YOUR HEALTH and MEDIA

Obesity’s new Big News twist

Obesity became headline news in Canada again on November 21, 2014 when Canada’s “Nation Newspaper”, the Globe and Mail, gave the topic centre stage on a section cover and half-page inside.

What is noteworthy is the following:

1. The coverage was in the BUSINESS section (B1 and B12) and not the expected LIFE or Science and Medicine areas.

2. Consequently the focus was on MONEY and the costs of the pandemic:   US$2 trillion dollars in medical and related treatment costs which amount to 2.8% of global GDP.

3. A chart of major social problems lists world-wide obesity ‘costs’ in 2012 at US$2 trillion and 2.8% of global GDP, i.e., ONLY  third after smoking (US$2.1 trillion; 2.9% GDP) and war/terrorism/violence (US$2.1 trillion; 2.8% GDP).  Alcoholism is listed at #4 at US$1.4 trillion and 2.0% GDP and illiteracy next at US$1.3 trillion and 1.7 % of GDP.  Climate change and Air pollution – if combined – would be US$1.9 trillion and 3.0 % of GDP in 2008.

4. A world map which clusters countries by their 2008 percentage of obese people and also the per capita GPD per country.

 

Consequently, the G&M reporter sees obesity as a major drain on world finances in developed, developing and under-developed lands and bemoans its economic impact.

 

The data, however, especially the cluster map, suggest that the obesity ‘mania’ is on poor grounds and delusional! 

Firstly, as the chart mentioned in #3 above states, the list of “global social burden” is “SELECTED” and distorts the overall reality because it has chosen to pick and choose which issues to highlight.

So, the number one killer on the planet -- malnutrition is missing  from the list of “selected global social burdens” chart, as are malaria and other killer and debilitating world ravaging diseases.

(Didn’t is strike you as odd that in the 21th century SMOKING is still listed as the #1 social ‘burden’.)

As Wikipedia notes under “malnutrition”,  

Mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58 percent of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 million people, all causes of death combined, die each year. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished and according to the Save the Children 2012 report, one in four of the world’s children are chronically malnourished.^{[37][38][dead link]} In 2006, more than 36 million died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients".^[39]    [my underlining]

 

Yes, approximately 58% of all deaths on the planet are still related to malnutrition!!!

To cite further the World Hunger organization: (http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, or one in eight, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. Almost all the hungry people, 852 million, live in developing countries, representing 15 percent of the population of developing counties. There are 16 million people undernourished in developed countries (FAO 2012).

As indicated by their chart below on wages and extreme poverty, starvation and low BMI scores is rampant and affecting over 1 in 6 people on the planet!!!!

Region	% in  $1.25 a day poverty	Population (millions)	Pop. in $1 a day poverty (millions)
East Asia and Pacific	16.8	1,884	316
Latin America and the Caribbean	8.2	550	45
South Asia	40.4	1,476	596
Sub-Saharan Africa	50.9	763	388
Total Developing countries	28,8	4673	1345
Europe and Central Asia	0.04	473	17
Middle East and North Africa	0.04	305	11
Total		5451	1372

Source:  See World Bank PovcalNet "Replicate the World Bank's Regional Aggregation" at

 

Secondly, the cluster map.     (NOTE: below percentages are approximates as the map only gives 5% differential bar lines.)

 With the exceptions of Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan (with obesity rates between 5%-13% of the population, the other countries with similarly low obesity rates are notorious for subsistence rural living, poverty and malnutrition affecting multi-millions of people: India (2%), Indonesia (5%), China (6%) and Thailand (9%).  (Just see the above chart from World Hunger!!!)

Why, all of a sudden Malaysia, at 14%, has TRIPLE the obesity rate of its nearby ‘twin’, Indonesia, is unexplained and raises issues as to the reliability of the data.

Brazil’s population is at 18% obese, Colombia’s at 17%  and Venezuela at whopping 31%!!!!  Yet all 3 are neighbouring countries and do not have a MacDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet on almost every city and town corner as in the U.S.A. or Canada. So why so high on traditional diets – especially Venezuela?

Mexico, the only other Latino country recorded, is at an even higher 33% obese.  Again, are classic tortillas and the traditional Mexican diet bad?

The only African state is South Africa at an unbelievable 32% and the only recorded Arab state, Saudi Arabia is at a mind boggling 33%!!!  Again, these are not fast food havens and something else must be at work for these astronomical figures for obesity.

