Ditch the Bottle, Prevent Childhood Obesity

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In the Journal of Pediatrics, Brigid Huey begins by explaining this particular aspect of the childhood obesity puzzle: Experts agree that obesity prevention should begin before children enter school. But due to a lack of conclusive data, health care providers often have trouble advising parents about which interventions are the most beneficial. In other words, […]

Tray Versus Lunch Box: The Dizzying Debate

last day of 6-7 lunch ever

Kathleen Blanchard, a Registered Nurse and freelance health author, reports for EmaxHealth on a study compiled by the Cardiovascular Center at the University of Michigan, which says it is extremely rare to find a genetic basis for childhood obesity. Blanchard writes, The researchers say leptin deficiency from gene mutation has been blamed for overeating, but […]

Ending Childhood Obesity – Idaho says YEah!

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Does anything work to prevent childhood obesity? Once it has taken hold, can anything pull a child loose from its clutches? As many thousands of years as humans have been on earth, you’d think we would have figured this thing out by now. What kind of nurture does a growing human need so that the […]

What Kids Say About “Overweight: What Kids Say” – and Grownups Too

Happy Children Playing Kids

The Weigh2Rock website has invited kids aged 18 and under to download the PDF version of Dr. Robert A. Pretlow’s book, Overweight: What Kids Say, for free. Since then, kids residing in countries like Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as the U.S., have taken advantage of the opportunity. They are also welcome to […]

5-2-1-0 and the Let’s Go! Initiative

How Portland Maine

Everybody wants to know: Is there anything that works to prevent childhood obesity? And if so, what is it? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation wonders, too, and not only in a general, curious way. The Foundation has a specific goal, to reverse the growing obesity trend by 2015. Getting everybody slimmed down by then would […]

The Pricey Search for Answers About Childhood Obesity

Most anti-childhood obesity programs, whether they are prevention-oriented or cure-oriented, have one thing in common: they need money. Whether the source of funds is the government, a foundation, or an eccentric millionaire with a mattress full of large-denomination currency, somebody is going to make a decision about who gets the money. Who is more deserving? […]

Does Anything Work to Fight Childhood Obesity?

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What can help end the childhood obesity epidemic? That question includes a lot of other sub-questions. Two of them are “What can prevent kids from growing overweight in the first place?” and “What can help kids who are already overweight?” So when we ask whether a certain approach can work, or has been shown to […]

Slate Magazine’s Childhood Obesity Crowdsourcing Project

Piazza San Stefano

The online magazine Slate asked its readers for their best ideas about how to shrink childhood obesity. A dozen submissions were picked, reporter Christy Harrison tells us, half of them by the readers themselves. Six more were chosen by a panel of judges, all leaders in the field. Among the judges were medical doctors Amy […]

Food Addiction and Childhood Obesity: Now What Do We Do?

(Part Two of a Two-Part Post — View Part One) The first part of this post had to do with the fact that the “healthy eating and exercise” approach for ending the childhood obesity epidemic just isn’t working. Compelling new evidence now points to actual addiction to highly-pleasurable comfort foods, like junk food and fast […]

Ending Childhood Obesity Through Healthy Eating & Exercise?

I recently witnessed two teenagers in a group, one advising the other how to lose weight. The first teen glibly proclaimed, All you gotta do is eat healthy and exercise! Whereupon, the second teen indignantly retorted, That is sooo not it!!! I know what to eat, I just can’t resist bad food!! And exercise is, […]