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And yet one more cross for overweight people to bear. Not only are they often shunned and made fun of but now a new study has found that those who blog may be found less credible for readers seeking food advice. I guess it stands to reason.  Would you take driving advice from someone with DUIs?    The Cornell study revealed that when a blogger is overweight, as shown in the blogger’s photo, readers are far more skeptical of the information that blogger provides when compared with a thin blogger’s recommendations, even when the content is exactly the same, according to newswise.com. The findings are increasingly important as more than half of smartphone users report that they use their device to look up health-related information, making the Internet one of the top places people get informed about health issues. "When we dramatically increased the fat and calorie content, it had just as much impact as when we said the food was posted by a heavy person,”say...

Larger waistline .  Bigger eater.  Non-exerciser.  At risk of dying earlier. These are all the things we think when we hear about obesity.  But did you also know it means fewer votes? That's right.  A new study has found evidence of voter bias against hefty candidates for U.S. Senate after controlling for other factors. Who comes to mind right away?  For me, Gov. Chris Christie of N.J.  He may be a great governor (jury still out on that), but the first thing his name summons is the image of a fat guy, at least to me. I know it's not fair but whenever I see him in his yards and yards of white or blue button-down shirts, all I can think about is what it would be like to sit next to him, overflowing into your chair.  Would that stop me from voting for him?  Maybe.  (He's also a Republican, which pretty much would.) “Heavier candidates tended to receive lower vote share than their thinner counterparts and the larger the size diffe...

We all know we need to quit smoking .  But now here's a new really good one.  Young male smokers may raise obesity risk in sons they may have in the future. Men who start smoking before the age of 11 risk having sons who are overweight, British researchers have found, adding to evidence that lifestyle factors even in childhood can affect the health of future offspring, writes Kate Kelland at Reuters. "The scientists said the findings, part of ongoing work in a larger 'Children of the 90s' study, could indicate that exposure to tobacco smoke before the start of puberty in men may lead to metabolic changes in the next generation," she reports. Worldwide, almost one billion men smoke - about 35 percent of men in developed countries and 50 percent in developing ones, according to the World Health Organization. While previous studies in animals and in people have found some transgenerational health impacts, the evidence so far is limited. It points, however, to ep...

Good news. We're all living longer.  Except for obese teens , it turns out. According to newswise.com, " Although people live longer today than they did 50 years ago, people who were overweight and obese as teenagers aren’t experiencing the same gains as other segments of the population." The life expectancy of the average American born in 2011 was 78.7 years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up from about 50 at the turn of the last century. The average lifespan has increased by more than a decade since 1950, but rising obesity rates threaten to take a toll on this progress. “In studying the rate of death among adults younger than age 50, we found that there was no improvement among men who were overweight or obese as teenagers,” newswise quotes one of the study’s authors, Amir Tirosh, MD, PhD, of the Division of Endocrinology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. “In fact, the mortality rate among overweight and obese t...

Want to avoid ovarian cancer ?  Stay close to your ideal weight. That's the conclusion of a new study out of two cancer centers, which found that obesity is linked to ovarian cancer.  Several studies have been done on this, but this is the first time the suspicion has been confirmed.  One of the most deadly cancers a woman can get, ovarian cancer is diagnosed in over 22,000 women a year, over 14,000 of whom die. The reason it's such a killer is that it's a hard disease to detect.  No exact diagnosis tool can tell when you might be developing it, like breast, leading to early treatment and cure.  Most often it's found in an advanced stage, because the symptoms  can mimic many other illnesses (bloating, indigestion, nausea, feelings of pressure in the pelvis or lower back, fatigue).  By the time the cancer is diagnosed, it's often too late to treat successfully. So how heavy is too heavy?  Experts say a body mass index (BMI) of over 25 ind...

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...

Overweight or obese? Now you have something new to worry about.  You suffer more from air pollution . That's because people who weigh a lot breathe seven to 50% more air than the res of us, and that includes pollution, according to newswise.com.  The really sad part of this is that, f or overweight or obese children, daily inhalation rates are 10-24% higher than for normal weight children.   It's not just inhaling air that smells bad.  Breathing it makes them more vulnerable to asthma and other pulmonary diseases.   If overweight or obese people inhale more air compared to those with normal weight, does this mean that elite athletes may also be more vulnerable to contaminants in the air?   A cross-country skier in a competition can breathe up to 41.2 m3 per day, while a cyclist participating in the Tour de France breathes an average of 45.9 m3 per day over the 21-day race.  But this is peak inhalation, which cannot be maintained daily over an...

