They might start calling it the McDiet.

McDonald Corp.’s chief executive, Don Thompson, revealed at an analyst conference this week that he has shed about 20 pounds in the past year by getting his ‘‘butt up’’ and ‘‘working out again.’’ But he said he hasn’t changed his habit of eating at McDonald’s ‘‘every single day.’’

Thompson was responding to a question about how the world’s biggest hamburger chain is adapting amid the growing concerns about ­obesity.

Thompson said that he lost the weight by getting active again. He noted that Europeans walk a lot and that it’s rare to see Europeans who are ‘‘very, very heavy.’’

‘‘And so I think that balance is really important to people,’’ he said.

McDonald’s CEO: I lost weight by being more active – Business – The Boston Globe

The tragic final days of one of the world’s fattest men were spent desperately hoping to lose the weight that kept him bedridden for five years.

Ricky Naputi, who weighed nearly 900 pounds, died in November 2012, but before he passed, the 39-year-old opened up his home to reality TV cameras from TLC. The cable network aired his story Wednesday night in a special called “900 Pound Man: Race Against Time.”

Naputi, who lived in the U.S. island territory Guam, was bedridden and confined to his home, unable to walk or to bathe himself.

“The last time I got out and enjoyed myself must have been years. I miss feeling the sun on my face. Miss showering, feeling water run down my body,” he said at one point.

But Naputi had also vowed to turn his life around. He was working on losing enough weight to be able to fly to the continental U.S. for weight loss surgery.

“I’m willing to try my best,” he said. “My one goal and my one goal only is to get my life back.”

The show also revealed Naputi’s loving relationship with his wife, Cheryl, his primary caretaker.

Cheryl acted as Ricky’s nurse, cooking for him, giving him sponge baths and helping him go to the bathroom, which she likened to “taking care of an overgrown baby.”

World’s fattest man, Ricky Naputi, ate himself to death at almost 900 pounds   – NY Daily News

A new study has found that reducing calories prevents loss of brain cells and slows down cognitive decline.

Calorie restriction is known to prevent aging and reducing the risk of mental conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. A diet that has fewer calories activates a key enzyme called Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), which is associated with protection against loss of nerve cells. The study team even found a drug that activates the enzyme and helps the brain retain cognitive abilities.

The study was conducted by researchers from Picower Institute For Learning and Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The study included a set of mice that were genetically tweaked to develop neurodegenertive diseases. Researchers kept these mice on a low-calorie diet and monitored the development of the disease. The mice were put on various mental tests after about three months.

“We not only observed a delay in the onset of neurodegeneration in the calorie-restricted mice, but the animals were spared the learning and memory deficits of mice that did not consume reduced-calorie diets,” said Li-Huei Tsai, PhD, lead author of the study.

In the next part of the study, researchers gave a set of mice a drug that activated SIRT1. Test results showed that mice on the drug performed better at memory tasks when compared with mice that weren’t on the drug.

Low Calorie Diet Protects Brain Cells : Health & Medicine : Nature World News

First Lady Michelle Obama has expanded her anti-obesity campaign to museums, enlisting them to offer “healthy food options,” and change their menus.

Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative is now calling for museums, zoos, gardens, science and technology centers to “join the call to action,” to decrease obesity among children.

The first lady is recruiting these institutions to join the “Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens” project because of their power to “influence real and sustained behavior change” on the eating habits of kids.

“With their impressive reach and great potential for impact, museums and gardens can launch community efforts to create a healthier generation using interactive exhibits, outdoor spaces, gardens and programs that encourage families to eat healthy foods and increase physical activity,” the program said.

So far, 624 institutions across the country have signed up.

One of the goals of the program is that 90 percent of the museums and centers that offer food service will “already offer or will change their menu to offer food options that reflect healthy choices.”

First Lady Expands Anti-Obesity Campaign to Museums | CNS News

The average meal at a chain restaurant contains more than half the calories, 1.5 times as much sodium and almost all the fat that people are recommended to consume in an entire day, researchers in Canada found.

Scientists at the University of Toronto analyzed nutritional information for 685 meals and 156 desserts reported by 26 sit-down restaurant chains. On average, the meals contained 1,128 calories, or 56 percent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2,000 calorie-a-day recommendation.

The meals contained 151 percent of the FDA’s recommended limit for sodium, 89 percent of the limit for fat and 60 percent of the limit for cholesterol, the researchers reported today in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium levels are alarmingly high in breakfast, lunch and dinner meals” at chain restaurants, the researchers said. “Addressing the nutritional profile of restaurant meals should be a major public health policy.”

Restaurant Meals ‘Alarmingly High’ in Fat, Study Finds – Bloomberg

Measuring the ratio of someones waist to their height is a better way of predicting their life expectancy than body mass index BMI, the method widely used by doctors when judging overall health and risk of disease, researchers said.

BMI is calculated as a persons weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in metres, but a study found that the simpler measurement of waistline against height produced a more accurate prediction of lifespan.

People with the highest waist-to-height ratio, whose waistlines measured 80 per cent of their height, lived 17 years fewer than average.

Keeping your waist circumference to less than half of your height can help prevent the onset of conditions like stroke, heart disease and diabetes and add years to life, researchers said.

For a 6ft man, this would mean having a waistline smaller than 36in, while a 5ft 4in woman should have a waist size no larger than 32in.

Children in particular could be screened as early as five using the waist-to-height ratio to identify those at greatest risk of obesity and serious health conditions later in life, it was claimed.

Researchers from Oxford Brookes University examined data on patients whose BMI and waist to height ratio were measured in the 1980s.

Waist to height ratio more accurate than BMI – Telegraph