Europe -- from Britain through Russia -- ranges from about 17% (Switzerland) through Greece and Italy (the homes of the Mediterranean diet no less) at around 20% ,and Britain , Spain, Germany, Poland and Russia all have around 25-26% of their entire populations as obese.  So, 1 in 4 Brits, Spaniards, Germans, Poles and Russians – male and female --  is so fat that they should resemble bowling pins or outright bowling balls!  Is that reality?  

As for Canada, we are 25% obese as well while the U.S.A. matches Saudi Arabia at 33% -- to TIE as WORLD LEADERS!!!!.  

To give some detail on Canada, here is Statistics Canada 2012 report: [http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-625-x/2012001/article/11708-eng.htm]

In 2009 to 2011, 67% of Canadian men and 54% of Canadian women aged 18 to 79 were overweight or obese based on results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey... Men were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese than women. While approximately 3 out of 10 Canadian men had normal body weight, almost 7 out of 10 were overweight or obese. Among women, more than 4 out of 10 had a normal weight while more than 5 out of 10 were overweight or obese.  (my bold emphasis).

 

Of course, StatsCan is using the BMI measure as used by the World Health Organization and other data collecting/analysis groups.  And as I have argued many times before, it is a very flawed measurement scale. It  distorts what is ‘healthy’ and ‘normal’, targeting a very low body fat level as the ideal; unfairly lowering the bar too low compared to real world weights and cultural body image ideals.

When ‘data’ tells you the overwhelming majority of males and females in a country are overweight or obese, question the measurement standard and its assumptions; don’t target what real people are like and label them ‘abnormal’!

Don’t forget, only the modern West has ever idolized thin women: first as the 1920s flappers and thereafter in the Twiggy and subsequent fixation on the pre-pubescent female body shape and image of the catwalk!

As well, any NFL running back at 5’10’ and even just 215 lbs is calculated by the BMI as OBESE!  (See BMI calculator at http://www.calcbmi.com/). Brett Farr, the great quarterback, at 6’2” and in game condition weighing 222 lbs scores on the BMI as OVERWEIGHT and just below obese!!  Peyton Manning, in his on-field prime, at 6’5” and 230 lbs, is a BMI of 27.27 and OVERWEIGHT!!!

 

So, to Brian Milner, reporter, the Globe and Mail, the McKinsey Global Institute, and WHO and related UN organizations I say: “You need to do a quick ‘reality check’.”

If billions of dollars are being spent seeing doctors and dieting and taking medication and classes and therapy for excess weight because of a flawed ideal and BMI, maybe the media should challenge the accepted dogma.

Normally, people are only thin and have low body fat when continually hungry and somewhat or extremely malnourished!

And as more and more people rise from poverty, expect BMI overweight and obese numbers to rise – irrespective of the presence or absence of MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken, because eating regularly on even traditional food items adds weight.

And body fat, that emergency cushion against famine and drought and plague, automatically comes with eating.

That is nature’s law.

MEDIA and TECHNOLOGY

Has Apple lost its Mojo?

Apple’s recent annual showcase of new products in early September – in advance of the college school year and Christmas sales -- has received its usual excess of publicity in the days leading up to the event, the day of the event -  led by Apple’s Tom Cook and singer Bono -- and the day thereafter.

Unfortunately for Apple, most of the post-event news has been bad, bad and more bad.

Apple announced, as expected,:

1. the next generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,

2. a smart watch

3. and a new app that allows instant payment using NFC technology thereby eliminating the need for and delay of credit cards or cash.

Immediately after the launch, the general media and many stock market experts praised the ‘new releases’ and ‘breakthroughs’ and advised people to buy, buy, buy Apple’s over-inflated stock.

 

iPhone 6 series

Yes, the iPhone 6 series has many improvements, as has every new iPhone in history as with all other manufacturers. The biggest and most important change and improvement was the introduction of two choices of much larger screens at 4.7 and 5.5 inches and , a major break from Steve Job’s the one-size fits all mindset.

While the bigger screens has already led to record pre-order sales and people from Australia onward have lined up for hours to get the new phones, anyone outside Apple loyalists and ‘groupies’ knows full well that the iPhone 6s are merely ‘catching up’ to Samsung and a host of other Android cell phone manufacturers who already have been offering the other upgrades and larger screens for up to 3 years now!!!  The screen of a Coolpad 9976A is 7 inches, Samsung Galaxy Mega is 6.3 inches, ZTE Boost 5.7 inches and Samsung’s new Note 4,  still at 5.7 inches is already considered superior to the iPhone Plus in various ways. (See comparative data from http://smartphones.findthebest.com/app-question/10/Which-smartphone-has-the-largest-screen-size and  Wikipedia, “galaxy Note”.)

