The New York Times, Duff Wilson, July 27, 2010
When the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation decided in 1991 to take on Joe Camel, it became the nation’s largest private funding source for fighting smoking. The foundation spent $700 million to help knock the cartoon character out of advertisements, finance research and advocacy for higher cigarette taxes and smoke-free air laws and, ultimately, to aid in reducing the nation’s smoking rate almost by half.
But a few years ago, the Johnson foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., added another target to its mission, pledging …

NPR, Patti Neighmond, July 28, 2010
The health effects of being overweight or obese are well documented. Extra pounds add extra risk for diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, even among children. But new research also documents significant social and economic consequences of being overweight since high school.
A group of teenagers take a morning jog at the Wellspring Academy in Reedley, Calif., in 2009. The school specializes in helping teens and college students lose weight. A new study shows teens who remain obese risk a lifetime of chronic health problems and …

BBC News, Jane Hughes, July 27, 2010
Mothers often say they get confusing advice about exercise during and after pregnancy
Obesity levels among pregnant women have reached epidemic levels, putting the health of their babies at risk, experts say.
The health watchdog NICE has issued new guidelines encouraging women in England to attain a healthy weight before they get pregnant.
It also advises them against eating for two once they conceive.
It says almost half of women of childbearing age are overweight or obese, which could harm their child.
Many women feel they are offered confusing …

Overweight people may respond more to a piping hot pizza, but they don’t necessarily eat more of it in a single sitting, according to a new study.
Reuters, Rachael Myers Lower, July 21, 2010
University of Bristol graduate student Danielle Ferriday and her faculty advisor, Dr. Jeffrey Brunstrom, wanted to know if overweight and lean people responded differently to “food cues,” and, if they did, how the mind translates these different levels of “desire-to-eat.”
“We all need to eat and we all encounter many food-related cues in our everyday lives,” Ferriday told …

The Huffington Post, John Whyte, July 19, 2010
It’s always somebody else’s problem. Even when it comes to our own health, we always think the latest risks never apply to us. Most patients know that being overweight predisposes them to diabetes. But nine times out of 10, when I tell my patients with diabetes that if they lost weight, they might be able to improve their diabetes control, the response back to me is “Dr. Whyte, I’ve been overweight for 20 years… and I’ve only been diabetic for a year.” …

The Guardian, Dennis Campbell, July 21, 2010
Overweight women should slim down and have counselling before they get pregnant because being fat poses such a serious risk of them having a premature baby, doctors warn today.
Women carrying excess weight have up to a 30% greater chance of having a baby before it reaches 37 weeks gestation, medical researchers in Canada write in todays British Medical Journal. Premature babies are at much higher risk of dying or suffering a range of illnesses and impairments.
Those who are overweight or obese have an extra 30% …

Time, Alice Parks, July 15, 2010

Being overweight is certainly risky for your physical health, but new evidence suggests that it may carry an added mental-health burden as well.
Studies have linked overweight to a host of health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and stroke, but research led by Dr. Diana Kerwin at Northwestern University now shows that extra weight may also contribute to lower cognitive performance. Culling data from the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term, multicenter study of postmenopausal women between the ages of 65 and 79, Kerwin’s team found …

New York Times, Andrew Pollack, July 15, 2010
A federal advisory committee voted narrowly against endorsing a drug vying to become the first new prescription medicine for obesity in more than a decade, signaling heightened concerns for possible health risks associated with a new generation of diet pills.
The advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration voted 10 to 6 that the safety concerns, like increased heart rate, possible birth defects and psychiatric problems, overrode the potential benefits of the drug, called Qnexa and developed by Vivus.
The meeting was closely watched …

The New York Times, Gina Kolata, July 9, 2010
If you had to choose one public health problem to attack, which would it be: teenage smoking or childhood obesity?
To answer that question, you might want to pose another. Who will have the harder road in life, or indeed the longer one: the teenage puffer or the chubby child?
Pitting smoking against obesity is tricky because it can mean comparing apples and bonbons, but there is some suggestion that a kind of weird zero-sum game is actually going on. And some smoking opponents …

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jon Sapatkin, July 5 2010
How do you prevent a deadly disease that is projected to afflict one third of all Americans born today and is caused largely by hard-to-change habits such as too much soda and snacks and too little physical activity?
You could combine the broccoli and cauliflower in the school cafeteria for more colorful eye appeal. Put out 30 basketballs in gym class instead of two. Teach the wonders of water for 15 weeks straight (and remove everything else from vending machines).
Those changes – along with …