Category Archives: diet

Children eating more healthy

Share Childhood Food Memories to Help Combat Childhood Obesity


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Without question the eating habits we develop as kids helps determine if we are going to be a heavy adult. Almost a third of children and adolescents in the US are classified as either overweight or obese (JAMA 2014; Ogden, CL).

Many of these children become obese adults. If a child’s parents are heavy their risk is doubled for becoming an overweight adult.

Metabolism.com is involved in finding ways to reduce childhood obesity.

The first step is to raise awareness of the dangers of childhood obesity and how crucial it is for young people to learn how to eat properly. For this reason we are kicking off a Facebook and Instagram campaign called “ Food Flashback”.

Food Flashback means sharing memories of how each of us first learned about food and nutrition. Most of us have some vivid recollections of family meals, watching our parents cooking, favorite foods and snacks as a child.

Bioflavonoids: Powerful Health Promoting Nutrients from Nature


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It seems as if bioflavonoid is a popular buzzword for the health conscious. But what are bioflavonoids and why are they helpful?

In the past Bioflavonoids were often referred collectively as vitamin P.  Bioflavonoids are a group of naturally occurring plant compounds, which act primarily in nature as plant pigments, metabolic enhancers, chemical messengers within the plant  and also fight various plant infections. In humans, they exhibit a host of biological activities, most notably powerful antioxidant properties.  More than 5,000 bioflavonoids have been identified as of now. Continue reading →

Obesity Related Type 2 Diabetes is More Severe in Teens than Adults


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Overweight TeenObesity Related Type 2 Diabetes is More Severe in Teens than Adults

by Gary Pepper, M.D. and Andrew Levine, Pre-Med, Univ of Central Florida

The recently published TODAY study found obesity related type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is more severe as a teen than as an adult, and high risk of developing diabetes could be tied to weight gain at an early age.

Between 2004 and 2009 the Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Youth Study Group (TODAY) gathered 700 participants who met the American Diabetes Associations criteria for this disease.  The participants were monitored for between two to six years.  TODAYs goal was to assess treatment options and the clinical progression of obesity related T2DM in youth.  The mean age of the 700 participants in the TODAY study was thirteen, the majority being female. Sixty percent of the 700 participants were African American or Hispanic, with the remainder being Caucasian. The mean duration of diabetes for the studys participants was less than seven months. A major worrisome finding from the study is a majority of participants were also discovered to have dyslipidemia, an abnormally high amount of fats (cholesterol, triglycerides) in the blood, as well as high blood pressure (hypertension). Continue reading →

What is Behind the Epidemic of Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in Children and Teens in the U.S.?


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by Gary Pepper, M.D. and Andrew Levine, Pre-med

If you ask the average person to define diabetes, a typical response might be “it’s when you have unhealthy eating habits and an overabundance of sugar in your blood.”  Although that is not far from the truth, a more accurate definition is that diabetes is a disorder in the way our body uses insulin to process digested food for energy and storage. A good part of what we eat is broken down into glucose, the principle form of sugar in the blood. Diabetes occurs when there is not enough insulin to push the glucose into our cells. This deprives the body of the energy it needs because glucose is metabolized as fuel by all the organs in the body. Therefore in diabetes despite an elevated amount of sugar in the blood,  the cells are actually starving for energy.  We sometimes conceive of glucose in the blood as the enemy , but without it we would die. Continue reading →

Could HCG Diet Result in Unexpected Pregnancy?


Categories: diet, hormones, weight loss
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I have written several blogs on the possible complications of using HCG for dieting. Of the problems HCG could cause I included excess facial and body hair, acne, oily skin, ovarian cysts and now I add unexpected pregnancy. It is important to remember that HCG has, for many years, been an important hormone in fertility treatments. During fertility treatments HCG is injected at a precise moment to cause release of the ripened egg, the process called ovulation.

A similar effect of HCG treatment could cause women who normally don’t ovulate to suddenly and unexpectedly release an egg. In essence, women on HCG injections for dieting are actually participating in their own fertility treatments.

Continue reading →

HCG for Diet Could Effect Your Ovaries


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Several months ago I posted my thoughts on possible hormonal complications of using HCG for diet purposes . Since HCG is the “pregnancy hormone” it has a profound effect on the ovaries, causing them to work harder with the potential to over produce various sex hormones. Based on this theory I proposed that HCG could make you hairy by raising levels of the hormone testosterone. Today I had confirmation of my suspicions about ovarian side effects of HCG injections for weight loss. I learned that a woman who was being treated for a thyroid condition and polycystic ovarian disease (PCO) developed a dangerous ovarian condition while using HCG for weight loss. She was happy because she lost 14 lbs. but was stopped by her GYN doctor from continuing her HCG injections. Continue reading →