An Australian-first obesity study will use the internet and mobile technology to try and help teenagers lose weight. Participants will be recruited from across Melbourne and will have their height, weight, blood pressure and waist circumference measured both when they join the study and also after three, six and 12 months. The study is being undertaken by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI), a health research organisation based in Victoria. Researchers are recruiting 550 Victorian teenagers... ...Read more »

Australia’s Federal Minister for Early Childhood and Youth, Mr Peter Garrett today announced Australian Government sponsorship of a new program that will award organisations that foster positive body image amongst youth. It has invited award nominations for organisations that promote positive body image with the introduction of the 2012 Positive Body Image Awards to be held later this year. A spokesperson for the government said that, young people are under increasing pressure to conform to a particular... ...Read more »

A world-renowned scientist has been appointed Academic Director of the University of Sydney’s new multidisciplinary centre specialising in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Professor Stephen Simpson is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences and a scientific adviser to Obesity Australia. The news of his appointment coincides with the naming of the new centre – to be known as the Charles Perkins Centre – in recognition of a... ...Read more »

A new study by scientists at the Mayo Clinic, in Arizona, US, suggests that eating too much may double the risk for memory loss in people age 70 and older. The study involved 1,233 people in Olmsted County, Minnesota, aged between 70 and 89 and free of dementia. Of those, 163 had Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Participants reported the amount of calories they ate or drank in a food questionnaire and were divided into three equal groups based on their daily caloric consumption. One-third consumed... ...Read more »

A US study, released in the latest issue of the journal Obesity, has suggested that a preference for fatty foods “has a genetic basis” and that people with certain forms of the CD36 gene “may like high-fat foods more than those who have other forms of this gene”. The study conducted by a team of scientists from Penn State, Columbia University, Cornell University and Rutgers University, led by Dr Kathleen Keller a leading nutritional scientist. The study examined 317 African-American males... ...Read more »

The Cancer Council of New South Wales has published online a list of the food advertising that occurs during children’s favorite television programming. The online list at a specific website (http://www.fatfreetv.com.au/) has been dubbed a “Fat Free TV Guide” by the Cancel Council which recommends the list be used by parents to filter their children’s selections of programs. Parents are being encouraged by the Cancer Council “to make better viewing choices with television shows that have... ...Read more »

A new study from the University of Sydney has found that high protein diets are more effective in helping young women manage their weight than diets high in carbohydrates. The study looked at the effect of diet, exercise and behaviour change in overweight and obese women aged 18-25. Researcher Dr Helen O’Connor and her colleagues tracked 71 overweight and obese women aged 18-25 years over 12 months. The women were randomly placed the women on either a higher-protein or a higher-carbohydrate diet,... ...Read more »

New research from Harvard University, in the U.S., has shown that cooked meat provides more energy than raw meat. The researchers claim their findings suggest cooking played a pivotal role in human evolution by increasing the energy content of some foods. Conducted by Rachel Carmody, a student in Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research also raises... ...Read more »

Obesity and injury are major health burdens on society, and the two are most likely linked, according to a report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). The report, ‘Obesity and Injury in Australia: A Review of the Literature’, suggests that the probability of falls, trips, or stumbles rises with obesity. The report suggests that, in children, the risk of falls – and therefore likelihood of face, tooth, and musculoskeletal injuries – also increases... ...Read more »

Obese people may regain weight after dieting due to hormonal changes, a University of Melbourne and Austin Health study has shown. The study, which was undertaken in collaboration with La Trobe University, in Melbourne, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine today. According to the study’s findings, although restriction of diet often results in initial weight loss, more than 80 per cent of obese dieters fail to maintain their reduced weight. The study involved 50 overweight or obese... ...Read more »