The burrito is not your enemy, exercise is. (Sort of.)

Or so says John Cloud of TIME  magazine.  This after hearing that women with children tend to be fatter than their childless peers makes things seem pretty grim for those of us who could stand to lose a few.  Cloud writes, “I exercise all the time, and since I… cut most desserts, my weight has returned to the same 163 lb. it has been most of my adult life.  I still have gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit.  Why isn’t all the exercise wiping it out?”

Here’s why, according to exercise researcher Eric Ravussin of Louisiana State University: “In general, for weight loss, exercise is pretty useless.”  Great. Continue reading »

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Is there a doctor in the Rite Aid? No, but plenty of medical advice.

I think Carolyn’s right. The part of the public that doesn’t reflexively reject all things Obama would be disappointed if Obamacare were repealed already. But let’s say the whole thing does get tossed out. Then what are we left with?

Well, the local Rite Aid for one. And a popular reality program for another. That, most certainly, isn’t a good thing. Continue reading »

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It is nothing new that many women in The United States receive the benefits of the wonderful WIC program, also known as Women, Infants, and Children. But in recently months it seems like WIC is switching the focus on nutrition as a whole to encouraging mothers to explore breastfeeding.

In recent years, The United States government has become one of the largest purchasers of infant formula, and with the known benefits of breastfeeding along side the new information and studies making the news WIC wants to help encourage mothers to make the decision to breastfeed. Not to mention the recent recall due to insect parts in formula. Continue reading »

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Looking to lose some of the baby weight? Why not just eat baby food? Believe it or not, that’s what some women are doing. Personally, I think it’s a ridiculous idea. Any diet that requires grown women to eat pureed peas out of a tiny jar is seriously problematic.

According to The Kansas City Star, “dieters are going gaga over one of the most peculiar fad diets yet.” All you need to do is eat 14 jars of baby food a day and then a complete “grownup” dinner — assuming you haven’t already lost your appetite.

The fad took off after Marie Claire UK published an article in May about Jennifer Aniston’s recent 7-pound weight loss. Aniston’s trainer, Tracy Anderson, described her “baby food cleanse,” which incorporated easy-to-digest mini-meals such as smoothies, oatmeal and soups.

People took Anderson’s remark literally and soon everyone was asking Aniston about her baby food diet. Continue reading »

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I have no doubt that Michelle Obama started her Let’s Move initiative because wants nothing but the best for our nation’s children.  But Harriet Brown, author of Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia, brings up some poignant and critical points about the anti-obesity campaign in her latest column on The Huffington Post.  Her overall concern: trying to make kids thinner actually makes them fat.

Brown says she’s “conflicted about the report released in mid-May by Michelle Obama’s task force on childhood obesity,” because the “ideas are all presented in the service of a single goal: to make kids thinner.”  She feels it’s dangerous to suggest “that thin is synonymous with healthy, and that we can (and should) make kids thinner.”  This opinion is based, of course, on her daughter’s struggle with anorexia.  But take one look at where her daughter’s illness started – in her middle school “wellness” class – and you can see that her concerns are not entirely misplaced. Continue reading »

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Caroline Campion, contributor to Babble’s The Family Kitchen, posted a piece today about discovering that a kindergartner in her elementary school was being sent with lunch consisting entirely of low-calorie, packaged, processed foods.  In it she says that “the little girl was able to describe the calorie-counts of each item.”

She offers some valuable insight “as a long-time editor at several woman’s magazines,” discussing stories where ”eating disorders start with the writer describing a mother who was obsessed with fad diets—from grapefruit to South Beach—or put them on a diet at an early age.”  I remember reading a similar story in Oprah magazine about Robin Marantz Henig and her daughter Jess Zimmerman. Robin spent Jessica’s childhood feeling ashamed that her daughter was fat.  She says she “packed abstemious school lunches—half a sandwich, a fruit, no junk.”  Experts say it’s best not to talk to your kids about dieting, and even though Henig was trying to keep her daughter’s weight in control (Zimmerman maintains that she is naturally fat), a piece of fruit is a much healthier choice than a 100-calorie cupcake. Continue reading »

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