Subject: Weight Loss

• Nothing whets the appetite like fish balls

  If fish balls aren't your thing try fluffy mackerel pudding or cabbage casserole czarina. Just three of the many dishes featured on Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974. I lost my appetite just looking at these cards, and pretty soon the pounds will be coming off like the blood-and-milk looking sauce comes off the roast chicken.Back when Weight Watchers was featuring these recipes, the Grammy record of the year was "I Honestly Love You" by Olivia Newton John, which pretty much sums up all you

  December 5, 2008

• Drinking and smoking

  The word "taxes" makes people act irrationally. Take, for instance, this wide-ranging tax plan from New York State, which would tax everything from clothes to boats to license plates to caloric (non-diet) soft drinks. It's already got a catchy nickname -- the obesity tax -- and, not surprisingly, has already the ire of soft drink manufacturers. I received this dandy of a press release yesterday from the Center for Consumer Freedom. Titled "Taxing Soda May Shrink New York's Bloated Deficit, but I

  December 16, 2008

• Hear a former fat man speak

  If for some ungodly reason, you're reading this before 7 a.m. and happen to be near the YMCA of Greater Kansas City (1017 N 6th St, Kansas City, Kansas), then you might want to pop in to hear Jared Fogle speak about losing weight. Fogle famous for losing 250 pounds by eating Subway. He once told Triumph the Insult Dog he accomplished the weight-loss with a six-inch for lunch and a 12-inch for dinner, to which Triumph responded, "What is this? The Richard Simmons diet?" Fogle's motivational speec

  January 14, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, 01/22

  The next big weight-loss craze could be purposely ingesting bacteria. Remind us how this is any different from losing weight due to illness? [Time]Smoking therapies are about to undergo a revolution now that scientists have positively identified nicotine receptors in humans' taste buds. [Scientific Blogging]Toothpaste erases crayon marks. Nail polish tightens screws. From Woman's Day, it's great uncommon uses for 16 ordinary household products. Errr...not that I read Woman's Day. [Woman's Day]An

  January 22, 2009

• Say goodbye to health claims

  You know that small type on nearly every bottle of vitamins and weight-loss pills and health food. Buy enough of them and you can say it from memory: "This statements has not been evaluated by the FDA." What if the FDA did evaluate these claims? Every last one of them, from the outrageous "lose 30 pounds in two days!" pills to the more reasonable "helps lower cholesterol" claims on the sides of cereal boxes. If the FDA looked at all these claims, how many would be false?The European Union passed

  February 4, 2009

• Best Place For a the-Hell-With-It Carbohydrate Binge

  October 9, 2003

• Best Group Show

  October 9, 2003

• Best Candy Innovation

  October 9, 2003

• Stomach Upsets

  March 11, 2004

• Best Low-Carb Tailoring

  October 7, 2004

• Wash away the pounds and other crazy notions

  Flickr: Jill GreensethI'd guess most people have a friend who's always on a diet. When it comes to weight loss, dieters are willing to do crazy things and quack inventors are happy to oblige.Neatorama has tabulated the 10 craziest diets in history and yes, at one point in time, some people did believe they could wash away the pounds. The pseudo science (emphasis on pseudo) is that certain seaweed soaps they can penetrate the skin and break down fat. Real scientists have found no evidence of the

  March 30, 2009

• Legal Exercise

  An Olathe man sues Oprah's fitness guru.

  February 23, 2006

• Rear Beauty

  November 24, 2005

• The Final Operation

  Loved and loathed, weight-loss doc Timothy Sifers leaves behind a legacy of lawsuits.

  March 31, 2005

• The Deepest Cut

  Obese patients trusted Dr. Timothy Sifers for the best weight-loss surgery available. It was too good to be true.

