Coronavirus Chronicles — Obesity, Poverty, Race, and COVID-19
Obesity, poverty, and minority group membership are factors that work in concert to provide the “perfect storm” situation for COVID-19.
Art Imitates Life — Imperfectly
According to its detractors, the film reinforces stereotypes and does not accurately portray the loneliness and isolation felt by anorexics in real life.
Visual Obesity Villains: Light and Heaviness
In regard to the worldwide obesity epidemic, Dr. Pretlow has referred to the concatenation of events and influences as the “perfect storm,” a term borrowed from meteorology that refers to large-scale synergy. It is what happens when a number of elements come together that, separately, might have been merely bad but not catastrophic. In combination, […]
Child Obesity: FAQs and Greatest Hits
This site is dedicated to exploring the physical, social, emotional, and political issues surrounding childhood obesity. We invite you to explore some of our most popular — and controversial — posts and series. Here are a few examples: Why is childhood obesity such a problem right now? From food engineering to global marketing to the […]
BFRBs — A Strand of the Childhood Obesity Tangle?
Previously, Childhood Obesity News talked about what Dr. Pretlow terms the childhood obesity perfect storm, the collection of factors present in our society that combine in endlessly fascinating ways to keep the obesity epidemic going. Like a mythological hero, we get busy slicing off one of the dragon’s heads, and meanwhile, like a mythological monster, […]
Childhood Obesity and Genetically Modified Organisms
Yesterday, Childhood Obesity News looked at the pending California situation, where residents of the state are trying to pass legislation that would compel food manufacturers to label genetically modified products. But what does this have to do with childhood obesity? We have examined a couple of the angles before. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has an […]
Blaming Parents for Childhood Obesity
Is there no end to the things parents can be blamed for? Strollers! The Canadian Paediatric Society released a report about toddlers, ages one and two, claiming that 80% of them spend half their outdoor time in strollers. This represented only a fraction of the 1,000 children age five and below who were studied. In […]
Words and Childhood Obesity: They’re So CritiSIZEing
Here’s a little gem of a post from the Weigh2Rock website, written by a teenage girl named Sara: I’m 270 pounds and feel awful. Plus I have 2 familys on my dad’s and mom’s side that are so critiSIZEing. They always find a way to say im fat in different words to me. I feel […]
Childhood Obesity Awareness Month – Where Are We Now?
Since the February 2010 launch of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program, what has been happening? Has anything changed in the year since the first Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, in September 2010? Has childhood obesity awareness evolved during this time? As it turns out, quite a few interesting things have occurred, and even some promising ones. […]
The Perfect Storm Revisited
A meme is like a mental gene, a little packet of information that carries a cultural idea from one mind to another. The “perfect storm” meme illustrates a truth that has been around forever, in an original way that can be adapted to many situations. Bob Case, a meteorologist, is credited for naming it in […]