal cavity and increased blood levels of triglycerides — both of which are risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

Further showing how the human metabolism is damaged, one study found:

“To assess the relative effects of these dietary sugars during sustained consumption in humans, overweight and obese subjects consumed glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages providing 25% of energy requirements for 10 weeks. Although both groups exhibited similar weight gain during the intervention, visceral adipose volume was significantly increased only in subjects consuming fructose…and [fructose-sweetened beverages] decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight humans.”

Some individuals claim that high-fructose corn syrup is safe at low levels, but even if that were remotely true, the ingredient is still found in thousands of mainstream and corporate-owned food and beverage products in high doses. It is in these high doses that it has also been found to contain mercury, an element that is highly damaging to the human body. Sugar itself is highly over-consumed today, causing a multitude of health issues, but turning the natural form of sugar into  high-fructose corn syrup causes further damage to human metabolism and the liver.

Obesity truly has been one of the fasting growing health problems for many years past. Unfortunately the many causes of obesity are not entirely discriminating, and as a result every individual suffers from the triggers. Children especially are susceptible to obesity due to their developing stages. Matched with the increasing obsolescence of outside activity thanks to technology, the issue of obesity is even further amplified. But some still don’t realize how big of an issue obesity truly is.

Infographic | Targeting Children with Treats

In 2010, 60 percent of the United States was overweight or obese, and percentage is continually growing. If the escalation of obesity rates continues at its current rate then 50 percent of the population is expected to be obese by 2030. It is true that there was a change in the definition of body mass index, which is the formula used to determine if you are at a healthy weight. The change reclassified about 25 million Americans – turning their label into ‘overweight’ from ‘healthy’. But this change was instituted in 1998, and obesity rates have been growing dramatically even a decade after the change. There are many factors to the increasing obesity rates.

Children in America spend approximately 44.5 hours per week watching television while being exposed to up to 30,155 ads per year. Advertising itself is one of the most powerful tools to shaping the subconscious mind, with food advertisements actually influencing children more than parents. Around 50 percent of the ads are for candy, snacks, sugary cereal, and fast food. Children have an average of 3 snacks in between meals, most of which contain high amounts of health-damaging sugar. But a poor diet isn’t the entirety of the issue.

While those 44.5 hours of TV are damaging to the mind in the form of advertising, that is only part of the problem associated with extended television watching. This nearly full work week of TV watching is significantly cutting down on any time spent outdoors or engaging in physical activity. Even when TV is not being watched, kids spend hours on video games and the computer, and then time is needed to do homework and associate with the family. Couple inactivity with an obesity-promoting diet, and we have the formula.

What have these things led to? About one third of American children are overweight or obese. What’s more, 50 percent of overweight children remain overweight even into adulthood. Many parents have even made childhood obesity among their top concerns for their children, along with smoking and drug abuse.

To fix this issue we need to institute a total transformation of advertising while educating and raising awareness on unhealthy and healthy foods, especially from a very young age. The positive change will not happen over night, but with the proper education and dismissal of false advertising, changes will occur gradually over time.

Infographic created by Teach.com

Ohio social workers have taken a 200-pound third-grader from his parents and placed him in foster care, where children are given as many harmful antipsychotics as the mentally disabled. The government workers said that his mother was not doing enough to lower his weight, clearly deeming her an irresponsible parent.

State officials reported that this is the first case of a child being put in foster care over a weight-related issue in Ohio. The 8-year-old was considered to be severely obese and subsequently at risk for the development of diseases like diabetes and hypertension. However, the county in which the boy lived in, Cuyahoga County, does not have a specific policy on dealing with obese children.

According to a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services, the child was a victim of ‘medical neglect’ as his mother ignored the instructions of a doctor to help control his weight.

“This child’s problem was so severe that we had to take custody,” the spokesman said. The agency worked with the mother for more than a year before asking Juvenile Court for custody of the child, she said.

The lawyers for the mother argue that while intervention is necessary, obesity is not grounds to pull a child from his family and place him into foster care.

“I think we would concede that some intervention is appropriate,” Juvenile Public Defender Sam Amata said. “But what risk became imminent? When did it become an immediate problem?”

