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I read the headline over at the Washington Post (via Newsalert) and I can’t say I was surprised: The average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reddit recently pointed out, that’s almost exactly as much as the average American man weighed in the early 1960s.Men, you’re not looking too hot in this scenario either. Over the same time period you gained nearly 30 pounds, from 166.3 in the 60s to 195.5 today. Doing the same comparison as above, today’s American man weighs almost as much as 1.5 American women from...

Characteristics passed between generations are not decided solely by DNA, but can be brought about by other material in cells, new research shows. Scientists studied proteins found in cells, known as histones, which are not part of the genetic code, but act as spools around which DNA is wound. Histones are known to control whether or not genes are switched on. Researchers found that naturally occurring changes to these proteins, which affect how they control genes, can be sustained from one generation to the next and so influence which traits are passed on. The finding demonstrates for the first time...

Scientists now know that our DNA is being altered all the time by environment, lifestyle and traumatic events. Genetic faults caused by trauma, poor lifestyle or environmental stress can be passed down to future generations, scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered. Previously large studies have shown that devastating events such as famine can scar future generations, making them more prone to obesity and diabetes. However it is the first time that the biological mechanism for the effect has been seen. Although the same genes are passed down through generations, scientists now know that our DNA is being altered...

henever Republicans talk about trimming the federal food stamp program, Democrats decry them as cold, heartless or worse. But new research shows that cutting food stamps could actually make the country healthier. The U.S. Department of Agriculture looked at data from 2007 through 2010, then compared average weights of those on food stamps — officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — to those who weren't.

The team at Oxon Epidemiology and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed medical records from 1,958,191 people aged 55, on average, for up to two decades. Their most conservative analysis showed underweight people had a 39% greater risk of dementia compared with being a healthy weight. But those who were overweight had an 18% reduction in dementia - and the figure was 24% for the obese. "Yes, it is a surprise," said lead researcher Dr Nawab Qizilbash. He told the BBC News website: "The controversial side is the observation that overweight and obese people have a lower...

Apparently, parents should visit the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website to find out how to teach their children good eating habits.The agency in charge of the country’s agricultural sector is now in the nanny business, thanks to First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative to fight childhood obesity, which links to choosemyplate.gov on its website.In the kids’ section of My Plate, advice is dished out on how parents can help pre-schoolers “develop healthy eating habits,” including a warning about praising an empty plate.“Avoid praising a clean plate,” the website states. “Your child should stop eating when he or she...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is promoting a giant full-body exhibit for kids to walk through to promote healthy eating habits.While encouraging schools to apply for nearly $6 million in grants to help them comply with the First Lady Michelle Obama-promoted Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act new lunch standards, the USDA highlighted efforts by the Kansas State Department of Education.“Body Venture, a traveling health education exhibit sponsored by Kansas State Department of Education travels to schools to teach students about nutrition and physical activity,” the USDA said in a blog post Friday.Body Venture is a 45-foot by 50-foot exhibit that starts...

Celebrate with me the recent lesson learned by the city council of Los Angeles after a 7-years-long experiment in nanny statism that ended in utter failure. A public health report released in early 2007 showed that South Los Angeles residents were significantly more obese than those in the remainder of the city, including adults and children, and the data showed a dramatic increase from a similar report from a decade earlier. Furthermore, occurrence of obesity-related illness, such as diabetes, was more present in the area and also showed an increase. The city council decided that something needed to be done....

A 2008 ban on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A. has failed to cut the obesity rate, a Rand study saysSeven years ago, Los Angeles made national headlines with a novel attempt to reduce obesity in South L.A. by banning new fast-food restaurants. But a new study found the effort has not achieved its intended goal. A Rand Corp. report released Thursday says that from 2007 to 2012, the percentage of people who were overweight or obese increased everywhere in L.A., but the increase was significantly greater in areas covered by the fast-food ordinance, including Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park.The...

A much-hailed law that restricted the opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles did not curb obesity or improve diets, a new study found. City lawmakers passed the zoning ordinance in 2008 that limited the opening or expansion of fast-food outlets in a 32-square-mile area south of Interstate 10 that struggles with high obesity rates and other health problems. The law, believed to be the first effort of its kind by a major city to improve public health, did not ban new eateries in strip malls. The research by the Rand Corp....

