Many stick with fast food after heart attack

NEW YORK: It would seem logical for patients who have had a heart attack to cut back on fast food.

Some devoted fast food eaters do. But six months later, more than half can still be found at their favorite fast food places at least once a week, according to a study in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Of nearly 2,500 heart attack patients studied by John Spertus, at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, 884 -- or 36 percent -- reported in a survey while still hospitalized that they had eaten fast food frequently in the month before their heart attack. "Frequently" was defined as once a week or more.

When Spertus and his colleagues checked back six months later, 503 were still eating fast food every week.

"Fast food consumption by patients with AMI (acute myocardial infarction) decreased 6 months after the index hospitalization, but certain populations -- including younger patients, men, those currently working, and less educated patients -- were more likely to consume fast food, at least weekly, during follow-up," he wrote.

"Novel interventions that go beyond traditional dietary counseling may be needed to address continued fast food consumption after AMI in these patients."

But the study showed that older patients and those who had bypass surgery were more likely to be avoiding fast food six months later.

The survey did not ask what menu items people ordered, and some in the restaurant business have pointed out that fast food isn't always limited just to burgers and fries.

But Spertus and his colleagues pointed out that the people in their study who kept eating fast food tended to have health profiles "consistent with selection of less healthy options."

Nine out of 10 patients in the study received dietary counseling before they left the hospital, but this didn't seem to affect that odds that frequent fast food eaters would improve their diets, and Spertus said this showed they needed more education after leaving the hospital.

"The problem is that patients are absorbing so much information at the time of their heart attack, that I just don't think they can capture and retain all the information they're getting," he told Reuters Health.

Confident NY Fashion Week kicks off

NEW YORK: New York's Autumn-Winter Fashion Week kicked off Thursday in New York with designer clothing houses and the luxury sector feeling well heeled in a resurgent economy.

Putting the threadbare days of the global recession behind them, global fashionistas began gathering at Manhattan catwalks as earnings reports pointed to renewed good times.

Italy's Prada announced turnover of 2.04 billion euros in 2010, up 31 percent on the previous year. Hermes, Ralph Lauren, Levi's and other pret-a-porter labels also saw an upswing, mostly thanks to Asian-based consumers.

Prada alone saw sales in Asia rise by 48 percent over the year, the industry publication Women's Wear Daily reported.

At Lincoln Center, home of the New York fashion weeks, Asian fashionistas had a big presence, with South Korean, Japanese and Chinese bloggers, journalists and clients taking shelter from freezing cold outside.

In what is a tradition now, BCBG Max Azria opened proceedings, displaying next year's fall colors of mustard, Bordeaux and grey, with white dots bringing definition to otherwise sheer bodysuits.

Long looks -- sometimes with long slits to show off long legs -- came in crepe dresses with pleats and ending in white turtleneck bodies. The preview also featured fur-lined flannel, ready for next year's cold season.

Even if access to the shows themselves remains highly restricted, fashion lovers can take advantage of the now nearly standard live streaming on the Internet of most collections.

The official calendar announces the broadcast of runway action, in contrast to last year when just a few designers took part in the experiment and most shows only appeared online hours after the event.

Broadcasts appear on labels' houses, their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

Following BCBG came Korean-American Richard Chai, a former collaborator with Marc Jacobs, also showing long lines and pleated schoolgirl skirts.

Fashion Week, as always, is as much about the people as what they wear, and this year the father of fashion bloggers, Bill Cunningham of the New York Times, sees himself in the limelight.

The photographer, famous for extravagant snaps of fashionistas on the streets of New York, will be the subject of a documentary "Bill Cunningham New York" out March 16.

Meanwhile, green was the new black at an environmentally minded New York design school.

Students at the Parsons The New School for Design have come up with "zero waste" fashion, a pun on the controversial popularity on catwalks of skeletal, zero-size models.

"The goal was to create an organic garment with no scraps," said Janelle Abbott, 21, who was a finalist in the student exhibition organized jointly with Loomstate, an eco-friendly label.

Timo Rissanen, 35, assistant professor in Fashion Design and Sustainability, said the average wastage in clothes making is 15 percent. Although recycling is possible, it is also costly.

The idea of "zero waste is as old as clothing," he said. "The Japanese kimono is zero waste, the old underwear in 19th century Europe was mostly zero waste, and American Indians used everything too. It's the industrial revolution which is the cause of the huge waste."