Obesity is no longer a disorder, it’s a disease.

This week, the American Medical Association voted to reclassify obesity—a $150 billion annual health care headache—from a chronic health condition to a disease. According to the CDC, 35 percent of adult Americans are obese. To be considered obese, you must have a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. A healthy BMI is is between 18 and 25, and the CDC has a handy BMI calculator on their website.

Dr. Richard Besser, Chief Health and Medical Editor for ABC News, couldn’t care less about the formalities. “I think it matters little whether we call obesity a disease, a condition, or a disorder,” he told us. “It matters less what we call it than what we do to prevent it.”

The question is, how will medical treatment change in response to this new decision? Labeling obesity a disease quickly left those in the medical establishment with uncertainty about the future of obesity treatment. There are a slew of surgical procedures that combat obesity, none of which cure it completely. The onus is on the patient to follow through with the treatment and reach a healthy weight. Obesity is a unique disease because nutritional education, fitness awareness, and simple willpower are the most effective remedies. “We need to get physical activity back into everyone’s lives, starting with our kids,” said Dr. Besser.

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Go home America, you’re drunk. Of course “smoking alcohol” is a thing now, trending with young men at college campuses nationwide. The weight conscious are beginning to adopt the practice, as the inhalation of alcohol cuts all the calories and sugars.

The concept is simple. Alcohol can be smoked by pouring liquor over dry ice and inhaling the fumes, or freebasing the stuff, like crack. YouTube videos depicting the charming act have been popping up with increased frequency and a bar in Chicago even hosted a freebasing night in January.

Smoking alcohol provides a much more supreme high than merely drinking the stuff, and naturally, it’s devastating to the body.

The human body prevents alcohol poisoning by forcing itself to throw up the alcohol it has ingested, but since smoking alcohol doesn’t involve the digestive system, the body does not have a surefire way to protect itself. Dr. Harris Stratyner, regional clinical vice president of Caron Treatment Centers in New York, told the New York Daily News that, “When you inhale alcohol, it goes directly into the lungs and circumnavigates the liver.” Once you skip the only organ actually designed to process alcohol, the inhaled booze-fumes make a beeline to the brain.

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By Team Best Life

Support is a huge part of the formula for weight loss success. Study after study* shows that people who have support fare better than those who go solo. But does electronic support—in the form of social media—count? Studies say it does. Learn how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter to help meet your weight loss goals.

Post your trials… Eaten too much today? A Facebook group can be a safe place to share a small fall off the wagon—and get motivation from others who are losing weight.

… and Victories. Have you come up with a great snack option that helps curb your appetite for the less healthy stuff? Tweet it to those who can use it—you’ll feel great to be able to share. (Use hashtag #weightloss for a good start.)
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The Lorax isn’t directly connected with the dietetic field, but if he speaks for the trees then they are speaking for the health of humanity. The Lorax’s sage words, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not,” could be the motto of a recently formed group called Dietitians for Professional Integrity.

For now their presence is largely on Facebook and they’re working together, with both dietitians and concerned citizens, to make sure the field’s largest trade organization, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), hears not just their complaints but their calls to action.

See, the AND accepts sponsorship dollars to keep their organization rolling. But Andy Bellatti, creator of Dietitians for Professional Integrity, and his colleagues are calling bull – these sponsorships are paid for by the very brands these professionals are working hard against.

“Our main initiative is to have the Academy cut ties with its current sponsors,” noted Bellatti.

When you take a look at their on-going corporate sponsors, that’s where you can see how these dietitians are saying the AND “soils the good name of registered dietitians,” according to our Mary Hartley, RD.

Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Hershey, Abbott Nutrition (which produces Similac), General Mills, and Kellogg’s are some of the organization’s major sponsors. It’s cause for red flags amongst the organization’s members and the citizens who support this movement.

“The big picture issue is how Coca-Cola teaches webinars to RDs, how McDonald’s serves lunch at the California Dietetic Association conference, and how PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are financial contributors to the Academy’s Evidence Analysis Library,” declared Bellatti. To that, Monsanto sponsored the New York State Dietetic Association’s annual meeting.

“The organization chooses to align itself with these brands. It’s misguided,” he said. “It makes us look tone deaf during a public health crisis.”
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If you thought Michael Natkin’s popular blog, Herbivoracious, was a quaint little site about basil and thyme, boy are you in for a surprise. This chef, blogger, cookbook author and busy father of two wants to expand your mind about the world of meatless dishes. From his website: “I love to draw inspiration from cuisines around the world, and stay abreast of the latest developments from the best chefs, then apply all of those ideas to create vegetarian dishes that you can rock at home.” With 400+ recipes to his credit, Michael has definitely been busy creating inspiring dishes for his readers.

Hey, Michael, it’s Father’s Day, put your feet up and let the kids cook for you!

Why did you start your food blog? Honestly, I started the blog out of pure frustration. I wanted to be a restaurant chef, but five years ago wasn’t the right time in my life to quit my day job and make that leap. I have young kids and a wife with chronic fatigue syndrome, so it just didn’t work. I also have this unstoppable passion for food, and needed to find a way to share and connect with the larger culinary community. Food blogs were just starting to become popular, and I thought that “Hey, at least this is something I can do.”

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