The Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Indigenous Kindergarten Children – a Cross Sectional Population Based Study.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Indigenous kindergarten children – A cross sectional population based study.

Aust Fam Physician. 2013 Jul; 42(7): 497-500
Hickie M, Douglas K, Ciszek K

This study investigated the prevalence of overweight and obese Indigenous kindergarten children in the Australian Capital Territory.A retrospective analysis was performed on data collected as part of the Kindergarten Health Check, a cross sectional population based survey conducted in the ACT from 2004 to 2008.The prevalence of overweight and obesity was statistically significantly higher among Indigenous (18%) compared to non-Indigenous kindergarten children (14%) (p=0.02, OR=1.40, 95% CI=1.051-1.862). Ten percent of parents of normal weight children, and 16% of parents of overweight or obese children, reported concerns about weight and eating habits, with no significant difference between Indigenous and non-Indigenous parents.The low level of parental concern about obesity suggests that general practitioners should persist with screening for, and managing, overweight and obesity in kindergarten-aged children in similar jurisdictions on a proactive basis. HubMed – eating

Hunger can be taught: Hunger Recognition regulates eating and improves energy balance.

Int J Gen Med. 2013; 6: 465-78
Ciampolini M, Lovell-Smith HD, Kenealy T, Bianchi R

A set of spontaneous hunger sensations, Initial Hunger (IH), has been associated with low blood glucose concentration (BG). These sensations may arise pre-meal or can be elicited by delaying a meal. With self-measurement of BG, subjects can be trained to formally identify and remember these sensations (Hunger Recognition). Subjects can then be trained to ensure that IH is present pre-meal for most meals and that their pre-meal BG is therefore low consistently (IH Meal Pattern). IH includes the epigastric Empty Hollow Sensation (the most frequent and recognizable) as well as less specific sensations such as fatigue or light-headedness which is termed inanition. This report reviews the method for identifying IH and the effect of the IH Meal Pattern on energy balance. In adults, the IH Meal Pattern has been shown to significantly decrease energy intake by one-third, decrease preprandial BG, reduce glycosylated hemoglobin, and reduce insulin resistance and weight in those who are insulin resistant or overweight. Young children as well as adults can be trained in Hunger Recognition, giving them an elegant method for achieving energy balance without the stress of restraint-type dieting. The implications of improving insulin sensitivity through improved energy balance are as wide as improving immune activity. HubMed – eating

Echolocation intensity and directionality of perching and flying fringe-lipped bats, Trachops cirrhosus (Phyllostomidae).

Front Physiol. 2013; 4: 143
Surlykke A, Jakobsen L, Kalko EK, Page RA

The Neotropical frog-eating bat, Trachops cirrhosus, primarily hunts stationary prey, either by gleaning on the wing, or in a sit-and-wait mode hanging from a perch. It listens passively for prey-generated sounds, but uses echolocation in all stages of the hunt. Like other bats in the family Phyllostomidae, T. cirrhosus has a conspicuous nose leaf, hypothesized to direct and focus echolocation calls emitted from the nostrils. T. cirrhosus is highly flexible in its cognitive abilities and its use of sensory strategies for prey detection. Additionally, T. cirrhosus has been observed to echolocate both with closed and open mouth. We hypothesize that its flexibility extends to echolocation call design. We investigated the effect of hunting mode, perching or flying, as well as the effect of mouth opening, on the acoustic parameters and directionality of the echolocation call. We used a multi-microphone array, a high-speed video camera, and a microphone-diode-video system to directly visualize the echolocation sound beam synchronized with the bat’s behavior. We found that T. cirrhosus emits a highly directional sound beam with half amplitude angle (HAM) of 12-18° and DI (directionality index) of ~17 dB, among the most directional bat sonar beams measured to date. The directionality was high both when flying and when perching. The emitted intensity was low, around 88 dB SPL at 10 cm from the mouth, when hanging, but higher, around 100 dB SPL at 10 cm, when flying or just before take-off. Our data suggests that the limited search volume of T. cirrhosus sonar beam defined by the high directionality and the rather low intensity of its echolocation calls is adapted to the highly cluttered hunting habitat and to the perch hunting mode. HubMed – eating

Dying to Be Thin: Excerpt on Males, Eating Disorders, Body Image, Canada, Paul Gallant – A brief excerpt in pieces from a documentary including my work (Paul Gallant) with males who have eating disorders. Aired on Canada’s Global National TV 16:9…