- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Retired UC Berkeley nutrition specialist Joanne Ikeda didn't mince words when she commented about the woman President Obama has nominated to be the nation's surgeon general. The nominee, Dr. Regina Benjamin, is a McArthur genius grant recipient, holds advanced degrees in medicine and business administration, and runs her own family practice medical clinic in rural Alabama that treats predominantly low income patients.
But by all accounts, she is overweight.
"I thank God that Dr. Regina Benjamin is a fat woman," Ikeda was quoted in The Daily Voice, Black America's daily news source. "Maybe now we will stop making the assumption...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A new UC Berkeley study that is getting lots of media attention notes that the incidence of obesity in high school students is greater when there is a fast food restaurant within 530 feet of the campus. Nearby fast food resulted in a 5.2 percent increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths, according to coverage in the Los Angeles Times. Scientists said the correlation is "sizable."
Reporter Jerry Hirsch sought comment from the nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in Los Angeles County, Brenda Roche. She said she wasn't...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor for Tulare County, Cathi Lamp, suggested strategies for families wishing to skirt the obesity epidemic at a recent presentation that was covered by the press.
Lamp was quoted frequently in a story written by family therapist Bev Thompson for the Visalia Times-Delta.
"Research shows that what works is parents setting healthy limits and providing structure for nutrition and lifestyle changes," Lamp was quoted.
Lamp offered the following suggestions to parents:
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Model healthy behaviors...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A story on the Medical News Today Web site says that an analysis by the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health shows that California adults could avoid gaining 2.7 pounds a year if calories were posted on fast-food menu boards statewide.
The analysis combines findings of two studies, the article says:
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A 2008 New York City study found that patrons of fast-food restaurants where calorie counts were shown consumed 52 fewer calories per visit.
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A 2007 consumer survey shows that California adults who eat at fast-food chains do so an average of 3.4 times per week.
Doing...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Two ANR nutrition experts spent an hour last Friday morning on the air with Michael Krasney, who hosts the daily "Forum" program on KQED, NPR's Bay Area affiliate.
UC Davis nutrition professor Judith Stern and associate director of the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health Gail Woodward-Lopez provided commentary on a new study from Sweden that determined heavy adults shed and reproduce fat cells too rapidly. One of the study's authors, Peter Arner, a professor of medicine at the Karolinska Institutet, also participated in the program.
Woodward-Lopez said the study adds to the body of evidence that it is better to prevent obesity in children,...
