A regulation banning the establishment of new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles is unlikely to curb obesity rates, according to a study by researchers at Santa Monica think tank Rand Corp.
Concerned about high levels of obesity, the lack of traditional grocery stores and a proliferation of fast-food eateries, the Los Angeles City Council approved a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of the city last year. It has extended the ban through March of next year.
"We argue that the premises for the ban were questionable," Roland Sturm and Deborah Cohen write in today's online edition of the journal Health Affairs.
The study was based on InfoUSA business data and a survey of 1,480 Los Angeles County residents. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health, with no financial support from the fast-food industry, Sturm said.
Contrary to "conventional wisdom," the density of fast-food chain restaurants per capita is actually less in South Los Angeles than in other parts of the city, said Sturm, a Rand senior economist.
"If you look at it per 100,000 residents, the area is not overrun with McDonald's," Sturm said. "The story about fast-food chains does not hold up."
Though the authors noted that obesity takes a "disproportionate toll on minority populations, especially among African American and Hispanic youth" who live in South Los Angeles, limiting the type of restaurants that move to the area isn't likely to solve the problem.
Policy choices such as forcing restaurants to print calorie and nutrition information on their menus and reducing the availability of snack food and sodas is likely to be more effective in combating obesity than restricting the areas where fast-food establishments can open, Strum said.
One outside nutrition expert was not surprised by the findings.
"What we know already, and this study confirms, is that people living in poor inner-city areas do not have easy access to healthful, affordable food, especially fresh food. Lack of food access is highly correlated with diet-related health conditions," said Marion Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University.
Though she doesn't object to the type of moratorium Los Angeles enacted, Nestle said there are plenty of other things the city can do "to encourage more healthful food consumption in low-income areas." She said cities could start with improving nutrition and nutrition education in schools as well as encouraging farmers markets, fruit-and-vegetable carts and community gardens.
Patricia Williams, a McDonald's franchise owner with nine restaurants in Southern California, including South Los Angeles, said, "There are some neighborhoods in South Los Angeles that would probably benefit from a McDonald's. So the moratorium should be looked at on a case-by-case basis."
Almost 26% of the residents of South Los Angeles are considered obese, according to the study. That compares with about 18% of the residents of Los Angeles County who live in higher-income neighborhoods, the study's authors wrote.
They found that the far wealthier West Los Angeles has 29 fast-food chain establishments, 14 small food stores and 10 large supermarkets per 100,000 residents. South Los Angeles, by comparison, has 19 fast-food chain restaurants, 58 small food stores and three large grocery stores.
The authors said those data were at odds with "media reports about an over-concentration of fast-food establishments" in South Los Angeles.
Among those reports, the study cited a chart that accompanied a July 30, 2008, story in The Times. The chart said fast-food establishments represented 45% of all restaurants in South Los Angeles. That was a higher percentage than in any other section of the city.
Doug Smith, The Times' director of computer-assisted reporting, who analyzed the data, said the different findings arose from the newspaper study's including small independent restaurants with seating for 10 or fewer people. The Rand study focused primarily on fast-food chains -- leading to a smaller count.
Councilman Bernard C. Parks, whose 8th District includes part of the area where the moratorium is in force, took exception to the Rand report.
"Anybody who in the year 2010 thinks they can compare South Los Angeles to West Los Angeles is going to be faulty. You just can't make comparisons between the two communities," said Parks, who is a proponent of the ban.
He said his 8th District desperately needed more sit-down restaurants, supermarkets and other sellers of fresh food and produce.
"We are the most underserved community in L.A. for everything but fast food. There are a parade of people who have to leave the 8th District to purchase their basic food and household needs," Parks said.
South Los Angeles is often labeled a "food desert" because of its lack of large traditional grocery stores that are the typical source of healthful foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables.
However, the study found no difference in fruit and vegetable consumption between residents of South Los Angeles and people in other areas. Likewise, there was no difference in the proportion of people who participate in 300 minutes of exercise or more per week.
Residents of both West and South Los Angeles tend to eat out about 3.5 times a week, though South Los Angeles residents are more likely to obtain food from a food cart or truck rather than a sit-down restaurant, the study said. South Los Angeles residents also were likely to watch more television.
The Rand researchers attributed the greater likelihood of South Los Angeles residents to be obese to their consuming more snacks and sodas than people who lived in other areas.
