New Diet Drug Recommended to FDA

A regulatory panel of advisers that the Food and Drug Administration usually follows the recommendations of gave the go ahead on further study of a new weight loss drug called Contrave despite heart risk concerns. It is made by a California-based company, Orexigen, that focuses solely on obesity drugs and has no other products on the market at this time. This news caused their stock to more than double to $12.20/share Tuesday after closing at $4.76 on Monday, December 6th. This is the third drug of it's kind that the panel has considered this year having rejected the other two which were Lorcaserin because of cancer concerns (seems it caused tumors in rats), and Qnexa shot down due to heart risk concerns also. The panel was not too impressed with the modest weight loss experienced by the test group of patients taking Contrave, but they went ahead and approved it anyway out of fear rejection could shut down development of any more such drugs when two out of three Americans are overweight or even obese. Staggering! They want the FDA to do larger clinical studies to examine the potential for heart risks over time.

So if I understand this correctly they want to see if the drug can kill you from a heart attack from losing the very weight that had you at risk of a heart attack in the first place. It sounds like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. Apparently the test patients exhibited a slight increase in blood pressure and pulse rate versus those on a placebo. Despite these lack luster results and the undesirable side effects, analysts are saying if it comes to market it could hit $1.2 billion in sales by 2018!! I can't imagine that because I hate any kind of side effects from drugs, and I absolutely refuse to continue taking them if I experience any. That's just me though, and I've come to learn over the years that you can't determine success in the market place by my likes and dislikes. That just goes to show you the desperation of people who have gotten themselves in this predicament of being grossly overweight that they would subject themselves to these side effects depredations and exposing themselves to cardiac arrest for the loss of a few pounds they could very well achieve on their own using....you guessed it, common sense. Which leads me to say that I think turning to a drug like this would be another DOUBLE-DUMB weight loss choice.

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The Baby Diet?

That's right. If you have not as yet heard, there are new parents out there so obsessed with being slim that they are putting their babies on, of all things....a baby diet! Recent news stories have exposed this as a possible trend where parents restrict what they feed their babies to prevent them from becoming chubby. Some are doing it out of concern that a chubby baby is not aesthetically pleasing. Yes, one story floating about is about this neurotic ( my description ) father who raves about how "skinny" his infant daughter is. Yet others are restricting their babies intake so their children won't be chubby and then go on to be overweight adults.

Apparently there is reason to be concerned. It seems there was an article that appeared in the journal Pediatrics in March of 2009 regarding a study done by researchers at (ahem) Harvard University that found babies who rapidly gained weight faster than their length increased during their first 6 months were at a marked risk of being obese by the age of three. The study also found that this inordinate rate of early weight gain might be a better prognosticator of future obesity than weight at birth. Now this to me would corroborate the suspicion that obese parents are passing on this genetic programming to their offspring. The question is... is this genetic programming something that got altered or switched on by a lifelong practice of overeating. I suspect that it is. If our metabolism becomes accustomed to a certain way we do things then isn't it possible that it could also influence our genetic make up and ultimately what we pass on to our progeny? I am not a geneticist, of course, but isn't this just more common sense? We've all seen obese parents with similarly obese children. I've always thought that the parents are passing on their penchant for overeating to their children, but now this study from such and august institution as (ahem) Harvard would indicate that there's more to it than, might I say, meets the eye. These children of obese parents apparently have been dealt a disadvantaged hand from birth, because of the genetic programming that has been passed on to them. When you couple that with parents who are still into gorging themselves on a regular basis, you get obese kids. Go figure!

This craziness aside, the American Academy of Pediatrics maintains that a baby's physical and mental development depends on them getting extra fat and calories in the early months of their development. So to put an infant on some whaky baby diet is doing that child a grave disservice and is bordering on criminal in my humble estimation.

I am a firm believer that all babies should be breast fed if at all possible, save for some extreme extenuating circumstance for the life of me I cannot fathom. Good old mothers milk is the best baby diet food because it has everything a newborn needs to grow and develop. It also provides them with protection against disease and prevents them from developing allergies among a host of other indisputable reasons for doing it. This solves the baby diet conundrum before it even gets started. So, parents, please don't make a DOUBLE-DUMB FOOD CHOICE for your kids by subjecting them to these deprivations because of some neurotic notion you might have about your own appearance.

