Obesity and Energetics Offerings

Featured

• Diffusing obesity myths.
• A novel approach for food intake detection using electroglottography.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• RCT: Self-help CBT and sibutramine did not show long-term effectiveness relative to placebo for treating BED.
• Horizontal stripes don’t make you look fatter.
• “[W]hen confounding is adequately controlled, the association between infant feeding (including age at introduction of solid foods) is attenuated toward the null.”
• Profound defects in ß-cell function in screen-detected type 2 diabetes are not improved with glucose-lowering treatment in the early diabetes prevention program.
• RCT: No apparent effect of a compassionate mind approach to self-help for treatment seeking obese adults.
• “Our instrumental variable analyses did not support a causal relationship between higher BMI and major depression.”
• Meta-analysis shows that dietary pulses produced greater acute satiety yet do not affect second meal intake.
• In older community-dwelling adults, total urinary resveratrol metabolite concentration was not associated with inflammatory markers, cardiovascular disease, or cancer or predictive of all-cause mortality.

Stigma

• Creatively Re-Defining Fat: Identification Predicts Strategic Responses to Stigma, In-group Attitudes, and Well-Being.
• 'Louie' (TV show) sparks conversation about obesity in America.
• Reporting risk, producing prejudice: How news reporting on obesity shapes attitudes about health risk, policy, and prejudice.
• Using Social Network Analysis to Clarify the Role of Obesity in Selection of Adolescent Friends.
• Communication About Childhood Obesity on Twitter.

Food

• Commentary in NYT: Drs. Ludwig & Friedman – “Always Hungry? Here's Why”.
• Video: Mark Friedman: Why Getting Fat Makes you Overeat.
• Commentary in JAMA: Drs. Ludwig & Friedman – “Increasing Adiposity - Consequence or Cause of Overeating?”
• Soft food texture causes diabetes without obesity in rats.
• Long-term feeding on powdered food causes hyperglycemia and signs of systemic illness in mice.
• Protection from hypertension in mice by the Mediterranean diet is mediated by nitro fatty acid inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase.
• RCT: Freeze-Dried Strawberries Lower Serum Cholesterol and Lipid Peroxidation in Adults with Abdominal Adiposity and Elevated Serum Lipids.
• The independent association between diet quality and body composition.
• RCT: Influence of night-time protein and carbohydrate intake on appetite and cardiometabolic risk in sedentary overweight and obese women.

Gut Microbiota

• How gut bacteria regulate weight gain: Study provides further understanding.
• Are stool samples suitable for studying the link between gut microbiota and obesity?
• Gut Dysbiosis and Detection of “Live Gut Bacteria” in Blood of Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.
• The Microbiota‐Gut‐Brain axis in gastrointestinal disorders: Stressed bugs, stressed brain or both?

Economics

• Both insecurity and inequality are associated with the geographical patterning of adult obesity rates across England.
• RCT: The Salience of Excise vs. Sales Taxes on Healthy Eating: An Experimental Study.
• A higher body mass was strongly related to choosing a more immediate monetary reward.
• The impact of macroeconomic conditions on obesity in Canada.

Drugs

• BMJ and authors withdraw statements suggesting that side effects of statins occur in 18-20% of patients
• Rat data suggest that modulation of serotonin levels by fluoxetine promotes decrease in body weight likely due to alteration in body heat expenditure and modulation of cellular ROS detoxification.
• RCT: Dose-finding Results in an Adaptive, Seamless, Randomised Trial of Once Weekly Dulaglutide Combined with Metformin in Type 2 Diabetes (AWARD-5).
• Phase 3a data from largest trial with liraglutide 3 mg demonstrated significantly greater weight loss versus placebo for adults with obesity.

Sugars & Sweeteners

• Dietary sugars and cardiometabolic risk: systematic review and meta-analyses of RCTs of the effects on blood pressure and lipids.
• Advantame approved by FDA as a new food additive for use as a sweetener.
• Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Is Positively Related to Insulin Resistance and Higher Plasma Leptin Concentrations in Men and Nonoverweight Women.
• Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Associated with Increased Risk of Stroke in Women and Men.

Exercise

• RCT: Short bursts of intense exercise before meals control blood sugar better than one continuous 30 minute session.
• RCT: Timed-daily Ingestion of Whey Protein and Exercise Training Reduces Visceral Adipose Tissue Mass and Improves Insulin Resistance.
• RCT: High Intensity Training Improves Health and Physical Function in Middle Aged Adults.