Beyond the arguments of both parties lies an even greater question: will foster care ruin the health of this third-grader far more than his original lifestyle, or help him?

Mental Illness Drugs Given By Foster Homes Linked to Suicide and Diabetes

The antipsychotics, powerful tranquilizers, and other mental illness drugs dished out like candy in foster homes may be even more deadly than the obesity-promoting lifestyle of the young boy stripped from his family by social workers. Even mainstream health officials are now speaking out against the dangers of popular antipsychotic drugs that are given to young children worldwide for just about any mental illness.

It is important to note that the usage of antipsychotic drugs has been found to result in a number of known dangers as well as even more concerning unknown dangers. In fact, many pharmaceuticals intended to ‘treat’ suicide can actually lead to suicide. However, suicide is not the only side effect of these drugs. There is significant research linking usage to childhood diabetes, an increased risk of depression, and weight gain.

These are the drugs given in excessive amounts to young foster children. In a report published in the journal Pediatrics that examined how often foster children were given two antipsychotic drugs at once, it was found that the children were given antipsychotics just as frequently as children considered to be the most mentally disabled.

Will the health of this child really be improved by placing him in foster care?

When it comes to knowledge and learning, memory makes up a hefty percentage of what it takes to be strong in those areas. Of course everyone wants to be knowledgeable, but it is difficult to know as much as you can if you are unable to retain information with ease. Memory loss is not something that is only experienced by the elderly or traumatized; overweight individuals may suffer from memory loss as well. The good news is that even if memory is suffering due to excess weight, weight loss will improve memory.

Although hardly ever mentioned in any book or business teaching, memory and brain health may just rest at the top of the success pyramid along with persistence and discipline. If you are experiencing memory loss and forgetfulness, business and life in general will simply be more difficult. Research shows that this is especially true for overweight individuals, who experience greater memory loss and poorer concentration than those who are at a normal weight.

A group of scientists and an associate professor of psychology at Kent state University conducted a study to see how brain health was impacted by excess weight. The team evaluated memory tests from 150 people with an average weight of 300 pounds. As one might suspect, many of the people experienced other health complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea.

109 of the patients decided to get some type of weight loss surgery such as gastric bypass surgery while the remaining 41 people did not. 12 weeks later, the same memory tests were conducted with the surgery group, who lost an average of 50 pounds, improving in many of the tests including measurements of memory and executive functioning. The people who kept their very high weight showed a small decline in memory and overall brain health.

It is no surprise that overweight people may experience memory loss. With excess weight comes excess fat to smother the organs and slow mental processes. Obese people also suffer from physiological issues where they eat very late at night and experience sleep problems. Along with the increased weight usually comes the increased consumption of harmful ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and aspartame. In addition, it is likely that the right foods are not being consumed enough, leading to a deficiency in most nutrients.

Losing weight is a fantastic way to reverse memory loss and improve brain health. If gaining weight typically comes with all things listed above, losing weight will mean omitting those harmful things from your diet automatically.

Parent’s often underestimate the seriousness of childhood obesity. With more than 1 in 6 American children being obese, we are seeing an increase in psychological and medical issues occurring in children. Parents, playing the most important role in their child’s development, need to start showing more concern over their children’s weight, a new poll suggests.

According to the Center for Disease Control, 18% of kids under the age of 19 are obese. Obesity is marked by someone with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is the measurement of weight based on a ratio of weight and weight, and since children don’t us the same exact scale as adults, doctors use a BMI-for-age growth charts to monitor obesity.

In order to gauge parents’ thoughts on the matter, a survey was given to 2,179 American adults, 728 of them already being parents. The adults were asked questions on the important of bringing the child to the doctor over the following conditions: overweight, skin problems, diabetes symptoms, and asthma. Here is the breakdown.

