From Gizmodo
When JuniorCrooks posted recently about pills for weight loss, it got me curious.
Meds have desirable, and undesirable side and adverse effects. Well, what about other methods? There are caloric and food type adjustments that should be made and I wondered about tech.
There are surgical procedures such as stomach bypass surgery as well as “lap banding” where a balloon is wrapped around the junction of the esophagus and the stomach (done laparascopically – through a tube inserted through the wall of the abdomen).
Now there’s a new player: A gastric “pacemaker” (nerve stimulator would be closer to the truth) called Abiliti.
When a person starts eating, the device senses it and stimulates the Vagus nerve (which mediates stomach and intestine movement and secretion) and causes one to feel “full” much earlier than he/she would having eaten.
It’s run by a minicomputer (just like its brain, spinal cord and cardiac cousins). The device senses and paces according to the signals it receives.
According to its creators, “The system goes beyond just zapping the stomach. It also collects information about food consumption and exercise, all of which can be downloaded to the doctor's office or shared in the Abiliti online community.”
Is it effective? Yes. It’s designed to last for five years (power cell/size limitations) and costs between $24,000 to implant. That’s a good deal of money. However, if you figure in the “cost” of Diabetes and Hypertension along with resultant heart, nerve and blood vessel disease as well as Strokes and Kidney Failure, care and medications, it’s not that bad a deal and no monetary value can be placed on the human suffering. A better deal would be people saying “enough”, but how often has that ever happened?
So, is it effective? Well, according to the company, in a trial with 45 people, 20% weight loss was achieved. Considering that diets yield about 3%, that’s an impressive number.
As with any foreign device in the body, infections are a risk, and have been reported. It’ll be coming in 2014.
Worth A Second Look: Reversing Diabetes is possible (Type II – Adult Onset Diabetes/Insulin Resistant Diabetes):
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/28/reverse.diabetes/?hpt=Sbin
It was a good point, and I did not mean to detract from it. I was just trying to say the same thing - you can get enough carbs from vegetables (they just do not taste as good as the linguine al fredo!)
I eat carbs because they TASTE so good. That is when I go on vacation. all the rest of the time I try to stick to the low carb diet.
The liver that has this many nutrients as i was saying...
That's a matter of 'learning' what tastes good or not. I doubt we'll ever find out what tastes good 'really' unless we raise children without telling them this or that tastes good, and just simply observe what they like...or eat most often.
I agree pasta tastes soooo yummy (for me personally it's rice that makes me powerless) I just think its unfair to pick on meat because we've always known meat is a good source of nutrition like Vitamins A and D and B vitamins and liver even packs good Vitamin C, while bread is just empty carbs and even the "Whole Grains" raise your blood sugar significantly. Ever notice how people don't slowly gain weight over time, but suddenly get very fat in a few months? That's insulin resistance at work, your body tissues become insulin resistant, because insulin is always very high, and you secrete more insulin which makes you store and make even more fat. This is also the reason Type 2 diabetes and obesity are linked
"I am concerned that the American Heart Association's recommendations of Froot Loops and Pop Tarts having their Seal of Approval, if that's their recommendation, I'm certainly happy that they're not in my camp. I wouldn't want them there." - Dr. Robert C. Atkins
Most people like the calorie dense foods which are meats and then the pure carbs (rice, bread potatoes, etc.) and sweets (fruits) and worst of all: sugar
However meat is nutrient dense and has tons of protein and fills you up (try eating meats without buns) and fill up with less calories
green veggies are an acquired taste, but they also have plenty of vitamins and minerals from the ground.
At the risk of starting another contreversy, salt helps making green veggies palatable, as well as a good dressing. Lowering salt intake by 2/3s has been associated with a mere 2-6 mm/Hg reduction in systolic blood pressure. So with some dressing and salt they'll be a lot yummier
I donate blood every 8 weeks (I got the sweet kind), so that is why I know as much as I do about carbs, blood pressure, cholesterol and such. It is by no means as much as you, but not bad for a non-medical guy. So yes, I know about the salt thing. I also know I use way too much! but as long as my bp is good, I am not going to worry about it.
