The New York Times reports today on a study finding that Type 2 diabetes (previously referred to as “adult-onset” diabetes, before the current childhood obesity epidemic) “progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat.” Researchers don’t know why this is the case, but suspect that children’s growth and hormonal changes at [...]
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Just before the “slime wave” hit, I was in the middle of a draft TLT post analyzing a scholarly article proposing that tighter restrictions on the advertising of junk food to kids are not barred by the First Amendment, a key defense offered by the food industry against such restrictions. As a former lawyer — [...]
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A sad sign of the times . . . The Expert Panel on Integrated Guidelines for Cardiovascular Health and Risk Reduction in Children and Adolescents, appointed by National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health), has announced its recommendation that all children now be screened for high cholesterol as part of routine [...]
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We’re not an electronics-heavy household – no Wii, no XBox, no DS – but we do have laptops and our kids are allowed to play some online games, within strict time limits. My son’s current obsession is the insanely popular Poptropica, invented by the Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney (does this guy [...]
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As I mentioned last week, every Monday for the next while I’m going to try to review a different children’s cookbook. Today’s book is the DK Children’s Cookbook: Quick and Tasty Recipes for Young Chefs by Katherine Ibbs. This book was given to my son as part of his recent cooking class, and since all the [...]
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In my post yesterday responding to Mark Bittman’s op-ed on food taxes, I cited a 2011 OECD study which ranked America dead last among twenty nations surveyed in terms of time spent cooking — Americans currently devote, on average, only thirty minutes or less each day in food preparation. So the findings of a new [...]
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I used to work as an advertising lawyer, first at a large New York City law firm and then for one of the world’s largest consumer products and food companies. My bread and butter for a long time was the vetting and analysis of advertising claims – often related to food products — in advertisements, [...]
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As I reported here earlier, the Food and Drug Administration held a two-day hearing this week to address concerns that artificial food dyes can cause hyperactivity in some children. An expert panel convened by the FDA had reported that while most children are unaffected by the dyes, children susceptible to hyperactivity can have worse symptoms [...]
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For decades, some scientists and consumer advocates have believed there’s a possible link between the consumption of artificial food dyes and hyperactivity, at least in some children. If that’s true, there’s serious cause for concern: as recounted in a recent Washington Post op-ed on the subject, there’s been a five-fold increase in the per-capita production of [...]
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The New York Times has an interesting story this morning about an intrepid school principal in Philadelphia who saw her wellness efforts undermined when kids stopped at the corner store every morning for chips, sweets and soda. Her solution? Create a posse of adults to patrol the stores before school: Frustrated that her pressure on [...]
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