Obesity and Energetics Offerings

Featured: We Can Choose Civility & Honesty or Distortion & Argumentum Ad Hominem

• Ad Hominem ad Nauseum in Obesity Dialogue.
• ‘We exaggerated obesity crisis’: pressure group.
• No, Sugar is Not the New Tobacco.
• Civility: The ability to disagree with others while respecting their sincerity and decency.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• RCT: Pilot lifestyle intervention for obese Latino adolescents using Interactive Guided ImagerySM increases physical activity, but has no discernable effect on adiposity.
• RCT: Short-term consumption of high-protein diets does not disrupt calcium homeostasis and is not detrimental to skeletal integrity.
• Systematic Review: Only 1 out of 5 intervention studies reported a lasting statistically significant increased consumption of fruit and vegetables among overweight children.
• Fatness predicts decreased physical activity and increased sedentary time, but not vice versa: support from a longitudinal study in 8- to 11-year-old children.

Headline vs. Study

• Headline: Cash Or Credit? How Kids Pay For School Lunch Matters For Health.
• Study: A study showing association, not causation, with a dependent variable of food purchases – Health not studied.
• Headline: Spoon-feeding link to child obesity 'not proven'.
• Study: Early influences on child satiety-responsiveness: the role of weaning style.

Video

• Mark Friedman: Why getting fat makes you overeat.
• Lance Baumgard: The effects of hyperthermia on nutrient partitioning.

Policy Related

• The 2015 dietary guidelines: the RD's wish list.
• American Public Health Association Infographic: Public health takes on obesity - a route to better health.

Basic Science

• Your Brain on Insulin - From Heresy to Dogma.
• Hormone-induced mitochondrial fission is utilized by brown adipocytes as an amplification pathway for energy expenditure.
• Antiobese function of platelet-activating factor: increased adiposity in platelet-activating factor receptor-deficient mice with age.
• The internal clock and feeding rhythm set the pace of the liver.
• Bacterial Translocation - Impact on the Adipocyte Compartment.

Temperature

• Nutritional Interventions to Alleviate the Negative Consequences of Heat Stress.
• Increased brown adipose tissue oxidative capacity in cold-acclimated humans.

Caloric Restriction

• SIRT1 but not its increased expression is essential for lifespan extension in caloric-restricted mice.
• Effect of dietary caloric restriction on the nociceptive threshold of rats that underwent aerobic and resistance exercise training.
• Effects of acute and longer-term dietary restriction on upper gut motility, hormone, appetite, and energy-intake responses to duodenal lipid in lean and obese men.
• Metabolic and Psychological Response to 7-Day Fasting in Obese Patients with and without Metabolic Syndrome.

Economics

• Thirteen Facts About the Economics of Obesity.
• Economic development, urbanisation, technological change and overweight: what do we learn from 244 Demographic and Health Surveys?
• Financial hardship and obesity.

Breast-Feeding

• Bioactive peptides derived from human milk proteins — mechanisms of action.
• Cost-utility analysis of an RCT for weight loss among lactating overweight/obese women.

Pregnancy

• Unconditional or conditional change: does it matter? Growth charts for monitoring weight gain during pregnancy.
• Pregnant rats exposed to obesity hormone lose birth’s protective effect on breast cancer.

Exercise

• Recommendations for a culturally relevant internet-based tool to promote physical activity among overweight young African American women, Alabama, 2010-2011.
• Exercise in mice prevents maternal high-fat diet-induced hypermethylation of the Pgc-1a gene and age-dependent metabolic dysfunction in the offspring.
• RCT: The Effects of Resistance Exercise Training on Body Composition and Strength in Obese Prepubertal Children.
• Sporadic MVPA was associated with the MetS to a similar order of magnitude as an equivalent volume of bouted MVPA.

Mortality

• Obese adults have a higher rate of dying of all-cause or CVD compared to normal-weight adults.
• BMI and Risk of Death in Asian Americans.
• Changes of BMI in Relation to Mortality: Results of a Cohort of 42,099 Adults.

Culture & Psychology

• A tribe’s fattening culture and its impact on health.
• Informational Cascades, Herding Bias, and Food Taste Evaluations.
• Impact of social pressure on stereotypes about obese people.
• Childhood Advertising Exposure Can Create Biased Product Evaluations That Persist into Adulthood.