As for liver (I take it you like it), that is what my mother always told me. But I still cannot stand it! Acquired or not Doc, I am no liver lover after 50 years of trying to eat it!
Now hearts, kidneys, and such - bring em on!
You all are making me hungry. I'm thinking liver & ketchup, spinach & vinegar, and some of Karen's bread et al to finish. Yum!
I understand your point Sin-Imp. Sadly the so called movement never really left but took a lesson in PR and deceptively renamed itself instead. Until society acknewleges every person/mind as intellectual capital and potential to solve problems rather being the cause of them we will see this continue falling in a downward spiral.
An interesting book to read is called "The China Study". Basically they studied a huge amount of the diets of people in the various provinces of China, where they had been eating the same diet (but varying by place) for generations. And the health benefits of the healthier diets were lost when they changed to western diets.
The research was very rigorous, and I haven't heard it directly contradicted from anywhere. Have a read of it if you are at all curious in what makes diets have the effect they do.
Best regards,Steven.
Well what kind of diet do you advocate?
Other than portion control and some increase physical activity if you are looking for a diet the best place to start is with your Doctor. It is never a good thing to just go out and try diets to see if they work. It is possible that you could do harm rather than good.
This is correct. The same thing has been observed in post war Japan, vs. Japanes people in Hawaii and in the US.
It repeats itself in Yemenites, Yemenites who came at various ages to Israel, and Israelis of Yemenite extraction born and raised in Israel. The western diet is atherogenic, and high carb diets fattening, and causing Type II Diabetes and the Metabolic Syndrome as well as Hypertension and Coronary artery disease.
The native populations (Japanese, Yemenites) had the lowest rates, the immigants/Hawaiin population intermediate and the native Americans of Japanese ancestry and Israeli born Yemenites showed western rates of these diseases.
I think everybody needs to decide that for themselves. There are 2 kinds of people--the kind who eat to survive and those who live to eat. I'm one of the latter. I don't want to survive, if I can't "live."
From all the "information" and studies we have out there, we STILL don't really know what role diet plays in health for every person. For instance, why did my great grandfather live to be 92, while still eating huge plates of bacon every morning and smoking cigars? Why did my maternal grandmother live to be 94 while eating a high carb, high fat diet? (she was obese, but she didn't have diabetes, and she didn't have heart disease -- she died because she broke her hip at 94, and while in the hospital had an intestinal blockage and didn't want to do anything heroic to fix it.) Why did my paternal grandmother live to be 96, when her entire life she was overweight and ate pretty much anything she wanted to, including cookies, mashed potatoes, red meat...you know, a normal American diet? My paternal grandfather had a heart attack in his 60s, but after he cut out the fat, he lived to be 93, and died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm that he was too stubborn to have stented and knew it was going to get him someday. In short, why can some people shun healthy diets and lifestyles, and STILL live well into their 90s, while others work out every day, make sure nothing they put in their mouth has anything unhealthy in it, and drop dead of something unforeseen early in life?
I know we are told that we should be our brother's keeper, but there comes a point when we're intruding into their privacy, and it's insulting to them for us to be forceful about our beliefs on their welfare. It's a passive way of saying "I think you're stupid" to them, and unless somebody face-to-face asks you, "what should I be eating," you should just shut the hell up about their diet.
