Ghrelin, Comfort Eating, and Obesity (Part 1)

Zigman Lab YinYang

The word “fasting” may call up visions of a strict religious practice or some elaborate health-oriented routine involving a carefully calibrated number of ounces of fresh juice per day. A person might think, “I don’t know anybody who does that.” Maybe not, but voluntarily abstention from food for a period of time is actually pretty […]

The Childhood Obesity Perfect Storm, Part 4

The best thing one can do

We have talked before about the “perfect storm” that Dr. Pretlow identifies as the cause of the childhood obesity epidemic. It’s a witch’s brew of at least five elements: the high-tech production of hedonic foods; their availability to kids; the increased stress kids are dealing with; the ubiquitous marketing of comfort foods; and the decreased […]

Using the Psychological Food Dependence-Addiction Lens

food addiction lens

A recent comment to “The Childhood Obesity Perfect Storm, Part 6″ post on the Childhood Obesity News blog describes the “Go, Slow, Whoa!” widget tool created by the We Can! Program of NHLBI, NIH. The widget’s purpose is to impact childhood obesity. It differentiates foods according to their nutritional value, in order to help kids […]