As of September 1, columnist Morton Downey had counted 98 possible causes for obesity. Childhood Obesity News has been exploring the idea that, since many different factors contribute to the obesity epidemic, one of them might be BFRBs, or Body Focused …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at the possible relationship between two phenomena — compulsive eating and body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) — sometimes known as displacement behaviors. The person subjected to BFRB will develop a beha …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News quoted from the Visions Adolescent Treatment Centers, describing some of the characteristics of Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB), a condition which is said to affect millions of people. The purpose is to explore …

Previously, Childhood Obesity News talked about what Dr. Pretlow terms the childhood obesity perfect storm, the collection of factors present in our society that combine in endlessly fascinating ways to keep the obesity epidemic going. Like a mythologi …

Both the human psyche and the meat vehicle that carries it around are fully prepared to acknowledge chocolate fudge as a reward equal to cocaine. The same lights flash and, metaphorically speaking, the same bells ring. Any substance that sets off the f …

The first thing to know is that “ED” stands for Emotional Disturbances, and the second thing is that there is a standardized test called the SAED, which stands for Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance. Researchers from Australia’s Monash Universit …

Facebook is still an immensely popular social medium, and researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital believe they see a correlation between the interests of Facebook users and their weight: … [T]he more people in a certain area or region who ‘like’ or …

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recently invented a mathematical model of energy balance as it relates to the development of childhood obesity. It accounts for changes is body weight caused by the consumption of cal …

Still celebrating Childhood Obesity Awareness month by taking an overview of the mixed messages dispersed since last September, we note the arrival of a new thing on the scene. An organization started by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) got up …

We’re still in Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, and have been looking at the spectrum of news coverage over the past few months, which although it has not exactly inspired roller-coaster emotions, has tended to fluctuate. In the wake of the CDC repor …

Okay, so it’s been established that at the beginning of the year, the Centers for Disease Control study was a major big deal. Writer Lori Abbot focused on the comparison between New York City and Los Angeles, America’s two gigantic opposite-coastal met …

Tracking headlines over the past year or so, it’s hard to know what to think about the status of childhood obesity. Last summer, it was revealed that in some pockets of California — Alameda and Contra Costa counties — the problem seems to have gotten …

Well, it’s September, and Childhood Obesity Awareness Month is back. What better way to observe this awareness month than to look at what is being said about the advance or retreat of the childhood obesity epidemic? Around the beginning of this year, i …

Recently, Childhood Obesity News talked about the videos made by Rebecca Puhl, Ph.D., and associates, on behalf Yale University’s Rudd Center, where Dr. Puhl is Director of Research and Weight Stigma Initiatives. They also produced “Weight Bias at Home …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at a video from Yale University’s Rudd Center, one of the world’s obesity-fighting focal points. This and similar works that educate painlessly will help America get over the idea that stigmatization is somehow …

The Yale Rudd Center has made a series of videos about weight bias, and the nature and extent of this prejudice. At its mildest, weight bias can be described as a negative attitude toward obese people. It’s a form of stereotyping whose expression can b …

America is not the only place where health professionals in many different jurisdictions are trying to figure out what to do about the impending obesity of children they have charge of. School districts struggle with the questions of whether to send ou …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News continued looking at various aspects of “The Talk” — the one that parents sometimes need to have with their kids, about maintaining a healthy weight — and the concept of “fat letters” sent home by schools that are co …

Reporter Helena Oliviero says: Talking to kids about weight can be difficult for parents. In fact, nearly one in four parents is uncomfortable talking about weight with his or her kids, according to a 2011 survey sponsored by WebMD and Sanford Health. …

When journalist Helena Oliviero wondered how parents communicate with their children about weight issues, she very sensibly personalized the topic by interviewing someone who would know. This was a mother, Virginia Smith, who had previously had initiat …

In Australia, Dr. Pretlow’s W8Loss2Go iPhone app is the subject of an 18-week study, with the collaboration of researchers from Flinders University, Medical Centre, and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). As we mentioned, bariatric …

Relative to this news item, here is part of a letter from an anonymous reader of Childhood Obesity News: I heard that giving a baby solid food too soon could cause lifelong problems with digestion, and intended to keep my daughter on a bottle for a few …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at a detailed and comprehensive article by Stan Cox, about how the soda industry makes $4 billon every year on the sugar-sweetened beverages bought through the SNAP program (formerly “food stamps”). As usual, som …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned how, whenever the sugar-sweetened beverage industry is threatened with some legal restriction, like not being eligible for SNAP (food stamps) purchase, other corporations tend to pile on. Lawyers emerge from …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at some of the ways in which individuals and businesses and megacorporations profit from the obesity epidemic — gyms, diet meal manufacturers, medical practitioners with less-than-pristine ethics, programs that …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned an article by Karen Canella, titled “Three Ways to Profit From a Super-Sized Trend,” in which she advised readers: In 2012, consumers spent $5 billion on Weight Watchers’ branded products and services… From …

Unfortunately, childhood obesity usually continues on into adult obesity, because as time goes by it gets harder and harder to lose weight. Habits solidify, and the body itself fights to maintain the overweight condition to which it has become accustom …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned research by a Washington State University student that showed: …[M]oms who eat in response to their emotions or who are easily tempted by the sight, scent or taste of food had children with a strong desire …

Childhood Obesity News has spoken before of the uses made of the “Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort” (ECLS-B), a huge study of 14,000 children in which information was collected when they were 9 months old and 4 years old, and then again …

Sorry, moms of the world, but once again it all comes down to you. Or perhaps that should be, it all comes down on you — the blame or, as professionals call it, the responsibility. Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at a study showing how detrim …