BBC News, February 13, 2010
The “tipping point” that sets children on the way to a lifetime of obesity often occurs before the age of two, say US researchers. A study of more than 100 obese children and teenagers found more than half were overweight by 24 months and 90% were overweight by the age of five.
A quarter were overweight before they were five months old, the researchers reported in Clinical Pediatrics. In the UK, around 27% of children are now overweight. The children in the study – who had an average age of …

BBC News, February 15, 2010
Young children who are regularly looked after by their grandparents have an increased risk of being overweight, an extensive British study has suggested.
Analysis of 12,000 three-year olds suggested the risk was 34% higher if grandparents cared for them full time. Children who went to nursery or had a childminder had no increased risk of weight problems, the International Journal of Obesity reported.
Nearly a quarter of preschool children in the UK are overweight or obese. The researchers said very little research had been done on the influence of childcare …

The New York Times, February 12, 2010 Lesley Alderman
AS Michelle Obama reminded us this week, the forces behind childhood obesity are insidious.
Parents are busy. Fast food is cheap and easy (and children love it). Technology can help keep children sedentary. Children’s TV networks advertise junk food. Two-thirds of adults are overweight. And on and on.
As a result, one of three children in this country is overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overweight children are at risk of developing serious and costly health problems that used to be primarily the province …

Telegraph, February 17, 2010
Cases of devastating health conditions like heart disease, diabetes and stroke will increase with the nation’s waistlines, it warns.
The latest study is an update of the Government-commissioned Foresight report, released in 2007, and reveals no basis for hope that the obesity crisis is easing.
Although recent figures have suggested that childhood obesity may be levelling off, for adults the picture is “less optimistic”, the report’s authors warn.
Within 10 years, 81 per cent of men aged between 20 and 65, will be either overweight or obese, and 41 …

CBS February 8, 2010
Many overweight teens don’t think they are, according to an article in The Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics.
Referring to the February article, “Where Perception Meets Reality: Self-Perception of Weight in Overweight Adolescents,” CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said one in three children surveyed don’t consider themselves overweight or obese.
Ashton said this altered perception becomes a problem because you can’t begin to treat issues unless one identifies that there is a problem in the first place.
If you are a parent of an overweight or obese …

Reuters, February 9, 2010
Alarmed that nearly a third of U.S. children are obese or overweight — and likely to stay that way all their lives — President Barack Obama launched an initiative on Tuesday to roll back the numbers and put his wife in charge of promoting it.
“I have set a goal to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation so that children born today will reach adulthood at a healthy weight,” Obama said in signing the order at the White House.
He assigned his cabinet officers to meet …

Walter Willett for Newsweek, February 5, 2010
Until last year, the residents of Albert Lea, Minn., were no healthier than any other Americans. Then the city became the first American town to sign on to the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project—the brainchild of writer Dan Buettner, whose 2008 book, The Blue Zones, detailed the health habits of the world’s longest-lived people. His goal was to bring the same benefits to middle America—not by forcing people to diet and exercise, but by changing their everyday environments in ways that encourage a healthier lifestyle.
What …

Los Angeles Times, Marni Jameson, February 1, 2010
Slim society’s tolerance is wearing thin.
As more people over the last decade have tipped the scales toward obesity, normal weight folks have signed up for employee wellness programs that offer them lower premiums and other financial perks as a reward for their healthy weight — and that indirectly penalize heavier workers. They’ve crafted policies, most unsuccessful, to compel individuals to lose weight. They’ve become vocal, sometimes vehemently so, in their support for “sin taxes” on junk food and soda. And they’ve increasingly attacked, …

The Huffington Post, Jeffrey Levi, February 1, 2010
One of the biggest public health crises our country has ever faced is finally getting serious attention.
During the State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Obama announced that First Lady Michelle Obama was going to take on the childhood obesity epidemic. I’d say the epidemic better watch out! It now has a worthy adversary.
Mrs. Obama is stepping up to provide leadership, recognizing if we don’t take serious measures now, this generation of kids could be the first in U.S. history to live …

Don Sapatkin, January 31, 2010, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Swati Kapoor, 25, was about to order a double chocolate cake doughnut when she noticed something new on the rack at Dunkin’ Donuts. A tag said 290 calories. In an instant, she switched to a chocolate frosted doughnut (230 calories).
“To prevent obesity,” the skinny medical student explained, munching away at a table in 30th Street Station.
Philadelphia begins phasing in enforcement of its strictest-in-the-nation menu-labeling law tomorrow. This first part, requiring chain restaurants to list calories on food tags and menu boards, is a …