As Childhood Obesity News has mentioned before, a large part of the human race seems to have lost the instinct that tells a healthy animal what to eat and what to avoid. This instinct needs to be recovered or recreated, similar to what Dr. Pretlow writes on the topic of kids who have addressed their [...]
Everything You Know Is Wrong, Part 2
August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Not long ago, we looked at some of Kevin Richardson’s ideas about the obesity epidemic and quoted one of his sayings, which is worth repeating: The ideal consumer is a confused consumer. Confusion can be created in many ways. In discussing the deleterious effects of advertising on the consuming public, Richardson gives the example of [...]
INSULA, a Residential Treatment Center
August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Humans have a built-in susceptibility to addiction and, as we have discussed before, the foodlike substances known as hedonic or hyper-palatable foods are purposely designed and engineered to exploit that addiction-prone tendency. Hedonic foods are, basically, foods that are made to be eaten — made only to be eaten. On a nutritional basis, they have [...]
Social Networking and Obesity, Part 6
July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
So, we were discussing the positive effects of social networking via electronic devices, and how the Pew Research Center’s findings show, among other things, that social networkers are more likely to be politically active. This is a good thing, because the childhood obesity epidemic seems to be in need of some political intervention, especially at [...]
Social Networking and Obesity, Part 1
July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The overall mission of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project is to explore the impact of the Internet on children, families, and communities. Last month, they released the report “Social networking sites and our lives.” The 85-page PDF file is subtitled, “How people’s trust, personal relationships, and civic and political involvement are connected [...]
Chips = The Biggest Demon
June 29, 2011 By 2 Comments
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, [...]
Publication in Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention
June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A while back, we mentioned that Dr. Pretlow’s latest paper was due to be published by Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. The future has become the present, and the document is now online. (The print version of Volume 19 #4, July/Aug/Sept. 2011 will be available in about a month.) Dr. Pretlow is [...]
Childhood Obesity and Starbucks: What’s Up With That?
June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Every now and then, some part of the food industry proves to be head and shoulders above the rest. In the realm of addictiveness, for instance, one of the unquestioned leaders is Starbucks. Back in 2006, The Wall Street Journal reporter Janet Adamy took on the retail giant in a piece called “Getting the Kids [...]
Parents as Enablers and Saboteurs, Part 2
June 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The illustration on this page could be read in a couple of ways: one person might see a delicious Mother’s Day treat made specially for Mom. Which is probably what the photographer intended. Someone with a darker imagination — and you can picture this taking place in a psychiatrist’s office — might look at it [...]
Parents as Enablers and Saboteurs, Part 1
June 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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 [...]
