Obesity and Energetics Offerings

Featured

• Child food neophobia is heritable, associated with less compliant eating, and moderates familial resemblance for BMI.
• RCT: High Caloric intake at breakfast vs. dinner differentially influences weight loss of overweight and obese women.

Headline vs Paper vs xkcd

• Headline: US Farm Subsidy Policies Contribute To Worsening Obesity Trends, Study Finds.
• Paper: There is no study – paper is an author’s commentary/review on farm subsidies.
• Comic: "Significant"

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• No protective associations of physical activity in pregnancy and high amounts of daily walking-biking adversely associated with levels of HDL cholesterol, diastolic blood pressure and BMI in young adult offspring.
• Study finds no link between kids' obesity and DDT, PCBs.
• No evidence of improvement in rates of obesity preventive care after the Expert Committee Recommendations were made.
• Microparticle increase in severe obesity: Not related to metabolic syndrome and unchanged after massive weight loss.
• RCT: Acute sodium ingestion has no effect on short-term food and water intake, subjective appetite, thirst, or glycemic response in healthy young men.
• Using a smaller dining plate does not suppress food intake from a buffet lunch meal in overweight, unrestrained women.
• Water and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and changes in BMI among Brazilian fourth graders after 1-year follow-up.
• More neighborhood retail associated with lower obesity among New York City public high school students.
• Despite significant improvements in body composition and glycaemic control, 6 months GLP-1 RA treatment did not modulate vascular function.
• Systematic Review: While there is some evidence that workplace physical activity interventions can be efficacious, overall the results are inconclusive.
• RCT: Vitamin D3 supplement of 25 μg/day had no beneficial effect on glycaemic indices in healthy overweight or obese women.
• Deleterious consequences of antioxidant supplementation on lifespan in a wild-derived mammal.

Aging

• Effect of high-fat diet on metabolic indices, cognition, and neuronal physiology in aging F344 rats.
• Life-long caloric restriction reduces oxidative stress and preserves nitric oxide bioavailability and function in arteries of old mice.

Anthropology

• A description of female force-feeding practices in Mauritania: implications for the protection of child rights and health.
• Facial attractiveness is related to women's cortisol and body fat, but not with immune responsiveness.

Basic Science

• Deficiency of NPGPx, an oxidative stress sensor, leads to obesity in mice and human.
• Divergent selection for intramuscular fat content in rabbits. I. Direct response to selection.
• Obesity-induced gut microbial metabolite promotes liver cancer through senescence secretome.
• Competing physiological pathways link individual differences in weight and abdominal adiposity to white matter microstructure.
• Apoptotic pathways in adipose tissue.
• Mitochondrial metabolic reprogramming induced by calorie restriction.
• Effect of neuropeptide Y on food intake in bullfrog larvae.

Behavior

• Fattening fasting: Hungry grocery shoppers buy more calories, not more food.
• Acute Sleep Restriction Reduces Insulin Sensitivity in Adolescent Boys.
• RCT: Community-based behavioral weight-loss treatment: Long-term maintenance of weight loss, physiological, and psychological outcomes.
• No impact of obesity susceptibility loci on weight regain after a lifestyle intervention in overweight children.

Brown Fat

• Adult Epicardial Fat Exhibits Beige Features.
• Brown adipose tissue: development, metabolism and beyond.

Dogs

• Association of age at gonadectomy on the probability of dogs becoming overweight.
• Metabolic phenotype modulation by caloric restriction in a lifelong dog study.

Drugs

• RCT: The effect of reboxetine co-administration with olanzapine on metabolic and endocrine profile in schizophrenia patients.
• Effects of GH on body composition and cardiovascular risk markers in young men with abdominal obesity.
• NeoMedigen Develops RezGen5 for Obesity.
• RCT: A randomized, phase 3 trial of naltrexone SR/bupropion SR on weight and obesity-related risk factors (COR-II).
• Weight maintenance and additional weight loss with liraglutide after low-calorie diet-induced weight loss: the SCALE™ Maintenance randomized study.

Energy Balance

• Activity related energy expenditure, appetite and energy intake: potential implications for weight management.
• Contribution made by parabiosis to the understanding of energy balance regulation.
• Appetite control and regulation of food intake: A review of proposed mechanisms.
• Factors that determine energy compensation: a systematic review of preload studies.

Epidemiology

• Associations Between Adiposity and Cardiometabolic Traits: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis.
• Ratio of Trunk to Leg Volume as a New Body Shape Metric for Diabetes and Mortality.
• Differences in body mass indices for males imprisoned in the 19th century American South.
• Born to be wide? Exploring correlations in mother and adolescent BMI.
• Role of Environmental Chemicals in Obesity: A Systematic Review on the Current Evidence.

