Chicago - Its rumored Victorian women had their ribs removed to look slim. Who can forget Scarlett OHaras corset, pulled so painfully tight?

Desperate dieters have even turned to tape worms, inserting a sometimes deadly parasite in their bodies, to lose weight.

But the newest, most extreme diet to hit the scene is the feeding tube diet. Brides to be are doing it for their big day, eating only liquids through a feeding tube until theyre ready to walk down the aisle.

FOX Chicago medical contributor Dr. Mona Khana is disturbed by the fact that doctors are going along with this extreme diet.

I think any doctor who inserts a feeding tube into someone for the purpose of weight loss should have their license taken away, Khana said.

Northwestern registered dietitian Heather Harrington said the feeding tube diet is not medically safe to do as wedding and bathing suit season approaches.

Search rapid weight loss on Google, and youll get 10 million results, and many of them are not recommended by doctors.

Expectations are high, and the public is constantly fed images of celebrities with great bodies.

Singer Beyonce famously did the Master Cleanse, dropping 20 lbs. for the movie musical Dreamgirls, for which Chicago native Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award. The Kardashian sisters boast that diet pills work for them.

Thinspo, short for thin and inspiration, is a huge blog forum currently gaining traction online where where gaunt looking women often post pictures of themselves. They promote whats known at the air diet, where they pretend to eat, but are really only taking in air.

More here:
Women Risk Extreme Diets to Lose Weight

On the last day of Experimental Biology 2012, I had the great pleasure to be able to see the work of the Jones lab at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. I wrote about their work at last years meeting, and Im very happy to show you all the latest advances this year!

Theres very little thats more serious than a heart attack. Otherwise known as a myocardial infarction (MI), a heart attack is a loss of blood flow to the heart. When there isnt enough blood flow to the heart, the heart muscles do not receive enough oxygen, and heart cells begin to die and lose their ability to pump in rhythm.

In the past, the vast majority of people who suffered from a heart attack would die. But now advances in modern medicine have enabled many people to continue for years following MI. So we are not only concerned with survival of heart attack, we are also concerned with recovery, what can help recovery and make it faster, or reduce the severity of the heart attack in the first place.

And as Haar et al, from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine have found, sometimes whats bad for you might not be so bad for your heart, at least, in small doses. Haar has been looking at the effects of a high-fat diet on MI outcomes in mice. She previously found that short-term high-fat diets in mice (between 24 hours and two weeks of exposure, but not longer, otherwise you get some very fat mice), produced protection during a heart attack. When she induced an experimental heart attack in mice, mice that had been treated with a high fat diet for a short period of time showed reduced damage when compared to control mice. Haar also showed that 24 hours worth of high-fat diet produces protection for about 24 hours afterward, but not 48 hours (a double cheeseburger every other day, then?).

All this is well and good, but the important question is asking how does this protection work? Haar and her colleagues hypothesize that a high-fat diet can shift the damage balance in the heart from apoptosis (cell death) to autophagy (a shifting of cellular energy resources), and they hypothesize that an important molecule involved is NF-kappaB.

NF-kappaB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells), is a protein complex which affects the transcription of DNA, and could have widespread effects on how cells function under stress. To examine the role of NF-kappaB in the high-fat protection from MI, Haar took a group of dominant-negative mice, animals which specifically fail to activate NF-kappaB in the heart. She fed some of them on a high-fat diet, gave them all a heart attack, and looked to see if the protective effects of the high-fat diet were still present. In the NF-kappaB dominant negative mice, the injury size following MI was larger, and the high-fat diet failed to protect the mice from the effects.

But NF-kappaB affects a lot of genes, what specifically was going on? It appears that the heart cells are not dying at the same rates in mice on a high-fat diet, Haar saw fewer markers of apoptosis in the high-fat group. To see if the cells were instead undergoing autophagy, she looked at the marker Beclin-1. Beclin-1 is a marker for autophagy, a way to show that cells are reallocating their resources to preserve function, rather than dying in response to the severe stress of the MI. And it turns out that a high-fat diet increases the expression of Beclin-1 in the damage zone of mice having a heart attack. Not only that, this increase is blunted in the dominant negative NF-kappaB mice following heart attack, showing that NF-kappaB may be controlling the increase of Beclin-1. This means that high-fat diets are shifting the balance of the heart from apoptosis to autophagy, allowing the heart to suffer less damage during heart attack.

Of course, its not a good idea to go eat a double-cheeseburger in perfect comfort. After all, people who habitually eat high fat diets are at a much greater risk for heart attack in the first place. But its an interesting look into how the heart can protect itself, and may mean new potentials for treatment in those who suffer heart attack. And maybe you dont have to feel quite so guilty about the high-fat food, if you only have it once in a while.

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Experimental Biology Blogging: Every once in a while, a double cheeseburger might not be so bad for the heart.

SAN DIEGO Wednesday evening, as clouds rolled over Petco Park, the Washington Nationals found a new way to win. Tom Gorzelanny concealed his smile after he smacked an RBI single on his way to a three-inning save. Starting pitchers kicked their feet up on the dugout railing. Hitters bumped fists at the helmet rack. Manager Davey Johnson sat back on the bench.

The Nationals had built the National Leagues best record on a steady diet of incredible pitching, one-run leads, antacid pills and chewed-off fingernails. Wednesday, they could finally relax with a 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres, their largest margin of victory during an unprecedented, unexpected and unbelievable start.

