January 18, 2021 — The intersection of obesity and eating disorders in teens requires urgent attention, write Hiba Jebeile and colleagues in a new paper. But attention is lacking. Policymakers talk much about childhood obesity. Beyond the talk though, health policies do little to offer help for the youth and families affected. Likewise, screening and care for youth with […]
January 8, 2021 — For decades now, we’ve been talking lots about preventing childhood obesity, but not doing much. Could it be that a shift is beginning? Two papers this week tell us this is possible. For too long, we’ve drawn an arbitrary line between obesity treatment and prevention. But the truth is that for women having children, the […]
December 29, 2020 — For decades now, childhood obesity care has been on the back burner because of a false dichotomy. All efforts have gone into prevention – a noble and elusive goal. But in the face of earnest efforts to prevent childhood obesity, the prevalence has relentlessly climbed. Meanwhile, the children affected – now roughly six million with […]
December 21, 2020 — We started this new decade “pretty sure” about stories that would grab headlines this year. But we also said we should be “ready for surprises.” That was probably our most accurate prediction. Little did we know then, a new coronavirus was already at work. Thus it turned out that, more than anything, a pandemic made […]
December 15, 2020 — It’s been a busy week of new statistics on obesity from CDC. The Centers released new data on childhood obesity trends for the U.S. Of course, the overall trend is up. Almost one in five youth (19 percent) ages 2-12 have a BMI in the range of obesity. But it’s worth digging a bit deeper […]
December 6, 2020 — Looking back, treating obesity has often been framed in terms of weight loss. But looking forward, we see much more emphasis on health gain. This is certainly evident in the new Canadian obesity treatment guidelines. A new analysis from the Teen LABS study gives us further reason to look beyond weight loss in bariatric surgery. […]
December 5, 2020 — Late on Friday, Novo Nordisk announced FDA approval for Saxenda (liraglutide 3mg) to treat obesity in teens. This marks the second such drug approved in for youth in little more than a week. Setmelanotide received approval last week for children as young as six. Make no mistake about it, we are making progress in expanding […]
November 28, 2020 — This is the ultimate Friday news dump. FDA approved a highly innovative, highly targeted treatment for obesity – setmelanotide – Wednesday night. Just before a four-day holiday. The company announced in on Friday – timing one would typically choose for news they want to hide. But this is really good news for the treatment of […]
November 20, 2020 — We confess to being fed up with campaigns right now. But three articles in JAMA Pediatrics shine an especially harsh light on childhood obesity campaigns in two forms. One is the PSA approach exhorting families to beware of childhood obesity. The other is the practice of weighing and measuring kids in school and sending BMI […]
November 18, 2020 — We don’t mean to pick on this lovely ad campaign by the NHS. Because there’s nothing wrong with promoting healthy lifestyles. But unfortunately, it isn’t going to do a thing to reverse the obesity trends in the UK. It reflects a mentality about confronting obesity that fails over and over. Just do better and make […]
