Researchers at Iowa State University, after studying the lives and health of over 1,000 teenagers, have concluded that adolescent obesity is very much connected to the increasing levels of stress. For starters, 47% of the adolescents they studied were …

You’re not gonna believe this, but we are still marveling over the vast number of intelligent, coherent, and useful responses that came in regarding last Friday’s post, “When There Is Nothing to Do but Eat.” For instance, somebody known as JumpGym Vanc …

We have mentioned Oprah Winfrey’s chagrin when she had been told by her doctor that she would need to “embrace hunger.” Many of us would be better off learning to feel pleasant anticipation of a good meal rather than a craving for junk food. We could e …

Don’t you love it when somebody brings up an angle that isn’t discussed much, but maybe ought to be? That’s what Deborah Schoeberlein did, in a piece for the Huffington Post, called “Overweight Kids? Feed Them Compassion and Mindfulness.” She’s talking …

When something hits a nerve, there’s no mistaking it. Friday’s post “When There is Nothing to Do But Eat,” concerning one of the contributing factors to the childhood obesity epidemic, definitely brought forth a flood of comments, ranging from pure nos …

Because of big bottoms, theater owners are taking it on the chin. This issue may seem frivolous, but to struggling businesses and grant-supported institutions, it’s as serious as an obesity-induced heart attack. As budgets get smaller, customers get bi …

First, how do we know how many pets are obese? It’s simple. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention (APOP) is in its fourth year of conducting an annual survey of veterinarians and pet owners. The Association estimates that nearly 90 million animal …

So many different fields have something to contribute to solving the childhood obesity problem, and there are a lot of things that can be done, both large and small. We’ve talked about change that can be undertaken right at home, like chewing more thor …

Last month, September 2010, was Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, and there are a few details we haven’t discussed yet. For instance, “Why is McDonald’s listed as a resource for Childhood Obesity Awareness Month?” This question is posed by Michele Sim …

  Let’s take a look at the simple explanations of several landmark studies in the field of childhood obesity, many of which seem to point to the reality of the food addiction paradigm. Freelance journalist Bijal Trivedi specializes in scientific, …

We’ve talked before about various possible solutions to the childhood obesity riddle, including the simple ones. Not that a “solution” means that someone will only need to do that one thing, and immediately lose 100 pounds. But simple solutions are goo …

Problems, mysteries, conflicts, confusion — is that all there is to the childhood obesity discussion? Absolutely not! While there is no silver bullet, what we do have are a lot of good answers that have worked for a lot of people. The amazing thing is …

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. …

Food addiction is misunderstood but real, says Cheryl Williams, in a piece called “Food Addiction: Similarities and Differences to Drug and Alcohol Addiction.” As so many others have noted, one of the differences is that we need food to live, but not d …

Back in May, when Oprah Winfrey publicly announced her food addiction, William Anderson took note. He specializes in helping people shed their extra pounds, and his book, The Anderson Method, deals with the use of psychotherapeutic techniques to achiev …

Every now and then, something comes from out of left field. A connection between childhood obesity and the common cold? Who would have thought of it? Somebody did, and while there have been other studies tracking possible associations between obesity a …

In collaboration with Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. John La Puma taught the first cooking and nutrition course in the United States that was designed specifically for medical students. Then with Rebecca Marx, Dr. La Puma went on to found ChefMD, whose missio …

Oprah Winfrey is a mentor and role model for millions, so naturally it makes sense to check out who she gets her advice from: trainer Bob Greene. The Best Life is his website, and we’re here to find out what he’s been telling Oprah. Greene’s program ha …

Pamela Peeke, M.D., is one of America’s few physicians who have completed training in nutrition science. She sees life as a journey, and her practice is a way of supporting people in the transformations they experience and cause along that journey. Pee …

Our guest columnist today is President Barack Obama… Just kidding. Actually, what we have here is a quotation from the Presidential Proclamation that was issued on the first day of this month, to announce the first National Childhood Obesity Awarenes …

Usually we have no sympathy to spare for the fast food industry, but it seems like even when it tries to do better, things don’t work out somehow. Thanks, Yunji de Nies and Claudia Acosta of ABC News, for reporting on this. When Yum Brands introduced g …

Robin Shreves, a stay-at-home mom who writes about eco-friendly food options, recently interviewed Mrs. Q, a teacher in the American Midwest with a mission to improve school lunches. She frankly admits to not having all the answers. To learn more, she …

Dr. Thomas A. Buchanan is in favor of the “minimally invasive weight-loss surgery” as the solution to the childhood obesity epidemic, and he has said as much in the Obesity journal. Reacting against his opinion, Katherine Gustafson says, Wow, now I thi …

Health columnist Melinda Beck writes for the The Wall Street Journal, and she had also formerly edited that publication’s Marketplace section. Recently, she looked into the technology of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) scanning, and how it …

Raj Patel is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Sadly, this interview with Patel was conducted not by us, but by Onnesha Roychoudhuri. Her work appears via Alternet, publisher of this piece, and in Salon, Mo …

It’s a lens, a filter, a point of view, a set of new eyes, a new set of mind. It’s the psychological food-dependence-addiction lens. Whatever you like to call it, it is very much needed. So many children and teenagers are drowning in fat, and they’re d …

In “What is MI?,” Stephen Rollnick, Ph.D., and William R. Miller, Ph.D., talk about the spirit of motivational interviewing, which tends to downplay formal technique. The authors summarize it in seven key points, which are also briefly summed up here, …

Obesity can be bad enough, but obesity in front of millions of people, whose eyes are glued to every ounce you gain, that’s a real recipe for distress. The struggle against food addiction is difficult for anyone. For a woman who is not only a celebrity …

As we have noted before, not every MD in history has recoiled from the food addiction paradigm. A few shining lights have gone on record, and risked being thought of as cranks, or worse. Sobriety coach Cynthia Perkins is the author of Get Sober Stay So …

This really should come as no surprise to anyone, but now it’s official: Stressed out teens are more likely to be overweight or obese, especially if they live with a mom who also feels frazzled… Fathers figure in this psychological dynamic, too, in a b …