Stigma

• The ironic effects of weight stigma.
• The Stress of Stigma: Exploring the Effect of Weight Stigma on Cortisol Reactivity.
• Agency pulls ‘fat-shaming’ child obesity awareness ads.

Brown Fat

• Proteomic differences between white and brown adipocytes.
• Increased brown adipose tissue oxidative capacity in cold-acclimated humans.

Food

• Detecting Fat Content of Food from a Distance: Olfactory-Based Fat Discrimination in Humans.
• Life at the table.
• White Vegetables: A Forgotten Source of Nutrients: Purdue Roundtable Executive Summary.
• IOM Workshop Summary: Caffeine in Food and Dietary Supplements: Examining Safety.
• Effect of fructose on postprandial triglycerides: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials.
• Molecular mechanisms underlying the potential antiobesity-related diseases effect of cocoa polyphenols.
• Intakes of Anthocyanins and Flavones Are Associated with Biomarkers of Insulin Resistance and Inflammation in Women.
• Serum long-chain omega-3 PUFA concentration associated with long-term lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
• A review of the nutritional value of legumes and their effects on obesity and its related co-morbidities.

Methods

• Formula 1 Technology Tackles Obesity in Unique Healthcare Partnership.
• Validation of volumetric and single-slice MRI adipose analysis using a novel fully automated segmentation method.
• Tech Could Treat Behavior That Leads to Obesity, Eating Disorders.
• Impact of accelerometer epoch length on physical activity and sedentary behaviour outcomes for preschool-aged children.
• Comparison of Self-reported versus Accelerometer-Measured Physical Activity.
• Increasing value and reducing waste in research design, conduct, and analysis.
• Measuring growth and obesity across childhood and adolescence.

Epidemiology

• Overweight occupations: Truckers top list of obese workers.
• Overweight and obese people more likely to seek and receive treatment for flu.
• Work Environment Factors Associated With Physical Activity Among White-Collar Workers.
• Correlates of physical activity of children and adolescents: A systematic review of reviews.
• Physical Activity associated with decreases in BMI z-scores in heavier children.
• Marital Quality as a Predictor of Perceptions of Body Weight, Activity Level, and Eating Habits.
• Change in Walking and BMI Following Residential Relocation.

Energetics, Evolution, & Ecology

• Why birds fly in a V-formation.
• Primate energy expenditure and life history.
• High basal metabolic rate does not elevate oxidative stress during reproduction in laboratory mice.
• Longer lifespan tied to energy use in primates.

Drugs

• Flurbiprofen ameliorated obesity by attenuating leptin resistance induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress.
• Modeling and simulation of orlistat to predict weight loss and weight maintenance in obesity patients.
• Combined treatment with low-dose pioglitazone and beraprost sodium improves glucose intolerance without causing body weight gain.
• RCT: A comparative study of five centrally acting drugs on the pharmacological treatment of obesity.
• Effects of anti-obesity drugs, diet, and exercise on weight-loss maintenance after a low-calorie diet: a systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.
• Influence of eating behaviors on short-term weight loss by orlistat and anorectic agent.

Clinical

• Google tests prototype of diabetes-tracking 'smart' contact lens.
• Remote control which activates insulin-loaded implant under the skin could replace injections for diabetics.
• RCT: The Use of mHealth to Deliver Tailored Messages Reduces Reported Energy and Fat Intake.
• Phosphatidylcholine and bipolar radiofrequency for treatment of localized fat deposits.
• A systematic review of controlled interventions to reduce overweight and obesity in people with schizophrenia.
• RCT: Manga Comic Influences Snack Selection on a Single in Black and Hispanic Youth.
• An ad libitum New Nordic Diet produces weight loss and blood pressure reduction in centrally obese individuals.
• RCT: Effect of a lifestyle intervention on weight change in south Asian individuals at high risk of type 2 diabetes.
• RCT: The hypoglycemic effect of Juglans regia leaves aqueous extract in diabetic patients: A first human trial.

Aging

• Health related quality of life more closely associated with central obesity than bioavailable testosterone.
• Age-Related Consequences of Childhood Obesity.

Surgery

• Two lessons from a 5-year follow-up study of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy: Persistent, relevant weight loss and a short surgical learning curve.
• The Duodenal–Jejunal Bypass Liner for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and/or Obesity: a Systematic Review.

