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 …

Pop singer Lady Gaga has millions of adoring followers among the tweens and teens of the world. Lately, more mature observers have had cause to puzzle over her message. At an MTV award show, she wore an outfit made of sewn-together slabs of steak, acce …

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 …

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 …

People can become famous for being overweight. Or for losing weight. Or, like film actors, can suffer the scrutiny of a censorious public whose eyeballs are glued to every ounce they gain. YouTube comedian and actor Shane Dawson lost over 150 pounds, a …

In an essay describing how people use food to cope with emotional problems, Elizabeth Hartney outlined some resemblances: There are several similarities between food addiction and drug addiction, including effects on mood, external cues to eat or use d …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at the confused and tangled matter of fit fatness. Is there such a thing? Can an overweight or obese person ever be said to be truly healthy, no matter how nice the blood test results are? Is all this fat fitness …

Can a person be both fat and fit? The question has attracted the interest of some obese doctors with a vested interest in the outcome, and of many civilians who would like to go on believing that no lifestyle changes are necessary in their corner of th …

Lousy math grades, bra size, snoring, mushrooms, the U.S. armed forces, and a theory that bigger clothes might be causing bigger kids… What all these things have in common is a connection with the childhood obesity epidemic, in some way that may seem …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News asked what it means that children’s clothes are getting more “wide” and “robust.” It seems bad enough that manufacturers are profiting from the obesity epidemic by selling plus-size pants, shirts, and dresses. Even mor …

Journalist Frances Childs was an obese teenager, with stomach and thighs marked by purple stretch marks, wearing long full skirts to school because no store carried jeans in her size. Childs says: So, when I see fat children, I know how they feel: unco …

Abundant evidence has shown that the emotions affect the weight, and the weight in turn affects the emotions, in a million different life scenarios. The possible variations on vicious cycles and vicious circles are dizzying. Now we must brace ourselves …

With his 1937 song “Malted Milk,” bluesman Robert Johnson confirmed the reality of emotional eating, especially in the Depression era in the United States. Some of the lyrics are: I keep drinking malted milk, trying to drive my blues away. Malted milk, …

Last time, we discussed the usefulness of cognitive behavioral therapy for people who want to escape obesity. The fact that it works is wonderful, but it’s still unfortunate that this therapy or any other kind is needed at all. Many health professional …

The recent Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed about 1,300 psychologists about the relationship between weight loss and emotions. Apparently, only 306 of them offer weight loss treatment per se, so their answers may count for more. Out o …

Because so many of the indicators and risk factors of childhood obesity overlap with matters of ethnicity and poverty (which is disproportionately linked to ethnicity), it is not surprising that civil rights organizations have taken an interest in chil …

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) takes an interest in childhood obesity, as it does in any societal problem that affects its members and constituents, and indeed that affects any minority groups. Its webpage says: …

Mark Bittman, a professional journalist who cooks (or perhaps a cook who writes) is only one of the many nutrition-oriented thought leaders who were themselves influenced by Robert H. Lustig, M.D. They are highly critical of all forms of sugar, and esp …

One of the problems with the whole sugar debate is the amazing amount of time, energy, and money that has been spent and will continue to be spent to answer such questions as, “Which is worse, traditional cane and beet sugar, or high fructose corn syru …