obesity

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Website Knows Why You're Fat
 Website Knows Why You're Fat 
Feb 11, 2009 1:12 PM CST

Website Knows Why You're Fat

(Newser) - Subtle hints from the media about America’s growing obesity problem—shots of pudgy citizens, from the head down—just aren’t cutting it, Time reports. Enter “This is why you’re fat,” a website that displays in shocking detail the indulgent worst of American eating. An Oreo...

Don't Tell Me I'm Not Fat
 Don't Tell Me I'm Not Fat 
OPINION
Jan 24, 2009 2:20 PM CST

Don't Tell Me I'm Not Fat

The 'f' word is just another adjective

(Newser) - People are constantly trying to tell Kate Harding she’s not fat, and it “drives me up a goddamn wall,” she writes in Salon. She is, by any reasonable definition, fat. It's simply another word that describes her. The problem is, everyone associates being fat with being lazy,...

Women Hard-Wired to Eat More
 Women Hard-Wired to Eat More 
Jan 20, 2009 7:26 AM CST

Women Hard-Wired to Eat More

Brain scans reveal that men may be better able to resist food

(Newser) - Women may be hard-wired to overeat, according to a new study of why men diet more successfully than women. A little-understood mechanism in the brain appears to give women less self control when it comes to dieting. Researchers speculate that women have evolved to crave food for pregnancy and lactation....

Nutritionists Fear We'll Pack On 'Recession Pounds'

Obesity rate linked to poverty

(Newser) - Health professionals fear that Americans' lighter wallets will lead to bigger bellies. During tight times, consumers tend to pick cheap, high-calorie foods over healthy items such as lean meats and fresh produce, Reuters reports. "Obesity is a toxic result of a failing economic environment," said one nutritionist. When...

Obese Americans Now Outnumber Overweight

Over a third of adults classed as one step up the scale from overweight

(Newser) - Americans who are merely overweight are now outnumbered by the obese, Reuters reports. New government statistics reveal that 34% of adults are obese and almost 6% extremely so, whereas 32.7% are classed as overweight. The proportion of Americans who are overweight has stayed much the same since 1980—but...

New Treatment Resurrects Weight-Loss Drug

Leptin, once written off, could make comeback in combination treatment

(Newser) - Researchers may have found a way to treat obesity with leptin—the appetite-suppressant once hailed, then dismissed, as a cure to America’s bulging belly. An area of brain cells seemingly stressed by obesity allowed the obese to build up resistance to leptin, Reuters reports, but by injecting drugs to...

Gupta's Right Doc for Political Prime Time
Gupta's Right Doc for Political Prime Time
ANALYSIS
Jan 7, 2009 4:41 AM CST

Gupta's Right Doc for Political Prime Time

CNN's medicine man will help push preventive health care message, Park notes

(Newser) - Barack Obama's choice of CNN's health correspondent as his surgeon general is raising eyebrows, but the pick underlines Obama's plans to focus on preventive care, Alice Park writes in Time. The telegenic Sanjay Gupta, while lacking the government experience most surgeon generals have brought to the job, has anchored specials...

Diet Trumps Exercise in Obesity Fight

Physical activity seems not to be 'primary driver' of obesity: researchers

(Newser) - Diet is more important than exercise when it comes to reducing obesity, LiveScience reports. A new study compared African American women living in Chicago, who weighed an average of 184 pounds, with women in rural Nigeria, who weighed 127. Contrary to researchers' expectations, the Nigerians were not any more physically...

Psst, Fat Boy: Uncle Sam Wants You

Military tells recruits with high BMI that they can sign up now, lose weight later

(Newser) - To reel in more recruits, the US Army is relaxing weight restrictions on would-be soldiers. A waiver program gives outsize volunteers a year after signing up to get in shape, measured by body-mass index, or be booted, the Christian Science Monitor reports. With the youthful population consuming more and exercising...

Black Women Getting Shorter: Study

They're the only group to lose height over recent generations

(Newser) - While most of the American population is slowly gaining in height after a recent plateau, one group actually seems to be shrinking over the decades. Black women have lost about a half-inch on average compared to the previous generation, the exact opposite of the national trend, the Chicago Tribune reports,...

