Food Law Prof Blog

Junk food binges may lead to addiction

Using junk food as rewards stimulates the reward centers in the brain, leading to addictive behavior. A recent study presented at Neuroscience 2009 last week is being reported all over the internet. 

Interestingly, this is the basic premise of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler's recent book, The End of Overeating (blogged here).  

From Science Daily.com:

Brain pleasure centers became progressively less responsive in rats fed a diet of high-fat, high-calorie food, a new study has found. As the changes occurred, the rats developed compulsive overeating habits -- and became obese. The overeating continued even when it meant the rats had to endure an unpleasant consequence (a mild foot shock) in order to consume the food. . . .

The researchers also found that as the activity of the brain's pleasure centers decreased, the rats became less likely to eat a well-balanced, nutritious diet -- even when the less palatable healthy food was the only food available to them.

Read the rest of this article at Science Daily.com -- Junk Food Diet Causes Rats’ Brain Pleasure Centers To Become Progressively Less Responsive

New York Daily News:Binging on junk food encourages addictive behavior: study

Science News: Junk Food Junkies -- Rats on a junk food diet behave like drug addicts

Soda Tax in the News

Proposed taxes on sugar sodas seem to be getting a lot of ink lately. President Obama thinks it's worth considering (blogged here).

A recent study by a star-studded cast of nutrition and obesity experts published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week is stirring things up. :The Public Health and Economic Benefits of Taxing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, (by Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., Thomas Farley, M.D., M.P.H., Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr.P.H., Barry M. Popkin, Ph.D., Frank J. Chaloupka, Ph.D., Joseph W. Thompson, M.D., M.P.H., and David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D.)

. . .Taxation has been proposed as a means of reducing the intake of [sugar-sweetened] beverages and thereby lowering health care costs, as well as a means of generating revenue that governments can use for health programs. Currently, 33 states have sales taxes on soft drinks (mean tax rate, 5.2%), but the taxes are too small to affect consumption and the revenues are not earmarked for programs related to health. This article examines trends in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, evidence linking these beverages to adverse health outcomes, and approaches to designing a tax system that could promote good nutrition and help the nation recover health care costs associated with the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. ^{. . .}

New York Times, Sept. 16, 2009: Proposed Tax on Sugary Beverages Debated

. . . a team of prominent doctors, scientists and policy makers says it could be a powerful weapon in efforts to reduce obesity, in the same way that cigarette taxes have helped curb smoking.

The group, which includes the New York City health commissioner, Thomas Farley, and Joseph W. Thompson, Arkansas surgeon general, estimates that a tax of a penny an ounce on sugary beverages would raise $14.9 billion in its first year, which . . .

ABCNews.go.com, Sept. 16, 2009: Public Health Leaders Propose Soda Tax

. . ."A tax on sugar-sweetened beverages is really a double-win," said Dr. David Ludwig, a co-author of the paper and director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children's Hospital, Boston. "We can raise much-needed dollars while likely reducing obesity prevalence, which is a major driver of health care costs, the paper states. "Ultimately the government needs to raise more money to cover the deficit, and in terms of ways of raising that revenue, a tax on sugar sweetened beverages is really a no-brainer.". . .

Obama Says Soft Drink Tax Worth Considering

From the New York Daily News:

. . . The President, in an interview with Men's Health Magazine released yesterday, said he thought taxing soda and other sugary drinks is worth putting on the table as Congress debates health care reform.

"It's an idea that we should be exploring," the president said. "There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else."


Read more from New York Daily News

Read the Men's Health interview with President Obama

Study: A Small Molecule That Blocks Fat Synthesis

A study published in Chemistry and Biology found that a synthetic molecule dubbed "Fatostatin" can block cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis in mice with obesity genes.  Here's the abstract (it's rather sciency, but that's better than our attempts at translating it):

A Small Molecule That Blocks Fat Synthesis By Inhibiting the Activation of SREBP

Sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) are transcription factors that activate transcription ofthe genes involved in cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis. In the present study, we show that a small synthetic molecule we previously discovered to block adipogenesis is an inhibitor of the SREBP activation. The diarylthiazole derivative, now called fatostatin, impairs the activation process of SREBPs, thereby decreasing the transcription of lipogenic genes in cells. Our analysis suggests that fatostatin inhibits the ER-Golgi translocation of SREBPs through binding to their escort protein, the SREBP cleavage-activating protein (SCAP), at a distinct site from the sterol-binding domain. Fatostatin blocked increases in body weight, blood glucose, and hepatic fat accumulation in obese ob/ob mice, even under uncontrolled food intake. Fatostatin may serve as a tool for gaining further insights into the regulation of SREBP.