Evolution, Ecology, and Energetics

• Toxin constraint explains diet choice, survival and population dynamics in a molluscivore shorebird.
• Costs of colour change in fish: food intake and behavioural decisions.
• Telomere length and body temperature—independent determinants of mammalian longevity?
• Effect of body mass and activity on the metabolic rate and ammonia-N excretion of the spiny lobster Sagmariasus verreauxi during ontogeny.
• Late-moulting black-necked grebes podiceps nigricollis show greater body mass in the face of failing food supply.
• Body masses, functional responses and predator-prey stability.
• Long-Term Climate Sensitivity of Grazer Performance: A Cross-Site Study.
• Interindividual variation in thermal sensitivity of maximal sprint speed, thermal behavior, and resting metabolic rate in a lizard.
• Intra-Seasonal Flexibility in Avian Metabolic Performance Highlights the Uncoupling of Basal Metabolic Rate and Thermogenic Capacity.

Exercise

• RCT: Effects of high vs. moderate exercise intensity during interval training on lipids and adiponectin levels in obese young females.
• RCT: Weight loss, exercise, or both and cardiometabolic risk factors in obese older adults: results of a randomized controlled trial.
• Avatars May Help with Weight Loss Behaviors.

Food

• Cocoa May Help Fight Obesity-Related Inflammation.
• Supplementation by thylakoids to a high carbohydrate meal decreases feelings of hunger, elevates CCK levels and prevents postprandial hypoglycaemia in overweight women.
• Menu Choice: Satisfaction or Overload?

Methods

• Physical activity assessment tools for use in overweight and obese children.
• The effect of a meal on measures of impedance and percent body fat estimated using contact-electrode bioelectrical impedance technology.

Transgenerational and Teratogenic Effects

• Sex-specific Effects of Exercise Ancestry on Metabolic, Morphological, and Gene Expression Phenotypes in Multiple Generations of Mouse Offspring.
• Preadult Parental Diet Affects Offspring Development and Metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster.
• Perinatal outcomes of children born after frozen-thawed embryo transfer: a Nordic cohort study from the CoNARTaS group.

Policy Related

• Is less always more? The effects of low-fat labeling and caloric information on food intake, calorie estimates, taste preference, and health attributions.
• Narrative Persuasion, Causality, Complex Integration, and Support for Obesity Policy.
• Ready for policy? stakeholder attitudes toward menu labelling in Toronto, Canada.
• Health Insurance Covering More Obesity Care.
• Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.
• Effectiveness of subsidies in promoting healthy food purchases and consumption: a review of field experiments.

Psychology

• Good mood food. Positive emotion as a neglected trigger for food intake.
• ‘Battling my Biology’: Psychological Effects of Genetic Testing for Risk of Weight Gain.
• Stigmatizing campaigns are no more likely to instill motivation for improving lifestyle behaviors.

Sugars & Sweeteners

• Fructose-Containing Sugars, Blood Pressure, and Cardiometabolic Risk: A Critical Review.
• Very High Fructose Intake Increases Serum LDL-Cholesterol and Total Cholesterol: a Meta-Analysis of Controlled Feeding Trials.
• Evidence mapping: methodologic foundations and application to intervention and observational research on sugar-sweetened beverages and health outcomes.
• RCT: Effects of a multi-micronutrient-fortified beverage, with and without sugar, on growth and cognition in South African schoolchildren.
• Author Opines: Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements.
• Examining the health effects of fructose.

Commentary

• Incongruity between USA today stories and accompanying images about obesity.
• Dr. David Katz’ thoughts on David Freedman’s article on ‘junk food’.
• Dr. Yoni Freedhoff questions value of Treadmill Desks.
• How Many Calories Equal One Pound?
• 'When the Bough Breaks': Excessive Weight Before Pregnancy.
• Genetic & Environmental Factors Likely Contribute to Higher Obesity Rates Among Mexican Population.

General Science

• Animals in research: benefits, ethics and assessment.
• Building Better Institutions.
• Infographic: American obesity overtime.
• Joel Selanikio: The surprising seeds of a big-data revolution in healthcare.
• Advancing Science Through Collaborative Data Sharing and Synthesis.
• The Pervasive Problem With Placebos in Psychology: Why Active Control Groups Are Not Sufficient to Rule Out Placebo Effects.
• Bacteria In Space Grows in Strange Ways.
• People with depression tend to pursue generalised goals.
• Rare Mutation Ignites Race for Cholesterol Drug.
• New Supreme Court Decision Rules That cDNA Is Patentable—What It Means for Research and Genetic Testing.

