Tray Versus Lunch Box: The Dizzying Debate
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!
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
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
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? […]
Case Study: Virginia Schools and Physical Education
Because of concern about childhood obesity, a bill was introduced in Virginia that would require elementary and middle schools to offer 150 minutes of physical education per week. In her story about it, Rosalind S. Helderman included an extensive list of organizations that were against the measure. The opponents included Fairfax County officials, three groups […]
Does Anything Work to Fight Childhood Obesity?
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
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 […]
The Thing About Food Addiction
The Yale study “Neural Correlates of Food Addiction” has changed the landscape. Medical professionals and even regular people who were previously voices crying in the wilderness have been vindicated to a very great extent. And more of these regular people are coming forward with their stories. “Write what you know” is truer than ever before. […]
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 […]