"Snacks usually don't come from a restaurant," Sturm said. "They typically come from stores and vending machines."
jerry.hirsch@latimes.com
Learning God's Healthy way to a better Life!
Driving Convertibles Is Bad for Hearing
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Cruising down the highway with the top of your convertible down may feel great, but it can also permanently damage your hearing. A new study recorded noise levels in convertibles being driven at 50 to 70 mph on a par with construction sites and nearing the volume of an ear-pounding pneumatic drill. Wind noise, driving speed, road surface and traffic congestion all contributed to the ear-splitting volume. Consistent readings were recorded in the 88 to 99 decibel range with the noise level rising as speed increased. Repeated exposure to sounds over 85 decibels are widely recognized to raise the risk of permanent hearing loss. MORE>>>>>>>>>>
Chinese Herbs May Help Prevent Diabetes
A number of traditional Chinese herbs may help control blood sugar levels in people at high risk of diabetes, a new research review suggests.
The review, which examined 16 clinical trials of 15 different herbal formulations, found that the herbs generally helped lower blood sugar levels in people with "pre-diabetes" -- those with impaired blood-sugar control that can progress to full-blown type 2 diabetes.
When the researchers pooled data from eight of the studies, they found that adding an herbal remedy to lifestyle changes doubled the likelihood of participants' blood sugar levels returning to normal.
What's more, people using the remedies were two-thirds less likely to progress to diabetes during the studies, which ran for an average of nine months.
The findings appear in the Cochrane Library, which is published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. MORE>>>>>>>>>>>
Green Tea May Curb Cancer Risk
Drinking green tea may lower your risk of developing certain blood cancers, but it will take about 5 cups a day, according to a study from Japan.
Drinking green tea has been associated with lower risk of dying and heart disease deaths, Dr. Toru Naganuma, at Tohoku University School of Medicine in Sendai, Japan told Reuters Health in an email correspondence.
The current study, Naganuma said, suggests drinking green tea may have a favorable effect "for particular cancers."
After gathering information on the diets and green tea drinking habits of a large group of Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 years old, Naganuma and colleagues followed the group for development of blood and "lymph system" cancers. The lymph system is a major component of the body's immune system.
The 19,749 men and 22,012 women who participated in the study had no previous history of cancer, Naganuma and colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
During 9 years of follow up, 157 blood, bone marrow, and lymph system cancers developed in the study group.
Chocolate, Water Blunt Pain
Chocolate activates a part of the brain that blunts pain and makes it difficult to stop eating, a study published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience has found.
But drinking water has the same effect and does not contribute to the growing problem of obesity, according to the study led by University of Chicago neurology professor Peggy Mason and neurobiology research associate Hayley Foo.
Mason and Foo gave rats either a chocolate chip to eat or water to drink as they lit a lightbulb underneath their cages.
The heat from the bulb normally caused the rodents to lift their paws.
But when the rats ate chocolate or drank water, their pain response to the heat was dulled and they did not lift their paws as quickly as when they were not eating. They also kept on eating.
Mason said that eating stimulates a system in the part of the brain that controls subconscious responses, which is known to blunt pain.
The natural form of pain relief may help animals in the wild avoid distraction while eating scarce food, but in modern-day humans, it could be contributing to over-eating and obesity.
"Nature provided for it being difficult to stop eating by making food scarce, particularly energy-dense, high-fat, high-calorie food. But in the modern world, we've completely messed that up," Mason told AFP.
"The cheapest thing you can get is energy-dense food and once it's readily available and you've got it nearby, you're going to eat it and you're not going to stop.
"You're destined to do that because it's a brainstem-mediated effect," she said.
Previous studies have indicated that only sugary substances had a pain-dulling effect, but the response in the rats in the University of Chicago study was the same regardless of whether they were nibbling chocolate or drinking water.
That led Mason to suggest that doctors change the way they calm patients' nerves.
"Stop giving patients lollipops," she said.
"Ingestion is a painkiller but we don't need the sugar. Water blunts pain, too," Mason said.
Two-thirds of American adults are obese or overweight, while about a third of US children are overweight and one in six are obese.
