Cholesterol

"Our problem is that we are eating more and exercising less.

Malaysians love to eat.

"After we have finished lunch, we plan on what and where to eat dinner," he said in a speech during a health clinic organised by the Lions Club of Tanjung yesterday.

Dr Chua said statistics revealed that about 40 per cent of Malaysians were overweight.

He said a series of health activities would be organised by the Health Promotion Board this year under the leadership of Bakti welfare chairman Toh Puan Aishah Ong.

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"They get a negative test," he said.

"The patient now has ammunition to push back and say, 'Why should I be on these medications?

' The test is just not accurate enough to distinguish between people who need treatment and who don't." Diamond said the $300 cost would be better spent covering the cost of insurance co-pays for a "That's a lot of money for something that is not going to change behavior very much," he said.

The test has been used in Europe primarily as a research tool and appears to add modest additional information over traditional measures for assessing heart disease risk, said Michiel Bots, a physician and associate professor of epidemiology at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.

At the moment, Bots said, he is not in favor of using the test for large-scale screenings.

Still, the test can provide additional information above and beyond traditional risk assessment measures, said Alan Hirsch, a professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

"It's great to have a new technique," said Hirsch, who has done research for a firm that makes equipment used to do the test.

'A tremendous use'However, Hirsch said that before insurance companies be...

Diets can be boring and there's always a temptation to return to old habits.

Serial dieters may also become discouraged and give up when their weight plateaus.

People who lose too much too soon don't learn to make the overall lifestyle changes - eating healthier foods and exercising regularly - that are necessary to keep their weight stable.

"It's just plain difficult to modify your diet and turn away from the pleasures of eating," said Michael Goran, an obesity researcher at the University of Southern California.

"We're driven to eat." The UCLA researchers analyzed 31 diet studies that followed people two to five years after they went on diets.

Between one-third and two-thirds gained back the weight they lost.

A small number were able to successfully maintain their weight loss.

The UCLA study did not compare individual fad diets or organized weight-loss programs.

"We're not saying don't make some kind of effort," said Traci Mann, the UCLA psychologist who led the study.

"It means that people should be quite clear that a diet is a temporary fix." The study appeared in the April issue of American Psychologist, a publication of the American Psychological Association.

Perry, who owns a public relations firm in suburban Philadelphia, was an "emotional eater" who found comfort in food whenever she felt angry or depressed.

For the past 20 years,...