Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: obesity

  • Why We Get Fat Author Launches Initiative to Investigate New Research on Obesity

    Science Writer Gary Taubes, who authored Why We Get Fat, writes in Nature magazine that obesity is not a matter of energy in-energy out, but is rather a “hormonal, regulatory defect.” In his December 13, 2012, article titled “Treat obesity as physiology, not physics,” Taubes bases this conclusion on endocrinology and calls for better research…

  • House Proposal Would End Subsidy to Companies That Advertise “Junk Food” to Children

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has introduced a bill to deny federal tax deductions to companies marketing “junk food” to children. The Stop Subsidizing Childhood Obesity Act (H.R. 6599) would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to protect children’s health by denying any deduction for advertising and marketing directed at children to promote the consumption…

  • OPC Releases Report on Self-Regulatory Marketing in Australia

    The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) has sent a report to Australian officials on the country’s current self-regulatory system for food marketing, which OPC has described as “seriously flawed.” According to the coalition, the codes developed by the food industry to govern marketing to children “are extremely complex,” resulting in “a litany of loopholes” that companies…

  • Australian Health Experts Urge “Junk Food” Regulations

    Two health experts who recently appeared on Australia’s ABC Lateline have reportedly called for additional government regulation to help combat rising obesity levels. University of Melbourne Professor Rob Moodie, who previously chaired Australia’s Preventative Health Taskforce, reportedly suggested that because voluntary programs have failed to curb obesity and diabetes rates, the government should step in…

  • Reuters Targets WHO Ties to Food and Beverage Companies

    A Reuters special report has claimed that the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), has accepted “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from food and beverage companies to combat obesity. According to journalists Duff Wilson and Adam Kerlin, WHO and five of its regional offices already prohibit industry…

  • Scientists Identify Gene with Role in Mood Disorders and Obesity

    Researchers with McGill University have reportedly identified a genetic mutation linked to the development of mood disorders and obesity in humans.Carl Ernst, et al., “Highly Penetrant Alterations of a Critical Region Including BDNF in Human Psychopathology and Obesity,”Archives of General Psychiatry,October 2012. After screening more than 35,000 people referred for genetic testing and comparing the results…

  • New Study Examines Shared Neurobiology of Obesity and Addiction

    A recent study examining the shared neurobiological substrates of obesity and addiction has concluded that “there are several identifiable circuits in the brain, whose dysfunctions uncover real and clinically meaningful parallels between the two disorders.” N.H. Volkow, et al., “Obesity and addiction: neurobiological overlaps,” Obesity Reviews, September 2012. According to the study’s authors, “Drugs of…

  • Retired Military Leaders Say American Youth “Still Too Fat to Fight”

    Mission: Readiness, a non-profit organization of senior retired military leaders, has issued a second report claiming that one in four young adults are still “too overweight to enlist.” Titled “Still Too Fat to Fight,” the latest report alleges that U.S. students “consume almost 400 billion calories from junk food sold at schools each year.” It…