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 …

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 …

Los Angeles Times, David Lazarus, June 29, 2010
What to do about the obesity epidemic? Here’s a thought: Substitute “tobacco” for “junk food.” That provides a pretty clear road map about what government authorities should be doing to safeguard public health.
Unfortunately, officials are instead just reheating the same old leftovers.
Dietary guidelines issued recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture basically say Americans need to ease up on the salt, sugar and saturated fats, and instead eat more fruits and veggies.
This is the same advice given by the department three decades ago. …

The Wall Street Journal Blog, Katherine Hobson, June 2, 2010
The Associated Press wrote today about employers that are offering their workers financial incentives for losing weight. Too bad they’re unlikely to work, the AP quotes some experts as saying, noting that while cash rewards have been shown to increase smoking quit rates, losing weight is a whole different ballgame. For one thing, you can toss your cigs forever, but food is a necessity.
Still, we were curious about how other strategies that have been used against tobacco might apply to the obesity …

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 …

Editorial J. Michael Gaziano, MD, MPH JAMA. 2010;303(3):(doi:10.1001/jama.2009.2025).
In 1900, Henry Ford unveiled the first car made in Detroit, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union was founded in New York, and San Francisco was placed under a federal quarantine to prevent the spread of bubonic plague. Infectious disease was a major concern, and the most common causes of death in the United States and in many parts of the world at the time were pneumonia and tuberculosis. Today, most individuals die of cardiovascular disease or cancer. This dramatic shift in the illnesses …

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 …