High school's acne-splotched, gossip-buzzed cafeterias can get ugly. The scene takes an extra emotional toll on those at the bottom of the food chain. What's worse, the pain of teen popularity contests actually expands girls' waistlines.
A new Harvard University study of 4,500 girls suggests that the lower girls think of themselves on the social scale, the greater their risk for gaining weight.
Continue reading 'Low self esteem in teen girls packs on 11 pounds' >
Determined to double down on double diabetes, the good folks at our sister co., Nature Publishing Group, are about to add to their already-tumescent, ever-swelling cache of journals this little chestnut:
Like actual obesity, Obesity: A Research Journal will cost those who are afflicted with it around $400 a year.
Related:
Obesity: Bigger than terrorism?
Americans stop getting fatter
Cost of healthy food rising five times as fast as inflation
Like medical care, gasoline, and the price of a latte in Paris, the cost of lower-calorie foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and basically everything that isn't a snack cake with an indefinite shelf life or a bucket of high fructose corn syrup, has been going up faster than the increase in our wages or even the contents of our savings accounts
Continue reading 'Cost of healthy food rising five times as fast as inflation' >
Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by Dr. Robert "Have Another Bunless Bacon Burger" Atkins:
Gene Helps Turn Carbs Into Fat
Full transcript after the jump...
Continue reading 'Gene Helps Turn Carbs Into Fat [podcast]' >
This Pentagon report says that climate change is as big a threat to humanity as terrorism. And this health secretary has warned that obesity is as big a threat as climate change.
So, by the transitive property of equality,
Terrorism = Obesity
In 2005-2006, the same number of adults were obese as in 2003-2004, says the CDC. That's still 1 in 3, or twice the rate of obesity the U.S. could lay claim to in 1980.
Whether this is a temporary lull or a heartening new trend, at least, for the first time in decades, we did not become any more massive than we already are.
[CDC]
Cranky kids who don't get to bed early may also be packing on the pounds.
Every extra hour a third grader spends in bed--regardless of their size--slims the chance of a child being obese as a sixth grader.
To keep trim, third graders should get 9 hours and 45 minutes of sleep a night, according to researchers of a recent study.
Fast food joints in New York City are about to face their worst nightmare: big, bold calories.
City health officials have put together a regulation that will require some restaurants to advertise calories on the big menus that hang above cashiers. If the law goes into effect, calories will get as much real estate on a menu as the price of a Big Mac or a Whopper.
Continue reading 'Calories may soon hit menus at fast food restaurants' >
The AP today looks at a new campaign by the Advertising Council aimed at fighting obesity. It cites critics who complain that the ads are "namby pamby" and "wimpy." But is "soft" always bad?
What the story fails to mention is that while the shocking and attention-getting advertisements it cites with approval
have a long history in anti-drug campaigns, they also have a long history of not only failure, but backfiring.
The Ad Council knows this well-- years ago, it found that while shocking pictures of car crashes and interviews with people who lost loved ones to drunk drivers won advertising awards, they didn't deter drunk drivers. What worked? Ads that gave partners humorous ways of getting the car keys away from drunks.
The Council is probably basing its new campaign on these findings-- while toughness may sound better, "wimpy" ads may work better at changing behavior. And isn't that what we want them to do?