Clinical

• RCT: Oral Magnesium Supplementation Improves the Metabolic Profile of Metabolically Obese, Normal-weight Individuals.
• Limiting antenatal weight gain improves maternal health outcomes in severely obese pregnant women: findings of a pragmatic evaluation of a midwife-led intervention.
• The Role of Meal Replacements in Regulating the Hedonic Brain Network of Appetite.
• Lifestyle interventions targeting changes in body weight and composition among youth with an intellectual disability: A systematic review.
• Healthy Weight Regulation and Eating Disorder Prevention in High School Students: A Universal and Targeted Web-Based Intervention.
• RCT: Effect of Early Multifactorial Therapy Compared With Routine Care on Microvascular Outcomes at 5 Years in People With Screen-Detected Diabetes.
• RCT: Eating two larger meals a day (breakfast and lunch) is more effective than six smaller meals in a reduced-energy regimen for patients with type 2 diabetes.
• RCT: Testosterone restores insulin sensitivity in patients with diabetes and hypogonadism.
• RCT: Adding Evidence-Based Behavioral Weight Loss Strategies to a Statewide Wellness Campaign.
• RCT: Calorie shifting diet versus calorie restriction diet: a comparative clinical trial study.
• Anti-diabetic activity of insulin-degrading enzyme inhibitors mediated by multiple hormones.

Epidemiology

• Biological Impact [association] of Long-Term Obesity.
• “Space Obesity”: The Effect [association] of Remoteness on County Obesity.
• Obese children had a minor but statistically significant decreased odds of fracture relative to children with a normal BMI.
• Exposure to the Pesticide Chlordane is Associated with Increased Risk of Metabolic Syndrome.
• Diabetes High Among Latinos, but No Single 'Hispanic' Profile.
• Gene-Lifestyle Interaction and Type 2 Diabetes: The EPIC InterAct Case-Cohort Study.
• Obesity and the Natural Environment Across US Counties.
• Socioeconomic, Temporal and Regional Variation in BMI among 188,537 Swiss Male Conscripts Born between 1986 and 1992.
• Changes in waist circumference relative to BMI in Chinese adults, 1993-2009.
• Socio-economic inequalities in children's snack consumption and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption: the contribution of home environmental factors.
• Gender-Specific Associations of Objective and Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics with BMI.
• Perceived Stress and Eating Behaviors by Sex, Obesity Status, and Stress Vulnerability.
• Chronic Sleep Curtailment and Adiposity.

Aging

• Methionine restriction activates the retrograde response and confers both stress tolerance and lifespan extension to yeast, mouse and human cells.
• Macronutrients, diet quality, and frailty in older men.
• Life Transitions and Food Choice Behavior in Older Adults.

Mortality

• Aging Differently: Diet- and Sex-Dependent Late-Life Mortality Patterns in Drosophila melanogaster.
• Decade-Long Trends in Mortality Among Patients With and Without Diabetes Mellitus at a Major Academic Medical Center.

Longevity

• Positive and negative gustatory inputs affect Drosophila lifespan partly in parallel to dFOXO signaling.
• Water sensor ppk28 modulates Drosophila lifespan and physiology through AKH signaling.

Genetics

• Bayesian Test for Colocalisation between Pairs of Genetic Association Studies Using Summary Statistics.
• PER1 Phosphorylation Specifies Feeding Rhythm in Mice.

Evolution, Energetics & Ecology

• An in vivo RNAi screen identifies evolutionary conserved Drosophila fat storage regulators.
• Interference competition in a sexually dimorphic shorebird: prey behaviour explains intraspecific competition.
• US bees die a bit less but still need feeding up.
• Bison demonstrate a link between memory, energy gains and restricted space use while establishing a fitness-based integration of movement, cognitive and spatial ecology.
• Discovery of a Novel Functional Leptin Protein (LEP) in Zebra Finches: Evidence for the Existence of an Authentic Avian Leptin Gene Predominantly Expressed in the Brain and Pituitary.
• Dietary Specialization during the Evolution of Western Eurasian Hominoids and the Extinction of European Great Apes.

Policy Related

• Impact of Different Policies on Unhealthy Dietary Behaviors in an Urban Adult Population: An Agent-Based Simulation Model.
• Food should be regulated like tobacco, say campaigners.
• Obesity Redefined by American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists 'Advanced Framework.
• Employer Wellness Programs for Weight Management under the Affordable Care Act: Point/Counterpoint.
• Systems Science and Obesity Policy: A Novel Framework for Analyzing and Rethinking Population-Level Planning.
• A Metabolic–Epidemiological Microsimulation Model to Estimate the Changes in Energy Intake and Physical Activity Necessary to Meet the Healthy People 2020 Obesity Objective.
• Senators introduce Bill To End Federal Tax Subsidy For Unhealthy Food, Beverage Marketing To Children.
• An atlas of European projects and interventions for obesity prevention in adults.

Basic Science

• AMP-activated protein kinase: a key regulator of energy balance with many roles in human disease.
• Modelling and mechanisms of binge eating and diet-induced obesity.
• Rat strains with different metabolic statuses differ in food olfactory-driven behaviour.
• Diet modulation is an effective complementary agent in preventing and treating breast cancer lung metastasis in mice.