That Extra 7lbs May Be Deadly
 That Extra 7lbs May Be Deadly  
Dec 23, 2008 7:08 AM CST

That Extra 7lbs May Be Deadly

Study says modest weight gains risky

(Newser) - Even being slightly overweight can seriously increase the risk of heart problems, Reuters reports. A 20-year study of roughly 20,000 male doctors in the US found that every 7 pounds of excess body weight upped the risk of heart failure by 11%. The fatal condition, in which the heart...

Tax Soda: It's the New Tobacco
 Tax Soda: It's the New Tobacco 
OPINION
Dec 18, 2008 10:27 AM CST

Tax Soda: It's the New Tobacco

Less obese, less diabetic America just a couple of laws away

(Newser) - The cigarette tax "was the biggest health care breakthrough in the last 40 years in the United States," and its successor may be the 18% tax on non-diet soda New York Gov. David Patterson is pitching, writes Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times. Not only do empty...

Heart Attack Deaths Plummet 30%

Drop hailed as modern medical miracle, but disease still daunting

(Newser) - In what is being hailed as a medical miracle, deaths from heart attack and stroke have dropped nearly a third between 1999 and 2006, according to the latest statistics from the American Heart Association. Yet despite gains from better preventive medicine and more effective hospital treatment, one person still dies...

Obesity Genes Mainly Affect Your Brain

DNA behind appetites, tastes, and how likely we are to feel full: study

(Newser) - Overeating is all in your head, but you can blame that on your DNA, the Times of London reports. Of the seven gene variations connected with obesity, five affect the brain’s wiring, suggesting that an inherited tendency toward slimness has more to do with appetite and impulse control than...

NY Guv Seeks 'Obesity Tax' on Soft Drinks

Tax on 'liquid candy' would raise $404M

(Newser) - New Yorkers with a hankering for the “Real Thing” may be paying 15% extra if lawmakers pass Gov. David Paterson's proposal to add an “obesity tax” on non-diet soda, reports the New York Daily News. The state’s doctors said the move—which could raise $404 million—would...

US Health Ranking Puts Vermont First, Louisiana Last

Southern states plagued by high obesity, smoking rates

(Newser) - Move over, Mississippi: Louisiana is now America’s unhealthiest state, Reuters reports. An annual state-by-state report that measures factors like smoking, obesity, and health insurance coverage also put Vermont at the top for the second year in a row. The five healthiest states are:
  1. Vermont
  2. Hawaii
  3. New Hampshire
  4. Minnesota
  5. Utah
...

Obese? Court Backs Two Seats for One Fare

Those 'functionally disabled by obesity' get fare break in Canada

(Newser) - Obese air travelers in Canada who need two seats must be given the extra seat for free, Reuters reports. The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal from Air Canada and two other airlines after they failed to win a lower court appeal on the fare issue....

Healthiest US City Gets Moving
 Healthiest US City Gets Moving 
Nov 17, 2008 2:27 PM CST

Healthiest US City Gets Moving

Burlington, Vt., tops list due to active citizens; Huntington, W.Va., is unhealthiest

(Newser) - Burlington, Vt., is America's healthiest city, with 92% of residents reporting that they're in good or great health. A number of factors account for the gap between Burlington and Huntington, W.Va., which brought up the rear in the CDC's healthy-city rankings, the AP reports. Burlington's residents are younger on...

W.Va. Town Is Nation's Tubbiest

Economic troubles, lifestyle traditions distract from rampant obesity

(Newser) - Dietary tradition helps make Huntington, W.Va., the nation's most obese and unhealthy city, the AP reports. The five-county area, where poverty rates are high, boasts many pizza and hot dog joints—but Huntington's mayor will not follow the lead of New York City and ban trans fats in restaurants....

Obese Kids Have Middle-Aged Arteries

Scientists warn childhood obesity epidemic may lead to much shorter lifespans

(Newser) - Arteries of seriously overweight teenagers are as clogged as those of middle-aged people, according to US News & World Report. Researchers used ultrasound to measure the neck arteries of chubby kids at risk of heart trouble and were alarmed to find that their "vascular age" was an average of...

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