Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’

9
Jun

Diet Quiz – A for Apple Pie And Comfort

   Posted by: Lita    in Nutrition

Test your diet knowledge with a diet quiz.

Do you use weight loss products? The diet quiz may lead you to ask more questions about the products that you use.

The diet quiz may also lead you to research other well known diets that may be beneficial to you.

You can answer either true or false to the questions below.  The answers to the diet quiz are at the bottom of the article.  Also at the end of this article you will find information on a tool you can use to customize a healthy diet plan just for you.

1.  Do some foods have negative calories?

2.  Raw food diets do not supply our bodies with ample amounts of all vitamins and required minerals?

3.  Companies do not have to prove that weight loss products or services actually work before they can be sold?

4.  Weight loss products and services are usually tested for safety before they reach store shelves?

5.  Up to 15lbs of fat may be removed by liposuction?

6.  High calorie diets are the only cause of obesity?

7.  Children should be allowed to control their portion sizes?

8.  The Mediterranean Diet is not associated with a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer?

9.  Fast foods cannot be part of a healthy diet?

10.   The Slow Food USA movement was developed to slow down the rate at which consumers are purchasing diet products?

11.   Comfort foods exist?

12.   Chocolate is an aphrodisiac?

Answers to the diet quiz:

  1. FALSE: Although this is a myth, many people think the concept is genuine due to stories they’ve heard of grapefruit and other diets.
  2. TRUE: Although, there can be positives to a raw food diet which can be described as an uncooked vegan diet, generally speaking raw food diets lower your beneficial HDL cholesterol levels and might lead to a vitamin B-12 deficiency with a loss of bone mineral density.
  3. TRUE:  There are no laws in effect that require a weight loss product to be effective.  The weight loss industry falls outside of consumer protection with respect to general societal standards.
  4. FALSE:  The history of the weight loss industry is filled with failures that have led to serious health concerns.  There is generally no testing for safety before weight loss products reach the marketplace.
  5. FALSE:  Surgical standards dictate no more than 8 lbs of fat may be removed by liposuction.
  6. FALSE:  High calorie diets are included in the many causes of obesity.
  7. TRUE:  It is up to the parents to provide a nutritious selection of foods while the children themselves should be allowed to decide how much they eat.  Interactions around eating and body weight can have consequences in the prevention or promotion of obesity in children.  Positive activities that include regular physical activity that promotes fun while decreasing a focus on eating, foods and weight can help promote healthy eating habits and normal weight for children.
  8. FALSE:  The Mediterranean Diet emphasizes olive oil, breads, whole grain cereals, nuts, fish, dried beans, vegetables and fruits together with wine, in moderation.  A guide to this diet was developed by the World Health Organization in 1994 to help popularize a form of diet related to a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer.
  9. FALSE:  Yes, many fast foods are high in calories, fat, saturated fat and salt, however, an occasional cheeseburger and fries or your favourite pizza can still be consumed while maintaining a healthy diet.
  10. FALSE:  The Slow Food USA movement is an international group that supports ecologically sound food production and the revival of the kitchen and family table as centers of pleasure.  This organization promotes culture and community while living a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.
  11. TRUE:  Feelings of security and love can be renewed by comfort foods.  The ice cream your mother fed you when you had your tonsils out or the chicken noodle soup you were given when you had the flu can bring back those feelings of being cared for.  Ice cream, apple pie, chicken noodle soup, boxed chocolates, meat loaf and mashed potatoes are among the most popular comfort foods.
  12. FALSE:  The notion that food can act as an aphrodisiac has been with us since ancient times.  Although many have searched high and low for love potions none have been found.

When you’ve finished the diet quiz, visit Canada’s Food Guide website and use the interactive tool to build your own healthy eating plan.  By entering data such as your age and sex and then selecting various food items from the four food groups and choosing different physicial activities you can create a program that is customized just for you.  You will find this tool at Health Canada.

