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healthy eating, healthy weight: a journey

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Moving!

This blog moves here:

Isn't it pretty? See you there! :)

Saturday, September 5, 2009

10 Ways to Maintain Your Weight

We always seem to be looking for the Holy Grail when it comes to the latest weight management techniques. The best way to maintain weight is simple: take in and burn an equal amount of calories. The hard part is changing the way you think about the food you eat and adopting a fresh outlook on ways to burn calories through exercise and movement.
There are 10 basic guidelines for keeping extra weight off as you age; bringing them all together is what makes them so powerful. When you make these 10 habits part of a healthy lifestyle, you'll find it hard not to maintain a healthy weight.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Myth of Binge Eating

The Myth of Binge Eating: "An inviolable principle of most addiction recovery programs is total abstinence. It appears that for true addicts, one drink or one toke or one line is enough to trigger a binge—and a likely relapse. This dogma is not so hard and fast when it comes to food because . . . well, because we all have to eat.

Still, chronic overeaters do often embrace a version of the abstinence dogma, treating certain foods like Johnny Walker to an alcoholic. It might be an economy-sized bag of potato chips or a hot fudge sundae or a double order of Buffalo wings. Every foodie has a taboo food or two that will predictably shatter his or her discipline and will power and send the dieter into face-stuffing freefall.

Or so the wisdom goes. But is it true?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Link Between Over-indebtedness And Obesity Identified


Scientists at the University of Mainz have discovered a close correlation between over-indebtedness and obesity.
According to the report published in the journal BMC Public Health, over-indebted Germans are more likely to be overweight or obese than the population in general.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Fat hormone influences our motivation to eat

w:DopamineDopamine molecular model, image via Wikipedia

Fat Hormone Influences Baseline Dopamine Levels And Our Motivation To Eat - ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — As we all know from experience, people eat not only because they are hungry, but also because the food just simply tastes too good to pass up. Now, a new study in the August 6th Cell Metabolism, helps to explain how leptin, a hormone produced by fat tissue, influences that motivation to eat.

The researchers describe for the first time a new bunch of leptin-responsive (LepRb) neurons in the brain's lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). Those LHA neurons feed directly into the mesolimbic dopamine system seated in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which controls the rewarding properties we assign to things.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Down with the BMI!

Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus : NPR
Americans keep putting on the pounds — at least according to a report released this week from the Trust for America's Health. The study found that nearly two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

But you may want to take those findings — and your next meal — with a grain of salt, because they're based on a calculation called the body mass index, or BMI.

As the Weekend Edition math guy, I spoke to Scott Simon and told him the body mass index fails on 10 grounds:

Monday, July 6, 2009

"Hungry", by Allen Zadoff

http://www.allenzadoff.com/Allen_Zadoff_author_website/hungry.htmlI read a book last night. Or, to be exact: I spent almost the whole night reading this book: Hungry, a memoir by Allen Zadoff

(Actually, I've read the italian version.) As you can imagine, I read a lot of books regarding obesity, food, eating disorders and all things around. Among all I've seen, this book is the one which most closely describes the experience of my relationship with food, and maybe the one that gives me more hope to be able to recover from my problem.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

44% children in Mississippi are obese

WISE, VA - JULY 21:  Donnie Eaststep lies near...Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Mississippi Fattest State : Blisstree - Family, Health, Home and Lifestyles
Mississippi once again ranks as the heaviest state for the fifth straight year in a row. Over thirty percent of its population is considered obese. Adults aren’t the only ones gaining weight, either. Forty-four percent of children, ages 10-17, are considered obese as well.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Dietary myths dispelled

CaffeineImage via Wikipedia
from Some dietary myths dispelled (EUFIC)
  • Do caffeinated drinks have a dehydrating effect and increase fluid requirements?
  • Should you eat no more than three eggs per week?
  • Does cooking destroy all the goodness in vegetables?
  • Can “chrono-nutrition” help you lose weight?

Monday, June 1, 2009

Obesity and colonoscopy

Bowel Prep for Colonoscopy Hard for Obese : Blisstree - Family, Health, Home and Lifestyles
Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the United States. It’s also one of the most detectable and treatable of all, with up to a 90% cure rate if caught in the early stages.

Most often, once a cancer starts showing symptoms, it’s advanced quite a bit. So, the best way to find early cancers is through proper screening. The way to find - and prevent - colorectal cancer is through screening colonoscopies.

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Vittoria
wife, mother of three, science teacher, blogger
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