The Hong Kong Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Factors – East Meets West: Meet the Experts Symposium will be jointly organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity (HKIDO), The Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Foundation for Research and Development in Diabetes (HKFRDD), the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Obesity (HKASO), the Hong Kong Atherosclerosis Society (HKAS) and CMPMedica Pacific Limited (CMPMedica) on 20 March 2010 at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong.

Last years 3rd place male runner Mykhaylo Iveruk wins the 2009 Macau Galaxy Entertainment International Marathon with a time of 02:17:45. He narrowly beats Kenyan competitors Micah Kipserem Chuma and Jusius Kibet Mebur.

The event aims to develop local sports, to raise the level of running and to strengthen the friendship with people from different parts of the world.

It is known that people who are underweight are more likely to contract diseases, and are often feeling tired and cold. However, gaining weight can be as difficult as losing weight for some people.

Why can't it be as simple as eating more fatty and sugary food? It is because for various reasons of being underweight, many are unable to eat enough, not to mention about eating more fatty and sugary food which normally further suppresses the appetite for this group of people. Therefore, the quality of food is as important as the quantity of food.

Psychological factors often drive us to unhealthy eating behaviours such as overeating, irregular eating, unhealthily restricting food intake, etc. Disordered eating behaviours can be triggered and sustained by life stress, one’s concerns toward body image, or even residual feelings from past events that had long been forgotten.

Though it may not come to individual's consciousness, a person’s feeling of lacking control over one’s life as well as the person’s interpersonal connections play important roles in disordered eating behaviours¹.

A recent research in Japan (published on the web on May 26, 2009 by the American Chemical Society) found that vinegar can help prevent accumulation of body fat and weight gain.

Tomoo Kondo and his colleagues found that laboratory mice fed a high fat diet and given acetic acid seemed to have up to 10% less body fat than other mice fed only a high fat diet, suggesting acetic acid suppresses accumulation of body fat and liver lipids. The results of this research also showed that acetic acid turns on genes for fat oxidation enzymes in the body to prevent the fat accumulation.