Announcements

• Seeking Positive Impacts on Human Activity in Living/Working Space.
• Evaluating Bioactive Food Components in Obesity and Cancer Prevention, September 27-29, 2013.
• Obesity Week.
• Workshop on potential conflicts of interest in GRAS additive decisions.
• 15th Annual Conference: Frontiers in Diabetes Research: Emerging Insights into the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Diabesity.

Featured

• Metabolic mystery: aging, obesity, diabetes, and the ventromedial hypothalamus.
• Historic variations in winter indoor domestic temperatures and potential implications for body weight gain.
• Want To Create An Innovative Environment In Life Sciences?
• RCT: Sleep Restriction Causes Weight Gain

Headline vs. Study

• Headline: Raisins may lower food intake, help prevent diabetes.
• Study: 26 children studied over 4 day period, no measures of diabetes of glucose metabolism.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• RCT: Among depressed adolescents, exercise did not reduce weight.
• Obesity not associated with adverse treatment in emergency room.
• We find no evidence of a quick return on investment in weight loss treatment from reduced medical expenditures, although this may occur over longer periods.
• Girls in schools with more positive perceptions of the neighborhood environment surrounding the school were less physically active and number of food stores near school was positively related to physical activity.
• Screening negative for diabetes did not lead to overt long-term changes in lifestyle, despite a high perception of risk of developing diabetes.

Anthropology

• Attractiveness of women's body: Body mass index, waist-hip ratio, and their relative importance.
• Local Interpretations of Global Trends: Body Concerns and Self-Projects Enacted by Young Emirati Women.

Basic Science

• Antenatal corticosteroid exposure at term increases adult adiposity: An experimental study in sheep.
• Roles of fat body trophocytes, mycetocytes and urocytes in the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana under starvation conditions: An ultrastructural study.
• Systemic ghrelin administration alters serum biomarkers of angiogenesis in diet-induced obese mice.
• Identification of a novel interorgan mechanism favoring energy storage in overnutrition.
• Temperature-Sensing Fat Cells.
• Inactivation of Taste Genes Causes Male Sterility.
• A novel link between circadian clocks and adipose tissue energy metabolism.

Behavior

• Paper & Video: Hunger can be taught: Hunger Recognition regulates eating and improves energy balance.
• Dietary variety is associated with larger meals in female rhesus monkeys.
• Systematic review suggests grocery shopping to a predetermined list is a cost-effective means for reducing obesity.
• RCT: The Effects of Caloric Preload and Dietary Restraint on Smoking and Eating Behavior.
• Examining social influence on participation and outcomes among a network of behavioral weight-loss intervention enrollees.

Bone

• In obese postmenopausal women, bone microarchitecture and strength are not commensurate to greater body weight.
• The interrelationship between bone and fat: From cellular see-saw to endocrine reciprocity.
• Energy-restricted diet benefits body composition but degrades bone integrity in middle-aged obese female rats.

Caloric Intake

• The effects of dietary restriction on oxidative stress in rodents.
• Calorie restriction alleviates the age-related decrease in neural progenitor cell division in the aging brain.
• Gastrointestinal morphological alterations in obese rats kept under hypercaloric diets.

Clinical

• RCT: Effects of etanercept monotherapy vs. etanercept and narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy in obese psoriasis patients.
• RCT: Intensive lifestyle intervention targeting weight loss and increased physical activity is effective in older individuals to produce sustained weight loss and improvements in fitness and cardiovascular risk factors.
• RCT: Infancy-Onset Dietary Counseling of Low-Saturated-Fat Diet Improves Insulin Sensitivity in Healthy Adolescents 15-20 Years of Age.
• RCT: Comprehensive Behavioral-Motivational Nutrition Education Improves Depressive Symptoms following Bariatric Surgery.
• RCT: A 6-week diet and exercise intervention alters metabolic syndrome risk factors in obese Chinese children aged 11–13 years.
• RCT: Anti-obesity effect of Gynostemma pentaphyllum extract (actiponin).
• UAB testing new treatment for obese, type 2 diabetics.

Commentary

• Forecasting the End of the Obesity Epidemic.
• Obesity Pop Science — Not So Much Science.
• Obesity is not a disease.

Evolution, Ecology, and Energetics

• Bitter taste enhances predatory biases against aggregations of prey with warning coloration.
• Evolution of sperm structure and energetics in passerine birds.
• Ancient predator lacked jaw strength to leverage own fangs.

Epidemiology

• Timing of energy intake during the day is associated with the risk of obesity in adults.
• Association between water consumption and body weight outcomes: a systematic review.

