Free Republic

A division of the Agriculture Department is making $31.5 million in funding available to help people on food stamps obtain healthier foods. The department’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is making the funding available to help those enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which offers nutrition assistance to millions of low-income Americans. "Too many struggling families do not have adequate access to nutritious food," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Monday as he announced the new funding. "Helping families purchase more fresh produce is clearly good for families' health, helps contribute to lower health costs for the country,...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is said to be suffering from gout, a hereditary disease which he seems to have inherited from his father and grandfather. The ruling North Korean leader, who is believed to be his early 30s, has not been seen in public for more than three weeks. He also skipped the regular session at the Supreme People's Assembly in Pyongyang on Thursday amid increasing speculation that he is severely ill.

MARIETTA — Federal food regulations going into effect this school year are affecting certain teachers’ lesson plans as well as the lunchroom menu. Limits on the calorie counts of foods that may be sold to students have interfered with the special education and culinary arts programs at Marietta High School, said Principal Leigh Colburn. The special education students sold coffee and food such as muffins to teachers and students every morning last year, but Colburn said the calorie counts of those items fall outside the new regulations because they’re more than 200 calories, which is the limit for a snack...

Christina Briggs, 26, from Wigan, says she hates her large size But she wants help from the government to lose weight She's on benefits and can only afford to buy junk food and takeaways She said being fat is not her 'fault' as 'healthy food is too expensive' An obese mother-of-two who lives on benefits says she needs more of taxpayers' money to overhaul her unhealthy lifestyle. Christina Briggs, 26, from Wigan, says she hates being 25 stone but she can't do anything about it because she can only afford junk food. Meanwhile, exercise is out of the question because...

An overwhelming majority of parents — including most Republicans — back federal school nutrition standards, a new poll found. The findings released Monday by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association stand in stark contrast to a partisan spat in Congress over the Agriculture Department’s regulations. More than seven in ten parents back national standards for both snacks and meals in schools. The poll found that 75 percent of parents believe salt should be limited in meals and 91 percent support requirements that schools include a serving of fruits. When broken down along...

If most foods created by the food industry are unhealthy, why not place a stiff tax on all of them and use the revenue to subsidize healthier food? This bold proposal, from Boston-area researchers, appears as commentary in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The researchers from Tufts University, Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital wrote that their plan would surely meet strong opposition from both the food and restaurant industries but that it could help people make meaningful dietary changes and substantially reduce health care costs. At issue is the higher cost of...

The U.S. Forest Service celebrated National Roasted Marshmallow Day the only way a government agency knows how — by telling people how not to roast smores.“Never start a campfire when there are fire restrictions in place,” the jovial blog post says. “Be sure you are at least 15 feet from tent walls, trees or other flammable objects.” It also recommends keeping children at least 10 feet from the campfire, ensuring that they take no part in dangerous marshmallow melting.Once minors have been safely sequestered out of sight, “let’s get to the marshmallow basics. Use a roasting stick of at least...

Rates of adult obesity increased in six U.S. states and fell in none last year, and in more states than ever - 20 - at least 30 percent of adults are obese, according to an analysis released on Thursday. The conclusions were reported by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and were based on federal government data. They suggest the problem may be worsening despite widespread publicity about the nation's obesity epidemic, from First Lady Michelle Obama and many others, plus countless programs to address it. From 2011 to 2012, by comparison, the rate of...

SNIP After watching the footage of programme - where opinionated Hopkins puts on over three stone in three month gorging on takeaways, ready meals and sweets while lazing around her house in a bid to prove that people with weight problems bring it on themselves - Hopkins seemed disgusted with herself. In a clip, the rent-a-gob sobbed: "This is a stupid project. I hate fat people for making me do this..." Off camera, her husband replied: "Well, it was your idea." SNIP Hopkins added: "I’m not lucky to be skinny… it’s really hard to be fat. Carrying this around is...

