Too much time parked in front of the television or computer screen is driving the epidemic of childhood obesity in the U.S., according to a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

And it’s not just that many teens are couch potatoes, the academy argues in the July issue of Pediatrics: TV advertising drives sales of junk food, children and teens tend to snack while watching TV or online, and late-night use may interfere with sleep.

“We’ve created a perfect storm” of conditions that predispose young people to obesity, said lead author Victor Strasburger, MD, of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, N.M.

“We couldn’t do a worse job as a society if we tried,” he told MedPage Today.

Medical News: Screen Time Driving Youth Obesity Epidemic – in Pediatrics, Obesity from MedPage Today

“If you associate a positive feeling with trying on clothes, you’ll spend more money to buy them,” says Joan Chrisler, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College.

“The woman who needs a 12 but finds out she can fit into an 8 is going to get a self-esteem boost, even if she knows it’s a gimmick,” Chrisler says.

A self-esteem boost like that might be welcome after watching rail-thin models and celebrities on fashion runways and TV while the size of the average woman has been slowly increasing.

The average U.S. woman today wears a size 14, says the and Human Services. In Calvin Klein’s sizing chart, that would be a 42-inch bust, a 34½-inch waist and 44½-inch hips. Meanwhile, at Kmart, a size 14 has a 40-inch bust, a 33½-inch waist and 43-inch hips.

Clothing brands adjust sizes to help sales

Experts are becoming increasingly concerned about the growing number of people in their 20s and 30s coping with type 2 diabetes, which used to be rarely seen in those under 40.

As diabetes becomes more prevalent in young people, the long-term complications of the condition cardiovascular problems like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, nerve damage, blindness and kidney failure are more likely to occur at younger ages, too, says David Kendall, chief scientific and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

“Children and young adults, and young middle-aged people, are the groups in which the rates are apparently growing the fastest,” Kendall says.

Headlines – Verizon – Diabetes becomes a scourge of the young

Tony the Tiger, some NASCAR drivers and cookie-selling Girl Scouts will be out of a job unless grocery manufacturers agree to reinvent a vast array of their products to satisfy the Obama administration’s food police.

Either retool the recipes to contain certain levels of sugar, sodium and fats, or no more advertising and marketing to tots and teenagers, say several federal regulatory agencies.

The same goes for restaurants.

It’s not just the usual suspected foods that are being targeted, such a thin mint cookies sold by scouts or M&Ms and Snickers, which sponsor cars in the Sprint Cup, but pretty much everything on a restaurant menu.

Although the intent of the guidelines is to combat childhood obesity, foods that are low in calories, fat, and some considered healthy foods, are also targets, including hot breakfast cereals such as oatmeal, pretzels, popcorn, nuts, yogurt, wheat bread, bagels, diet drinks, fruit juice, tea, bottled water, milk and sherbet.

Obama’s Food Police in Staggering Crackdown on Market to Kids – HUMAN EVENTS

Success stories like Shaina — and those of celebrities like Al Roker and Star Jones — might make bariatric surgery look easy. It’s not. In fact, doctors are so concerned that teens might have unrealistic expectations that they require extensive presurgery evaluation and lifestyle changes to ensure that teens understand the serious risks, are dedicated to overhauling their health, and don’t take the procedure lightly.

Surgery usually requires preliminary weight loss and then a strict postsurgical regimen of dietary changes, vitamins, and exercise. If the teen and his family aren’t fully committed, the results can evaporate quickly or fail to materialize in the first place.

“We worry a lot if we have a child who thinks the surgery is going to be a magic fix,” says Eleanor Mackey, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the Obesity Institute at Children’s National Medical Center, who evaluates young people considering the surgery.

Fat Thanks to Sona S. for the tip!

Surgery is no quick fix for obese teens – CNN.com

The New York Times‘ Economix blog has an interesting post on new research on the “cost per calorie” of different foods and drinks.

