Aug. 18, 2008 – The latest weapon in the arsenal of the obesity fight is a ban against trans fats, those pesky artery-clogging oils that mostly come from animal products that are used to make everything from pastries to French fries. Cities like New York, Seattle, Philadelphia and Baltimore, among others, and the State of California have banned trans fats from restaurants all together and New York, Chicago and Nashville have opted for a requirement that restaurants from Burger King to Starbucks lable their food with the amount of trans fats and calories on their menus. But when Los Angeles’ City Council passed a measure to stop new fast food restaurants from opening in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, I think they were they riding this the trans fats ban bandwagon right into the ground.

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Posted July2, 2008 – What would you do for a bikini body? There are a lot of folks willing to go to unhealthy extremes to make that happen. But as Hollywood Trainer Jeanette Jenkins proves, you don’t need pills, surgery or injections to get the klller body we all want. Take the folks she’s been working with lately on Fox’s “The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.” “It’s two regular people who wanted to lose weight and lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks,” says Jenkins, who used to host fitness chats for BET.com. But the takeaway message from the show, and from her book, “The Hollywood Trainer’s Weight Loss Plan,” Jenkins says, is that anyone can get a better body, even a bikini body, if he or she first believes that it’s possible, and then goes to work to make it so. (Watch the video below)  “If you create a positive attitude and have a positive image of yourself, then those things will help you achieve your goals,” says the high-energy trainer to such celebrities such as Queen Latifah and Terrell Owens. “You have to say to yourself, ‘I’m going to do this. I’m already beautiful, but I’m going to start now to achieve the goal to lose another 15 pounds or have more energy.” The pep talk is just one of the seven steps to weight loss that Jenkins describes in her new book. “The Hollywood Trainer’s Weight Loss Plan.” Another step in the process is a daily dose of heart-charging activity. Of course, make sure your doctor says it’s O.K., but the goal is to get in 30 to 45 minutes of a cardio workout each morning. The choice is yours – a power-walk, cycling, spinning, tread mill, swimming or whatever will get you moving. “You don’t need any equipment to do calisthenics,” Jenkins says. That’s why she suggests three sets of from 15-to-25 repetitions of crunches, squats, pushups, dips and lunges to help you firm up those muscles over the summer. As for what to eat, the trainer recommends meals that are heavy on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meat. For more of her seven steps to weight loss, or to see the exercises and get recipes, go to thehollywoodtrainer.com. You can also see if her team won the weight loss challenge on Tuesday morning on “Mike and Juliet.” Have a happy, healthy, Fourth.

Posted June 16, 2008 – He was a gregarious person of big heart and persona. He was also my boss in my other life as an NBC Washington Bureau freelance producer. But when Tim Russert, 58, NBC’s Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief and respected host of Meet The Press, fell ill while taping promos for his Sunday show, it was a stunning blow to the gut. By all accounts, he’d been following doctors’ orders after being diagnosed with coronary artery disease, in which plaque deposits block the blood flow to the heart. He’d been exercising on a treadmill, watching what he ate more carefully and taking cholesterol-lowering medication. He’d also recently passed a stress test. But he died suddenly on Friday after suffering a heart attack, when a clot burst in an artery, blocking blood flow to his heart. It was not only an example of the quirkiness of life, but a wake-up call. It shows how the fallacy of medicine, the quirkiness of life and, more importantly that you can’t take your health for granted. Stress, lack of sleep and a diet on-the-go also can take their toll, particularly for people with a history of heart disease. African Americans die more often from heart disease than Whites, and Black men are particularly at risk. Unfortunately, we also disproportionately suffer from all the major risks that lead to heart problems – greater instances of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. There’s no doubt that once you are is diagnosed with heart disease, you have a better chance of surviving it if you change your lifestyle. But, the better way to avoid a heart attack is to head it off all together, especially while you’re young. If you’re getting a little heavy around the middle, see your doctor about losing weight right away. If you’re not getting enough sleep or exercise, change up. Doctors say that even if you’re making the prescribed lifestyle changes – eating better, working out and staying on your meds – you’re still at risk if you don’t get your rest or cut fatty, cholesterol clogging foods from your diet. And there’s new evidence that the greater your girth, or the more expansive your waist line, the more stress you are putting on your heart – and that can heightening your chance of having a heart attack. On the other hand, there’s evidence that the cumulative affect of exercise over the years can help.The death of this consummate family man, master interviewer and astute political observer [ he was one of the first to recognize the tenacity of Barack Obama's run for the White House] is a great and tragic loss. But was also a wake-up call to me. It’s not like I hadn’t had enough examples of people in my life who died way to young from a heart attacks to know that if I take exercise more seriously, get more rest and cut the fat from my diet I stand a better chance at living than dying. But there was something about the death of giant in my own profession dying way too young and so suddenly that drummed home the point that maybe it’s time for me to take my own health more seriously. How about you?

and the nay-sayers are getting louder, according to this article on www.nytimes.com (You might have to register to read the story.)

Four panelists The American College of Cardiology conference said Vytorin should the last resort for lowering cholesterol. They advised returning to a previous practice: the prescription of statins. The New England Journal of Medicine, one of the country’s most prestigious medical research publications, made a similar recommendation in an editorial, the New York Times story said.

There’s been lots of back and forth about Vytorin. The manufacturers say the drug is safe and effective, but researchers and physicians are saying its not. If you’re taking Vytorin, you owe it to yourself to investigate the controversy and speak to your doctor.

I wrote about Vytorin earlier. Check out the post from January 15.