Scientific American Topic - Obesity

Soda Tax Could Turn Health Profit

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:26:08 EST

Sugary drinks are one of the leading culprits behind America's weight problem. Whether it's sugar-sweetened soda, sports drinks, teas or juices, we're each gulping down an average of 70,000 liquid calories each year.

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Five Hidden Dangers of Obesity (preview)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST

By now it is common knowledge that being severely overweight puts people at increased risk of suffering from heart disease, stroke and diabetes and that obesity--defined as weighing at least 20 percent more than the high side of normal--is on the rise. According to one estimate, the U.S. will be home to 65 million more obese people in 2030 than it is today, leading to an additional six million or more cases of heart disease and stroke and another eight million cases of type 2 diabetes. Many clinicians have already begun seeing families in which the grandparents are healthier and living longer than their children and grandchildren.

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Key Findings on Higgs Boson, Alzheimer's Drugs, Lake Vostok Set to Emerge in 2012

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST

Let's talk about Earth [More]

Is the Shift-Worker Diet an Occupational Hazard?

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:04:08 EST

For shift workers, odd hours usually mean strange sleeping habits and unhealthy meals. And now an editorial in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine takes the position that unhealthy eating associated with unusual working hours could be considered a new form of occupational hazard. Because such eating is a risk factor for obesity and diabetes. [" Poor Diet in Shift Workers: A New Occupational Health Hazard? "]

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How Does Meat in the Diet Take an Environmental Toll?

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:00:00 EST

Dear EarthTalk : I heard that the less meat one eats, the better it is for the environment. How so? [More]

Fat May Put Hypothalamus on the Fritz

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:26:08 EST

More than a third of adults in the U.S. are obese. And many of those already overweight continue to put on even more pounds. Now researchers have a clue why.

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U.S. Stillbirths Still Prevalent, Often Unexplained

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:45:00 EST

Infant mortality has continued to drop in the U.S. during the past several decades. But stillbirths--when a fetus dies after 20 or more weeks of gestation--have remained relatively steady--and account for almost as many deaths as those of babies who die before their first birthday . About one in every 160 pregnancies in the U.S. ends in a stillbirth, which adds up to about 26,000 each year nationwide.

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Brominated Battle: Soda Chemical Has Cloudy Health History

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:18:00 EST

MARIETTA, Ga.--It's Monday night at the Battle & Brew, a gamer hangout in this Atlanta suburb. The crowd is slumping in chairs, ears entombed in headphones, eyes locked on flat-screen monitors and minds lost in tonight’s game of choice: "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim."

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Childhood Obesity Best Battled in Schools, Research Finds

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:30:00 EST

In the struggle against widespread obesity that begins in early childhood , new research indicates that schools may be the best place to start a solution.

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Gumming Up Appetite to Treat Obesity

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:00:00 EST

Losing weight is not always about anticipating swimsuit season or squeezing into skinny jeans--for the clinically obese , losing weight is about fighting serious illness and reclaiming health. But the primal part of the brain that regulates appetite will not place a moratorium on hunger just because someone and their doctor acknowledge the need to lose weight. Researchers at Syracuse University are working toward a unique solution: a stick of chewing gum that suppresses appetite.

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Hidden Drivers of Childhood Obesity Operate Behind the Scenes

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST

Anxiety around children's eating habits often peaks during sweets-laden holidays like Halloween, but the factors that contribute to excess weight in kids extend well beyond special occasions. Most children who are obese--now 17 percent in the U.S.--will carry that extra heft into adulthood, along with the long-term health consequences. Scientists project that today's generation of children will live shorter lives than their parents and have higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and atherosclerosis. Despite diverse efforts--from First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPlate nutrition guidance changes--the number of overweight and obese children does not seem to be dropping, which has sent scientists searching for other drivers of the childhood obesity epidemic. [More]

A Graphic Look at Obesity--Inside and Out

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:30:00 EST

Global girths are on the rise--with some 1.5 billion adults now overweight and more than one in 10 adults obese worldwide . U.S. figures are even starker: more than half of the population weighs too much and more than one third are obese. [More]

Five Factors Cut Diabetes Risk

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:00:08 EST

Diabetes affects more than one in 10 Americans, with the numbers projected to keep climbing. The chronic disease can mean frequent needle jabs to test blood sugar levels--and costly treatments. And there is still no cure in sight.

But recently, researchers have found that a number of lifestyle factors up the odds of getting type 2 diabetes. These factors include obesity, a poor diet, lack of physical activity, cigarettes and too much alcohol.

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Need a Break? Try Nature

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:00:08 EST

Stressed out by the 10th anniversary of 9/11 , the double-dip recession or just the day to day grind of modern life? Need a break? Don't turn to alcohol or caffeine, try a nature walk instead. [More]

Why Is Average IQ Higher in Some Places?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:10:00 EST

Being smart is the most expensive thing we do. Not in terms of money, but in a currency that is vital to all living things: energy. One study found that newborn humans spend close to 90 percent of their calories on building and running their brains. (Even as adults, our brains consume as much as a quarter of our energy.) If, during childhood, when the brain is being built, some unexpected energy cost comes along, the brain will suffer. Infectious disease is a factor that may rob large amounts of energy away from a developing brain. This was our hypothesis, anyway, when my colleagues, Corey Fincher and Randy Thornhill, and I published a paper on the global diversity of human intelligence.

A great deal of research has shown that average IQ varies around the world, both across nations and within them . The cause of this variation has been of great interest to scientists for many years. At the heart of this debate is whether these differences are due to genetics, environment or both.

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The Top 10 Cities for a Healthy Life

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST

Fittest Cities

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Outsmarting Mortality (preview)

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST

As Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Although some of us are clearly better than others at dodging the inevitable, in the end Mother Nature at least will always win. But along the path of life, people vary greatly in how often they get injured, incur illness or coast along in a comfortable state of health.

Considered at a distance, genetics and luck seem to explain a lot. But if we really understood why some people live longer than others, we would likely have diminished the gap by now. When epidemiologists and physicians discover some lifestyle choice or biological factor that leads to a longer and healthier life, they can then attempt to design intervention programs to ameliorate the health prospects of the population as a whole.

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Daily Red Meat Raises Risk for Diabetes, Large Study Says

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST

Sugary soda and other sweet treats are likely not the only foods to blame for the surge in diabetes across the U.S. New research out of Harvard University supports the theory that regular red meat consumption increases the risk of getting type 2 diabetes. [More]

Gout on the Rise as Americans Gain Weight

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:45:00 EST

The "disease of kings" has now reached the masses. In the past half century the prevalence of gout in the general U.S. population has more than doubled. Once thought of only for the privileged few who had the means to overindulge in food and drink, gout now afflicts more than eight million American adults. And research suggests that the rates of this form of localized arthritis are still on the rise. [More]

Can We Be Trained to Like Healthy Foods?

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:30:00 EST

Our diets are unhealthy, that much is clear. Now, an increasing number of scientists and physicians wonder if our propensity for unhealthy, obesity-inducing eating might be tied to the food choices made during our first weeks and months of life. Indeed, the latest research indicates that what we learn to like as infants paves the way for what we eat as adults. If true, we might be able to tackle the obesity epidemic in a new and more promising way, one that starts with the very first spoonful. [More]