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 …

Paula Goodyer writes about health for The Sydney Morning Herald and Cleo Magazine, among others, and has published three books. She is a recipient of the Walkley award, the Australian journalistic-excellence equivalent of the Pulitzer. In her “The Tast …

Nancy Churnin of the Dallas Morning News recently interviewed three doctors about keeping kids healthy, and the very first suggestion she lists concerns childhood obesity:  Get an early start. For instance, high fructose corn syrup should be a no-no, r …

Liz Snyder is full of ideas for healthier families, and she shares several of them in her fascinating article about kids and food. Snyder has a Master’s degree in nutritional anthropology, and she describes herself as a food activist. Snyder’s special …

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 …

Dr. David Kessler’s book The End of Overeating was reviewed by Shannon Brown, who notes that Kessler is the person we can thank for curbing the nicotine industry’s desire to target children in advertising, the crusade he took on as Commissioner of the …

At the University of Sydney, Australia, researchers looked at parental attitudes about overweight and obesity in children and teens, and Michael Booth wrote up the results. Other team members were L.A. King, D.L. Pagnini, R. L. Wilkenfeld, and S. L. Bo …

Grandma made a wicked pecan pie, and so did Mom, and I’ve baked a pecan pie or two myself. I might bake one again some day. So I was very interested to learn, from Liz Gutman at Serious Eats, the difference between traditional, regular corn syrup, and …

Film Journal International brings us Frank Lovece’s comprehensive review of a dramedy called Lbs. The subtitle is “Heavyweight human drama of a food addict going cold turkey.” The reviewer is especially impressed by the dialogue between two friends who …

A recent New York Times report by Rachel Cromidas, on the rough Chicago neighborhood of Englewood, quotes a neighborhood resident who says, “Shopping at a corner store is too expensive, and they don’t sell stuff every day, so you have to check the date …

“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 …

Here’s an insightful piece by Adi Narayan, who habitually writes about science and medicine for Time. Called “Building a Better Label,” it is, not surprisingly, all about the rules set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the nutritional …

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 …

Did you know there’s an official category called EDNOS? That means “eating disorder not otherwise specified.” It’s a catchall term for any kind of pathological relationship with food that is neither anorexia nor bulimia. This is currently a hot topic a …

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 …

First, let’s look at one of the wrong ways to eat, as demonstrated by the dinosaurs called sauropods, who are, incidentally, now extinct. According to an uncredited article at Alpha Galileo, researchers at the University of Bonn, Germany, unraveled a c …

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, …

Just when you thought you’d heard the epitome of absurdity, along comes another crazy notion to top the last one. How about formula for toddlers that is laced with chocolate and vanilla flavorings? Of course the stuff is marketed as not only benign, bu …

by Meredee Lloyd A recent poll conducted in Minnesota found that most adults there are in denial about their true weight status. They also tend to overlook overweight and obesity in their own children. In fact, some parents in this poll were concerned …

Mark Morford’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle takes on several weight- and food-related topics, such as the effect of obesity on the U.S. military, freshness expiration dates, and the unholy alliance between a certain well-known anti-cancer fund …

Huffington Post blogger Jan Shepherd, who had lost 200 pounds and kept it off for nearly 10 years, talks about handling addictive behaviors: As addictive behaviors go, ones dealing with food and eating are among the most complicated and complex. I’m no …

One of the foundations of Dr. Pretlow’s philosophy is the principle that the kids themselves are the experts, and they are worth listening to. In fact, we’d better listen to them, or we will wind up spending a lot of resources on programs that are doom …

Titled “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction,” this classic examination of a food fad was published by The Indypendent, of which author Arun Gupta is also a founding editor. Gupta notes the increasing proliferation of pork fat in the diets of so many …

This profile on CNN Health turns a sociological eye upon the life of an overweight child named Claudia Garza. Actually, Garza is a grownup now; a citizen journalist who recounted her story for iReport, the section of CNN generated by the public. Then h …

That overweight kids are likely to become obese adults seems to be a fairly reasonable assumption. Of course, whether a person is young or old, excess fat is a liability. It’s just that, as we age, extra poundage becomes even more of a liability. Scien …

Holidays make for difficult times for the weight-conscious kids. So remember to act accordingly. As Grandma used to say, Have fun, but not too much fun! Happy Memorial Day! Image by Tobeyotter, used under its Creative Commons license.