Bloomberg reports a U.S. judge determined consumers’ lawsuit claiming McDonald’s food led to childhood obesity could not proceed as a single group.

McDonald’s convinced the judge the cases against the fast food chain must be individual because consumer claims were too distinct to be grouped together. The lawsuit was initially filed in 2002 by teenagers Ashley Pelman and Jazlen Bradley who accused McDonald’s of deceptively marketing its products from 1985 to 2002, causing negative effects on their health and violating New York law.

The judge determined the teenagers didn’t prove their peers who were exposed to the same marketing and menu items at McDonald’s suffered the same medical injuries.

Obesity Case Against McDonald’s Can’t Proceed As Single Group | Cattle Network

The Marie Claire writer thinks that all fat people just need to stop putting food in their mouths, but she does not take into account factors such as genetics, and disorders such as thyroid disease or polycystic ovary syndrome or depression.

This is a magazine that made its name championing the rights of women, but here it is spouting the lie that if only we were thin, we’d be happy.

If only we joined the gym and detoxed and ate Special K morning, noon and night – ooh, and had plastic surgery (despite my best efforts when editor of this magazine, I was never able to get these advertisements banned) then, and only then, will we deserve to be loved.

Obesity? It’s those sickly, tiny pots of light yogurt that gross me out | Mail Online

So anyway, yes, I think I’d be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other … because I’d be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room — just like I’d find it distressing if I saw a very drunk person stumbling across a bar or a heroine addict slumping in a chair.

But … I think obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It’s something they can change, if only they put their minds to it.

Maura Kelly on Mike and Molly – Overweight Couples on Television – Marie Claire

“It does appear that children, not surprisingly, who are demonstrating approach behaviours to food (eating when upset, or eating when bored, for example) are going to be more overweight whereas children who are demonstrating avoidance behaviours (such as fussy or slow eating) are more likely to be underweight. But the issue now is: how do children develop these approach or avoidance tendencies to food?” says Spence.

How behaviours toward food lead to obesity – The Times of India

The number of people admitted to hospital for obesity-related illnesses (UK) has shot up by more than 10 times in the past decade.

The Press Association: 10-fold rise in obesity admissions

Nestle, the maker of Hot Pockets and Haagen Dazs, says they are concerned about the health of their customers. So the world’s largest food company has created two new entities: Nestle Health Science S.A. and the Nestle Institute of Health Science. They will concern themselves with finding “cost effective ways to prevent and treat acute and chronic diseases in the 21st century,” the company announced last month.

In its announcement, Nestle said it is targeting “a new opportunity between food and pharma” and that it would develop foods designed to “prevent and treat health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and Alzeimer’s disease.” The company is leaving little room for interpretation here: It means to peddle processed food products as medicine.

Is big food trying to become big pharma? – Oct. 27, 2010

Rodman & Renshaw analyst Elemer Piros is grim about the prospects for obesity drugs over all, noting to the Wall Street Journal that the FDA wants a side effect profile on these drugs that is equivalent to diet and exercise. The bottom line: “This whole space is pretty much dead.”

Analysts take on obesity drugs turns grim after lorcaserin CRL – FierceBiotech

Obesity appears to be associated with increased assisted reproductive technology cycle cancellation and treatment and pregnancy failures, and also with oocyte immaturity in women undergoing in vitro fertilization, according to two studies presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, held from Oct. 23 to 27 in Denver.

ASRM: Relationship Between Obesity and Infertility Explored –Doctors Lounge

The arteries of obese children have a degree of stiffness normally seen in adults with heart disease, according to a new study.

It’s as if the aging process has been accelerated in the aortas of obese children, he added.

AllRefer Health – Arteries of Obese Kids Aging Prematurely: Study

Fat Thanks to Sona G. for the tip!

From 144 countries, 450 surveys conducted, researchers found in 1990 4.2 percent of obese children under five, and in 2010 the proportion of such children increased by 6 percent. Projections reflect while maintaining this tendency, by 2020 these figures will have reached over 9 percent.

Rapid Growth in the Number of Kids Obesity | StarCityNews.com