A Bit of a Conflict of Interest
In America, among kids ages four to 17, about 8% are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD.) They have a hard time sitting still, following a train of thought, being regimented, staying quiet, and settling down. And even though stimulants are supposed to stir a person up, when stimulants are taken by the kids […]
Is Childhood Obesity Inescapable?
With a title like this, you have to read the story: “Childhood obesity almost ‘inevitable’, say experts” (link is ours). Which experts? Could this be? Must we resign ourselves to the prospect of the ever-enlarging children? Journalist Madeleine Brindley has been talking to people who fear this might be the case. In Wales, as in […]
Excitotoxins, Prescription Drugs, and Obesity
We have talked a lot about the Childhood Obesity Perfect Storm, Dr. Pretlow’s term for the concurrence of events that might not have been enough, by themselves, to start an epidemic, but which have a devastating effect when they pile up. Other medical professionals who treat and write about childhood obesity also point to a […]
Food Addiction Recovery: Great Blogs
The Guide to Culinary Schools is a clearinghouse of vital information for professionals and students designed to connect people with schools and courses, and vice versa. And it offers some great value-added supplementary material, such as its list of 50 top blogs about overcoming food addiction. This page is not just a perfunctory copy of […]
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 […]
Breastfeeding, Health, and Childhood Obesity
New research comes along every day, and breastfeeding is currently a topic of much concern (we have been exploring some of its angles on this blog). The latest interesting findings come from the Colorado School of Public Health, reported on for BusinessWeek by Robert Preidt. It’s one of those “bad news, good news” scenarios. The […]
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, […]
Denial = Bad, Awareness = Good
Childhood obesity is a tough problem, and when parents look for answers, the answers might depend on the attitudinal states of various family members. Maybe you realize that your child has a problem, but he or she refuses to acknowledge this. Or maybe your child is asking for help, and you are the one […]
Comfort Eating and Valerie Bertinelli
Did some little thing ever catch your eye and entice you into a more thorough investigation of a subject? It was just a tiny paragraph in Entertainment Weekly, written by Keith Staskiewicz, about the second volume of memoirs published by actress Valerie Bertinelli. Staskiewicz says, In the new book, she details her battle with emotional […]
Why Parents Don’t Want to Hear About Food Addiction, Part 8
The Psychological Food Dependence-Addiction Paradigm is a very simple concept. People, yes, even kids, can become addicted to high-calorie, low-nutrient, hedonically engineered substances that masquerade as food. Food can be a drug of abuse, and it’s a lot easier for kids to get hold of than most other drugs of abuse. The good news is, […]