Tag: obesity
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Senators Join Call for Surgeon General Report on Sugary Drinks
U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have reportedly joined the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network and a coalition of federal, state and local public health organizations in urging U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin to investigate the alleged association between sugar-sweetened drinks and rising obesity rates. According to a…
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Treatment for Obesity Through Brain’s “Addiction” Center?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly approved the use by Ohio State University (OSU) investigators of brain pacemakers as an obesity treatment. Deep-brain stimulation has apparently been approved for use in the treatment of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia, and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OSU researchers and clinicians evidently made the…
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NYU Researchers Claim Early Exposure to Antibiotics Associated with Increase in Body Mass
New York University researchers using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children with data on more than 11,000 children have purportedly found a consistent association between antibiotic exposure in the first six months of life with “elevations in body mass index with overweight and obesity from ages 10 to 38 months.” L. Trasande, et…
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Rudd Center Posts Fall 2012 Speakers Schedule
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has posted its fall 2012 speakers schedule, noting that the center “welcomes speakers from different disciplines to present and discuss their work and its implications for the study of obesity and food policy.” Among those on the roster are Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Jason Riis,…
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Will Plain Cigarette Packs in Australia Lead to Similar Food-Packaging Restrictions?
In the wake of an Australian High Court ruling validating regulations requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packages, some commentators are speculating whether other products, such as alcoholic beverages and fast food, will be subject to the same types of restrictions. The opinion, penned by Patrick Carlyton, suggests that because alcoholism and obesity also…
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RAND Researchers Say Alcohol-Control Policies Could Be Useful to Address Obesity
A peer-reviewed article appearing in Preventing Chronic Disease explores how five alcohol-control policies could hold promise in addressing the obesity epidemic if used to regulate access to low-nutrient foods. Deborah Cohen & Lila Rabinovich, “Addressing the Proximal Causes of Obesity: The Relevance of Alcohol Control Policies,” Preventing Chronic Disease, May 2012. The policy interventions discussed…
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Extremely Obese Children Removed from Parents’ Care in Australia
According to news sources, human-services authorities in Victoria have sought protection for extremely obese children on at least two occasions in 2012, arguing to children’s court magistrates that they would be unable to lose weight in their parents’ care. One case reportedly involved a preteen boy who weighed more than 240 pounds and a teenage…
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Montana High Court Rules Obesity May Be a Protected Disability
Responding to a question certified by a federal district court, a divided Montana Supreme Court has said that obesity which is not the symptom of a physiological condition may be a “physical or mental impairment” as the terms are used in the Montana Human Rights Act. BNSF Ry. Co. v. Feit, No. OP 11-0463 (Mont.,…