At the University of Missouri, Sara Gable discovered that being stigmatized because of their body size has the same effect on kids as being stigmatized because of their race. To be a member of an out-group is, in itself, stressful. It leads to depressi …

There were years when Dr. Pretlow didn’t talk with other medics about the psychological basis of obesity, or even mention the “a” word, addiction, in relation to food. Professional resistance to the idea was very frustrating, and he was told at one con …

The recent Consumer Reports National Research Center surveyed about 1,300 psychologists about the relationship between weight loss and emotions. Apparently, only 306 of them offer weight loss treatment per se, so their answers may count for more. Out o …

Children need vitamin D for their bones. The lack of it can make them get rickets, a condition not seen much in the United States, although it is said to be increasing. Vitamin D is also necessary for protection against other problems like decaying tee …

Looking at the brain’s reward circuits is a hot research area, and sugar is one of the favorite substances to experiment with. Consequently, the past 12 months have been rich in sugar addiction news. At the Oregon Research Institute, researchers starte …

Here is a first-person account by a not-obese woman, of an encounter at a party: The high tables were pushed together into long strips, with barstool seating along both sides. I talked a bit with the woman next to me, and then she asked if I would mind …

Childhood Obesity News has reviewed high fructose corn syrup before, and found the track record of HFCS to be unimpressive. Or too impressive, but not in a good way. A year ago we quoted early worrier Sara Novak, whose words are an example of how yeste …

Childhood Obesity News has been considering the distressing story of Vilma Soltesz, who died in Hungary recently because three airlines refused to let her travel on their planes, and then she got too sick to travel back to the United States. This story …

We see some things so often, we just take them for granted, and get used to them. It never occurs to us to step back and say, “Wait… What?” One of those freakish sociological quirks is the overwhelming and ubiquitous obsession with the bodies of famo …

Really? For the holidays, are we going to talk about a bummer like addiction? Yes, indeed, because at this time of year, addictions that might have lain dormant for a while have a tendency to bloom. It’s a rough season for many people and for a lot of …

Jennifer Walker is an actor, photographer, and writer of lively posts online. Walker realized that she was addicted to sugar, and partway into a monthlong sugar fast, reflected on the mind-body connection: From what I’ve read, I need to find something …

In one of the most attention-getting books on food and nutrition to have been published in the last decade, The End of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler puts forth the idea that even though the individual ingredients in food might not be overwhelmingly att …

The EarlyBird Diabetes Study, even though technically still in progress, has already reported on a number of interesting findings, and different people have gotten interested in different aspects. When attempting to predict whether a baby is at risk fo …

Defending a corporation is a bit like showing “sympathy for the devil,” as the Rolling Stones song phrased it. But just for the sake of discussion, let’s pretend that maybe even an international business conglomerate might not be wrong all the time. Be …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News mentioned the upcoming documentary film (scheduled for release in June 2013) which Dr. Pretlow will appear in, titled Sweet Nothing: America’s Addiction to Sugar. These are by no means the only voices raised against su …

20K Films is an independent outfit that makes low-budget, high-quality documentaries, with Laura Zinger as producer and director. One of their previous works is about sickle cell anemia, and the current project is Sweet Nothing: America’s Addiction to …

I’m guessing that you remember my friend who played hand drums. You know, the one who got neuropathy in his feet, from Type 1 diabetes. Please don’t have nightmares, because your mom will be mad enough to super-glue me to a chair or something. But gues …

We were talking about diabetes and what a stone cold bummer it is when somebody has it. Okay, so I sound like a grandma — what would you say? I think you know what a stone bummer means, in grandma-land. If you want to school me about modern words, go …

I was hanging out with an old friend the other day, a percussionist, who always played hand drums — you know, congas and djembes and doumbeks and all that good stuff. He was in a bunch of bands and had a ton of hot girlfriends. The bad news is, he gre …

The EarlyBird study and others like it are important because they’re about preventing the preventable kind of diabetes, Type 2. Prevention is, of course, the best way, if it can be done. And if Type 2 develops, and is diagnosed, it can in many cases be …

It’s National Diabetes Month, 2012. In the effort to solve diabetes and childhood obesity, why do we look at research based on data collected in 2005 and even farther back in time? Because to a certain extent, that’s how it is in any kind of study. It …

When generalized statements are made about diabetes, it pretty much means Type 2, because 9/10ths (maybe more) of the patients are afflicted by Type 2. A recently released study by the Centers for Disease Control found that in some American cities, dia …

In the realm of childhood obesity research, one of the big perplexing mysteries is the relationship between childhood obesity and diabetes. What exactly is going on there? How do cause and effect apply? Is it a vicious cycle? Take the United States. “D …

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and keep this post in mind when dinner is over, and the next day. At this traditional American celebration, people tend to eat too much and eat the wrong things. It all contributes to both adult obesity and childhood obes …

When a person eats, a gland inside, called the pancreas, makes insulin, which keeps blood sugar in check. This is good because only a certain amount of sugar is supposed to be circulating around in a person’s bloodstream. But what if our cells don’t re …

Dr. Pretlow would very much like to see a new, improved Halloween, because the way things are now, it’s all about sabotage. Even kids who have stayed pretty close to the healthful eating path the rest of the year have trouble keeping their behavior in …

Let’s see, we already talked about fat cells, and, by the way, the picture on this page is of two giant fat cells. Just kidding! Childhood Obesity News has issues, and likes to take advantage of every chance to diss McDonald’s. And, seriously, if you d …