Coronavirus Chronicles — 5 Pounds, 20 Times

January 11, 2021
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People who have gained unwanted pounds due to being cooped up and unable to get enough exercise to use up the calories might find others’ experiences helpful.

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Eat Less, Move More Dilemma

January 8, 2021
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For people who always found it difficult to “eat less,” life is more problematic than ever. The “move more” part of the old equation is also disrupted.

Coronavirus Chronicles — COVID-19 Not As Ageist As Believed

January 5, 2021
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With regard to age, the virus does not discriminate. It also goes after obese people, including kids, more zealously than it does healthy-weight people.

Coronavirus Chronicles — No Youth Pass

December 29, 2020
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COVID-19 may predispose people to baldness, just as it makes them more vulnerable to developing obesity.

Holiday Eating Trauma — A Field Ripe for Harvest

December 28, 2020
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The association of celebration with feasting is one of humankind’s oldest social phenomena. This truth brings spectacular joy and also quite a lot of anguish.

‘Tis the Season to be Traumatized

December 24, 2020
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Let’s face it, for some people, having a less social holiday season this year could be a much-needed respite.

Merry Christmas and/or Any Additional Holiday/s of Your Choice

December 23, 2020
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The basic principles of obesity avoidance are relevant to the feasts and festivals of many religious traditions, at any time of year — Christmas included.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Transmission and Kids

December 17, 2020
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For months, a citadel of wishful thinking that children don’t easily contract and spread the virus had been constructed. Now it began to crumble.

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Mutual Aid Pact Between Obesity and COVID-19

December 16, 2020
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The virus has every reason to embrace obesity as the optimal human condition for its purposes, and the harmful alliance works both ways.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Exercise Deprivation and Baby Steps

December 14, 2020
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In this virus-saturated environment, a major theme of public discussion is the harm being done to kids who are unable to get enough exercise. What can we do?

Government Alarm and Even Weirder Mukbang

December 11, 2020
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Just when it seemed that mukbang could not get any more bizarre, a new wrinkle appeared, featuring only the sound effects of eating for ASMR devotees.

Another Facet of Mukbang, Continued

December 10, 2020
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There are aural experiences that some people would do anything to escape, but others willingly listen to sounds that would send a misophone into a straitjacket.

Mukbang: New Problems, New Resources

December 8, 2020
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Ordinary people who record their mukbang experiences on social media provide useful anecdotal evidence — the fertile ground from which evidence is born.

The Epitome of Eatertainment, Continued

December 7, 2020
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Originally, no one connected mukbang with the danger of promoting eating disorders, but, increasingly, health officials are considering the trend problematic.

The Epitome of Eatertainment

December 4, 2020
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Leaving the mukbang video performers aside for a moment, what do the millions of viewers get out of this strange preoccupation?

The Mukbang Origin Story

December 3, 2020
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The videos that glorify binge-eating allegedly started with the noble intention of alleviating loneliness.

The Mukbang Mindset

December 2, 2020
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What is going on with this incredible profusion of un-wellness videos? Why are people compelled to surrender their consciousness to a hobby as weird as mukbang?

Extreme Eating — Disgusting, or Appalling?

December 1, 2020
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If you have never heard of mukbang (pronounced mook-bong), consider yourself lucky. We wish that we had not heard of it.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Massive Indirect Influence

November 30, 2020
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There are many truly disturbing side effects of the pandemic that darken the lives even of people who never caught the virus.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Side Effects Alarming

November 27, 2020
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Despite this being a new disease with less than a year’s worth of data on hand, we already have indications that the long-range outlook is a nightmare.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Burnout and Disorder

November 25, 2020
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Any onset of mental disturbance, whether first-time or episodic, is likely to make the victim vulnerable to harmful consequences, including eating disorders.

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Virus vs. Mental Health

November 24, 2020
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COVID-19 is not satisfied by leaving survivors with a collection of residual physical symptoms, including those that could linger. It also attacks the psyche.

Coronavirus Chronicles — COVID-19’s War on Mental Health

November 23, 2020
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During the pandemic, a high level of stress many kids are experiencing can bring out latent eating disorders and other mental illnesses, now and later.

Coronavirus Chronicles — There’s Nothing to Do!

November 20, 2020
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If ever there was a time to encourage a child’s slightest interest in anything besides food, it is now, when a lot of us working or learning from home.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Preserving Mental Health

November 19, 2020
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Children’s states of mind are important, including when it comes to preventing childhood obesity, and now, the kids’ anxiety levels are going nowhere but up.

Coronavirus Chronicles — COVID-19 a Disaster for Young Minds

November 18, 2020
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In addition to obesity and COVID-19, a third pandemic has joined the crew — PTSD — leaving generations of kids scarred.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Is PTSD Another Pandemic?

November 17, 2020
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Even back in June, predictions were being made of catastrophic results from school closures. Currently, none of the patchwork solutions is satisfactory.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Coping With Nothingness

November 16, 2020
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The virus has both direct and indirect effects on the obesity pandemic. Other problems contribute to obesity by providing emotional deprivation and boredom.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Odious Obesity in League With Calamitous COVID-19

November 11, 2020
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We have been tracking the ways in which COVID-19 and obesity do little favors for each other that pay big dividends to both of them.

Coronavirus Chronicles — COVID-19 and Obesity, Fast Friends

November 10, 2020
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Some reporters looked into the exercise situation for the kids during the pandemic’s lockdowns and remote learning and found it to be as bad as predicted.

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Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Obesity top bottom

The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism

Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause

Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.

Food & Health Resources