Los Angeles Times, Lily Kuo, October 31, 2010
Reporting from Beijing — Tian Ning shuffled unsteadily across his room at a weight loss clinic in Beijing, not exactly looking like the picture of health, but triumphant nonetheless.
In six months, Tian has gone from the unglamorous subject of a reality intervention television show called “Tian Weighs 462 Pounds, Beijing’s Fattest Man,” to a man eagerly approaching his ideal weight of 220. His meals are monitored and a machine jiggles his midsection for an hour of exercise each day at the Kelikexin International …

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Alfred Lubrano, October 31, 2010
Mold grows thick and black on the walls of Celeata Bailey’s Norris Square bedroom.
Because most of the ceiling is missing, Bailey, 21, gets soaked in bed when it rains.
Her family puts up duct tape to keep the bathroom wall from collapsing. Raw sewage burbles in the basement, and the family stores surgical masks in the kitchen for anyone who has to descend into its putrid depths.
Bailey’s poverty is evident throughout the house, which sits in the First Congressional District, the second-hungriest in America, …

News Watch International, Joanne Franco, November 1, 2010
A new ruling in Brazil has shaken up the legal world as well as the world of fast food. A former franchise manager for a McDonald’s location in Brazil sued his former employee for his obesity that he says is a direct result of his employment. In a stunning ruling, the court ordered that McDonald’s was liable and ordered the company to pay the man $17,500 in damages.
The man, who asked to remain unnamed, said that during the 12 years that he worked …

The Huffington Post, Gordon Campbell, October 28, 2010
New York City has an obesity problem and it’s hurting our children. Almost 40% of New York City public school children in kindergarten through eighth grade are overweight or obese. Obesity rates are substantially higher in low-income neighborhoods like Harlem and Corona, Queens where the percentages of obese or overweight children are 48% and 51% respectively. It is telling that consumption of sugar-packed drinks is consistently higher in those neighborhoods.
This is why Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson are seeking permission …

A new study has found that regular consumption of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with a clear and consistently greater risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. According to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers, the study provides empirical evidence that intake of sugary beverages should be limited to reduce risk of these conditions.
The study appears online October 27, 2010, in the journal Diabetes Care and will appear in the November print edition.
“Many previous studies have examined the relationship between sugar-sweetened beverages and risk of diabetes, …

The New York Times, Nicholas Bakalar, October 25, 2010
People who are overweight are often counseled by their physicians to lose the extra pounds. But does such advice do any good? A new study suggests that it depends on the way it is offered.
Cajoling and coaxing, scolding and reproach are all ineffective, the researchers found. But collaborative discussion may actually work.
The researchers recorded conversations between 40 primary-care doctors and 461 of their overweight or obese patients over an 18-month period ending in June 2008. They noted whether any of three weight-related …

Los Angeles Times, Jeannine Stein, October 19, 2010
Obesity affects many aspects of our society, and the military is no exception. But the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has a solution to slimming down potential recruits: promote vegetarianism.
The committee recently wrote a letter to Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offering free copies of its “Vegetarian Starter Kit.” The group supports “compassionate and effective medical practice, research and health promotion,” according to its website, and is against animal research and testing.
A news release included part of the …

The Sunday Morning Herald, Amy Corderoy, October 20, 2010
New immigrants to Australia often say they came for a better life for their children. But new research shows that those children will pick up Australia’s growing problems with being overweight and obesity.
For the first time it has been shown that immigrants will catch up with our rates of obesity within one generation.
The problem is particularly evident among people from Asian countries, who tend to weigh much less than Australians when they arrive, said the study co-author, Bruce Hollingsworth.
“Even the heaviest first …

AFP, Yannick Pasquet, October 13, 2010
Chronic illnesses like obesity and diabetes, generally seen as “Western”, are making worryingly rapid inroads in the developing world, health experts warned at a meeting in Berlin this week.

Around 80 percent of new cases of cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are now being recorded not in the rich West, but in poorer parts of the globe, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures.
[Image by Sophie van Schouwen]
The explosion is a “consequence of importing lifestyles from Western countries,” Francis Collins, head of the US-based National Institutes …

Los Angeles Times, Shari Roan, October 11, 2010
People who blame their genes for weight problems are probably justified in doing so, to some extent. Numerous studies presented this week at the annual Obesity Society meeting in San Diego indicate a number of genes that may increase an individual’s susceptibility to becoming overweight. But for at least one gene mutation, physical activity may be a good defense.
Researchers at Cambridge analyzed published and unpublished data from 45 studies examining the effect of exercise on people carrying the FTO gene mutation. The FTO …