Obesity Archives - News@91��ɫ

Differences in weight loss among ethnicities points to need to look at socio-economic issues, 91��ɫ U study suggests

egamulin — Wed, 14 May 2025 17:41:15 +0000

Lack of coverage for obesity medications for some groups is systemic discrimination, says prof

TORONTO, May 14, 2025 – A new study led by 91��ɫ looking at the health data of nearly 15,000 people enrolled in a medically supervised weight-loss program found disparities among ethnic and sub-ethnic groups in how much weight they lost. Lead author, 91��ɫ Faculty of Health Professor , says the results show that the very broad ethnic categories typically examined in clinical settings may mask differences in sub-ethnic groups. Further, she says the findings suggest the need for understanding how socio-economic issues may come into play to better support Black, Middle Eastern, Latin and South Asian communities with their weight-loss.

The study found that the white ethnic group had the greatest weight loss, with Black, South Asian, Latin, and Middle Eastern adults having significantly less weight loss. Indigenous, East Asian, and other ethnic groups did not differ in the amount of weight loss compared to the white group.

Faculty of Health Associate Professor Jennifer Kuk

“We found that the ethnicities that lost the least amount of weight are also the ethnicities that tend to have the highest risk for obesity. So those that have the greatest need are seeing the least effectiveness from the treatment they're getting, which is something that we need to unpack and figure out why that’s happening,” says Kuk.

For , published in the journal Clinical Obesity, Kuk worked with longtime research collaborator Dr. Sean Wharton and examined data for patients enrolled in weight management programs through Wharton Medical Clinics across Southern Ontario. 91��ɫ School of Kinesiology and Health Science PhD student Parmis Mirzadeh also contributed to the study.

They found there were also differences when looking at sub-ethnic categories. For example, while Black patients overall lost less weight than other racial groups in the program, there were significant differences in weight loss for African Americans and Blacks of direct African descent.

Despite losing less weight, Black and other non-white patients were also more likely than white patients to be prescribed older obesity medications. While the study was completed before weight loss drug Wegovy was available on the market, Ozempic, a diabetes drug that is commonly used off-label for weight loss and is often covered by insurance plans, did not have differences in prescription rates. Kuk says one limitation of this study is that they did not know whether patients filled the prescriptions or how long they took the medications for.

“Obesity medications are rarely covered. And so when you compound that with the fact that ethnic minorities tend to make less money, are less likely to have private insurance, overall, it's adding another financial burden to a population that's already marginalized,” says Dr. Wharton.

“The fact that certain populations can't access newer, more expensive medications at the cost of their health is systemic discrimination,” adds Kuk.

Obesity is a condition that has been linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, some forms of cancer, joint pain, liver conditions, and can have impacts on the immune system, respiratory disease and cognitive function. In Canada, 30 per cent of the adult population is classified as having obesity, with some ethnic groups at a higher risk.

“Because of the stigma associated with obesity, it's always seen to be the fault of the individual, as opposed to a result of many complex structural issues that result in certain people being at higher risk, and then also perhaps results in those same people not being able to get the treatment that they need,” says Kuk.

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91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ prof answers the question 'is anyone truly healthy?'

egamulin — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 20:08:25 +0000

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New study out of 91��ɫ U answers the question: is anyone truly healthy?

egamulin — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 17:03:43 +0000

Population-level research suggests nearly all of us have something we could work on

TORONTO, July 04, 2023 – A new long-term study of population-level data shows that when it comes to health, pretty much everyone could make improvements, plus the relationship with risk factors and mortality changes over time, sometimes in surprising ways.

“You can take this as a good news story or a bad news story, depending on how you want to look at these numbers,” says Faculty of Health Associate Professor with the School of Kinesiology and Health Science , lead author of the study. “What we discovered is that the relationship with risk factors and mortality changes over time, which could be explained by factors such as evolution in treatments and changes in social stigma. Overall, most of us have something wrong with us, and we’re more likely to have a lifestyle health-risk factor now than in the ’80s and that’s actually associated with even greater mortality risk now than before.”

The research,, took United States survey data from 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2014, and looked at the five-year mortality odds for people 20 or older. The research team looked at 19 different risk factors and then adjusted the data for age, sex, obesity category and ethnicity. What they found overall was that less than three per cent of people had none of the risk factors. While previous research has documented the risk factors very well, Kuk says what was less understood was the relationship between various risks and the likelihood for mortality over time. Kuk and the research team found that that relationship could sometimes be paradoxical.

Jennifer Kuk

For example, says Kuk, rates of smoking, long linked to conditions that can lead to death such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes, have overall decreased thanks to strong public-health campaigns. However, the overall risk of being a smoker increased over time, which Kuk says could perhaps be explained by increased stigma as the addiction became less common and awareness of risks grew, which may also be reflected in research funding.

“If you look at cancer research, there's a lot of funding overall, but specifically for lung cancer, it seems to be associated with moral fault and as a consequence lower funding,” says Kuk. “When you look at the mortality risk associated with having lung cancer relative to all the other common cancers, it's extremely high. So I think that this lack of push is detrimental.”

