Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

The Weight-Loss Incentive That Works Better Than Cash

April 10, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Trying to hit the gym and shed that winter insulation? With bikini season just around the corner, weight loss seems to be—once again—the water-cooler topic du jour. And for employers and health insurers both, that’s good news. Encouraging workers to get a little competitive on the elliptical by offering them cash incentives may be the best way to help them lose pounds—and to slow companies’ spiraling health care costs. That’s what researchers from Michigan and Pennsylvania discovered when they implemented a dollars-for-dieters program among the medical staff at ... Read More

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‘Fair Trade’ Chocolate Perceived as Healthier

January 5, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year when weight-conscious people, determined to shed the pounds they put on during the holidays, pay closer attention to food labels. While the savvy are skeptical of overreaching health claims, newly published research suggests an entirely different assertion can lull us into caloric complacency. It finds socially conscious consumers are more likely to perceive a chocolate bar as being low in calories if it is labeled “fair trade.” “Ethical food claims can bias consumers to see poor-nutrition foods in a healthier light,” reports a research team led by ... Read More

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FDA Cracks Whip on Lap-Band Marketing

December 13, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

In July, we asked how candidates for Lap-Bands — surgically implanted belts that wrap around the stomach and can be tightened to make it smaller — should be evaluated after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration widened the window of those eligible for the weight-loss procedure. By lowering the body-mass index criteria, as many as one in seven Americans became eligible for the surgery. Our Taylor Orr wondered if the Lap-Band wasn’t being promoted a little recklessly as a get-thin cure-all – besides Lasik, how many surgical procedures do you see offered on billboards? “In short, ... Read More

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Fad Diets: A Losing Battle

October 12, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

You arrive to work late after skipping breakfast (you're trying to cut calories). During your lunch hour, you grab a double cheeseburger from the drive-thru on your way to run a few errands. You leave work around 5, and you order takeout for dinner, then eat it (and some ice cream) while sitting on your living room sofa. Like millions of other Americans flipping through evening programming, you see several commercials on TV that sell products promising quick and easy weight loss. Your love of cookies inspires you to pledge loyalty to a almost-too-good-to-be-true diet mandating the eating of ... Read More

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Dogs Offer Clues to Self-Control

March 16, 2010 • By • 3 Comments

"Why can’t you exercise self-control?” That disdainful question has been posed repeatedly to procrastinators, overeaters and others who find it hard to resist self-destructive impulses. It has rarely, if ever, been asked of dogs. But according to newly published research, the same mechanism that regulates human self-control also operates in canines. The study, in the journal Psychological Science, confirms the notion that self-control is a limited resource, one that can and does get depleted. It also suggests this is not “a uniquely human process.” A University of Kentucky ... Read More

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Information: The New Weight-Loss Drug

February 2, 2010 • By • 1 Comment

McDonald's Cheeseburger: 300 calories. Small Fries: 230 Calories. One percent Low Fat Chocolate Milk Jug: 170 Calories. Watching your child gain 10 pounds in one year? Priceless. It's no secret that childhood obesity in America is on the rise. Nor is it surprising that this rise has been paralleled by a growth in the nation's fast-food consumption. But a new study led by Pooja S. Tandon from Seattle Children's Research Institute suggests a new item for Happy Meals: information. She found that parents provided with calorie information on a fast-food menu chose meals for their children with ... Read More

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Available at Your Pharmacy Now: Honey

April 3, 2009 • By • 2 Comments

It's increasingly known that honey can act as a salve on the outside of the body, but tests performed on rats show honey's traditional healing properties really do work from the inside, too — aiding weight loss, immune response and even memory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that two-thirds of Americans over the age of 20 are overweight. An Antipodean academic sees the shift toward diets high in sugar and fat, but low in actual nutrition, as a key factor in these rising rates. Lynne Chepulis, who recently earned a doctorate from the University of Waikato in ... Read More

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