Parents as Enablers and Saboteurs, Part 1
Parents want to know what to do about childhood obesity. The answers are difficult ones because most of them involve a change in philosophical outlook and/or everyday behavior — a change made by parents, that is. When we parents set out to fix our kids, we often run up against the uncomfortable truth that we […]
Obesity, Environmental Toxins, and Denial
In “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation: White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President” (available online as a PDF file; link is ours), the section called Chemical Exposures starts on page 17. One of the consequent Recommendations is, Federal and State agencies conducting health research should prioritize research […]
Why Parents Don’t Want to Hear About Food Addiction, Part 8
The Psychological Food Dependence-Addiction Paradigm is a very simple concept. People, yes, even kids, can become addicted to high-calorie, low-nutrient, hedonically engineered substances that masquerade as food. Food can be a drug of abuse, and it’s a lot easier for kids to get hold of than most other drugs of abuse. The good news is, […]
Feed Us Not Into Temptation
We’ve seen it on bumper stickers and t-shirts, a saying that is short and to the point: I can resist anything except temptation. Ain’t it the truth! Especially when it’s an obese person wearing the t-shirt. And that goes double when the person in the shirt is a walking statistic in the childhood obesity epidemic. […]
The Childhood Obesity Perfect Storm, Part 4
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 […]
Breakfast Cereals for Children
We have spotlighted advertising directed at children as a major causative factor in the childhood obesity epidemic, and nowhere is it more prominent than in the breakfast cereal market. There’s fudge ripple cereal, cereal that tastes like cookies, magical marshmallows with chocolate cereal pieces, and on and on. Shelley Janson, who has done more food-related […]
On the Early Adopters of the Food Addiction Paradigm
Back in 1975, William Dufty published Sugar Blues, a book that garnered quite a lot of attention by making the claim that sugar can be as addictive as alcohol or hard drugs. Since then, the idea has been accepted by many, and is still being discussed. Adrienne Turner, Nutrition Correspondent for AskMen.com, takes a look […]