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N22/851 от 06.10.2016 e-mail: info@gorizont.com Simply the best
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that food advertising leads to
overeating, and the food industry
spends $1.8 billion per year marketing
to youth alone,» said lead
author Marie Bragg, an assistant
professor of population health
at New York University (NYU)
Langone Medical Center. «Because
of our nation’s childhood
and teenage obesity public health
crises, it is important to raise
awareness about how companies
are using celebrities popular with
these audiences to market their
By Rachael Rettner
The obesity rate among U.S.
women continues to tick upward,
with the latest study showing
that about 40 percent of
American women are obese.
However, the obesity rate in
U.S. men has stayed about the
wsame over the past decade, the
study found.
In the study, researchers gathered
new data on U.S. obesity
rates from a national survey conducted
during 2013–2014, and
also looked at changes in obesity
rates over the previous nine-year
period. Obesity was defined as
having a body mass index (BMI)
of 30 or more.
In 2013–2014, 40.4 percent of
all U.S. women were obese– up
from 35.3 percent in the same
survey from 2005–2006. The
percentage of U.S. women who
are severely obese, with a BMI
of 40 or more (known as «class
3 obesity»), also increased, from
7.4 percent in 2005–2006 to
f9.9 percent in 2013–2014.
But for U.S. men, the overall
obesity rate in 2013–2014 was
f
By Sara G. Miller
It seems logical to think that
eating a high-fat diet would
tip the scale upward, but a new
study suggests that might not
be the case. What’s more, eating
more of certain types of fats may
help move the scale in the other
direction.
Men and women in the study
who followed a high-fat, Mediterranean
diet that was rich in
either olive oil or nuts lost more
weight and reduced their waist
circumference more than the
unhealthy products.»
To identify popular music
stars, the investigators first
gathered names from Billboard
Magazine’s «Hot 100» song
charts from 2013 and 2014. The
researchers then verified those
songs’ popularity and marketing
appeal with teens by reviewing
Teen Choice Award winners,
and found the number of views
of YouTube videos of the celebrities’
endorsements.
The investigators next analyzed
nutrition information on
food labels using the nutrient
profile model, the standard for
child-targeted food marketing
research in the UK. The model,
developed based on models
from the World Health Organization,
provides a score that represents
the healthfulness of any
food product based on its nutrient
content.
Results showed that more
than 80 percent of the food and
drink products promoted by
the stars were nutrient-poor.
These included soft drinks, energy
drinks, snack foods and
fast food. The lone exception
was South Korean singer Psy,
perhaps most famous for his hit
«Gangnam Style,» who endorses
pistachios.
Whereas many musicians of
the 1960s and 1970s thought it
was uncool to «sell out» to commercial
advertising, today’s musicians
have multibrand deals,
the researchers found. The musician
Baauer, for example, has
endorsed A&W Restaurants,
Dr. Pepper, Hot Pockets, Red
Bull and Pepsi. The musician
will.i.am has endorsed Coca-Cola,
Doritos, Dr. Pepper and Pepsi.
«These celebrity endorsement
deals are often worth millions of
dollars each, suggesting companies
find them critical for promoting
products,» Bragg said.
Over a third of U.S. children
and adolescents are overweight
or obese, and targeted marketing
of unhealthy food to this
population may be driving the
epidemic, said a study published
in 2014 in the Journal of the
American Medical Association
by researchers at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. adolescents see nearly
6,000 food and beverage advertisements
each year, according to
a 2006 report from the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences. That
same year, the American Academy
of Pediatrics recommended
a voluntary ban on marketing to
children. The NYU researchers
said they would like to see that
voluntary ban expanded to adolescents,
but they admit it is an
upward battle. Conversely, they
Obesity Rate in US Women Climbs to 40 %
35 percent, which was not a significant
change from the rate in
2005–2006, the researchers said.
The rate of severe obesity among
U.S. men also did not change
significantly during the study
period, and was at 5.5 percent in
2013–2014.
Earlier studies found that
obesity rates increased among
U.S. men from 2001 to 2004, but
subsequent studies suggested
that obesity rates might be leveling
off for both men and women.
The exact reasons for the
new increase in obesity among
women are not known, and it’s
not clear whether U.S. obesity
trends will «accelerate, stop or
slow,» the researchers, from the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention’s National Center for
Health Statistics, wrote in their
report, published today (June 7)
in the journal JAMA.
