HuffPost Healthy Living: loss weight success stories

Just found out this series of stories on the Huffington Post. Interesting but the format could be improved (I think) to include more specific information about each diet. The headlines are often misleading and an abusive simplification like this one emphasizing tennis playing instead of the drastic reduction in food intake and in the type of food. It still would be great of produce/disseminate on a regular basis, inspirational stories, maybe coupled with stories of failures and how best to overcome them?
Yes, similar stories were published about smoking. For example, read the classical
The Last puff, ex-smokers share the secrets of their success.

Worst beverages in America

From Buzzfeed via CSIP. As they say, prepare to be outraged.

Study links healthier students with tougher state snack laws for schools

As reported in the New York Times, the results of this RWJF funded study shows less overweight sutdents in states that have adopted tougher laws regulating the availability of "competitive foods and drinks" in schools. Preventobesity.net is promoting a petition to the Department of Agriculture so that they release new guidelines for schools. It was started in Kentucky by Casey Hinds.
Read The lunch tray the blog of Bettina Elias Siegel, that I just added to the blogroll.

Big Food hires the same lobbyists and PR manipulators as Big Tobacco

From this very instructive August 13 post in Michele Simon's Appetite for Profit about the fight against/for GMO labeling.

Obama Foodorama

Obama Foodorama is a blog published by Eddie Gehman Kohan about the White House food initiatives. Shows (in a way) how they(she) frame the issues (or not). I am not sure about Eddie's status in relation with the administration. Although this interview in Elle gives some details.

Using the Fooducate app in the classroom

From the Fooducate blog...
I cannot say I care for the music in the short video but using the smartphone so many children now have is a good idea. Maybe the content of Fooducate is too technical (depending on the age group). I am not sure about the content of the Smash your food app that seems to target a younger audience (and their parents).

12 states with high obesity rates (more than 30%)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released figures on Monday showing that the number of states with very high obesity rates has grown to 12 from 9. Over all, more than a third of American adults are obese. The latest figures are based on a telephone survey last year that asked adults their height and weight. For the first time, households with only cellphones were included. At least 30 percent of adults are obese in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia. Mississippi had the highest rate at nearly 36 percent.

Downsizing Supersize

New Yorker's James Surowiecki about Mayor Bloomberg's initiative.

Sebelius about obesity two years ago

This was a presentation delivered at the first Weight of the Nation conference in July 2009. The approach toward Big Soda is mostly voluntary, lauding the Clinton initiative about reducing the access to sugary drinks in schools. Two years later, the question asked to Secretary Sebelius is about producing a Surgeon General's Report about sugary drinks. When will she give an answer?
Her conclusion in 2009 was:
Reducing obesity - especially for children - would be one of the biggest steps we could take towards this better health future... Indeed. So what about sugary drinks?

Fighting obesity on college campuses

This article was published in USA today in November 2011. What about 2012 and enlisting students and colleges as advocates for obesity control?

Watch: The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers

From Michael Pollan's blog, via Mother Jones site this new video produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

How to grow the "movement"?

How to grow the "food movement" is a question Marion Nestle is frequently asked and she wonders how to answer it. She notes there are so many groups around and wonders what their political power would be if they were joining forces. From the experience of the tobacco control movement, the "obesity control movement", is only starting to become aware that it needs to build and use its political muscle: that will require an umbrella organization (with the adequate governance) and a basic political platform where people and organizations can recognize themselves and adhere to.
The internet based tools should allow for the creation of a common clearinghouse/directory/forum similar to what the tobacco control movement had.
It can start with a few individuals and organizations.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead

Chef Tony Geraci, Cafeteria Man in Baltimore, Memphis...

Cafeteria Man is a documentary about Tony Geraci's work for the Baltimore's schools. Unfortunately, only a short trailer is available on line. Here is a longer video about his work with the schools in Memphis. Interestingly I found the links to this information via a post on the social media blog of the Ogilvy PR Group...

