Created by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Day is meant to unite Americans behind the idea of healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. Its promoters point out that, every year, several hundred thousand people die too soon, as a re …

Childhood Obesity News has been thinking about gardens, from the angles that figure in the effort against childhood obesity. A garden can help in a more circuitous way, by morphing the family budget into something much more reasonable than before. When …

Not long ago, Childhood Obesity News considered the White House Garden cultivated by Michelle Obama, and her book about it, and the First Lady’s encouragement of vegetable gardens in general. Since then, we located some words from Andrea King Collier, …

With elections coming up, it seems like people would have enough to do, in evaluating the current and potential presidents. Still, many appear to spend more energy concentrating on the activities of the president’s wife and her program to end childhood …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News started to explore TEDMED, an organization that arranges an annual conference where all sorts of people talk about the future of medicine. And we do mean all sorts. The 2012 TEDMED Conference list of more than 60 speak …

Here is an article titled, “Why TEDMED might be the only health conference worth going to.” That’s an impressive claim! Backing it up is the organization’s clinical editor, Dr. Pritpal S Tamber, who is in a good position to make the case. TEDMED is a s …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the pending California situation, where residents of the state are trying to pass legislation that would compel food manufacturers to label genetically modified products. But what does this have to do with ch …

Since awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic has been raised, kids are kept track of more closely, and one result of that scrutiny is a rather jarring prediction. By 2020, American life expectancy is likely to be reduced by 13 years. In other word …

For good or ill, California is often the first state to lead the way in fashion, cultural change, and legislation. Often, for good or ill, the rest of the country follows California’s lead. Indeed, Michael Pollan describes stirrings of discontent that …

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 …

Sure, it’s only mid-October, but in some retail outlets, the giant bags of Halloween candy have been filling entire aisles since Thanksgiving. So, in a way, it’s already too late. Tons of the stuff have already been sold, and taken to American homes 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 …

I’m so glad you shared with me your worries about putting on too much weight. It shows that you are thinking about things, which is always a plus. Especially, thinking about your own future. And while we’re on that subject, you’re probably wondering ab …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News discussed a recent article by The Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Beck, who mentioned that the nutritional deficiency theory of food cravings seems to be disproved, because so many cravings are addressed to food-like sub …

Cravings for any desired and potentially harmful substance are obligingly real enough to show up for scientific measurement. As we know, the human brain, hooked up to a MRI scanner, is capable of reacting to the thought of a chocolate milkshake as if i …

A while back, Childhood Obesity News looked at various things the government does to fight childhood obesity. Not surprisingly, many of these measures have to do with food — its availability, quality, quantity, cost, and many other aspects. It’s worth …

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the major proponents of reducing childhood obesity, has issued a two-page progress report (PDF download) on American states where the situation has improved and their beliefs about why. Philadelphia has seen 2 …

One of the classic signs of addiction is the addict’s tendency to need more and more of the substance of choice. There is evidence that the parts of the brain that recognize pleasure can become jaded. Tolerance to the substance seems to knock out the d …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News began to explore the complicated realm of the human sense of taste. Dr. David Katz has been thinking about the subject also. The research that he is talking about was published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood a …

There’s nothing like dueling headlines to make a person sit up and take notice. Last week, one website’s story title announced, “Children Who Suffer From Obesity Have More Sensitive Taste-Buds,” while another read, “Study: Obese Kids Have Less Sensitiv …

This summer, thanks to a study sponsored by UCLA and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA), that troubled state learned that 38% of its children are “significantly overweight.” Lisen Stromberg, for Patch.com, approaches this fact by …

Childhood Obesity News is honored to be recognized by MasterofPublicHealth.org, a website for health professionals, prospective professionals, and other interested parties, which recently published its list of “100 Essential Online Public Health Resour …

Eating is one of the most basic, primal activities, and humans have been doing it ever since they’ve been around. Nevertheless, and astonishingly, every week or so, scientists issue press releases having to do with eating and food. Mostly, they’re inte …

From Tel Aviv University, Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz suggests that eating sweets at breakfast can exert a positive influence for the rest of the day. This possibility is based on a study in which some participants were given low-carbohydrate, low-calorie b …

Almost everyone agrees that home-cooked meals are the best, and fresh food is the best. With home cooking, you don’t get the additives and chemicals that some research shows to have strange effects on the childhood obesity equation, turning it from a s …

An ordinary person who refrains from eating meat for a period of time, or who accomplishes the much more difficult feat of abstaining from sugar for a week or two, will experience some very strange sensations the first time eating meat or tasting sugar …

For several years now, September has been the National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month in America. Lauren Rossen, Ph.D., explains the concept, beginning with an assertion that, awareness-wise, we still have a long way to go. One out of every three ki …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at some of the difficulties faced by Chicago schools in trying to practice garden-based education and to bring the results to school lunch tables. In contrast, Denver public schools follow a different set of gui …

A while back, Childhood Obesity News talked about one offshoot of Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move! program — her book. The full title is American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. It features community gardens in s …

It’s hard to argue against the usefulness of home gardens in fighting obesity among children and adults alike. Fresh garden produce does not contain goop like high fructose corn syrup or MSG, or other additives that can lead to unhealthy overeating and …