Pregnancy

• Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviors Associated With Risk of Progression From Gestational Diabetes Mellitus to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
• Risks of severe asphyxia-related outcomes in term infants increase with maternal overweight and obesity.
• Severe Maternal Stress Exposure Due to Bereavement before, during and after Pregnancy and Risk of Overweight and Obesity in Young Adult Men.
• Impact of gestational weight gain on fetal growth in obese glycemic mothers.
• Obesity During Pregnancy Disrupts Placental Morphology, Cell Proliferation, and Inflammation in a Sex-Specific Manner Across Gestation in the Mouse.
• Interventions to Reduce and Prevent Obesity in Pre-Conceptual and Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
• The Placenta Harbors a Unique Microbiome.

Methods

• Methodological considerations for measuring spontaneous physical activity in rodents.
• Sarcopenia and the Analysis of Body Composition.
• Validity of bioelectrical impedance analysis for measuring changes in body water and percent fat after bariatric surgery.
• A Novel System Dynamics Model of Female Obesity and Fertility.
• Test–Retest Reliability of a Continuous Glucose Monitoring System in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes.
• Towards global benchmarking of food environments and policies to reduce obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases.
• Evaluation of Bias in Estimates of Early Childhood Obesity From Parent-Reported Heights and Weights.
• Modeling US Adult Obesity Trends: A System Dynamics Model for Estimating Energy Imbalance Gap.
• Welcome to COGIS – the Childhood Obesity Geographic Information System.

Video

• Why dieting doesn't usually work.
• Heart of the Matter Part 1: Dietary Villains.
• ABC TV Acknowledges Bias in a nutrition Oriented Report.

Commentary

• Diet Myth: Eat Healthy Foods, and You'll Lose Weight.
• Why This Funder is Spending Big Money to Clean Up Bad Research.
• Australian Health Survey: the facts about sugar intake.
• Prof Richard Feinman reminds scientists to stick to the science.
• Dr. Jayson Lusk: Economist Urges Government Not to Get Involved in Obesity Epidemic.
• 5 Questionable Obesity Causes.
• Safety of Contrave (Naltrexone-Bupropion).
• A Call to Increase Physical Activity Among Women of Reproductive Age--Is It Possible?
• Down the Rabbit Hole: When Medication Leads to Weight Gain.
• Sensitive to Gluten-Free Claims.
• Dynamic Interplay Among Homeostatic, Hedonic, and Cognitive Feedback Circuits Regulating Body Weight.
• Systems Science: A Tool for Understanding Obesity.
• Doubly Labeled Water Is a Validated and Verified Reference Standard in Nutrition Research.

General Science

• Neurosensory Perception of Environmental Cues Modulates Sperm Motility Critical for Fertilization.
• Misleading headlines - "Breakthrough cure" for MS.
• Discover a new spurious correlation everyday!
• Interactions between chromosomal and nonchromosomal elements reveal missing heritability.
• Purpose in Life as a Predictor of Mortality Across Adulthood.
• NSF’s Industry and University Cooperative Research program pays big dividends for science and engineering.
• Why do people persist in believing things that just aren't true?
• Life Extension Factor Klotho Enhances Cognition.
• Mice run for fun - Wheel running in the wild.
• Molecular traces of alternative social organization in a termite genome.
• Science Standards Divide a State Built on Coal and Oil.
• Social disadvantage, genetic sensitivity, and children’s telomere length.

Announcements

• In Memoriam: Clifton A. Baile, Distinguished Professor and Director of the UGA Obesity Initiative, passed away this week. We will miss you Professor Baile. 
• San Antonio Nathan Shock Center Conference on Aging, October 16 - 19, 2014, Bandera, TX.
• New Book: Integrative Weight Management.
• New Book: Adipose Tissue and Adipokines in Health and Disease.
• New Book: Fat Blame: How the War on Obesity Victimizes Women and Children.
• NIH to Require Gender Balance in Subjects of Animal Studies.
• UAB Recognizes Clinical Nutrition Pioneer Weinsier.
• ASN at EB 2014: Wrap-Up and Final Nutrition Notes Daily.
• Obesity, Imaging and Musculoskeletal Health Conference, June 12, 2014, Athens, GA.
• Public input requested by U.S. government for Global Nutrition Coordination Plan to maximize impact through better coordination of U.S. government global investments in nutrition.

Erratum

• Previous entry: A Program was followed by increased Fruit and Vegetable Intake, yet no weight loss was observed. While the abstract says 'Food security status and weight status did not significantly change', the main article says 'Due to the short length of the program, we did not repeat the Food Security Module or height and weight measurements at post-assessment as changes were not anticipated.' Author confirms for us that weight was never measured post-treatment – abstract was in error.

Featured

• When using BMI as a predictor variable, both uncorrected self-reported and corrected self-reported BMI result in biased estimates of association.
• Tapeworms, the smoking diet and the cotton ball regime: The weird - and often downright dangerous - weight loss fads of the past.
• A Form of the Metabolic Syndrome Associated with Mutations in DYRK1B.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• RCT: Testosterone therapy does not improve glucose metabolism or visceral adiposity in obese men with moderately controlled T2D.
• Observational study does not show soft drink consumption associated with metabolic syndrome (see Tables 1 and 2).
• RCT: Eight weeks of different intensities and volumes of regular aerobic and (PRT) exercise did not significantly influence appetite or plasma levels of ghrelin and PYY.
• Neonate feeding patterns and weight gain were unaffected following the short-term use of sucrose for pain relief.
• Incretin-based drugs do not increase acute pancreatitis risk.

