The quadrennial Boy Scout Jamboree opened Monday at a sprawling new site in the West Virginia mountains, with one big omission: Scouts who are dangerously overweight.

Scout leaders designed the 10-day wilderness gathering in the New River Gorge region to be the most physically demanding since the first Jamboree, a camp-out held around the Washington Monument in 1937.

To be eligible for this year’s mass gathering, tens of thousands of Scouts (and their leaders) had to meet standards for Body Mass Index and other health factors. Scouts whose BMI was 40 or above were banned from the 10,600-acre Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, while those between 32 and 39.9 had to submit medical information to be approved.

“We required a level of fitness in order to come to the Jamboree that we haven’t required before,” Dan McCarthy, director of the BSA’s Summit Group, told the Associated Press. “And that has motivated an enormous return in terms of both kids and adults getting serious about improving their health.”

Scouts will be tested by such “high-adventure activities” as kayaking, rock-climbing, bouldering, skateboarding, mountain biking, BMX riding, gliding, a 3-mile hike uphill and a 3,000-foot-long zip line.

“Teaching Scouts and Scouters how to live a sustainable life, which includes a healthy lifestyle, and the health of our participants are important goals of the jamboree. We published our height-weight requirements years in advance and many individuals began a health regimen to lose weight and attend the jamboree. But, for those who couldn’t, most self-selected and chose not to apply,” Scout spokesman Deron Smith told ABC News.

Jamboree campers thinned out: No obese Boy Scouts

Japanese police have arrested the alleged ringleader of a sex home-delivery service specialising in women weighing up to 150 kilograms (330 lbs), a spokesman said.

Keiko Saito, 41, and one of her employees are suspected of conspiring to run a prostitution business under the name “Makkusu Bodi” (Max Body), which boasted that it catered for men who like “explosive boobs and bums”, police said.

Saito is alleged to have had about 30 overweight women working for her, including one who tipped the scales at more than 150 kilograms, Jiji Press reported.

Police say punters in Tokyo could telephone to request a visit in their home or hotel room, a service called “deri-heru” (delivery health) that is widespread in Japan, where it is illegal to sell penetrative sex.

Saito, who is believed to have earned about 400 million yen ($4 million) over three years, had previously worked as a prostitute, Jiji said. She began her business because she believed larger women were popular with customers, the agency added.

Japan police bust sex home-delivery service | Fox News

First Lady Michelle Obama is promoting walking to school as part of her anti-obesity campaign.

In remarks to mayors gathered at the White House last week, the first lady singled out Knox County, Tenn., which – inspired by Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign — has created a bike-share program and something called a “walking school bus.”

“I’ve heard more and more of this kind of walking school bus happening all over the country — so that kids can get exercise on the way to school, kind of like we did when we were growing up,” she said.

A “walking school bus” is a group of children who walk to school with adult chaperones.

Michelle Obama Gives a Nod to ‘Walking School Buses’ | CNS News

New York’s Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake school district has become the latest casualty in first lady Michelle Obama’s preferred lunch plan, dropping the menu after too many students complained of hunger.

“[Food service manager Nicky] Boehm and her staff worked hard to implement the new regulations, but there were just too many problems and too many foods that students did not like and would not purchase,” said Assistant Superintendent Chris Abdoo about the National SchoolLunch Program in a statement reported by EAGNews.org. “Students complained of being hungry with these lunches and the district lost money.”

The school system decided to instead create its own lunch menu for next year.

The district lost about $100,000 trying out the federal menu, which offered such meals as “part” of a chicken patty on a minicroissant, EAGNews.org reported.

“Students felt they weren’t getting good value for their money,” Ms. Boehm said in EAGNews.org. “The high schoolers especially complained the portion sizes were too small and many more students brought in lunch from home.”

New York school drops Michelle Obama lunch standards: Kids too hungry – Washington Times

The age of the brunch reflects rising numbers of wealthy folk. “People used to entertain at home, but things have become less conservative—money does wonders,” says a catering manager at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, standing by a cheese the size of a car wheel. It also reflects a dearth of things for the well-to-do to do. Mumbai has little green space, few shops and dire transport. The rich would not be seen dead on the foreshore promenades where anglers cast for mullet on the weekends when the council does not release sewage into the sea, or on the beaches where whizzing cricket balls, rubbish and tens of thousands of paddlers vie for space.

Mumbai’s sports clubs, with British colonial roots, used to be the ticket. But they are now the preserve of the hereditary rich. The members’ noticeboard of the poshest of the lot, the Willingdon Club, reads like a Who’s Who of the city’s industrial dynasties. For newly minted entrepreneurs and professionals, that leaves hotels and restaurants. They are anyway better for showing off. Men flash Rolexes as they reach for the dim sum. Women assembling salads are got up in enough luxury labels to float the French economy.

The number of five-star hotels in Mumbai has risen even as the growth in foreign visitors has slowed with India’s economy. Occupancy rates have fallen to 50-60% across the city. This has led to a culinary arms race as hoteliers fight to attract locals. Sushi bars are standard—one hotel chain is said to have a daily supply flight from Tokyo. Dessert counters look like Willy Wonka fantasies, with chocolate fountains and giant revolving ice-cream vats. Playing on nostalgia, most buffet spreads feature posh versions of pani-puri, a street snack that slum-dwellers buy for a few rupees. Live music is essential. Wilburn D’costa, a long-established guitarist at Indigo, a restaurant, says “Hotel California” and “Viva Las Vegas” are the favourites.

It is unimaginable luxury for the millions of Mumbaikars below the poverty line. Yet most hotels admit they lose money on brunch, even with special deals from champagne-makers. For the rich, the problem is their waistlines. Ferried about by chauffeurs and absolved from household chores by servants, they have become a corpulent race apart from their skinny compatriots. Perhaps they need to invent a new institution: the Sunday afternoon walk.