A federal study to determine why 75 percent of lesbian women are obese and gay men are not has totaled nearly $3 million. snip They have determined that gay and bisexual males had a “greater desire for toned muscles” than straight men, lesbians have lower “athletic self-esteem” that may lead to higher rates of obesity, and that lesbians are more likely to see themselves at a healthy weight even though they are not, the Free Beacon reported. Their research also found that LGBT individuals exercise less than heterosexuals, and that sexual minorities are 46 to 76 percent less likely to...

The federal government is still seeking answers as to why the majority of lesbians are obese and U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, which now totals $2.87 million. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) study is now in its fourth year, receiving an additional $670,567 for fiscal year 2014. The project seeks to determine why “nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese,” and why gay males are not. In just two years the project’s budget has nearly doubled, growing from $1.5 million to nearly $3 million today, despite fears that sequestration could jeopardize the project and other NIH funding....

It sounds like science fiction, but it seems that bacteria within us - which outnumber our own cells about 100-fold - may very well be affecting both our cravings and moods to get us to eat what they want, and often are driving us toward obesity.

A pair of congressional Democrats pressed the White House Friday to move forcefully on regulations requiring calorie counts on restaurant menus. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed rule mandates labels on restaurants, “similar retail food establishments” and vending machines to combat obesity by helping consumers make healthier choices. The regulations, a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, were first proposed in 2011 and drew hundreds of public comments. The proposal remains under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Meanwhile, dozens of lawmakers have argued that the FDA’s proposed rule goes beyond congressional intent, warning...

People in dense cities are thinner and have healthier hearts than people in sprawling subdivisions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Some 500 former military leaders are deploying to Capitol Hill in an attempt to save Michelle Obama’s changes to the National School Lunch Program. Politico reports:

YUBA CITY (CBS13) — A Facebook page created to criticize people about their weight is generating controversy in the Yuba-Sutter region. 530 Fatties appears to be created by someone who lives within the local 530 area code, and featured photos of overweight or obese people in public without their permission. With those photos are words mocking the subjects’ weight. The page was taken down at some point on Monday after CBS13 began looking into it after several people reached out to us. Jessi Lynn Howell, 18, is still mortified after discovering a picture of herself posted on 530 Fatties.

Obesity may be considered a disability if it affects how a person does their job and so could fall under EU rules banning discrimination in the workplace, the EU’s top court said Thursday (17 July) in an opinion set to be closely studied by employers. "Morbid obesity may come within the meaning of ‘disability’ if it is of such a degree as to hinder full participation in professional life on an equal footing with other employees,” said advocate general Niilo Jaaskinen. The case arrived at the European Court of Justice after Karsten Kaltoft, a child-minder Denmark, claimed he unfairly lost...

Two new studies suggest that being overweight may actually protect against death from cardiovascular causes. For the first study, led by Dr. Abhishek Sharma, a cardiology fellow at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 36 studies that looked at the outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who underwent coronary revascularization procedures, including percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG). they found that patients with the lowest cardiovascular mortality risk were those who were overweight - a BMI of 25-30 kg/m2. In addition, patients who...

New research confirms some of the basic tenets of the Wheat Belly, a book by Dr. William Davis, which argues that wheat avoidance results in healthy weight loss.Published in Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry this month, and titled “Gluten-free diet reduces adiposity, inflammation and insulin resistance associated with the induction of PPAR-alpha and PPAR-gamma expression,” researchers compared the effects of a gluten-based diet to a gluten-free diet in mice.Researchers Noted Gluten exclusion (protein complex present in many cereals) has been proposed as an option for the prevention of diseases other than coeliac disease. However, the effects of gluten-free diets on obesity...

Scientists led by Dr David Fairlie from the University of Queensland, Australia, have found abnormal amounts of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the fat tissues of overweight and obese rats and humans. PAR2 is also increased on the surfaces of human immune cells by common fatty acids in the diet. When obese rats on a diet high in sugar and fat were given a new oral drug that binds to PAR2, the inflammation-causing properties of this protein were blocked, as were other effects of the high-fat and high-sugar diet, including obesity itself. "This important new finding links obesity and...