Mortality Rate 52 Percent Lower at Top Hospitals
The largest annual study of patient outcomes at each of the nation's 5,000 nonfederal hospitals found a wide gap in quality between the nation's best hospitals and all others. According to the study, issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, patients at highly rated hospitals have a 52 percent lower chance of dying compared with the U.S. hospital average, a quality chasm that has persisted for the last decade even as mortality rates, in general, have declined.
The study also found that hospitals that have received the Stroke Certification from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) had an eight percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate than hospitals that have not received this certification.
Whole Grains May Ward Off High Blood Pressure
Eating lots of whole grains could ward off high blood pressure, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In the study, men with the highest whole-grain consumption were 19 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure than men who ate the least amount of whole grains.
While refining grains removes their outer coating, whole grains retain their bran and germ, so they are richer in many nutrients, Dr. Alan J. Flint of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and his colleagues note in their report.
The most recent US guidelines recommend that people get at least 3 ounces, or 85 grams, of whole grains daily, and that they consume at least half of their grains as whole grains.
Eating Licorice Can Affect Pregnant Moms Babies
Moms who eat lots of licorice while they are pregnant may affect their child�s intelligence as well as behavior. An eight-year study of children whose moms ate large amounts of licorice during their pregnancy didn�t perform as well on intelligence tests as other children. In addition, they were more likely to have short attention spans and suffer from ADHD and other disruptive behavior.
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2 quick ways to lower health-care costs
To anti-capitalists, "profit" is a dirty word. Karl Marx hated profit, which he considered to be "surplus value from the exploited proletariat." Despite the spectacular collapse of the Soviet Union, a nation constructed on Marx's theory, there are still people who think "profit" is a dirty word. Many of these people are in Washington, D.C.
Sen. John Rockefeller issued a statement claiming that "… insurance companies are awash in profits." In reality, the health insurance industry stands 35th among Fortune magazine's profitability rankings, with an average profit of 2.2 percent.
Sen. Chuck Schumer doesn't think much of profit, either. He has proposed fees (taxes) that will extract $75 billion from private insurance companies over the next decade. Since taxes, or fees, are a cost of doing business that is simply passed along to the consumer, Schumer's idea is nothing more than an indirect tax that individuals will have to pay. But by applying the tax to insurance companies, Obama's promise not to increase taxes for people earning less than $250,000 can go unchallenged.
It is clear that Rockefeller, Schumer and the majority of Democrats want to reduce the cost of health care by squeezing profit out of the health insurance industry. This, of course, would kill the health insurance industry and leave the task of providing health-care services up to the government. This is the ultimate goal. Whether it's called "public option," "co-op exchange," or "single-payer," the goal is the same: Get rid of the profit private companies earn, and let government provide the service.
Conservatives in the Senate, in the House of Representatives and across the country know that the solution to the rising cost of health insurance is more competition. Obama and his congressional minions claim that some form of a government-controlled "public option" will increase competition.
What nonsense! Government-controlled or government-subsidized not-for-profit organizations offering health insurance is not competition; it is confiscation of the industry. Government does not level the playing field for private competitors; it levels the competitors. Unlike private insurers, a government program does not have to cover costs to stay in business. Examine other government programs, the Postal Service or Amtrak, for example. When the costs of operation exceed the revenue, Congress ups the national debt limit, borrows more money, and the government-run program continues.
Medicare and Medicaid are often held up by Democrats as great examples of government-run health-care programs that all Americans want. They are in fact an excellent example of government's ineptness at operating a business that should be left to the private sector. According to the calculations of the Medicare Trustees, Medicare is operating at a deficit every year, and to fund the program over the next 75 years at the current level of service would require $38 trillion – that's with a "T" – which amounts to 260 percent of GDP.
(Column continues below)
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Karl Marx would love this plan!
There is a way to increase competition among health insurance companies that would reduce the cost of health care almost immediately, with virtually no cost to the government or to the taxpayer. Simply let all health insurance companies compete across state lines. Costs would fall before breakfast!
Health-care costs would decline significantly if Congress would limit awards in malpractice cases. The cost of malpractice insurance – which has to be passed on to the patient – has skyrocketed beyond all reason, as the direct result of ambulance-chasing trial lawyers manufacturing outrageous payoffs in medical cases. A baby doctor in a metropolitan area may pay as much as $250,000 per year for malpractice insurance. Just to cover this insurance cost, charging $100 per patient, the doctor would have to see 69 patients per day, 365 days per year.
