NJ research group tackling obesity epidemic

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=282

Linda A. Johnson, "NJ research group tackling obesity epidemic",
Newsday, September 28, 2004,
Link: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...ory?coll=ny-ap

The prevalence of obesity is rising faster among adults in New Jersey
than in neighboring states, and has hit an ominous 20 percent among
the state's sixth-graders, according to a Rutgers University
researcher.

From 1991 to 1998, obesity among New Jersey adults skyrocketed 57
percent, and by 2001 hit 19 percent, just below the national average
of 20 percent, according to Susan Shapses, associate professor of
nutritional sciences at Rutgers and co-director of the New Jersey
Obesity Group, a research collaborative.

Obesity prevalence in New Jersey and most of the country will exceed
20 percent by 2005, predicted Shapses, who outlined efforts to fight
the epidemic at a seminar at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

In 1991, all but a few states had adult obesity rates below 15
percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.

Last week, the state Department of Health and Senior Services released
data showing 20 percent of New Jersey sixth-graders are obese and
another 18 percent are overweight. Nationwide, 15 percent of children
are considered obese.

"This is so high that it's almost unbelievable," Shapses said of the
state figures. "When it affects the children at this high of a rate,
we have to do something."

Shapses and her colleagues at Rutgers and University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey are trying to pinpoint specific genetic and
environmental causes of obesity and develop more effective
interventions.

Through the four-year-old New Jersey Obesity Group, they are
collaborating on research projects, information sharing and public
education to help New Jersey residents fight the battle of the bulge.
They also are trying to determine which pockets of the state have the
highest levels of obese and overweight residents, particularly among
children.

Shapses discussed highlights of that research for about 25 legislative
aides, policy-makers, health and education officials, reporters and a
food cooperative representative.

One project, by Beverly Tepper of Rutgers' Food Science Department,
has found a link between excess weight and genetic differences
affecting people's ability to taste a bitter chemical compound found
in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage. Tepper found
people who couldn't taste the compound had a body mass index about 25
percent higher than those who were very sensitive to its taste.

"By screening for the (gene involved), we can better understand who
might be at risk for excess weight gain and obesity," Tepper wrote in
a summary of her research.

Research on mice by Judith Storch of the Nutrition Science Department
at Rutgers implicates a particular gene in development of
atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. By "knocking out" that
gene in the mice, Storch found, mice eating a high-fat diet don't
develop atherosclerosis, which can reduce blood flow and trigger heart
attacks.

Soo-Kyung Lee of the Nutritional sciences Department has been working
with immigrants, looking at the role their genes and culture play in
weight.

"They come to America, and they're exposed to the obese or toxic
environment we have here, and lo and behold, they gain weight,"
Shapses said. "We live in an environment where it's not easy to resist
all this food."

Shapses' own research concerns the problem of bone loss in
postmenopausal women who try to lose weight. She said on average, they
lose about two percent of their bone mass over six months, assuming a
10 percent weight loss.

"The goal of this is to figure out how to get women and men to lose
weight without losing bone," she said, because of the risk of
osteoporosis, or brittle-bone disease.

Along with those research projects and numerous others, the obesity
group has outreach and education projects, including providing free
weight loss counseling to Rutgers faculty, staff and students and
distributing information at health fairs. It also is seeking
additional federal, state and private grants for future research and
expanding its outreach programs, Shapses said.