Weight Loss Surgery, Part 4
Why does food have such a powerful effect on people? Overeating and consequent obesity can lead to a juncture in life’s pathway where surgery becomes a very real possibility. The relationship between a person and food can get really twisted. There are people who actually gain weight intentionally, so they can qualify for surgery under […]
Weight Loss Surgery, Part 3
We have been exploring the different kinds of surgery designed to help an obese person lose weight by having part of their stomach either removed or shut off, and the other bits reconnected in different ways. The various weight loss surgery (WLS) procedures each have their advantages and disadvantages. The vertical banded gastroplasty (or stomach […]
State + Nanny = Contentiousness
There are a lot of different opinions about how much responsibility the government should take for controlling obesity. When there is agreement that the government should do something, the easiest place to make an impact on large numbers of young and presumably malleable citizens is in the public schools. Canada Free Press offers an interesting […]
Obesity, Environmental Toxins, and Denial
In “Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation: White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Report to the President” (available online as a PDF file; link is ours), the section called Chemical Exposures starts on page 17. One of the consequent Recommendations is, Federal and State agencies conducting health research should prioritize research […]
The Unnatural Sweetener
A disturbing aspect of childhood obesity is that, in an attempt to avoid it, children are ingesting large amounts of aspartame (marketed as Equal, NutraSweet, Canderel, Equal-Measure, Spoonful, Benevia, etc.) and other sweeteners that have really bad health consequences. One of the most vocal critics of aspartame, Dr. Joseph Mercola, certainly has a way of […]
Comfort Eating, Food Addiction, and the DSM-V Manual
Not long ago we mentioned Jennifer LaRue Huget, the Washington Post reporter who began to take seriously the notion of food addiction after meeting Michael Prager. This is encouraging, because childhood obesity won’t be stopped until food addiction is understood to be as real as addiction to hard drugs, alcohol, and even the range of […]
Many Doctors Believe Food Can Be Addictive
Can food be addictive in the same way as, for instance, heroin? Many doctors believe that it can. While some people are not very addiction-prone, others are, but are too busy being junkies involving some other substance, and food doesn’t do a thing for them. Not every person who eats is a food addict. But […]
High Fructose Corn Syrup — Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Sometimes we get information overload fatigue, and we just don’t want to hear about one more thing that’s bad for us. We get tired of hearing bad news and just start filtering it out. Or we pick one bad thing to worry about, and let the other nine go and become someone else’s problem. But […]
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 […]
Calorie Labeling in Restaurants
At the point in time when only a few municipalities had adopted the idea that restaurants should reveal the calorie counts of their dishes to the customers, a bunch of young people voiced their opinions at Weigh2Rock. This website has published a series of polls to keep track of what kids are thinking about their […]