Well I am not at all forcing beliefs, just giving my alternate suggestion to those people who fail on lowfat diets. People cut out sugars and eat less starches like when you become a veggitarian you dont just give up meat you also give up likely cookies and pizza, if you are doing it for health you will also stop drinking and smoking most likely, as well as get more excercise. Somehow the ONLY thing the media shows is "Woohoo, i got rid of red meat and saturated fat" and other variables are not considered. What i advocate is that people should make informed decisions for themselves. Only a couple generations ago pregnant women were advised to smoke, and smoking was considered healthy. Is it not arrogant to think that we have all the answers now? What if we are wrong about meat? Herbivores can digest many fibers including cellulose, the most common polysaccaride in nature and 1/3 of all plant mass, and humans can only digest a limited range of fibers. In fact, vegetables for human consumption are bred to have less fiber because we can do with some but do not need a lot. Our digestive system has a stomach which helps denature protein, and food that arrives at the small intestine is sprayed with bile salts, which helps digest fatty acids. The whole point is we are in fact made to digest these things and that meat can look bad in statistics because meat eaters are also more likely to not care about there health and smoke and drink and not excercise and eat more junk food like chips. But what if everything was controlled? Could a meat eater do just as well? No tests have been done as such and while sugar and flour have been shown to been bad in the body, saturated fat has not. Only processed meat and fast food frankenmeat is shown to be bad because of the toxins they have, but there is no reason not to cook fresh meat in your house.
So, here is my messege, if you want to eat meat, go ahead, the government has never proven it to be bad, and if you DONT want it, then don't eat it, it is free choice indeed. But to stop eating a nutritious food over unproven cholesterol or otehr concerns is unfair to other people. Raising meat consumption can help because even though saturated fat raises cholesterol, but raises HDL more that it does LDL which can actually improve heart health. LDL particles also get larger which makes is much tougher for them to slip under inflammed arteries. And let us not forget that nearly 35-45% of red meat fats are mono-unsaturated, most of it oleic acid which makes olive oil healthy, which still raises your heart health to be even better. Your liver can also make oleic acid out of stearic acid, the second most commonly eaten saturated fat. What has been proven to cause inflammations are artificial omega-6 rich vegetable oils like safflower, soybean, and canola (canola has been shown to cause heart damage). Palm oil and coconut oils are also great. These two have been demonized for having a lot of saturated fatty acids, but in fact, coconut oil especially, is rich in medium chain fatty acids. Short and Medium chain fatty acids are always saturated, and your body is not good at storing them, and these are quickly metabolized as energy and raise your metabolism.
Meat is very filling because of the proteins and fats you get, and protein slows down digestion, while fats give you long-term energy. 2 Oreos have about 110 calories i think. All the sugary goodness makes it easy to eat and you never feel full. You can easily get 1000 calories by eating 20 oreos, especially when you are younger. This is the reason dessert is at the end of the meal, fats with sugar and starch override appetite control (try eating a steak until you are full, and then you somehow have a little room for cake even though you can't eat the steak anymore. Sometime try eating the cake first, then try finishing the steak, you will find it a lot harder if not impossible since your body is full of calories and foods rich in fats and proteins don't overide your appetite controls.) Just think about it. You try to be healthy and eat a salad or cook a lowfat dinner. A lot of people stay hungry because it is lowfat so they reach for chips or crackers or cookies. Dessert and sugar consumption is gone up. Even if what you assume is true, and meat is bad, couldn't we at least agree it is healthier to eat meat and stay full for hours? or would you rather get so frustrated and feel so hungry you just can't stand it and reach for some Lays or Oreos? I'll let you think about that one.
Dude, the way I'm eating now, I'm NEVER really hungry, because ever carb item I eat has at least 3 g of fiber per portion in it. I'm not going to tell anyone else this is THE diet for them, because I don't know what's going to suit them; and in the end, it might not matter WHAT they eat -- they (or I) could get hit by a car or struck by lightening tomorrow and NONE of this crap would matter.
If you want to eat meat -- go for it. If you want to eat Oreos -- go for it. I'm going to quote Aleister Crowley here and pronounce "Do as thou wilt," unless you're a cannibal and I happen to be on your menu, then I'm going to put up a fight. (and I think I should point out, every zombie test I ever took, I passed as the sole survivor.)
I heared you 'skinned them alive'. hehehe.
Thank you.
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