July 28, 2011, Reuters
Americans downed nearly a quarter less added sugar in 2008 than they did nine years earlier, a new report concludes.
The drop is largely due to a decrease in the amount of sugar-sweetened soda that people drank.
“We were surprised to see that there was a substantial reduction over the years,” said Dr. Jean Welsh, a researcher at Emory University in Atlanta and the lead author of the report.
Although the reasons for the dip are still murky, she said a big push by the government and private organizations to …

July 28, 2011, Chicago Tribune, Monica Eng
America undoubtedly has a big obesity problem.
With two-thirds of all U.S. adults classified as obese or overweight, public health officials warn that much of the population is at dangerously high risk of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic and costly illnesses.
But who should be responsible for slimming down the nation?
Several recently released obesity action plans — including one for Illinois — suggest the government can do it through public policy measures ranging from soda taxes, healthier school lunches and mandatory school gym to calorie …

July 23, 2011, The New York Times, Mark Bittman OPINION
WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits? The need is indisputable, since heart disease, diabetes and cancer are all in large part caused by the Standard American Diet. (Yes, it’s SAD.)
Though experts increasingly recommend a diet high in plants and low in animal products and processed foods, ours is quite the opposite, and there’s little disagreement that changing it could improve our health and save tens of millions of lives.
And — not inconsequential during the current …

July 22, 2011, Los Angeles Times, By Daniela Hernandez
Nothing’s ever as simple as we’d like it to be. A case in point: Policies that simply increase access to supermarkets may not get people to choose an apple over ice cream, a recent study reported.
Changing people’s eating habits is difficult, in other words. One reason is money. Healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and dairy, can often be pricey. For the cost of a couple of peaches, a person can get a …

July 18, 2011, Blog Scientific American |Christie Wilcox
Ten years ago, Certified Organic didn’t exist in the United States. Yet in 2010, a mere eight years after USDA’s regulations officially went into effect, organic foods and beverages made $26.7 billion. In the past year or two, certified organic sales have jumped to about $52 billion worldwide despite the fact that organic foods cost up to three times as much as those produced by conventional methods. More and more, people are shelling out their hard-earned cash for what they believe are the …

July 22, 2011, MailOnline, Sophie Borland,
Teenage girls are condemning themselves to a lifetime of ill health by eating fewer than three servings of fruit and vegetables every day. They are also shunning meat, depriving themselves of essential nutrients such as iron, and eating far too much saturated fat.
Health officials warn that a generation of young girls faces the risk of illnesses in later life including cancer, heart disease, strokes and diabetes. Just one in 13 teenage girls eats the recommended ‘five a day’ portions of fruit and vegetables, according to a report …

July 19, 2011, CBS News
Baby boomers fear dying from cancer, or losing their memory from Alzheimer’s as they age. What they should be worrying about is their growing waist lines, as the generation’s obesity problem can cause serious health risks and take a toll on the U.S. healthcare system in the not-so-distant future.
A new Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll found baby boomers are more obese than past generations, which can make for some unpleasant and unhealthy senior years.
So much for 60 being “the new 50.”
Part of the problem is a sedentary lifestyle. …

July 18, 2011, China Realtime Report
Obesity rates in China have surged over the years, leading some to think China is starting to look a lot more like the U.S these days.
A deeper look says otherwise.
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, the difference between obese people in China and those in the U.S. is striking, suggesting that assumptions about obesity patterns in the West can’t be applied to China’s increasingly overweight population.
Researchers of the study, “Correlates of Overweight Status in Chinese Youth: an East-West …

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 …