Featured

• Perceived Hill Slant and Obesity: Perception Does Not Care about How You Feel.
• US pediatric population-level associations of DXA-measured percentage of body fat with four BMI metrics with cutoffs.
• Metformin improves healthspan and lifespan in mice.

Findings Contrary to Hypotheses or Popular Ideas

• Cesarean mode of delivery was not clearly associated with BMI or overweight.
• No association between obesity and depressive disorder in adolescents at high risk for depression.
• RCT: A low-carbohydrate diet is as safe as Mediterranean or low-fat diets in preserving/improving renal function among moderately obese participants with or without type 2 diabetes.
• RCT: Acute ingestion of sugar-free red bull energy drink has no effect on upper body strength and muscular endurance in resistance trained men.
• RCT: Addition of personalized e-feedback in the enhanced program provided limited additional benefits compared to a standard commercial Web-based weight-loss program.
• RCT: n3 PUFAs Do Not Affect Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Overweight to Moderately Obese Men and Women.
• RCT: No effect of caffeine Intake on short bouts of physical activity or energy expenditure.
• RCT: No effect of conjugated linoleic acid and vitamin E on glycemic control, body composition, and inflammatory markers in overweight type 2 diabetics.
• Resveratrol Blunts the Positive Effects of Exercise Training on Cardiovascular Health in Aged Men.
• Thinness, rather than excess weight, is associated with decreased light, moderate and high intensity physical activity in Japanese pre-school children.

Study vs Headlines

• From ConscienHealth: "Headlines That Bite: Mosquitoes Cause Childhood Obesity?"
• USA Today: Are mosquitoes a cause of childhood obesity?
• Study: Child Outdoor Physical Activity is Reduced by Prevalence of the Asian Tiger Mosquito.

Caloric Restriction

• Dietary Restriction Induced Longevity Is Mediated by Nuclear Receptor NHR-62 in Caenorhabditis elegans.
• Caloric Restriction-Mediated Induction of Lipid Metabolism Gene Expression in Liver is Enhanced by Keap1-Knockdown.
• RCT: A study of caloric restriction versus standard diet in overweight men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.

Clinical

• The impact of pharyngeal fat tissue on the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea.
• RCT: Evaluation of a web-based program promoting healthy eating and physical activity for adolescents: Teen Choice: Food and Fitness.
• The association between weight loss in caregivers and adolescents in a treatment trial of adolescents with obesity.
• Mild Obesity Is Protective After Severe Burn Injury.
• Association of body mass index with arterial stiffness and blood pressure components: A twin study.
• Weight management program associated with postural balance improvements in obese children.
• No convincing evidence that most dietary supplements used as appetite suppressants for weight loss are effective and safe: Systematic Review of RCTs.

Cognition & Psychology

• Lunch with company reduces cognitive control, may increase social harmony.

• Only 15% of adults presenting for weight loss treatment meet purported criteria for “food addiction.”
• Ritual enhances the enjoyment of consumption by promoting greater involvement in the food-related experience.
• Early Stress Leads to Preference for Comfort Food in Rats.
• Association of a 7-year percent change in fat mass and muscle mass with subsequent cognitive dysfunction: the EPIDOS-Toulouse cohort.
• Functional capacity, muscle fat infiltration, power output and cognitive impairment in institutionalized frail oldest old.

Discrimination

• An author calls for a national employer to ban obesity in its employees.
• Denial of Treatment to Obese Patients—the Wrong Policy on Personal Responsibility for Health.
• Perceived Weight Discrimination and Obesity.

Evolution, Energetics and Ecology

• Fattened livers prep white sharks for extreme migrations.
• Late-moulting Black-necked Grebes Podiceps nigricollis show greater body mass in the face of failing food supply.
• Oxygen Brought Earliest Carnivores to Life.
• When a single genetic mutation first let ancient Europeans drink milk, it set the stage for a continental upheaval.

Epidemiology

• NIH math model predicts effects of diet, physical activity on childhood weight.
• Educational attainment and obesity: a systematic review.
• Beyond the “I” in the obesity epidemic: a review of social relational and network interventions on obesity.

Exercise

• RCT: Effect of high-intensity interval exercise on basal triglyceride metabolism in non-obese men.
• RCT: Influence of netball-based exercise on energy intake, subjective appetite and plasma acylated ghrelin in adolescent girls.

