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Fitness guru Richard Simmons, who has been offering guidance to the out-of-shape masses on his Sirius Satellite radio program of late, reveals, "Now we're going to turn it into a television show. Right now everyone is offering me certain things, but I know the show I want to do." As in his radio gig, he'll respond to people who write to him about their weight -- and life -- problems. Simmons' ebullience is on hold when he soberly discusses the epidemic of obesity in America. "Bottom line, I think, is the fact that people have low self-worth right now. People...

Kids in a kids health club. Craig Horowitz, 14, with a trainer, Taylor Kevin Isaacs, is among a growing number children using health clubs. AT 13, Jena Jerve has managed to stretch her days to do it all: keep a 4.0 grade-point average, play center on her school's basketball team and nourish her love for dancing with six hours a week of tap, ballet and jazz. But over the last year and a half Jena has also been cramming a less typical extra-curricular activity into her busy schedule, the health club. There, for about an hour twice a week, she...

In the United States, roughly 10 per cent of all cancers, more than 100,000 cases a year, could be avoided if overweight and obesity did not exist, updated statistics on the proportion of cancer due to obesity say. The new projections stem from a review of published studies, updates to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report from 2002, and data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which includes 116,686 women, Dr Graham Colditz said at a press briefing at the American Association for Cancer Research's international conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. By applying the current...

Black Colleges Aiming to Fight ObesityBy DIONNE WALKER, AP NORFOLK, Va. (Oct. 23) - As students talk over the thump of rapper Chingy's "Right Thurr," Tina Carroll stands in a corner of the university dining hall deliberating. At 187 pounds, 22-year-old graduate student Tina Carroll is well above what's recommended for her 5-foot-2 frame. Piled in front of her are sliced carrots, peas and steaming squash chunks. Nearby, breaded chicken patties fan out like meaty playing cards, and french fries glisten in fat-laden glory. Carroll nibbles her manicured fingernails, her eyes darting between each selection. At 187 pounds - well...

An expanding waistline may have less to with what a person eats than what’s already inside, say microbiologists Jeffrey Gordon and Fredrik Backhed at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. Variations in the population of bacteria living in the gut may explain why some people pack on extra pounds while others stay slim. Gordon and Backhed base their claim on a study of two groups of mice, one exposed to normal intestinal microbes and another raised in a germ-free bubble. The germ-free mice had 42 percent less body fat, even though they were fed one-third more calories....

New Hampshire Doctor Outraged By Complaint ROCHESTER, N.H. -- The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating a Rochester doctor because a patient complained that he bluntly told her she needed to lose weight. Dr. Terry Bennett said that he's outraged by what he calls a baseless complaint. A patient was apparently insulted when Bennett told her that she was obese and could only get healthier by losing weight. "It's an epidemic in the United States, and it's croaking us," Bennett said. Bennett said that it's a lecture he gives to many of his overweight patients. "It's your weight, ... and...

Winning the big butt games BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Aug. 28, 1994.) ------ Guess what: Americans are too fat. This fact was discovered recently by a panel of concerned experts and reported extensively in the news media, as though it were a shocking revelation. The truth, of course, is that we Americans already know we have a weight problem. We notice it every time we get out of the shower and look in the bathroom mirror and see our head sitting on top of what appears to be a towel-clad manatee. We...

Steve Vaught tells everyone he's walking across America because he's fat and doesn't want to be. He fears he'll be dead before his children grow up. "There aren't that many 50-year-old 375-pound guys waddling around," he says with a smile. Vaught, 39, who lives in Valley Center with his wife and two kids, began walking from Oceanside April 10, bound for New York City. But if you sit and talk with Vaught, he'll eventually tell you there's more to his story than excess weight. He has demons that need exorcising, memories that need to be dealt with. Fifteen years ago,...

Finally, the Federal Government has come around and admitted something that many of us took for granted already. Being overweight is NOT the major killer that it has been held up to be. Being overweight is NOT the #2 killer in America. Being overweight has NOT killed nearly 400,000 people per year. Being overweight HAS been used as a people-control issue by the liberals for no good reason. This article gives the details. Another big liberal issue defeated by the facts. It won't matter, of course, because liberals have NEVER cared when the facts were against them. They'd rather watch...

