Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News mentioned the decreased life expectancy of TV addicts, office workers, and other sedentary people. “Sedentary” is, of course, the dirty nine-letter word referred to in our title, and the habit or necessity of long-term …

Though it has more than four letters, “sedentary” is a dirty word in the anti-obesity business. Sure, workers who have to stand up all day suffer from discomfort and physical consequences. But according to an ever-increasing number of authorities, sitt …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News considered deep brain stimulation, or DBS. Now, we revisit the brain to look at other research where mice took center stage, concerning a change on the cellular level that “accompanies obesity.” ScienceDaily says: The …

This year has already produced some interesting news relating to childhood obesity, with a lot of help from little rodents. Deep Brain Stimulation, or DBS, for instance, involves inserting a devices into the brains of a mouse. Its home is stocked with …

New Jersey governor Chris Christie had “lap-band” surgery three months ago, and has since lost 40 pounds. He didn’t really intend to make headlines over this particular topic, but some pesky reporter called and said they had the story, and wouldn’t he …

Did you know that YouTube offers over 12,000 items under the heading of “Food Porn”? It comes right through the computer screen, and a person can stare at food porn all day long without being ostracized by the community. The consumption of food porn ha …

Before returning to the fascinating subject of food porn, excuse us for a moment while we pat ourselves on the back for being astute spotters of talent and relevance. Yes, Childhood Obesity News covered ChopChop way before it was chosen “Publication of …

We saw how fathers can genetically influence the weight of their children, or at least the weight of their daughters, as shown by an Australian study. Medical Xpress recently wrote about the work being done at University College London with genome-wide …

There are studies showing that poverty correlates with childhood obesity. For instance, in 2010 Harvard Medical School issued study results that showed: […] black and Hispanic children were more likely than white children to have gained weight rapidl …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News considered a study that showed the stress of poverty leading to depressed mothers and overfed, obese infants. Now, what about the effect of financial rewards on adults? The Mayo Clinic did a study that included 100 emp …

Last time, Childhood Obesity News looked at a study from the University of Leipzig showing that lower socioeconomic status is linked to overweight — more so than the lack of physical activity. Dr. Candice Taylor Lucas, of the New York University Schoo …

One of the problems with early intervention in childhood obesity is that any program a school, day care center, or wellness center might implement, is likely to meet with objections from someone who wants to throw a monkey wrench into it for a pragmati …

“Early intervention” seems to be one of those abstract concepts, like world peace, that everyone is theoretically in favor of, but nobody seems to quite know how to achieve. Early intervention involves a vast territory. It impinges on the areas of medi …

When the Institute of Medicine issued the report, “Early Childhood Obesity Prevention Policies,” Dr. Wendy Slusser of the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital said something interesting. As trusted adults who share responsibility for noticing a child’s risk …

Over the past couple of years, many health care professionals studying childhood obesity have arrived at “early intervention” as their takeaway. According to the statistics, each year farther back toward birth that treatment begins, the odds improve. I …

Early intervention to avoid childhood obesity is a hot topic. The reason is obvious, and expressed by the old proverb, “A stitch in time saves nine.” In other words, if the edge of your pocket is starting to tear, sew it up, because once that little te …

Recently, reports appeared of a new study of childhood obesity, which is described as: […] the first comprehensive national profile of associations between weight status and a broad set of associated health conditions, or co-morbidities, that kids su …

Childhood Obesity News has mentioned various aspects of the EarlyBird Study and one of the most important is the fact that dietary habits are established very early in a child’s life. Once established, they tend to be retained. If children’s habits cha …

Celebrities take part in many different kinds of events for a lot of different reasons. Up-and-coming players in show biz, like wanna-be movie stars, find it useful to take part in activism to get their names known. Others are so well-known and success …

In America, for better or worse, we watch celebrities. The examples they set might be positive or negative, uplifting or discouraging. To be fair, celebrities are between a rock and a hard place. In the arts and in show business, if a high-profile pers …

This new webinar is called “The Epidemic of Childhood Obesity: What’s Our Plan?” and although Dr. Pretlow designed it for health care professionals, it’s probably safe to say that most parents feel they are included in that group — they have certainly …

Not long ago, Childhood Obesity News looked at the strange career of singer Beyoncé, which includes a spell as the television face of PepsiCo in the early 2000s, followed by “Move Your Body” and other contributions to Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campa …

Yesterday we looked at “catfishing,” which basically is going online and fooling another person into believing you’re someone you are not. Often, when people fall in virtual love, it turns out that one of them is up in the plus sizes, and hiding behind …

Although catfishing has existed as long as the Internet, the actual name by which the cultural phenomenon will forever be known was not decided until 2010. This happened thanks to an indie documentary film made by Henry Joost, Ariel (Rel) Schulman, and …

In her book, Constant Craving, Doreen Virtue discussed in great detail the differences between physical hunger and emotional hunger. Why is this important? Because emotional neediness is one of the things that can lead a child or adult to food addictio …

Remember Dara-Lynn Weiss, who was called “Monster-Mutter #1” by a German newspaper, and lots of other uncomplimentary names by the press all over the world? This was last spring, when Vogue magazine published what Weiss wrote about childhood obesity in …

Sometimes it seems like research is just one big landscape of shifting sands. A unit of knowledge that seems airtight can be reversed within months. Another possibility is for empirical evidence to be conclusive, but nobody is quite sure what it’s conc …

The past few months brought news that breastfeeding is perhaps not all it was cracked up to be — at least not when the goal is the prevention of childhood obesity. The halo that surrounds breastfeeding may not shine so brightly — but some would say t …

Okay, we have learned that exercise may or may not affect obesity. When a child’s tonsils are surgically removed it may or may not increase the likelihood of obesity. School and community programs designed to alleviate obesity may or may not backfire. …

Just imagine: 1.3 billion tons is a lot of food, and that amount goes to waste around the world in a year. Not only is there no place to put so much garbage, but, come to think of it, it shouldn’t even be garbage. Here are the words of a company that i …