Health Links

America is the fattest country in the developed world, TIME briefly runs down five main causes of the obesity epidemic.

Solutions to the problem abound:

-a panel of experts debate various efforts to effectively label junk food


-a large swath of LA has put a moratorium on the construction of new fast food restaurants exceptions were made for "'fast-food casual' restaurants, such as Subway or Pastagina, that do not have heat lamps or drive-through windows and that prepare fresh food to order"

-Nashville's public health chief continues the crusade for labeling on restaurant menus, but the TN legislature is making it awfully difficult for him.  Does menu labeling work?  Studies have found that patrons at Starbucks moderately reduced their calorie consumption after menu labeling, while patrons at fast food restaurants did not.

-In the same vein, the FDA may increase serving sizes so that labels more accurately reflect how much people eat



-NYC wants to limit salt intake and is starting with voluntary restrictions . . . you might be surprised which foods have the most salt.  But we're not quite sure exactly how excess salt consumption affects people


-A book hot off the presses details how school lunches manage to "promote obesity and hunger at the same time" . . . which is part of the reason the "Naked Chef" (Jamie Oliver) wants to bring healthful lunches to schoolchildren across the country
-Due to spiraling health care costs, businesses are getting in on the game too: check out Whole Foods' employee discount program

-here's one crazy idea: scales built into bus stops . . . and a few more crazy ideas

-random tidbits: some contrasting billboards send contradicting messages


-oh, and to top it all off . . . the shape of hot dogs makes them dangerous for kids