A meme is like a mental gene, a little packet of information that carries a cultural idea from one mind to another. The “perfect storm” meme illustrates a truth that has been around forever, in an original way that can be adapted to many situations. Bob Case, a meteorologist, is credited for naming it in [...]
What About Endocrine Disruptors?
June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Hormones control metabolism, growth, development, the function of tissues, and a person’s mood. We have specialized organs for the production of hormones, and, just to keep things interesting, other organs can also secrete hormones as their second job. Often they gang up and work together, in which case you get something as elaborate as, for [...]
Food Addiction Recovery: Great Blogs
March 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
The Guide to Culinary Schools is a clearinghouse of vital information for professionals and students designed to connect people with schools and courses, and vice versa. And it offers some great value-added supplementary material, such as its list of 50 top blogs about overcoming food addiction. This page is not just a perfunctory copy of [...]
The Shrek Conflict of Interest Debate
February 9, 2011 By 1 Comment
“Conflict of interest” seems to be the phrase of the year as, one after another, relationships are questioned. Should the Funky Junky Candy Corp. be funding a scientific journal about childhood obesity, or enlisting as a sponsor in the government’s anti-obesity drive, or bankrolling the obesity research at a major university? On one hand, the [...]
Snacks and Labels, Junk and Nature
January 28, 2011 By 1 Comment
In December, Bruce Horovitz reported on a rather interesting event, the announcement by Frito-Lay that the corporation will start making half of its snacks from all-natural ingredients. (Frito-Lay, incidentally, is part of PepsiCo, so you know what kind of natural, healthy credentials we’re talking about.) According to Ann Mukherjee, the chief marketing officer, there will [...]
Food, Foodlike Substances, and Labeling
January 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
When people are concerned about health, and especially about obesity, and they talk about food labeling, there are a couple of different things they might mean. Fast food restaurants with more than 20 branches now have to give the calorie count on their menus, and items sold in vending machines need to print the information [...]
Calorie Labeling in Restaurants
January 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
At the point in time when only a few municipalities had adopted the idea that restaurants should reveal the calorie counts of their dishes to the customers, a bunch of young people voiced their opinions at Weigh2Rock. This website has published a series of polls to keep track of what kids are thinking about their [...]
Food Labeling — Restaurants and Calorie Information
January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Many people believe that at least some obesity (PDF) could be prevented if only we were really aware of everything we ate. Awareness of why we are eating is always helpful, of course. It’s always a good idea to ask ourselves questions like, “Am I really hungry, or just upset?” and, “Do I have to [...]
“Jelly and the Donuts” Vs. Childhood Obesity
December 29, 2010 By 2 Comments
Childhood obesity is such a complicated problem that we need to come at it from every possible direction, and chip away at it from any angle that looks promising. Dr. Pretlow has been calling attention to the fact that food addiction is real, and needs to be treated like any other addiction. Many young people [...]
Television Advertising and Childhood Obesity, Part 5
December 13, 2010 By 3 Comments
Would you be surprised to learn that we have talked about TV before? Not with a title like this one! And you probably wonder what there could possibly be more to say about the immense amount of money spent by food corporations that relentlessly fill our kids’ heads with visions of sugarplums. Is there anything [...]
