Overweight

For most of her career, Mo'Nique has championed the cause of big and voluptuous women. The Baltimore native and host of VH1's Charm School and of Oxygen's Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance has waged a campaign to improve the image and gain acceptance for plus-size women, who are often shunned and made the objects of ridicule. Here's how she's lived out her crusade: As a stand-up comedian, the 39-year-old has manufactured plus-size humor that pokes fun at those who have a problem with her curves or skinny women, including: Recently filmed episodes of Mo'Nique's F.A.T.

Fat cats are more common than you think. Husky huskies are, too. Researchers say that about a quarter of all household pets are overweight and that the animal epidemic follows the obesity increase found in humans nationwide. Obesity rates for humans rose in 31 states last year, according to a recently released study by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health. And some scientists say things are no better for your pet. "There's common agreement that obesity in pets is more of a problem than ever," said Donald C. Beitz, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at Iowa State University and chairman of a former subcommittee on dog and cat nutrition for the National Academies' National Research Council.

WASHINGTON -- Calling the vast numbers of overweight Americans a "ticking time bomb in the health care system," obesity experts charged yesterday that the government has ignored this epidemic too long.Many who gathered here for the first conference on obesity and public policy proposed radical solutions.Among them: taxing high-fat foods, lengthening the school day to give children more exercise, making insurers cover weight-loss programs and spending a lot more money to research the causes of obesity.

RECENTLY we learned the latest bad news about the girth of America, complete with more warnings that the "epidemic" of corpulence is killing us.The experts keep saying that being overweight increases the risks of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, yet Americans keep larding it on. Obesity - being extremely overweight - soared nearly 50 percent during the 1990s to 18 percent of the adult population, according to federal data featured in...

Officials from the Maryland State Police, state Transportation Authority Police, Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Prince George's county police departments and the State Department of the Environment stopped and inspected 650 trucks during a "Waste Trashnet" last week. They issued 759 violations.Of the trucks stopped, 87 were pulled out of service for being overweight, having faulty brakes or having unsecured loads. Twenty-five drivers were taken out of service for license or logbook violations.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The New York Yankees are getting their first long look at free-agent pitcher David Wells, and they have to be wondering how they ever let Jimmy Key get away.Wells made a bad enough first impression when he broke his pitching hand in a San Diego street fight in January, but his image has taken a further beating the first few days of spring training.He has been unable to participate in full workouts because of a lingering case of gout that has inflamed the joint in his right big toe, the same problem that sidelined him in Baltimore for two weeks last May. It is a condition that is aggravated by certain foods and alcohol, but Wells was defiant when reporters asked him Tuesday if the problem might be the result of his indulgent lifestyle.

Parents of chubby infants and toddlers don't need to fret that their little butterball will grow up to have a weight problem -- unless the parents are obese themselves, a new study concludes.But by the time a youngster reaches the age of 10, the odds change, the researchers found: A child who is overweight between the ages of 10 and 17 will likely have a lifetime problem regardless of whether their parents are thin or fat.Although many surmise that children of obese parents are more likely to grow up overweight, the study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine is the first to examine how parents' weight affects their offspring's prospects.

It's Bill Clinton's natural constituency, but he has yet to embrace it. Maybe his arms just aren't long enough.Despite yesterday's news that, for the first time ever, overweight Americans outnumber their thinner counterparts, this sizable force remains the silent majority -- even as one of their own occupies the White House.President Clinton, by the standards of the National Center for Health Statistics, is an overweight American because his body mass index, or BMI -- a weight-height ratio used to measure obesity -- is over the recommended 25 (27.5 to be exact)

"My husband makes me feel like everything is my fault," says Janice, 30, the mother of a 5-year-old. "I can't hold my own in an argument with him. He misinterprets everything I say."When Janice first met Henry he seemed to be the most caring and charming man in the world. But these days Henry reacts with hostility to everything she says, and he's a master of the backhanded compliment. "Last week, I had my hair cut in a stylish new way. Henry said, 'Why'd you cut your hair? It looked so much better the other way.' Of course he never told me I looked good in the old style.

