Tag: obesity
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IOM Issues Workshop Summary on Trends in Food and Beverage Marketing to Children
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has issued a pre-publication summary of its workshop “New Challenges and Opportunities for Change in Food Marketing to Children and Youth.” Conducted by IOM’s Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention, the November 5, 2012, workshop featured “presentations and discussion on contemporary trends in marketing of foods and beverages to children…
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Ontario Report Calls for Changes in Food Environment
A panel commissioned by Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has issued a March 2013 report outlining a three-part strategy designed to curb rising childhood obesity rates by supporting families, changing the food environment and creating healthy communities. Titled “No Time to Wait: The Healthy Kids Strategy,” the report specifically recommends, among other things,…
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New Article Targets Food Addiction, Adolescent Obesity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Focusing on recent research into food addiction, a review article published in the Journal of Adolescent Health discusses “the need for multilevel interventions that go beyond simple behavioral approaches” in low- and middle-income counties (LMICs) with increasing adolescent obesity rates. Albert Lee and Susannah Gibbs, “Neurobiology of Food Addiction and Adolescent Obesity Prevention in Low-…
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Hastings Center Scholar Calls for Shaming the Obese to Address Epidemic
In a paper titled “Obesity: Chasing an Elusive Epidemic,” Hastings Center Scholar and President Emeritus Daniel Callahan calls for a combination of measures to stop what he calls “the most difficult and elusive public health problem this country has ever encountered.” Contending that current initiatives have failed to stem the tide, Callahan includes “social pressure…
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Weight Bias in the Courtroom Focus of New Study
A recent study investigating weight bias in the courtroom has apparently concluded that both the “weight and gender of a defendant may affect juror perceptions of guilt and responsibility.” N. A. Schvey, et al., “The influence of a defendant’s body weight on perceptions of guilt,” International Journal of Obesity, January 2013. The study relied on…
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WSJ “Numbers Guy” Questions Usefulness of BMI
Wall Street Journal columnist Carl Bialik recently authored two related articles questioning whether body mass index (BMI) is a reliable data point insofar as it “lumps together all body mass, including bone, muscle and beneficial fat, rather than singling out the more dangerous abdominal fat, which most researchers see as the real threat to health.”…
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AP-NORC Surveys Public Opinion on Obesity-Related Issues
A recent survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (AP-NORC) indicates that even though Americans apparently understand many of the reasons behind increasing rates of obesity and the alleged link between obesity and chronic health conditions, people are split on their support for government policies that would affect consumers’ food and…
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Psychiatry Professor Calls for Anti-Tobacco Initiatives to Address Obesity Epidemic
In a University of Oxford Press (UOP) blog post titled “From cigarettes to obesity, public health at risk,” University of Florida Psychiatry Professor Mark Gold advances his food addiction hypothesis and suggests, “If overeating is due to food acquiring drug-like or tobacco-like brain reinforcement properties, then the current globesity and overeating-related health crisis might have…