July 15, 2011, Boston Globe, Alex Beam
“Hey, fatty! Pull that doughnut out of your pie hole! You look like a pig, and you are costing me, and every other taxpayer, billions of dollars in unnecessary health care each year!’’
How do you like my new public service ad campaign, designed to stigmatize the overweight and the obese in the same way smokers have been made to feel the knout of social opprobrium for the past quarter-century?
I got the idea when I heard professor Daniel Callahan, the retired cofounder of the Hastings …

Associated Press, July 9, 2011 (Boston Herald)
Massachusetts health officials are set to approve what could be some of the toughest school nutrition standards in the country.
The Public Health Council is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the changes that would apply to all food sold or provided at school a la carte lines, vending machines, school stores, events, and fundraisers during the school day.
Health officials said the regulations will meet or exceed the strongest standards in the nation, and could improve the eating habits of a million Massachusetts public school …

FTC advertising guidelines encourage advertisers to promote healthy foods to kids, as well as limit fat and sugar in order to combat childhood obesity. Food, beverage and advertising industry reps say doing so could mean job loss for many.
[Are job losses more important than the health of our nation? LS]
Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2011
Advertisers and food and beverage industry officials called the governments new guidelines for advertising directed toward children a “reckless” maneuver in light of todays fragile economy.After Congress asked the Federal Trade Commission, along with three …

July, 5, 2011, Fast Company, Morgan Clendaniel
If you’re willing to put aside the cancer and emphysema and be a smoker, your last excuse might have just gone up in smoke. Smokers often claim that their habit serves as an appetite suppressant. They may be risking disease later in life, but at least they’re preventing obesity today. But that contention has just been disproved.
For the most part, smokers are actually more overweight than non-smokers.
The study looked at 6,000 smokers and non-smokers, comparing their body-mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to …

July 1, 2011, New York Times, William Neuman
If there is no such thing as a healthy hot dog, how do you limit the damage at this weekend’s weenie roast?
Don’t count on the label to help much. Those pricey “natural” and “organic” hot dogs often contain just as much or more of the cancer-linked preservatives nitrate and nitrite as that old-fashioned Oscar Mayer wiener.
And almost no one knows it because of arcane federal rules that make the labels on natural and organic hot dogs, luncheon meats and bacon virtually impossible to …

June 29, 2011, Chicago Tribune, Anne Stein
In 1960, Americans averaged 81/2 hours of sleep a night, and our obesity rate was around 12 percent. Today we’re averaging 6 1/2 to seven hours, and our obesity rate has climbed to around 30 percent. Coincidence?
No, say sleep experts. They point out study after study showing that a lack of good quality sleep—seven to nine hours of uninterrupted slumber—is making us fat. And it’s not just overworked adults who are gaining weight. Long-term studies are finding that sleep-deprived children also are piling on the pounds.
“You’re …

June 29, 2011, Reuters, Eric Schultz
A one-year weight loss program based on lifestyle changes can help obese people shed almost as many pounds as surgery, German researchers say.
In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity, they found women who stuck with the program lost 43 pounds, while men trimmed their weight by 57 pounds.
But more than 40 percent quit before the year was up. And even among completers, three-quarters of the weight they’d lost had crept back after three years.
“Weight regain remains the Achilles’ heel of all weight …

June 28,. 2011, ABC News, Katie Moisse
Americans eat roughly 570 calories more per day than they did in the 1970s, according to a new study. While supersize portions are partly to blame, steady snacking is the bigger culprit.
“We’re a generation of constant eaters,” said Barry Popkin, distinguished professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Popkin used surveys to probe the American diet since 1977. Americans began eating more in the ’80s and ’90s, but in recent years, they’ve begun eating and drinking more often — …

June 22, 2011, NBC News, Robert Bazell
While many adults struggle with restrictive dieting and counting calories, Harvard University researchers found that the type of foods we choose to eat may have a bigger impact on weight control than portion sizes.
Regular consumption of potato chips, French fries and sugared beverages were most to blame for slow and steady weight gain. However, people who ate yogurt, fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains either lost weight or gained the least.
The researchers analyzed data on three separate studies over a 20-year period, tracking the …

June 22, 2011, Boston Globe, By Deborah Kotz and Neena Satija
Cigarette packages will soon be splashed with horror-movie-style warning labels showing corpses, diseased lungs, and rotted teeth, which were among nine new images unveiled yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration. By September 2012, cigarette manufacturers will be required to place these images across the top half of every pack, with large-type warnings such as “smoking can kill you’’ and “cigarettes are addictive.’’
The new images will replace the small white warning boxes that have adorned cigarette packages unchanged for …