Exercise

• RCT: Mechanical muscle function and lean body mass during supervised strength training and testosterone therapy in aging men with low-normal testosterone levels.
• People eat less after harder workouts: small study.
• A Six Months Exercise Intervention Associated with Genome-wide DNA Methylation Pattern in Human Adipose Tissue.
• Self-reported versus objectively assessed exercise adherence.
• How Exercise Can Calm Anxiety.
• Effects of exercise and lifestyle modification on fitness, insulin resistance, skeletal muscle oxidative phosphorylation and intramyocellular lipid content in obese children and adolescents.

Food

• Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets.
• RCT: Daily consumption of a synbiotic yogurt decreases energy intake but does not improve gastrointestinal transit time.
• Three dissimilar high fat diets differentially regulate lipid and glucose metabolism in obesity-resistant Slc:Wistar/ST rats.

Genetics

• Pitfalls of predicting complex traits from SNPs.
• Whole genome sequencing in support of wellness and health maintenance.
• Obesity genomics: assessing the transferability of susceptibility loci across diverse populations.

Methods

• Global metabolomic profiling of human serum from obese individuals by liquid chromatography-time-of-flight/mass spectrometry to evaluate the intake of breakfasts prepared with heated edible oils.
• Parent-Reported Height and Weight as Sources of Bias in Survey Estimates of Childhood Obesity.
• Fruit and vegetable consumption and body mass index: a quantile regression approach.
• Dynamic model predicting overweight, obesity, and extreme obesity prevalence trends.

Milk

• Commentary - Three Daily Servings of Reduced-Fat Milk. An Evidence-Based Recommendation?
• Commentary - Sweetened milk consumption 'undermines' child diet.
• Milk protein for improved metabolic health: a review of the evidence.
• Human Milk Sharing: Evolutionary Insights and Modern Risks.

Policy Related

• Food Industry Firms' Economic Incentives to Provide Nutritional Information to the Market: European Breakfast Cereals, Snacks, and Soft Drinks Industries.
• Cost-Effectiveness of Fiscal Policies to Prevent Obesity.
• Shame, Blame, and the Emerging Law of Obesity Control.
• Incentivizing Wellness in the Workplace. Sticks (Not Carrots) Send Stigmatizing Signals.
• CMS Questions Value for Bariatric Centers of Excellence.
• Obesity and people with disabilities: The implications for health care expenditures.

Stigma

• The influence of social norms upon behavioral expressions of implicit and explicit weight-related stigma in an interactive game.
• Substance use more stigmatized than smoking and obesity.
• The qualities of fat: Bodies, history, and materiality.
• RCT: Public reactions to obesity-related health campaigns.

Sugars

• Comparison of productivity of colonies of honey bees, Apis mellifera, supplemented with sucrose or high fructose corn syrup.
• Fructose, and the Follies of History.
• Sugar and space? Not the case: Effects of low blood glucose on slant estimation are mediated by beliefs.
• Fructose-Containing Sugars, Blood Pressure, and Cardiometabolic Risk: A Critical Review.
• Commentary: Are sugar-sweetened beverages the whole story?

Transgenerational

• Maternal high-fat diets cause insulin resistance through inflammatory changes in fetal adipose tissue in mice.
• Maternal obesity and diabetes induces latent metabolic defects and widespread epigenetic changes in isogenic mice.
• Female obesity: Short- and long-term consequences on the offspring.

General Science

• Do Financial Conflicts of Interest Bias Research? Scientists should not suspend their skepticism and choose as a default hypothesis that bias is present.
• Observations Generate hypotheses. Observational Studies Test Hypotheses. Association Implies Causality (Sometimes).
• Female crickets assess relatedness during mate guarding and bias storage of sperm towards unrelated males.
• Occasionally libertarian: Experimental evidence of self-serving omission bias.
• Why You Should Mentor -- And How To Do It.
• Paper Raises Hundreds Of Questions About The Integrity Of Stem Cell Research Group.
• Educators Take Aim at STEM Myths.

Announcements

• Call for Papers: Movement Behaviours for Preventing Obesity across the Lifespan.
• Conference: Evaluating Bioactive Food Components in Obesity and Cancer Prevention. September 27-29, 2013.
• Conference: World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease, Nov. 7-9, 2013.
• JAX Webinar: Modeling Human Disease with Diet-Induced Obesity (DIO) Models and Resources.

Featured

• RCT: Sleep restriction increases the neuronal response to unhealthy food in normal-weight individuals.
• Researchers Demonstrate Use of Stem Cells to Analyze Causes, Treatment of Diabetes.
• Hunger Affects Decision Making and Perception of Risk in Fruit Flies.

