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TweetOctober 9, 2012, Harvard School of Public Health
Diets Fall Short of National Recommendations
More than 44.7 million Americans — roughly one in seven — receive benefits to purchase food from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp Program. SNAP is designed to alleviate hunger and provide nutritious food to its beneficiaries. However, a new study by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers has found that SNAP participants’ diets are actually worse than those of low-income adults not participating in the program and that, while few low-income adults …

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TweetJune 25, 2012, Indianapolis Star, Gary Moore
On a recent steamy holiday weekend, customers at a discount grocery store in Evanston, Ill., loaded their carts with bags of chips, boxes of cookies, 2-liter soda bottles and jugs of fruit punch – among other items – then paid for it all with food stamp credit.
Although some may be surprised to see “nutrition assistance” dollars going to buy food with little nutritional value, it’s perfectly legal under federal rules.
Some politicians and health advocates want that to change, saying restricting food stamp purchases to …

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TweetMay 16, 2012, The Guardian, Denis Campbell
“Fat taxes” would have to increase the price of unhealthy food and drinks by as much as 20% in order to cut consumption by enough to reduce obesity and other diet-related diseases, experts have said. Such levies should be accompanied by subsidies on healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables to help encourage a significant shift in dietary habits, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.
Academics led by Dr Oliver Mytton and Dr Mike Rayner of the Department of Public Health at …

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Tweet8 April, 2012, AP, Washington Examiner
Ashley Bradley, with her 2-year-old son Kareem Marcus in tow, couldn’t help but shake her head while walking past the food store closest to her home.
It’s less than a quarter of a mile away, so it’s convenient, but it has a limited product selection.
Fresh vegetables are hard to come by unless people go outside Gary’s Tarrytown neighborhood, she said. Then they have options.
“Noodles, hot dogs, that’s all they got,” Bradley, 28, said about the food store. “If people don’t say anything, they (store owners) won’t …

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TweetSeptember 8, 2011, Los Angeles Times, Jeannine Stein
Medicare could save billions of dollars if people who were pre-diabetic or at risk for cardiovascular disease took part in community-based weight-loss programs, a study finds.
Researchers projected cost savings for the government healthcare program if millions of people in the U.S. age 60 to 64 participated in a program that helped them lose weight and gain more healthful lifestyle habits. They based their findings on an existing YMCA diabetes prevention program that is, as of this year, at 50 facilities in 24 states. …

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TweetJune 23, 2011, Bloomberg News, Oliver Renick
Newly diagnosed cancer cases cost the global economy $300 billion in 2010, as illnesses once believed to be largely confined to wealthier countries took hold in developing nations, a Harvard University economist said.
Tobacco use, alcohol intake, obesity and decreased physical activity have grown in poorer countries, causing the rise of cancer and diabetes, said David E. Bloom, professor of economics and demography at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Boston. Bloom and other researchers held a briefing today in advance of the United Nations …

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TweetJune 20, 2011, Financial, Nina Burjanadze
After having two children 41 year old Marekhi Papuashvili started to put on weight and subsequently lost her job position. Marekhi faced an obesity problem that dramatically changed her life for the worse.
“I spent most of my time at home and didn’t even want to go out. I simply lost the joy of living,” said Papuashvili.
In Georgia people with obesity problems face unemployment more often than others. Their rights are quite limited in terms of employment, career development and social status. Employers always avoid talking …

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TweetLos Angeles Times, Lily Kuo, October 31, 2010
Reporting from Beijing — Tian Ning shuffled unsteadily across his room at a weight loss clinic in Beijing, not exactly looking like the picture of health, but triumphant nonetheless.
In six months, Tian has gone from the unglamorous subject of a reality intervention television show called “Tian Weighs 462 Pounds, Beijing’s Fattest Man,” to a man eagerly approaching his ideal weight of 220. His meals are monitored and a machine jiggles his midsection for an hour of exercise each day at the Kelikexin International …

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The Huffington Post, Craig Cooper, September 22, 2010
Approximately 1.6 billion adults are now considered overweight by the World Health Organization with at least 400 million considered obese (1). Most of these adults live in the United States with 30 percent of Americans now considered obese. Blacks have a 51 percent higher prevalence of obesity, and Hispanics have a 21 percent higher obesity prevalence compared with whites (2). That’s an enormous number any way you look at it.
And with excess weight comes an excess of problems which have a snowball …

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TweetThe Washington Post, Sandra g. Boodman, September 21, 2010
Although obesity is a major public health problem – two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese — “there’s relatively little coverage” for treatment of the condition, said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit Washington-based research group with expertise in obesity policy.
Lee and her colleagues reported in a recent study that many states allow insurers to charge obese patients higher premiums or deny coverage of the condition altogether. They also found that only a handful mandate coverage for any of the …