truesee's Blog

June 22, 2011 -- Avoiding weight gain as you age isn't impossible, after all.

If you yearn to be among those who sail through the years without picking up a pound for each birthday, Harvard doctors have a game plan for you. And it goes far beyond the old "eat less, exercise more" mantra.

Reducing your intake of specific foods, sleeping 6 to 8 hours nightly, getting some exercise, and turning off the TV all predicted less weight gain with time, they found.

They also found five foods strongly linked with weight gain and five others linked with less than average weight gain.

''The message here is that the type and quality of food and beverage one eats are incredibly important," says researcher Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

The new research, he says, ''shows how multiple lifestyle factors, including diet, were related to long-term weight gain."

The study appears in theNew England Journal of Medicine.

Avoiding Weight Gain: Study Details

The researchers wanted to focus on what leads to long-term weight gain and why the average adult gains about a pound a year.

They tracked 120,000 participants in three studies, the Nurses' Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Every four years, they evaluated the links between changes in lifestyle habits and weight.

On average, the study participants gained an average of 3.35 pounds over each four-year period. That added up to nearly 17 pounds after 20 years. At the start of the three studies, the men and women's average ages were 37, 50, and 52.

5 Foods That Make You Fat; 5 That Don't

When the researchers looked more closely, they found five foods associated with the greatest weight gain over the study period:

• Potato chips
• Other potatoes
• Sugar-sweetened beverages
• Unprocessed red meats
• Processed meats

They also found five foods linked with less gain and even weight loss:

• Vegetables
• Whole grains
• Fruits
• Nuts
• Yogurt

Deciphering the Findings

"There were huge differences in four-year weight gains based on what people did," he says. "The quantity of fat in the food didn't seem to be strongly related to weight gain." For instance, no differences were seen for low-fat or skim milk compared to whole-fat milk.

Rather, he says, focusing on the quality of food -- not simply total calories, or fat grams, or grams of carbohydrates -- seems most important in avoiding weight gain.

They write: "A habitual energy imbalance of about 50 to 100 kilocalories per day may be sufficient to cause the gradual weight gain seen in most persons."

Yogurt was perhaps the biggest surprise on the list of foods linked with less weight gain, Mozaffarian says. The researchers aren't sure why. They cite some other research finding that changes in gut bacteria from eating yogurt may help in weight control. Or those who eat yogurt may have other healthy habits.

Changes in diet had the strongest link to weight gain. However, the researchers also found that those who slept 6 to 8 hours a night gained less than those who slept less than 6 or more than 8. Weight gain was also linked with changes in the amount of television viewing and changes in physical activity.

''Small differences add up over time," Mozaffarian says. He sees that as both ''a danger and an opportunity." If you don't pay attention, he says, the pounds can pile on quickly. "If you do pay attention, a handful of changes could add up in a beneficial way," he says.

He is not suggesting people completely avoid foods linked with weight gain. "If someone wants to eat some of the foods on the list associated with weight gain, as long as they eat a lot of other foods that are not associated with weight gain, and exercise, and not watch a lot of TV, that would be OK," he says.

Mozaffarian reports receiving honoraria from Unilever, Aramark, and other food-related companies for speaking on diet-related topics.

Avoiding Weight Gain With Age: Perspective

The study provides some good support for factors other experts have assumed are linked with weight gain, says Connie Diekman, RD, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis. She reviewed the study but was not involved in it.

Diekman says that among the most interesting findings is that the lower the intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and yogurt, the more significant the weight gain. That result jibes with the recommendation in the Dietary Guidelines to shift food intake to more plant foods.

Another important finding, she tells WebMD, is that "a shift in calorie intake of as little as 50 to 100 calories a day may be all it takes to gain or lose weight."

Advice? "I'd encourage consumers to think about one portion you can cut down on each day or one 10-minute walk you can add to your day. These small steps can then become the steps on the path you need to make more changes to achieve, and maintain, a healthier weight."

Father arrested after daughter turns him in for pot

Deseret News

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Two teens apparently fed up with their father's marijuana smoking called police Monday to hand over his bag of weed.

The children, a 15-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl, were visiting their father who had partial custodial rights, said Cottonwood Heights Police Sgt. Scott Peck. The children had reportedly noticed in the past that their father's residence always "smelled funny," he said.

The girl, apparently fed up with her father's smoking and drinking, called police to turn him in, Peck said. When officers arrived, the girl found her dad's bag of pot and took it out to officers, he said.

While the young girl was standing outside her father's residence talking to police, her dad texted her to come back into the house, apparently not realizing police were present, Peck said. The officers had the girl text her dad back and tell him to come outside.

