The New York Times, Natasha Singer, August 12, 2010
The farm stand is becoming the new apothecary, dispensing apples — not to mention artichokes, asparagus and arugula — to fill a novel kind of prescription.
Doctors at three health centers in Massachusetts have begun advising patients to eat “prescription produce” from local farmers’ markets, in an effort to fight obesity in children of low-income families. Now they will give coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient’s family to promote healthy meals.
“A lot of these kids have a very …

Newsweek, Claudia Kalb, August 10, 2010
The Sesame Street set is swirling with action one warm summer day in Queens, N.Y., and NEWSWEEK gets a special sneak peek. The lights are bright, the cameras are on, and the puppeteers are crouched on the floor ready to go live with their Muppets. Opening scene: Elmo peering down at a roundish little object on a plate. “Hmm, what could this be?” he asks. Seconds later, Super Grover, decked in a blue cape, soars over the table and crash-lands next to Elmo. “It is …

The Washington Post, Jane Black, August 5, 2010
The Senate passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act on Thursday, a bill that provides an additional $4.5 billion over 10 years to federal child nutrition programs including school lunch. If signed into law, it will be the first time that the federal government has increased funding for the programs in 30 years.
The bill was bipartisan and fully paid for. But advocates, led by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), had battled to find time for a vote in an intensely busy legislative period. On Monday, Michelle …

San Fransisco Chronicle, Rachel Gordon, August 11, 2010
Toys that have been synonymous with kids’ meals at fast-food restaurants could soon be banned in San Francisco under a new law proposed Tuesday if the food contains too much fat, sugar or salt.
Earlier this year, Santa Clara County became the first local government in the nation to adopt such a law, but it only applies to unincorporated areas and affects a handful of restaurants.
San Francisco’s proposal could have a far greater impact. The restrictions would pertain to all restaurants but effectively would target the dozens of …

Bloomberg News, Pat Wechsler, August 3, 2010
The U.S. is losing the battle of the bulge, and Mississippi is the state reporting the largest percentage of fat people.
The number of states with an adult obesity rate of 30 percent or more has tripled, to nine, since 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report today. Mississippi had the highest rate, 34 percent. About 75 million Americans are considered obese, the Atlanta-based CDC said.
Being fat is costing Americans as much as $150 billion a year from ills such …

The Boston Globe,  Syney Lupkin, July 31, 2010
Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill yesterday that will change the way Massachusetts public school students eat, by banning the use of fryolators and requiring the sale of fresh fruits and non-fried vegetables wherever food is sold.

The bill aims to curb childhood obesity by calling on the state Department of Public Health to establish statewide school nutrition standards for foods sold in vending machines and at other locations on school property. It also requires several state agencies to establish guidelines for training …

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 Huffington Post, John Whyte, July 19, 2010
It’s always somebody else’s problem. Even when it comes to our own health, we always think the latest risks never apply to us. Most patients know that being overweight predisposes them to diabetes. But nine times out of 10, when I tell my patients with diabetes that if they lost weight, they might be able to improve their diabetes control, the response back to me is “Dr. Whyte, I’ve been overweight for 20 years… and I’ve only been diabetic for a year.” …

The New York Times, Roni Caryn Rabin, May 10, 2010
Schoolchildren are more likely to be bullied if they are overweight, and a new study suggests just how much more likely: 60 percent more, if they are obese (with a body mass index in the 95th percentile for children in their age group), and 13 percent more, if they are simply overweight (85th percentile or higher).
The researchers also tried to determine if overweight children from certain backgrounds were more vulnerable than others, and if some had social skills or other characteristics …

Center for American Progress, By Ellen-Marie Whelan, Lesley Russell, Sonia Sekhar | May 10, 2010
Obese American children and teenagers today are on track to have poor health throughout their adult lives. Overall, this next generation of Americans could be the first to have shorter, less healthy lives than their parents. Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980, and current data show that almost one-third of children over 2 years of age are already overweight or obese.
Download the full report (pdf)
Download the executive summary (pdf)
Obese children and adolescents are more likely to …