Drugs

• RCT: Melatonin for prevention of metabolic side-effects of olanzapine in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.
• Single rapamycin administration induces prolonged downward shift in defended body weight in rats.
• Reversible hyperphagia and obesity in rats with gastric bypass by central MC3/4R blockade.
• Lilly's diabetes drug Peglispro outperforms Lantus in 3 trials.
• Use of Metformin in diseases of aging.

Energy Metabolism

• Age-related increase of resting metabolic rate in the human brain.
• Thermal conductance and basal metabolic rate are part of a coordinated system for heat transfer regulation.

Exercise

• Body fat has no effect [association] on the maximal fat oxidation rate in young normal and overweight women.
• RCT: An 8-month exercise intervention alters frontotemporal white matter integrity in overweight children.
• RCT: The effects of separate and combined dietary weight loss and exercise on fasting ghrelin concentrations in overweight and obese women.
• RCT: Exercise Treats Before Meals May Help Diabetes.
• Exercise can erase memories.
• Commentary: Stay fit to live longer.
• Outdoor exercise has more beneficial association with lower obesity risk than does indoor exercise for children.

Clinical

• RCT: Daughters and Mothers Against Breast Cancer (DAMES): Main outcomes of a weight loss intervention in overweight mothers with breast cancer and their overweight daughters.
• RCT: Playing an advergame promoting energy-dense snacks contributes to increased caloric intake in children.
• Differences in weight loss across different BMI classes: A meta-analysis of the effects of interventions with diet and exercise.
• RCT: A relatively low-intensity intervention by health professionals to prevent weight gain in mid-age women at 12 Months.
• RCT: Brief motivational interviewing to reduce child BMI - 2-year results.
• Modest weight loss significantly reduces oxygen cost of breathing in obese women.
• Academic programs for weight control.

Education

• Comprehensive School Health programs implemented in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods reduced inequalities in physical activity.
• Active learning leads to higher grades and fewer failing students in Science, Math, and Engineering.
• Clinical Informatics: Prospects for a new medical subspecialty.

Food

• Return of hunger following a relatively high carbohydrate breakfast is associated with earlier recorded glucose peak and nadir.
• Fight obesity with local craft beer?
• Peptides and food intake.
• The consumption of a moderate amount of protein at each meal stimulated 24-h muscle protein synthesis more effectively than skewing protein intake toward the evening meal.
• RCT: Mediterranean diet reduces 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure, blood glucose, and lipids.
• Family meals may decrease risk of childhood obesity, eating disorders, and high-risk behaviors.
• Mitigating the health risks of dining out: The need for standardized portion sizes in restaurants.
• Fishing for the origins of the Eskimos and heart disease story. Facts or wishful thinking? A review.

Sugar

• Rapid post-oral stimulation of intake and flavor conditioning in rats by glucose but not a non-metabolizable glucose analog.
• Can You Find Health by Avoiding Sugar?
• NHS discusses the quality of evidence on sugar statements.
• Review: Cognitive and behavioural effects of sugar consumption in rodents.

Gut Microbiota

• Regulation of host weight gain and lipid metabolism by bacterial bile acid modification in the gut.
• Replication of obesity and associated signaling pathways through transfer of microbiota from obese-prone rats.

Appetite

• Factors that influence the reinforcing value of foods and beverages.
• Mechanisms of increased appetite and weight gain induced by psychotropic medications.

Psychology

• People prefer rooms with M&Ms when they are hungry.
• Neural Predictors of Giving in to Temptation in Daily Life.
• Uncontrolled eating is associated with reduced executive functioning.
• Dorsal striatal dopamine, food preference and health perception in humans.
• Protracted effects of juvenile stressor exposure are mitigated by access to palatable food in rats.

Evolution, Energetics & Ecology

• Migrate small, sound big: Functional constraints on body size promote tracheal elongation in cranes.
• Molecular regulation of adiposity in a migrant, the gray catbird.
• Human evolution and chronic diseases: Genes, allostasis, and cut-points.
• Energetic cost of behavioral thermoregulation in turtle embryos.
• Annual and spatial variability in gains of body weight in Macoma balthica (L.): Relationships with food supply and water temperature.
• Are life-history attributes, morphology, and metabolic rate linked in the African cichlid, Julidochromis ornatus?
• Increasing CO2 threatens human nutrition (meta-analysis).

Basic Science

• α-ketoglutarate boosts lifespan in worms.
• Resveratrol compounds are potent inhibitors of human holocarboxylase synthetase and cause a lean phenotype in Drosophila melanogaster brummer mutants.
• Intermittent fasting induces hypothalamic modifications resulting in low feeding efficiency, low body mass and overeating in rats.
• Intrarenal ghrelin receptor antagonism prevents high-fat diet-induced hypertension in male rats.
• Mutation of mouse Samd4 causes leanness, myopathy, uncoupled mitochondrial respiration, and dysregulated mTORC1 signaling.
• Calorie restriction-induced changes in the secretome of human adipocytes, comparison with resveratrol-induced secretome effects.
• In utero exposure to the endocrine disruptor di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate promotes local adipose and systemic inflammation in adult male offspring in rats.

