Photo: Little Grey, Flickr.

America: the land of the free... and the fat. In the nation's more-is-more eating culture, three in five Americans are officially considered overweight -- and kids are no exception, one in three of whom reportedly eats fast food on a daily basis. But waistline-watchdog MSNBC has culled a list of "20 Worst Kids' Foods in America," to shed light upon some particularly fattening kids'-meal culprits.

Categories range from "worst homestyle meal" (Boston Market's Kids' Meat Loaf with Sweet Potato Casserole and Cornbread, which packs a whopping 890 calories into a tiny TV dinner), to "worst beverage" (the super-saccharine SunnyD Smooth Style, which boosts 60 grams of sugar into one measly cup -- triple that of a cup of Tropicana), to the "worst kids' meal in America": Uno Chicago Grill's Kid's Combo with French Fries, a monochromatic carb-fest cramming kids with cheese sticks, chicken nuggets and fries, a monster of a meal weighing in at 1,250 calories and 2,850 milligrams sodium.

It's no wonder that 16 percent of today's youth, aged 6 to 19, is overweight or obese with the gut bombs like those listed in the regular meal rotations, according to the report. Shockingly, "today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents" because of obesity-related health problems, Michael Pollan writes in "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

What do you think is to blame for the rise of childhood obesity -- is it fair to blame fast-food providers or the parents?

[Via MSNBC]

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We all know that ice cream is fatty. My mom likes to remind me that when I'm licking an ice cream cone, I'm essentially licking a ball of fat. I try to remove that image from my mind and instead picture that I'm licking a little ball of heaven. However, it is wise to be informed of what you are eating. In that light, I present you with Newsweek's list of six of the most fattening ice creams - all nutrition information is for a serving size of a half cup.

1. Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter (360 calories, 24 grams of fat)

2. Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby (330 calories, 20 grams of fat)

3. Häagen-Dazs Butter Pecan (310 calories, 23 grams of fat)

4. Sheer Bliss Pomegranate with chocolate chips (320 calories, 20 grams fat)

5. Ben and Jerry's Vermonty Python (300 calories, 19 grams of fat)

6. Coldstone Cookie Batter (300 calories, 16 grams of fat)

Check out the complete Newsweek article for a breakdown of what makes each one as bad as it is and some ideas for healthier alternatives.

[via That's Fit]

I'm not a big fan of the book Eat This, Not That. It purports to tell you which foods you should be eating in restaurants instead of other foods. Sometimes the comparison is good, but other times it just seems to save a person 100 calories here or a few grams of fat there and doesn't seem worth the bother (and sometimes the "eat this" choice has more carbs or salt). But I guess it's good to have the info.

Now Men's Health editor Dave Zinczenko exposes some restaurant secrets. Why don't some chains want us to know the nutritional numbers of their foods? What foods are often cooked with other foods in the kitchen? Do some fast food chains actually have healthier options than sit down restaurants?

• Start your year with comfort foods.
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• This week's recipes: Kale and White Bean Soup with Chicken Sausage, Swiss Chard with Cannellini Beans and Tomatoes, and Beet Borscht.

I recently posted a list of the 88 worst fast food items. That list was based on the amount of trans fats in various fast foods. Now Men's Health has weighed in and picked the 20 Worst Foods in America, and this list is based not only on fats but also calories, sodium, and carbs.

Obviously, when you're talking fast food, a lot of it is going to be bad for you, but I guess it's good to have a list of specific foods and categories. For example, they name the McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips (5 pieces) witih Ranch Dressing as the Worst Fast Food Chicken Meal. The Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo'd Power Smoothie gets the Worst Drink nod. It's 900 calories, with 10 grams of fat and 166 grams of sugar.

What foods on the list do you regularly eat?

When science journalist Gary Taubes wrote an article for The New York Times magazine in 2002 arguing that (and I'm summarizing a lot here) that it's the excessive consumption of calories from refined carbs and starches that causes weight problems and not the excessive consumption of calories consumed from fat, he was attacked by everyone. Now Taubes has a new book out that expands on the topic, Good Calories, Bad Calories. And he's still being attacked.

I haven't picked up the book yet, but it seems like an interesting read. Unlike other diet and health books that talk about their diets in rather basic terms, this is a thick tome that really goes in-depth about the body, weight, and health, quoting various studies that have been conducted over the years. I think one of his theories even questions how much exercise a human needs.

Has anyone read it yet?