Obesity
in America
You really don't need a government
study to realize that there's a huge weight issue facing
Americans. Just go to the mall, the beach, the baseball game
and you'll see overweight people all around you. It's a fact
that severely overweight people do not even leave their homes
so you don't even see these people on a regular
basis.
US News published an
article on Jan 2/09 entitled
"The State of America's
Health as Obama takes Office" On obesity, it
states:
"Our expanding girth is America's most visible health
problem. Not only are most adults too heavy, but obesity rates
for children have more than doubled in the past 30 years.
Excess weight is a significant factor in four of the six
leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and
diabetes. Obesity has fueled a 45 percent rise in diabetes over
the past 20 years; someone born in 2000 has a 1 in 3 chance of
developing the disease. "
Obesity in America is by no means a new issue in the
press.
In 2004, Time Magazine published an article
called
" How We Grew So Big"
".....the actual numbers are shocking. Fully two-thirds of
U.S. adults are officially overweight. and about half of those
have graduated to full blown obesity. The rates for African
Americans and Latinos are even higher.."
I his book, "Microtrends", Mark J. Penn
notes that while many people acknowledge obesity as a huge
issue no one seems to make an issue about the fact that obesity
is not evenly distributed in the population.
"While we are all generally getting fatter, the real burden
of morbid obesity is falling disproportionately on one group of
Americans: black women. According to a 2002 study in the
Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), women in
general are about twice as likely as men to be morbidly obese,
but a sobering 1 in 6 black women are morbidly obese---3x the
rate of any other sub group" This has massive implications for
the black community and nobody is addressing this on a national
basis.
This obesity trend is not going to disappear any time soon
without a radical departure in how we habitually eat. It should
also be noted that this obesity issue is fairly new in the
grand scheme of things. According to Statistics Canada, a
Federal government department, Canadians increased their
caloric intake by 18% over a 10 year period from 1992 to 2002.
Dr Youfa Wang, lead researcher at Johns Hopkins University,
analyzed over 20 medical weght related studies and came to the
conclusion that "Obesity is a public health crisis. If we
continue to become overweight or obese at our current pace, by
2015 75% of adults and nearly 24% of U.S. children and
adolescents will be overweight or obese."
Even Disney is indirectly trying to alert the World to the
growing Worldwide obesity issue. Just watch a recent movie
called Wall-E where grossly overweight human characters depend
on mechanized chairs and robots to fulfill routine daily
tasks.It also has a lot to say about our ever growing garbage
issue.
Most people realize that their personal weight is an
issue. That's why diet fads are so popular, why diet books sell
so well and why people turn to seemingly miraculous solutions
to try to solve their problems. Enter weight loss pills.
Weight Loss Pills
On December 23, 2008, the FDA issued this warning:
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is
alerting consumers nationwide not to purchase or consume more
than 25 different products marketed for weight loss because
they contain undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients that
may put consumers' health at risk"
Janet Woodcock M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluations
and Research, FDA stated that " These tainted weight loss
products pose a great risk to public health because they
contain undeclared ingredients and, in some cases, contain
prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed their maximum
recommended dosages. Consumers have no way of knowing that
these products contain powerful drugs that could cause serious
health consequences..."
Undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients included
sibutramine (a controlled substance),
rimonabant ( a drug not yet approved for
marketing in the U.S.), phenytoin ( an
anti-seizure medication), and
phenolphthalein ( a solution used in
chemical experiments and a suspected cancer causing agent).
Sibutramine can cause high blood
pressure, seizures, tachycardia, palpitations, heart attack or
stroke. The interaction of this drug with medications already
taken could have further harmful health consequences.
Rimonabant is an approved drug in Europe
but not in the USA. According to the FDA, this drug has been
associated with "increased risk of depression and suicidal
thoughts and has been liked to 5 deaths and 720 adverse
reactions in Europe over past 2 years."
Mobile Phone
Freedom
Canadian Viewpoint:
Weight-loss clinics need regulation
Updated Tue. Feb. 17 2009 9:39 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Governments should be regulating the commercial weight-loss
industry to prevent Canadians from falling victim to misleading
claims from fad diets, diet pills and weight-loss devices, say
two obesity doctors.
In an editorial in this week's Canadian Medical
Association Journal, Drs. Yoni Freedhoff and Arya Sharma
say too many weight-loss providers take advantage of vulnerable
consumers desperate to lose weight and "happily exploit"
them.
"Although experts agree that obesity management requires
long-term behavioural, medical or surgical intervention, the
majority of commercial weight-loss providers manipulate
vulnerable consumers with impunity, cultivating unrealistic
expectations and false beliefs," they write.
