A story recently found on MSNBC highlights what most overweight folks know already, eating highly processed food makes us depressed. (and not just in that ‘I can’t believe I just ate’ that way, either) the story cites a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry which analyzed the link between the food people ate and their mood. I personally have found this to be true.
Interesting read.
-Drew
Being overweight myself I have spent a great deal of time examining why I succeed and fail to lose weight at different times in my life. Two things immediately come to mind that help and they are having a strong motivator and having people who genuinely seem to have a vested interest in my success. The first one is easy but usually temporary, the second one is much much more difficult to achieve, mostly because of my own perception of the world and the other people I encounter in it.
If you read my previous article entitled More to Exploit, you know that I was skeptical about the Fox network’s motives when it comes to their new show More to Love. My initial fears were fully realized last night while within the first five minutes of the premier. The premier essentially consisted of the 20 ‘contestants’ meeting the “big” winner Zack (pun intended..) and Zack trying to figure out which girls he wanted to keep around and which ones he was going to get rid of.
Zack himself seems like an opportunist rather than someone who is looking for love. In one scene (which was most likely edited this way) he was discussing how hard it would be for him to choose the women who would be going home, and in the very next breath implied that if the girl sitting with him would make out with him it would really help her chances of staying.
Throughout the show the focus shifted rapidly between what was going on in the house and private interviews with the women. One thing is for sure, they intentionally edited the potentially hundreds of hours of interviews to maximize the pathetic and socially inept factor of the plus sized women. At least two of them admitted that they had never been on a single date before and several of the women were in tears while describing their past experience while trying to find love.
FOX doesn’t seem to be doing the image of plus sized women any favors here, and if anything More to Love will most likely work to reinforce the stereotypes of plus sized women as being desperate, emotionally damaged, inept, and destined to be perpetually lonely.
From a purely entertainment standpoint, so far the show is just passable. FOX most likely put this show in the off-season because they knew that it wasn’t interesting enough to debut during the primetime fall season. I hope the first episode is not a indication of what is to come, because if it gets any more negatively skewed I would expect to start hearing cartoon like sound effects.
Drew
Recently, the media has been all aflutter (here, here, and in many other places) about Contrave, the next great hope in weight loss drugs. Currently in FDA testing, Contrave is not a new drug at all, rather it is the combination of two drugs (Welbutrin and Naltrexone) which have been on the market for years. According to Orexigen Therapeutics Inc (the producer of Contrave) Contrave takes the metabolism boosting power of Welbutrin and combines it with the craving killing power of Naltrexone to help you lose weight.
Welbutrin has been used for years as an anti-depressant and Naltrexone is used to treat various addictions. With an almost combined 20 years of every day use by patients, I began to wonder if Contrave was anything to get excited about, at all. It occurred to me that if someone was so inclined that they could go to their doctor and get a prescription for both Welbutrin and Naltrexone bypassing that whole messy FDA phase three study thing we’ve all been hearing about.
So then why bother re-branding two drugs that have been available for a combined two decades? First, the FDA approves drugs for a specific purpose, and anything else is considered off label. Even if Topamax does help a lot of people lose weight, it is still a migraine/anti-seizure medication according to the FDA. If doctors prescribe you a drug for an off-label use, and it kills you your doctor could be in serious trouble. Second, a new weight-loss drug (especially one that won’t make your heart beat so fast that it kills you, or cause ‘leakage’) is sure to be a “blockbuster drug” just like Viagra or Cialis is which means an incredible amount of money for the Orexigen (and their investors).
It seems odd to me that research money was spent trying different combinations of drugs rather than trying to come up with a new and more effective way to treat obesity. Weight loss is a potential side effect of many drugs, but there are very few drugs (according to the FDA) which actually help people lose weight, and keep it off. If Contrave is approved for the treatment of obesity, then shouldn’t the treatment of obesity then be applied as label usages of both Welbutrin and Naltrexone? Make no doubt about it, Orexigen will be going to great lengths to make sure this doesn’t happen, and that is the problem with this entire situation.
I am all for anything that will make people lead healthier lives, at the same time Contrave seems like taking half of a Ford Mustang, and Half of a Dodge Challenger, combining them and calling it a Chalstang. You’re still taking two things that have exited for a really long time and blending them together. Could Contrave help a great number of people, lose weight? YES! Will it do a better job than just taking the sum of its parts (and at much much cheaper prices)?
I don’t see how it could.
