Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at some of the controversial theories of Dave Asprey relating to obesity, insulin, and inflammation. One of his theories is not so controversial, and is in fact now pretty well-accepted — that foods can be addi …

The National Diabetes Month continues, and citizen scientist Dave Asprey reports back from the far fringes of diabetes research, tying that subject up with his belief that, in the human body, as much as one-third of what appears to be fat could be swel …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the ideas of Greg Critser, who sees three main causes for the ongoing childhood obesity epidemic. One big factor is prenatal care, because almost anything a prospective mommy does will have some effect on the …

Greg Critser knows two things are true — childhood obesity is real, and there are no simple answers. Despite talk of food deserts and the dire transportational straits of many city dwellers, he points to two studies (published in Social Science and Me …

The National Diabetes Month is almost not long enough to look at the various facets of this all-too-prevalent disease. The family-oriented, Spanish-language educational TV channel Discovery Familia is making use of the month to shed light on diabetes. …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the reportage done by Daniel Engber for Slate, on the subject of lab mice. An experiment is designed to compare the effects of an environment, regime, or chemical upon a group of mice, whose reactions are the …

Last time, in tune with National Diabetes Month, Childhood Obesity News looked at the discoveries made by Harvard University’s Dr. Barbara Kahn in regard to the importance of human fat cells getting enough sugar. In pursuance of her experiments, Dr. Ka …

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) announced that fat cells might prevent diabetes, which sounds totally counter-intuitive. But, in the human body, the balance of blood sugar and insulin is partly controlled by the fat cells. Medical News Tod …

We are still in National Diabetes Month, and for The Atlantic, Brian Fung gave a very clear basic explanation of that condition: These days, when people talk about diabetes, they mean the kind that goes hand-in-hand with obesity. The kind you get when …

Here is news nobody wanted to hear: “Childhood obesity rises during October Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.” Fortunately, this was a very localized report concerning Vigo County, IN, but the situation is not much brighter when the big picture is con …

It took two years and the combined efforts of four government agencies, pulled together into an uber-organization called the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, to come up with guidelines on marketing the foods laden with salt, fat, …

Back in 2009, four federal agencies (Centers for Disease Control, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Agriculture, and Food and Drug Administration) got together as the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children. When, two years later, …

With elections so close, even though minds are probably already made up, it’s hard to stop talking about Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! program. Praise from some quarters, insults from others — that has been the story all along. Childhood Obesity News f …

A couple of things came out of the Obesity Society’s Scientific Meeting, which was in fact the 30th such annual gathering, convened by what its website describes as the leading North American professional and scientific organization that represents the …

As we head into the season that encompasses the traditional American Big Four — Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year — and a number of other ethnic, religious, and cultural holiday festivals, let us reflect on the words of psychotherapist …

Whether or not she serves a second term, Michelle Obama must be acknowledged as one of the most dynamic First Ladies ever. Attention has been focused on the childhood obesity epidemic, along with a great expenditure of money and energy. About whether a …

In David Foster Wallace’s novel, Infinite Jest, the action revolves around a movie that is fatally entertaining. In other words, anybody who watches it, dies. This plot is unpleasantly reminiscent of what goes on in certain laboratories where scientist …

Created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day is meant to unite Americans behind the idea of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. Its promoters point out that, every year, several hundred thousand people die too soon, as a re …

Childhood Obesity News has been thinking about gardens, from the angles that figure in the effort against childhood obesity. A garden can help in a more circuitous way, by morphing the family budget into something much more reasonable than before. When …

Not long ago, Childhood Obesity News considered the White House Garden cultivated by Michelle Obama, and her book about it, and the First Lady’s encouragement of vegetable gardens in general. Since then, we located some words from Andrea King Collier, …

With elections coming up, it seems like people would have enough to do, in evaluating the current and potential presidents. Still, many appear to spend more energy concentrating on the activities of the president’s wife and her program to end childhood …

Here is an article titled, “Why TEDMED might be the only health conference worth going to.” That’s an impressive claim! Backing it up is the organization’s clinical editor, Dr. Pritpal S Tamber, who is in a good position to make the case. TEDMED is a s …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the pending California situation, where residents of the state are trying to pass legislation that would compel food manufacturers to label genetically modified products. But what does this have to do with ch …

Since awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic has been raised, kids are kept track of more closely, and one result of that scrutiny is a rather jarring prediction. By 2020, American life expectancy is likely to be reduced by 13 years. In other word …

Sure, it’s only mid-October, but in some retail outlets, the giant bags of Halloween candy have been filling entire aisles since Thanksgiving. So, in a way, it’s already too late. Tons of the stuff have already been sold, and taken to American homes in …

Let’s see, we already talked about fat cells, and, by the way, the picture on this page is of two giant fat cells. Just kidding! Childhood Obesity News has issues, and likes to take advantage of every chance to diss McDonald’s. And, seriously, if you d …

Along with all the attention that has been paid to childhood obesity, adult obesity has come in for plenty of notice, even in the political realm. This threat never materialized, but about a year ago it seemed possible that a rather overweight fellow m …

I’m so glad you shared with me your worries about putting on too much weight. It shows that you are thinking about things, which is always a plus. Especially, thinking about your own future. And while we’re on that subject, you’re probably wondering ab …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News discussed a recent article by The Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Beck, who mentioned that the nutritional deficiency theory of food cravings seems to be disproved, because so many cravings are addressed to food-like sub …

Cravings for any desired and potentially harmful substance are obligingly real enough to show up for scientific measurement. As we know, the human brain, hooked up to a MRI scanner, is capable of reacting to the thought of a chocolate milkshake as if i …