Kuk’s main area of research is obesity, and here she found that while the prevalence has gone up, the risks have gone down.

“Even though there's more and more people with obesity, it's actually not resulting in more deaths over time. And so I think that that's another clear thing we need to recognize, that we're very good at treating the outcomes associated with obesity. And regardless of what our body weight is, most of us have something that we can probably work on.”

Some of the other health trends that Kuk found in the data include:

Diabetes and hypertension rates have gone up over time, but risks have gone down.
More people aren’t exercising, and this is now related to worse outcomes than it once was.
Being on mental-health medications was not a significant risk factor in the 1980s, but in the later dataset was associated with increased mortality.
Not finishing high school is associated with health risks, while it was not in the 1980s.

While Kuk says the research points to nearly all of us having room for improvement when it comes to various factors like diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol and drug intake, she also says that there are factors that are out of many people’s individual control.

“When we look at things like food insecurity, low education — as a society, we're making it so that health might not be an easy choice for a lot of people. We need to be sensitive to that when we take a look at these risk factors.”

of Jennifer Kuk explain the research.

About 91��ɫ

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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Addressing rising rates of obesity worldwide

egamulin — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 20:26:24 +0000

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91��ɫ research helps explain why obesity is more dangerous for men

egamulin — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:29:53 +0000

Building blocks of blood vessels found to be associated with inflammation and disease processes in male mice

TORONTO, Jan. 9 2022 – A sheds light on the biological underpinnings in sex differences in obesity-related disease, with researchers observing “striking” differences in the cells that build blood vessels in the fatty tissue of male versus female mice.

Men are more likely than women to develop conditions associated with obesity such as cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes, says with the Faculty of Health’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science.

“People have used rodent models to study obesity, and the diseases that are associated with obesity — like diabetes — but they've typically always studied male rodents, because females are resistant to developing the same kinds of diseases,” says Haas, lead on the study. “We were really interested in exploring that difference because, to us, it spoke of something really fascinating happening in females that protects them.”

91��ɫ Professor Tara Haas

Haas and her team that when mice become obese, females grow a lot of new blood vessels to supply the expanding fat tissue with oxygen and nutrients, whereas males grow a lot less. In this latest study published in iScience, Haas and her co-authors, including 91��ɫ PhD student Alexandra Pislaru, Faculty of Health Assistant Professor Emilie Roudier, and former 91��ɫ post-doctorate student Martina Rudnicki, focused on differences in the endothelial cells that make up the building blocks of these blood vessels in fat tissue.

The team used software to help sift through thousands of genes to zero in on the ones that would be associated with blood vessel growth. They discovered that processes associated with the proliferation of new blood vessels were high in the female mice, whereas the males had a high level of processes associated with inflammation.

“It was very striking the extent of inflammation-associated processes that were prevalent in the males,” Haas recalls. “Other studies have shown that when endothelial cells have that kind of inflammatory response, they're very dysfunctional, and they don't respond to stimuli properly.”

Pislaru, who works in Haas’ lab and is a co-first author of the study, participated in this project as part of her dissertation.

The researchers also examined the behaviour of the endothelial cells when they were taken out of the body and studied in petri dishes.

91��ɫ PhD student Alexandra Pislaru

“It is exciting to observe the continuing resilience that female endothelial cells display even when stressed by a long-term high-fat diet,” Pislaru says. “The findings from our study can help researchers to get a better understanding of why obesity manifests differently in men and women.”

“Even when we take them out of the body where they don't have the circulating sex hormones or other kinds of factors, male and female endothelial cells still behave very differently from each other,” Haas explains.

Female endothelial cells replicated faster, while male endothelial cells displayed greater sensitivity to an inflammatory stimulus. By comparing with previously published data sets, the researchers found endothelial cells from aged male mice also displayed a more inflammatory profile compared to female cells.

“You can't make the assumption that both sexes are going to respond to the same series of events the same way,” says Haas. “This isn't just an obesity related issue — I think it's a much broader conceptual problem that also encompasses healthy aging. One implication of our findings is that there will be situations where the treatment that is ideal for men is not going to be ideal for women and vice-versa.”

The study was funded by a grant through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, as well as the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health.

While humans and mice have different genes that may be turned up or down, Haas believes the general findings would likely apply and is interested studying the same cells in humans in future research.

About 91��ɫ

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91��ɫ Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ U weight-loss study shows if at first you don't succeed, try, try again

suhasini — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 18:21:12 +0000

Research finds repeatedly regaining weight should be viewed as practice, not failure

TORONTO, Sept. 27, 2022 — Gaining back pounds as soon as a diet is over is all too common for people attempting to lose weight (often characterized as a failure of the individual, indicative of a lack of willpower and discipline), but a new study from scholars in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health, find such regressions are learning experiences – maybe even necessary steps toward sustained weight loss and improved overall health.

For women, an earlier onset of overweight status and a more cumulative weight loss overall were associated with modestly greater weight loss.

“Our results suggest repeated bouts of weight loss and regain should not be viewed as failures, but as practice,” says , a professor in 91��ɫ’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science and the study’s lead author.

