Obesity

One afternoon, our daughter, a first-grader, was taking inventory of her latest collection of candy. She explained how the lollipops were from the morning and afternoon school bus drivers for behaving so well, how the Skittles, Peeps, jelly beans and chocolate eggs came from parents' donations to a holiday party and how her class had a popcorn party the day before for collecting the most box tops. Don't get us wrong, we like our weekly excursions for ice cream just like everyone. But as parents, we have been made keenly aware lately of the amount of non-nutritious snacks our children have been getting, some from us when we have been less than diligent, but a good portion of it obtained as part of some school party, contest or reward.

You did a write up on HBO's documentary "The Weight of the Nation" in which you called our obesity epidemic a wake up call for America ("Salad bars take root," May 1). Nothing new here. The alarm bells have been sounding for a while now. I am an endocrinologist, and 90 percent of my patients are obese or near obese. This is a frustrating problem for doctors. There are no rewards for treating obesity. It is well known among physicians that a diagnosis code of obesity on your insurance claim can get you rejected for payment.

"VEEP" keeps getting better week by week. And the last couple of weeks, it feels as if the HBO comedy has really found its feet. Baltimore viewers will be especially interested in the ending of Sunday's episode as it sets the wheels in motion for a trip next week that will bring Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to Camden Yards. The episode includes appearances by Baltimore Orioles pitchers Jake Arrieta and Tommy Hunter, as well as former Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer.

Howard County's new ban on the sale of sugary drinks on government property won't solve the obesity epidemic. It won't prevent Howard Countians from slurping down empty calories by the Big Gulpful. It won't stop them from eating things that are even more unhealthy, and it won't get them to exercise. But the ban, announced Tuesday by County Executive Ken Ulman, is a step toward aligning the wares available at libraries, parks and office buildings with what the county's health department recommends about a healthy lifestyle, and for that reason alone it is worthwhile.

Johns Hopkins University researchers have found the first genetic mutation linked to a common form of human obesity, the best evidence yet that while some may achieve chubbiness, others have it thrust upon them.In an article in today's New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers report that the mutation appears to speed up the development of diabetes and to encourage the kind of midriff bulge that raises the risk of heart disease.Only some people who carry the defective gene are obese, defined as being more than 20 percent heftier than your ideal weight.

It's heartbreaking. It's disappointing. But it's no big surprise.A 10-year study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found weight loss produces a decrease in calorie needs that probably lasts forever.According to press reports of the study done at the New York Obesity Research Center at Rockefeller University, a man who starts at 165 pounds, then loses 15 to weigh in at 150, will require 15 percent fewer calories to maintain 150 than a man who has always weighed 150.That means your reward for losing weight is a lifetime of staying on your diet, not a return to your old ways, or even to "normal" calorie levels for your weight.

Government analysts downgraded the annual death toll from obesity yesterday in a study that is certain to bewilder a public already obsessed with dieting and nutrition. In fact, they inexplicably found that people who weigh a few pounds more than the ideal are less likely to die than those who weigh a few pounds less. Taken together, the findings will undoubtedly leave scientists and consumers arguing over obesity's true role in mortality - though no one argues that being overweight is good for you. The latest report by scientists with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that obesity kills about 112,000 people a year, only a third of the number estimated just four months ago. But Dr. Kathleen Flegal, who led the study reported in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, said the lower death estimate should not make consumers complacent about their expanding waistlines.

CHICAGO -- More than a third of disadvantaged 3-year-olds in Baltimore and other major U.S. cities are overweight or obese, according to a new study that supports the notion that the struggle with obesity often begins in early childhood. Hispanic children were most at risk, with 45 percent either overweight or obese. The study's authors at the University of Wisconsin in Madison also identified several practices that may protect kids from excessive weight gain, including breast-feeding for at least six months and not allowing children to take a bottle to bed. "What we know really tells us that this age is a critical period," said Dr. Jonathan Necheles, a pediatrician with the obesity prevention program at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago who was involved with the study.

WASHINGTON -- Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general who tried to persuade Americans to give up smoking, now hopes to make them thinner and fitter.Tomorrow, at a press conference at the White House, Dr. Koop is to announce the creation of a prevention campaign called "Shape Up America!" that will produce advertisements and public service announcements to encourage Americans to lose weight.Experts in the obesity field said it would be the first national effort to do something about the escalating weight of Americans, and they generally were enthusiastic about Dr. Koop's plan.

L ast week, I testified in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates in support of legislation that would require restaurants to post calories alongside prices on menu boards, similar to the laws in New York City and elsewhere. Polls show that customers want this information, and studies show consumers will use it to make healthier choices. Now even the restaurant industry claims to support calorie-disclosure requirements. That's why I doubt the Maryland bill will pass. Let me explain.