Here's the thing.  Food just tastes better to obese people. Or, putting it a different way: obese people need more sweets to be satisfied.  Which, obviously, make them eat more, right? According to a new study , "Obesity may alter the way we taste at the most fundamental level: by changing how our tongues react to different foods." Research has found that being severely overweight impaired the ability of mice to detect sweets, newswise.com reports. "Compared with slimmer counterparts, the plump mice had fewer taste cells that responded to sweet stimuli. What’s more, the cells that did respond to sweetness reacted relatively weakly." ". . .no one had ever looked at the cells on the tongue that make contact with food,” the Web site quotes lead scientist Kathryn Medler, PhD, UB associate professor of biological sciences. “What we see is that even at this level — at the first step in the taste pathway — the taste receptor cells themselves are affected b...

According to sciencedaily.com, you could gain weight from trying to make everyone happy at your holiday dinner table. " Research from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business suggests you could be choosing unhealthy options to serve your guests because you don't want to offend someone else," it reports. So, really?   "We wanted to understand if food choices would change if they were picking a dish or snack for themselves and an average-sized person versus themselves and an overweight person," the Web site quotes m arketing doctoral student Peggy Liu . As sciencedaily.com describes the research, in one study participants were asked to choose either wheat crackers or chocolate chip cookies for themselves and a person they had just met. "In some cases, the recently introduced woman appeared as her normal size (wearing a size 0-2). In other situations, the woman was wearing a body suit that appeared to increase her weight by nearly 65 pounds (makin...

Now one more thing to worry about.  Just as soon as obese girls start losing weight, they're at risk of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. That's the conclusion of a new study , as reported by newswise.com. And it's a double-edged sword, because families and doctors may see "the weight loss . . . as positive," Mayo Clinic researchers imply in a recent  Pediatrics  article, and therefore not detect the problem. The scary facts are that at least 6 percent of adolescents suffer from eating disorders, and more than 55 percent of high school females and 30 percent of males "report disordered eating symptoms including engaging in one or more maladaptive behaviors (fasting, diet pills, vomiting, laxatives, binge eating) to induce weight loss." Formerly overweight adolescents tend to have more medical complications from eating disorders and "it takes longer to diagnose them than kids who are in a normal weight range," newswise.com...

This is what I like to hear.  Supposedly only 10 minutes of brisk exercise can help you keep your weight stable. That's a day, not just once! Here's the lowdown: Short bursts of less than 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise were associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI) and lower risk of obesity.  Low intensity exercise, whether of short or long duration was not associated with a lower BMI or risk of overweight/obesity.  “This research shows that when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight, every little bit of exercise counts, as long as it’s of reasonable intensity, such as a brisk walk, climbing stairs or jumping rope,” newswise.com quotes study author Jessie X. Fan, Ph.D., professor in the department of family and consumer studies at the University of Utah. According to newswise.com, "Little bursts of exercise can add up to have a significant impact on a person’s weight, said Fan. In fact, the study showed that every minute spent in shor...

Your daughter's eating habits drive you crazy.  A yogurt for breakfast, a pear for lunch, and a salad for dinner.  But you know what?  Bugging her about it, even just talking to her about it, can make for even more unhealthy behavior, a new study has found. According to newswise.com, "Conversations between parents and adolescents that focus on weight and size are associated with an increased risk for unhealthy adolescent weight-control behaviors." The study also found that overweight or obese adolescents whose mothers talked only healthful eating behaviors were less likely to diet and use unhealthy weight-control behaviors and a significantly lower chance of dieting (40 percent to over 53 percent, respectively). “Because adolescence is a time when more youths engage in disordered eating behaviors, it is important for parents to understand what types of conversations may be helpful or harmful in regard to disordered eating behaviors and how to have these conversatio...

A new study  has found that America may finally be tipping the scales the other way. Say what? According to the Elk Valley Times (yes, really), "Obesity rates are leveling off — dropping, even." The Fayetteville, Tenn. newspaper reported that both New York City and Philadelphia saw their obesity rates decrease last year, and studies recently compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed similar progress elsewhere in the country. A drop in Mississippi, three years after passage of a law that required public schools to provide more physical activity and health education A reduction in eastern Massachusetts, and for kids in a region of Nebraska A leveling off for New Mexico’s kindergarten and third graders, after years of increase. What's driving this?  A small thing, but it's helping --  less fried foods and sugary sodas available in schools.   As for New Jersey, 61 percent of adults in this state are considered overweight and 24 percent o...

