San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 2010
Before surging obesity rates made villains of trans fats and sugars, salt was the big nutritional bad guy in the American diet, linked to hypertension, heart disease and stroke
.
Then waistlines expanded and expanded some more, and the focus shifted.
Now, aware that Americans’ salt consumption has risen by 50 percent over the past 40 years largely because of an increased reliance on a diet of processed and restaurant foods, public health experts and politicians are attempting to put the spotlight back on salt and its harmful …

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 …

Los Angeles Times, Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger, February 7, 2010
Employing a broad-based lobbying effort, the soft drink industry has smothered a plan to tax sugared beverages — a plan advocates said would have reduced obesity and helped finance healthcare reform.
Only months ago, public health advocates thought the tax would be a natural for congressional Democrats looking for revenue to fund expanded health insurance coverage. The soaring costs of treating ailments related to excess weight — including diabetes and heart disease — added urgency to the issue.
But the White House …