Fake Out Friday: Pi

Instead of being a good little blogger and writing Part Four of my "Skinny on Obesity" series, I decided to watch the movie Pi, which got me thinking about pie.  Then I started thinking about the science of our world and things just got nerdy from there.

What is baking?
Baking is applied mathematics (in the form of ratios) and chemistry (as recipes depend on the chemical properties of their ingredients and how they will interact).  Physics comes in the form of thermodynamics and biology in the nutritive qualities of the food produced.

So not only am I a poor baker, but a hack scientist as well.

Dissatisfied with dissecting only one of my hobbies, I decided to break them all down.  Dancing? Physics and anatomy.  Music?  Physics and mathematics.  Writing?  Well, here I'm stuck.  What is the science of prose?  Is there a mathematical formula to generate great writing?  It has anthropological significance and deals in psychology, but what is writing?  What is the very act of thinking?  Can it be explained?  Calling a writer's work "formulaic" is an insult, so is writing beyond science?

I don't know.  I hope you've noticed philosophy was not among my listed hobbies.

The Skinny on Obesity: Part 3

The third installment of "Weight of the Nation" is called "Children in Crisis" and focuses on the problems children have and what is being done to help.

It happened with cigarettes and now it's happening with food.  Food companies are marketing their wares to children and undermining the authority of parents.  The US government has requested that companies end their child-centric advertising for junk foods, but these companies are allowed to self-regulate.  They decide what makes a food bad.  One box has more fiber while another is fortified with vitamin D.  It leads to a lot of confusion for parents and kids alike as to what is actually good for them.

In reaction to this regulatory debacle, the Interagency Working Group (IWG) was set up.  Containing representatives from the Federal Trade Commision (FTC), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Center for Disease Control (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the IWG proposed that companies who wish to market to children must first lower the sugar and fat content of their products.  This was, of course, shot down.  Nothing has been heard from the IWG since.

In 2010, the Obama administration passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kid Act.  This set guidelines for federally sponsored meals such as:

• Doubling the amount of fruit served at breakfast
• Increasing quantity and diversifying variety of vegetables served
• Permitting potatoes as a vegetable serving only twice a week
• Requiring that 50% of grains served be whole wheat; moving to 100% in two years.
• Reducing sodium by 53% over 10 years
• Reducing saturated fat content

In 2011, the Act was knocked down.  French fries remain a valid vegetable serving all week long.  The whole grain push has been delayed.  Tomato paste on a pizza counts as a serving of vegetables.

Beyond lunches, physical education is no longer a mandatory subject and, now, only 1 out of 6 schools require PE.  It is recommended that children get 60 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise a day.  If they're not doing it at school and they're sitting in front of the television all night, it's no wonder our national waistline is expanding.

A thorough health education is paramount to our nation's future.  I remember sitting through 8 years of "health class" in which we only covered substance and alcohol abuse with the occasional sex ed hour mixed in.  I could tell you all about how bad cocaine is for you or list a number of STDs that result in rashes, but I was never taught why soda was bad.  How can you make good choices if you're not informed?

So I took to Twitter where HBO was holding a live chat with Dr. Marlene Schwartz, Deputy Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.  I asked:

 

Me: How do we get nutrition education in schools?

Dr. Marlene Schwartz: I think that parents should get involved in their local school wellness committees- these are federally mandated commitees for all schools with federal funding for food, and part of their role is to look at nutrition education.  join yours and see what you can do.

Wino Wednesday: Kris Pinot Grigio, 2010

Hailing from Venice, I enjoyed this pinot grigio on my couch over a wonderful conversation.  It couldn't have been more perfect.  An innocuous nose with a bold, bright taste that lingers on the tongue with a light tartness.  There was also a fruity hint that I couldn't quite place, which only made me want to drink more, but propriety (and my liver) protested and won.

The Skinny on Obesity: Part 2

Part 2 of "Weight of the Nation" is entitled "Choices" and talks about the different courses one might take to lose weight.  They highlight three: diet, exercise, and surgery.

"The diet industry has no reason to solve the problem.  Solving the problem puts them out of business."

- Susan Yager

A number of overweight participants in this documentary list the different diets they have tried.  Not surprisingly, none of them succeeded.  They call it yo-yo dieting.  You lose a few pounds and gain it all back (and then some).  The rigidity of downsizing a diet coupled with plateauing weight losses discourages dieters and contributes to this "yo-yo" effect.  The problem with this is that weight loss requires these plateaus.

Why do we gain weight?

Weight gain is the product of evolution.  Without the ability to store energy in the form of fat, one famine would knock out every human.  But evolution wasn't kind to women.  Men, typically, gain visceral, or belly, fat.  Belly fat provides an easily accessible store of energy that burns quickly.  Aided by estrogen, women gain weight in their chest and thighs to provide energy for breastfeeding and pregnancy, but this fat does not burn as fast.  A woman's body will actually fight weight loss.

With this knowledge of evolution in mind, it's easy to see why weight loss is such a long process.   Unfortunately people become discouraged when they don't see results as fast as they'd like and then simply give up.  It could take a year for your body's metabolism to catch up and acclimate to your new lifestyle.  Don't give up after a month.  You will lose weight.