General Science

• Mistimed sleep disrupts circadian regulation of the human transcriptome.
• NIGMS on “Fostering Open Science”.
• Science's New Policy on Reproducibility.
• The Value of Direct Replication.
• Record releases must balance faculty interest, transparency.
• The Alleged Crisis and the Illusion of Exact Replication.
• Priming, Replication, and the Hardest Science.
• Prof Henry Markram visits UAB to Discuss Human Brain Project.
• Measuring Nonverbal Bias Through Body Language Responses to Stereotypes.
• The Availability of Research Data Declines Rapidly with Article Age.
• Half of taxpayer funded research will soon be available to the public.
• A Martian mystery: Where did that jelly doughnut rock come from?

Commentary

• Obesity, health at every size, and public health policy.
• Oh Sugar! Wrong about fructose.
• Sorry Dr Lustig: A calorie is still a calorie.
• Google autocomplete suggests scientists are 'stupid, liberal, liars'.
• New Truths That Only One Can See.
• Nutritional Anxieties: From the Fear of Bad Nutrients to the Scarcity of Health-Enhancing Nutrients.
• Cookie Cutter Obesity Solutions from Smoking.

Announcements

• Metabolic Origins of Disease Symposium, March 3-5, 2014, Orlando, Florida.
• Dame Nancy Rothwell named one of the UK’s top 100 Scientists for her Obesity Research.
• New Book: Regulating Obesity? Government, Society, and Questions of Health.
• 10th International Symposium on Body Composition in Cascais, Portugal from June 11 to 14th, 2014.
• Report: Sharing Clinical Research Data - Workshop Summary Released.

Featured

• Probing the Subcellular Localization of Hopanoid Lipids in Bacteria Using NanoSIMS.
• Adipose Tissue Density, a Novel Biomarker Predicting Mortality Risk in Older Adults.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• Study Claims Fast Food Is Not A Major Factor In Childhood Obesity.
• Six months of treatment with the endoscopic duodenal-jejunal bypass liner does not lead to decreased systemic inflammation in obese patients with type 2 diabetes.
• The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha agonist fenofibrate has no effect on insulin sensitivity compared to atorvastatin in type 2 diabetes mellitus; a randomised, double-blind controlled trial.
• Improved Meta-Analytic Methods Show No Effect of Chromium Supplements on Fasting Glucose.

Video/Audio

• TED Talk. Sandra Aamodt: Why dieting doesn't usually work.
• BBC Show on Fructose.

Thermoregulation

• Age-Related Decrements in Heat Dissipation during Physical Activity Occur as Early as the Age of 40.
• Leanness and Heightened Non-Resting Energy Expenditure: Role of Skeletal Muscle Activity Thermogenesis.

Sugar

• Sucrose, commonly used in recipes of Drosophila laboratory food, may shorten life span in flies.
• Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Aimed to Curb Obesity and Diabetes.

Stigma

• Healthism and the Law of Employment Discrimination.
• Attitudes towards obesity in the Swedish general population: The role of one's own body size, weight satisfaction, and controllability beliefs about obesity.
• Four signs we're turning the corner on weight bias.
• Attitudes of Health Care Professionals towards Female Obese Patients.

Psychology

• Judging the differences between women's attractiveness and health: Is there really a difference between judgments made by men and women?
• Avatar body dimensions and men's body image.

Policy Related

• Uses of Research Evidence in the State Legislative Process to Promote Active Environments in Minnesota.
• A Comprehensive Strategy to Overhaul FDA Authority for Misleading Food Labels.
• L.E.A.D.  A Framework for Evidence Gathering and Use for the Prevention of Obesity and Other Complex Public Health Problems.
• The Economics of Obesity.
• FDA Initiates New Online Reporting Method for Dietary Supplement Adverse Events to Facilitate Reporting.
• Limitations of Observational Evidence: Implications for Evidence-Based Dietary Recommendations.
• Sociodemographic Differences in Fast Food Price Sensitivity.