Read about the study at Eurekalert.com

Little known oxycholesterol may pose the greatest heart disease risk

Press release from Eurekalert:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2009 — Health-conscious people know that high levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) can increase the risk of heart attacks. Now scientists are reporting that another form of cholesterol called oxycholesterol — virtually unknown to the public — may be the most serious cardiovascular health threat of all. Scientists from China presented one of the first studies on the cholesterol-boosting effects of oxycholesterol here today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. The researchers hope their findings raise public awareness about oxycholesterol, including foods with the highest levels of the substance and other foods that can combat oxycholesterol's effects.

read more

Ongoing Safety Review of Weight Loss Drug Orlistat

We usually don't post news about drugs here, but since we do sometimes post about obesity and this is about a weight loss drug, here goes.  This is from an FDA News Release:

FDA Issues Early Communication about Ongoing Safety Review of Weight Loss Drug Orlistat
Review includes both prescription drug Xenical and OTC drug Alli

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it is reviewing adverse event reports of liver injury in patients taking the weight loss drug orlistat, marketed as the prescription drug Xenical and the over-the-counter medication Alli.

Between 1999 and 2008, the FDA received 32 reports of serious liver injury in patients taking orlistat. Of those cases, 27 reported hospitalization and six resulted in liver failure. Thirty of the adverse events occurred outside the United States. The most commonly reported adverse events included yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes (jaundice), weakness, and stomach pain.

The FDA is reviewing additional data submitted by orlistat manufacturers on suspected cases of liver injury, and the issue has been discussed at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Drug Safety Oversight Board.

Washington Post on Taxing Sugar Drinks

Last April Kelly D. Brownell (Yale Psychology) and Thomas R. Frieden (CDC) published a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine: Ounces of Prevention -- The Public Policy Case for Taxes on Sugared Beverages.  This week the Washington Post picked up the topic again:

Can We Fight Obesity by Slapping a Heavy Tax on Soda?

The solution to America's ballooning obesity epidemic lies not in weight-loss counseling or programs to make people more physically active, Kelly Brownell has come to believe. To effect real change, he argues, we need to shift the economic balance between healthful and unhealthful foods, to curtail the all-pervasive marketing of junk food -- and to tax soda.

Agricultural Policy, Marketing, and Obesity -- 2004 Peter Jennings documentary

This comment by a UK reader was posted recently:

I think the problem is with the food source than the consumers.. The food industry has pulled the wool over every american eyes and they are lovin it..  see url

The link was to an ABC documentary from about 2004 with Peter Jennings exploring the connection between farm subsidies, the food industry, and American eating habits.  The video is quite interesting and just as timely today as it was then.  It's available on YouTube in about 5 segments.  Or you can see the full 43 miinutes here.

 

More on the TV ad study and Free Will

A few days ago, we blogged a New York Times article about a study of TV ads on snacking.

Snack Ads Spur Children to Eat More
By ALEX MINDLIN

Psychologists recognize that certain behaviors can be automatic. For example, unrecognized external stimuli can unconsciously stir us to anger, spur us to loyalty or incite us to rudeness without our knowing it. . .  continue reading

The study, Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior, was published in Health Psychology.  It examined the effects of TV ads on children as well as adults.

The study is described in an interesting discussion of free will and the role of external stimuli on behavior on the Psychology Today blog, The Natural Unconscious, by John Bargh, one of the authors of the study:

The following is another installment in an ongoing Psychology Today blog debate with Roy Baumeister concerning the existence of free will, for which the new study on automatic effects of TV ads is highly relevant. . . . 

Television and other forms of advertising is expressly directed at getting us to do something that is in the best interests of the advertiser, but not necessarily our own.  We have already recognized this in the case of cigarette (tobacco smoking) advertising and as a consequence it has been banned now for many years.  In the new study, Jennifer Harris and Kelly Brownell of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale and I showed that passive exposure to food advertising on television may contribute to the ongoing obesity epidemic by automatically triggering eating behavior, right then and there while watching TV. 