Mumbai’s hungry high rollers: The wild brunch | The Economist

The United States no longer holds the title of the world’s most populous, obese nation; that designation has been passed on to Mexico.

According to a new report from the United Nations, nearly 70 percent of Mexican adults are overweight, and childhood obesity in the country has tripled within the past decade, Medical Daily reported. One-third of Mexican teenagers are also obese, and experts believe that four out of every five obese children will remain overweight for the rest of their lives.

Overall, 32.8 percent of Mexican adults are considered obese, compared to 31.8 percent of adults in the United States. Nearly 70,000 deaths in Mexico each year are caused by weight-related diabetes, and more than 400,000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed annually.

Experts believe the rise in Mexico’s obesity rates has to do with the continuously growing gap between the country’s classes, as 50 percent of the population currently lives below the poverty line. According to Medical Daily, healthy diets are becoming less affordable, prompting individuals with low incomes to consume more unhealthy foods, such as fried foods and soda.

One researcher also believes the increase can be attributed to more Mexicans moving from rural to urban areas, where food prices are much higher and sedentary lifestyles are easier.

Mexico beats US to be world’s fattest country – but we’re still a close second – NYPOST.com

The Obama administration wants to add Greek yogurt to school lunch menus.

On Monday, the Department of Agriculture announced it was looking to buy the yogurt for schools participating in a federally assisted program that subsidizes school lunches.

A department official said in a statement that the introduction of Greek yogurt, which is high in protein, was aimed at helping schools offer a variety of healthy foods to kids.Because yogurt goes bad easily, the rollout will start with just four states: Arizona, Idaho, New York and Tennessee.

Those states were chosen because they “represent different regions of the country with varying proximity to yogurt manufacturers and will help test distribution through different warehousing models,” according to a USDA spokeswoman.

Sen. Charles Schumer D-N.Y. has pushed the USDA to add Greek yogurt to the federal program since last June, and cheered the announcement on Monday.

“Schools in New York, and the other three states participating in the pilot, will soon see that Greek yogurt is an affordable and nutritious high-protein option for their menus,” he said in a statement.

Feds add Greek yogurt to school lunches – The Hills RegWatch

Madelyn Sheaffer had just lost 100 pounds and felt confident enough in her skin to wear a bikini to the Adventure Oasis Water Park. After employees told her to cover up or leave, the Independence woman decided to speak out.

“I just felt like I was singled out,” Sheaffer told KSHB. “I felt like it was both age and body discrimination.”

The woman was in the swimming pool with her niece and nephew when two park employees allegedly walked up to her and asked her to throw on some shorts. They said her bottoms were too small.

Unfazed, Sheaffer asked to speak to a higher-up. The manager sang the same tune and showed her the exit in case she didn’t want to comply with the demand.

But Sheaffer says that the younger girls at the pool wore similar swimsuits and were not being told to cover up.

Full-figured Missouri woman allegedly kicked out of swimming pool for wearing a bikini  – NY Daily News

Twinkie’s legendary shelf life is getting even longer.

The leaner, non-union Hostess Brands — looking to get by with fewer bakeries under new ownership — will start freezing Twinkies and other snack cakes to extend their expiration date instead of delivering them directly to stores, The Post has learned.

It’s a myth that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life. The seemingly indestructible snack cake actually expires after 45 days.

The old Hostess baked Twinkies, HoHos, Ding Dongs and other goodies at nine plants and got them on shelves within 48 hours using its own delivery drivers.

Now the plan is to bake goodies at five plants and freeze them before shipping them through independent drivers to supermarket warehouses, according to sources.

Stores would defrost them and restock the shelves as needed.

While the new owners say the iconic creme-filled cake will evoke the same nostalgia, the thawing process could undermine the integrity of the product, according to sources.

“If they alter the taste, people may not buy it,” one source said.

Hostess declined to comment on whether it will freeze baked goods but said, “Any suggestion that Hostess is changing the integrity of the iconic snack cakes consumers have loved is completely untrue.

Chillling the filling: Hostess will freeze Twinkies to extend freshness – NYPOST.com

A vegan extremist website is taking ex-vegans to task for betraying the cause. Exvegans.com, a.k.a. “The Vegan Sell Out List,” shares names, descriptions and photographs of former vegans in an effort to publicly humiliate them for renouncing the meat and dairy-eschewing lifestyle.

“The spirits of the billions murdered have risen to deliver: The Vegan Sellout List – an online directory of those who have regressed from moral consistency to moral depravity,” the site proclaims. “Selling out veganism is a trend on the upswing, bringing with it swarms of haughty, nose-turning carnists uttering nonsensical buzzwords re: veganism being ‘privileged,’ or ‘trendy,’ critiquing themselves into ethical degeneracy and paleo-terrorism.”

An interactive map allows visitors to browse for ex-vegans by state. There are 16 entries for New York, most of them residing in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

Among the offenders, the site calls out Berlin Reed, 31, a former vegan who once belonged to an anarchist group. “Here we have yet another person hiding behind anarchism to justify their selfish behavior,” the entry reads. “No surprise he’s a part of the most shamed part of an already shamed subculture: The ‘anarchist people of color.’ Eye roll.”

Mr. Reed, author of the book “The Ethical Butcher,” was a vegan for three years and began eating meat after taking a job at a Brooklyn butcher shop that partnered with small local farms. He told the The New York Post that he was not particularly alarmed by the public shaming.

“It’s just hilarious that someone would spend that much time shaming other people for lifestyle choices,” he said.

Extremist Site Shames Ex-Vegan ‘Traitors’ for Carnivorous Cravings | Observer