Headline vs. Study

• Headline: Food addiction: Those fries really may be addicting.
• Study: An fMRI study of milkshake differing in GI – neither French fries nor addiction were studied.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• RCT: The theoretical advantages of omentectomy in regard to weight loss and obesity-related abnormalities are not confirmed.
• Higher animal, but not plant, protein associated with better body composition in young adulthood.
• “We generally found limited evidence for a longitudinal association between various indicators of sweet drink consumption and body mass index.”
• No evidence that, on average, children's BMI and BMI percentile scores are affected before parents’ marital disruption, after the disruption, and as time passes from the disruption.
• Neither purported food addiction status nor symptom count affects weight loss or attrition during weight loss treatment.
• RCT: In comparison to interrupted sitting or structured physical activity, a single bout of 8h of uninterrupted sitting does not result in measurable changes in circulating levels of insulin, glucose, or lipids in healthy children and youth.
• BMI is not associated with sperm-zona pellucida binding ability in subfertile males.
• “White males receive a wage premium for higher BMI. Wages of all other ethno-gender groups seem to remain unaffected by obesity.”

Math & Obesity

• Why is the 3500 kcal per pound weight loss rule wrong?
• Response to 'Why is the 3500 Kcal per pound weight loss rule wrong?'
• A Gender-STRUCTURED RANDOM MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING ADULTHOOD OBESITY.

Surgery

• A Role for Fibroblast Growth Factor 19 and Bile Acids in Diabetes Remission After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass.
• Comparison between laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding for morbid obesity: A meta-analysis.
• A meta-analysis: To compare the clinical results between gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy for the obese patients.
• Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding vs standard medical management in obese patients with type 2 diabetes: a budget impact analysis in the UK.
• Improvement in hepatic insulin sensitivity after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass in a rat model of obesity is partially mediated via hypothalamic insulin action.
• The Rise of Soluble TWEAK Levels in Severely Obese Subjects After Bariatric Surgery May Affect Adipocyte-Cytokine Production Induced by TNF-alpha.
• Obesity and trends in malpractice claims for physicians and surgeons.
• Type of reconstruction and adjuvant chemotherapy significantly associated with amount of visceral fat loss after curative gastrectomy in gastric cancer patients.

Food

• Long-term effects of low glycemic index/load vs. high glycemic index/load diets on parameters of obesity and obesity-associated risks: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
• Does wheat make us fat and sick?
• Two meals a day may be better for weight loss than 'grazing'.
• High carbohydrate intake specially refined sources with high glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) is associated with increased risk of stroke.
• Consumers challenged in making healthful choices
• Is household food insecurity associated with overweight/obesity in women?

Forensic

• Man to spend six years in prison for fake weight-loss study.
• A right to be fat? A survey of weight management in medium secure units.
• Sudden Death in the Super Obese - the Forensic Implications of Obesity,

Sugar Sweetened Beverages

• AMA to campaign against eligibility of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages for purchase with food stamps
• Regarding Fagherazzi et al. - Artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages and incident type 2 diabetes.
• Regarding Fagherazzi et al. - Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages and incident type 2 diabetes: methodologic concern about a recent epidemiological study.
• Regarding Fagherazzi et al. - Diabetes and diet beverage study has serious limitations.
• Reply to HC Stevens and C La Vecchia.

Methods

• Fitting statistical models in bivariate allometry: Scaling metabolic rate to body mass in mustelid carnivores.
• Correlation between Hepatic Fat Content Using 3-Echo 3-D Dixon Method and Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) Perfusion MR Imaging.
• Obesity and fast food in urban markets: A new approach using geo-referenced micro data.
• Parent-Reported Height and Weight as Sources of Bias in Survey Estimates of Childhood Obesity.
• Toward 'Omic Scale Metabolite Profiling: A Dual Separation - Mass Spectrometry Approach for Coverage of Lipids and Central Carbon Metabolism.
• The use of routine thoracoabdominal CT scans in the polytrauma patient to estimate obesity.
• Determination of diuretics and laxatives as adulterants in herbal formulations for weight loss.
• Is BMI Alone a Sufficient Outcome To Evaluate Interventions for Child Obesity?

Exercise

• Achieving recommended daily physical activity levels through commuting by public transportation: Unpacking individual and contextual influences.
• Effects of exercise on resting blood pressure in obese children: a meta-analysis of RCTs.
• The role of weight loss and exercise in correcting skeletal muscle mitochondrial abnormalities in obesity, diabetes and aging.
• Patterns of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior, and Diet in U.S. Adolescents.
• Effects of exercise on resting blood pressure in obese children: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
• Exercise training attenuates cerebral ischemic hyperglycemia by improving hepatic insulin signaling and beta-cell survival in gerbils.
• Persuading students to exercise: What is the best way to frame messages for normal-weight versus overweight/obese university students? 'Gain-framing'.
• Observational study: Lack of physical activity and overweight/obesity associated with poor survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis.