Methods

• Noninvasive identification and assessment of functional brown adipose tissue in rodents using hyperpolarized (13)C imaging.
• Noninvasive monitoring of lung recruitment maneuvers in morbidly obese patients: the role of pulse oximetry and volumetric capnography.
• Fetal weight estimation in gestational diabetic pregnancies: comparison between conventional and three-dimensional fractional thigh volume methods using gestation-adjusted projection.
• Respiratory rate assessments using a dual-accelerometer device.
• Environmental exposure and mitochondrial epigenetics: study design and analytical challenges.
• Missing data in a multi-item instrument were best handled by multiple imputation at the item score level.

Food

• Current evidence linking polyunsaturated fatty acids with cancer risk and progression.
• RCT: Increased Dairy Consumption Differentially Improves Metabolic Syndrome Markers in Male and Female Adults.
• Restaurant Meals Have a Day's Worth of Calories, Salt, and Saturated Fat.
• Fast Food Consumption and the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome After 3-Years of Follow-Up: Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study.

Exercise

• 7 Papers in Debate–Physical activity and obesity risk.
• A single bout of resistance exercise does not modify cardiovascular responses during daily activities in patients with peripheral artery disease.
• Effects of exercise of different intensity on gut peptides, energy intake and appetite in young males.

Epidemiology

• A positive association between T. gondii seropositivity and obesity.
• Is obesity a risk factor for Clostridium difficile infection?
• Obesity and Hepatitis B Infection and Risk of Primary CNS Lymphoma.
• Once changing at the same rate, obesity has begun to decline among higher SES youth but continued to rise among low SES youth since 2002.
• Dairy Foods and Dairy Protein Consumption Is Inversely Related to Markers of Adiposity in Obese Men and Women.
• BMI and Mortality among Adults with Incident Type 2 Diabetes.

Energetics, Evolution & Ecology

• No Evidence of Metabolic Depression in Western Alaskan Juvenile Steller Sea Lions (Eumetopias jubatus).
• Interference from adults forces young red knots to forage for longer and in dangerous places.
• Adiposity and Fat Metabolism in Lactating and Fasting Northern Elephant Seals.

Commentary

• David Katz: Judging the Judging of Diets.
• There’s nothing left to eat—here’s how to navigate our collective food anxiety.
• The Anti-Science Behavior of GMO Proponents.
• Consensus statement understanding health and malnutrition through a systems approach: the ENOUGH program for early life.
• Can Heavier People Really Be Healthier?

Clinical

• Impact of a very low-energy diet on the fecal microbiota of obese individuals.
• Comparison of Effects of Long-Term Low-Fat vs. High-Fat Diets on Blood Lipid Levels in Overweight or Obese Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
• Eight-year weight losses with an intensive lifestyle intervention: The look AHEAD study.

Basic Science

• Nicotinamide Phosphoribosyltransferase Is Required for the Calorie Restriction–Mediated Improvements in Oxidative Stress, Mitochondrial Biogenesis, and Metabolic Adaptation.
• High Fat Diet and In Utero Exposure to Maternal Obesity Disrupts Circadian Rhythm and Leads to Metabolic Programming of Liver in Rat Offspring.
• The Many Faces of Sirtuins: Coupling of NAD metabolism, sirtuins and lifespan.

Aging

• The Evolution of Research on Ageing and Nutrition.
• Age-Related and Depot-Specific Changes in White Adipose Tissue of Growth Hormone Receptor-Null Mice.
• Metabolic Alterations Due to Caloric Restriction and Every Other Day Feeding in Normal and Growth Hormone Receptor Knockout Mice.
• Obesity and Life Expectancy Among Long-Lived Black Adults.

General Science

• Gender equality should be part of basic science training.
• Paper and commentaries on “An estimate of the science-wise false discovery rate and application to the top medical literature.”
• Promoting Transparency in Social Science Research.
• Open Science and Reporting Animal Studies: Who's Accountable?
• Why Standard Deviation Should Be Retired From Scientific Use.
• Funding trends in 2013.
• Research: increasing value, reducing waste.

Announcements

• Assistant Professor in Obesity Prevention at University of Connecticut.

Featured

• A Great Man Has Left Us. In Memoriam: Dr. John Milner.

