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First lady asks foodmakers to be on front line tackling childhood obesity
Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on corporate food giants such as Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kraft Foods to step up efforts to produce more healthful food and then market that, rather than junk food, to children. Speaking at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, Obama said she hopes to see a fundamental shift: “We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children.” Obama has made the fight against childhood obesity, whose rates have tripled over the past three decades, her signature issue. Last month, she launched Let’s Move, a federal initiative designed to end the epidemic within a generation. Since then, she has wooed parents, children and policymakers, but this was her first public appeal to the food industry. 

Obesity: Food kills, flab protects
OBESITY kills, everyone knows that. But is it possible that we’ve been looking at the problem in the wrong way? It seems getting fatter may be part of your body’s defence against the worst effects of unhealthy eating, rather than their direct cause. This curious insight comes at the same time as several studies distancing obesity itself from a host of diseases it has long been blamed for, including heart disease and diabetes. Instead, these studies point the finger at excess fat in the bloodstream, either when the fat cells of obese people finally get overloaded or when lean people who can’t store a lot of fat eat too much. This seems to have a destructive effect by provoking the body’s immune response.

Obesity, passive smoking dangerous for unborn child
Babies born to obese mothers and exposed to passive smoking are more likely to face health problems, a new study claims. The conclusion is based on evidence of elevated levels of nucleated red blood cells in the umbilical cord reported in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health. Pediatrician Abd ElBaky of the National Research Centre, in Cairo, and colleagues there and at Cairo University, Egypt, have found that obesity and passive smoking are risk factors for elevated umbilical cord neonatal immature, or nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs). Raised levels of NRBCs are indicative of a degraded oxygen supply to the baby during the pregnancy. 

Obesity builds immunity to fight flu
A new research has shown that obesity limits the body’s ability to develop immunity to influenza viruses, particularly secondary infections, by inhibiting the immune system’s ability to ‘remember’ how it fought off previous similar bouts of illness. In the study, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that obese mice were not able to develop protective influenza-specific memory T cells. These cells are generated by the body during an initial influenza infection. They help protect against a second infection by targeting internal proteins common among most strains of influenza viruses. 

Geisinger Obesity Expert to Address Nation’s Lt. Governors
Director of Geisinger’s Obesity Institute Christopher D. Still, D.O., will address the Federal-State Relations Meeting of the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA) in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 18. Dr. Still’s talk will focus on the economic burden of obesity on every U.S. state and territory, and what we can do about it. “Obesity is clearly more than a cosmetic issue,” said Dr. Still, “it’s our nation’s most manageable health issue today. Unmanaged, it’s also one of our nation’s most expensive health issues because it drives healthcare costs, employer costs and increases the percentage of disability.” Dr. Still said he is honored to have the opportunity to address the nation’s lieutenant governors and hopes to be able to influence their thinking on the economic impact of coverage for weight management medications and bariatric surgery, as indicated.