It appears that the origins of cravings are both physical and psychological. Laboratory research strongly indicates a chemical basis for at least some food cravings. Additional conclusions have been drawn by scientists in other fields, who observe huma …

Take obesity… please. Standup comic Greg Giraldo made fun of the media for hyping the obesity epidemic as if it were as frightening and destructive as the polio epidemic of the early 1950s. (Five-minute video, adult material.) And he had a point. Compa …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at the various efforts toward craving reduction that have been suggested by different people. A mention, of course, doesn’t imply that Dr. Pretlow necessarily recommends the measure for any particular patient. It …

The wry motto of Eartha’s blog is, “Trying Fitness — because you’ve tried everything else.” She recommends switching grocery stores, cooking at home, choosing snacks wisely, and stocking healthful snacks in a cooler in one’s car. That’s a great idea f …

Dr. Pretlow equates food cravings to withdrawal symptoms, and, as he repeatedly points out, the vast majority of Weigh2Rock kids really want to know how to resist cravings. Young people are at a disadvantage because they don’t always have control over …

Suzanne Robin, a registered nurse who writes extensively on medical topics, looked into the research done on, of all things, carrots, and found a childhood obesity connection. Parents are always asking, “How do I get my kids to eat vegetables?,” and it …

The main thing to know about food cravings is, this is not some kind of sideshow act. The topic is front and center, the star of the whole childhood obesity epidemic. It appears that food cravings have emotional, biological, and mental origins. Feeling …

A ScienceDaily piece, called “The Psychology of Food Cravings,” discussed the work of two scientists from Flinders University in Australia, Eva Kemps and Marika Tiggemann. They wanted to figure out why humans are plagued by intense desires to eat certa …

From the outside of a person, a temptation (and there are thousands of them) will trigger a craving. As if that weren’t troublesome enough, all too often a craving arises spontaneously from inside. But why? We all know that emotions have a lot to do wi …

Childhood Obesity News has remarked on how some things will never change, one of them being the human tendency to celebrate happy occasions with food and drink. In the human psyche, good times are inseparable from feasting. That’s okay, as long as the …

Childhood obesity is very much connected with the mental and emotional condition of wanting something. Often, that something is detrimental to a child’s health. Often, the something is all too easy to get hold of, thanks to the many factors that make u …

What’s the difference between a craving and a temptation? A craving is self-generated. It’s intrinsic. It comes from within. You’re sitting around, minding your own business, and suddenly realize you want something sweet or crunchy, or salty. So you go …

Here’s a really interesting list, titled “25 Facts You Should Share for School Lunch Week,” and although School Lunch Week was in October, there is no point in waiting until next October to become informed about these matters. Of course, consulting the …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at schools and the problems connected with their ability to impact the childhood obesity epidemic. Since this became a national concern, several interesting side issues have arisen, and perhaps the most shocking …

Just recently, Childhood Obesity News discussed public schools — the celebration of holidays in them, the bringing of treats to them, and the holding of bake sales to financially support them. What has not yet been mentioned is the Happy Meal fundrais …

Childhood Obesity News has been talking about holiday problems, including the superabundance of food in many households. A mom/hostess might fix lots of healthy snacks, but a bachelor uncle will probably stop off at the Chocolate-Covered Bacon Shack fo …

This week, Americans are squeezed between two holidays typically observed by indulging in excess. No doubt, many people already look forward to January 1, when the new personal regime of health will begin. But first, there is still a whole lot of eatin …

When healthcare professionals publish articles about childhood obesity, online commentaries sometimes throw back a strange knee-jerk response. Every now and then, an indignant parent will exclaim, “No child should be on a diet!” There seems to be a def …

Treena Wynes knows all about the emotional-eating cycle and how to conquer it. Formerly a bulimic teen who fought a years-long battle with compulsive eating, she became a social worker and weight-loss counselor, specializing in emotional dependency on …

We’re looking at the paradox of how a country or a person can be obese and malnourished at the same time. This is an important matter, not least because the seeming contradiction provides an opening for people from some segments of the political spectr …

The obesity epidemic contains a strange and terrible contradiction, terrible because it leads to a lot of misunderstanding and a lack of empathy. To be overfed, yet undernourished, is a thing that can happen to either a person or a country. In a recent …

Childhood obesity and adult obesity continue to afflict countries around the world. Laurie Cunningham used an interesting new word: globesity. It’s all over the place. Unfortunately, the author of the news article under consideration today is not credi …

Yes, that title phrase is lifted from Laurie Cunningham, who cleverly adapted it from the Disney song, the one that stays in your head for days after you hear it, the one about how “It’s a small world, after all.” While the world may be small in some w …

When an issue receives publicity, one result can be the positive, conscientious kind of heightened awareness and enlightened attention that inspires helpful action. Too often, there is also a downside, a dark side that resembles unhealthy obsession. Th …

In almost every field of human endeavor, funding is restricted. As a result, rather than a flood of new research, there is a phenomenon called the meta-study. Remember this Yale University discovery? Sugar-sweetened beverages have a strange effect. On …

We’ve been talking about television in conjunction with obesity, and, really, the farther this subject is looked into, the weirder it gets. Perfect example: a story by Stefanie Dazio titled “Hundreds line up outside Newark hospital to audition for real …

The trouble with eating for success, it seems like every time somebody declares, “This approach works!,” another expert comes along and announces, “No, it doesn’t.” That’s why some of the Childhood Obesity News posts are facetiously titled “Everything …

Childhood Obesity News has been checking out various books, films, reality TV shows, and so forth. When “Huge” started airing on ABC, Bill Keveney of USA Today wrote about it favorably. The drama series is set at Camp Victory, where teens go to lose we …

Some call it obesi-TV. Actually, not many do. But it’s a term that deserves to spread. A lot of television programs, including several “reality” shows, center around obesity and related eating disorders. Obesi-TV has become a genre, which Los Angeles T …

Remember when Childhood Obesity News saluted the contributions and creativity of Mrs. Q, the school-lunch critic? Do we have an eye for talent, or what? In fact, ever since then, the link to her Fed Up With Lunch blog has resided on our Food & Heal …