Or maybe it isn’t. As Childhood Obesity News has discussed, a person is apt to occasionally think, “Everything I know is wrong,” especially when encountering contradictory headlines about the same topic. This is particularly true in the world of weight …

In the spirit of the previous post, “Why Everything You Know is Wrong,”  here are some contrarian viewpoints on various foodstuffs that are said to affect childhood obesity. Carbohydrates: Kris Gunnars collected a number of “debunked nutrition myths,” …

“Why Everything You Know is Wrong.” Once in a while, Childhood Obesity News puts up a post with some variation of that title. Of course, everything we know isn’t wrong–but how do we know? How can we be sure? As Dr. David Katz (who has been a Childhood …

Marmite on Toast What causes obesity? This is a fertile area for both speculation and research, and certainly a place to find flaky fringe notions. Out of the hundred or so causes that have been suggested for obesity, at least a few are bound to be rid …

Last Supper   In the Season 6 finale of the immensely popular TV series Mad Men, advertising executive Don Draper talks about his boyhood fondness for Hershey bars. It’s a saccharine, stereotypical tale reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting, a …

Under the current model (as set forth in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) for what used to be known as addiction, unhealthy dependency has become measured on a graduated scale. “Substance Use Disorder” is rated by degrees rangi …

After the most recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index was published, an uncredited writer at Conscienhealth.org questioned the means by which the 10 fattest and leanest states, and similar lists, are generated. The page states that “most of the cove …

When interviewed by Marc Maron, Saturday Night Live cast member Julia Sweeney revealed how alcoholism  affected some members of her family, but not her: Sometimes I think I’m so lucky that my drug was food, actually, because you can survive that. Unles …

Many health professionals believe that all addictions are one addiction. Furthermore, some believe that all addictions are symptoms. The addiction is not the problem, but the outward and visible sign of the problem. And unless the problem is eliminated …

In the old days, it was clear what the addictors or addictogens were: heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol, and nicotine. Then came the recognition of unhealthy and counter-productive attachment to activities that had seemed neutral or even benign, a …

Recently, Childhood Obesity News looked at a fascinating study in which alternative high school students – with at least one behavioral “strike” against them – were interviewed three years after going through a drug abuse prevention project. The resear …

As a doctoral student at the University of Würzburg in Germany, Adrian Meule was influenced by Dr. Pretlow’s “Addiction to Highly Pleasurable Food as a Cause of the Childhood Obesity Epidemic: A Qualitative Internet Study” in Eating Disorders: The Jour …

Psychologist Chris Crandall of the University of Kansas has noticed that the fundamental American values of individual choice and self-determination have a dark side: We blame people for everything that happens to them – being poor, being obese. It’s t …

The headline, “America rejoice! Being fat may actually make you healthier,” can brighten up one’s day, but the claim needs careful investigation. That particular headline appeared in the New York Post over Susannah Calahan’s review of cardiologist Carl …

Edward Archer, Ph.D, of the University of Alabama School of Public Health, has a major difference of opinion with most obesity researchers: he blames evolution for the obesity epidemic. Published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Archer’s paper is said t …

At the sight of morbidly obese people riding scooters through grocery or big box stores, many onlookers shake their heads in bewilderment. Opportunists make videos, a type of public shaming. Fat-positive activists say, “What’s it to ya? My body, my fat …

Genetics, or fatlogic? Condition, or condishun? It seems like a new “fat gene” is revealed every other week. Nevertheless skeptics, many of them formerly fat, accuse their obese brethren of lying, or at the very least, of self-deception. The derisive t …

It is generally accepted that about 2% of obesity is caused by a pre-existing genetic condition that a person can’t do anything about. (As contrasted with a “condishun,” the Reddit discussion website’s term for cop-out.) There is a wide gap between tha …

Back in 2011, Reuters reported on a study led by Tim Spector of King’s College London, which resulted in the discovery that the KLF14 gene is the mastermind of the obesity epidemic, ruling other genes like a mob boss and ordering them to wreak havoc in …

What is the relationship between research into the genetics of obesity—so-called “fat gene” research—and fatlogic? Is the science as meaningful as its proponents believe, or only a relatively minor piece of the obesity puzzle? Has progress in this fiel …

A baby is helpless, a child is powerless, yet somehow these little creatures become obese. Are they doing it to themselves? No. The earlier obesity sets in, the harder it is to reverse, so fat toddlers become fat grade school kids, and then fat middle …

Yesterday was Skip Sugar Day, at least in Greenwich, Conn., where city leaders proclaimed the event. Maybe next year it will be national. Meanwhile in that city, HALSAmd Research, whose mission is to address, educate, and coordinate medical treatment a …

Dr. Arya Sharma, who holds the opinion that “Health cannot be measured by stepping on a scale,” looked into the history of the body mass index standard of measurement. Like many other public health conventions, this one began with the military, way bac …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at body mass index as the standard of obesity measurement. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined the specific question of whether BMI or waist circumference (WC) measurement is …

Science marches on, which sometimes causes embarrassment when new information emerges. This might be the case with body mass index or BMI, which is generally taken to be the best feasible way of measuring the risk and degree of obesity in children. A d …

Here is a point of view whose focus ties in with another recent Childhood Obesity News topic, motivation. By now, everyone knows that for a person interested in health-enhancing change, self-monitoring can be useful. For instance, a 2008 study indicate …

What exactly is this BMI we hear so much about? A definition proffered by MedifastArizona.com goes like this: Obesity is defined as an excessive amount of body fat in relation to lean body mass. This is generally calculated by physicians as body mass i …

A child is obese who can’t lift herself or himself off the ground, even with a jumping assist. So says coach and physical educator Rick Osbourne, who proposes a straightforward strategy that is said to motivate kids to “naturally immunize themselves ag …

Research projects like the Millennium Cohort Study have found that for obese children, both emotional and behavioral problems start early. Especially for boys, life is an endless round of physical and psychological discomforts. Quality of life is affec …

In the previous post, Childhood Obesity News considered the difference between active and passive enabling. During Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, it becomes clear that for a parent to be unaware is a kind of passive enabling. The goal is to bring p …