Findings Contrary to Popular Hypotheses or Beliefs

• RCT: Advice to consume 2 fish meals per week did not enhance the effects on weight loss of a healthy low calorie diet.
• RCT: No effect of energy and traffic light labelling on parent and child fast food selection.
• No consistent dose-response associations of breastfeeding exclusivity with childhood BMI.
• Obesity not associated with longer length of hospital stay after surgery for ankle arthritis.
• RCT: No significant effects of co-administration of probiotics with herbal medicine on obesity.
• "Following Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery, there are surprisingly few abnormalities or indications of severe malabsorption of fats or sugars."
• Voluntary running worsened common plasma markers of cardiovascular health in mice.
• Slower Eating Speed Lowers Energy Intake in Normal-Weight but not Overweight/Obese Subjects.
• Candy consumption in childhood is not predictive of weight, adiposity measures or cardiovascular risk factors in young adults.
• Four neighborhood environment factors, contrary to expectations, were found to provide no benefit to predicted BMI outcomes.

Anecdotal Diets in the News

• Science teacher loses 37 pounds eating 2000 kcal of carefully selected McDonald’s fare, adding 45 minutes of exercise.
• Nutrition researcher loses 30 pounds eating 1800 kcal of Twinkies, celery and beans.

Clinical

• RCT: Tailored behavioral medicine intervention for enhanced physical activity and healthy eating in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and overweight.
• RCT: The Influence of Media on Food Intake and Obesity in Young Adults.
• RCT: A text message-assisted lifestyle intervention was effective in reducing weight, waist circumference and percent body fat as well as improving blood pressure.
• Pilot RCT: Testing the Use of Smartphone Technology for Obesity Treatment.

Food

• High fat diet induces leptin resistance in mice.
• Future diets: Implications for agriculture and food prices.
• Study links nut intake with lower risks of obesity.
• RCT: Effects of pistachio nuts on body composition, metabolic, inflammatory and oxidative stress parameters in Asian Indians with metabolic syndrome.
• RCT: Consumption of a Diet Low in Advanced Glycation End Products for 4 Weeks Improves Insulin Sensitivity in Overweight Women.
• Review: The impact of dietary methionine restriction on biomarkers of metabolic health.
• Review: Plant-derived food ingredients for stimulation of energy expenditure.
• Consuming traditional foods rich in calcium as well as milk is associated with lower blood lead levels in Inuit children.
• High-fiber diet may protect against allergic asthma.
• Mineral and fiber supplements may help reduce body fat mass.
• RCT: Adding half an avocado to a meal increases satiety but also caloric content (>100 kcal).

Drugs

• FDA Approves diabetes drug dapagliflozin.
• Review: The future role of gut hormones in the treatment of obesity.
• Obesity and diabetes: Mitochondrial uncoupler blocks metabolic disease.
• Review: Lixisenatide a novel GLP-1 receptor agonist: Efficacy, safety and clinical implications.

Exercise

• School Reform: The Role of Physical Education Policy in Physical Activity of Elementary School Children in Alabama's Black Belt Region.
• RCT: Effects of 8 weeks high intensity aerobic exercise on serum adipocyte fatty acid binding protein levels.

Nutrient Sensing

• Role of nutrient-sensing taste 1 receptor (T1R) family members in gastrointestinal chemosensing.
• Emerging roles of the extracellular calcium-sensing receptor in nutrient sensing: control of taste modulation and intestinal hormone secretion.
• Hypothalamic melanin concentrating hormone neurons communicate the nutrient value of sugar.
• Regulation of Hypothalamic Neuronal Sensing and Food Intake by Ketone Bodies and Fatty Acids.

Surgery

• 10-Year Outcomes of the Vertical Transected Gastric Bypass for Obesity: a Systematic Review.
• Weight Loss and Outcomes in Wait-listed, Medically Managed, and Surgically Treated Patients Enrolled in a Population-based Bariatric Program: Prospective Cohort Study.
• Obese men have more severe comorbidities than obese women yet underutilize bariatric surgery options.
• Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Increases Intravenous Ethanol Self-Administration in Dietary Obese Rats.

Methods

• Using Crowdsourcing to Compare Temporal, Social Temporal, and Probability Discounting Among Obese and Non-Obese Individuals.
• Accelerometer-Measured Versus Self-reported Physical Activity in College Students: Implications for Research and Practice.
• Fat Fraction Estimation of the Vertebrae in Females Using the T2*-IDEAL Technique in Detection of Reduced Bone Mineralization Level: Comparison With Bone Mineral Densitometry.
• Survey: Consumers Want to Track Health Data With Wearable Technologies.
• Measuring the sugar consumption of larvae in bumblebee micro-colonies: a promising new method for tracking food economics in bees.
• Disentangling basal and accumulated body mass for cross-population comparisons.
• Evaluating eating behavior treatments by FDA standards.

