Category: Food Addiction

One of the obvious drawbacks of childhood obesity is that it hangs around and becomes adolescent obesity and, eventually, adult obesity. Sure, many people have overcome their propensity to be overweight, and they are heroes. Ruby Gettinger and others h …

The childhood obesity epidemic can be reversed, but nobody ever said it would be easy. Here is the question posed by journalist Mike Lillis on The Hill: Why, when faced with a childhood obesity epidemic, would the federal government continue to subsidi …

The Nurturing Nutritionist is a pediatric dietician who treats children and families. At her website, we find a guest post by Beryl Henzy. It’s called “Part 1: Kitchen Essentials for Easy Cooking.” Have you ever been to a wedding and thought, “What are …

We have talked about the Perfect Storm concept before. This is what happens when a whole lot of conditions converge to cause a large problem. Probably no single one of them alone would have done it. But when they gang up and come at us all at once, we’ …

Sarah Palin just can’t seem to stay out of the news. Now she has everybody riled up over cookies. But what’s a tea party without cookies? The state of Pennsylvania has some new guidelines in the pipeline aimed at reducing the childhood obesity rate. We …

Several interesting books have been published lately in which the author traces his or her lifelong relationship with food, and some of those confessions have been reviewed by Darya Pino, Ph.D., who believes in sticking to local, seasonal foods and shu …

Childhood obesity is just adult obesity getting an early start, and we had better get this thing figured out before 100% of us are overweight or obese. To encourage us, Justin Stoneman recently published an essay in The Huffington Post titled “America: …

An Associated Press news article from Sao Paulo, Brazil, recently reported that a McDonald’s manager successfully sued the company for making him obese. He worked there for 12 years, and packed on 65 pounds while diligently sampling each day’s fare to …

“In the interest of fighting the childhood obesity epidemic, I’ve decided to eat all the Halloween candy I bought.” Just kidding. The line is from Someecards, a company that devises — you guessed it — greeting cards in electronic format. The picture …

“My ‘AHA’ Moment” is a short and to-the-point message written by an overweight blogger named Rebecca, who says, I finally realized that even if others can eat junk foods, foods high in the (bad) fats and carbs and drink coffee and colas, I just cannot …

Today, the focus is on a piece written by forensic psychologist Karen Franklin, Ph.D. What, you may ask, does forensic psychology have to do with the childhood obesity epidemic? Well, it turns out that the upper levels of all the professions have certa …

Ever since Freud, parents just can’t seem to catch a break. Every time we turn around, somebody finds another reason to blame us for yet another deficiency in our children. Like in the picture here, why is this rather chunky boy wearing a necklace of d …

So many different fields have something to contribute to solving the childhood obesity problem, and there are a lot of things that can be done, both large and small. We’ve talked about change that can be undertaken right at home, like chewing more thor …

There are many obvious connections between childhood obesity and the proliferation of fast food restaurants. A large number of fast food meals have one thing in common: cheese. There has been a lot of talk about the possible addictive qualities of that …

  Let’s take a look at the simple explanations of several landmark studies in the field of childhood obesity, many of which seem to point to the reality of the food addiction paradigm. Freelance journalist Bijal Trivedi specializes in scientific, …

Problems, mysteries, conflicts, confusion — is that all there is to the childhood obesity discussion? Absolutely not! While there is no silver bullet, what we do have are a lot of good answers that have worked for a lot of people. The amazing thing is …

Back in 1975, William Dufty published Sugar Blues, a book that garnered quite a lot of attention by making the claim that sugar can be as addictive as alcohol or hard drugs. Since then, the idea has been accepted by many, and is still being discussed. …

Food addiction is misunderstood but real, says Cheryl Williams, in a piece called “Food Addiction: Similarities and Differences to Drug and Alcohol Addiction.” As so many others have noted, one of the differences is that we need food to live, but not d …

Back in May, when Oprah Winfrey publicly announced her food addiction, William Anderson took note. He specializes in helping people shed their extra pounds, and his book, The Anderson Method, deals with the use of psychotherapeutic techniques to achiev …

One of the arguments against accepting the idea that people can be addicted to food is that food is a biological necessity and we can’t live without it. In the “Comments” section of a previous post, Dr. Pretlow says, Granted, it’s ‘biological’ for huma …

Fat Boy Thin Man is Michael Prager’s memoir of “a fat and troubled childhood that lasted almost 35 years.” He spent more than 10 years over the 300-pound mark. When Prager hit 365, he opted for standard addiction treatment, just like any substance abus …

In collaboration with Dr. Michael Roizen, Dr. John La Puma taught the first cooking and nutrition course in the United States that was designed specifically for medical students. Then with Rebecca Marx, Dr. La Puma went on to found ChefMD, whose missio …

LaDonna Redmond is an empowered mother — the kind of mom we need more of — to stem the tide of the childhood obesity epidemic. She’s been called a pioneer, a visionary, a green-collar hero, and a woman who is shaping the world. Last month, in her cap …

Oprah Winfrey is a mentor and role model for millions, so naturally it makes sense to check out who she gets her advice from: trainer Bob Greene. The Best Life is his website, and we’re here to find out what he’s been telling Oprah. Greene’s program ha …

Pamela Peeke, M.D., is one of America’s few physicians who have completed training in nutrition science. She sees life as a journey, and her practice is a way of supporting people in the transformations they experience and cause along that journey. Pee …

Sophia Ayala Gettys, who has appeared on the Food Network’s Worst Cooks series, is a self-identified food addict, who talks about how food had brought her family together, and had always provided happiness and comfort on demand. It had also made Gettys …

It’s a lens, a filter, a point of view, a set of new eyes, a new set of mind. It’s the psychological food-dependence-addiction lens. Whatever you like to call it, it is very much needed. So many children and teenagers are drowning in fat, and they’re d …

Obesity can be bad enough, but obesity in front of millions of people, whose eyes are glued to every ounce you gain, that’s a real recipe for distress. The struggle against food addiction is difficult for anyone. For a woman who is not only a celebrity …

As we have noted before, not every MD in history has recoiled from the food addiction paradigm. A few shining lights have gone on record, and risked being thought of as cranks, or worse. Sobriety coach Cynthia Perkins is the author of Get Sober Stay So …

Here’s an interesting and disturbing fact. When The Obesity Society sent out word to its members to line up speakers for its annual scientific meeting in October, abstracts were requested in four tracks or categories: Molecular Mechanisms of Obesity, N …