Fashion magazines are notoriously known for using models who are unhealthily thin and photoshopping them to look even thinner, but apparently skinny no longer sells like it used to, so now some of these mags are adopting an equally disturbing trend of digitally enhancing these models to look larger and curvier.

Called reverse retouching, models are now being fattened up with more weight on their arms, their legs and their mid-sections. It’s a disturbing practice of using models who have been schooled to believe that skinnier is better–even at the expense of their health–and then adding curves where none exist.

It’s something that first came under scrutiny in 2010 when Jane Druker, the editor of Healthy magazine in England who is dedicated to healthy faces and figures, admitted that a cover girl arrived at the shoot looking “really thin and unwell.” But rather than being sent home to get healthy and gain some weight, the magazine chose to use her and simply retouch the photos to make her look fuller.

Disturbing Trend Has Skinny Models Airbrushed To Look Fatter

First Lady Michelle Obama served a healthy meal to kids today, attending the official “Kids’ State Dinner.” The event was held at the White House to promote the First Lady’s “Lets Move” anti-obesity initiative.

Here is the menu, which was assembled with winning recipes submitted by children for the contest. (via the pool report)

The menu:  Kale Chips from the New York winner were placed on each table ahead of the appetizer, which was Quinoa Black Bean and Corn Salad from the Arizona winner.  The entree was “Yummy Cabbage Sloppy Joes” from the Kansas winner, accompanied by Baked Zucchini Fries from the North Carolina winner. Dessert was two recipes:  A Strawberryana Smoothie from the Hawaii winner; and a “Summer Fruit Garland” from the South Dakota winner, which was chunks of fruit on a wooden skewer.

“All the kids are winners,” stressed Michelle Obama’s Deputy Communications Director Semonti Stephens to the children that attended the dinner.

First Lady serves ‘Cabbage Sloppy Joes’ and ‘Zucchini Fries’ to kids for state dinner | WashingtonExaminer.com

The CDC estimates obesity-related health care costs $147 billion per year.

I very much doubt America is going to do anything, as a matter of public health policy, that has any appreciable effect on obesity rates in the next couple of decades. Its not that its impossible for governments to hold down obesity; France, which had rapidly rising childhood obesity early this century, instituted an aggressive set of public-health interventions including school-based food and exercise shifts, nurse assessments of overweight kids, visits to families where overweight kids were identified, and so forth. Their childhood obesity rates stabilised at a fraction of Americas. The problem isnt that its not possible; rather, its that America is incapable of doing it.

Obesity: Another thing its too late to prevent | The Economist.

The federal government released its “obesity map” on Monday, outlining the rates of obesity and how rates in the states compare. Colorado gets the svelte bragging rights, with 20.7% of its adults obese. At the other end of the scale is Mississippi, with a rate of 34.9%.

California had a rate of 23.8%. The CDC has published all the states’ figures.

Overall, the rate for the South was 29.5%, followed by the Midwest at 29%, the Northeast at 25.3% and the West at 24.3%.

Mississippi fattest, Colorado thinnest in new federal obesity statistics – latimes.com

A new study claims that obesity could not only increase a driver’s risk of being in a car accident, but also result in more severe injuries.

The study, conducted by Canadian scientists at the University of Laval and published in the Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, claimed that morbidly obese drivers may be at increased risk of a crash due to weight-related health complications.

Additionally, car designs that are less than sympathetic to larger frames could leave obese drivers in more critical condition following an accident.

Study: Obesity Increases Driver’s Risk Of Being In Car Accident « CBS Seattle

Robyn Lawley, 6’2 and size 16, became Australian Vogue’s first plus-size cover girl and is now the new face of a plus-sized U.K. lingerie line, Boux Avenue.

“The brand is striving to promote a healthy body image and their size range reflects this.  I’m a normal size. I wish we could all be known as models, rather than plus-size,” she told The Australian in a recent interview.

Vogue Model Robyn Lawley’s Plus-Size Lingerie Campaign. Total Game Changer | Fashion – Yahoo! Shine.