Put simply, Apple is not leading this ‘revolution’ but trying to stay in the game, in a category that already has a name, “phablets”,   and which is the hottest segment of the cell phone market especially in Asia and China where big size screens rule! The Samsung Galaxy Note series, first released in the fall of 2011, has already sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide!!!

As well, the new complaints about the iPhone 6 Plus: that it is too long to fit into a pocket or backpack and BENDS – already tagged as “bendgate” - has already been solved by LG Flex with its CURVED smart phone which Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus copies in overall size and screen.  The LG Flex is great for back jean pockets even when sat on. My friend, who at 6”6” tall and some 275 lbs, has had no problems or butt pain since using his LG for months now.

Meanwhile, Samsung has introduced the Round with a curved horizontal screen which solves 3 key nuisances: it virtually eliminates reflection of your own face and the lighting behind you, blocks ambient light from the sides, and thereby allows for a sharper, more readable screen using less battery power.  The screen is also flexible and this too has benefits as outlined by http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_Round_ShootOut_1.htm.

 

So, put simply, even the oversized and novel Apple’s iPhone 6 plus is neither leading edge nor the best design on the market.  LG and Samsung are way ahead.

 

Apple smart watch

As for the Apple smart watch, this too is a late comer to a market segment with Samsung and Sony and LG and Motorola and of course Pebble and others already having the same product out for at least 6 months to 3 years!!! (See the comparison at http://smartwatches.findthebest.com/)

And two days after the launch Apple announced its smart watch is still not ready for sale due to “technical considerations”, and will only be released “sometime in 2015”!!!

When the key feature hyped is the fact the wrist strap comes in 3 colours and an 18 carat gold version, it says it all:  only the glitzy bling factor and snob appeal differentiate this new smart watch from the rest of the already extensive pack.   So much for Apple innovation and leadership – again.

 

Apple Pay

Finally, while trying to pitch its new instant purchase app in hope of mimicking iTunes great success, Apple is overly optimistic if not delusional and again distorts what is reality already happened in this area.

NFC technology, which allows a smart phone to face a vending machine or counter pay terminal and complete an instant ‘sale’, is OLD NEWS and has been used widely in Japan for some two decades!!!    As mentioned in my earlier blog, Blackberry, Samsung and many other manufacturers have had NFC capable smart phones for the longest time.

Put simply, we in North America are at the tail end of the technological innovation (retail) market – which begins with Japan, then the rest of Asia, then Europe and finally the U.S.A. and Canada!!!

For Apple to laud itself for entering the NFC race years after many other cell phone manufacturers is pathetic and a sad joke!!

The fact that this ‘new product’ will not be offered immediately in Canada is truly embarrassing and may offend loyal Apple-philes in the True North, but there is really no need for Apple Pay.

Firstly, Canada already has NFC service available from our major banks who have already created their own apps for this:  CIBC, TD, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotia Bank and others.  As they control the Visa and MasterCard business in Canada, instant purchases using NFC with be available everywhere once you simply:

            a. buy and install to your android smart phone a NFC SIM card                     purchased from Bell, Rogers, TELUS or other network provider

            b. download your bank’s free app

            c.  find a vending machine or payment machine upgraded to NFC

 

So why need an Apple Pay app?  Who knows?  The boat has already left on this one.  Apple is delusional if it thinks the banks and credit card companies and Coscos and Macys and gas station companies will pay it a commission to ‘middle man’ what they can do themselves with a simple app which they themselves control.

 Non-Apple phones that already are available with NFC capability are Blachberry 9000, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, S5. Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Note 3, Galaxy S4 Mini and HTC One. (TD website list.)

 

Mojo lost

So, to all the loyal and faithful Apple product buyers, let me conclude:  Apple makes good products and often they look cooler than the competition, but as for innovation and leadership re: technology, Apple is no longer heads and shoulders above the rest – if this ever was the case. 

Today, it is simply ‘faking it’ and using hype and bluster and self-serving accolades to cover up the simple fact that re: innovation, it has lost its mojo.  It is hoping against hope that its fans and the general media and the stock market do not notice that this emperor no longer rules!

 

P.S. Other problems: 

Late September -- iOS8 update -- which was released with the iPhone 6 series -- has had to be withdrawn as it was found to have connectivity glitches and rapid battery draining.

October 7, 2014 – Collateral damage -- thanks to Apple -- is its joint partner, GT Advanced Technologies Inc. which has had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It had begun building an Arizona plant to build sapphire screens for the new iPhone 6 and other Apple products but Apple has decided not to use sapphire glass across its iPhones and other devices.

