Allergies, Addiction, Childhood Obesity, and Halloween: All Scary
“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 above is not the ecard, by the way. The boy in the picture […]
The Irresistible Junk Food
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, environmental, and medical matters, and her work has appeared in every magazine you’ve ever heard […]
The Early Bird Study, Exercise, and Waistlines
A sage once said, “There is always enough evidence in the universe to prove anything.” This is certainly true of obesity research, which is rife with controversy. Take, for instance, the Early Bird Study, which started out with the intention of establishing the relationship between childhood obesity and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, or NIDDM, or Type […]
Recognition of Food Addiction Paradigm Urgently Needed
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 doing it in parts of the world that never […]
Fast Food, Hospitals, and Cravings
Fast food and hospitals are the two concepts that should not be found together in the same sentence. And yet, their relationship grows cozier all the time. It was with some dismay that Dr. Pretlow recently noticed a TV commercial for the Blizzard Children’s Miracle Network. Actually, the word that came to mind was “disgusted.” […]
Is Junk Food Addiction for Real?
A recent study published by Scripps Research Institute indicates that foods laced with fat, sugar, and salt are capable of causing addiction similar to the addiction to nicotine and cocaine. At DiversityInc, Sam Ali quotes one of the researchers, Paul Kenny, who says he and his fellow scientists […] let lab rats gorge round-the-clock on cake frosting […]