Eating Disorders Blog

City officials and restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, are unveiling a new plan designed to address the city's growing problem with obesity. The Health Choices Committee is a joint venture of the mayor's office, Columbus Public Health officials, and business executives from Bob Evans Farms Inc., Donatos Pizzeria, LLC, and the Central Ohio Restaurant Association. The group will focus on promoting healthy menus and working with restaurants to provide consumers with nutritional information.

Mayor Michael Coleman said that a driving concern behind the new group is the problem of childhood obesity, which has recently reached "critical proportions." According to city data, more than two of every five kindergartners, third-graders and fifth-graders in Columbus schools are overweight. In addition, three in every five adults in the city are obese.

In a press release, Columbus Health Commissioner Teresa Long commented, "In addition to giving people the information they need, we also want to help parents embrace healthier choices."

(Source: Columbus.bizjournals.com)

Labels: obesity, childhood-obesity

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

A new study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicates that the heaviest children are more than twice as likely to die before the age of 55, either due to illness or self-inflicted injury. The study utilized data collected from the Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians, two Native American tribes whose rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes began climbing decades before those of mainstream America.

The study included 4,857 non-diabetic American Indian children born between 1945 and 1984, beginning when the children were about 11 years old, on average. Researchers assessed the extent to which body mass index, glucose tolerance, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels were linked to premature death.

As of 2003, 559 participants had died (this included 166 individuals who died of causes other than accidents or homicides, such as cancer, diabetes, alcohol poisoning or drug overdose, alcoholic liver disease or cardiovascular disease). Researchers found that adults who had the highest Body Mass Index (BMI) ratings as children were 2.3 times more likely to die early, as compared with those who had the lowest BMI scores. In addition, individuals with the highest glucose levels were 73 percent more likely to die prematurely.

Helen C. Looker, senior author of the paper and assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, commented on the findings: "This suggests that obesity in children, even prepubescent children, may have very serious long-term health effects through midlife  that there is something serious being set in motion by obesity at early ages. We all expect to get beyond 55 these days."

(Source: www.nytimes.com)

Labels: health, childhood-obesity

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

This week, first lady Michelle Obama launched a nationwide campaign to fight childhood obesity. The initiative will focus on urging kids to get more exercise and eat balanced meals. Mrs. Obama announced the creation of a new website that will serve as a central resource. The site offers tips for parents, and will emphasize physical activity and more healthful foods in schools.

Mrs. Obama commented on the intent of the initiative in a speech at the White House: "This isn't about trying to turn the clock back to when we were kids, or preparing five-course meals from scratch every night. No one has time for that.

"And it's not about being 100 percent perfect 100 percent of the time. Lord knows, I'm not. There's a place for cookies and ice cream, burgers and fries -- that's part of the fun of childhood. ... It's just about balance. It's about small changes that add up -- like walking to school, replacing soda with water or skim milk, trimming those portion sizes a little."

According to federal data, obesity has tripled among American adolescents and doubled among American children since 1980. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 17 percent of children ages 6 to 11 in the U.S. were obese in a study conducted from 2003 to 2006, an increase of 10.5 percent within the past 30 years.

President Obama commented on the implications of childhood obesity for the nation, saying, "[Obesity] is one of the most urgent health issues that we face in this country."

In conjunction with the new campaign, the President signed an executive order directing federal departments to come up with a plan within 90 days on how to make federal nutritional and health data more accessible to the public. The order included the statement: "Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our healthcare system."

(Source: Bloomberg.com)

Labels: childhood-obesity, nutrition

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

New Hampshire is considering new legislation which would require obesity screenings for first, fourth, seventh and tenth graders.

Students in these grades would be measured for body mass index (BMI). BMI is the ratio of weight to height squared, and is a commonly used method of assessing obesity because it is easy to measure and it correlates with body fat, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Susan Lynch, a pediatrician and wife of New Hampshire's governor, John Lynch, is a chief proponent of the legislation. Dr. Lynch believes that BMI is a more informative measurement of a child's health than weight alone, and that taking the measurement periodically may help parents and teachers identify and address health risks for children who are underweight or overweight.

As part of the program, parents would receive the results of BMI screenings in a health report containing measurements from other health screenings. Parents would have the option to order schools not to do BMI screenings based on religious objections. The school board, the superintendent and the state Department of Education would compile a report of aggregate results so that no single child would be identified.

According to the CDC, the obesity rate among children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years. During the same period, the obesity rate among adolescents ages 12 to 19 has more than tripled. In 2003, Arkansas became the first state to require obesity screenings for school-age children.

(Source: www.boston.com)

Labels: obesity, childhood-obesity, schools

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

A study conducted in England indicates that a computerized, interactive weighing device may help curb childhood obesity. The "Mandometer" helps kids track how much and how quickly they are eating. The gadget works by measuring a plate of food at the beginning of a meal and then measures the rate at which the weight of the plate declines as the food is consumed.

The gadget gives a voice signal to slow down if the food disappears too quickly. The device creates a digital graph of the child's consumption rate and then compares it with an "ideal" graph that is programmed into the device by a nutritionist.

The results of the 12-month study were recently released in the British Medical Journal. The study incorporated data collected from 106 obese children. The researchers found that after one year, the eating speed of the children in the study fell by 11 percent, compared with 4 percent in a control group. In addition, children who used the Mandometer also weighed less and ate smaller portions.

Chief researcher Julian Hamilton-Shield believes that the device may significantly benefit obese children by retraining them to eat more slowly, which will encourage them to eat less (the longer time allows the brain time to signal that the body is full).

