The Pediatric Academic Societies met in Boston not long ago and, as so often happens when health professionals gather, the subject of the childhood obesity epidemic was on the table. Dr. Rachel Gross of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine told the group about the study she had led. The city’s Bellevue Hospital is vital [...]
Singapore Revisited
May 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A while back, Singapore was getting some good PR for keeping its kids thin. As Childhood Obesity News discussed, a comparison was made between the childhood obesity rate in Southeast Asia, which was 23%, and the rate in Singapore, less than half that number. Reports talked about mental health literacy, in connection with a bulimia [...]
Chasing the Dragon
May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM-IV, there are six substance-abuse criteria, and if a patient has three out of six, he or she has an addiction. Childhood Obesity News has previously enumerated the “top six reasons why food addiction falls within the already established criteria for addiction,” and today we take another [...]
The Challenge to Parents — Facing the Facts
April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The challenge? In the struggle against childhood obesity, there are a hundred challenges. It’s like the mythological Hydra, the beast with many ferociously fanged heads, and every time a hero would cut one off, it would grow back. Some days are like that, right? One of the hardest things for parents is fessing up that [...]
Is “Thin” a Four-Letter Word?
April 27, 2012 By 2 Comments
Childhood Obesity News has been exploring the idea that “fat” is a four-letter word, not literally, but in the sense of being forbidden, vulgar, and offensive. Sometimes it seems as if “thin” is equally reprehensible, because people object to the idea of children being told that thin is better than fat. This is partly an [...]
Is “Fat” a Four-Letter Word?
April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Dr. Pretlow teaches that obesity is not a matter of poor willpower or lack of exercise, rather it is an addictive brain disease involving certain highly palatable problem foods. It is substance dependency, and attributing it to a direct biochemical effect on brain chemistry seems unnecessary and overdone. As he says: Fast sensory signals, e.g. [...]
From the Airy Fringes of Childhood Obesity Research
April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Not long ago, Dr. Pretlow was extensively quoted in an article written by Marsha McCulloch, R.D., which appeared in Live Right Magazine. The author also quoted Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D., of the University of California at Irvine, who strongly advocates good prenatal nutrition and a minimal exposure to chemicals. According to research done there: Animal studies [...]
The Challenge Arrives Before the Baby
April 24, 2012 By 3 Comments
Lately, childhood obesity research has been turning up a lot of results that include the word “pregnancy.” New studies appear with frightening regularity, demonstrating various kinds of harm that can be done to a fetus by parental ignorance or disregard. There was pretty good evidence already that a high birth weight predicts an overweight adult, [...]
The Challenge to Parents — Hard Work
April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Claire Bates is one of the many health writers who has noticed the tendency of childhood obesity studies to indict parents. If children are to make lifestyle changes, their chances are much better if it’s a family affair. Bates says: Researchers found that obese youngsters were far more successful at shedding the excess pounds if [...]
Packaging, Photography, and Presentation
April 20, 2012 By 2 Comments
Childhood Obesity News has been exploring the art and science of food porn (or foodporn), including the ways in which food is visually enhanced, sometimes for the purpose of advertising, and sometimes just because. An entire enormous genre of photography is focused on the depiction of food. Photoshop and its brethren may have made the [...]
