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Western Lifestyles (western + lifestyle)
Selected AbstractsRedefining Type 2 diabetes: ,Diabesity' or ,Obesity Dependent Diabetes Mellitus'?OBESITY REVIEWS, Issue 2 2000A. Astrup Summary Type 2 diabetes is considered by diabetes physicians as a complex and heterogeneous disease with a poorly understood aetiology, apart from the fact that there is a strong genetic propensity that becomes overt when exposed to a typical Western lifestyle. Our clinical targets are now moving from controlling the disease to preventing it. Do we need to await more research on the aetiology and pathophysiology before establishing a preventive strategy? No, the pathophysiology may be poorly understood, but there is now solid evidence that type 2 diabetes is a disease of fatness. New, controlled, clinical trials show that as little as 5% weight loss is sufficient to prevent most obese subjects with impaired glucose tolerance developing type 2 diabetes. Since type 2 diabetes is obesity dependent, and obesity is the main aetiogical cause of type 2 diabetes, we propose the term ,diabesity' should be adopted. [source] Heritage, Identity and Belonging: African Caribbean Students and Art EducationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ART & DESIGN EDUCATION, Issue 3 2006Paul Dash This article addresses the issue of Caribbean cultural under-representation in school art departments. It argues that diasporic subjects are not seen and their cultures not recognised precisely because their contributions to the way we live are indivisible from the mainstream. This in contradistinction to some groups whose cultures and heritages are relatively distinct and separate from Western mores. Our ways of understanding culture do not take this into account. Yet diasporic contributions to the way we live have buttressed Western lifestyles since the beginning of the slave trade. The article argues that this relationship, characterised by multiple entanglements, must be recognised if Caribbean cultural identities are to be seen and valued. In doing so it challenges the way we construct notions of cultural heritage and belonging, and promotes the adoption of more risk-taking pedagogies possibly based on contemporary practices. [source] Population in the UN Environment Programme's Global Environment Outlook 2000POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW, Issue 3 2000Article first published online: 27 JAN 200 Most specialized agencies in the United Nations system have taken to compiling a periodic status report on their field. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) issued the first in a proposed biennial series in 1998, titled Global Environment Outlook-1 or GEO-1. The second in the series, Global Environment Outlook 2000, was published in 1999. GEO-2000 is described by the UNEP's Executive Director, Klaus Töpfer, in the foreword as "a comprehensive integrated assessment of the global environment at the turn of the millennium, [and] a forward-looking document, providing a vision into the 21st century." Its status, however, is rendered uncertain by the printed caution that "The contents of this volume do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNEP or contributory organizations." GEO-2000 paints a generally bleak picture of environmental trends. It evidences a wide array of particulars ("In the Southern Ocean, the Patagonian toothfish is being over-fished and there is a large accidental mortality of seabirds caught up in fishing equipment"), but perhaps of more import are its statements about the root causes of environmental problems and what must be done. The excerpts below reflect some of these general views as they pertain to population. They are taken from the section entitled "Areas of danger and opportunity" in Chapter 1 of the report, and from the section "Tackling root causes" in Chapter 5. High resource consumption, fueled by affluent, Western lifestyles, is seen as a basic cause of environmental degradation. Cutting back this consumption will be required, freeing up resources for development elsewhere. Materialist values associated with urban living are part of the problem, given the concentration of future population growth in cities. And "genuine globalization" will entail free movement of people as well as capital and goods, thus optimizing "the population to environmental carrying capacity." Some of these positions are at least questionable: the supposed "innate environmental sensitivity of people raised on the land or close to nature," or the aim of "globalization of population movements." The latter does not appear in the recommendations, perhaps because of an implicit assumption that the effect of open borders on environmental trends is unlikely to be favorable. (For an earlier statement of the same sentiment,from 1927,see the comments by Albert Thomas, first director of the ILO, reproduced in the Archives section of PDR 9, no. 4.) [source] Personal view: food for thought , western lifestyle and susceptibility to Crohn's disease.ALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 12 2005The FODMAP hypothesis Summary Susceptibility to the development of Crohn's disease involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The association of Crohn's disease with westernization has implicated lifestyle factors in pathogenesis. While diet is a likely candidate, evidence for specific changes in dietary habits and/or intake has been lacking. A new hypothesis is proposed, by which excessive delivery of highly fermentable but poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates and polyols (designated FODMAPs , Fermentable Oligo-, Di- and Mono-saccharides And Polyols) to the distal small intestinal and colonic lumen is a dietary factor underlying susceptibility to Crohn's disease. The subsequent rapid fermentation of FODMAPs in the distal small and proximal large intestine induces conditions in the bowel that lead to increased intestinal permeability, a predisposing factor to the development of Crohn's disease. Evidence supporting this hypothesis includes the increasing intake of FODMAPs in western societies, the association of increased intake of sugars in the development of Crohn's disease, and the previously documented effects of the ingestion of excessive FODMAPs on the bowel. This hypothesis provides potential for the design of preventive strategies and raises concern about current enthusiasm for putative health-promoting effects of FODMAPs. One of the greatest challenges in defining the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease is to identify predisposing environmental factors. Such an achievement might lead to the development of preventive strategies for, and the definition of, possible target for changing the natural history of this serious disease. The present paper describes a new hypothesis for one such environmental factor. [source] | ||||||||||