• 54% said it would be “very important” to bring their child to the doctor if overweight
• 53% said it would be “very important” to bring their child to the doctor over skin problems
• 81%said it would be “very important” to bring their child to the doctor if their child had symptoms of diabetes
• 80% said it would be “very important” to bring their child to the doctor if their child has symptoms of asthma

It isn’t too surprising, I suppose. Other than being overweight, parent’s don’t see much more going. What many don’t know is that being overweight leads to almost all other illness. What’s really going on inside the body is high blood pressure, prediabetes conditions, high lipids, and much more.

Here is the rest of the story reported from LiveScience.

Concern and solutions

But parents weren’t unconcerned with childhood obesity. Though they didn’t all rate it as “very important,” 82 percent of parents did say they would seek medical help for an overweight child. This was, however, less than the 94 percent who said they’d seek medical help for a child with a condition that would limit their life expectancy and the 93 percent who said they’d seek help for a childhood condition that would lead to later health care costs. Childhood obesity does both, Hampl pointed out.

“Obesity is likely going to limit a person’s life expectancy and increase their future health care costs,” she said. “So for us, it was a realization that we need to help parents better understand that childhood obesity does track into adulthood.”

Both parents and nonparents cited parents as the group with the greatest role in preventing childhood obesity. But parents were more likely than nonparents to endorse an “it takes a village” approach to limiting childhood weight gain. About 81 percent of parents supported requiring healthy food choices in areas with vending machines, compared with 77 percent of nonparents. Likewise, 77 percent of parents supported insurance coverage of obesity treatment, compared with 69 percent of nonparents.

Parents also wanted to see more neighborhood sidewalks, with 76 percent supporting sidewalks in all neighborhoods versus 62 percent of nonparents. They supported tighter controls on children’s advertising, with 73 percent of parents advocating stronger regulations on food marketing to kids. About 67 percent of nonparents said the same. Parents were also more likely to support keeping fast food restaurants far from schools, with 60 percent saying they’d support limits on where such establishments could be built compared with 54 percent of nonparents.

Neither parents nor nonparents were very supportive of taxing junk food to discourage consumption, but parents viewed such policies slightly more favorably. About 39 percent of parents and 32 percent of nonparents supported taxing chips and sweets, while 42 percent of parents and 35 percent of nonparents supported taxing soft drinks as a way to combat childhood obesity.

The margin of error in the survey for all adults is plus or minus 2 percent, while the margin of error for the parent sample alone is 3.6 percent.

Below is a list of the US states ordered by the percentage of residents who are considered obese. It is important to know that the results are based on interviews with 177,237 Americans over 18 years of age. The interviews were conducted in January through June and the participants were asked their height and weight. From this information given, the researchers calculated the body mass index (BMI) of all participants. Any BMI score at or above 30  is considered obese.

• Colorado: 20.1 percent
• Utah: 21.6 percent
• Connecticut: 21.7 percent
• California: 22.1 percent
• Rhode Island: 22.1 percent
• Massachusetts: 22.6 percent
• New Jersey: 22.6 percent
• Nevada: 23.6 percent
• Minnesota: 23.8 percent
• Florida: 24.2 percent
• New Hampshire: 24.4 percent
• New Mexico: 24.4 percent (22.9)
• Montana: 24.8 percent
• Hawaii: 24.8 percent
• Washington: 25.1 percent
• Vermont: 25.2 percent
• Arizona: 25.5 percent
• Oregon: 25.6 percent
• Wyoming: 25.7 percent
• Maine: 25.8 percent
• New York: 25.8 percent
• Illinois: 26.5 percent
• North Carolina: 26.7 percent
• South Dakota: 26.8 percent
• Wisconsin: 27.1 percent
• Alaska: 27.1 percent
• Georgia: 27.1 percent
• Maryland: 27.2 percent
• Virginia: 27.7 percent
• Alabama: 27.8 percent
• Tennessee: 27.8 percent
• Missouri: 27.8 percent
• Nebraska: 28.1 percent
• Idaho: 28.1 percent
• Michigan: 28.2 percent
• Pennsylvania: 28.2 percent
• Iowa: 28.3 percent
• Kansas: 28.3 percent
• Texas: 28.7 percent
• Arkansas: 28.8 percent
• Ohio: 29.0 percent
• Kentucky: 29.9 percent
• Oklahoma: 30.2 percent
• North Dakota: 30.2 percent
• Indiana: 30.5 percent
• South Carolina: 30.6 percent
• Louisiana: 31.2 percent
• Mississippi: 32.1 percent
• Delaware: 33.6 percent
• West Virginia: 34.3 percent

Source:

LiveScience

Harvard University child obesity expert Dr. David Ludwig’s recent claim that some parents should lose custody of their severely obese children has sparked outrage among families and professionals across the country.

