obesity

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Sure, We Read the Calorie Charts—Then Eat More

Customers say they seek guidance from signs, but receipts tell a different story

(Newser) - A new study casts doubt on the effectiveness of calorie-counting charts in fast-food restaurants. Half of those surveyed in New York City say they noticed the charts, and about 28% say the information influenced their orders for the better. But a look at overall customer receipts shows people are ordering...

Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle
 Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle 
OPINION

Soda Tax Deserves to Fizzle

It won't help fat people, or poor people, but will line gov't coffers

(Newser) - Taxing soda is at best a stupid idea and at worst a cynical ploy by a money-grubbing government, writes Katherine Mangu-Ward for Reason. Here's why:
  • Sin taxes don't work: "None of the nickel-and-dime proposals on the table is large enough to discourage soda drinking," Mangu-Ward writes. "And
...

How Thin People Make Other People Fat

New study shows we mimic habits of those whose bodies we aspire to

(Newser) - Existing research suggests those trying to control their food intake should avoid dining with hefty companions with heaping plates. Not quite, says a new study. While the "I'll have what she's having" effect was confirmed in this experiment with college-age women, it was much more pronounced if the person...

Why We Love Fat TV
 Why We Love Fat TV 
pop culture

Why We Love Fat TV

Zaftig reality stars make us feel better about our bulging waistlines: Dumenco

(Newser) - America's obsession with "fattertainment" has become a form of catharsis for an obese nation, Simon Dumenco writes for GQ. Shows like The Biggest Loser and Dance Your Ass Off were at least ostensibly about getting their contestants in shape. But on More to Love, “the participants aren't...

How We Get bin Laden: KFC's New Double Down

It's a bacon and cheese sandwich, except with fried chicken instead of bread!

(Newser) - Fed up with all haute cuisine? Foodie babble? An organic garden at the White House? KFC looks to have just what you need in the Double Down, a bacon and cheese sandwich in which the bread is replaced by fried chicken fillets! “Forget food porn,” Scott Gold writes...

Obesity Growing as Cancer Risk for Women

(Newser) - Being fat could become the leading cause of cancer in women in Western countries in the coming years, say European researchers. Being overweight or obese accounts for up to 8% of cancers in Europe. That figure is poised to increase substantially as the obesity epidemic continues, and as major causes...

Unhealthy? Then Shut Up About Health Reform: Maher

(Newser) - Fat? Out of shape? Otherwise unhealthy? Then shut your trap about health-care reform until you do something about your own well-being, comedian Bill Maher writes for the Huffington Post. “Unlike most liberals, I’m glad all those teabaggers marched on Washington last week,” he snickers. “Because judging...

College Calorie Info Could Be Backfiring

From anorexics to obese students, information can spur 'disordered eating'

(Newser) - Colleges that bombard students with calorie counts and similar information to discourage overeating—and the dreaded "freshman 15" pounds—may be causing bigger diet problems instead, reports Newsweek. Many schools are rethinking their strategy in the wake of rising numbers of eating disorders, and a growing sense that a...

Time-Starved Working Parents Eat Poorly: Study

Low-income work schedules make healthy eating difficult

(Newser) - The nature of low-income employment promotes unhealthy eating, Time reports. Over half of working parents in low-to-moderate income communities relied on dietary “coping” measures when their schedules couldn’t accommodate a full meal, according to a new Cornell University study. Those strategies included skipping breakfast or family meals, and...

To Cut Health Costs, Fix the Food Industry

Obesity 'accounts for nearly a tenth' of health-care spending

(Newser) - There’s an “elephant in the room” when it comes to health care reform: American health care costs a bundle in large part because we’re so fat, writes Michael Pollan for the New York Times. President Obama has touched on the issue, but the country hasn’t, and...

Nighttime Snacks Worse Than We Thought

Mouse study shows weight gain more than doubles on opposite schedule

(Newser) - Eating when you should be sleeping—the proverbial midnight snack, say, or the meals of night-shift workers—could put you at higher risk of obesity, Time reports. A new study fed two groups of mice the same high-fat diet on opposite schedules; the group that ate during “normal” waking...

Why Such Rage at Obesity? Start With 'Self-Loathing'

(Newser) - If so many people are fat in this country, why is there so much venom against the overweight? Part of it can be chalked up to "self-loathing," write Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin in Newsweek. We're conditioned to consider extra pounds unattractive, and we get ticked off when...

Eat Way Less Added Sugar: Heart Docs

(Newser) - Americans eat more than twice as much added sugar as doctors recommend, and they should cut back to battle obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease, researchers say. Added calories from processed sugar should total no more than 150 for men and 100 for women, the American Heart Association said today....

Obesity May Shrink Your Brain
 Obesity May Shrink Your Brain 

Obesity May Shrink Your Brain

Study finds cognitive regions smaller in obese elderly

(Newser) - Important cognitive brain regions are smaller in older obese people than fit ones, scientists have found. Shrinking brains are tied to dementia, so the discovery fuels the notion that obesity can raise the risk of the cognitive disorder, New Scientist reports. In a review of 94 brain scans, subjects with...

PETA Launches Curious Attack on the Overweight

(Newser) - PETA has rolled out a new ad campaign that does not sit well with the more portly among us, the Huffington Post reports. A billboard in Jacksonville, Fla., features a cartoon of an overweight woman in a bikini with the message: “Save the whales, Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian....

Food Stamps Make You Fatter
 Food Stamps Make You Fatter 

Food Stamps Make You Fatter

Limited budget may promote unhealthy choices

(Newser) - Barack Obama might like to think that the down-and-out are using food stamps to buy arugala at Whole Foods, but as Science Daily reports, people tend to gain weight on food stamps. The average benefit of $81 a month doesn't go a long way toward nutritious foods, researchers suggest in...

Fat Friends Eat More Together

(Newser) - Overweight kids eat more when they eat with their overweight friends, Newsweek reports. A new study tested a child's consumption of healthy snacks and junk food while in the company of a friend or stranger who was either fat or lean. Overweight kids eating with a chubby buddy ate more...

Hefty Credit Card Debt Fattens You Up
Hefty Credit Card Debt Fattens You Up
glossies

Hefty Credit Card Debt Fattens You Up

(Newser) - Heavy credit card debt can take a toll on your waistline, Gourmet reports. A German study of 9,000 people found that 25% of those in debt were obese, compared to 11% not in debt. "In the situation of over-indebtedness, eating can become a compensation and gratification," the...

Slimming Down US Won't Cut Health Costs

Or reject 'collectivist thinking' and let people make own choices

(Newser) - The Obama administration claims the anti-obesity bent of its health care plan will lower overall costs by making America thinner. “It won’t,” Jacob Sullum writes in Reason. Even if the government succeeds in slimming down the US—unlikely in Sullum’s opinion—the longer-lived result will actually...

Why Congress Won't Face the Fat Problem
 Why Congress Won't 
 Face the Fat Problem 
analysis

Why Congress Won't Face the Fat Problem

Lawmakers fear giving US 'bad news'—especially while munching Doritos

(Newser) - Congress is “in denial” on one key health issue: obesity, writes Lisa Lerer for Politico. Obesity-related illnesses reportedly cost $147 billion, or 10% of medical spending, last year—and lawmakers say they’re focused on cost-cutting. But, experts say, “no one wants to tell Americans the bad news....

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