Andrew
When I first heard about the premise and saw the preview for the upcoming Fox show More To Love. My mind began immediately swimming with different thoughts and feelings. On the one hand, it could be inspiring and uplifting for people to see plus sized women treated like human beings on national television. On the other hand, I see a few problems with the overall premise of this show.
First, “plus sized” women are not a new trend, a fad, or a fashion accessory for the summer of 2009. They are people, just like all the other contestants on all of the other reality shows. They have been around for quite a long time. I have a problem with the “mission” of this show, according to Fox More To Love is all about loving yourself and self-worth, I disagree entirely.
If Fox wanted to uplift “plus sized” women, they would’ve made a clone of ABC’s The Bachelor and made half of the women “regular” and half of the women “plus sized” and let the best woman win based on all of their attributes. Instead, by choosing (In Fox’s own words) “a single average guy with a big waist and an even bigger heart” as the prospective bachelor and choosing all “plus sized women” as the contestants, the show (and Fox) imply that all ‘big people’ should break off from the rest of society, pair up, have ‘big people babies’, and move to the mountains where they won’t bother anybody.
I argue that if the women that Fox has selected to participate in More To Love are so well adjusted, confident, and self-loving that they would have no problem ‘competing’ against any woman for any man. All of the press I have seen for More To Love tries to paint it as this big ‘coming out party’ for “plus sized” women, that Fox just discovered this long lost tribe out in a cave somewhere like King Kong and are bringing them to the world for the first time.
Maybe that is the point here? After all, who’s fault is it that people are so hung up on their weight in this country? Why are there so many women (in general, not even “plus sized”) who have a poor self image? Who sets the standard for beauty in the United States? You guessed it, the media. The fact is that this show wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for the constant and unwavering amount of self-hatred that people feel when they turn on their TV, read magazines, or watch movies. So “plus sized women” are okay as long as you’re exploiting them in some ridiculous fashion but when it comes time to cast a show at primetime guess what?
Sorry, no plus sized women to be found.
This is part of a larger trend in our society. All companies (not just media companies) need to stop pretending like they are doing people a favor by exploiting them, For a completely unrelated example the mortgage bubble was “a great opportunity for low-income families to become home-owners” just like More To Love is “[…] a dating show that sends the right message about embracing and loving yourself no matter your shape or size," as long as the person you’re interested in has “a big waist and an even bigger heart” otherwise, you’re completely out of luck.
-Drew
As the bottle indicates in highlighted print, anyone who is taking Alli should take a multi-vitamin. The reason is simple, many vitamins in food are delivered via fat. Because Alli prevents your body from digesting some of the fat you eat, you miss out on the vitamins and their associated benefits. I recently did some research to find the “best multi-vitamin” and I wanted to share the results for you.
Experts say that the $40 bottle of vitamins offer no greater benefits over the $10 bottle of vitamins and the highest rated vitamins I could find were (surprise) One-a-day multi-vitamins.
A 250 count bottle of One-A-Day Men’s Multivitamin
So for eight cents a day you can have the peace of mind that comes with knowing your body is getting all it needs.
-Drew
I have been taking All/Xenical for over three years, in that time I have learned the ins and outs of the drug. I’ve gone through my ‘heavy compliance’ phases, my ‘eat a whole bunch and then let the drug handle it phases (not recommended)’ and many more. One thing I think about Alli that I don’t think people understand is how much you can eat before you “set it off”.
Recently, I began following the “big breakfast diet” because it just makes sense to me. The diet consists of eating a big breakfast rich in protein and then (hopefully) that breakfast will keep you full until Lunch to prevent snacking. It is a ‘eat three times a day diet’ and it seems to be working pretty well for me so far. Although the breakfast I eat I don’t exactly consider “healthy” it is full of protein and everything my body needs to provide me with Energy.
The Breakfast Sandwich consists of:
Then I usually add a glass of juice or whatever to it. Even with that amount of fat (from the eggs, bacon, and cheese), Alli still doesn’t make me have ‘leakage’ related side effects, and believe me I know what that’s all about. When I was in a less healthy mental state I used to eat candy and then take a Xenical, pure horror would ensue.
The point I am trying to make here is that you have to work pretty hard (or at least I do) to get the ‘revenge of Alli’ and that the benefits surely outweigh the negatives.
Don’t forget, Alli is currently on sale at Amazon.com all through the month of January.
-Drew
Larry King Live (CNN) (Watch it) was focused on The Biggest Loser and the obesity problem in America in general. The trainers (Jillian and Bob) and contestants from various seasons were guests and offered insight into their struggle to lose weight. The most interesting guest was the winner of season four whom seemed to re-gain most of the weight he had lost which only proves that being healthy is not a destination it is a life long process which you can constantly shift in and out of.