Dr. Hamilton-Shield commented: "It really did seem to help them. Their portion sizes decreased by a seventh. Even though this may not sound a lot, it is enough to make a difference. And the improvement seems to be durable because it continued six months after the trial finished."

(Source: www.redorbit.com)

Labels: treatment, childhood-obesity

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

Obese children are at higher risk for spinal problems and back pain, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York City.

Researchers examined MRIs of 188 young people, ages 12 to 20, who had back pain. About 56 percent of these youth had some lumbar spine abnormalities.

The researchers proceeded to calculate the age-adjusted BMI (body mass index) for 106 of the participants; 54 of these had a BMI higher than the 75th percentile for their age. Of those above the 75th percentile BMI by age, 37 had abnormal spinal MRIs. By contrast, all young people at or below healthy weight had normal MRI results.

Dr. Judah Burns, a fellow in neuroradiology at the Children's Hospital, said in a news release, "These results demonstrate a strong relationship between increased BMI in the pediatric population and the incidence of lumbar disc disease."

(Source: health.usnews.com)

Labels: childhood-obesity

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

According to a new study, the loss of a key segment of DNA could be to blame for severe obesity in some children. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, included 300 severely obese children. Some of the children had already been placed on the social services "at risk" register, based on the assumption that their parents were intentionally overfeeding them. These children have now been removed from this list.

The study examined each child's entire genome for deletions or duplication of DNA, known as copy number variants (CNVs). Researchers compared the DNA profiles of obese children with peers of normal weight and found that in obese children certain parts of the genome were missing. Specifically, researchers identified a missing part of chromosome 16, which appeared to be strongly linked to severe obesity.

Researcher Dr. Sadaf Farooqi commented on the results: "Our results suggest that one particular gene on chromosome 16 called SH2B1 plays a key role in regulating weight and also in handling blood sugar levels. ..People with deletions involving this gene had a strong drive to eat and gained weight very easily.

"It adds to the growing weight of evidence that a wide range of genetic variants can produce a strong drive to eat. We hope that this will alter attitudes and practices amongst those with professional responsibility for the health and well-being of children."

(Source: news.bbc.co.uk)

Labels: childhood-obesity, genetics

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

Television chef Rachel Ray and New York City public schools are teaming up to revamp school lunches as a strategy for addressing childhood obesity. Ray's foundation, Yum-O, is partnering with the New York Department of Education in a program designed to provide healthy and delicious meals to students at approximately 1,600 public schools in New York City.

Experts estimate the current rate of childhood obesity in New York City schools to be a staggering 40 percent.

Eric Goldstein, chief executive for NYC's Department of Education School Food program commented: "Roughly 40 percent of our students are either overweight [or] obese and, we found working with the health department, that there is a correlation between academic performance and obesity."

Ray is contributing star power and menus to the new program. When the project launched on Oct. 26, 2009, an incredible 648,121 servings of Ray's first meal for the program -- roasted chicken soft tacos with vegetarian beans, roasted corn, steamed broccoli and a Yum-O ranch sauce -- were served in one day at New York City schools.

Goldstein commented: "She is a real star, and that star power is incredible to see. Everybody wanted to come and meet Rachael Ray ... and I witnessed it firsthand, with serving meals. We served more meals that day than I can remember in a long, long time."

(Source: www.abcnews.go.com)

Labels: childhood-obesity, schools

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 2 Comments

A new study by researchers at Yale University found that the least healthy breakfast cereals are also the ones that are most aggressively marketed directly to children as young as age 2.

Researchers found that cereals marketed directly to children have, on average, 85 percent more sugar, 65 percent less fiber, and 60 percent more sodium than cereals marketed to adults. Only 8 percent of cereals marketed directly to children had low enough sugar content to qualify for inclusion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

The study, which evaluated 115 cereal brands and 277 individual cereal varieties, found extremely high sugar content in such well-known cereals as Cocoa Puffs (44 percent sugar), Cap'n Crunch (44 percent sugar), Fruit Loops (41 percent sugar), Lucky Charms (41 percent sugar) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (32 percent sugar). In addition, researchers found that 42 percent of children's cereals contain artificial food dyes, compared with 26 percent of family cereals and only 5 percent of cereals that specifically target adults.

(Source: www.cbc.ca)

Labels: childhood-obesity, food industry

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

March 11, 2009 marks the 105th anniversary of the birth of Hilde Bruch, one of the 20th century's groundbreaking experts on childhood obesity and anorexia. Dr. Bruch was born in a small town in Germany. As a young woman she wanted to become a mathematician, but an uncle convinced her that medicine was a more practical profession for a Jewish woman. In 1929, she earned her medical degree from the University of Freiburg. In 1933, she fled from Germany due to growing anti-Semitic sentiment and spent a year in England before immigrating to the United States.

In New York, she began working at Babies Hospital; here, she started groundbreaking research into obesity in children in 1937. In 1941, she left this area of research to study psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon returning to New York in 1943, Dr. Bruch started a private psychoanalytic practice and joined the faculty of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.

At Columbia, and later at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas (she joined the faculty in 1964), Dr. Bruch focused her research on the underlying causes of anorexia nervosa. Throughout her career, Dr. Bruch published academic and lay articles on eating disorders and saw patients in her private practice until she was 80. Dr. Bruch died in Houston in December of 1984. Her collected work was published in 1973 under the title Eating Disorders: Obesity, Anorexia Nervosa, and the Person Within; it is still considered a definitive work. (Source: http://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com)

Labels: anorexia, childhood-obesity, research

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments