Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned a study originating from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in our nation’s capital. Among other things: The study’s authors suggest that vigorous video games may hav …

Last time, we ended up by mentioning some exergames that adults like. The combination of video-based games and exercise may seem a bit strange to a public that has become accustomed to thinking of video games as a childhood obesity villain. But Cynthia …

We have been talking about Zamzee, not to either endorse this particular system or diss it. It’s an interesting example of the gamification of obesity, and the subject cannot be abandoned without noting one of the features of the system. Kids whose act …

Holiday note: Remember, Halloween doesn’t have to be a caloric disaster. All parents are invited to revisit the Childhood Obesity News posts dated October 4, October 7, and October 8 for support and validation, and maybe even some fresh ideas. Happy Ha …

Yesterday, two video clips were included in the post, to make the point that getting some exercise indoors, by imitating the actions of a character in a video game, is preferable to no exercise at all. (And good luck to the downstairs neighbors.) Here …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned how Boston Children’s Hospital discovered that television is more of a childhood obesity villain than other types of electronic screens. Actually, it’s not the TV itself but the concentrated attention, which …

Dr. Pretlow has observed that medicine doesn’t embrace the Internet as a means of care or research. As days go by, this becomes less of an obstacle. Acceptance creeps in around the edges and even the upper echelons of establishment medicine begin to ge …

The BMO Financial Group maintains a huge presence in both Canada and the United States, and includes three operating groups — one for banking, one for financial management, and one for investing. With financial assets in the neighborhood of $550 billi …

Harvard University’s School of Public Health has definite ideas about what it calls the toxic food environment in the United States, and it sees food marketing as one of the major problem areas. A huge amount of money is spent each year by corporate in …

What happens when The Huffington Post gets together with Harvard to examine the toxic food environment? To see the video discussion, this page is the place. The basic rationale for the conversation goes like this: Historically, conventional wisdom has …

Childhood Obesity News mentioned a Wall Street Journal article in which the president of a “food flavor and texture company” explained the psychological appeal of chewable snacks: Crunchy foods may provide stress-relief, like hitting a racquetball afte …

To recapitulate: American historical figure Horace Fletcher preached the chewing of food into a state of liquefaction, as an aid to digestion and general well-being. Though he was for a time discredited, recent science has shown that there are indeed n …

By now it is almost universally acknowledged that there is such a thing as “eating your stress,” and that a lot of people do it. They tend to choose foods that maximize the amount of work their jaws need to do. Popcorn, potato chips, toffee, breakfast …

From time to time, Childhood Obesity News explores such concepts as process addiction, displacement activity, and body-focused repetitive behaviors. Discussing the evidence for the reality of food addiction, Dr. Pretlow has said, about one of its aspec …

Yesterday we closed with Mahatma Gandhi and Jesus Christ both advising their followers to chew each bite of food into a liquid state. We have also talked about Horace Fletcher, the writer and lecturer who espoused the same rule. In the late 1800s and e …

Childhood Obesity News has been discussing the ideas of Horace Fletcher and more recent responses to fletcherizing. Fletcher’s ideas were wildly popular and widespread, then forgotten and discredited, and he was perceived as kind of a wingnut. In recen …

Yesterday we outlined the beliefs of Horace Fletcher, whose system of chewing food until it was liquified, known as fletcherizing, transformed his own life and, reportedly, the lives of those who followed his ideas. The U.S. Government flirted with the …

“Nature will castigate those who don’t masticate.” How’s that for a catchy slogan? It was created by dietician Horace Fletcher, one of those historical crackpots who turned out to be right about a few things. In other words, yesterday’s weirdos sometim …

At the LA Podfest, which convened this past weekend, Christy Harrison spoke with comedian and actor Marc Maron, whose IFC comedy series is going into a second season. (The interview is 11 minutes long and contains explicit language.) While not as famou …

Last October, Dr. Pretlow was interviewed by another website for an article titled, “How’s this for scary, kids: Little or no candy on Halloween.” One of the interesting points made in the article was that the American Dental Association polled a bunch …

Halloween can be a horror for an overweight kid. It’s all about doing the exact thing she or he is not supposed to do — acquire and consume a bunch of sweets. But it’s also a lot of fun, and why take away any potential fun by skipping the holiday alto …

Let’s get an early start on Halloween this year, shall we? Before we start buying candy for parties and trick-or-treat, stop and take a breath and plan ahead. Because when a Web post shows up the day before Halloween, no matter how many great alternati …

Stanford University is backing a concept called the DOR program, which stands for “division of responsibility.” A research team, led by Dr. W. Stewart Agras, started with a total of 62 families in which at least one parent was obese or overweight, and …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the child feeding precepts of Dr. Susan Rubin, the holistic nutritionist whose philosophy derives from traditional Chinese medicine. Proceed slowly with a baby, introducing new foods one at a time and watchin …

Dr. Susan Rubin is a holistic nutritionist and health counselor who believes that the things a child eats make a difference in lifelong health, beginning with the very first foods. Much of her philosophy comes from ancient Chinese medicine, which trace …

At every possible opportunity, the American Beverage Association will circulate public relations messages that go something like this: Overweight and obesity are caused by an imbalance between calories consumed from all foods and beverages (total diet) …

In July, it was announced that the fattest nation title is no longer held by the United States but has passed to Mexico. Of the adults, almost 70% are overweight and 32.8% qualify as obese. One out of three teenagers is obese, and the amount of childho …

There are an estimated 1.4 billion overweight people in the world, of whom 500 million are obese. Typical of the actions performed by the World Health Organization (WHO) is a visit to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for a three-day workshop, described by the WHO …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned Great Britain’s childhood obesity situation. The healthcare market research company MackSense sells a report (for only $3,550) on the current state of obesity in the United Kingdom. Despite the cost of the do …

It’s still Childhood Obesity Awareness Month in America, but that doesn’t mean childhood obesity has ceased in the rest of the world. Not by a long shot! Last month, Chris Weller reported that the U.S. and Great Britain are about even, with childhood o …