As time goes on, researchers become more adept at pinpointing the exact mechanisms by which glutamic acid works its dark magic.

Some studies show processed MSG might be linked to childhood obesity.

A majority of food adulteration is motivated by greed. In present-day America, there is no excuse for adding sawdust to grated cheese.

When taste receptors are triggered by certain kinds of chemical molecules, they in turn tell the body to mobilize a defense mechanism.

But is fat technically a taste, or more of an oral sensation, belonging to a different sense, touch? The jury is still out.

Is it wrong to appeal to large, perspiring women on the basis that the product will make them smell less offensive, especially when the product might be unsafe?

We know talcum powder causes inflammation. The question is, does talc cause cancer by causing inflammation in the ovaries?

According to the American Cancer Society, some talc contains asbestos, a known carcinogen when inhaled.

A University of Cape Town neuroscientist Dr. David Hume discusses microbiome and the immune system in relation to dietary choices and obesity intervention.

Even with all the research, is it too soon to say of any particular factor that it does or does not influence obesity, or how extensive that influence may be?

Many childhood obesity villains have been named as suspects and, regarding most of them, the jury is still out. A recent study names three.

Can compulsive overeating be vanquished by the same kind of laws that have banished smoking? Maybe, but not without a lot of protest.

More highlights from a Childhood Obesity News series of posts about smoking, drinking, and problem eating, and the connection between them.

What are the advantages and the downsides of adapting control mechanisms applied to alcohol and tobacco products to reversing the obesity epidemic?

Advertising copywriters use different details, but the pitch is the same — an appeal to the customer’s FOMO. It works with tobacco and it works with junk food.

Smoking and obesity are so closely associated because what helps to defeat one might also vanquish the other, or so do the researchers hope.

Childhood Obesity News looks at the limited efficacy of anti-smoking shaming and the almost non-existent usefulness of shaming in the abolition of obesity.

While public anti-smoking campaigns have proven effective, there is collateral damage to the emotional well-being of a particular group: lung cancer patients.

It would be inaccurate to claim that stigmatization “works” when it comes to both smoking and obesity.

The extent to which stigmatization is responsible for smokers quitting is impossible to tell. For smokers who don’t quit, it’s not always a physical addiction.

Smoking prevalence and eating disorders are intertwined in the human psyche, but research conclusions about the relationship are not solid.

One study indicated that among people in a quit-smoking program, binge eaters were less likely than normal eaters to abandon nicotine.

Research shows that the risk of adult obesity in females increases with a childhood ADHD diagnosis, and adversity trauma is linked to childhood obesity.

Research has shown that improving a city’s public transportation system or building more grocery stores don’t necessarily solve the food desert issue.

Even the most elegantly executed map doesn’t mean zip if, at ground level, it measures the wrong things or depends on skewed data to get answers.

When it comes to the food accessibility research, scientists should agree on measurement standards as their decisions might translate into public policy.

The researchers concluded that keeping an eye on BMI increase, and especially on its rate of progress, even before age 5, is paramount.

Many cities have made all-encompassing plans to address their food desert dilemmas. A massive one was conceived some years back by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) in Portland, Oregon. The document began by saying, “This project consider …

There is debate about whether living in a food desert is associated with unhealthy eating and food buying practices.

The theory of deprivation amplification deals with the features of the physical and social environment that either promote or damage health.