Dr. Vincent Pera, director
of weight management at The
Miriam Hospital in Providence,
Rhode Island, who was not involved
in the study, said it is
Eating Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat, Study Finds
people in the study who were
simply instructed to reduce their
fat intake, according to the study.
The Mediterranean diet, rich
in healthy fats and plant proteins,
has been linked in previous
studies to a wide range of health
benefits, including a reduced risk
of heart disease and type 2 diabetes–
two conditions that are also
linked to obesity.
But despite such benefits,
«obese people [have] continued
to be reluctant to eat vegetable
fats such as extra-virgin olive oil
and nuts, because they believe
these foods lead to weight gain,»
said Dr. Ramon Estruch, an internal
medicine physician at the
University of Barcelona in Spain
and the lead author of the study.
The findings of the new study
show, on the other hand, that
a diet rich in dietary fats and
vegetables, such as the Mediterranean
diet, does not promote
weight gain, Estruch said.
In the study, the researchers
looked at data on people who
had participated in the PRE-
DIMED trial, a five-year study
in Spain that looked at the effects
suggested that celebrities could
strive to promote healthier foods.
«The popularity of music
celebrities among adolescents
makes them uniquely poised to
serve as positive role models,»
said Alysa Miller, a study co-author
and public health research
coordinator at NYU. «Celebrities
should be aware that their
endorsements could exacerbate
society’s struggle with obesity,
and they should endorse healthy
products instead.»
Even if the food manufacturers
were able to include at least
a bit more balance in nutritional
quality in these celebrity endorsement
ads, it could be an important
message for young people
who idolize these celebrities,
Bragg told Live Science. Most of
the companies assessed in the
study do have healthier options,
but the beverages promoted by
the celebs were overwhelmingly
sugary drinks (71 percent) and
unhealthy foods (81 percent).
Just imagine Mick Jagger
singing «I can’t get no / rainbow
carrots.»
concerning «when any segment
of the population is showing an
increase» in obesity.
However, researchers need
more information to figure out
why obesity rates are increasing
in women, Pera said. A number
of factors can affect whether
people gain or lose weight– including
behavioral and socioeconomic
reasons– and so now,
more studies are needed to determine
which factors are impacting
female obesity rates, he
said.
In particular, rates of obesity
are highest among black women–
about 57 percent of black
U.S. women are obese, the report
found. What’s more, this high
obesity rate remains constant
across young, middle and older
age groups among black women.
In comparison, most other racial
groups have lower rates of
obesity in the younger and older
populations than they do in the
middle age groups. Future studies
could look at why obesity
rates among black women show
this pattern, Pera said.
Dr. Jody Zylke, deputy editor
of JAMA, and Dr. Howard
Bauchner, editor-in-chief of
JAMA, wrote in an accompanying
editorial that «the news is
neither good nor surprising,»
referring to the new study and
another report, also published
today, that found an increase in
obesity rates among U.S. teens.
Despite efforts to turn the obesity
epidemic around, the new
findings «certainly do not suggest
much success» in these efforts,
they said.
Future obesity-prevention efforts
may need to focus more
on involving the food and restaurant
industries, which are «in
part responsible for putting food
on dinner tables,» the editorial
said.
«The food and restaurant industries
may be the sector of society
with the greatest potential
to affect the obesity epidemic
in a reasonable time frame …
These industries have been good
at developing and successfully
marketing unhealthy foods; perhaps
it will be possible for them
to develop and market healthy
foods,» the editorial said.
of the Mediterranean diet on
heart health. There were nearly
7,500 older adults in the study,
the majority of whom were overweight
or obese and all of whom
had either type 2 diabetes or at
least three risk factors for heart
disease.
The people in the study were
asked to follow one of three diets:
a Mediterranean diet with
at least 4 tablespoons of extravirgin
olive oil each day, a Mediterranean
diet with at least three
servings of nuts each week or a
control diet, where the participants
were advised to generally
avoid fat in their diet.
Both olive oil and nuts contain
relatively high amounts of
fat, but the fat in them is primarily
monounsaturated fat, which
is thought to be better for health
than the saturated fat found in
animal-based foods such as meat
and cheese.
The study received funding
from both olive oil and nut industry
groups. However, these funders
had no role in designing the study,
in collecting, analyzing and interpreting
the data or in writing the