The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report indicating that obesity rates among preschoolers decreased in 19 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands between 2008 and 2011. Analyzing weight and height information from nearly 12 million children aged 2 to 4 years who participated in CDC’s Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System, the report showed that Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, South Dakota, and the U.S. Virgin Islands saw at least a one percentage point decrease in obesity rates. According to CDC research, approximately one out of eight preschoolers in the United States is obese. “Although obesity remains epidemic, the tide has begun to turn for some kids in some states,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “While the changes are small, for the first time in a generation they are going in the right direction. Obesity in early childhood increases the risk of serious health problems for life.” One area…
Tag Archives obesity
“It seems like every time I study an illness and trace a path to the first cause, I find my way back to sugar,” opines University of Colorado-Denver nephrologist Richard Johnson in an August 2013 National Geographic special feature examining the history of sugar consumption. Titled “Sugar Love: A Not So Sweet Story,” the article authored by Rich Cohen traces the spread of sugar from its New Guinea origins throughout the world, in the process raising questions about the sweetener’s impact on heart disease, diabetes and obesity in modern populations. As Johnson asks, “Why is it that one-third of adults [worldwide] have high blood pressure, when in 1900 only 5 percent had high blood pressure? Why did 153 million people have diabetes in 1980, and now we’re up to 347 million? Why are more and more Americans obese? Sugar, we believe, is one of the culprits, if not the major culprit.” In particular, the article…
A new study has reportedly detailed how a common gene variant linked to obesity affects the production and reception of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for stimulating hunger. Efthimia Karra, et al., “A link between FTO, ghrelin, and impaired brain food-cue responsivity,” Journal of Clinical Investigation, July 2013. According to a July 15, 2013, press release, in the first part of the study, researchers with University College London, the Medical Research Council and King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry analyzed ghrelin levels and other indicators of hunger from two groups of participants—those with the high obesity-risk FTO gene (AA group) and those with the low obesity-risk version (TT group)—who were perfectly matched for body weight, fat distribution and social factors such as education level. The results evidently showed that AA group participants not only reported feeling hungrier after a meal than their TT group counterparts, but had “much higher circulating ghrelin…
According to a recently published law review note, health care reimbursement suits modeled on Canada’s Cost Recovery Act and provincial litigation against cigarette manufacturers could be successfully maintained against the food industry for the treatment of obesity-related illnesses. Timothy Poodiack, “The Cost Recovery Act and Tobacco Litigation in Canada: A Model for Fast Food Litigation,” Brooklyn Journal of International Law (2013). The note includes background on the country’s universal health care system, a comparison of issues faced by plaintiffs in U.S. suits against “fast food” companies to issues arising in tobacco litigation, “including assumption of the risk and causation arguments,” and an examination of how the Cost Recovery Act can rebut those arguments, “making the Act an attractive model for potential future food litigants in Canada.”
“An enormous amount of media space has been dedicated to promoting the notion that all processed food, and only processed food, is making us sickly and overweight,” writes David Freedman in a July/August 2013 Atlantic article arguing against the widely-held belief that “the food-industrial complex—particularly the fast-food industry—has turned all the powers of food-processing science loose on engineering its offerings to addict us to fat, sugar, and salt, causing or at least heavily contributing to the obesity crisis.” According to the article, “the wholesome food movement” has consistently derided all processed foods as innately fattening, even though many offerings sold by organic and natural food purveyors contain more sugar, fat and salt than their fast-food equivalents. For Freedman, however, these efforts to demonize the food industry have overlooked not only its considerable market influence, but also the role of technology in making healthier foods as palatable as the original products.…
The Obesity Policy Coalition (OPC) recently announced that the Australian Advertising Standards Board (ASB) has upheld its complaint alleging that a TV commercial for Kellogg Co.’s Coco Pops® cereal violated the Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative (RCMI). According to ASB’s case report, the advertisement under review featured a bowl of Coco Pops® playing “Marco Polo” in a cereal bowl, followed by an image of a child consuming the product and a voiceover stating, “Just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy.” OPC claimed that this commercial violated RCMI by (i) communicating directly with children, (ii) advertising a product that does not “represent a healthy dietary choice consistent with established scientific or Australian government standards,” and (iii) failing to promote “healthy dietary habits or physical activity.” In particular, the coalition argued that the commercial not only imitated children’s voices and behavior in a bid to appeal “overwhelmingly to children,” but was broadcast during…
A recent law review note outlines the history of parens patriae actions that allow states to sue to protect the health and welfare of their citizens, explores its use by state attorneys general to advance public health policy—particularly regarding the use of tobacco—and argues that it cannot be successfully wielded against food companies to address rising levels of obesity in the United States. John Hoke, “Parens Patriae: A Flawed Strategy for State-Initiated Obesity Litigation,” William and Mary Law Review, April 2013. The author opines that the “many different environmental, lifestyle, and uncontrollable genetic causes of obesity” pose a “formidable obstacle to establishing causation.” He also contends that “the sheer number of food companies and food producers further weakens the causal connection between the conduct of the food industry and obesity” and that “there is scant evidence that the food industry has deliberately tried to deceive consumers about the adverse health effects…
A recent study has allegedly linked higher urinary bisphenol A (BPA) levels to a greater risk of obesity in adolescent girls, raising questions about whether BPA “could be a potential new environmental obesogen.” De-Kun Li, et al., “Urine Bisphenol-A Level in Relation to Obesity and Overweight in School-Age Children,” PLoS One, June 2012. Researchers with Kaiser Permanente apparently analyzed data from 1,325 students enrolled in grades four through 12 in Shanghai, China, to conclude that among girls ages 9-12, a urinary BPA level in excess of 2 µg/L “was associated with more than two-fold increased risk of having weight” greater than the 90th percentile of the underlying population. In addition, the study noted that the association “showed a dose-response relationship with increasing urine BPA level associated with further increased risk of overweight.” “This finding is consistent with findings in experimental animal studies where exposure to high BPA level led to…
The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates has formally adopted three new resolutions at its 2013 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, that aim to define obesity as a disease, prohibit the marketing of energy drinks to adolescents younger than age 18, and end the eligibility of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). According to news sources, delegates reached the decision to recognize obesity “as a disease state with multiple aspects requiring a range of interventions to advance obesity treatment and prevention” after hours of debate raised questions about how physicians and policymakers will use the declaration to counter rising obesity rates in the United States. “Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans,” said AMA board member Patrice Harris in a statement announcing the resolution. “The AMA is committed…
A salesman has reportedly filed a discrimination lawsuit against his former employer in a New York state court alleging that the employer, who had invited the salesman to return to his job in a frame shop, asked him to leave when he saw how much weight the salesman had gained since leaving the shop in 2008. Bogadanove v. Frame It In Brooklyn, No. ___ (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Kings Cty., filing date n/a). According to the complaint, former employer Jerry Greenberg took one look at Seth Bogadanove on his return and said “Oh my God, what happened to you, you got so fat!” When Bogadanove attempted to explain that medication he was taking caused the weight gain, Greenberg allegedly said, “Oh my God, I am so sorry, I can’t use you, there is no way you can work here at your size. You wouldn’t fit between the aisles.” Bogadanove then purportedly…