Published in the journal Obesity’s October issue, “,” summarizes a study involving 9,348 patients from the Wharton Medical Clinic, a weight-loss and diabetes clinic in Burlington, Ont.

Each participant’s history of weight loss was collected through an enrolment questionnaire and their weight changes were assessed over the course of the research period. The majority of patients reported having become overweight prior to the age of 40 and having lost at least 10 pounds at least once in their lifetime.

For women, but not men, an earlier onset of overweight status and a more cumulative weight loss overall were associated with modestly greater weight loss at the clinic.

And, for both women and men, a greater frequency of past weight loss was associated with greater weight loss at the clinic.

The study also showed that achieving long-term success tends to require multiple attempts using different approaches. And at every stage, relapse and weight regain is to be expected as a necessary component of weight management and the process of optimizing health.

“This data is reassuring that previous failed attempts did not put patients at a disadvantage from being successful,” says co-author , 91��ɫ U Faculty of Health clinical adjunct professor and director of the Wharton Medical Clinic. “One should continue to make attempts at weight management, and it is likely that an appropriate approach – especially with proven effective interventions such as medication or psychological intervention – will eventually be effective.”

“For any lifestyle or behavioural change, individualizing the approach – that is, practising and refining strategies that work for that individual over time – is a key concept, and long-term weight management should be no different,” adds Wharton.

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91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:
Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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Millions die from obesity worldwide, says 91��ɫ study

roshanp — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 12:19:31 +0000

TORONTO, July 29, 2020 – Obesity is a significant factor in increasing rates of disease globally with the number of deaths related to a high body mass index (BMI) more than doubled from 1990 to 2017, say 91��ɫ researchers.

In 2017 alone, 2.4 million women and 2.3 million men died worldwide from having a high BMI.

“Few studies have assessed this disease burden at a global level,” says Faculty of Science math modelling Professor , the paper’s corresponding author along with 91��ɫ Post-Doctoral Fellow and Visiting PhD student Haijiang Dai from Central South University, China.

In addition, the researchers found there were more than 70 million disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for females and 77 million DALYs for males in 2017. Each is equal to one year of good health lost because of disability or early death.

The age-standardized rate of DALYs for high BMIs increased by about 12 per cent for women and 26 per cent for men, whereas the global rate almost doubled for both sexes.

Cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of high BMI-related DALYs, followed by diabetes, kidney diseases and tumours. Together, they accounted for more than 89 per cent of all high BMI-related DALYs.

The researchers used the most recent data available (2017) from the (GBD) study to assess the burden of disease attributable to a high body mass index in 195 countries and territories.

“The results suggest that high a BMI is still a major global health challenge and initiatives targeting high BMIs may mitigate the burden of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney disease, and tumours,” says Wu.

However, as the disease burden varies widely by socio-demographics and countries, strategies need to be country-specific, say the researchers.

In the United States alone, the burden of disease by a high BMI has been estimated at $113.9 billion in direct healthcare costs.

“There is little attention given to behaviour risk factors, such as the psychological, behavioral and social determinants of health, during medical training,” says Bragazzi. “They are usually overlooked in favour of biological aspects of diseases. We hope this study will better inform prevention and intervention strategies for obesity.”

The study was published in the journal .

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91��ɫ champions new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-disciplinary programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 25 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 300,000 alumni. 91��ɫ U's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education.

Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-272-6317, sandramc@yorku.ca

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Sugar substitutes may cut calories, but don’t offer health benefits for individuals with obesity: 91��ɫ U study

roshanp — Tue, 24 May 2016 14:10:23 +0000

TORONTO, May 24, 2016 — Artificial sweeteners help individuals with obesity to cut calories and lose weight but may have negative health effects, according to researchers at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Health.

“Our study shows that individuals with obesity who consume artificial sweeteners, particularly aspartame, may have worse glucose management than those who don’t take sugar substitutes,” says Professor Jennifer Kuk, obesity researcher in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science.

Normally, weight loss is associated with several improvements in health. Artificial sweeteners are often used to help individuals cut calories and manage their weight as they are not digested by the body. However, the recent study suggests that the bacteria in the gut may be able to break down artificial sweeteners, resulting in negative health effects.

“We didn’t find this adverse effect in those consuming saccharin or natural sugars,” says Kuk. “We will need to do future studies to determine whether any potentially negative health effects of artificial sweeteners outweigh the benefits for obesity reduction.”

Currently, there are many new sugar substitutes that are used in foods. The researchers note that further investigation is needed to determine if there are any health effects of using these sweeteners.

For the study, data from 2856 U.S. adults from the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES III) was used. Individuals reported their diet over the past 24 hours and were categorized as consumers of artificial sweeteners (aspartame or saccharin), or high or low consumers of natural sugars (sugar or fructose). Diabetes risk was measured as the ability to manage blood sugars using an oral glucose tolerance test.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded study, “,” was published today in .

is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our 52,000 students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 24 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide.

Media Contact:
Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 22094, suhasini@yorku.ca

NOTE: 91��ɫ U media studio is available for double-ended broadcast interviews.

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