Why We Get Fat. The Obesity Race: Update, Part 1. Philip Alcabes blog. There is very little evidence that obesity is harmful to young children. So I have to ask why NYC’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene feels so strongly that fat schoolchildren should be forced to slim down. And why it’s so eager to congratulate itself today on its policing of eating behavior — see reports by WSJ, Bloomberg , CBS (with photos of fat kids!)
, Huffington , and many other sources. Why would the city’s health agency lie in order to claim that its jihad against a not-very-convincing evil has been successful? The subject is a report published by CDC today claiming that obesity among NYC schoolkids in grades K through 8 has decreased 5.5%. The city’s health commissioner, Thomas A. A missed photo opp: Dr. Farley is zealous about controlling people’s behavior and contemptuous of facts (nobody will ever accuse him of being an intellectual, either). What about today’s “turning point” in the obesity war? A small difference between small numbers amounts to a large difference. Our Guns and Butter Economy.
In its drive for job-creating exports, is America creating a fatter, more violent world? Should we simply say that any exports -- no matter their moral, ethical, environmental or health implications -- are inherently good? With the economy still struggling and the debates over how to fix the problem more intense than ever, one word still evokes bipartisan consensus: exports. “I want us to sell stuff,” said President Obama, summing up the bipartisan sentiment. That nebulous word “stuff” is significant.
It asks us to see all exports as the same and to refrain from making nuanced value judgments about what exactly we’re shipping overseas. In this cold-blooded view, a job-creating export is a job-creating export, and that’s as far as any conversation should go. At first glance, such reductionism seems logical, rational, even boringly uncontroversial. This is part of a larger pattern since President Obama took office. But should they be? Why the Campaign to Stop America's Obesity Crisis Keeps Failing. Carbs_Are_Killing_You.png (PNG Image, 1000x4685 pixels) No Letup in US Obesity Epidemic. US Obesity Trends.
Employers hurt by fat. Dr. Stephen Malley of Malley Surgical Weight Loss Center holds a laparoscopic gastric band. Malley says more health insurance plans are beginning to cover bariatric surgeries. Employers and insurers are joining public health advocates in the fight against the nation’s growing obesity problem to reduce its increasingly heavy burden on the bottom line. Obesity costs the nation an estimated $147 billion a year. Employers foot most of that bill, paying about $93 billion annually in medical costs related to obesity, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. A study that appeared last year in health policy journal Health Affairs found that medical expenses for obese people are 42 percent higher than for people who are not obese, costing private insurers an additional $1,400 a person annually, on average.
Added pounds also lighten employer profits by reducing productivity. Obesity and Weight Management - Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Guidelines, and Prevention. Parents underreport fat. National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month kicks off with sobering news This sobering news underscores the need for National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Congress established the observance in a resolution passed unanimously earlier this year, seeking to "raise public awareness and mobilize the country to address childhood obesity. " A wide array of organizations have joined together as the National Council on Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, educating parents, policy makers and others about the problem and encouraging preventive action on childhood obesity.
The new website www.HealthierKidsBrighterFutures.org includes a toolkit with fact sheets, sample letters to the editor, scripts for public service announcements and other resources. Such advocacy is needed more than ever, in light of a study conducted by Daniel O'Connor, Ph.D., and Joseph Gugenheim, M.D. and presented in June at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Waist Circumference Linked to All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults. School laws proposed. Village officials have been asked to rezone a 57-acre parcel of land from business and residential to industrial to accommodate a proposed natural gas power plant. … Students were the driving force behind a new drug testing policy in the Crestview School District. … The firefighters are employed under a federal SAFER grant and the city did not get funded in this round Thirty-three people have submitted applications to become the next YSU president A new law in Ohio is aimed at reducing the state's record high fatal heroin overdoses Students in the autism unit at Summit Academy in Youngstown got to experience a pre-prom event on Monday Residents at Shepherd of the Valley in Boardman spent hours on Monday packing the baskets with candy and school supplies, with each basket going to Children Services of Mahoning County A federal judge on Monday ordered Ohio authorities to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states, the latest court victory for gay rights supporters.