Nobody wants to be a one-trick pony. Nobody wants to be viewed as a fanatic in the grip of a twisted, vendetta-like obsession against one particular villain. But, sometimes, a topic is difficult to ignore. You can’t simply mention it once and then move …

Here’s an interesting and disturbing fact. When The Obesity Society sent out word to its members to line up speakers for its annual scientific meeting in October, abstracts were requested in four tracks or categories: Molecular Mechanisms of Obesity, N …

You’ve had your day — and you’re no longer welcome here! Three cheers for Corporate Accountability International (CAI) whose “Retire Ronald” campaign is going after this character just like they went after Joe Camel, and, in that instance, had won. CA …

Dr. Davis Liu is a family physician with the Permanente Medical Group and the author of Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely, which is about making intelligent choices in the healthcare system of America as we currently know it. In the piece we’re l …

Fast food and hospitals are the two concepts that should not be found together in the same sentence. And yet, their relationship grows cozier all the time. It was with some dismay that Dr. Pretlow recently noticed a TV commercial for the Blizzard Child …

Did you know that, in the United States, one out of three school districts offers its students items from a fast-food chain? It says so in a CNBC special report called “One Nation, Overweight” and compiled by Scott Wapner. The most common is a certain …

We previously wrote about how much we regret the tendency of corporations to use such attractive aesthetic trimmings as riotous colors, animated cartoons, and music to entice children into demanding junk food. Of course, that will never change. As long …

Jeanna Bryner, managing editor at LiveScience, interviewed Sarah Gable, a researcher at the University of Missouri, about the emotional consequences of childhood obesity: low self-esteem from being teased or bullied, depression, anxiety, and loneliness …

Health writer Amanda Gardner recently wrote about a report completed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health. As Gardner reminds us in Business Week, Obesity is one of the biggest public health crises in the country. Ri …

We’ve been going on and on about the difficulty of introducing the concept of food addiction. And it is in many ways an uphill push, but not a hopeless one. Today, we salute some people who have opened their minds enough to look through the psychologic …

Childhood obesity is a worldwide problem. Not long ago, Stephanie Nebehay reported for Reuters on the latest World Health Organization guidelines. A WHO spokesperson, Timothy Armstrong, is quoted as saying, The rate of increase in the developing world …

Some people in Scotland think that junk food advertising now needs to be completely eliminated from television. Since 2007, such ads have been banned from appearing during children’s programs, but now, […] health campaigners say kids are still suscepti …

Once the food addiction paradigm has been introduced, some conclusions follow, whether fair or not is yet to be decided. One conclusion is that parents who leave a child’s food addiction untreated, to the point of morbid obesity, are just as culpable a …

Child obesity expert Dr. Joanna Dolgoff, recently writing for The Huffington Post, provided a pediatrician’s view of a controversial legal issue. In South Carolina, the mother of a 555-pound teenager was slammed with a criminal neglect charge. Her son …

Why do many parents reject the food addiction paradigm? One reason is a plain old denial in the face of irrefutable facts, such as statistics. Of course, it takes a bit of savvy to understand statistics, and, in the interpretation of the Body Mass Inde …

We’ve talked about the question, “What is food?” We’ll be talking about it more, but today the question is, “What is addiction?” The food addiction paradigm is being taken seriously by many, such as the uncredited author of an article titled “Overcome …

Everything you know is wrong, including the fact that everything you know is wrong. It used to be said that advertisers should be able to get by, spending only half as much, because 50 percent of all advertising is wasted. Only problem — nobody knew w …

The "Fuel Up To Play 60" Campaign is sponsored by Domino's Pizza, among others. (Part Two of a Two-Part Post)(View Part One) by Robert A. Pretlow, M.D. My last post had to do with the difficulty of medical science in accepting food addic …

HFCS lobby was a sponsor of the Obesity Society 2008 scientific meeting. (Part One of a Two-Part Post)(View Part Two) by Robert A. Pretlow, M.D. Why Does The Obesity Community Reject Addiction? In September 2009, I conducted a plenary session presentat …

In the 19th century, Britain fought a war to force China to allow the sale of opium, which has lead to an epidemic of addiction in that country. At its worst, the addict population was said to have been 70 million, although such things are notoriously …

Have you noticed that it’s possible to buy chocolate-coated just-about-anything? Pretzels, coffee beans, bananas, popcorn, squash, potato chips, even bacon. You name it, and someone has coated it with chocolate. Humans love chocolate so much, they will …

A recent comment to “The Childhood Obesity Perfect Storm, Part 6” post on the Childhood Obesity News blog describes the “Go, Slow, Whoa!” widget tool created by the We Can! Program of NHLBI, NIH. The widget’s purpose is to impact childhood obesity. It …

The childhood obesity epidemic is a problem that looms so threateningly that a large variety of methods must be sought to deal with it. That’s why Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative came up with 70 recommendations. A great many of them, of cours …

Here’s an interesting phrase: “spontaneous recovery.” It sounds like it should mean something good, but this is counter-intuitive, because in addiction medicine the term doesn’t mean anything good. It means someone who seemed to have gotten better, but …

“Of course not!” That’s a normal human response, when somebody suggests that we refuse to face the truth about something. We deny that there is a problem, including the problem of our non-recognition of the problem. That’s why they call it denial! Lisa …

In a nicely balanced report for the Houston Chronicle, Kim Morgan explores the question of whether food addiction is real. She interviews a counselor who has his doubts, and a counselor who leads food addiction recovery support groups modeled after Alc …

Kevin Chappell, senior editor of Ebony magazine, who writes extensively about national politics, recently noted a new phase of the Let’s Move! campaign created by Michelle Obama to end childhood obesity. The First Lady is recruiting the help of cooking …

In some circles, putting forward the idea that food can be an addictive substance will win a person the reputation of a serious crackpot. This is often the fate of innovators who have more than average awareness, and who see a bit more deeply into soci …

Maybe you thought that yesterday’s post, on tools for dealing with childhood obesity, was the end of covering this subject, but, no — let’s look at a few more ideas. First, a general observation. It’s useful to bear in mind that practically everyone h …

The root word of “morbid” means “death” in Latin, and morbid obesity interferes with the basic functions of life, like breathing or walking. Morbid obesity is generally defined as being 100 lbs. over the ideal weight, or twice as much as ideal weight, …