Random Sample
This is a random sample of one of the
products listed for sale at http://www.2daydiets.com on Dec
31/08
This is a direct copy of website listing complete with all
grammatical errors. It would appear that the text was
translated imperfectly into English. Ad starts below this
line:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5x Imelda Perfect Slim
$15.75
Imelda Perfect Slim - 5x Super Slim Power
60 Capsules- 100% Natural Herbal Essence
Whitening - Firming - Maintaining - Improving
Perfect Slim have unique especially good effect, it can help to
reduce fat, discharging grease, flaming grease, totally body
slim, so it cannot compare with same kinds of heath care
product. Adopts the advanced science method, leaches from
Ebony, Fox-nut, plan essence ingredients. Stable quality, to
provide the best of health care foodstuff to consumer. Nature
plant essence, can accelerate metabolism, increase full
feeling, decrease absorption, keep perfect stature.
APPLICATION: It will appear flab after took any medicine of
reduce weight, simple obesity, adolescence obesity and
abdominal fatness, abdomen, stern, neck, arm, whole body,
etc
EFFECTS: Improving, Firming and whitening your skin, it should
be specialized contrapose in flab of skin and sarcous for
reducing weight and post partum. It can improve immunity,
decrease the fat in hemoaccess. It can make you lightness
posture and reversed elasticity. It will be aglow with health
beam and achieve the best effect of cultivate your
morality.
DIRECTIONS: 4 capsules before breakfast in morning. Our
suggestion: Drink 8 glasses of water or above in everyday.
INGREDIETNS: The main content includes Ebony, Fox-nut,
Tuckahoe, Semen Pruni, Dioscorease, wheat Germ, Nature
Substance.
Precautions: For those patient with serious heart disease,
thyroid, pregnant women and under 16-year-old are
inapplicability. Slow effect if the person who is bibulous or
interest in the thickest tea.
All products are 100% authenticity guarantee and original
name brands. We Do Not Sell Knock offs or
Imitations
_End of
ad______________________________________________________________________________
Buyer
Beware
The sloppy copy does nothing to give the product any
credibility so why would anybody purchase his product from this
website? Beats me. Unfortunately, many of these products are
still available as of Dec 31/08 because some of the companies
have not complied with FDA efforts to recall the products.
Further action is in the works but in the meantime, it's
"Buyer Beware"
Here is the list of 28 weight loss pills deemed potentially
harmful by the FDA:
1. Fat Loss Slimming
2. 2 Day Diet
3. 3X Slimming Power
4. Japan Lingzhi 24 Hours Diet
5. 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming
6. 3 Day Diet
7. 7 Day Herbal Diet
8. 8 Factor Diet
9. 7 Day/Night Formula
10. 999 Fitness Essence
11. Extrim Plus
12. GMP
13. Imelda Perfect Slim
14. Lida DaiDaihua
15. Miaozi Slim Capsules
16. Perfect Slim
17. Perfect Slim 5x
18. Phyto Shape
19. ProSlim Plus
20. Royal Slimming Formula
21. Slim 3 in 1
22. Slim Express 360
23. Slimtech
24. Somotrim
25. Superslim
26. TripleSlim
27. Zhen de Shou
28. Venon Hyperdrive 3.0
If you enter any of these trade names in Google you will
find a ton of websites promoting these products. If you have
taken any of these products and had side effects, you can
report them to the FDA at this web address:
www.fda.gov/medwatch/getforms.htm or
phone (800) FDA-1088
More details for consumers can be found at http://www.fda.gov/cder/consumerinfo/weight_loss_products.htm
You have Weight Loss
Alternatives
Many, if not all the above products, are formulated and
manufactured abroad and are sold on websites throughout the
world so even if the FDA is successful, these dangerous weigh
loss pills will be still available in many countries outside
the USA and Canada.
There are very practical things you can do to reduce
food intake. One is drink more water. People sometimes
confuse a hungry feeling with the need for water. You should be
drinking 8 glasses or more of pure water--not coke or coffee.
If you don't you are probably dehydrated. The body craves water
so people could be misinterpreting the signal from the brain.
(Most food also contains water). Water is the body's number one
detoxifier which gets your bowels moving.
Other practical things you can do is use smaller dinner
plates, eliminate leftovers and eat lots and lots of
vegetables. You can also divide your meal into courses like
soup, salad and fruit for dessert and take more time to
eat.
Avoid "all you can eat buffets" and split entrees at
restaurants. I know none of this is easy but as the
movie "What about Bob?" says "baby steps" are
important achievements towards a solution for you.
You may also want to try this natural alternative from a
highly credible company.
Consider the information on this Immunotec
website devoted to a weigh loss product called
FITT
http://www.immunotec.com/commaher
cctv
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