Pregnancy and Transgenerational Effects

• Retrospective cohort study: Regardless of prepregnancy BMI category, women with excessive BMI change have a higher chance of developing gestational hypertension/preeclampsia.
• Meta-analysis: Transgenerational effects of maternal caloric restriction on offspring appetite are weak, statistically non-significant.
• Maternal prepregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain were associated with greater risks of pregnancy-induced hypertension, caesarean delivery, and greater infant size at birth.
• Increased maternal weight gain both during and after pregnancy predicted overweight in preschool children.

Evolution, Energetics and Ecology

• Ovarian function in Samoan women shows stronger association with signals of energy metabolism than fat reserves.
• Body mass evolution and diversification within horses (family Equidae).
• Metabolic response to a glucagon challenge varies with adiposity and life-history stage in fasting northern elephant seals.
• Mass gained during breeding positively correlates with adult survival because both reflect life history adaptation to seasonal food availability.

Stigma

• RCT: Impact of social pressure on stereotypes about obese people.
• Survey: Implicit and explicit weight bias is common among 1st year medical students, with explicit attitudes more negative toward obese people than toward racial minorities, gays, lesbians, and poor people.

Sweeteners

• Effects of excess dietary fructose on liver pathology study have significant methodologic limitations.
• Fructose vs. glucose and metabolism: do the metabolic differences matter?
• Effect of fructose on postprandial triglycerides: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials.
• Caffeine Intake Improves Fructose-Induced Hypertension and Insulin Resistance by Enhancing Central Insulin Signaling.
• RCT: Coffee consumption attenuates short-term fructose-induced liver insulin resistance in healthy men.
• Effects of a nonnutritive sweetener on body adiposity and energy metabolism in mice with diet-induced obesity.
• Fructose's adverse effects limited to excess calorie intake.

Policy Related

• Federal Trade Commission unveils a new effort to shut down deceptive advertising for bogus weight loss products linked to liver injuries.
• FTC Cracks Down on Weight-Loss Product Marketers.
• Comparing the Impact of Product- and Nutrient-Specific Taxes: A sugar tax in particular is a powerful tool to induce healthier nutritive bundles among consumers.

Basic Science

• Intact brown adipose tissue thermogenesis is required for restorative sleep responses after sleep loss.
• Systematic Review: Bisphenol A and indicators of obesity, glucose metabolism/type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease: A systematic review of epidemiologic research.
• Scientists explain age-related obesity: Brown fat fails.
• PPAR-gamma and C/EBP-alpha Synergistically Activate Key Metabolic Adipocyte Genes by Assisted Loading.
• Additive effects of miRNAs and transcription factors on CCL2 production in human white adipose tissue.
• Hypothalamic SIRT1 prevents age-associated weight gain by improving leptin sensitivity in mice.
• Heart energy metabolism impairment in Western-diet induced obese mice.
• Obesity: The need to eat—overruling the homeostatic control of feeding.
• The role of microRNA-26b in human adipocyte differentiation and proliferation.

Commentary

• Selection Bias as an Explanation for the Obesity Paradox: Just Because It's Possible Doesn't Mean It's Plausible.
• Out of Sync: How much of the rise in obesity can be ascribed asynchronous eating habits?
• The powerful societal and cultural changes underlying the obesity epidemic will not be reversed by simplistic regulatory top-down actions.
• Urban Sprawl = Fat City? Not So Fast.
• Can upward mobility cost you your health?
• Severe Obesity: Hiding in plain sight.

General Science

• All mice are the same, until they're not: Genetically 'identical' substrains of the standard Black 6 lab mouse behave differently on cocaine.
• Henry Miller and Stanley Young on “The Trouble With 'Scientific' Research Today…”
• Unlike salespeople and counselors, emotional intelligence is a liability rather than an asset for scientists and accountants.
• Mantis shrimp's darting eyes ape the way primates see, in order to focus on novel objects of interest.

Announcements

• Obesity & Related Conditions: Taking Action & Improving Outcomes; Manchester Conference Centre on March 25th, 2014.

