While obesity has been reliably linked to many serious health problems – such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers – there's a minority of obese people who are metabolically healthy. A new study points to physical fitness as being a key component in these folks' avoidance of some of the usual obesity-linked health issues.
abdominal obesity
It's an ongoing debate: Can breakfast help deter obesity? Some research has found no connection. But a recent study of Spanish adults suggests that breakfast-eaters have a lower risk of developing abdominal obesity, the most dangerous kind.
The claim that artificial sweeteners might contribute to obesity is one we have seen many times in the past. The newest study on the subject is a research article just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society which evaluated the possibility of a relationship between the consumption of diet soda and increasing waist circumference (WC) in older Americans (i.e., over 65 years old).
The good news about obesity is that recent trends suggest that its rate of increase in Americans has stabilized. The bad news is that many of us are already overweight or obese, and a significant part of the problem, as suggested by a recent study in The American Journal of Medicine, is a widespread decrease in physical activity.
Numerous drugs have been tried in the fight against obesity some affect neurons in the brain, others act on the liver, and one (orlistat, sold as Xenical or Alli) acts to decrease the amount of fat absorbed from the intestinal tract.
If you re one of those people who avoid breakfast in hope of losing weight, perhaps you should think again.