Most UK kids don’t think junk does harm

Seventy-three percent of British kids ages 8 to 15 said they didn’t know eating a steady diet of junk food could shorten their lives. The British Heart Foundation survey found that 45 percent of kids said the worst thing that could happen to them from eating junk would be gaining weight, messing up their teeth or getting acne. And 56 percent of kids said they expect to live to 80 or more, while 11 percent said they’ll live to be more than 100. In the hope of helping kids learn to make healthier choices the foundation released an online game, Yoobot, that requires kids to feed their virtual persona healthy food so they don’t become obese and unhealthy.

Diabetic women more likely to die after heart attack

Women younger than 65 who have diabetes are in worse heart health than men of the same age, meaning they’re more likely to die after having a heart attack than men are. That’s according to research from Sweden published in the journal Heart, which looked at gender differences in heart attack treatments. The women in the study with diabetes were 34 percent more likely to die over the four years of the study than men were. Fewer women than men had surgeries to unblock clogged arteries before their first heart attack, and the women tended to have high blood pressure and were more likely to smoke than the men.

Depressed heart patients need to move more

People with heart disease who are depressed are at greater risk for having more heart problems mostly because they aren’t active, a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association says. Research from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco looked at about 1,000 heart disease patients whose conditions were stable and found that the 20 percent who were depressed had one-third greater risk of heart attack or stroke or another “cardiac event.” That risk went away, however, when researchers adjusted for lack of physical activity, smoking and failure to take medication properly. It could be that making sure depressed people treat themselves well would eliminate this extra risk, researchers said.

Lower BMI calls Indians overweight

Medical experts in India have decided on a new rendering of the body mass index tables that will make more people in that country overweight. Like other nations it had classified people as overweight who had a BMI of 25 to 30, and anything over 30 was considered obese. Now people with a BMI of 23 will be considered overweight, and the obese category will start at 25.They also revised ideal waist measurements to 90 centimeters (about 35 inches) for men and 80 centimeters (31.4 inches) for women. It is hoped that the revisions will get people serious about dealing with their weight and to prevent diabetes, which affects an estimated 41 million people in India. People would be eligible for weight-loss surgery once they hit a BMI of 32.5.

Tiny amount of melamine found in U.S. formula

Finally, two food safety notes having to do with young children. The Food and Drug Administration is reporting that after testing 77 samples of infant formula, just one was found to have a trace amount of melamine, the chemical that has sickened thousands of infants in China. That means less than 250 parts per billion, though it’s not known what the safe level for babies might be. The FDA had found that no ingredients in American formula came from China, so it’s suspected the chemical got picked up somewhere in the manufacturing process. In an unrelated story parents in Nigeria are being urged not to use teething syrup that has been linked to 24 deaths from renal failure over the past two weeks.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 and is filed under Body mass index, Childhood obesity, Diabetes, Exercise and fitness, Food safety, Foreign stories (non-U.S.), Kids and families, Nibbles: diet news shorts. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Permalink.