The best way to avoid foods that are bad for you is to stay away from foods with health claims on the label. They are usually hiding something bad. What a powerful quotation! These are the words of Dr. Mark Hyman, who, like Dr. Pretlow, has written and …

As a childhood obesity villain, gluten is one of the “usual suspects” and Childhood Obesity News has looked at the case against it before. InsuliteLabs.com takes an especially dim view of gluten: As many as 75% of overweight and obese people in the U.S …

One thing to keep in mind, always, is that children are different from grownups. They do go through what used to be called “phases” and are apt to try out and then quickly discard behaviors as part of their natural development. Another thing to remembe …

Although obesity is the second most widespread cause of preventable death in the United States, many people still disagree over the American Medical Association’s June decision to classify obesity as a disease. Licensed mental health counselor William …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News discussed a Contemporary Pediatrics article in which Dr. Pretlow was generously quoted. The substantial piece, by Lisette Hilton, went on to examine an aspect of treatment that’s not often mentioned — the difficulty d …

The September issue of Contemporary Pediatrics rounded up the opinions of several experts on the question of how to make a difference in reducing the alarming rate of childhood obesity. The author, Lisette Hilton, found that they agree on one thing: te …

As Childhood Obesity News has been discussing, the city-state of Singapore is quite serious about lowering its childhood obesity rate, and is pursuing that goal with a two-pronged strategy. One prong is more physical fitness for all citizens — regardl …

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Singapore identifies the primary causes of childhood obesity as environmental: An abundance of food allows for excessive intake of food from all food groups, especially fats. A diet high in fat is associated with i …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at some of the programs implemented by the government of Singapore over the past few years to prevent childhood obesity. We also got a glimpse of the future plan slated to begin in the new year, a physical educa …

In 2010, the Asian Journal of Exercise & Sports Science published a lengthy report authored by eight experts titled “Obesity Prevention in Singapore: Collaborative Efforts Among Government, Health Professionals and the Community.” The authors ident …

Childhood Obesity News has been looking at Singapore’s 15-year experiment that ended when a government that is often perceived as oppressively authoritarian made a surprising reversal. Under the “Trim and Fit” (TAF) program, the policy had been to clos …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News discussed the Trim and Fit program that had been in place in Singapore schools since 1992, in which overweight children were required to do extra physical education activities and have their caloric intake monitored wh …

GuideMeSingapore.com tells us that the island city-state contains more than 4,500 food and beverage establishments, “from hawker stalls to fine dining restaurants.” About 14% of tourist expenditure winds up in the bank accounts of these eateries. Forme …

Carnie Wilson is worth thinking about because she is iconic. She’s talented, upfront and a real trooper who may be one of the hardest-working women in show business. “Relatability” is a very important quality in the entertainment world, and plus-size w …

In the photo above, the Wilson Phillips trio are onstage with audience members during a May 2013 concert. Carnie Wilson, subject of yesterday’s post, is the barefoot woman on the far right. Ms. Wilson is well-known not only because of her singing abili …

A while back, Childhood Obesity News traced the career of singer and actor Carnie Wilson as a professional obese person — unfortunately, that seems to be the role the media have assigned her. As an aspiring artist, she almost certainly never intended …

At age 14, Taylor LeBaron weighed nearly 300 pounds. His accomplishment was to cut his body weight in half; his goal is to help other young people do the same. He became a college student and, on the side, a motivational speaker. Daisy Dumas of the Dai …

Dance Dance Revolution isn’t exactly Grand Theft Auto, but is a game in the sense that a player accumulates points by hitting spots on a special mat, according to the directions issued by a video console. Back in 2010, researchers at West Virginia Univ …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned a study originating from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services in our nation’s capital. Among other things: The study’s authors suggest that vigorous video games may hav …

For MedPage Today, Todd Neale wrote about an Australian study of active video games, which concluded that: Removing all video games from the home or replacing traditional video games with active video games both resulted in small improvements in physic …

Last time, we ended up by mentioning some exergames that adults like. The combination of video-based games and exercise may seem a bit strange to a public that has become accustomed to thinking of video games as a childhood obesity villain. But Cynthia …

We have been talking about Zamzee, not to either endorse this particular system or diss it. It’s an interesting example of the gamification of obesity, and the subject cannot be abandoned without noting one of the features of the system. Kids whose act …

Holiday note: Remember, Halloween doesn’t have to be a caloric disaster. All parents are invited to revisit the Childhood Obesity News posts dated October 4, October 7, and October 8 for support and validation, and maybe even some fresh ideas. Happy Ha …

Yesterday, two video clips were included in the post, to make the point that getting some exercise indoors, by imitating the actions of a character in a video game, is preferable to no exercise at all. (And good luck to the downstairs neighbors.) Here …

Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned how Boston Children’s Hospital discovered that television is more of a childhood obesity villain than other types of electronic screens. Actually, it’s not the TV itself but the concentrated attention, which …

Dr. Pretlow has observed that medicine doesn’t embrace the Internet as a means of care or research. As days go by, this becomes less of an obstacle. Acceptance creeps in around the edges and even the upper echelons of establishment medicine begin to ge …

The BMO Financial Group maintains a huge presence in both Canada and the United States, and includes three operating groups — one for banking, one for financial management, and one for investing. With financial assets in the neighborhood of $550 billi …

Harvard University’s School of Public Health has definite ideas about what it calls the toxic food environment in the United States, and it sees food marketing as one of the major problem areas. A huge amount of money is spent each year by corporate in …

What happens when The Huffington Post gets together with Harvard to examine the toxic food environment? To see the video discussion, this page is the place. The basic rationale for the conversation goes like this: Historically, conventional wisdom has …

Childhood Obesity News mentioned a Wall Street Journal article in which the president of a “food flavor and texture company” explained the psychological appeal of chewable snacks: Crunchy foods may provide stress-relief, like hitting a racquetball afte …