Weight Management

More than 2 billion people around the world are now overweight or obese, according to a new University of Washington study in The Lancet. Since 1980, the global proportion of women who are overweight or obese has gone from 30% to 38%; men have gone from 29% to 40%, overtaking women in percentage overweight or obese.

If youre over 65 or approaching that age and still watching your weight, new findings suggest you may be worrying about the wrong thing. Its true that the obesity epidemic has exacted a serious toll on Americas health. But for older adults, maintaining muscle mass to ward off frailty-a condition called sarcopenia-is more important both to the length and quality of life than counting pounds. The popular Body Mass Index (BMI-see box), a calculation that combines weight and height, turns out not to be a very good predictor of health for older adults-for whom the rules about overweight may simply be different than for younger people.

If you listen to advocates of the raw food movement, everything is better for you when its not cooked. But theres a whole group of leafy-green vegetables traditionally served cooked-mustard, collard and turnip greens-that, except in the South, most Americans simply skip as they concentrate on fresh salad greens. Cooking helps tame the flavors of some greens, like mustard, that might deter some diners. Cooking can also make chard more palatable, when its leaves and stems are too mature for salads. And of course cooking opens up a whole different menu for spinach and kale.

Since 2007, 16 of the nations leading food and beverage companies have cut 6.4 trillion calories out of the American diet-equivalent to 78 daily calories per person. Thats the conclusion of a report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which worked with the companies to help combat childhood obesity.

While US obesity rates remain at historic highs, only Arkansas has seen an increase in the percentage of adults who are obese, while the other 49 states hit pause in a three-decade trend of ever-fatter populations.

Answer : A Nicola McKeown, PhD, director of Tufts Nutritional Epidemiology Program, responds: There is a great deal of testimonial evidence on whats known in the vernacular as wheat belly, but there is a lack of scientific evidence to support the claims...

If you knew it would take two hours of brisk walking to burn off the calories in that quarter-pound double cheeseburger, would you be less likely to order it?

Americans LDL cholesterol levels have stopped

If you think you can avoid unhealthy restaurant fare by skipping nation-wide chain restaurants for smaller local eateries, a new Tufts study has a wake-up call for you.

New government data suggest that while US levels of obesity and overweight remain far too high, the rate of increase may be slowing. About one-third of adults were obese in the latest analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).