Apple, as joint partner, lost a bundle but will not miss a billion dollars here or there.  Not so for its trusting partner!  (Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2014 story.)  

 

October 17 – New and improved iPad Air 2  is not expected by analysts to save the day as Apple iPad sales are slowing down and competitors are expanding their market share as they offer the same or ‘more’ for less cost.  (G&M, B3)

More importantly, the tablet market is reaching saturation—just as the PC desktop market before it --  as too many people already have one or more tablets. And, simultaneously, the niche market is being made redundant as smart phones become bigger and bigger.

 Put simply, Samsung, LG and even now Apple are cannibalizing their tablet lines with their larger smart phones.  

Maybe that is why Apple is 'diversifying' into watches and NFC payment as the old bread and butter computer hardware market is drying up.

 

GAIA

Elephants, ivory and science

I am not anti-elephant and I do not endorse illegal poaching, but I do believe the current approach of governments and animal preservation organizations will continue to fail dismally.

Time magazine in its September 8 – 15, issue has a full page ad on page 19 lamenting the slaughter of African elephants. It states that 96 are killed each day!!!  It asks for your support at 96elephants.org.

Elephant tusk ivory is highly prized as a soft material for ornate large and miniature carvings - traditional crafts throughout the Middle East, Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Tusk ivory has also long been used for piano keys, guitar and violin bows -- because of their beauty, malleability and soft touch.  Plastic is a poor substitute.

 

THE DUAL  PROBLEM

The current approach to protecting African elephants in the wild has been a dismal failure while costing multi-millions of dollars.

Poachers are rarely caught while more and more rangers are hired to unsuccessfully patrol enormous, vast open areas.  And the poacher ‘bosses’ --who reap the great profits -- are invisible and untouchable.

When poached tusks are found, they are stored and then, multi-millions of dollars’ worth of ivory are piled high and turned into a huge bonfire -- to be photographed or filmed: to show the world such ill-gotten gains are not socially acceptable.

 

But this mass ivory destruction is simply counter-productive and stupid.  

It violates the first rule of economics: supply and demand.

Solution #1

Instead of destroying the ivory, it should be sold through a UN-like international agency at either a controlled rate or en masse -- to flood the marketplace and drop its market price/value; thereby bankrupting the 'bosses'  and supplying artisan and craftsmen and guitar and piano and other manufacturers with a superior, natural product, without the need to kill hundreds if not thousands of additional elephants.

The ivory of dead elephants should also be saved as well as any tusks that have broken off.

As for the rest of the dead elephants, there is an African market for such bush meat, and their hides and other elephant parts are also valuable and should not be left to rot.

At one time, hollowed out elephant legs were popular as umbrella stands.

 

Solution #2  -- which is much, much better

Apply modern breakthroughs in stem cell cloning and create artificial, identical tusks in the laboratory  -- for legal sale.

Elephants would be saved, related government costs eliminated, and 3,000 year old cultural traditions and skills preserved.

DO THE MATH and Your Health

680News radio needs remediation on Celsius

This morning 680News convinced me that it’s entire on air staff: news readers and meteorologist alike, need remedial education in UNDERSTANDING the Celsius temperature scale.  680News staff have been gripping and complaining as the temperature (before humidity is added) has almost every day been in the high 20's but only rarely in the 30s. 

Today, Friday Sept 5 at 7:30 a.m., while driving and listening to the channel, they forecast a high of 32 C and a humidex of 40 C. Then the newscaster said, "What a perfect patio day ".  This was followed by a street interview where a delighted pedestrian announced,   "I love the heat: bring on 40, 50, 60 degrees!!"

 The stupidity of these two comments is mindboggling, especially when seconds later the channel announced that Environment Canada and Toronto Public Health have BOTH declared an EXTREME HEAT ALERT, advising everyone to avoid staying outside for long due to the danger of heat stroke and dehydration, which can lead to fainting, fall injury, hypothermia, ambulance calls and emergency hospital visits for the elderly , those with respiratory conditions and anyone enfeebled by disease.

According to the Toronto Star, “Toronto weather: Extreme heat alert”, [http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2012/07/04/toronto_weather_extreme_heat_alert.html] an Extreme Heat Alert is expected to cause 50% more deaths than  the 120 Torontonian who die of heat related death in a normal year!

So why did the 680News newscaster and some delusional street interviewee praise 30+ degree weather?

Because they no longer remember their primary grade lessons in the Celsius system.  They probably remember that 0 C  means water freezes to ice and 100 C is the boiling temperature of water, but for temperatures in between they seem clueless.

