During a United Nations General Assembly summit on non-communicable diseases — a discussion that included diet and eating habits — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option.

Speaking on the government’s role in diet and health last week, Bloomberg told the UN General Assembly, “There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.”

Earlier in his address Bloomberg lauded the past dietary efforts of NYC, “In 2009 we enacted the first restriction on cholesterol-free artificial trans fat in the city’s food service establishments. Our licensing of street green card producer/vendors has greatly increased the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods with high rates of diet related diseases. And we’ve led a national salt reduction initiative and engaged 28 food manufacturers, supermarkets and restaurant chains to voluntarily commit to reducing excessive amounts of sodium in their products.”

NYC Mayor Bloomberg: ‘Government’s Highest Duty’ Is to Push ‘Healthy’ Foods | CNSnews.com

Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. said Tuesday it is reviving its previously abandoned weight loss drug Contrave, after federal health officials outlined a plan that could bring the drug to market by 2014.

The surprise announcement returns Contrave to the race to be the first new prescription weight loss drug to reach the U.S. market in more than a decade.

Drugmaker revives obesity pill rejected by FDA – USATODAY.com

The worldwide burgeoning of obesity and diabetes, including in developing nations, is causing increasing alarm. This week, the United Nations is bringing attention to these and other noncommunicable diseases at the General Assembly meeting in New York on the prevention of noncommunicable diseases.

But global funding shortfalls, the reality that obesity and diabetes affect the rich and middle class more than other socioeconomic groups and the absence of a proactive civil society will create few incentives for politicians in developing nations to take U.N. resolutions seriously.

U.N. unlikely to sway poorer nations on obesity, diabetes – CNN.com

A study shows that ‘obesity’ is the main reason why children in grade-school years have the tendency to isolate themselves. The researchers monitored more than 3,300 Australian children for 4 years starting from preschool. Measurements we’re taken particularly the weight and height of the kids. Information we’re obtained from primary caregivers. Questionnaires regarding the children’s mental health problems and quality of life we’re given to parents and teachers and asked them to answer every question.

Obesity: Main Cause of Social Isolation of Kids

Moving beyond dressing up as a giant tomato and filling school buses with sand, Jamie Oliver has kicked his campaign to save the world up a notch with a letter asking United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to take up the topic of childhood obesity with the global body at a high-level meeting this week. And, as any good celebrity advocacy letter to an international organization would, Oliver’s is filled with statistical citations, emotional appeal and self-referentiality.

So why should UN delegates care what a celebrity chef thinks? Oliver has the answer: “You may not know me, but I have spent many years now working in schools and communities and talking to governments in the US, Britain and Australia, campaigning against the epidemic of obesity which is threatening the lives of our children and has a good chance of bringing our economies to a standstill through bad health within twenty years.”

Jamie Oliver Lectures the United Nations on Obesity Crisis – Jamie Oliver Saves The World – Eater National

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is giving city workers an important health choice: enroll in a new wellness plan, expected to be unveiled Friday, or pay a higher premium.

The price if they don’t enroll: $50 a month.

The program includes an initial screening that focuses on preventative care for asthma, heart disease and diabetes. City employees would then receive wellness training to achieve long-term health goals, including weight loss.

Smokers wouldn’t be penalized, but they would be encouraged to quit. Advisers overseeing the program will monitor progress on a bimonthly basis, and those who reach their goals could see their health care premiums reduced.

Shape Up or Pay Up: Emanuel | NBC Chicago

Milk is important for children’s bone health; however, a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says children may not be drinking enough law-fat milk. Researchers determined that older children and teens drink low-fat milk more often than younger children.

The report, “Low-fat Milk Consumption Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 2007-2008,” shows only 13 percent of children aged two to five usually drink low-fat milk, compared to 21 percent of children aged six to 11 and 23 percent of teens aged 12 to 19 that drink low-fat milk, USA Today reported.

Milk: Children May Not Be Drinking Enough Low-Fat Milk | ThirdAge

Michelle Obama said Thursday that a pledge by the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and their sister chains to serve healthier meals is a “breakthrough moment” for the industry.

Darden Restaurants Inc. is pledging to cut calories and sodium in its meals by 10 percent by 2016, and 20 percent over a decade. Among promised changes for children: no more french fries. A fruit or vegetable side will become standard with kids meals. One percent milk also will be served, including free refills, unless an alternative drink is ordered.

“With this new commitment, Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before,” said the first lady, who joined executives of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden for the announcement at an Olive Garden restaurant in Hyattsville, Md., just outside Washington.

Mrs. Obama applauds Olive Garden announcement

In an attempt to combat Michigan’s childhood obesity epidemic, Gov. Rick Snyder announced Wednesday that the state would begin tracking kids’ body mass index through the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. Although the policy would be one of the most extensive government anti-childhood obesity efforts, pediatricians were divided over whether it would have the desired impact.

The tracking system would encourage pediatricians to calculate patients’ BMI using height and weight measurements, and report these numbers to the state through the existing immunization tracking system, the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. The numbers would be reported anonymously, meaning that the child’s identity would not be connected to his or her BMI in state records.

The hope is that having doctors track height and weight in this way would encourage more discussion among parents, kids and doctors about the dangers of being overweight, says Geralyn Lasher, director of communications at the Executive Office of the Governor.

The new policy does not require doctors to discuss obesity with kids and parents, nor does it provide physicians with the extra time or training needed to discuss weight problems — a narrowness of focus that some doctors believes will limit the policy’s effectiveness.

Michigan to Track Kids’ BMI

An Atlanta vegan couple whose malnourished 6-week-old son starved to death after they fed him a too-limited diet of soy milk and apple juice will have to serve their life sentences for murder, Georgias top court ruled on Monday.

The Georgia Supreme Courts unanimous decision rejected appeals by Jade Sanders and Lamont Thomas.

The two first-time parents in their 20s at the time lived in Atlantas Buckhead neighborhood. They rushed their infant, Crown Shakur, to the hospital in April 2004 after he began to have trouble breathing. Doctors who couldnt resuscitate him determined he died because of extreme malnourishment or starvation.

Police searching the couples apartment found a soy milk bottle, an apple juice bottle and a rancid-smelling baby bottle caked with debris.

At the 2007 trial, prosecutors said the soy milk cartons in their apartment stated that it wasnt to be used as a substitute for baby formula. They also contended that the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as his body wasted away. He was just 3.5 pounds when he died, about as much as a baby weighs at 7 months into a normal pregnancy.

A jury convicted them of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.

“No matter how many times they want to say, `Were vegans, were vegetarians, thats not the issue in this case,” prosecutor Chuck Boring said during the trial. “The child died because he was not fed. Period.”

Vegan couple’s life sentence holds in baby’s death