Thanksgiving Day Report Card

I have to give myself a failing grade...yet again. No big surprise there, albeit some disappointment. I'm only a tad disappointed though because despite eating more than I had planned to, it was an enjoyable good time. So I'm not going to beat myself up about it, anymore that is, because I did do a little soul searching as to the whys of my over indulgence. Why I over-ate, for instance, despite my good intentions and a plan to curb my enthusiasm for all things food on this day of national thanks. What I came up with was the clear culprit, a Bombay Saffire Gin martini. I was not expecting my brother to have any of this potent potable available so I did not even consider it in my plans. Well when he announced that he did have a bottle, everything went out the window, because, after all, I could not pass on such an opportunity to indulge in this fine gin that I have held in such high esteem all these years.

The reality is that this nor my other all time favorite, Tanqueray Gin, really don't taste good to me anymore. There's a couple of reasons for that. One is just the fact that I've crossed over that chasm that separates the young from the senior citizen. Time marches on inexorably, and, if we're lucky, we get old. I believe that this has a lot to do with my lost ability to enjoy one of these juniper berry flavored libations that I have cherished for so long and always looked forward to having before a sumptuous dinner, because one of my good friends who also felt the same way about these two gins, cannot drink them at all. That tells me it's not just me that they don't taste good to, and even though he's a few years younger than me he's still getting "up there" as they say. The other thing I can pinpoint this loss of appreciation to was an incident that took place about ten years ago.  This same friend had me over for dinner and when we went into the liquor cabinet to fetch the 1.75 liter of Tanqueray Gin that he always kept on hand, there was only a smidgen left in the bottle. So we jumped in the car and went around the corner to the local liquor store to replenish. While on the way I asked him if he had ever tried the latest (at the time) super-premium offering from Tanqueray, which was "Tanqueray 10".  He said he had not and came back out with a 750ml bottle. What a guy! His guest's wish is his command, even at 30 bucks a bottle! He was and still is, I might add, the "host with the most". Well, accommodating as that may have been, it turned out to be a huge mistake at least for me. I was ten years younger, but even then I did not have the capacity to hold liquor like I did till I was well into my forties. The new offering was packed with flavor and intoxicating fragrance, not to mention the 94.6 proof potency of it. I let my exuberance get the best of me and knocked back a couple of generous martinis made with this glorious gin that made you smack your lips with delight. I was feeling the effects because I had lost my capacity to withstand the alcohol due to lack of practice and my age, but nonetheless thought I was OK. Then we sat down to a dinner of beautiful Porterhouse steaks cooked on the Weber grill. Of course, how is one to savor the king of steaks without the king of red wines, Cabernet Sauvignon? My friend and most gracious host did not disappoint by serving a deep purple-hued, full-bodied, robust selection of this noble wine, to which I could not refuse, even though I knew in my heart of hearts that I was pushing my luck. My luck did run out, as it were, because about midway through dinner the noble red on top of the two ample martinis proved to be too much. I had to excuse myself to go to the restroom, and rest is what I did after having to disgorge myself of the food and drink I had feasted on here-to-fore because of my over consumption of adult beverages. The next thing I remembered was my friend knocking on the bathroom door when I found myself asleep on the tiled bathroom floor. I was embarrassed but did not care because I was still not able to return to the table in any kind of presentable shape. I eventually came out feeling much better after having slept off the residual effects of the alcohol, but from that day forward a "Tang" or Bombay martini has never really tasted good to me again, try as I might to right the ship. It's a case of Paradise lost and there's no getting it back, ever. Believe me I've tried and tried, because I've been in denial ever since, all to no avail. They just taste like poison to me now, but the denial still persists. That's why I agreed to have one before dinner Thanksgiving Day. Alas, the result was the same, it tasted like gasoline. It also hit me like a lit match on gasoline because I have even less resistance to the effects of alcohol now than I did ten years ago when I was the hit of that ill-fated dinner party. Since it felt like I had ignited a runaway fire half way through the drink, I started loading up on the appetizers to tamp the fire that was stating to rage inside me. They did the trick, but now I was pretty full and the turkey was being carved. I did what was expected of me and ignored my diminished capacity and proceeded to load my plate, but with some restraint I might add. Still there was so much to "try" that my plate ended up, as always, with too much food.

I did my duty as best I could and finished most of what I put on my plate, and with the same result, that unique, oppressive, painfully stuffed feeling that occurs only at this time of year. I had good intentions and a plan to use considerable restraint so as not to create too great an obligation for myself that would force me to overeat. It all went out the window though when I opted to live in denial once again and have that accursed martini. Now instead of feeding my appetite, I had to feed the booze to sober up and that caused me to eat way too much. All I can say is I hope I'll be the wiser when faced with a similar choice in the future and make the right decision. Only time will tell.

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