The national outcry led one family to share how its personal experience with the matter damaged their lives.

Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children’s Hospital Boston and associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, shared his divisive idea in an opinion piece that ran in the Journal of the American Medical Association Wednesday: that state intervention can serve in the best interest of extremely obese children, of which there’re about 2 million across the United States.

“In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable, from a legal standpoint, because of imminent health risks and the parents’ chronic failure to address medical problems,” Ludwig co-wrote with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health.

The topic has quickly generated controversy, and the majority of experts contacted by ABC News disagreed with Ludwig and Murtagh’s ideas.

Dr. David Katz, founder of the Yale Prevention Center, said that there was no evidence that the state would do a better job of feeding children than their parents.

Dr. David Orentlicher, co-director of Hall Center for Law and Health at Indiana University of School Law, also disagreed, saying that based on past instances, child protective service agencies might be far too quick to place overweight children in foster care.

A family in Albuquerque, N.M., disagreed with the idea, based not on any medical expertise but on a painful personal experience that they say tore the family apart more than a decade ago.

In a case that shocked many people across the country, 3-year-old Anamarie Regino, weighing 90 pounds, was taken from her outraged parents by government officials and placed in foster care.

“Literally, it was two months of hell. It seemed like the longest two months of my life,” mother Adela Martinez said.

As it turned out, it was two unnecessary months of hell. Anamarie didn’t improve at all in foster care, and she was returned to her parents. The young girl was later diagnosed with a genetic predisposition.

“They say it’s for the well-being of the child, but it did more damage that any money or therapy could ever to do to fix it,” Martinez said.

Anamarie, who is now 14, agreed.

“It’s not right, what [Dr. Ludwig] is doing, because to get better you need to be with your family, instead of being surrounded by doctors,” she said.

When told of the Regino case, Ludwig said his solution of state intervention did not always work.

“Well, state intervention is no guarantee of a good outcome, but to do nothing is also not an answer,” Ludwif said.

Ludwig said he believes that children should only be removed in the most extreme cases, and that state officials should first offer counseling and education to parents.

“It should only be used as a last resort,” he said. “It’s also no guarantee of success, but when we have a 400-pound child with life threatening complications, there may not be any great choices.”

In the game of life and long-term weight maintenance, calories count, but the types of foods might matter more, according to a study by Harvard researchers published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Diets that include potatoes, white bread, sugar-sweetened beverages and meats — well, all that defines modern America — were associated with the greatest weight gain over the 20-year study period.

Surprisingly, eating French fries led to more weight gain than eating sugary desserts. And eating whole grains was associated with weight loss, diametrically opposite to the significant weight gain associated with refined grains despite equal caloric content.

These results prompted the Harvard researchers to claim that the mantra to “eat less, exercise more” might be overly simplistic.

Long-term gains

The Harvard study was one of the first to examine factors linked to long-term weight gain. Most other research has focused on dieting after the subjects have gained extra weight. American adults gain at least a pound per year, on average, so the impact on health after a few decades can be significant.

The researchers tapped into three large, ongoing studies — the Nurses’ Health Study, the Nurses’ Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study — following over 120,000 adults who were free of obesity and chronic diseases at the beginning of the study.

“Of course, in the end, ‘calories in’ versus ‘calories out’ is what causes weight gain,” said lead author Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health. “The key question is how to achieve that balance, since everyone is trying to do it and nearly everyone is failing.”

America’s love of fast food and junk food apparently isn’t the way to achieve balance. For example, a daily serving of French fries was associated with 3.35 pounds of weight gain every four years; potato chips were associated with 1.69 extra pounds.