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Liposuction is commonly referred to as liposculpture, suction lipectomy (“suction-assisted fat removal”) or lipoplasty (“fat modeling”) and is a form of body contouring. To put it another way fat is removed from various parts of the body to help achieve a desired shape. Liposuction has been around since the 1960’s however it is only since the 1990’s that it has become increasingly popular|so incredibly popular. Before then the procedures utilized were less successful, and the results were mixed. It was in the 1990’s that ultrasound was introduced into the liposuction technique, which made it far less difficult to remove larger amounts of fat. This was achieved by first liquefying the fat.

It’s not uniquely women who seek the help of liposuction surgeons but men also. 20 years ago this was rarely, if ever, heard of, but in today’s society men are commonly having the very same beauty procedures as women. Men often wish to have specific areas of the body sculptured, for example, male breasts, abdomen and flanks, women usually wish to treat such such parts of the body as the thighs, abdomen and hips. Whatever place one chooses to have contoured it would be wise to be mindful that all cosmetic surgery has a few risks. Sadly there are negative aspects to having liposuction, if an extremely large amount of fat is removed, the area can sometimes be lumpy, or appear to have rifts in the skin.

One important aspect of liposuction, which must not be overlooked, is that it should never be used as an alternative to diet and exercise. There are large number of contraindications to liposuction and being dangerously overweight is one of them. An aesthetic surgeon will frequently refuse to operate on anybody who is morbidly or severely obese. This is not an act of discrimination, but justa medical decision based on proven facts. People who suffer from obesity are nearly always very unfit and generally not in good health, both of which cancels out one’s eligibility for the procedure. There are also risks with anesthesia if a person is overweight. The best candidates for liposuction are those folk who are in generally good shape and healthy, and who do not smoke tobacco.

Liposuction is performed either; using general anesthesia, local anesthesia with sedation, or local anesthesia, local anesthesia. At the start of the procedure the surgeon will make very small cuts in the skin at the areas where the offending fat is to be removed. Generally the fat is removed via a cannula and aspirator (a hollow tube and a suction device) During the surgery, several points are considered that can the amount of fat that can safely be removed. The safety issues are not only relate to the amount of fat extracted, but also to the total health of the person, and the choice of anesthesia used.

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With obesity rates continuing to soar in the West it is perhaps not surprising that we are seeing a growing number of overweight children. Of course the effects of childhood obesity are all too obvious, but precisely what is it that causes childhood obesity?

The simple answer is that there is no one cause of child obesity and there are a variety of things which give rise to obesity in our children.

It is generally the case for instance that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will be overweight or obese which suggests that there may well be an inherited or genetic element to obesity. However, although this is an area that is currently being studied, no clear genetic link has so far been discovered and it is felt much more likely that it is the diet and eating habits within the family that lead to obesity and not genetics.

We have witnessed a considerable change in eating habits in the last few years with fast food restaurants appearing on every street corner, junk food widely available and the shelves of our supermarkets lined with ‘convenience’ foods which are more often than not very high in sugar. The days when we sat down to home cooked meals are long gone in the majority of households and have been replaced by take-away food or microwave meals. In fact, all too many parents are now opting to take their children out for a pizza instead of preparing meals at home not just because it is easier than cooking a meal but also because it saves a lot of washing up!

We have also seen a very marked drop in activity levels for many groups of children, spurred on in no small measure by the arrival of computers, video games consoles and now the ubiquitous mobile phone. Of course, as activity levels have dropped so children have lost their god given ability to burn off the calories gained from eating a growing quantity of junk food.

The Internet, magazines, television and other forms of media also play an important role as they all but dominate our childrens’ lives and fast food, junk food and candy manufacturers are not slow in jumping onto this particular bandwagon and take full advantage of the advertising opportunity provided by the media. Many people would argue that advertising has done more to encourage the rise in childhood obesity than almost anything else in the last few years.

There are also many psychological factors at play in the world today and many children today will simply eat whenever they get bored. Additionally, they will turn to food when they find themselves angry, stressed, depressed or anxious.

Right now a great deal of medical research is being directed towards the cause of child obesity and its treatment and much of this is aimed at finding a solution to the problem using diet and exercise once confronted with an obese child. However, with childhood obesity continuing to grow at an alarming rate, and with the obvious dangers of child obesity, perhaps it is now time to attack the roots of the problem and to stop our children from getting obese in the first place.

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