OK.  You can now blame your genes . Many of us fighting weight battles have used the old "It's genetic" excuse to explain our inability to lose weight.  But a story today by Gina Kolata in The New York Times may prove there's some truth to that, after all. She offers tantalizing evidence, as demonstrated in mice, why some people can eat a lot, and never gain weight, while others (I'm giving no names) look at a piece of cheesecake and pile on the pounds. Kolata reports that this new information may offer clues to, "Why do . . .people gain different amounts of weight while overeating by the same amount?" Scientists have long known that our genes have a lot to do with our ability to stay thin, or fat. Or, as Kolata puts it, "They knew body weight was strongly inherited."  They've now found evidence that many — if not hundreds — of genes may be involved to make people hungry, and so, overeat. These genes determine how quickly calorie...

Who would ever think that your religion could be linked to whether you are obese?  But apparently, it's true. A new study has found that among many racial and ethnic groups, "Research has shown that religious practices and religiosity (are) associated with obesity and greater body weight," according to a story at newswise.com. No one, however, has studied this link in Asian Indians until now, and the findings of this new study reveal that "religiosity in Hindus and Sikhs — but not Muslims — appears to be an independent factor associated with being overweight or obese." "These different subgroups have different practices: Muslims may abstain from alcohol or avoid pork, and Hindus and Sikhs may eat only plant foods," newswise.com quotes Dr. Nazleen Bharmal, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. and primary investigator. ...

You read it right.  The Boy Scouts decided this year not to allow any boy with a body mass index (BMI) over 40 to attend its National Jamboree this summer. So what, you say?  The Jamboree is the biggest outdoor event of the year, with camping and lots of outdoor activities and, most of all, "camaraderie," as slate.com puts it.  But even those with BMIs over 32 can only attend after consultation with camp directors and a doctor. Liability sticks its big fat head up all over again. j. Bryan Lowder at slate.com seems to feel very passionately about this.  He writes that some people believe, “Since they allow gay scouts, they had to find someone else to exclude.” An Eagle Scout, Lowder says he likes to "believe that scouting has something useful to offer every boy, regardless of weight, and imposing limits on who is eligible to attend one of the biggest events in scouting doesn’t jibe with that ideal." However, he goes on to report, after loo...

You're not going to believe this.  After all my posts about obesity, especially in kids, a new report came out today that it's actually going down. According to Lydia DePillis at The Washington Post, "Obesity rates are leveling off and even dropping, in a sign that the public health crisis of the moment may have eased." Reductions in childhood obesity were seen in New York and Philadelphia, two of the cities where it hit hardest, perhaps because of the numbers of poor who live near fast food restaurants, who, other studies have shown, tend to be heavier, most likely because of the proximity (and low prices). But Mississippi beats them both, achieving an impressive drop from 43.9% of children being obese and overweight in 2005 to 40.9% in 2011, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as referenced by DePillis.  That may not sound like much but we're talking 90,000 kids. DePillis also noted in her story that "an April 2013 analysis showed tha...

And now we have depressed mothers to blame! According to a story at nytimes.com, "Mothers who report symptoms of depression are more likely to display obesity-promoting practices and have children who are overweight or obese than mothers who say they are not depressed, according to a new study ." As if we don't blame ourselves for enough.  But mothers who rated themselves as being moderately or severely depressed were 2.5 times more likely to have 5-year-olds who were overweight, or even obese, Hope Reeves, reports. These children were far more likely than other children to not eat breakfast and drink sweetened beverages.  I've learned from Weight Watchers (and a few commercials) that eating breakfast can help you lose weight, because if you don't -- or maybe I should say if I don't -- I eat all day to make up for it. Another reason for their children to be overweight?  The depressed mothers were less likely to supervise what and how much food the...

Quick!  Lock the refrigerator!  The kids are gaining weight in the summer. You'd think they'd be losing it, with all the running around and swimming and playing sports.  But a new study has found they do just the opposite.  Many kids gain weight in the summer. According to Anahad O'Connor, "Youngsters may be most likely to pack on pounds when they are home for summer vacation." Researchers found that body mass index accelerated at a faster rate during summer recess than the school year, O'Connor reports. And the reason isn't hard to figure out why. Their days just aren't so ordered, in the summer.  During the rest of the year, there's get up for school, have breakfast, get dressed, wait for the bus, go to first period, and on and on.  But in the summer? “Many non-school environments are relatively unstructured and unsupervised,” study researchers, “allowing children to indulge in sedentary activities and excessive snacking.” I work fro...