Evolution, Ecology and Energetics

• The energetics of organic synthesis inside and outside the cell.
• Honeybees and cell lines as models of DNA methylation and aging in response to diet.
• Density Triggers Maternal Hormones That Increase Adaptive Offspring Growth in a Wild Mammal.
• Limits to sustained energy intake XX: body temperatures and physical activity of female mice during lactation.
• Food abundance affects energy intake and reproduction in frugivorous female Assamese macaques.
• Predation promotes survival of beetles with lower resting metabolic rates.

Epidemiology

• Changes in smoking, sports participation and overweight: Does neighborhood prevalence matter?
• We find a robust positive and statistically significant relationship between obesity and economic insecurity that holds for nearly every age, gender, and race/ethnicity group, both in cross-section and over time.
• Life Years Lost Associated with Obesity-Related Diseases for U.S. Non-Smoking Adults.
• Epidemiology of companion animal overweight/obesity in Great Britain.
• Infectious Diseases in Children and Body Mass Index in Young Adults.
• Anthropometric markers of obesity and mortality in white and African American adults: The Pennington Center Longitudinal Study.
• Overweight and obese patients had higher prevalence of hypertension, more abnormal left ventricular geometry and lower stress-corrected midwall shortening in a SEAS substudy.

Obesity Among The Seriously Ill

• Differences in prescribed Kt/V and delivered haemodialysis dose--why obesity makes a difference to survival for haemodialysis patients when using a 'one size fits all' Kt/V target.
• Obesity associated with protective alterations in outcome, susceptibility, treatment, and inflammatory response in critically ill patients
• Male gender, increased blood viscosity, body mass index and triglyceride levels are independently associated with systemic relative hypertension in sickle cell anemia.
• Statins Modulate the Mortality Risk Associated With Obesity and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Diabetics.
• Obesity not associated with decreased overall or disease-free survival in patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

Brown Adipose Tissue

• White, brown, beige/brite: different adipose cells for different functions? Maybe.
• Brown Fat Activation Mediates Cold-Induced Thermogenesis in Adult Humans in Response to a Mild Decrease in Ambient Temperature.
• Role of PRDM16 in the activation of brown fat programming, with discussion of relevance to the development of obesity.

Conjecture

• Evidence that dirty electricity is causing the worldwide epidemics of obesity and diabetes.
• What If Being Overweight was Good For You?
• Could a hormone point the way to life extension? Maybe.

Clinical

• Systematic review of lifestyle interventions to limit postpartum weight retention: Implications for future opportunities to prevent maternal overweight and obesity following childbirth.
• Study shines a light on relationship between genes, diet and obesity.
• RCT: The effects of a family-based intervention (FBI) for overweight/obese children on health and psychological functioning.
• RCT: Diet-induced weight loss in obese children with asthma
• RCT (pilot): Pilot testing three types of health coaches for obesity treatment finds professionals better than past successes
• A New Endoscopically Implantable Device (SatiSphere) for Treatment of Obesity-Efficacy, Safety, and Metabolic Effects on Glucose, Insulin, and GLP-1 Levels.
• RCT: Addition of dietary-induced weight loss to physical activity reduced leptin and hsIL-6 more than physical activity alone and more than a successful aging (SA) health education intervention in older adults at risk for CVD.
• RCT (pilot): Caloric restriction in overweight men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer increases serum IGFBP-3, compared to standard diet.
• RCT: Experience and acceptability of diets of varying protein content and glycemic index in an obese cohort (Diogenes trial).

Basic Science

• UCP4 expression changes in larval and pupal fat bodies of the beetle Zophobas atratus under adipokinetic hormone treatment.
• Metabolic profiling and biological mechanisms of body fat reduction in mice fed the ethanolic extract of black-colored rice.
• Adipocyte lineages: Tracing back the origins of fat.
• What are the Effects of Maternal Obesity on Synaptic Function in the Maternal and Offspring Hippocampus?
• Following the Swarm: Stephen Simpson discusses insights into human nutrition and obesity gleaned from locusts
• Mice lacking C1q are protected from high-fat diet induced hepatic insulin resistance and impaired glucose homeostasis.
• Effects of obesity and estradiol on Na+/K+-ATPase and their relevance to cardiovascular disease.
• Thyroid hormones correlate with resting metabolic rate, not daily energy expenditure, in two charadriiform seabirds.
• Dietary Intervention Causes Redistribution of Zinc in Obese Adolescents (non-RCT).
• Gut microbes spur development of liver cancer in obese mice
• Impaired blood pressure compensation following hemorrhage in conscious obese Zucker rats due to blunted increase in total peripheral resistance.
• Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity.
• Rare variants in single-minded 1 (SIM1) are associated with severe obesity.

