Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at some recent developments in the media coverage of obesity and related topics. Last summer, as described by reporter Kirsty McCormack, the “pro-anorexia website” called SkinnyGossip apparently targeted a 20-ye …

There is a video game called “Sugar Rush” where the landscape and cars are all made of candy. Possibly the characters too. Apparently, the game was released by the Disney corporation. Does it matter? In terms of the blame for the childhood obesity epid …

At the International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Portugal, one of the speakers Dr. Pretlow heard was Professor Andrew Hill, who heads the Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Leeds University. Dr. Hill’s interests include obesi …

Childhood Obesity News has mentioned the EarlyBird Study many times, and has used the term “childhood obesity epidemic” many times. They are found together in an interesting article that says: There may not be just one childhood obesity epidemic, but t …

Childhood Obesity News has been examining the influence of friends on childhood obesity. The concept that social networks impact individual behavior is not exactly hot off the presses. That’s why, for instance, the Eating Disorder Referral and Informat …

Childhood Obesity News found many things of interest in the Duke University Medical Center study of social media in relation to childhood obesity. One aspect has not been touched on so far. While Dr. Jennifer S. Li, who is division chief of pediatric c …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News concluded that, even though we know it makes us fat, humans love junk food. But why? Two things, says Dr. Stephen Guyenet: The reward system is what motivates you to get food and put it to your lips, every time you eat …

“Seduced by Food: Obesity and the Human Brain” is the irresistible title of a piece by Stephen Guyenet, Ph.D. (who is an obesity researcher at the University of Washington) which touches upon many of the topics discussed by Childhood Obesity News. For …

Before obesity, and especially childhood obesity, became such a well-publicized issue, people with diabetes were early adopters of any available means for sharing information and offering mutual psychological and emotional support. Along the way, some …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News started to look at the ideas of innovative design consultant Chris Waugh, who told an interviewer that “design thinking” actually offers a new approach to reducing childhood obesity. One of Waugh’s principles, he told …

Childhood Obesity News is exploring an important discovery in the area of childhood obesity, which has been discussed widely since the American Heart Association (AHA) published a scientific paper in December. It seems that weight management interventi …

Surveys of the habits of American youth between the ages of 13 and 17 find that half of them use social media on a daily basis. The American Heart Association (AHA), in a statement that was published in the January issue of its journal, Circulation, re …

Reports come and reports go, and sometimes one of them makes a big impact, like the scientific statement issued in December by the American Heart Association and published in the journal Circulation. The Duke University Medical Center research team stu …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned a study carried out by a team headed by Dr. J.S. Li, in part because: Results from trials of Internet-based weight management programs have shown mixed results. These have not specifically used social network …

Childhood Obesity News is looking back over the past few months on the social media front, and it seems useful to think for a moment about what social media really entails. The degree of interactivity would seem to be of paramount importance. There are …

The 2012 was a good year for social media, but whether it was a good year for the actual people involved in the obesity epidemic remains to be seen. Health-related messages from the media come mainly in two forms. There are (1.) advertisements that aim …

Sometimes it seems like not much progress is being made, but when we look back a few months or a year, the retrospective view often makes the whole situation look better. Last May, Dr. Pretlow went to France for the 19th European Congress on Obesity, w …

We left off last time pondering the differences between modern life and the old days. Are humans simply taking in more and burning less energy than ever before? Is it only that people are eating more calories and exercising less? Is it feasible to ente …

Ryan Andrews is a competitive bodybuilder with a stack of credentials including Registered Dietician and Health and Fitness Instructor, plus he is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Sports Nutritionist, and Personal Trainer. Andrews is a …

One of the ideas currently being floated is that energy balance might be more complicated than was previously believed, and there may be more “players” in the game than previously recognized. Or, as Ryan Andrews expresses it: The standard ‘textbook’ vi …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at some of the thoughts of maverick “bio-hacker” Dave Asprey, who believes that a leading cause of obesity is systemic inflammation. Inflammation is associated with impaired cognition, and also with cancer, card …

Before getting into what Dave Asprey says, lets take a look at his bio, which does not include any medical credentials whatsoever. Asprey is an expert in computer security, and an entrepreneur and investor in a number of areas, who is said to have spen …

The yearly “Stress in America” report supplies an astonishing number of interesting statistics, many of which Childhood Obesity News has already discussed. For instance, one point made in the 2010 report was: Currently, tweens and teens report that the …

As we know, almost anybody can go on a blitz diet, spend a summer at boot camp, or do any number of other things to quickly shed pounds. The problem is, the fat generally comes back. The short term and the long term are, in most cases, two very differe …

To review for a moment, why does any of this matter? If children and teenagers feel stress, what’s the big deal? Some hardy, old-fashioned parents might say, “Stress is an unavoidable part of life, a condition they had better get used to because, as th …

For several years, school districts across the country have struggled with the question of what to do about Valentine’s Day. Vikki Ortiz Healy, in Chicago, summed it up: In an age of allergies, anti-bullying efforts and concerns about test scores and c …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at the “Stress in America” surveys of recent years, as interpreted by the American Psychological Association. One disturbing finding, as we discussed, is that parents questioned in that particular study seem stra …

An annual “Stress in America” survey has been going on for some years now. It is far from comprehensive. In 2009, for instance, the replies of 1,568 adults were taken into account, and of 1,206 young people between the ages of 8 and 17. The respondents …

At the University of Missouri, Sara Gable discovered that being stigmatized because of their body size has the same effect on kids as being stigmatized because of their race. To be a member of an out-group is, in itself, stressful. It leads to depressi …

There were years when Dr. Pretlow didn’t talk with other medics about the psychological basis of obesity, or even mention the “a” word, addiction, in relation to food. Professional resistance to the idea was very frustrating, and he was told at one con …