Policy Related

• Laws on à la carte snacks and entrées, vending machine snacks, and advertising of foods within schools are correlated with lower BMI, yet no evidence supports the effectiveness of other laws such as those mandating the frequency of P.E. or the licensure requirements of food service staff.
• A social cognitive theory: perspective of the sugary drink cup size policy.
• In a simulation, "SSB taxes do not have a negative impact on state-level employment, and industry claims of regional job losses are overstated and may mislead lawmakers and constituents."
• USPSTF: Obese patients need behavioral counseling for heart health.

Epidemiology

• Does Short Sleep Lead to Obesity Among Children and Adolescents?
• Obesity Boosts Risk for Persistent Pain After Car Crash.
• Association of multiple adiposity exposures and cardiorespiratory fitness with all-cause mortality in men: The Cooper Center Longitudinal Study.
• Moderate Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Positively Associated With Resting Metabolic Rate in Young Adults.
• Come and Get It! A Discussion of Family Mealtime Literature and Factors Affecting Obesity Risk.
• Local Concentration of Fast-Food Outlets Is Associated With Poor Nutrition and Obesity.
• Long-term aircraft noise exposure and BMI, waist circumference, and type 2 diabetes: A prospective study.
• A comparison of obesity prevalence: Military health system and United States populations, 2009-2012.
• Analysis of fall Injuries by BMI.
• Living at a high altitude (>1.96km above sea level) may well be an effective way to prevent obesity.

Pregnancy

• Effect of gestational exposure to novel antipsychotics on body weight gain in rats.
• Predicting birth weight with conditionally linear transformation models.

Methods

• Automated segmentation of visceral and subcutaneous (deep and superficial) adipose tissues in normal and overweight men.
• Capturing individuals' food environments using flexible space-time accessibility measures.
• New metric can determine point of most efficient movement.

Stigma

• Customers evaluate employees and firms more negatively if the frontline worker is obese compared to average weight.
• Another Downside to Obesity for Teens: Fewer Friends.
• Criticism of Charles Barkley’s obesity-related comments.
• Perceived age and weight discrimination, more than perceived race and sex discrimination, are linked to worse health in older adults, according to new observational study.

Video

• Lee Kaplan: Physiological mechanisms of bariatric surgery.
• Microbiome, metagenomics and high-dimensional compositional data analysis.
• Commentary from Dr. Sharma on food addiction.
• Preparation of primary myogenic precursor cell/myoblast cultures from basal vertebrate lineages.

Commentary

• The Biology and Genetics of Obesity — A Century of Inquiries.
• The relation between BMI and substance use: A true can of worms.
• From its clear association with disease to its unending rise, everything we think we know about obesity is beginning to crumble.
• Three ways more labeling is not better.
• Jobless contend with weight gain as they search for work.
• Less smoking + More obesity = Lost productivity.

General Science

• Parasite treatment may help people with brain cancer.
• NSF Report: Reducing investigators’ administrative workload for federally funded research.
• Classic Paper: Essay on What Statistical Significance Does Not Mean.
• The Sun published “What’s your poison? The toxins that are all around us”. It contained so many scientific inaccuracies we called on trained toxicologists and dieticians to respond.
• New implanted devices (biologically adaptive, flexible transistors) may reshape medicine.
• Effects of 14th century Black Plague epidemic on survival distributions: Killing off the infirm, leaving the hardy at all ages.
• Melting of West Antarctic ice sheet cannot be stopped, researchers say.
• Magnetic 'fingerprints' of Milky Way Galaxy revealed in new map.
• Glowing space mice show where quantum dots lodge.

Announcements

• The Obesity Society Annual Meeting Abstract Deadline: June 2nd.
• Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) releases Spanish version of the Your Weight MattersSM campaign toolkit.
• Eisai Helps Address Gaps in Obesity Education with Website Designed for Physicians.
• Webinar: Mobile applications driving data efficiencies (June 4th).  

Featured

• Top 10 Unanswered Questions Related to Energy Balance.
• The dogs that smell breath to monitor diabetes.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• The available research does not allow robust identification of ways in which that physical environment influences adult weight status, even after taking into account methodological quality - a Systematic Review.
• Immigration study results did not support the relationship between obesity and residency length, and greater English use and proficiency seemed to predict lower obesity.
• “Overall, most mental health variables were not associated with obesity, suggesting that clinicians and others should be wary of “weight-ism” and avoid making the assumption that higher body weight relates to mental health problems.”
• Pavlovian conditioning and cross-sensitization studies raise challenges to the hypothesis that overeating is an addictive behavior.
• A Program was followed by increased Fruit and Vegetable Intake, yet no weight loss was observed.
• Endoplasmic reticulum stress does not contribute to steatohepatitis in obese and insulin resistant high-fat diet fed foz/foz mice.
• “Our results suggest that typical estimates of the impact of breastfeeding on child wellbeing may be overstated.”
• “Results suggest that total dairy intake in childhood and early adolescence was not associated with long-term risk of overweight and obesity in later adolescence and early adulthood.”
• Results show no consistent difference between commercially processed foods from store and restaurant for sodium, fat, sugar and potassium content in a nationwide sample.

