Calories in shampoo making you fat

A new study has found that the reason most of us are unable to shed the fat in our body, is because of the " chemical calories" present in beauty products such as shampoo, body lotions and soap that we use.

Doctors at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York claim that phthalates, chemical ingredients in 70 per cent of cosmetics as well as many household cleaning products, are responsible for throwing the body's natural weight control system, a delicate balance of hormones, off kilter.

The researchers suggested that once exposed to phthalates through daily use of such beauty products, the chances of childhood obesity and weight problems in adults become high.

The researchers meted out the study on girls living in the inner city area of East Harlem, by measuring their exposure to phthalates and analysing the children's urine.

"The heaviest girls have the highest levels of phthalates in their urine," the Daily Mail quoted Professor Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician and the study author, as saying.

"It goes up as the children get heavier, but it's most evident in the heaviest kids," he added.

Another substance, Bisphenol-A (BPA), also present in containers and bottles, has also been found to provide "chemical calories".

It's the fact they are absorbed into the body that causes most concern. Billed as "endocrine disruptors", they are known to affect the glands and hormones that regulate numerous bodily functions.

According to Zoe Harcombe, nutritionist and author of the Obesity Epidemic, even the slightest disruption to hormone levels "is very bad news" for someone trying to lose weight.

"In men, phthalates and other chemicals have an anti-testosterone capacity that has been linked to obesity," she said.

"In women they mess up our basic genetic hormone balance so that you get disruptions similar to those that might occur during the menopause or at puberty," she added.

Is your diet making you cranky?

Allure : Rejuvenate

One of the things I like least about dieting—besides the obvious fact that I have to give up all the foods that got me in trouble in the first place—is that hours after I decide to be virtuous, I am already a grumpy, snappish mess. I'd always blamed the hunger, but a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says that's it's actually the effort I'm making to exert my will power that's putting me in such a foul mood. "Research has shown that exerting self-control makes people more likely to behave aggressively toward others and people on diets are known to be irritable and quick to anger," the authors explain. In one experiment, people who choose an apple instead of a chocolate bar were more likely to choose movies with anger and revenge themes than milder movies. And it's not surprising that dieters were particularly irritated by marketing messages that include cajoling language like "you ought to," "need to," and "must." I suspect they'd had enough "musts" for the day and were late for the early showing of Saw VIII: The Atkins Killer.

What about you—does dieting make you cranky?

HAPPY ONAM

Rejuvenate greets you a HAPPY ONAM

Chewing tobacco too joins ’banned foods’ list

Chewing tobacco, like gutka and paan masala, has been included among banned "food products" in the government's new food safety guidelines. The move has been welcomed by health activists as increasing incidence of oral cancer is being reported in the country, with the 2010 figure at more than 70,000.

Coming soon after the ban on the usage of plastic pouches to package chewing tobacco and pan masala, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) under the health ministry issued a notification prohibiting use of tobacco as an ingredient in any food product.

The food safety notification which was announced and enforced early August says: "Product not to contain any substance which may be injurious to health. Tobacco and nicotine shall not be used as ingredients in any food product."

Clearing the air about terming tobacco as a "food product", FSSAI director V.N. Gaur said that chewing tobacco, like gutka or paan masala, can be called a "food" because it is consumed like any other food product.

"It (tobacco product) is a food product. Anything that is consumed is called food and anything that is food and contains nicotine or tobacco must be banned," Gaur said.

That gutka and paan masala can be termed as food product was also affirmed by the Supreme Court. In the Ghodawat Paan Masala case, the apex court said: "Since paan masala, gutka or supari are eaten for taste and nourishment, they are all food within the meaning of Section 2(v) of the Act."

Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Friday informed parliament that 70,261 people were detected with cancer of mouth, tongue and hypopharynx in 2010 because of such products, also known as "smokeless tobacco products".

Quoting data from the Indian Council of Medical Research, Azad said the numbers of those affected have been rising - 66,129 in 2008 and 68,160 in 2009.

Welcoming the new notification, health activists said the guidelines will act as a deterrent to the "non-smoking tobacco industry".

"The current notification which defines tobacco as food and bans it is a welcome step. It's only logical that things like gutka or paan masala which can be chewed and digested like any other food item is termed as food," Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director of the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), told IANS.

This, she added, could deal a blow to the Rs.8,000 crore worth gutka industry in India.

Added Rajeev Sharma, a health activist who mobilises youth groups to campaign against smoking: "The notification is definitely a good step. But for it to really mean anything, the government should ensure a strong and effective implementation".

