January 07, 2010 | By Jennifer Gibson

Considerable improvements have been made in the health of the population of the United States in the last three decades owing to healthy living interventions, specifically a reduction in smoking. However, during the same period, substantial increases in the incidence of overweight and obesity have adversely impacted the health of the same population. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reports that the negative effects of the obesity epidemic, if it continues, will virtually destroy the positive gains made by smoking …

Children at schools where older students are obese or otherwise overweight are significantly more likely to suffer weight problems themselves, researchers report.
Amelia Hill, January 3, 2010, the Observer
For each one per cent increase in the prevalence of obese students aged 16 to 18 years, the odds of a student at 14 to 16 years old attending that school also being overweight increased significantly.
“It was the one risk factor that held true across every school we looked at,” said Dr Scott Leatherdale, the chair of research at Cancer Care Ontario and …

Ministers warned that the first few years of a child’s life can be crucial to their future weight as they launched a new campaign to highlight the importance of breastfeeding and other measures in combating child obesity.
Kate Devlin, 1 January 2010, Telegraph
The Government is increasingly worried about the effect the obesity crisis could have on the NHS.
But experts predict that the problem will only get worse, and some forecast that more than half of adults could be obese by 2050.
Despite encouraging signs that rises in childhood obesity could be levelling …

Overweight middle-aged men may have a higher risk of heart problems and strokes and die earlier than their thinner peers — even in the absence of some traditional risk factors, a new study suggests.
Reuters, January 4, 2010

Some past research has suggested that when obese and overweight adults do not have the so-called metabolic syndrome, their risks of diabetes, heart disease and stroke are no higher than those of normal-weight people.
Metabolic syndrome refers to a collection of risk factors for diabetes and heart problems — including abdominal obesity, high blood …

AP, January 6
ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) — The fight against fat is going high-tech. To get an inside look at eating and exercise habits, scientists are developing wearable wireless sensors to monitor overweight and obese people as they go about their daily lives.
The experimental devices are designed to keep track of how many minutes they work out, how much food they consume and even whether they are at a fast-food joint when they should be in the park. The goal is to cut down on self-reported answers that often cover up …

Kate Kelland, Reuters, December 14, 2009
Obesity is becoming more common among poor city dwellers in Africa because of easier access to cheap, high fat, high sugar foods, scientists said on Tuesday.
Researchers looking at data from seven African countries found the number of people overweight or obese increased by nearly 35 percent between the early 1990s and early 2000s and the rate of increase in obesity was higher among poor people.
“Given the chronic nature of most diseases associated with obesity and by extension the huge cost of treatment, the prospects look …

BBC News, December 10
More than one in five children in England start their school life overweight or obese, NHS figures show.
What is more, by the end of primary school the rate rises to nearly one in three, the government’s child measurement programme showed.
Obesity levels were higher in London, the North East and West Midlands than elsewhere in 2008-9.
But the NHS Information Centre said there were no significant changes in the results from last year.
NHS chiefs warned the true levels of obesity were likely to be a little higher as the …

December 14, 2009 BY JENNIFER WELSH. Physorg.com
Adults may stave off weight gain by simply spending less time watching television, according to a new study led by a researcher now at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Overweight adults who cut television time in half were more active, burning more calories as a result.
“Taking away time spent in front of the television has the potential to improve a person’s activity levels,” said Jennifer Otten, PhD, postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and lead author of the study, conducted at …

Sarah Klein, Health.com, December 3, 2009
Although fewer people are smoking — and therefore less likely to die from cigarette-related causes — the obesity epidemic may negate any gains in life span, according to a new study.
By 2020, the typical 18-year-old will gain 0.31 years due to the drop in smoking rates (above and beyond life span increases caused by other factors). But the increase in obesity rates during the same period will reduce life expectancy by 1.02 years, the researchers say.
During the next 10 years, in other words, we’ll …

LONDON Reuters – If Barry Popkin had his way, sugary drinks would be taxed like cigarettes, and the levy would go up and up until societies were weaned off them and stopped piling on weight.
HEALTH
A nutrition expert who has advised the U.S. government and health policy makers around the world, Popkin says the epidemic of obesity and weight gain sweeping the globe could be slowed dramatically if people revised the mantra “you are what you eat” to include “you are what you drink.”
Reviving a taste for water could cut between …