The gravity of being overweight BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Oct. 29, 1995.) I am pleased to report that we finally have a scientific explanation for why everybody in the world is gaining weight. At least I am, and I know it's not my fault. Granted, I do not have the best dietary habits. Sometimes in a restaurant I will order fried, fatty foods (''Give me a plate of fried, fatty foods, and hurry'' are my exact words). But I compensate for this by engaging in a strict exercise regimen of vigorously pounding...

Most parents wouldn't dream of it. But researchers say that when a baby's bottle or cup is filled with juice -- even the 100 percent, all-natural, no-sugar-added stuff -- parents might as well be pouring Pepsi. A growing body of science is linking sweet drinks, natural or otherwise, to a host of child health concerns, everything from bulging bellies to tooth decay. "All of these beverages are largely the same. They are 100 percent sugar," Dr. David Ludwig, an expert on pediatric obesity at Children's Hospital Boston, said recently. "Juice is only minimally better than soda."

  Exercising, even moderately, can significantly reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, a condition that increases heart disease and diabetes risk, among older adults, according to a study.The six-month study involved over 100 people between the ages of 55 and 75. Half were "prescribed" exercises ranging from weightlifting to walking, which were performed for one hour, three times a week. The other participants were given a booklet that encouraged increased activity to promote good health.Some 43 percent of participants had metabolic syndrome when the study began. At the end of six months, the following results were observed among the...

Japanese TV (FNN) ran a short report yesterday, highlighting the fact that Houston, Texas was voted as the US city with the most obese population.The report runs about one minute. It does not seem to be particularly flattering of poor Houston, nor overweight people living there (some which are profiled by telephoto lens). The way the clip is done is interesting, if not somewhat humorous, and from a Japanese perspective of rare obesity (but wait 'til it comes to cigarette smoking).At any rate, a short peek of how 'some' Americans are viewed and described, from overseas.

It's a furious fight to the finish and the White House is on the line. What are the campaign's last-minute plans? We'll be joined by Elizabeth Edwards (search), wife of vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, and Liz Cheney (search), senior adviser on the Bush-Cheney campaign and daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Obese women can ward off heart disease if they exercise. But they place themselves at a higher risk of diabetes if they don't lose weight. Conversely, even thin women elevate their risk of heart trouble if they're physically inactive. However, their risk of diabetes remains lower if their thinness is not the result of regular exercise.Those are the results of a pair of new studies that add to the "fat-but-fit" debate. But it's not a case of either-or, said leaders of both studies, who, incidentally, did not know their reports would appear side by side in the Sept. 8 issue...

Don't expect to see much of Elizabeth Edwards on the campaign trail this fall. Oh, she'll be campaigning alongside her husband, all right. But the TV cameras just might decide to miss her. After introducing her husband at the Democratic convention in Boston, she has all but disappeared, which is curious given that she is arguably the best thing the Democratic ticket has going for it. An intelligent and accomplished professional woman who exudes genuine, down-to-earth homeliness and warmth, Elizabeth Edwards also earned the respect of traditional-minded Americans by courageously deciding to have two young children in mid-life after losing...

Hollywood Backlash Continuesby William R Alford - July. 20, 2004 Certain entertainment industry figures are having a tough time going beyond their qualifications by engaging in political discourse. 1970s diva Linda Ronstadt was recently booed off the stage for casting filmmaker Michael Moore as a truth-spreading “patriot” and encouraging the audience to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Las Vegas’ Aladdin Hotel president Bill Timmins reportedly had Ronstadt summarily ejected from her quarters for having “spoiled a lovely evening for our guests” by needlessly causing “all bedlam” to break loose. [Note: there were no fires, looting, brawling, etc. – these were not...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2004-05-02-diet-cover_x.htm

<p>Pity Debora Senytka, a design engineer in General Motors' human/vehicle integration department. Her challenge: to create normal-looking vehicles that can accommodate the expanding derrieres of the expanding American without giving up the cup holders and consoles, DVD screens and air bags that U.S. drivers have come to expect.</p> <p>America's growing obesity "was never considered" until five years ago, Senytka says. Now it's "a very real situation." The problem is finding the space to fit a wider passenger "because there's so much more going into a vehicle than there was 10 years ago."</p>