"obesity" news and stories

Aw shucks. Jamie Oliver's much awaited Food Revolution LA-style sure got off to a rough start. Especially for a guy armed with a simple question: Why can't we do better when it comes to school lunches for our kids?

Before the show even gets underway, Jamie lets us in on a big problem -- the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has refused to give him access to schools. He's been denied.

"They will not let me into any school," says Oliver. "That means war."

So starts the famous chef's familiar drumbeat. He takes to the airways on co-producer Ryan Seacrest's radio program and eventually welcomes a crowd of parents and kids to Jamie's LA Kitchen where they unload gobs of unappetizing, highly processed, plastic wrapped meals culled from their own schools.

"It's worse than anything I had seen before. This is not reality TV. It's a campaign. Will you help me?" he says.

Boston's long-time mayor, Thomas M. Menino just made quenching the thirst of city-workers that much harder. According to The Boston Globe, Menino issued an executive order to phase out sugary drinks from all city property in an effort to curb rising obesity rates. So long non-diet sodas. Adios sweet tea. Arrivederci you sexy sports drinks, you.

City departments have six months to phase out the sinister sugary beverages in cafeterias, vending machines, concession stands and during city-run meetings. And just in case parched public workers aren't quite sure what constitutes a healthy beverage, the Boston Public Health Commission is applying the familiar red, yellow and green labels to drinks, and reinforced by nearby posters that say, "Stop. Rethink Your Drink. Go On Green."

According to a release from the Mayor's office, "red" beverages include non-diet sodas, sweetened ice teas, sports drinks, etc. Diet sodas and diet iced teas, 100 percent fruit juices and low calorie sports drinks qualify as "yellow" beverages, while "green" drinks mean bottled water, low fat milk or unsweetened soy milk. Mmmm. Unsweetened soy milk -- yum.

Boston's not alone in trying to combat obesity through mandated choices. Cities like San Francisco, San Antonio, Los Angeles County and New York City have also set standards to limit or prohibit the sale or distribution of unhealthy food -- including sugary drinks.

Maybe it's all that shivering.

Who knows, but public health experts are scratching their heads trying to figure out why Canadians, on average, are so much slimmer than Americans. This after a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found a full 10-point spread between the adult obesity rates of the two countries, with 24 percent of Canadians weighing in as clinically XXL versus a ballooning 34 percent of Americans.

As one researcher, quoted by NPR, said: "I really think it's interesting to look at why it's so much higher in the United States. We share a border. What's going on?"

Maine's official state dessert is up for debate -- and it's turning into a war of health vs. nostalgia. The legislature is close to passing a bill, L.D. 71, that would give the crown to the whoopie pie, a dessert that has a storied history in the state, reports the Kennebec Journal. But local nutritionists say the crown should go to wild blueberry pie, since the flavorful berries are abundant in the state -- and far healthier.

The Journal article reports that lawmakers don't want to be seen endorsing a high-fat treat. "At a time when 31.3 percent of Maine's children are considered overweight or obese, do we want to glorify a dessert that lists lard as its primary ingredient?" asked Rep. Donald Pilon.

No breakfast, no weight gain? Not buying it.

That sound you hear is eyebrows rising on more than a few nutrition and obesity experts. A new German study is challenging one of the most basic and longstanding tenets about weight and eating: that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Researchers at Technical University of Munich found that people who ate more food for breakfast didn't cut their calorie intake at other meals to compensate – they simply ate more.

The researchers looked at 380 subjects -- 280 obese and 100 normal weight -- who kept track of what they ate for about two weeks. Breakfast foods varied, but when subjects, normal or obese, ate at least 400 additional calories for breakfast, they wound up eating 400 more calories for the day.

"Reduced breakfast energy intake is associated with lower total daily intake," the study's conclusion said as reported in Nutrition Journal. "The influence of the ratio of breakfast to overall energy intake largely depends on the post-breakfast rather than breakfast intake pattern. Therefore, overweight and obese subjects should consider the reduction of breakfast calories as a simple option to improve their daily energy balance."