We all know that carrying extra pounds carries health risks, but did you know weight gain can directly effect your lower back, even play a role in disc degeneration?

Past studies of Body Mass Index(BMI) link carrying extra pounds around with low back pain. A new study, links weight gain to lumbar disc degeneration.

The new study, done in southern China, included more than 1,000 men and nearly 1,600 women aged 21 and older.  Overall, 73 percent of the participants had lumbar disc degeneration, but the condition was more common in men than women (76 percent vs. 71 percent) and more prevalent among older people, according to the study in the new issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Seven percent of the study participants were underweight, 48 percent were in the normal weight range, 36 percent were overweight and 9 percent were obese, the investigators noted.

“Research confirms that with elevated Body Mass Index (BMI) there is a significant increase in the extent and global severity of disc degeneration in the back. In fact, end-stage disc degeneration with narrowing of the disc space was more pronounced in obese individuals,” said Dr. Dino Samartzis, of the University of Hong Kong in a journal news release.

Study authors suggest that as people gain weight, disc degeneration may begin to occur due to physical loading on the disc. In addition, fat cells may play a role by causing chronic low-grade inflammation.

“Since overweight and obesity are worldwide concerns whose prevalence continues to rise, our study’s findings have considerable public health implications. If these issues continue to plague society, they can further affect spine health leading to low back pain and its consequences,” Samartzis said.

Back disc degeneration is a complex process and future studies that investigate risk factors for the condition should take into account the effects of being overweight or obese, the researchers recommended.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases has more about back pain.

(SOURCE: Arthritis & Rheumatism, news release, Jan. 30, 2012)

The results of a recent comparison study of four diets suggest that it doesn’t matter where the calories come from, as long as dieters reduce their daily intake of calories. That is how dieters ultimately lose weight.

Dr. George Bray, who worked on the new study, said earlier research had found certain diets — in particular, those with very little carbohydrate — work better than others. Diet books also often guide consumers to adopt a particular type of meal plan, such as low-fat or low-carb-high-protein diets.

Since there hasn’t been consensus among scientists, Dr. Bray of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and his colleagues randomly assigned several hundred overweight or obese people to one of four diets: average protein, low fat and higher carbs; high protein, low fat, and higher carbs; average protein, high fat and lower carbs; or high protein, high fat and lower carbs.

Each of the diets was designed to eliminate 750 calories a day.

After six months and again at two years after the diets started, the researchers checked in on people’s weight, fat mass and lean mass.

At six months, people had lost more than nine pounds of fat and close to five pounds of lean mass, but some of this was regained by the two-year mark.

People were able to maintain a weight loss of more than eight pounds after two years. Included in that was a nearly three-pound loss of abdominal fat, a reduction of more than seven percent.

The team found no differences in weight loss or fat reductions between the diets. It  all comes down to calories.

Dr. Bray recommended a diet developed by some of his co-authors, and which is also endorsed by the National Institutes of Health, called the DASH plan, or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

“We would encourage patients to follow this diet modified as they and their Health Care Provider chose to emphasize macronutrient changes that they thought might work best for them,” Bray said.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online January 18, 2012.

Yes, we all know that much of the junk food out there usually costs less than healthy snacks.

We also know that regularly consuming junk food can pack on the pounds.

Well here is some good news about snacks.

From 2006 to 2008, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health evaluated the snacks offered to kids at 32 YMCAs in four cities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, South, Midwest and East. Researchers found that health snacks and/or snack combinations don’t have to cost more than junk food.

The YMCA sites participated in a program called the YMCA/Harvard Afterschool Food and Fitness Project, designed to improve the diets and boost physical activity among kids aged 5 to 12 attending the Ys’ after-school programs.

The project set out standards for snacks served at YMCAs, including: serving water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages, offering whole grains and a fruit or vegetable with each snack and avoiding trans fats.

The average cost per snack was 57 cents, with prices ranging from 47 cents in the Midwest and Northeast to 78 cents in the Pacific Northwest. As expected, snacks that met the healthy eating standards cost 50 percent more than those that didn’t.