Food

• The effect of learning climate on snack consumption and ego depletion among undergraduate students.
• Effects of Inulin-Type Fructans on Appetite, Energy Intake, and Body Weight in Children and Adults: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
• RCT: Soy fiber improves weight loss and lipid profile in overweight and obese adults.
• RCT: Effect of polydextrose and soluble maize fibre on energy metabolism, metabolic profile and appetite control in overweight men and women.
• RCT: Consuming 30 to 60 g/day of hazelnuts for 12-weeks causes no weight gain.
• Review: An Application of Pavlovian Principles to the Problems of Obesity and Cognitive Decline.
• RCT: Effects of dietary fatty acid composition from a high fat meal on satiety.
• Calories and portion sizes in classical Danish recipes throughout 100 years: An overlooked factor in the development of overweight and obesity?
• Chocolate in History: Food, Medicine, Medi-Food.
• Can The Smell Of Oranges Help Dieters Resist Sweet Treats?
• ASN position: Consumption of foods rich in cereal fiber or mixtures of whole grains and bran is modestly associated with a reduced risk of obesity, T2D, and CVD.
• Sacré bleu! The average Frenchman these days eats only half a baguette a day compared with almost a whole baguette in 1970 and more than three in 1900.

Marketing

• Generating better evidence to engage local food outlets in obesity prevention research.
• Using health primes to reduce unhealthy snack purchases among overweight consumers in a grocery store.

Methods

• A prototype portable breath acetone analyzer for monitoring fat loss.
• Nanothermometer takes the temperature of living cells.
• Comparative statistical analysis between two methods for the measurement of visceral fat in humans.
• Diet-induced mouse model of fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis reflecting clinical disease progression and methods of assessment

Policy Related

• Court Strikes Down NYC's Big-Soda Ban.
• ‘Fat Taxes’ in Europe and Beyond – A Legal and Policy Analysis Under EU and WTO Law.
• A half-cent per ounce increase in sugar-sweetened beverage prices is predicted to reduce total calories from 23 foods and beverages but increase sodium and fat intakes as a result of product substitution.
• Front-of-pack nutrition labels have little impact on consumer choice: Study.
• Obesity and Other Health Concerns Lead Food Companies To Step Up Health and Nutrient Claims.
• New York City: ‘prescribing’ fruits and vegetables will “prevent an awful lot of disease”.
• Navajo Health Activists Push for Junk Food Tax.
• North Carolina Gets “Anti-Bloomberg” Law.

Sleep

• RCT: Disadvantageous shift in energy balance is primarily expressed in high-quality sleepers after a decline in quality sleep because of disturbance.
• Dim Light at Night Exaggerates Weight Gain and Inflammation Associated with a High-Fat Diet in Male Mice.

Transgenerational effects

• Maternal Obesity Induces Epigenetic Modifications to Facilitate Zfp423 Expression and Enhance Adipogenic Differentiation in Fetal Mice.
• Supplementation of the maternal diet during pregnancy with chocolate and fructose interacts with the high-fat diet of offspring to facilitate the onset of metabolic disorders in rat offspring.
• Maternal chocolate and sucrose soft drink intake induces hepatic steatosis in rat offspring associated with altered lipid gene expression profile.
• Limited evidence to support the 'fetal overnutrition hypothesis': A systematic review.

Basic Science

• The roles of melanin-concentrating hormone in energy balance and reproductive function: are they connected?
• Deletion of Selenoprotein M Leads to Obesity Without Cognitive Deficits.
• The role of adipose tissue circadian clocks in metabolic maintenance.

General Science

• Cattle and sheep develop preference for drinking water containing grape seed tannin.
• The Invisible Gorilla Strikes Again: Sustained Inattentional Blindness in Expert Observers.  
• NREL explores the use of wood borers for the biofuels industry.
• An Experimental Test of the Persuasive Effect of Source Similarity in Narrative and Nonnarrative Health Blogs.

Commentary

• BPA And Breast Cancer: When Academics Spin Statistics.
• Appropriate vs Clinically Useful Diagnostic Tests: An example using echocardiography.
• Obesity discourse and fat politics: Research, critique and interventions.
• Fatuous measures: The artifactual construction of the obesity epidemic.
• Am I the only person who thinks that 4.1 million animals used in medical experiments doesn't sound very many?

Video & Audio

• Live Webcast - Obesity prevention at the state and local levels: Lessons learned and new opportunities.
• Andrew Zimmern visits UAB professor Steve Watts for “Bizarre Foods America”.
• NPR featuring Eric Ravussin: How To Find A Path Off The Dreaded Diet Plateau.
• Richard Bergman on Reciprocal Pleasure of Mentoring.
• NORC seminar: Hiroshi Nishiura and Keisuke Ejima - Dependent happening in epidemiology.
• Be a science communicator: Tips from TED on giving engaging presentations.

Announcements

• Sustainable Diet and Food Security Conference, Lille, France, 28-29 May 2013.
• American Society for Nutrition identifies 6 focus areas in its Nutrition Research Agenda.