U.S. adults may be more aware of the need to exercise and count calories than they once were, but more of them than ever are overweight.The number of overweight adults, which had remained stable at about a fourth of the adult population from 1960 through 1980, suddenly jumped to a third of all adults between 1980 and 1991, according to a recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.For...

A report released last week shows that obesity is harming the health of millions of Americans, including children and teens. The report, "F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America 2009," from the Trust for America's Health, says that 28.8 percent of Maryland youths ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese - and thus at increased risk of a long list of chronic health problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis and some cancers....

Neurology More evidence addiction is illness Drug or alcohol abusers who relapse, even after long periods of abstinence, are often reviled as too weak or undisciplined to straighten themselves out. But a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill psychologist has found evidence that suggests, in fact, that addicts' brains may be wired in a way that makes them more prone to give in to temptation. The research, published in the December issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides further evidence that addiction is a disease, not a character flaw, says Charlotte Boettiger, an assistant professor of psychology at UNC-Chapel Hill and lead author of the paper.

Fat cats are more common than you think. Husky huskies are, too. Researchers say that about a quarter of all household pets are overweight and that the animal epidemic follows the obesity increase found in humans nationwide. Obesity rates for humans rose in 31 states last year, according to a recently released study by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health. And some scientists say things are no better for your pet. "There's common agreement that obesity in pets is more of a problem than ever," said Donald C. Beitz, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at Iowa State University and chairman of a former subcommittee on dog and cat nutrition for the National Academies' National Research Council.

For the third year in a row, Mississippi is the fattest state in the country and Colorado the leanest, but the obesity rate is increasing in all states, according to a report released yesterday. This year, Mississippi became the first state to have more than 30 percent of its residents classified as obese, but 47 states are above 20 percent, including Maryland. Just 15 years ago, no state was above 15 percent, according to officials from the Trust for America's Health, which prepared the report using federal statistics obtained through telephone interviews.

For most of her career, Mo'Nique has championed the cause of big and voluptuous women. The Baltimore native and host of VH1's Charm School and of Oxygen's Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance has waged a campaign to improve the image and gain acceptance for plus-size women, who are often shunned and made the objects of ridicule. Here's how she's lived out her crusade: As a stand-up comedian, the 39-year-old has manufactured plus-size humor that pokes fun at those who have a problem with her curves or skinny women, including: Recently filmed episodes of Mo'Nique's F.A.T.

Looking for new ways to trim the fat and boost workers' health, some employers are starting to make overweight employees pay if they don't slim down. Others, citing growing medical costs tied to obesity, are offering fit workers lucrative incentives that shave thousands of dollars a year off health care premiums. In one of the boldest moves yet, an Indiana-based hospital chain said last month that it had decided on the stick rather than the carrot. Starting in 2009, Clarian Health Partners said it will charge employees up to $30 every two weeks unless they meet weight, cholesterol and blood pressure guidelines the company deems healthy.

Forget the common cold - it's fat you might catch from your best friend. A new study finds that obesity "spreads" through social networks. And, incidentally, so does skinniness. "We are not suggesting people break ties with overweight friends, but making friends or forming ties with people who are the proper weight is likely to be beneficial," said Nicholas Christakis, the Harvard sociologist who led the study. The study, which was published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that a person's chances of becoming obese increase by 57 percent if someone he identifies as a friend becomes obese.

Loralie Thomas walked the manicured grounds of the city's Federal Hill Park on Tuesday and delighted in seeing so many families enjoying the sunny outdoors. She and her husband look forward to starting their own family someday, but for now, that's out of the question. Her doctor recently deemed her too fat to bear children. Those words were enough for the formerly 241-pound Chicago resident to get off the dieting roller coaster and switch to the new, exciting way to lose weight: reality television.

Weight-loss reality TV shows: Fat March(ABC): Debuts in August. A dozen overweight individuals attempt a 550-mile, 10-week walk from Boston to Washington for a chance to share a $1.2 million prize. The Biggest Loser (NBC): October 2004 to present. Fourteen contestants compete for a grand prize of $250,000, enduring challenges, temptations, weigh-ins and eliminations until the final contestant remains to claim the title of the biggest loser. Mo'Nique's Fat Chance (Oxygen): August 2005 to present.

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.