Stress and Weight Gain

Stress changes the biochemistry of our blood.  When something is getting us worked up, say a deadline for a big report, our brain perceives the stress as a threat.  This triggers the secretion of adrenaline and cortisol.  Cortisol is a steroid hormone, which is responsible for the metabolism of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.  An increase in cortisol tells the brain to look out for more calorie dense foods.  This is why stress eaters reach for ice cream over carrot sticks.  Ice cream has more calories than a carrot (whose caloric content is negligible at best).  It doesn't help that foods high in sugar and fat produce an opioid-like , or pleasurable, sensation.  

The same reaction that causes pleasure from fatty foods can be mimicked by the effects of exercise on the body though.

Physical Activity Guidelines (for adults) are:

• 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week.  (That's about 22 minutes a day.)
• Muscle strengthening exercises performed twice a week.

Climbing stairs, walking to the store, playing with your kids-- even sex is exercise.  Find something that you enjoy doing and get out there!

For those who have exhausted their options and continue to be obese and sick, there is bariatric surgery, but it comes at a price.  1 in 300 patients die from the surgery.  There is also the possibility of multiple infections, fistulas, kidney stones, etc.  There is a slew of consequences associated with this surgery.  One must weigh the risks against the reward.  It is by no means the easy way out.

The Skinny on Obesity: Part 1

I just finished watching Part 1 of HBO's docu-series "The Weight of the Nation".  Today's episode focused on the consequences of obesity and shared a bevy of startling and humbling facts.

They begin in Louisiana where experts talk about the Bogalusa Heart Study, an ongoing project on children's health that began in the late 1970s.  Blood tests and measurements of each child were recorded, and autopsies performed on children who died of accidental or non-cardiac causes.  They found that 20% of children autopsied already had plaque in their arteries leading doctors to deduce that heart disease begins in childhood.

In the 1970s, 5% of children were overweight.  That number has ballooned to almost 33% now.  In fact, a child born in 2000 or later has a 1 in 3 chance of developing diabetes.  If that child is African American or Latino, that number is 1 in 2.  This rapid increase in childhood obesity rates began in the 1980s, but the documentary fails to mention what happened to prompt this spike.  Change in family dynamics with more mother's going to work?  Prevalence of fast food?  Death of farms?  What happened?  I hope they cover that in a later episode.

Steering away from the macabre, they go on to list the characteristics of Ideal Cardiovascular Health:

1. Optimal cholesterol
2. Normal blood pressure
3. No diabetes
4. Lean BMI
5. Non-smoker
6. Physically active
7. Healthy diet

According to this documentary, less than 1% of all Americans meet this criteria.  In fact, there is a growing need for liver transplants nowadays.  At one time, hepatitis was the leading cause for a transplant.  Now, a new disease has sprung up and is quickly becoming the #1 liver killer: cryptogenic cirrhosis. Basically, fat cells get stuck between liver cells and harden, stiffening the organ and reducing, if not altogether preventing, functionality.  38% of obese children have this disease.  That's about 1 in 6 kids.

But the liver is a strong organ and within only 48 hours of changing your diet, you can improve your liver/fat content by about 25%.

"It just takes a little bit of weight..."

- Mary Hanley

Diabetes is synonymous with high blood sugar and comes in two forms: Type 1, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, occurs when a person is insulin deficient-- their body doesn't produce enough insulin; Type 2, also known as adult onset, occurs when a person becomes resistant to their own insulin.  This is a serious disease with dire consequences.  I watched my own grandfather weaken from every dialysis appointment.  His sister had several amputations because of her diabetes.  Peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure, sensitivity to infection: this is a disease that will not give up until you do.  And then it's too late.  Once you have diabetes, you have it for life.  You're never cured of it.

Much the same way, obesity leads to cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, gall bladder and liver disease, asthma, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, blindness, dementia, etc.  The list goes on and on.  It is imperative that we fix our eating habits today, this moment.  The U.S spends $150 billion on obesity-related illnesses.  Half of that is paid with public funds.  Think of the money we could save if we just picked an apple over an apple turnover, a carrot instead of carrot cake.  We've made so many advances in medicine just to eat ourselves into new disease.

The Weight of the Nation

Exciting news!  This Monday, May 14th, HBO will begin airing it's newest docu-series "The Weight of the Nation", focusing on the obesity epidemic in America.  I am so excited to start watching.  The Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health teamed up to create this documentary and it's sure to be full of information and advice.  Now to find someone with an HBO subscription....

"To win, we have to lose."

Tips from the Gastro Gnome

So this week I wanted to share two desserts I made this week, but unfortunately neither one of them turned out right.  So instead of scrapping the whole experience, here's what I learned:

Lemon Tarts
1) If the filling has frothed up, scoop off the bubbles.  These will not bake off, but WILL leave a gross white layer on top of your tarts.
2) Lemon filling will take on the color of the crust you pour it into.  Gross.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1) Forgetting the brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies will result in albino delights.  I didn't personally miss it, but they did look a bit off without it.

Better Understanding.  Better Baking!