TV Snack Ads Make Us Eat More

From the New York Times:

Snack Ads Spur Children to Eat More
By ALEX MINDLIN

Psychologists recognize that certain behaviors can be automatic. For example, unrecognized external stimuli can unconsciously stir us to anger, spur us to loyalty or incite us to rudeness without our knowing it. A new study finds that seeing food ads on television can induce people to eat more snacks while watching.

continue reading

Book: The End of Overeating, by David A. Kessler

Here's the next book I want to read, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, by former FDA Commissioner Dr. David A. Kessler.  The Wall Street Journal did a book review and interview with Dr. Kessler:

. . . He interviews the overweight, who say that just the sight of a favorite snack food is enough to make them feel hungry, as well [as] anonymous food executives who admit that fat, salt and sugar are often the building blocks of successful food products. The book was prompted by a question that had long nagged Dr. Kessler: Why is it that Americans continue to crave such foods as potato chips and candy bars long after they feel full? "No one has ever explained what's happening to them and how they can control their eating," he writes. "That's my goal in this book."

Of course, I'll have to remove the dust jacket -- the mere sight of that piece of carrot cake is likely to make me hungry all day long.  Interestingly, the farm fresh carrots just don't have the same effect.  DMB

TIME Magazine on posting restaurant calorie info

Interesting piece on Time.com (June 29, 2009) on the restaurant calorie labeling issue:

Fast Food: Would You Like 1,000 Calories with That?, by Sean Gregory

How sloppy is that triple Whopper with cheese? It has 1,250 calories, or 62.5% of the recommended 2,000-calories-per-day diet. The Fried Macaroni and Cheese from the Cheesecake Factory? Try 1,570 calories — according to health experts, you're better off eating a stick of butter. . . .

To be fare, the cheesecake probably has more nutrients than the butter, and it tastes better, so there are psychic benefits.  I don't think calories are the whole story.  But the article looks interesting anyway.

DMB

Coke Sued over Vitamin Water -- Sugar!!

Center for Science in the Public Interest has sued Coca Cola over its promotion of Vitamin Water as "healthful".  In fact, the drink has 33 grams of sugar per bottle, about the same as a can of pop. From the CSPI News Release:

"Coke fears, probably correctly, that they’ll sell less soda as Americans become increasingly concerned with obesity, diabetes, and other conditions linked to diets too high in sugar," said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner. "VitaminWater is Coke's attempt to dress up soda in a physician's white coat. Underneath, it’s still sugar water, albeit sugar water that costs about ten bucks a gallon." VitaminWater typically retails for about $1.49 for a 20-ounce bottle.

For more information:

FDA – CFSAN – Structure/Function Claims
http://cspinet.org/new/200901151.html

Text of the Federal Regulation
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr000106.html
The regulation deals with labeling in regard to the health benefits of nutrients within food.  This seems to ignore the health benefits of the food product as a whole.  While it may be true that a specific nutrient in a food is beneficial, those benefits may be overshadowed by harmful effects brought about by the food product as a whole.

Read the CSPI complaint against Coke alleging unlawful business practices, fraudulent business practices, misleading and deceptive advertising, untrue advertising, fraud, misrepresentation, which was filed on 1/14/09.
http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/vitaminwater_filed_complaint.pdf

Study: Zip Code causes obesity

Not really, but a study in Seattle did find that zip codes of low income neighborhoods are associated with higher rates of obesity.  In other words, lower incomes are associated with obesity.  Obviously, this doesn't mean that your zip code causes obesity (but other cause-effect claims based only on associations are all over the place.)

Anyway, here's the reference to the study:

"In Seattle we have found that there are fivefold differences in obesity rates depending on the zip code -- the low-income zip codes have a much higher proportion of obese people," he said.

He said that studies conducted in California showed that a 10 per cent rise in poverty translated into a six per cent increase in obesity among adults.

Excerpt is from Spending Less Can Make You Fat, on the Times of India website.

Buy a cupcake? Not in school

From the New York Times:

Bake Sales Fall Victim to Push for Healthier Foods

. . . The old-fashioned school bake sale, once as American as apple pie, is fast becoming obsolete in California, a result of strict new state nutrition standards for public schools that regulate the types of food that can be sold to students. . . .

It seems cupcakes and cookies don't comply with the restrictions on the fat and sugar content of foods sold to students. Since I think almonds are one of the best snack choices around (and more than 35% of the calories are from fat), I get a little ruffled every time I see this kind of restriction.  It is hard, however, to defend a cupcake. -- DMB

Fat tax in Alabama

This news broke the week of August 21 (while I was out of town and about to turn 50), but it's interesting enough to post anyway. From WebMD.com:

August 26, 2008 — Obese Alabama state workers may soon pay a health insurance penalty for their excess pounds.

