Nutrition Professor Mark Haub Loses 27 Pounds on the Twinkie Diet

I fear no good is going to come from the man you see in the picture telling the world how he managed to lose 27 pounds in two months.

Professor Mark Haub, at Kansas State University, where he is a Professor of Human Nutrition posed the premise that in weight loss it is counting calories which matters most. Not where those calories come from,

Now, this is not ground-breaking news, that consuming fewer calories than your caloric needs is going to cause weight loss.

However, what Professor Haub ate to lose weight does go against the conventional wisdom. Twinkies, Doritos, various Little Debbie convenience store goodies, Kellogg's Corn Pops and other sugary goodies.

Professor Haub carefully kept count of the calories he was consuming. Just to maintain a steady weight, he'd need about 2,600 calories a day. Eating junk food, Haub took in less than 1,800 a day. Hence the weight loss.

A further disturbing piece of this news is the fact that, apparently, Professor Haub's LDL (bad cholesterol) dropped 20%. His HDL (good cholesterol) increased 20 %. His triglyceride level dropped 39%.

The healthy outcome, from the unhealthy diet, is perplexing those who worry about such things.

Overlooked, maybe, is the additional fact that, amongst the sugary junk, Professor Haub also drank 150 calories worth of whole milk, drank a protein shake, ate some baby carrots and other vegetables and took Centrum Advanced Formula From A to Zinc.

Now, my fear is that the news of the success of the Twinkie Diet is going to be heard only in part.

As in, the one or two obese people who's feeding habits I have observed are already on the Twinkie Diet. Neither is very bright. They likely will now conclude they just were not eating enough Twinkies and will amp up the consumption hoping for that magic weight loss. Neither would be able to process the part about counting calories.

Did Hostess and Little Debbie stock go up today?

The Top Ten Fattest & Fittest Cities In America

You can find many a list listing Top 10, 25 or 100 cities, states or countries as to who is the Fattest. Or Fittest.

Men's Health magazine is a publication that seems to particularly enjoy ranking places for various things by various criteria.

I think the latest Men's Health Top 25 rankings for Fattest & Fittest Cities took place in 2009.

According to Men's Health, in 2009, Miami was the Fattest City in America.

With Salt Lake City being the Fittest City in America.

Texas has the honor of placing the most cities in the Top 25 Fattest, with 3 Texas cities in the Top Ten. My current place of residence, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, was 14th Fattest.

Only 1 Texas city is on the list of 25 Fittest Cities, that would be Austin at 17th Fittest.

The Top 10 Fattest American Cities

1. Miami, Florida
2. Oklahoma  City, Oklahoma
3. San Antonio, Texas
4. Las Vegas, Nevada
5. New York City, New York
6. Houston, Texas
7. El Paso, Texas
8. Jacksonville, Florida
9. Charlotte, North Carolina
10. Louisville-Jefferson, Kentucky

I would have bet on Oklahoma City being the Fattest City in America. Not due to having seen the locals with my own eyes, but due to the fact that Oklahoma is, I think, the only state with an Official State Meal consisting of fried okra, squash, cornbread, barbecue pork, biscuits, sausage and gravy, grits, corn, strawberries, chicken fried steak, pecan pie, and black-eyed peas.

The Top Ten Fittest American Cities

1. Salt Lake City, Utah
2. Colorado Springs, Colorado
3. Minneapolis, Minnesota
4. Denver, Colorado
5. Albuquerque,New Mexico
6. Portland, Oregon
7. Honolulu, Hawaii.
8. Seattle, Washington
9. Omaha, Nebraska
10. Virginia Beach, Virginia

When you drive north, from Texas, heading to the Pacific Northwest, it is in Colorado you begin to notice that it looks like the people have had the air let out of them, as you start seeing way fewer balloon people than you see in Texas. So, no surprise that Denver is the 4th Fittest City.

Obesity Epidemic to Infect 42% of Americans by 2050

Depressing news today, courtesy of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which indicates that reports that the American Obesity Epidemic is slowing down, are wrong.

Harvard has something called an Evolutionary Dynamics Biophysics Program, in which someone named Alison Hill was the author of a study published in something called PLoS Computational Biology.

Currently the U.S. Center for Disease Control has the American adult obesity rate at 34%, with another 34% of Americans being overweight, but not obese.

The Harvard/MIT study looked at obesity as an infectious disease, somehow determining that American obesity rates will rise for another 40 years, leveling off in 2050 with 42% of Americans being obese.

If I am understanding it correctly, according to this study, obesity spreads like an infection. The more obese people, in your personal social network, the more likely you also will become obese, with, on average, a normal weight person having a 2% chance of becoming obese. That % increases 0.4% with each obese person with whom you have close contact.

Apparently the opposite does not work. Obese people do not lose weight if their social contacts are non-obese people.

If I am understanding it correctly, the theory is when you hang out with obese people you are exposed to, and may succumb to their bad habits, thus catching the Obesity Infection.

In my totally humble opinion, it seems ridiculous to predict the American obesity level 40 years in the future. Maybe a magic bullet will come along and cause a massive letting out of the air in the millions of American balloon people, well before 2050.

But, I am taking no chances. I have already eliminated all obese people from my social network. Better safe than sorry.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape & Darlene Cates?

That is Darlene Cates eating in the picture. Darlene Cates is acting in a motion picture in the picture. The movie is What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Darlene Cates character in the movie is Bonnie Grape, mother of Gilbert and Arnie, played by Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Leonardo got a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Arnie.

Darlene Cates and Gilbert Grape are on my mind due to a comment yesterday from the Anonymous entity known as Skinny Lament.

Skinny Lament commented that What's Eating Gilbert Grape is the only modern film treatment of morbid obesity. Skinny Lament said he/she was haunted by Gilbert's choice to burn his mother rather suffer the degradation of her rescue.