  February 26, 2004

• Breakfast Buffet: Tuesday, 5/26

  One man's attempt -- purposeful or not -- to try every hot dog in this city in a week. [Chimpotle]The key to a good espresso? Roasterie beans and trial and error. [Liquid Diets]One reason to feel (slightly) less guilty pounding shots of Jagermeister. Some of your money goes towards helping disadvantaged kids attend Ivy-League schools. [CNN]On top of Starbucks' other problems, suddenly it has bombs going off in front of its New York stores. [CBS]

  May 26, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Monday, 6/08

  A personal story of weight-loss in progress. [Blog Well Done]The problem with naming your restaurant something generic is nobody can remember it or where the restaurant is.  [KC Lunch Spots]Those buying the variety pack of Boulevard beers will find a little change: the brewery has replaced the stout with its new single-wide. [KC Beer Blog]Micheladas -- a bastard version of Bloody Marys -- turn out to be much more complex than just some mix and beer. [The Wort Hog]

  June 8, 2009

• Best Place to Blow a Diet 2008: The Peppercorn Duck Club

  January 15, 2009

• Light summer reading. Well, maybe light is not the right word

  Although obesity is nothing new in America, there have been recent attempts to look at the epidemic (that's the CDC's description) with a fresh focus. Yes, we're too fat and have heart attacks and diabetes because we eat too much, but why do we eat so much more than other countries?More specifically, why have we become so fat in only 20 years? The average adult weighs nearly 20 pounds more than his or her '70s counterpart. The number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweigh

  July 14, 2009

• Fat determines who is skinny?

  ​As our society grows, both in girth and population, the obsession with finding a cure for obesity has grown alongside it. While most solutions are thought to be found in products or surgery, scientists are looking inside the human body for part of the answer. In a recent editorial, New Scientist looked at the potential weight loss benefits of brown fat -- a heat-generating tissue that converts extra energy into heat. Differences in the amount of brown fat each person has may help to

  August 17, 2009

• An unhealthy obsession with eating healthy

  ​We all know the mantra for how to eat healthy. Eliminate fat. Eliminate carbohydrates. Only shop the outer aisles. Stick to raw food. Cook everything as thoroughly as possible. While most of us yo-yo between nutrition axioms, a small percentage of the population can't dismiss any of them. News.com.au notes that British experts are seeing a rise in orthorexia nervosa -- an eating disorder wherein people can't stop focusing on eating healthy foods, restricting their diet based on what they deem

  August 18, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Wednesday, August 26

  ​Stop the presses! This article from the U.S. News & World Report website finds that sugar is everywhere, including -- I know you'll find this hard to believe -- processed and packaged foods! This sugar addiction is not only causing obesity in America to explode -- but giving inspiration for reality TV shows where fat people are the stars! And speaking of fat celebrities, the once-svelte Wichita native Kirstie Alley is using Twitter to get back at the National Enquirer writer who penn

  August 26, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Monday, October 26

  A peak at the wine and beer selection at MDL Wine and Spirits in Overland Park. [KC Beer Blog]Thumbs up for Shatto gouda and some thoughts on what beers go well with cheese. [The Liquid Diet]Could you bring yourself to eat a 70-year-old lobster? What if it was covered in melted butter? [Bloomberg]Here's what happens when you get banned from the food co-operative. [The New York Times]

  October 26, 2009

• Lose weight by moving closer to fast food joints

  ​It sounds counterintuitive, but a new study suggests that living closer to fast food restaurants may actually reduce your chances for obesity. The University of Utah discovered that people are less at risk for obesity when there are food options within walking distance, even if those options include convenience stores and fast food restaurants. On the flip side, people living more than a half of a mile from grocery stores or restaurants were more likely to be overweight.  "Having access

  October 29, 2009

• Relic Tray: Lord Help Me! The Desperate Dieter

  Pray away the temptation to eat​Thanksgiving week is difficult for someone on a diet. Who can resist the sinful temptation to fill a plate with roasted turkey drenched in gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams all sticky with molten marshmallows, yeasty buttered rolls and all those fabulous desserts? This is when Beth Hammond's book of 57 devotions, Lord Help Me! The Desperate Dieter (Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1983), might come in handy. When the temptation to

  November 24, 2009

• Cash incentives the latest diet craze?

  ​Forget carbs -- the newest diet movement is centered on cash. While the corporate sector has pushed weight loss goals with gift card incentives in an effort to drive down health care costs, Web sites like HealthyWage.com have sprung up in an effort to bring that idea to all Americans.  The premise is straightforward: You register and agree to a weight loss challenge in exchange for the possibility of financial gain. Your doctor signs off on your start and end weight and you update Health

  January 5, 2010