Correction

• Previous entry: A Program was followed by increased Fruit and Vegetable Intake, yet no weight loss was observed.
• Please see the erratum in the 05/23/14 offerings.

Clinical

• Evaluation of early weight loss thresholds for identifying nonresponders to an intensive lifestyle intervention.
• RCT: Effects of two popular weight loss programs on changes in body composition and visceral adipose tissue in women.

Ban it – Tax it – Zone it

• A Proposed Ban on the Sale to and Possession of Caloric Sweetened Beverages by Minors in Public.
• Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver has demanded a crackdown on the "crazy" policy of fast food premises opening near schools, as part of a renewed drive to tackle childhood obesity.
• The Price of Healthy Eating.

Food

• RCT: Video - Health effect of the New Nordic Diet in adults with increased waist circumference.
• RCT: Eating carbohydrate mostly at lunch and protein mostly at dinner within a covert hypocaloric diet influences morning glucose homeostasis in overweight/obese men.
• RCT: Low glycemic index vegan or low calorie weight loss diets for women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.
• RCT: Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Consumption Reduces Risk of Atrial Fibrillation: The PREDIMED Trial.
• Food waste harms climate, water, land and biodiversity - new FAO report.

Saturated Fat

• David Katz: Saturated fat is NOT harmless.
• The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease.
• Dairy fat intake is associated with glucose tolerance, hepatic and systemic insulin sensitivity, and liver fat but not beta cell function in humans.

Drugs

• Effects of a novel MC4R agonist on maintenance of reduced body weight in diet-induced obese mice.
• Second Genome Enters Into Agreement with Pfizer Inc. on Microbiome Research Initiative in Obesity.
• Endocannabinoids and energy homeostasis: An update - Review.

Exercise

• Amount and frequency of exercise affect glycaemic control more than exercise mode or intensity: a Systematic Review.
• Current physical activity guidelines for health are insufficient to mitigate long-term weight gain: more data in the fitness versus fatness debate (The HUNT study, Norway).

Stigma

• The Changing Face of Obesity: Exposure to and Acceptance of Obesity.
• Beliefs, attitudes and phobias among medical and psychology students towards people with obesity.
• Seeing Obesity — 3 Effects.
• Sizing Up Miami: A Multilevel Analysis of The Discourses and Politics of Obesity.

Surgery

• Early Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Type II Diabetes, Hypertension, and Hyperlipidemia: A Systematic Review.
• Early Weight Regain After Gastric Bypass Does Not Affect Insulin Sensitivity But Is Associated with Elevated Ghrelin.

Methods

• Video: Bioenergetics and the Oxidative Burst - Protocols for the Isolation and Evaluation of Human Leukocytes and Platelets.
• Company Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Device to Measure Calories Burned Through NEAT Activity.
• Limitations of Observational Evidence: Implications for Evidence-Based Dietary Recommendations.
• RCT: Reading and Listening to Music Increase Resting Energy Expenditure during Indirect Calorimetry Test.
• Video: A Method to Study the Impact of Chemically-induced Ovarian Failure on Exercise Capacity and Cardiac Adaptation in Mice.

Epidemiology

• FTO polymorphisms moderate the association of food reinforcement with energy intake.
• Diurnal Intermittent Fasting during Ramadan: The Effects on Leptin and Ghrelin Levels.
• A Pooled Analysis of Waist Circumference and Mortality in 650,000 Adults.
• Low Fitness Partially Explains Resting Metabolic Rate Differences Between African American and White Women.
• Impaired oral fatty acid chemoreception is associated with acute excess energy consumption.
• A promising approach to scale up health care improvements in low-and middle-income countries: the Wave-Sequence Spread Approach and the concept of the Slice of a System.
• Diabetes rates skyrocket in kids and teens.
• Global, regional, and national consumption levels of dietary fats and oils in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis including 266 country-specific nutrition surveys.

Evolution, Energetics & Ecology 

• Polar bear study may boost fight against obesity.
• The phylogeny and ontogeny of autonomic control of the heart and cardiorespiratory interactions in vertebrates.
• Interspecific relationships and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in pygmy sunfishes (Centrarchidae: Elassoma).
• Seasonal Phenotypic Flexibility of Body Mass, Organ Masses, and Tissue Oxidative Capacity and Their Relationship to Resting Metabolic Rate in Chinese Bulbuls.

Economics

• The Association Between Employee Obesity and Employer Costs: Evidence From a Panel of U.S. Employers.
• Cost-Effectiveness of Different Programs for Weight Reduction in Obese Patients with Diabetes.