Herbal Supplements

• RCT: Herbal blend of Sphaeranthus indicus and Garcinia mangostana lowers body weight and BMI compared to placebo.
• A systematic review of anti-obesity medicinal plants - an update.
• Dietary supplementation with purified mulberry (Morus australis Poir) anthocyanins suppresses body weight gain in high-fat diet fed C57BL/6 mice.

Obesity & Taxes

• Promotion of Healthy Eating Through Public Policy: A Controlled Experiment.
• Food Prices and Body Fatness among Youths.
• Book: Obesity and Taxes. Why Government Cannot Make You Thinner.
• Brutal pragmatism on food.

Policy Related

• Targeting Transparency.
• Massachusetts Considers Weight Discrimination Law.
• Examining Restaurant Menu Calorie Counts.
• Don’t Count on Calorie Counts.
• Exploratory analysis of fast-food chain restaurant menus before and after implementation of local calorie-labeling policies, 2005-2011.
• Academy of Medical Royal Colleges condemn NHS for inadvertently fuelling obesity crisis
• Wisconsin legislature: Hands off our junk food
• Manufacturers not giving a green light to 'traffic light' labeling.
• U.S. Agriculture Department announces new rules regarding snack foods sold in schools.

Commentary

• LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Sugar fear-mongering unhelpful.
• Not So Grrreat: Ten Important Myths about Food Advertising Targeted to Children in Canada.
• Tricking the public to ‘promote’ health.
• Peter Attia: Is the obesity crisis hiding a bigger problem?
• Martin Binks on Obesity as a Disease.

General Science

• Why uncertainty is part of science.
• The geometric increase in meta-analyses from China in the genomic era.
• Photos reveal rare jaguar living in Arizona mountains.
• A new species discovered because of avian flu in Phnom Penh
• Beak-to-Brain Nerve May Help Birds Navigate
• Study suggests that honey bees have split brains, like humans
• Japanese scientists clone a mouse from a single drop of blood
• Review of Cloning Paper Prompts Questions about the peer review process

Announcements

• EASO Björntorp Symposium: the Super Obese Child. Jerusalem, Israel, 10-12 November 2013.
• Conference: Metabolically Healthy and Unhealthy Obese, Oct 26-27, Dominican Republic.
• Conference: Evaluating Bioactive Food Components in Obesity and Cancer Prevention, Sept 27-29, Fort Walton Beach, Fl.

Featured

• Methods for defining distinct bioenergetic profiles in platelets, lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils, and the oxidative burst from human blood
• The obesity era.
• How junk food can end obesity.

Findings Contrary Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• Blood type diets lack supporting evidence: a systematic review.
• RCT: RYGB did not have a superior effect in comparison to SG with regard to HbA1c levels or weight loss during 12 months of follow-up.
• RCT: Short-term diets containing low-fat dairy products did not lead to a more favourable biomarker profile associated with CVD risk compared with the full-fat dairy products.
• RCT: Childhood obesity prevention and control in city recreation centres and family homes, the MOVE/me Muevo Project, finds no significant effects for the primary outcomes of child's or parent's BMI and child's waist circumference.
• Cochrane Review: School-based physical activity interventions not effective in reducing BMI.
• No Association between Low Birth Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Early Adulthood.

Video

• Louis Aronne, MD: Obesity as a Disease.
• Steven Blair, PhD: How Do You Get Patients to Stay Physically Active?

Transgenerational

• Obese Male Mice Father Offspring with More Body Fat.
• Transgenerational Metabolic Determinants of Fetal Birth Weight.

Surgery

• RCT: Patients who regain weight after gastric bypass may benefit from transoral outlet reduction.
• Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy compared to other bariatric surgical procedures: a systematic review of RCTs.

Sleep

• RCT: Catching Up on Sleep May Lower Diabetes Risk.
• Could parental rules play a role in the association between short sleep and obesity in young children?

Pychology

• Leaving a Flat Taste in Your Mouth: Task Load Reduces Taste Perception.
• Appropriateness standards can help to curb the epidemic of overweight: response to Dewitte and to Herman and Polivy.
• How the framing of portion size influences food intake.

Policy

• A.M.A. Recognizes Obesity as a Disease.
• The Unequal Distribution of Body Mass Index and State-Level Soft Drink Taxes on Obesity Inequality.
• FDA Releases Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Science and Research (CSR) Strategic Plan.
• Consistent food labeling in the UK.
• Obesity community supports the treat and reduce obesity act of 2013.
• Calorie estimation accuracy and menu labeling perceptions in individuals with and without eating disorders.

