Coronavirus Chronicles — Have Kids Been In On It All Along?

June 24, 2020
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Evidence seems to be piling up to indicate that children have never been safe from coronavirus, even before it was acknowledged to be present in the U.S.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Transmission and Testing

June 23, 2020
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What is actually known about the identification and diagnosis of this potentially deadly disease?

Coronavirus Chronicles — Three Factors and a Virus

June 19, 2020
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Those of us who are fortunate and privileged, and even those who are just getting by, must be aware of how many Americans are operating at bare survival level.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Whatever It Is, It’s Not Over

May 27, 2020
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COVID-19 is many things, but finished is not one of them. And nobody seems to really have a handle on keeping the numbers current and complete, so they differ.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Between a Rock and a Hard Place

May 26, 2020
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To call these times uncertain is to put it very mildly. An yet, many states and cities are boldly plunging into what they hope will resemble normalization.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Again, Water

May 20, 2020
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The Navajo Nation is one of the top coronavirus hotspots in the country, dealing with the devastating effects with limited access to running water.

Coronavirus Chronicles — More on Water

May 19, 2020
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Global water shortages prevent people from following handwashing recommendations, making them more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Multiple and Overlapping Risk Factors

May 15, 2020
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The COVID-19 risk factors seem to vary from one country to another, but in most places, the most significant risk factor seems to be excessive body weight.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Young, Gifted, and Up for Grabs

May 7, 2020
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Four journalists collaborated on this story from different parts of the globe, and the reports are confusing: Many developing nations with hot climates and young populations have escaped the worst… Many countries that have escaped mass epidemics have …

Coronavirus Chronicles — When the Cupboard Is Bare

May 4, 2020
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In these difficult times, people are experiencing different combinations of inconvenience and misery because of the unsettling, frightening instability.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Things Are Different, and Not in a Good Way

May 1, 2020
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Obesity is associated with the severity of COVID-19 if a person falls ill with the virus, and decreases the odds of the patient’s eventual ability to recover.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Farmers’ Markets Struggle to Keep Up

April 29, 2020
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Childhood Obesity News has been looking at how officials, sellers and buyers are adjusting and trying to keep the farmers’ markets going during the pandemic.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Can Farmers’ Markets Adapt?

April 28, 2020
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In a health crisis, a non-essential business is a closed business. The farmers had to make a case for the markets to remain open, with reasonable arguments.

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Farmers’ Market, an Endangered Anachronism

April 27, 2020
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People want to get back to normal, eventually, and that includes farmers’ markets. We must make sure that nothing permanently cripples this commercial format.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Food Desert the Size of a Continent

April 23, 2020
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One significant side effect of the necessity to shelter in place could be a vast increase in obesity among both adults and children.

Coronavirus Chronicles — Boredom Is #1 Binge Eating Culprit

April 21, 2020
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In the confined environment we find themselves in right now due to COVID-19, how many reasons for overeating the average American is up against every day?

Coronavirus Chronicles — Them As Has, Gets

April 9, 2020
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If kids were not getting enough activity in ordinary times, the need for isolating and social distancing really puts the whipped cream on that hot-fudge sundae.

The Smarter Lunchrooms Sphere of Influence

April 6, 2020
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We are chronicling the history of Brian Wansink, who was entrusted to psychologically manipulate the behavior of children and teenagers in school cafeterias.

Who Hates Online Activism?

April 3, 2020
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There is more to say about Brian Wansink, Ph.D., the inventor of Smarter Lunchrooms, which took over in about 30,000 American public schools.

Doubtful Authorities

April 2, 2020
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Why have people been objecting to the content, methodology, and what they deem the low publication standards of work by Dr. Brian Wansink?

The Hinterlands of Science

April 1, 2020
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The critics of the program point out that universal acceptance of Smarter Lunchrooms might not be the optimal path toward reducing obesity in children.

The EAST Formula and Its Dark Side

March 27, 2020
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The discussion of application of choice architecture and other principles used by the Smarter Lunchrooms Movement to fight childhood obesity in schools.

Schools Challenged to Find New Ways

March 24, 2020
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By adding a contrived complication to a school lunch line the managers can prevent the consuming student from choosing the more fattening beverage.

School and Home Work Together

March 23, 2020
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In looking back over the past decade, and how schools need to both feed kids and prevent them from becoming obese, it’s clear that reform needs popular support.

The School Food Struggle

March 20, 2020
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New federal nutrition standards were applied to school meals in 2011, and local districts scrambled to meet the requirements for more health-promoting menus.

Schools, Institutions, and Food

March 19, 2020
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How are the schools across America rethinking the new school lunch requirements while adding anti-obesity measures?

The Reign of Big Soda Continues

January 2, 2020
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A worldwide pattern is becoming apparent, including in the U.S., where the Big Soda industry has manipulated public health policy for its benefit.

A Decade of Perfidy, Continued

December 31, 2019
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The preoccupation with long-term effects of artificial flavor enhancers, voiced by concerned health professionals, is justified for many reasons.

Projections and Protections

December 17, 2019
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By the time adolescence rolls around obesity is established. So, when it comes to sustaining weight loss over the long term, who is able to succeed?

The Tax Temptation

September 9, 2019
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No matter how earnestly we strive to hear there may be real-world limits on what can be done to help obese kids and prevent childhood obesity.

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Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Obesity top bottom

The Book

OVERWEIGHT: What Kids Say explores the obesity problem from the often-overlooked perspective of children struggling with being overweight.

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Dr. Robert A. Pretlow is a pediatrician and childhood obesity specialist. He has been researching and spreading awareness on the childhood obesity epidemic in the US for more than a decade.
You can contact Dr. Pretlow at:

Presentations

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the American Society of Animal Science 2020 Conference
What’s Causing Obesity in Companion Animals and What Can We Do About It

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the World Obesity Federation 2019 Conference:
Food/Eating Addiction and the Displacement Mechanism

Dr. Pretlow’s Multi-Center Clinical Trial Kick-off Speech 2018:
Obesity: Tackling the Root Cause

Dr. Pretlow’s 2017 Workshop on
Treatment of Obesity Using the Addiction Model

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation for
TEC and UNC 2016

Dr. Pretlow’s invited presentation at the 2015 Obesity Summit in London, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s invited keynote at the 2014 European Childhood Obesity Group Congress in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2013 European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2011 International Conference on Childhood Obesity in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr. Pretlow’s presentation at the 2010 Uniting Against Childhood Obesity Conference in Houston, TX.

Food & Health Resources