Obesity Prediction Not So Ridiculous, Thanks to Food Corporations

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Justin Stoneman recently published an essay titled “America: A Big, Fat, Stupid Nation,” in which he expressed astonishment at what he characterizes as the ridiculous prediction that by the year 2020, three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese. Where did the number come from? Stoneman got this figure from the Organization for […]

Government’s Role in Childhood Obesity

Food Basics

Government on every level can do a lot of things, no question about it. The hot discussion should be over what the government should do. Whatever the government is already doing, is it having any effect? Should more of it be done, or less? What unintended consequences have resulted from government’s efforts so far? When […]

Childhood Obesity Conflicts of Interest

Childhood Obesity Science Conflicts of Interest If a tobacco company were to fund an anti-smoking scientific journal, most people would point out the glaring conflict of interest. Yet, a new peer-reviewed, scientific journal, Childhood Obesity (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.), was launched in September 2010 with a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Kellogg Foundation’s […]

Stop Federal Corn Subsidies to Decrease Childhood Obesity

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The childhood obesity epidemic can be reversed, but nobody ever said it would be easy. Here is the question posed by journalist Mike Lillis on The Hill: Why, when faced with a childhood obesity epidemic, would the federal government continue to subsidize corn-based sweeteners suspected of contributing to the problem? Why indeed? This question was […]

Food Industry Poised to Control Britain’s Anti-Obesity Policy

Fox with a Bucket of Chicken in Sight

The Onion is known as one of the hottest works of satirical art on the planet throughout history. Bearing that in mind, have you ever had the experience of seeing a news story that you figured has to be from The Onion? And then you found out that it’s from a regular newspaper. Don’t you […]

Junk Food Marketing: You Are the Target

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It’s bad enough that we are surrounded by the brightly colored packages of products that barely qualify as edible, no matter how many cartoon characters may decorate them. What a great recipe for childhood obesity, adult obesity, and the endless complications of the multiple disease processes! But no, that’s not enough to contend with. We’re […]

Childhood Obesity and Corporate Accountability

table of junk food

Nobody wants to see the U.S. or any other country turn into a nation of blimps. Everyone agrees on that. But when it comes to the means of achieving a reversal of the childhood obesity epidemic trend, people start to have different ideas, and there is ambivalence. BNET’s Melanie Warner regards Childhood Obesity Awareness Month […]

Fast Food, Hospitals, and Cravings

Blizzard cup

Fast food and hospitals are the two concepts that should not be found together in the same sentence. And yet, their relationship grows cozier all the time. It was with some dismay that Dr. Pretlow recently noticed a TV commercial for the Blizzard Children’s Miracle Network. Actually, the word that came to mind was “disgusted.” […]

Opium and Junk Food: Sisters Under the Skin?

opium den

In the 19th century, Britain fought a war to force China to allow the sale of opium, which has lead to an epidemic of addiction in that country. At its worst, the addict population was said to have been 70 million, although such things are notoriously difficult to count. The Maoist revolutionaries claimed to have […]

Add Fat, Sugar, Salt, Sugar, and Fat. Repeat.

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Dr. David Kessler’s book The End of Overeating was reviewed by Shannon Brown, who notes that Kessler is the person we can thank for curbing the nicotine industry’s desire to target children in advertising, the crusade he took on as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Kessler’s next target is junk food — optimally […]