Mukhopadhyay said: "The notification, however, should have gone one step forward instead of just saying that tobacco should not be used as a food ingredient. It seems to wash its hands of the implementation bit...the government should put in place a mechanism by which it is implemented."

One way of implementing the directive better is better awareness, she said.

"There should be a public notice about this notification. How many people know that the government has announced something like this? Secondly, the government should write to the gutka industries about this notification and tell them that they cannot add nicotine to any food product," Mukhopadhyay said.

Mentioning an example of ineffective implementation of rules, she said that despite the Supreme Court's order banning the sale of chewing tobacco and other paan masala products in plastic packets, it is openly being done so.

The order came into force March 1, 2011.

The president of Smokeless Tobacco Federation (India), Sri Gopal, said that the industry suffered a loss of 40 percent after the ban on plastic packages came into effect.

"Paper packaging of tobacco products has cost us a fall of 40 percent in business," Gopal said.

He, however, refused to acknowledge the latest notification by the FSSAI.

"The tobacco product industry is not governed by the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) or the FSSAI," he said, thereby putting a question mark on if the notification will actually change anything or it is just a string of words on paper.

Baby at any cost

I only wanted to be a mother...

These poignant lines have been penned by a friend devastated by the recent death of her best friend, who at 39, and desperate to have her own baby, succumbed to complications arising out of a difficult pregnancy.

From freezing eggs and dialling for donor eggs to renting a womb and cashing in sperms from the sperm bank, there's an array of baby shopping choices that almost ensures that no woman has to ever go childless again. Unless, of course, the decision not to have one is solely hers.

So if you think you've missed the baby bus because you couldn't conceive naturally, or you let your biological clock merrily tick away, or maybe you've been on the shelf, and don't feel motivated enough to go male hunting, or you're simply unwilling to be in confinement for nine long months, worry not. Thanks to medical technology, a baby will still be delivered whenever you're ready.

But should a woman's very maternal desire to have a child be allowed to override all other concerns, including the fact that her health and even life might be endangered if she were to proceed with it? And is being a mother the most abiding definition of womanhood?

Eminent IVF specialist and fertility expert Dr Firuza Parikh says, "Being childless is still one of the biggest inadequacies that a couple may feel. The commonest phrase that I hear from women dealing with infertility is, 'Doctor, I feel incomplete and worthless!' There are very few couples who opt to be childless by choice. If you probe their voluntary childlessness, there may be coercion on the part of one partner." She continues, "I recall the sad state of a young girl who had to tell everybody that she detested children and hence did not want to conceive. The truth was that her husband was infertile. However, because of family circumstances they had to pretend to not want children."

Prerna, an IT professional in her late 30s, went through endless IVF cycles and corrections to help her conceive a child only to be told by the doctors that they'd tried everything in their armoury, and it would be best if she went for adoption or opt for motherhood with donor eggs. Initially, this verdict broke her. But a year and several counselling sessions later, they opted for adoption, and today, both parents insist that it couldn't have ended more beautifully than this.

But examples like Prerna are few and far between. Most women will flit from one doctor to another when told that theirs might be a hopeless case, or that a pregnancy might be life-threatening. Unfortunately, and invariably, someone in the lure of money or a misplaced sense of confidence in their own competence will accept such cases. Says Dr Nayana Patel of Akanksha Fertility Clinic, Anand (Gujarat), who's been featured on Oprah and CNN, "The instinct of procreating and motherhood is a very strong one. I'd like to give every woman a shot at motherhood, but in cases where I feel it endangers her life, or there's risk of a major complication, I usually draw a line, though someone else may quite willingly take up the case."

How does one convince women who fail to have their own biological offspring that they're no less a woman for not being a biological mother, and that being a mother is certainly not the be-all and end-all of womanhood? "When a woman comes to the end of the road, it is very important to let her know that she has not failed, but it is the treatment that has failed. It is important that she feels loved and emotionally involved with her near and dear ones. Getting back to her job and hobbies is very important. Sometimes adoption, donor eggs or surrogacy can be tried to fill this void," says Dr Firuza. However, as Dr Nayana says, "Some women refuse the surrogacy route because they want to be both biological as well as gestational mothers."

Like 34-year-old Heena Sondhi, who refuses to consider surrogacy or adoption options despite having gone through three miscarriages, with the last being near-fatal. "I want to experience motherhood. No 'weird' alternatives like surrogacy for me."

"Yearning for motherhood is very natural and normal, but there are times when a balance must be struck between one's desires and ground realities," advises Dr Nayana.

Because sometimes it's a matter of life and death, not a happy birth.

I am writing this for all those women like me who would go to any lengths to be a mother, knowing little what it can take away from them. My obsession to have a child has left my mother childless today!