Not healthier than Western foodBian Huawei, head nutritionist at The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, said that it was a common misconception that Chinese food was healthier than Western food. In a November 2013 tencent.com report, Bian noted that although traditional Chinese food uses fewer animal fats compared to most Western dishes, many Chinese restaurants nowadays use excessive quantities of oil and salt to make dishes more flavorful. "Most cooking methods used in Chinese cuisine, such as deep-frying and roasting, use an excessive amount of oil," said Bian. "Even for the dishes that are cooked in a healthier...

Passengers on the South West Train service from Basingstoke to London Waterloo were left in shock after an announcer took to the tannoy to say that fat people should remain standing because of lack of space, the Daily Mail reports. On the packed commuter service, a member of staff reportedly said: “We are going to be like sardines on this train, so can I ask that only slim people sit on the three-seaters. If you are fat then it is simply not going to work.” One passenger was left furious by the announcement, saying: “I am not necessarily a big...

The federal government helped finance the creation of a so-called “diet choker” that monitors the eating habits of the wearer.WearSens, created by engineers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), is a necklace that can automatically detect when a person is eating or smoking, and can send alerts to a smart phone telling the user to stop.The invention received a $148,379 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2013 to create a sensory necklace to “fill the need of automatically detecting swallows and eating patterns.”Researchers at UCLA, led by Majid Sarrafzadeh, the director of the Embedded and Reconfigurable...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity, but as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts the first lady also warned that the progress is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example.

Obese People Could Have Benefits Taken Away If They Refuse Treatment David Cameron says taxpayers should no longer “fund the benefits” of obese people or drug and alcohol addicts who refuse to accept the treatment that could help them get back into employment By Peter Dominiczak, 13 Feb 2015 Obese people could have their benefits stripped if they refuse treatment in a bid to ensure they can lead a “fulfilling life”, David Cameron has said. A Conservative government will attempt to ensure that tens of thousands of people who claim welfare on the grounds of obesity, drug or alcohol addiction...

Legislators in Puerto Rico are debating a bill that would fine parents of obese children up to $800 if they don't lose weight. The bill aims to improve children's wellbeing and help parents make healthier choices, Sen. Gilberto Rodriguez said in a statement issued Monday. Public hearings for the bill are scheduled to begin Friday.

Michelle Obama says that 'if you don't like government ... messing with your life,' you should make better eating choices. Is Michelle Obama starting to sound more like a conservative than a liberal? How's this for a counterintuitive source on conservatism: Michelle Obama is now offering novel advice on how to keep the government from meddling in peoples' lives. “If you don’t like the doctor, if you don’t like government, if you don’t like folks messing with your life, the best thing to do is make sure you’re healthy," Mrs. Obama told Cooking Light in a piece entitled, "The First...

First lady Michelle Obama believes Americans can keep the federal government from meddling with their lives by eating healthy foods and maintaining an active lifestyle. In an interview with Cooking Light magazine published Monday, Mrs. Obama said the best way to avoid dealing with “the system” is to take care of one’s own body. Doing so, she said, will eliminate trips to the doctor and the need to deal with Obamacare. “It’s just making sure people understand that the most powerful thing that they can do for their overall health is feed their bodies good nutritious food,” the first lady...

The command and control mandates of ObamaCare continue to cause unintended consequences for businesses. In another example of government gone wild, the federal government is now forcing restaurants to post the calorie information of its menu items. Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule under ObamaCare that requires retail food establishments with the same name and 20 or more locations to list calorie information for its standard menu offerings. The regulation applies to many food retail operations including restaurants, delicatessens, supermarkets and movie theaters to name a few. The goal of this regulatory effort...

(CNSNews.com) - In a joint radio appearance with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, President Barack Obama said there is a “worldwide epidemic of obesity” and that he looks forward to working with the government of India and non-governmental organizations on the “issue of obesity” in India.In 2013-2014, according to a survey conducted by UNICEF and India's Ministry of Women and Child Development, 30.7 percent of Indian children under five were underweight.That was a significant improvement for India, where 43.5 percent of the children under five had been underweight at the time of the last survey in 2005-2006. "India no...