That made it sound like Gilbert had killed his mother. What actually happened is Bonnie Grape, after years of being unable, managed to make it up the stairs to her bedroom. Where she died. The police told Gilbert they'd need a crane and the National Guard to get Bonnie's body out of the house. So, Gilbert turned the house into a funeral pyre, burning it down.

Skinny Lament also said that Darlene Grape "died from obesity issues some years later."

No. Darlene Cates is still among the living, residing somewhere on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas.

Darlene Cates grew up in the Texas Panhandle town of Dumas, north of Amarillo. When she was 14 she met her future husband, lied to him about her age, marrying him a year later, when he was 25 and she was 15. Darlene has 3 kids, a girl and two boys and 4 grandchildren.

Darlene Cates spent years being a lonely, depressed recluse. Then she got on an anti-depressant and began to return to the world. Soon her story became news with a 1985 appearance on Sally Jessy Raphael. Screenwriter Peter Hodges saw Darlene on the Sally Jessy Raphael show and offered her the role of Bonnie Grape.

In 1981 Darlene had gastroplasty (stomach stapled), at which point she weighed 410 pounds. She lost 100 pounds. Then started to put the weight back on, til she ballooned up to 550 pounds. Which is about the size she was in What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Darlene Cate's eating disorder began in her early years when she sought comfort in food. Eating too much, along with a thyroid condition and a slow metabolism, brought big weight gains. And then in 1986 she suffered a pelvic infection which kept her bedridden for 2 years, leading to gaining another 150 pounds.

Darlene Cates has done her part in fighting the Obesity Epidemic. She has conducted school seminars on weight and self-esteem.

After the success of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Darlene Cates went on to star in TV roles on Picket Fences and Touched by an Angel.

Below is a movie trailer for What's Eating Gilbert Grape....

San Francisco Attacks the Childhood Obesity Epidemic By Banning McDonald's Happy Meals

The Childhood Obesity Epidemic is a very big problem. And getting bigger. But should government be dictating to McDonald's what McDonald's can put in a Happy Meal?

In San Francisco, that's in California, the Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 3 in favor of banning toy giveaways in Happy Meals and other fast food promotions, unless the Happy Meal has some fruit and vegetables in it, along with a lower fat, sugar and sodium content.

The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, has said he will  veto the ban. But the supervisors have enough votes to over turn a veto.

McDonald's is not too happy with San Francisco right now and is fighting the ordinance.

A McDonald's owner in San Francisco, Scott Rodrick was quoted saying, "Somehow the San Francisco Board of Supervisors just took the happy out of Happy Meals."

The Happy Meal ordinance allows restaurants to give away a toy if the Happy Meal amounts to less than 600 calories, has less than 640 milligrams of sodium, less than 35% of the calories coming from fat, of which less than 10% can be saturated fat. Less than 35% of the calories in a milkshake can come from fat, with less than 10% added sugar.

Plus, the Happy Meals must  have at least half a cup of fruit or at least three quarters of a cup of vegetables.

The government micromanaging a Happy Meal like this seems a bit nuts to me. By the way, nuts, seeds, eggs or low-fat cheese are exempted from the Happy Meal fat quotient.

Methinks it's the parents job to decide what their kids eat. How about San Francisco passing an ordinance where a parent of an obese child gets arrested for buying his fat kid a Happy Meal, slapped with a hefty fine and forced to attend parenting school? Or, better yet, bypass the Happy Meal trigger and just start charging the parents of obese children with child abuse. That'd be more efficient.

Weighing Over 1000 Pounds Is No Laughing Matter

You are looking at what a 1000 pound plus human looks like.

A disturbingly large number of humans have gone over the 1000 pound point.

I don't understand how this happens. Who brings them food?

Yesterday I was remembering a news story about a guy in Granbury, Texas who was over 1000 pounds who needed to get to a hospital in Dallas. Why? I didn't remember.

So, I Googled "Granbury Texas Obese Man" and was surprised to find I'd blogged about this on October 3 of 2008 and that my blogging about this subject Googled in the #1 spot. The blogging was titled "Obesity Is No Laughing Matter."

I was a bit amused to learn I've already mused about the subject of 1000 plus pounders, and then forgot I'd done so.

Wikipedia has an article with a list of the World's Heaviest People.No one I know is on the list. I know of a person, or two, working hard to get on the list.

Below is a YouTube video that is a History of People over 1000....

The Warmth Advantages in Being Overweight

This morning I found myself swimming for about a half hour in my un-heated pool. With the air temperature 57.

It takes a couple minutes to acclimate to the chill. And then, til the body core starts getting too cold, swimming is quite doable.

A time or two previous I have wondered and asked if people who are overweight, like carrying an extra 100 pounds or more, are they much more easily able to tolerate cold temperatures? Both in water and air?

Most extremely overweight people do not get a lot of exercise. Which is one of the reasons they are over weight.

I am thinking that it might be possible that a hugely overweight person would greatly enjoy some time in a cool pool.

Another thing about being hugely overweight and in water is a FAT person is pretty much impossible to sink. I have known only one hugely obese person, who also got in water. She was able to simply stand and float, bobbing in the waves. It is physically impossible for me to do such a thing. It looks like fun.

Though, hugely overweight women do have a problem with their Mae West's, if their Mae West's are substantially sized. Floating in water, standing up, well, the breasts become two giant flotation devices that could become quite uncomfortable and annoying. And maybe dangerous.

So, is being hugely overweight like having a natural skin diver's outfit on? Does it work the same way it works for another large mammal, that being whales, who are able to function in extremely cold water due to their thick layer of blubber.

I want to find the answer to this vexing question without having to go to the time and bother of larding on a couple hundred pounds to find out.