Featured

• Trapping the dynamic acyl carrier protein in fatty acid biosynthesis.
• A modeling approach for compounds affecting body composition.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Beliefs

• Candy consumption in childhood is not predictive of weight, adiposity measures or cardiovascular risk factors in young adults: the Bogalusa Heart Study.
• RCT: Slower eating speed lowers energy intake in normal-weight but not overweight/obese subjects.
• RCT: No significant effect of physical activity mentors to increase the daily steps of older adults in the primary care setting: a pilot study.
• Meta-analysis: The evidence from RCTs does not convincingly show that pyruvate is efficacious in reducing body weight.
• RCT: By 8 months, no significant effect of a culturally tailored cable television delivered weight control program for Black women on BMI.
• RCT: Intervention showed no significant effect on child step counts per minute despite increasing time that staff delivered structured activity.
• RCT: No significant difference between the groups in physical activity after lifestyle intervention in general practice for elderly.
• RCT: In study exploring changes in physical activity, sedentary behaviors and hypothesized mediators in girls, there were significant between group erences in favor of the intervention group for self-reported but not objective sedentary behavior and no group-by-time effects for any of the physical activity outcomes or hypothesized mediators.
• RCT: A weight-loss intervention that focuses on daily self-weighing does not cause adverse psychological outcomes.
• Quercetin caused no significant reduction in body weight or adipose tissue sizes in rats.

Basic

• Integrated phenotypic and activity-based profiling links Ces3 to obesity and diabetes.
• Interleukin-17–producing innate lymphoid cells and the NLRP3 inflammasome facilitate obesity-associated airway hyperreactivity among mice.
• Ampicillin-Improved Glucose Tolerance in Diet-Induced Obese C57BL/6NTac Mice Is Age Dependent.
• Study's findings among mice suggest that oral peptide-YY signaling can affect taste-related behavior towards lipids.

Stigma

• Bias against obese persons among medical students.
• “Balancing the Scales” Theatre Workshop Trains Professionals in Obesity Sensitivity.
• Video: Student takes on prejudice against overweight people.

Interpreting Funding Associations

• Systematic review of financial conflicts of interest and conclusions regarding the association between sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain finds association -  editorial notes “A major limitation of this study is that it cannot assess which interpretation of the available evidence is truly accurate”.
• Do Financial Conflicts of Interest Bias Research? Author argues that scientists should not suspend their skepticism and choose as a default hypothesis that bias is the cause.
• Effect of funding source on publication bias is not so clear cut.

Caloric Restriction

• Anthropometric, Hemodynamic, Metabolic, and Renal Responses during 5 Days of Food and Water Deprivation.
• Therapeutic fasting in patients with metabolic syndrome and impaired insulin resistance.
• Fasting therapy - old and new perspectives.
• Caloric restriction, caloric restriction mimetics, and healthy aging in Okinawa: controversies and clinical implications.
• Identifying evolutionarily conserved genes in the dietary restriction response using bioinformatics and subsequent testing in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Food

• RCT: Diets naturally rich in polyphenols improve fasting and postprandial dyslipidemia and reduce oxidative stress.
• RCT: The effects of weight loss and salt reduction on visit-to-visit blood pressure variability.
• Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: dietary Fatty acids for healthy adults.
• Nutritional Value of Meals at Full-service Restaurant Chains.
• Does modifying the thick texture and creamy flavor of a drink change portion size selection and intake?
• A systematic review of experimental studies show consistent evidence that norms influence food choices.

Drugs

• RCT: Comparing the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide to a sulphonylurea as add on to metformin in patients with established type 2 diabetes during Ramadan.
• Dental considerations for patients taking weight-loss medications.
• Adiponectin signaling and metabolic syndrome.
• Restricted access to standard or high fat chow alters sensitivity of rats to the 5-HT2A/2C receptor agonist 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-2-aminopropane.
• The year ahead for six new obesity treatments.

Evolution, Energetics, and Ecology

• Multiple paternity in wild house mice (Mus musculus musculus): effects on offspring genetic diversity and body mass.
• Energetics of the acrobatic courtship in male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus).
• Plant DNA is challenging preconceptions about the evolution of life, including the human species.

