food for thoughts: obesity in nyc (New York, Marion: how much, farm, rank)

[leoliu]

I wanted to open this similar thread to see if it can catch the attention of some nutritionists on this forum to chime in with their expert knowledge to burst some myths about food and its role in obesity. This might help help educate some here and enable them to make more sensible judgment and decision in future surrounding this important issue.

[Cida]

For anyone who wants to be educated about food and obesity, there's certainly no lack of information already, and New Yorkers are particularly lucky, because we have people like Marion Nestle and Mark Bittman who are regularly in the public eye.

[leoliu]

The public and the scientists do not agree all the time.
For example, I hear a lot of complaints about widespread uses of hormones in farm products. While the word "hormone" itself contains a vast number of different things, the most commonly used one that everyone bothers about might be the artificial bovine growth hormone that promotes growth/lactation and thus its contamination in the dairy products. In general, hormones like growth hormone are protein products, and like any other proteins in the meat that you consume, they are decomposed to single amino acids in digestion starting in the stomach and thus lose their biological function. The hormones can never evade into other parts of your body as an intact and active substance. If you know children with growth problems who are taking growth hormone, you will notice that they are "injected" instead of taking it orally.

Another point of information regarding the concern over the artificial growth hormone in dairy products is that they are made to resemble the bovine hormone, and we believe that it is "too low" in rank to work in humans, based on extensive scientific research. But if you don't believe in science, there is no other way to alleviate your concern and therefore the best way is not to eat it or raise your own.

[matzoman]

Making an effort to not consume non hormonal food and beverages is a start. One simple thing that I have noticed is how much people ignore portion control, when your stomach tells you 'I am full'..STOP!