Potatoes in general were among the biggest dietary offenders, followed by sweetened soda pop (one-pound gain every four years), and processed meat and unprocessed red meat (about a 0.95-pound gain).

All calories are not created equally

Conversely, eating more of several specific foods — vegetables, fruits, nuts and whole grains — was associated with less weight gain, chafing the conventional wisdom that all calories are equal, Mozaffarian said.

Nuts are calorie-dense, but their consumption was associated with weight loss. Whole and low-fat milk were equally associated with weight loss, despite the calorie difference. Yet a bag of potato chips, with only about 150 calories per serving, has fewer calories than many items on the Harvard researchers’ list and was associated disproportionally with so much weight gain.

No laws of thermodynamics are being broken here. “Differences in weight gain seen for specific foods and beverages could relate to varying portion sizes, patterns of eating, effects on satiety, or displacement of other foods or beverages,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

That is, eating potatoes and white bread might be less satiating compared with less-processed, higher-fiber foods with the same number of calories, increasing subsequent hunger signals in the brain and thus the total caloric intake, the researchers said.

Higher-fiber foods and their slower digestion, on the other hand, could augment satiety, the researchers said. Their increased consumption would displace more highly processed foods in the diet, “providing plausible biologic mechanisms whereby persons who eat more fruits, nuts, vegetables and whole grains would gain less weight over time,” as stated in the paper.

In an attempt to halt the birth rate of overweight babies being born in the United States, it seems society is taking the fight to the next level… in theory. It could also be considered a new low in terms of morality. As part of a three year study to measure the effectiveness of a drug called Metformin, mom’s-to-be will take an experimental drug in an attempt to reduce the biological food supply to their unborn babies. It seems that the bad eating habits American’s indulge in is leading to overweight babies. The drug is an attempt to combat the rising obesity rates of babies, which lead to painful pregnancies and an increase in caesarean sections.

Although this drug’s main purpose is to treat diabetics, the specific purpose for Metformin in this case is to reduce blood sugar levels — which leads to overweight babies once passed to the fetus. About 400 women will be involved in this trial study, with half of them actually taking the drug while the remaining portion of women will be given placebo pills. The study is set to start from 12 weeks gestation, with women consuming up to 3 pills per day.

What’s wrong with this?

Based on the desired outcome of this study and what it’s true goal is, it seems that society is making an attempt at another quick fix to an ongoing problem. Just so everyone understands what is being done here, I will state the problem very clearly.

People are overweight. Women who are overweight are giving birth to overweight babies, which is leading to an increase in C-sections.

Proposed Solution: Take a drug.

There is something terribly wrong with the way this problem is being tackled. Obesity is brought on many factors. From genetics to lifestyle, countless variables work together to configure one’s figure and weight. Popping pills will not fill the void of inadequate diet and exercise, and will instead lead to nasty side effects and short-term weight loss. Obesity is an ongoing problem, especially in the US, and something as simple as popping a pill will NOT fix it.

Overweight babies are being born because of overweight mothers. The baby is feeding off of all this excess food (and artificial ingredients hindering proper development), growing and growing before he/she even has the ability to make the decision of becoming overweight. The massive increase in overweight babies doesn’t have to do with genetics or lack of drugs being taken, but the lifestyle of the mother.

America is set on quick fixes. There is a pill available for almost anything, from growing eyelashes to losing weight. The truth is, there is no quick fix. Human’s have incredible capabilities beyond most people’s imaginations. The false premise that pills can be taken for any problem must be not only forgotten, but completely abolished.

The real solution

After living in such an environment for so long where unhealthy eating is promoted, the most difficult thing to change is your mind set. It isn’t easy to change your whole lifestyle in a single day, but it IS easy to improve it. By taking gradual steps such as eating healthier (eliminating toxic additives from your diet) and exercising more, not only will society see a plummet in the rates of overweight children being born, but we will also see positive changes in all aspects of our lives.

The solution to this problem, or any other problem for that matter, is not to take a drug. Take responsibility, and change your lifestyle not only for you, but for your soon-to-be child.

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8505630/Babies-given-anti-obesity-drugs-in-the-womb.html