I think most people would like to believe that when people leave The Biggest Loser ranch they are ‘fixed’. What ever be it emotions, learned behavior, or addiction that caused them to become obese is simply gone forever but that is just not true. Contestants (like everyone else) go back to their lives without the constant nurturing and support and are bombarded with all of the old temptations, emotions and environments which prompted them to gain weight in the first place.
But wait! People go home from the ranch and continue to lose weight right? Yes, but as Bob and Jillian pointed out, they are still in constant contact with them even after they leave the ranch. This poses the question then, can obesity ever really be “cured”? If the most popular trainers in the world still have to prod people after they leave the ranch, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Perhaps instead of treating the physical state of obesity which is caused by eating too much and exercising too little, Perhaps we should treat the reason people are eating too much and exercising too little in the first place. I would venture to say that at the core of 90% of most obese individuals there lies emotional problems which can be traced directly to their eating behaviors.
Telling someone who could already have emotional problems that they eat too much and are lazy doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. Maybe more research needs to be done in the psychology of obesity rather than the pharmacology. I am glad that Larry King decided to have the Biggest Loser winner who gained his weight back on. It shows both obese people and non-obese people alike that there is no quick route to becoming healthy and like with any virus one must be mindful that they still have the disease even if they aren’t showing symptoms at that moment.
Personally, I think The Biggest Loser does a lot to show people what is possible, but it gives people an unrealistic idea of what it is like once the cameras are off and Jillian and Bob aren’t there to scream at you anymore.
-Drew
While I was unimpressed with the first episode of True Beauty, I found myself tremendously bored last night and it appeared to be the only thing on. The second episode, which seemed to center around how much everyone hates Chelsea, offered no real twists and turns and only proved to be mildly entertaining.
The show opens with reactions to Chelsea being sent to the “hall of beauty”, everyone seems hopeful that she will not return, and when she does people are as snarky as ever to her. “Drama” ensues when Julia (who will probably win) claims that Chelsea has stolen a pair of her Citizen jeans. The confrontation was pretty uneventful with Chelsea eventually giving up the jeans at the end.
The ‘challenge’ this week was to make the contestants buy an outfit, but the amazing twist was that they only had $100 for three peoples’ outfits, then the two people with the weakest outfit would be sent to the “hall of beauty” for possible elimination. Most of the people simply sweet-talked shop owners for the clothes they needed. C.J. and Ashley (and Chelsea but she didn’t participate) scammed hapless folks out of their clothes claiming it was for charity.
There was a ‘set-up’ challenge with an actor collecting money for children’s cancer research. Most of the contestants did end up donating. In the end, C.J. and Ashley were both sent to the “hall of beauty” and Ashley ended up going home. Controversy in sued when Ashley was sent home because she helped Chelsea put her outfit together. Everyone forgets that Ashley scammed people out of clothes by claiming it was for charity, and didn’t help the “bike messenger” up after his nasty spill during the “last straw” challenge.
Rife with petty confrontations, shallow people, and amusingly awful judges this episode didn’t really prove to be any more interesting than the last, but with the current “break” that most shows have taken I suppose it is better (slightly) than watching paint dry.
-Drew
Calories, fat, and cost aside I have been drinking Starbucks for years. One of my favorite things about Starbucks has been the ability to customize your creation to (try) to make something which is both delicious and not completely disastrous to your health. My drink of choice has always been a non-fat vanilla latte. I find I really don’t miss the fat in the milk at all, and it ‘gets the job done’ on a cold Ohio morning. Recently I went to my local Starbucks and noticed new menu items called Skinny drinks. Here is the skinny on skinny.
A skinny drink, which comes in Skinny Latte, Skinny Caramel Latte, Skinny Hazelnut Latte, Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, and Skinny Vanilla Latte are the same as the original flavors except for two major differences. First, the skinny lattes incorporate non-fat milk into the beverage, and second the skinny lattes use sugar-free flavored syrup instead of the regular sugared kind. So basically a skinny vanilla latte is the same as ordering a non-fat, sugar-free, vanilla latte (But with fewer words).
At 130 calories and 0g of fat for a 16oz skinny latte, this seems like a no-brainer compared to 250 calories and 6g of fat for the ‘non-skinny version’. Still, keep in mind that 130 calories is quite a bit for a beverage so moderation (like with anything) is king here. All in all I honestly can’t tell the difference in taste between the skinny vanilla latte, and the regular vanilla latte and to me that is the sweetest part of all.
-Drew