TresSugar

"Fit Not Fat" Report Highlights Stats on World Obesity

FitSugar — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 03:00:18 PDT

Last week, the OECD, an international economic organization of 33 countries (including the US, Canada, and much of Europe), released its stats on obesity around the world. The "Fit Not Fat" report gives some depressing figures on the current trends in obesity, which the organization says is the result of many factors, including increased food supply, fewer home-cooked meals, less physical activity at work, and more sophisticated tactics from food advertisers. The result of all of this means that while in 1980 only about 10 percent of us were obese, the figure is now at 50 percent or more in most countries are overweight or obese, and that could rise to more than 66 percent if we continue to live the way we do. The stats from the report are pretty interesting. To see some that really stood out for me, just

An obese person incurs 25 percent higher health costs than a person of normal weight.
Obesity is responsible for 5-10 percent of total health costs in the United States.
Obesity increases the risk of early death by approximately 30 percent.
Children who have at least one obese parent are three to four times more likely to be obese.
Poorly educated women are two to three times more likely to be overweight than those with high levels of education, but almost no disparities are found for men.
Obese people earn up to 18 percent less than non-obese people.

The ray of hope is that according to the OECD, prevention strategies such as education programs would save thousands of lives, not to mention dollars, each year in many countries, and the report urges governments to fund prevention programs.

Source: Flickr User Tobyotter

A WHO Report Says Cell Phone Use Leads to Brain Tumors

GeekSugar — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:05:10 PST

Cell phone use causing cancer - certainly not something we haven't heard before and not something that is going away anytime soon. First we learn that the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones doesn't cause cancer and when I asked you if you were worried about your cell phone increasing your risk of getting cancer, most of you said no.

The latest news? Well it doesn't get more legit than the World Health Organization, who have been working on a ten-year investigation called Interphone to see if there were any correlations between prolonged cell phone use and brain tumors. According to CNN the study will be published by the end of the year, and did reveal that those who had cell phones for 10 years or longer had the strongest risk of tumors.

And another recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology supports the link between cell phone use and tumors as well. The CNN article states:

Studies that looked at people who had used cell phones 10 years or longer tended to find the strongest risk of tumors. Researchers found that cell phone users had a 10 percent to 30 percent higher risk than people who barely, if ever, used this technology.

They also touch on Bluetooth devices, which aren't as harmful, but could cause tumors if worn on your ear all day. I don't know about you, but whenever I know I'm going to have a long cell phone conversation, I make sure to pop in my ear piece (not a Bluetooth) so that my phone isn't glued to my head for a couple of hours.

What do you think? Would you consider changing your cell phone habits after learning about these findings?

HIV Is the Top Killer of Women Worldwide

TresSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:00:00 PST

According to the World Health Organization, HIV is the number one killer of women age 15-49. Heart disease kills older women, especially in rich countries, but of the 30.8 million HIV-positive adults in 2007, 15.5 million were women.

A staggering 26.1 percent of the population in Swaziland are infected with HIV - and half of women age 25-29 there are HIV positive.

Women are especially vulnerable to HIV, WHO says, because of biology and gender inequality. WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan said, "It's time to pay girls and women back, to make sure that they get the care and support they need to enjoy a fundamental human right at every moment of their lives, that is their right to health."

More Than 200 Million People Are Hungry in India

CitizenSugar — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:00:54 PDT

There's no sugar coating this: India has more people suffering from hunger than any other country in the world. More than 200 million don't get enough to eat, and according to the 2008 Global Hunger Index just released, not one of India's 17 states rank in the low- or moderate-hunger categories - and 12 states have rank "alarming." India is 66th out of 88 countries surveyed (a stat in itself that makes you think of those 22 other countries that are worse.)

