Last updated on April 12th, 2017
Saturday Short Takes
“Low-carb beer lures young men,” Adrian Thomas, The Shout.
“Low-carb beer finds unlikely niche,” James Atkinson, Australian Brew News.
According to an industry study, low-carb beer now accounts for nearly 25% of beer consumption in Australia, compared to just 3% in 2006. However, it isn’t clear that low-carb dieting is the reason. The largest group of low-carb beer drinkers in Australia are males aged 24 years and younger. Typically, men in that age group aren’t as concerned about their weight as older men. Instead of diet concerns, advertising targeted at the young men may have made the difference. I can believe that. You can take the carbs out of beer (most of them, along with most of the flavor), but that doesn’t make beer a healthy low-carb dietary choice. It seems that many Australians agree since over the past nine years the percentage who drink any beer has dropped from 42.3 per cent to 36.5 per cent.
“Study: Loneliness just as harmful for you as obesity,” Shelley Roupas, Fox 8 News.
Amidst the dismal and depressing news about obesity around the world, it’s good to keep some perspective. Obesity isn’t the only epidemic we face. There is also loneliness. According to a study by researchers at The University of Chicago, chronic loneliness stresses the body and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and dementia. It can do as much damage as extra pounds. Consider that a person can be both obese and lonely, and be thankful if you are just one or the other.
“Call for sugar tax to curb Scotland’s ‘obesity epidemic’,” Gabriella Bennett, The Times.
I’m OK with taxing sugar since I eat little or none of it. But I don’t see it as a cure to the obesity epidemic. The right information will do more to combat obesity than any Big Brother plans. Shoot, the governments in the UK and USA could just stop telling people to avoid fat at all costs, which has contributed to the increased consumption of sugar and other refined carbs.
And then the governments can focus on doing something useful, such as enacting taxes to curb loneliness.
“Daily sugar-sweetened beverage habit linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,” Medical Xpress.
Obesity is so 20th Century, and loneliness has been with us for ages. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a new frontier in diseases, but one that afflicts an estimated 25% of Americans. Well, maybe “afflicts” is too strong a word since those with NAFLD experience no symptoms. However, the condition correlates with obesity and type-2 diabetes, which is ominous. While NAFLD researchers can’t say for certain that drinking sugary beverages causes NAFLD, or apparently that NAFLD causes anything else, one comments that “sugar-sweetened beverages are a source of empty calories, and people need to be mindful of how much they are drinking . . .”
Even better, don’t drink any sugar-sweetened beverages. Like beer, sugar-sweetened beverages don’t fit well in a healthy low-carb high-fat diet.
Oh — and try to make friends.