Beginning in January 2009, state employees will be required to receive medical screenings for several conditions, including body mass index (BMI). Those who are considered obese — along with exhibiting other negative health factors — will have a year to get in shape.

Other health measures are implicated as well as BMI. 

Fifth Conference on Pulbic Health, Law, and Obesity

The Public Health Advocacy Institute and Public Health Law & Policy are sponsoring

A Time for Action: An Obesity Agenda for the Next Administration at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, September 19-21, 2008.

Advocates, public health practitioners, legal scholars, researchers, and policy makers are invited to come together to discuss the current legal approaches to the obesity epidemic. The conference will help stakeholders collaborate in developing a public health legal strategy with a foundation in environmental change that empowers communities and populations to tackle the public health implications of a broken food system and built environment.

Topics will include economic and social aspects of dietary behavior, the farm bill and its implications for food reform, food marketing and potential regulatory strategies, menu labeling, and regulatory solutions to increase physical activity. The conference will also discuss major policy implications between childhood and adult and family obesity prevention, as well as important disparity issues to be considered when making any policy recommendations.

Speakers, representing a wide variety of backgrounds and specialties, include Marion Nestle PhD, MPH(New York University), Kathryn Henderson PhD (Rudd Center for food policy and obesity), Frank Chaloupka PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago), Neville Rigby (International Obesity Taskforce), and Paul Simon MD, MPH (Los Angeles County Department of Public Health).

Sleep and Obesity

According to my morning St. Paul Pioneer Press, a recent study shows a correlation between obesity and hours of sleep.  The study reportedly found that people who sleep less than six hours a night or more than nine were more likely to be obese. 

The full article by Associated Press medical writer Mike Stobbe is all over the internet and it provides more:

The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so -- for example -- it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study's lead author.

It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems.

The study, Sleep Duration as a Correlate of Smoking, Alcohol Use, Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity, and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2004-2006 by Charlotte A. Schoenborn, M.P.H., and Patricia F. Adams, Division of Health Interview Statistics, is available on the National Center for Health Statistics website (linked above). 

In an interview, health statistician Charlotte Schoenborn explains:

We found with the Health Interview Survey that people who got less than 6 hours of sleep were more likely to be obese… they were more likely to be physically inactive… they were much more likely to smoke… and somewhat more likely to use alcohol in large quantities… things that you associate with a clustering of unhealthy behaviors.

… we don’t know which direction the associations go, what’s causing what, but we do see a clustering of these unhealthy behaviors and it suggests that we need to be dealing with these as a group rather than one at a time.

The interview is available on the NCHS website (along with a link to the study): http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/STATCASTS/stat_cast_6.htm

"Dieting for Dollars?"

In a recent Newsweek article, author Jennifer Barrett discussed a new trend among employers--tying financial incentives to staying at a healthy weight.

Barrett discusses several legal issues that can arise with such requirements as well as whether or not those requirements are saving costs. She also cites a study by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine which found that companies lost billions due to the poor health of their employees.

William Mitchell College of Law student Jenna Powers asks, "Do you think it's a good idea for companies to tie these types of incentives to health? Or are employers overstepping their authority? "

Thank you to Jenna Powers for preparing this post.

How does being overweight impact children’s teeth?

The answer may surprise you.  While being overweight or obese increases the risk for many diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and heart disease, the impact on teeth seems to be different.  A recent NY Times article reports that overweight children have healthier teeth than normal weight children do.  The report is based on research conducted by the Eastman Dental Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center.   However, do not run out and by candy bars and Cokes for dinner quite yet:

“The findings don’t mean being overweight protects teeth, but they do raise questions about the differences in foods eaten by overweight children compared to their normal weight peers. It also debunks the stereotype of the overweight child who binges on cavity-causing candy and sugary foods. One theory is that overweight children may actually be eating fewer cavity-causing sweets than normal weight kids and instead overeating fatty foods.”

Nevertheless, the results surprised the researchers who also acknowledge that more search needs to be done:

“We expected to find more oral disease in overweight children of all ages, given the similar causal factors that are generally associated with obesity and caries,” said Eastman Dental Center’s Dr. Dorota Kopycka-Kedzierawski, the lead author. “Our findings raise more questions than answers. Research to analyze both diet and lifestyle is needed to better understand the results.”

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Chris Hartnett for preparing this post.