Congress could reduce health-care costs immediately with no cost to the taxpayer by implementing these two changes.
Obama has said he can save $500 billion by squeezing waste, fraud and abuse out of Medicare and Medicaid. Hooray! Go to it! This money could be used to provide a tax credit when low income families choose to buy health insurance.
These ideas have been advanced over and over again in Congress. Democrats have blocked every effort to pursue these solutions to the health-care cost dilemma. It would appear that their goal is not to reduce the cost of health care, but to destroy another major segment of our capitalist system in order to expand government's control over the economy – and American citizens.
Fructose Tied to Higher Blood Pressure
A diet high in a form of sugar found in sweetened soft drinks and junk food raises blood pressure among men, according to research likely to mean more bad news for beverage companies and restaurant chains.
One of two studies released on Wednesday provided the first evidence that fructose helps raise blood pressure. It also found that the drug allopurinol, used to treat gout, can alleviate the effect by reducing uric acid levels in the body.
The second study, which measured fructose intake in mice, suggested that people who consume junk foods and sweetened soft drinks at night could gain weight faster than those who don't.
"These results suggest that excessive fructose intake may have a role in the worldwide epidemic of obesity and diabetes," said Dr. Richard Johnson of the University of Colorado-Denver, who studied the link between blood pressure and men.
The findings provide the latest evidence of ties between sugar-rich diets and health problems that have prompted some experts to call for a tax on sugary soft drinks. MORE>>>>>>>>
Chemical Pollutants Lead to Fewer Female Births
High exposure to certain now-banned industrial chemicals may lead to fewer female births, a new study suggests.
The findings, reported in the journal Environmental Health, add to evidence that the two groups of related chemicals -- polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) -- may affect human reproduction.
PBBs were once widely used as flame retardants in plastics, electronic and textiles, while PCBs were used in everything from appliances and fluorescent lighting to insulation and insecticides.
While the chemicals were banned in the 1970s as potential health hazards, they remain a public-health concern because they linger in the environment and accumulate in the fat of fish, mammals and birds.
Traffic Noise Raises Blood Pressure
Traffic noise raises blood pressure. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health have found that people exposed to high levels of noise from nearby roads are more likely to report suffering from hypertension.
Theo Bodin worked with a team or researchers from Lund University Hospital, Sweden, to investigate the association between living close to noisy roads and having raised blood pressure. He said, "Road traffic is the most important source of community noise. Non-auditory physical health effects that are biologically plausible in relation to noise exposure include changes in blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of stress hormones. We found that exposure above 60 decibels was associated with high blood pressure among the relatively young and middle-aged, an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke".
A cornucopia of drugs will soon be on sale to improve everything from our memories to our trust in others
On 6th December 2004 a baby girl named Yan was born. Her father, an internet entrepreneur, is called Shen Tong. Yan was Shen’s first child, and you might have expected him to have an excitable, sleepless night. But oddly the opposite occurred. He slept better than he had done for 15 years, six months and two days. It’s possible to be exact about the timing because 15 years, six months and two days earlier was 4th June 1989 and on that day Shen had been on a boulevard just off Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He was a 20-year-old student, and like thousands of others he was demonstrating in favour of political reform.
After martial law was declared, Shen watched as the army drove through the city. Between outbursts of shooting, students tried to reason with the military. Shen approached a truckload of soldiers; he wanted, he says, to calm the surrounding crowd. Suddenly an officer pulled out a pistol. Parts of the rest of the story are hazy. Shen was dragged back by others. A shot was fired, and a female student, roughly Shen’s age and standing just behind him, was hit in the face. She died. Shen remembers her covered in blood. He is convinced that the bullet was intended for him. Shen moved to the US, but violent images recurred in his dreams for many years—until, that is, the arrival of Yan. Not only did he sleep well that night, but the following night, and the night after that.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition that can occur after a distressing event. It involves a traumatic memory which comes back to mind repeatedly and involuntarily. It’s associated with chronic anxiety and hyper vigilance. The numbers affected are contentious. By one mid-range estimate tens of thousands of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from it. As do British veterans of the Falklands war—more of whom have committed suicide than died in active service. The Pentagon has sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into PTSD research. But of course, as Shen Tong knows, you don’t have to be a soldier to experience it.
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