Bacon as a Major Food Group
Titled “Bacon as a Weapon of Mass Destruction,” this classic examination of a food fad was published by The Indypendent, of which author Arun Gupta is also a founding editor. Gupta notes the increasing proliferation of pork fat in the diets of so many Americans and asks, “What’s up with that?” Gupta writes, There’s bacon […]
Obese Kids Don't Need Taunts or Nagging
This profile on CNN Health turns a sociological eye upon the life of an overweight child named Claudia Garza. Actually, Garza is a grownup now; a citizen journalist who recounted her story for iReport, the section of CNN generated by the public. Then her story was incorporated into a piece by writer and producer Madison […]
TV Makes Kids Fat or Fatter, Take Your Choice
That overweight kids are likely to become obese adults seems to be a fairly reasonable assumption. Of course, whether a person is young or old, excess fat is a liability. It’s just that, as we age, extra poundage becomes even more of a liability. Scientific American doesn’t want to see hefty kids grow into hopelessly […]
The Ultimate Junk Food
This is heartening. In the succinctly-titled “Final Version of Junk Food Essay,” a 19-year-old Malaysian woman, who goes by the pseudonym “ngfeiwen,” speaks of her belief that junk-food sales in school canteens should be banned. Childhood obesity and other health problems aside, junk-food packaging creates a lot of ugly and cost-incurring litter. If young people […]
No Cold Turkey on the Food Addict's Plate
Through anecdotal evidence found in their own lives and the lives of loved ones, many Americans have acknowledged that junk food is addictive. The researchers, while studying the reactions of brain and body to certain kinds of foods, are finding tangible, measurable indications that junk food addiction is not imaginary. Many counselors and therapists also […]
Would Junk Food Tax Curb Childhood Obesity?
Extreme measures are needed to deal with the childhood obesity epidemic, there’s no doubt about it, but is taxation a step that would help? For purposes of this discussion, let’s define junk food as whatever the kids find most difficult to resist — their abused substance of choice — if phrased in the addiction model. […]
HIP HOP Makes Junk Food Unhip
In Overweight: What Kids Say, Dr. Pretlow writes, What is really needed is a cultural shift in regard to highly pleasurable food, so that overeating is ‘not cool’ and so that junk food is ‘yuck.’ If the culture is moldable, these are the very people to do it: D-Nick The Microphone Misfit and B-Boy Super […]
Junk Food Addiction: What Kids Say
Well, this is news that many people don’t want to hear, but, like it or not, we do need to pay attention to scientists like Paul Kenny and Paul Johnson. Victoria Stern has recently reported on fruit flies, personality problems, nanoparticles, and bacterial fingerprinting. In summing up the work of Kenny and Johnson, and their […]
Childhood Obesity and Government Regulation
The editors of Scientific American have compiled an interesting article about childhood obesity, which appears in the May issue. The stark reality is that one out of every three kids in America is overweight, and many people believe the government must do something about it. Those of us whose memories of our school days include […]
A Week of Empty Calories on the Table
If you want to visit the Unhealthiest Town in America, the federal Centers for Disease Control will direct you to Huntington, West Virginia. That’s where fitness-conscious celebrity chef and TV personality Jamie Oliver recently traveled, in order to meet some typical American families and show them the light. There are two reasons why this is […]