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Childhood obesity news boring you to death?  Maybe this will ring your bell.  It costs $19,000 per child more for obese children than normal-weight ones for healthcare, according to a new study.  Not your problem?  But it is, because it often comes out of taxpayers' pockets. “Reducing childhood obesity is a public health priority that has substantial health and economic benefits,” newswise.com quotes lead study author Eric Andrew Finkelstein, Ph.D., M.H.A. “These estimates provide the financial consequences of inaction and the potential medical savings from obesity prevention efforts that successfully reduce or delay obesity onset.” Obesity is a known risk factor for a wide range of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Roughly one in three adults and one in five children in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Addressing obesity in adults requires efforts to prev...

You couldn't tell it by my skinny, scrawny kid but a new study is finding that TVs in bedrooms may cause kids to gain a pound a year, and contribute to -- or cause -- childhood obesity. According to newswise.com, the study has f ound that having a bedroom television was a significant predictor of adolescent weight gain. Makes sense, I suppose.  If the kid's in the house watching TV, he most likely isn't going to ditch it to run around or play ball.  At least, I wouldn't. Growing up, no kid I knew had a TV in his bedroom.  In fact, we had friends who never even had a TV in their house.  I'll never forget their joy when they got to see "The Wizard of Oz" at our house for the first time. But today seems like every kid has one.  And an XBox and an iPod and . . .you get the idea.   “This study suggests that removing bedroom TVs is an important step in our nation’s fight against child obesity. We found that adolescents with a TV in their bedroom gaine...

It turns out that childhood obesity leads to a lot more than just fat adults.  A study has now found that  even in cases in which obese children later lose weight, the health effects of childhood obesity may be long-lasting and profound, according to newswise.com. "The earlier you are exposed to obesity, the earlier we may see the onset of complications including type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and cancer. That makes sense: these complications don’t happen overnight, and the earlier you start the ball rolling, the earlier and more likely you are to see early morbidity and mortality from them," the Web site reports. But there's more. Kids’ maturing bodies may be especially vulnerable to the detrimental health effects of obesity. "Early exposure can make you much more predisposed to complications than might exposure once the body is done maturing. It may be that childhood obesity changes the way the whole metabolism is working – and ch...

I've used it, and it works, it's very simple and now experts are saying it may do what other attempts have not been able to.  Fight childhood obesity. It's not brain surgery.  But a new study has found using smaller bowls may help in the war against childhood obesity. The study at Cornell University found that children asked for extra helpings when using larger bowls, and ate 52% more. I hate those huge plates that your food now comes on in restaurants, and are usually the only size you can buy when purchasing dinnerware.  I purposely went out and found plates that are about 10 inches wide and I love them.  I can put less food on them and you still feel like you're eating a lot. “The quickest way parents can help kids eat less might be to grab them a smaller bowl," says Brian Wansink, professor of behavioral economics and the lead author of the study, which appeared in the Journal of Pediatrics this month. “Make it 12 ounces rather than the 20 ounces we use...