Subject: Obesity

• Daily Briefs: McClanahan's Secret, Rising Car Thefts

  February 11, 2008

• Living on more than bread alone

  October 30, 2008

• Drinking and smoking

  The word "taxes" makes people act irrationally. Take, for instance, this wide-ranging tax plan from New York State, which would tax everything from clothes to boats to license plates to caloric (non-diet) soft drinks. It's already got a catchy nickname -- the obesity tax -- and, not surprisingly, has already the ire of soft drink manufacturers. I received this dandy of a press release yesterday from the Center for Consumer Freedom. Titled "Taxing Soda May Shrink New York's Bloated Deficit, but I

  December 16, 2008

• Kansas City is only a quasi fat city

  We don't call this blog Fat City for nothing. When you Google fat Midwesterners the third result is BlogKC, and a Kansas City blogger Just Cara recently released a book called I Love Ranch Dressing: And Other Stuff Midwesterners Like.  In 2000, the American Obesity Association named Kansas City the second fattest in America and the following year we came in at number seven. But it turns out we're only husky at best. That is, according to Men's Fitness Magazine, which just released a poll ra

  January 19, 2009

• Vegemite: Don't ban me mate!

  I'm generously guessing that maybe 0000001 percent of the United States population eats Vegemite. Nevertheless, it caused an uproar when the U.S. nearly banned the yeast/salt spread in 2006. So imagine the outcry if the stuff were banned in Australia, which consumes the other 99.9999 percent. The population of Australia is just over 20 million people and in 2008 they ate more than 1.2 billion servings of Vegemite.The Australian Food Council has warned Aussies it's considering a ban of Vegemite a

  February 5, 2009

• Calorie information does affect peoples' habits

  With obesity the problem it is in today's society, there are several schools of thought on how best to eliminate it. Ideas range from promoting exercise to banning certain foods. Somewhere in the middle lies the plan New York City's Board of Health passed unanimously this past October. All chain restaurants must now post calorie data on their menus. Some chains, like Subway and McDonald's, are already open about their nutrition info. But many chains are not -- specifically the Olive Garden and C

  February 6, 2009

• Hot Idolatry

  PORN! Now that we have your attention, read this.

  April 21, 2005

• McRibbing

  A man eats fast food for a month. Guess what happens.

  May 20, 2004

• Missouri and Kansas keep eating

  The non-profit health policy organization Trust For America's Health released its annual F as in Fat survey yesterday. The results are not especially encouraging for Kansas or Missouri. While neither are among the 10 fattest states, they are perilously close. Missouri ranks as the 13th fattest, with just over 28 percent of adults qualifying as obese. Kansas increased its adult obesity rate this year to 27.2 percent, tying Alaska for 18th place. Mississippi is the number 1 state, at 32.5 percent.

  July 2, 2009

• Light summer reading. Well, maybe light is not the right word

  Although obesity is nothing new in America, there have been recent attempts to look at the epidemic (that's the CDC's description) with a fresh focus. Yes, we're too fat and have heart attacks and diabetes because we eat too much, but why do we eat so much more than other countries?More specifically, why have we become so fat in only 20 years? The average adult weighs nearly 20 pounds more than his or her '70s counterpart. The number of overweight children has doubled and the number of overweigh

  July 14, 2009

• Fat determines who is skinny?

  ​As our society grows, both in girth and population, the obsession with finding a cure for obesity has grown alongside it. While most solutions are thought to be found in products or surgery, scientists are looking inside the human body for part of the answer. In a recent editorial, New Scientist looked at the potential weight loss benefits of brown fat -- a heat-generating tissue that converts extra energy into heat. Differences in the amount of brown fat each person has may help to

  August 17, 2009

• A nation of calorie counters is still fat

  ​The results are in from New York City's great experiment to determine whether posting the caloric content of menu items actually affects customers' behavior. New York University and Yale University recently studied the purchasing habits of people at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Kentucky Fried Chicken in the neighborhoods of New York City with the highest rates of obesity.  About 28 percent of those who noticed them said the information had influenced their ordering, and 9 out of

  October 7, 2009

• Soda a larger part of our lives than we think?

  ​The number of calories that soda contributes to our daily intake is a hotly debated topic. Soft-drink manufacturers don't believe that soda should be singled out in relation to the nation's obesity, and critics argue that Americans are slowly drinking themselves into a world of motorized scooters. The Center for a Livable Future (CLF) recently took issue with an argument from Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent that only 5.5 percent of our daily caloric intake comes from soda -- a statistic attributed

  October 20, 2009

• Lose weight by moving closer to fast food joints

  ​It sounds counterintuitive, but a new study suggests that living closer to fast food restaurants may actually reduce your chances for obesity. The University of Utah discovered that people are less at risk for obesity when there are food options within walking distance, even if those options include convenience stores and fast food restaurants. On the flip side, people living more than a half of a mile from grocery stores or restaurants were more likely to be overweight.  "Having access

  October 29, 2009