Sugar

• Prof Dennis Bier: Don’t swallow all the spin on sugar.
• RCT: Effects of dairy vs. sugar-sweetened products on insulin sensitivity, pancreatic beta-cell function and plasma lipids in men and women at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus.
• Early Life Exposure to Fructose and Offspring Phenotype: Review.

Policy Related

• Support for Laws to Prohibit Weight Discrimination in the United States: Public Attitudes from 2011 to 2013.
• Laws and Social Norms: Unintended Consequences of Obesity Laws – “where anti-obesity policies are stricter, social stigma increases for obese girls, though obesity rates do not necessarily decrease”.
• Stakeholder Discussion to Reduce Population-Wide Sodium Intake and Decrease Sodium in the Food Supply.

Basic Science

• Browning of White Fat: Does Irisin Play a Role in Humans?
• Brain Inflammation: Cause or Effect of Obesity?
• Increased production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species and reduced adult life span in an insecticide-resistant strain of Anopheles gambiae .
• Control of Adipose Tissue Expandability in Response to High Fat Diet by the Insulin-like Growth Factor Binding Protein-4.
• Secretin receptor-knockout mice are resistant to high-fat diet-induced obesity and exhibit impaired intestinal lipid absorption.
• Chemogenetic Synaptic Silencing of Neural Circuits Localizes a Hypothalamus ==> Midbrain Pathway for Feeding Behavior.
• Young blood reverses age-related impairments in cognitive function and synaptic plasticity in mice.

Commentary

• Who’s Hungry?
• UAB scientists share four intriguing approaches to obesity research.
• A Refreshing (and Successful) Approach to the War on Obesity.
• Social Pressures, Nutrition Choices and Good Health.
• Plummeting & Skyrocketing: Childhood Obesity, Diabetes .
• Research press releases need better policing.
• Cheese for Chumps.
• Childhood Obesity: Ready, Fire, Aim.
• Are Medical Articles True on Health, Disease?
• Ob-Gyn: What Obesity?
• The End of Food.

General Science

• Changing the academic culture: Valuing patents and commercialization toward tenure and career advancement.
• Lurking Truth in Recent Studies.
• “Our experiment provides evidence that the majority of observational studies would declare statistical significance when no effect is present.”
• Multimedia: How Reliable Are Scientific Studies?
• UAB’s Rob Sorge shows olfactory exposure to males, including men, causes stress and related analgesia in rodent.
• PCAST Releases Report on Big Data and Privacy.
• Comparing tap water mouth rinse with tooth brushing and sugar-free chewing-gum: Investigating the validity of a popular belief.
• Appetite testing in HIV-infected African adults recovering from malnutrition and given antiretroviral therapy.
• The Confidence Gap.
• '37 million deaths could be prevented by reducing 6 risk factors'.

Announcements

• 29th Annual Clinical Conference on Diabetes 22-25 May, 2014.
• 2014 SCOPE School's theme: ‘Integrating Primary Care and Commercial Providers into Obesity Management’ 27-28 October, 2014.
• AWIS Spring 2014 Powerful Communications:  Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, and Be Heard Tuesday, 13 May.
• 2014 WISE Awards - 13 November 2014.
• International School of Diabetes and Its Complications 6-10 December 2014.

Featured

• A Comrade Moves On: Douglas L. Coleman Obituary.
• Rare Fat Keeps Fly from Freezing.
• RCT: Customers who pay more at a restaurant buffet perceive the food as tastier than the same food offered at a lower price.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• "Review: Overall the best designed studies (real world studies, with a comparison group) show that calorie labels do not have the desired effect in reducing total calories ordered at the population level."
• Obesity does not impair walking economy across a range of speeds and grades.
• Decreased expression of genes encoding thermogenesis-related proteins in adipose tissues of obese patients is not associated with their methylation status.
• Cancer and Involuntary Weight Loss: Failure to Validate a Prediction Score.

Press Release vs. Study

• Press Release: Safe & Successful Bariatric Surgery from New York Bariatric Group Will Extend & Improve Lives For Obese Patients.
• Study: An observational study with no surgery involved showing an association between BMI and mortality rate in NHANES.

Clinical

• RCT: The beneficial effects of weight reduction in overweight patients with chronic proteinuric immunoglobulin a nephropathy.
• Biting versus Chewing: Eating Style and Social Aggression in Children.
• RCT: Effects of a primary care-based intervention with overweight and obese young children and their parents.

Food

• "FDA Finalizes Rule Prohibiting Certain Nutrient Content Claims for DHA, EPA, and ALA Omega-3 Fatty Acids."
• Almonds & Obesity.
• Science Stand Up Comedy: Food Addiction.
• RCT: Lower protein content in infant formula reduces BMI and obesity risk at school age.
• RCT: Protein leverage effects of beef protein on energy intake in humans.
• Dietary fiber acts on the brain to suppress appetite.