The trend is disturbing: Fresh fruits and vegetables have soared in price per calorie over the past 30 years while soda has fallen dramatically in price. Economix notes:

It’s a good illustration of one of the problems with the American diet: unhealthy food is often a lot cheaper than healthy food. … One dollar’s worth of Coke has 447 calories, while $1 of iceberg lettuce has just 16.5. To look at it another way, you would have to spend about $5 to buy 2,000 calories at McDonald’s, $19 to buy 2,000 calories worth of canned tuna and $60 to buy 2,000 calories worth of lettuce.

I eat a lot salad; but I don’t know of anyone who looks to lettuce as a major source of calories. Experts say you’re supposed to get something like four cups of vegetables per day. One cup of shredded lettuce contains six calories. Eating 2,000 calories worth of lettuce per day would mean eating 333 cups of chopped lettuce, which cannot possibly be healthy.

Since most calories are supposed to come from grains anyway, a better comparison is brown rice versus white rice. White rice costs about 2.1 cents per serving, and brown rice costs about 10 cents per serving. That’s a huge percentage difference; but you would have to eat a lot of rice for the difference to amount to more than the price of a Snickers bar per week.

There are a number of reasons for the poor nutritional habits of most people. But is the soaring cost of a serving of lettuce what’s making people fat? I somehow doubt it.

Fat Thanks to Sunita K. for the tip!

Is the High Cost of Healthy Food Really the Reason for Poor Nutrition? | Moneyland | TIME.com

Maine grows a lot of potatoes, and one of the state’s two U.S. senators is telling Michelle Obama and the Agriculture Department to let potatoes keep a prized place on school menus.

In a letter to Mrs. Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe objected to new government recommendations that schools limit servings of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn and green peas to just a cup a week.

Mrs. Snowe said potatoes have more potassium than bananas, and as much fiber as broccoli — two nutrients the government says are lacking in many diets. A medium potato also has 45 percent of the daily recommended intake of Vitamin C, she said.

Mrs. Obama has made school nutrition one of her signature issues as first lady, Mrs. Snow said that should case her to get involved in pushing back against the menu rules. The rules apply only to federally subsidized food, but that usually ends up determining the menus for all students.

Food fight: Senator tells first lady to keep potatoes on school menus – Washington Times

Very obese older men hoping to live longer may be let down by a new long-term study that found weight-loss surgery didn’t increase survival for people like them — at least during the first seven years.

Prior studies have found stomach stapling and other obesity surgeries improved survival rates after two to 10 years. The new study in mostly older male veterans suggests one of two things: Not everyone gains equally from surgery, or a survival benefit may show up later in older men, after more years of follow-up.

Previous findings came mainly from studies of mostly younger women.

“Nearly all prior studies have found bariatric surgery to be associated with reduced mortality. But those studies were conducted on very different patient populations using less rigorous methods,” said lead author Matthew Maciejewski of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

The patients’ organ damage from obesity could have been too far along for weight loss surgery to reverse it, some experts said.

Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com – Obesity surgery fails to extend life in older men

24% of US high school students drank at least one soda per day in 2010, compared to 29% in 2009; an indication that nutritional awareness among teenagers has improved considerably, a CDC report has revealed. Sugary beverages have long been associated with Americas high childhood obesity rate.

Soda Consumption Down Among American High School Students

A menu overhaul is underway that will mean fewer meals that resemble fast food and more vegetarian offerings. Spinach tortellini in butternut squash sauce and California sushi rolls, along with many ethnic foods, are to be added.

Corn dogs, chicken nuggets and other breaded items are out, said Dennis Barrett, food services director.

Megan Bomba, a project coordinator with Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, agreed with the move, saying “the meal needs to be better, not [that] we need to keep chocolate milk” to attract students to the cafeteria, she said.

The menu proposed for fall sounds more appealing and sophisticated, she added.

The district banned sodas on campuses in 2004, starting a trend followed by the state as well as districts across the country. Later that year, the school board passed a motion to ban the sale of junk food during the school day by restricting the calories and fat content in snack foods.

‘Unhealthy’ corn dogs, chicken nuggets out, sushi in at L.A. schools – latimes.com