Kids bear a lot of the brunt of the hunger crisis - numbers released two years ago showed that even then, more than half of the children in India were malnourished. The rise in global food prices not mirrored in rising incomes has made the problem worse. As grim as this news sounds, there are people doing work to help. To find out which former presidential candidates just won an award for their work on hunger,

Former candidates Bob Dole and George McGovern have just been awarded the World Food Prize for their work to alleviate global hunger. The Republican/Democrat duo created the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food For Education and Nutrition Program. The prize president says, "There's a significant message that's included by having them both honored, one Democrat, one Republican."

Despite efforts, more work is needed. The World Health Organization just warned that the life expectancy between rich and poor countries varies by as much as 40 years. Let's hope increased bipartisan efforts will do the world some more good.

Source

Risk of Heterosexual Global AIDS Pandemic Decreased

LibertySugar — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:00:52 PDT

The World Health Organization (WHO) has determined that the risk of a global AIDS pandemic among heterosexuals has decreased. Of course this assessment does not apply to Africa.

Dr. Kevin de Cock, the head of the WHO's department of HIV/Aids said:

It is very unlikely there will be a heterosexual epidemic in other countries. Ten years ago a lot of people were saying there would be a generalized epidemic in Asia – China was the big worry with its huge population. That doesn't look likely. But we have to be careful.

Certain areas are still at risk. In Russia, in 2006, 1 percent of the population was infected, the same number as South Africa in 1991, whose infection rate has now risen to 25 percent of the population. Yet, experts doubt that Russia will see the same dramatic rise.

Recent research claims that significant funding is being wasted in Africa on condom distribution, HIV testing, and vaccine research. Instead, some say, money should be spent on male circumcision, reducing the number of sexual partners, and improving health systems. Is it time to reassess the global AIDS initiative? Should we concentrate funds on high-risk locations, or continue a broad education campaign, which appears to be working in many places?

Source

What's the Deal With: The Mediterranean Diet

FitSugar — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:00:00 PDT

Folks are often out pimping their new diet books, trying to make a buck with a fad diet based on the bottom line rather than decreasing your waist size or helping you get healthy. Well, have you heard of the Mediterranean Diet?

Introduced in 1993 by the "nutrition meets gastronomy" group Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health, and the World Health Organization, the Med Diet is a not-for-profit diet. The diet was created in reaction to the non-fat food craze of the early 90s and incorporates good fats, namely olive oil, into meals.

Oldways promotes satisfaction over deprivation and believes eating should not be about denying foods, but instead about enjoying them. Take pleasure in the foods you eat. Notice the foods you put into your body, enjoy and savor them, share a meal with friends, and realize that eating healthy is about management, not banishment.

Here are the basic guidelines of the diet:

Make olive oil your primary source of dietary fat
Incorporate an abundance of food from plant sources, including fruits and vegetables, breads, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds
Eat low to moderate amounts of fish and poultry weekly
Eat low to moderate amounts of cheese and yogurt daily
Drink a moderate amount of wine (one to two glasses per day for men, one glass per day for women)

Here are a few tips for following the Med Diet:

Substitute olive oil for butter.
Snack on almonds instead of fat-free cookies.
Spread avocado on a sandwich to replace the mayonnaise.

This diet is considered
a healthful diet for heart patients to follow. If it is good enough for folks with heart conditions it is good enough for me.

Curious to see their version of the food pyramid? Then

To read more about the diet visit Oldways - it is a great website chock full of information.

One Woman's Quest for the Best: The Fastest, Farthest Female Inline Skate

Fitness Magazine — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:23:05 PDT

We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Fitness Magazine here on FitSugar!

Over the next few months, families will travel across the U.S. via plane, train or car during summer road trips. Kacie Fischer will be covering the same distance (nearly 4,000 miles, on her route), but on inline skates. . . and in just 74 days. If she reaches her goal, Fischer will also be breaking five Guinness World Records in the process.

We caught up with Fischer, a Promax DOer, after a long day of skating to get the backstory about her fit trip which has been two years in the making.

How did you get started with inline skating?

I started skating when I was 7, but didn’t start skating longer distances until I was cross training as a college runner. I found that I could travel a lot farther and see a lot more, plus it was a lot more exhilarating-try flying down a hill at 40+ miles per hour! Inline skating is like running on steroids.