Epidemiology

• Misreporting and misclassification: implications for socioeconomic disparities in BMI and obesity.
• School year versus summer differences in child weight gain: A narrative review.

Exercise

• Meta-analysis: Exercise is efficacious for reducing percent body fat in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Insufficient evidence exists to suggest that exercise reduces other measures of adiposity.
• RCT: Nutrition education added to internet-based information and exercise at the work place for weight loss in a racially diverse population of overweight women.
• Colorado stride (COSTRIDE): testing genetic and physiological moderators of response to an intervention to increase physical activity.
• RCT: An eight month exercise intervention alters resting state synchrony in overweight children.

Ghrelin

• Ghrelin levels after a cold pressor stress test in obese women with binge eating disorder.
• Ghrelin receptor regulates high fructose corn syrup-induced adipose inflammation and insulin resistance in mice.

Clinical

• RCT: Steps ahead trial to reduce unhealthy weight gain in the lower Mississippi Delta.
• RCT: A text messaging-assisted lifestyle weight loss trial among overweight adults in Beijing.
• RCT: Self-Efficacy, Quality of Life, and Weight Loss in Overweight/Obese Endometrial Cancer Survivors (SUCCEED): A Randomized Controlled Trial.
• RCT: Findings from a study of 70 women suggest that supplementing dietary caraway extract may be beneficial for obesity management and weight loss.
• RCT: Study findings suggest no difference in postprandial thrombotic risk profiles between participants on a low-fat diet and a diet high in monounsaturated fatty acids.
• Association of displaying traffic-light nutritional labels in a university cafeteria on students’ food choice.

Policy

• CMS coverage for obesity management.
• American Diabetes Association releases 2014 Standards of Medical Care.

Socioeconomic

• Economic development, urbanisation, technological change and overweight: what do we learn from 244 demographic and health surveys.
• Econometric analysis suggests that there is no causal relationship between credit card debt and obesity for either men or women; but suggestive evidence regarding trouble paying bills among women.
• Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Study: Environmental effects on obesity.

Surgery and Devices

• The Acute Effects of a New Type of Implantable Gastric Electrical Stimulators Featuring Varied Pulse Widths on Beagle Dogs' Food Intake and Gastric Accommodation.
• Findings from longitudinal investigation of weight loss trajectories among bariatric surgery patients that were severely obese suggest that though there was substantial weight loss among participants, the improvement in other cardiometabolic outcomes varied.

Methods

• Accelerometer data reduction in adolescents: effects on sample retention and bias.
• Mortality risk of obesity and underweight is overestimated with self-reported BMI.
• Association of run-in periods with weight loss in obesity randomized controlled trials.
• Study investigates the utility of small area estimation techniques to monitor obesity prevalence and dietary patterns in developing.

Transgenerational Effects

• Role of prenatal undernutrition in the expression of serotonin, dopamine and leptin receptors in adult mice: Implications of food intake.
• Epidemiological findings suggest that birthweight is a partial mediator of the associations between parental diabetes and participants’ type 2 diabetes.

Chronobiology

• Variants of circadian-related genes affect energy expenditure.
• Body weight gain in rats fed a high-fat diet produces chronodisruption in activity/inactivity circadian rhythm.

Commentary

• Adherence to diets for weight loss.
• Adherence to diets for weight loss—Reply.
• Diabesity: Palliating, curing or preventing the dysmetabolic diathesis.
• Obesity, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis and chronic periodontitis: a shared pathology via oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction?
• Multivitamins Revisited, Again: Mission, Methods and Muddled Messages.
• The difference between being big and having obesity.
• The Future of Fat.

General

• Sex-trapolation in the Latest Brain Science.
• Microbiota modulate behavioral and physiological abnormalities associated with neurodevelopmental disorders among mice.
• Findings from GWAS analysis among Mexican and Latin American individuals identifies SLC16A11 as a novel candidate gene for type 2 diabetes with a possible role in triacylglycerol metabolism.
• To lay groundwork for future medicine, South China researchers isolate a fluorescent protein in jellyfish DNA and inject it into pig embryos to engineer piglets that glow under black lights.
• The next frontier for 3D printing: human organs.
• Archaeologists discover that ancient villagers cultivated vineyards in Spain.

Announcements

• Obesity Action Coalition welcomes new board members and chair Ted Kyle.