Yet, some YMCAs found ways of mixing and matching combinations that both met the healthy eating standards and kept costs at or even below what it would cost to serve  less healthy snacks.

Some Ys served water instead of fruit juice, which significantly reduced the price of a snack. Instead of the fruit juice, Ys could serve water and a banana or apple slices and water, and the snack had the same calorie count at a lower cost. The whole fruit has the added nutritional benefits of fiber and helping kids feel fuller, longer than juice.

Another example was serving water and cheese, which  is less expensive than serving chocolate milk, and the cheese contains less sugar.

Other areas where Ys could make improvements without adding to cost were substituting whole grains, in foods such as Triscuits, Wheat Thins and Cheerios, for refined grains such as graham crackers and Saltines.

Snacks that include canned or frozen vegetables are on the pricy side, but snacks including fresh vegetables, such as carrots and celery, are not.

The study is in the February issue of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Joy Dubost, a registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, called the study “well-conducted.” However, the five criteria used to determine what qualifies as a healthy snack option aren’t as comprehensive as she would like.

She cited tortilla chips counting as a whole grain and therefore meeting the criteria for a healthy snack option, but they’re also full of saturated fat, which may contribute to heart disease over the long term.

“Applesauce counts as a fruit, but it would be better if the guidelines specified that the after-school programs choose applesauce without added sugar. In addition to addressing saturated fats and added sugars, the healthiest after-school snack would take into account calories and sodium, which many American children get too much of as well,” Dubost said.

For more on choosing healthy snacks for children, visit Food and Fun After School.

(SOURCES: Rebecca Mozaffarian, M.S., M.P.H., project manager, YMCA/Harvard Afterschool Food and Fitness Project; Joy Dubost, R.D., registered dietitian and spokeswoman, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics; February 2012, Preventing Chronic Disease)

In a news release in late November of this year, Dr. Mark Zonfrillo, an attending emergency physician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, reported on a new study that looked at nearly 1,000 children, aged 1 to 8 years, who were involved in crashes. All of the children were properly restrained in the correct child safety or booster seat for their height and weight

Dr. Zonfrillo, the lead author of the study stated, “Given that nearly 32 percent of children in the United States are categorized as overweight or obese, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury for all children, we wanted to better understand how these two threats to children’s health interact.

“This research should reassure parents that their only concern when it comes to car seat safety should be to follow the most recent guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics,” he added.

Those guidelines, revised earlier this year, outline the use of car safety and booster seats based on a child’s height, weight and age.

“A good time to re-evaluate child safety seat needs is during your child’s routine medical visits. Compare your child’s weight and height measurements to the manufacturer’s acceptable ranges on the seat’s labels or instructions,” Zonfrillo recommended.

“There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all.’ If your older child moved to a booster seat at age 5, don’t necessarily assume it will be the same for his or her younger siblings,” he said.

He and his colleagues also said pediatricians and family doctors should advise parents to check their child’s height and weight measurements against their safety seat specifications.

SOURCE: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, news release, Nov. 29, 2011)

Dear Parents,

I am writing to ask your input on story lines we are developing for programs for “Can Do” Street that combat obesity before it becomes an issue for a child, not after he or she develops a serious weight problem.

We want to begin our obesity prevention programs by targeting young children who are learning to make food choices based on what is prepared for them wherever they are at mealtime or snack time.

Please share how you influence your child’s food choices, so that more often than not, he or she chooses healthy foods over high caloric and /or fatty foods.

What methods do you use for encouraging your child to make healthy choices when choosing from a restaurant menu or ordering in a fast food place?

Do you talk to you child about foods that are always good to eat and foods that need to be a sometime treat, not for every day?

Do you involve your child in meal prep and grocery shopping? If so, do you use this time to talk about how the foods you are buying or preparing will help them to grow strong and fit?

Please email me at jeanc@candostreet.com with what works for you.

If you have a particular area that you have dealt with successfully, such as a picky eater, please share how you have gotten them to make healthier food choices.

I look forward to hearing from you. I welcome any and all suggestions that can help with getting programs out there to prevent obesity.

Best,

Jean