Associated Press/The Washington Post, November 29, 2011
The case of an 8-year-old third-grader weighing more than 200 pounds has renewed a debate on whether parents should lose custody if a child is severely obese.
Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese — weighing significantly more than what’s considered healthy.
A Cleveland Heights boy was taken from his family and was placed in foster care in October after county case workers said his mother wasn’t doing enough to control his weight. The boy, at his weight, is considered at risk for developing such …

August 29, 2011, Jessical Pauline Oglivie, Los Angeles Times
Is severe childhood obesity a life-threatening form of abuse that justifies removing a child from his or her parents?
Doctors, lawyers and child welfare experts have grappled with this question in recent years, and the debate was renewed this summer by a high-profile commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston, and Lindsey Murtagh, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, argued that when children are near …

MailOnline, Jenny Hope, November 26, 2010
Fat children are showing signs of heart disease at the age of 15, researchers warn.
A study has revealed that being overweight throughout adolescence sows the seeds of ill-health for decades to come.
It is the first to investigate the link between body mass index (BMI), waist size and fat mass of pre-teen children and subsequent heart risk factors in late adolescence.
The study looked at how Body Mass Index in children affected future health. Here a child is measured by a doctor (file photo)
The findings show that …

Reuters, Julie Steenhuysen, November 1, 2010
Despite efforts to limit their availability, public elementary school students in the United States have more outlets to buy unhealthy beverages at school, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Over a three-year period ending in 2009, more students could buy sweetened beverages like sodas, higher-fat milk and sports beverages from vending machines and school stores, they said. Such drinks are a major source of calories, and removing them from schools could help curb the nation’s obesity epidemic.
“Elementary school students are still surrounded by a variety of unhealthy …

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 …

The Washington Post, Jane Black, October 2, 2010
Every five years the federal government updates its dietary guidelines for Americans. This year, with most Americans overweight or obese and at risk of high blood pressure, policymakers are working to reinvent the familiar food pyramid and develop advice that is simple and blunt enough to help turn the tide.
The food pyramid shown here is the only one with 100% scientific background, made by the Nutrition Department of Harvard School of Public Health, see the thenutritionsource.org for more information.
Although most people do …

ABC, Kim CArollo, Oct 1, 2010
If there were ever a reason to cut back on kids’ consumption of cake, cookies, pizza and soda, nutrition experts say a new study highlights just how unhealthy young people’s diets really are.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md. analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that nearly 40 percent of calories consumed by children ages 2 to 18 were empty calories, the unhealthiest kind of calories.
Obesity Rates Rise in Some States, Fatty Food Abounds Everywhere McDonald’s to …

It’s been a busy week for vegetables.
The baby-carrot industry tried to reposition its product as junk food, starting a $25 million advertising campaign whose defining characteristics include heavy metal music, a phone app and a young man in a grocery cart dodging baby-carrot bullets fired by a woman in tight jeans.
On the East Side of Manhattan, crates of heirloom vegetables with names like Lady Godiva squash were auctioned for $1,000 each at Sotheby’s, where the wealthy are more accustomed to bidding on Warhols and Picassos than turnips and tomatoes.
Both efforts, …

The New York Times, Jane E. Brody, September 6, 2010
You may think you know why Americans continue to get fatter and develop obesity-related diseases. But the explanation may start long before people have an opportunity to eat too much of the wrong foods and exercise too little.
Increasing evidence indicates that the trouble often starts in the womb, when women gain more weight than is needed to produce a healthy, full-size baby. Excessive weight gain inpregnancy, recent findings show, can result in bigger-than-average babies who are prenatally programmed to become overweight …

Boston Globe, Stephen Smith,  September 9, 2010
More than one-third of Massachusetts students evaluated during the 2008-2009 school year were overweight or obese, according to a report released yesterday that revealed stark differences in how the obesity epidemic has touched cities and towns.
The study, which reflects weight and height measurements for about 110,000 students, for the first time provides data on separate school districts and underscores the role of poverty and affluence in determining weight.
Lawrence, one of the state’s poorest cities, had the highest rate of students with excessive weight, about …