During Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, we are examining the media’s role in creating awareness, and the reasons why that can be a double-edged sword.

During Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, it is useful to consider some wider and deeper reflections on awareness and the sometimes toxic price of fame.

In honor of Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, we’re revisiting the story of Barry Austin, who had held the title of Britain’s Fattest Man for a while.

To continue the theme of Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, we look at the audio-visual media works and the awareness they have created.

We celebrate Childhood Obesity Awareness month by highlighting a few books on the subject.

September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Here are two books on childhood obesity, plus a list of our “Best Of” posts on more books.

Some people still believe that COVID-19 only pursues elderly, obese, diabetic, chronically ill, or otherwise previously debilitated people. But no.

The compulsion to scarf down mounds of calorie-dense food might stem from a very deep-rooted survival instinct, but we need to watch what we eat more than ever.

Increasingly, kids are getting far too many of their daily calories from processed foods that attract recreational eaters, but do little to maintain health.

From a heart full of compassion, the “hippie doctor” Larry Brilliant expresses some thoughts on herd immunity, contact tracing, vaccinating kids, and more.

Healthy, fit people seem to be coming down with COVID all over the place. Every day, we see horror stories. And the obesity stats aren’t helping either.

People say, “America is back,” but they are deceiving themselves. The virus is back. It never went away. We may be done with COVID, but it is not done with us.

It is not that easy to find definitive reports of what actually goes on in schools, rather than guidelines and other literature of the aspirational type.

With all the time and energy that will be needed to deal with COVID-related matters, it appears that working in schools in any capacity will be stressful.

With COVID-19, school routines have been disrupted and priorities have shifted. Everybody is just doing the best they can with what they have.

The friction between parental rights and society’s demands will always make the handling of matters like obesity fraught with problems.

There are around 100,000 public schools in the USA and your children’s health can depend on who’s in charge.

This is by no means comprehensive coverage of the law as it pertains to obesity. The object is to look at a few moments in history to grasp the big picture.

The 2008 ADA amendments, rather than clarifying matters, had seemed to inspire even more confusion about whether obesity should qualify as a disability.

Today we look at the kinds of questions that schools have been asking parents in an effort to lower childhood obesity rates.

We continue looking at the complications that can stand in the way of student fitness screening, which mainly tracks obesity in school children.

Some parents strongly object to certain aspects of the school system, and this is one of the stumbling blocks impeding progress toward curbing childhood obesity.

Many parents prefer a solid barrier between home and outside authority, and have strong opinions about what should or should not be the school’s business.

We are discussing the ways in which obesity impedes progress in achieving superior grades.

The process involved in BMI assessment can be tedious, embarrassing, and even frightening to children. It’s a job for trained personnel, not school employees.

What are the rules for qualification as a disabled person in the education system, and how does it affect how childhood obesity is viewed and handled?

Schools play an important role in reducing childhood obesity, we also have to consider the confidentiality of student academic and health records.

Who gets to define physical and mental health in schools? Parents, politicians, teachers, school administrators?

What should schools be doing about obesity, and on whose say-so? What happens if they go too far, or don’t go far enough?

When it comes to children’s health policies, should schools mind their own business? And to what extent? There doesn’t seem to be an agreement.