When the 44-year-old father came out, he was arrested for investigation of drug possession and child endangerment.

A Milton man set his parents' house on fire early Monday, then surrendered to authorities, saying his mental illness made it difficult to live in society, and he wanted to go to jail, police and prosecutors said.

Mattie Salminen, 28, was jailed lacking $25,000 bail. A judge ordered a competency hearing for him.

According to court documents, Salminen was living in his parents house at 35 Cherry St. in Milton when, at about 5:30 a.m. Monday, while his parents were sleeping upstairs, he retrieved a gasoline can from a shed in back of the house, tossed fuel into a crawl space and set it alight.

The resulting explosion woke up Salminen's parents, Karlo and Carolyn Salminen, who escaped the home without injury, police said. The couple said their son has schizophrenia that is controlled by medication, but were unsure whether he took the medication Monday morning.

Mattie Salminen approached a police officer and said he wanted to surrender at about 8:40 a.m. at a Simon's convenience store on Park Street in Burlington, according to court papers. He told police he wanted to go back to jail because he couldn't make it out in the real world, police said.

Police asked if he intended to hurt his parents, and Salminen said he didn't, but he also was somewhat unconcerned by the possibility, according to court papers.

The house suffered fire, water and smoke damage. The fire melted soldering on a water pipe in the crawl space, which burst and kept the flames in check until Milton firefighters arrived, investigators said.

The self-employed operator of a home day care center in Sarasota is accused of placing a Craigslist ad in which she claimed to be her husband's ex-wife soliciting sex with strangers.

The falsified ad led the victim to receive numerous phone calls, text messages and home visits from male strangers, frightening her and making her concerned about her children's safety, according to a police report.

Bradenton Police arrested Natasha W. Larson, 35, of the 2400 block of Arapaho Street in Sarasota, last week on a felony charge of criminal use of personal identification and information.

On Feb. 18, detectives say, the victim started receiving phone calls and text messages from unknown men saying they were responding to her ad on Craigslist.com inviting strangers to come to her home for sexual encounters.

The ad reportedly stated: "I am currently dating a descent man but he is lacking some skills in the bedroom. Its nice but I need to be thrown around a little bit and to be dominated, that is exciting for me. I also like to take charge sometimes but I need a strong man to keep me in check."

The ad then gave the victim's home address.

"Please be respectful if you do stop by," the ad concluded.

The victim told detectives that unknown men soon started coming to her house.

"She also gave them my cell phone number and these men were calling, texting and sending pornographic picture messages to me," the victim, who said she has two children at home, wrote to the Herald-Tribune. "So, not only did she endanger my life and safety by sending these strange men to my home but she endangered her husband's children as well."

The victim also reportedly received a phone call from a man who told her that he wrote to an email address in the ad and received a response giving him the victim's name, address and cell phone number.

The man provided her with copies of the emails and the Craigslist posting, which the woman took to police.

According to court records, the victim earlier last week obtained a temporary injunction for protection against repeat violence filed against Larson.

Detectives say they worked with Google and Verizon to trace the emails and ad to Larson. The charge against her is a felony.

Larson admitted to placing the ad, creating an email address in the victim's name and giving out the victim's phone number, detectives reported.

Thanks for the memories: Michelle Obama waves as she boards her private plane after a week-long trip to Africa, which could have cost the taxpayer an estimated $800,000

Costly: Firing up Air Force 2 as it is sometimes known could cost in the region of $12,723 per hour meaning the cost of the plane for the whole trip could work out to be a cool $430,000

Play time: Mrs Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother Marian Robinson enjoyed a safari in Madikwe Game Reserve during the trip

Visit: Mrs Obama also took her daughters to visit Nelson Mandela, which she called 'surreal'

This is how you get my arms: The First Lady also showed Archbishop Desmond Tutu, third from right, how to do push ups, during an HIV awareness campaign in Cape Town

Goals: Mrs Obama said the trip would help 'youth leadership, education, health and wellness' in southern Africa, according to the White House

Billy West (left) with torn shirt pictured shortly after his arrest. He has been jailed for two years and five months for the bottle attack on Clive Merrifield (right), who was left with a four-inch gash on his scalp

The brutal assault occurred at Parveen, an Indian restaurant in Theberton Street, Islington, north London

Clive Merrifield's injury required 16 stitches and has left him scarred

65-year-old Vietnam vet who hit the Lottery four years ago may finally get some of his winnings

Scott Shifrel
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, June 27th 2011, 6:01 PM