Methods

• Addressing continuous data for participants excluded from trial analysis: a guide for systematic reviewers.
• Body Composition: Assessment, Regulation, and Emerging Techniques.
• Measuring Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of the Safe Handling of the Morbidly Obese Patient: Instrument Development and Psychometric Testing.

Genetics

• Sex-stratified Genome-wide Association Studies Including 270,000 Individuals Show Sexual Dimorphism in Genetic Loci for Anthropometric Traits.
• Epigenetic changes in hypothalamic appetite regulatory genes may underlie the developmental programming for obesity in rat neonates subjected to a high-carbohydrate dietary modification.

Food

• RCT: Walnuts improve Endothelial Function in Overweight Adults with Visceral Obesity and cause no weight gain.
• Frequency of consumption at fast-food restaurants is associated with dietary intake in overweight and obese women recruited from financially disadvantaged neighborhoods.
• Peanut consumption in adolescents is associated with improved weight status.
• Macronutrients and Obesity: Revisiting the Calories in, Calories out Framework.
• RCT: Effects of high-protein diets on fat-free mass and muscle protein synthesis following weight loss.

Exercise

• Changes in mechanisms proposed to mediate fat loss following an acute bout of high intensity interval and endurance exercise.
• Lack of exercise is putting lives at risk, says expert.
• RCT: Long-term effects of aerobics training versus combined training on physical fitness and cardiovascular disease risk factors in overweight elderly men with high blood pressure.
• RCT: Effects of resistance and multicomponent training on body composition and physical fitness of institutionalized elderly women.

Epidemiology

• Little Effect of Gestation at 3,100 m on Fetal Fat Accretion or the Fetal Circulation.
• The association between grandmaternal investment and early years overweight in the UK.
• The four undergraduate years. Changes in weight, eating attitudes, and depression.
• Inequality and Mortality: New Evidence from U.S. County Panel Data.
• Elevated BMI as a causal risk factor for symptomatic gallstone disease: A mendelian randomization study.

Evolution and Energetics

• Linking anti-predator behaviour to prey demography reveals limited risk effects of an actively hunting large carnivore.
• Experimental support for food limitation of a short-distance migratory bird wintering in the temperate zone.
• Mating success and energetic condition effects driven by terminal investment in a short-lived insect.

Conferences

• Functional Body Composition and Related Aspects in Research on Obesity and Cachexia, September 6-7, Hamburg.
• Metabolically Healthy and Unhealthy Obese, Oct 26-27, Domincan Republic.
• Bioactive food components in obesity and cancer prevention.

Commentary

• Comparing the Influence of Energy Intake vs Expenditure on Promoting the Population Growth in Obesity.
• Morgan Downey: AHRQ: Policy-based non-evidence evidence?
• Does Healthy Food Dogma Prevent or Cause Obesity?
• Big Brother: Families, Loyalty and Obesity.

Clinical

• RCT: Long-term effect of the Go4it group treatment for obese adolescents.
• RCT: Caloric restriction versus standard diet in overweight men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.
• RCT: A Major Community-Based Environmental Intervention Produces a Mean Reduction of Six One-Hundredths of a BMI z-Score Decrease in Children.
• RCT: Targeting Obesity-Related Behaviors: Better Together Healthy Caswell County.
• RCT: Virtual Reality for Enhancing the Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Obesity With Binge Eating Disorder.
• Testosterone therapy in hypogonadal men associated with sustained and clinically meaningful weight loss.
• Targeting microbiota to address diet-induced obesity: a time dependent challenge.

Basic Science

• Chronic Intermittent Fasting Improves Cognitive Functions and Brain Structures in Mice.
• Two functional serotonin polymorphisms moderate the effect of food reinforcement on BMI.
• Divergent circuitry underlying food reward and intake effects of ghrelin: Dopaminergic VTA-accumbens projection mediates ghrelin's effect on food reward but not food intake.
• Changes in Ghrelin and Obestatin Levels before and after a Meal in Children with Simple Obesity and Anorexia.
• Markers of Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial Function and Lipid Accumulation Are Moderately Associated with the Homeostasis Model Assessment Index of Insulin Resistance in Obese Men.

General Science

• The Cognitive Bias Keeping Us from Innovating.
• Dog genetics spur scientific spat.
• Opinion: Learning from Peer Review.
• Crowdfunding UAB researcher meets goal to pay for gun study.
• A Perverted View of “Impact”.
• Sizing up Big Data.
• Why I retracted my nature paper: a guest post from David Vaux.