Exercising more will not do the trick as far as obesity is concerned

Exercising more cannot replace reducing your calorie intake according to this article in the NYT. That's nothing new but it's so much easier to invite people to move more rather than change their diet, especially if it means antagonizing the very powerful lobbies that benefit from the toxic food and drinks that are the real culprits. Rereading the classic book Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, it is worth remembering the definite advantage of an all plant diet has been know for at least 20 years: the "First National Conference on the Elimination of Coronary Artery Disease" took place in the summer of 1991. Also recommended is the excellent documentary Forksoverknives.
Of course that's not to say we should not exercise... only that this is NOT the solution to the obesity epidemic, despite what Olympic sponsors Coke and McDo would like you to believe.

How long before a Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Obesity?

As of today Michael Bloomberg's involvement in the combat against obesity seems limited to his initiatives as Mayor of New York, although their ripple effect go well beyond the city limits. I wonder how long it will take before it also becomes a philanthropic initiative on the model of his Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use?
Since 2006 Michael Bloomberg has invested $595 million ($125 million in 2006, $ 250 million in 2008, $220 million in 2012) in this initiative that was started after the tobacco control program launched in New York City with former Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden ( now CDC's Director since June 2009) replaced by the present Commissioner Thomas Farley.
How could such a Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Obesity take place? The same way the tobacco control program was developed: beyond the New York City's ongoing projects to reduce obesity, many key decision makers and organizations are already joining forces as they did most recently during the National Soda Summit, to request a Surgeon General's Report about the health impact of sugary drinks or to produce The Weight of the Nation documentary.
The tobacco control initiative involves seven main partners: the World Health Organization, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the CDC Foundation, the World Lung Foundation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (that committed $125 million in 2008).
Can you imagine a similar coalition to manage an initiative to reduce obesity?
How long will it take?
Here is an interview with Youfa Wang who heads the Global Center on Childhood Obesity at Johns Hopkins.

Look at what Bill McKibben writes and does about climate change: nay inspiration for obesity control?

I think there is plenty to emulate. Taking on the fossil fuel industries and taking on the drink and food industries.

Diabetes: how to combat a silent and costly killer? Why is DHHS omitting obesity?

Visiting the DHHS website to look for information about Secretary Kathleen Sebelius since she has still to respond to the letter asking her to request a Surgeon General's Report about sugary drinks I don't find much (if anything) about obesity control. I noticed that a quote at the top of her biography page is about prevention and its great potential positive impacts. Unfortunately I could not find one instance where she directly addresses sugary drinks issues. I find interesting that Howard Koh who is Assistant Secretary used to be at the forefront of tobacco control advocacy when he was leading the health services in Massachusets. Secretary Sebelius is also very much supportive of graphic health warnings on cigarette packs on this post about "How we can protect our youth from Big Tobacco". Why is it that they both seem so oblivious of the principal culprits of the obesity epidemic, Big Soda and Big Food? How is it possible that Howard Koh writes about diabetes without any mention of obesity control?

Ohio PIRG Report: Stop subsidizing obesity

As presented on the Ecowatch daily newsletter this report explains how taxpayers heavily subsidize a handful of huge farm corporations linked with junk food while very little supports healthy produces, like fruit. The press release.

Bananas healthier than sports drinks

This study published in May was funded by Dole Foods. Interesting result and also interesting sponsor.

The Wait of the Nation and The Wait of the Nation 2 or How Bain Capital and Mitt Romney enter the obesity debate

The wait of the nation is an article published on May 24 by Sherifd in Crunk Feminist Collective about the Weight of the Nation documentary.
Interestingly it was republished (in part) in The Root and I came upon it by searching for soft drinks. The Root editors add at the bottom that this article does not represent their opinion... Even more interesting is a second article published on July 16, The wait of the nation 2 that revisits the issues with an investigative twist implicating Bain Capital whose very profitable "health" subsidiaries are targeted in a Salon's investigation.