More of Kacie's interview after the break.

Why Christy Turlington Isn't Celebrating Mother's Day

Kate Stahl — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:17:15 PDT

Did you know that a woman dies every 90 seconds from pregnancy complications and 90 percent of those deaths are preventable? It's serious stuff, and an issue that's become Christy Turlington's life passion. Today Turlington, supermodel, wife to Edward Burns, mom to Grace and Finn, and founder of Every Mother Counts, an advocacy group that's working to reduce the global maternal mortality rate, launched a new campaign called No Mothers Day. For the video above, Turlington enlisted the help of famous moms including Jennifer Connelly, Debra Messing, Ann Curry, Kelly Rutherford, and Blythe Danner, along with a host of real moms, to support the cause, which asks moms to "disappear" on Mother's Day. "This Mothers Day I am honoring all moms by going silent," Turlington told us. "The . . . public service announcement features moms encouraging other moms to join in solidarity by disappearing May 13, Mother’s Day. No Mothers Day is a powerful social issue campaign designed to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world who die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth."

Keep reading for the rest of our interview with the simply amazing Turlington

Natalie Coughlin: An Olympian Who Loves Food as Much as We Do

Camilla Salem — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:30:37 PDT

What do backyard chickens and 11 Olympic medals have in common? Natalie Coughlin, that's what. The gold medalist and world champion is gearing up for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, while cultivating a healthy interest in all things food-related. From growing vegetables in her own backyard in Lafayette, CA to her highly effective method of kitchen organization, Natalie gives us the scoop on her experiences with food.

YumSugar: You raise chickens in your backyard and you consider yourself an urban farmer. What do you grow or produce yourself that you're most proud of?

Find out her answer and so much more when you keep reading.

Meeting My Sperm Donor

The Good Men Project — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:00:50 PDT

We're happy to present this story from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project. Ben Sommer, conceived through alternative insemination, is a young man now and tells the story of deciding to meet his donor.

I grew up in a middle-class home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with two loving parents, both of whom are women. My conception was perhaps the most organized and scientific miracle of the modern American family - my architecture, the dream of dozens of individuals conducting their work across thousands of miles.

Objectifying Ryan Gosling

I was conceived through alternative insemination. A donor submitted his sperm to the Sperm Bank of California in Oakland (TSBC). Later, it was sent to the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston. Since opening its doors in 1982, TSBC has helped families without the ability to conceive on their own to birth over 2,000 children. Two thirds of those have ended up, like me, being raised in a lesbian household. TSBC is also the first sperm bank to offer a donor-identity-release program, which allows children of alternative insemination access to their donors' information when they turn 18.

I am not as much an oddity as you might think. As of 2005, some 270,000 children in the United States had same sex-parents. We are a generation that is just now beginning to come of age and able to share our stories. This is mine.

Growing up in a lesbian household was much like growing up in any other family unit, I imagine: vacations to Cape Cod, parents working late and sometimes not, play dates with a diverse group of friends.

I never gave much thought to that mysterious figure across the country. I never questioned the fact that I didn't have a father. As far as I was concerned I didn't need one. Is having two moms really all that different than having a mom and a dad? Parents are parents, right? I didn't see a difference at the time. My parents didn't either - at least at first.

They decided to conceive through a donor, in part, to avoid the complications that a third parent would bring. Asking a close male friend to donate, like some couples have done, can create unforeseen consequences. In the past, there have been custody battles between the donor and the parents raising the child. This was the case with a friend of mine, whose parents arranged donation from a male family friend. With a semi-anonymous donor like the man my parents chose, it would be clear who my parents were. And it was.

That's not to say that it was smooth sailing. "When we first learned you were going to be a boy, we really panicked," my mother told me recently. "Who's going to teach him to throw a ball? We didn't have many male friends. There was even basic stuff, like who's going to teach him to pee standing up. That doesn't come naturally."

Read the rest of the story below.