Meat and Men

Men whose diets contain a lot of processed meats may be raising their risk for adult-onset (type 2) diabetes according to a study published in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes Care, which suggests an increased diabetes risk in men who eat processed meat more than four times per week.The more the men ate foods such as hot dogs, bacon and packaged lunchmeats, the higher their diabetes risk climbed. They note that the high-fat condiments and side dishes often eaten with processed meats may also affect diabetes risk.
 

Primate Meat Sale, a Bloody Enterprise

The killing of gorillas, chimpanzees and other primates for food is threatening AIDS research and may cause diseases to spread, scientists said. "There is no doubt humans are exposed" to different infections through the spilled blood of chimpanzees and other animals killed in west and central Africa, said Dr. Beatrice H. Hahn of the University of Alabama at Birmingham at a briefing on Capitol Hill.  Hahn said illegal commercial trading of "bushmeat" - sold around the world - could have a severe effect on human health if it isn't stopped.
 

Child-feeding Practices

Currently, an estimated 25% of American children are obese, and the prevention of childhood obesity has become a vital public health priority because obese children are much more likely to become obese adults. Although factors such as the sex, ethnicity or socioeconomic status of the child have been thought to affect a child's weight, a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that a mother's child-feeding practices outweigh all other influences on her child's total fat mass. The authors conclude that highly controlling feeding strategies may interfere with children's ability to self-regulate their food intake.
 

Obesity, a World Wide Problem Now

Weight problems have long been recognized as a health hazard in the United States, Europe and other industrialized places, but in recent years the same worries have begun to emerge in many less well-off places. Obesity increases the risk of a variety of health woes, especially diabetes, which is rising rapidly in many parts of the world. Some of the most extreme weight gains are seen among people who move from poor countries to places like the United States, where clean water prevents many childhood diseases and high-fat food is plentiful. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February, biological anthropologists documented this trend, both in people who migrate to wealthy countries and in those who stay put. Obesity has begun to appear in the Purari delta of rural Papua New Guinea, where there was none at all in 1980. In the latest survey, conducted five years ago, 1 percent of men and 5 percent of women were found to be obese. This is defined as a body-mass index (BMI). People with a BMI of over 25 are considered overweight, while those with a BMI over 30 are obese. In parts of the Pacific islands, obesity has been known for at least 50 years, but it has substantially increased in recent times to levels and there is no hint that weights there have leveled off.  In Rarotonga, capital of the Cook Islands, 14 percent of men and 44 percent of women were obese in 1966. Now, 52 percent of men and 57 percent of women there are obese.  In Cape Town, 12 percent of girls and 16 percent of boys were considered overweight. In much poorer rural Klein Karoo 300 kilometers to the west, just 1 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls weighed this much. In a similar survey among nomadic people in the central desert of Australia, about 4 percent of children and 15 percent of adults are obese.  In of Guatemalan Mayan children in Los Angeles and rural central Florida nearly half are overweight and 42 percent are obese. The obesity is blamed on the growing worldwide availability of high-calorie foods and less physically demanding jobs.
 

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that Viagra did not worsen heart function in men with stable coronary disease. The researchers had the men perform an exercise test, which was supposed to simulate the physical rigors of sex. The men bicycled for an average of 7.4 minutes. Most of them developed ischemia (reduced blood flow) during both tests, but the Viagra did not increase the risk or worsen the condition. The study funded by grants from the Mayo Foundation and the American Heart Association comes following concern over whether Viagra, which increases blood flow into the penis, might be harmful for men with heart conditions.
 

-Part of an infant's day should be spent in structured activity with a parent or caregiver - playing peekaboo or patty-cake, being carried to and exploring new environments.

-Do not keep infants or toddlers in baby seats or other restrictive settings for long periods. Even young infants move differently when placed on a blanket on the floor than when in a baby seat.

-Toddlers should accumulate at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity, and preschoolers at least an hour, each day. Play follow-along songs, chase or ball; for older children, balancing games or tumbling increase strength and body control.

-Toddlers and preschoolers should spend at least an hour, preferably more, a day in free play - exploring, experimenting, imitating. Caregivers should provide safe objects to ride, push, pull, balance on and climb.

-Toddlers and preschoolers should not be sedentary for more than an hour at a time except when sleeping.

-Physical activity should not be forced or used as punishment, the guidelines say. Instead, it should be a routine part of daily life and parents should join in, not just sit on a park bench and watch the children romp.

Sreenivasarao Vepachedu, February 2002

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