Are Kids Overdiagnosed and Overmedicated Into Obesity?
A reader who wanted to be anonymous wrote by email: So many doctors and parents are quick to run for that medicine cabinet! My niece is on so many prescriptions, it is startling, to say the least. Gross amount, seriously! All of them for ‘behavior’ problems like attention disorder, anger, depression… don’t get me started […]
Comfort Eating and Kirstie Alley
Actress Kirstie Alley is a wild woman who has freely admitted to an interviewer, “It was the greatest thing in the world getting fat.” But being fat? Not so much. Still, if there is one public figure (besides Oprah Winfrey) whose every ounce of gain and loss has been tracked, minute by minute, by millions […]
Chips = The Biggest Demon
We told you. Didn’t we tell you? Now, here is Alicia Chang saying the same thing, a propos of a Harvard University study which appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine. Its title is “Changes in Diet and Lifestyle and Long-Term Weight Gain in Women and Men,” and Chang, who frequently writes about science, […]
Many Find Gluten Addictive
Although “7 Worst Supermarket Rip-Offs” was first published by Men’s Health, authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding make it clear that they are passing along wisdom found in Eat This, Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide and Cook This, Not That! What wisdom might that be? The lowdown on a popular snack and an energy drink, […]
Childhood Obesity and Meta-Analysis
In a time of limited resources, to look at different independent studies with some kind of system or organizing principle in mind is a very economical use of information. The data is already paid for. It’s even possible that some error might be discovered in a long-completed survey, a misunderstanding that once led the scientific […]
Childhood Obesity and the Psycho-Pharmaceutical Environment
Grown-ups and kids are different in some ways, and one of them appears to be how they react to atypical antipsychotics. These drugs are also known as second-generation antipsychotics, and they have pretty much replaced first-generation antipsychotics. There isn’t much difference, but the difference is an important one: with SGAs, the patient is less likely […]
Is Childhood Obesity Inescapable?
With a title like this, you have to read the story: “Childhood obesity almost ‘inevitable’, say experts” (link is ours). Which experts? Could this be? Must we resign ourselves to the prospect of the ever-enlarging children? Journalist Madeleine Brindley has been talking to people who fear this might be the case. In Wales, as in […]
Atypical Antipsychotics and Childhood Obesity
There are disquieting hints everywhere that if we really were honest about discovering the causes of childhood obesity, we might not be happy about the answers. We might wish we had never asked. For example, some people believe our entire culture is warped by massive overdiagnosis of pathological conditions. We have discussed the question of […]
Addicted Rats Teach Us Obesity Lessons
The connection between obesity, junk food, and addiction is becoming more and obvious. Remember last year, when the news came out about the rat studies at the Scripps Research Institute? Remember when we learned that junk food could be as addictive as cigarettes or Peruvian marching powder? For rats in cages, anyway. JoAnne Allen is […]
“Jelly and the Donuts” Vs. Childhood Obesity
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 […]