Tag Archive for: obesity

Healthy diet could save $50 billion in health care costs

Science Daily

A new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in collaboration with investigators at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, analyzed the impact of 10 dietary factors and estimated the annual cardiometabolic disease costs of suboptimal diet habits. The team concludes that suboptimal diet costs approximately $300 per person, or $50 billion nationally, accounting for 18 percent of all heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes costs in the US.

You can read the study here

Double burden of obesity, undernourishment stalks world: report

CTV News

Low- and middle-income countries risk seeing their development progress slashed by the double-edged sword of obesity and undernutrition, both caused by a lack of access to affordable healthy food, a report in The Lancet warned. This “double burden of malnutrition”, affects more than a third of some 130 countries classed as low-and middle-income, and it is increasingly seen in the same household — most commonly an overweight mother and a child stunted by undernutrition living under the same roof.

You can read the report here

Brain differences may be tied to obesity, kids’ study says

CBC News

In a federally-funded study involving 3,190 U.S. children ages 9 and 10, researchers found differences in the heaviest children’s brain scans – slightly less volume in the brain region behind the forehead that controls what are known as “executive function” tasks. “We don’t know which direction these relationships go nor do they suggest that people with obesity are not as smart as people at a healthy weight,” said editorial co-author Dr. Eliana Perrin.  Read the article here

Editorial: Saskatchewan needs to tackle obesity

Saskatoon Star Phoenix + Regina Leder Post

The editorial board writes that the high rate of obesity in Saskatchewan should be a topic of conversation and that the government should lead efforts on tackling the problem.

Sweet spot: Norwegians cut sugar intake to lowest level in 44 years

The Guardian

An annual report on the Norwegian diet reported that average annual consumption of sugar had plummeted from 43kg to 24kg per person between 2000 and 2018 – including a 27% reduction in the past decade – to a level lower than that recorded in 1975.  Norway has had a sugar tax since 1922 and more recently has created separate taxes for confectionary and sugary drinks.

Read the article here.

Children consume products with added sugar too early and too often, a new study finds

CTV News

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States found added sugars in the daily diets of 61 per cent of babies (aged six to eleven months) and 98 per cent of toddlers (aged 12 to 23 months), according to a new study published by the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Read the article here

Irish Heart Foundation calls for marketing bans on junk food to combat childhood obesity

MSN.com

Irish government research estimates that 85,000 of today’s children will die prematurely due to obesity. The Irish Heart Foundation is looking to decrease childhood obesity by 50% in the next decade and has proposed new taxes on sugary products as well as an end to price promotions for unhealthy foods and drinks. Read the article here

 

It costs Canada $9B to treat obesity, while barely any money is put into preventative care

The National Post

In Canada obesity-related health care costs are as high as $7 billion and are projected to increase to nearly $9 billion by 2021. But experts say many of these costs are a result of the health care system’s failure to properly treat obesity. Rather than taking a proactive approach, the system is instead set up to treat conditions that develop as a result of the disease which results in more money being spent in the long-run. Read the article here

Obesity ‘causes more cases of some cancers than smoking’

BBC News
Cancer Research UK says bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver cancers are more likely to have been caused by being overweight than by smoking tobacco and that obese people outnumber smokers two to one in the UK. Their new billboard campaign highlighting the obesity-cancer risk has landed them in hot water for fat-shaming. Read article here…

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Sugar tax, prominent labels reduce sugar consumption, Ontario study suggests

Toronto Star

A University of Waterloo study suggests that taxes on sugary products and labels on the front of packages can help reduce sugar consumption. The study, which included more than 3,500 people aged 13 and over on their purchasing behaviour last spring, also found that taxes could have the greatest impact if 100 percent fruit juice was included in reduction efforts. Read article here.
Read the study here