Drugs

• Statins and Weight Gain.
• Different Time Trends of [self-reported] Caloric and Fat Intake Between Statin Users and Nonusers Among US Adults.
• Looking for a Miracle Obesity Drug from Zafgen.
• Opposing neural effects of naltrexone on food reward and aversion: implications for the treatment of obesity.

Exercise

• RCT: Effect of resistance training on non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease.
• "Exercise patterns, ingestive behaviors, and energy balance."

Lifespan

• Obesity and lifespan health-importance of the fetal environment.
• Naked Mole Rats and the Secret to Longevity.
• Experimental drug, TM5441, prolongs lifespan in mice.

Evolution, Ecology, and Energetics

• Ecology and mode-of-life explain lifespan variation in birds and mammals.
• Differences in foraging times between two feeding guilds within Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae) in southern Thailand.

Methods

• Explaining Trends in BMI Using Demographic Counterfactuals.
• "Estimation of insulin sensitivity in children: methods, measures and controversies."
• The Body Mass Index: The good, the bad and the horrid.
• Commitment Devices: Using Initiatives to Change Behavior.
• Finding What Works for Obesity.
• Dietary effects on resting metabolic rate in C57BL/6 mice are differentially detected by indirect (O2/CO2 respirometry) and direct calorimetry. .

Genetics

• FTO polymorphisms moderate the association of food reinforcement with energy intake.
• Pre-pregnancy diet 'permanently influences [associated with] baby's DNA' in human observational study.

Epidemiology

• Correlation analysis of genetic admixture and social identification with BMI in a Native American Community.
• The influence [association] of bereavement on BMI.
• Childhood asthma and obesity.
• Food Insecurity, a Determinant of Obesity? - an Analysis from a Population-Based Survey in the Paris Metropolitan Area, 2010.

Stigma

• Being labeled “too fat” in childhood is associated with higher odds of having an obese BMI nearly a decade later.
• Fat shaming documentary spurs death threats.

Evolution, Energetics and Ecology

• On the value of seasonal mammals for identifying mechanisms underlying the control of food intake and body weight.
• Seasonal variation in the voluntary food intake of domesticated cats (felis catus).

Sweeteners and SSBs

• Administration of saccharin to neonatal mice influences body composition of adult males and reduces body weight of females.
• The Obesity Society States: “The scientific evidence is suggestive, but not definitive, that SSBs contribute to the epidemic of obesity in the U.S.”
• Sugar sweetened beverages associated with higher blood pressure and increased hypertension rates.

Policy Related

• A scoping review of unintended harm associated with public health interventions: Towards a typology and an understanding of underlying factors.
• Obesity Can Be a Protected Disability.
• RCTs: 'How many calories are in my burrito?' Improving consumers' understanding of energy (calorie) range information.
• Critical comments on the WHO-UNEP State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals – 2012.

Basic Science

• The Energizer: György Hajnóczky uncovers the chemical and physical strategies by which mitochondria communicate and function within a cell.
• "Methylation potential associated with diet, genotype, protein, and metabolite levels in the Delta Obesity Vitamin Study."
• Impact of a human missense UCP3 polymorphism on the plasma metabolomic profile: support for a mitochondrial fuel-partitioning role for UCP3.
• Mitochondrial-nuclear genome interactions in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mice.
• Functional roles of the sweet taste receptor in oral and extraoral tissues.
• Mice Lacking NOX2 are Hyperphagic and Store Fat Preferentially in the Liver.
• Capacity and Hypoxic Response of Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Blood Flow in Humans.

Commentary

• "Is There a Best BMI for Older Adults? Moving Closer to Evidence-Based Recommendations Regarding “Overweight,” Health, and Mortality."
• 'How to move nutrition science forward' David B. Allison, 2014 W.O. Atwater Lectureship.
  • See also: 10 Obesity Research Gaps.
• Global non-communicable diseases — A series of reflections.
• The Interview: Dr. Carl Lavie on the demonization of fat.
• The daunting science of weight control.

General Science

• Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws.
• Data publication consensus and controversies.
• Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking.
• Inspired by mantis shrimp, researchers design composite material stronger than standard used in airplane frames.
• Estimating heritability of complex traits from genome-wide association studies using IBS-based Haseman–Elston regression.
• Helmets Do Little to Help Moderate Infant Skull Flattening, Study Finds.
• NSB report: 'Excessive and ineffective requirements take scientists away from the bench unnecessarily and divert taxpayer dollars from research to superfluous grant administration.'.
• 'Steven Smith' vs. 'Latoya Brown': Experimental evidence that discrimination starts even before grad school.
• Research Suggests the Need to Rethink Science Settings to Recruit and Retain Women.
• Male researchers stress out mice by their very presence.

Announcements

• Obesity Action Coalition, The Rudd Center For Food Policy And Obesity And The Obesity Society Release Guidelines For Media Portrayals Of Individuals Affected By Obesity.
• David Sinclair Named to TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People.
• "2nd Annual International Weight Stigma Conference to be held on 24th June 2014 at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK."
• Frontiers in Nutrition launches.
• May 20th Webinar: IFIC Foundation's 2014 Food & Health Survey.