After Jordan Zimmermanns stellar performance and an unusual outpouring of support for him, the Nationals had another series victory in their back pocket, 6 for 6 this year. They have a 14-4 record, the best start in Washington baseball history, matched only by the 1932 Senators. This laid-back victory put all the others 13 decided by four runs or fewer, eight decided by two or one in perspective.

Not that we can lay down late in the game, first baseman Adam LaRoche said. But its nice to know every pitch, every play isnt a potential loss. If we keep flirting with these one- and two-run games, one pitch, one base hit and we can lose. It hasnt happened. And its been awesome.

If the Nationals wanted to add another nip-and-tuck win, Zimmermann made it possible. He allowed one run in six innings on four hits and no walks to go with six strikeouts, which actually raised his ERA to 1.33, which ranks no better than third among Nationals starters.

For me, I always want to try to do better than the guy before, Zimmermann said. That would not be a problem on most staffs. But he follows Gio Gonzalez, who has a 20-inning scoreless streak. And Gonzalez follows Stephen Strasburg.

Before he allowed a home run in the fifth, Zimmermann extended the Nationals starting rotations scoreless streak to 26 innings, their longest such stretch since baseball returned to Washington. In 14 of 18 games this season, their starters have allowed two or fewer earned runs.

Theyre trying to compete against each other when theyre going out there, Johnson said. Its been fun to watch.

The difference Wednesday was, without Ryan Zimmerman but against the rancid Padres (5-14), the Nationals didnt need a great start. LaRoche went 3 for 3 with a walk, raising his on-base percentage to over .400 while producing his team-leading 14th RBI. The Nationals turned a one-run game into a blowout with a four-run seventh, paced by Wilson Ramoss two-run, bases-loaded single.

The Nationals could lose Zimmerman for another week. They have played all season without cleanup hitter Michael Morse and closer Drew Storen. It hasnt mattered.

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Nationals vs. Padres: Jordan Zimmermann gets rare run support as Washington cruises to win

Any diet other than omnivorous one containing meat can be somewhat inconvenient to follow due to availability of particular types of food, so why do these vegetarians all over campus even bother? With controversy over what diets are truly most healthy for humans, what reasons actually make someone go through the trouble following one of these strict diets?A vegetarian diet can be seen as healthier for mainly reasons regarding the higher risks of heart disease, some cancers and osteoporosis. Others choose this way of life due to religious or philosophical reasons. Some people simply choose not to consume meat because they may have job that entails working with animals and see an omnivorous diet as contradictory.

Not choosing to eat meat can be a silent protest against the way meat production is handled in the United States since the efficiency of beef production is significantly lower than that of plant-based products. Whatever the reason for the diet change, every food choice we make sends an economic message in support of the kind of food system that produced that food.

Vegetarianism many not be the best diet for everyone and not all can maintain a healthy diet without red meat, fish or poultry as a source of protein. That being said, we must recognize that not all of our meat is created equal.

As much as we may try to stay away from animal fats believing them to be bad for our health, some fats and oils are essential for health. There are ways to increase the health benefits of our meats by the diets farmers provide for their livestock.

The best way to do this is to feed ruminant livestock exclusively on grass and legume pastures. Currently, our agricultural system may not be ready for the change to all-pasture animal products, but the steady pressure of consumer demand can help make the change.

It is essential that as responsible consumers we understand the differences between organic meats, meat from grass-based systems, and meat from grass-fed livestock. Animal-product foods from animals with a natural diet are more healthful for both the animal and the human consumer.

They are also beneficial to agricultural land and water resources since livestock are not fed concentrate feeds produced from row-crops. A restructuring of our nations food system is in need, and it can be supported through our diet choices, vegetarian or omnivorous.

Jessica Anson is a student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She may be reached atja399@cornell.edu.The Missing Link: Food & Agappears on Wednesdays.

Link:
FOOD & AG: The Diet Dilemma

TUCSON - We all know a healthy diet and exercise is the best option when trying to lose weight and look better, but can diet and exercise alone surpass a tummy tuck?

Today on "Make Me Over" on News 4 at 4, Dr. Gwen Maxwell stopped by to discuss weight loss options, both surgical and non-surgical.

Here's what she had to say:

Yes, diet and exercise can surpass a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty)...for some people. If the skin on the abdomen has good elasticity and if the underlying muscles are intact, diet and exercise would be the best option for improving the appearance of the mid-section. However, if the skin is loose with stretch marks and/or diastasis recti is present, then a tummy tuck is needed to remove the excess skin and tighten the underlying muscles. Diet and exercise resulting in additional weight loss is also beneficial after a tummy tuck. The additional weight loss can really enhance the results.

Here are some general guidelines on who can benefit from an abdominoplasty and who should try diet and exercise first. If you are overweight, diet and exercise with weight loss is recommended prior to an abdominoplasty or liposuction. After the weight-loss you may find that you do not need an abdominoplasty. As added benefits you'll save money and the abdominoplasty scar. After you have lost weight, if you have stretched loose skin in the midsection, you are an excellent candidate for an abdominoplasty. For those who have always been within range of their ideal weight but have excess skin or stretched abdominal muscles as a result of pregnancy, additional weight loss is not likely to correct the problem. An abdominoplasty will remove excess skin and tighten the underlying muscles.

Price Range of the Abdominoplasty Procedure in the Tucson Area: $6,500 to $8,700

Continued here:
Make Me Over: Diet and exercise vs. the tummy tuck