Who's to blame?

I used to watch that show – what’s it called? – with the mean lady that yells a lot from The Biggest Loser? Jillian? So yeah, I’d watch the show where she goes into people’s houses and whips ‘em into shape. And y’all, some of the crap people feed their children… From the time they’re toddlers, these kids are guzzling soda and fast food at least once a day and often more than that.

Now, I’ll admit to wheeling into the drive-thru of the golden arches a time or two, because it’s cheap and easy and Violet loves french fries. Who doesn’t? Not liking french fries is un-American, I say. Which is ironic, considering the french part of the fries.

But I digress. The question is this: should parents of extremely obese children lose custody for not controlling their kids’ weight? Is letting a kid get that fat a form of neglect? Continue reading »

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Now I know why the American Cancer Society stopped using birthday cakes in their "Happy Birthday" ads.

Robert Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine.  According to the enormous feature in The New York Times Magazine about his theories, UCSF has one of the best medical schools in the country.  Lustig published his first paper on childhood obesity over a decade ago, and he believes the leading cause of the epidemic is something we all consume every day: sugar.

But not only does Lustig believe that sugar causes obesity and diabetes in children and adults, he goes so far as to describe sugar and high fructose corn syrup as toxic, poisonous and downright evil.  Times scribe Gary Taubes is upfront about the fact that after 10 years of research, he’s in complete agreement with Lustig.  Early in the lengthy piece, Taubes writes, “when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good, despite all the love that goes with it.”  Lustig, Taubes and others believe that sugar can even cause cancer. Continue reading »

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Fat signals puberty onset

Remember all the talk a while back about early puberty — girls as young as 7 and 8 sprouting breasts? A study in the journal Nature Genetics reports that researchers have pinpointed 30 genes linked to early-onset puberty.

The researchers studied over 100,000 women in the U.S., Europe, and Australia, and located genes that were associated with the age of first menstruation.

The genes they zeroed in on link the downward trend in age of puberty with the rising obesity epidemic. Here’s what they found:

Of the 30 genes related to the age of puberty, four were linked to BMI (body mass index), three with metabolism, and three with hormone regulation.

Why would being overweight send a girl into earlier puberty? Scientists think it might because larger fat stores send signals to the brain that the body is ready (with enough resources) to start reproduction. Continue reading »

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photo credit : istockphoto.com

The Center for Disease Control, and Prevention released a startling and dramatic estimation for diabetes in adults by the year 2050. What is most startling about these numbers is who those adults will be – our children.

While the numbers do not specifically mention our children, we know by the year 2050 many of our children will be long gone out of our homes, grown up with possible families of their own. Continue reading »

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A truly scary Halloween treat.

As someone who has difficulty resisting temptation, I have yet to stock up on Halloween treats. I find it best to wait until just hours before the trick-or-treaters show up before going to the store to make my purchases.   This way, I can be sure that there will actually be some treats left to hand out when the time comes.

But when I do go shopping, I know what I will buy:  Chocolate.  There will be no pretzels or dried fruit at my house. And there sure as heck won’t be any carrots.

But who, you might ask, would give out carrots on Halloween anyway?  Bolthouse Farms, a commercial vegetable farm in western Michigan, is hoping you will.  The company, known for their  “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” campaign, in which they package baby carrots in small bags and market them as a potato chip alternative, has now set their sights on making Halloween healthy. Continue reading »

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Remember Donna Simpson, the “Fattest Mom in America”?  At 520 pounds, she held the record for heaviest woman to give birth after the birth of her daughter.  And now she’s trying to reach 1,000 pounds.  On purpose.  Not everyone thinks this is a good idea, however.  At least one doctor is not only speaking out against Simpson’s goal but is also putting up the money to get her to stop.

Continue reading »

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There’s little doubt in most people’s minds that high fructose corn syrup isn’t especially good stuff to eat a lot of. And unfortunately, if you eat pretty much anything you don’t prepare from raw ingredients yourself, you’re eating a lot of it. It’s in just about everything from bread to juice to condiments.

A study from the University of California, the first one on human subjects, found some troubling effects from the substance. 16 volunteers were fed a strictly controlled diet with high levels of fructose. After 10 weeks, the subjects had formed new fat cells around their heart, liver, and digestive organs. They also showed metabolic changes that are linked to diabetes and heart disease. Volunteers on a similar diet but with glucose sugar Continue reading »

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