 

I used to teach my students a few benchmarks:

 

233 C           book paper ignites  

 

52 C              human cells start to break down/melt

 

40 C                      very, very, very hot

 

38+ C                     fever      

 

35 C                          very hot; should stay in shade 

25 – 28 C                 good for the beach

 

22 – 24 C          nice and warm

 

19 – 21 C        comfortable room temperature if wearing long clothes  

 

10 – 18 C       cool, fall weather

 

    0 C               water freezes

 

- 10 C              nice winter day

 

- 35 C              skin freezes in minutes

 

So, anyone who wants the temperature to be in the 30s is asking for super sweaty weather that is only tolerable if lying in a pool or lake or staying indoors in air conditioning!!!

As someone noted in the newspaper a while back, if you go to work by public transit, walking or biking in 30+ degree weather, your entire body becomes covered in a slimy layer of sweat that lingers until you bath again; and you smell as well!!!

So 680News staff, stop wishing for slimy and deadly 30+ degree weather and send that person you interviewed -- who likes temperatures in the 40s, 50s  and 60s --  for a psychiatric assessment!!!

YOUR HEALTH
Fat foolishness revealed

We have since 1977 been told by the medical establishment and ‘researchers’ that animal fat – in meat  and dairy products -- is harmful if not deadly – causing hardening and narrowing of arteries, other heart disease and leading to obesity and all the ills those extra pounds produce.

Time magazine, however, has revealed the truth in its June 23, 2014 cover story.

Put simply, we have been mislead for over 35 years due to sloppy, poor science and half-truths.

Sloppy research

Dr. Ancel Keys in the 1950s and 1960s suggested that the high rate of American heart disease and deaths was due to clogged arteries caused by cholesterol build up and that red meat and dairy products were to blame. He advocated based on his studies, the Mediterranean diet.  He used data from southern Italy to show that the people there had far fewer heart attacks than Americans, and attributed it to their diet: fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables and olive oil--  which has monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs).

The problem with his research, as Time points out on page 32, is that he ignored the data from some Greek islands with the same diet but high heart disease rates, and excluded from his study French and German diets which were high in meat and daily and alcohol (wine or beer) but both the French and the Germans had the same low rate of heart disease as the southern Italians.  The French and Germans  and some Greeks were simply left out of the ‘evidence’ database and the fallacy of the superiority of the  Mediterranean diet was born.

More importantly we now know that meat and dairy products not only produce LDL cholesterol but an almost equal amounts of healthy HDL cholesterol – so it balance out as zero. (p.34)

Moreover, recent laboratory analysis has found there are 2 types of LDL particles – those that are  large and fluffy and that easily pass through the body,  and a smaller, sticky particle form of LDL that seems to  be the type that settles and adheres to the walls of arteries.

Meat and dairy contain just the fluffy, harmless LDL.  It is carbohydrates – bread and pasta – that have the small, sticky particle type LDSL. (p.34)

Finally, the fact people seem to have been gaining weight across the board for some 30 years despite the significant reduction in meat and dairy consumption and the proliferation of low-fat foods,  has led to the realization that the brain’s feeling of satiety or “I have had enough to eat, thank you.” is not triggered by either low-fat or artifically sweeted foods and drinks.  Only real, 100% saturated fat (and 100 real sugar) triggers this brain cessation signal. (p. 35)

Put simply, the misguided efforts to make people healthier with low fat and non-saturated fat diets has failed because it misunderstood how the body and the brain work and what triggers satiety.

A  glass of homogenized, whole 100% milk will make you feel full and satiated while almost no amount of skim milk will do the same.

Sugar vs. artificial sweeteners, we have recently learned, is the same situation.

So we have been eating more and drinking more and ingesting lots of unnecessary calories – leading to weight gain – by avoiding saturated fat meat and whole fat dairy products!!!

 

So here is my advice.

Whether you believe in the Bible or Darwinian Evolution, humans have been fruit, berry, nuts and vegetable eaters from the start, soon thereafter we became wild game and domesticated animal eaters – both meat and dairy products. And finally, we added agricultural grains as last.

Our teeth attest to our omnivore biology which is part of our human genetics and history.

So eat fruits, berries, nuts and vegetables and meat and dairy in their natural, high saturated fat forms, and include fish and fowl and grains.

A balanced diet of all food groups is the key, and be sure to get enough saturated fat and real sugar to have your brain signal it is satisfied and you can now stop eating.

You taste buds and figure will love you for it.