Of Current Interest: MEND
If you are in the United Kingdom, you’re in the midst of the National Childhood Obesity Week (July 4-10), originated by a group called MEND, which stand for “Mind, Exercise, Nutrition… Do it!” Events planned for this year included a new MEND Olympics program. In general, MEND promotes services designed to offer long-term solutions, mainly […]
How to Think About Food
Marion Nestle wears an awful lot of hats for one head. She’s a professor in the field of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, a job that includes teaching nutrition to doctors and medical students. Molecular biology is only one of her areas of expertise, and, by the way, she is also a professor of […]
Don’t Just Stand There — Grow Something! Part 2
We have been looking at some ideas about kids and gardening, schools, and childhood obesity, and the relationships between them. Many people are upset about school lunches, which sometimes involve such undesirable elements as vending machines, fast-food franchises, and microwaved meals. No one would deny that kids need to eat fresh vegetables and fruit, even […]
Don’t Just Stand There — Grow Something! Part 1
Way back in 1959, almost no one (except its inhabitants) spared a thought for Harlem, the festering black ghetto of New York City. Warren Miller’s novel The Cool World was startlingly different. A 14-year-old gang member gets into serious trouble and is sent upstate to Juvenile Hall. For the first time in his blighted young […]
The Cookie Monster Message
We talked about the Cookie Monster controversy and how some people rejoiced when Cookie appeared, extolling the virtues of fruit and vegetables in public service announcements and similar venues. But others felt betrayed. The really fascinating thing is, who would have ever thought there could be so much heated discussion over the eating habits of […]
The Cookie Monster Controversy – Where Do You Stand?
Somewhere in the mid-2000s, a disturbance was caused in American culture when a Sesame Street character, Cookie Monster, became aware of the childhood obesity epidemic. Famous for his exclusive preference for cookies, he switched gears and began eating other foods as well. His new message was: “Cookies are a sometimes food.” He made public service […]
Things Parents Can Do at Home
There are plenty of things parents can stop doing. Obesity is bad enough; a kid doesn’t need nagging too. But today, we’re talking about things that parents can actively do. Aracelly Clouse is a personal fitness trainer in California, who also writes about such specialized topics as places for cheap family outings in her area, […]
Comfort Eating and Kelly Osbourne
Here is Kelly Osbourne, looking much different than she used to, on the cover of the February issue of British edition of Cosmopolitan, with an article inside, titled “I was an emotional eater.” Reporter Kara Gause says, [… S]he’s at once Madonna circa ‘Material Girl’ and her own mum, Sharon Osbourne, who has a penchant for […]
Food, Foodlike Substances, and Labeling
When people are concerned about health, and especially about obesity, and they talk about food labeling, there are a couple of different things they might mean. Fast food restaurants with more than 20 branches now have to give the calorie count on their menus, and items sold in vending machines need to print the information […]
George Ball: “Nothing to Lose But Our Waistlines”
Many people realize that childhood obesity is a serious and growing problem, and many even ask, “But what can we do about it?” For parents, a great, big, wonderful answer is: Grow veggies! We’re looking today at a recent opinion piece in the The Wall Street Journal, written by George Ball, who urges us to make […]